News Feed 20130110

Financial Crisis
» Egypt: Qatari Deposit Pushes Stock Market Up by 1.08 Percent
» Italy: Monti Blames Tax Hikes on Past ‘Irresponsibility’
» Spanish Pamplona’s Locksmiths Boycott Evictions
» Tax Burden in Italy Among Highest in Europe
 
USA
» Bill Clinton Named ‘Father of the Year’
» Coulter: Doing the Research the New York Times Won’t Do
» Crime and Disarmament
» It’s About More Than Guns
» Major League Baseball to Require Tougher Drug Tests
» Professor Seidman Wants to Disassemble the Constitution?
» Prominent Rifle Manufacturer Killed in Mysterious Car Crash
» Stakelbeck Hosting Event for Itamar Mayor Moshe Goldsmith
» The EPA is a Nation-Killer
» The New York Times is at it Again.
 
Europe and the EU
» Airport Debacle Hurts ‘Made in Germany’ Brand
» Depardieu Plays Hookie From Court for DSK Film Mtgs
» France: Kurds Furious. “Erdogan is a Killer”
» France: Three Kurdish Women Shot in the Head in Paris
» Italy: Soccer: Northern League Councillor Probed for Racist Chants
» Italy: Lazio to be Investigated for Racist Chants Against Spurs
» Italy: ILVA Demands to Resume Possession of Finished Products
» Italy: Catholics to Stand on Centre-Left Party List
» Italy: Secretary of Democratic Party in Puglia Quits Over Lists
» Italy: Bersani Says Democratic Party Worried About Taxes, Budget
» Italy: I Want to Rule Over Lombardy, Says N. League Secretary
» Italy: Property Tax Introduced on EU Request, Says Monti
» More Swedish Men Report Being Raped
» Morrissey Supports Nigel Farage on Europe and Admits ‘I Nearly Voted UKIP’
» Spain: Town Removes King From Road Name, ‘Symbol of Franco’
» Statoil Plans $10-Billion Norwegian Sea Project
 
Balkans
» Serbia: Press: Ambassadors’ Meeting Cancelled to Save Money
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Heaviest Snowfall in Jerusalem Since ‘92
 
Middle East
» Hagel-Chaired Think Tank: ‘Post-Mullah’ Iran Should be Viewed as ‘Natural Partner’ For U.S.
» Iraq: Kurdistan Sells Oil Directly, Challenging Baghdad
» Saudi Arabia: EU Condemns Sri Lankan Nanny’s Execution
» Syria: Thousands of Christians Trapped in North Aleppo
» Turkey Lifts Sale Ban on Books
» Will Obama Demand Israeli Disarmament — Again?
 
Immigration
» A White British Minority
 
Culture Wars
» A Kennedy Shocks the Pro-Dope Liberal Media
» English Teacher Stomps on American Flag During Class Lecture
» Planned Parenthood Receives Record Amount of Taxpayer Support
» Progressives as “Moral Superiors” Who Like to Play God
» Worshiping at the Temple of the Vagina

Financial Crisis

Egypt: Qatari Deposit Pushes Stock Market Up by 1.08 Percent

Central Bank: pound falls at dollar auction

(ANSAmed) — Rome, January 9 — The stock exchange rose Wednesday after Qatar raised its financial support to Egypt by US$5 billion, Egypt Independent website reports. The sum included $4 billion as a deposit and $1 billion as a non-refundable graft.

The main index, EGX 30, increased by 1.08 percent, reaching 5,866 points, while EGX 70 increased by 0.30 percent, reaching 502.7 points. Meanwhile, EGX 100 increased by 0.47 percent, reaching 844 points.

In the meantime, the Egyptian pound fell at a Central Bank of Egypt auction of dollars Wednesday, the seventh such sale since it introduced a new regime to reduce pressure on its currency.

The bank said the cutoff price at the auction was LE6.4797 to the dollar — a 0.47 percent fall from Tuesday, when the cutoff price was LE6.4492.

The General Petroleum Authority on Wednesday signed an agreement with a member of the Islamic Development Bank Group to receive a US$265 million loan under an Islamic murabaha arrangement. A murabaha is a non-interest-bearing loan.

A statement issued by the Cabinet on Wednesday said that the installment was the second of a loan the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation offered to Egypt in accordance with a framework agreement signed in July amounting to $1 billion. Finance Minister Morsy Hegazy said the government is negotiating with the Islamic Development Bank to get further assistance for infrastructure projects, according to the statement. Meanwhile, Waleed al-Wohaib, CEO for the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation, said in the government-issued statement that the institution trusts the Egyptian economy and the government’s ability to meet its obligations.

He added that the corporation has signed two framework agreements with Egypt, the first of which was signed on 8 March and offered $2.2 billion in financing for the GPA and the Supply Commodities Authority. The second framework agreement of $1 billion was signed on 1 July to finance the import of petroleum products and wheat and other foodstuffs.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Monti Blames Tax Hikes on Past ‘Irresponsibility’

Comments likely to be seen as attack on Berlusconi

(see related story) (ANSA) — Rome, January 8 — Outgoing Italian Premier Mario Monti said Tuesday that his emergency technocrat government was “forced” to raise taxes “because irresponsible people” put Italy into a financial crisis. The comments are likely to be interpreted as an attack on his predecessor Silvio Berlusconi, who was forced to resign as premier when Italy’s debt crisis threatened to spiral out of control in November 2011.

“Now the country is safe and there is the prospect of a gradual reduction in taxes,” Monti told Mediaset television.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Spanish Pamplona’s Locksmiths Boycott Evictions

Refuse to collaborate with banks, courts: ‘We have our dignity’

(ANSAmed) — MADRID — The Assembly of Professional Locksmiths of the Spanish city of Pamplona, the capital of Navarre, will no longer aid authorities in evicting delinquent homeowners. The locksmiths said they would not assist in evictions that led to at least nine suicides over the past few months, and which have affected 400,000 people since the economic crisis began.

“It will affect us economically, but we have our dignity,” Assembly President Iker de Carlos told reporters. “From now on they will have to call locksmiths outside Navarre. What you see on television is different from when you go there. You know you’re helping to kick people out of their home, to stay on top of a perpetual debt that you will have to keep paying. We know that we will not start a revolution, but we want to serve as a example to Navarre society.” In Spain, locksmiths are called in by the courts to change the locks on a home once its occupants have been evicted.

Locksmiths throughout the country are evaluating the Pamplona action as an example to follow. “We are professionals, but we are people first,” Spanish Federation of Locksmiths President David Ormaechea told El Pais newspaper. “We can no longer participate in these terrible events without having a say.”

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Tax Burden in Italy Among Highest in Europe

Country ranks 5th in eurozone, 7th in EU

(ANSA) — Rome, January 10 — Italy’s tax burden is among the highest in Europe, new data said Thursday.

According to Eurostat, Italy’s 42.8% tax rate was the 5th highest in the 17-member eurozone and the seventh highest in the 27-member European Union, according to data from 2011. That year the tax burden grew from 39.6% to 40% in the EU and from 40.3% to 40.8% in the eurozone. It remained unchanged in Italy.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

USA

Bill Clinton Named ‘Father of the Year’

Former President Bill Clinton is getting props for being a good dad.

Clinton was named the “Father of the Year” by the National Father’s Day Council on Wednesday.

The group selected Clinton for his “profound generosity, leadership and tireless dedication to both his public office and many philanthropic organizations,” Dan Orwig, chairman of the National Father’s Day Committee, said in the announcement.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

Coulter: Doing the Research the New York Times Won’t Do

In Sunday’s New York Times, Elisabeth Rosenthal claimed, as the title of her article put it, “More Guns = More Killing.” She based this on evidence that would never be permitted in any other context at the Times: (1) anecdotal observations; and (2) bald assertions of an activist, blandly repeated with absolutely no independent fact-checking by the Times.

There is an academic, peer-reviewed, long-term study of the effect of various public policies on public, multiple shootings in all 50 states over a 20-year period performed by renowned economists at the University of Chicago and Yale, William Landes and John Lott. It concluded that the only policy to reduce the incidence of, and casualties from, mass shootings are concealed-carry laws. The Times will never mention this study.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Crime and Disarmament

In Washington D.C., the office of the Honorable Joseph Biden was busy phoning up everyone from Mothers Against Pointy Things to the Gay Communist Gun Club of America to Wal-Mart to invite them down for a serious no-holds-barred discussion about doing to the Bill of Rights what his boss had done to the economy.

Meanwhile over in Chicago, the 13th corpse was being scraped off the sidewalk. In just nine days, Obama’s hometown, one of them anyway, was already 15% ahead of last year’s whopping murder rate. East of Second City, in the city that would be Chicago if it wasn’t for a lot of money and a Republican mayor, one of the city’s liberal judges gave civil rights activists a late Christmas present with a verdict against the NYPD’s ‘Stop and Frisk” program in the Bronx.

The Bronx is the part of New York City voted most likely to be Detroit. An ironic fate for a borough that built the city’s biggest zoo and botanical garden as a way of keeping the riffraff out of what was once an exclusive area. It’s the place where you are mostly likely to shoot or be shot at. The Bronx is the fourth smallest borough of the five, but it’s number one in murders, rapes and robberies.

New York’s Finest commute to work from Staten Island, where the homicide rate is less than half that of the Bronx. In the 40th Precinct (you may know its neighbor, the 41st Precinct from the movie, Fort Apache, The Bronx) last year there were 12 murders, 21 rapes, 476 robberies, 387 felony assaults, 1,337 misdemeanor assaults, 62 shooting victims and a partridge in a pear tree.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

It’s About More Than Guns

The warning signs of a tyrannical takeover of our Constitutional Republic have been flashing red for some time now and are now reaching a fever pitch. Despite the flashing signs, the clamor of the alarms and the cries of the watchmen, most Americans of this era remain in denial or have been rendered intellectually catatonic by busily chasing immediate gratification in the form of the newest version of the iPhone, iPad, or whatever “i” device will satisfy their ADHD addled intellect.

Others have simply chosen to adhere to a normalcy bias that is continuously fed by the familiar faces and voices of political pundits who remain dedicated to the lie of the right-left, Republican-Democrat paradigm of American politics, unwilling or unable to look at the larger picture for fear of being shamed by accusations of being part of a conspiracy fringe. Instead, these pundits would rather ignore the lie and squander their ability to make a difference, to educate and inform others of the dangers of the lie they know exists.

We must realize that we are not witnessing the fundamental change of America as represented by the mindless mantra of the Obama campaign, but something much deeper, much more nefarious, and something that will not be rectified through the ballot box. As uncomfortable as it is, what we face cannot and will not wait for the next general election.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Major League Baseball to Require Tougher Drug Tests

Major League Baseball and its players union have reached a deal to expand their drug program, agreeing to in-season blood-testing for human growth hormone and to a new test designed to catch players using testosterone.

The new testing in baseball will allow Commissioner Bud Selig to again argue that his sport, which was faulted for initially moving far too slowly to address the issue of performance-enhancing drugs, now has the toughest testing program of any of the professional leagues in North America.

[Return to headlines]

Professor Seidman Wants to Disassemble the Constitution?

Seidman and his wards wish to invent a new world, based upon their own vacuous view that all prior humans human lacked their airy sophistication.

Professor Seidman of Georgetown University has stirred a healthy debate with his New York Times charge that the Constitution is the heart of our problems — fiscal and, supposedly, otherwise. He writes: “But almost no one blames the culprit: our insistence on obedience to the Constitution, with all its archaic, idiosyncratic and downright evil provisions.”

[…]

Seidman has been so long studying individual cases — which is the process in law schools — that these “trees” have obscured his view of the forest. Law school itself is a major part of the problem, in my opinion. If we look at the Constitution directly, and studies what it says and why, we are on the first degree of familiarity with it. If, as courts have done for decades, they look at what their predecessors have said about the Constitution and the laws it controls, they are on the second degree of familiarity with it. Law schools study cases — primarily Supreme Court cases — not the Constitution itself. Consequently, as Seidman, his students, and all the students in law schools across the nation pursue their studies, they look at what these courts say about what previous courts have said — they are indoctrinating themselves at the third degree of separation from the Constitution. So law schools don’t really teach the Constitution. They teach the courts — and Seidman is correct in condemning the inconsistencies in the courts. But that is not the Constitution itself.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Prominent Rifle Manufacturer Killed in Mysterious Car Crash

(NaturalNews) What you are about to read is astonishing. I’m not even sure what’s the right conclusion to draw from it. But here’s what we know so far:

John Noveske is one of the most celebrated battle rifle manufacturers in America. His rifles, found at www.NoveskeRifleworks.com are widely recognized as some of the finest pieces of American-made hardware ever created. (I own one of his rifles, and it’s a masterpiece of a machine that just keeps on running.) Sadly, John Noveske was killed in a mysterious car crash just a few days ago, on January 4, 2013.

According to the Outdoor Wire, his car “traveled across the oncoming lane onto the dirt highway shoulder until it struck two large boulders. The vehicle rolled and Mr. Noveske was ejected.”

But barely a week before this incident, John Noveske posted a lengthy, detailed post on Facebook that listed all the school shootings tied to psychiatric drugs. At the end of the post, he asked, “What drugs was Adam Peter Lanza on?”

That was the last post he ever made. (Full text below.)

John Noveske wasn’t the first prominent gun rights supporter to be killed in the last few days. Keith Ratliff, the creator of a super-popular YouTube channel featuring videos of exotic weapons, was also recently found dead.

The Daily Mail reports that Ratliff was “discovered on a rural road in Carnesville, Georgia. Ratliff had a single gunshot wound the head and police are treating his death as a homicide.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Stakelbeck Hosting Event for Itamar Mayor Moshe Goldsmith

I’ll be hosting an event in Nashville tonight featuring the Mayor of Itamar, Moshe Goldsmith, and his wife, Leah.

You may remember Itamar as as the scene of the horrific massacre of the Fogel family by Palestinian terrorists in March 2011. Well, Itamar survived that unspeakable horror and continues to thrive along with other Jewish communities in the Biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria.

If you’re in the Nashville area, come on out tonight and hear about some of the challenges these communities face—including the daily threat of terrorism and the international push to hand their land over to the Palestinians.

For more details, click on my latest blog entry at the link above.

           — Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck [Return to headlines]

The EPA is a Nation-Killer

To the naïve and uninformed, the Environmental Protection Agency exists to ensure clean air and water in the nation. That was its initial mandate when it was created by an executive order by President Nixon in 1970. It has since become a nation killer.

In 2013 a flood of regulations will cost thousands of Americans their jobs and drive more industry overseas to avoid the cost of doing business in America. It will drive up the cost of energy from electricity, along with the cost of gas and diesel fuel. It will effectively kill much of the coal mining industry in a nation that is the Saudi Arabia of coal, an energy source that formerly provided fifty percent of all electricity in America.

The EPA is girding up to kill “fracking”, a technology that has safely been in use for decades and one that holds the promise of further provision of natural gas. The provision of oil is being thwarted as well; mostly famously by Obama’s derailment of the Keystone XL pipeline in a nation laced with energy-providing pipelines. Energy, the lifeblood of the nation, will be under attack as never before.

[…]

The EPA will release regulations on the manufacture of cement—the MACT rule— that would increase the cost of manufacturing this essential element of construction by 22% to 36%. Many such plants would have to close and the U.S. would have to import cement from nations like China.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

The New York Times is at it Again.

Apparently the New York Times employs a columnist named Charles Blow — a black man who has a problem with another black man. Me.

Mr. Blow has a problem with me because, during my presidential campaign, I said that I had “left the Democrat plantation” (and yes I did say that) and I said that I don’t believe racism in this country today holds anybody back in a big way. I said that too.

I also said — in the context of political ideology — that blacks in this country have been brainwashed.

These comments on my part serve as self-evident proof, as far as Mr. Blow is concerned, that we are not making progress toward racial harmony.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU

Airport Debacle Hurts ‘Made in Germany’ Brand

From Berlin’s benighted airport to Hamburg’s hopeless concert hall, Germans are becoming concerned that their fabled international reputation for efficiency is being harmed by delays dogging major several projects around the country.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Depardieu Plays Hookie From Court for DSK Film Mtgs

No-show at drunk driving hearing, flies to Montenegro instead

(ANSAmed) — PARIS — Having bought a house in Belgium in order to dodge French high income taxes and taken a Russian passport, movie star Gerard Depardieu is now busy dodging French justice as well. Instead of showing up in court on Tuesday to face drunk driving charges, the actor preferred to travel to Podgorica, in Montenegro, to meet with the producers of his new film, based on the sexual scandal which involved former IMF Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn (aka DSK). It is to be shot at the end of the month in New York by director Abel Ferrara, from a script Canal Plus TV reportedly turned down, calling it “sordid” and “mediocre”.

“My client has apologized to the judges for his absence, but he was unable to appear for professional reasons,” Depardieu’s lawyer, Eric de Caumont, told reporters at court. The actor was picked up in Paris on November 29, driving his scooter while under the influence. He now faces stiffer sentencing for not appearing in court. Also on Tuesday, Depardieu met with Culture Minister Branislav Micunovic and Aleksandar Bogdanovic, mayor of Cetinje, the former capital of Montenegro. The film would have been compromised had he missed today’s meetings, de Caumont explained.

“I wanted to do this film on DSK because I don’t like the character,” Depardieu told Russian TV in March last year. “I think he resembles all Frenchmen a little, and I don’t like the French very much.”

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

France: Kurds Furious. “Erdogan is a Killer”

Chaos outside building where the 3 women were killed

(ANSAmed) — PARIS — “Erdogan is a killer.” “We’re all in the PKK.” “Free Ocalan”. Hundreds of Kurds are chanting these and other slogans outside the building where three Kurdish women, including the co-founder of the PKK were murdered Thursday morning. Chaos and screams of anger erupted as the bodies of the women were carried out. Protestors have formed a procession that is moving toward Strasbourg Saint-Denis in central Paris.

The chief of the Federation of Kurdish Associations in France has pointed the finger at Turkey for the murder of three Kurdish women in Paris Thursday. “It’s a crime of state, or in any case a political crime”, Edhart Leon told ANSA outside the Kurdish Information Centre where the women were killed. “If you were going to point the finger at anyone it would be Turkey”.

Leon, who was in Rome 15 years ago at a large rally for the the Kurdish leader, Ocalan, described the brutal murders of PKK co-founder Sakine Cansiz, 50, Dogan Fidan, 32 and Leyla Söylemez, 20 as “a message.” “Right now the Kurdish community is in deep shock”. “I’m waiting on information. Investigators are in place and are doing their job, but it’s a very difficult test for us”, he added.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

France: Three Kurdish Women Shot in the Head in Paris

A co-founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and two other activists were found shot dead Thursday in Paris, a day after it emerged that Turkey and the jailed leader of the banned group were holding peace talks.

The women were found in the early hours with gunshot wounds to the head and neck inside a Kurdish information centre in the 10th district of the French capital, police and the centre’s director said.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls visited the scene of the crime and described the killings as “assassinations”.

“Three women have been shot down, killed, without doubt executed. This is a very serious incident, which is why I am here. It is completely unacceptable,” he told reporters.

Experts on the Kurdish movement in France said the killings could be the result of internal feuding in the PKK, personal score-settling, the work of Turkish agents or even of Turkish far-right extremists.

Hundreds of Kurds gathered on Thursday in front of the centre to protest at the deaths, with some chanting “We are all PKK!” and “Turkey assassin, Hollande complicit”, referring to French President Francois Hollande.

The murders came after Turkish media reported Wednesday that the Turkish government and jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan had agreed on a roadmap to end a three-decade-old insurgency that has claimed around 45,000 lives.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Italy: Soccer: Northern League Councillor Probed for Racist Chants

Among six suspected over suspension of AC Milan friendly

(see related story) (ANSA) — Milan, January 7 — A young local councillor for the Northern League is among six people being probed over the racist chants that led to AC Milan’s friendly against fourth-tier Pro Patria being abandoned last week. Riccardo Grittini, a 22-year-old student, is also the executive councillor for sport and youth policies for the council of Corbetta, which is near Milan and Pro Patria’s home Busto Arsizio. Opposition parties have called on Grittini to step down but Corbetta Mayor Antonio Balzarotti has said he will stay in his executive for now. The League, which wants strict controls on immigration, has sometimes been accused of xenophobia.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Lazio to be Investigated for Racist Chants Against Spurs

UEFA to probe incidents from Europa League match last November

(ANSA) — Rome, January 7 — UEFA launched an investigation on Monday into reports of anti-Semitic abuse by Lazio fans against Tottenham Hotspur supporters during a Europa League match in Rome on November 22.

Lazio supporters, some of who have extreme right leanings, chanted “Juden Tottenham, Juden Tottenham” during the 0-0 draw at Rome’s Olympic Stadium.

The night before the match a group of masked youths attacked a group of Spurs fans while they were drinking in a central Rome pub, causing serious injury to one.

Two AS Roma charged have charged with alleged involvement in the raid, which was a possibly carried out by extremist fans of more than one Italian club.

Tottenham Hotspur traditionally has a strong following from north London’s Jewish community.

The case will be heard by UEFA’s disciplinary body on January 24.

The Spurs are also being probed for “charges related to crowd disturbances”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: ILVA Demands to Resume Possession of Finished Products

Follows decree letting pollution-row steel plant carry on

(ANSA) — Taranto, January 4 — Italian steel producer ILVA on Friday asked to resume possession of steel and semi-finished products seized from its troubled Taranto plant on November 26 following the conversion into law of a government decree allowing the factory to remain in production while much-needed environmental upgrades are carried out. This is the second time that the company has filed such a request.

A local investigating judge rejected its initial petition against the court-ordered seizure on grounds that the December 3 decree was not retroactive.

ILVA appealed against that ruling and the appeal is due to be heard on January 8. Meanwhile Taranto prosecutors have also filed their own petition against the decree law with the Constitutional Court, alleging a conflict in the attribution of powers between the judiciary and the executive. ILVA has been at the centre of a political and legal battle since July when local magistrates ordered the partial closure of its Taranto plant due to serious health concerns.

In November seven top managers were arrested as part of a corruption probe.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Catholics to Stand on Centre-Left Party List

PD opens to the Christian left ahead of February polls

(ANSA) — Rome, January 8 — Edo Patriarca, president of the national centre for volunteering, and Ernesto Preziosi, former vice president of Catholic Action and director of the Toniolo Institute at Italy’s prestigious Cattolica university, said Tuesday they had agreed to stand for election to parliament for the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) in late February. Their decision followed Monday’s announcement by PD secretary and candidate for the premiership Pier Luigi Bersani that the party’s list would contain several Catholic Democrats. Emma Fattorini, a lecturer in contemporary history at Rome’s La Sapienza University, and Flavia Nardelli, secretary general of the Luigi Sturzo institute dedicated to preserving the heritage of the Italian Christian Democrat party, have also reportedly agreed to stand for the PD.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Secretary of Democratic Party in Puglia Quits Over Lists

Blasi says PD’s national leadership betrayed party membership

(ANSA) — Bari, January 8 — Italy’s center-left Democratic Party (PD) received a blow Tuesday when its secretary in the southern Puglia region quit over the party’s electoral lists.

Sergio Blasi said he was resigning “in full and absolute disagreement with the national leadership of the Democratic Party for betraying the spirit of the primary”.

He accused the party of stacking the lists for his region with “immigrants from the north”.

PD leadership received Blasi’s letter early Tuesday morning as party officials were finalizing their national electoral lists.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Bersani Says Democratic Party Worried About Taxes, Budget

If elected, PD would reconsider tax levels, transparency

(ANSA) — Rome, January 9 — If elected, a Democratic Party (PD) government would want to review Italy’s tax system, especially for fairness and transparency, party secretary Pier Luigi Bersani said Wednesday. A PD government would reduce taxes for lower-income earners and shift the burden to those with higher earnings, he said.

“Our real problem is the retention rate of taxes and transparency of the tax system,” said Bersani. He added that he was not trying to drive the rich out of Italy, but rather to reorganize the system.

The center-left PD currently leads in polls

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: I Want to Rule Over Lombardy, Says N. League Secretary

(AGI) Rome, Jan 5 — Northern League secretary Roberto Maroni said in a post on Twitter: “ I will run to become Lombardy’s next governor and I will join forces with the Northern League governors of Veneto and Piedmont so to get our tax money back from the central government.” He then added:” The north comes first. Whoever wins the elections will have to reckon with us.

The revolution has to go through the Nothern Euro-region of Italy.” ..

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

Italy: Property Tax Introduced on EU Request, Says Monti

(AGI) Rome, Jan 8 — On the Checkpoint programme of TgCom24, outgoing prime minister Mario Monti has commented on the European Commission’s report on Italy’s unified municipal property tax (IMU). He said that “the fundamental sentence states that the property tax was introduced on the request of the European Union. It then praises some aspects of the form of property tax introduced and discusses progressiveness. This is to put the ‘shocking news’ into a bit of perspective….” Monti went on to note that “it was not possible to immediately allocate a greater share of the proceeds deriving from this tax to municipalities.” .

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

More Swedish Men Report Being Raped

Reports of male rape are on the rise in Sweden, new figures show, yet sexual violence experts believe the figures represent only the tip of the iceberg as many men are too ashamed to report the assaults.

Figures from the National Crime Prevention Council (Brottsförebyggande rådet, Brå) show that 132 men reported being raped in 2012, compared with 94 reports filed in 2010 and more than three times as many as the 41 reports filed in 2007.

“We know from research that the rapists are usually heterosexual men; for the offenders the act is not about sexuality but about power,” social work lecturer Hans Knutagård told the Metro newspaper.

He added that male rape victims can sometimes feel that they’ve been “turned into a homosexual”.

Hot lines and sexual health organizations testify to a growing number of men who contact them for help and support following an assault. Yet, many do not go further and report the crime to the police.

“No, they’re too ashamed,” Jane Eriksson, chair of the anti-sexual violence NGO Hopp in Katrineholm, told the newspaper.

The Crime Prevention council estimates that only 23 percent of all rapes are reported to the police, and even fewer make it to trial.

In the first half of 2012, only six of 61 reported rapes against men resulted in criminal indictments.

In 2011, the clearance rate for rapes against men was 10 percent, the same clearance rate as rapes against women.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Morrissey Supports Nigel Farage on Europe and Admits ‘I Nearly Voted UKIP’

Rock star Morrissey has admitted he is a bit of a fan of Ukip and its leader Nigel Farage.

The former Smiths frontman revealed an unlikely admiration for the leader adding “his views are quite logical — especially where Europe is concerned.”

He even toyed with the idea of voting for the party because he supported their ideas on the EU.

He told Loaded magazine: “I nearly voted for Ukip. I like Nigel Farage a great deal.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

Spain: Town Removes King From Road Name, ‘Symbol of Franco’

Alcano part of association of cities for independence

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JAMUARY 7 — Alcano, a town of Catalonia west of Barcelona with 250 inhabitants, will scrap the name of the king from one of its road. The city council has voted in favour of a request by residents to remove the plaque ‘Calle Juan Carlos I’ from the road. ‘Removing the name of the king is like removing the symbols of the Franco era’, said Mayor Sebastian Ricart.

Juan Carlos, who turned 75 on Sunday, returned to Spain in 1948; in 1969 Francisco Franco, who had restored the monarchy in 1947 thought he had appointed himself as the ruler, indicated him as the heir of the Spanish crown. Juan Carlos was crowned on November 22, 1975, two days after the death of Franco.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Statoil Plans $10-Billion Norwegian Sea Project

Norwegian oil and gas group Statoil and its partners presented plans on Tuesday to develop a Norwegian Sea gas field and build a pipeline at a cost of 57 billion kroner ($10 billion).

Statoil submitted a plan to the Norwegian government to begin development of the Aasta Hansteen field, believed to hold 47 billion cubic metres of gas, starting in late 2017.

The project would require a 480-kilometre deep-sea pipeline, called Polarled, which could become an important link between the current network of Norwegian pipelines further south and future gas fields in the Arctic.

“Polarled will open a new region and facilitate further exploration activities and development of future discoveries in the area,” a senior Statoil official, Eldar Saetre, said in a statement.

The Aasta Hansteen field is located some 300 kilometers from Norway’s north-western coast and lies at a depth of around 1,300 metres. Statoil owns 75 percent of the field, previously known as Luva, while Austria’s OMV owns 15 percent and ConocoPhillips of the US holds 10 percent.

The development cost of the field is estimated at 32 billion kroner, and at full-capacity its production would be 130,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, Statoil said.

Polarled is meanwhile expected to cost 25 billion kroner, and will be owned by Norwegian groups Statoil, Petoro and Gassco, OMV, Anglo-Dutch Shell, France’s Total and GDF Suez, Germany’s RWE Dea, US groups ConocoPhillips and Edison, and Maersk Oil of Denmark.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Balkans

Serbia: Press: Ambassadors’ Meeting Cancelled to Save Money

(ANSAmed) — Belgrade, January 8 — An annual conference of Serbian ambassadors posted worldwide, which traditionally takes place in Belgrade in the first half of January, was cancelled to save money, according to the daily Danas. The paper said the decision was taken by Foreign Minister Ivan Mrkic.

The meeting, which has taken place annually since 2008, was aimed at outlining Serbia’s foreign policy priorities and was usually attended by the Serbian president together with a high official of an EU country as guest.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians

Heaviest Snowfall in Jerusalem Since ‘92

Schools shut; ice brings traffic to a stop

(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, JANUARY 10 — Experts say that Jerusalem was clobbered Wednesday by the “heaviest snowfall since 1992” after forecasts predicting the downpour proved spot on.

Schools and nurseries were closed and police shut a main motorway linking the city to Tel Aviv because of icey conditions. The city’s emergency response chief, Elisha Peleg, urged people to stay at home and not to go out on the roads. “Between 10 — 15cm of snow fell in the centre of Jerusalem”, Peleg told military radio, “and much more in outlying areas.” “Elderly residents of Jerusalem can’t remember snowfall as heavy as this.” He added that temperatures are expected to rise this afternoon and at that point people may be able to go out to stock up on necessities.

Elsewhere, the rest of the country has been pummeled, including much of Galilee which is under a blanket of snow. Up to 30cm of the white stuff fell in Safed and snowfall also hit further south in Dimona and Neghev.

Rain continues to pour in Tel Aviv as temperatures slide.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Middle East

Hagel-Chaired Think Tank: ‘Post-Mullah’ Iran Should be Viewed as ‘Natural Partner’ For U.S.

The Atlantic Council, a think tank chaired by defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel which last month published a column titled “Israel’s Apartheid Policy,” during the same month predicted that Iran “should be viewed as a potential natural partner” for the U.S.

The Washington Free Beacon reported that the think tank’s December policy paper titled “Envisioning 2030: U.S. Strategy for a Post-Western World,” which was not written by Hagel himself, predicted the following of an Iranian regime that continues to forge ahead with its nuclear program and bankroll both Hamas and Hezbollah terrorism: “A post-mullah dominated government shedding Shia [Muslim] ideology could easily return to being a net contributor to stability by 2030.”

The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) has called President Barack Obama’s Hagel’s nomination of Hagel “a blow to U.S.-Israel relations, to the President’s relationship with the American Jewish community, and to U.S. security in the Middle East.”

Glenn Kessler, author of the Washington Post’s “Fact Checker” column, noted that Hagel told the Associated Press after his 1998 Middle East visit that the Israeli government “essentially continues to play games.” Commenting on Palestinian terrorism, the former Nebraska senator said “Desperate men do desperate things when you take hope away.”

Additionally, in 2002, Hagel told CNN regarding Yasser Arafat that he would not “single out the Palestinians and Arafat as the real problem” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because “it doesn’t help when we take public sides on this and castigate and assign all of the responsibility and all the blame to one side

[Return to headlines]

Iraq: Kurdistan Sells Oil Directly, Challenging Baghdad

The amount sold is minimal but highly symbolic. The first shipment went by road to bypass the Baghdad-controlled Iraq-Turkey pipeline. Economists warn that the step signals the region’s growing frustration with the central government. Political uncertainties are making matters worse.

Baghdad (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Kurdistan has begun to export crude oil directly to world markets through Turkey, posing the biggest challenge yet to Baghdad’s claim to full control over Iraqi oil. For local economists, the move is further evidence of growing frustration in the Kurdish region over its relationship with Baghdad, which is driving it to seek greater economic independence.

Mgr Louis Sako, archbishop of Kirkuk, recently spoke to AsiaNews about the tensions generated by the struggle to control the oil fields of Kurdistan. In view of the situation, he appealed to the parties to engage in “peace and dialogue”.

Iraqi officials in Baghdad said the trade of Kurdish oil, which they view as illegal, would make it more difficult to reach a deal on payments to oil companies operating in the northern region, which the central government has delayed.

The export of crude, in addition to small volumes of niche condensate, demonstrates the autonomous region’s growing frustration with Baghdad as it moves towards ever greater economic independence, industry sources said.

The first crude was delivered by lorry to the Turkish port of Mersin on the Mediterranean.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) “gave us permission to start crude exports from the Taq Taq oilfield,” Genel Energy President Mehmet Sepil said on Monday.

The KRG halted exports through the Baghdad-controlled Iraq-Turkey pipeline last month due to the renewed payment dispute.

And a KRG source said the crude trade through Turkey was likely to keep going because Baghdad is not paying as agreed.

In recent months, because of the tensions between the two levels of government, Iraq’s oil and gas auction largely failed after Baghdad excluded contentious Kurdish area fields from the bidding process.

For experts, the situation is likely to get worse over next few weeks because of the country’s political situation, preventing any further talks over the matter.

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

Saudi Arabia: EU Condemns Sri Lankan Nanny’s Execution

Shock in Sri Lanka the day after the beheading of Nafeek

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS — The European Union has expressed ‘deep shock’ at the execution of a young Sri Lankan nanny in Saudia Arabia and has stressed its “strong opposition” to the death penalty “in all cases and in all circumstances”.

In Europe, as from various human rights associations, “numerous requests” had been ignored for Rizana Nafeek’s death sentence to be commuted, according to EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton. Ashton said that amongst other things it was very likely that Nafeek was “underage” when the baby in her care died and she was sentenced to death. News of the beheading, which took place Wednesday in Riyadh, has sparked a chorus of emotion in Sri Lanka where Parliament observed a minute’s silence in commemoration of Nafeek.

Numerous human rights groups had organised an international campaign to pardon Nafeek.

Sri Lanka’s government too, tried various diplomatic channels. President Mahinda Rajapaksa intervened. And the Saudi government last week made a promise to the Sri Lankan ambassador in Riyahd to look into pleas for clemency. A second appeal to put off the execution pending a deal to compensate the family of the child was brought before Saudi Arabia’s King. And a special “reconciliation committee” was created by the government to grant an out of court settlement. Nafeek arrived in Saudi Arabia in 2005 where she worked for a wealthy family. After only a few months the four month old baby in her care choked to death while being fed from a bottle. A day later Nafeek was arrested and accused of strangling the baby after a dispute with the mother.

Nafeek allegedly made a confession which she said was given under duress. In 2007 a court found her guilty of murder and sentenced her to be beheaded by sword.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Syria: Thousands of Christians Trapped in North Aleppo

Food and electricity cut off; situation “grave” says priest

(ANSAmed) — VATICAN CITY, JANUARY 10 — Around a thousand Christians including Roman Catholics and those of the Greek-Orthodox faith are trapped in a tiny village in North Aleppo. As heavy fighting rages between loyalist groups and opposition forces, food and electricity supplies to Yaakoubieh have all but been cut off. “They are in a desperate condition; they could be wiped out”, Franciscan priest Father Francois Kouseiffi told Vatican news agency, Fides. Kouseiffi is the pastor of a church in Hamas, Beirut, where around 500 refugees from Syria are being looked after. He first heard of the village’s plight from the refugees in his church, many of who come from Yaakoubieh. Before the war around 3,000 Christians, including Armenians, Orthodox and Catholics, lived in the village. They have all since fled. According to Kouseiffi nuns are trapped in Yaakoubieh too. “The situation is grave. The faithful are trapped. We are desperately trying to help them come to Lebanon.” “Some of our emissaries left a few days ago to go there, but it’s a dangerous journey and after a day they ended up in Aleppo”.

“Contact with the Christians has been sporadic. They sounded the alarm for their survival, but they could die in the silence.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Turkey Lifts Sale Ban on Books

(AGI) Istanbul — The ban on several books has been lifted in Turkey. Marx’s Manifest is among the no longer forbidden titles.

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

Will Obama Demand Israeli Disarmament — Again?

By David P. Goldman (Spengler)

On Jan. 4, Turkish President Abdullah Gul demanded Israeli nuclear disarmament in order to achieve a nuclear free Middle East. Iran’s news agency reported:

TEHRAN (FNA)- Turkish President Abdullah Gul said Ankara believes that Israel’s nuclear disarmament is necessary because it is key to the establishment of a nuclear-free Middle-East.

Speaking to Foreign Affairs magazine, President Gul stressed the importance of eradicating nuclear weapons in the Middle-East and stated that the atomic disarmament of Israel would be the key to resolving outstanding issues regarding Iran’s nuclear energy program.

“That is the way I see it. Because that route will help them solve the fundamental problems in the Middle-East that affect the whole world.”

That is also the policy of the Obama administration, which has been pushing a “nuclear-free Middle East” since the May 2010 United Nations conference on nuclear proliferation. On May 28, 2010, the US cast a “yes” vote for a resolution demanding that Israel adhere to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which would oblige Israel to unilaterally disarm. Israel’s longstanding policy of “nuclear ambiguity” was first adopted in 1969 by then Prime Minister Golda Meir at the request of the Nixon administration. Every American administration since Nixon has backed this policy—until Obama. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded to the May 2010 turnaround by calling the UN resolution “deeply flawed and hypocritical,” adding, “It singles out Israel, the Middle East’s only true democracy and the only country threatened with annihilation. Yet the terrorist regime in Iran, which is racing to develop nuclear weapons and which openly threatens to wipe Israel off the map, is not even mentioned in the resolution.”

Obama’s action provoked a storm of protest, and the issue was quietly laid to rest. But it is far from dead. Reuters reported Nov. 24:

LONDON (Reuters) — Britain and the United Nations said on Saturday they hoped a conference aimed at trying to ban nuclear weapons in the Middle East could take place soon after the United States said it would not happen next month as originally planned.

If and when it happens, the conference is likely to be fraught as Iran and Arab states say Israel’s presumed nuclear arsenal is the main threat to security in the region, while Israel and the West see Tehran as the main proliferation danger.

Western diplomats and others believe the conference would make little headway because of that fundamental difference in opinion — something the United States has described as “a deep conceptual gap”.

However, Britain and the conference’s other organizers, which include Russia and the United Nations as well as prospective host Finland, believe it is worth a try anyway and anti-nuclear campaigners would also like to see it take place.

Middle East nuclear disarmament is America’s stated policy. The only question is how to make it happen…

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]

Immigration

A White British Minority

…in 4 towns & cities in UK

WHITE Brits are now a minority in three more UK towns and cities, a report reveals today.

Soaring immigration has sent their numbers plunging below 50 per cent in the city of Leicester and the towns of Luton and Slough.

The figures follow last month’s revelation that for the first time white Brits form less than half London’s population — 45 per cent.

The percentage calling themselves white British is at 35 in Slough, Berks, and 45 in Luton, Beds, and Leicester.

No ethnic group is in the majority in any of the three.

The Manchester University study says the figure for Birmingham may fall below half within seven years.

The overall white population tops 50 per cent in Leicester and Luton when Eastern European and Irish communities are added.

The latest analysis of 2011 census data in England and Wales, published today by University of Manchester researchers, has revealed the first local authorities outside London where no ethnic group is in the majority.

The research by the University’s Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE) shows the towns of Slough and Luton and the city of Leicester are now ‘plural’. Birmingham could join them in the next seven years.

The team, who also find that 23 of London’s 33 boroughs are plural, say towns and cities labelled by politicians as ‘segregated’ are in reality the most diverse.

In the three local authorities, substantial numbers of Irish, Eastern European and other White populations have rendered their White British populations, though still large, as minorities for the first time.

However, the White British population is still the largest in every local authority except Tower Hamlets and Brent, where it is the second biggest.

In addition, the research funded by CoDE and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation finds:…

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars

A Kennedy Shocks the Pro-Dope Liberal Media

The major media do not want to cover the issue of marijuana causing mental illness. But because a prominent Democrat, Patrick Kennedy, has raised it, the media have nowhere left to hide. The news that he says marijuana “Destroys the brain and expedites psychosis” was big news and a big headline in The Washington Post.

Kennedy fought alcoholism and an addiction to prescription drugs and is now taking on the marijuana lobby, while getting verbal abuse from the potheads in return. The Marijuana Policy Project calls his new group, SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana), the “new threat” and “a dangerous, new national anti-marijuana organization.”

Kennedy, the younger son of Edward M. Kennedy and a former member of Congress from Rhode Island, was strong and direct, telling the Post, “Marijuana destroys the brain and expedites psychosis. It’s just overall a very dangerous drug.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

English Teacher Stomps on American Flag During Class Lecture

Here’s something that will get you to scratch your head and wonder, “What was he thinking?” A high school English teacher is in hot water after he repeatedly stomped on an American flag as part of his classroom lesson. The teacher’s actions have led to a suspension, and more fallout is likely to occur.

As reported by WIS Channel 10 in South Carolina, English teacher Scott Compton, had an unusual lesson planned for his high school classes.

Scott Compton is accused of throwing down the American flag and stomping on it in front of his honors English classes.

[…]

According to Fitsnews.com, the teacher is considered to be a “good” one, but that he is “very liberal.” One source said, “He wears it on his sleeve in the classroom.”

Comment by inluminatuo January 10, 2013 @ 12:54 pm

Our American Flag has no meaning only to those who themselves have meaningless lives of no meaning themselves. Men and women who believe in no power greater than themselves, who in their hearts understand the very meaningless of who and what they are. These people have nothing to live for, and nothing in their lives worth dying for. They are the hollow men of the secular Liberal Progressive cult of self worshippers who REGRESS into their animal instincts, having murdered their own spiritual consciences in order to get by in a semi-insanity called secular Liberal existence. To face their consciences and spiritual side would mean having to admit of a life wasted, a life failed, a life as meaningless as the flag they spit upon and declare meaningless, but which in their jealous heats is the symbol of everything they aspire to be but failed to be, which stands for the personal sacrifice of lives that meant so much in their sacrifice to make the world a better place for that sacrifice, while those deluded liberals only live for the Liberal drug of immediate gratification which is fleeting at best and so self-condemning at worst. So they delude themselves into thinking they are Gods unto themselves. Nit-wit nabobs of Narcissism run amok. Now we would have them lead our nation and teach our Kids. Shame on us for relying on others to do the right thing while we slept in a false security of trusting people unworthy of the word trust!

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Planned Parenthood Receives Record Amount of Taxpayer Support

Planned Parenthood reported receiving a record $542 million in taxpayer support in fiscal 2012, marking a steady increase in government funding despite Republican-led efforts at the state and federal levels to cut off that stream.

The funding figures were included in the abortion provider’s annual report released Monday. The numbers showed roughly 45 percent of Planned Parenthood’s budget now comes from taxpayer dollars.

Pro-life groups quickly seized on the report to renew their calls for Congress to “defund” Planned Parenthood.

“Americans are sick and tired of underwriting the nation’s largest abortion business,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List.

Republican Tennessee Rep. Diane Black said the report “underscores the pressing need to cut off all federal funding for Planned Parenthood.”

The Republican-controlled House voted in the last session to strip federal funding for the organization But the measure did not advance.

Separate efforts at the state level to yank funding have been blocked by the courts. Mostly recently, a federal appeals court in October blocked Indiana from carrying out a law to cut Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood.

According to the latest annual report, the $542 million in taxpayer support last year counted Medicaid money. The total represents a steady increase, up 11 percent from $487 million the year before; that amount was up 34 percent from $363 million the year before that.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

Progressives as “Moral Superiors” Who Like to Play God

The most famous eugenicists were the Spartans. Their newborns were allowed to live only if perfectly healthy. The state did not want to be burdened by imperfect babies.

The modern eugenicists advocate infanticide as being no different than abortion. According to an article in The Telegraph, a team of medical ethicists linked to Oxford University maintained that “parents should be allowed to have their newborn babies killed because they are ‘morally irrelevant.’ (Stephen Adams, February 29, 2012)

The Journal of Medical Ethics published an article, “After-birth abortion: Why should the baby live?” Francesca Minerva and Alberto Giubilini argued that babies are not “actual persons,” do not have a “moral right to life,” and parents should be allowed to kill their babies if they are disabled.

Prof. Julian Savulescu, director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics labeled those readers who made death threats to the article’s authors as “fanatics opposed to the very values of a liberal society.” Most modern humans must then be fanatics because they reject such a liberal society based on brutal values. We no longer live in Sparta. A sign of civilization is treating life with respect and awe, beginning at conception until death.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Worshiping at the Temple of the Vagina

The 2012 elections are over and the data is in. Catholics in America, those who go to Mass on Sundays throughout the year, overwhelmingly voted to restore the republic, protect religious liberty and safeguard human life from womb to the tomb. So-called Catholics, those who don’t go to Mass, or go on Christmas and Easter (our beloved E&C Catholics), or those who think the Catechism is a ‘cafeteria’ of ideas, one to be taken as one sees fit — those now American Schismatic Catholics overwhelmingly voted to kill the republic by re-electing our own Mussolini: Obama. Don’t melt-down over that; just contemplate for a moment what I am saying: Benito Mussolini was a fascist dictator in Italy from the 1920s until Italy’s capitulation during WWII. Economically, he married the best of capitalism with socialism, which is, by definition, fascism. For today, let’s look at the evidence that American Schismatic Catholics, or the ASC’s, departed from Rome a long time ago and are now, instead of pretending to be seeking relationship with God, are exclusively worshiping at the Temple of the Vagina. From so-called women’s rights to ‘peace and justice,’ the ASCs have only one agenda: Make it easier for all people at all time to join them in worshiping at the Temple of the Vagina.

[…]

What is the Schismatic American Church, then? It is a Church void of the true Living God; one absent of liturgies which are held sacred; it is a church completely void of the meat or the core, rather, of the Four Pillars of Faith. It is made up of a people who neither believe nor obey the Creed; it is a set of Sacraments, those visible accidents of our invisible Lord are profaned — while the people whose sacrilege is ongoing are praised and elevated in the Church; it is the moral life which has been vacated and replaced with what the Roman Pontiff, Benedict the XVI calls: The Dictatorship of Relativism. In fact, the new Schismatic Church is complete with a life full of pretend worship — worship of what the New York Time’s deemed a dead God and the direct worship of women and the destruction of the role of man in the family and more — all of this within the stone-cold walls of their new Temple of the Vagina.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20130109

Financial Crisis
» Greece: January Pensions to See 5-20% Reduction
» If Obama Can Just Create a Trillion Dollar Coin, Then Why Do We Have to Pay Taxes?
» Is Barack Obama Consciously Attempting to Bankrupt the United States?
» Italian Stock Markets Show Strong Gains, Led by Banks
» Italy: Monti Blasted as Arrogant, Out of Touch
» Italy’s Deficit Falls to 3.7% in First 9 Months of 2012
» Merkel Promises Help to Create Jobs in Greece
» Tea-Party Senator Contradicts Self on Obama Redistribution?
 
USA
» Alex Jones: Best Night of Television Ever
» Armed Mafia Stalk Alex Jones Post Piers Morgan Debate: Video Report
» Bank of America Freezes Gun Manufacturer’s Account, Company Owner Claims
» Biden: NRA to Meet on Guns
» Biden Says Obama to Use “Executive Action” To Restrict Second Amendment
» College Professor Says ‘Crisis Actors’ May Have Played Part if Sandy Hook Was Indeed a Hoax (Video)
» Conspiracy of Brothers
» Ed Schultz: The Constitution is ‘Archaic’ Regarding Second Amendment [Video]
» Founders Enshrined 2nd Amendment to Restrain Government!
» Gossip Web Site Posts Lists of ‘All’ New York City Gun Owners
» Gun Control Dictator Style
» Harvard Doctors Call for Massive Federal Tax ‘On All Firearms and Ammunition’
» Head of Mosque in Miami Under Trial for Terrorism Charges
» If You Thought Sandy Hook Was Bad, The British Massacres of Disarmed Colonists Were Far Worse
» Iowa Lawmaker Calls for Confiscation of Guns
» Jews and the Hagel Nomination: Chelm on the Potomac
» Mosque Applicant Urged to Double Parking Spaces
» Outrage: Bank of America Freezes Funds of Licensed Online Gun Dealer: “We Believe You Should Not be Selling Guns on the Internet”
» Piers Morgan & Guests: Turn in Your Guns or We Will Kill You (Video)
» Piers Morgan Snickers About Shooting Alex Jones
» Second Amendment: My Line in the Sand is Drawn Here!
» Statistics Prove: More Guns, Less Crime
» Twenty-Second Amendment to be Scrapped?
» US Congress ‘Less Popular Than Cockroaches’
» Video: Alex Jones Blasts Out With Justified Outrage at Piers Morgan and Other Traitors to Human Freedom
» Voters Shut Out Baseball Hall of Fame Candidates
 
Canada
» Animal Killer Kayla Bourque Released to Live in Vancouver
 
Europe and the EU
» Anti Domestic Violence Campaign for Scottish Muslims
» Courage of a Rape Victim British Tourist Returns to Spain to See ‘Sex Attack’ Waiter Who Left Her to Die Face Justice
» EU Demands Access to Details of All UK Drivers: ‘Orwellian’ Move to Hand Out Personal Information to Foreign Police Forces
» French Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac Under Investigation for ‘Fraud and Money Laundering’
» Greece: Lagarde List Sparks Inter-Party Feuding
» Greece: Four Votes to Shed Light on Lagarde List
» IMU House Tax Must be More Progressive to be Fair, EU Says
» Italy: Soccer: Berlusconi Vows Milan to Stand Up to Racism
» Italy: Bersani Fires Back at Monti for Wanting to ‘Shut Up’ PD
» Italy: Soccer: Games Shouldn’t be Stopped for ‘Few’ Racist Jeers
» Italy: Northern League Rules Out Berlusconi Being Premier
» Italy: Berlusconi Blames ‘Feminist’ Judges for Massive Alimony
» Majorca: British Woman Raped and Stabbed in Magaluf Faces Attacker in Court
» Rome Prosecutors’ Probe Led to Credit-Card Freeze at Vatican
» Spaniard Wins British Foundation Best Mayor for 2012
» The Incredible Disappearing Germans — A Long-Term Economic Forecast for the 21st Century
» UK: Bradford Moor Driver Mohammed Shahin Attacked Baildon Woman
» UK: Bride Kirsty Lane Who Stole £170,000 From Her Boss to Pay for Dream Wedding is Forced to Repay Just One Tenth of the Money
» UK: Cyclist Sexually Assaults Dog Walker, 61, In Chadderton Hall Park
» UK: Drug Addict Lesbian Couple Who Thought Pensioner Had Secret Fortune ‘Left Him to Die After Torturing Him for His Pin Number
» UK: Economic Reality and the Burden of Welfare
» UK: Grappling With Muslim Sex Gangs in Britain
» UK: Halesowen Muslims Festive Working
» UK: Labour Wanted to Rename a Council Ward After A mosque
» UK: Met Office Releases Revised Global Temperature Predictions Showing Planet is Not Rapidly Heating Up
» UK: Mentally Ill Woman ‘Who Stabbed Grandma to Death With 12in Butcher’s Knife Had Been Released From Secure Hospital After Killing Her Own Mother’
» UK: Polish Sex Attacker ‘Stabbed to Death by Passer-by as He Molested Girl, 18, In the Street’
» UK: Stephen Lawrence’s Brother Sues Met Over Race Discrimination
» UK: Social Services Knew Girl, 4, Was Living With ‘Paedophile’ Foster Parent But Left Her in His Care for More Two Weeks
» UK: The Ralph Miliband Lectures Remind US How Stupid ‘Clever’ People Can be
» UK: What Two Thugs Did to Nurse They Attacked Outside Her Own Hospital as She Waited for a Bus Home
 
North Africa
» Egypt: Abdel-Gawad Yassin: Sharia Law Must be Flexible
» Morocco Elected Chair of UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee
» Tunisair Cuts Personnel to Avoid Crisis
» Tunisia: Ali Harzi, Suspect in Nation Attack on U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Freed
» Tunisia: Stolen Kiss Costs 20-Yr-Olds Jail Time
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» First Postage Stamp With “State of Palestine” Issued
» Jewish Groups Attack Psalmist Mosque in Jerusalem
 
Middle East
» Dutch Military Team Arrives in Turkey for Patriots Deployment
» Free Ebook: War on Syria: Gateway to WWIII
» Garvan Walshe: Beware a Pragmatic Foreign Policy
» In 2012, Sharia Enforcement Continued to Spread Around the World
» International Sanctions Against Iran Cause Oil and Gas Revenues to Drop by 45 Per Cent
» Iran’s Nuclear Bomb Program Complete
» Iran: Tehran Cannot Sell Its Oil, 40% Drop in Nine Months
» Lebanon: US Boosts Army as Precaution Against Syria Spillover
» Saudi Arabia: Blind Old Man Uses Rope to Reach Mosque
» Saudi Arabia: Sri Lanka’s Rizana Nafeek Executed
» Stakelbeck Interviews Israeli Vice PM Moshe Yaalon, Plus Deputy
» UAE: Inquiry Into ‘Women’s Branch’ of Islamic Group
» Using Cold War Tactics to Confront Iran
 
South Asia
» India Says Kashmir Killings’ Inhuman’
» Indian Soldier ‘Beheaded by Pakistan Troops’ As Kashmir Dispute Escalates
» New Trial for Polish Soldiers Over Afghanistan Killings
» U. S. To Leave No More Than 9,000 Men in Afghanistan
 
Far East
» Philippines: 500,000 Take Part in Annual Feast of Black Nazarene in Manila
» What Did Google Earth Spot in the Chinese Desert? Even an Ex-CIA Analyst Isn’t Sure
 
Australia — Pacific
» How a Hoaxer Created Sharemarket Havoc
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Al Qaeda Carves Out Own Country in Mali
» Battle to Save African Elephants Waged on a New Front
» Chad, Minimum of 40 Children Paralyzed After New Meningitis Vaccine
» Kenya: Horror as Entire Family of Elephants Slaughtered for Ivory
» Nigeria: Gunmen Fire on Muslims
» Nigeria: Obasanjo to Jonathan — Reach Out to Boko Haram
 
Immigration
» Italy: Immigration Bureau Issued 4,800 Expulsion Orders in 2012
 
Culture Wars
» Italy: Gay Groups Wary About Berlusconi Pledge for Same-Sex Couples
» Obama Administration is Anti-Catholic
» The “New Breed” Of Christian Fashion
 
General
» Hubble Space Telescope Could Last Until 2018, NASA Says

Financial Crisis

Greece: January Pensions to See 5-20% Reduction

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JANUARY 3 — Retired Greeks will see their pensions reduced by between 5-20% depending on their pay scale as measures to curb state spending and meet targets set by the country’s creditors start coming into effect this month. The plan, as daily Kathimerini reports, is for pensions up to 1,500 euros to be slashed by 5%, those between 1,500 and 2,000 euros by 10%, etc, while pensions in excess of 3,000 euros will see 20% slashed, although they will not go under 2,550 euros. The unwed or divorced daughters of civil servants receiving pensions will see the amount reduced to a maximum of 720 euros per month, while they may even see a complete abolition of their pension if they declare an income from other sources up to or above that amount, Skai reported on Wednesday.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

If Obama Can Just Create a Trillion Dollar Coin, Then Why Do We Have to Pay Taxes?

If Barack Obama can “solve” the debt ceiling crisis by printing up some trillion dollar coins, then why does the federal government need our money? As another debt ceiling showdown approaches, many in the liberal media are suggesting that if Congress does not raise the debt ceiling that Obama should just have the U.S. Treasury create a trillion dollar platinum coin and use it to pay our bills. It sounds crazy, but many notable voices (including Paul Krugman of the New York Times) are supporting this idea. But if the federal government has had the power to create trillion dollar coins out of thin air all this time, then why do we have to pay taxes? Not only that, why do we have a national debt? If the federal government can just create money whenever it wants, then why does the federal government ever have to borrow it from others?

The U.S. Constitution actually grants Congress the power to “coin money”, so why is the Federal Reserve doing it? Those are some very important questions. Most Americans don’t even realize that the U.S. government never actually needed to borrow a single penny from anyone else. The U.S. Congress has the authority to create debt-free money whenever it wants to. Conceivably, the entire federal government could be funded without ever borrowing a single dollar and without ever receiving a single dollar from any of us in taxes. Just imagine that — a nation without a single penny of national debt, no income tax and no IRS. What a wonderful world that would be. Of course there would be other potential dangers under such a system (such as runaway inflation), and those dangers would have to be addressed. But the truth is that we don’t have to have an income tax or 16 trillion dollars of government debt. We only have those things because we have chosen to have those things.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Is Barack Obama Consciously Attempting to Bankrupt the United States?

WND senior staff reporter Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D., makes this claim in a new ebook just published, “Obama’s Plan to Bankrupt the USA: The Cloward-Piven Theory.”

On May 2, 1966, two Columbia University sociologists, Professor of Social Work Richard A. Cloward and his then-research associate Frances Fox Piven, wrote a pivotal article in The Nation, articulating “a strategy to end poverty.”…

“Barack Obama and the radical left activists now in control of the Democratic Party see the Cloward-Piven theory as predicting a welfare state expanded to the point where the accumulated national debt bankrupts the USA,” Corsi said.

“The Cloward-Piven theory predicts capitalism will collapse such that the USA can be reconstructed as a truly socialist state dedicated to the elimination of private property and the creation of ‘social justice’ achieved by redistributing income from the ‘haves’ to the ‘have-nots.’“

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Italian Stock Markets Show Strong Gains, Led by Banks

Other European financial markets also rise

(ANSA) — Milan, January 9 — Italian bank stocks surged on Wednesday, lifting the country’s key financial market and leading those in the rest of Europe.

On the Milan Stock Exchange, the FTSE Mib gained 2.21% to close at 17,326 points — its highest level in 17 months.

The index was lifted by strong interest in telecommunications equities as well as an upbeat sentiment due to encouraging earnings on stock markets in the United States.

But key to Wednesday’s gains in Milan was the continued investor interest in banks shares. Overall, the financial-services sector has been on the rise over news that implementation of some Basel III liquidity standards have been delayed for four years and other requirements eased.

Italian banks already meet the Basel III liquidity requirements, but the easing of rules has been generally positive for financial-sector stocks.

Meanwhile, the spread between Italy’s benchmark 10-year bond and its ultra-safe German counterpart closed at 282 basis points, roughly where it has lingered all week.

At close of trading Wednesday, the yield on 10-year Italian paper stood at 4.29%, the same point as where it closed one day earlier.

In other European markets, Frankfurt’s DAX rose by 0.32% to reach 7,702.47 points, while London’s FTSE 100 fell by 0.74% to close at 6,098.65 points, Paris’s CAC 40 ended the day up by 0.25% to 3,715.02 points, and Spain’s IBEX 35 ended the day 1.87% higher at 8,611.10 points.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Monti Blasted as Arrogant, Out of Touch

Outgoing premier wins cross-party disapproval after opening fire

(see related wrap) (ANSA) — Rome, January 3 — Outgoing Italian Premier Mario Monti came under a barrage of criticism on Thursday after making some hard-hitting comments as the campaign for next month’s general elections heats up.

Former European commissioner Monti was at the helm of an emergency technocrat government from November 2011 until last month while staying on as caretaker premier and he is standing to retain office on a reform platform.

He called his predecessor Silvio Berlusconi “volatile” and said his centre-right People of Freedom (PdL) party was taking extreme stances on economic issues.

He also suggested the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) should suppress anti-reform elements within its ranks.

Centre-left premier candidate Pier Luigi Bersani, the PD’s leader, said he had no intention of silencing anyone in his party.

“I have respect (for Monti), but I ask for respect for the entire PD. We are a liberal party that will never shut anyone up,” said Bersani, adding that courage “did not mean shutting people up, but enabling them to participate”.

Italy’s biggest trade-union confederation, the left-wing GCIL, also attacked after Monti accused it of obstructing structural economic reforms. “He doesn’t know this country,” said Susanna Camusso, the leader of the CGIL, which has strong ties with the PD. “He offers criticism but very few proposals. If he has decided to stand in elections he should discuss his platforms.

“We’ve all seen his so-called reforms,” added Camusso.

“Poverty, unemployment and human frailty are all on the rise in this country”.

Berlusconi, meanwhile, blasted Monti as an academic who is out of touch with the real world. “Monti is a professor and professors… are distant from reality, which they look at through the keyhole while they have an assured salary and do not know the difficulties of businesses,” Berlusconi said on Italian radio. Berlusconi added that Italy should have had early elections in November 2011 when the financial crisis forced him to end his third term as Italian premier rather than making way for Monti’s emergency government of unelected technocrats. He also repeated criticism of the economic record of Monti’s government. “Everything has happened in a year. There has been the disaster of the technocrat government and we are in the full throes of a recession,” Berlusconi said. Puglia Governor Nichi Vendola, the leader of the left-wing SEL party, expressed irritation after Monti suggested the PD should break off its electoral alliance with his party.

Monti said it was always good to “cut the wings” and suggested he could govern with the PD after the elections if it broke with the SEL.

“There’s an element of arrogance (in what Monti says) that should be rejected,” Vendola said.

“Mario Monti is going around Pier Luigi Bersani to do a dance of death for him”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy’s Deficit Falls to 3.7% in First 9 Months of 2012

Deficit-GDP ratio down 0.5 on same period in 2011

(ANSA) — Rome, January 9 — Italy’s public deficit fell to 3.7% with respect to gross domestic product in the first nine months of 2012, 0.5% lower than in the same period in 2011, thanks to government tax hikes, Istat said Wednesday.

The national statistics added that the deficit-GDP ratio fell to 1.8% in the third quarter of 2012, 0.7% lower than in the same three months in 2011. Istat said the new and much-criticised IMU property tax, introduced by outgoing Premier Mario Monti’s emergency government of unelected technocrats, was the driving force of the higher tax revenues that have brought down the deficit. The tax hikes were part of austerity measures Monti’s government passed to put Italy on course to balance the national budget in structural terms this year and move the country away from the centre of the eurozone debt crisis.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Merkel Promises Help to Create Jobs in Greece

Samaras in Berlin; ‘great effort, investments necessary’

(ANSAmed) — BERLIN — Germany must play a part in helping Greece fight unemployment, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday in Berlin. ‘We also have to do everything we can to guarantee economic growth and the security of work places’, Merkel said in a joint statement with Greek Premier Antonis Samaras. Merkel explained that she wanted to understand how reforms were continuing and Athens’ economic outlook.

Greece ‘suffers unemployment, in particular youth unemployment’, stressed Samaras. The country, he said, is making ‘progress and huge efforts’ and now investments are necessary to counter youth unemployment. ‘We will do everything in our power to bring back the situation into order’, continued Samaras, stressing that the Greek government has started ‘systematic measures’ and taken action to recuperate market confidence.

The premier also stressed the ‘sacrifices’ endured by the Greek population, recalling how investments in the country are ‘important’ and ‘necessary’ for recovery.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Tea-Party Senator Contradicts Self on Obama Redistribution?

Did Texas Senator Ted Cruz, considered a tea-party favorite, mean to argue the Republican party should approach the economy through the lens of one of the founders of so-called U.S. economic distributive justice?

In an opinion piece in the Washington Post on Friday, Cruz criticized the Republican approach to finances and called for an “ alternative course,” which he defined as “ opportunity conservatism.”

“We should assess policy with a Rawlsian lens, asking how it affects those least well-off among us. We should champion the 47 percent,” he wrote…

The use of the term “Rawlsian lens” is instructive.

Cruz was referring to John Rawls, the American political philosopher who was one of the 20th century’ s most influential theorists on so-called equality.

Rawls laid the foundations for what became the “economic fairness” movement of future progressives and may have informed President Obama’ s economic politics.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

USA

Alex Jones: Best Night of Television Ever

Piers Morgan (CNN) thought he might pump up his horrendous ratings and avoid having to go back to England. So he invited Alex Jones to come east and appear on his show.

They would discuss gun control and the petition to have Morgan deported. It would be good television. An interesting conversation. Perhaps things would get contentious.

But Morgan’s producers and bookers had made a fatal error of judgment.

To say Alex was loaded for bear is a vast understatement.

He crashed the television party in a way it’s never happened before.

You could call it: the internet invades mainstream media. But that doesn’t begin to do it justice.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Armed Mafia Stalk Alex Jones Post Piers Morgan Debate: Video Report

After the appearance on CNN’s Piers Morgan, Alex Jones and Infowars video producer Rob Dew noticed they were being followed, watched and approached by possibly undercover agents claiming to be fans.

Alex was promised three segments on Morgan’s show; however, his producers apparently cancelled the last segment after Jones continued bashing Morgan with unscripted truths and facts.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Bank of America Freezes Gun Manufacturer’s Account, Company Owner Claims

Bank of America has reportedly frozen the account of gun manufacturer American Spirit Arms, according to its owner, Joe Sirochman.

In a Facebook post dated December 29, Sirochman wrote the following:

“My name is Joe Sirochman owner of American Spirit Arms…our Web site orders have jumped 500 percent causing our Web site e-commerce processing larger deposits to Bank of America. So they decided to hold the deposits for further review.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Biden: NRA to Meet on Guns

Vice President Biden will meet this week with the National Rifle Association and a variety of other groups as his task force on guns intensifies its efforts.

Biden will meet Wednesday with gun-safety organizations and shooting victims groups and on Thursday will meet with gun ownership organizations and sportsmen who use guns recreationally, according to the White House.

NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said the organization accepted an invitation received from the White House late Friday.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Biden Says Obama to Use “Executive Action” To Restrict Second Amendment

On Wednesday during a press conference with attorney general Eric Holder, vice president Joe Biden said president Obama is considering taking “executive action” to restrict the Second Amendment rights of the American people.

“The president is going to act,” said Biden. “There are executives orders, there’s executive action that can be taken. We haven’t decided what that is yet. But we’re compiling it all with the help of the attorney general and the rest of the cabinet members as well as legislative action that we believe is required.”

“As the president said, if your actions result in only saving one life, they’re worth taking. But I’m convinced we can affect the well-being of millions of Americans and take thousands of people out of harm’s way if we act responsibly.”

In other words, according to the Obama administration and the Justice Department, if trashing the Constitution saves one life, it is worth it.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

College Professor Says ‘Crisis Actors’ May Have Played Part if Sandy Hook Was Indeed a Hoax (Video)

Florida Atlantic University (FAU) Communication professor James Tracy postulated that “crisis actors” may have acted out roles simulating distraught parents, murdered teachers, and children portrayed to be dead in the Sandy Hook shooting, according to the Sun Sentinel. photoJames Tracy PhD, University of Iowa

“As documents relating to the Sandy Hook shooting continue to be assessed and interpreted by independent researchers, there is a growing awareness that the media coverage of the massacre of 26 children and adults was intended primarily for public consumption to further larger political ends,” Tracy wrote on his blog site memoryholeblog.com where he lists a timeline of the events of the Sandy Hook tragedy as they played out in real time.

If you’ve never heard of “crisis actors” you’re not alone, but a quick visit to CrisisActors.org should fill you in.

Google lists a summary of the site as follows: “Helping schools and first responders create realistic drills, full-scale exercises, high-fidelity simulations, and interactive 3D films.” Tracy’s blog further notes, “The entourage’s personnel are ‘available nationwide for active shooter drills and mall shooting full-scale exercises.’“

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Conspiracy of Brothers

by Daniel Greenfield

[…]

Shawki listed six men, Arif Alikhan, the assistant secretary of Homeland Security for policy development; and Mohammed Elibiary, a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council. He also listed Rashad Hussain, the U.S. special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, as well as Salam al-Marayati, co-founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, Imam Mohamed Magid, president of the Islamic Society of North America and Eboo Patel, a member of President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships. Not to mention Huma Abedin…

Reader comment by Ar’nun on 8 January 2013.]

I think this is the one case in which many of us are not looking forward to the day when we can look at Liberals and say “I told you so!” By then it will be too late.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Ed Schultz: The Constitution is ‘Archaic’ Regarding Second Amendment [Video]

On his Tuesday show, MSNBC’s Ed Schultz aggressively argued it’s time to curb the right to bear arms, in order to prevent gun violence.

“The bottom line here, folks, is that we are at a crossroads in this country in this conversation,” Schultz said. “If we don’t do it now, when are we going to do it? When do the people’s opinion matter to the lawmakers in Congress? How many more children do we have to see die? And how many more bogus promotional sound bites do we have to have from the National Rifle Association that don’t tell the truth about gun violence in this country? It’s not just laws, it is a societal problem. But we have to take the step forward and do something right.”

Schultz admitted he is sportsman and has used firearms himself. But he argued that the Constitution is “archaic” with regards to firearms.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Founders Enshrined 2nd Amendment to Restrain Government!

Quote after quote makes clear — the founding fathers of the United States intended Americans to have weapons to defend against history’s greatest killer, Governments. Power inherently corrupts, and those founders wisely enshrined (but never GRANTED) the 2nd Amendment and other individual rights to discourage abuse by government and create a balance of power.

1.   “One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic.” — Joseph Stalin
2.   “If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.” — Anonymous American adage
3.   “The Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms.” — Samuel Adams
4.   “Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man gainst his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American…” — Tench Coxe 1788
5.   “The Constitution preserves “the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation…(where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.” — James Madison, The Federalist, No. 46
6.   “Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas.” — Joseph Stalin
7.   “In earlier times, it was easier to control one million people than to physically kill one million people; today, it is infinitely easier to kill one million people than to control one million people.” — Zbigniew Brzezinski
    […]
15.   “When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” — Thomas Jefferson
16.   “Those who beat their swords into plowshares usually end up plowing for those who didn’t.” — Ben Franklin
17.   “If the opposition disarms, well and good. If it refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves.” — Joseph Stalin

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Gossip Web Site Posts Lists of ‘All’ New York City Gun Owners

Here’s a classic example of the liberal mindset: find someone (or a group of people) who you disagree with, and rather than debate them, use anger and intimidation against them. That’s exactly what one author on a left-wing web site is doing when he posted the names of all registered gun owners in New York City.

Here’s what the author, John Cook, wrote:

Below is a 446-page list of every licensed gun owner in New York City. I obtained it from the NYPD two-and-a-half years ago via a Freedom of Information Law request. Because the NYPD is more interested in raping and/or eating ladies and spying on Muslims than it is in honoring public records law, the list contains only the names, and not the addresses, of the licensees.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Gun Control Dictator Style

“All political power comes from the barrel of a gun. The communist party must command all the guns, that way, no guns can ever be used to command the party.” — Mao Tze Tung, Nov 6, 1938

How ironic that those who are calling for gun control are those who want the guns so they can have the control.

It is of interest to the American people to take note of those who they entrust to serve them. We are a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, yet time and time again in this country we have leaders in government who put on the guise of “patriot” and then turn out to be the criminal in garb…

Looking back, who has committed murder in the largest degree? Dictators Adolf Hilter, Mao Tze Tung, Josef Stalin, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, etc.

Time and time again it has been a corrupt government who is responsible for the mass murder of their own people under the deceptive guise of “gun control,” all of which the said dictators implemented.

Keep in mind these people promised their citizens protection and freedom upon the forfeiture of their guns.

How many times, I ask, does history need to repeat itself?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Harvard Doctors Call for Massive Federal Tax ‘On All Firearms and Ammunition’

A trio of public health doctors from Harvard University argued Monday that the federal government should institute “a new, substantial national tax on all firearms and ammunition” to pay for programs that “reduce gun violence.”

They wrote that the practice of periodic government safety inspections of automobiles should be expanded to include firearms, “including documentation of home storage and safety measures.” And they compared the enforcement of speed limits on roadways to now-common proposals to restrict the sale and possession of high-capacity magazines that can hold dozens of rounds of ammunition.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Head of Mosque in Miami Under Trial for Terrorism Charges

MIAMI: U.S. prosecutors are laying out their case in court against two South Florida imams accused of funneling more than $50,000 to support the Pakistani Taliban, playing wiretapped phone calls and showing bank records to bolster their accusations against the Pakistan-born men.

Hafiz Khan, the head of one of Miami’s oldest mosques, and his son, Izhar Khan, were arrested in May 2011 on charges they conspired to provide money and support for the Pakistani Taliban, which the United States considers a terrorist organization. The Khans, both U.S. citizens, were named in a four-count indictment and have pleaded not guilty. If convicted the two face a maximum prison sentence of 15 years for each count…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

If You Thought Sandy Hook Was Bad, The British Massacres of Disarmed Colonists Were Far Worse

The primary reason why the American colonists rebelled in the first place was a growing sense of isolation from the British crown thousands of miles away. Academics, business owners and colonial politicians tried in vain to have their voice heard in the English parliament, to be granted some form of representation so they could make their argument for or against rules, regulations and taxes proposed by the crown. When they were repeatedly denied such representation, especially regarding tea and other taxes many colonists and businessmen viewed as highly counterproductive and unpopular, talk of rebellion began.

The first incident that foreshadowed the brutality that was to come occurred on March 5, 1770, in Massachusetts. Labeled the “Incident on King Street,” American patriots called it the Boston Massacre.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Iowa Lawmaker Calls for Confiscation of Guns

‘We have to change, and we have to get stricter and tougher with what we do’

(DAILY CALLER) In an interview with the Daily Times Herald in Caroll, Iowa, state Rep. Dan Muhlbauer said governments should start confiscating semi-automatic rifles and other firearms.

Muhlbauer, a Democrat from the western Iowa town of Manilla, is a cattleman and farmer. The newspaper reported that he owns a .410 shotgun, a .22 rifle and a .22 pistol.

“We cannot have big guns out here as far as the big guns that are out here, the semi-automatics and all of them,” Muhlbauer told the newspaper during a December 19 audiotaped interview. “We can’t have those running around out here. Those are not hunting weapons.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Jews and the Hagel Nomination: Chelm on the Potomac

Now in his second term in office, President Obama appears to have returned to his Chicago days consorting with the likes of Ali Abunimah and Bill Ayres at the Woods Foundation giving grants to the Arab American Action Network prior to his run for the US Senate. President Obama knows he has liberal Jews in his back pocket and can appoint anti-Israel (some like Power line blog questioned might also be anti-Semitic) Chuck Hagel and arch Wahhabist fellow traveler and ex-CIA”shadow warrior’, John Brennan. What’s the expression: “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” Or its corollary: “a fool and his money are soon parted”. Especially wealthy liberal Jews who look increasing like the Wise Men of Chelm in the humorous stories by yiddishists, among them Y. L. Peretz, Leyb Kvitko, and Isaac Bashevis Singer. Back in September 2009, I made this comment to an article on the Israel National News website: “Where else but in “Chelm on the Potomac “ would we find foolish shatdlanim Jews out to destroy Israel’s security and future.”

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]

Mosque Applicant Urged to Double Parking Spaces

Four-hour hearing on application to build mosque in Liberty Corner begins with disagreement over necessary parking.

A four-hour continued hearing on a proposal for a 4,252-square-foot mosque in Liberty Corner Village began Tuesday with the applicant’s attorney saying he had learned the board’s professionals now are asking that 110 parking spaces be provided for the house of worship if it is built, rather than the 50 spaces in the application. The board’s attorney, Jonathan Drill, said that he and David Banisch, planner for the township had concluded that number was appropriate as guided by 2010 International Traffic Engineers standards for mosques, as compared with churches and synagogues…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Outrage: Bank of America Freezes Funds of Licensed Online Gun Dealer: “We Believe You Should Not be Selling Guns on the Internet”

Legal gun ownership in America is under attack on all sides. From pending bans that would restrict the sale, transfer and possession [2] of certain weapons, to outright calls for repeal of the Second Amendment [3], we are entering an unprecedented era in American history.

So much so, that not only is the government now coming after your right to bear arms, but private sector businesses are following suit.

One of the country’s largest financial institutions, the ironically named Bank of America, has now taken it upon themselves to decide what is or is not a lawful business practice.

The following alert was posted on the Facebook [4] page of licensed firearms dealer and manufacturer American Spirit Arms [5].

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Piers Morgan & Guests: Turn in Your Guns or We Will Kill You (Video)

After labeling Alex Jones “scary” for his pro-second amendment rant on CNN, Piers Morgan and his guests proceeded the following night to joke about murdering Jones in cold blood.

Morgan, who has built his gun control argument on the justification of reducing violence in America, called Jones’ aggressive on-air defense of the right to bear arms “undignified” and “unedifying,” yet just 24 hours later he was laughing and joking about gunning down Jones with a semi-automatic weapon.

Watch the clip above and decide for yourself how “undignified” and “unedifying” the conduct of Morgan and his guests was as they mockingly threatened to shoot Jones for his political opinion on gun control.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Piers Morgan Snickers About Shooting Alex Jones

(INFOWARS.COM) CNN and the gun grabbing media are now calling for Alex Jones to be shot the day after his heated appearance with Piers Morgan.

In a segment on Piers Morgan’s CNN program, sports columnist for the Daily Beast, Buzz Bissinger, shockingly states:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Second Amendment: My Line in the Sand is Drawn Here!

If Barack Obama and his gaggle of gun grabbers have their way, the American citizenry will have all of their firearms taken away. If their current attempt to outlaw semi-automatic rifles is successful, does anyone think it will stop there? Don’t be naïve! The goal of people like Barack Obama, Dianne Feinstein, Charles Schumer, et al., has always been total gun confiscation. In fact, Senator Feinstein is actually on record as saying so…

Writing for the National Association for Gun Rights, Dudley Brown said, “After reading Senator Dianne Feinstein’s new so-called ‘Assault Weapons’ Ban, I can only describe it as the effective END of the Second Amendment in America.

“The definition of an ‘Assault Weapon’ in this bill is so broad you can drive a truck through it! They’re targeting EVERYTHING — rifles, shotguns and even handguns.

“You see, the gun-grabbers are going for broke.

“Even owners of supposedly ‘grandfathered’ firearms will be treated like common criminals.

“If passed, Feinstein’s so-called ‘Assault Weapons’ Ban would:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Statistics Prove: More Guns, Less Crime

Despite the onslaught of media propaganda in support of the Obama administration’s anti-second amendment agenda in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook school shooting, the statistics clearly illustrate that gun control does not reduce violent crime and in fact has the opposite effect.

As the graph above highlights, according to the latest figures obtained by the FBI, violent crime offenses in the United States have been falling since 2007. The five year trend clearly shows that, despite there being an ongoing national debate about gun violence in America, violent crime itself is actually becoming less of a problem.

The graph below from the Department of Justice also highlights the fact that over the last 40 years, the amount of guns in America per 1000 people has increased, whereas serious violent crimes have decreased.

In addition, despite the media drumbeat that murders involving guns represent the number one safety threat to American citizens, the reality is completely the opposite.

Amongst the “top ten killers” in the United States, homicide by firearms is at the bottom of the list, according to figures from the CDC and the FBI. Almost 20 times more people die in the United States from medical errors than they do from firearm homicides, but there is no outcry to slap draconian regulations on the medical industry.

In addition, the number of murders committed with hammers and clubs in the United States routinely outpaces the number of homicides committed using a rifle. Should US lawmakers introduce urgent legislation to outlaw hammers and baseball bats?

Look at Chicago, which in 1982 passed a ban on all handguns except for those registered with the city before the ban was enacted.

Since the handgun ban took effect, the number of murders in Chicago committed using handguns has been 40% higher than before the ban, and has spiked even higher in recent years, proving that the gun ban actually served to cause an increase in violent crime.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Twenty-Second Amendment to be Scrapped?

A representative called Hose Se Serrano from New York has deposited a deposition called HJ-RED-15

Proposing to remove/amend/repeal the 22nd amendment removing the law that any President can serve ONLY two terms off 4 years, this is going through the senate, and if voted to change would allow President Obama to stand for re-election for a 3rd term.

With this and all the gun laws perhaps about to change, this is a worry for the people of the USA or should be. With the possibility of no guns and a president who can’t be removed, we need to really ask, what is the agenda of the USA?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

US Congress ‘Less Popular Than Cockroaches’

American survey finds Congress has lower ratings than cockroaches, traffic jams, and Genghis Khan.

The US Congress, fresh off its fiscal cliff budget crisis, was in for new teasing Wednesday as a poll revealed it is now less popular than cockroaches and lice, the AFP news agency reports.

The Public Policy Polling survey of 830 Americans from January 3-6 revealed that Congress had hit new lows in the eyes of the same US voters who sent representatives to work there.

The legislative body proved less popular than traffic jams, Donald Trump, France, lice, Genghis Khan, cockroaches and used car dealers, the poll found.

Just nine percent of those surveyed had a favorable opinion of Congress.

“We all know Congress is unpopular,” said Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling.

“But the fact that voters like it less than cockroaches… really shows how far its esteem has fallen with the American public over the last few weeks.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Video: Alex Jones Blasts Out With Justified Outrage at Piers Morgan and Other Traitors to Human Freedom

Outspoken pro-liberty radio host Alex Jones angrily blasted CNN talking head Piers Morgan on national television yesterday evening, expressing the total outrage that millions of Americans share over issues like unconstitutional gun control. Morgan, a British subject, has called for Americans to be completely disarmed as if they were colonial slaves to the British Empire. Morgan is just one of many foreigners who are actively attempting to subvert Americas freedoms and destroy the Bill of Rights. That’s why over 100,000 Americans have so far signed a White House petition to deport Morgan.

Click here to watch the full interview on TV.naturalnews.com [url]

CNN producers invited Alex Jones to appear as a guest on Piers Morgan’s show, no doubt to help increase the lagging ratings of Morgan’s show which only has a fraction of the viewers of the Alex Jones Show. There, Alex began by schooling Morgan on the purpose of the Second Amendment:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Voters Shut Out Baseball Hall of Fame Candidates

In perhaps the most resounding referendum on the legacy of steroids in baseball, voters for the Hall of Fame rejected the candidacy of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens in voting announced Wednesday. For the first time since 1996, and the eighth time over all, no players received the necessary 75 percent of the votes from baseball writers.

[Return to headlines]

Canada

Animal Killer Kayla Bourque Released to Live in Vancouver

[WARNING: Disturbing content.]

A former Simon Fraser University student who was convicted of torturing and killing animals and admitted to wanting to kill homeless people has been released from jail and will live in Vancouver.

Kayla Bourque, 23, was convicted in November of causing unnecessary pain, suffering or injury to animals, wilfully and without lawful excuse killing animals, and possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose. Child pornography charges she was facing were stayed.

She was sentenced to one month in jail on each of the charges, but had already spent six months in custody by the time she was sentenced. The judge then ordered her to serve an addition two months in custody, in part so probation officials could prepare for her highly supervised release.

The former SFU criminology student has admitted to taking delight in killing animals and fantasizing about shooting homeless people. Several psychologists who interviewed Bourque found she showed no remorse or insight into her crimes.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU

Anti Domestic Violence Campaign for Scottish Muslims

London: A new campaign to combat domestic violence and encourage women in the Muslim community to speak up against it is being initiated in Scotland by a Muslim women’s group.

‘Change This’ — as it is being called — will urge Muslim men and women to report any such violence they may have witnessed or experienced following its launch in Glasgow and Edinburgh next month…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Courage of a Rape Victim British Tourist Returns to Spain to See ‘Sex Attack’ Waiter Who Left Her to Die Face Justice

A British model yesterday gave evidence against the man accused of stabbing, raping and leaving her to die on a holiday island.

Cheryl Maddison, 25, was forced to relive the ordeal that took place just six days after she moved to Majorca to start a new life.

Giving evidence from behind a screen, she said the attack ended only when she played dead, lying in her own blood.

Her testimony lasted 70 minutes and she left the court without coming face to face with the accused, Mohamed Fadel el Anssari.

The 31-year-old waiter from Morocco is said to have followed her up to her rented flat and sexually assaulted her on the balcony.

He then allegedly stripped her naked and forced her to shower before ordering her into the bedroom. ‘That’s where he climbed on top of me and raped me,’ Miss Maddison told the provincial court in Majorca’s capital Palma. ‘I bit him and scratched him but then I passed out, I lost consciousness.

‘When I woke up I was by myself in the bedroom. There was blood coming out of my chest. That’s when he entered the room again. He put a knife into my neck. The knife went right into my neck.

‘I thought he wanted me to die. My breathing was making gargling sounds because he had stabbed me in the lung. So I held my breath so he thought I wasn’t breathing any more.’

She was unconscious by the time paramedics arrived to take her to hospital.

She underwent emergency surgery for wounds to her neck, throat, chest and back

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

EU Demands Access to Details of All UK Drivers: ‘Orwellian’ Move to Hand Out Personal Information to Foreign Police Forces

Brussels is demanding that 26 police forces across the EU should have access to the personal details of every motorist in Britain.

The Government is being threatened with fines totalling millions of pounds unless it obeys the ‘Orwellian’ edict.

Foreign police also want open access to the UK’s national DNA database and fingerprint records so they can check them against crime scenes and camera footage.

MPs and civil liberties groups fear identity mistakes will lead to Britons being accused of crimes they have not committed.

But there is particular alarm at the idea of overseas police having access to information about every registered driver in the UK…

European rules allow police to conduct tests of a lower quality than are permitted in Britain.

Academics in the Netherlands, which has been running the scheme for four years, found that two-thirds of ‘matches’ at the lowest level wrongly identified an innocent person as a genetic match.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

French Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac Under Investigation for ‘Fraud and Money Laundering’

A French Socialist minister involved in the battle against tax evasion was today placed under investigation for fraud and money laundering.

The official inquiry into budget minister Jerome Cahuzac, 60, will be viewed as a disaster by President Francois Hollande, who is currently imposing one of the most left-wing agendas in recent European history.

Mr Cahuzac is accused of opening a secret UBS bank account in Switzerland in a bid to avoid paying government charges.

He is said to have shut the Geneva account in 2010 before transferring the funds to Singapore — a move which went undetected until Paris investigative news site Mediapart revealed it last month.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Greece: Lagarde List Sparks Inter-Party Feuding

To Ethnos, 3 January 2013

“War over the list” headlines To Ethnos. Former finance minister, Giorgos Papakonstantinou, who is accused of excising the names of his close family from the “Lagarde List” of Swiss bank account holders, will shortly face a parliamentary inquiry. However, the investigation will not be enough to satisfy the members of the radical left coalition Syriza, which is publicly accusing another former finance minister and the current leader of the Pasok socialist party, Evangelos Venizelos, of attempting to hide the list.

For Ta Nea, the “polarisation of the parties” could blow apart a number of political movements: in particular Pasok, which has been extensively implicated in the scandal, and whose approval rating plunged from 49 per cent to 7 per cent between the 2009 and 2012 elections. “The party which supports the government is waiting for backing from the prime minister,” notes the daily.

However, the rules of “political procedures will require investigation of political figures” implicated by the list. To Vima remarks —

The affair has highlighted the mores of those in power and revealed the attitudes that prevail in the management of scandals. For many observers, the affair has drawn attention to the basic political problem of this country, which is the arbitrary status of politicians and the protection of the powerful. Having said that, it is extremely important that criminal or civil cases be conducted without paralysing the government or diverting it from its principal mission, which is the stabilisation of the economy and the resumption of development. The government and all of the political parties must protect the climate of economic stabilisation. However, this does not mean they should not be extensively questioned on all aspects of the political scandal that has been prompted by the Lagarde List.

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

Greece: Four Votes to Shed Light on Lagarde List

Papandreou and Papademos may be investigated

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JANUARY 9 — The Greek parliament is set to vote on the so-called ‘Lagarde list’ — a list of Greek citizens with bank accounts in Switzerland suspected of having evaded taxes, early next week. Following a decision by Greece’s pro nazi Golden Dawn party to support Anexartiti Ellines in requesting a probe into the activities of former Prime Ministers Giorgos Papandreou and Lucas Papademos, four secret ballots are scheduled. One will decide on whether to investigate former Finance minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou, and is backed by three of the government coalition parties. Another shines the spotlight on his successor in Lucas Papademos’ government, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos and is backed by Greece’s main opposition party Syriza. And two more will focus on the former Prime Ministers.

“As Prime Ministers Giorgos Papandreou and Lucas Papademos were aware of everything related to the management of the ‘Lagarde list’ on the part of the two finance ministers. They did nothing to clean it up or shed light on the archive containing 2062 personal names”, Anexartiti Ellines said in his request for an investigation.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

IMU House Tax Must be More Progressive to be Fair, EU Says

Old ICI property levy increased poverty slightly

(ANSA) — Brussels, January 8 — The property tax known as IMU introduced by the technocrat government of outgoing premier Mario Monti to help mitigate Italy’s debt crisis needs to be made more progressive if it is to enact a fairer redistribution of wealth, according to the Employment and Social Developments in Europe 2012 report.

The old ICI property levy, abolished on first homes by the former government of Silvio Berlusconi, did not affect inequality and slightly increased poverty, the report added.

Berlusconi has vowed to scrap the highly unpopular IMU if he wins next month’s general election.

Other parties, including the poll-leading centre-left Democratic Party and a centrist bloc led by Monti, have promised to ease it.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Soccer: Berlusconi Vows Milan to Stand Up to Racism

Serie A giants walked off after abuse in friendly

(ANSA) — Milan, January 4 — Owner Silvio Berlusconi said Friday that AC Milan would abandon any matches, including Champions League games, tainted by racist abuse like that which caused his players to walk off a friendly against fourth-tier Italian side Pro Patria on Thursday. Milan players left the field after home fans directed racist jeers at black players Kevin Prince Boateng, ‘Baye Niang, Urby Emanuelson and Sulley Muntari during Thursday’s match at Busto Arsizio, north of Milan.

“I guarantee that Milan will leave the field in all matches in which episodes like this take place, including international ones,” said former Italian premier Berlusconi. The 76-year-old media magnate added that he had called to congratulate Boateng, who led the walk-off, “for his reaction to a deplorable episode of racism”.

A 20-year-old man was cited to prosecutors on Friday for allegedly taking part in the racist chants.

The man, who is unemployed and has no criminal record, is being probed for allegedly breaking a special Italian law against inciting racial hatred.

He is said to have admitted to being part of a group of fans who directed abuse at the players. Judicial sources said he is the only member of the group of Pro Patria fans involved to have been put under investigation so far. Boateng said he was grateful for the solidarity he received.

The Ghanaian midfielder picked up the ball and kicked it towards the supporters who were jeering and then took off his shirt and walked off the pitch.

Milan captain Massimo Ambrosini then led the rest of the team off and the game was abandoned. The club, the Italian Soccer Federation and the Italian professional footballers’ association all backed the players for standing up to racism, in addition to condemning the Pro Patria fans’ behaviour. Boateng also received solidarity via Twitter from fans and former and current soccer stars such as Marco Materazzi, Patrick Vieira and Shaun Wright-Phillips.

“Thank u all for the support and understanding…means a lot!!!” Boateng said on his Twitter account on Friday. Italian football has been battling racism in the stands for a number of years after several shameful high-profile incidents.

FIGC prosecutors are looking into the Pro Patria case.

Busto Arsizio Mayor Gigi Farioli on Friday apologised to Boateng and said he was misquoted after complaining about the midfielder hitting the ball into the stands rather than criticising the fans’ racism.

He added that Boateng would be a “sort of honorary citizen of Busto Arsizio” from now on, although he still insisted the player should not have kicked the ball into the crowd.

Pro Patria Chairman Pietro Vavassori said black people would be invited to attend the team’s next home game in the VIP section, in a gesture to show the club is not racist.

The head of the Italian Referees’ Association (AIA), meanwhile, defended match officials after they came under fire for not stopping the match earlier. AIA chief Marcello Nicchi said referees cannot abandon a game under current regulations as this power lies with interior ministry officials.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Bersani Fires Back at Monti for Wanting to ‘Shut Up’ PD

‘We will silence no one’ says premier candidate

(ANSA) — Rome, January 3 — Premier candidate Pier Luigi Bersani, the leader of the center-left Democratic Party (PD), rebuffed outgoing Premier Mario Monti on Thursday for telling him to silence the alleged anti-reform elements within his party’s ranks. “I have respect (for Monti), but I ask for respect for the entire PD. We are a liberal party that will never shut anyone up,” said Bersani.

Earlier Thursday, Monti called on Bersani to “be brave and silence the conservative part of his party a little,” referring to opposition to labor-market reform from Italy’s biggest trade union confederation, the left-wing CGIL, which has ties to the PD, and from Stefano Fassina, the PD spokesman on economic affairs.

Bersani said that courage “did not mean shutting people up, but enabling them to participate”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Soccer: Games Shouldn’t be Stopped for ‘Few’ Racist Jeers

Interior minister says major part of crowd must be involved

(ANSA) — Rome, January 7 — Italian Interior Minister Annamaria Cancellieri said Monday that soccer matches should not be stopped if only a handful of fans are involved in racist chants.

The question of when football games should be stopped is a hot issue after AC Milan walked off in a friendly at fourth-tier side Pro Patria last week when their black players were targeted by racist jeers from home supporters.

Some Lazio fans could be heard making monkey chants at Cagliari’s Victor Ibarbo during a home win on Saturday but the abuse was drowned out by the rest of the Lazio faithful and the game proceeded.

“If a limited number of people are doing the racist chants, it’s necessary to take action against them, without suspending the match,” Cancellieri said. “The suspension of a match must be decided with great strictness when there are the conditions to do so, in part to avoid this being used to deliberately have a win awarded to the offended team.

“If, on the other hand, a significant part of the crowd takes part in the chants, then the (interior ministry’s) public-order official should suspend the match”.

Nevertheless, she praised Milan’s Kevin Prince Boateng for leading last week’s walk-off.

The Ghanaian midfielder picked up the ball and kicked it towards the supporters who were jeering and then took off his shirt and walked off the pitch.

“This incident serves to draw attention to a phenomenon that unfortunately is widespread and should be considered as such and prompt reflections and more incisive action,” Cancellieri said. “It was a good gesture (to walk off) and it has all of my appreciation.

“But it’s necessary to have a very serious strategy in place because we cannot leave the destiny of a match in the hands of five or six people who maybe do the racist chants on purpose”. Sepp Blatter, the head of international soccer’s governing body FIFA, said at the weekend that Milan were wrong to walk from the Pro Patria match.

“The only solution is to be very harsh with the sanctions — and the sanctions must be a deduction of points or something similar,” Blatter said.

AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi disagrees.

“I’m of the opposite opinion,” the ex-premier said on Monday when asked about Blatter’s comments.

“I gave my compliments to the players for their courage”.

Last week Berlusconi said Milan would also walk out of official games if there is racist chanting, including matches in the European Champions League.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Northern League Rules Out Berlusconi Being Premier

Maroni backs Tremonti to be premier after deal with PdL

(ANSA) — Milan, January 7 — Northern League leader Roberto Maroni on Monday ruled out the possibility that Silvio Berlusconi will be premier if the centre right wins next month’s general elections after signing a deal to revive his party’s alliance with the ex-premier’s People of Freedom (PdL) party. Maroni said it was “explicitly stated” that Berlusconi would not be PM.

Earlier on Monday Berlusconi said he may be economy minister, not prime minister, if his centre-right bloc wins.

The 76-year-old media magnate said the issue of who will be premier in the case of a centre-right victory would be addressed after the elections.

He added that PdL Secretary Angelino Alfano was a possibility.

However, Maroni, who has won the PdL’s backing for his bid to become governor of Lombardy thanks to the deal, said he was in favour of former economy minister Giulio Tremonti being at the helm of government. Tremonti recently left the PdL to form his own party that has strong ties with the League. “Berlusconi is the head of the coalition and no premier candidate is named (in the agreement), but it says explicitly that it will not be Berlusconi,” said Maroni. “Given that Berlusconi has pointed to Alfano, I’ll allow myself to put forward Tremonti as a candidate. “We are very satisfied with the agreement as we can say that we’ll probably win in Lombardy with the deal”. He added that the centre right would work to create a “macro-region” in northern Italy after the elections.

The League has long battled for greater autonomy for the wealthier richer regions of northern Italy. It also takes hard-line stances against immigration and several senior figures have been criticised for making allegedly xenophobic statements in the past.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Berlusconi Blames ‘Feminist’ Judges for Massive Alimony

Ex-premier ordered to pay 36 million euros a year

(ANSA) — Rome, January 9 — Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi has blasted the three women judges who ordered him to pay his ex-wife Veronica Lario 36 million euros a year in alimony as feminists and communists.

In 2009 Lario filed for divorce from the 76-year-old media magnate, who has been at the centre of a series of sex scandals and is on trial in Milan for allegedly paying for sex with an underage prostitute.

“The figure was decided on by three feminist and communist judges,” Berlusconi told La7 television. “It’s something that is unreal — 36 million euros with back payments of 76 million euros. These are the Milan judges who have been persecuting me since 1994”. Three-time premier Berlusconi, who is leading a centre-right coalition at next month’s elections, has repeatedly said a long series of court cases presented against him were the result of a campaign by politically motivated magistrates. He is appealing against four-year prison sentence he received in October in relation to tax fraud in the trading of film rights for TV broadcasts by his Mediaset media empire. Berlusconi added that he was hopeful of negotiating the alimony, saying his relations with Lario were “very civil”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Majorca: British Woman Raped and Stabbed in Magaluf Faces Attacker in Court

A young British woman who was raped and left for dead in the party resort of Magaluf on the island of Majorca four years ago faced her attacker in court Tuesday.

Cheryl Maddison, 25, of Houghton le Spring, Co Durham told the court in Palma how she was raped and then stabbed in the chest with a kitchen knife after being followed home from her bar job on the island. Waiving her right to anonymity, Miss Maddison described how the prolonged attack, during which she suffered multiple stab wounds and a collapsed lung, only came to an end after she pretended to be dead. The prosecution is calling for 23 years in prison for the accused, Mohammad Fadel El Anssari, a 31-year-old Moroccan who was working as a waiter at the time of the attack in May 2008…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Rome Prosecutors’ Probe Led to Credit-Card Freeze at Vatican

Money-laundering investigation sparked stoppage

(ANSA) — Rome, January 7 — An investigation by Rome prosecutors into an alleged money-laundering case led to the freeze on January 1 of credit-card transactions at the Vatican, sources said Monday.

The freeze, which has made international headlines and worried tourists, has meant that visitors to the Vatican’s museums and shops must now pay cash.

The Bank of Italy suspended bank-card payments in the Vatican city state over its failure to fully implement international anti-money laundering standards.

In late December, the central bank denied Deutsche Bank Italy, the Vatican’s former provider of electronic payment services, a permit because of the Vatican’s shortcomings in financial controls and oversight.

Now, it appears the tipping point that triggered this action was a Roma prosecutor’s investigation of possible money-laundering in 2010 at the Vatican’s bank, also known as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR).

The Holy See has been trying without success to join the ‘white list’ of states that meet international standards on combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

Last July, the Council of Europe’s Moneyval department said in a report that the Holy See had made progress on financial transparency, but added that more reforms were needed.

Soon after, the Holy See appointed a Swiss expert, Rene’ Bruelhart, to work on Anti-Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) activities and strengthen the Holy See’s framework to fight financial crimes.

In the past there have been allegations that the IOR was used to launder money, most notably by ‘God’s Banker’ Roberto Calvi, whose body was found hanging under Blackfriar’s Bridge in London in 1982, a suspected victim of the Mafia.

IOR was also named in kickbacks probes stemming from the 1990 collapse of public-private chemicals colossus Enimont, part of the Clean Hands investigations that swept away Italy’s old political establishment.

More recently, there has been a series of Italian TV reports and a best-selling book claiming to show how individuals have used IOR to squirrel away money, dodging Italian regulations.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Spaniard Wins British Foundation Best Mayor for 2012

MADRID, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) — Inaki Azkuna, the Mayor of the Basque city of Bilbao, was named as the best Mayor in the World by the British foundation, City Mayors, late on Monday night. The prize, which was announced shortly before midnight, recognizes those Mayors, “who have made lasting contributions to their communities and who have shown a compromise to the wellbeing of their citizens, both nationally and internationally…

[JP note: For 2013, I nominate Lutfur Rahman for his efforts on behalf of the Ummah.]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

The Incredible Disappearing Germans — A Long-Term Economic Forecast for the 21st Century

If you look at the Fathoms bar to the right of this article, you’ll see a list of links. This week, two of them come via Faisal Islam and concern the strength of the German economy. One chart shows the remarkable stability of German house prices, while the other illustrates Germany’s enviable record on unemployment over the last few years. It would seem that Germany has not only weathered the global economic crisis, but has emerged in a more powerful position than before. But are we really seeing a new era of German ascendancy, in which other countries defer to and seek to emulate the German way of doing things?

Not according to John Vinocur, who, in an important article for the New York Times, invites us to look beyond current events:

“…a survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development which projects German growth falling to an average of 1.1 percent over the period from 2011 to 2060 [pdf]. That’s at the bottom of a sample pile of the world’s critical industrial and emerging economies, about half the rate of the United States’ or Britain’s expansion, behind France, Italy and even Greece, and left in the dust by India, China, Indonesia and Mexico.”

Given the seeming inability of our political culture to look ahead five years, let alone fifty, do these long-term trends actually matter?

[…]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Bradford Moor Driver Mohammed Shahin Attacked Baildon Woman

A Bradford minicab driver has been jailed for more than seven years for raping a passenger who fell asleep as he drove her home to Baildon.

Mohammed Shahin, 28, subjected his 20-year-old victim to what police described as a “sickening attack” after picking her up in Leeds where she had been on a night out.

It was later found that Shahin had switched off the GPS tracking system that monitored his vehicle’s movements from the moment the woman got in, suggesting he had a sinister motive from the outset.

The 28-year-old, of Fitzroy Road, Bradford Moor, pleaded guilty to rape and was jailed at Nottingham Crown Court to seven and a half years in prison.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

UK: Bride Kirsty Lane Who Stole £170,000 From Her Boss to Pay for Dream Wedding is Forced to Repay Just One Tenth of the Money

A blushing bride who left her employers’ business with ‘life-threatening injuries’ has been ordered to pay back less than a tenth of the money she stole to pay for her wedding.

Kirsty Lane, 30, put 25 jobs at risk when she used her position to siphon off almost £200,000 from the business to pay for the sumptuous ceremony at The Great Hall at Mains.

Now, Peter Sutton, company director of Pure AV in Walton Summit, near Preston, said the order to repay just £17, 831 was ‘extremely disappointing’, adding: ‘I hope she has learnt her lesson.’

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Cyclist Sexually Assaults Dog Walker, 61, In Chadderton Hall Park

Police are hunting a cyclist who sexually assaulted a 61-year-old dog walker in a park.

The victim was walking her dog in Chadderton Hall Park when she was approached by a teenager who asked her to shine a torch on his cycle so he could ‘fix the chain’.

She pointed the beam at the ‘rusty’ chain and cog and moments later he grabbed the woman’s arm and carried out a sex assault.

The woman screamed and her attacker ran off.

Now police have released an ‘efit’ image of the suspect in a bid to catch him following the incident at 5.30pm on December 27.

The attacker is Asian, aged between 15 and 17, about 5ft 5i, slim with very short dark hair with a long fringe.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

UK: Drug Addict Lesbian Couple Who Thought Pensioner Had Secret Fortune ‘Left Him to Die After Torturing Him for His Pin Number

[WARNING: Disturbing content.]

A drug addict lesbian couple left a retired bus conductor to slowly die after torturing him for his PIN number, a court heard.

Kelly Louise Barnes, 32, and Jodie Barnes, formerly Ramsbottom, 31, are accused of targeting Barry Reeve, 67, at his home in Norwich, believing he had a secret stash of money.

They beat him and cut him with a knife before leaving him dying and prosecutors allege they turned the volume on Mr Reeve’s television up in an attempt to mask his screams.

Mr Reeve, known as Titch because of his small stature, is thought to have remained alive until at least the following morning.

The attackers returned to his terraced house in the city’s Corton Road later that evening and striped it of anything of value, including food from the freezer.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Economic Reality and the Burden of Welfare

Only now, with welfare costing a crippling £208billion a year — almost £1 in every £3 raised in tax — have ministers been driven by economic reality to acknowledge we can’t go on like this.

True, the decision to cap increases in working-age benefits at one per cent for three years is a blunt instrument, which will affect many who have jobs (though this year’s income tax cuts for the low-paid will remove much of the sting).

But after years in which benefits for the unemployed have risen almost twice as fast as wages, it represents a long-overdue rebalancing of the economy in favour of work and self-reliance.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Grappling With Muslim Sex Gangs in Britain

by Bruce Bawer

One of the big news stories in Britain last year was the uncovering of what that country’s media insist on calling “Asian sex gangs.” Simply put, groups of “Asian” men turn large numbers of “white” girls into their sex toys, “grooming” them for exploitation and then passing them around to one another. For those unfamiliar with the standard euphemisms of the British press — left-wing and right-wing, highbrow and lowbrow alike — “Asian” and “white” are codes for “Muslim” and “non-Muslim,” respectively. The reason these men can target non-Muslim girls so remorselessly is simple: they know that in their religion’s eyes female infidels are already prostitutes, whose failure to wear veils renders them undeserving of respect and responsible for any sexual act to which they might be unwillingly subjected…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Halesowen Muslims Festive Working

MORE than 20 volunteers took to the streets of Halesowen on New Year’s Day to clean up following the seasonal festivities. Members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association worked their way across Long Lane and the town centre litter picking. The group also organised a visit to Russells Hall Hospital’s children’s ward where they donated chocolates and toys to children, visited old people’s home Woodview House Nursing Home, Hayley Green and collected money for Save the Children UK over the Christmas season…

[JP note: See also www.croydonguardian.co.uk/news/10136266.Muslim_association_cleans_up_the_streets_of_Croydon_on_New_Year_s_Day/ ]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Labour Wanted to Rename a Council Ward After A mosque

Trial by Jeory

There have been a couple of developments since I last wrote about the changes to ward names in Tower Hamlets. The deadline for public objections to the dropping of Banglatown from ‘Spitalfields and Banglatown’, and St Dunstan’s from the proposed new Stepney wards is on Monday. Do please write to the Local Government Boundary Commission at reviews@lgbce.org.uk if you have strong views on either. I submitted my letter yesterday.

While dropping Banglatown was a Tory proposal (one I think they now regret), removing the name of St Dunstan was a Labour idea. The current ward name is St Dunstan’s and Stepney Green. The final Labour proposal, which has been provisionally accepted by the Commission, is Stepney East and Stepney West. However, I understand that Labour councillors had actually wanted to call one of the wards ‘St Dunstan’s and Shahjalal’. Shahjalal (named after Shah Jalal, who is credited with the spread of Islam in Bengal) is the name of the popular but rather ramshackle mosque in Duckett Street, which over the past few years has also been a centre of feuding over various management and funding arrangements…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Met Office Releases Revised Global Temperature Predictions Showing Planet is Not Rapidly Heating Up

The Met Office has admitted that global warming has stalled.

Officials say that by 2017, temperatures will not have risen significantly for nearly 20 years.

They concede that previous forecasts were inaccurate — and have come under fire for attempting to ‘bury bad news’ by publishing the revised data on Christmas Eve.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Mentally Ill Woman ‘Who Stabbed Grandma to Death With 12in Butcher’s Knife Had Been Released From Secure Hospital After Killing Her Own Mother’

[WARNING: Disturbing content.]

A schizophrenic patient who stabbed a passer-by to death with a 12in butcher’s knife had been released from a secure mental hospital just two years earlier after killing her mother, the Old Bailey heard today.

Law firm accounts manager Sally Hodkin, 58, was on her way to work when she suffered a fatal cut to her neck from a butcher’s knife during the attack by Nicola Edgington, who was being treated in the community.

Minutes earlier Edgington, who was being monitored by a psychiatrist, nurse and social worker, had attacked another woman, Kerry Clark, but the 22-year-old was able to fight her off.

Edgington, 32, had spent just three years in a secure hospital after admitting the manslaughter of her mother Marion, who she stabbed to death in November 2005.

The following year she was given an indefinite hospital order and treated as an inpatient before being released in 2009.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Polish Sex Attacker ‘Stabbed to Death by Passer-by as He Molested Girl, 18, In the Street’

A Polish sex attacker was killed by a passerby who intervened to stop him molesting an 18-year-old girl in the street, a jury heard yesterday.

Janusz Smoderek died of stab wounds soon after he drunkenly assaulted the teenager while on his way home from a lap-dancing club.

Stephen Sleaford admits stepping in to save the young woman, but insists he was not responsible for Smoderek’s death, and says it was in fact the Pole who was carrying a knife, not him.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Stephen Lawrence’s Brother Sues Met Over Race Discrimination

Stephen Lawrence’s brother today launched a race discrimination case against Britain’s biggest police force, claiming officers harassed him due to his skin colour.

Stuart Lawrence, 35, claimed that Metropolitan Police officers had stopped him at least 25 times over “recent years” because he was black. Launching his legal battle today, the teacher claimed he was the victim of a sustained campaign of harassment from Scotland Yard officers. The father-of-one, from Peckham, south London, said that he has been repeatedly stopped in his car with “no apparent reason and without any justification”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Social Services Knew Girl, 4, Was Living With ‘Paedophile’ Foster Parent But Left Her in His Care for More Two Weeks

[WARNING: Disturbing content.]

Child protection campaigners have slammed social workers who allowed a four-year-old girl to stay with a foster parent for two weeks after they suspected he might be a paedophile.

Bristol City Council failed to act instantly after police warned them the vulnerable child lived with an alleged sex offender, which the NSPCC believe could have put her at ‘serious risk of harm’.

The local authority has spent two months fighting a High Court battle to prevent details of the case being reported.

But Mr Justice Baker found the council was ‘unjustified’ in trying to keep criticism of its staff secret, and has overturned the gagging order.

‘It is in the public interest that these allegations are published,’ he said, according to The Sun, who fought the injunction.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: The Ralph Miliband Lectures Remind US How Stupid ‘Clever’ People Can be

by Douglas Murray

For anybody who needs reminding of how stupid ‘clever’ people can be, can I recommend Guido’s post on the Ralph Miliband lecture series? Each year the London School of Economics still holds an annual commemoration of the dead Marxist now best known of as the father of David and Ed. Much that has gone wrong with our universities can be learnt by briefly considering these events…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: What Two Thugs Did to Nurse They Attacked Outside Her Own Hospital as She Waited for a Bus Home

These shocking pictures show the terrible injuries inflicted on a nurse when two muggers punched, stamped on and kicked her as she waited for a bus outside a hospital.

Lorna Hobson, 65, believed she was going to die as she was beaten on her way home from work.

As she lay screaming in agony opposite Sheffield’s Northern General Hospital the two young men ran off — only to return to continue the attack before finally making off with her bag.

‘I walked down the path to the bus stop and I stood inside the bus shelter, which is brightly lit,’ she said.

‘I noticed two youths across the road. They passed me and they must have come up behind me.

‘One of them said something about the time. I remember looking at my watch and then they jumped on me and grabbed my bag. I screamed and they punched me full in the face.

They dragged me out of the shelter and up a gravel path nearby. I was screaming. It was dark and I couldn’t see anything. I just remember screaming and the kicks, the punches and the stamping.’

Mrs Hobson said the robbers left, possibly because they had been disturbed, but then came back to continue the assault.

‘I remember lying on the ground and thinking, “They’ve gone, I’m safe and I’m alive” — but then I saw them coming back and they started it all over again.

‘I thought it was going to be the end and they were going to kill me.’

The youths were described as 16 to 20, 6ft tall, skinny and dark-skinned. One was wearing grey jogging bottoms and a dark top.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

North Africa

Egypt: Abdel-Gawad Yassin: Sharia Law Must be Flexible

Judge Abdel-Gawad Yassin says Sharia law must be open to change because it is related to the social life of the people and argues religious practice in the public sphere must be restructured to take account of this fact

At a conference held to honour and recognise his intellectual efforts, Egyptian judge and thinker, Abdel-Gawad Yassin, vehemently criticised what he called ‘religious thinking’ in general, and in Islam in particular way, because it mixes what is divine with human, social and historical realities, giving the social conditions a religious character…

Yassin ended his speech by commenting on the new Egyptian constitution. It included Article 219, which states that Sharia is a source of legislation. Yassin said he looks at this article and others like it with a doubting eye because all Islamic thinking needs to be restructured.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Morocco Elected Chair of UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee

New York City, Ny — The North Africa Post — Morocco has been elected last week, in the person of its Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Mohamed Loulichki, chair of the Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee. Morocco, which is non-permanent member of the Security Council since January 2012, will chair the committee for the period ending December 31, 2013. The Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC), set up in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States, works to bolster the ability of United Nations Member States to prevent terrorist acts both within their borders and across regions…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Tunisair Cuts Personnel to Avoid Crisis

1,700 over a total of 8,500 to be cut in two years

(ANSAmed) — Tunis, January 7 — The management of debt-stricken Tunisian air carrier Tunisair is preparing to implement a plan to tackle a crisis which started in the months following the revolution in spite of a growing number of passengers.

The crisis, said the airline’s President and Director General Ranah Jrad, is mostly due to the cost of personnel — 8,500 workers — which is considered too high for a company which is strongly penalized by its old planes and has too few resources for a renewal plan that would make it more competitive. A first step will be to cut down the number of workers by 1,700 units, 20% of the total. The first consequences of this bi-annual plan (2013-2014) will become effective in the coming months when 329 workers who are retiring will not be replaced. The management of Tunisair has said the company could be hiring workers for short periods of time if necessary. According to Jrad, the measures will enable the company to save 165 million euros which, together with the growth in the number of passengers in 2012, could open a positive new phase. Unions however are gearing up for battle and have accused the state of not holding dear the future of Tunisair as proven by the recent concession to Qatar Airways of favourable conditions at the international airport of Tunis.

The Tunisian airline is planning to boost connections in the African continent and will soon inaugurate a flight connecting Tunisia to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burkina Faso. The airline will however need more capital which Jdar said will be brought from the current 53 million euros to 90 million — an announcement which seems to imply the arrival of a strategic partner given that the state, the company’s main shareholder, is debt-stricken.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Tunisia: Ali Harzi, Suspect in Nation Attack on U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Freed

Tunis — The investigating judge to the Tunis Court of First Instance decided, on Monday, to release Ali Harzi, who had been arrested after the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi (Libya), an authorised source of the Justice Ministry announced on Tuesday.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Tunisia: Stolen Kiss Costs 20-Yr-Olds Jail Time

Reported to police by girl’s brother

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS — The two are both twenty year olds, but nothing else is known about them: neither their names nor where exactly they live in Tunis’s chaotic lower-class suburbs. The only thing certain is that, after kissing in the street (perhaps it did not stop at this, but the substance of the matter changes little), they were detained by the police and taken before a judge on charges of public indecency.

A single hearing in court followed, in which they initially tried desperately to deny the accusations, only to admit in the end that a kiss or two had been exchanged, trusting in the benevolence of the law. The judge, unmoved, applied the law to the letter. However, he handed down a relatively light punishment: a suspended sentence of two months in jail. What makes the incident worthy of note is that the one to alert the police was the girl’s brother, who once he found out went directly to the police station to demand that something be done about it. What’s more, the brother took action after getting tipped off by a diligent ‘friend’ who — on catching a glimpse of the two kissing — thought it his duty to inform the girl’s family of the ‘scandal’. The Arabic-language newspaper Assarir reported the news today, but did not provide details that could identify the two ‘guilty parties’.

The incident is also a sign of how the wind blows in Tunisia, and the changes wrought. The tolerance for which the North African country had been known for the past 50 years is slowly slipping away. The law has recently targeted other young people, but it should be noted that ‘public decency’ varies according to what area of the capital you find yourself in. While in the suburbs young people can be sentenced to jail time for kissing, the same cannot be said in wealthy residential zones like Marsa and Le Lac, where the sparkling nightlife and public kissing and hugging raises no eyebrows nor protest.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians

First Postage Stamp With “State of Palestine” Issued

RAMALLAH, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) — The first Palestinian postage stamp carrying the name “State of Palestine” was issued as the first step toward sovereignty after the status of Palestine at the United Nations was upgraded, a Palestinian official said Tuesday…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Jewish Groups Attack Psalmist Mosque in Jerusalem

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) — Jewish groups have attacked the Psalmist Mosque in Jerusalem and destroyed the Ottoman tiles in the mosque, the Al-Aqsa Foundation and Cultural Heritage Organization said. In a written statement released, the Al-Aqsa Foundation and Cultural Heritage Organization said that Jewish groups attacked the Psalmist Mosque, located in the south-west of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and destroyed Ottoman marbles and tiles from the 17th century…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Middle East

Dutch Military Team Arrives in Turkey for Patriots Deployment

ANKARA, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) — A 30-member Dutch military team, which departed from the Netherlands, arrived in southern Turkey on Tuesday, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported. The team will make preparations for the deployment of Patriot air defense system to be installed along Turkish-Syrian border, according to the report. Two cargo planes carrying Dutch team landed in Incirlik air base in Adana province in southern Turkey, said the report…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Free Ebook: War on Syria: Gateway to WWIII

“War on Syria: Gateway to WWIII” (118 pages) attempts to cover the intricacies of the West’s methods of unconventional warfare and how they’ve manifested themselves over the last several years, finally miring Syria in a state of war. The book also looks at how the violence in Syria is just one part of a much larger geopolitical strategy, and where it may lead next.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Garvan Walshe: Beware a Pragmatic Foreign Policy

Garvan Walshe was National and International Security Policy Adviser for the Conservative Party until 2008. He is now studying for a PhD at the University of Manchester, and is managing partner at The Research Department, a consultancy. He will be editing this new column focusing on foreign policy every Tuesday.

Russian foreign policy has returned to its Tsarist norm. The Kremlin once counselled a simple rule: when a region is convulsed by revolution, offer all support to the beleaguered tyrannies. Maybe, like in the People’s Spring of 1848, they’ll manage to hold out. Now it’s hardly astonishing that Putin has stuck by Assad. More surprising to us should be that elsewhere in the Middle East, Britain had been planning to do just the same. Somewhere in Whitehall the finishing touches were being put to the Prime Minister’s visit to the region. Tunisia’s last dictator Ben Ali had fled into exile. Hundreds of thousands of people crowded into Cairo’s Tahrir square to demand that Hosni Mubarak join him. Hints of revolt could be discerned in Syria, Morocco and even Libya. The theme of the visit was to be the promotion of British exports, the exports in question were chiefly to be weapons, the weapons not just tanks and planes but the kind of “security equipment” Britain had recently supplied Gaddafi.

At the very last minute, David Cameron’s political instincts kicked in. With Mubarak gone, a walkabout through Tahrir Square appeared (sans arms-dealers) in the PMs itinerary. His speech in Kuwait was hastily rewritten. Now it focused on the importance of promoting democracy and lavished praise on the region’s only liberalising monarchy. The media gods must have been on his side that day, for they ignored nearby Bahrain where internal security personnel, bolstered by crack Saudi troops, busied themselves rounding up doctors found treating the protesters injured by the regime’s forces…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

In 2012, Sharia Enforcement Continued to Spread Around the World

By Martin Parsons.

A year ago it was clear that, despite the widely presumed promise of the Arab spring, 2011 had been a year in which sharia enforcement has both spread and intensified both in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world. This is part of a longer term pattern of increasing Islamisation that has been happening since the late 1970s and which has continued in 2012.

The enforcement of sharia happens at a number of levels. The ultimate aim of Islamists is that sharia becomes the only system of law and government, with both Muslims and non Muslims alike subject to it. However, in many Islamic countries sharia exists in different degrees either as the sole form of law (as in Saudi Arabia), or more commonly a formal system alongside parliamentary law with a court able to rule that parliamentary legislation must be changed to comply with sharia (as is the case in Pakistan). In other situations, it exists more informally alongside parliamentary law with a blurred boundary as to whether criminal and civil cases are taken to sharia or government courts. In other countries still, particularly those in the West, sharia is enforced informally within the Muslim community, as significant pressure may be exerted on individual Muslims to follow the dictates of sharia

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

International Sanctions Against Iran Cause Oil and Gas Revenues to Drop by 45 Per Cent

Iran’s oil and gas revenues have dropped by a dramatic 45 per cent since sanctions were imposed by the West over it’s nuclear development programme.

The restrictions came into force in July under which the EU put a complete embargo on oil and gas from Iran, which eliminated 18 per cent of Iran’s export, and has led to financial collapse.

The result of these and further banking and trade sanction over the refusal to halt uranium enrichment, has seen oil exports drop 40 per cent in the last nine months, compared to the corresponding period last year, a senior lawmaker said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Iran’s Nuclear Bomb Program Complete

Source reveals secret site, last obstacle is to arm missiles

Iran successfully has built a nuclear bomb with the help of Russia and North Korea and has enough weapons-grade uranium and plutonium for more, according to a source in the Revolutionary Guards intelligence unit.

The source, who has access to Iran’s nuclear program, said the Islamic regime is working out of seven nuclear sites, most unknown to the IAEA, and that its nuclear bomb program is complete.

North Korea has provided the regime with plutonium for nuclear warheads, the source verified, and the last obstacle to overcome is arming missiles with those warheads.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Iran: Tehran Cannot Sell Its Oil, 40% Drop in Nine Months

The data supplied in Parliament by the Minister for Oil is a result of the sanctions underlining effects of the economic crisis that is affecting the country. Despite government intervention, the national currency has lost nearly 80% of its value against the dollar.

Tehran (AsiaNews) — Iranian oil sales are down 40% and net profits by 45% in the last nine months according to a report presented to parliament today by the oil minister, Rostam Qasemi, deputy-minister Gholam Reza Kateb told semi-official ISNA newsagency.

The fourth largest oil producer in the world, Iran has always had problems with the refining of the black gold, so much so that it imports gasoline. For political reasons the regime of the ayatollahs sells gas at low prices, but it is in short supply. It now appears that the export of oil, which is crucial for the Iranian economy, is suffering, probably as a result of sanctions imposed on Iran by Western countries because of its nuclear program.

In this framework the National Iranian Petrochemical Company (NIPC) announced its decision to invest $ 3.6 billion for the construction of 11 projects in the petrochemical industry, as reported by state PressTv. The deputy director of the NIPC, Abdolhossein Bayat, said that of the 70 petrochemical projects of the five-year plan for economic development (2010-2015), “17, worth 6 billion dollars in foreign investment, have been introduced so far , for the National Development Fund (NDF). “

The oil minister had argued in recent weeks that the country would be able to bypass the sanctions on export. A statement that the latest figures seem to contradict. The effects of the crisis is the loss of value of the national currency, the rial, against the dollar. Despite some initiatives taken by the government, the losses are close to 80%.

Another sign of the crisis is the decision, announced by the Minister, for the suspension of the supply of fuel to some airlines for unpaid bills.

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

Lebanon: US Boosts Army as Precaution Against Syria Spillover

Expects Assad to fall

(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT — Two hundred M113 armoured vehicles for troop transport donated by the US to Lebanon were offloaded in Beirut’s port today. With this delivery, Washington’s military aid to the country over the past six months has risen to 140 million dollars, while between 2006 and 2011 a total of 700 million was provided. Lebanon has thus become the tenth largest nation recipient of military aid from the United States, which is trying to ward off the danger of Lebanon getting caught up in the ongoing violence in neighbouring Syria. The supplies, underscored a US diplomat in the Lebanese capital, will improve the Lebanese armed forces’ “ability to respond to the crisis”. This is an ever more urgent need, given the clashes which in 2012 saw Shia supporters of the Syrian regime and Sunni opposition groups face off in Lebanon as well. And this did not only occur in the northern city of Tripoli, but also in Beirut’s suburbs and in the southern city of Sidon. Iran’s ability to influence Lebanese politics has been boosted since June 2011, when the current government under Prime Minister Najib Miqati was sworn in. Playing a dominant role in the government is Hezbollah, the Party of God close to Syria and Iran, whose militias (armed by the latter two countries) are powerful enough militarily to compete with that of the regular army. The Syrian opposition has also accused Hezbollah and Iran of taking an active part in the crackdown of the uprising. Both deny the accusations.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Saudi Arabia: Blind Old Man Uses Rope to Reach Mosque

An ageing blind Saudi man insists on walking all the way to mosque five times every day although he was deprived of his sight many years ago. His guide is just a rope, which he tied to the power pole next to the mosque entrance. The unidentified man was asked by village residents to pray at home, but he insists on going to the mosque every day, using the rope to find his way. A YouTube film showed the man, wearing the traditional Saudi gown and headgear, walking slowly, but with confident steps, until he reaches the mosque door, where another man happening to be going to pray led him inside the mosque. “God has deprived this old man from his eye sight but not from his perception and faith,” the Saudi Arabic language daily Al-Saudeh said.

[JP note: And Western leaders use the rope of dhimmitude to commit obscure self-sacrifice ritual?]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Saudi Arabia: Sri Lanka’s Rizana Nafeek Executed

The young Muslim woman was on death row since 2007 for allegedly killing an infant.

Colombo (AsiaNews) — Sri Lankan housemaid Rizana Nafeek was executed in Saudi Arabia today (6 am GMT), Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Ministry reported. The execution took place in Damami, a town about 400 kilometres west of Riyadh. The young Muslim woman was on death row for allegedly killing an infant.

Last Saturday, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa appealed to the Saudi king for a delay to allow a Sri Lanka delegation to meet the baby’s family to work out a deal.

Fr George Sigamoney, head of Caritas Sri Lanka, told AsiaNews that he was “deeply upset” over Rizana’s execution. Since her arrest, he had fought for her release.

“Unfortunately, what we expected to happen happened,” he said. “As a representative of the Church and of Caritas I want to express my sorrow and solidarity to Rizana’s family. I pray for them that they may have the courage needed to face their pain and get through this moment.”

“I want to remember Rizana in another way,” Fr George said. “As a nation, we must reflect and weep for the loss of this young life.” However, “I believe the time has come for government authorities to deal in a serious manner with the predicament of migrant workers seeking employment in the Middle East.”

When news came of Rizana’s execution, the Sri Lankan parliament observed a minute of silence as a show of respect. Her parents, sisters and brothers went to their mosque to pray.

Rizana’s mother, Fareena, asked Sri Lankan authorities to repatriate her daughter’s body for burial.

Her father Sultant is devastated not only because of her death but also because he is the one who sent her overseas, still underage, in order to help the family, neighbours said.

“There is no doubt that the charge of murder against Rizana is wrong,” the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) said in a statement issued today. “The laws in Saudi Arabia falls short of universally accepted norms concerning investigation of crimes, most importantly in this case the failure to conduct of an autopsy upon the body of the deceased person, alleged to have been murdered by Rizana. None of the fair trial guarantees were observed when Rizana was tried in the Saudi court.”

“The Government of Sri Lanka or the office of the President did nothing to save Rizana’s life, despite calls for assistance from Rizana’s family and from the global civil society.” In fact, “President Rajapaksha’s government refused to pay at least the lawyers’ fee for filing the appeal. [. . .] So long as there is a government that does not show any care for the rights of its people, similar tragedies will be repeated in Sri Lanka.”

Born into a very poor family in Mutur village (Trincomalee District in the Eastern Province), Rizana had moved to Saudi Arabia in 2005 when she was only 17, on a false passport, to work as a domestic helper.

When her employer’s child died, she was accused of murder and sentenced to death in 2007 after a phony trial based on a confession written in Arabic she was forced to sign, even though she did not know that language.

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

Stakelbeck Interviews Israeli Vice PM Moshe Yaalon, Plus Deputy

On this week’s edition of the Stakelbeck on Terror show, from Jerusalem, we have exclusive interviews with two of Israel’s top government officials, Vice Prime Minister Moshe “Bogie” Yaalon and Deputy Knesset Speaker Danny Danon.

Both men are outspoken advocates for Israel’s security who tell it like it is and don’t mince words. I had the chance to talk to them about Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, the Muslim Brotherhood and much more.

Click the link above to watch.

           — Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck [Return to headlines]

UAE: Inquiry Into ‘Women’s Branch’ of Islamic Group

Linked to July arrests, other more recent ones against MB

(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, JANUARY 9 — There is also a “women’s branch” of an alleged secret Islamic organisation accused of plotting to overthrow Gulf monarchies, many members of which were arrested in July. The news was reported in a statement released by the UAE Prosecutor General’s office. “The women’s branch is an integral part of the organisation’s overall structure, and it will be treated as such before the law, which does not make gender-based distinctions,” said Prosecutor General Salim Said Kubaish in a statement published by the WAM news agency. “The interrogations of the women under detention are being carried out with full respect for their right to privacy and in line with Koranic law,” Kubaish underscored, specifying neither the identities of those being interrogated nor the number of those under investigation. The latest inquiry is only the most recent in a series of crackdowns by UAE authorities against groups suspected of undermining national security. Last week eleven Egyptians accused of belonging to a Muslim Brotherhood cell were arrested in an operation that embarrassed the authorities in Egypt, which is now governed by a party created by the Muslim Brotherhood itself. A few days ago a sweep-up operation landed a number of UAE nationals and Saudis affiliated with Al Islah behind bars on accusations of “conspiring against national security”. Al Islah is an illegal organization linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Using Cold War Tactics to Confront Iran

(DANIEL PIPES) Abraham D. Sofaer, a former U.S. district judge and legal adviser to the State Department, now a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, argues in Taking On Iran: Strength, Diplomacy and the Iranian Threat (Hoover Institution, 2013) that since the fall of the shah during the Carter administration, Washington “has responded to Iranian aggression with ineffective sanctions and empty warnings and condemnations.”

Not since 1988, he notes, has the U.S. government focused on the Iranian military force that specifically protects the country’s Islamic order and most often attacks abroad, variously called the Pasdaran or Sepah in Persian and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps or IRGC in English. This roughly 125,000-strong elite force, created in 1980, has an outsized role in Iran’s political and economic life. It possesses its own army, navy, and air force units, it controls ballistic missile programs, and it shares control over the country’s nuclear program. It runs the Basij, which enforces strict Islamic mores on the Iranian public. Its military forces are more important than the regular armed forces. Its Quds Force of about 15,000 agents spreads the Khomeini revolution abroad via infiltration and assassination. Its graduates staff key positions in the Iranian government.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

South Asia

India Says Kashmir Killings’ Inhuman’

India has criticised arch-rival Pakistan over a firefight in Kashmir in which two of its soldiers were killed, saying that the mutilation of one of the bodies was “inhuman”.

India also summoned Pakistan’s envoy to New Delhi to protest over Tuesday’s incident, in which — according to India — Pakistani troops crossed the territory’s heavily militarised Line of Control (LoC) and fired at one of its army patrols.

The body of one of the soldiers was found “badly mutilated” in a forested area on the side controlled by India, Rajesh K. Kalia, spokesman for the Indian army’s Northern Command, said. However, he denied Indian media reports that one of the bodies had been decapitated and the throat of another had been slit…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Indian Soldier ‘Beheaded by Pakistan Troops’ As Kashmir Dispute Escalates

India accused Pakistan of a “grave provocation” on Tuesday night after the “ghastly” death of two of its soldiers at the hands of Pakistani troops in Kashmir, amid claims that one of them was beheaded.

In the second clash in three days between soldiers from the nuclear-armed rivals, an Indian patrol found Pakistani troops about half a mile inside Indian territory, an army spokesman said. A firefight broke out and two Indian soldiers were killed. Indian army sources claimed that one of the soldiers was decapitated and his head taken away by retreating Pakistani troops. His body was found “badly mutilated” in a forested area of the Himalayan territory, said Rajesh K. Kalia, a spokesman for the Indian army’s Northern Command. A spokesman for the Pakistan army denied that its forces launched an “unprovoked” attack and dismissed the claims as Indian propaganda…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

New Trial for Polish Soldiers Over Afghanistan Killings

Four Polish soldiers acquitted of killing eight civilians in south-east Afghanistan are to go on trial again.

The eight civilians, including women and children, died in the village of Nangar Khel when Polish troops opened fire on a wedding party in August 2007. Military prosecutors appealed to the Polish Supreme Court after seven soldiers were cleared of war crimes in June 2011, citing lack of evidence. The court upheld the acquittal of three — ordering the re-trial of the others. The judge said the men had given conflicting accounts of why the village was attacked: At times they said they were responding to Taliban fire, at others they said they were following orders or that their ammunition was faulty…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

U. S. To Leave No More Than 9,000 Men in Afghanistan

(AGI) — Washington, Jan. 5 — The United States will leave no more than 9,000 men in Afghanistan after its withdrawal in 2014. The Wall Street Journal reported how the White House has ordered the Pentagon to review the planning that provided for a contingent of 15,000 soldiers to remain in the country after withdrawal. Now the Department of Defense has identified three scenarios, leaving either 3,000, 6,000 or 9,000 soldiers.

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

Far East

Philippines: 500,000 Take Part in Annual Feast of Black Nazarene in Manila

Devotees try to touch and kiss the life-size statue of the Black Nazarene during the annual feast of the Black Nazarene in Manila, the Philippines, Jan. 9, 2013. The Black Nazarene, a life-size wooden statue of Jesus Christ carved in Mexico and brought to the Philippines in the 17th century, is believed to have healing powers in this country. Authorities said about 500,000 people participated in the procession that started in Manila’s Rizal Park.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

What Did Google Earth Spot in the Chinese Desert? Even an Ex-CIA Analyst Isn’t Sure

Late last month, former CIA analyst Allen Thomson was clicking through a space news website when he noticed a story about a new orbital tracking site being built near the small city of Kashgar in southwestern China. Curious, he went to Google Earth to find it. He poked around for a while, with no luck. Then he came across something kind of weird.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Australia — Pacific

How a Hoaxer Created Sharemarket Havoc

ONE young man sitting in a forest used a laptop and a mobile phone to temporarily wipe more than $314 million off the value of Nathan Tinkler’s Whitehaven Coal on Monday morning.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission is now investigating the elaborate hoax, in which anti-coal campaigners issued a fake press release and impersonated a corporate affairs spokesman from ANZ Bank…

Asked if he had qualms about lying to the public to achieve environmental ends, Mr Moylan said: ‘‘Our primary concern is the impact of this mine on the environment at the end of the day. A lot of people were taken in by it, but when you compare the cost of that to the health of our forests and farmlands, it justifies it.’’

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Sub-Saharan Africa

Al Qaeda Carves Out Own Country in Mali

Deep inside caves, in remote desert bases, in the escarpments and cliff faces of northern Mali, Islamic fighters are burrowing into the earth, erecting a formidable set of defenses to protect what has essentially become Al Qaeda’s new country.

They have used the bulldozers, earth movers, and loaders left behind by fleeing construction crews to dig what residents and local officials describe as an elaborate network of tunnels, trenches, shafts, and ramparts.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Battle to Save African Elephants Waged on a New Front

It is increasingly clear that more armed patrols in Africa’s wilderness, or sniffer dogs at its ports, or even proper penalties at its courts, will not stop the slaughter of its remaining half-million elephants.

There is a growing threat of the species’ extinction under the onslaught of professional poachers with automatic weapons, modern 4x4s and night-vision goggles. Those brave men and women deployed to protect Africa’s wildlife are out-resourced by an enemy correctly now identified alongside international drugs smugglers and human traffickers. “Africa has half-a-million elephants left, but all together they would not be enough to satisfy the demand that has arisen,” said Paul Udoto of the Kenya Wildlife Service…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Chad, Minimum of 40 Children Paralyzed After New Meningitis Vaccine

On December 20, 2012, a vaccination tragedy hit the small village of Gouro, located in northern Chad, Africa. According to the newspaper La Voix, out of five hundred children who received the new meningitis vaccine MenAfriVac, at least 40 of them between the ages of 7 and 18 have become paralyzed. Those children also suffered hallucinations and convulsions.

Since this report, the true extent of this tragedy is coming to light, as parents of these vaccinated children have reported yet more injuries. The authorities in the area are shaken, as citizens set fire to a sanitary administration vehicle in a demonstration of their frustration and anger at the government’s negligence.[1]

“We wish that our children would get their health back,” shared the parent of a sick child.

Mr. M., the cousin of two of the vaccine-injured children, who currently remain critically ill and hospitalized, explained that many of the children reacted within 24 hours of receiving the vaccine. He said that at first the children vomited and complained of headaches, before falling to the floor with uncontrollable convulsions while bent over with saliva coming from their mouths.

He shared that on December 26, 2012, the Minister of Health and the Minister of Social Security visited Gouro, bringing with them two Members of Parliament. He said that after some discussion, they decided to evacuate approximately 50 paralyzed children to a hospital over three hundred miles away in N’Djamena, the capital city of Chad.

He added that the government responded to the tragedy by paying the parents money in a desperate bid to silence them, further stating that many of the parents are traumatized and confused.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Kenya: Horror as Entire Family of Elephants Slaughtered for Ivory

Armed wildlife rangers on Tuesday night fanned out across eastern Kenya in pursuit of ivory poachers who killed an entire family of 12 elephants in the country’s worst single such slaughter since the 1980s.

Eleven adults and one infant calf died in a “targeted and efficient” attack highlighting the growing professionalism of poachers bankrolled by international criminals supplying soaring demand for ivory in the Far East…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Nigeria: Gunmen Fire on Muslims

Kano — Gunmen on a motorcycle killed three people on Monday when they opened fire on a group of Muslim worshippers in the northern Nigerian city of Kano, the latest such attack in the region, police said…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Nigeria: Obasanjo to Jonathan — Reach Out to Boko Haram

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said more could be done to reach out to the Boko Haram sect to find out what leads it to carry out acts of violence. In an interview with American television network CNN yesterday, Obasanjo suggested the Federal Government should adopt a dual-track approach rather than just cracking down on the group. “To deal with a group like that, you need a carrot and stick. The carrot is finding out how to reach out to them,” he said…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Immigration

Italy: Immigration Bureau Issued 4,800 Expulsion Orders in 2012

(AGI) — Rome, Jan 5 — Italian immigration authorities issued or renewed 140,000 immigration visas and 4,800 expulsion orders in 2012, the Immigration Bureau of the Police Headquarters of Rome reported. Since the beginning of last year, police patrol agents have accompanied 10,000 EU and non-EU foreign citizens to the relevant Immigration Bureau.

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

Culture Wars

Italy: Gay Groups Wary About Berlusconi Pledge for Same-Sex Couples

Activists call for concrete proposals

(see related story) (ANSA) — Rome, January 7 — Several Italian gay groups expressed wariness on Monday after ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi said the centre right would back legal recognition for couples who live together, including same-sex ones, if it wins next month’s general elections.

The Gay Center called for action, not words, and argued that the three governments Berlusconi led between 1994 and 2011 did “nothing” for gays.

“We’ll see if we’re faced with a change of direction (from Berlusconi),” said Fabrizio Marrazzo of the Gay Center.

“But concrete proposals are certainly necessary,” he added, calling for the proposal to be put into the centre-right’s manifesto. Arcigay President Flavio Romanialso also asked Berlusconi to put the pledge in “black and white” and said he had “legitimate suspicions” about such a “sudden change of course”.

The ex-premier, who has been at the centre of a series of sex scandals and is on trial in Milan for allegedly having sex with an underage prostitute, was blasted in 2010 for saying it was “better to like pretty women than be gay”.

Romani said his association’s doubts also stemmed from comments Berlusconi made in 2011 in which he said he was against gay unions being given the same status as marriages between men and women. However, Enrico Oliari, the president of an association representing centre-right-supporting gays, welcomed Berlusconi’s comments and said the 76-year-old media magnate had given a “lesson” to several centrist politicians, including outgoing Premier Mario Monti. “Berlusconi’s opening-up over the recognition of gay couples is a piece of news you cannot fail to take account of,” GayLib head Oliari said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Obama Administration is Anti-Catholic

If you don’t think the Obama Administration is anti-Catholic, this will change your mind. Right this very moment, there is a petition on the White House website condemning Pope Benedict XVI’s Christmas address to the College of Cardinals and the Catholic Church. Signers of this petition want to declare the Catholic Church an official “hate group” because of our views on same-sex marriage.

The White House could easily remove this petition from the website if they wanted.

Talk about a double standard! You can bet the White House wouldn’t waste a second removing a petition seeking to restore segregation or rescind the 24th Amendment banning the poll tax!

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

The “New Breed” Of Christian Fashion

Our younger generation is being preyed upon by adults that will do anything for a buck. Adults are the ones who peddle the raunchy products that hyper-sexualize the culture. Young people, especially, are demeaned and exploited for profit.

A couple of weeks ago, while I was surfing the net for articles to include in the Email Brigade News Report, I came across a piece entitled “Provocative Clothing Company Creates Tees to Help Christian Girls be ‘Playful’ for Jesus.” For obvious reasons the headline grabbed my attention.

Featured in the article is a picture of an attractive young woman in a sexy pose seated on a bed wearing a tank top with the words “God knows my secrets.”

From the Christian News Service story:

A California-based clothing company is targeting professing Christian girls who seek to be provocative and “playful” in the way that they dress, all in the name of Jesus Christ.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

General

Hubble Space Telescope Could Last Until 2018, NASA Says

LONG BEACH, Calif. — NASA’s 23-year-old Hubble Space Telescope is still going strong, and agency officials said Tuesday (Jan. 8) they plan to operate it until its instruments finally give out, potentially for another six years at least.

After its final overhaul in 2009, the Hubble telescope was expected to last until at least 2015. Now, NASA officials say they are committed to keeping the iconic space observatory going as long as possible.

“Hubble will continue to operate as long as its systems are running well,” Paul Hertz, director of the Astrophysics Division in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said here at the 221st meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Hubble, like other long-running NASA missions such as the Spitzer Space Telescope, will be reviewed every two years to ensure that the mission is continuing to provide science worth the cost of operating it, Hertz added.

In fact, Hubble supporters hope it will continue to run even after its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), is launched — an event planned for 2018.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20130108

Financial Crisis
» EU Commission Warns Social Gap Widening in EU
» Eurozone Posts Record Jobless Figures
» Italy ‘Needs Monti’ Independently of Election Results
» Italy: Berlusconi Blasts Monti as Out of Touch, Believes Can Win
» Italy: Tremonti Argues in Favour of Scrapping First Home Imu Tax
» Italy: Monti Says Financial Crisis Passed, But Social Woes Persist
» New Slovenian President Gives Up Presidential Villa
» Spread Between Italian, German Bonds Drops to 271
» Switzerland: Farmer’s 14th Century Church Debt Ruled Invalid
 
USA
» Obama Fined $375,000 for 2008 Electoral Irregularities.
» Sipsey Street Exclusive: Thomas Nee: Key Member of Joe Biden’s “Gun Violence Commission, “ Has a Son Who Was Convicted of Plotting a Columbine-Style Mass Murder at a School — Possibly With a Service Weapon Obtained From His Father.
» What Are the Potential Dangers Associated With GE Salmon?
 
Europe and the EU
» Film Reignites Debate on Polish Anti-Semitism
» Flag Flying Protests Held on Streets of Belfast
» French Judges Reject Plea to Postpone Gerard Depardieu Trial
» Greece: Operation Underway to Root Out Corruption
» Icelandic Power Export Plans Still a Pipe Dream
» In Tense Swedish City, Young Muslim Crusades Against Anti-Semitism
» Italy: Vendola Criticizes Monti for Dodging Political Scuffles
» Italy: Monti Says Berlusconi Party Becoming ‘Extreme, Sectarian’
» Italy: Soccer: Man Cited for Racist Chants Against AC Milan
» Italy: South European Auto Market in Deep Crisis
» Italy: Berlusconi Warns N. League on Going to Elections Alone
» Italy’s Crammed Prison Cells Condemned by Strasbourg
» New Belfast Unrest Worries Business Leaders
» UK: Burglars in Housebreaking Spree
» UK: Life Sentence for Father Who Killed Mother of His Three Children in Back of a Taxi After Social Worker ‘Let Slip’ That She Had Aborted His Fourth Child
» UK: Secret Government Documents Reveal Vaccines to be a Total Hoax
» UK: The Lethal Million Volt Stun Guns Being Sold Online to Criminals for Just £90
 
North Africa
» David Ha’ivri: Wasn’t There a Revolution in Egypt?
» Hillary’s Benghazi Cover-Up 101 for Dummies
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Ancient Jewish Manuscripts, From Taliban Caves to Israel
» Crowd for 48th Anniversary of Al-Fatah Overflows Gaza Square
 
Middle East
» Emirates: Couple Wed on Skype, Arrested for Illicit Relation
» Iraq: More Christian Blood in Mosul, Car Bomb Kills Christian University Student
» Solar Power Sparks Innovation in Oil-Rich Qatar
 
South Asia
» British Soldier Shot Dead in ‘Insider Attack by Rogue Member of Afghan Army’
» Compulsory Anti-Rape Overgarments in India’s Pondicherry
» High Doses of Medical Corruption Worldwide
» India: Fury as Guru Blames Student for Her Own Rape and Murder
 
Far East
» China to Build Another 100 Petaflops Hybrid Supercomputer by 2014?
 
Australia — Pacific
» Australians Told to Flee Homes Over Fires
» Plan for Muslim Housing Enclave in Sydney Suburbs
 
Latin America
» Ahead of Brazil World Cup, Free English Classes Planned for Prostitutes
» Gold-Plated: Diamond-Studded Ak-47 Seized in Honduras
» Luis Fleischmann: Some Reflections Over Speculations on Venezuela’s Future
 
Culture Wars
» Italy: Berlusconi Would Recognise Common-Law Unions, Gays Included
 
General
» Bioinitiative Report: Overwhelming Scientific Evidence of Health Risks From Wireless Devices and Other Forms of EMF

Financial Crisis

EU Commission Warns Social Gap Widening in EU

Efforts to bridge the wealth gap in the European Union have suffered a major setback, the EU’s executive Commission has found. As rich nations have become richer, poorer countries are locked in a downward spiral.

While debt-laden countries in the EU’s southern periphery had sunk deeper into economic depression in 2012, their wealthier European neighbors to the north had made huge strides with regard to social progress. The findings — which were released on Tuesday — stemmed from a report on employment and social analysis by the European Union’s executive Commission.

The future looked bleak with regard to overcoming the socio-economic differences,as the gap between rich and poor EU member states had widened dramatically in the past five years, according to Social Commissioner Lazslo Andor.

“Peripheral states appear to be caught in a downward spiral of falling economic output, rapidly rising unemployment and eroding individual incomes,” Andor told reporters in Brussels.

Andor noted that unemployment in the 27-nation bloc had climbed to 11.8 percent in November 2012. But while joblessness used to be more or less evenly spilt among all EU members, the rates in the northern and southern Europe were now 7.5 percent apart, he said.

In addition, long-term unemployment had grown from 3 percent to 4.6 percent between 2009 and 2012, with especially steep increases reported from Slovakia, Spain, Greece and Ireland. The three Baltic states, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia also reported similar jumps.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Eurozone Posts Record Jobless Figures

While fears that the eurozone might break asunder as a result of its debt diminished of late, the bloc keeps fighting an uphill battle against unemployment. Jobless figures have hit a new high in the 17-member bloc.

Unemployment in the crisis-stricken eurozone hit a new high in November, fresh data from the European Union’s statistics agency, Eurostat, revealed on Tuesday.

Altogether 18.8 million people were out of work in the 17-member bloc in November, with 113,000 more joining the jobless ranks, if compared with levels reached in the previous month. The jobless rate in the euro area thus reached a record 11.8 percent.

Two of the countries hardest hit by the debt crisis, Greece and Spain, continued to log the worst figures, with overall unemployment around 26 percent and youth joblessness reaching a staggering 56 percent.

Some 3.7 million people under the age of 25 were unemployed in the eurozone in November, putting the youth jobless rate in the bloc at 24.4 percent.

The Eurostat figures illustrated the daunting task facing political leaders to repair the region’s economies and strike the right balance between budget consolidation and growth incentives.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Italy ‘Needs Monti’ Independently of Election Results

‘May the best man win’, says Casini

(ANSA) — Rome, January 4 — Italy will always need “the intelligence, prestige and ability of Mario Monti” independently of the outcome of next month’s general elections, the leader of the small centrist Catholic party UDC Pier Ferdinando Casini said on Friday.

On December 21 Monti tendered his resignation as leader of a technocrat government brought in 13 months previously to shore up the economy against a spiralling debt crisis.

He is now campaigning to remain in office on a reform platform supported by the UDC and the Italia Futura political movement founded by Ferrari Chairman and former industrial employers’ association Confindustria boss Luca Cordero di Montezemolo.

Casini said the election competition was between Monti and the leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) Pier Luigi Bersani, who emerged victorious as the party’s candidate for premier following primaries in November.

“Let the best man win,” he said, adding that Bersani will only become prime minister if his party or coalition obtains a clear majority in both houses of parliament.

Casini also noted that the centre-right People of Freedom (PdL) founded by ex premier Silvio Berlusconi, the biggest party in the outgoing parliament, is in a “state of confusion (while) Berlusconi has not even managed to unite people around himself”. After a string of financial scandals and amid Berlusconi’s trial for allegedly paying an underage prostitute for sex the PdL is currently lagging the PD in opinion polls by about 15 points, abreast of comic Beppe Grillo’s anti-establishment Five Star Movement but at least five points ahead of Monti.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Berlusconi Blasts Monti as Out of Touch, Believes Can Win

Ex-premier says emergency govt a ‘disaster’

(see related stories) (ANSA) — Rome, January 3 — Silvio Berlusconi on Thursday blasted outgoing premier Mario Monti as an academic who is out of touch with the real world and said he was hopeful his People of Freedom (PdL) party can win next month’s general elections even though they trail in the opinion polls. “Monti is a professor and professors… are distant from reality, which they look at through the keyhole while they have an assured salary and do not know the difficulties of businesses,” Berlusconi said on Italian radio.

Berlusconi added that Italy should have had early elections in November 2011 when the financial crisis forced him to end his third term as Italian premier rather than making way for Monti’s emergency government of unelected technocrats.

He also repeated criticism of the economic record of Monti’s government.

“Everything has happened in a year. There has been the disaster of the technocrat government and we are in the full throes of a recession,” Berlusconi said.

He was also optimistic the PdL, which is polling below 20% compared to over 30% for the centre-left Democratic Party, can win the elections.

“I think we have the chance to obtain a positive result,” said the 76-year-old media magnate.

“It may look difficult but I believe we can win. Moderates and the middle class have always been the majority in Italy.

There is a majority of people who don’t see themselves represented by the left”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Tremonti Argues in Favour of Scrapping First Home Imu Tax

(AGI) — Rome, Jan 7 — Interviewed on talk show ‘Piazza Pulita’, former finance minister Giulio Tremonti commented on Silvio Berlusconi proposals to cut property tax, saying “I think IMU [property tax] on first homes should be scrapped. It affords between 3 and 4 billion euro revenue, which can be replaced with budget cuts.”

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

Italy: Monti Says Financial Crisis Passed, But Social Woes Persist

Monti calls for mobilization of “reformers” to fix problems

(ANSA) — Rome, January 8 — Italy has overcome the worst of its financial emergency, but now faces large economic and social troubles, outgoing Premier Mario Monti said Tuesday.

“We are over the financial emergency, but we are in an economic and social emergency,” Monti told Mediaset television. He said that to solve these problems, the country must “mobilize the reformers” who will find solutions.

Former European commissioner Monti took over the helm of an emergency government of unelected technocrats when Italy’s spiralling debt crisis forced Silvio Berlusconi to quit as premier in November 2011.

His austerity policies boosted investor confidence and taken Italy out of the centre of the eurozone debt crisis, but they have also deepened the recession and contributed to rising unemployment. Monti is standing in next month’s general elections on a reform platform.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

New Slovenian President Gives Up Presidential Villa

Borut Pahor turns Tito’s villa over to the state to save money

(ANSAmed) — LJUBJLANA, JANUARY 3 — New Slovenian President Borut Pahor has turned the presidential mountain villa over to the state in what local pundits described as a symbolic move to show he is indeed a man of the people, as promised during his campaign.

Sworn in almost two weeks ago, the Social Democratic president has given up use of the villa to cut costs. Built in 1964 for then-Yugoslavian President Josip Broz Tito, the villa in the Brdo pri Kranju castle complex 30 kms north of the capital was used by Pahor’s predecessors to work in privacy, hold meetings far from the media spotlight, and host important guests. Slovenian presidents are not given a residency in Ljubjlana, but a palace with offices. Media have in the past criticized their use of the mountain villa as a waste of taxpayer money.

Pahor’s decision shows he is “the common man’s president” and is distancing himself from the country’s ruling caste, which thousands have been protesting against in past months, local media commented.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Spread Between Italian, German Bonds Drops to 271

Lowest level since middle of 2012

(ANSA) — Rome, January 4 — The yield spread between 10-year Italian bonds and the German benchmark bund, an important barometer of Italian borrowing costs during the eurozone crisis, fell to as low as 270 points Friday before leveling out at 271, the lowest levels since mid-2012. Italian 10-year yields were trading at 4.3%, with German bund yields at 1.6%.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Switzerland: Farmer’s 14th Century Church Debt Ruled Invalid

The Glarus cantonal court has cleared a farmer of a 655-year-old obligation to pay for a sanctuary lamp at the Catholic church of Näfels.

The unusual debt dates back to 1357 when a land owner called Konrad Müller killed Heinrich Stucki, according to a report on the ruling by the SDA news service.

For the “salvation of his soul” and to escape vengeance from the victim’s family, Müller offered a sanctuary lamp to the church at Mollis, another community nearby, and pledged to pay for its cost “for eternity”.

Under the agreement, if the land owner failed to honour the promise, his property would revert to the church.

In Catholic churches, a sanctuary lamp is typically kept burning before the altar as an ornament and an object of worship.

During the period of the protestant Reformation in the 16th century, the lamp was moved from Mollis to the St. Hilarius parish church at Näfels.

But for subsequent centuries the owners of Müller’s property continued to pay for the lighting of the lamp.

The annual cost of paying for the nut oil used for the lamp now amounts to 70 francs a year, according to information presented to the court.

A farmer who owns property linked to the obligation opposed a bid by the church to have the debt registered in the municipal land register.

The church took the man to court but in a decision made late last month, and just recently released, the Glarus court sided with the property owner.

The court ruled that the common law obligation from the 13th century was ruled invalid by mortgage reform approved in the middle of the 19th century, SDA reported.

The court also found there was no particular connection between the property involved and the sanctuary lamp.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

USA

Obama Fined $375,000 for 2008 Electoral Irregularities.

(AGI) Washington, Jan 5 — The US Federal Election Commission has ordered the Committee to elect Barack Obama to pay a 375,000 dollar fine, due to an incomplete listing of the 2008 presidential campaign donors.

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

Sipsey Street Exclusive: Thomas Nee: Key Member of Joe Biden’s “Gun Violence Commission, “ Has a Son Who Was Convicted of Plotting a Columbine-Style Mass Murder at a School — Possibly With a Service Weapon Obtained From His Father.

Sipsey Street has learned that a key member of the President’s committee to find “the solution” to school shootings, has a son who was convicted of plotting a Columbine-style school massacre — possibly with a service pistol obtained from his father. Nee is the former head of the Boston Police Patrolman’s Association and is currently the head of the National Association of Police Organizations. In short, says one source familiar with the notoriously anti-firearm Nee, “he is a political hack/thug/activist who happens to carry a badge.”

Sources point out that not mentioned in state-run media accounts of the Biden comission is that Thomas Nee’s son was arrested and convicted for plotting a Columbine-style attack on Marshfield High School in Massachusetts. Additionally, says one source, “Joseph Nee might have armed himself at one point with his father’s service pistol though that story went off the radar.

This source continued, “As usual, the ‘solution’ will be the attempted theft of freedoms from the innocent while the root causes of these evil shootings, especially dysfunctional parents will be ignored.”

There are a ton of links out there re this story, here are a few.

Boston police eye alleged Marshfield plot suspect: Will investigate report that youth had service gun

Boston Police plan to contact authorities investigating the alleged Columbine-style attack plot at Marshfield High School to determine if a gun that one suspect allegedly showed to another student was a .40-caliber handgun issued by Boston Police.

A female student told Marshfield Police that Joseph T. Nee, one of the two suspects in the case, pulled what she thought was a black, .40-caliber handgun from his waistband as she was getting off a school bus this past spring and told her “how the school was going to be shot up,” John P. McLaughlin, an assistant Plymouth district attorney, said at Nee’s arraignment Monday.

Nee is the son of Thomas J. Nee, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, the city’s largest police union. Boston police officers carry .40-caliber Glock handguns, according to a department spokeswoman.

[…]

[See links at URL]

           — Hat tip: Andrea Shea King [Return to headlines]

What Are the Potential Dangers Associated With GE Salmon?

Two years ago, GMO expert Jeffrey Smith, founder of the Institute for Responsible Technology, called the potential approval of genetically engineered salmon “a move that will go down in history as one of the most asinine and dangerous ever made by our government.” According to Smith, evidence5 suggests the buffed-up salmon might have higher levels of a potentially cancer promoting hormone, IGF-1, more antibiotics, and more of potentially life-threatening allergen(s).

In a recent statement, Michael Hansen PhD, Senior Scientist with Consumers Union said:6

“The Environmental Assessment (EA) states that the FDA has found that the salmon is safe to eat. However, we are deeply concerned that the potential of these fish to cause allergic reactions has not been adequately researched. FDA has allowed this fish to move forward based on tests of allergenicity of only six engineered fish — tests that actually did show an increase in allergy-causing potential.” [Emphasis mine]

But that’s not all. The salmon — which contains a spliced-in growth hormone gene that makes it grow up to five times faster, reaching market size in about 18 months instead of three years — poses a significant threat to the environment and natural fish stocks as well. According to a Purdue University computer model that tracked the effects of releasing just 60 “Frankenfish” into a population of 60,000, there was a complete extinction of the normal fish in just 40 fish generations. It appears the larger size, which attracted mates more easily, combined with a slight reduction in survival rates, was a killer combination. Furthermore, according to Jeffrey Smith, Canadian scientists also engineered their own set of fast growing salmon and tested their behavior in tanks with other fish.

“When there was sufficient food, all was fine. When food stocks decreased, the Frankenfish freaked,” he says. “They became cannibals, attacking and killing other fish — whether GE or natural. Their unexpected behavior resulted in population crashes or complete extinctions in the fish tanks. The study also suggested that if released, these ravenous aggressive salmon would pursue and consume other types of fish.”

Of course, another major area of concern is, if the salmon is approved, whether you will be able to know when you’re buying it, since GE foods are still not required to be labeled. Consumer advocates are concerned about how large the no-labeling problem will grow, since genetically engineered beef, pork and other fish are next in line behind salmon for FDA consideration. For example, Science Nordic13 has announced its intentions to create a salmon with higher omega-3 content than regular salmon. In response to these growing concerns, Rep. Don Young recently announced a plan to introduce legislation that will, at minimum, require GE salmon to be labelled.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU

Film Reignites Debate on Polish Anti-Semitism

The film “Poklosie” delves into the dark history of Polish complicity during the Holocaust. Director Wladyslaw Pasikowski’s work has sparked fresh debate in Poland by posing the question: How anti-Semitic were the Poles?

Poland’s Jewish community was almost entirely decimated during the Holocaust. The Nazis murdered 90 percent of the three million Jews there.

Later, the communist regime fostered a climate of anti-Semitism in the country, forcing many more Jews to leave. A kind of phantom pain was all that remained, the sort experienced by people who’ve lost a limb.

The loss is, to this day, almost unbearable.

Fierce debates between Jewish and Catholic Poles continue to shake the country on a regular basis. The question is always the same: Did the majority of Christian Poles approve of, or even assist, the mass murder of Jews?

The country’s self-image as the most significant victim of the Nazi terror and the Second World War is at stake.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Flag Flying Protests Held on Streets of Belfast

Belfast has witnessed loyalist violence for the fifth night running. The unrest has been sparked by a council decision to stop flying the British flag over City Hall every day of the year.

Police in Northern Ireland clashed with rioters on the streets of Belfast for the fifth night running on Monday, as controversy over moves to stop flying the British flag continued.

The province’s police chief appealed to parents and politicians to respond to the situation.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

French Judges Reject Plea to Postpone Gerard Depardieu Trial

(AGI) Paris — Judges have rejected Gerard Depardieu’s request to postpone his trial on a charge of driving while drunk .

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

Greece: Operation Underway to Root Out Corruption

Politicians and large-scale tax evaders targeted by judiciary

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS — In his year-end address to the nation, Greece’s prime minister Antonis Samaras spoke on the issue of corruption, saying that “age-old impunity is about to end. Those expecting to continue in their old ways should keep in mind that from now on they will have to answer to the law and the justice system for it.” And, at least to judge from the investigations underway, it seems that a sort of “Operation Clean Hands” has finally begun in Greece.

According to reports in today’s economic daily Cosmos Tou Ependyti, after the initiating of an investigation against former socialist Finance Minister (for an alleged manipulation of the so-called Lagarde List, from which the names of some of his relatives are said to have disappeared), at least three other former ministers of the previous governments under Nea Dimokratia and Pasok will now be made to answer for similar irregularities, along with other Greek citizens that have taken large quantities of money abroad. The paper claims that the judiciary investigating financial crimes will soon be targeting two former ministers of Nea Dimokratia and one of Pasok involved in separate cases. However, the operation “Clean Political Hands”, as the Greek press has called it, does not seem to be limited to three ministers or other politicians whose names have emerged in old scandals, or to large-scale tax evaders. The judiciary may soon — some sources say they have already — be looking closely into the affairs of 54,000 Greeks with foreign bank accounts who are suspected of tax evasion. This will also be the case as concerns Greek clients of some banks in Liechtenstein and in Luxembourg, as well as those who have bought real estate recently in London.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Icelandic Power Export Plans Still a Pipe Dream

Iceland’s leading role in geothermal power is world renowned. The tiny country wants to sell more of its excess geothermal power and expertise overseas, but the plans are particularly ambitious.

Laugardalslaug, one of Iceland’s largest outdoor pools, is a hive of activity today, despite the fact that it is the middle of winter. The water is heated by geothermal energy just like all the other outdoor pools in the country.

Geothermal energy — heat energy that is generated and stored by the Earth — is also used as a power source too across Iceland, according to Bjarni Richter, an expert with Iceland Geosurvey. The island’s volcanic activity is what keeps the heat flowing. “Basically, we use the internal heat of the earth to boil water. That then turns into steam to drive turbines, and that then generates electricity,” he told DW.

Some 26% of the country’s power needs are covered by geothermal at the moment, which greatly reduces Iceland’s reliance on fossil fuels. “We live in a volcanically active country, where we have lot of shallow high-temperature areas where it is relatively easy and inexpensive to harness heat,” Richter said.

The main boom in Iceland’s geothermal energy sector came during the oil crisis in the 1970s, according to Richter. Back then, oil and gas costs started to move above geothermal energy prices.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

In Tense Swedish City, Young Muslim Crusades Against Anti-Semitism

The son of immigrants from Iran, Siavosh Derakhti recently won an award for his efforts to promote tolerance and educate about the Holocaust

On Nov. 8, the Swedish Committee Against Antisemitism gave out its first Elsa Award to a somewhat unlikely recipient: a young Muslim Swede named Siavosh Derakhti.

Derakhti, who has worked tirelessly to teach students about anti-Semitism in his hometown of Malmo, is the founder of his own organization, Young Muslims Against Antisemitism. His work frequently takes him across the country to educate students about anti-Jewish bigotry and the Holocaust.

The Elsa Award was created to encourage young people to incorporate social media into the battle against Swedish anti-Semitism, and was established by Committee member Henrik Frenkel in memory of his parents, both of whom survived the Holocaust. The award bears the name of Frenkel’s first grandchild.

Derakhti, 21, acknowledges that the road he has chosen is not the easiest. “I know what I’m doing is dangerous, but I know it’s also good, and receiving the Elsa Award helped confirm this,” he told The Times of Israel by phone.

A lifelong resident of Malmo, Derakhti was shocked when he first learned about anti-Semitism in the city, Sweden’s third-largest and the site of regular anti-Semitic attacks and intimidation.

‘My parents fled from dictatorship so their children could grow up in a peaceful place’

With an estimated 1,500 Jews among an overall population of 300,000, Malmo has also gained a reputation as the scene of some of the most hostile anti-Israel demonstrations in Europe in recent years. The city’s mayor, Ilmar Reepalu, has been criticized for blaming Jews for attacks against them, saying they must distance themselves from Israel. He was also forced to apologize for claiming, perversely, that they have ties to the country’s anti-Semitic far right.

“I found out Jews are fleeing Malmo, that they feel scared and unsafe on the streets,” says Derakhti, who is studying to be a youth worker at Malmo University and Folkhögskola Hvilan college, both in southern Sweden. “And then I thought that something needs to be done. We can’t keep on letting this happen — not in a country like Sweden, and not in my hometown of Malmo.”

Learning about anti-Semitism struck a chord in Derakhti, whose Turkish-Azerbaijani family left Iran during the country’s war with Iraq in hopes of an easier, safer life in Scandinavia.

“My parents fled from dictatorship so their children could grow up in a peaceful place and experience democracy, and then to come to a country where there is hate, discrimination and racism on our streets, this is not acceptable. Something must be done,” Derakhti says.

Derakhti decided to educate his fellow Swedes about anti-Semitism and the Holocaust after learning not only how little his high school classmates knew, but that his school, Malmös Latinskola, was not trying to change the situation.

“In 25 years, they hadn’t invited any Holocaust survivors, and then they wonder how there are so many people who deny the Holocaust or don’t know a lot,” Derakhti says…

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]

Italy: Vendola Criticizes Monti for Dodging Political Scuffles

Premier seeks referee role in campaign, Puglia governor says

(ANSA) — Rome, January 3 — Left-wing leader Nichi Vendola on Thursday criticized Premier Mario Monti for having entered the election fray without wanting “to actually take part” in the political scuffles ahead of the general elections next month. Vendola, who is the governor of the southern region of Puglia and whose Left Ecology Freedom (SEL) party is a principal ally of the Democratic Party (PD), slammed Monti for having what he described as a contrasting attitude in the campaign.

“Monti has entered the ring with the presumption of someone who wants to participate, while at the same time wanting to be the referee and decide who has won this match”, said Vendola. “There is an element of arrogance that must be rebuffed”. Monti resigned last month after 13 months at the helm of the eurozone’s third largest economy. Former European commissioner Monti said last month he would run for premier at the head of a group of parties willing to back his reform agenda.

Vendola said Monti was dominating the television airwaves with a “Berlusconi-like ability”.

“I have no advice to give to Monti, who has learned the rules of politics very quickly and has taken up the TV air waves and mass media with a Berlusconi-like capacity”, Vendola said.

“We need to give hope to Italy that there is the possibility of change and not to continue with the devastation of the social state”.

“This is the way to win and to govern the future of Italy”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Monti Says Berlusconi Party Becoming ‘Extreme, Sectarian’

Outgoing premier suggests Brunetta dictating PdL stances

(see related stories) (ANSA) — Rome, January 3 — Outgoing Italian Premier Mario Monti said Thursday that his predecessor Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party was increasingly adopting extreme positions on economic affairs.

Monti blamed the new direction on former civil service minister Renato Brunetta, an academic, economist and a senior PdL spokesman on economic affairs.

“From the point of view of the general economy, Brunetta is taking the PdL to extreme, sectarian positions with the authoritativeness of a professor and a certain academic stature,” Monti told Rai television.

The PdL has recently become highly critical of the austerity policies Monti’s emergency technocrat government adopted to steer Italy out of the centre of the eurozone crisis after taking power in November 2011.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Soccer: Man Cited for Racist Chants Against AC Milan

20-year-old faces charges of inciting racial hatred

(ANSA) — Milan, January 4 — A 20-year-old man was cited to prosecutors on Friday for allegedly taking part in the racist chants that caused AC Milan’s friendly at fourth-tier side Pro Patria to be abandoned.

Milan players walked off after racist jeers were directed at black players Kevin Prince Boateng, ‘Baye Niang, Urby Emanuelson and Sulley Muntari during Thursday’s match at Busto Arsizio, north of Milan.

The young man, who is unemployed and has no criminal record, is being probed for allegedly breaking a special Italian law against inciting racial hatred.

He is said to have admitted to being part of a group of fans who directed abuse at the players. Judicial sources said he is the only member of the group of Pro Patria fans involved to have been put under investigation so far. Boateng on Friday said he was grateful for the solidarity he received after leading the walk-off.

The Ghanaian midfielder picked up the ball and kicked it towards the supporters who were jeering and then took off his shirt and walked off the pitch.

Milan captain Massimo Ambrosini then led the rest of the team off and the game was abandoned. The club, the Italian Soccer Federation and the Italian professional footballers’ association all backed the players for standing up to racism, in addition to condemning the Pro Patria fans’ behaviour. Boateng also received solidarity via Twitter from fans and former and current soccer stars such as Marco Materazzi, Patrick Vieira and Shaun Wright-Phillips.

“Thank u all for the support and understanding…means a lot!!!” Boateng said on his Twitter account on Friday. Italian football has been battling racism in the stands for a number of years after several shameful high-profile incidents.

FIGC prosecutors are looking into the Pro Patria case.

Busto Arsizio Mayor Gigi Farioli on Friday apologised to Boateng and said he was misquoted after complaining about the midfielder hitting the ball into the stands rather than criticising the fans’ racism.

He added that Boateng would be a “sort of honorary citizen of Busto Arsizio” from now on, although he still insisted the player should not have kicked the ball into the crowd.

Pro Patria Chairman Pietro Vavassori said black people would be invited to attend the team’s next home game in the VIP section, in a gesture to show the club is not racist.

The head of the Italian Referees’ Association (AIA), meanwhile, defended match officials after they came under fire for not stopping the match earlier. AIA chief Marcello Nicchi said referees cannot abandon a game under current regulations as this power lies with interior ministry officials.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: South European Auto Market in Deep Crisis

Portuguese car sales -40-50%, negative outlook for 2013

(ANSAmed) — ROME, JANUARY 7 — In several southern European countries, car sales dropped significantly in 2012 over the previous year, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA). Car sales fell by 13.4% in Spain, by 14% in France, and by 20% in Italy, bringing it back to 1979 levels. In Portugal in the same period, private car sales fell by 44% and commercial vehicle sales dropped 54%, local media reported.

The negative trend looks set to continue in southern Europe, analysts said. “At best, the 2013 market will remain stable over 2012,” said a report by the French Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (CCFA).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Berlusconi Warns N. League on Going to Elections Alone

(AGI) — Rome, Jan 5 — Silvio Berlusconi, speaking in an interview on Espansione TV said, “I think it is completely irrational and suicidal for the League to go it alone (in the elections). They would be heading towards certain defeat, and instead of coming with a stronger identity, they would end up irrelevant. Only by allying themselves with us could Maroni obtain high percentages of victory. If, instead, they pass the region over to the left, the regional governments of Piedmont and Veneto would fall as well, and another 100 administrations in the north where we now govern together.” .

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

Italy’s Crammed Prison Cells Condemned by Strasbourg

Inmates held in ‘inhumane and degrading’ conditions

(ANSA) — Strasbourg, January 8 — The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg condemned Italy for inhumane and degrading treatment on Tuesday for detaining prisoners in crammed cells. The ruling dealt specifically with the case of seven inmates at prisons in Busto Arsizio and Piacenza, both in northern Italy, who had fewer than three square meters of space.

The country’s prison conditions have long been the source of criticism from human rights groups. Last month, the Permanent Observatory on Prison Deaths reported that inmate suicides in Italy are 20 times that of the general population, caused mostly by “environmental factors” and “illegal” detention conditions.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

New Belfast Unrest Worries Business Leaders

The latest flare-up of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland has business leaders warning about the damage that could be done to the region’s economy. Belfast has made strides in recent years as violence has waned, but peace and the economy remain fragile.

In Northern Ireland, it was hoped that an end to decades of unrest would finally result in an economic turnaround — one which would be instrumental to establishing lasting peace. And initially, it seemed to work. In the years following the signing of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which established a tentative peace between Protestant groups loyal to the United Kingdom and Catholic groups seeking union with Ireland, foreign investment rocketed upwards and business activity in Belfast also picked up.

More recently, however, the Northern Irish economy has been anything but dynamic, with negative effects of the recent downturn in the British economy being even more pronounced in Belfast and its surroundings than elsewhere in the UK. And now, with sectarian violence having flared up in recent weeks, local leaders are warning of its potential negative impact on business.

“Northern Ireland has been lagging behind the rest of the UK and our recovery has been slow,” Glyn Roberts of the Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “This has come at the worst possible time and my concern is that these protests are making the situation even worse.”

Roberts’ concern was echoed by Invest Northern Ireland. “A small number of potential investors have raised concerns about the current level of unrest,” the group said in a statement quoted by the Irish Times. “Invest NI is working closely with them to minimize the impact of any negative perceptions.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

UK: Burglars in Housebreaking Spree

Eight prolific burglars who grabbed property worth more than £150,000 from businesses across the country during a three-month rampage have been jailed for a total of 34 years. Ylli Leci, 38, Viktor Marku, 26, Bekim Sokoli, 36, and 30-year-old Klodian Haliti, were caught red-handed in February last year trying to break into a property in Bellfields near Guildford, Surrey. Further investigations revealed the Albanian gang were part of a larger criminal network that had been targeting restaurants, bookmakers and Bureaus de Change since December 2011.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

UK: Life Sentence for Father Who Killed Mother of His Three Children in Back of a Taxi After Social Worker ‘Let Slip’ That She Had Aborted His Fourth Child

A man who murdered the mother of his three young children in a ‘savage and prolonged’ knife attack in the back of a taxi has been jailed for life.

Junior Saleem Oakes, who killed Natasha Trevis five days after a social worker ‘let slip’ that she had aborted a fourth child, was ordered to serve at least 22 years before being considered for parole.

Birmingham Crown Court heard that Oakes, 28, of Birmingham, stabbed his victim a total of 26 times in the head, face, neck, chest, back and legs in the city last August.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

UK: Secret Government Documents Reveal Vaccines to be a Total Hoax

Through several Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, Dr. Tomljenovic was able to obtain transcripts of private meetings that were held between the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI), a so-called “independent expert advisory committee” that makes recommendations to the government about vaccine policy, and various British health ministers over the years. And after poring through this plethora of information, which had previously been veiled from public view, Dr. Tomljenovic made some disturbing discoveries.

“[T]he JCVI (Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization) made continuous efforts to withhold critical data on severe adverse reactions and contraindications to vaccinations to both parents and health practitioners in order to reach overall vaccination rates which they deemed were necessary for ‘herd immunity,’ a concept which … does not rest on solid scientific evidence,” explains Dr. Tomljenovic in the introduction to her paper.

“Official documents obtained from the U.K. Department of Health (DH) and the JCVI reveal that the British health authorities have been engaging in such practice for the last 30 years, apparently for the sole purpose of protecting the national vaccination program.”

Beginning on page three of her report, Dr. Tomljenovic begins outlining the sordid details of meetings held as early as 1981 where the JCVI clearly engaged in fraud, cover-up, and lies about vaccines to protect the vaccine industry, not children, from harm. Minutes from these meetings reveal that the JCVI actively tried to cover up severe side effects associated with common vaccines like measles and whooping cough (pertussis), both of which were clearly linked at the time to causing severe brain damage in a substantial percentage of the children that received them.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: The Lethal Million Volt Stun Guns Being Sold Online to Criminals for Just £90

Stun guns up to 20 times more powerful than police Tasers are being illegally imported into Britain.

The weapons, which can discharge up to one million volts, are highly prized by members of the criminal underworld.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

North Africa

David Ha’ivri: Wasn’t There a Revolution in Egypt?

– “These arrests and this harassment obviously call into question the sincerity of the new government in Egypt”

It has only been a few weeks since the people of Egypt approved their constitution, drafted on the banks of the Nile, expressing that the authority of government is granted by the people, in order to protect their rights and freedoms. In the opening eleven principles, we read of values shared by people throughout the free world: democracy, political pluralism, the dignity of the individual, freedom of thought and expression, equality for all citizens, women’s rights, the state’s respect for the law, righteousness and justice. Tears of joy could be shed at the idea that the Islamic Muslim Brotherhood led government has embraced such liberalism, offering new freedoms to their people after many years of oppressive, totalitarian governments.

Unfortunately, it seems that words don’t necessarily play out in actions. In an analysis titled “Egypt’s Sisyphean Struggle for Democracy,” published in The Wall Street Journal just before the referendum on the constitution, Professor Fouad Ajami describes how Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood movement rode the wave of the popular revolution staged by others, and slipped into the seat of power to replace the former oppressive dictatorship with their own.

The recent arrests of Egyptian journalists, bloggers and peace activists throw great shadows of doubt on the sincerity of the new constitution. Over the past few days, reports coming out of Egypt tell of arrests of journalists and bloggers who have criticized the policies of President Morsi…

           — Hat tip: TV [Return to headlines]

Hillary’s Benghazi Cover-Up 101 for Dummies

Picking up from yesterday’s installment of The Fix is in Part IV: The Handshake, there were two shows to watch during the Benghazi Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, held on December 20, 2012, to supposedly get to the bottom of the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, where four Americans were murdered: Ambassador Christopher Stevens, former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty, Tyrone Woods and Sean Smith, a computer expert.

The first show was a dog and pony show for the American people, to falsely assure them that their elected leaders were doing their jobs. As Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass) stated in his scripted authoritative opening statement, “From the very beginning of the Benghazi events, every member of this Committee has shared with the President and Secretary Clinton our determination to get all the facts about what happened and why in Benghazi.”

Don’t believe one word of that, as reported in The Fix is in Part I, the Obama-Clinton regime do not want you to know the truth—it is the second story-line that you should be following, and it’s called the cover-up. Let me take you behind the smoke and mirrors and show you how it is done.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians

Ancient Jewish Manuscripts, From Taliban Caves to Israel

Scholars excited about find, one attributed to Babylonian rabbi

(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, JANUARY 4 — One thousand years after they were written by highly-educated Jews who had made their home in a remote area on the edges of the Silk Route for trade-related purposes, a cache of Jewish manuscripts were presented to the press yesterday by officials from Israel’s National Library. Some of the manuscripts are private documents, while others have religious overtones. The officials said that the manuscripts would be photographed using advanced technological means as soon as possible and then made available on the web. A veil of mystery still hangs over the exact circumstances enabling the Israeli institute to get hold of the manuscripts, which were found a few years ago in caves in northeastern Afghanistan in an area used by the Taliban. The region is said to be an especially dry one, which made it possible to conserve the manuscripts written on paper possibly of Chinese origins.

Media outlets have given credence to the version claiming that foxes first dug into the ravine where hundreds of Jewish manuscripts had been kept for centuries, and that the cache later ended up in the hands of antiquities dealers. The National Library of Israel has purchased 29 for the time being and is negotiating for others. One of the institute’s experts, Professor Haggai Ben-Shammai, said that some of the manuscripts were written in Judeo-Arabic (Arabic words in Hebrew script) and Judeo-Persian (Persian words in Hebrew script). Others were instead written in an unusual form of Hebrew used in Baghdad in those times, which later disappeared. “If it is counterfeit,” Professor Ben-Shammai added, “then the counterfeiter must have been an ingenious, erudite individual.” The manuscripts show that the authors came from a wide variety of communities, including Aleppo (Syria) and Egypt. Several of the documents bear a date of the Islamic calendar, with the oldest dating back to February 1005.

Scholars who have tried their hand at deciphering have therefore now come into direct contact with an entirely unknown Jewish community, who evidently expressed themselves in Arabic and Persian. That said, a Hebrew grammar also surfaced along the sheets of paper. The most important manuscript is attributed to the rabbi of Egyptian origins Saadia Gaon, who went down in history books for having translated the main Jewish texts into Arabic and for running an important rabbinic school in Babylon, the Sura Academy.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Crowd for 48th Anniversary of Al-Fatah Overflows Gaza Square

Abu Mazen speaks by telephone; Haniyeh may also participate

(ANSAmed) — Gaza — An massive crowd overflowed downtown Gaza’s main square and all of its nearby streets for the 48-year anniversary celebration of the foundation of al-Fatah. It is the first time al-Fatah has been allowed to hold a demonstration of this kind since Hamas took control of Gaza by force in 2007.

Friday’s agenda includes the telephonic intervention of Abu Mazen, Presidente of Palestinian National Authority and greetings from various Palestine political factions, including Hamas. According to a tentative programme, the executive head of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, may also participate.

The celebrations, due to last a few hours, will include the performance of a well-known Palestinian folkloric ensemble, which arrived for the occasion last night.

Many Gaza residents spent the night camped in cars parked near the square, which on Friday morning was full of yellow al-Fatah flags. On the margins of the zone where the celebrations took place, Hamas police held vigil to keep public order.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Middle East

Emirates: Couple Wed on Skype, Arrested for Illicit Relation

Love in the time of internet in conflict with law, traditions

(ANSAmed) — Dubai, January 8 — He is a 39-year-old Pakistani cleric and she is a 19-year-old student who lives in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). They got regularly married on Skype under Islamic law with a person who performed the wedding and two witnesses. Three months later they consummated the marriage but the father of the bride has reported the man to Emirates authorities claiming he raped his daughter.

This peculiar love tale in the time of internet had a not so unexpected ending. The rape charges against the imam were dropped but the two lovers were jailed for having consensual extra-marital sex, which is a crime in the UAE. Though the wedding has become legal in Pakistan it is not considered valid by judges in the Emirates. The court charged with the case, however, has not issued a verdict yet.

The case has a precedent, though in a different country. In 2007 the influential conservative theological school of Darul Ulum DeoBand in India issued a fatwa (edict) recognizing web-cam marriages as legal provided the ceremony is performed in front of witnesses as provided by Islamic law.

The story shows how Islamic society — which is strongly embedded in the region’s traditions — is going through a technological evolution which cannot be stopped, as proven by the Arab influence seen on global platforms like Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Twitter.

Last November police in Dubai had cracked down on online weddings, revealing how frequently young people used the internet to meet each other in spite of the traditional use of match makers for this purpose.

Though 74% of UAE citizens use the internet, Umm Seud, a third-generation match maker does not feel threatened by the competition. ‘Internet has no credibility’, she said. ‘It makes lies easier and it is too cold’, she noted, proud of her 70 clients a week, 50 of whom will on average get married thanks to her, she claimed.

Relations are however moving outside traditions towards the broader, freer confines of the internet in spite of resistance from local societies. This is also visible with the growing number of online sexual crimes according to police data.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Iraq: More Christian Blood in Mosul, Car Bomb Kills Christian University Student

The bomb went off in front of a supermarket near the local university. The medical student, who was in his last year of study, was killed instantly. Dozens of other people were hurt in the blast, which caused widespread material damage. The violence, sources tell AsiaNews, is the result of a power struggle between Sunni, Shia and Kurdish groups to divide the country into enclaves.

Mosul (AsiaNews) — More Christian blood was shed today in Mosul, northern Iraq. A Christian university student was in fact killed by a car bomb, a day after the body of a 54-year-old Christian teacher, Shdha Elias, was found, her throat cut.

These deaths, involving members of the Christian minority, are an illustration of the rising tensions in the city and across the country as Sunnis, Shias, Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen vye for power and control.

Against a backdrop of a Kurdish president, Jalal Talabani, still in poor health after suffering a stroke last month, and persistent political uncertainty, tensions are fast rising. The inability of the central government in Baghdad to cope with terrorist attacks is not helping either.

In Mosul, the car bomb exploded this morning in front of a supermarket in al Alamia, near the city’s university, local sources told AsiaNews.

The dead man was Ayyoub Fauzi Auyyoub Al Sheikh, a Christian medical student on his last year of study. Eyewitnesses said he died instantly, and that dozens of people were wounded from the blast, which caused major material damages.

For the past two weeks, the atmosphere in the city has been getting worse, the more so since the local administration and the central government in Baghdad have been involved in a tug-of-war.

The city’s governor, Athil Al Nujjaifi, is a member of an Islamist party close to the Muslim Brotherhood. He is also the brother of Ussama Al Nujjaifi, speaker of the National Assembly.

“Sunnis control the cities of Anbar, Diala, Salah addin’, Tikrit, Mosul and Kirkuk with Kurdish support,” Iraq experts explained. Their alliance is in opposition to Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, who is a Shia. Their aim is “to divide the country into enclaves.”

Minorities are the biggest losers from all this, including Christians who have no power base or group that can defend their interests.

Since the US invasion of 2003, which led to the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s Christian community lost more than half of its members.

In the case of the Christian teacher, whose body was found yesterday, other anonymous sources said that she “lived alone” and was “an easy target for criminals.” For them, she “was probably killed during a robbery.” Yesterday, after her body was recovered and prepared, she was buried right away.

In the past, Mosul saw other major Christian figures murdered, including abducted Bishop Faraj Rahho, and Fr Ragheed Ganni. (DS)

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

Solar Power Sparks Innovation in Oil-Rich Qatar

Sunshine is abundant in Qatar. All that untapped solar power could create a new energy economy in this oil-rich nation. Researchers are already testing solar-powered cooling systems and water desalination plants.

Researcher Nesrin Ozalp slides on a pair of big, black, UV resistant sunglasses and enters her lab in the research facility at Texas A&M University in Qatar’s capital city Doha. In the center of the room bright rays of light beam from what looks like a baking over. It’s Ozalp’s solar simulator.

“It generates high-temperature radiation that is exactly like the solar energy, which we need for our experiments,” she told DW.

Ozalp is an associate professor with the university’s mechanical engineering program. She is developing a reactor to utilize solar power. But this system isn’t intended as a power source for machines. She uses the concentrated solar energy to break down natural gas into its two components: carbon and hydrogen.

Natural gas is an extremely valuable commodity that can be burned to heat homes or fuel cars. So it may seem odd that Ozalp is destroying it. But, she explains, on the global markets for chemicals, hydrogen and carbon are in high demand.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

South Asia

British Soldier Shot Dead in ‘Insider Attack by Rogue Member of Afghan Army’

A British soldier has been killed in yet another ‘insider attack’ in the war-torn country.

The killer, a suspected rogue member of the Afghan National Army, first opened fire on his colleagues, before turning his weapon on UK soldiers in the small Patrol Base Hazrat in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand Province yesterday.

Return fire then killed the gunman at the scene, the Ministry of Defence said.

An MoD official in Kabul, who asked to remain anonymous, said six British soldiers were also wounded in the incident.

These so-called ‘green-on-blue’ attacks have caused the deaths of all six British soldiers who have died during the current tour, Herrick 17.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Compulsory Anti-Rape Overgarments in India’s Pondicherry

(AGI) New Delhi, Jan 6 — Female students in India’s Pondicherry district, where the average year-round temperature is 30 degrees, are being forced to wear overgarments. Local media have described this as one of the local government’s measures for combating the wave of sexual violence that has swept through the country. Pondicherry is a former French colony.

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

High Doses of Medical Corruption Worldwide

When it comes to corrupt doctors, the question is not whether, but to what extent. German doctors sometimes pocket gifts from pharmaceutical companies. In Zimbabwe, patients who can’t afford care are often left to die.

According to the German medical professional code, it’s forbidden for a doctor to accept gifts in exchange for services. But in practice, an established doctor in Germany need not worry about being punished if he or she accepts a gift from a pharmaceutical company. The German penal code currently lacks the necessary legislation to deal with such infractions, and they are only rarely punished in German occupational courts.

Nevertheless, in comparison to other countries, Germany’s healthcare system has relatively good checks and balances. Elsewhere, especially in countries where doctors are chronically underpaid, corruption is the rule, not the exception. It is also far more likely to impact on those suffering from illnesses, often resulting in avoidable deaths.

Joost Butenop works as a doctor in Zimbabwe, Pakistan and Malaysia. In Transparency International’s latest Corruption Perceptions Index Germany ranks 13th, while Zimbabwe comes in at 163 out of 174.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

India: Fury as Guru Blames Student for Her Own Rape and Murder

A SPIRITUAL guru caused outrage in India yesterday by claiming a student who was gang-raped and murdered was partly to blame for the attack.

Asaram Bapu was condemned by politicians and campaigners after accusing tragic Jyoti Singh Pandey of being “as guilty as the rapists”.

The controversial figure said Jyoti, 23, should have been friendly towards her attackers if she wanted to live.

Indian newspapers yesterday quoted Bapu, who controls more than 300 ashrams, as saying: “She should have called the culprits brothers and begged before them to stop. This could have saved her dignity and life.”

He reportedly said the tragedy had unleashed an “anti-men” campaign in India. The bearded 71-year-old called for the law to be changed so “cheap women” did not abuse it.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

Far East

China to Build Another 100 Petaflops Hybrid Supercomputer by 2014?

We passed through the 10 petaflops barrier in the supercomputer racket last year, and the next station on the train to exaflops is 100 petaflops.

China already admitted at last year’s International Super Computing ‘12 shindig that it was working on a kicker to Tianhe-1A hybrid CPU-GOU supercomputer, with the goal of having the Tianhe-2 machine reaching 100 petaflops of peak performance by 2015. And now, the Chinese government, which is flush with trillions of dollars in cash, could be moving the schedule forward by as much as a year — and perhaps with a totally different machine.

A report in Singapore-based VR-Zone by Theo Valich claims inside information on a 100 petaflopper is being commissioned by the Chinese Ministry of Science to be used in space exploration and healthcare research. It will consist of over around 100,000 of Intel’s “Ivy Bridge-EP” Xeon E5-2600 v2 processors and the same number of the next-generation “Knights Landing” Xeon Phi multicore x86 coprocessors.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Australia — Pacific

Australians Told to Flee Homes Over Fires

Australian firefighters and public figures have implored those in the path of the country’s raging fires to leave their homes early. Bushfires are burning in five out of six of Australia’s states.

Australian officials told householders in areas threatened by bushfires to flee their homes on Tuesday as temperatures continued to rise and outback winds fanned flames across the country.

“You don’t get conditions worse than this,” Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said on what was anticipated to be Sydney’s third-hottest day for 150 years.

“We’re at the catastrophic level and clearly in those areas, leaving early is your safest option,” Fitzsimmons advised.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Plan for Muslim Housing Enclave in Sydney Suburbs

AN interest-free housing project aimed at the Muslim community and boasting 100 per cent halal housing has sparked a major row, with critics labelling it a discriminatory plan that could lead to a Muslim enclave.

Qartaba Homes’ plan offers “100 per cent Halal housing to the growing Muslim community of Australia” in the heart of the northwestern Sydney suburb of Riverstone.

While the company has insisted people from all religious backgrounds are free to take up the offer, it advises that the loans are “100 per cent Halal” and a “chance to escape Riba (interest)” because interest is a sin under Islamic law.

Qartaba Homes director Khurram Jawaid said it was the real estate deal of a lifetime, open to Australians of all faiths and backgrounds, but the state MP for Hawkesbury Ray Williams said the project was divisive.

“I can only imagine the repercussions if a developer were to advertise a new Judeo-Christian housing estate; they would be hung, drawn and quartered,” Mr Williams said.

“I hardly think the advertisement for a 100 per cent halal Muslim housing community is inclusive; it’s very divisive and I’m sure it will be viewed that way by the majority of fair-minded Australians.”Blacktown councillor Alan Pendleton said the community was concerned it could turn into an enclave.

“There’s great concern about … what they consider could be an enclave. (There’s a belief) you have to be a Muslim, otherwise they won’t sell you a site,” Mr Pendleton said

The proposed development is on land bordered by Riverstone Rd, McCulloch St and Cranbourne St with the company planning to subdivide the land, along with a smaller parcel in Gordon St, Schofields.”Our philosophy is interest-free, pay as you own,” Mr Jawaid said.

“You don’t have to go to a bank or a financial institution.

“It’s open to everyone.

“From the business point of view, we can’t do it that way (Muslims only).”

While subdivision plans have yet to be presented to Blacktown Council, the company has already “booked out” virtually all of the proposed 150 lots in Riverstone and 30 in Schofields.

Land parcels range from 400sq m to 800sq m and are being offered at $85,000 plus charges, including a booking deposit of 30-35 per cent and a 24-30 month interest-free payment plan.

Blacktown Council is investigating the deal, with the mayor Len Robinson saying there is no application before council for a subdivision, but pre-lodgment plans have been given to council.

The company has bought the land from various owners, but Mr Jawaid said Muslim take-up of the offer was “not that overwhelming”.

The aim is for work to be finished by 2014, but go-ahead is needed from Blacktown Council and Sydney Water, which has yet to connect the land to the water network.

A spokesperson for Fair Trading Minister Anthony Roberts said the department had found no grounds for discrimination action against the Qartaba Homes flyer.

           — Hat tip: Nilk [Return to headlines]

Latin America

Ahead of Brazil World Cup, Free English Classes Planned for Prostitutes

Sao Paulo, Brazil (CNN) — Taxi drivers and bellboys aren’t the only ones going back to school to learn a little English ahead of the 2014 World Cup to be hosted in various cities across Brazil.

In the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte, prostitutes are lining up for free English classes that will be offered by the regional Association of Prostitution starting in March.

“Across Brazil, lots of businesses in the private sector are getting prepared and making their workers more qualified for the Cup. Well, this is a profession, too,” Cida Vieira, the president of the association, told CNN in a telephone interview.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Gold-Plated: Diamond-Studded Ak-47 Seized in Honduras

(AGI) Tegucigalpa — A gold-plated Kalashnikov AK-47 studded with diamonds and emeralds, valued at 50,000 dollars, has been seized in Honduras.

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

Luis Fleischmann: Some Reflections Over Speculations on Venezuela’s Future

There is a great deal of speculation these days about the immediate political future after Chavez’ expected death.

Some analysts, like Amherst University professor Javier Corrales argue that regardless of what happens, the next government will have to deal with a serious problem left behind by Chavez . This problem centers on the previous irrational approach to government spending in which money was used as an instrument of political influence domestically and abroad. Government officials never worried or valuated whether these expenditures made sense or whether they were creating a huge deficit and debt. Therefore, Corrales believes that the main challenge for Venezuelan leaders will be economic adjustment and that no successor will have the same level of largesse or fiscal irrationality as Chavez had.

However, there are other commentators who focus more on the ideological differences and potential conflicts that may ensue after Chavez’s departure.

They view Chavismo as being deeply divided between the military and the civilian factions. This division was kept together under Chavez but it is likely to explode after the commander’s death…

[Return to headlines]

Culture Wars

Italy: Berlusconi Would Recognise Common-Law Unions, Gays Included

Centre right will change civil code ‘if majority allows’

(see related story on Berlusconi) (ANSA) — Rome, January 7 — Former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi said Monday that the centre right would pass legislation to recognise common-law marriages, including those between people of the same sex, if it wins a strong majority in next month’s general elections.

Berlusconi nodded when asked on an Italian radio show if he was in favour of granting legal status to couples who live together, including gays, and added that the centre right would address the issue “if there is a majority that makes it possible to change the civil code”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

General

Bioinitiative Report: Overwhelming Scientific Evidence of Health Risks From Wireless Devices and Other Forms of EMF

(NaturalNews) A shocking new report by the BioInitiative Working Group 2012 says that evidence for risks to health from wireless technologies (radiofrequency radiation) and electromagnetic fields (EMFs) has substantially increased since 2007. Cell phone users, parents-to-be, young children and pregnant women are said to be at particular risk.

The study examines EMF exposures from wireless technologies including cell and cordless phones, cell towers, ‘smart meters’, WI-FI, wireless laptops, wireless routers, baby monitors, and similar electronic devices and from power lines, electrical wiring and other appliances.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20130107

Financial Crisis
» Greece: Deficit 2012 to be 0.5% Less Than Forecast
» Greek People Warned Over Fuel Choice
» Italian Spread Drops to Lowest Level Since August 2011
» Italy: CGIL Shoots Back at Monti for Calling Union Obstructionist
» Model Reformer in Trouble Ireland Lobbies to Have Europe Share Banking Risk
» South European Auto Market in Deep Crisis
» Spain: Protests in Madrid Against Health Reform
» Spanish Pamplona’s Locksmiths Boycott Evictions
» Swiss-Based Bank Group Eases Crisis Rules
 
USA
» CAIR vs. The Truth
» Fiat 500 Has Record North American Year as Sales Top 50,000
» Frank Gaffney: Al Gore Profits From the Stealth Jihad
» Let’s Not Give Up on the Constitution
 
Europe and the EU
» Britain’s Political Poltergeist Cameron Succumbs to Growing Europhobia
» Denmark: Skål! 2012 Was Record Year for Beer
» French Socialists Struggle With Millionaire Tax
» German Bigotry Shifting From Race to Religion
» Germany: 3-D Printing Technology May Bring New Industrial Revolution
» Italian MEPs ‘Top’ For Questions, Lagging in Attendance
» Italy: Monti Drops Impartial Front, Fires on Left and Right
» Italy: Berlusconi Says Bersani is Real Opponent, Not Monti
» Italy: Soccer: Milan’s Boateng Grateful for Solidarity Over Racism
» Italy: Berlusconi Reaches Deal With League, Ready to be Economy Min
» Italy: Berlusconi Gains 10 Points in 15 Days of Campaigning
» Italy: Undertaker Providing Muslim Funeral Services Opens in Padua
» Post-Holiday Sales Kick Off in Southern Italy
» Supporting Our Own Demise: Part 1
» Sweden: Courts Could be Forced to Hire Interpreters
» UK: EDL Leader Lennon Jailed for Passport Offence
» UK: Enoch Powell Widow ‘Furious’ Over ‘Ludicrous’ Slur That Portrays Her Husband as a Nazi Sympathiser
» UK: iPhone User Hit With £19,000 Orange Bill for ‘Excessive Internet Usage’ After Fault With Mobile
» UK: Mother Jailed for Minimum of 17 Years for Beating Seven-Year-Old Son to Death With a Stick Because He Couldn’t Recite Koran
» Vatican Bank Card Payments Suspended by Italy
 
North Africa
» Egypt: Army Foils Attempt to ‘Bomb Coptic Church’ In Sinai
» Milk Emergency in Tunisia, Massive Purchases From Abroad
» The Power Elite and the Muslim Brotherhood, Part 17
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Livni Fails to Form Israeli Anti-Netanyahu Coalition
 
Middle East
» Al Jazeera a Muslim Brotherhood Front?
» Bahrain: Top Court Upholds Life Sentences Against 20 Actvists
» Iraq: Christian Teacher Has Throat Cut in Mosul, Plunging City in Fear Again
» Saudi Arabia: 90-yo Man Pays $17,500 for 15-yo Runaway Bride
» Turkey’s Erdogan Calls for Joint Peace Deal on Kurdish Problem
 
South Asia
» India: 4 Dead, Curfew Imposed After Clashes at Maharashtra’s Dhule Town
 
Far East
» Blame Bacteria if You Start Putting on Weight
 
Australia — Pacific
» Australian Bushfires: Rescue Workers Search for Missing
 
Latin America
» Fiat Has Record Year in Brazil as 2012 Sales Jump 11%
 
Immigration
» Greece: Over 1,000 Illegals Repatriated in December
 
Culture Wars
» Gay Marriage: 69% of French Want Referendum, Ifop Survey
 
General
» ‘Exocomets’ Common Across Milky Way Galaxy

Financial Crisis

Greece: Deficit 2012 to be 0.5% Less Than Forecast

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JANUARY 4 — Greece’s 2012 budget will close “slightly better” than expected, according to a top Finance Ministry official, which creates a small cushion for this year and sends a message to the country’s creditors that Greece is on the right path. According to sources, as daily Kathimerini reports, the state budget will show a deficit that is smaller than forecast by about 0.5% of gross domestic product, or almost 1 billion euros. A clearer picture will emerge in the second half of January, while the financial year will conclude at end-February when the last tax revenues for 2012 will be cashed in. This positive development is exclusively attributed to the considerable drop in state spending, as revenues are actually smaller than in 2011. Nevertheless there are still some issues regarding the expenditure side, which mostly concern covering the needs of social security funds.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Greek People Warned Over Fuel Choice

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JANUARY 4 — With government-imposed tax hikes making the cost of heating oil prohibitive for many Greeks, they’re now being warned to be careful what they burn in their fireplaces and wood stoves as soot and smoke are filling the night air, making it unhealthy, as GreekReporter website writes. The Ministry of Environment has advised people not to use fuels that are polluting, although that’s the only choice left for many who can’t afford heating oil that is running at 1.50 euros per liter. The country’s Network Monitoring Station of Air Pollution has recorded, especially in Athens, unusually high levels of suspended particles, particularly at night, when people who stay outside for any period of time find their clothes and hair smell like they’ve been near a fire. More wood being burnt together with Athens’ geographical position, is causing more smog and more potentially harmful particles in the air, health officials said. At dusk, a sooty smog can be seen covering Athens these nights. In many parts of Greece, this has been a relatively mild winter so far but if colder weather sets in, the use of fireplaces and wood stoves is expected to increase considerably, further polluting the air.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italian Spread Drops to Lowest Level Since August 2011

Fell as low as 276 points in today’s trading

(ANSAmed) — Rome — The yield spread between 10-year Italian bonds and the German benchmark one, a barometer of Italy’s borrowing costs in the eurozone crisis, fell as low as 276 points in Thursday’s trading. The spread had not dropped under 276 points since August 2011. The yield spread between 10-year Italian bonds and the German benchmark one, a barometer of Italy’s borrowing costs in the eurozone crisis, fell as low as 276 points in Thursday’s trading. The spread had not dropped under 276 points since August 2011, three months before then premier Silvio Berlusconi was forced to resign amid a spiralling debt crisis, after which Mario Monti took over with an emergency technocrat government. Italian 10-year yields were trading at 4.2%. Italian two-year bond yields were trading at 1.7%, the lowest levels since October 2010.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: CGIL Shoots Back at Monti for Calling Union Obstructionist

Premier ‘doesn’t know this country’ says Camusso

(see related stories) (ANSA) — Rome, January 3 — The head of Italy’s biggest trade union confederation shot back at outgoing Premier Mario Monti on Thursday for accusing the left-wing CGIL of obstructing structural economic reforms. “He doesn’t know this country,” said CGIL Secretary-General Susanna Camusso. “He offers criticism but very few proposals. If he’s decided to stand in elections he should discuss his platforms”. Earlier Thursday, Monti called on the center-left Democratic Party (PD) to silence the anti-reform elements within its ranks, which was seen as a jab at the CGIL and other groups.

Monti, who has been at the helm of an emergency technocrat government since November 2011, is standing to retain office on a reform platform. “We’ve all seen his so-called reforms,” added Camusso.

“Poverty, unemployment and human frailty are all on the rise in this country”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Model Reformer in Trouble Ireland Lobbies to Have Europe Share Banking Risk

Ireland’s reform policies have been widely praised for helping it emerge from the crisis, but the truth is bleaker. If the government fails to get European taxpayers to assume some of the risk of its ailing banking sector, the country could soon require another bailout.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

South European Auto Market in Deep Crisis

(ANSAmed) — ROME, JANUARY 7 — In several southern European countries, car sales dropped significantly in 2012 over the previous year, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA). Car sales fell by 13.4% in Spain, by 14% in France, and by 20% in Italy, bringing it back to 1979 levels. In Portugal in the same period, private car sales fell by 44% and commercial vehicle sales dropped 54%, local media reported.

The negative trend looks set to continue in southern Europe, analysts said. “At best, the 2013 market will remain stable over 2012,” said a report by the French Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (CCFA).

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Spain: Protests in Madrid Against Health Reform

Thousands against healthcare privatization

(ANSAmed) — Madrid, January 7 — Thousands of doctors working for public healthcare and citizens marched on Monday in downtown Madid against the approval of a regional budget law providing, among other things, for the privatization of six hospitals and of 27 of the 270 regional health centres.

The march started in the Neptune square until Puerta del Sol where a minute of silence was observed to commemorate ‘the death of public healthcare’.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Spanish Pamplona’s Locksmiths Boycott Evictions

Refuse to collaborate with banks, courts: ‘We have our dignity’

(ANSAmed) — MADRID — The Assembly of Professional Locksmiths of the Spanish city of Pamplona, the capital of Navarre, will no longer aid authorities in evicting delinquent homeowners. The locksmiths said they would not assist in evictions that led to at least nine suicides over the past few months, and which have affected 400,000 people since the economic crisis began.

“It will affect us economically, but we have our dignity,” Assembly President Iker de Carlos told reporters. “From now on they will have to call locksmiths outside Navarre. What you see on television is different from when you go there. You know you’re helping to kick people out of their home, to stay on top of a perpetual debt that you will have to keep paying. We know that we will not start a revolution, but we want to serve as a example to Navarre society.” In Spain, locksmiths are called in by the courts to change the locks on a home once its occupants have been evicted.

Locksmiths throughout the country are evaluating the Pamplona action as an example to follow. “We are professionals, but we are people first,” Spanish Federation of Locksmiths President David Ormaechea told El Pais newspaper. “We can no longer participate in these terrible events without having a say.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Swiss-Based Bank Group Eases Crisis Rules

The world’s top banking regulatory body, based in Switzerland, is easing the first global liquidity rules scheduled to apply to banks in 2015 and aimed at improving their ability to survive financial crises.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision said at a press conference in the Swiss city on Sunday that it had widened the definition of the easy-to-sell assets that banks will have to hold to survive periods of stress.

The Basel III standards had been initially proposed in 2010 but banks and financial institutions have since lobbied intensively to make the rules more flexible and result in lower costs for the sector.

The details of the Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR), which was drafted to avoid a repeat of the 2008 banking crisis and unanimously endorsed on Sunday by the Basel group’s top oversight body, give the banks a reprieve.

Its provisions include a much broader definition of the minimum assets every bank needs to hold, making it less costly for them to maintain the required buffer.

“The changes to the definition of the LCR, developed and agreed by the Basel Committee over the past two years, include an expansion in the range of assets eligible as HQLA (high quality liquid assets),” the committee said.

The new LCR’s full details will also be fully implemented only in 2019, instead of 2015 as initially proposed.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

USA

CAIR vs. The Truth

As Robert Spencer explains, the term “ Islamist” implies “ that Islam itself, in its authentic form, has no requisite political aspect, and no incompatibility with Western values or democratic government. The problem with this is that it is a Western, artificial distinction, imposed by non-Muslims upon the Islamic world and lacking any real substance with reference to Islamic law as it has always been formulated by the Sunni and Shi’ ite madhahib (schools of jurisprudence). Islam has always been political, and the union of religion and the state has always been essential to its political program; the idea that all this can and should be separated from Islam proper is the wishful thinking of Western analysts who do not wish to face the implications of the fact that these ideas represent mainstream Islamic thinking.”

But what is interesting is that now even this whitewashed term “ Islamist” is unacceptable to our Islamic overlords. Muslim Brotherhood groups in the United States like Hamas-CAIR have gotten so brazen and supremacist that they are condemning the use of a word that has been widely and generally used to do what they have for years tried to bully and intimidate everyone into doing: denying any connection between Islam on the one hand and jihad violence and Islamic supremacism on the other.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Fiat 500 Has Record North American Year as Sales Top 50,000

Sales jump 50% in December, 121% on the year

(ANSA) — New York, January 3 — US sales of the Fiat 500 mini car jumped by 50% in December and by 121% over the full year, the Turin-based company said Thursday.

The December figures for the Fiat brand — which only sells the 500 under its brand badge in North America — was the best for all group brands in that market and marked the 10th consecutive month of record sales.

Fiat also controls Chrysler and its Dodge and Jeep brands.

In terms of models, the 500 saw sales jump 64% compared with December 2011, while sales of the convertible increased 39% on the year-earlier month. For the whole year, 500 sales reached 43,772 units, up 121% on 2011.

Sales of the 500 in the US, Canada and Mexico topped 50,000 units in 2012. In 2011, the 500 was sold only for 10 months, from its launch in March to the end of the year.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Frank Gaffney: Al Gore Profits From the Stealth Jihad

Let’s call it Al Goreera. That seems a fitting title for the new network that former Vice President Al Gore is launching with the jihadists’ favorite television outlet: Al Jazeera. The effect will be to create vast new opportunities for our enemies to propagandize the American people, a key ingredient of their “civilization jihad” against our country.

It is hard to overstate the magnitude of this treachery. Imagine the furor that would have erupted if, during the Cold War, one of the United States’ most prominent former leaders had enriched himself to the tune of $100 million by giving the Soviet Union’s intelligence service, the KGB, a vehicle for engaging in information and political warfare in some 40 million homes across this land. If anything, the danger posed by Al-Goreera today is even greater since most of us — and especially our elites — are unaware that such warfare is even afoot…

           — Hat tip: CSP [Return to headlines]

Let’s Not Give Up on the Constitution

A whole generation of students are being taught that the Constitution is unimportant, and if anything, a hindrance.

As my nephew reviewed his history book, he became excited when he noticed an entire chapter of the text book was dedicated to the United States Constitution. Like his Uncle Doug, Branden loves history, and has studied extensively the various Founding Fathers, and the Constitutional Convention.

The opportunity to discuss the law of the land in class was more than he ever expected. Branden waited patiently through the school year as the class marched through the textbook, chapter by chapter. When it finally came time for the chapter on the Constitution, the teacher skipped it, and went on to the following chapter in the book.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU

Britain’s Political Poltergeist Cameron Succumbs to Growing Europhobia

Britain’s right-wing conservative movement is making life difficult for Prime Minister David Cameron. The UK Independence Party wants to lead the country out of the EU, and its approval ratings are higher than ever. As the pressure mounts, Cameron has been at pains to outline a clear stance on Europe.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Denmark: Skål! 2012 Was Record Year for Beer

756 new brews hit the domestic market last year, adding to the nation’s growing drinking options

For Denmark’s beer fans, 2012 was a banner year.

Beer drinkers were treated to 756 new beers on the Danish market during the course of the last year according to numbers from Beerticker/Beerticker PRO, which has kept tabs on the domestic beer market since 2007. The new brews set a record, besting the 647 new beers that were introduced in 2008.

While powerhouse Carlsberg may market itself as ‘probably the best beer in the world’, it is now far from the only beer available in Denmark. In the past decade alone, 4,645 new beers have been introduced to the market.

In 2012’s record-setting year, 11 new breweries popped up nationwide, bringing the total to 132, including five on the Faroe Islands and Greenland.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

French Socialists Struggle With Millionaire Tax

Disagreements have emerged between members of France’s Socialist-led government over a bill to tax the country’s highest earners, after the original 75% law championed by François Hollande was struck down by France’s highest court.

France’s ruling Socialist government was struggling to rebound a week after the Constitutional Council struck down its law to tax the country’s highest earners at a 75% rate, with government ministers publicly disagreeing on how to rescue one of President François Hollande’s flagship measures.

On Sunday, Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici told France Inter radio that the bill was being re-written and that it would be an “exceptional, temporary” law that should not outlive France’s current economic slump.

Moscovici’s words appeared to contradict comments made earlier in the day by Budget Minister Jérôme Cahuzac, who spoke of a “permanent” tax that would be on the books no later than the autumn of 2013.

In late December France’s top court ruled against a law that would have taxed individual revenues above 1 million euros per year at 75%, claiming that the move was “excessive” and would unfairly target certain households because it singled out individuals instead of couples who file taxes jointly.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

German Bigotry Shifting From Race to Religion

A new study warns that Islamophobia in Germany becoming culturally acceptable, as racism moves away from ethnicity towards religious bias against Muslims.

“It’s no longer ‘the Turks’ but ‘the Muslims’,” Wilhelm Heitmeyer, head of the institute for research of interdisciplinary conflict and violence at Bielefeld University told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung on Monday. Research has led him to be concerned general xenophobia had given way to a growing rejection of Islam in Germany.

His theory is not new — a study from Münster university found that in 2010, 66 percent of western Germans and 74 percent of eastern Germans had a negative attitude towards Muslims.

And a more recent study from the Allensbach Institute suggested that this had not changed over the past two years, as only 22 percent of Germans asked said they agreed with Germany’s ex-President Christian Wulff’s statement that Islam, like Christianity, was a part of Germany.

Heitmeyer also found that Islamophobia seemed to exist not only in the far-right, but was also present in more left-leaning and centrist circles. The sentiment was identifiable throughout the country, from the highest echelons of society to the lowest.

Neo-Nazi expert from Düsseldorf technical university Alexander Häusler told the newspaper that while discriminating against an entire ethnicity was a taboo, religion-based racism was generally considered to be exercising freedom of opinion.

“Criticism of Islam or Muslims appear acceptable, because it is not seen as classically racist,” said Häusler.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Germany: 3-D Printing Technology May Bring New Industrial Revolution

3-D printing technology, used industrially for the last few decades, is poised to break into the mass market. Its endless and swiftly developing possibilities — from entrepreneurial manufacturing to the potential sculpting of human organs — could become the next industrial revolution.

When the TV series Star Trek first brought the starship Enterprise into German living rooms, the concept of a replicator was pure science fiction, a fantastical utopian vision we might experience one day centuries in the future. Replicators, something of a mixture between computer and miniature factory, were capable of creating food and replacement parts from next to nothing. They were highly practical devices, since Captain Kirk couldn’t exactly take along a lot of supplies for his journeys through outer space. That futuristic vision, though, has receded far into the past — overtaken by the present.

The real-world replicator-like technology poised to revolutionize the world is known as 3-D printing, though that term is misleading, since the process has little to do with printing. Three-dimensional printers can be as small as a suitcase or as large as a telephone booth, depending on the object they are meant to faithfully replicate from a 3-D computer blueprint. Inside the machine, the product is assembled by stacking extremely thin layers of material on top of one another, sort of like reassembling an apple that has been cut into super-fine slices.

Many different technological routes can be taken to reach the same goal. In one variation, nozzles spray liquid material into layers. Another method, which produces even better results, aims laser beams at finely powdered material, causing the grains to fuse together at precisely the spot where the beam hits. All 3-D printing techniques, however, follow the same principle: The object grows layer by layer, each one just a few hundredths of a millimeter thick, until it acquires the desired shape. This technique can be applied to steel, plastic, titanium, aluminum and many other metals.

Assembling, screwing together, adhering, welding — all these processes are rendered obsolete when even the most complex shapes can be produced by a single machine using this casting technique. The end result can be an artificial hip, a hearing aid, a cell phone case, customized footwear or even the Urbee, a prototype car that has been making a splash.

Engineers at the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) have used this technique to print out an entire bicycle that only needs added tires and a chain to be fully functional. British researchers, meanwhile, have printed a maneuverable drone with a rear-engine drive. Printed components are also used in Formula 1 racing and at NASA. Dental laboratories use 3-D printers to produce crowns, while doctors experiment with artificial heart tissue. Filmmakers also print animation models and automotive parts suppliers create replacement parts.

The printing of electronic components is even in the works. American corporation Xerox, for example, has developed a silver ink that functions as an electrical conductor and can be printed directly onto plastic or other materials, making it possible to integrate simple circuits into printed objects.

Given the potentially vast global impact of this new technology, it’s surprising that so far only around two dozen companies dominate the market. Along with US giants 3-D Systems and Stratasys, about 10 German companies provide this technology, some of them market leaders in their respective segments, for example Eos and Concept Laser, both in the southern state of Bavaria.

Some of these German 3-D printing specialists are growing at a rate that has some industry experts hoping this nascent digital industrial age will finally see the emergence of new innovation drivers “made in Germany.” German companies are seen as leaders, especially when it comes to 3-D printing of metals.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Italian MEPs ‘Top’ For Questions, Lagging in Attendance

Country delegation ranks 24th in showing up to sessions

(ANSA) — Brussels, January 4 ; Italy’s 73 representatives to the European Parliament came top in terms of the number of questions presented but showed a poor attendance record, recent data showed. The Italian delegation stood at 24th place for average attendance by its members at plenary sessions according to the website MEPranking.eu, based on figures updated to December 30. Mara Bizzotto of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy group was the Italian MEP with the record for greatest involvement and Francesca Barracciu of the Socialists and Democrats was the Italian MEP with the record for least involvement.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Monti Drops Impartial Front, Fires on Left and Right

Outgoing premier hits out at ‘volatile’ Berlusconi

(ANSA) — Rome, January 3 — Outgoing Italian Premier Mario Monti on Thursday fully shed the front of diplomacy and impartiality used up to now during his emergency technocrat government and opened fire on the right and left as he campaigns to keep office in next month’s general elections.

Former European commissioner Monti, who is standing on a reform platform, hit back at Silvio Berlusconi after his predecessor accused him of lacking credibility. “Berlusconi has been volatile in both his personal and political affairs recently,” Monti told Rai television.

Berlusconi has alternated of late between furious criticism of Monti and praise for the former European commissioner. Last month Berlusconi offered to withdraw his bid for a fourth term as premier if Monti agreed to lead a broad centre-right coalition at the elections. On Wednesday, however, he accused Monti of breaking a vow not to enter the political fray that he made when he was appointed premier in November 2011 after Berlusconi was forced to resign as prime minister by Italy’s debt crisis. “Monti does not have credibility any more,” Berlusconi said. “He was put at the head of a technocrat government with a promise — he said he would not take advantage of the promotion”.

Berlusconi has also accused Monti’s emergency government of unelected technocrats of being too “German-centric” in pursuing austerity policies.

Monti also responded to this criticism on Thursday, saying Berlusconi’s centre-right People of Freedom (PdL) party was increasingly adopting extreme positions on economic affairs.

Monti blamed the new direction on former civil service minister Renato Brunetta, an academic, economist and a senior PdL spokesman on economic affairs. “From the point of view of the general economy, Brunetta is taking the PdL to extreme, sectarian positions with the authoritativeness of a professor and a certain academic stature,” Monti said.

Monti also had ammunition for the Democratic Party (PD), which he said should silence the anti-reform elements within its ranks. “(PD leader Pier Luigi) Bersani should be brave and silence the conservative part of his party a little,” Monti said. Monti said his government’s attempts to introduce structural economic reforms had been hampered by opposition from Italy’s biggest trade union confederation, the left-wing CGIL, which has strong ties with the PD, and from Stefano Fassina, the PD spokesman on economic affairs. He also mentioned the left-wing SEL party, with which the PD has formed an electoral alliance. Monti suggested that he might be able to govern with the PD if the elections failed to produce a clear winner and if the centre-left party dropped its coalition with the SEL. “Cutting off the (extreme) wings is a good thing,” Monti said when asked about a possible post-election pact with Bersani. “The real contest is between those who want to conserve existing structures and those who want to innovate a little more”. The former European commissioner said a possible name for his election platform could be Con Monti per l’Italia (With Monti for Italy). He added that he hoped Bersani will present convincing arguments in election campaign but still lose. Monti also hit back at Fassina’s claim that he would be at the helm of a list of elitist “Rotary Club” candidates. “I don’t know what the Monti list will be yet. Anyway I’ve always fought against lobbies,” Monti said.

“I suggest Fassina updates himself a little”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Berlusconi Says Bersani is Real Opponent, Not Monti

Ex-premier blasts PD’s ‘Communist ideology’

(ANSA) — Rome, January 2 — Silvio Berlusconi said Wednesday that he considered centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani to be his real opponent in next month’s general elections, not outgoing Premier Mario Monti.

“No. No,” Berlusconi said when asked whether he thought Monti was his main adversary.

“Our opponent is always the party that comes from the Communist ideology,” he said referring to Bersani’s Democratic Party (PD).

“It has changed name but it has radical roots in that idea and has Bersani as its representative”.

Bersani is a veteran of Italy’s former Communist party, the rump of which changed into a social democratic party after the fall of the Berlin wall before merging with the centrist Margherita (Daisy) party to form the PD in 2007.

Monti took over the helm of an emergency administration of unelected technocrats in November 2011 after the financial crisis forced centre-right leader Berlusconi to resign as premier and end his third stint as premier.

Former European commissioner Monti said last month he would run for premier at the head of a group of parties willing to back his reform agenda.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Soccer: Milan’s Boateng Grateful for Solidarity Over Racism

Midfielder led walk-off in friendly against fourth-tier side

(ANSA) — Milan, January 4 — AC Milan’s Kevin Prince Boateng on Friday said he was grateful for the solidarity he received after leading a walk-off during a friendly against a fourth-tier side following racist abuse.

The Ghanaian midfielder picked up the ball and kicked it towards a group of home supporters who were directing racist jeers at him in Thursday’s match against Pro Patria at Busto Arsizio, north of Milan.

He then took off his shirt and walked off the pitch before Milan captain Massimo Ambrosini led the rest of the team off and the game was abandoned. Black Milan players M’Baye Niang, Urby Emanuelson and Sulley Muntari were also targeted.

The club, the Italian Soccer Federation and the Italian professional footballers’ association all backed the players for standing up to racism, in addition to condemning the Pro Patria fans’ behaviour. Boateng also received solidarity via Twitter from fans and former and current soccer stars such as Marco Materazzi, Patrick Vieira and Shaun Wright-Phillips.

“Thank u all for the support and understanding…means a lot!!!” Boateng said on his Twitter account on Friday. Italian football has been battling racism in the stands for a number of years after several shameful high-profile incidents.

Criminal and FIGC prosecutors are looking into the Pro Patria case.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Berlusconi Reaches Deal With League, Ready to be Economy Min

Media magnate may let Alfano be premier if centre right win

(ANSA) — Rome, January 7 — Ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi announced Monday that he has reached a deal for his People of Freedom (PdL) party to resume its alliance with the Northern League and said he may be economy minister, not prime minister, if his centre-right bloc wins next month’s Italian elections.

In exchange, the PdL is backing League leader Roberto Maroni’s bid to become governor of Lombardy, the region around Milan.

Maroni recently told Berlusconi that an alliance would not be possible if the media magnate were to run for a fourth term at the helm of government.

“Habemus papam,” Berlusconi told RTL radio using the Latin statement pronounced upon the announcement of a new pope.

“Tonight at 1.30 an agreement was signed between us and the Northern League. “Roberto Maroni will be the candidate in Lombardy and I will be the leader of the moderates (at national level). The premier will be decided if we win”. Berlusconi added that a possibility would be for PdL Secretary Angelino Alfano to be premier and he to be economy minister if the centre right overturns the centre left’s big lead in the polls and prevails next month. The PdL and the League’s long-standing alliance ended after Berlusconi’s third government collapsed in November 2011, when Italy’s debt crisis forced the 76-year-old to resign from office.

The League were staunch opponents of Premier Mario Monti’s emergency technocrat government from the time it took over power.

The PdL, meanwhile, backed it until last month.

Although it has recovered recently, the PdL is polling at under 20%, compared to over 30 for the main centre-left Democratic Party, and had little chance of winning the elections without the support of the League.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Berlusconi Gains 10 Points in 15 Days of Campaigning

(AGI) Rome — Silvio Berlusconi has said on the Tg5 News that he does not feel defeated in the election race, because “I have recovered 40% of the votes in just over 15 days” according to the polls.

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

Italy: Undertaker Providing Muslim Funeral Services Opens in Padua

(ANSAmed) — Padua, January 4 — Muslims living in northern Italy now have easier access to funeral services that comply with the Islamic rite following the opening of a dedicated undertaker in Padua. Albakii — named after the cemetery at the holy city of Medina in Saudi Arabia — is the brainchild of Niam Abdessamed, 30, from Morocco. Some 12 months ago he abandoned a degree in engineering to set up the business and has since organised around 40 Muslim funerals and 4-5 burials, with the remaining deceased being expatriated for burial in their country of origin. Services are in keeping with the many rules laid down by the Koran concerning death and the burial of the Muslim faithful, including the importance of cleansing, scenting and covering the body and the importance of burying it as soon as possible.

There are currently only two dedicated burial places for Muslims in the northern Veneto region, in the cemeteries at Padua and Verona, and, despite a growing Muslim immigrant population, local undertakers are often unfamiliar with the Islamic funeral rite.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Post-Holiday Sales Kick Off in Southern Italy

Discounts blanket stores across country from Saturday

(ANSA) — Milan, January 2 — Three southern Italian regions kicked off a wave of nationwide post-holiday sales on Wednesday.

Stores in Basilicata, Campania and Sicily unfurled discount signs in windows today and will be followed by the rest of Italy beginning on Saturday.

Retailer and consumer associations are bracing themselves for disappointing results, however, given the pinched pockets of hard economic conditions in Italy.

The Italian consumer association ADUSBEF predicts a 19% decline in spending during the post-holiday sales compared to last year.

The Italian business association Confcommercio predicts each family will spend an average of 359 euros on discounted goods this year.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Supporting Our Own Demise: Part 1

by Samuel Westrop

[…]

For hundreds of years, London has mostly been a welcoming home for extremists who wished to destroy the very freedoms the city afforded them. It was here that 19th century nihilists such as Bakunin and Nechayev freely disseminated their violent ideas. In the 20th century, Soviet money seeped into our trade unions and lobbying groups. And now, today, London is a hub for Islamist and Arabist terror infrastructure. It is a city from which financial and logistical support sustains violent supremacist movements across the world. A few months ago, Lord Alton of Liverpool told the British parliament that he believed the Al Muntada Trust, a large London-based charity, is funding the Nigerian Al-Qaeda terrorist group Boko Haram[1]. The speakers at events previously hosted by Al Muntada have described Jews as the “descendants of apes and pigs” and have called for the execution of homosexuals and adulterous women[2]

We do not, however, just idly tolerate anti-Western groups in our midst and abroad; the harder truth is that government is often complicit with their activities, and when caught, our elected leaders simply refuse to discuss the facts. A recent report by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) revealed that British taxpayers are contributing towards the $4.5 million paid each month to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, including terrorists and mass murderers. Despite the evidence gathered by PMW, the British Foreign Office continues to deny that British money is rewarding terrorism…

[…]

…Why do politicians and the vehicles of government knowingly allow themselves to be complicit with groups that advance pro-terror and anti-Western ideas?

Look, for example, at a large organization called Interpal. Although in the UK it is a well-established charity which has enjoyed the support of leading British politicians and cabinet members, in the United States Interpal is designated a terrorist organization. What is Interpal, and why isn’t the British Government shutting it down?

Interpal

Interpal describes itself as a “non-political, non-profit making British charity that focuses solely on the provision of relief and development aid to the poor and needy of Palestine”[6]. However, many critics believe Interpal to be part of a terrorist fundraising network that helps to sustain the violent terror group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip and is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Israelis and Palestinians. In 2003, the United States government classified Interpal as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT), stating:

Interpal, headquartered in the UK, has been a principal charity utilized to hide the flow of money to HAMAS … Reporting indicates that Interpal is the fundraising coordinator of HAMAS. This role is of the type that includes supervising activities of charities, developing new charities in targeted areas, instructing how funds should be transferred from one charity to another, and even determining public relations policy…

[Return to headlines]

Sweden: Courts Could be Forced to Hire Interpreters

A proposed new law could mean that Swedish courts will have to offer interpreters to anyone who requests one during a trial.

It is currently up to the courts to determine whether there is a need for an interpreter in a legal proceeding.

Now, a state inquest suggests a law change that would give defendants the right to an interpreter and oblige courts to comply with their request.

Courts should also, in the first instance, hire licensed legal interpreters.

The proposed law is based on a European Union directive.

It would strengthen suspects’ rights both in police questionings and in trials.

“This would involve stronger rights for suspects and defendants throughout the legal process”, said Jennie Bergling, a public prosecutor at the Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency (Kammarkollegiet), which is the body that accredits interpreters and translators.

According to the Crime Prevention Council (Brottsförebyggande rådet), people with foreign backgrounds are at a disadvantage in the legal process due to communication difficulties.

In 2011, researchers at Lund University warned that half of Sweden’s interpreters lacked knowledge to the point that it threatened the rule of law.

The researchers urged the state to invest in training interpreters and in demanding that courts hire accredited interpreters.

The report said one reason behind the dearth of qualified interpreters in Sweden could be the unstable work conditions and poor pay, with fees remaining the same since the 1990s.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

UK: EDL Leader Lennon Jailed for Passport Offence

Stephen Lennon admits using a passport in the name of Andrew McMaster to board a Virgin Atlantic Flight from Heathrow to New York.1:22pm UK, Monday 07 January 2013

The leader of the English Defence League has been jailed for 10 months for using someone else’s passport to get into the United States.

Stephen Lennon, 30, pleaded guilty to possession of a false identity document with improper intention, contrary to the Identity Documents Act 2010, at Southwark Crown Court.

Lennon used a passport in the name of Andrew McMaster to board a Virgin Atlantic Flight from Heathrow to New York, but was caught out after his fingerprints were taken by customs officials.

The court heard that Lennon, who had previously been refused entry to the US, used his friend’s passport to travel to the country in September.

He used a self check-in kiosk to board the Virgin Atlantic flight at Heathrow, and was allowed through when the document was checked in the bag drop area.

But when he arrived at New York’s JFK Airport, customs officials who took his fingerprints realised he was not Mr McMaster.

Lennon was asked to attend a second interview but left the airport, entering the US illegally.

He stayed just one night and travelled back to the UK the following day using his own legitimate passport — which bears the name Paul Harris.

The court heard that is the name that appears on the EDL leader’s passport, although he uses aliases.

The court heard that he was previously jailed for assault in 2005 and also has previous convictions for drugs offences and public order offences.

Sentencing the 30-year-old, Judge Alistair McCreath, told him: “I am going to sentence you under the name of Stephen Lennon, although I suspect that is not actually your true name, in the sense that it is not the name that appears on your passport.

“What you did went absolutely to the heart of the immigration controls that the United States are entitled to have.

“Had it been known in this country that you were proposing to leave under a false passport, you would not have been accepted on to the plane and you would not have been permitted to leave this country on a false passport.

“It’s not in any sense trivial.”

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]

UK: Enoch Powell Widow ‘Furious’ Over ‘Ludicrous’ Slur That Portrays Her Husband as a Nazi Sympathiser

The widow of Enoch Powell has criticised as ‘absolutely ludicrous’ a novel that portrays her husband as a pro-Nazi sympathiser.

Pamela Powell said his depiction in the bestselling book Dominion was an ‘unacceptable distortion’ of the late Tory MP.

The book is a historical ‘what if’ which explores what might have happened had Britain sued for peace after Dunkirk in 1940.

The work is set in 1952 and Britain is portrayed as a puppet state under the control of the Nazis in Berlin.

Author C.?J. Sansom included real-life figures in his fictitious pro-Nazi government, including Powell as Secretary of State for India.

But his widow said Powell, who died in 1998, had ‘totally opposed’ Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler.

‘The idea that he would be in any pro-Nazi government is absolutely ludicrous,’ she said.

‘When Enoch went to Australia in 1937 as Professor of Greek at Sydney University he told his first lecture that when Britain went to war he would go straight back to join up and that is what he did.’

She added: ‘A novel is a novel and I don’t suppose I shall get it or read it.’

Historian Andrew Roberts said: ‘Powell was an ardent anti-Nazi from the earliest days even when other Tories were pro-appeasement. I suspect the author is trying to make some sort of modern-day equivalence between Enoch Powell’s views on immigration and fascism and that is so intellectually debased as to be moronic.’

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

UK: iPhone User Hit With £19,000 Orange Bill for ‘Excessive Internet Usage’ After Fault With Mobile

An iPhone user told of his shock today after being hit with a £19,000 bill for his internet usage.

Chris Bovis, from Tilbury, Essex, contacted his phone company, Orange, when they cut off his phone without warning.

The 26-year-old builder was told he had racked up a bill of £8,900 down to unusually high internet usage.

He claims the adviser then warned him his next bill was due to be another £10,000.

Mr Bovis said: ‘My first reaction was to laugh as I just could not believe it but it stopped being funny when I realised they were not joking and were totally serious.’

Orange tried to take the £19,000 for the months of October and November from his bank account, only for the transaction to be blocked.

The problem appears to have been caused by a fault which meant his iPhone started sending and receiving large amounts of data in error.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Mother Jailed for Minimum of 17 Years for Beating Seven-Year-Old Son to Death With a Stick Because He Couldn’t Recite Koran

A woman who beat her son to death for failing to learn parts of the Koran by heart and burned his body to destroy the evidence has been jailed for life today.

Sara Ege, 33, dressed in brown, with a matching headscarf, collapsed as the sentence was delivered at Cardiff Crown Court.

She had to be helped from the dock as she was told she would serve a minimum of 17 years.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Vatican Bank Card Payments Suspended by Italy

Move prompted by failure to implement money-laundering laws

(ANSA) — Rome, January 4 — Visitors to the Vatican’s museums and shops are having to pay in cash after the Bank of Italy suspended bank-card payments in the city state over failure to fully implement international anti-money laundering standards.

Last month the central bank denied Deutsche Bank Italy, the Vatican’s former provider of electronic payment services, a permit because of the Vatican’s shortcomings in financial controls and oversight.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the problem would be quickly overcome.

“Relations between certain Vatican City offices and one of their providers for services regarding the use of credit cards and electronic payments was coming to an end,” Lombardi said.

“Contacts have been made with various other service providers and the interruption will be short-lived, although it has not been established how long it will last”. The Holy See is trying to join the ‘white list’ of states that, unlike tax havens, respect international standards on combatting money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

In July the Council of Europe’s Moneyval department said in a report that the Holy See had made progress on financial transparency, but added that more reforms were needed.

Last year the Holy See appointed a Swiss expert, Rene’ Bruelhart, to work on Anti-Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) activities and strengthen the Holy See’s framework to fight financial crimes.

In the past there have been allegations that the Vatican Bank, the IOR, was used to launder money, most notably by ‘God’s Banker’ Roberto Calvi, whose body was found hanging under Blackfriar’s Bridge in London in 1982, a suspected victim of the Mafia.

IOR was also named in kickbacks probes stemming from the 1990 collapse of public-private chemicals colossus Enimont, part of the Clean Hands investigations that swept away Italy’s old political establishment.

More recently, there has been a series of Italian TV reports and a best-selling book claiming to show how individuals have used IOR to squirrel away money, dodging Italian regulations.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

North Africa

Egypt: Army Foils Attempt to ‘Bomb Coptic Church’ In Sinai

(ANSAmed) -Rome, January 7 — The official Facebook Page of the Egyptian armed forces spokesperson, Colonel Ahmed Ali, has announced on Monday that forces “have foiled an attempt to bomb the Rafah Church in North Sinai”, Al Ahram online reports.

According to the short statement, the army patrols discovered two cars carrying explosives in a street between the Church and a military facility under construction at 1am Monday.

Colonel Ali added that one of the two cars escaped and the army units in North Sinai are currently searching for it.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Milk Emergency in Tunisia, Massive Purchases From Abroad

Milk reserves drained at large-scale retail stores

(by Diego Minuti) (ANSAmed) — Tunis — A milk-emergency, growing more acute with passing weeks, has forced the Tunisian government to facilitate massive milk purchases abroad, such as from Slovenia. But slowing imports from Slovenia — between 250,000 to 300,000 litres per week, coinciding with year-end holidays in European countries, have pushed Tunisian authorities to acquire milk also from Turkey.

The Tunisian government authorized some private companies to import four million litres of milk from Turkey — quantities that will attenuate but not resolve the milk shortage which is provoking discontent among the population. In many supermarkets — large-scale retail is an important pillar of the commercial sector in Tunisia — signs have been posted indicating the maximum number of milk containers each customer can purchase (typically four) accompanied by requests to not make trouble for employees. Customers are not always able to contain their frustration at not finding milk on the shelves, with obvious negative consequences for those who must care for children and the elderly. To pave the way for additional milk imports, the Agriculture Minister has granted a series of incentives for companies bringing milk from Turkey, such as relief on tariffs and the value-added-tax, in order to avert negative consequences on the retail sale of milk.

The milk shortage is caused by a recent lull in domestic milk production, which stands at roughly 1.3 million litres of milk per day compared to a demand of about 1.5 million litres. Paradoxically, while milk has vanished from shelves, dairy products continue to abound, such as yogurt, which poses questions about dairy-producers’ priorities, some analysts complain. The scarcity of milk — aggravated by the fact that effective measures have yet to be made to stem smuggling of contraband goods to Libya — is rendered more problematic by the psychological mechanism triggered in consumers who, afraid of remaining empty-handed, run and grab the largest quantity of containers possible, eliminating reserves, particularly in large retail stores.

In some parts, there are even reports of speculation by traditional vendors, who play on shortages at big retail players by raising prices far higher in defiance of the price fixed by the government.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

The Power Elite and the Muslim Brotherhood, Part 17

Perhaps one reason Secretary of State Hillary Clinton doesn’t want to testify regarding the recent terrorist attack against Americans in Benghazi, Libya is that she would be asked why the Obama administration handed Libya over to Al-Qaeda! Former Muslim Brotherhood (MB) member Walid Shoebat on his website has claimed: “We have come into possession of an array of records obtained from top level sources inside the Libyan government. They include passports of Al-Qaeda operatives and identification of terrorists from many nations…now all camped in Libya…(The documents) show evidence of bribes by the government to top officials, weapons dealings, and bank siphoning by Al-Qaeda operatives.” Shoebat’s documents indicate Al-Qaeda operatives now in Libya include Abdul Wahhab Hasan Qayed (officially in charge of Libyan border control), Sufyan Gammu of Ansar Al-Sharia (and one of the most wanted Al-Qaeda members), and Abdul Baset Azzouz (head of Al-Qaeda in Darnah, Libya). Al-Qaeda literally runs the Libyan government, and therefore controls the largest oil-producing nation in Africa. This could provide Al-Qaeda with a steady stream of money, and therefore enable it to carry out terrorist plots for decades to come.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians

Livni Fails to Form Israeli Anti-Netanyahu Coalition

(AGI) — Jerusalem, Jan 7 — Just two weeks before the Israeli elections on Jan. 22, former foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, has failed in her attempt to create a centre-left coalition in opposition to the conservative Likud-Beiteinu alliance led by Benjamin Netanyahu. The outgoing prime minister’s alliance enjoys a clear lead in all the polls.

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

Middle East

Al Jazeera a Muslim Brotherhood Front?

Al Jazeera, which this week announced it purchased Al Gore’s Current TV for $500 million, has a long history of close ties to and support for the Muslim Brotherhood.

Al Jazeera’s founders, themselves close to the Muslim Brotherhood, have long attempted to gain influence in the U.S., including through the financing of Arabic classes in American public schools via a Muslim Brotherhood-linked charity.

Al Jazeera this week announced a plan to establish a new U.S. cable news channel, tentatively call Al Jazeera America, utilizing the purchase of Current TV.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Bahrain: Top Court Upholds Life Sentences Against 20 Actvists

Abdulhadi al-Khawaja staged a more than three-month hunger strike

(ANSAmed) — Rome, January 7 — Bahrain’s highest court has upheld jail sentences against 20 opposition figures — including eight sentenced to life in prison — in a decision likely to spark further street protests in the Gulf nation and draw renewed criticism from its western allies, The Guardian reports.

Among the eight sentenced to life in prison is rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who staged a more than three-month hunger strike last year to protest against the verdicts. Al-Khawaja also holds Danish citizenship, and his case has brought international pressure to bear on Bahrain, including efforts by Denmark to free him. The other 12 received sentences ranging from five to 15 years, with seven convicted in absentia. Defence lawyer Jalil al-Aradi said the court had refused to reconsider the sentences or convictions, which were handed down in 2011 by a military-led tribunal created under temporary martial law-style rules. The group has claimed they faced abuses while in custody.

Scattered protests broke out in Bahrain shortly after the court’s decision, which could close all further appeal options.

The Court decision is part of a widespread crackdown on dissent since an Arab spring-inspired uprising began nearly two years ago in the strategic island kingdom, which is home to the US navy’s 5th Fleet. Bahrain’s majority Shia, who have led sporadic unrest in the past, claim they face systematic discrimination at the hands of the Sunni monarchy. Bahrain’s rulers have offered some reforms, including giving more powers to the elected parliament, but opposition leaders say they fall short of demands for a role in key government affairs.

Last year, the official Bahrain News Agency said the charges included “plotting to overthrow the regime” and having “foreign intelligence contacts” — a reference to Shiite powerhouse Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah in Lebanon. Bahraini leaders have accused Iran of having links to the protesters. Tehran has strongly criticised crackdowns against Shiites in Bahrain, but denies providing any active assistance.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Iraq: Christian Teacher Has Throat Cut in Mosul, Plunging City in Fear Again

Shdha Elias, 54, was a Chaldean teacher. Her body was found by police. Church source tells AsiaNews that she joins a long list of Christian martyrs in the city. Tensions between Sunnis and Shias are on the rise as no real solution for peace and national reconciliation appears possible.

Mosul (AsiaNews) — Police in Mosul found the body of a Christian woman with her throat cut. The gruesome discovery was made today in an area where attacks have been perpetrated in the past against members of the city’s Christian minority, some, like abducted Bishop Faraj Rahho and Fr Ragheed Ganni, murdered.

Sources told AsiaNews that the victim is Shdha Elias, a 54-year-old Chaldean, who worked as a teacher “in a school in the al Bath neighbourhood.” She “lived however in Bar Nirgal, near the university”. With her death, she joins “the long list of Christian martyrs in Mosul.”

For the source, “Tensions between Sunnis and Shias are running high across Iraq, not only in the North. And peace and national reconciliation appear far off.”

Mosul is a stronghold of Sunni Wahhabism, which is closely tied to Saudi Arabia. For experts on Iraqi politics, the aim is “to set up a state based on Sharia,” with the Qur’an and the Sunnah as the basis of legislation and “Islam as the only state religion”. In such a system, members of other religions can choose between conversion, flight or paying taxes for non-Muslims.

In northern Iraq, Christians have been targeted for murder and kidnapping for the purpose of extortion. They have also been caught in the crossfire between Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds vying for power and control of the area’s rich oil resources.

In ten years of conflict, the Christian community has lost more than half of its members in an exodus of ‘Biblical’ proportions following a series of murders.

A Christian official in Mosul Governatorate, anonymous for security reasons, acknowledged that “many Christian families” have fled. “They have lost confidence in everything,” he said. “The government is incapable of doing anything to protect them. What future do non-Muslims have in countries where violence reins!”

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

Saudi Arabia: 90-yo Man Pays $17,500 for 15-yo Runaway Bride

Saudi National Society for Human Rights calls for end to dowries

(ANSAmed) — ROME, JANUARY 7 — The recent marriage of a 90-year-old Saudi man to a 15-year-old girl sparked condemnation from the Saudi National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) and activists on Twitter, local media reported Monday.

The groom told al-Hayat daily that his marriage was “legal and correct,” and that he paid a dowry of $17,500 (SAR 65,000) to marry the girl, who is the daughter of a Yemeni father and Saudi mother.

The man went on to say that on their wedding night, the child bride entered the bedroom before him, locking herself in. This made him “suspicious about some kind of conspiracy” by the girl and her mother, the man reportedly said.

Close friends of the bride’s family said she was so frightened she locked herself in for two days before fleeing back to her parents’ home. The groom vowed to sue his in-laws to give him back the girl or return him the expensive dowry he paid.

NSHR member Suhaila Zein el-Abedin urged authorities to intervene “as soon as possible to save this child from tragedy.” El-Abedin noted that marriage in Islam must be based on mutual consent and this was not satisfied as demonstrated by the girl’s move to lock herself in. She also said the girl’s parents must be held responsible for marrying their daughter to a man “the age of her great-grandfather.” She also called on authorities to set a minimum legal marriage and to ban the sale of women in marriage, saying this will pave the way for punishing violators.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Turkey’s Erdogan Calls for Joint Peace Deal on Kurdish Problem

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan (pictured) urged the opposition on Monday to join the government in forming a cross-party working group charged with resolving the country’s three-decade insurgency by Kurdish militants.

Despite his annoyance with the main opposition criticism, PM Erdo?an still appears ready for a joint effort on a recent peace initiative aimed at solving Turkey’s long-standing Kurdish issue

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an urged the main opposition to join its efforts to end Turkey’s Kurdish problem and resolve the four-decade-old question, repeating its call to form a joint working group to shape the roadmap together, a day after the social democrat leader vowed to issue an open credit to the ruling party in its bid to solve the problem.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

South Asia

India: 4 Dead, Curfew Imposed After Clashes at Maharashtra’s Dhule Town

DHULE (MAHARASHTRA): Curfew has been imposed in north Maharashtra’s Dhule town following a violent clash between the members of two communities here on Sunday. At least four people were killed in the clash and around 170 injured.

The incident took place on Sunday afternoon when a brawl erupted between the members of the two communities at a roadside food stall. The fight then escalated and extended to the other nearby localities including Machibazar and Madhvapura.

Police said the riot was triggered after a youth refused to pay the food bill in a restaurant at the town’s Fish Market Square area and was thrashed by the owner.

After a short while, the youth returned with some friends and arguments and fisticuffs ensued. Within minutes, there was full-scale communal rioting in the area.

Police rushed to the spot but were unprepared to handle the situation and had a hard time protecting themselves from the stones, bricks, bottles and other items hurled at them.

After reinforcements were rushed to the scene, the authorities finally managed to control the situation by bursting teargas shells and opening fire on the rioters.

The police intervened with water canons and had to resort to cane charge to bring the situation under control. As many as 113 police personnel were among those injured in the violence.

Inspector General (law and Order) Deven Bharti said the police first resorted to lathicharge and then had to resort to firing as well. Some people were killed and others received minor injuries.

The Rapid Action Force and the State Reserve Police Force personnel were deployed at the scene of the clashes, he informed this morning, adding that the situation was now peaceful.

The police have registered two cases for destruction of public property, arson and rioting against unknown persons.

Dhule had earlier witnessed a communal conflagration in Octover 2008 when a police outpost was torched by a mob and curfew was imposed in the town for a week.

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]

Far East

Blame Bacteria if You Start Putting on Weight

WEIGHT gain bugging you? Evidence is mounting for the central role that bacteria play in causing obesity.

Liping Zhao and his team at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China put a morbidly obese man on a diet of whole grains, traditional Chinese medicines, probiotics and non-digestible carbohydrates for 23 weeks. The diet was designed to inhibit the bacteria thought to be associated with weight gain by increasing the pH in the colon.

The 175-kilogram volunteer lost 51 kg, despite not exercising. People who have had weight-loss surgery lose on average 49 kg.

To see if the bacteria present also changed, the team looked at what species were prevalent in the volunteer’s gut before and after the diet. Before the regime, Enterobacter — a toxin-producing pathogen — was most abundant, accounting for 35 per cent of the gut bacteria. After the diet, it was reduced to undetectable levels.

The researchers fed mice samples of this bacterium from the volunteer’s gut to determine whether the pathogen was a cause or a result of his obesity. They found that the mice with the new bacteria gained significantly more weight on a high fat diet than control mice, also on a high fat diet (International Society for Microbial Ecology, doi.org/jz9).

Previous work has shown a link between gut bacteria and obesity, but Zhao describes this as “the last missing piece of evidence that bacteria cause obesity”. Treatment with an appropriate diet could be cheaper and more effective than surgery, he says.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Australia — Pacific

Australian Bushfires: Rescue Workers Search for Missing

The search has begun for around 100 people unaccounted for in Tasmania following devastating bushfires that raged across the Australian island state since Friday, destroying scores of homes and buildings and 20,000 hectares of forests and farmland.

Officials searched Monday for bodies among the charred ruins of more than 100 homes and other buildings destroyed by wildfires in the Australian island state of Tasmania. Around 100 residents remained unaccounted for, three days after the fires broke out.

As scores of fires raged across Australia’s parched southeast, a volunteer firefighter suffered severe burns to his hands and face while fighting a grass fire near Gundaroo village, about 220 kilometers (138 miles) southwest of Sydney, the New South Wales state Rural Fire Service said in a statement. The firefighter was flown to a hospital in Sydney.

Tasmania’s acting police commissioner, Scott Tilyard, said no casualties had been reported in the state from the fires. But he said it would take time before officials were certain that no one had died in the blazes, which have razed 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) of forests and farmland across southern Tasmania since Friday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Latin America

Fiat Has Record Year in Brazil as 2012 Sales Jump 11%

Firm keeps top spot for 11th year running and gains market share

(ANSA) — New York, January 3 — Italian carmaker Fiat SpA said it had record sales in Brazil in 2012, countering slumping sales in its home market of Italy.

In a statement Thursday, the Turin-based company said: “Fiat beats its production and sales records in 2012, with more than 838,000 cars registered” in Brazil — its best performance ever in its 36 years in the country.

From January through December 838,219 cars and light trucks were registered, up 11% on the previous year, Fiat said, adding its sales growth outperformed those of the broader market.

Fiat’s last, best year in Brazil was in 2010, when it sold 760,495 cars and light trucks, the company said. Its market share in the country increased to 23.1% in 2012 from 22% the previous year.

The company said it held on to the number one spot in Brazil for the 11th consecutive year in 2012, a year in which the overall market — some 3.6 million units — grew by 6.1% on 2011. The head of Fiat’s Latina American unit said: “We were careful to identify the recovery in the market and were prepared to accelerate production at the right moment, conquering positions and market share”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Immigration

Greece: Over 1,000 Illegals Repatriated in December

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JANUARY 3 — A total of 1,041 undocumented migrants arrested in Greece were returned to their countries of origin in December as part of an ongoing campaign to crack down on illegal immigration, police said on Wednesday. Of the 1,041 migrants, 412 were returned home from Attica. Of these, the largest group, 91, were repatriated to Pakistan, with 55 returning to Albania, 43 to China, 35 to Algeria and 26 to Bangladesh. Immigrants from Albania, Bulgaria and Turkey returned to their countries by road. Police said 6,012 unregistered immigrants have been repatriated since August.

Meanwhile, authorities in Patra said on Wednesday that 60 undocumented migrants were arrested in the port city in December. Hundreds gather in Patra every month hoping to sneak aboard boats to Italy, often before continuing on to other European Union countries. Ten people were also arrested in December on human-trafficking charges, as daily Kathimerini reported.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars

Gay Marriage: 69% of French Want Referendum, Ifop Survey

On bill legalizing gay marriage and child adoption

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, JANUARY 3 — A majority of French citizens, or 69%, want a referendum on the gay marriage bill that is up for congressional debated at the end of the month, according to data released Thursday by the French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP).

The French “must be called to decide via referendum” on the bill, which will allow same-sex marriages and adoptions by gay couples, according to the IFOP survey of 1,008 people aged 18 and older, published in Valeurs Actuelles weekly.

Of those in favor of the referendum, 86% are Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) voters, 84% are National Front voters, and 55% identified as leftists. Also in favor are 70% of respondents aged under 35 and 69% of those aged 35 and up.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

General

‘Exocomets’ Common Across Milky Way Galaxy

Comets may be as common as alien planets in star systems throughout the Milky Way galaxy, scientists say.

Astronomers have spotted likely comets around six faraway stars, bringing the total number of systems now thought to host the so-called “exocomets” to 10. It’s likely that all 10 of these systems also harbor alien planets, suggesting that comets and exoplanets are often found together, as they are in our own solar system, the new study found.

The number of exocomet-hosting systems could thus number in the billions across the Milky Way, as astronomers think our galaxy harbors at least 100 billion alien planets.

“This is sort of the missing link in current planetary formation studies,” lead author Barry Welsh, of the University of California, Berkeley, said in a statement.

“We see dust disks — presumably the primordial planet-forming material — around a whole load of stars, and we see planets, but we don’t see much of the stuff in between: the asteroid-like planetesimals and the comets,” Welsh added. “Now, I think we have nailed it. These exocomets are more common and easier to detect than people previously thought.”

Welsh presented the findings today (Jan. 7) duing a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Long Beach, Calif.

Automotive: south European market in deep crisis

Portuguese car sales -40-50%, negative outlook for 2013

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20130106

Financial Crisis
» 50,000 General Motors Union Workers Will Receive Bonuses of Between $5,500 and $7,000
» Italian Unemployment to Worsen in 2013, Study Says
 
USA
» Diana West: The Most Admired Woman in the World
» Huntsville’s Osher Lifetime Learning Class Offers History, Culture of Islam (Updated)
» Hussam Ayloush: ‘Deception’ Film Promotes Intolerance of Islam
» NASA Seeking to Lease or Sell Space-Shuttle Facilities
» New Tampa Mosque Leaders Want to Create Positive Image of Muslims
» Norwalk Officials to Review Mosque Options Next Week
» Obama Administration Faces Senate Inquiry Over Links to Zero Dark Thirty
 
Europe and the EU
» France: Will Charlie Hebdo Fail to Provoke Muslims This Time?
» Germany: Angela Merkel Pictured With Blacked-Up Children
» Greece: Coalition Parties Closes Ranks on Lagarde List Probe
» Satirical French Mag Rethinks Approach to Islam
» UK: ‘Terrorists’ Favourite Bookseller’ Has Conviction Quashed
» UK: Al-Qaeda Suspect Accused Over Plot to Bomb the New York Subway is Extradited to U.S. By British Government
» UK: Afghanistan Soldier Found Hanged at His Swansea Home
» UK: Binmen Collect Rubbish Once in Eight Weeks Because it Was ‘Too Dark’ For Them to See Binbags
» UK: Malala Yousufzai Waves Goodbye to Hospital Staff in Birmingham
» UK: Mosque Plan for Chippy
» UK: Our Once Great RSPCA is Being Destroyed by a Militant Tendency
» UK: Roger Scruton: When Will the Conservative Party Fight for England?
» Vatican Cardinal Rues Islamist Violence, Sharia Imposition
» Winter-Only Weddings — Bulgarian Muslims Say ‘I Do’
 
Balkans
» Kosovo Still the Balkan Front Line Against Radical Islam
 
North Africa
» Egypt’s Grand Mufti Responds to Attacks on Islam in New Book
» Egypt-UAE Relations Worsen With ‘Brotherhood’ Arrests
» Egyptian Islamist Party Splits
» Morocco: A Journey From Mosques to Breasts Via Satellite Dish
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Abbas’ Fatah Movement Marks Anniversary in Gaza First Time in Six Years
» Clashes Erupt Between Israeli Army and Palestinians in West Bank
» PA Slams Israel Measures Against Al-Ibrahimi Mosque
» Streets of Gaza Turn to Gold as Thousands Rally to Fatah Cause
 
Middle East
» Alistair Burt MP: The Prospects for Syria in 2013
» Applebaum on Islam
» How Some Medieval Cultures Adapted to Rise of Islam
» Qatar: 30 Detainees Embrace Islam at Search and Follow Up Department
» UAE: Public Works Finish 3 Projects
» UAE: Abu Dhabi to Have 10 New Mosques
 
South Asia
» Afghan Census Dodges Questions of Ethnicity and Language
» Four-Legged Soldiers Serving in Afghanistan
» Hindu Girls Still Targeted for Rape in Pakistan: World Remains Silent
» Israel’s National Library Buys 1,000-Year-Old Jewish Documents From Afghanistan
» Malaysia: ‘Political Islam’ And Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad (Part Two) — Clive Kessler
» Thailand Deports Rohingya Muslims
» Thailand Launches TV Channel Geared for Muslims
 
Far East
» China: Father Hires in-Game “Hitmen” To Deter Son From Playing
 
Australia — Pacific
» Dad, Triplets Granted Bail After Brawl in Bankstown
» Infidel Police Intervene in Muslim ‘Domestic’; Muslims Riot, Attack and Injure Police
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Ghana: Gov. Dickson Tasks Muslims on Peaceful Co-Existence
» Somalia, Its Neighbours and Al-Shabaab — The Quest for Sustainable Solutions
» Uganda: Police on Alert Over Muslims
 
Latin America
» Argentina: The Sun Hits Back at Argies’ Latest Falklands Claim
» Brazil: Muslim Education Council for Latin American and Carribbean Countries Proposed in São Paulo
» David Cameron Pledges to ‘Do Everything’ To Protect Falkland Islands After Argentinian President Takes Out Newspaper Ads on 180th Anniversary of ‘Colonial Rule’
» Venezuela: World Media Consider Life After Chavez
 
Immigration
» ‘Illegal Migrants’ Ordered to Leave Britain Had Returned Home Years Ago
» In Trapani: On the Island of Lampedusa, Italians Want Separate Bus Lines for the Muslim Illegals Who Keep Arriving by the Boatload
 
Culture Wars
» Never Mind Banning the Hijab, What About the Banning of the Cross?
» ‘N-Word’ To be Removed From Children’s Classics in Germany
» The Church of England Criticised Over ‘Unenforceable’ Gay Bishop stance
 
General
» Jason Thompson’s House of 1000 Manga

Financial Crisis

50,000 General Motors Union Workers Will Receive Bonuses of Between $5,500 and $7,000

Roughly 50,000 General Motors union workers will receive bonuses of between $5,500 and $7,000 to close out 2012, say sources familiar with internal discussions between United Auto Worker officials.

In 2009, General Motors scored a $49.5 billion bailout from the U.S. government.

Last week, the Treasury Department announced it will sell General Motors 200 million shares before 2013, reducing the government’s stake in GM from 26.5% to 19%. Over the next 15 months, the Treasury will sell its remaining GM holdings.

But given that GM’s stock would need to be roughly double its current trading price for the government to break even, taxpayers are expected to lose between $10 and $12 billion on the GM bailout.

In 2012, the United Auto Workers spent $11.8 million to help elect Democrats and President Barack Obama.

[Return to headlines]

Italian Unemployment to Worsen in 2013, Study Says

Gap widens between north and south

(ANSA) — Rome, January 2 — Italy’s 10.8% unemployment rate is due to climb in 2013 to 11.4%, as the gap widens between north and south, according to a report Wednesday. The study, compiled by the national union of chambers of commerce Unioncamere and research company Prometeia, said southern regions faced an 18% jobless rate on average.

Calabria will be hit the hardest with 20.6% unemployment this year, followed by Sicily at 19.6% and Campania at 19.3%, the report predicted.

Trentino-Alto Adige, the small region bordering Austria, faces 5.8% unemployment, the lowest in the country, according to the study. Ferruccio Dardanello, the president of Unioncamere, said there were “some signs of recovery” in the year ahead. “For this reason we need to redouble efforts to give a boost in confidence to Italians,” he added. “We absolutely need to revive investments, without which there can be no sustainable development, as well as the internal market, which depends on a real recovery in employment levels”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

USA

Diana West: The Most Admired Woman in the World

Americans, Gallup tells us, admire Hillary Clinton more than any other woman in the world — again. This latest accolade marks the 17th time Gallup has found Clinton to be the Most Admired Woman (MAW?) since she became first lady nearly 20 years ago. Only Eleanor Roosevelt (13 MAWs) comes close. Only Mother Teresa (1995 and 1996) and Laura Bush (2001) have interrupted Clinton’s winning streak, and even then, Clinton came in second.

And therein lies America’s cosmic flaw. A country that could time and again embrace Hillary Clinton as its MAW has lost its mind or its memory or both.

Does the phrase “congenital liar” tinkle any bells? I know such non-admirable sentiments are thought to be in the worst of taste, if not also banishable offenses. Still, as conjured by the late New York Times columnist William Safire in 1996, the phrase described the then-first lady for her shameless prevarications. These included what sure looked like bribery (“cattle futures”), defrauding taxpayers (“Whitewater”), obstructing justice — or, rather, “finding” her Rose Law Firm billing records (under subpoena for two years) just days after the statute of limitations ran out — among other corrupt behaviors that must have slightly suppressed Hillary-admiration that same year. The phrase remains apt.

“I remember landing under sniper fire,” Clinton declared on the presidential campaign trail in 2008, describing a 1996 trip to Bosnia. “There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down (chuckles) to get into the vehicles to get to our base.” It was a vivid but debunkable whopper, as CBS footage of the event proved. In reality, Clinton, accompanied by daughter Chelsea, made her ceremonial way into Bosnia through a warm throng marked by smiling faces and a kiss from a local girl — not bullets. Admirable?

On a more nationally significant level, Clinton recently supported President Obama’s Big Lie that a movie trailer of “Innocence of Muslims” on YouTube “resulted” (her word) in the September attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya — a concerted falsehood for which neither Clinton nor Obama nor former CIA Director David Petraeus has yet answered. Even several days after intelligence agencies determined that a planned assault, not a video-driven protest, had taken place, Clinton went so far as to promise a grieving Charles Woods, father of slain former SEAL Tyrone Woods, that “we” were going to have the video maker “arrested and prosecuted.”

Why was Clinton still perpetuating the false narrative that the exercise of free speech under the First Amendment, not Islamic jihad, had resulted in the attack? Was that admirable?…

           — Hat tip: Diana West [Return to headlines]

Huntsville’s Osher Lifetime Learning Class Offers History, Culture of Islam (Updated)

When Gulsum Kucuksari, who was raised as a Muslim in Turkey, came to the U.S., she heard some surprising things about her faith. “People were telling me about these 77 virgins for terrorists, and I didn’t understand it — in all my life, I have never heard this,” Kucuksari said. “The Quran does not promise virgins for terrorists.” She was describing the class on Islam she teaches for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in Huntsville. “I thought it was funny.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Hussam Ayloush: ‘Deception’ Film Promotes Intolerance of Islam

In her recent editorial, Rory Cohen uses the O.C. Register to promote a documentary called “The Grand Deception.” The film’s producer, Steven Emerson, is described as an “award-winning journalist,” yet Cohen fails to mention that Emerson has a rich history of peddling dubious claims against Muslims and Islam. If readers are going to get a taste of Emerson’s work, they should also know that Emerson is a self-declared expert on terrorism who falsely claimed that 80 to 85 percent of United States mosques were controlled by extremists after 9/11. This claim, parroted by the likes of Rep. Peter King (R-NY), dates back to a comment made by a fringe Muslim cleric, Sheikh Hisham Kabbani, in 1999. It was later found to be dubbed highly unsubstantiated, according to the Washington Post’s “Fact Checker.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

NASA Seeking to Lease or Sell Space-Shuttle Facilities

Does anyone need a 15,000-foot landing strip? How about a place to assemble rocket ships? Or a parachute-packing plant? An array of aerospace tracking antennas? A launchpad?

Make us an offer, says NASA, which is quietly holding a going-out-of-business sale for the facilities used by its space-shuttle program.

The last shuttle flight ended in July 2011, when Atlantis made its final touchdown. That orbiter, like its sisters Discovery and Endeavour, is now a museum piece. As soon as some remaining cleanup and wind-down are finished at Kennedy Space Center, the shuttle program will be history.

That has prompted NASA to advertise a long list of KSC facilities and equipment as available for use, lease or, in some cases, outright purchase by the right business.

Among them: Launch Pad 39A, where shuttles were launched; space in the Vehicle Assembly Building, the iconic 526-foot-tall structure first used to assemble Saturn V-Apollo rockets; the Orbiter Processing Facilities, essentially huge garages where the shuttles were maintained; Hangar N and its high-tech test equipment; the launch-control center; and various other buildings and chunks of undeveloped property.

A lot of the stuff needs to be transferred by the end of 2013, when federal maintenance money will run out. When it does, machinery will start to rust, and buildings will deteriorate in the harsh coastal-marsh environment of Cape Canaveral.

“We have a lot of things in discussion, realizing that these major facilities have been funded by the space-shuttle program,” said Joyce Riquelme, NASA’s director of KSC planning and development. “And the facilities out here can’t be in an abandoned state for long before they become unusable. So we’re in a big push over the next few months to either have agreements for these facilities or not.”

The process is mostly secret, because NASA has agreed to let bidders declare their proposals proprietary, keeping them out of the view of competitors and the public. NASA has at various times published official notices seeking proposals and spelled out that the proposals should be space-related, though the agency will consider alternative uses under certain circumstances.

But information about who wants to do what may not come until agency officials actually select finalists for negotiations.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

New Tampa Mosque Leaders Want to Create Positive Image of Muslims

NEW TAMPA — Mahmud Ahmed feels fortunate to live in a nation founded on religious freedom. As a devout Muslim, he also is gratified with how accepting the greater New Tampa community has been in accepting members of the Islamic faith and of the Dar-us-Salaam mosque. The mosque, at 15830 Morris Bridge Road, opened in August. The 7,500-square-foot, $1.6 million house of worship is set on a 7-acre site and was paid for in full by donations from members of the Islamic Society of New Tampa (ISONET) as well as other local followers of the faith. It is the only mosque in the area. “Contrary to how some people may think, our country and our community is amazing with how accommodating people are,” said Ahmed, a New Tampa resident and ISONET member, who noted that of the one billion Muslims throughout the world, a thousand of them live within his community…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Norwalk Officials to Review Mosque Options Next Week

NORWALK, Conn. — Norwalk officials and outside attorneys are slated to meet next week to discuss possible options for the city in the ongoing saga of the proposed Al-Madany Islamic Center mosque on Fillow Street.

The center and the city have been embroiled in a legal dispute over the mosque and community center for several months, and late last year it appeared the two sides might be headed toward a settlement…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Obama Administration Faces Senate Inquiry Over Links to Zero Dark Thirty

An influential panel of US Senators is investigating whether President Barack Obama’s administration gave filmmakers excessive access to information on the operation that killed Osama bin Laden.

The Senate intelligence committee is to examine contact between government officials and the makers of Zero Dark Thirty, a major Hollywood take on the mission to find the late al-Qaeda chief. Kathryn Bigelow, the film’s director, and Mark Boal, its screenwriter, are known to have been assisted by officials with intimate knowledge of the raid on bin Laden’s hideout in Pakistan in May 2011…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU

France: Will Charlie Hebdo Fail to Provoke Muslims This Time?

by Oussama Romdhani

Last Wednesday, a comic-book biography of the Prophet Mohammed hit the newsstands in France. It was not the first time the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo tried to provoke the “anger of Muslims,” mostly for the sake of notoriety and profit. But chances are, that despite all promotional efforts, this latest comic book will cause less ripples than the publishers seem to hope…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Germany: Angela Merkel Pictured With Blacked-Up Children

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, found herself standing next to children with blacked-up faces during a carol service.

The German leader joined a group of a carolers for Three Kings’ Day on the steps of the chancellery but raised eyebrows when several of the children appeared in blackface.

Traditionally, one of the kings appears with a darkened face as the groups go door-to-door singing carols. Mrs Merkel’s difficulties were added to by news that her coalition partners, the Free Democrat Party (FDP), were sinking in the polls and may not gather enough votes to remain in Parliament…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Greece: Coalition Parties Closes Ranks on Lagarde List Probe

Common line against Syriza to safeguard cohesion of government

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS — Officials from the three parties in the Greek governing coalition were in talks on Thursday aimed at consolidating a common line vis-a-vis the main leftist opposition SYRIZA, which is on Monday expected to submit in Parliament a proposal that socialist PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos be investigated along with his predecessor as finance minister, Giorgos Papaconstantinou, in connection with the alleged doctoring of the so-called Lagarde list of Greek depositors. Coalition officials privately expressed concern at SYRIZA’s insistence that Papaconstantinou is only partially to blame and that Venizelos be put on the spot too as this could destabilize PASOK and subsequently the governing administration.

The official position of all three parties in the coalition remained that Papaconstantinou is the only politician implicated in the affair following the removal from the original Lagarde list of the names of three of his relatives. By contrast, Venizelos was transparent in his handling of the list, sources said, noting that the data came into his possession after being handled by Papaconstantinou and Ioannis Diotis, the former head of the Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE). The fact that Papaconstantinou appears to have had a motive to tamper with the list — the protection of his relatives — and that he failed to react when a version of the Lagarde list was published in October by Hot Doc magazine publisher Costas Vaxevanis bolsters the coalition’s argument. But there are fears within the ranks of the government that SYRIZA’s alternative proposal for a broader investigation into Papaconstantinou and Venizelos might lead to the affair dragging on in Parliament.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Satirical French Mag Rethinks Approach to Islam

The satirical French weekly magazine, Charlie Hebdo, has released a special edition about Islam that may trigger fresh protests…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: ‘Terrorists’ Favourite Bookseller’ Has Conviction Quashed

A man once described as the “terrorists’ favourite bookseller” has had his conviction for selling books about Jihad quashed.

Material produced and distributed by Ahmed Faraz ended up in the hands of almost every major terrorist in Britain. Among his customers were Mohammed Sidique Khan, the leader of the July 7 bomb plot, and members of the trans-Atlantic airline gang, who cited his texts in their suicide videos. Court of Appeal judges found the prosecution in his original trial had been wrongly allowed to rely on the fact that the books had been found in the homes of high profile terrorists, without there being any suggestion that the offenders had actually been encouraged by the books to commit their terrorist acts. Faraz was convicted of 11 counts of possessing and disseminating terrorist publications at Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court in 2011. He was sentenced to three years in jail for running an operation to publish extremist texts and violent DVDs and distribute them around the world with the aim of “priming” terrorists for action…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Al-Qaeda Suspect Accused Over Plot to Bomb the New York Subway is Extradited to U.S. By British Government

Police in Britain have extradited a terror suspect to the United States to face charges that he took part in an alleged al-Qaeda plot to detonate explosives on the New York City subway system in the biggest plot since the September 11 attacks. Authorities handed Abid Naseer, 26, over to U.S. authorities on Thursday. Prosecutors want Naseer to stand trial in the U.S. for his alleged role in a terror campaign that would have struck targets in Britain and Norway as well as New York…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Afghanistan Soldier Found Hanged at His Swansea Home

A HERO soldier who served on the frontline in Afghanistan has been found hanged at his Swansea home. Trooper Robert Llewellyn Griffiths, of 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards, also known as the Welsh Cavalry, was discovered at the property in Oldway, Bishopston, on Saturday evening. He was only 24. An Army spokesman said: “Police are investigating the death of a soldier who was serving with 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards. “Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time.” The regiment returned from a challenging seven-month tour of Helmand Province last April…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Binmen Collect Rubbish Once in Eight Weeks Because it Was ‘Too Dark’ For Them to See Binbags

A mountain of binbags has built up in a block of flats after council binmen made just one rubbish collection in eight weeks because of an EU law.

Residents in a block of flats in Colchester, Essex, were told red tape means the binmen can’t collect rubbish there when it’s too dark for them to see it.

As a result, the massive pile of 70 stinking black binbags has built up and is now overspilling the bin store with rats spotted sniffing around the pile.

[Return to headlines]

UK: Malala Yousufzai Waves Goodbye to Hospital Staff in Birmingham

Malala Yousufzai after being being admitted in October. The 15-year-old was shot in the head by the Taliban for campaigning for girls’ education…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Mosque Plan for Chippy

CHIPPING Norton’s Muslim community has put forward new plans to create a small mosque in the town centre. The proposals, which are being spearheaded by Chipping Norton town councillor Tahirul Hasan, would see the ground floor of a disused shop in West Street converted for use as a prayer room. The mosque would be used by Muslims from across West Oxfordshire who currently meet on the ground floor of the town hall. A planning application has been lodged with West Oxfordshire District Council (WODC). Mr Hasan lodged an unsuccessful application for a mosque in 2007. He said he hopes people in Chipping Norton will now support the Muslim community’s plans. “There have been Muslims in Chipping Norton for about 30 years and I have lived here for 24 years,” he said. “Every day our numbers grow and we’re quite a big community now…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Our Once Great RSPCA is Being Destroyed by a Militant Tendency

by Charles Moore

The animal welfare organisation has badly lost its way under its new leadership

One must always treat lawyers with respect, so let me state at once that I have absolutely nothing against Jeremy Carter-Manning QC. From his entry in Who’s Who, I see that he was educated at St Paul’s School, called to the Bar nearly 40 years ago, and that his recreations include “food and wine”, which he pursues in the Reform Club. I have no doubt he is esteemed in his profession…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Roger Scruton: When Will the Conservative Party Fight for England?

Roger Scruton is a writer and philospher.

We know that electoral boundaries are currently drawn in ways that disadvantage the Conservative party. There is a pressing need for reform, if the Members elected to Parliament are effectively to represent the people who vote for them. But neither the Labour Party nor the Liberal Democrats will cooperate, since both of them, in their heart of hearts, wish to marginalise the Conservative Party, and to deprive the Party of its electoral base.

In the current dispute within the coalition, there is one boundary change that is not discussed. Our government is a coalition; so too is our country. And the boundaries between our component nations are drawn in such a way as to disadvantage the people of England — in other words, the people who reliably vote for Conservative Members of Parliament. In a hundred ways the Labour Party used its spell in office to secure a long term balance of forces in its favour — and this fact has already been much commented upon in ConservativeHome. But no move that the Labour Party made was more damaging than that of creating a Scottish Parliament without removing the Scottish Members from the Parliament of Westminster.

This move has had two disastrous effects, from the Conservative point of view. First, it has given to the Scottish electorate two votes, one to govern themselves, and another to control the English. Secondly it has given a reliable block vote to the Labour Party in Westminster. The two effects are connected. For although the Scots don’t wish, on the whole, to be governed by the Labour Party — as we see from elections to the Scottish Parliament — they do want the English to be governed by the Labour Party. Hence they vote to place Labour politicians, whom they don’t want at home, in Westminster, where they can reliably pursue the interests of Scotland without imposing their censorious opinions on the Scots.

Here is an example. One of the first acts of the Scottish Parliament was to pass a law governing hunting with hounds, that quintessential English custom that gets up the nose of all who dislike the English. The law was duly passed, and the Scottish hunts have learned to live with it. The Labour Party then forced a similar law on the English and Welsh, through the Westminster Parliament. It is a controversial law, and a bill for repeal, if presented to the current Parliament, would gain considerable support. But it would not pass, largely because the 41 Scottish Labour Members would all vote against it — despite the fact that the matter concerns a law operative in England and Wales only, and despite the fact that the Scots have a hunting law of their own.

You may or may not be concerned about the hunting question. But no constitutionally minded person can really accept that this situation should continue. Either there is a boundary between England and Scotland or there is not. Which is it to be? Currently there is something called a boundary that is entirely permeable from North to South, and entirely impermeable the other way. If the Conservative Party has any concern for its constituents it should surely make it a priority to change things, so that the boundary is either permeable or impermeable in both directions. The least that can be proposed is that the Scottish MPs be barred from voting on laws that do not apply in Scotland. Better by far would be to exclude them altogether.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Vatican Cardinal Rues Islamist Violence, Sharia Imposition

In comments made to L’Osservatore Romano, the president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue lamented Islamist violence and the imposition of sharia law on non-Muslims by some governments. “Unfortunately, a few deviant minorities that exploit religion to justify the use of violence or seek to impose Islamic law on all by force, are a danger not only to their societies, but also to the whole world, and a hindrance to dialogue between religions,” said Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran. “In this regard, it suffices to remember the fate of several Christian communities in countries such as Pakistan or Nigeria.”

[…]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Winter-Only Weddings — Bulgarian Muslims Say ‘I Do’

The people of this Bulgarian town of Ribnovo are famous for performing their unique wedding ceremonies in winter time only. The inhabitants of the mountain village of Ribnovo are Bulgarian-speaking Muslims, sometimes referred to as “Pomaks“ or “people who have suffered”. Muslim Bulgarians are descendants of Christian Bulgarians who were forcibly converted to Islam by the Turks, during the 14th, 16th and the 18th century.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Balkans

Kosovo Still the Balkan Front Line Against Radical Islam

by Stephen Scwhartz

The small republic of Kosovo, with a population of less than two million—90 percent ethnic Albanians, of whom 80 percent are Muslim—is the Balkan zone offering the greatest resistance to radical Islam. Some vignettes from recent interviews may impart the flavor of the debate over Islamism in the country

[…]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

North Africa

Egypt’s Grand Mufti Responds to Attacks on Islam in New Book

New book by the head of Al-Ahzar aiming to explain Islamic moral values comes in response to alleged attacks on Islam in the West

Egyptian Grand Mufti Sheikh Ali Gomaa has released a new book in English entitled Master of Excellence: Methodology of moral discipline in the Prophetic tradition. The book is a response to the disparaging depictions of the Prophet Mohammad in some Western magazines, especially the French magazine Charlie Hebdo, according to the book’s press release. The book, translated by Professor Ibrahim Najm, consultant to Gomaa, targets the Western reader and aims to outline the moral values of Islam as elucidated in the Sunna, asserting that the Prophet Mohammad adopted a special moral methodology that urged people to refine their ethics and embrace the values of justice, decency and tolerance.

Sheikh Gomaa says in the new book that Islam has the ability to translate its principles into moral values that help achieve noble goals, including peace and security for all people.

The book explains many Islamic ideals, from preserving the environment to tolerating others. Najm states that the book aims to correct the distorted image of Islam propagated by attacks in the West.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Egypt-UAE Relations Worsen With ‘Brotherhood’ Arrests

CAIRO — Mistrustful ties between Islamist-run Egypt and the United Arab Emirates deteriorated further this week with the reported arrest in the UAE of more than 10 Egyptians allegedly spying for Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. The report, carried by the UAE newspaper Al-Khaleej, stirred a flurry of diplomacy and other activity as Egypt sought to limit the fall-out, which had the potential to add diplomatic woes to its already dire economic and domestic political problems. The government of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood, has so far made no public comment confirming or denying the information…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Egyptian Islamist Party Splits

CAIRO, Jan. 3 (UPI) — A radical group in Egypt’s conservative Islamist party has broken away and could strengthen support for Sharia law ahead of legislative elections, experts said.

The group, which will be called al-Watan, or Homeland, split from the Islamist Nour Party, an ally of President Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, though more religiously conservative, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Morocco: A Journey From Mosques to Breasts Via Satellite Dish

Some might call the Moroccan artist Mohamed Mourabiti a breast man. But the half-cupped forms he is fond of depicting are not so much inspired by the female chest as they are by the domes of Marrakesh’s ubiquitous mosques. Conflating the sacred and the sensual in this way challenges some viewers. Others are more ready to appreciate the up-close-and-personal expression of the untouchable.

By Bob Barry, Marrakesh

Sitting in his studio, in front of his paintings, Mourabiti recalls his first artistic endeavours. “I started at a very young age by drawing simple things like streets on pieces of wood or cloth,” he says. “But I quickly moved from the vertical to the horizontal.” That reorientation was inspired by the rooftops of Marrakesh’s old houses or, to be more precise, the technology that was perched on them. “At first, I used to hate the sight of these satellite dishes and antennas. But seeing them every day, I eventually got used to them,” he says…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians

Abbas’ Fatah Movement Marks Anniversary in Gaza First Time in Six Years

GAZA, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) — Hundreds of thousands of supporters of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement on Friday marked its 48-year anniversary in the Gaza Strip, for the first time in six years. On trucks, in cars or just walking on foot, the huge crowds of Fatah gathered at an open yard in Gaza City’s center to attend a central rally that marks the anniversary of the movement, which was found in January 1965. “This million-man-woman rally is a message to Israel and to Hamas movement and to the Palestinian people,” Amal Hamad, a Palestinian female member of Fatah movement’s central committee from Gaza, told Xinhua…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Clashes Erupt Between Israeli Army and Palestinians in West Bank

JERUSALEM, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) — An attempt to search a wanted Palestinian militant in the northern West Bank city of Jenin sparked a violent confrontation early Thursday, with hundreds of residents hurling rocks and firebombs at Israeli security forces, local media reported. The Israeli army said a demonstration broke out during the raid, with an estimated 500 locals taking to the streets to hurl rocks and Molotov cocktails at security forces. An elderly Palestinian woman was lightly injured by an army dog trained to sniff explosives, the Ha’aretz daily said. It was the second time this week that security forces operated in the Jenin area…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

PA Slams Israel Measures Against Al-Ibrahimi Mosque

 RAMALLAH — The Palestinian Authority Thursday slammed the Israeli measures in Al-Ibrahimi mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron. Mahmoud Al-Habbash, the Palestinian Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, said that Israel prevented the Azan (calling for prayers) in the Ibrahimi Mosque 52 times since last December “under the pretext that it disturbs the residents of nearby Jewish settlements and make too much noises.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Streets of Gaza Turn to Gold as Thousands Rally to Fatah Cause

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians poured onto the streets of Gaza on Friday in a display of popular support for the Fatah faction of the Palestinian leadership as resentment rises against the Islamist Hamas movement.

Central Gaza city was transformed into a mass of yellow flags as Fatah staged its first rally since it was thrown out of Gaza five years ago in a brutal offensive by Hamas. The rally heard calls for a renewal of the united front between the two groups as Fatah leaders sought to begin the next stage of reconciliation after the years of mutual and violent hostility following Hamas’s seizure of power in 2007…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Middle East

Alistair Burt MP: The Prospects for Syria in 2013

Alistair Burt is Member of Parliament for North East Bedfordshire and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Middle East, Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

As Syria’s tragedy endures another new year, there will be renewed focus on what prospects there might be that by the end of 2013 there will have been some relief to the misery we see unfolding day after day. It is taking time to be clear on all the strands emerging from the turbulence in the Arab world. One thing is already obvious — whatever similarities there might be in the causes of upheaval, each state is different, so consequences are different too. What began as a peaceful protest for reform in Syria, not regime change, was met with such violence from the Government of Bashar Assad that the protests steadily evolved into civil war. So far, so Libya. But crucial differences between the two meant there could be no comparisons in events or outcome…

[Reader comment by Cassandra79 on 4 January 2013 at about 9.30 am.]

All this reminds me of the part in ‘Nineteen Eighty Four’ when Oceania suddenly switches sides, and the Eurasian enemy become the perennial good guys. For a decade in ‘The War on Terror’ Al Qaeda were the mortal enemy of the West. Now its the open policy of the US/UK governments to spread the rule of Al-Qaeda supporting Islamists against secular regimes. And the sheeple don’t even notice the switch!

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Applebaum on Islam

“Fareed Zakaria GPS,” Sundays at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET.

Fareed Zakaria speaks with Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, Anne Applebaum, about democracy and Islam.

When people look at the Middle East now, they’re struck by how difficult it is to build genuine democracy. And there’s some argument they don’t have the institutions. But I think there’s a lingering suspicion that they’re not part of the Western world. They haven’t had the history. And the contrast is often to Eastern Europe, and to 1989. And the idea is that that happened so easily that the Berlin Wall fell and, hey, presto, all these countries became good, solid democracies. Is that a fair reading?

It’s not really. I mean, first of all, after ‘89 was not so smooth. I mean though the countries that were communist before then had very different fates. The fate of Poland and the fate of Albania and the fate of Russia are quite different. And so it was more in many cases, actually, the degree to which civil society in those societies had been maintained or had been reconstructed that made the big difference between how well they recovered…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

How Some Medieval Cultures Adapted to Rise of Islam

Jan. 2, 2013 — Medieval Afghanistan, Iran and the one-time Soviet Central Asian states were frontiers in flux as the Islamic Caliphate spread beyond the Arabian Peninsula in the seventh through 10th centuries.

As such, different groups, such as the new Arab ruling class, the native landed gentry and local farmers, jockeyed for power, position and economic advantage over an approximately 300-year period as the Sasanian Empire collapsed and the Caliphate took its place. University of Cincinnati historian Robert Haug, assistant professor, will present his research on how social, cultural and political changes were manifested in these border areas that serve almost as a “perpetual frontier.” He does so Jan. 3, 2013, at the American Historical Association, in a presentation titled “Between the Limits and the Gaps: Conceptualizing Frontiers in Medieval Arabic and Persian Geographies.” While many in the West might perceive these Middle Eastern and Asian countries as Islamic religious monoliths, their populations in the Middle Ages were only about 50 percent Muslim in the 10th century, even after 300 years of Arab rule, according to Haug…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Qatar: 30 Detainees Embrace Islam at Search and Follow Up Department

Doha: As part of the efforts of the Ministry of Interior in spreading Islamic culture and awareness among the expatriate communities in the country, 30 detainees of Filipino and Ethiopian nationalities at Search and Follow Up Department embraced Islam recently under the guidance of Islamic propagators from Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah for Humanitarian Services (RAF) and Qatar Guest Centre…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UAE: Public Works Finish 3 Projects

3 mosques and a youth chess centre open now

Sharjah: Three mosques and a youth chess club have been completed by the directorate of public works in Sharjah in various areas of the emirate at the total cost of Dh21.5 million.

The directorate has finished three mosques built in the Islamic architectural style, which included a number of infrastructure facilities, at a total cost of Dh7.5 million. Hilal Al Sahi, director of building projects at the directorate, said that each of the mosques would accommodate 240 worshippers. The mosques were built in Al Muzerie, Um Funian and Al Hamriyah. All the mosques are fully equipped with everything including car parks and ramps for wheelchairs, he said…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UAE: Abu Dhabi to Have 10 New Mosques

Abu Dhabi, (IANS/WAM) As many as 10 new mosques will be built in Abu Dhabi’s western region at an estimated cost of 20 million dirhams (around $5.5 million). The Red Crescent Authority (RCA) and General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments signed an agreement to build the mosques. RCA board chairman Ahmed Humaid Al Mazrouei said the initiative will boost developmental and constructive efforts at a local level. It was a bid to provide a decent life, comfort and basic services to the people of the region, he said.

[JP note: You can never have too many mosques.]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

South Asia

Afghan Census Dodges Questions of Ethnicity and Language

Door-to-door interviewers embark on controversial project to count population of country for first time since 1979

There are two questions Hajera Bashir does not ask as she goes door to door gathering census data in Ghor province in Afghanistan’s freezing central highlands: which ethnic group residents belong to, and what language they speak at home. With these taboo topics set aside, she quizzes families about everything else: their income and how many wives each man has, whether they can read and if their sons and daughters are in school, domestic details such as how they heat their homes, whether they have a toilet and if they keep chickens…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Four-Legged Soldiers Serving in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — Whether they are sniffing out bombs, running down bad guys or just cheering up their two-legged counterparts, military working dogs are a common sight in Afghanistan. Soldiers from the Alabama National Guard’s 1st of the 167th Infantry — operating in Afghanistan as Task Force Centurion Prime — regularly come in contact with the dogs. At times, they are even incorporated into the Alabama soldiers’ security force missions…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Hindu Girls Still Targeted for Rape in Pakistan: World Remains Silent

“The raping of Hindu women and girls “has almost become a trend in Sindh province,” in south Pakistan, claims the Daily Bhaksar. Since the beginning of December, at least two Hindu girls, one aged six and the other 14, have been attacked and raped. The six-year-old victim was allegedly kidnapped and raped by Hashim Magiro, the owner of a gambling den near the girl’s home in the Umerkot district of Sindh. […]”

[Return to headlines]

Israel’s National Library Buys 1,000-Year-Old Jewish Documents From Afghanistan

The documents were reportedly discovered by villagers in a cave in eastern Afghanistan, near Iranian and Uzbeki border. Collection of 29 pages include writings by Saadia Gaon.

The National Library of Israel recently purchased 29 pages that are part of a cache of Jewish documents from Afghanistan. The collection includes unknown writings by Saadia Gaon as well as legal and family correspondence from 1,000 years ago. The cache, sometimes known as the Afghan Genizah, has rocked the world of scholars who study ancient manuscripts, and the dealers who buy and sell them, to name just two groups. The find has been compared to the 19th-century discovery of the Cairo Genizah in significance.

Information about the documents, which originated in the Jewish communities of Central Asia during the Middle Ages, is wrapped in layers of legend and rumor. They were reportedly discovered by villagers in a cave in eastern Afghanistan, near the Iranian and Uzbeki borders. Rumor has it that the cave was home to a family of foxes. In recent years the caves have served as hideouts for Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Malaysia: ‘Political Islam’ And Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad (Part Two) — Clive Kessler

JAN 3 — This discussion probes a fateful issue. It considers whether, as the 13th national elections approach, Malaysians may reasonably place their trust in the “moderate” elements within PAS to restrain any “overreaching” Islamist enthusiasms within the opposition coalition, and thereafter in any prospective “popular front” Pakatan national government.

This discussion began by posing, and will conclude by returning to, the question whether the assurances provided on this matter by Dr Dzulkelfy Ahmad (The Malaysian Insider, December 28) can provide that confidence. It does so specifically by probing the clarity and historical adequacy of Dzulkefly’s understanding of the notion “political Islam”. In short, if his grasp of this term is insufficient, then the assurances that he wishes to provide, and suggests that he may reliably offer to Malaysian voters, concerning the ability of the PAS “moderates” to counter any temptations towards excess among his party’s “hardline” political Islamists are unlikely to be adequate.

This is a crucial matter on which many Malaysians want, and need, to be convinced.

“Third-Phase Islam” — or “Political Islam”

Sir Hamilton Gibb, we saw, offended many Muslims and created a furore with the title of his book “Mohammedanism” (1949). Insensitive it may have been. But Gibb, nonetheless, “was onto something”. He was writing about Islam in new and dramatically changing times. And, in an attempt to address the new challenges of new times, he adopted — among Western scholars of classical Islam — a new approach. He sought to look not simply at the faith of Islam but at the world of Islam. He aimed to see Islam historically, not doctrinally. He wished to understand the world that Muslims inhabited not simply in Islam’s own terms but in its global historical context…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Thailand Deports Rohingya Muslims

Thailand has deported a group of the Rohingya Muslim minority fleeing from persecution in Myanmar. On Wednesday, 73 Rohingya migrants, including 15 women, were found drifting on a small, overcrowded boat off the Thai resort town of Phuket, heading to their final destination of Malaysia…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Thailand Launches TV Channel Geared for Muslims

Thailand’s government has launched the first Malay-language television channel geared toward the insurgency-plagued south’s Muslim-majority audience. Muslims in Thailand’s southernmost Muslim-dominated provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat say they are treated as second-class citizens by predominantly Buddhist Thai authorities. More than 5,000 people have been killed there since an Islamic insurgency flared in 2004. The “TV Malayu” satellite television station will initially offer a half-hour of news programming a day before broadcasting for 24 hours a day starting next year.—AP

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Far East

China: Father Hires in-Game “Hitmen” To Deter Son From Playing

Sick and tired of his son playing video games and not listening to him, a father in China decided to take matters into his own hands… well, sort of. Instead of sending his son off to addiction camp or stripping him of internet and gaming rights, Mr. Feng chose to hire an online “hitman” to school his son.

Feng’s 23 year-old son, “Xiao Feng” started playing video games in high school. Through his years of playing various online games, he supposedly thought himself a master of Chinese online role playing games. According to his father, Xiao Feng had terrible grades in school because of his gaming habit; he couldn’t even land a job. He, however, says he simply couldn’t find any work that he liked. Feng was annoyed that his son couldn’t even tough it out for three months at a software development company.

Unhappy with his son not finding a job, Feng decided to hire players in his son’s favorite online games to hunt down Xiao Feng. It is unknown where or how Feng found the in-game assassins—every one of the players he hired were stronger and higher leveled than Xiao Feng. Feng’s idea was that his son would get bored of playing games if he was killed every time he logged on, and that he would start putting more effort into getting a job.

Despite being sick of getting killed every time, Xiao Feng decided to stick up to his father and tell him how he felt. He was quoted as saying, “I can play or I can not play, it doesn’t bother me. I’m not looking for any job—I want to take some time to find one that suits me.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Australia — Pacific

Dad, Triplets Granted Bail After Brawl in Bankstown

A FATHER and his four children involved in a brawl with police which allegedly included a mother throwing punches, malfunctioning tasers and “hammer blows to the face” have been granted bail.

Five members of the Mehanna family faced court yesterday charged over a fight with at least 13 police on the driveway of their Bankstown home after midnight on Wednesday. Three police were hospitalised and four others injured in the wild brawl on Ogmore Court. Police were initially called to the home to investigate a “domestic dispute”, the court heard. A sixth family member, the mother, Rafah, 41, was arrested following the fight but was taken to Bankstown Hospital before being ordered to front court on January 13. The father, Mohamed, 46, and his three 18-year-old triplets _ sons Ali and Hussain, and daughter Zainab _ were granted bail in Parramatta Local Court yesterday. They are all charged with affray, assaulting police, hindering police and resisting arrest. Ali was also charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Infidel Police Intervene in Muslim ‘Domestic’; Muslims Riot, Attack and Injure Police

by Christina McIntosh

As recounted in three successive stories in the ABC, the first of which I include because although it made no mention whatever of any names, thus obscuring the identity and ideological affiliation of the participants, there was something about the shape and flavour of the incident described that made me wonder; and my suspicions were amply confirmed by the two succeeding reports…

[Reader comment by Hugh Fitzgerald on 4 January 2013.]

“king-hit a policeman” Good to learn a new word. “King-hit.” Is it strictly strine, or used elsewhere?

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Sub-Saharan Africa

Ghana: Gov. Dickson Tasks Muslims on Peaceful Co-Existence

The Muslim community in Bayelsa State has been urged to continually preach peace and mutual co-existence among different religious groups in the country. Governor Seriake Dickson made the call when a delegation of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Bayelsa State Chapter paid him a courtesy visit in Government House, Yenagoa. The Governor implored Muslims to dwell less and de-emphasise those issues that tend to polarize the nation, pointing out that most of the differences being experienced are as a result of lack of understanding and the selfish tendencies of a few persons. His words: “In your mosques and meetings continue to preach the gospel of unity, tolerance and peaceful co-existence because every part of this country needs the other part to move forward. And the greatness of the country is our size, our population and diversity”. While felicitating with the Muslims on the New Year celebrations, Governor Dickson thanked them for their continued prayers and support during the governorship elections saw him emerge as Governor of the State…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Somalia, Its Neighbours and Al-Shabaab — The Quest for Sustainable Solutions

In Somalia, the radical Islamist militia, Al-Shabab, that has terrorized much of the country over the past five years, appears to be on the run. They have been forced out of the capital, Mogadishu, and all of the major towns that were once under their control (including Kismayo in the South). But those who believe the Shabaab are finished could find that they are sorely mistaken…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Uganda: Police on Alert Over Muslims

Police in Masaka are on heightened alert in the wake of growing tensions between two Muslim factions in the district. The simmering tensions are between a group loyal to the Old Kampala-based Mufti Shaban Ramathan Mubajje, which wants to forcefully take over the Masaka Main mosque from those loyal to the Kibuli Islamic faction. Sheikh Bruhan Bagunduse, a newly-appointed district Kadhi loyal to Old Kampala, recently tried to mobilize Muslim youths to take over the mosque, the headquarters of the Masaka Muslim district council…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Latin America

Argentina: The Sun Hits Back at Argies’ Latest Falklands Claim

Our warning as Argentina tries to grab islands

THE Sun today hits back at the Argentine president over her Falkland Islands newspaper rant.

We have published our own letter in a Buenos Aires paper to warn her: Hands off our territory…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Brazil: Muslim Education Council for Latin American and Carribbean Countries Proposed in São Paulo

São Paulo: Dec. 31—(BNA) The Islamic Call Center for Latin American and Caribbean states has concluded its 26th Conference in São Paulo, Brazil themed (Islamic Schools and their effect on Maintaining Identity in Latin American and Caribbean countries). The conference was attended by a number of magistrates, preachers, academicians and members of diplomatic corps from all over the Islamic world.

The conference sessions culminated in a number of initiatives and recommendations, most importantly, establishing of the Muslim Education Council for Latin American and Caribbean states, presided over by Dr. Saleh Hussein whilst Ahmed bin Ali Al-Saiffi acts as secretary-general of Muslim Education Council and inviting specialist experts to join the founding board of the Muslim Education Council for Latin American and Caribbean states as well as inviting to a meeting for the founding board as soon as the legal, financial and administrative regulations have been finalized within three months in Sao Paulo in order to endorse the articles of association and form the executive board and approve the annual budget…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

David Cameron Pledges to ‘Do Everything’ To Protect Falkland Islands After Argentinian President Takes Out Newspaper Ads on 180th Anniversary of ‘Colonial Rule’

David Cameron today pledged to ‘do everything’ to protect the interests of the Falkland Islanders after an open letter from the Argentine president appeared in British newspapers demanding he ‘hand back’ the islands.

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is demanding a return of the South Atlantic archipelago which she claims the UK stole and ‘expelled’ Argentine settlers from 180 years ago.

Her open letter, which appeared in the Guardian and Independent newspapers, accuses the UK of colonialism and calls for talks with the UN over the future of the islands.

But a Downing Street spokesman said the islanders had shown ‘a clear desire to remain British’ and the prime minister would ‘do everything to protect the interests of the Falklands islanders’.

Fernandez has marked the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War with a sustained diplomatic campaign to assert Argentina’s sovereignty claim.

The Falklands cause is a popular rallying cry in Argentina but the stakes have also been raised by oil exploration in the waters around the islands.

[Return to headlines]

Venezuela: World Media Consider Life After Chavez

The declining health of Hugo Chavez has made headlines around the world as media commentators speculate on a future without Venezuela’s firebrand leader.

Chavez has not been seen in public for three weeks after reportedly suffering complications while undergoing cancer surgery in Cuba. Venezuela’s state media have been airing regular tributes to the president, while the government says he remains in a “stable” but “delicate” condition…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Immigration

‘Illegal Migrants’ Ordered to Leave Britain Had Returned Home Years Ago

Dozens of foreign workers were this week told by a private firm working for the Home Office that they had overstayed their visas and must leave Britain even though they returned to their home country four years ago.

Capita was last year awarded a contract by the UK Border Agency (UKBA) worth up to £40 million to track down more than 174,000 immigrants who may be living illegally in Britain.

But the firm has been accused of wrongly pursuing people who have the right to stay in the UK and others who left long ago. Adrian Farley, an immigration adviser, said he received had letters from Capita addressed to 31 of his clients who came to Britain on short-term IT contracts demanding that they go back to India. However, they all went back home in 2008, and Mr Farley said he informed the UKBA of this twice…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

In Trapani: On the Island of Lampedusa, Italians Want Separate Bus Lines for the Muslim Illegals Who Keep Arriving by the Boatload

They keep coming, from the newly-”liberated” lands of Tunisia and Libya, and Egypt, and from other places too. Most are Muslim Maghrebins, though a few come as well from sub-Saharan Africa. They come by boat, illegally, and once they set foot on Lampedusa, they are given clothes, a place to live, and then for them the fun begins, as they treat the Italian natives of Trapani with violence and aggression, and crime (theft, vandalism, street bobberies). The italians suffer, and complain to the government, and nothing is done,and the Arabs keep coming, and coming. They should be sent back at once, no hearing necessary. Even the thin reed of “political asylum” makes no sense when the despots are gone. There’s no need for time-consuming and expensive hearings; just send them back. And the countries of Western Europe, the members of Schengenland, all have a stake in halting such immigration into their territories, and should help Italy with its attempt to intercept such boatloads.

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars

Never Mind Banning the Hijab, What About the Banning of the Cross?

by Jake Wallis Simons

So here we are again. A nine-year-old girl from south London has been forbidden from wearing her hijab at school. As surely as night follows day, her family are suing the school for religious discrimination. Commentators on the Left, like the education journalist Susan Elkin, tie themselves in tautologies in efforts to call for toleration: “I know it’s hard for those of us who didn’t grow up in strict Muslim families to understand why it’s a sin for a child of nine to be bare headed in front of male teachers,” she concedes, “but would a uniform coloured headscarf really affect teaching and learning in the classroom?”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

‘N-Word’ To be Removed From Children’s Classics in Germany

Thienemann Verlag, one of Germany’s oldest publishers of children’s books, has announced it will reprint Otfried Preußler’s children’s classic ‘The Little Witch’ with all instances of the ‘n-word’ removed from the text.

­Founded in Stuttgart in 1849, Thienemann Verlag decided not to have the disputed words replaced, but deleted altogether.

“We will scour all of our classics,” Spiegel Online quoted Klaus Willenberg from Thienemann Verlag as saying. The publishers said it was necessary for the book to reflect the linguistic and political changes taking place in the world. Other books will be reviewed by the German publisher to ensure that politically incorrect words are found and removed.

Otfried Preußler’s works have been translated into 50 languages. In its collection of six hundred titles, ‘The Little Witch’ (Die kleine Hexe) is among Thienemann Verlag’s best-known books. Written in 1957, the fairy tale chronicles a 127 year-old ‘bad witch’ determined to eventually turn good.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

The Church of England Criticised Over ‘Unenforceable’ Gay Bishop stance

The Church of England’s decision to allow gay clergy in civil partnerships to become bishops, as long as they promise to remain celibate, has been met with widespread criticism.

Liberals and traditionalists remain divided over the move, with fears from conservatives that it could be both divisive and unenforceable. Groups representing gay Anglicans have also questioned how the rule will be enforced, arguing that lesbians should also be able to become bishops…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

General

Jason Thompson’s House of 1000 Manga

The Greatest Censorship Fails

It’s always surprised me that there’s no giant internet database listing all censorship in English editions of manga. Maybe it shouldn’t surprise me; there’s been so many little changes it’s hard to notice them all, and the manga community is scattered, so fans of Manga X don’t necessarily care on principle if Manga Y is censored…

 Vanishing Mosques. Arabs love anime; I have Rose of Versailles and Future Boy Conan on Arabic DVDs that I bought in Amman. Arab anime fans also fansubbed JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and presumably liked it, but rue the day that some Salafi guy showed up at the Cairo anime club and saw the scene when Dio, the main villain, is shown reading the Quran. (Of course, in the original manga, he’s just reading some random book in a tiny panel—making it the Quran was the animators’ brilliant idea.) Egyptian preachers, of course, stoked up public outrage, turning some obscure fansub that probably no one had seen into something everybody in Egypt knew about (sound familiar?). Shueisha not only apologized for the anime scene, they also censored some scenes in the manga when minarets of mosques get damaged in a battle. Now, in all new editions of the manga in all languages, the collateral damage instead takes out water tanks & TV towers…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20130105

USA
» ‘Boozed-Up’ Plane Passenger Duct-Taped to His Seat to Stop Rampage: Sources
» Bulletproof Clothing for Kids
» Four Dead in Hostage-Taking in Aurora, Colorado
» Salvors Ready Shell Drill Ship for Tow Attempt
 
Europe and the EU
» Sweden: Centre Party Faces Internal Rebellion
» UK: Isleworth Stabbing Suspect Charged With Murder
» UK: Jail for Kosovan Thugs Who Kicked and Stabbed Compatriot
» UK: Omar Binbasilar: Armed Forces Charity Boss Nicked a Fortune
 
Balkans
» Kosovo Bars Entry to Serbian President Nikolic
 
North Africa
» Muslim Brotherhood Took ‘Billions’ From Obama: Egypt Lawyers
 
Middle East
» Iran Building Software to Control Networking Sites
 
Russia
» French Actor Depardieu in Russia to Meet Putin
 
South Asia
» Juvenile Suspect in India Gang Rape Reportedly Ripped Her Intestines Out in Attack
 
Australia — Pacific
» Australia Warns Citizens Against Fighting in Syria
» Don’t Go to Syria to Fight, Warns Carr
 
Latin America
» Venezuela Lawmakers Elect Chavez Ally as Assembly Chief
 
Culture Wars
» Church of England Ends Ban on Gay Clergy in Civil Partnerships Becoming Bishops (But They Must Remain Celibate)
» English Catholic Bishop Endorses ‘Prophetic’ Humanae Vitae
» Huge Opposition Mounts Against Gay ‘Marriage’ In UK

USA

‘Boozed-Up’ Plane Passenger Duct-Taped to His Seat to Stop Rampage: Sources

A JFK-bound passenger flying high on duty-free liquor had to be duct-taped to his seat to stop a midair rampage — which included shouts that the plane was going down, sources said yesterday.

Gudmundur Karl Arthorsson, 46, tried to choke and grope several people and was spitting all over the cabin when passengers pounced on him about halfway into the Thursday flight from Reykjavik, Iceland.

“He drank an entire bottle of hard liquor two to three hours into the flight,” said Manhattan resident Andy Ellwood, who posted on his blog a photo of Arthorsson taped to his seat.

Arthorsson looked so loaded, a flight attendant confiscated two liquor bottles, a source said.

The relentless drunk then “went into the seat pocket in front of him and began consuming a variety of mini bottles,” the source added.

His choice of booze included Grand Marnier, whiskey and schnapps, a source said.

Arthorsson was fairly calm until about 4 p.m., nearly two hours before the flight was scheduled to land.

He “became intoxicated, verbally abusive toward the flight crew as well as other passengers,” a police source said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Bulletproof Clothing for Kids

Miguel Caballero has developed bulletproof clothing to protect children from shooting sprees — and the US is his main market. The designer hopes to sell his collection to parents who fear for their children’s safety.

Violence, death and murder are a normal part of day-to-day life for a creative businessman with factories in Mexico and Colombia. Both countries are flashpoints in the Latin American drug war. Some call his choice of locations macabre, others business-minded.

“The US is where the market is for children’s products,” he says. “They have their own problems there.”

And the Colombian designer Caballero believes he has the solutions.

They’re called V-Bag, Puffer Kids, T-Shirt Kids and Safety Vest, and they’re meant to protect children from the kind of attacks that happened recently in Newton, Connecticut.

The “Kids” T-shirt, for example, is constructed of highly modern, bullet-proof polymeric fibers. They’re supposed to be able to withstand the heaviest of bullets. The T-shirt is light and can be worn inconspicuously as an undershirt.

With Caballero’s shirts, blouses and jackets, the children at least have a small chance of survival, the designer says.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Four Dead in Hostage-Taking in Aurora, Colorado

(Reuters) — Four people were dead including the gunman following a hostage-taking incident on Saturday in Aurora, Colorado, the same town where a man shot dead 12 people and wounded 58 more at a movie theater last July, Denver-area media reported.

Police fired tear gas and entered the home after several hours of failed negotiations with the gunman, who had barricaded himself inside, and shot him dead, KUSA television reported. Inside they found three other people shot dead, media reports said.

The victims were believed to be related to the gunman, the Denver Post reported, citing Aurora police spokeswoman Cassidee Carlson.

Police reached by telephone in Aurora offered no immediate information on the situation.

Police notified neighbors of an emergency around 3 a.m. (1000 GMT) and evacuated several blocks, Carlson told KUSA.

One person inside had escaped and alerted authorities, KUSA said.

The gunman fired on a police vehicle around 8 a.m., leading to an exchange of gunfire, KMGH television said. At that time police saw a lifeless body for the first time…

[Return to headlines]

Salvors Ready Shell Drill Ship for Tow Attempt

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Royal Dutch Shell PLC will try to move its grounded drill ship out of the worst of the North Pacific’s fury with a towing attempt when conditions allow.

Shell incident commander Sean Churchfield said at a press conference Saturday that naval architects have pronounced the Kulluk fit to be towed. The attempt will depend on weather, tides and readiness, he said.

“I can’t offer you firm times. Right now, the preparation for the tow depends on the weather and operational constraints,” Churchfield said. “We will be looking to move the vessel as soon as we are ready and able.”

If the drill ship can be pulled from the rocks off Sitkalidak Island, it will be towed 30 miles to shelter in Kodiak Island’s Kiliuda Bay, a cove about 43 miles southeast of the city of Kodiak.

The Kulluk is a circular barge 266 feet in diameter with a funnel-shaped, reinforced steel hull that allows it to operate in ice. One of two Shell ships that drilled last year in the Arctic Ocean, it has a 160-foot derrick rising from its center and no propulsion system of its own.

The tow attempt will be made by the same vessel that lost the Kulluk last month while attempting to move it to Seattle. A line between the 360-foot anchor handler, the Aiviq, and the Kulluk broke Dec. 27. Four re-attached lines between the Aiviq or other vessels also broke in stormy weather.

The attempt to rein in the drill ship was complicated by engine failure experienced by the Aiviq’s four engines. A preliminary investigation pointed to bad fuel but that is not conclusive, Churchfield said. The Edison Chouest Offshore crew has treated fuel and changed filters.

“Thus far, we have not seen a repeat of those problems,” he said.

Fuel tanks remain intact on the Kulluk and there are no plans to remove an estimated 150,000 gallons of diesel from the Kulluk, which would present a different set of risks, Churchfield said. Other cargo also will remain.

[Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU

Sweden: Centre Party Faces Internal Rebellion

Resistance is growing within the ranks of the Centre Party over a radical new party programme which includes proposals on free immigration, polygamy and an end to compulsory schooling.

Several regional party chapters in southern Sweden are now organizing against the proposed 2013 party programme, reports the newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

In December leading Centre Party members in the southern region of Skåne said they were planning to draft a counter proposal ahead of the party convention in March.

They claimed that the proposed programme shows that there is a great rift between a neo-liberal “Stockholm Centre” and “the classic core voters in rural areas”.

But opinions are split in Stockholm, too.

“There was a crisis even before this proposal came. Where is the support for polygamy?” said Hans Lindqvist, a Stockholm County Council politician.

“I have a hard time seeing that anyone would be against it in the Stockholm region”, said Centre Party MP Fredrick Federley.

Now, a number of regional chapters in southern Sweden are joining forces with Skåne to oppose the proposed programme.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

UK: Isleworth Stabbing Suspect Charged With Murder

A man has been charged with murder after a 23-year-old was found stabbed to death in west London.

Darryl McClymont was found with knife wounds in Ferney Meade Way, Isleworth, close to midnight on 29 December, and died at the scene.

Mohamed Aradour, 23, of Kennington, south London, is accused of murdering Mr McClymont, who was from Isleworth.

Mr Aradour is due before Camberwell Magistrates’ Court, on Saturday.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

UK: Jail for Kosovan Thugs Who Kicked and Stabbed Compatriot

Tottenham, Enfield, North London; Barking, Essex

Five Kosovan thugs who joined a mob that kicked, punched and stabbed a compatriot for being from the wrong part of London are facing jail today (FRI). Ada Alia was left ‘shocked and traumatised’ after he was savagely attacked during Kosovo independence day celebrations in central London. CCTV footage captured Denis Boneri, 19, Armand Krasniqi, 22, Urim Ponari, 21, Dardan Terstena, 18, and Togant Ponazi, 20, chasing Mr Alia until he tripped in a side street off Northumberland Avenue.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

UK: Omar Binbasilar: Armed Forces Charity Boss Nicked a Fortune

Epping An armed forces charity chief has been jailed for stealing £43,000 to fund his online gambling addiction. Former soldier Omar Binbasilar, 55, plundered the cash from the Regular Forces Employment Association (RFEA) which helps servicemen and women find work once they leave the forces He faked 58 invoices to syphon the cash out of the charity and into a specially set up account to hide the money Finance director Binbasilar said he turned to gambling after his job became ‘increasingly stressful and demanding.’

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

Balkans

Kosovo Bars Entry to Serbian President Nikolic

Pristina has denied entry to Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic in response to Belgrade refusing entry to Kosovar officials. The leader has wanted to visit a monastery for an Orthodox Christmas celebration.

Kosovo officials on Saturday said they had rejected the Serbian president’s entry request to visit to the Gracanica monastery to attend an Orthodox Christian Christmas service on Monday.

The denial of entry to Nikolic was said to have come in response to four Kosovo government ministers being refused entry to Serbia during 2012.

Kosovan Deputy Premier Hajredin Kuci told the newspaper that Nikolic would be allowed to visit only once Serbia permitted Pristina officials to visit ethnic Albanians in southern Serbia.

“Nikolic will be able to visit Kosovo only when (he) provides reciprocity in visits for our leaders,” Kuci told journalists, adding the decision had been made in consultation with international partners.

The message was reinforced by Kosovo, Interior Minister Bajram Rexhepi said at a news conference on Saturday. “If our officials are not allowed to go to Serbia certainly we will apply the same measures,” said Rexhepi.

Nikolic, who once headed Serbia’s ruling nationalist Progressive Party, said that the European Union authority had shown bias by allowing Kosovo authorities to make the decision on whether he could enter. EULEX said that it had no jurisdiction over regulating visits, deferring this to authorities in Kosovo.

Most of Kosovo’s population is ethnically Albanian, with Islam the predominant religion.

Serbs celebrate Christmas on January 7 in accordance with the Serbian Orthodox Church which adheres to the Julian calendar instead of the modern, more widely-used Gregorian.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

North Africa

Muslim Brotherhood Took ‘Billions’ From Obama: Egypt Lawyers

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has been accused of taking 10 billion Egyptian pounds (U.S. $1.5 billion) from the American government, according to claims by Egyptian lawyers.

An immediate investigation into the accusation was ordered by Prosecutor General Talaat Abdallah on Thursday.

The lawyers, Mohamed Ali Abd al-Wahab and Yasser Mohamed Sayab, filed the complaint against the Muslim Brotherhood for the allegedly illegal money transaction, Egypt’s private daily Al-Masry Al-Youm reported on Jan. 3.

The complaint noted that Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate for the recent U.S. presidential election, had said that $1.5 billion was given to support Egypt’s Brotherhood by the Obama administration.

In addition, the lawyers accused the Muslim Brotherhood of having armed mercenaries or a “third party,” who have instigated violence during and after the revolutionary uprising in the country.

The armed mercenaries are trained in the desert, which lies between the city of Alexandria and Marsa Matrouh in Egypt, the lawyers alleged.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Middle East

Iran Building Software to Control Networking Sites

Iran’s police chief says the Islamic Republic is developing new software to control social networking sites.

Gen. Esmail Ahmadi Moghadam was quoted in Iranian newspapers Saturday as saying the new software will prevent Iranians from being exposed to malicious content online while allowing users to enjoy the benefits of the Internet. He did not say when the software would be introduced.

Moghadam also did not specify which social networking sites would be affected, but both Facebook and Twitter are popular in Iran.

Iranians currently have access to most of the Internet, although authorities block some sites affiliated with the opposition, as well as those that are seen as promoting dissent or considered morally corrupt.

Iran created a government agency last year to oversee Internet usage in the country.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Russia

French Actor Depardieu in Russia to Meet Putin

(Reuters) — French film star Gérard Depardieu arrived in Russia on Saturday to meet President Vladimir Putin, who granted him citizenship after a public spat in France over his efforts to avoid a potential 75 percent income tax.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the two would meet in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where Putin was spending part of the 10-day New Year and Russian Orthodox Christmas holiday.

He said it was possible Putin would hand Depardieu his Russian passport during the meeting.

“It is a private meeting, we will not be releasing any other details,” Peskov said by phone.

Russian media quoted him as saying the meeting would take place on Saturday. Depardieu’s spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.

On Thursday, the Kremlin announced that Putin had signed a decree granting Russian citizenship to Depardieu, who objected to Socialist president Francois Hollande’s plan to impose a 75 percent tax rate on millionaires.

Depardieu is a popular figure in Russia, where he has appeared in many advertising campaigns, including for ketchup. He also worked there in 2011 on a film about the eccentric Russian monk Grigory Rasputin.

The star of the movies “Cyrano de Bergerac” and “Green Card” was also among the Western celebrities invited in 2012 to celebrate the birthday of Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed strongman leader of Russia’s Chechnya province who is accused by rights groups of crushing dissent.

[Return to headlines]

South Asia

Juvenile Suspect in India Gang Rape Reportedly Ripped Her Intestines Out in Attack

Gruesome details have emerged about the fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old woman in India last month, with a report that the youngest of the woman’s six attackers—believed to be a juvenile— was the most brutal, according to a report in the Indian newspaper Hindustan Times.

The paper reported that a charge sheet on the case suggests the juvenile suspect assaulted the female student twice and pulled out her intestines with his bare hands. The juvenile—who Delhi police have not identified while they determine his exact age—also wanted to strip the victim naked and throw her off the moving bus.

Police say the young man subjected the woman to sexual abuse once when she was conscious, and again after she was beaten so severely she lost consciousness.

Police are treating the suspect as a juvenile based on school information, while waiting for a physical report to confirm his age.

While the five other male adult suspects have been charged and may face the death penalty, if the sixth suspect is a juvenile, he could receive a more lenient sentence by law.

“Of all the persons in the bus, two had engaged in the most barbarism — Ram Singh, the main accused in the case, and the juvenile,” an officer told the Hindustan Times.

The victim and her male friend boarded the bus Dec. 16, after seeing a movie. When the bus took a different route, the friend argued with one of the alleged attackers before an altercation ensued.

Police said the juvenile and another suspect hit the male victim in the head with an iron rod which they later inserted into the woman’s body, resulting in severe organ damage.

The woman and her companion were thrown off the bus after the brutal attack. The female victim spent ten days in a New Delhi hospital, where doctors treated her for massive internal injuries. She was later flown to a Singapore hospital specializing in multi-organ transplants, where she died on December 29th.

A hearing on the charges is expected Saturday as part of a new fast-track court developed this week to handle rape cases in New Delhi.

The attack sparked anger and thousands took to the streets across India, demanding stricter laws and police reform in crimes against women.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Australia — Pacific

Australia Warns Citizens Against Fighting in Syria

Australians who take part in the fighting in Syria face up to 20 years in jail, a spokesman for Foreign Minister Bob Carr said on Friday after a Melbourne man was reportedly killed in the conflict.

The spokesman said the government was aware of reports that more than 100 Australians had engaged in the conflict since 2011 but he had “no evidence” of any citizens currently involved.

“Anyone in Australia who recruits someone to fight overseas faces seven years.”

[…]many people travelling to Syria claimed they were providing humanitarian support to the war-torn nation but were instead involved in the fighting.

[Return to headlines]

Don’t Go to Syria to Fight, Warns Carr

Foreign Minister Bob Carr says he doesn’t believe the war in Syria will lead to tensions within Australia’s ethnic communities.

Members of non-English speaking communities have reportedly been among more than 100 Australians believed to have travelled to Syria to fight in the conflict, born of an anti-government uprising in early 2011.

Senator Carr says he cannot comment on Australian Federal Police investigations into Australians who may have engaged in combat in Syria, and warns that doing so breaks Australian law.

But he says he’s confident members of migrant communities understand they shouldn’t participate in the Syrian conflict.

“We’re in Australia. Common sense prevails. People understand that this is not a dispute for Australians to take up arms about. What we say — and this is our multiculturalism that we value so highly — is that we expect your loyalties to be to Australia and Australian interests. You can be proud of your heritage, but your loyalty has to be to Australia, and if that’s your position, taking arms in the Syrian civil war is wrong.”

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]

Latin America

Venezuela Lawmakers Elect Chavez Ally as Assembly Chief

Reuters) — Venezuelan lawmakers re-elected a staunch ally of Hugo Chavez to head the National Assembly on Saturday, putting him in line to be caretaker president if the socialist leader does not recover from cancer surgery.

By choosing the incumbent, Diosdado Cabello, the “Chavista”-dominated legislature cemented the combative ex-soldier’s position as the third most powerful figure in the government, after Chavez and Vice President Nicolas Maduro.

“As a patriot … I swear to be supremely loyal in everything I do, to defend the fatherland, its institutions, and this beautiful revolution led by our Comandante Hugo Chavez,” Cabello said as he took the oath, his hand on the constitution.

He had earlier warned opposition politicians against attempting to use the National Assembly to “conspire” against the people, saying they would be “destroyed” if they tried.

Thousands of the president’s red-clad supporters gathered outside parliament hours before the vote, many chanting: “We are all Chavez! Our comandante will be well! He will return!”

If Chavez had to step down, or died, Cabello would take over the running of the country as Assembly president and a new election would be organized within 30 days. Chavez’s heir apparent, Maduro, would be the ruling Socialist Party candidate.

Chavez, who was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer in his pelvic area in mid-2011, has not been seen in public nor heard from in more than three weeks.

Officials say the 58-year-old is in delicate condition and has suffered multiple complications since the December 11 surgery, including unexpected bleeding and severe respiratory problems.

Late on Friday, Maduro gave the clearest indication yet that the government was preparing to delay Chavez’s inauguration for a new six-year term, which is scheduled for Thursday.

[Return to headlines]

Culture Wars

Church of England Ends Ban on Gay Clergy in Civil Partnerships Becoming Bishops (But They Must Remain Celibate)

Gay clergy in civil partnerships can become bishops, following an apparent U-turn from the Church of England.

Despite rejecting proposals to allow women to become bishops, a new ruling means homosexual men can be appointed as long as they remain chaste and repent for any past sexual acts.

The Right Reverend Graham James, Bishop of Norwich, released a statement on behalf of the Church yesterday, saying it would be ‘unjust’ to exclude them if they were ‘living in accordance with the teaching of the Church on human sexuality’.

The issue has split the established Church since 2003 when gay cleric Jeffrey John was made Bishop of Reading, but forced to step down after protests.

Now in a chaste civil partnership and serving as Dean of St Albans, he would be allowed to apply for another post.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

English Catholic Bishop Endorses ‘Prophetic’ Humanae Vitae

In a pastoral letter dated December 30, the Church’s feast of the Holy Family, Egan brought up a “very challenging and controversial” subject: that “that sexual intercourse is an integral act for love and for life, and that these two aspects of sexuality — love and life — cannot be divorced.”

Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical letter reiterating the Catholic Church’s longstanding prohibition against artificial contraception was widely vilified in the secular world, and virtually denied even by the Catholic bishops of the time. For years in the lead-up to its release, priests had assumed that the teaching would be changed in the advent of the hormonal birth control pill and the sexual revolution. The encyclical came as a shock to many Catholics who had been expecting a reversal.

“Humanae Vitae was a prophetic document,” Egan wrote. In it, Paul VI warned of “catastrophic consequences” if the dual purposes of sex in marriage were to be separated: the procreation of children and the unity of the spouses.

Now, “45 years on,” Egan wrote, “we can see what he meant in such things as the reduction of sex to a leisure activity, the trafficking of people for prostitution and pornography, broken family relationships, and the explosion of addictive behaviors leading to despair, shame, and guilt.”

“We don’t want to end up like Norway”, Cameron warns as he refuses to give up Britain’s seat at the EU’s table

Mr Cameron explicitly rejected the idea of replicating the status of countries like Norway and Switzerland which have refused to join the EU, but are forced to sign up to many of its rules in order to access the single market.

But he pledged voters would get a ‘real choice’ on Britain’s relationship with the EU, including attempting to claw back powers.

However, UKIP Leader Nigel Farage said the British people could not believe what Mr Cameron says.

Mr Farage said: ‘He sits there and thinks his great extended tease about this forthcoming Europe speech is entertaining, it is not.

No matter what he says now, after so many broken promises, so many “cast-iron guarantees”, can anybody honestly believe that he will be telling the truth this time? The simple fact is that he wants us to stay in the European Union no matter how it is configured.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2257047/We-dont-want-end-like-Norway-Cameron-warns-refuses-Britains-seat-EUs-table.html

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

Huge Opposition Mounts Against Gay ‘Marriage’ In UK

(PJSaunders) — With the coalition government about to publish their bill to legalise gay marriage in England and Wales there has been a huge increase in opposition to the measure over the last two months.

Over 624,000 people have now signed the Coalition for Marriage (C4M) petition against the redefinition of marriage which simply reads as follows:

‘I support the legal definition of marriage which is the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others. I oppose any attempt to redefine it.’

The petition has overwhelmed that of the ‘Campaign for equal Marriage’ (C4EM) which has attracted only 64,000 signatures, just over 10% of C4M’s total.

This underlines the growing suspicion that the push to legalise gay marriage is the concern of a small liberal elite which does not speak for the majority.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20130104

Financial Crisis
» Europe’s Elderly Face Poverty
» The Greece of Asia: Japan’s Growing Sovereign Debt Time Bomb
 
USA
» Terror Plot Suspect Extradited From UK to US
 
Canada
» Islamist Extremists Radicalizing Canadians at ‘A Large Number of Venues, ‘ Secret Report Reveals
» Three Edmonton Men Face Charges for Allegedly Forcing Girls Into Prostitution
 
Europe and the EU
» France: Bardot Threatens to Follow Depardieu to Russia
» France: Bardot: Save Elephants, Or I’ll Go to Russia Too
» French Rush to Turn Belgian as New Tax Looms
» Germany: Collectors Dub New Stamp ‘Ugliest Ever’
» German Minister: ‘Give Children the Vote’
» Oldest Swiss Bank to Close in US Tax Evasion Case
» Sweden: Police on New Trail in Instagram Riot Case
» UK: Woman Denies Attempted Murder After Newborn Baby Was Found at Bottom of 50ft Rubbish Chute
 
North Africa
» Egypt Says it Seized US-Made Missiles Near Gaza
» Salafists Remain Strong in Egypt, Despite Disunity
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Fatah Party Supporters Mark Anniversary in Gaza
 
Middle East
» Tensions Flare Between UAE and Muslim Brotherhood
» US Troops Arrive in Turkey
 
Russia
» Depardieu the Russian Praises ‘Democracy’
 
South Asia
» Thailand No Longer World’s Top Rice Exporter
 
Immigration
» White House Pushes Forward on Immigration Ahead of Bigger Reform Fight
 
General
» Sun’s 2013 Solar Storm Peak Expected to Hit Century Low

Financial Crisis

Europe’s Elderly Face Poverty

Footloose and fancy-free as a pensioner? There may be little chance of that in a future Europe. While more people are living longer, birth rates are dropping. And the eurozone crisis is contributing to the pinch.

For countless people living in severe poverty or confronted with political repression in northern Africa, Europe seems to be the promised land. Thousands of them risk their lives illegally crossing the Mediterranean, hoping to reach the European continent. For them, increased discussions about the risks of the elderly in Europe facing poverty may seem rather theoretical. After all, the definition of “poor” could not be more different between a western European and someone from an African country in crisis.

Yet Europe is facing a situation that, while far removed from African circumstances, has been a great cause of concern for European Union governments for a while now.

Not only are demographic changes causing a strain on the social welfare systems as European citizens live longer and fewer babies are born, the eurozone crisis has also strapped EU governments. In many European countries, the number of people of working age is dwindling, while unemployment is rising. The consequence is that payments from both state and private pension funds are dropping.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

The Greece of Asia: Japan’s Growing Sovereign Debt Time Bomb

The eyes of the financial world are on Greece and other heavily indebted euro-zone countries. But Japan is in even worse shape. The country’s debt load is immense and growing, to the point that a quarter of its budget goes to servicing it. The government in Tokyo has done little to change things.

Today’s Tokyo has become a permanent mecca of consumption, its boroughs seemingly divided according to target markets. The city’s Sugamo district, for example, is dominated by the elderly. Escalators in the subway station there go extra slow, while the stores along the Jizo Dori shopping street offer items such as canes, anti-aging cream and tea for sore joints. The Hurajuku neighborhood, on the other hand, is teeming with fashionistas made up to look like Manga characters.

This world of glitter, however, is but an illusion. For years, the world’s third-largest economy has been unapologetically living on borrowed cash, more so than any other country in the world. In recent decades, Japanese governments have piled up debts worth some €11 trillion ($14.6 trillion). This corresponds to 230 percent of annual gross domestic product, a debt level that is far higher than Greece’s 165 percent.

Such profligate spending has turned Japan into a ticking time bomb — and an example that Europe can learn from as it seeks to tackle its own sovereign debt crisis. Japan, the postwar economic miracle, has never managed to recover from the stock market crash and real estate crisis that convulsed the country in the 1990s. The government had to bail out banks; insurance companies went bust. Since then, annual growth rates have often been paltry and tax revenues don’t even cover half of government expenditures. Indeed, the country has gotten trapped in an inescapable spiral of deficit spending.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

USA

Terror Plot Suspect Extradited From UK to US

An alleged Pakistani Al-Qaeda operative accused of planning attacks in the United States, Britain and Norway was on Thursday extradited to America.

Abid Naseer, 26, flew out of Britain from Luton Airport near London under US custody and was en route to New York. He is due to face a federal judge on Monday on charges of joining a failed Al-Qaeda plot to bomb the Big Apple.

Naseer, from Manchester in northern England, “was extradited to America where he is accused of terrorism offences. His case is now a matter for the US authorities,” Britain’s Home Office said.

Naseer was originally arrested in Britain along with 10 other Pakistani men in 2009 over a suspected Manchester bomb plot. They were released without charge after prosecutors cited inadequate evidence, and ordered to be deported.

An immigration judge subsequently ruled that despite Naseer being “an Al-Qaeda operative who posed and still poses a serious threat,” he could not be returned to Pakistan as his safety there could not be guaranteed.

Two months after his release, in July 2010, Naseer was arrested again on a US warrant linked to the New York case.

According to American prosecutors, Naseer was a go-between for three men convicted of traveling to Pakistan for militant training, then plotting in New York in 2009 to set off suicide bombs in the city’s subway.

The plotters admitted to communicating with an Al-Qaeda organizer in Pakistan named Ahmad. US authorities say Ahmad was in turn communicating with Naseer, who likewise visited Peshawar, Pakistan.

“After returning to the United Kingdom, Naseer sent messages back and forth to the same email account that ‘Ahmad’ was using to communicate with the American-based Al-Qaeda cell,” federal prosecutors said in a statement.

In one email, Naseer allegedly used coded language that a “wedding” was ready, in reference to a bombing, echoing a message from one of the New York men who wrote “the marriage is ready” before he tried to complete the plot.

In January last year, a judge approved Naseer’s extradition to the United States.

He appealed to the European Court of Human Rights but his case was thrown out in December.

Metropolitan Police officers on Thursday escorted Naseer from Belmarsh Prison to Luton Airport where he was handed over to US authorities.

“The defendant is one of a long line of terrorist suspects extradited to these shores and this courthouse to face justice for their efforts to wreak havoc here and overseas,” US Attorney Loretta Lynch said in a statement.

“As alleged, this defendant was instrumental in one tentacle of an international plot that reached to New York, Norway, and the United Kingdom.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Canada

Islamist Extremists Radicalizing Canadians at ‘A Large Number of Venues, ‘ Secret Report Reveals

Islamist extremists are now radicalizing Canadians at “a large number of venues,” according to a secret intelligence report released to the National Post under the Access to Information Act.

While mosques with hardline imams are often singled out for spreading violent Islamist ideology, the study found that radicalization has been taking place at a much longer list of locales.

“Radicalization is not limited to religious centres,” says the Canadian Security Intelligence Service report, titled Venues of Sunni Islamist Radicalization in Canada.

The heavily censored report identifies the role of prisons, the Internet and foreign travel in turning some Canadians into extremists who wage or support violence. But it also points a finger at the family home.

Related

‘Left-wing extremism,’ Freemen among Canada’s top domestic terror threats

Justin Trudeau defends his decision to attend Islamic conference sponsored by organization linked to Hamas

As convicted terrorists face possible release, Canada faced with growing problem: how do you rehabilitate them?

“Parents have radicalized children,” reads the Intelligence Assessment, “husbands have radicalized wives (and some wives have radicalized or supported their husbands) … and siblings have radicalized each other,” it says.

“As this assessment has demonstrated, a large number of venues have been, and continue to be used to further Islamist extremist ideology. … As radicalization is usually a social process, it can occur wherever humans interact, in the real world or virtual ones,” it says.

Since al-Qaeda’s attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, an increasing number of Canadians have become lured into Islamist extremism, an intolerant, anti-democratic and virulently anti-Western worldview that preaches that violence against non-Muslims is a religious duty and a path to paradise.

Several Canadian extremists have travelled abroad to countries such as Pakistan and Somalia with the intention of engaging in what they call jihad, while others have plotted mass casualty attacks in Canada, although none has succeeded.

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]

Three Edmonton Men Face Charges for Allegedly Forcing Girls Into Prostitution

EDMONTON — Three men are facing human trafficking and pimping charges after teen girls were lured into Edmonton’s prostitution underground in two separate cases.

Police say one man lured an underage girl to Edmonton from Saskatoon for the purpose of prostitution in July 2012.

When the girl arrived in the city, police say she was plied with alcohol and drugs including cocaine. But soon afterward, she allegedly learned the less scrupulous nature of her benefactors.

“Through online conversations with a third party, she came to Edmonton and basically was caught in a very difficult situation,” said police spokesman Scott Pattison, adding she was “sexually assaulted, beaten . . . and basically threatened and put into the sex trade industry.”

She eventually escaped a motel room where she was held against her will by asking her captors if she could go out to get a soft-drink.

They took her shoes but the girl, while intoxicated, went shoeless into the wintry conditions and was found by a passing motorist lying underneath a street lamp.

Ali Saghafi, 25, of no fixed address but also goes by the street name A.K., was arrested on Dec. 20, and is facing a number of charges including assault, sexual assault, unlawful confinement, trafficking of a person under the age of 18 years, procuring prostitution and living off the avails of juvenile prostitution.

In a second case, an 18-year-old woman was lured by another girl — a 16-year-old — to a motel where she was held captive and forced into prostitution by two men.

Police were alerted to the situation and began an investigation last week that led to the arrest of Hamid Fazli Ghejlou, 31, and Shahin Ranjbar, 23, on Thursday.

Ghejlou is facing numerous charges including trafficking in persons, procuring prostitution, living on the avails of prostitution of an adult and possession of stolen property under $5,000.

Ranjbar is charged with trafficking with person, procuring prostitution, living on the avails of prostitution of an adult, possession of stolen property under $5,000 and assault.

Pattison said the underage girl is believed to be back home in Saskatoon but he could not comment on the condition of the 18-year-old from Edmonton.

Andrea Burkhart, an official with Alberta’s Action Coalition on Human Trafficking, says the recent cases are “the tip of the iceberg” in Edmonton.

“Many victims never come forward to law enforcement, because of fear or because they don’t know what their rights are,” said Burkhart.

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU

France: Bardot Threatens to Follow Depardieu to Russia

French screen icon Brigitte Bardot on Friday threatened to follow compatriot Gérard Depardieu to Russia, who was granted citizenship for tax exile, unless two elephants who are in danger of being put down, are spared.

French cinema legend Brigitte Bardot on Friday threatened to follow Gerard Depardieu to Russia unless two elephants under threat of being put down are granted a reprieve.

In a surreal twist to the saga over Depardieu’s move into tax exile, the veteran animal rights campaigner said she would emulate his request for Russian nationality unless authorities intervened to save Baby and Nepal.

The two elephants face being put down because they have been diagnosed with tuberculosis and have been deemed a threat to the health of other animals and visitors to the Tete d’Or zoo in Lyon.

City authorities ordered the elephants to be put down last month but a petition organised by their original owner, circus master Gilbert Edelstein, resulted in them being granted a temporary reprieve over Christmas.

Bardot said in a statement she would be leaving France if the reprieve was not made permanent.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

France: Bardot: Save Elephants, Or I’ll Go to Russia Too

French cinema legend Brigitte Bardot on Friday threatened to follow Gérard Depardieu to Russia unless two elephants under threat of being put down are granted a reprieve.

In a surreal twist to the saga over Depardieu’s move into tax exile, the veteran animal rights campaigner said she would emulate his request for Russian nationality unless authorities intervened to save Baby and Nepal.

The two elephants face being put down because they have been diagnosed with tuberculosis and have been deemed a threat to the health of other animals and visitors to the Tête d’Or zoo in Lyon.

City authorities ordered the elephants to be put down last month but a petition organised by their original owner, circus master Gilbert Edelstein, resulted in them being granted a temporary reprieve over Christmas.

Bardot said in a statement she would be leaving France if the reprieve was not made permanent.

“If the powers that be have the cowardice and the shamelessness to kill Baby and Nepal… I have decided to take Russian nationality and quit this country that is nothing more an animal cemetery,” Bardot said.

Bardot, 77, has been a high-profile supporter of Depardieu in his spat with the French government over his decision to take up residence in neighbouring Belgium for tax reasons.

She said last month that her fellow actor, who was branded “pathetic” by Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, had been the “victim of extremely unfair persecution”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

French Rush to Turn Belgian as New Tax Looms

Twice as many French people applied to become Belgian citizens last year as in 2011, with a clear rise at the end of the year, new figures show.

The rise in applications came as debate raged over a planned 75-percent tax on high earners in France.

A total of 126 French citizens applied to become Belgian in 2012, up from 63 in 2011, according to Georges Dallemagne, president of the Belgian Parliament’s naturalization committee, which rules on all citizenship applications.

“This is a truly French phenomenon,” he told AFP, saying that the figures for Germans and Italians were stable.

Belgium, which offers lower taxes on earned income as well as income from capital and which doesn’t tax wealth, has attracted the interest of a number of wealthy French people in recent months.

President François Hollande’s proposed 75-percent tax on people earning more than €1 million a year has raised protests from many wealthy French people. Actor Gérard Depardieu is the most high-profile figure to be reported to be planning a move across the border.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Germany: Collectors Dub New Stamp ‘Ugliest Ever’

Disgusted German stamp collectors have slammed the new three cent stamp released this week by Deutsche Post, calling the nondescript design the “worst stamp ever made” on online forums.

A white square with a light grey “3” printed on it. Not exactly the most thrilling design to ever grace a German envelope — and according to some collectors, the ugliest ever to have been put on an envelope.

The new stamp — dubbed the Weißer Dreier, or white three-er — was never going to be popular. It was released January 1st solely to make up the awkward three cent price rise in sending a standard letter weighing up to 20 grams from 55 cents to 58 cents.

Together with the supplementary stamp, customers will be able to use up their old 55 cent stamps.

But for stamp enthusiasts on the www.philaseiten.de website the new release is not just inconvenient, but ugly, with an uncreative and lazy design.

“For me it’s the worst stamp that’s ever been made,” one forum user wrote.

“With this design Deutsche Post has surely secured the award for the ugliest stamp in the world,” wrote another disappointed philatelist.

“It’s absolute crap,” Josef Kratzer, head of the Young Stamp Collectors Association in Eckersdorf told the regional Soester Anzeiger news website on Thursday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

German Minister: ‘Give Children the Vote’

A German minister is calling for children to be given the vote, it was reported on Thursday. He said that excluding the country’s 13 million under-18s was “absurd”, triggering a backlash from other politicians.

Dirk Niebel, Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development told the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ), “We must give children a voice — in elections as well.”

The current age limit on voting in Germany is 18 which, he said, was “completely inappropriate” although he was not specific about when he wanted children to be given suffrage.

On a practical level, the Free Democrat (FDP) politician said that parents could take responsibility for overseeing their child’s vote or even using on their behalf. This would give families a louder political voice and force politicians to take children and families more into consideration.

He argued that denying the vote to Germany’s 17 million over-65s would be absurd, yet excluding children, a sixth of the country’s population, was accepted without question.

Niebel’s idea provoked constitutional objections from his colleagues.

Ingrid Fischbach from the Christian Democratic Union, the governing coalition partner alongisde the FDP told the WAZ that “no one can argue against the idea’s charm” but that in reality “voting is a private matter and one that constitutionally cannot be exercised by a third party.”

She added that it would be hard to check whether parents were actually ticking the box their child had chosen.

Thomas Krüger, president of Germany’s children’s union, said that although he would be in favour of dropping the voting age to 16, and eventually 14, he disagreed with allowing parents a proxy vote for their child.

But support came from Paula Honkanen-Schoberth of Germany’s national child protection association who said children should have voting rights as soon as they were born.

She said that children were often under-estimated and studies showed that they demonstrated interest in political issues from as early as the third grade.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Oldest Swiss Bank to Close in US Tax Evasion Case

Switzerland’s oldest private bank, Wegelin & Co, said Thursday that it is going out of business after pleading guilty to charges of helping American citizens avoid US taxes. It remains unclear whether the bank will reveal the names of its US clients.

Wegelin & Co, the oldest Swiss private bank, said on Thursday it would shut its doors permanently after more than 2 1/2 centuries, following its guilty plea to charges of helping wealthy Americans evade taxes through secret accounts.

The plea, in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, marks the death knell for one of Switzerland’s most storied banks, whose original European clients pre-date the American Revolution. It is also potentially a major turning point in a battle by U.S. authorities against Swiss bank secrecy.

A major question was left hanging by the plea: Has the bank turned over, or does it plan to disclose, names of American clients to U.S. authorities? That is a key demand in a broad U.S. investigation of tax evasion through Swiss banks.

“It is unclear whether the bank was required to turn over American client names who held secret Swiss bank accounts,” said Jeffrey Neiman, a former federal prosecutor involved in other Swiss bank investigations who is now in private law practice in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Sweden: Police on New Trail in Instagram Riot Case

Police in Gothenburg have shifted their investigation from the 17-year-old girl who was believed to be behind December’s Instagram riot after linking an IP address to a new suspect.

The investigation into the girl who was thought to be behind the Instagram account created to name and shame “teen sluts” is now headed in a new direction, with police concluding the 17-year-old girl is innocent.

While the investigation into the girl remains formally open, everyone investigating the case understands the teen had nothing to do with the account and officers are now looking to arrest a new suspect, according to the Göteborgs-Posten newspaper (GP).

“The situation remains unchanged,” explained prosecutor Annika Boman to GP in reference to the criminal suspicions against the teen.

“We’re still waiting on the results of the forensic investigation.”

On the last Tuesday before Christmas, high school students assembled outside the Plusgynmasiet high school in Gothenburg in an attempt to find the owner of the anonymous Instagram account.

The protests quickly turned into vandalism and saw the 27 arrests of what police called “rabble rousers”, with the chaotic scenes continuing into the next day.

The 17-year-old former suspect has since kept a low profile, moving to a secret location with her family after receiving continued threats, wrote GP.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

UK: Woman Denies Attempted Murder After Newborn Baby Was Found at Bottom of 50ft Rubbish Chute

A woman today denied trying to kill a newborn baby girl by hurling her down a 50ft rubbish chute.

Iraqi-born Jaymin Abdulrahman, 24, pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of the six-day-old baby, who was found by police inside a bin by a block of flats.

The baby plunged 50ft from the fifth floor of a tower block in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, down a rubbish chute which led to a refuse collection area where she was found shortly after being reported missing.

Officers arrested Abdulrahman shortly after the stricken baby was discovered and rushed her to Birmingham Children’s Hospital at 6.30pm on September 8 last year.

Abdulrahman also faced a charged of doing an act intended to pervert the course of justice at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

During the 40-minute hearing, the court heard the second charge had been brought after Abdulrahman told police the child had been abducted.

Wearing a black dress, black headscarf and grey cardigan, she spoke through a Kurdish interpreter to plead not guilty to both counts.

Judge John Warner remanded Abdulrahman into custody and fixed her trial date for June this year.

He said: ‘Your trial will take place at Birmingham on June 5.

‘You will be brought to this court for further and hopefully final directions on February 22. You will remain in custody.’

A 32-year-old man also arrested in connection with the incident remains on police bail.

The baby is still recovering from her injuries.

           — Hat tip: Gaia [Return to headlines]

North Africa

Egypt Says it Seized US-Made Missiles Near Gaza

EL-ARISH, Egypt — Egyptian security officials say they have seized six U.S.-made missiles before they could be smuggled into the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

The officials say the anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, with a range of up to one mile, were seized just outside the northern Sinai city of el-Arish.

Officials say local Bedouins led them to the six missiles that were hidden in a hole in the desert. They say the missiles may have come from Libya, where a proliferation of weapons has led to an increase in cross-border smuggling. They did not specify the make of weapon.

Last month, security officials confiscated 17 French-made missiles near el-Arish before they could be smuggled through underground tunnels to Gaza.

The officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak to media.

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]

Salafists Remain Strong in Egypt, Despite Disunity

A new Salafist party has been established in Egypt — the result of a factional dispute. But although the radical Islamists are not always unified, they remain influential in the country.

He wanted to start a “new chapter,” announced Emad Abdel Ghaffur at the start of the year in Cairo. The former chairman of the Egyptian Al-Nour (“The Light”) party had apparently had enough of the internal power struggle that had dogged his group for the past few months.

One of the questions that had divided members was what role clerics should play in the future political decisions, and Ghaffur, who has a reputation for pragmatism, then declared his resignation from the party. Instead of the Al-Nour Party, he now leads the newly-founded Al-Watan (“The Homeland”) party — and can boast more than a hundred members already.

This has broadened the spectrum of Salafist parties in Egypt still further. Aside from the dominant Al-Nour, the significantly smaller “Party of Authenticity” and the “Party of Construction and Development,” voters now have the option of “The Homeland.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians

Fatah Party Supporters Mark Anniversary in Gaza

Tens of thousands of supporters of the Fatah party have gathered in the Gaza Strip to mark the anniversary of the movement’s founding. This is the first time the party has held a rally in the territory since 2007.

Demonstrators gathered in a square in Gaza City on Friday waved both Fatah and Palestinian flags, with some carrying portraits of the party’s leader, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Similar events were held in other towns across Gaza.

The fact that Hamas has allowed Fatah to organize the celebrations there is seen as part of efforts at reconciliation between the two sides, which have been at loggerheads since Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007. This came a year after Hamas won a parliamentary election.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Middle East

Tensions Flare Between UAE and Muslim Brotherhood

Tension is mounting between the United Arab Emirates and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, especially since the Emirates arrested Egyptians linked to Brotherhood leaders. France24.com takes a closer look.

Tensions between the United Arab Emirates and the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest Islamist movement, do not appear to be easing in the new year.

On January 1, Emirati newspaper Al Khaleej reported that authorities in the Gulf state had arrested 10 members of an Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood cell. “The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has conducted many courses and lectures for the members of the secret organisation regarding the election and the ways of changing regimes in Arab countries,” the paper said.

The suspects are accused of holding “secret meetings” in the Emirates, recruiting “Egyptian expats in the UAE to join their ranks”, and raising “large amounts of money which they sent illegally to the mother organisation in Egypt”. The article also alleged that the suspects collected classified information regarding matters of UAE defence.

Two days later, the Egyptian Senate reacted by establishing a commission to investigate the matter, with the aim of working “towards the release of Egyptian doctors in the Emirates and investigate the circumstances of (their) arrest”.

An Egyptian emissary on Wednesday was sent to Dubai to meet Emirati leaders and deliver a letter to the nation’s president, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan.

Meanwhile, Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Mahmud Ghozlan told Agence France Presse that the arrests were part of “an unjust campaign” against Egyptian expatriates in the UAE, saying that the accusations against them were unfounded.

Experts in the politics of the region are hardly surprised by the diplomatic flare-up. “With the exception of Qatar, the Gulf monarchies have a tumultuous relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood,” explained political scientist Karim Sader, who specialises in the Gulf nations.

Indeed, the Muslim Brotherhood has for the past several decades wielded a certain influence among Qatari royals, who have financed the group.

“Though they subscribe to the puritanical Islam promoted by the Muslim Brotherhood, Emirati officials hate and fear their political activism, a practice which is forbidden in the Gulf monarchies and perceived as a threat to their power,” Sader said.

Walid Kazziha, a professor of political science at the American University of Cairo, was interviewed about the relationship between the Muslim Brotherhood and Emirati authorities in the online edition of Egyptian daily al-Ahram: “(The United Arab Emirates) are worried about a domino effect, even if they, without a doubt, prefer having the Muslim Brotherhood in power in Egypt than a more democratic force,” he assessed.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

US Troops Arrive in Turkey

US troops have arrived in Turkey to protect an incoming batch of Patriot missiles. Germany, the Netherlands and the US are installing them at Turkey’s request to help deal with possible spillovers from the war in Syria.

US troops began arriving in Turkey on Friday read to operat Patriot missile batteries — deployed to counter any possible threats that may arise from the 21-month-long Syrian conflict. Over the coming days, some 400 personnel and equipment will arrive at the US Air Force Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey.

The Germans, Dutch and Americans are deploying two Patriot surface-to-air batteries in order to help bolster NATO member Turkey’s air defenses amid the conflict in neighboring Syria. Cross-border fire has happened already on several occasions in recent months, affecting Turkey, Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

“The forces will augment Turkey’s air defense capabilities and contribute to the de-escalation of the crisis along the Alliance’s border,” the US military’s European Command (EUCOM) said on Friday.

More than 1,000 troops from the three nations will be based in Turkey to operate the Patriot batteries.

Syria’s chief ally, Iran, has called the planned deployment a “provocative” move.

US troop arrivals began just a day after a car bomb in the north of Damascus killed at least 11 people as Syrian forces continued to pound rebel-held areas outside the capital, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Russia

Depardieu the Russian Praises ‘Democracy’

French actor Gérard Depardieu, who has announced he wants to quit his homeland to avoid higher taxes, has said he is pleased after President Vladimir Putin granted him Russian citizenship. He also praised Russian culture and ‘democracy’.

The decision appears to give Depardieu, a frequent guest of the Moscow celebrity circuit, the right to pay the relatively low 13-percent tax rate levied in Russia on everyone from tycoons to the poor.

After the Kremlin issued a statement saying Putin had signed a decree granting Depardieu citizenship, the movie star confirmed that he had applied for a Russian passport and said he was “pleased” to have been granted citizenship.

“Yes, I filed a passport application and I am pleased that it was accepted. I love your country, Russia — its people, its history, its writers,” the actor said in an open letter broadcast on Russian TV station Pervyi Kanal.

“I have also spoken to my President, François Hollande. I told him all of this. He knows that I really like your President, Vladimir Putin and that this is reciprocated.”

He went on to call Russia a “great democracy” which was “not a country where the prime minister treats a citizen shabbily.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Depardieu was being rewarded “for his contribution to Russian culture and cinema.”

The development was the latest in a highly publicised row between Depardieu and French authorities over their attempt to raise the tax rate on earnings of more than one million euros ($1.3 million) to 75 percent.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

South Asia

Thailand No Longer World’s Top Rice Exporter

Thailand has lost its decades-old status as the world’s largest rice exporter. An industry group has said it’s been toppled by Vietnam as a Thai government scheme for farmers continues to draw a mixed response.

Thailandlost its more than three-decades-old title as the nation that logs the highest volume of rice shipments abroad, the country’s Rice Exporters’ Association reported on Friday.

It said Thailand exported 6.9 million tons in 2012, down 35.5 percent from the previous year’s level, and not enough to beat the new champion India and follower-up Vietnam which logged deliveries abroad of 9.5 million tons and 7.6 million tons respectively.

“We had been the champion since 1980, but we lost the top spot in 2012,” the honorary president of the association, Chookiat Ophaswongse told AFP news agency.

He blamed Thailand’s drastic drop in exports on a government paddy pledging scheme under which rice had been bought from farmers at a fixed price of $484 (367 euros) per ton — that is for 50 percent more than the market price.

The scheme had been hailed by farmers as it boosted their incomes, but hit Thailand’s competitiveness abroad. Since the program was launched in October 2011, the government has stockpiled more than 10 million tons of rice.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Immigration

White House Pushes Forward on Immigration Ahead of Bigger Reform Fight

The Obama administration’s decision this week to ease visa requirements for hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants represents its latest move to reshape immigration through executive action, even as the White House gears up for an uncertain political fight over a far-more-sweeping legislative package in the months ahead.

Immigration advocates on Thursday hailed a rule change at the Department of Homeland Security that would make it easier for many undocumented immigrants to stay in the United States as they seek permanent residency, saying it will improve the lives of relatives who could have been separated for years without the changes.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

General

Sun’s 2013 Solar Storm Peak Expected to Hit Century Low

The sun’s peak of solar activity this year will likely be the quietest seen in at least 100 years, say NASA scientists who watch Earth’s closest star daily.

Sunspot numbers are low, researchers said, even as the sun reaches the peak of its 11-year activity cycle. Also, radio waves that are known to indicate high solar activity have been very subdued.

“It’s likely to be the lowest solar maximum, as measured by sunspot ‘number,’ in more than a century,” wrote Joe Gurman, a project scientist for NASA’s sun-observing mission Stereo, or Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory. The current sun weather cycle is known as Solar Cycle 24.

Quiet as the sun may be, scientists still have a vested interest in watching it. A rogue flare could damage electrical grids or knock out communications satellites, as has happened many times before.

Though solar science is still in its infancy, it has advanced greatly even from the time solar activity knocked out much of Quebec’s electrical grid in 1989, Gurman pointed out.

“The interconnectedness of power grids has grown tremendously since the Hydro Québec issue,” he wrote.

“Compared to the frequency of widespread power outages due to trees falling on above-ground power lines during snowstorms or hurricane-force winds from storms such as the recent (Hurricane) Sandy, it’s a very low order of probability event.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20130103

Financial Crisis
» American Cities Drown in Debt
» Continent in Crisis: China Overtakes Sluggish Europe in Car Sales
» Crony Capitalist Blowout
» European Stock Markets Fall Amid Concerns Over U.S. Economy
» Italy: Monti Chides PD Leader Bersani Over Employment Reforms
» Italy: Spread on 10-Year Bonds Closes at 283 Basis Points
» Italy: Eurozone Bond Record; Portugal Enjoys a Boom
» Portugal Seeks Court Inquiry Into ‘Unjust’ Debt Deal
» President Obama Continues to Drive America Towards European-Style Decline
» Red Cross to Help Southern Europe Amid Euro Crisis
 
USA
» Al Jazeera Buys Current TV, Aims to ‘Conquer’ America
» Egyptian Magazine: Muslim Brotherhood Infiltrates Obama Administration
» How Much Longer Can America Afford to be the World’s Policeman?
» Python Purge: Florida Contest Turns Public Loose in Everglades
 
Europe and the EU
» Boeing Soars Past Airbus in Deliveries
» Career Criminality Drains Millions From Sweden
» France: ‘Comic Bio’ of Muhammad Risks Muslim Ire
» France: Depardieu: Court Tax Ruling ‘Changes Nothing’
» France: Gaddafi Allegedly Financed Sarkozy Campaign
» Greece: Government Braces for Clash Over ‘Lagarde List’
» Iceland Teen Known Legally as ‘Girl’ Fights for Right to Name
» Italian PM Monti Hits Back at ‘Volatile’ Berlusconi
» Italy: Berlusconi Says He Suffered ‘Monstrous’ Defamation by Courts
» Italy: Berlusconi Says Has ‘Cordial Relations’ With Pope
» Italy: Berlusconi Says Centre Right PDL Could Win
» Italy: Soccer: Milan Friendly Racist Chants Spark Outrage
» Italy: Fiat to Take Chrysler Stake Up to 65.17%
» Monti Tells Italy’s Centre Left to Silence Anti-Reformists
» Scotland: £5m Collection of Islamic Artefacts to Go on First Public Display
» Sweden: Fourfold Jump in Emergency Room Wait
» The Islamization of France in 2012
» UK: Ahmadiyya Muslim Association Cleans Up the Streets of Croydon on New Year’s Day
» UK: Fighting Back Against the Left-Wing Guerrillas
» UK: Mark Pritchard MP: Party Must be a Party of Merit, Not Tokenism
» UK: Mayor Lutfur as Hitler in Downfall parody
» UK: White Working Class Boys Could be Treated Like Ethnic Minorities by Universities, Says Minister
 
North Africa
» Libya: Key Benghazi Suspect Remains at Large
» Tunisia: Support Committee of Ayoub Messoudi Considers His Trial ‘Purely Political Case’
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Israeli Military Court Indicts Mastermind Behind Explosion on Tel Aviv Bus
» Territories: Army-Palestinian Clashes
 
Middle East
» Christians Persecuted This Christmas
» Is Jailed Saudi Dissident Raid Badawi Alive?
» Turkey: Mosque to Distribute Tablet PCs to Children Who Pray
» Turkey: Ex-Army Chief Detained in Postmodern Coup Probe
» UAE: Karama Mosque in Dubai Incorporates Plastic Extruders Heronrib Matting
 
Russia
» Putin Makes Depardieu Russian Citizen
 
South Asia
» Anti-Piracy Marines Return to India Friday
» Danish Soldier Killed in Afghanistan
» India: Muslims to Witness RSS ‘Ekatrikaran’ Programme
» Indonesia City to Ban Women ‘Straddling Motorbikes’
» Iranian MPs Due in Myanmar to Examine Rohingya Muslims’ Situation
» Malaysia: OIC to Address Religious Intolerance Against Muslims
» Pakistan: US Drone Strike Kills Taliban Commander Mullah Nazir
» Pakistan: Bigotry That Kills
» Top Pakistani Militant Commander Killed in US Drone Strike
» Violence Against Women: Despite Progress, A Long Way to Go in Afghanistan
» Why the Rise of ‘Good Taliban’ In Afghanistan Worries India and Iran
 
Far East
» Catastrophic Eruption is Brewing in Japan
» Hong Kong: Mosques Needed in New Territories, Says Islamic Expert
 
Australia — Pacific
» Australian Scientists Discover Deep Sea Corals
» Giant Rubber Duck Swims Through Sydney Harbour
» Suspicious Fire Destroys Melbourne Mosque
» ‘Tsunami Bomb’ Tested Off New Zealand Coast
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Ethiopia: Members of an Al Qaeda-Affiliated Terror Cell Arrested
» Somalia: Roadside Bomb Hits Amisom Patrol in Merka Town
 
Latin America
» Argentina: Argies in Falkland Ads Blast at Britain
» Falkland Islands Row: Argentina’s Understanding of History is ‘Laughable’
 
Immigration
» 45 Migrants Picked Up in Puglia
» Immigrants Flooding Into Ireland Despite Bad Economic Times There
» Italy Grants Public Healthcare to Illegal Immigrant Minors
» Revealed: 3 in 4 of Britain’s Danger Doctors Are Trained Abroad
» Turkish Limbo Pushing Afghan Refugees to EU
» UK: 4,000 Foreign Murderers and Rapists We Can’t Throw Out. . . And, Yes, You Can Blame Human Rights Again
» UK: Councils Refuse to Reveal Number of Homes They Give to Foreigners: Authorities Stop Giving Figures Amid Worries Over Impact of Immigration
 
Culture Wars
» France’s Censorship Demands to Twitter Are More Dangerous Than ‘Hate Speech’
» Italy Hospital Drops ‘Father’ Bracelets for Lesbian Parents
» UK: Archbishop Nichols Ends ‘Soho Masses’ After Six Years
» UK: Are Christians Being Persecuted in Britain?
» UK: Guardian: Paedophiles Are ‘Ordinary Members of Society’ Who Need Moral Support
 
General
» Cloud of Atoms Goes Beyond Absolute Zero

Financial Crisis

American Cities Drown in Debt

San Bernardino, California, has gone from being the birthplace of McDonald’s, one of the world’s most successful companies, to a mound of unpaid debts. It’s a sad example of what a lack of infrastructure investment and an almost religious aversion to higher taxes have done to cities across the United States.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Continent in Crisis: China Overtakes Sluggish Europe in Car Sales

While European consumers spent much of 2012 fretting about the economic crisis, China managed to surpass the Continent in automobile sales for the first time. Given China’s growing middle class, the trend looks set to continue. China will probably outpace Europe in vehicle production this year, too.

It’s no secret that Europe’s automobile industry isn’t exactly booming. Several carmakers on the Continent are struggling as demand has fallen off during the euro crisis, particularly in southern European countries, where austerity programs have taken a bite out of prosperity.

In China, however, more and more cars are flying off the lots. And in 2012, for the first time ever, Chinese consumers purchased more automobiles than did buyers in Europe, according to the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, citing an unpublished report by Germany’s VDA automobile industry association. The report indicates that whereas 13.2 million cars were registered in China in 2012, in Europe, the total fell from the previous year’s 13.6 million to just 12.5 million.

The reasons, of course, are many. On the one hand, China’s middle class continues to swell rapidly, even as the economy there grew more slowly last year than it had in previous years. For the increasing number of those who can afford them, cars offer both greater mobility and an important status symbol.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Crony Capitalist Blowout

A tax increase for everyone but the favored wealthy few

In praising Congress’s huge new tax increase, President Obama said Tuesday that “millionaires and billionaires” will finally “pay their fair share.” That is, unless you are a Nascar track owner, a wind-energy company or the owners of StarKist Tuna, among many others who managed to get their taxes reduced in Congress’s New Year celebration.

There’s plenty to lament about the capital and income tax hikes, but the bill’s seedier underside is the $40 billion or so in tax payoffs to every crony capitalist and special pleader with a lobbyist worth his million-dollar salary. Congress and the White House want everyone to ignore this corporate-welfare blowout, so allow us to shine a light on the merriment…

           — Hat tip: DS [Return to headlines]

European Stock Markets Fall Amid Concerns Over U.S. Economy

Investors worry budget deal won’t resolve us fiscal deficit

(ANSA) — Milan, January 3 — Markets fell across Europe on Thursday amid concerns a recent budget accord reached in the US will fail to address the fiscal deficit of the world’s largest economy.

Milan’s FTSE MIB index and London’s Ftse-100 stock market index bucked the trend.

The yield spread between 10-year Italian bonds and the German benchmark one, a barometer of Italy’s borrowing costs in the eurozone crisis, closed at 275 points, the lowest since August 2011. Italian 10-year bond yields were at 4.2%.

The Frankfurt Dax bourse dropped 0.3% at 7,756 , while the Paris Cac 40 Index fell 0.3% to 3,721 points. Madrid’s Ibex index declined 0.5% to 8,403 points.

London’s Ftse-100 stock market index rose 0.3% to 6,047 points, while Milan’s FTSE MIB index gained 0.1% to 16,909 points.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Monti Chides PD Leader Bersani Over Employment Reforms

Campaigning premier suggests he favours job creation

(ANSA) — Rome, January 2 — Outgoing Premier Mario Monti chided political opponent Pier Luigi Bersani over job creation measures Wednesday.

Monti told a radio talk show that although he is in favour of job creation, the position of Bersani and his Democratic Party is harder to understand.

“Bersani says, ‘I’m for reforms to make Italy more competitive and create more jobs’, but it is difficult to understand where he really stands,” Monti said during an election campaign interview on the RAI radio show Radio Anch’io.

In mid-2012, the Monti government was forced to water down its controversial employment reform package — including measures that would make it easier for firms to hire and fire workers — after objections from the PD and Italy’s trade unions.

Early elections were called for February 24-25 after former premier Silvio Berlusconi’s party withdrew its support from Monti’s technocratic government in parliament.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Spread on 10-Year Bonds Closes at 283 Basis Points

Spread between Italian, German bonds closes below Monti’s goal

(ANSA) — Rome, January 2 — The spread between Italian 10-year bonds and the German benchmark — the key gauge of market confidence in Italy’s ability to pay down its huge debt — closed Wednesday at 283 basis points.

That was just below a landmark policy goal of a 287-point spread set by outgoing premier Mario Monti — a figure exactly half the level of the spread (574) in November 2011, when Monti took over from Silvio Berlusconi.

At that time, Italy was at the centre of the eurozone debt crisis, and confidence in the Italian economy was very low.

At close of trading Wednesday, the yield on 10-year Italian paper fell to 4.27%, its lowest since at least December 2010.

When economist and former European commissioner Monti took the helm from Berlusconi the yield was stuck at the long-term unsustainable mark of 7%.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Eurozone Bond Record; Portugal Enjoys a Boom

ECB pumps new life into Italy. 2013 looks promising

(ANSAmed) — ROME — Investors with the courage to bet on Eurozone bond markets can slap themselves on the back: the eurozone sovereign bonds index is up +12%, its biggest spike since the birth of the Euro, and Treasury titles are up 21%. This is the first increase since 2009 and comes on the back of 2011’s “Annus Horribilis”.

Ireland’s bonds rose 29%, and Portugal’s a booming +57%: the biggest increase since 1994. The European Central Bank (ECB) is credited with pumping new life into the Eurozone. But the turning point, analysts unanimously agree, was when ECB President Mario Draghi pledged in July to do “anything it takes” to save the Euro. The subsequent development of an anti-spread shield, as well as banking supervision and budget policies, helped put the brakes on market panic and encouraged investors in the last part of the year to buy up Italian and Eurozone debt. Among these investors were Pacific Investment Management, which manages the largest bond fund in the world, and the financial giant Blackrock whose assets total 3.7 trillion dollars.

Looking ahead, 2013 seems to be fertile ground for buying and selling government securities. Investors are now looking towards the imminent elections in Italy as well as those in Germany in September. Meanwhile the markets await the return of Ireland and Portugal and already seem focused on an antispread shield request from the ECB by Spain. “Madrid will request aid in the first half of the year,” a source at Axa Investment said.

At auction on January 10 12 month treasury bonds for 2013 will go under the hammer, though requirements will be about 20 billion lower than those of 2012, while total gross issuance will be $60 billion lower.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Portugal Seeks Court Inquiry Into ‘Unjust’ Debt Deal

BRUSSELS — Portugal’s President has called into question the viability of his country’s austerity programme.

Cavaco Silva said in his New Year’s speech this week that he would request an inquiry from the country’s top court on whether planned spending cuts as well as a new supertax on pensions above €1,350 a month were constitutional.

He said his country would “honour its international obligations,” even though a negative court ruling could force the government to rewrite its 2013 budget.

He also said “there are well-founded doubts over whether the distribution of sacrifice (in the bailout terms) is just.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

President Obama Continues to Drive America Towards European-Style Decline

by Nile Gardiner

The United States has not gone over the “fiscal cliff”, but it has taken another major step towards EU-style decline. The fiscal cliff deal pushed by President Obama and subsequently ratified by the Senate and House of Representatives (with 151 House Republicans and eight Senators bravely opposing it on principle) raises taxes by roughly $600 billion, without introducing any significant cuts in government spending. Incredibly, for every $1 in spending cuts there are $41 in tax increases…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Red Cross to Help Southern Europe Amid Euro Crisis

The International Committee of the Red Cross plans to adopt a strategy for southern Europe amid the eurozone crisis, director general Yves Daccord has told Danish daily Politiken: “Our analysis is that the next two to four years will be very difficult in Europe. We must stay ready for this.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

USA

Al Jazeera Buys Current TV, Aims to ‘Conquer’ America

AJ America will be seen in 40 mln homes. Challenge to Cnn, Fox

(ANSAmed) — Rome, JAN 3 — Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera is preparing to conquer America with its latest acquisition — Current TV, the network founded by former US Vice President Al Gore.

It is planned that the network, which will be specifically moulded to an American audience, will be beamed into 40 million households. At present only 4.7 million American households have access to Al Jazeera English. Now, according to AJ’s website, Al Jazeera America — the new brainchild which has headquarters in New York, will start transmitting in 2013.

It will be independent from the international English network and will supply US and world news, of which 60% will be produced in America, and 40% taken from sister provider Al Jazeera English.

Analysts estimate the cost at around 500 million dollars though so far expenditure has remained secret. Al Jazeera already has offices in New York, Washington, Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles but plans to expand deep into the American heartland with an ‘all American’ schedule and news feed. The network’s US staff is set to be doubled to 500 and includes journalists and technicians. Although Al Jazeera is already seen by 260 million households in 130 countries its presence is modest in the US. Now the network is pitching itself head to head with mammoth American broadcasters such as CNN, MSNBC and Fox.

“For many years, we understood that we could make a positive contribution to the news and information available in and about the United States and what we are announcing today will help us achieve that goal,” Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani, director general of Al Jazeera, said in a statement.

“By acquiring Current TV, Al Jazeera will significantly expand our existing distribution footprint in the US, as well as increase our newsgathering and reporting efforts in America” Current TV was founded by Al Gore seven years ago. Despite problems with ratings it has been seen by 60 million US households, according to Current TV research.

Gore and his business partner Current TV Ceo Joel Hyatt said in a statement Wednesday night that “Current Media was built based on a few key goals: To give voice to those who are not typically heard; to speak truth to power; to provide independent and diverse points of view; and to tell the stories that no one else is telling”. “Al Jazeera has the same goals and, like Current, believes that facts and truth lead to a better understanding of the world around us”, Gore and Hyatt said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Egyptian Magazine: Muslim Brotherhood Infiltrates Obama Administration

An Egyptian magazine claims that six American Islamist activists who work with the Obama administration are Muslim Brotherhood operatives who enjoy strong influence over U.S. policy.

The Dec. 22 story published in Egypt’s Rose El-Youssef magazine (read an IPT translation here) suggests the six turned the White House “from a position hostile to Islamic groups and organizations in the world to the largest and most important supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

The story is largely unsourced, but its publication is considered significant in raising the issue to Egyptian readers.

The six named people include: Arif Alikhan, assistant secretary of Homeland Security for policy development; Mohammed Elibiary, a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council; Rashad Hussain, the U.S. special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference; Salam al-Marayati, co-founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC); Imam Mohamed Magid, president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA); and Eboo Patel, a member of President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships.

Alikhan is a founder of the World Islamic Organization, which the magazine identifies as a Brotherhood “subsidiary.” It suggests that Alikhan was responsible for the “file of Islamic states” in the White House and that he provides the direct link between the Obama administration and the Arab Spring revolutions of 2011.

Elibiary, who has endorsed the ideas of radical Muslim Brotherhood luminary Sayyid Qutb, may have leaked secret materials contained in Department of Homeland Security databases, according to the magazine. He, however, denies having any connection with the Brotherhood.

Elibiary also played a role in defining the Obama administration’s counterterrorism strategy, and the magazine asserts that Elibiary wrote the speech Obama gave when he told former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to leave power but offers no source or evidence for the claim.

According to Rose El-Youssef, Rashad Hussain maintained close ties with people and groups that it says comprise the Muslim Brotherhood network in America.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

How Much Longer Can America Afford to be the World’s Policeman?

How much do you think it costs the US to maintain its military presence around the world? According to David Vine’s report for Huffington Post, the official figure is surprisingly modest…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Python Purge: Florida Contest Turns Public Loose in Everglades

If you have 30 minutes and $25, and you can make your way to the Everglades, you can be a snake wrangler.

The Sunshine State is hosting a month-long “Python Challenge” beginning Jan.12 with cash prizes of up to $1,500 for the biggest snakes caught. Wildlife officials urge caution, but beyond the online course and the fee, there are no other requirements to hunt down the Burmese pythons, which can reach nearly 18 feet in length and have devastated much of the southern Florida ecosystem.

“Aside from the obvious goal of reducing the Burmese python population in the Everglades, we also hope to educate the public about Burmese pythons in Florida and how people can help limit the impact of this and other invasive species in Florida,” said Carli Segelson, a spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “We are also using the Challenge to gauge the effectiveness of using an incentive-based model as one tool to address a challenging invasive species management problem.

The unorthodox approach is evidence of Florida wildlife officials’ desperation as much as their innovation. Since the Southeast Asian species was introduced to the region by irresponsible pet owners, the population of wild pythons has exploded. Experts believe there could be tens of thousands of the giant snakes living in an 8,000-square-kilometer region of southern Florida. The voracious predators have devastated the native species like deer, bobcats and raccoons.

Just last summer, researchers euthanized the largest python ever found in the Everglades — a 17-foot snake that was carrying nearly 90 eggs — proving that the reptile species has a strong foothold in the Florida swampland.

The commission’s website includes tips on how to identify Burmese pythons — and how to kill them. Recommended methods for dispatching the animals include hacking off their heads with a machete or shooting them with a gun.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU

Boeing Soars Past Airbus in Deliveries

For the first time in a decade, Boeing has surpassed Airbus in deliveries of passenger jets. Experts blame strategic errors and the influence of politics at the US planemaker’s European competitor.

At the last Farnborough Air Show in Britain in July, Boeing came up with a unique idea. For almost 30 years, the company had always left its passenger planes on the ground at major air evebtss where industry representatives meet. At Farnborough, though, a Boeing 787 with Qatar Airways’ livery droned over spectators’ heads. The performance jibed nicely with Boeing’s overall performance, and the company stole the show from Airbus, securing billions of dollars worth of orders.

In fact, 2012 went so well for Boeing that the American company has now surged ahead of its European rival Airbus in deliveries. According to analysts’ calculations, Boeing now carries the prestigious title of being the world’s largest deliverer of passenger jets. The reason for the success is the 787, or Dreamliner, which had been plagued for years with development and production problems.

With its high share of carbon fiber, particularly in the tail, the 787 was meant to revolutionize aircraft construction. But the first Dreamliners were delivered in 2011, after a three-year delay. Then engine trouble and loose parts on the tail resulted in negative headlines for the company. In December 2012, the American air safety regulatory agency, the FAA, ordered that all US Dreamliners be inspected for fuel leaks.

Now it appears that Boeing has ironed out the initial glitches in its Dreamliner program, though. Between July and September 2012 alone, the company managed to increase its production capacity to deliver 12 of the aircraft. “Boeing has resolved most of the problems it was having with the Dreamliner,” said Heinrich Grossbongardt, an independent German aviation expert, and now the company is working hard to fulfill its long list of orders. Boeing has also increased production capacity on its mid-haul 737 jets.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Career Criminality Drains Millions From Sweden

Career criminals cost society so much that the government needs to take youth criminality seriously not only for the individual’s sake but to stem costs, say two economists in a new review.

Ingvar Nilson and Anders Wadeskog used the town of Södertälje, one hour south of Stockholm, for their research because it has in recent years been plagued by criminal networks.

“We confirmed what we suspected, that the costs are enormous, but you can’t see them at once because there are so many different actors involved,” Nilson told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.

The review took into account the costs of social services, police and courts costs, and other state-financed safety networks such as social security.

A robbery costs Sweden 226,000 kronor ($35,000)

Assault costs 203,000 kronor.

Aggravated assault, if it leaves the victim with permanent disabilities, can end up with a price tag of 50 million kronor ($7.7 million).

The result of the study, which was commissioned by the anti-youth violence NGO Akta huvudet (Watch Your Head), illustrates the need for more preventative work, the report authors argued.

“The sums of money that now go into preventative work are very modest compared to the costs of crime,” Nilsson said.

He and Wadeskog looked closely at young Swedes, mostly boys, who risk slipping into chronic criminality.

Only in Södertälje, they said, there are 600 boys who risk dabbling in crime. Of them, about 50 may slip into a life of crime.

The researchers calculated that if they do, each one will cost society 80 million kronor ($12.3 million) before they turn 40.

“To put a stop to this when the boys are 10-years old is cheap compared to what they’ll cost later,” Nilson said.

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]

France: ‘Comic Bio’ of Muhammad Risks Muslim Ire

A French magazine, which sparked international protests and saw its offices firebombed after it printed cartoons mocking Muhammad, on Wednesday published a “halal” cartoon biography of Islam’s founder.

The editor of Charlie Hebdo weekly insists that “The Life of Mohammed”, whose cover shows a goofy-looking prophet leading a camel through the desert, is an educational work prepared by a Franco-Tunisian sociologist.

“It is a biography authorised by Islam since it was edited by Muslims,” said Stéphane Charbonnier, who was also the illustrator of the book which comes complete with academic footnotes.

“I don’t think higher Muslim minds could find anything inappropriate,” said Charbonnier, whose magazine has repeatedly enraged some Muslims with satirical depictions of the prophet, including showing him naked.

He said the idea for the comic book came to him in 2006 when a newspaper in Denmark published cartoons of Mohammed, later republished by Charlie Hebdo, that sparked angry protests across the Muslim world.

“Before having a laugh about a character, it’s better to know him. As much as we know about the life of Jesus, we know nothing about Muhammad,” he told AFP last week.

He said the book was “perfectly halal”, a joking reference to meat that is deemed fit for Muslims to consume.

Despite Charbonnier’s insistence that the book is well-intentioned and inoffensive, the depiction of the Muslim prophet in any visual form is deemed sacrilegious by many Muslims.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

France: Depardieu: Court Tax Ruling ‘Changes Nothing’

French film celebrity Gérard Depardieu said a decision by France’s highest court to strike down a 75% tax rate on millionaires would change nothing in his highly publicised decision to relocate to Belgium.

“We should let them talk,” the usually outspoken Depardieu said of politicians who have helped turn the actor’s decision to flee France’s highest tax rate into a heated national debate.

“I don’t care about any of this. This changes nothing,” Depardieu said referring to the high court decision.

The government has vowed to push ahead with the tax rate, which would apply to incomes over a million euros ($1.3 million) a year, and propose a new measure that would conform with the constitution.

The tax rate, due to take effect next year, had angered business leaders and prompted some wealthy French citizens to seek tax exile abroad, including Depardieu, who made his decision known in a vitriolic editorial published earlier this month.

The move to annul the law was welcomed by the French Football League (LFP), which had expressed concern at the impact on top footballers such as Paris Saint Germain’s Swedish star striker Zlatan Ibrahomovic.

LFP chairman Frederic Thiriez said that if the measure had reached the statute books there could have been an “exodus of the best players” in the French league.

The 75 percent tax rate was a flagship promise of the election campaign that saw Hollande defeat right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy in May.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

France: Gaddafi Allegedly Financed Sarkozy Campaign

50 mln euros before and after elections, arms dealer says

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, JANUARY 2 — The toppled Libyan regime of Muammar Gaddafi funded the 2007 campaign of former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, Le Parisien daily paper reported Wednesday.

Arms dealer Ziad Takieddine, who is under investigation for alleged kickbacks connected to arms sales to Pakistan and a 2002 attack in which 11 French citizens were killed, told Judge Renaud Van Rymbeke that Gaddafi contributed 50 million euros to the Sarkozy campaign.

This financing continued after Sarkozy was elected, through then-Interior Minister Claude Gueant, who allegedly gave Gaddafi’s personal secretary “the necessary banking coordinates in order to make the payments.” The former Libyan prime minister is willing to prove the transactions took place, Takieddine said. Mediapart news site in April 2011 reported the former Libyan secret service chief as saying that as far back as 2006, Gaddafi had planned to give French presidential candidates up to 50 million euros, which then-candidate Sarkozy denied.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Greece: Government Braces for Clash Over ‘Lagarde List’

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JANUARY 3 — The war of words between the Greek coalition government and SYRIZA (radical left) over the alleged doctoring of the ‘Lagarde list’ of over 2,000 Greek depositors with Swiss bank accounts intensified on Wednesday, with government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou accusing the leftist opposition of “political opportunism” and SYRIZA officials suggesting that a parliamentary probe should not be restricted to former Finance Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou.

The comments by Kedikoglou, who also accused SYRIZA of “trampling over the fundamentals of rule of law,” came amid rumors that the party’s proposal for the creation of a parliamentary committee would look to the indictment of socialist PASOK chief Evangelos Venizelos, who succeeded Papaconstantinou, as well as the latter.

The leftists, who are expected to unveil their proposal tomorrow, are also expected to criticize current Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Iceland Teen Known Legally as ‘Girl’ Fights for Right to Name

REYKJAVIK, Iceland — Call her the girl with no name.

A 15-year-old is suing the Icelandic state for the right to legally use the name given to her by her mother. The problem? Blaer, which means “light breeze” in Icelandic, is not on a list approved by the government.

Like a handful of other countries, including Germany and Denmark, Iceland has official rules about what a baby can be named. In a country comfortable with a firm state role, most people don’t question the Personal Names Register, a list of 1,712 male names and 1,853 female names that fit Icelandic grammar and pronunciation rules and that officials maintain will protect children from embarrassment. Parents can take from the list or apply to a special committee that has the power to say yea or nay.

In Blaer’s case, her mother said she learned the name wasn’t on the register only after the priest who baptized the child later informed her he had mistakenly allowed it.

“I had no idea that the name wasn’t on the list, the famous list of names that you can choose from,” said Bjork Eidsdottir, adding she knew a Blaer whose name was accepted in 1973. This time, the panel turned it down on the grounds that the word Blaer takes a masculine article, despite the fact that it was used for a female character in a novel by Iceland’s revered Nobel Prize-winning author Halldor Laxness.

Given names are even more significant in tiny Iceland that in many other countries: Everyone is listed in the phone book by their first names. Surnames are based on a parent’s given name. Even the president, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, is addressed simply as Olafur.

Blaer is identified as “Stulka” — or “girl” — on all her official documents, which has led to years of frustration as she has had to explain the whole story at the bank, renewing her passport and dealing with the country’s bureaucracy.

Her mother is hoping that will change with her suit, the first time someone has challenged a names committee decision in court.

Though the law has become more relaxed in recent years — with the name Elvis permitted, inspired by the charismatic rock and roll icon whose name fits Icelandic guidelines — choices like Cara, Carolina, Cesil, and Christa have been rejected outright because the letter “c” is not part of Iceland’s 32-letter alphabet.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Italian PM Monti Hits Back at ‘Volatile’ Berlusconi

Media magnate accused outgoing premier of lacking credibility

(see related story) (ANSA) — Rome, January 3 — Outgoing Italian Premier Mario Monti hit back on Thursday after being accused of lacking credibility by his predecessor Silvio Berlusconi.

“Berlusconi has been volatile in both his personal and political affairs recently,” Monti, who is standing to retain office on a reform platform in next month’s general elections, told Rai television.

Berlusconi has alternated of late between furious criticism of Monti and praise for the former European commissioner.

Last month Berlusconi offered to withdraw his bid for a fourth term as premier if Monti agreed to lead a broad centre-right coalition at the elections.

On Wednesday, however, he accused Monti of breaking a vow not to enter the political fray that when he was appointed premier in November 2011 after Berlusconi’s was forced to resign as prime minister by Italy’s debt crisis.

“Monti does not have credibility any more,” Berlusconi said. “He was put at the head of a technocrat government with a promise — he said he would not take advantage of the promotion”.

Berlusconi has also accused Monti’s emergency government of unelected technocrats of being too “German-centric” in pursuing austerity policies.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Berlusconi Says He Suffered ‘Monstrous’ Defamation by Courts

Milan courts ‘defamed friendship with Ruby’

(ANSA) — Rome, January 2 — Silvio Berlusconi says he has suffered “monstrous” defamation and character attacks by a Milan court that is hearing charges against the former premier of hiring an underage prostitute.

“It has been a monstrous defamation operation mounted by the Milan court,” to justify a major investigation, Berlusconi told TV station Sky TG24 on Wednesday.

“It has has gone beyond the limits of the possible”.

Berlusconi is on trial for allegedly having sex with an underage prostitute nicknamed Ruby during his third stint as premier, and using his position to allegedly try to hush it up.

He insisted during the television interview that Ruby, whose real name is Karima El Mahroug, told him that she was a relative of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

Berlusconi has said he interceded with police when Ruby was arrested for shoplifting because he was trying to avoid a diplomatic incident, and it was not an abuse of office.

“It was an invention of the newspapers,” he said. “She (Ruby) told me that she was a daughter of a family close to president Mubarak”. In this case, as in several previous trials, Berlusconi has denied any wrongdoing, claiming he is the victim of a minority group of allegedly left-wing prosecutors and judges who he says are persecuting him for political reasons.

Berlusconi has been tried some 30 times but has only been convicted three times, as previous verdicts were either timed out or overturned on appeal.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Berlusconi Says Has ‘Cordial Relations’ With Pope

Monti endorsed by L’Osservatore Romano, not Vatican, says ex-PM

(see related stories) (ANSA) — Rome, January 2 — Ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi boasted Wednesday that he has good relations with Pope Benedict XVI in the latest in a long series of TV appearance ahead of next month’s general elections in Italy. Berlusconi was forced to resign as prime minister in November 2011 when the country’s debt crisis threatened to spiral out of control and his government was replaced by an emergency administration of unelected technocrats led by outgoing Premier Mario Monti.

Several Italian Catholic publications have strongly criticised the media magnate, who has been hit by a series of sex scandals and was given a four-year prison sentence in October in relation to tax fraud in the trading of film rights for TV broadcasts by his Mediaset media empire. But the 76-year-old media magnate said he has a warm relationship with the head of the Church.

“I’ve received telephone calls and made visits to pontiffs,” three-time Italian premier Berlusconi told Sky television.

“There is also absolute devotion on my part with the current pope and absolute cordiality with me on his part”. Berlusconi also said that the recent endorsement of Monti’s bid for office by Vatican daily L’Osservatore Romano did not mean the former European commissioner had the backing of the Holy See.

“It wasn’t an endorsement from the Vatican but from L’Osservatore Romano, and that is very different,” Berlusconi said. “We have excellent relations (with the Church). We are liberals and we think there should be freedom of conscience, but we always behaved a certain way with issues regarding the Church in government and we always received praise from the Vatican and the Church”.

Berlusconi said the fact that he had dropped plans to retire from frontline politics to lead the centre-right at the upcoming elections did not necessarily mean he would be the coalition’s premier if they won.

He said coalitions only name a premier candidate after the elections, as well as a candidate to be the next Italian president, a post he is thought to hold ambitions of holding.

He also accused Monti of breaking a vow not to enter the political fray made when the former European commissioner was appointed premier with the backing of Italy’s three biggest mainstream political groups, including Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party. “Monti does not have credibility any more,” he said. “He was put at the head of a technocrat government with a promise — he said he would not take advantage of the promotion. “He promised all the Italian people and now we find him as the leader of a coalition of fellow travellers”. Berlusconi also expressed confidence he could revive the PdL’s long-standing alliance with the Northern League, which ended after Berlusconi’s third government collapsed.

The League were staunch opponents of Monti’s government from the time it took over power, while the PdL backed it until last month.

Northern League leader Roberto Maroni recently told Berlusconi that the alliance would not be resumed if the ex-premier were to run for office again.

“The alliance is in a phase in which the details are being addressed,” Berlusconi said.

“I’m convinced that we will be allied like we were for many years”.

The PdL is behind in the polls and has little chance of winning next month’s elections without the support of the League.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Berlusconi Says Centre Right PDL Could Win

(AGI) Rome, Jan. 3 — Silvio Berlusconi said his centre right PDL could win given that it has now risen from 14 percent to over 20 percent in the polls: “We have more than 20%, up from the 14% where we had after I had been silent for a year. To this we should add Ignazio La Russa’s ‘Brothers of Italy’ and then we are already over 22%. We expect to reach 40%.” Berlusconi was talking on Radio Radio. The former Prime Minister said: “We can do it, I believe it.” MONTI? IF I GO ON TV IT’S A SCANDAL, IF HE DOES SO IT ISN’T Silvio Berlusconi commented on Radio Radio about Mario Monti’s presence as a guest on Uno Mattina on Thursday morning: “If he does it, it isn’t a scandal. If he does it, it’s right. If I do it, it’s a scandal.” .

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

Italy: Soccer: Milan Friendly Racist Chants Spark Outrage

FIGC vows action, police identify culprits

(ANSA) — Milan, January 3 — Italian soccer was outraged Thursday when AC Milan’s friendly at fourth-tier side Pro Patria was abandoned after the Serie A giants’ black players were the target of racist chants from home fans.

The match at Busto Arsizio north of Milan was first interrupted and then scrapped altogether after Milan captain Massimo Ambrosini led his teammates off the pitch.

Milan midfielder Kevin Prince Boateng kicked the ball towards fans who were directing abuse at him before the action stopped.

M’Baye Niang, Urby Emanuelson and Sulley Muntari were also targeted.

Italian football has been battling racism in the stands for a number of years after several shameful high-profile incidents.

The head of the Italian soccer federation (FIGC), Giancarlo Abete, voiced solidarity with the players and club, calling the incident “an indecent ruckus that offends the whole of the soccer world”.

He also said FIGC prosecutors would be looking into the case.

In a statement, FIGC said: “No sanction or penalty can erase the disdain for an unjustifiable and intolerable episode”.

“We need to react with strength and without silence to isolate the few delinquents that transformed a friendly match into a mess that offends all of Italian football,” it said.

Italian players’ association president Damiano Tommasi applauded Milan’s decision to walk off.

“It was a good signal, even if a sporting event should never be placed in doubt by acts like these,” said the former AS Roma and Italy midfielder.

“Pulling out was the right decision when faced with something like this,” said Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri.

“These uncivilised gestures must stop. Italy must improve and become more educated and more intelligent”.

“We promise to return (to replay the game), and we are sorry for the club and players of Pro Patria, but we could not make any other decision. I’m sorry for the families and children who had come here to enjoy a beautiful day. I hope this can be an important signal.” Ambrosini said: “We were annoyed from the beginning. We wanted to give a strong signal…we could not continue the game in an atmosphere like this.” Boateng tweeted “It’s a disgrace that things like this are still happening while star striker Stephan El Shaarawy, also on Twitter, said: “I’m really speechless, it was a shameful afternoon. I’m sorry for the intelligent people present at Busto but it was right to leave”. Barbara Berlusconi, daughter of owner Silvio Berlusconi and a club director, said: “You need zero tolerance for episodes like this.

“Matches must be stopped straight away, even in the (Serie A) championship…You can’t always pretend not to see or hear”.

Pro Patria said the chanters were a “stupid bunch of three or four”, adding it might try to take legal action against them.

Milan, returning from its holiday break, is preparing to play Siena on Sunday.

Meanwhile police from nearby Varese, the provincial capital, said all the offending fans had been identified.

Racism has been a problem in Italian soccer at least since the 1980s, when Milan’s Dutch star Ruud Gullit spoke out against it.

Messina’s Ivory Coast defender Zoro threatened to halt a Serie A game in Italy in November 2005 after suffering racial abuse from visiting Inter Milan supporters. A decade earlier, Aaron Winter, a native of Suriname of Hindustani extraction, was subject to attacks at Lazio involving cries of ‘Niggers and Jews Out’.

The popularity of Italy striker Mario Balotelli spurred hopes racism could be stamped out, at least in the domestic league.

Former Inter Milan forward Balotelli, now at Manchester City, has repeatedly been subjected to racist taunts playing for club or country outside Italy.

Anti-Semitism has also been a recurring problem in the top flight.

In 1989 Israel striker Ronnie Rosenthal, was unable to play even one game for Udinese because of massive pressure from neo-Fascist circles.

Lazio supporters, who include a neo-Fascist hard core, were linked to a brutal assault on Tottenham supporters, a London club with a Jewish heritage, in a Rome pub in November.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Fiat to Take Chrysler Stake Up to 65.17%

Turin carmaker will exercise 3.3% option from VEBA

(ANSA) — Turin, January 3 — Fiat will exercise an option to raise its stake in American carmaker Chrysler by 3.3% to 65.17%, the Turin giant said Thursday.

The second chunk to be taken from Chrysler’s union retirement trust fund trust (VEBA) — after a first 3.3% share acquired in July — will cost $198 million, it said. Fiat took control of Detroit No.3 Chrysler after it filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009 and it has since increased its stake from 20% after meeting a series of performance targets agreed with the American government.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Monti Tells Italy’s Centre Left to Silence Anti-Reformists

Outgoing premier hints at possible post-vote pact with PD

(see related stories) (ANSA) — Rome, January 3 — Outgoing Italian Premier Mario Monti on Thursday called on the Democratic Party (PD) to silence the anti-reform elements within its ranks and hinted that an alliance with the centre-left party may be possible if next month’s general elections do not produce a clear winner.

“(PD leader Pier Luigi) Bersani should be brave and silence the conservative part of his party a little,” Monti, who has been at the helm of an emergency technocrat government since November 2011 and is standing to retain office on a reform platform, told Rai television. Monti said his government’s attempts to introduce structural economic reforms had been hampered by opposition from Italy’s biggest trade union confederation, the left-wing CGIL, and from Stefano Fassina, the PD spokesman on economic affairs.

He also mentioned the left-wing SEL party, with which the PD has formed an electoral alliance.

Monti suggested that he might be able to govern with the PD after the elections if the centre-left party dropped its coalition with the SEL. “Cutting off the (extreme) wings is a good thing,” Monti said when asked about a possible post-election pact with Bersani.

“The real contest is between those who want to conserve existing structures and those who want to innovate a little more”. The former European commissioner said a possible name for his election platform could be Con Monti per l’Italia (With Monti for Italy).

He added that he hoped Bersani will present convincing arguments in election campaign but still lose.

Monti also hit back at Fassina’s claim that he would be at the helm of a list of elitist “Rotary Club” candidates.

“I don’t know what the Monti list will be yet. Anyway I’ve always fought against lobbies,” Monti said. “I suggest Fassina updates himself a little”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Scotland: £5m Collection of Islamic Artefacts to Go on First Public Display

Ancient pieces of art that have been hidden from public view for decades are to be shown in a new exhibition.

Bonhams in Edinburgh is about to reveal 650 items worth an estimated £5m which date from the days of the “Silk Road” trade route which once linked Europe and Asia. And in true Indiana Jones fashion, the collection belongs to an anonymous Russian doctor, who has collected the items with his family over the past 30 years…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Sweden: Fourfold Jump in Emergency Room Wait

Staff shortages and limited work areas have contributed to Malmö Hospital overflowing with patients, with employees declaring the situation a “catastrophe”.

“These conditions could put patients’ lives at risk,” a nurse told the Sydsvenskan newspaper.

“It’s a catastrophe,” said another. “We’ve had to fetch beds so the patients don’t have to lie waiting on stretchers.”

The emergency ward of the southern Sweden hospital does not have enough closed-off areas with private bathrooms, nor does it have enough medicine or staff, according to the several nurses who chose not to disclose their names in the paper.

At least one other hospital in the Skåne region is facing similar shortfalls.

The main hospital in the nearby academic town of Lund is also overflowing, in part because several sections of the hospital have been closed off, a nurse told Sydsvenskan.

“The emergency ward has nowhere to put the patients. They are not getting any of the attention they need,” the anonymous nurse told the paper.

The nurse added that over 40 people were left in the waiting room on Tuesday night, compared to the usual number of about ten.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

The Islamization of France in 2012

by Soeren Kern

Opinion surveys show that to voters in France — home to an estimated 6.5 million Muslims, the largest Muslim population in the European Union — Islam and the question of Muslim immigration have emerged in 2012 as a top-ranked public concern. The French, it seems, are increasingly worried about the establishment of a parallel Muslim society there.

But government efforts this year to push back against the Islamization of France were halting and half-hearted and could be described as “one step forward, two steps back.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Ahmadiyya Muslim Association Cleans Up the Streets of Croydon on New Year’s Day

More than 50 volunteers took to the streets of Croydon on New Year’s Day to clean up following the winter festivities. On Tuesday, volunteers from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association worked their way across the borough sweeping and litter picking after leaving their early morning prayers at the Croydon Regional Mosque on St James’ Road…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Fighting Back Against the Left-Wing Guerrillas

Foes of public sector reform are waging war at a local level — they must be roundly beaten

Two and a half thousand years ago, the legendary Chinese general, Sun Tzu, developed the first recorded system of guerrilla warfare, involving fast-moving local infiltration and resistance tactics. Many conflicts since have proved its effectiveness, but the model is not limited to military struggles…

[Reader comment by cargill55 on 3 January 2013 at about 10 am.]

Labour increased the public sector from 5 million to 6 million, put left wing placemen in most of the charities and quangoes, insisted on political correctness and multiculturalism infecting the public sector [lots of diversity coordinators around], allowed local councillors to get public sector pensions, allowed public sector workers to do trade union work full time. It is about time the coalition dismantled this oppressive and destructive left wing apparatus within the state.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Mark Pritchard MP: Party Must be a Party of Merit, Not Tokenism

Tory MP Mark Pritchard says it would be misguided if his party’s hierarchy were again tempted to ‘set itself on a collision course with Conservative Associations’ by trying to fast-track ethnic minority candidates.

The Conservative parliamentary party should be more representative of the population. It is good news that in recent years the Conservative Party has made steady progress in increasing the number of its ethnic MPs. In 2005 just two Conservative MPs were from Britain’s ethnic minorities, in 2010 the figure had risen to eleven. This increase is a trend that is likely to continue as the high calibre of these MPs is appreciated by Conservative Associations, many of whom will soon be replacing their retiring MPs with new parliamentary candidates…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Mayor Lutfur as Hitler in Downfall parody

Just when I thought those Hitler Downfall parodies were becoming a bit passé, some genius has come up with a Lutfur Rahman/Tower Hamlets version. It has Mayor Lutfur as Hitler ranting about the Boundary Commission’s proposal to drop the Banglatown ward name. Lutfur’s Three Stooges, Gulam Robbani, Ohid Ahmed and Maium Miah, all get it in the neck for failing their master. And I love that at 2mins in Lutfur reveals one of the roots of his rage, that he will become a laughing stock on this blog, a blog run by a working class wannabe-upmarket-urban-rat-low-life…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: White Working Class Boys Could be Treated Like Ethnic Minorities by Universities, Says Minister

White working class boys are so under-represented at universities that they may need to be treated like ethnic minorities when it comes to recruiting students, a government minister has suggested.

The number of boys applying to university courses has fallen dramatically and more must be done to ensure they sign up, David Willetts argued. The universities minister said there was no reason why white working class boys should not be targeted in the same way as other disadvantaged groups by the Office for Fair Access (Offa)…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

North Africa

Libya: Key Benghazi Suspect Remains at Large

Casablanca — Although Ahmed Boukhtala is the main suspect in the September 11th terrorist attack on US consulate in Benghazi as well as a suspect in assassination of Libyan rebel commander Major General Abdelfattah Younis, he continues to live freely in Benghazi. Conflicting reports have claimed that Boukhtala was imprisoned while others have said he escaped from prison and is now a fugitive. However, sources in Benghazi told Magharebia that Boukhtala remains at large and that the Libyan authorities have not arrested him…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Tunisia: Support Committee of Ayoub Messoudi Considers His Trial ‘Purely Political Case’

Tunis — The support committee of Ayoub Messaoudi, former media adviser to interim President of the Republic Moncef Marzouki, estimates that his trial, referred to the military justice, is a “purely political case”.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians

Israeli Military Court Indicts Mastermind Behind Explosion on Tel Aviv Bus

JERUSALEM, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) — The Israeli military court on Wednesday indicted Ahmed Moussa, 26, from the West Bank village of Beit Lakiya for masterminding a bomb on a Tel Aviv bus in November of last month, local news outlets reported. The Judea military court charged Moussa with a list of charges, including an attempt to intentionally cause death, conspiracy to cause death, dealings in weapons and explosives and their construction. The bus bombing occurred at a time when armed conflict was ongoing between Gaza militant groups and Israel. A total of 28 people were wounded by the explosion. Following an interrogation by the Shin Bet Security Agency, the indictment established that Moussa headed a militant cell in the West Bank which was behind the attack, which had links with the Islamic Jihad and Hamas…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Territories: Army-Palestinian Clashes

During special Israeli operation, yesterday vandalism

(ANSAmed) — Tel Aviv, January 2 — Dozens of Palestinians were wounded by rubber bullets and intoxicated with tear gas following clashes in the village of Tamun near Jenin, West Bank, between the local population and Israeli army units.

The incident, which took place as al-Fatah was celebrating its 48th anniversary, follows increasing violence between the two sides including anti-Palestinian vandalism by settlers and attacks by Palestinian demonstrators against Israeli vehicles along the main roads of the Palestinian Territories.

Violence in Tamun occurred late in the morning when Israeli troops were found to be posing as fruit vendors as part of an operation to capture local Islamic militant Murad Bani Odeh.

Israel’s secret services believe he was organizing a terror attack. Local sources said the Israeli officers had to call in help and the village was at the centre of violent clashes for hours. Some 30 Palestinians were wounded and Israeli soldiers also used real ammunitions, according to the Wafa news agency.

Three Israeli soldiers were wounded, though not seriously, and Bani Odeh captured.

Yesterday and today settlers were also behind anti-Palestinian vandalism in two West Bank areas. Many olive trees were cut in one instance while in another a car was burnt while on a wall nearby someone wrote ‘A good Arab is a dead Arab’ in Hebrew. Meanwhile yesterday someone fired against an Israeli bus in Hebron while another Israeli bus was also attacked by Palestinians. Nobody was wounded.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Middle East

Christians Persecuted This Christmas

by Douglas Murray

I hope all readers had a happy and peaceful Christmas. As this is the first day back at the office for most of us, I thought I would cheer everyone up with how Christians around the world experienced the period. Here is what Christians in Indonesia had to put up with. In Egypt a prominent cleric issued genocidal threats against the country’s Christians, and taunted them:

‘What do you think — that America will protect you? Let’s be very clear, America will not protect you. If so, it would have protected the Christians of Iraq when they were being butchered!’

Meanwhile, in post-Arab Spring Tunisia, the locals were warned by a hard-line preacher of increasing popularity: ‘Sharing the feast days of the infidel or even sending them greetings to mark them is a big sin,’ Sheikh Beshir Ben Hassine said in sermon posted on Facebook, ‘Wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy New Year is forbidden by Islam.’

[…]

[Reader comment by James Strong on 2 Januarty 2013 at about 5 pm.]

Islam is a totaltarian political system that is more than happy to use violence. It should be opposed vigorously at every opportunity. Its true attitudes and behaviours should be publicised to all those in the UK, and elsewhere who are still under any delusion that it is the ‘Religion of Peace’. Those parts of the mainstream media who refer to ‘Asian’ gangs of men abusing young girls for sex are knowingly peddling untruths. Those men don’t do it because of their race, they do it because of their beliefs. We need to oppose Islam vigorously now with all the words at our disposal,we need to stop its advance, because if we don’t we face a very violent future.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Is Jailed Saudi Dissident Raid Badawi Alive?

Italian MP calls on EU to mobilize, 7,000 signatures gathered

(ANSAmed) — RIYADH, JANUARY 3 — Saudi dissident editor Raif Badawi is in imminent danger of execution and may already have lost his life, Italian People of Freedom (PdL) Party MP Souad Sbai told reporters on Thursday. “His relatives and friends are in anguish, because they have not heard from him for days. The fear is that he has been silenced for good,” said Sbai, calling on the European Union, which recently won the Nobel Peace Prize, to mobilize against the “extremely grave human rights violations” taking place not far from its borders.

Badawi, editor of Saudi Liberals website, was arrested in June, according to Human Rights Watch. “Almaghrebiya.it daily was the first to report the news of his arrest, and has collected 7,000 signatures so far to free Raif and save him from certain death,” Sbai said. “Silence is the death of any hope of salvation for dissidents. So I have written to EU Human Rights Commissioner Nils Muinieks.” Badawi was arrested for allegedly insulting Islam on his website, “threatening general security” and ridiculing the religious police in his articles, one of which was published on Saint Valentine’s Day, which is banned in Saudi Arabia. Badawi also allegedly refused to remove articles written by others from his website. The charges were changed on December 17 to apostasy, which is a capital crime in Saudi Arabia. Amnesty International has also called for the liberation of Badawi, saying he is a prisoner of conscience who was arrested and put on trial solely for making an online social and political debate possible.

Another Saudi dissident intellectual, Turki al-Hamad, has been incarcerated since December 24 on charges of insulting the Prophet Mohammed because of a tweet in which he suggested Islam might need reform.

One of the world’s major oil exporters, Saudi Arabia is among the West’s allies on many issues. Its dominant religion is Wahabism, a fundamentalist branch of Sunni Islam.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Turkey: Mosque to Distribute Tablet PCs to Children Who Pray

Children whom come 180 times for prayer will be given a free tablet PC, according to the imam of a mosque in the Central Anatolian province of Yozgat. “We wanted to attract the attention of youngsters and encourage them to pray by capitalizing on their enthusiasm for technology and the Internet,” said Cebrail Öztürk, the imam of the Dayýlý Mosque in Yozgat’s Akdaðmadeni district…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Turkey: Ex-Army Chief Detained in Postmodern Coup Probe

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 3 — Turkey’s former army chief Ismail Hakki Karadayi has reportedly been detained as part of an investigation into February 28, 1997 postmodern coup. Turkish Hurriyet daily reported on Thursday that retired Gen. Karadayi was detained by police in Istanbul.

On February 28, 1997, the Turkish military forced the coalition government, led by the now-defunct conservative Welfare Party (RP), out of power, citing allegedly rising religious fundamentalism in the country. The February 28 coup introduced a series of severe restrictions on religious life, including an unofficial but widely practiced ban on the use of headscarves by women. The military was also purged of members with suspected ties to religious groups or officers who were simply observant Muslims. In addition, a number of newspapers were closed down based on a National Security Council (MGK) decision calling for closer monitoring of media outlets.

There is an ongoing investigation into the suspected actors behind the coup, with approximately 60 individuals already arrested on coup charges.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

UAE: Karama Mosque in Dubai Incorporates Plastic Extruders Heronrib Matting

Karama Mosque in Dubai has used a slip-resistant matting named as the Heronrib matting from the UK-based Plastic Extruders Limited to keep the devotees offering prayers in the mosque safe.

Specified by Intercare Ltd, Plastex distributor in the UAE, the Heronrib matting has been installed over the tiled floors in the mosque’s several ablution areas. Here, the ablution, ‘Wudu’, is performed five times a day, the ceremony which involves washing the head, hands, face and feet before walking barefoot into the prayer areas. Ensuring hygiene for bare feet, the slip-resistant, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal Heronrib matting reduces the risk of cross-contamination. Featuring embossed surface, the Heronrib matting provides a comfort element to the bare feet.

Manufactured from hard wearing non-porous vinyl with a two layer open grid construction, Heronrib is widely used in swimming pools, changing rooms and showers. Providing safety solution for the wet areas, Heronrib matting features channeled underbars to help water drain away easily in all directions, which keeps the embossed surface relatively dry and slip- resistant. Available in several colours, the Heronrib matting is normally supplied in 10m long rolls with widths of 50cm, 1m and 1.22m.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Russia

Putin Makes Depardieu Russian Citizen

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday granted fast-track citizenship to France’s Gérard Depardieu after the movie star complained about his Socialist government’s proposed 75 percent tax on the rich.

The decision appears to give Depardieu — already a frequent guest of the Moscow celebrity circuit — a chance to pay the flat 13 percent income tax levied in Russia on everyone from billionaires to the poor.

“Vladimir Putin has signed a decree granting Russian citizenship to France’s Gerard Depardieu,” the Kremlin said in a brief statement.

The decree cited an article of the 1993 constitution extending presidents the right to issue citizenship or to grant political asylum.

Depardieu said on Sunday that a decision by France’s highest court to strike down the proposed rate on millionaires changed nothing in his highly publicised and much debated decision to move out of France.

The French government has vowed to push ahead with the tax — applicable to anyone who makes more than a million euros ($1.3 million) a year — and propose a new measure that would conform with the constitution.

Putin at his end-of-year press conference in December said he was ready to offer the 64-year-old cinema veteran a Russian passport to resolve the row.

His comments initially generated snickers from reporters. But the Russian strongman quickly made clear that he was entirely serious.

“If Gerard really wants to have a residency permit in Russia or a Russian passport, we can consider this issue resolved positively,” Putin said at the time.

The 60-year-old Russian leader referred to Depardieu both as a successful businessman and a friend who loved his country and would therefore be unlikely to leave France for good.

Yet Putin also added that the French prime minister’s famous remark about Depardieu being “pathetic’ for threatening to leave his country had hurt that star’s feelings and may eventually force him to move.

“An artist is easy to offend,” Putin remarked.

Depardieu had previously mentioned moving to Belgium — where the tax on millionaires is 50 percent — and had reportedly purchased a new home near the French border for the specific purpose of avoiding the tax.

The hulking actor has been a star in Russia since the Soviet era and still retains cult status among many movie buffs.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

South Asia

Anti-Piracy Marines Return to India Friday

Latorre and Girone leave Italy after Christmas permit expires

(ANSA) — Rome, January 3 — The attorney for the two Italian marines facing trial in India for allegedly killing two Indian fishermen during an anti-piracy mission said that they will land in the Indian city of Kochi on Friday at 8:30am local time.

Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone are in Italy after being given a two-week permit to return home for the Christmas holidays by an Indian court. They will be flown back to the state of Kerala on an Italian military aircraft then be driven to the city of Kollum three hours away where they will hand their passports back to Indian authorities.

The pair have been at the centre of a diplomatic row between Italy and India after they allegedly shot fishermen Jelestine Valentine and Ajesh Binki off the southern Indian coast last February.

They face homicide charges.

The marines were released from detention on bail in June, but were confined to Indian territory until they were granted the permit for Christmas.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Danish Soldier Killed in Afghanistan

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — An elite Danish soldier has been killed in southern Afghanistan by an explosive device, military officials said Thursday. The blast is said to have happened late Wednesday or early Thursday and came as members of Denmark’s Ranger and Frogmen units were on a joint patrol with an Afghan police’s elite unit…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

India: Muslims to Witness RSS ‘Ekatrikaran’ Programme

INDORE: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh seems to have taken a step to reach out to Muslims by allowing 100 Muslims from different parts of the country to witness its ‘ekatrikaran’ or ‘gathering’ programme. The programme will be addressed by the RSS sarsanghachalak Mohan Bhagwat on January 6. Mubarak Khan of Muslim Rashtriya Manch confirmed that around 100 Muslims would be present at the function in traditional attire and skull cap. “We sought permission for 150 Muslims but got permission for only 100,” he said, adding that apart from the Rashtriya Muslim Manch members, there would be representatives of maulanas, businessmen, professors and doctors…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Indonesia City to Ban Women ‘Straddling Motorbikes’

A city in the Indonesian province of Aceh province which follows Sharia law has ordered female passengers not to straddle motorbikes behind male drivers.

Suaidi Yahya, mayor of Lhokseumawa, says it aims to save people’s “morals and behaviours”. Leaflets have been sent out to government offices and residents to inform them about the regulation. Aceh is the only Indonesian province that follows Sharia law…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Iranian MPs Due in Myanmar to Examine Rohingya Muslims’ Situation

An Iranian parliamentary delegation will soon visit Myanmar to examine the latest situation of the ethnic Rohingya Muslims and find out ways to help the minority in the Southeast Asian country.

The representatives of Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Imam Khomeini’s Relief Committee and the Iranian Red Crescent Society will accompany the lawmakers in their two-day visit, which is scheduled to start on January 9, deputy chairman of the Majlis Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy Mansour Haqiqatpour said on Thursday…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Malaysia: OIC to Address Religious Intolerance Against Muslims

KUALA LUMPUR: The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will hold a meeting with legal and human rights experts to address religious intolerance against Muslims, it said in a statement Thursday. The meeting, to be held in Istanbul on Jan 6 and 7, will be opened by OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, it said, adding that in November 2012, the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) had met in Djibouti, and the council had decided to have a meeting this year. In a resolution passed at the CFM meeting, Ihsanoglu was required to form a panel of eminent people to advise OIC member states on international law and to combat discrimination and intolerance against Muslims…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Pakistan: US Drone Strike Kills Taliban Commander Mullah Nazir

A US drone strike has killed a Taliban commander, his deputy and eight others in northern Pakistan.

Maulvi Nazir Wazir, also known as Mullah Nazir, an important commander from the Wazir tribe, was killed on Wednesday night when missiles struck a house in Angoor Adda, near the capital of Wana, South Waziristan, near the Afghan border, seven intelligence sources and two residents from his tribe said. His deputy, Ratta Khan, was also killed, three sources said. He preferred attacking American forces in Afghanistan rather than Pakistani soldiers in Pakistan, a position that put him at odds with some other Pakistan Taliban commanders…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Pakistan: Bigotry That Kills

The Taliban murdered innocent aid workers in Pakistan because of a paranoid conspiracy theory about polio vaccine

Pakistan’s Islamist radicals are willing to kill teenage girls for going to school, or cast acid in the faces of their teachers. The murder of seven local aid workers on New Year’s Day shows that vaccinating children against polio has entered their litany of capital crimes. Even by the depraved standards of the Pakistani Taliban and its allies, the cold-blooded execution of these innocent people — six of them women — was a profoundly wicked act.

If anyone believes that conspiracy theories are harmless fantasies, consider why this outrage took place. The Taliban and its friends think that polio vaccines are a Western plot designed to make Muslims infertile — or perhaps give them Aids. This peculiarly paranoid conspiracy theory, which tends to vary with the teller, has taken hold in areas of Pakistan, Afghanistan and northern Nigeria. Consequently, these countries are the only places where polio remains endemic…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Top Pakistani Militant Commander Killed in US Drone Strike

An American drone strike in Pakistan has killed top Taliban commander Maulvi Nazir, a senior intelligence official confirms to FoxNews.com.

Nazir, along with five close associates, was killed in a US drone strike, which took place near the town of Wana in Sar Kanda area of Birmil of South Wazristan Agency, one of seven federally administered tribal areas where militants thrive.

“The information we have received from our ground sources confirmed the death,” a senior Pakistan Army Intelligence official told FoxNews.com. “The vehicle in which the key Taliban war lord was traveling in was struck by two missiles.”

The Pakistani official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the media.

The U.S. rarely comments on its secretive drone program, and Pentagon spokesman George Little said he could not confirm Nazir’s death, but he added that if true, it would be “a significant blow” to extremist groups in the region.

He said it would be helpful not only to the U.S. and to Afghanistan but also to Pakistan, because “this is someone who has a great deal of blood on his hands.”

At least four people were killed in a separate drone strike Thursday in the North Waziristan tribal region.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Violence Against Women: Despite Progress, A Long Way to Go in Afghanistan

In June 2012 a woman from Parwan province, Afghanistan was publicly executed following allegations of adultery made against her by the Taliban. In July, the head of the Women’s Affairs Department in Laghman province was assassinated and her successor, Najia Seddiqui was murdered just a few months later, in December.

[…]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Why the Rise of ‘Good Taliban’ In Afghanistan Worries India and Iran

by Rajeev Sharma

The importance of Iran for India cannot be over stated. Iran is a vital cog in the wheel of the Indian scheme of things for reaching out to Afghanistan. But the question is: whether both India and Iran are about to lose their leverage on Afghanistan? The good news is that Iran is as uncomfortable as India on the back-room developments with regard to Afghanistan as the United States-led international community seems hell bent on “good” Taliban taking over the land-locked country in the post-2014 scenario of withdrawing American forces from Afghanistan…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Far East

Catastrophic Eruption is Brewing in Japan

One of the most seismically active countries in the world and home to more than 100 active volcanoes, experts say Japan is at risk of a major volcanic eruption that would cause chaos across the nation.

Thin wisps of smoke and ash continue to seep from the vast crater atop Sakurajima, as they have done more or less uninterrupted for nearly half-a-century. Once in a while, a minor eruption will release a small flow of lava and a towering column of debris that is taken by the wind.

This is nothing compared to the eruption in January 1914 that shook what was then an island off the southern tip of Kyushu and the city of Kagoshima. The blast was the most powerful eruption in Japan in the 20th century, flows of lava bridged the narrow straits between the island and the mainland and the surrounding countryside and Kagoshima City were covered with a thick layer of ash.

Fortunately, indications that the volcano had emerged from a period of dormancy had been noted and most local residents had been evacuated, but a series of earthquakes in the hours and days leading up to the eruption caused at least 35 deaths.

That event was nearly 100 years ago, but Yoichi Nakamura, a professor of volcanology at Utsunomiya University, north of Tokyo, believes that an eruption on a similar scale is imminent. And a blast with a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) reading of four would cause havoc across large areas of this densely populated nation.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Hong Kong: Mosques Needed in New Territories, Says Islamic Expert

HK’s Islamic population has quadrupled in five decades, but no new mosques have been built

Hong Kong should build more mosques and community centres for its growing Muslim population, an Islamic organisation said yesterday. Khan Muhammad Malik, chairman of the Federation of Muslim Association in Hong Kong, noted that while the Islamic population had grown five-fold in the past five decades the number of mosques in the city had remained the same. Furthermore, there were too few public places where Muslims could gather as a community, he said at a press conference. The city has five mosques, four on Hong Kong Island and one in Tsim Sha Tsui. Malik said new mosques should be built in the New Territories, where many Muslims live in Tuen Mun and Yuen Long without easy access to a place of worship…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Australia — Pacific

Australian Scientists Discover Deep Sea Corals

Australian scientists mapping the Great Barrier Reef have discovered corals at depths never before thought possible, with a deep-sea robot finding specimens in waters nearly as dark as night.

A team from the University of Queensland’s Seaview Survey announced the unprecedented discovery 125 metres (410 feet) below the surface at Ribbon Reef, near the Torres Strait and at the edge of the Australian continental shelf. Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, chief scientist on the project, told AFP on Thursday that coral had previously only been shown to exist to depths of 70 metres and the finding could bring new understanding about how reefs spawn and grow…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Giant Rubber Duck Swims Through Sydney Harbour

A giant rubber duck took to the waters of Sydney Harbour on Thursday in a dawn rehearsal for a Sydney Festival event which organisers say will turn the harbour into a “giant bathtub”.

The 50-foot duck will sail through Darling Harbour to be part of the launch of the Sydney Festival on Saturday with the aim of opening the event to new audiences. “People will see it from the highway, will see it from the harbour, it’s five storeys high, and it’s just a very quirky way to say ‘the festival is on, please join us in the party’“, Sydney Festival director Lieven Bertels said. The rubber duck, designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman , is made out of PVC material and took three weeks to make, according to Sydney Festival officials.

Hofman said his giant duck “brings people together”. The duck will remain moored in Darling Harbour for the duration of the Sydney Festival which ends on January 23.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Suspicious Fire Destroys Melbourne Mosque

Police are investigating a suspicious fire which has destroyed a mosque in Melbourne’s north. Police and firefighters were called to the blaze on Somerton Road in Greenvale at around 2.30am (AEDT). Fire crews are still damping down the fire.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

‘Tsunami Bomb’ Tested Off New Zealand Coast

The United States and New Zealand conducted secret tests of a “tsunami bomb” designed to destroy coastal cities by using underwater blasts to trigger massive tidal waves.

The tests were carried out in waters around New Caledonia and Auckland during the Second World War and showed that the weapon was feasible and a series of 10 large offshore blasts could potentially create a 33-foot tsunami capable of inundating a small city.

The top secret operation, code-named “Project Seal”, tested the doomsday device as a possible rival to the nuclear bomb. About 3,700 bombs were exploded during the tests, first in New Caledonia and later at Whangaparaoa Peninsula, near Auckland.

The plans came to light during research by a New Zealand author and film-maker, Ray Waru, who examined military files buried in the national archives.

“Presumably if the atomic bomb had not worked as well as it did, we might have been tsunami-ing people,” said Mr Waru.

“It was absolutely astonishing. First that anyone would come up with the idea of developing a weapon of mass destruction based on a tsunami … and also that New Zealand seems to have successfully developed it to the degree that it might have worked.” The project was launched in June 1944 after a US naval officer, E A Gibson, noticed that blasting operations to clear coral reefs around Pacific islands sometimes produced a large wave, raising the possibility of creating a “tsunami bomb”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Sub-Saharan Africa

Ethiopia: Members of an Al Qaeda-Affiliated Terror Cell Arrested

The National Security and Intelligence Agency announced on Wednesday (January 2nd) that fifteen members of a terrorist cell affiliated with Al Qaeda’s network in East Africa had been arrested. Military training manuals, jihad war videos and a variety of weapons were also found. The fifteen 15 suspects were arrested after the National Task Force for Counter-Terrorism, drawn from members of the Federal Police and the National Security and Intelligence Agency, secured a warrant for the arrests…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Somalia: Roadside Bomb Hits Amisom Patrol in Merka Town

Merka — A roadside bomb has hit a Burundian contingent of African union forces who were on a patrol in the beachside town of Merka in southern Somalia, according to residents in the town. Eyewitnesses say that three civilians have been wounded in the explosion but residents could not confirm any casualty on the side of Amisom troops, who were the target of the attack…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Latin America

Argentina: Argies in Falkland Ads Blast at Britain

ARGENTINA’S president today launches a fresh attack on Britain by declaring her nation was “forcibly stripped” of the Falkland Islands.

Cristina Kirchner has put an advert in UK and US newspapers demanding David Cameron restores power to the South American country. The ad, set to appear in some broadsheets on the 180th anniversary of the alleged takeover, takes the form of an open letter to the PM. She says Argentines were “expelled by the Royal Navy” on January 3, 1833, “in a blatant exercise of 19th-century colonialism”. Britain then began “a population implantation process”. Britain rejects that version of events, saying no civilians were expelled. Islanders face a March referendum on whether they want to stay British.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Falkland Islands Row: Argentina’s Understanding of History is ‘Laughable’

Argentina’s demand that David Cameron ‘hand back’ control of the Falkland Islands is based on a ‘laughable’ understanding of history, an academic has said.

Cristina Kirchner, the Argentine President, has been left “frustrated” by the refusal of other Latin American nations to back Argentina’s long-standing claim to the Islands, Klaus Dodds, Geopolitics at Royal Holloway, University of London, said. An emotional open letter from Kirchner to David Cameron demanding the return of the Islands which she claims were “forcibly stripped” from her country, published today in the Guardian newspaper, is a sign of “profound weakness,” Prof Dodds said. The Islands had no established Argentine population at the time the British took control — and Mrs Kirchner’s country was itself an ambitious colonial power in the nineteenth century, he added. The Argentine junta invaded the Falkland Islands in 1982, at a cost of 659 Argentian lives and 258 British. In the letter, Kirchner called on Mr Cameron to honour a United Nations resolution dating from 1965 and start negotiations about handing over the islands…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Immigration

45 Migrants Picked Up in Puglia

‘Of various Asian nationalities,’ police say

(ANSA) — Lecce, January 3 — Italian police on Thursday picked up 45 migrants walking along a coastal road in southern Puglia.

Police said the migrants, “of various Asian nationalities”, had just landed from a boat near the port of Leuca.

They were taken to a reception centre.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Immigrants Flooding Into Ireland Despite Bad Economic Times There

Over 80,000 approved for visas despite massive unemployment, emigration

Though Ireland’s economy remains in poor shape, there is no shortage of foreigners from around the world seeking legal residency and citizenship there, new Irish government figures show.

The Journal.ie reports that there was a six percent rise in the number of foreigners applying for visas last year compared to 2011. Out of the roughly 88,000 visa applications received, 91 percent were approved, with the biggest number going to natives of India (16 percent), followed by Russia, China, Nigeria, and Turkey.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter’s office revealed that the Irish Naturalization and Immigration Service received some 165,700 applications for a number of services, including visas, residency, protection and naturalization.

The figures show that nearly 115,000 non-European nationals received permission to remain in Ireland. Again, natives of India represent the highest number at 11 percent of this total, followed by Brazil, Nigeria, China, the U.S. and the Philippines.

More than 25,000 citizenship cases were decided last year. Also, more than 31,000 non-European foreign students are registered for study in Ireland.

Asylum applications have fallen drastically from a peak of 11,600 in 2002. Last year there were only 950 requests for asylum. Almost 2,700 people were deported from Ireland last year.

“Reform of the immigration system will be sustained in 2013 and I will be focusing on major legislative and procedural measures such as the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill and further civilianization of Immigration Officer functions at Dublin Airport,” Shatter said in a statement.

           — Hat tip: McR [Return to headlines]

Italy Grants Public Healthcare to Illegal Immigrant Minors

Health coverage and residency extended for pregnant mothers

(ANSA) — Rome, January 2 — Underage illegal immigrants are now covered by the Italian national healthcare system thanks to an agreement reached in recent days at a conference for national and regional government relations, Italian Health Minister Renato Balduzzi said in a note published Wednesday.

The concession covers foreign minors holding a social security number but not a residency visa. In Italy, foreigners can obtain a social security number simply by presenting identification, but must meet far more rigorous requirements to obtain a residency visa. The new accord also extends health coverage and residency for undocumented immigrants who are pregnant. Women can now reside in Italy and receive public healthcare for up to one year after the birth of their babies. Previously, undocumented mothers were expelled from the country when their babies reached six months of age. Balduzzi wrote that the initiative supports “article 32 of the (Italian) Constitution” which mandates that “no one is excluded from assistance with a view on equality and justice”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Revealed: 3 in 4 of Britain’s Danger Doctors Are Trained Abroad

The vast majority of doctors who have been struck off in the past five years were trained abroad, new figures from the General Medical Council show.

The full extent of the danger presented by foreign doctors working in the health service can be revealed.

New figures from the General Medical Council (GMC) show that the vast majority of doctors who have been struck off were trained abroad.

The revelations will add to concerns that NHS patients are not adequately protected from health professionals from countries where training is less rigorous than in the UK, and from those who are unfamiliar with basic medical practices in this country.

The figures, disclosed for the first time and obtained by The Sunday Telegraph using freedom of information laws, show:

Three quarters of doctors struck off the medical register this year were trained abroad.

Doctors trained overseas are five times more likely to be struck off than those trained in the UK. The country with the biggest single number of doctors who have been removed or suspended from the medical register, is India, followed by Nigeria and Egypt.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Turkish Limbo Pushing Afghan Refugees to EU

Istanbul — Refugees and asylum seekers from Afghanistan in Turkey are caught in a legal limbo, pushing some into the arms of smugglers.

Turkey does not give refugee status to anybody from Afghanistan or outside Europe.

The situation arose as far back as 1951, when it opted for a “geographical limitation” in its adoption of a UN refugee convention, which reserves the status only for “persons who have become refugees as a result of events occurring in Europe.”

Even if the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, takes somebody under their wing, when they get to Turkey they have to pay for their own temporary residence.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

UK: 4,000 Foreign Murderers and Rapists We Can’t Throw Out. . . And, Yes, You Can Blame Human Rights Again

Nearly 4,000 foreign murderers, rapists and other criminals are roaming the streets, free to commit new crimes.

The Government wants to deport them but admits that many cannot be kicked out because of their human rights.

A Parliamentary answer reveals that 3,980 foreign criminals who should have been sent back to their country of origin are ‘living in the community’.

[Return to headlines]

UK: Councils Refuse to Reveal Number of Homes They Give to Foreigners: Authorities Stop Giving Figures Amid Worries Over Impact of Immigration

Councils are trying to cover up the number of taxpayer-subsidised homes they are handing to foreigners, it was claimed yesterday.

Local authorities have stopped giving figures for how many houses and flats they have given to foreign citizens amid rising worries over the impacts of immigration, a report said.

Councils in London, where one in five publicly-financed homes are already known to be occupied by foreigners, are among those no longer supplying the figures.

[Return to headlines]

Culture Wars

France’s Censorship Demands to Twitter Are More Dangerous Than ‘Hate Speech’

Few ideas have done as much damage throughout history as empowering the government to criminalize opinions it dislikes

Writing in the Guardian today, Jason Farago praises France’s women’s rights minister, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, for demanding that Twitter help the French government criminalize ideas it dislikes. Decreeing that “hateful tweets are illegal”, Farago excitingly explains how the French minister is going beyond mere prosecution for those who post such tweets and now “wants Twitter to take steps to help prosecute hate speech” by “reform(ing) the whole system by which Twitter operates”, including her demand that the company “put in place alerts and security measures” to prevent tweets which French officials deem hateful.

This, Farago argues, is fantastic, because — using the same argument employed by censors and tyrants of every age and every culture — new technology makes free speech far too dangerous to permit.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Italy Hospital Drops ‘Father’ Bracelets for Lesbian Parents

Tags changed to ‘partner’ in maternity ward

(ANSA) — Padua, January 2 — The maternity ward at the Padua Hospital in northeastern Italy has stopped issuing bracelets that read ‘father’ in favor of ones that read ‘partner’ in order to accomodate lesbian parents. According to local media, the change was put into effect after a woman last month was waiting to visit her female companion who had just given birth.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

UK: Archbishop Nichols Ends ‘Soho Masses’ After Six Years

Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster has announced that Masses in Soho organised for gay people are to end. He also revealed that the church where the Masses took place will be entrusted to the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. The fortnightly “Soho Masses” at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Warwick Street were established by the diocese almost six years ago. They were intended to be “particularly welcoming to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered Catholics, their parents, friends and families”. Archbishop Nichols said today that, while the Masses will stop, pastoral care of the community will continue at the Jesuit Farm Street church in Mayfair on Sunday evenings…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Are Christians Being Persecuted in Britain?

by Isabel Hardman

Douglas Murray makes a striking point on his Spectator blog about the violent persecution that many Christians face across the globe, while the Church of England fights over gay marriage and women bishops. Christians in this country do fear that they are being persecuted, too, with a case making the headlines at the weekend about a Baptist who had unsuccessfully sued her employers for forcing her to work Sundays…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Guardian: Paedophiles Are ‘Ordinary Members of Society’ Who Need Moral Support

by Damian Thompson

Britain most persecuted minority have found a new advocate. An article this morning in the Guardian by feature writer Jon Henley addresses misconceptions about paedophiles, quoting one “expert” who believes that: “It is the quality of the relationship that matters”. No, this is not not some sick send-up on my part. “If there’s no bullying, no coercion, no abuse of power,” says Tom O’Carroll, “if the child enters into the relationship voluntarily … the evidence shows there need be no harm.” O’Carroll is a former chairman of the Paedophile Information Exchange with a conviction for distributing indecent photographs. The Guardian acknowledges this, but gives him a respectful hearing and points out that “some academics do not dispute” his views…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

General

Cloud of Atoms Goes Beyond Absolute Zero

Nothing is colder than absolute zero, so it seems nonsensical to talk about negative temperature — but now there is a substance that must have just that. The revelation could shake up our ideas about temperature and help us understand strange entities such as dark energy, as well as the interactions of subatomic particles.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20130102

Financial Crisis
» Italy: New Taxes Give Buy-to-Rent Homes a Boost
» Red Cross to Focus on Southern Europe Amid Eurozone Crisis
» South Korea: Seoul: Government Lowers Economic Forecasts for 2013
» UK: Workers Forced to Rely on State Handouts as Three Quarters of Small Firms Can’t Afford to Run a Pension Scheme
 
USA
» Billboards Stress Commonality of Religions
» Disaster Movie
» Frank Gaffney: Hold John Kerry Accountable
» Hillary Rodham Clinton Discharged From Hospital After Treatment for Blood Clot
» NASA Mulls Plan to Drag Asteroid Into Moon’s Orbit
» Pressure Builds to Nix Gift of Tanks, F-16s to Egypt
» Top 5 Islam-Bashing Republicans to Watch in 2013
» VU Law Professor Among World’s Most Influential Muslims
 
Canada
» The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist
 
Europe and the EU
» Arabs Brutally Attack US Yeshiva Student in Italy
» Bat Ye’or and the Coming Universal Caliphate
» Belgian Hema Store Wrong to Sack Headscarf-Wearing Worker
» Dutch Man Injured in Car Accident Dies
» European Union: Is Europe Standing on Its Head?
» French Weekly Publishes ‘Life of Mohammed’ Cartoons
» Hundreds of Cars Torched in French New Year ‘Tradition’
» Is Slavoj Zizek a Left-Fascist?
» Netherlands: Three Youths Arrested After Train Fire
» UK: Extremism Unchecked in Schools, Secret Briefing Reveals
» UK: Labour Questions TPims as Terror Suspect Absconds
» UK: Mohammed Islam Caught Burgling Southampton Home on Video
 
North Africa
» Eight Million Dog Mummies Found in Saqqara
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Publisher of British Textbook That Erased Israel From Map: “We Are Taking This Matter Extremely Seriously”
 
Middle East
» Erdogan Dreams of Full Sharia Law in Turkey
» More Than 60,000 Killed in Syria Conflict, UN Says
» New Report on Iranian Bio-Toxin Developments Corroborates Syrian Bio-Warfare Threat Assessment
» Turkish Fighter Jets Hit Over 20 PKK Targets in Northern Iraq
» Wrestling is Prohibited in Islam: Saudi Scholar
 
South Asia
» Afghan Woman Killed on Conjugal Visit to Prison
» Afghanistan: The Family That Protects One of Islam’s Sacred Relics Braves Politics, Violence
» Afghan Warlord’s Interview is ‘Encouraging’ Sign of Political Engagement
» Britain — and Prince Harry — Are Failing in Afghanistan, Says Warlord
» India: Elite-Backed Sterilization “Safaris” Meet With Growing Resistance
» Prince Harry is a ‘Jackal’ Killing Innocents, Says Feared Afghanistan Warlord
» Two Killed, 35 Injured in Bomb Attack in Pakistan’s Karachi
 
Far East
» China Ejects New York Times Journalist
 
Australia — Pacific
» The Bat: A Long-Lived, Virus-Proof Anomaly
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Nigeria Denies Killing of 15 Christians in Northern State
 
Immigration
» White House Eases Path to Residency for Some Illegal Immigrants
 
Culture Wars
» Christian Doctors Call for Ban on NHS ‘Bribing’ Hospitals to Put More Patients on Controversial Death Pathway
 
General
» Hunting the Unicorn of Moderate Islam
» What’s Islamophobia, And Do I Have it?

Financial Crisis

Italy: New Taxes Give Buy-to-Rent Homes a Boost

When and how investing in property is still a bargain, despite IMU and TARSU taxes

As with all averages, Trilussa’s warning still holds true [According to the Roman dialect poet Trilussa, if one person has a whole chicken and another has none, they have half a chicken each on average — Trans.] but IMU is in effect a wealth tax ranging from zero (for homes with a low assessable value), to 0.2% for first homes and 04% to 0.6% for properties that are ineligible for the lower rate. What is less easily calculated is the new tax’s psychological impact on buyers. However there is no doubt that IMU is significantly depressing a property market that, if we take the official figures for the first nine months of the year, will close 2012 more than 20% down.

But it is not just IMU to cast doubt on the wisdom of investing in bricks and mortar at the present time. There are at least two other reasons for caution. The first is that the short-term prospects for the property market are anything but rosy. Property professionals do not expect prices to stabilise, let alone recover. The second factor is competition from government securities, which guarantee tempting medium-term returns and are far easier to liquidate than property. The table illustrates four different purchase scenarios for the same property, estimating the return compared with renting or investing in securities. We have considered a property costing €280,000 in a good residential area of Milan or Rome, which could be rented for €800 a month. Bear in mind that, as always when making comparisons of this kind, we are looking at a theoretical case, let’s see what emerges. All the comparisons involve a time horizon of eight years, the legal duration of a non-controlled rent contract for residential properties.

Cash

A home costing €280,000 entails a further €5,000 in expenses (lower-rate taxes and notary’s fees). The actual investment should therefore be calculated as €285,000. The cost to the purchaser is represented by interest on the sum invested that is forgone over the eight years (we have have calculated this at 25% of the total cost in all four cases) plus expenses for extraordinary maintenance of the property, which the investor would not pay if he or she were renting. Ordinary condominium expenses and waste disposal taxes are not relevant because they would be still due even if the investor were a tenant. In this scenario, the purchaser would see a return after eight years if the home could be sold for at least €284,000. In other words, the owner would be happy if the property were to maintain its initial value.

Mortgage

In the second scenario, the potential purchaser has to take out a mortgage. We have assumed that the sum borrowed is half of the purchase price and that the loan is at a variable rate averaging 4%. The amount paid in cash is €147,000 (€7,000 for taxes and notary’s fees, including mortgage charges). Obviously, the income from interest forgone on government securities needs to be taken into account. In view of the fact that after eight years, the owner will still have debts of almost €97,000, the property will have to be sold for at least €317,000 to produce a return. In practical terms, the home would have to increase in value by 15% over eight years, and this already makes a return less certain. It should however be noted that the mortgage is partially deductible from income tax. We have not included this figure in our calculations (at current values, the tax benefit would be about €6,000) because of uncertainty over tax deductions next year.

Buy to rent

Little changes from a financial point of view if we look at a cash purchase in order to rent the property. The initial expenses are higher (if the lower-rate transference taxes are not applicable, taxes and notary’s fees will come to at least €15,000). The impact of IMU and the flat-rate cedolare secca tax that shaves off 21% of rent collected must also be factored in. In theory, the property only has to gain 2% per annum in value to keep the books balanced but in practice the buyer will have to find a reliable tenant who pays for the entire eight years and vacates the property without problems. The news columns tell us that this is not always the case. We have not considered the case of a purchaser who also takes out a mortgage because this rarely happens in real life, the loan is subject to a heavier tax regime and there is less likelihood of obtaining the mortgage.

Buying as an investment

Finally, we come to a scenario that today looks entirely theoretical: buying a property simply to hold onto it in the hope of a capital gain in the medium term. In this case, as well as paying all the ordinary and extraordinary expenses, and IMU at the top rate, we have to consider the income forgone in the form of six-monthly dividends on government securities. Today, this operation can be classified as high risk because the property in question would have to increase in value by at least 42%. Performances of this order are recorded in rising markets but today the investment looks more than anything else like an out-and-out punt.

Gino Pagliuca

19 dicembre 2012 | 17:59

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

Red Cross to Focus on Southern Europe Amid Eurozone Crisis

The International Committee of the Red Cross says it plans to adopt a strategy for southern Europe over the eurozone crisis, which has made millions of Europeans struggle to get food.

Yves Daccord, the director general of the ICRC, said in an interview on January 1 that the world’s largest humanitarian organization will equip itself especially for southern Europe.

“We are now seeing for the first time that the Red Cross in several European countries need to focus on the poor in their own country, much more than on external missions outside Europe,” Daccord stated.

In Spain, for example, about two million people are receiving help from the Red Cross, including approximately 300,000 who are “extremely vulnerable” by having no chance to support themselves, he added.

Daccord also warned that the developments in Europe, where the “gap between the social needs of the people and their ability to help has increased,” will lead to violent riots.

The European Commission sees the eurozone crisis to be so severe that it has projected a new poverty fund with about 18.6 billion euros ($24.7 billion) to help the most vulnerable.

Jonathan Todd, the spokesperson for the EU social affairs commissioner, said, “We need new mechanisms if we are to help all the poor people who in many cases are now living in a real social emergency.”

New figures released by Eurostat statistical agency showed that nearly 120 million EU citizens are living below the European poverty line.

           — Hat tip: The Observer [Return to headlines]

South Korea: Seoul: Government Lowers Economic Forecasts for 2013

Before leaving office, the government led by Lee Myung-bak is forced lower economic estimates for next year: Korea will grow by 2.1% this year against the forecast of 3.3%. Possible “improvements” by next fiscal year.

Seoul (AsiaNews / Agencies) — Despite the best efforts last year, the new government of South Korea will be faced with an economic situation far worse than that of five years ago. Before handing over office to Park Geun-hye, in fact, the government led by Lee Myung-bak has sharply revised growth forecasts for 2012 and 2013 downward.

According to economic analysts in the Blue House, the main cause of this situation is due to the debt crisis in Europe and the budgetary problems in the United States, factors that are weighing heavily on global demand. The Ministry of Finance of the Fourth Asian economy has forecast a growth of 2.1% in 2012 (against the previous forecast of 3.3%) and 3% in 2013 (down from 4.3%).

“The economy continues to slow down — the ministry said in a statement — while global demand is hampered by the ongoing crisis in the euro zone and the still present uncertainties.” The growth of the gross domestic product of South Korea should continue to be limited in the first half of 2013, but “could improve slightly” in the second half, thanks to the expected recovery in key markets.

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

UK: Workers Forced to Rely on State Handouts as Three Quarters of Small Firms Can’t Afford to Run a Pension Scheme

Three-quarters of small businesses have no pension scheme and most of the rest are not contributing enough to provide a decent retirement income for staff, a shocking study reveals today.

The stark survey by the Association of Consulting Actuaries (ACA) suggests most small firms can no longer afford to fund decent pensions, leaving millions of workers facing dependency on benefits in old age.

It underlines the so-called ‘pensions apartheid’ between the private sector and the more cosseted public sector.

[Return to headlines]

USA

Billboards Stress Commonality of Religions

Local Muslim organizations have started a media campaign stressing the commonality of Christians, Muslims and Jews. The billboards proclaiming “Same family, Same message” sprouting throughout the Orlando and Daytona Beach areas are sponsored by the Longwood-based American Muslim Community Centers, the Islamic Center of Orlando and the United Muslim Foundation in Lake Mary…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Disaster Movie

When struggling actor Tim Dax was hired to star in a swords-and-sandals movie titled Desert Warrior, he was just happy to have the job. One year later, Dax and the rest of the film’s cast and crew would look on in horror as The Innocence of Muslims—a crudely dubbed version of the movie they thought they were making—ignited protests across the Arab world and controversy at home. Speaking with many of the film’s principals, Michael Joseph Gross reports on a story as old as Hollywood itself: a pursuit of fame and fortune that ended in tears…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Frank Gaffney: Hold John Kerry Accountable

Members of the United States Senate are surely tempted to give their insufferably arrogant colleague from Massachusetts a pass in confirmation hearings for his nomination to become the next Secretary of State. Quite apart from the tradition of senatorial courtesy practiced in the exclusive club once known as “the world’s greatest deliberative body,” most of them must be anxious to see John Kerry leave it.

There are, however, compelling reasons to resist this temptation and ensure that Sen. Kerry is subjected to rigorous scrutiny with respect to his past conduct, his judgment and his policy predilections.

Conventional wisdom holds that he is certain to be confirmed. Whether that proves to be the case or not, Senators have a duty to serve as the Framers had in mind— as a means of ensuring quality control with respect to cabinet-level and other senior presidential appointments and with respect to the treaties that a secretary of state in particular is wont to promote…

           — Hat tip: CSP [Return to headlines]

Hillary Rodham Clinton Discharged From Hospital After Treatment for Blood Clot

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was released from a New York hospital on Wednesday, three days after doctors discovered a blood clot in her head.

Mrs. Clinton’s medical team advised her on Wednesday evening that she was making good progress on all fronts and said they are confident she will fully recover, said her spokesman Philippe Reines. Doctors had been treating Mrs. Clinton with blood thinners to dissolve a clot in a vein that runs through the space between the brain and the skull behind the right ear.

Mr. Reines said details of when Mrs. Clinton will return to work would be clarified in the coming days.

[Return to headlines]

NASA Mulls Plan to Drag Asteroid Into Moon’s Orbit

Who says NASA has lost interest in the moon? Along with rumours of a hovering lunar base, there are reports that the agency is considering a proposal to capture an asteroid and drag it into the moon’s orbit.

Researchers with the Keck Institute for Space Studies in California have confirmed that NASA is mulling over their plan to build a robotic spacecraft to grab a small asteroid and place it in high lunar orbit. The mission would cost about $2.6 billion — slightly more than NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover — and could be completed by the 2020s.

For now, NASA’s only official plans for human spaceflight involve sending a crewed capsule, called Orion, around the moon. The Obama administration has said it also wants to send astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid. One proposed target, chosen because of its scientific value and favourable launch windows for a rendezvous, is a space rock called 1999 AO10. The mission would take about half a year, exposing astronauts to long-term radiation beyond Earth’s protective magnetic field and taking them beyond the reach of any possible rescue.

Robotically bringing an asteroid to the moon instead would be a more attractive first step, the Keck researchers conclude, because an object orbiting the moon would be in easier reach of robotic probes and maybe even humans.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Pressure Builds to Nix Gift of Tanks, F-16s to Egypt

Later this month, the new government in Egypt is scheduled to begin taking delivery of 10 F-16 fighter jets and 200 Abrams tanks — courtesy of U.S. taxpayers.

The $213 million deal is part of a foreign aid package signed when American ally Hosni Mubarak was president, but a growing chorus of critics say the Obama administration should pull the plug. They cite Egypt’s new Muslim Brotherhood government’s mixed signals to the U.S. and Israel, as well as America’s fiscal problems, as reasons for rescinding the deal.

“A Shariah dictatorship on Israel’s border — armed with American weapons — is a deadly threat to Israel and America,” reads a petition being circulated by The American Center for Law and Justice. “All U.S. funding to Egypt must be cut off until we can certify that aid to Egypt will help the national security interests of the United States and Israel.”

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]

Top 5 Islam-Bashing Republicans to Watch in 2013

While some prominent haters were booted out of office, there are still plenty of Islamophobes hanging around American politics.

When Muslim-American organizations and activists concerned with Islamophobia woke up the day after the election, on November 7, they were elated. Key members of what had been dubbed the House Republican “Islamophobia caucus” had been voted out of office…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

VU Law Professor Among World’s Most Influential Muslims

VALPARAISO | A Valparaiso University assistant law professor has been named to a list of the world’s most influential Muslims. Faisal Kutty, 44, is among “The Muslim 500: The World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims,” compiled by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in Jordan. The publication is part of an annual series that highlights how Muslims impact the world. Kutty, who teaches comparative law, Islamic law and legal writing and reasoning at VU, appeared on the list two times previously. A native of Toronto, Canada, he specializes in human rights, national security law, business, community advocacy and Islamic law. Kutty’s interest in human rights was strengthened by a 2003 incident that happened to his father, Ahmad Kutty. Ahmad, an imam who teaches at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, flew to the United States for a conference. U.S. immigration officials jailed him in Fort Lauderdale and interrogated him for 16 hours, suspecting him of being connected to terrorist-related organizations. Though the elder Kutty was eventually released, the incident fueled his son’s resolve to protect the civil rights of all individuals…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Canada

The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist

On the morning of July 30, 2012, an accountant named Michel Gauvreau arrived at the Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve, housed in a huge red brick warehouse on the side of the Trans-Canadian Highway in Saint-Louis-de-Blandford, about two hours northeast of Montreal. Inside, baby-blue barrels of maple syrup were stacked six high in rows hundreds deep. Full, each barrel weighs about 620 pounds. With grade A syrup trading at about $32 per gallon, that adds up to $1,800 a barrel, approximately 13 times the price of crude oil.

The fiscal year was coming to a close, and the Federation of Québec Maple Syrup Producers had hired Gauvreau’s company, Veragrimar, to audit its inventory. Québec dominates the maple syrup market, and since 2002 the Federation has operated as a legal cartel, setting production quotas and prices, authorizing buyers, and stockpiling syrup. There were around 16,000 barrels here, about one-tenth of Québec’s annual production. The gap between the rows was barely wide enough to walk through, and the rubber soles of Gauvreau’s steel-tip boots stuck to the sugar-coated concrete floor.

He scaled a row of barrels and was nearing the top of the stack when one of them rocked with his weight. He nearly fell. Regaining his balance, he rattled the barrel: It was light because it was empty. He soon found others that were empty. After notifying the federation’s leaders and returning with them to examine the stockpile, they unscrewed the cap on a full barrel. The liquid inside was not goopy, brown, or redolent with the wintry scent of vanilla, caramel, and childhood; it was thin, clear, and odorless. It was water.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU

Arabs Brutally Attack US Yeshiva Student in Italy

A gang of Arabs brutally attacked an American yeshiva student visiting with his family in Venice, Italy. Jewish community: This is rare.

A gang of Arabs brutally attacked an American yeshiva student visiting with his family in Venice, Italy, in what local community leaders said was a rare instance of anti-Semitism.

The student was knocked unconscious on Tuesday when he strolled late at night in the center of the city. A band of 15 Arab youth pounced on him, dragged him into a dark corner and pummeled him, using sharp weapons.

The student lost consciousness, and the attackers fled when a passerby spotted them and called police and medics.

The police are investigating, but have but have not caught the attackers.

The Milan-based Center for Jewish Documentation’s Observatory on Anti-Jewish Prejudice reported last month that the number of anti-Semitic episodes in the country soared last year.

The incidents ranged from street insults and swastika graffiti to physical aggression.

“We observed approximately 70 cases so far this year, most of them graffiti and online attacks, over 40% more than last year,” said Observatory researcher Stefano Gatti. “The boom might be due partly to more efficient data-gathering, but the episodes have undeniably increased,” he added.

Gatti also pointed out that Italian pundits and politicians “such as Silvio Berlusconi, Beppe Grillo or Piergiorgio Odifreddi” are now writing discriminatory posts and telling racist jokes. “Making certain issues seem normal, even funny, is one of the root causes of the rise in anti-Semitic episodes in Italy,” Gatti said.

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]

Bat Ye’or and the Coming Universal Caliphate

by Richard L. Rubenstein (January 2013)

A review essay of Bat Ye’or, Europe, Globalization, and the Coming of the Universal Caliphate (Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2010). This essay was first published as “Coming Attractions: Caliphates?” in the Journal for the Study of Antisemitism, December issue Vol 4 #2.

In the past few years, it has become all too apparent that the nations of the European Union (EU) have made a catastrophic mistake when they created a common, one-size-fits all currency, the euro, ignoring the vast differences in productive capacity, financial resources, work habits, and culture of the member nations. The full consequences of this mistake have yet to unfold, but the instability in the world’s financial markets may be a foretaste of darker troubles ahead.

While the financial crisis has been recognized, a far worse error of judgment has yet to be recognized, at least by Europe’s leaders, the surrender of Europe’s cultural identity as a consequence of the introduction of a largely unassimilable Muslim population into the EU. According to the U.S. Department of State’s Annual Report on International Religious Freedom, 2005, the EU’s Muslim population numbered 23.2 million and has continued to increase since then. In France alone, the Report estimated that there were between five and six million Muslims, about ten percent of the population. Moreover, as Harvard Historian Niall Ferguson has pointed out, the fundamental problem facing Europe’s indigenous population is “senescence.”1

This is not true of Europe’s Muslim population. With or without further immigration, it is expected to increase considerably. Moreover, as Bat Ye’or points out in her new book, Europe, Globalization, and the Coming Universal Caliphate (Madison, NJ: Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 2011) the rising number of Muslims constitute only a part of the problem. Far more problematic have been the political, economic, and cultural motives that led to Europe’s fateful decision to permit this unprecedented mass immigration.

To explain that decision, Bat Ye’or begins with a discussion of the concept of dhimmitude, a term she characterizes as “concealed knowledge.” Although “few terms are as significant for the understanding of current events,” she reports that the term is “unknown by the general public and taboo in academia.” Dhimmitude, she argues, designates the civilizations “conquered by jihad and subject to sharia law.”

It is her conviction that the nations of the European Union (EU) are in the process of submitting to that subordination at the present time. Alternatively, as she demonstrates, dhimmitude can be understood as arguably the most effective and enduring system of religiously legitimated domination human beings have ever created.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Belgian Hema Store Wrong to Sack Headscarf-Wearing Worker

A Belgian branch of Dutch department store Hema was wrong to sack a woman worker for wearing a headscarf, a Belgian industrial tribunal ruled on Wednesday.

The woman had worked for the store in Genk for two months wearing a headscarf but was then sacked for refusing to remove it after complaints from customers.

The tribunal ordered Hema to pay the 21-year-old woman six month’s salary — €9,000 — in compensation.

The company has since drawn up formal clothing requirements for its Belgian stores, news agency ANP said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Dutch Man Injured in Car Accident Dies

THE HAGUE, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) — A 59-year-old man who got seriously injured in a car accident on Tuesday in the Frisian village Raard passed away, said the municipality Dongeradeel on Tuesday evening. On Tuesday, a 42-year-old woman drove into a group of people surrounding a bonfire celebrating the new year in Raard. Seventeen people were wounded, of which one died on Tuesday evening. Currently at least twelve injured are still in the hospital, some of them in a very bad condition. What exactly happened on is still not clear, but the incident does not seem premeditated…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

European Union: Is Europe Standing on Its Head?

Dagens Nyheter Stockholm

Born to give a political dimension to the common values ??of Europeans, the Union, with the complicity of the member states, has acquired power and skills that have weakened the people it was supposed to defend, argues the Irish writer Colm Tóibín.

Colm Tóibín

The European Union seems like a strange dream we had; it was a way of shaping and crafting a set of political values into a complex system which would place human values, a rich culture and ideas of equality at the very centre of our concerns. It turns out that as a system the European Union could withstand anything except a crisis.

Now, under the stress of a financial crisis, every country is sure of one thing only — that its own borders and its own interests matter more than any common good. While the old currencies may have gone, or most of them have, the old ways of thinking remain.

In our loyalties, once the pressure is on, we live in nation states, even though our banks function under a new global dispensation. Money moves now in the same way as air does, utterly free, being blown back and forth by the wind, unregulated, unstable, uncertain. It is ideas which have remained under lock and key. And with ideas, identities. We are sure now who is German and who is Greek; we are sure that we are Irish and you are Swedish.

Remember the dream

It is important to remember what the dream meant. It is important now at the periphery of Europe where I live to begin again to use the language of political and cultural idealism, to take the language which has been debased by our political masters and see if certain (or uncertain) words or concepts might mean something, even if only to offer us the comfort than poetry does, language used sonorously and responsibility, in a time of private hardship…

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

French Weekly Publishes ‘Life of Mohammed’ Cartoons

A French weekly published Wednesday a comic book biography of the Prophet Mohammed that it says is a well-researched work by a Franco-Tunisian sociologist. Charlie Hebdo’s offices were firebombed in 2011 after it published cartoons of the prophet.

A French satirical magazine, whose offices were fire-bombed after it published cartoons mocking the prophet Mohammed, on Wednesday published a comic book biography of Islam’s founder.

The editor of Charlie Hebdo weekly has insisted that the new book, titled “The Life of Mohammed”, was a properly researched and educational work prepared by a Franco-Tunisian sociologist.

“It is a biography authorised by Islam since it was edited by Muslims,” said Stephane Charbonnier, who was also the illustrator of the book whose front page shows the prophet leading a camel through the desert.

“I don’t think higher Muslim minds could find anything inappropriate,” he told AFP last week.

Charbonnier said the idea for the comic book came to him in 2006 when a newspaper in Denmark published cartoons of Mohammed, later republished by Charlie Hebdo, drawing angry protests across the Muslim world.

“Before having a laugh about a character, it’s better to know him. As much as we know about the life of Jesus, we know nothing about Mohammed,” he said.

Satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo has on several occasions published cartoon versions of Islam’s prophet in a declared effort to defend free speech, to the fury of many Muslims who believe depicting Mohammed is sacrilegious.

In September Charlie Hebdo published cartoons of a naked Mohammed as violent protests were taking place in several countries over a low-budget film made in the United States that insults the prophet.

In 2011 Charlie Hebdo’s offices were hit by a firebomb and its website pirated after publishing an edition titled “Charia Hebdo” featuring several Mohammed cartoons.

Charbonnier, who has received death threats, lives under police protection.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Hundreds of Cars Torched in French New Year ‘Tradition’

Interior Minister Manuel Valls said Tuesday that 1,193 vehicles were torched by French youths overnight in what has become a dubious New Year’s Eve tradition.

Hundreds of empty, parked cars go up in flames in France each New Year’s Eve, set afire by young revelers, a much lamented tradition that remained intact this year with 1,193 vehicles burned, Interior Minister Manuel Valls said Tuesday.

His announcement was the first time in three years that such figures have been released. The conservative government of former President Nicolas Sarkozy had decided to stop publishing them in a bid to reduce the crime — and not play into the hands of car-torching youths who try to outdo each other.

France’s current Socialist government decided otherwise, deeming total transparency the best method, and the rate of burned cars apparently remained steady. On Dec. 31, 2009, the last public figure available, 1,147 vehicles were burned.

Like many countries, France sees cars set on fire during the year for many reasons, including gangs hiding clues of their crimes and people making false insurance claims.

But car-torching took a new step in France when it became a way to mark the arrival of the New Year. The practice reportedly began in earnest among youths — often in poor neighborhoods — in the 1990s in the region around Strasbourg in eastern France.

It also became a voice of protest during the fiery unrest by despairing youths from housing projects that swept France in the fall of 2005. At the time, police counted 8,810 vehicles burned in less than three weeks.

Yet even then, cars were not burned in big cities like Paris, and that remained the case this New Year’s Eve. Minister Valls said the Paris suburban region of Seine-Saint-Denis, where the 2005 unrest started, led the nation for torched cars, followed by two eastern regions around Strasbourg.

For some, the decision to tell the public how many cars have been burned on New Year’s Eve is a mistake.

Bruno Beschizza, the national secretary for security matters in Sarkozy’s UMP party, said on iTele TV that publishing the numbers motivates youths to commit such crimes. “We know that neighborhoods compete,” he said. Gang rivalries center on who can torch the most cars, with claims made on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, he said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Is Slavoj Zizek a Left-Fascist?

by Alan Johnson

Liberals always say about totalitarians that they like humanity, as such, but they have no empathy for concrete people, no? OK, that fits me perfectly. Humanity? Yes, it’s OK — some great talks, some great arts. Concrete people? No, 99 per cent are boring idiots. (Slavoj Žižek)

Zeev Sternhell’s study of inter-war French fascism was — or rather should have been — paradigm-shifting because he showed that fascism was “neither Left not Right.” Rather, the ostensibly opposed extremes were united in their hatred of what they called “the established disorder” of materialism, parliamentary democracy and bourgeois society, as well as in their “distaste for the lukewarm,” and their fascination with “the idea of a violent relief from mediocrity”. These ideas, or more precisely, prejudices, gained influence and created an intellectual climate that was able to erode “the moral legitimacy of an entire civilisation,” and foster an inchoate ideology of revolt based on spirit and will…

Another point of kinship with left-fascism — one thinks of the Baader-Meinhof gang in 1970s West Germany — is Žižek’s spiritualization of the self-sacrificial death. The intellectual historian Richard Wolin tells us that the inter-war left-fascist (and father of post-structuralism) Georges Bataille “effusively praised Italian Fascism’s morbid iconography — mortuary symbols, black pennants, and death’s heads”, believing that “[a] living man regards death as the fulfillment of life; he does not see it as a misfortune.” Exactly the same morbid attraction to self-sacrificial death can be found in Žižek’s writings, and nowhere more so than In Defence of Lost Causes, his 500-page warrant for Left-wing totalitarianism released in 2008…

[JP note: Happy daze for psychos and perfectly in tune with the Muslim Brotherhood’s “The Koran is our constitution, the Prophet is our leader, jihad is our path and death in the name of Allah is our goal.” ]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Netherlands: Three Youths Arrested After Train Fire

Three youths have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in a fire in a train, possibly caused by fireworks, Utrecht local television reports.

The fire appears to have started in the area between two compartments on an intercity train travelling from Breukelen to Abcoude.

The train, which was carrying around 90 people, was evacuated and no-one was injured. Photographs of the fire show heavy black smoke belching across the countryside.

The track between Utrecht and Amsterdam has been closed because of the fire and trains are being diverted via Hilversum.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

UK: Extremism Unchecked in Schools, Secret Briefing Reveals

More than 100 independent faith schools may be radicalising students, the Department of Education has warned in a secret memo which admits that officials are struggling to tackle extremism in state and private schools.

Michael Gove, the education secretary, was one of the key voices calling for a ban on support for non-violent extremism when it published its Prevent strategy to fight radicalisation last year. But behind closed doors there are concerns about 118 “socially conservative” independent faith schools — the vast majority of them Muslim — where pupils may be encouraged to cut themselves off from mainstream society. Ministers have been told they do not have “detailed information” about the religious orientation of the groups and movements behind all independent faith schools. And officials have privately admitted that they also have no system in place to identify institutional extremism in state schools, the Daily Telegraph has learned. They say there is also “a gap between what we think we know and what we can prove” because they cannot use undercover methods open to journalists…

[Reader comment by petefish on 31 December 2012 at 8:16 am.]

promoting a highly conservative version of Islam and spreading extremist views, particularly against non-Muslims.

there is no such thing as a (version of Islam) there is just islam and what they are teaching is not extremism it’s main stream islam it’s what it says in the koran all this talk of extremism is just an attempt to separate islam from all this, there is no such thing as moderate islam there may be moderate muslims but there is no such thing as moderate islam

(Edited by author 1 day ago)

[Reply by mikevienna on 31 December 2012 at 8:33 am.]

careful petefish or they will throw you in jail as in the case of Tommy Robinson. I find it strange that not one single MSM has even run a small story on that fact. The wall of silence is deafening. I am not promoting the EDL or their agenda but I am very concerned that the leader of a populist movement has been arrested, imprisoned and not a squeek from the press. We heard a lot about “pussy riot” imprison in Russia but this case gets zero coverage. Why? Have we now progressed to political prisoners or people simply made to disappear because that is worrying.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Labour Questions TPims as Terror Suspect Absconds

The government has “important questions” to answer over how a terror suspect absconded while under an anti-terror control measure, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has said.

Police are continuing to search for Ibrahim Magag, who disappeared from Camden, north London on Boxing Day. He was previously subject to a control order but they were replaced by TPim control measures last January…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Mohammed Islam Caught Burgling Southampton Home on Video

EVERY picture tells a story, none more so when intruders were caught on camera. Fed up at being previously burgled Mark Avery installed his own close circuit television camera in the living room at his Southampton house. And his initiative bore fruit…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

North Africa

Eight Million Dog Mummies Found in Saqqara

During routine excavations at the dog catacomb in Saqqara necropolis, an excavation team led by Salima Ikram, professor of Egyptology at The American University in Cairo (AUC), and an international team of researchers led by Paul Nicholson of Cardiff University have uncovered almost 8 million animal mummies at the burial site.

Studies on their bones revealed that those dogs are from different breeds but not accurately identified yet.

“We are recording the animal bones and the mummification techniques used to prepare the animals,” Ikram said.

Studies on the mummies, Ikram explains, revealed that some of them were old while the majority were buried hours after their birth. She said that the mummified animals were not limited to canines but there are cat and mongoose remains in the deposit.

“We are trying to understand how this fits religiously with the cult of Anubis, to whom the catacomb is dedicated,” she added.

Ikram also told National Geographic, which is financing the project, that “in some churches people light a candle, and their prayer is taken directly up to God in that smoke. In the same way, a mummified dog’s spirit would carry a person’s prayer to the afterlife”.

Saqqara dog catacomb was first discovered in 1897 when well-known French Egyptologist Jacques De Morgan published his Carte of Memphite necropolis, with his map showing that there are two dog catacombs in the area.

However, mystery has overshadowed such mapping as it was not clear who was the first to discover the catacombs nor who carried out the mapping, and whether they were really for dogs.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians

Publisher of British Textbook That Erased Israel From Map: “We Are Taking This Matter Extremely Seriously”

The British publisher of a textbook that featured a map that labelled Israel as “Occupied Palestine” has apologized for the error. A message posted to the Garnet company’s website read in part, “This was a serious editorial error and was subsequently corrected. The book in question has not been in print for several years.”

In a further twist, The Commentator revealed that the company is owned by the Tahseen Khayat Group of Lebanon. The Tahseen Khayat Group also owns Garnet’s “sister group” Ithaca Press, which describes itself as a ‘leading publisher of academic books on Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, most recently featuring the ‘Great Books of Islamic Civilisation’ and books such as ‘Through the Wall of Fire’ which documents, “the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians beginning in 1948.”

Nicky Pratt, Publisher of Garnet Education, who didn’t work at Garnet when the book was published in 2003, wrote in an email to The Algemeiner that he “cannot with any confidence determine why it happened,” and added that “Garnet Education has never had a political agenda and as a publisher that sells globally would never seek to alienate any client. Please be assured that we are taking this matter extremely seriously, and will ensure that such an error is not repeated in the future.”

He further added in the email: “Since this course has been out of print for some time, and the ‘life-cycle’ of educational materials tends to be relatively short (normally a maximum of five years), it is unlikely that very many institutions will be using the 2003 edition. It’s not easy to identify who these people might be, as all publishers have a system of third-party distribution, and our main distributor has changed in the last few years. Our Sales team are currently trying to track down as many people as possible who have been in receipt of these books, in order to either replace them with the corrected edition or offer a more up-to-date alternative. In the meantime, we are more than happy to do the same for anyone who contacts us over the issue.”

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]

Middle East

Erdogan Dreams of Full Sharia Law in Turkey

by Daniel Pipes

THE menu for meals on my Turkish Airlines flight this month assured passengers that food selections “do not contain pork”. The menu also offered a serious selection of alcoholic drinks, including champagne, whisky, gin, vodka, raki, wine, beer, liqueur and cognac.

This oddity of simultaneously adhering to and ignoring Islamic law, the sharia, symbolises the uniquely complex public role of Islam in today’s Turkey, as well as the challenge of understanding the Justice and Development Party (known by its Turkish abbreviation, AKP) which has dominated the country’s national government since 2002…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

More Than 60,000 Killed in Syria Conflict, UN Says

At least 60,000 people have died in Syria’s almost two-year-long conflict, the UN’s Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay said on Wednesday, referring to an exhaustive study that compared death reports from seven different sources.

At least 60,000 people have been killed in Syria’s civil war, with monthly casualty figures steadily increasing since the conflict began almost two years ago, according to a new analysis released Wednesday by the United Nations.

The death toll is a third more than the figure of 45,000 given by activists opposed to the regime of President Bashar Assad — the first time that the global body’s estimates are higher.

It comes as activists report that a Syrian warplane blasted a gas station near Damascus on Wednesday, killing and wounding dozens of people and igniting a huge fire in what could be one of the bloodiest attacks in weeks during the 22-month conflict.

Independent experts compared 147,349 killings reported by seven different sources — including the government — for the study, which was commissioned by the U.N. human rights office.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

New Report on Iranian Bio-Toxin Developments Corroborates Syrian Bio-Warfare Threat Assessment

Our NER interview with Dr. Bellamy van Aalst and this latest Kahlili report should start a new conversation among national security echelons in Israel and US on how to eliminate these deadly bio-warfare weapons of mass destruction. The conversation would define the breadth of the bio-warfare threats from Iran and Syria, and how to reduce them . .As Dr. Bellamy van Aalst noted in her NER interview: Middle East threat reduction requires a far more aggressive and comprehensive approach to deter the proliferation of biological weapons. In my view, any new threat reduction paradigm must have a component wherein ultimately we take out those scientific teams. BW is heavily underpinned by knowledge transfer and we need to be prepared right now to target and take out their scientific teams as has been done in Iran with several of their nuclear scientists. This must be a component of a total threat reduction plan. Once again Iran’s Supreme leader and his more radical echelons in Tehran have conned us with taqiyya, diverting our attention from their real intentions, developing an arsenal of virtually untraceable deadly bio-weapons that could result in tens of millions of deaths. All while Israel, the US and the P5+1 at the UN are contending with the Islamic Republic approaching looming ‘red lines’ of nuclear enrichment and weapons development. The unleashing of bio-warfare agents against Israel and the US, as Kahlili said in his report , could bring both countries to their knees. The threat from these deadly bio-toxins developments is both breathtaking and frightening. These deadly bio-toxin programs in both Iran and Syria must be stopped

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]

Turkish Fighter Jets Hit Over 20 PKK Targets in Northern Iraq

ANKARA, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) — Turkish fighter jets bombed over 20 targets of the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq late Monday, private Dogan news agency reported on Tuesday. Eight Turkish F-16 fighter jets hit the targets, after a Turkish army’s unmanned aerial vehicles detected some moving PKK groups in Zap, Avasin and Baysan regions in Northern Iraq, according to the report. Turkish army targeted PKK members for two hours and destroyed targets including anti-aircraft batteries and hideouts which was set up by the PKK militants for winter conditions, said the report. The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, took up arms in 1984 in an attempt to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. Since then, more than 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts involving the group.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Wrestling is Prohibited in Islam: Saudi Scholar

A prominent Saudi Islamic scholar was reported on Wednesday as saying wrestling and other dangerous games are prohibited in Islam because they harm the body. Sheikh Ali Al Hikmi, a member of the 7-man Supreme Scholars Authority in the Gulf Kingdom, said Muslims are not permitted to hurt themselves under any circumstances. “Therefore, dangerous games such as wrestling and other fighting duels are not permitted in Islam since they cause unnecessary harm to oneself and the opponent,” he was quoted as saying by the Arabic language daily Alhayat…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

South Asia

Afghan Woman Killed on Conjugal Visit to Prison

An Afghan prisoner murdered his wife during a conjugal visit, allegedly because she had been unfaithful after he was jailed for killing her relatives, police said Wednesday.

Din Mohammad was sentenced to 20 years in prison two years ago for killing his mother-in-law, and his wife’s brother and sister in the northern province of Samangan. Mohammad’s wife, whose name has not been disclosed, visited him in jail in the provincial capital Aybak on Monday and was found dead in a small private room used for inmates to see their wives, police said. Mohammad confessed to her murder, Samangan police chief Ikram Nikzad told AFP…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Afghanistan: The Family That Protects One of Islam’s Sacred Relics Braves Politics, Violence

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN—For 250 years, Masood Akhundzada’s family has protected Afghanistan’s most sacred artifact: a cloak said to have been worn by the prophet Muhammad. Its power drew Afghan kings and presidents and Taliban leaders to a small, blue shrine in a city conquered by Alexander the Great and contested ever since. By the time Akhundzada inherited the guardianship in 2008, it was an honour that came at a high price. Five previous guardians — his father, brothers and cousins — had been assassinated, shot in their offices, in markets and airports. They were hunted, most believed, for their connection to a piece of Islamic history that the insurgency wanted desperately to reclaim. When Akhundzada, a large man with a wild beard and an easy smile, accepted the keys to the shrine, he also bought a gun. There’s no law, he said, that prevents a mullah from being armed if his life is in danger…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Afghan Warlord’s Interview is ‘Encouraging’ Sign of Political Engagement

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar may promise a bloody denouement for coalition forces in Afghanistan, but by explaining his position to The Telegraph he indicates that his party is open to dialogue, says Peter Oborne.

One of the world’s most wanted men has predicted that Afghanistan will collapse into murderous civil war after Nato troops withdraw in 2014 — and expressed his determination to kill more British troops “so they could never make the mistake of coming again to this region.” Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar also launched a full frontal attack on Britain, accusing this country of being dragged “into this baseless and useless conflict to please Washington.” However, the warlord also signalled that his Hizb-i-Islamia party was prepared to fight in the 2014 presidential elections, which will precede the final withdrawal of British and American troops from Afghanistan. Hekmatyar insisted that he wanted a “peaceful transition” from the present Afghan government to a new administration based on “free and fair elections.”…

Analysing the interview, The Daily Telegraph‘s chief political commentator, Peter Oborne said: “It’s very interesting to hear what Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has to say about the political situation after an Allied pullout because he is one of the few major players who will determine what Afghanistan looks like.” He added that he was also encouraged that the warlord was “prepared to give an interview, to talk, to engage in dialogue.”

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Britain — and Prince Harry — Are Failing in Afghanistan, Says Warlord

One of Afghanistan’s most feared and wanted warlords has warned that the country could collapse into a murderous civil war after the withdrawal of Nato troops next year.

In the bleakest assessment yet of Afghanistan’s future, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar called for a “peaceful transition of the government” to democracy. But, in a wide-ranging interview arranged with The Daily Telegraph, he added that he feared a descent into chaos and anarchy similar to that which followed the withdrawal of the Russians in the 1980s…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

India: Elite-Backed Sterilization “Safaris” Meet With Growing Resistance

The Telegraph out of Calcutta India reports that resistance grows in India’s rural areas to a government scheme deploying sterilization vans.

Deputy director of India’s Health Department’s family planning division Subodh Jaiswal said that women in rural Bihar “are very conservative and it is difficult to convince them to take part in a sterilisation programme.”

The article mentions that the department launched a mobile sterilization van “to promote sterilisation for women in Patna district.” Jaiswal stated that “only 200 women have been sterilised through this project.”

“Bihar”, the article goes on to say, “needs rigorous family planning measures to check the unbridled growth of the population.”

“(…) women in rural parts of the state are very conservative. To convince them of our sterilisation programme was very challenging.”, Jaiswal said.

“The van has two nurses who administer the process. They try to convince women who have at least one child to opt for the sterilisation.”

According to the officials, the mobile sterilization van was part of a government scheme attempting to “motivate female sterilization”. They admitted that the project has failed miserably because of “conservative” sentiments among women.

“There has been a sharp decline in the number of people who availed of the scheme in the last fiscal.”, they told the Telegraph.

“In 2010-2011, 10,367 women had availed of the benefits of the Adarsh Dampati Yojana; in 2011-2012, only 7,700 women took advantage of the service,” Jaiswal stated.

These numbers prove that these sterilization vans are meeting with resistance from women in rural areas. The use of such mobile sterilization units is not the invention of overzealous health officials in India. It has been developed by World Bank- and UN personnel worrying about population growth in developing (and developed) nations. As early as the 1980s, the World Bank world_bank_mobile_van suggests using “sterilization vans” and “camps” to facilitate its sterilization policies for the third world. The 1984 World Development Report also threatens nations who are slow in implementing the bank’s population policies with “drastic steps, less compatible with individual choice and freedom.”

[Return to headlines]

Prince Harry is a ‘Jackal’ Killing Innocents, Says Feared Afghanistan Warlord

One of Afghanistan’s most feared warlords has launched a withering attack on Prince Harry, who has spent Christmas serving in the country, labelling the prince a ‘jackal’ who was ‘drunk’ while hunting innocent Afghans.

In a rare and exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who has been designated a global terrorist by the United States, heaped insults on the British Royal and vowed to kill as many troops as possible before the UK’s withdrawal in 2014…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Two Killed, 35 Injured in Bomb Attack in Pakistan’s Karachi

ISLAMABAD, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) — At least two people were killed and 35 others injured on Tuesday evening as a bomb went off in a busy area in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi.

The blast took place near the Karimabad Bridge when a large crowd were leaving after a public gathering. Spokesman of the police department, Imran Shaukat, told local media that the bomb was planted in a motorcycle that was parked on the roadside…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Far East

China Ejects New York Times Journalist

A New York Times journalist has been expelled from China for two months after his paper published a report on the family wealth of Premier Wen Jiabao. The issue highlights the strict media controls in the country.

China has started the new year by expelling an experienced New York Times journalist from its shores. In October the US newspaper had published a report about the family wealth of State Council Premier Wen Jiabao.

Australian reporter Chris Buckley has lived in China for 15 years, spending 12 of those as a reporter. He flew out of Beijing on Monday with his wife and 12-year-old daughter.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Australia — Pacific

The Bat: A Long-Lived, Virus-Proof Anomaly

Bats are pretty impressive critters. They are notorious for carrying viruses like Ebola and SARS, but somehow avoid getting these diseases themselves. They are the only mammal that can fly, and they live far longer than other mammals their size. What’s their secret? Researchers in Australia sequenced two different bat genomes and found that these unique bat characteristics are not only genetically linked, but may help in the treatment of human diseases.

Flying takes a lot of energy, and the free radicals produced by burning energy are damaging to DNA. Bats, however, have evolved a suite of proteins to not only get rid of these toxins, but also detect and repair damaged DNA. This keeps the bats healthy and allows them to live longer.

The surprises don’t stop there. When researchers looked at bats’ immune response to the viruses they carry, they found something quite novel. When mammals, including humans, die from a virus, it is usually due to an extreme immune reaction called a cytokine storm. It’s the body’s attempt to save itself, but it can actually do the opposite. Bats, however, are missing the genes that trigger this reaction—they don’t experience a cytokine storm, allowing them to carry the viruses unharmed. Understanding how they do this may eventually allow researchers to create drugs that suppress cytokine storms in people or to develop gene therapies to prevent them.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Sub-Saharan Africa

Nigeria Denies Killing of 15 Christians in Northern State

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) — The Nigerian government on Tuesday denied reports claiming that 15 Christian worshipers were killed in an outskirt of northeast Borno State on Sunday. Local media had on Monday quoted a rescue officer as saying that attackers stormed a church service in Kiyak village in the outskirts of Chibok, killing another set of 15 worshipers.

Spokesperson for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Yushau Shuaib said in a statement that though some of the reports claimed a source from the agency provided the information, the agency not only contacted the same officer who denied it in its entirety, it also assigned a special team to investigate and verify the allegation which was later found to be unsubstantiated and untrue. He said the team however discovered that two people were killed by unidentified gunmen around the area on Sunday and whose bodies had been deposited in a hospital. The victims were a security man and a bystander, he said, noting that the agency could not classify the victims as Muslims or Christians because most of the attacks in that northeast axis are nondiscriminatory between religion, tribe or section of the victims.

Borno State, located in Nigeria’s northeastern region, is a Boko Haram flashpoint, where the Nigerian government had declared and lifted some curfews due to wave of attacks.

Waves of attack believed to be perpetrated by the Boko Haram sect have been reported in the northern and central parts of Nigeria. The Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in its latest report that more than 1,500 people, including women and children, had been killed in various attacks by the Boko Haram sect since 2009.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Immigration

White House Eases Path to Residency for Some Illegal Immigrants

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration eased the way Wednesday for illegal immigrants who are immediate relatives of American citizens to apply for permanent residency, a change that could affect as many as 1 million of the estimated 11 million immigrants unlawfully in the U.S.

A new rule issued by the Department of Homeland Security aims to reduce the time illegal immigrants are separated from their American families while seeking legal status, immigration officials said.

Beginning March 4, when the changes go into effect, illegal immigrants who can demonstrate that time apart from an American spouse, child or parent would create “extreme hardship,” can start the application process for a legal visa without leaving the U.S.

Once approved, applicants would be required to leave the U.S. briefly in order to return to their native country and pick up their visa.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars

Christian Doctors Call for Ban on NHS ‘Bribing’ Hospitals to Put More Patients on Controversial Death Pathway

An influential group of Christian doctors yesterday called for an end to financial ‘bribes’ that encourage hospitals to place dying patients on the controversial Liverpool Care Pathway.

The Christian Medical Fellowship said judgments about whether to withdraw treatment from terminally-ill patients should be made solely on clinical grounds.

The CMF, which represents more than 4,000 doctors, said financial incentives for hospitals to use the system — thought to run at more than £10million a year in total — should be ‘eradicated’ immediately.

It also urged ministers to tighten controls to end the ‘undoubted abuses’ of a system designed to ensure patients die with dignity.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

General

Hunting the Unicorn of Moderate Islam

by Glenn Fairman

In hunting the unicorn of moderate Islam, the West has occupied itself by passing through a mental gauntlet of Herculean moral contortions in separating the proverbial sheep from the goats. As I see it, those “moderate” voices of Islam, which have been protesting the violence of their brethren by thundering at the volume of a hushed whisper, will diminish even more fully as the Islamicist ascendency moves towards its apex. Who can doubt that in time the faint defiant murmurs of “peaceful Islam” will ultimately become qualitatively indistinguishable from the bloody rancor of the vox bellicose?

[…]

Barack Obama gave the Arab Spring his forked blessing, and in the bargain was instrumental in igniting the House of Islam in a firestorm that will swallow what little peace remains in the world. The Myth of Islamic Moderation will soon pass the way of all naive pipe dreams — like the utopian Kellogg-Briand Pact that theoretically should have outlawed the powers of the earth from any longer waging war. Both this pact and the Arab Spring shared two things in common: they both made the coming conflagrations inevitable and in turn made the Spirit of the West incapable of adequately answering the inhuman mutating visage of unrelenting and unapologetic tyranny.

Glenn Fairman is retired and has taken to writing to fulfill his lifelong dreams of immense wealth and rubbing elbows with Katie Couric. He blogs as the Eloquent Professor at www.palookavillepost.com or can be contacted at arete5000@dslextreme.com.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

What’s Islamophobia, And Do I Have it?

by Haroon Moghul

An answer in eight parts

A closed mind is a terrible thing to behold. But it’s a far worse thing to have to engage. And yet we must. This Saturday, the woman who murdered a complete stranger by shoving him into the path of an arriving subway train was arrested. Her name? Erica Menendez. Her target? Hindus and Muslims. Why? Because of 2001…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20130101

Financial Crisis
» EU’s Directed History Grinds on
» Greek Shops to Get Online Link With Finance Ministry
» House Passes Fiscal Deal, Averting Tax Increases and Spending Cuts
» How to Restore the West
» The Truth About the Fiscal Cliff in Simple Terms
» What We Can Expect: Ten Top Elite Memes for 2013
 
USA
» CCHR Says Federal Investigation Into Psychiatric Drugs & Violence Long Overdue
» Gun Owners Mad as Hell and Will Not Take It!
» Obama Seizing Control of the US Military — Potential Cataclysm Ahead
» On Modern Musketry
» The 2013 Anxiety Meter
» Video: Going for the Guns: Possible Martial Law in Early 2013?
 
Europe and the EU
» Blood of Guillotined French King ‘Authentic’
» French Muslims Celebrate New Year by Torching 1,193 Cars
» Italy: Berlusconi Fingers ‘Criminal Use of Spread’ For Downfall
» Italy: Berlusconi Calls Judiciary ‘A Cancer’
» Monumental Deceit: How Politicians Lied About the True Purpose of the European Behemoth
» Sicily Doesn’t Need 21 Press Officers, Says Crocetta
» UK: Last Words of Teenager Knifed to Death Protecting Younger Brother From Phone Muggers
» UK: Police Hunt for Dangerous Serial Rapist Who Walked Out of Open Prison
 
North Africa
» Egyptian Satirist Accused of Undermining Mohammed Morsi
» Israel Will Cease to Exist Within a Decade, Says Muslim Brotherhood Official
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» The Bennett Threat — And Why the Pols Are Scared
 
Middle East
» 2013: The Start of Israel’s Energy Independence
» Education: Egypt and Turkey Carry Out Cooperation Protocol
» Saudi Arabia: Website Editor Could Face Death Penalty
» Sesquicentennial Comparisons: Black Slavery in America and Ottoman Turkey
» They Cut His Ears Off and Tied Him Upside Down — Harrowing True Story of Being Kidnapped by Somali Pirates
» Video: The Syrian Diary: Unimaginable Crimes Committed by Terrorists
 
South Asia
» Gunmen Kill Seven Pakistani Aid Workers
» Indian Gang Rape Victim Was Thrown Under Bus After Attack But Her Fiance Saved Her From Being Crushed Under Its Wheels
» Islamic Militants Massacre Five Women Teachers Travelling to Primary School in Protest at Female Education in Pakistan
 
Far East
» Fear the Russia/China Alliance
» North Korean Leader Calls for End to “Confrontation” With South
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» South Africa Vanishes With Its Gold?
 
Culture Wars
» Homophobia: What Does it Really Mean?
 
General
» NGOs Plot Wave of Criminal Referrals to Legitimize International Criminal Court
» Now UN Wants to Control Tourist Behavior … For the ‘Greater Good, ‘ of Course
» Succour for the Vain and Vacuous: Why I Loathe Twitter

Financial Crisis

EU’s Directed History Grinds on

EU summit to consider ‘reform contracts’ for all euro states … Draft ideas ahead of next week’s EU leaders summit foresee reform contracts for all euro states, political agreement on a full banking union and, post-2014, a budget for the eurozone. The still-to-be finalised conclusions, seen by EUobserver, envisage progress towards profound economic and monetary union — the lack of which is considered to have led to the eurozone’s current crisis — in three phases. By March next year, EU leaders are supposed to agree the “operational framework” for a single European banking supervisor, the first of three planks necessary for full banking union. The proposed second phase (2013-2014) is where the EU leaders are likely to start haggling over language. It suggests that legislative proposals for a bank resolution directive and an EU-wide deposit guarantee scheme are made. If this passes there will “in essence be political agreement on a full banking union,” said one contact. — EU Observer

Dominant Social Theme: We need bigness. We crave it.

Free-Market Analysis: As we and others have documented, EU officials decades ago anticipated an economic crisis that would yield a political union. That plan obviously remains unchanged.

We can see from the above article excerpt that what was plotted long ago is blossoming today. While the dominant social theme is surely one having to do with bigger being better, the subdominant social theme predictably involves the strengthening of the EU’s financial sphere.

But was the lack of a “monetary union” the real reason for the EU’s current troubles? Of course not. It is simply more directed history. Create a crisis. Make numerous attempts to “solve it.” And finally, generate the solution you intended to inflict from the beginning. Here’s more from the article:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Greek Shops to Get Online Link With Finance Ministry

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, DECEMBER 31 — Greece’ company cash registers will be connected to the Taxisnet electronic system of the Finance Ministry in the first three months of 2013, daily Kathimerini reports quoting ministry officials as saying. The online link between shops and enterprises to the ministry’s database means that payment and receipt of value-added tax will be conducted in real time, putting an end to the VAT statements that companies currently have to submit at regular intervals.

The new system will allow VAT to be credited directly to the state’s account and once the process begins, authorities hope it will bring an end to the issuance of bogus invoices and will curb VAT payment evasion. They say that this technology constitutes a much more effective tool for combatting tax evasion than anything that has been used to date, as it allows the ministry to be informed in real time of a transaction at the same time as a receipt is issued by an enterprise.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

House Passes Fiscal Deal, Averting Tax Increases and Spending Cuts

Ending a climactic fiscal showdown in the final hours of the 112th Congress, the House late Tuesday passed and sent to President Obama legislation to avert tax increases on most Americans and prevent large cuts in spending for the Pentagon and other government programs.

The measure, brought to the House floor less than 24 hours after its passage in the Senate, passed 257 to 167, with 85 Republicans joining 172 Democrats in voting to allow incomes taxes to rise for the first time in two decades. The bill is expected to be signed quickly by Mr. Obama.

[Return to headlines]

How to Restore the West

By any political, cultural or economic measure the nations of the West are in total decline. The historic virtues of hard work, free-market thinking and a common cultural integrity as well as religious and historical principles are gone. They have been subverted and replaced by an emphasis on rampant materialism and a consumer driven society that exceeds 70 percent of GNP in addition to private and public debt. Furthermore, a kind of parasitism has laid claim to Western culture by which sports stars, politicians, media darlings and financial scam artists get recognition and exorbitant incomes while real workers find their incomes falling and promised benefits curtailed.

Western society has lost its way. The main reason is the former political leadership of individual European nations and America, as imperfect as they were, have been co-opted and taken over by a corrupt power elite that uses its control over mob rule democracy and massive financial contributions to buy controlling influence over the “representative” governments of most Western nations.

This control has meant the political leadership and central bankers do not represent the citizens or the best interests of the nation at large. Instead, politics works to advance the financial and global governance interests of a small, secretive power elite. This takeover has bankrupted most nation-states and now threatens all existing fiat paper currencies as well as public and private wealth and retirement savings.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

The Truth About the Fiscal Cliff in Simple Terms

Many either don’t know what the “fiscal cliff” is, or believe this problem is something that it’s not.

Although America ‘s economic crisis is not rocket science, the media and politicians have done a good job of keeping the truth hidden so that our focus isn’t on the real problem. After all, if we, the people, understood the real problem, we would demand that they fix it and we are smart enough to know the real fix that’s needed.

To prevent this from happening, politicians and media conjured up this catchy phrase called “the fiscal cliff.” Then they established a narrative that gave us a false target to blame — the so-called “rich.”

In other words, keeping the people’s attention on class warfare directs our anger and rhetoric onto the false target they’ve fed us and off of ‘what’ and ‘who’ created the problem in the first place. This distracts us from formulating and voicing the real solution to the true problem.

So, what is the real problem that created this crisis?

In a nut shell, our elected politicians have continued to spend trillions more in the past four years than taxpayers have given them. Thus, they have brought America ‘s economy to the point of near collapse. It’s that simple.

Three of the broader consequences of what they’ve done are:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

What We Can Expect: Ten Top Elite Memes for 2013

What a year it’s been, marked mainly by increasing worldwide chaos, senseless wars and economic upheaval, all leading inevitably to increased “chaos” out of which shiny, new global government can be born — along with new, more global currencies.

The top elites — the ones we think control central banking and money creation — created an EU sovereign crisis, from what we can tell, and wasted the world’s time this past year in intense and fruitless negotiations to “resolve it.” There can be no resolution, of course, and that’s just the point. The EU mess is to continue until every aspect of that pitiful union is further centralized and bureaucratized.

In the US, phony economic crises struck with increased urgency, one after the other, finally leading to the largest of all, the so-called Fiscal Cliff. The Cliff will be resolved, of course, leading to a round of self-congratulation covered by the bought-and-paid-for mainstream press.

And then, promptly, there will be another crisis. The United States is being brought down with one phony crisis after another. The idea apparently is to place the US in a position where it can merge economically with countries like Mexico and Brazil. In order for this to happen, the US economy has to be reduced, and that is well underway.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

USA

CCHR Says Federal Investigation Into Psychiatric Drugs & Violence Long Overdue

CCHR’s website documents that at least fourteen recent school shootings were committed by those taking or withdrawing from psychiatric drugs, resulting in 109 wounded and 58 killed. It also lists 22 international drug regulatory warnings that have been issued on psychiatric drugs causing side effects of mania, psychosis, aggression, hostility, violence and even homicidal ideation, yet there has never been a federal investigation into psychiatric drugs and acts of senseless violence.

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a mental health watchdog, is calling for a federal investigation into the link between psychiatric drug use, school shootings and other acts of senseless violence, calling the investigation long overdue, and citing the supporting evidence.

On Dec. 17th, the Los Angeles Times article, “Adam Lanza’s family had kept a watchful eye on him,” cited sources who say Lanza had been ‘medicated’ as early as age 10. WFSB Eyewitness News, a Connecticut CBS affiliate, reported on Dec. 19th in the article, “Adam Lanza underwent psych evaluations in years past,” that Adam Lanza “had some disorders” and Eyewitness News learned that Lanza “did undergo some sort of psychiatric evaluation sometime within the past few years.”

The questions that need to be answered are what “medications” was Adam Lanza prescribed, when was he prescribed them, and for how long.

The importance of answering these questions, as well as the need to launch a federal investigation into psychiatric drugs prompting acts of violence, are based on the following:

[…]

CCHR’s site also documents that 22 international drug regulatory warnings have been issued on psychiatric drugs citing effects of mania, hostility, violence and even homicidal ideation. Dozens of high profile shootings/killings have been committed by teenagers under the influence of psychiatric drugs, and there has yet to be a federal investigation on the link between psychiatric drugs and acts of senseless violence.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Gun Owners Mad as Hell and Will Not Take It!

This is about far more than guns and who has them. This is about slavery to the state. Pure and simple.

There is a purge of Congress in the offing. It will be historic in its magnitude.

Allow me to be as clear as I possibly can about this because the disconnect between the people of America and their government has become so complete, the distance between the citizen and the government has become so broad, that Washington is hearing only a faint whisper (If they hear anything at all!) coming from those of us outside the beltway.

So let me say this clearly, loudly, and in a declarative manner: Attention Senators and US Representatives: If you vote for the new Assault Weapons Ban your political career in the US Congress is OVER. That is O V E R! Complete, finished, ended, kaput!

For the past few days I have been going over and over Senator Diane Feinstein’s proposal for a new Assault Weapons Ban and it reads like some sort of “edict” handed down from the politburo in old Soviet Socialist Russia. (The politburo is the chief executive and political committee of the Communist Party.)

It IS as bad as I had suspected— but it is much, much, worse!

[…]

All this is bad enough, but consider this: If the Congress refuses to pass Feinstein’s bill into law, isn’t it reasonable to expect that Obama will issue the necessary Executive Orders to do much the same thing by way of rules and regulations, which have the force of law, and those rules and regs will be executed by the alphabet agencies under his control such as BATFE and the DHS, and even the agency, or agencies, charged with the supervision of Obamacare.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Obama Seizing Control of the US Military — Potential Cataclysm Ahead

Barack Obama has worked with pro-Moscow Marxists including Frank Marshall Davis and Alice Palmer, and pro-Cuban radicals like Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, his entire life.

Their number one priority has always been the destruction of the US military, the only significant block remaining, to global revolution.

Now that the Davis/Palmer/Ayers/Dohrn protege has the reins of power, President Obama is working hard to destroy US military superiority, consciously or unconsciously, to the advantage of the Russia/China/Cuba/North Korea/Iranian/Islamic alliance.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

On Modern Musketry

Accentuated by the recent heinous events at Sandy Hook, I have lately heard an increase in the never-really-absent mantra of “ban them, ban them, ban them all,” where the “them” referred to is a poorly defined item with a politically made up name which capitalizes on a semantic nuance of the poor (or at least marginal) translation of a German word, co-opted into a bogeyman term used to frighten some, shame others, and generally interdict rationality and reason so that emotion reigns, while logic lies wounded at its feet.

The Sandy Hook incident was a gut punch for many, some of us more than others, and for reasons that varied across the spectrum of emotion. It hit me at three distinct nerve centers: a) it happened near my family home, less than thirty miles from where I was born, b) it involved the senseless and wholly preventable slaughter of young children, and c) it served as a spark to the tinder of the political arsonists who have waited impatiently for just the right “tragedy” to provide the plausible “outrage” to put the torch to the Second Amendment.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

The 2013 Anxiety Meter

Obama is the center of his own Marxist universe.

All through 2012 I kept telling myself that, if I could just wait it out until the elections, a majority of Americans would surely set things right by electing Mitt Romney, but we have since learned that he was a reluctant candidate who, if we are to believe his son—and I think we can—really didn’t want to get in the race, but thought the others in the primaries had little chance of winning.

I won’t blame Romney for the loss. Running against an incumbent President has rarely yielded victory. He had all the right qualifications, but he always struck me as just “too nice” and, as we know, Republicans were reluctant to tear into Obama’s appalling record on the economy and other issues. Like Romney, they are “too nice” despite being up against political thugs.

I think 2013 is going to be a very unlucky year for the United States and it has a lot to do with the fact that Barack Hussein Obama is now free to finish off his destruction of America because he does not have to run again for office.

[…]

Here again, 2013 will not bode well if Obama’s choice for the next Secretary of State, John Kerry, is confirmed as is expected. America first became aware of Kerry when, as a young veteran of Vietnam, he accused his fellow soldiers of offenses that were later proven to have no basis in fact. He threw away his combat medals. In the 1980s, Kerry campaigned for a nuclear freeze and the Obama administration has been reducing our nuclear arms arsenal at the worst possible time. Iran is just months away from having its own nuclear arms and, after that, no one can predict what they will do with them, but you can be sure they will use them. Obama’s promises to ensure they do not are worthless.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Video: Going for the Guns: Possible Martial Law in Early 2013?

A 31-years of service NC police lieutenant calls into a pastor’s radio show to tell what he has heard from the inside- and he says they are training for civil unrest.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU

Blood of Guillotined French King ‘Authentic’

Scientists have established the authenticity of a piece of cloth dipped in the blood of France’s last king Louis XVI (pictured) after his execution during the French Revolution.

Scientists have authenticated that a rag believed to have been dipped in the blood of France’s monarch Louis XVI is the genuine article.

The discovery also proves the authenticity of a mummified head which was believed to be that of 16th century French king Henri IV — which was used to make the DNA comparison.

Louis XVI was executed by guillotine on January 21, 1793, the first victim of the “Reign of Terror” that followed France’s infamous revolutionary uprising.

As was the habit at the executions of French aristocrats, spectators dipped their handkerchiefs in the gore of the decapitated victim as a morbid keepsake.

One such rag found its way into a calabash — a form of squash that is dried and used as a bottle — on which was inscribed: “On January 21, Maximilien Bourdaloue dipped his handkerchief in the blood of Louis XVI after his decapitation.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

French Muslims Celebrate New Year by Torching 1,193 Cars

By Daniel Greenfield

The good news is that the French insurance industry is getting a lot of repeat business. The bad news is that 1,193 cars were torched, three police officers and four gendarmes were injured. And 339 arrests were made. But it’s just another way that Islamic traditions are becoming part of France in a great multicultural mix of petrol, fire and ruin.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Italy: Berlusconi Fingers ‘Criminal Use of Spread’ For Downfall

Reiterates need to investigate Napolitano’s role

(ANSA) — Rome, December 31 — Italian ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi declared on Monday that “a criminal use of the spread” was instrumental to the demise of his leadership in November 2011. Speaking on Radio Capital, Berlusconi also reiterated his announcement in recent days that, if he is elected, a parliamentary commission will investigate Italian President Giorgio Napolitano’s role in the ex-premier’s ouster and the formation of the Mario Monti-led technical government that followed.

“Certainly there was a criminal use of the spread. On the role of Napolitano, I will not make any judgements. The commission will clarify the roles each person played,” Berlusconi said.

The spread — the difference between interest rates on Italian bonds and the German benchmark — is an important gauge of the market’s confidence in Italy’s ability to pay down its enormous debt.

Berlusconi was forced to step down in November 2011 as interest rates — and the spread — threatened to send Italy into a catastrophic sovereign-debt crisis.

Berlusconi says he believes conspiracy and market manipulation were responsible for his downfall, rather than the market’s diffidence in his political leadership.

In the Monday radio interview, Berlusconi also dismissed the importance of opinions against him among political leaders of other European countries.

“The support of certain government leaders for Monti? It is clear that the other countries defend their interests,” Berlusconi added. “Premier Berlusconi did not please them. I was not mocked but feared in Europe.”

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Berlusconi Calls Judiciary ‘A Cancer’

(AGI) — Rome, Dec 31 — Silvio Berlusconi, speaking to Teleradiostereodue said, “That of the judiciary is a cancer which afflicts our democracy, because the use of politics in the justice system is something which cannot be allowed in a true democracy.” The former prime minister also attacked Antonio Ingroia saying, “If you think about these magistrates like Ingroia, who take advantage of the popularity they have had as judges, and then become candidates and enter into politics — these things are unacceptable.”

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

Monumental Deceit: How Politicians Lied About the True Purpose of the European Behemoth

At first it should be presented as just a trading arrangement, the ‘Common Market’ set up in 1957 by the Treaty of Rome. But the essence of that treaty was to create the core institutions of what Monnet always intended should one day be the ‘Government of Europe’.

The idea was to work for ‘ever closer union’.

Treaty by treaty, it would take over more powers from national governments, based on the sacred principle that once power to make laws was handed over to Brussels it could never be given back.

Ever more countries would be brought into the net, until the project reached its ultimate goal as a super-government, with its own president and parliament, its own currency and armed forces, its own flag and anthem — all the attributes of a fully-fledged nation state.

Thus, stealthily assembled over decades, would this new ‘country called Europe’ finally take its place on the world stage. What we found most shocking in researching this story was that, when Britain’s leaders first considered joining the project, they were made fully aware of this hidden agenda.

As we see from Cabinet papers and other documents of the early Sixties, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and his ‘Europe Minister’ Edward Heath were put completely in the picture about the secret ‘grand plan’. But in June 1961 the Cabinet formally agreed that it must not be revealed to the British people.

In Macmillan’s words, to admit ‘the political objectives’ of the Rome Treaty would raise ‘problems of public relations’ so ‘considerable’ that they should be kept under wraps. It was vital to emphasise only the economic advantages of British entry.

Thus did Macmillan and Heath become drawn into complicity with that same web of deceit which was driving the ‘project’ itself

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

Sicily Doesn’t Need 21 Press Officers, Says Crocetta

(AGI) Messina — President of Sicily Region Rosario Crocetta said the Region doesn’t need 21 journalists with the job title of editor in chief.

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

UK: Last Words of Teenager Knifed to Death Protecting Younger Brother From Phone Muggers

[WARNING: Disturbing content.]

A teenager was stabbed to death protecting his younger brother from a gang that had stolen a phone.

Dogan Ismail, 17, died after being knifed in the chest on Sunday afternoon at a block of flats in Walworth, south-east London.

The sixth-form student and his younger brother Orhan, 15, had gone to retrieve a stolen BlackBerry when they were confronted by up to four youths and a row broke out.

The mobile phone had previously been stolen by a trio of pupils — that Orhan recognised from his school — as he walked home from playing football.

Two days later he received a message saying: ‘If you come here we will give it back to you,’ according to The Sun.

The pair headed to Latimer House to retrieve the phone, but instead one of the boys pulled out a knife and stabbed Dogan in the chest at the top of a stairwell.

The teenager bled to death as his younger brother tried desperately to save his life.

Orhan later told his family: ‘He made to give back the phone, but instead brought a knife from behind his back and stabbed Dogan in the chest.

‘His last words were, ‘Oh my God, you have stabbed me!’ The guy just calmly walked away.’

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Police Hunt for Dangerous Serial Rapist Who Walked Out of Open Prison

[WARNING: Disturbing content.]

A serial rapist is being hunted by police after walking out of an open prison.

Sean Cawthray, 41, was jailed indefinitely in 2002 after attempting to kidnap a 14-year-old girl by dragging her away from a bus stop.

He was last seen at Leyhill Open Prison in south Gloucestershire at 5.30pm on Sunday and is believed to have left the unit before 8.30pm.

Police are warning the public not to approach Cawthray and to dial 999 immediately if they see him.

[…]

Leyhill Open Prison is a 508-man Category D prison which holds men re-classified to a lower risk who are often being prepared for release back into society.

It has no perimeter fence and was once dubbed ‘The Savoy of Slammers’ for its cushy regime.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

North Africa

Egyptian Satirist Accused of Undermining Mohammed Morsi

An Egyptian satirist who made fun of President Mohammed Morsi on television has been accused of undermining his standing and will be investigated by prosecutors, according to a judicial source.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Israel Will Cease to Exist Within a Decade, Says Muslim Brotherhood Official

A senior Muslim Brotherhood official has said that Israel will cease to exist within a decade, the latest in a series of inflammatory comments by figures close to Egypt’s Mohammed Morsi.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians

The Bennett Threat — And Why the Pols Are Scared

By Moshe Dann

Bennett is different. He doesn’t play by the rules that have characterized the ruthless political game. Regardless of the party, with only some variance of dress codes and colorful attachments, twittering and texting, the candidates are all the same.

Naftali Bennett is a product of Israeli society; articulate and smart, a Sayeret Matkal veteran, he’s an insider that understands what’s going on.

He is also a financial success. But that is not what makes him dangerous to the establishment. The threat he poses stems not so much from his ideology, but rather from the fact that that he actually has one, that he articulates what he believes and stands for.

As refreshing as that sounds, it is a world away from most other politicians and so-called “leaders,” who pirouette on a shekel, or savage their opponents, depending on which way the winds of political success seem to be blowing. Bennett represents a kind of honesty and integrity that has not been seen in Israeli politics since Menachem Begin.

ISRAELI ELECTORAL campaigns and politics are all about personalities. Forget about ideology, forget about what they did or did not do, just “read my lips.”

Except that there are no lips…

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]

Middle East

2013: The Start of Israel’s Energy Independence

The mainstream media has neglected to inform the American public of Ha Shem’s great gift to Israel, the huge offshore natural gas fields about to begin production and the pilot tests of in situ oil extraction from the shale formation in the Shefla basin in 2013. Those Israel oil shale reserves might even rival those of Saudi Arabia. The development of these energy resources may enable Israel within this decade to become energy independent. Those offshore gas and on-shore oil shale developments have the potential of making Israel an energy independent political power in the Middle East and player in the world energy markets. The energy developments could pour billions of royalty revenues into a newly authorized Sovereign Wealth Fund that might significantly enhance the country’s high tech driven growth. Most importantly it would also provide the funds to enable the IDF to meet the threats arrayed against it.

The Tamar partners starting production of offshore natural gas in 2013 should boost the prospects of the IEI/Genie Energy pilot test and the future of oil shale development in the Shefla Basin. The combination of offshore natural gas production coupled with on-shore oil shale extraction is a geo-political game changer for Israel and the world energy markets. These developments in late 2012 marked the beginning of Israel’s long sought energy independence further enhancing the country’s economic growth and stability.

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]

Education: Egypt and Turkey Carry Out Cooperation Protocol

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, DECEMBER 28 — The Suez Canal University of Egypt announced that they have started the student exchange program in scope of developing cooperation with Turkey in the education field. Prof. Muhammad Mohammadayn, the president of Suez Canal University, said the student exchange program was initiated as part of the protocol prepared to develop cooperation in areas of tourism and higher education between two countries. Mentioning that the student exchange would encourage reciprocal visits and cultural exchange, Mohammadayn said that 2014 would be Egyptian year in Turkey and Turkish year in Egypt as Anatolia news agency reported.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Saudi Arabia: Website Editor Could Face Death Penalty

With many recent discussions here on ATS pertaining to Freedom of Speech and talk of repressive/oppressive control over people, I felt this would be an interesting example to show that a greater degree of freedom is allowed (at least here in the west).

A Saudi man created a website to discuss the role of religion in Saudi Arabia and was later arrested in June of 2012. Now his case is being passed to the higher courts in Saudi Arabia.

He faces a possible death sentence as he has several charges levied against him: blasphemy, insulting Islam through electronic channels, and apostasy.

The judges of this matter are said to base their decisions on their own interpretaion of religious law instead of any written legal code or precendent.

Apostasy and blashemy, according to the article, both carry automatic death sentences.

Here is the site [url] — translated to English by Microsoft’s Bing.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Sesquicentennial Comparisons: Black Slavery in America and Ottoman Turkey

By Andrew G. Bostom

marks the sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) of President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which set the United States firmly on the path toward the abolition of slavery.

Frederick Douglass, in his autobiography, Life and Times, described how, in his view, Lincoln’s proclamation morphed the Civil War beyond a struggle to preserve the Union, into a transcendent war against slavery:

The first of January, 1863, was a memorable day in the progress of American liberty and civilization. It was the turning-point in the conflict between freedom and slavery. A death blow was then given to the slaveholding rebellion

During a January 13, 1865 speech in New York City, Douglass had elaborated:…

           — Hat tip: Andy Bostom [Return to headlines]

They Cut His Ears Off and Tied Him Upside Down — Harrowing True Story of Being Kidnapped by Somali Pirates

[WARNING: Disturbing content.]

Whipped with electrical cable, thrown into the sea and having an ear chopped off were just a few of the torturous ordeals 22 hostages endured when being kept captive by Somali pirates.

Only released earlier this month, the men lived in fear for nearly three years, but have now spoken out about their harrowing experience.

The Panama-flagged MV Iceberg One cargo ship was hijacked by Somali pirates as it set off in March 2010 on a voyage to Britain with a cargo of electrical goods.

But the men were left to endure the longest pirate hijacking in modern maritime history, after the Dubai-owners of the ship refused to pay the $10 million ransom they demanded.

And when the ransom money did not arrive, the torture sessions were increased.

‘They cut the ears off of one old Yemeni sailor. He is OK now but will need a few operations.

‘They also shot over their heads, hit them so hard that many have lost their teeth, whipped them with sticks and wires and tied them up and left them in the sun,’ said Mohamad Abdirahman, the Puntland Maritime Police Force director to The National.

The hostages’ health deteriorated quickly after only being fed one meal a day of rice and dirty drinking water, reported The Telegraph.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Video: The Syrian Diary: Unimaginable Crimes Committed by Terrorists

This exclusive documentary by Russian TV station, Rossiya 24, is a “must watch” as it gives a very good insight on the events that have been taking place in Syria since 2011. It shows how both the Syrian Army and the Syria people are defending their country Syria from the unimaginable crimes committed by extremist terrorists who operate with massive international media, military, intelligence, and financial support, a situation that no one would ever want to be in.

Warning: Contains graphic footage, 18+, not for shock, aimed only at documenting events in Syria and crimes of FSA terrorists.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

South Asia

Gunmen Kill Seven Pakistani Aid Workers

Shooting of six female aid workers and a male doctor appears to be latest attack by militants on public health teams

Gunmen have killed six Pakistani female aid workers and a male doctor in what appears to be the latest attack by Islamic militants on teams involved in public health campaigns.

Recent days have been violent in the troubled country, with dozens dying in a string of terrorist attacks. Analysts blame many of the strikes on militant groups keen to demonstrate their ability to cause casualties and destruction after the government rejected the Taliban’s call for ceasefire negotiations late last month.

“They are signalling to the people that the pain they are suffering is in fact the government’s fault because their offer of peace was rejected,” said Ejaz Haider, of the Jinnah Institute, a thinktank in the capital of Islamabad. “There is likely to be more violence as they ramp up their campaign in coming weeks.”

The militants have been stung by a loss of public support following indiscriminate attacks last year, a lack of economic development in the areas where they are strong, deals concluded by the authorities with some major local extremist commanders, and ongoing strikes by US drones.

Tuesday’s attack came in Swabi district, about 45 miles (75km) north-west of Islamabad, and was the first attack on aid workers in the area.

In Karachi, a bomb exploded near the headquarters of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), a political party in the city, killing at least one and injuring dozens.

The city has been the site of a growing number of gunfights, bombing and assassinations in recent months as ethnic, sectarian and political factions, as well as criminals, struggle for power and influence. Leaders of militant religious groups have threatened to target the MQM which has vocally opposed extremism…

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]

Indian Gang Rape Victim Was Thrown Under Bus After Attack But Her Fiance Saved Her From Being Crushed Under Its Wheels

[WARNING: Disturbing content.]

The gang of men who attacked an Indian woman who later died from her horrific injuries tried to run her over with the bus she was brutally raped in, it emerged today.

The 23-year-old was tossed out of the moving vehicle only for her fiance to battle to pull her from under its wheels, police in Delhi have said.

‘They tried to drive the bus over the rape victim and her male friend. Her friend pulled her to safety, just in time’, an officer close to the investigation claims.

Neighbours said the couple were planning to marry in February but the woman, who remains anonymous, died on Saturday despite treatment at a Singapore hospital — two weeks after she was attacked.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Islamic Militants Massacre Five Women Teachers Travelling to Primary School in Protest at Female Education in Pakistan

[WARNING: Disturbing content.]

Five female teachers in Pakistan have been slaughtered by Islamic militants bent on keeping women and girls away from education.

They were murdered in a New Year’s Day ambush on the van carrying them home from their jobs at a community centre and primary school in the north-west of the country.

The teachers and two health workers — one man and one woman — were killed this afternoon in the conservative Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Far East

Fear the Russia/China Alliance

If Americans think of national security at all, its usually of Islamic terrorism or Iran, maybe North Korea.

Few are saying this, but what they should really be fearing is the growing Russia/China alliance.

From the Communist Party of China, International Department website:…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

North Korean Leader Calls for End to “Confrontation” With South

In the first televised New Year address by a North Korean leader in 19 years, Kim Jong-un called for the end of “confrontation between the north and the south” of the Korean peninsula. The two Koreas never signed a treaty to end the 1950-1953 war.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Sub-Saharan Africa

South Africa Vanishes With Its Gold?

Last week’s shocking announcement by Statistics South Africa that the nation’s gold production had hit a 90-year low was met with token media coverage and surprisingly, hardly any outrage from labour unions, civil society or indeed the country’s population at large … The legacy of hatred and bitterness incited by the Anglo-Boer war and its cruel aftermath stimulated a toxic and destructive Afrikaner nationalism that eventually took hold of the country, with repercussions lasting almost a century. Throughout this period, gold provided an underpin to the nation’s economy. It contributed handsomely to tax coffers and generated valuable foreign revenue. What followed was spectacular wealth for a few and employment for thousands of desperate, marginalised people under despicable conditions at a very low wage. — Daily Maverick

Dominant Social Theme: Everything is still okay. Once apartheid died, the future became bright in both Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Free-Market Analysis: We never believed that either Zimbabwe or South Africa would work out as countries with a shared black and white heritage. Our fears have already been borne out in Zimbabwe and soon, we fear, the same sort of destruction will be visited on South Africa.

Within this context, gold production can serve as a sort of metaphor or barometer of national health. Now that gold production has hit a 90-year low, we wonder if South Africa itself is beginning to descend into the kind of vicious racism that has so scarred Zimbabwe.

Certainly black people in South Africa and Zimbabwe are justified in harboring a certain bitterness in their hearts over what occurred. But as circumstances change, so should those feelings. To continue to hate white people for apartheid in South Africa is ultimately self-defeating. It will likely contribute to lower South African living standards and diminished wealth. This has already happened in Zimbabwe.

The African National Congress (ANC), Africa’s dominant political party, is having a good deal of trouble proceeding and reports are that it might break up into several factions. One of the ways ANC leaders are attempting to salvage their political fortunes is by whipping up black-on-white resentment. This has the predictable effect of putting psychological pressure on white people in South Africa. Here’s an excerpt from a recent article on South Africa and a potential white exodus:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars

Homophobia: What Does it Really Mean?

How should we describe or interpret the savagery of people who physically, verbally, and psychologically abuse innocent people because of their sexual identity or orientation? Most people interpret such actions as homophobia. Yet the same label is pinned on a person who simply believes it is not good for men to have sex with men, or even to one who believes, despite his own sympathies, that marriage should not be redefined to include same-sex couples.

The power of that one word, homophobia, has been a significant feature of the same-sex marriage debate. Homophobia, the term, was invented in the 1960s by psychologist Dr George Weinberg to challenge the prevailing view that homosexuality was a psychological disorder. Weinberg effectively turned the tables on the prevailing view, alleging through his medically-inspired term that hostility to homosexuality was itself a psycho-social problem.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

General

NGOs Plot Wave of Criminal Referrals to Legitimize International Criminal Court

Dominant Social Theme: The International Criminal Court fights for you and me — and worldwide justice against those who disobey our perception of what is correct with impunity.

Free-Market Analysis: We don’t usually pursue sourced stories because we analyze memes. But regular readers are well aware that a dominant social theme is not merely a hypothetical elite suggestion. Such themes can generate their own reality via something we call directed history.

When it comes to manmade enterprises like the International Criminal Court, directed history can be enlisted to provide legitimacy. And in this case, sourced prognostications of NGO support for the ICC in South America are borne out by articles like this one, excerpted above.

We’ve learned from sources that NGOs throughout South America and Africa are conducting an organized effort to identify crimes against humanity that can be referred to the ICC.

While there has been considerable pushback against the ICC in the West, such concerns are not so predominant in various developing countries. Here’s some more from the article:

[…]

In such a manner is international criminal law being erected, by creating a phony demand for an illegitimate judicial system. The crimes don’t really matter, nor are they necessarily valid ones except from the perspective of the larger powers-that-be that want certain enemies punished and specific “atrocities” illuminated.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Now UN Wants to Control Tourist Behavior … For the ‘Greater Good, ‘ of Course

We can see from the above how relentless UN officials are when it comes to stressing “sustainability.” This is a nonsense word, of course. The planet IS sustainable. It is a hunk of rock. It’s not going anywhere nor are the processes that make it what it is.

There is little if anything humans can do to “sustain” the planet’s current facilities. Air, water, weather, geological processes … all were put in place long before humans trod the Earth.

Sustainability is a phrase popularized by a power elite that wants to run the world and needs to control large populations in order to do so. Only by controlling human consumption of energy and other “resources” can the top elites hope to generate the kind of all-encompassing world government they seek.

This is the reason the elites focus so heavily on sustainability and use every tool at their disposal to emphasize it. World Tourism Day is just another opportunity to deliver the message.

The Secretary-General of the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Taleb Rifai, made the point that “sustainable energy in the tourism sector can also help reduce energy poverty by implementing the objectives of the Sustainable Energy for All initiative… “

According to Rifai, conservation creates jobs and opportunities for “millions.” But this is just another unprovable bromide. It is hard to see how foregoing something creates employment.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Succour for the Vain and Vacuous: Why I Loathe Twitter

The clue, perhaps, is in the name. Write a blog and you’re a blogger. Hack into a computer and you’re a hacker. So it’s safe to say that when they came up with ‘twitter.com’, they weren’t expecting much in the way of intelligent discourse. And so it has proved.

David Cameron may have got into trouble in 2009 when he joked: ‘The trouble with Twitter … too many twits might make a tw*t.’ But he was spot on.

In the three years since the Prime Minister made the remark, Twitter has elevated inanity to a global art form.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20121231

Financial Crisis
» Executives at Collapsed Iceland Bank Jailed for Fraud
» Greece: Cash Payments Ceiling to Drop to 500 Euros
» The Values Economy
» Why We Are on the Brink of the Greatest Depression of All Time
» With a Sluggish Economy, Japan Waits for Abe’s Solutions
 
USA
» Dianne Feinstein: “I Carried a Concealed Weapon”
» Media Ignores Shooting Stopped by Law-Abiding Gun Owner
» Nine-Months-Pregnant Daughter of Top Doctor and Her Occupy Wall Street Organizer Boyfriend Arrested After Police Find ‘A Bomb and Weapons’ In Their New York Apartment
» Obama to Put “Full Weight” Behind Feinstein Gun Confiscation Plan
» Russian News Outlet Pravda Prints Surprising Opinion Column Warning USA: ‘Never Give Up Your Guns’
» Sandy Hook: How Television Takes Your Guns
» ‘These Guys Are Truly, Truly Animals’…
» Video: Dianne Feinstein Says Her Goal is to Disarm All Americans
 
Canada
» Woman Dies: Three Fall Ill Aboard Toronto-Bound Via Rail Train
 
Europe and the EU
» Austrian Prof: Global Warming Deniers Should be Sentenced to Death
» Belgian Jewish Girls School Forced to Admit Sons of Holocaust Denier
» Centre and Centre Left Polarize in Italian Election
» Church Minister Warns Witchcraft is Thriving — In Wales (Home to 83 Witches, 93 Satanists and the Site of an Exorcism)
» Dutch Ask Irish Government for Answers on Safety Standards at Ryanair
» French Paper Charlie Hebdo to Publish Comic Book Life of Mohammed
» French Magazine Charlie Hebdo to Publish Comic of Mohammed’s Life
» Germany: Language Trouble Behind Many Medical Mishaps
» Greece: Lagarde List: Parliamentary Inquiry for Ex Minister
» Italy: Transsexual Thrown From Balcony, Three Arrests Made
» Swiss Freeze Mubarak Sons’ Assets: Report
» UK: Cam ‘n Have a Go if EU Think You’re Hard Enough
» UK: Far-Right Vacuum Could Trigger ‘Lone-Wolf’ Attacks
» UK: Man Critically Ill in Hospital After ‘Trolley Rage Attack’ At M&S Breaking His Hip and Wrist
» UK: Pakistani Journalist Arrested in London
» UK: Police Launch Manhunt for ‘Terror Suspect’ Who Went Missing on Boxing Day… While Under Close Surveillance
» UK: Police Seek 15-Year-Old Over Murder of Teenager Who Was Stabbed in Front of His Brother After ‘Refusing to Give His Phone to Muggers’
» UK: Three-Quarters of Doctors Who Are Struck Off in Britain Are Trained Abroad
» UK: Taxpayers Are Handing Nearly £500,000 a Week in Legal Aid to Prisoners to Help Them Make Human Rights Claims.
» UK: Taxpayers Fork Out £150million a Year for ‘Benefit Brood’ Families With More Than Five Children
» UK: Wind Turbines ‘Last for Half as Long as Previously Thought’ As Study Shows They Show Signs of Wearing Out After Just 12 Years
 
North Africa
» Algeria: ANP Troops Kill Boumerdès Terrorist
» Egypt Still Under Blackout Due to Fuel Shortage
» Egyptian Atheist’s Jail Sentence Blow to Religious Freedom
» Libya: Obama Admits “Huge Problem” In Security of Benghazi Consulate
» Tunisia: Attounssia TV Chief Hospitalised After Hunger Strike
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Fred Taub: the Israel Boycott and Bigotry
» On the Weaponizing of Lethal Narratives …
» PNA Condemns Israeli Order to Evacuate Palestinians From Jordan Valley
 
Middle East
» Al Qaeda Offers Reward for Killing US Ambassador in Yemen
» Al-Qaeda Offers $160k Bounty for Assassination of US Ambassador to Yemen and $23k for Killing American Soldiers
» At Least 13 Killed in Series of Attacks in Iraq
» Bishop Attacked in Lebanon’s Tripoli
» British Public Wants to ‘Keep Out of Syria’
» No Votes to be Had in Syria
» Russian Warships Head to the Syrian Port of Tartus
» Syria: ‘Facing 100,000 Deaths in Next Year’
 
Russia
» Muscovite, Making it — and Muslim
 
South Asia
» Afghanistan: Scrap Draft US Army Manual That Appeases Islamic Doctrine
» Afghanistan: The West Should ‘Change Its Approach to Failing States’
» Afghanistan: Local Government Reform ‘Success’ In Helmand
» Ordeal of Indian Gang Rape Victim in Her Own Words as She Lay Dying
» Sri Lanka: MP Adds Voice to Campaign Against Muslims
» Taliban Kill 21 Security Personnel Kidnapped by Them in NW Pakistan
 
Far East
» China Buying Tu-22M3 Production Line
» Philippines: Muslim Rebel Group Completes 8 Nominees to Transition Commission
 
Australia — Pacific
» Australia’s Grand Mufti Meets Hamas
» NZ: Spectacular Photo Captures Moment Great White is Gobbled by an Even Bigger Shark as It’s Hauled Into Fisherman’s Boat
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Kenya: 90 Kuria Girls Saved From FGM
» Nigeria: How We Averted Bomb Attacks at Christmas — Jonathan
» When Rwanda Won the UN Security Council Seat
 
Immigration
» Muslim Immigration to Russia Increases Dramatically
 
Culture Wars
» UK: 60,000 Patients Put on Death Pathway Without Being Told But Minister Still Says Controversial End-of-Life Plan is ‘Fantastic’

Financial Crisis

Executives at Collapsed Iceland Bank Jailed for Fraud

Two former executives at an Icelandic bank which collapsed in the 2008 financial meltdown were sentenced to jail on Friday for fraud which led to a 53 million euro loss, in the first major trial of Icelandic bankers linked to the crisis.

All three of the small North Atlantic island’s top banks collapsed in quick succession in October 2008 due to big debts incurred during a rapid overseas expansion.

Glitnir was the first to fall after the collapse of Lehman Brothers caused international credit markets to freeze up.

A Reykjavik court sentenced Glitnir’s former chief executive, Larus Welding, and former head of corporate finance, Gudmundur Hjaltason, each to nine months in jail, of which six months were suspended for two years. They had denied the charges.

Prosecutors said the two approved a loan to a company which owned shares in Glitnir so that the company could in turn repay a debt to Morgan Stanley.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Greece: Cash Payments Ceiling to Drop to 500 Euros

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, DECEMBER 31 — In Greece any transaction in excess of 500 euros will soon only be allowed via credit or debit card or by check, daily Kathimerini reports citing a plan by the Finance Ministry aimed at combating tax evasion. The ceiling for cash transactions is to be lowered from 1,500 euros today to 500 euros and could be reduced further over in the course of 2013. Ministry sources say that in the first quarter of the new year all companies and certain self-employed individuals will have to obtain the POS (point-of-sale) terminals that provide for card transactions. This forms part of the government’s plan to contain tax evasion and increase state revenues. Ministry officials stress that public revenues can only grow through beating tax evasion, as there can be no more cuts to expenditure except for procurements.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

The Values Economy

There are two types of things that we put money into; the things that we need and the things that we don’t. The former represent our physical needs and the latter our spiritual needs. Food for the body and food for the mind. We need to eat, but we don’t need to see a movie. We need a house to live in, but we don’t need a house of worship. We need a car to get to work, but we don’t need a painting on our wall once we get there.

Culture isn’t a luxury, even the poorest of the poor have it. It doesn’t mean a night at the opera, it can just as easily mean sitting under a tree while the village elder explains where fire came from. But it is optional in the sense that we choose where to put our money or pine cones and those choices are our values economy.

The values economy consists of the culture you support. It’s the books you buy and the movies you see, it’s the paintings on your wall and the house of worship you attend. It’s the concerts and games you buy tickets to and it’s the colleges you attend. It’s all the intangible investments in the intangible things of aesthetics, faith and cultural knowledge.

In a healthy culture, these things mirror your values. In an unhealthy culture they do not. Not only do they not, but they don’t even mirror any stable set of values that can go the distance. Instead they’re a species of insanity, confused and convoluted bits of specialist jargon, perpetual revolutions against good taste, ideas without ideas and taboo hunters with no more taboos left to break.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Why We Are on the Brink of the Greatest Depression of All Time

Everywhere from FoxNews.com to CNBC.com, I suddenly see commentators warning of pending doom, economic collapse, and a new Great Depression. Welcome to my club. Perhaps America’s politicians and economists should have paid attention to an entrepreneur and small businessman that has been warning of economic collapse and a new Great Depression publicly for over two years.

More importantly, none of the current commentaries mention the “why’s” of this slow motion economic collapse…beyond the obvious — mountains of deficit and debt. None of them mention the dysfunctional structure of the current U.S. economy and the massive changes in the work ethic and mindset of the average American.

[Return to headlines]

With a Sluggish Economy, Japan Waits for Abe’s Solutions

November economic data show greater deflation and slower industrial output. The new prime minister and his Economy minister slam the Bank of Japan for not doing enough against the crisis.

Tokyo (AsiaNews) — The economy remains the main challenge for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s new, more hawkish administration. With industrial output falling in November, the world’s third largest economy will find itself in a dire situation, like that followed the Second World War, unless the government cuts public debt.

Last month, industrial production fell 1.7 per cent from the previous month, said the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (which are together in Japan, whilst the Finance Ministry was given to Taro Aso, a Catholic) with auto production, electronics and telecommunications contributing to the overall decline.

Automobile production in November dropped by 8.4 per cent from 838,128 a year earlier to 767,530 units, down for the third straight month, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) said on Thursday, as a result of lower domestic demand and exports.

New auto sales edged downward by 0.4 per cent in November from a year earlier to 393,942 units following the end of a government’s subsidy programme.

Auto exports in November decreased 13.5 per cent to 382,778 units against 442,672 a year earlier, down for the fourth consecutive month because of a strong yen.

Deflation is another problem. For Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan’s central bank, the Bank of Japan, has not been doing enough. Low demand for goods and services is reducing prices.

Like his minister, Mr Abe called on the central bank to print “unlimited” yen to help increase consumer prices. However, this could stoke inflation.

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

USA

Dianne Feinstein: “I Carried a Concealed Weapon”

The hypocrisy of gun-grabbers knows no bounds

Despite calling in the same year for an outright ban on all firearms, Senator Dianne Feinstein, who is set to introduce legislation that would gut the second amendment, said in 1995 that she carried a concealed gun in order to protect herself against terrorists.

Speaking at a US Senate hearing on terrorism one week after the Oklahoma City Bombing, Feinstein spoke about how she responded to an attempt by terrorists from the New World Liberation Army to bomb her home.

“I know the sense of helplessness that people feel. I know the urge to arm yourself because that’s what I did. I was trained in firearms. I walked to the hospital when my husband was sick. I carried a concealed weapon and I made the determination if somebody was going to try and take me out, I was going to take them with me,” said Feinstein.

The hypocrisy of Feinstein choosing to arm herself in self-defense while in the very same year calling for an “outright ban” on all guns is another reminder of rampant hypocrisy on behalf of would-be gun grabbers that has prevailed in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook school shooting.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Media Ignores Shooting Stopped by Law-Abiding Gun Owner

On Sunday December 17, 2012, 2 days after the CT shooting, a man went to a restaurant in San Antonio to kill his ex-girlfriend. After he shot her, most of the people in the restaurant fled next door to a theater. The gunman followed them and entered the theater so he could shoot more people. He started shooting and people in the theater started running and screaming. It’s like the Aurora, CO theater story plus a restaurant!

Now aren’t you wondering why this isn’t a lead story in the national media along with the school shooting?

There was an off duty county deputy at the theater. SHE pulled out her gun and shot the man 4 times before he had a chance to kill anyone. So since this story makes the point that the best thing to stop a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun, the media is treating it like it never happened.

Only the local media covered it. The city is giving her a medal next week. Just thought you’d like to know.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Nine-Months-Pregnant Daughter of Top Doctor and Her Occupy Wall Street Organizer Boyfriend Arrested After Police Find ‘A Bomb and Weapons’ In Their New York Apartment

The daughter of a prominent New York doctor and her Occupy Wall Street-organizer boyfriend were arrested after police discovered an explosive used for making bombs and a cache of weapons in their upscale New York City apartment, it was claimed.

Morgan Gliedman, 27, and Aaron Greene, 31, were taken away from their home in Manhattan’s pricey Greenwich Village on Saturday.

Gliedman, who is nine months pregnant, is the daughter of a top Brooklyn cancer doctor and was educated at the Dalton School, an exclusive New York prep school attended by the likes of Anderson Cooper and Claire Danes.

Greene went to Harvard University for his undergraduate degree and did graduate work at the Kennedy School of Government there, as well.

The New York Post reports that police found seven grams of HMTD, a high explosive powder that was reportedly used in the 2005 London Underground bombings.

Police evacuated the building and several others nearby as the bomb squad removed to highly-unstable material from the apartment.

Officers also found a flare gun that could be used as a grenade launcher, a modified Mossberg 500 12-gauge shotgun, nine high-capacity rifle magazines and ammunition, according to the Post.

Police confiscated several notebooks with instructions for making boobytraps and makeshift submachine guns and several sheets with handwritten chemical formulas.

Greene is an activist with Occupy Wall Street and friends told police his political views are ‘extreme,’ a source told the newspaper.

The NYPD told MailOnline they are investigating whether Gleidman has ties to the protest group, as well.

The NYPD allegedly found the dangerous material after they went to Gliedman and Greene’s apartment to question Gliedman, who was wanted for credit card theft, the Post reports.

Gleidman’s father is Dr Paul Gleidman, the Columbia University-educated director of radiation oncology at Beth Israel Hospital’s Brooklyn division.

Her mother is Susyn Schops Gliedman, a top New York real estate agent.

Morgan Gliedman grew up in an upscale apartment on Park Avenue.

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]

Obama to Put “Full Weight” Behind Feinstein Gun Confiscation Plan

President Obama went on Meet the Press Sunday and said he will put his “full weight” behind passing new restrictions on the Second Amendment in 2013.

“I’m going to be putting forward a package and I’m going to be putting my full weight behind it,” he said. “I’m going to be making an argument to the American people about why this is important and why we have to do everything we can to make sure that something like what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary does not happen again.”

During the interview with David Gregory, Obama focused on “assault weapons” and high-capacity magazines. Second Amendment foes routinely describe semi-automatic weapons with cosmetic military features as assault weapons.

“I’ve been very clear that an assault rifle ban, banning these high capacity clips, background checks, that there are a set of issues that I have historically supported and will continue to support,” said Obama.

Obama stressed that he will push legislation within the first year of his second term. “I’d like to get it done in the first year,” he said. “I will put forward a very specific proposal based on the recommendations that Joe Biden’s task force is putting together as we speak. And so this is not something that I will be putting off.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Russian News Outlet Pravda Prints Surprising Opinion Column Warning USA: ‘Never Give Up Your Guns’

Back in November, the Russian news outlet Pravda (formerly the official press of the USSR), surprised everyone when it published a scathing opinion column labeling President Obama a “Communist without question promoting the Communist Manifesto without calling it so.”

And they appear to have done it again, this time weighing on in the gun control debate currently gripping the United States.

Written by Stanislav Mishin, the opinion piece, titled “Americans, never give up your guns,” begins:

These days, there are few few things to admire about the socialist, bankrupt and culturally degenerating USA, but at least so far, one thing remains: the right to bare arms and use deadly force to defend one’s self and possessions.

Mishin has rocked the boat before, writing in 2009 about American capitalism being “gone with a whimper.” Like the current article, it was originally published on the author’s personal blog before being picked up by Pravda.

By and large, he uses Russian history as a warning for what could occur in a worst-case scenario:…

           — Hat tip: JLH [Return to headlines]

Sandy Hook: How Television Takes Your Guns

Somebody has to write about these things. Since I’ve worked as a reporter for 30 years, I know enough about how the game is rigged. photo

I’m talking about the big mass tragedies. Sandy Hook, the Aurora theater, Hurricane Sandy, Katrina.

Many of the interviews with survivors are done on the spot, with no prep. But the biggest interviews are done in a television studio or a home, by a recognized anchor. The setting is arranged beforehand and lit well. A mood and a framework are established.

[…]

If after watching a number of these tragedies play out on television, you are completely reprogrammed into some grotesque version of “love everybody all the time and forgive everything,” and you need an outlet, a way to vicariously and subconsciously experience what you REALLY feel, you can always:

Go to the movies. The movies give you a different slant. You can be Mel Gibson killing people to get his kidnapped daughter back. You can be Charles Bronson wiping out street scum to avenge the loss of his wife. You can be Stallone or Arnie. You can roam the countryside spilling blood at every street corner.

The movies give you vicarious license to destroy evil. Television news takes it away.

It’s called the whipsaw effect, and it’s modern mind control, and it puts you in the “excluded middle,” where nothing happens and you remain locked up and passive.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

‘These Guys Are Truly, Truly Animals’…

Attack continued despite woman repeatedly vomiting on captors

Three teenage boys have been arrested for allegedly kidnapping, robbing and raping a woman in a five-hour ordeal on Christmas day. The incident took place in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania when a woman came out of a bar for a cigarette. As she sat playing with her mobile phone while waiting for her boyfriend to join her, the three teenagers allegedly forced their way into her vehicle…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Video: Dianne Feinstein Says Her Goal is to Disarm All Americans

Dianne Feinstein: “If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States, for an outright ban, picking up [every gun]… Mr. and Mrs. America, turn ‘em all in.”

Senator Dianne Feinstein’s ultimate plan has always been to have Mr. and Mrs. America turn in their guns to the government, period. Feinstein has admitted that the bill is about gun confiscation.

She tells us a gun ban is about saving the children and reducing crime, but her comments on 60 Minutes in 1995 reveal her true plan is to disarm the American people.

On Thursday, Feinstein will introduced her dream bill to disarm the American people. The legislation is open-ended and includes provisions to re-register firearms and submit the fingerprints of law-abiding Americans as if they’re sex offenders.

Feinstein’s bill will also include a buy-back provision that will allow the government to confiscate all firearms. Both Feinstein and New York governor Andrew Cuomo have said that is their plan.

It is a gun confiscation bill.

The proposed bill is open declaration of war on the Second Amendment.

It’s no coincidence that the communist Chinese, the biggest holders of U.S. debt, have demanded the American people be disarmed. It is the simple action of the authoritarian.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Canada

Woman Dies: Three Fall Ill Aboard Toronto-Bound Via Rail Train

An elderly woman is dead and three other passengers were taken to hospital Saturday after developing flu-like symptoms on an eastbound VIA Rail train.

The train, headed to Toronto from Vancouver, was stopped in Parry Sound, Ont., for six hours starting at 5 a.m. after an 86-year-old woman was reported to be unconscious and unresponsive. Emergency crews boarded the train and confirmed the woman had died.

The two compartments occupied by the passengers were quarantined, and the train arrived in Toronto just before 4 p.m.

[Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU

Austrian Prof: Global Warming Deniers Should be Sentenced to Death

Richard Parncutt, Professor of Systematic Musicology, University of Graz, Austria, reckons people like Watts, Tallbloke, Singer, Michaels, Monckton, McIntyre and me (there are too many to list) should be executed. He’s gone full barking mad, and though he says these are his “personal opinions” they are listed on his university web site.

For all the bleating of those who say they’ve had real “death threats”, we get discussions about executing skeptics from Professors, wielding the tyrannical power of the state. Was he paid by the state to write these simplistic, immature, “solutions”? Do taxpayers fund his web expenses? (And what the heck is systematic musicology?) Prof Richard Parncutt says:

“I have always been opposed to the death penalty in all cases…”

“Even mass murderers [like Breivik] should not be executed, in my opinion.”

“GW deniers fall into a completely different category from Behring Breivik. They are already causing the deaths of hundreds of millions of future people. We could be speaking of billions, but I am making a conservative estimate.”

Consequences

If a jury of suitably qualified scientists estimated that a given GW denier had already, with high probability (say 95%), caused the deaths of over one million future people, then s/he would be sentenced to death. The sentence would then be commuted to life imprisonment if the accused admitted their mistake, demonstrated genuine regret, AND participated significantly and positively over a long period in programs to reduce the effects of GW (from jail) — using much the same means that were previously used to spread the message of denial. At the end of that process, some GW deniers would never admit their mistake and as a result they would be executed. Perhaps that would be the only way to stop the rest of them. The death penalty would have been justified in terms of the enormous numbers of saved future lives.

Recant you foolish deniers or we’ll kill you! Yeah. Welcome to modern scientific debate.

Who should die? Anyone named on Desmog:

Much more would have happened by now if not for the GW deniers. An amazing number of people still believe that GW is a story made up by scientists with ulterior motives. For a long list of climate change deniers and their stories see desmogblog.

So the denier database becomes the “death list”. The list decided by PR experts on a funded smear site, who profit from marketing Green corporations.

But it’s ok, he includes a caveat where he says he didn’t say what I quoted above, so he can later pretend he isn’t discussing real deaths of real people:

Please note that I am not directly suggesting that the threat of execution be carried out. I am simply presenting a logical argument. I am neither a politician nor a lawyer. I am just thinking aloud about an important problem.

And we all feel so much better don’t we?

[Return to headlines]

Belgian Jewish Girls School Forced to Admit Sons of Holocaust Denier

3Rabbi Moshe Friedman, infamous for his participation with the Neturei Karta at the anti-Zionist & Holocaust-denial conference in Teheran in ‘06, has again placed himself in the middle of a disgraceful controversy, but this time in Antwerp.

By JTA

A Belgian court ordered a Jewish school for girls to admit two boys or face heavy fines.

The Benoth Jeruzalem school for Jewish girls

A Belgian judge ruled on Dec. 21, that because yeshivas are subsidized by the Flemish community, Benoth Jerusalem must admit the boys or face a $2,600 penalty per child for each day the boys are not permitted to attend, according to the Gazet van Anwerpen, a local paper.

Rabbi Freidman hugging & passionately kissing Iranian president at the Holocaust denial conference

Joods Actueel, a Belgian-Jewish monthly, reported that the father of the boys was Moshe Friedman, an anti-Zionist Orthodox Jew who participated in a conference of Holocaust deniers in 2006 in Tehran, Iran. The paper said no school in Antwerp would admit his children. Friedman sued citing a recent decision from the Commission on Students’ Rights which held that a child cannot be denied admission to a school on the basis of gender.

In an interview with ATV, a Belgian television station, Friedman said the refusal to inscribe his boys into a school for girls was an act of “revenge” by the Jewish community because of his “opinion and good contacts with world leaders.” He added he had no choice but to enroll the boys there because he needed them to go to a Jewish school.

The report did not say why Freidman chose a school for girls instead of one of Antwerp’s many schools for boys.

The director of Benoth Jeruzalem school told Gazet van Anwerpen that a decision on how to proceed will be made next week.

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]

Centre and Centre Left Polarize in Italian Election

Bersani and Casini widen the distance between them

(ANSA) — Rome, December 31 — Political leaders of Italy’s centre left and reformed centre coalitions threw down the gauntlet over the weekend, defining each other as rivals seeking a parliament majority in elections on February 24, and polarizing two forces that had supported Premier Mario Monti’s technical government over the course of its one-year rule. “To not set the goal of (winning a) majority means accepting subordination,” leader of the centrist UDC party Pier Ferdinando Casini told the newspaper Il Messaggero in an interview published on Monday.

“We will not be subordinate to the (centre-left) PD,” Casini added, “We will not be a centre of convenience.” Mario Monti’s policy agenda forms the centrepiece of the reformed centrist coalition Casini represents, and serves as a platform for rallying political support around a political faction that, until now, has drawn meagre voter interest. Meanwhile, the leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) Luigi Bersani openly challenged Mario Monti’s agenda on Sunday, a barb intended for Casini, with whom Bersani’s differences lately have mounted.

The PD was the largest opposition party before Monti took over from Silvio Berlusconi in November 2011 and has been favored to win the largest number of seats in the upcoming elections given a dramatic erosion of support for the centre right. “Now it is our turn to indicate the way. It is a responsibility that we must take,” Bersani said on Sunday in the northern Italian city of Piacenza, where he is home celebrating the holidays.

“I do not make controversies,” Bersani continued, “I am very respectful. I have an excellent rapport with Monti. Now he has chosen to be a political player and so I pose political questions. When one goes before the voters, clarity is needed.” Monti is promoting a political agenda in the current election campaign, and has invited any party to embrace it.

Monti also made clear that he is open to becoming premier once more should the parties supporting his agenda win an elected majority.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Church Minister Warns Witchcraft is Thriving — In Wales (Home to 83 Witches, 93 Satanists and the Site of an Exorcism)

A church minister has revealed witchcraft is very much alive and well in his Welsh rural parishes as he warns against becoming involved in the occult.

Reverend Felix Aubel has spoken of how he as come across witches, the use of effigies and the ‘evil eye’ during his career in the Welsh countryside.

He has detailed a number of spine-tingling chilling tales after the latest figures in the 2011 census revealed 83 witches and 93 satanists are living in Wales.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Dutch Ask Irish Government for Answers on Safety Standards at Ryanair

Junior transport minister Wilma Mansveld has asked the Irish government to clarify reports that airline Ryanair is ordering pilots to fly with as little fuel as possible, Nos television reported on Saturday.

Ryanair flies to a wide range of destinations from Dutch airports Eindhoven, Maastricht and Eelde.

Current affairs show Reporter on Friday featured four pilots who claimed they had been forced to fly with as little fuel as possible in order to save on costs.

The Irish government is responsible for controlling safety standards at Ryanair, a spokesman for Mansveld is quoted as saying by Nos. The minister has also asked for a copy of an Irish report into Ryanair.

Own investigation

Depending on the outcome of these inquiries, Mansveld will decide whether or not to start her own probe into safety standards at the airline. The Dutch pilots’ association has called for such an investigation.

Reporter said that three Ryanair flights have been forced to make an emergency landing in Valencia because they did not have enough fuel.

In her reaction to the claims, Mansveld points out that the three incidents have already been investigated and no further action was considered necessary.

The four pilots told the show there is a ‘deeply rooted culture of fear’ at Ryanair. Other former officials described the company as a dictatorship.

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

French Paper Charlie Hebdo to Publish Comic Book Life of Mohammed

A French weekly known for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed to the ire of conservative Muslims said Sunday it plans to release a comic book biography of Islam’s founder that will be researched and educational. Satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo has on several occasions depicted Islam’s prophet in an effort to defend free speech and defy the anger of Muslims who believe depicting Mohammed is sacrilegious…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

French Magazine Charlie Hebdo to Publish Comic of Mohammed’s Life

Satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo plans to release a comic book biography of Mohammed’s life.

The weekly magazine has previously published cartoons featuring Mohammed, sparking violent protests by conservative Muslims.

The special edition comic book depiction of Mohammed’s life is due to be published on Wednesday, according to AFP.

Charlie Hebdo’s publisher said it would be educational and was an attempt to defend free speech.

“It is a biography authorised by Islam since it was edited by Muslims,” said the publisher, Stephane Charbonnier, who is known as Charb.

“I don’t think higher Muslims could find anything inappropriate.”

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

Germany: Language Trouble Behind Many Medical Mishaps

Chief medical officers can only communicate with one-third of their staff in German and more patients are complaining about many physicians’ poor command of the German language, the head of the Berlin Medical Association said on Monday.

Günther Jonitz, in an interview with Deutschlandradio Kultur, said these communication problems are negatively affecting doctor-patient relations and are the main reason when things go wrong.

Physicians who speak fluent German are increasingly removed from patient care and put in charge of writing reports, he said. “The risks are growing,” he told the programme.

The main culprit is economics and a “truly lousy healthcare policy” that puts too much emphasis on numbers and economic profit and forgets people in the system. German physicians and nurses however are no longer willing to put up with this, Jonitz said.

“Whoever can, leaves for other countries and works where a doctor or nurse is well regarded — in Switzerland, Scandinavia, England, France (and) Holland.”

Their places are being filled with doctors from countries where working conditions are even worse than in Germany,” Jonitz said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Greece: Lagarde List: Parliamentary Inquiry for Ex Minister

Suspected of doctoring alleged tax evaders list

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, DECEMBER 31 — Greece’s three governing coalition parties are due to submit to Parliament on Monday a proposal for MPs to investigate former Finance Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou over allegations that he tampered with the so-called Lagarde list of Greek depositors at HSBC in Switzerland. According to reports — as daily Kathimerini reports -, New Democracy, PASOK and Democratic Left will suggest that Papaconstantinou needs to face a parliamentary inquiry to answer charges of doctoring an official document and breach of duty, offenses which carry sentences of up to 20 years in jail. The proposal needs just 30 MPs’ signatures to be put to a vote, where a majority decision will be enough to prompt the setting up of an investigative committee. The panel’s findings will be used to decide whether Papaconstantinou should stand trial. In an interview with Ethnos newspaper on Sunday, repeated his claims that he did not tamper with the list, which was given to him by the then French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde in 2010. Papaconstantinou also raised questions about the role of PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos, who succeeded him as finance minister in 2011. The radical leftist party SYRIZA, meanwhile, is pressing for George Papandreou, who was prime minister when the alleged doctoring took place, to face an inquiry. The fact that details of three accounts from just over 2,000 were missing from the list prosecutors had been investigating was discovered after Greek authorities obtained from the French government the original version of the list two weeks ago. The three accounts belong to Papaconstantinou’s two cousins and their husbands, according to prosecutors who checked the two versions of the list with the help of the Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Transsexual Thrown From Balcony, Three Arrests Made

(AGI) Rome, Dec. 29 — Two Romanians have been charged with attempted homicide after allegedly committing violent assault on a transsexual on Christmas night. While the police were carrying out the arrests, information emerged regarding another Romanian who is thought to have been their accomplice. The man was traced and is being held by judicial police. The victim, beaten up and thrown from the balcony, suffered serious injuries and may not survive.

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

Swiss Freeze Mubarak Sons’ Assets: Report

Swiss authorities have frozen €300 million dollars sitting in Credit Suisse accounts in Geneva held by the sons of deposed Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, the newspaper Le Matin Dimanche reported on Sunday.

The funds are held in accounts belonging to Alaa and Gamal Mubarak, sons of the ex-president who are currently being held in an Egyptian prison.

The brothers are accused of using their position as scions of Egypt’s longtime ruler to help themselves to villas, luxury cars and stakes in the country’s key companies.

According to the newspaper, the funds were deposited at the Credit Suisse in 2005, which was after Switzerland tightened rules governing transactions by politically exposed depositors.

A Credit Suisse spokesman refused comment, citing the bank’s secrecy policy.

The paper said Egypt-linked funds had also been frozen at the Swiss office of French banking giant BNP Paribas.

Switzerland has opened a probe targeting 14 people close to the Mubarak regime who are suspected of embezzling public funds and widescale corruption.

Earlier this month, Swiss authorities refused to provide their Egyptian counterparts with access to their findings so far, citing concerns for the “institutional situation” in Cairo.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

UK: Cam ‘n Have a Go if EU Think You’re Hard Enough

by Trevor Kavanagh

THE biggest story of 2012 was the long, painful EU slide into economic meltdown — and its impact as a drag anchor on UK recovery.

It will remain the story of 2013 and every other year until poverty, unemployment and social uproar put paid to an economic gamble that was doomed before it began. Tomorrow marks 40 years since Britain joined the EEC, a trading block transformed by trickery into a failed experimental superstate. We joined on January 1, 1973, after lying premier Ted Heath insisted the UK would lose no sovereign powers. We know he was lying because official records reveal he was warned in stark terms by his most senior government lawyer. We have been lied to pretty much ever since. Every treaty has undermined Westminster democracy and given away power to unelected and unaccountable Brussels officials.

[….]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Far-Right Vacuum Could Trigger ‘Lone-Wolf’ Attacks

Warning about potential for a ‘British Breivik’

The fragmentation of the far right could spark a new wave of political violence and Anders Breivik-style lone-wolf acts of terrorism, according to the head of the UK’s first research centre into contemporary fascism. The warning comes as new figures reveal that there have been nearly 500 anti-Islamic attacks since March, with more than half linked to supporters of far-right groups. Professor Nigel Copsey told The Independent that the electoral decline of the British National Party (BNP) and the splintering of street-based protest organisations such as the English Defence League (EDL) had created a potentially dangerous political vacuum on the far right…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Man Critically Ill in Hospital After ‘Trolley Rage Attack’ At M&S Breaking His Hip and Wrist

A 60-year-old man is critically ill in hospital after being injured in a trolley rage incident at Marks & Spencer during the Christmas rush.

The man suffered a broken hip and wrist after the altercation on December 22 in Bromley.

A female shopper is alleged to have rammed into him with her trolley in the busy food section of the store in The Glades shopping centre.

The elderly man was taken to a hospital in Kent for treatment.

On Boxing Day, the Metropolitan police arrested 30-year-old woman on suspicion of GBH.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Pakistani Journalist Arrested in London

LONDON: Senior Pakistani journalist Muhammad Sarwar has been arrested by the Metropolitan Police on sexual assault charges after a woman believed to be of Pakistani origin registered a complaint at an East London Police station.

Sarwar, chief editor of weekly newspaper The Nation and Kashmir News, was arrested from outside the Lee Bridge Road mosque, administration of the mosque confirmed. In a statement, Scotland Yard said: “On 29th of December, police in Waltham Forest arrested a 56-year-old man on sexual assault charges. He was arrested because a female made allegations of sexual assault. The man is in custody at an East London police station. We will investigate this serious matter.”

More than 200 people had gathered in the Ghausia Mosque on Lee Bridge Road for the chehlum of Liberal Democrat Councillor Farooq Qureshi’s wife when two policemen approached the mosque administration and told them that they were looking for a person named ‘Sarwar’. The mosque then made a public announcement that the police was looking for some “Sarwar” and that whosoever he is should cooperate with the police. The mosque administration feared that the police may enter the mosque to force their warrant. A member of the mosque administration told this newspaper: “After the announcement was made three people left the mosque hall, presumably all of them shared the name Sarwar but we saw that it was M. Sarwar of The Nation who was taken away by the police. It is only an allegation as far as we are aware.”

“The police were respectful and didn’t enter the mosque. They arrested M. Sarwar from the pavement outside after telling him what the allegations against him were. Everyone at the mosque was shocked as what had happened. We thought it was some kind of allegation relating to fight or altercation but the charge of sexual assault is very serious and when we heard the news about the charge we were all very shocked. We don’t know what the facts of this case are. Its unfortunate what happened,” said a mosque committee member, who requested his name not be published…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Police Launch Manhunt for ‘Terror Suspect’ Who Went Missing on Boxing Day… While Under Close Surveillance

A terror suspect who was under close police surveillance has gone missing, it emerged this evening.

Counter terrorism detectives today appealed to the public for help in tracing 28-year-old Ibrahim Magag who was last seen on Boxing Day.

He is believed to have absconded from a terror control order known as a Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures notice (TPIM).

Counter terrorism detectives urged anyone who sees Magag to ring 999 immediately. He was last seen in north London.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Police Seek 15-Year-Old Over Murder of Teenager Who Was Stabbed in Front of His Brother After ‘Refusing to Give His Phone to Muggers’

Detectives want to trace a 15-year-old boy in connection with the murder of a teenager who was stabbed to death in the street.

Sixth form student Dogan Ismail, 17, bled to death in front of his older brother after he was stabbed following ‘an altercation’ outside a block of flats on the Aylesbury Estate, in Walworth, south east London, yesterday.

Police have now taken the unusual step of naming a youth wanted for questioning in connection with Mr Ismail’s death.

Dawda Jallow, 15, from the Peckham area, is described as black, clean shaven with cropped black afro hair, 5ft 5in tall and of slight build.

He has brown eyes and speaks with a London accent, although he is a Gambian national.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Three-Quarters of Doctors Who Are Struck Off in Britain Are Trained Abroad

Three out of four doctors struck off the medical register this year were trained abroad, figures show.

It means that those who qualified overseas were over five times more likely to be struck off than British graduates.

The data comes amid growing alarm that many foreign doctors are simply not up to scratch, putting the safety of patients at risk.

[Return to headlines]

UK: Taxpayers Are Handing Nearly £500,000 a Week in Legal Aid to Prisoners to Help Them Make Human Rights Claims.

In four years, convicts have been given more than £93million to help them demand early release from jail, compensation or softer treatment behind bars.

The bill has spiralled from £1million a year before the Human Rights Act came into force to more than £25million in 2010.

Since then prisoners addicted to heroin have used legal aid to win thousands in compensation for being forced to go ‘cold turkey’ when locked up.

In another notorious case, a rapist was given legal aid to claim his rights were breached by having to ‘slop out’ because there was no lavatory in his cell.

And in May 2011 burglar Wayne Bishop was released from jail after the Court of Appeal ruled that locking him up breached his family’s human rights.

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has ordered a review of legal aid payouts over the damaging ‘compensation culture’ gripping jails.

Robert Oxley, campaign manager of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Britain’s legal aid bill has become unsustainable and must be reformed.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

UK: Taxpayers Fork Out £150million a Year for ‘Benefit Brood’ Families With More Than Five Children

Families with more than five children are costing the taxpayer an astonishing £150million in child benefits every year.

At least one parent in 40,000 families with five or more children is claiming jobseeker’s allowance, incapacity benefit, disability allowance, pension or another income boost as well as child benefit.

It is estimated that the total cost to the public of these super-sized families comes to at least £350million a year.

The families claiming extra benefits include 180 with ten or more children and ten with as many as 13.

[…]

Stephanie Fennessy-Sharp, 29, and her partner Ian Sharp receive £50,000 a year in benefits to support their ten children and live in a five-bedroom detached house in Kent.

Neither she nor 56-year-old Ian work. Instead, they claim the equivalent of a £72k salary before tax — and it’s all down to a skewed benefits system that discourages unemployed claimants from going out to find work.

Ian suffers debilitating headaches that he says prevent him from working. But Stephanie is perfectly healthy — and confesses she could work, but chooses not to because she is better off on benefits.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Wind Turbines ‘Last for Half as Long as Previously Thought’ As Study Shows They Show Signs of Wearing Out After Just 12 Years

Wind farms have just half the useful lifespan which has been claimed, according to new research which found they start to wear out after just 12 years.

A study of almost 3,000 turbines in Britain — the largest of its kind — sheds doubt on manufacturers claims that they generate clean energy for up to 25 years, which is used by the Government to calculate subsidies.

Professor Gordon Hughes, an economist at Edinburgh University and former energy advisor to the World Bank, predicts in the coming decade far more investment will be needed to replace older and ineffective turbines — which is likely to be passed on in higher household electricity bills.

[Return to headlines]

North Africa

Algeria: ANP Troops Kill Boumerdès Terrorist

The Algerian army killed a terrorist around midnight on Friday (December 28th) in the village of Dar Bouni, 50km east of Boumerdes, El Watan reported. He was ambushed while trying to visit his family. Since the beginning of the year, military operations have eliminated some fifty terrorists in the region.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Egypt Still Under Blackout Due to Fuel Shortage

15 power stations shut down yesterday, half of country at risk

(ANSAmed) — ROME, DECEMBER 28 — Over 15 power stations have not produced energy since yesterday due to a lack of fuel (diesel, natural gas and mazut), according to the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC).

For the first time ever, the electricity distributor announced, “the drastic decrease in available fuel has reduced productive capacity by about 3,000 megawatts per day”.

According to sources quoted by Al Ahram Online, if the situation is not resolved soon, “over half of Egypt’s governorates might be left with no electricity whatsoever”.

As a result of the halt to energy production in the plants, yesterday the governorates of Suez, Baharia, Alexandria and Cairo suffered a blackout lasting several hours.

In the attempt to meet electricity demand and deal with the lack of fuel, in October the Egyptian government signed an agreement to import gas from Algeria and started talks for the same with Qatar.

In August the authorities announced that two power plants would be built in Damietta and Abukir with an overall capacity of 1,800 megawatts when fully operational.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Egyptian Atheist’s Jail Sentence Blow to Religious Freedom

Saber speaks to ANSAmed, they arrested me instead of attackers

(By Shelly Kittleson) (ANSAmed) — CAIRO, DECEMBER 31 — When a furious mob attacked Alber Saber’s house in September, calling for his death and accusing him of burning the Koran and promoting the film The Innocence of Muslims on social networks, his mother phoned the police. On arriving, the police arrested him instead of his attackers, forced him to sign documents he hadn’t read and left him alone with other detainees at the police station after inciting violence against him, Saber told ANSAmed.

A few days after his release on bail pending appeal of the December 12 conviction for insulting religion, for which he has been sentenced to three years in jail, Saber granted an interview to ANSAmed in the offices of Egypt’s Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE). Slimmer than in photos taken previous to his detention, head shaven and face haggard and pale, the twenty-six-year-old showed a reddish-brown scar on his neck which he claims is from detainees who cut him with a sharp object at the police station he was taken to after the police officer in charge incited them and then locked him in as they attacked him. In the uproar sparked in September after the Egyptian Islamist television station Al-Nas broadcast part of the amateur film The Innocence of Muslims, which portrays the Prophet Mohammed in a negative light and was made by an Egyptian Copt living in the US, Saber was accused by a number of people in his neighbourhood — who he describes as “thugs” — of posting the video, running an atheist website and burning the Koran.

Although he denies the accusations (the police reportedly did not find any evidence of the original charges, but did find information on comparative religion and related subjects when they searched his home), Saber is from a Coptic Christian family and is an avowed atheist. Confessing to not believing in God is an extreme rarity in Egypt, where identity cards must state whether the holder is Muslim, Christian or Jewish. He says he came to this decision after “years of studying religion and philosophy” at Beni Suef University, before he decided to switch to a computer science degree programme in Cairo, which he was to have finished this year.

Politically active though not at the forefront during the 2011 uprising against the Mubarak regime, he was arrested briefly on 26 January 2011 at a protest in front of the Journalists’ Syndicate. He then had his home searched and computer, CDs and other materials confiscated when police raided his home in January of this year, most likely due to comments made on Facebook questioning religion.

Saber is not the first to have been sentenced on similar charges over the past year. In April an Egyptian juvenile court sentenced the Coptic teenager Gamal Abdou Massoud to three years in prison for posting cartoons mocking Islam on Facebook, while Coptic schoolteacher Bishoy Kamel was sentenced to six years in prison in September for sharing Innocence of Muslims on Facebook and for “insulting the president” and two Coptic boys (aged 9 and 10) were arrested in October for “defiling the Koran”. The two children were later released but “will remain under investigation”.

In any case, Saber continues to deny all charges. Both his conviction and the general climate surrounding freedom of religion and expression in Egypt has raised concern among human rights groups. With the recent approval of the referendum on the Islamist-drafted constitution, insulting religion is no longer just a violation of the criminal code but also one of the nation’s charter itself. Alber Saber had very much wanted to have his say on the matter, but did not get the chance. Although he should have been released as soon as his bail was posted immediately following the December 12 sentence, he was held for unexplained reasons until December 17: too late to cast his ballot in the December 15 round of the referendum in Cairo. His appeal trial has been scheduled for January 26.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Libya: Obama Admits “Huge Problem” In Security of Benghazi Consulate

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) — President Barack Obama said Sunday he won’t dispute the findings of a recent probe that showed a huge security manage problem in the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi of Libya. “We’re not going to be defensive about it. We’re not going to pretend that this was not a problem. This was a huge problem,” Obama said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press”. “My message to the State Department has been very simple. And that is, we’re going to solve this,” he said, vowing to implement “every single recommendation” put forward by the investigation report. In the interview, Obama cited “some sloppiness, although not intentional,” on the part of the State Department with respect to how the U.S. diplomatic missions are secured in places where local governments are not able to provide sufficient protection…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Tunisia: Attounssia TV Chief Hospitalised After Hunger Strike

Attounssia TV director Sami Fehri was transferred from Mornaguia prison to a Tunis hospital on Thursday (December 27th), TAP reported. According to his lawyer, Fehri’s health worsened as a result of a hunger strike launched on December 18th. Fehri was arrested in August for “illegal use of Tunisian state television resources”, days after his station aired a satirical puppet show that mocked members of the Ennahda-led government.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians

Fred Taub: the Israel Boycott and Bigotry

his brings us back to the two things racists have in common — they blame others for their own shortcomings and claim superiority because other people are worse. While the BDS crowd blames Israel for the woes of others, they also tell Israel what to do out of a sense of moral superiority based on their own self-esteem. Effectively, therefore, the Israel boycotters are by definition bigots. Of course they will deny being bigots and then claim Zionists are the real bigots, which brings up the topic of the Arab techniques used in their boycott of Israel — the trend among Arabs is to blame Israel for their shortcomings. For example, while Jews and Christians are forbidden from entering Mecca and Medina, the BDS claim is that Arabs are discriminated against by Israel. Of course the Arabs don’t tell their BDS recruits that Arabs vote in Israel and have been in every Knesset since day one; nor do they tell their BDS recruits that Israelis can’t enter most Arab nations, nor can any Jews vote in Arab nations. The Israel boycotters also fail to mention that Arab women can’t vote or drive under Islamic rule, yet are free to do both in Israel. The list goes on and on. Simply stated, the Arab world likes to claim Israel denies the very basic human rights the Arab world actually imposes on its own people, thus blaming Israel and Jews in general for the Arab world’s own shortcomings. There is one truism I have learned in the fifteen years I have been studying boycotts: It is easy to make a false claim and scream boycott in response. However, when you shine a light on the actions of the claimants, you may then be exposing the truth, including who the real bigots are.

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]

On the Weaponizing of Lethal Narratives …

by Richard Landes

Working again on the Al Durah affair (which goes to court again on January 16, 2013, I came across this article which I had saved but forgotten. It offers a fascinating insight into the skill displayed by al Qaeda in turning Palestinian lethal narratives into weapons of Jihad. I’ll bet that all the key footage (including, according to most, but not all those who have viewed the available evidence, the al Durah footage) belongs to the “Staged” category of Pallywood…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

PNA Condemns Israeli Order to Evacuate Palestinians From Jordan Valley

RAMALLAH, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) — The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) strongly condemned Monday the Israeli decision to evacuate about 1,000 Palestinians from their homes in the Jordan Valley for military training purposes. “This is an ethnic cleansing and a new war crime committed against the Palestinian people,” Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told Xinhua. Erekat urged the international community to intervene to stop such policies practiced against the residents of the Jordan Valley in the West Bank. Aref Daraghma, head of Wadi Maleh village council in the Northern Jordan Valley, told Xinhua that the Israeli military handed around 1,000 Palestinians evacuation orders to leave their houses for two days as of Wednesday. According to the evacuation orders, the residents of the village will be able to go back to their homes after two days when the military maneuvers are over…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Middle East

Al Qaeda Offers Reward for Killing US Ambassador in Yemen

SANAA // Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen has announced that it will pay tens of thousands of dollars to anyone who kills the US ambassador in Sanaa or an American soldier in the country…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Al-Qaeda Offers $160k Bounty for Assassination of US Ambassador to Yemen and $23k for Killing American Soldiers

Al-Qaeda has placed a $160,000 bounty on the head of the U.S. Ambassador to Yemen and $23,000 for the assassination of any American soldiers in the country.

An audio produced by the group’s media arm, the al-Malahem Foundation, and posted on militant websites Saturday said it offered three kilograms of gold for the killing of Ambassador Gerald M. Feierstein.

The bounties were set to ‘inspire and encourage our Muslim nation for jihad,’ the statement said.

[Return to headlines]

At Least 13 Killed in Series of Attacks in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) — At least 13 people were killed and 47 wounded in a series of bomb and gunfire attacks in central and eastern Iraq on Monday, the police said. In one attack, three roadside bombs went off at three houses in the town of al-Mussayab, some 60 km south of Baghdad, in the early morning hours, killing seven people and wounding four others, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Separately, a mortar round landed near a procession of Shiite pilgrims in the town of al-Latifiyah, some 40 km south of Baghdad, wounding three of them, a local police source said. Both towns are part of the once restive area dubbed Triangle of Death, which is a cluster of towns scattered between south of Baghdad and north of Hilla city, the capital of Babil province, some 100 km south of Baghdad…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Bishop Attacked in Lebanon’s Tripoli

BEIRUT: A Lebanese bishop was attacked Sunday by a group of young men in the northern city of Tripoli, security sources told The Daily Star. The group of young men attacked Bishop Abdullah Skaf and his son after the bishop asked them to move away from the area outside the Roman Catholic church in Tripoli’s al-Zahriyeh neighborhood. The sources said the young men were suspected to be either drunk or on drugs. An urgent meeting was held after the incident between local religious figures, both Muslim and Christian, and other dignitaries. Bishop Skaf asked for a complaint his son filed against the young men to be withdrawn and said he forgives them. The bishop also refused to make any statements to the media, so as to avoid provoking any strife in the northern city.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

British Public Wants to ‘Keep Out of Syria’

ComRes survey reveals resistance to Prime Minister’s plan to aid anti-Assad units

While David Cameron is rallying support among EU leaders to send arms to the rebels opposing the Assad regime in Syria, he also faces a battle to persuade the British public to back the plan. According to a survey for The Independent, people do not believe Britain should provide military supplies to the rebels. By a margin of 48 per cent to 35 per cent, people do not believe Britain should provide military supplies to the rebels — even if the UK did not send in any armed forces — while 18 per cent replied “don’t know”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

No Votes to be Had in Syria

Almost two years on from the first protests against Bashar Assad’s regime, in late January 2011, Western leaders, David Cameron among them, are desperate for the civil war in Syria to end. Deeply hostile to the regime in Damascus, but alarmed by the growing prominence of al-Qa’ida supporters in the ranks of the opposition, they yearn for Mr Assad to go before the Islamists become unstoppable.

However, a poll conducted for this newspaper, which we publish today, shows that the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, face an uphill struggle in trying to persuade the public of the merits of siding with the rebels, even to the extent of relaxing sanctions on sending them military aid. The figures show that on Syria, as on many other issues, the Prime Minister is out of step with his own party as well as the country. Tory voters are more opposed to arming the Syrian rebels than their Labour counterparts…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Russian Warships Head to the Syrian Port of Tartus

(AGI) Moscow, Dec 30 — The Kremlin is sending a warship to Syria. The Novocherkassk, a large landing ship, left the Black Sea port of Novorossiiskisto for the Syrian port of Tartus, Navy sources reported. The warship, together with other combat ships, is expected to go through the Bosphorous into the Mediterranean Sea on January 1 where other Russian warships will converge to conduct drills.

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

Syria: ‘Facing 100,000 Deaths in Next Year’

Lakhdar Brahimi, the international envoy to Syria, has warned that as many as 100,000 could die in the next year if a way cannot be found quickly to end the civil war.

Mr Brahimi, the UN-Arab League envoy for the Syrian crisis, told reporters in Cairo that if the crisis continues Syria will not be divided into states “like what happened in Yugoslavia” but will face “Somalisation, which means warlords, and the Syrian people will be persecuted by those who control their fate.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Russia

Muscovite, Making it — and Muslim

MOSCOW // Timur Bulgakov has a black belt in karate, two university degrees, a powerful SUV and a small yet thriving construction company. The 28-year-old’s success is impressive for a Muslim migrant from Uzbekistan whose first job in Moscow 10 years ago was as a delivery boy…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

South Asia

Afghanistan: Scrap Draft US Army Manual That Appeases Islamic Doctrine

We have written about the dangers of delusional political correctness intruding on conduct of alleged counter-insurgency doctrine in Afghanistan. We have thought that the so-called Human Terrain Studies, promoted by defamed former CENTCOMM Commander and ex-CIA Chief Gen. Petraeus, with its appeasing of Islamic culture would only hobble US operations in the faltering war in Afghanistan. In fact it also violates the field commanders’ first priority, which is force protection, and verges on gross negligence, as argued by Stephen Coughlin, Army Reserve Major and former Pentagon Consultant on Jihad war doctrine. You would have thought the spike in murderous green-on-blue attacks against US and Coalition ISAF forces by Afghan security personnel, the US Army’s Combined Arms Command, Army Lessons Learned Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas would have gotten the message that Coughlin and others have warned about. Apparently not…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Afghanistan: The West Should ‘Change Its Approach to Failing States’

Ahmed Rashid, one of the world’s foremost experts on Afghanistan, once welcomed US intervention in the failed state. But in a SPIEGEL interview, the Pakistani journalist says the West’s model for development is fundamentally flawed and must be changed.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Rashid, in 2014 the West will withdraw from Afghanistan. To what extent have they failed?

Rashid: In my view, the Western model of influencing the development of third world countries is doomed to failure. The West does not understand how to deal with states that no longer have any authority and are threatened by dissolution. Their efforts failed in Iraq as well as Afghanistan. They are simply not capable of promoting the indigenous economy. Neither USAID nor Germany’s international technical cooperation agency, the GIZ, are able to get a grip on it. They provide temporary assistance, no more than that. Many billions of dollars flooded into Afghanistan, but without any significant effect…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Afghanistan: Local Government Reform ‘Success’ In Helmand

When foreign combat troops pull out of Afghanistan in 2014, Afghan troops will try to fill the gap. In the troubled province of Helmand in the south-west, the security effort has been backed up by local government reform, one of the more significant successes of western intervention. It has been so successful that the British officials who introduced it have been asked to take it to other provinces. David Loyn reports…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Ordeal of Indian Gang Rape Victim in Her Own Words as She Lay Dying

[WARNING: Disturbing content.]

The Indian woman who died after a horrific rape by a gang of men told her family as she lay dying in hospital that she tried as hard as she could to fight off her attackers.

The 23-year-old told her younger brother she bit and kicked the men as they raped her on a bus in Delhi. As they assaulted the student the men said they would kill her.

The woman died on Saturday despite treatment at a Singapore hospital.

Following her death her brother paid tribute to the strength and courage she showed following her ordeal.

He said: ‘She was very strong. She always said one should never bear atrocities but fight against it.

‘While she was admitted in hospital, she told me that she fought back as hard as she could. She was defending herself by beating and biting them.

‘She thrashed them and kicked them too. They were boiling in anger by her defence so they decided to kill her. She told me that they were murmuring ‘maar do ise’ (kill her). They threw her considering she was dead.’

He also paid tribute to the woman’s friend, who was also attacked on the bus as they were returning home from a cinema trip.

Neighbours said the couple were planning to marry in February.

Her brother said: ‘The boy was equally courageous like my sister. She told me that he guarded her until he became unconscious.’

He added that he hadn’t slept since the incident occurred.

‘I’m missing her voice. She was my best friend. Whenever I had a problem, I talked to her over the phone for hours. She used to give me the best advice,’ he said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Sri Lanka: MP Adds Voice to Campaign Against Muslims

Actor turned politician Ranjan Ramanayake is in the eye of a storm after he criticised Islamic Sharia laws and its so-called ill effects on Sri Lankan women workers in West Asia.

“I have come here after discussing you for 25 minutes at our high command meeting,” Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem, who is also leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) told Ramanayake. He met him at a wedding on Friday night. Groups that have started e-mail campaigns against Muslim activities in the country, particularly the practice of halal meat products etc., have drawn the attention of the Muslim community in recent times.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Taliban Kill 21 Security Personnel Kidnapped by Them in NW Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) — Pakistan Taliban have killed 21 security personnel kidnapped by them during an attack on a checkpoint in NW Pakistan several days ago, reported local media Geo on Sunday. The dead bodies of the killed have been found in the Hassan Khel area near Peshawar, said the report, adding that all of them were shot dead. Pakistan Taliban have claimed responsibility for the killing of the 21 kidnapped security personnel, it said. On late Wednesday night, an estimated 30 heavily armed Taliban militants launched an attack on two checkpoints south of Peshawar, killing two security personnel, wounding another and kidnapping 23 others. Two of the kidnapped security personnel later escaped from Taliban custody, said local media.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Far East

China Buying Tu-22M3 Production Line

For the third time in 7 years (first one being in 2005, second earlier in 2012) several websites in China (link in Chinese) are reporting that China and Russia have agreed for Beijing to buy the production line for the Tupolev Tu-22M3 bomber at a cost of 1.5 billion USD.

Once in service with the Chinese Naval Air Forces the Tu-22M3 will be known as the “H-10”.

The deal struck with Russia comes with 36 aircraft (and engines): an initial batch of 12 followed by a second batch of 24 aircraft are thought to be on order.

The Tu-22 will be employed in the maritime attack role and will be used to attack targets from low level (to avoid radar detection).

[Return to headlines]

Philippines: Muslim Rebel Group Completes 8 Nominees to Transition Commission

MANILA, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) — The Moro Islamic Liberation Front ( MILF), the largest Muslim rebel group in southern Philippines, is now ready to transmit to the Malaysian facilitator the names of its eight nominees to the Transition Commission (TC) that will draft the Bangsamoro Basic Law, a rebel official said Monday. Muhammad Ameen, chairperson of the MILF Secretariat, said that the MILF Central Committee has already completed the list of the eight nominees to the TC, but their identifies were still withheld pending the transmission to the Malaysian facilitator, who will officially communicate the list to the Philippine government through its peace panel. “In choosing the nominees, the MILF has set three stringent pre- qualifications: sincerity to the Bangsamoro cause, capability to discharge the task, and geographical or sectoral consideration,” he said.

Included in the nominees were one woman, one member of the indigenous peoples (IP), one senior military commander of the MILF, and one aleem (learned in Islam), Ameen said.

The government peace panel has yet to recommend its seven nominees to be part of the 15-man TC. The creation of the TC was provided in the framework agreement that the government and the MILF recently forged.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Australia — Pacific

Australia’s Grand Mufti Meets Hamas

AUSTRALIA’S Grand Mufti Ibrahim Abu Mohamed has met with the hierarchy of Hamas, the Palestinian party listed by the Gillard government as a terrorist organisation.

Last week Dr Mohamed led an Australian delegation of Muslim scholars to the Gaza Strip, where they met Hamas senior political leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Mr Haniyeh, who has been pushing for the US and the EU to remove Hamas from its terrorist watchlist, last year described former al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden as “a Muslim and Arabic warrior” while condemning the US for killing the terrorist leader.

Dr Mohamed, who has been styled as a moderate since taking the top Australian Muslim post, last week expressed his happiness at being in Gaza, describing it as the land of pride and martyrdom.

“I am pleased to stand on the land of jihad to learn from its sons and I have the honour to be among the people of Gaza where the weakness always becomes strength, the few becomes many and the humiliation turns into pride,” he told local news agencies.

“We came here in order to learn from Gaza. As I said in my speech, we will make the stones, trees, and people of Gaza talk, in order to learn steadfastness, sacrifice, and the defence of one’s rights from them.

“We feel like we are on cloud nine. We feel like we are on top of the world.” Images of the visit were shown on local TV and hailed as a PR coup by Hamas, the fanatical ruling party in Gaza.

Attempts to contact Dr Mohamed, who has insisted radical Muslim extremists in Australia need to be corrected, were unsuccessful.

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Australia has listed Hamas as a terrorist entity subject to financial sanctions since 2001.

The military wing of Hamas is also listed as a terrorist organisation under the Criminal Code Act 1995.

In July 2009, Prime Minister Julia Gillard, then deputy prime minister, said: “Hamas obviously is a terrorist organisation that has been engaged in violent actions against the Israeli people.”

Ms Gillard was unavailable to comment.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr said through a spokesman that the trip had nothing to do with the government.

“It’s up to them to explain their own views and travel plans,” the spokesman said.

“We have no diplomatic engagement with Hamas.”

Last week’s delegation, described by the media as one of several “delegations of solidarity”, also visited the Ministry of Islamic Endowments and met with religious scholars and sheikhs.

           — Hat tip: The Observer [Return to headlines]

NZ: Spectacular Photo Captures Moment Great White is Gobbled by an Even Bigger Shark as It’s Hauled Into Fisherman’s Boat

The fisherman, whose Reddit name is Mancubus, was probably pretty chuffed with his catch and daydreaming about a fish and chip dinner, with the shark firmly on the end of the line.

But that was before he had competition.

The Kiwi didn’t even have time to haul his catch onto the deck before the smaller shark was in the jaws of the monster predator.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Sub-Saharan Africa

Kenya: 90 Kuria Girls Saved From FGM

More than 90 teenage girls in Kuria East and West districts have been rescued from Female Genital Mutilation. The girls fled their homes after their parents and villagers told them they would be circumcised this ‘season’…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Nigeria: How We Averted Bomb Attacks at Christmas — Jonathan

Abuja — President Goodluck Jonathan, Sunday, said but for the effective role of the security agencies, the Boko Haram sect would have carried out deadly bombings during the Christmas celebration. The president spoke on Sunday at the church service of “Ekklisiyar Yaruwa a Nigeria”, EYN, (Church of the Brethren in Nigeria), Utako, Abuja. According to the President, his administration is working round the clock to address the challenges of insecurity in the country…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

When Rwanda Won the UN Security Council Seat

Tomorrow, January 1, 2013, Rwanda takes her seat at the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member, replacing South Africa. The country was elected to the all-powerful 15-member Council on November 18, just days after the release of a highly controversial report linking Kigali to a rebellion in Eastern DRC. Today is the last day of 2012, a year which, by no means, was a quiet one for Rwanda. By and large, it is a year to remember. Across the board, the country made leaps and bounds and will be seeking to further these gains in the New Year…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Immigration

Muslim Immigration to Russia Increases Dramatically

Russia’s Federal Migration Service estimates that about 9.1 million foreigners arrived in Russia to work in 2011. More than a third came from three impoverished Central Asian countries that were once part of the Soviet Union: About 2 million from Uzbekistan, 1 million from Tajikistan and more than 500,000 from Kyrgyzstan. Local experts say the number of Central Asian arrivals is at least twice as high. And hundreds of thousands of Central Asians have already acquired Russian passports and are off the migration services’ radar.

The Central Asian migration has been the driving force in boosting Russia’s Muslim population to more than 20 million, from some 14 million 10 years ago _ a phenomenon experts call one of the most radical demographic makeovers Russia has ever seen.

“Today, we’re standing on the verge of a powerful demographic explosion, a great migration period equal to the one that took place in the first centuries A.D.,” said Vyacheslav Mikhailov, a former minister for ethnic issues and a presidential adviser on ethnic policies.

Muslims are expected to account for 19 percent of Russia’s population by 2030, up from 14 percent of the current population of 142 million, according to the U.S. government’s National Intelligence Council report on global trends published this month.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars

UK: 60,000 Patients Put on Death Pathway Without Being Told But Minister Still Says Controversial End-of-Life Plan is ‘Fantastic’

Up to 60,000 patients die on the Liverpool Care Pathway each year without giving their consent, shocking figures revealed yesterday.

A third of families are also kept in the dark when doctors withdraw lifesaving treatment from loved ones.

Despite the revelations, Jeremy Hunt last night claimed the pathway was a ‘fantastic step forward’.

In comments that appeared to prejudge an official inquiry into the LCP, the Health Secretary said ‘one or two’ mistakes should not be allowed to discredit the entire end-of-life system.

But Elspeth Chowdharay-Best of Alert, an anti-euthanasia group, said: ‘The Pathway is designed to finish people off double quick. It is a lethal pathway.

‘Mr Hunt has made a nonsense of the claim of his ministers that there is going to be an independent inquiry.’

The review follows a public outcry over a string of disturbing cases, highlighted by this paper, in which patients or their families were ignored.

The pathway involves withdrawal of lifesaving treatment, with the sick sedated and usually denied nutrition and fluids. Death typically takes place within 29 hours.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20121230

Financial Crisis
» Day of Seesaw Talks Produces No Accord on Fiscal Crisis
» Italian Treasury Sells 5.88 Million in Five-, 10-Year Bonds
» Less Than 1/2 of Italian HS Degree Holders Employed
» Talks on Fiscal Crisis Face Setback That Threatens Deal
 
USA
» Bravo to Real Inventor
» Former CINCPAC Commander Adm. Jones: Scrap Draft US Army Manual That Appeases Islamic Doctrine
» Government Employee Unions Robbing Taxpayers
» Merry Christmas and Happy Gun Control, Chicago
» Muslim-Hating Woman Pushed Hindu Man Onto Subway Track Because of ‘9/11’
» Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is Hospitalized With Blood Clot
» Two Alleged Terrorists Extradited From Canada to Brooklyn by DOJ
 
Europe and the EU
» Italy Captures 11 Billion Euros in Missing Tax Money
» Italy: Bersani Says No to Monti Ministers in Election List
» Italy: Former PM Berlusconi Wants Inquiry Into Monti ‘Conspiracy’
» Merkel Earns Too Little, Says Steinbrueck
» Ryanair Pilots Say the Airline Keeps Them ‘Short on Fuel’
» Sweden: Most Sterilizations Performed on Women
» Sweden: Dementia Bigger Killer Than Heart Attacks
» UK: Two Lone Women Were Stabbed in Potentially Linked Incidents
» Woman Hurt in Acid Attack in Germany
 
North Africa
» Church Explosion in Libya’s Misrata Claims Lives of Two
» Fighter Jets for the Muslim Brotherhood — A Gift We Shouldn’t Give
» First Plane Out of Benghazi
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Naftali Bennett Catches a Wave in Israel’s January 2013 Knesset Elections
» Why is Suha Arafat Back in the Spotlight?
 
Middle East
» Iraq: Iraq: Hundreds of Thousands of Sunnis on the Streets Against the Shiite Government
» Saudi Wahhabi Preacher Issues Fatwa Allowing Jihadis to Rape Syrian Women
» Syrian Rebels ‘Beheaded Christian and Fed Him to Dogs’
 
Russia
» The Greatest Subversive of Our Times
 
South Asia
» India: Karnataka: Anti-Christian Attacks Even on Christmas
 
Far East
» China’s Coral Reefs Nearly Gone, Study Finds
» The Princelings, Descendants of the Party’s ‘Immortals’, Are China’s New Masters
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Boko Haram Militias Murder 15 Christians in Nigeria
 
Immigration
» EU Lifts Visa for Turkish Citizens Providing Service in Germany, Netherlands and Denmark
» Immigrant Traffickers Arrested
» Nobel Winner Slates Britain’s ‘Stupid’ Immigration Reforms
» Switzerland: SVP Piles on the Pressure Over Foreign Criminals
 
Culture Wars
» Do Not Underestimate the Value of Culture as a Power of Change
» Italy: Top Bishop Calls ‘Femicide’ Priest’s Comments ‘Sad’
» The New Outlaws: How Same-Sex Marriage Suffocates Freedom
» UK: Christians Have No Right to Refuse to Work on Sundays, Rules Judge
» What is Marriage?
» Wicca, Raelism, Animism, Christianity

Financial Crisis

Day of Seesaw Talks Produces No Accord on Fiscal Crisis

Senate leaders on Sunday failed to produce a fiscal deal with just hours to go before large tax increases and spending cuts were to begin taking effect on New Year’s Day, despite a round of volatile negotiations over the weekend and an attempt by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to intervene.

Both sides moved toward each other on the central issue of how to define the wealthy taxpayers who would be required to pay more once the Bush-era tax cuts expire. But that progress was overshadowed by gamesmanship. After Republicans demanded that any deal must include a new way of calculating inflation that would lower payments to beneficiaries of programs like Social Security, Democrats halted the negotiations for much of the day.

The Republican minority leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, made an emergency call to Mr. Biden in hopes of restarting negotiations, and the White House dispatched the president’s chief legislative negotiator to the Capitol to meet with Senate Democrats. Soon after, Republicans withdrew their demand and discussions resumed, but little progress was made.

[Return to headlines]

Italian Treasury Sells 5.88 Million in Five-, 10-Year Bonds

Bond auction draws slightly less attention than usual

(ANSA) — Rome, December 28 — The Italian Treasury sold 5.88 billion euros worth of its five- and 10-year bonds Friday, slightly less than its target of six billion.

It was also forced to offer a slightly higher interest rate than at a similar auction in November.

The yield rose to 3.26% from 3.23% on the five-year paper while yield on the 10-year bonds rose to 4.48% from 4.45% a month ago.

As trading opened Friday morning, the spread between Italy’s 10-year benchmark bond and its German counterpart was slightly higher than Thursday close of 313 points, at 326 basis points and an average yield of 4.56.

The spread is a good barometer of financial markets’ confidence in Italy’s finances.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Less Than 1/2 of Italian HS Degree Holders Employed

Istat 2011 data shows 82.3% still live with their parents

(ANSAmed) — ROME — Just 45.7% of Italians who graduated in 2007 have found a job, a 2011 survey by the national statistics bureau Istat showed.

A previous survey of 2004 graduates showed more than 50% had found jobs three years after leaving school, Istat said.

Unemployment is highest among secondary school graduates, those with fine arts degrees and those with teaching certificates (34%), against 22.4% for those with technical diplomas and 21.4% of those with degrees from professional institutes.

Of those who did find a job in spite of the crisis, 37.8% has a full-time job, 27.3% has a short-term contract, 7.3% works under project-based contracts, and 19% has occasional or seasonal employment.

Many high school graduates work, study, and look for new employment at the same time, the Istat data showed. Just over 9% works and goes to school, and about 4% don’t work and don’t study.

Of 2007 high school graduates, almost 64% went on to university, while just 2.5% pursued a fine arts or musical degree. Of those who attended university, just under 14% obtained their degree, while another 9% interrupted or abandoned their studies. At least 82.3% still lived with their parents and 5.5% lived on their own, with few having formed families of their own.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Talks on Fiscal Crisis Face Setback That Threatens Deal

Negotiations to reach a last-ditch agreement to head off large tax increases and sweeping spending cuts in the new year broke down, at least temporarily, on Sunday after Republicans requested that any deal include a new way of calculating inflation that would lower payments to beneficiaries programs like Social Security and slow their growth.

A Senate Democratic aide with knowledge of the talks cautioned that they could restart. And Republican officials hinted that the Republican position is not set in stone. But for now, the Democratic aide said, talks have stopped.

Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, went to the Senate floor a little to say that Republicans had made their last offer at 7:10 the night before and had yet to receive a reply.

“I’m concerned about the lack of urgency. I think we all know we’re running out of time,” he said.

To that, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate majority leader, declared, “at this stage, we’re not able to make a counter offer.”

[Return to headlines]

USA

Bravo to Real Inventor

By Phyllis Schlafly

For more than 200 years, our U.S. rule about patents has been, as required by the U.S. Constitution, that the person who first invents something has a right to patent it. Patent rights attach to the inventor, not to paper-pushers who may rush to a government office and try to file first with papers about the invention. But lobbyists for big corporations have long wanted to change our rules, and the current Congress passed a law that gives the corporations what they want. Congress passed what is called the America Invents Act, which was signed into law by President Obama in 2011. Patent rights are now based on who files documents first with the Patent and Trademark Office. This new law rewards paper-pushers rather than real inventors.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Former CINCPAC Commander Adm. Jones: Scrap Draft US Army Manual That Appeases Islamic Doctrine

We have written about the dangers of delusional political correctness intruding on conduct of alleged counter-insurgency doctrine in Afghanistan. We have thought that the so-called Human Terrain Studies, promoted by defamed former CENTCOMM Commander and ex-CIA Chief Gen. Petreaus appeasing Islamic ‘cultural anthropology’ would only hobble US operations in the faltering war in Afghanistan. In fact it violates the field commanders’ first priority of force protection verging on gross negligence argued by Stephen Coughlin, Army Reserve Major and former Pentagon Consultant on Jihad war doctrine You would have thought the spike in murderous green- on- blue attacks against US and Coalition ISAF forces by Afghan security personnel, the US Army’s Combined Arms Command , Army Lessons Learned Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas would have gotten the message that Coughlin and others have warned about. Apparently not.

The Washington Times (WT) this New Year’s weekend published what one commentator called “a concise and thoughtful criticism of this myopic Army Manual. The WT op ed, authored by former Commander of the US Pacific Fleet (CINPAC), ret. Admiral James A. Lyons, is entitled, “Draft of new U.S. Army handbook must be scrapped”. Former CINPAC Commander Adm. Lyons has in the opinion of this former US Army intelligence officer nailed it.

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]

Government Employee Unions Robbing Taxpayers

By Phyllis Schlafly

On my Saturday radio talk program, I recently interviewed Mallory Factor, the author of a new book called Shadowbosses. Shadowbosses is a term he invented for government employee unions. We’ve only had government-employee union in recent years, and they are very different from private sector unions because government employee unions are paid by the taxpayers and the taxpayers are never at the bargaining table. Many government employees are forced to pay union dues in order to get and keep their jobs. Union bosses admit that much of the dues money goes to buy political influence to get what the unions want in pay and benefits. But the government employee unions don’t exercise their influence only to increase benefits for their members. These unions are also big players in promoting leftwing and Democratic Party governmental policies of all kinds.

Nationwide, only 7% of private companies are unionized. However 41% of government employees are unionized. Together they collect $14 billion annually in dues. The government union officials are very well paid, with individual compensation ranging up to $300,000 per person in annual salaries. One of the major government employee unions is the National Education Association, which exerts tremendous influence on education policies and spending.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Merry Christmas and Happy Gun Control, Chicago

Chicago, one of America’s most Nazified, anti-gun cities, has just recorded its 500th homicide. This is another banner year for Rahm Emanuel’s tightly controlled non-gun “paradise.” Breitbart recently reported that Chicago’s own stats show that 440 school age children were shot in 2012 in Chicago’s paradise. Breitbart’s Awr Hawkins writes:

These numbers are well above those for the 2011-2012 school year, in which 319 Chicago students were wounded and another 24 were killed.

And yet, it has long been reported that the school where Rahm’s children attend to their education has an armed security guard. Additionally, his children also have an armed escort to get them to and from school, just like those Hollywood celebrities who clamor for gun control while they enjoy full-time, armed bodyguards. And yet, the citizen gun control puppets continue to lap up the “wisdom” of their Masters and spew their hyper-emotional pleas to be controlled and enslaved.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Muslim-Hating Woman Pushed Hindu Man Onto Subway Track Because of ‘9/11’

A Muslim-hating woman was charged with murder as a hate crime for senselessly shoving a Queens man to his death in front of the 7 train, officials said today.

Erika Menendez, 31, was hit with a second-degree murder charge after confessing to killing Sunando Sen, 46, following her arrest this morning.

“She is accused of committing a subway commuter’s worst nightmare,” Queens DA Richard Brown said. “(He was) suddenly and senselessly pushed into the path of an oncoming train, shoved from behind with no chance to defend himself.

“She told police that she pushed a Muslim off the train tracks. She said, ‘I’ve hated Hindus and Muslims since 2001 since they put down the Twin Towers. I have been beating them up since.’“

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is Hospitalized With Blood Clot

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was hospitalized on Sunday with a blood clot stemming from a concussion she suffered earlier this month, a State Department spokesman said.

Mrs. Clinton, who canceled most of her public events in recent weeks because of her concussion, was at a follow-up exam Sunday when doctors discovered a blood clot, according to Philippe Reines, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton.

“She is being treated with anticoagulants and is at New York-Presbyterian Hospital so that they can monitor the medication over the next 48 hours,” Mr. Reines said in a statement.

[Return to headlines]

Two Alleged Terrorists Extradited From Canada to Brooklyn by DOJ

BY JIM KOURI Two alleged operatives of the Sri Lanka-based terrorist group, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a designated foreign terrorist organization popularly referred to as the Tamil Tigers, were arraigned Thursday before United States Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, N.Y., following their extradition from Canada.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU

Italy Captures 11 Billion Euros in Missing Tax Money

Crackdown on tax evasion earns windfall of billions

(ANSA) — Rome, December 28 — Italy’s tax collectors seized 11 billion euros in unpaid taxes from evaders as of early December, the national revenue agency announced Friday.

That’s a bit less than the amount recovered in 2011’s fight against tax evasion, the agency admitted. During the same period last year, 12.7 billion euros in unpaid taxes were collected.

In 2013, the agency says it will be applying new rules to help in the fight against tax evasion.

In one major case this year, it said, a group of companies in the Marche region issued false invoices worth 226 million euros that created 32 million euros in unreported — and untaxed — income. As a result, seven people have been charged with criminal conspiracy.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Bersani Says No to Monti Ministers in Election List

(AGI) — Rome, Dec 28 — Pier Luigi Bersani has said he will not be using ministers in Mario Monti’s government in the election list. “One year ago, with the participation of everyone, we put together a transitional, technical, so-called non-partisan government. Now, I would not want this choice and this government to be torn apart, a little by one side and a little by the other, in an electoral competition,” the PD Secretary said at a press conference.

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

Italy: Former PM Berlusconi Wants Inquiry Into Monti ‘Conspiracy’

(AGI) Milan, Dec. 29 — Asked whether he regretted supporting the creation of the Monti government, former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi called it a “conspiracy”. In his words, “let’s be frank: at that time there was a de facto conspiracy. If we win, we will immediately set up a commission to look into what exactly happened.” .

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

Merkel Earns Too Little, Says Steinbrueck

(AGI) Berlin — Angela Merkel’s Social Democrat challenger for the Chancellorship, Pier Steinbrueck, has let slip that the Chancellor earns too little.

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

Ryanair Pilots Say the Airline Keeps Them ‘Short on Fuel’

(AGI) Brussels, Dec 29 — Four Ryanair pilots said the airline “makes us fly short on fuel” .

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

Sweden: Most Sterilizations Performed on Women

In Sweden, more women are choosing to get sterilized than men, according to figures from the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen).

Out of the 4,800 Swedes who chose to get sterilized in 2010, two thirds were women.

According to relationship experts the disparity could be down to women traditionally taking greater responsibility for both reproduction and pregnancy prevention.

“Many guys think that if we skip using a condom she’ll sort out the pregnancy prevention… So I’m thinking if the woman doesn’t want to be on the pill, then one option is to get sterilized,” Robert Jakobsson, a social worker and sexologist, told Sveriges Radio (SR).

Since Swedish county councils are no longer obliged to report the number of sterilizations carried out, the National Board of Health and Welfare figures are not conclusive.

However, there is information about the cost of carrying out the operation, and it varies significantly around the country.

In 11 out of Sweden’s county councils the patient fee for a sterilization is 300 Swedish kronor ($45), which is the prize of a regular doctor’s visit.

In eight of the councils, sterilizations cost over 2,000 kronor. In the southern region of Östergötland the prize is a hefty 13,200 kronor.

Two county councils do not offer the procedure at all.

Sveriges Radio (SR) spoke to a 26-year-old woman who said she knew already as a teenager that she did not want to have children.

At age 19 she found out that she could get sterilized, but the age limit is 25.

“When I turned 25 I immediately went to the health centre because I knew that’s what I wanted,” she said.

She added that she could always adopt if she ever changes her mind about having children.

“There are lots of children in the world who need parents. I don’t see a need to have your own, genetic children just because you want them. It’s better to take one that already exists and to take care of it,” she said.

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

Sweden: Dementia Bigger Killer Than Heart Attacks

For decades, heart attacks were the most common cause of death in Sweden, but now more Swedes are dying from dementia diseases.

Improvements in healthcare and healthier lifestyles have led to a fall in the number of heart attacks, as well as a fall in death rates among heart attack victims.

That is according to broadsheet Dagens Nyheter (DN), which has analyzed statistics from the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen).

In 2011, a total of 6,874 Swedes died from heart attacks. That is 4,300 fewer cases than in 2001.

The same year over 8,000 Swedes died from some form of dementia, including senility. That is a 32 percent jump compared to 2001. Alzheimer’s is high one the list of deathly dementia diseases in Sweden.

An ageing population could be one explanation behind the jump.

At the same time, there has also been a fall in death rates for some of the most common diseases in Sweden.

For instance, the number of people dying from the flu or pneumonia has decreased by 25 per cent in 10 years.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

UK: Two Lone Women Were Stabbed in Potentially Linked Incidents

Both victims were attacked as they walked through a park area known locally as Wapping Woods, off Garnet Street.

The suspect is described as an Asian man

The first attack occurred at around 6.25pm on Tuesday

The suspect approached her holding a knife and stabbed her before taking a digital camera from her bag and running off towards The Highway.

A second similar incident happened at around 12.25pm today in Wapping Woods in which the victim was a 26 year-old woman.

She was approached by a man holding a knife and forced into bushes where she was stabbed three times in the chest. It is not believed that anything was taken before the attacker ran away towards The Highway

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

Woman Hurt in Acid Attack in Germany

GERMAN police have arrested two suspects after a young woman of Turkish origin suffered serious burns in an acid attack in western Germany.

The 20-year-old victim opened the door of her home in the town of Hilden early on Saturday when one of the suspects doused her with sulphuric acid from a tin can.

The victim immediately felt strong burns in her face and called rescue services who identified the liquid as an acid.

The woman was taken to a hospital. Her grandmother was also slightly hurt in the attack.

One of the suspects, a 22-year-old man of Turkish origin, was arrested and remanded in custody on Saturday.

He told investigators he had asked an acquaintance to carry out the attack, police and the public prosecutor’s office in the state capital of Duesseldorf said in a joint statement.

The other suspect, who is aged 18 and thought to have carried out the attack, turned himself in to the police on Sunday.

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]

North Africa

Church Explosion in Libya’s Misrata Claims Lives of Two

(AGI) — Tripoli, Dec 30 — At least two people were killed and two were injured after a bomb exploded at a Coptic Christian church in Libya’s Dafniya, some 30km west of Misrata. According to Egyptian consular sources in Tripoli, all the victims were Egyptian.

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

Fighter Jets for the Muslim Brotherhood — A Gift We Shouldn’t Give

With a continuing moral crisis in America, the fight over whether we continue to spend taxpayer money we don’t have, it is unthinkable that the Obama Administration would be willing to spend $213 million to give arms to Egypt.

Yet, the United States is poised to give the Muslim Brotherhood-led government of Egypt 200 M1A1 Abrams battle tanks and 20 F-16 fighter jets. These represent some of America’s best, most sophisticated weaponry — used today by our men in women in uniform. This gift will increase Egypt’s M1A1 tanks by 20% and represents nearly a 10% increase in Egypt’s F-16 fighter jets.

This is not an insignificant award of firepower or finances, costing American taxpayers $213 million for the fighter jets alone. But it is also extremely important to know to whom we are giving these highly sophisticated weapons.

[Return to headlines]

First Plane Out of Benghazi

When madmen in the Middle East shoot up American consulates and embassies, [Obama] blames movies and calls for film control.

It took some 22 hours for American help to arrive in Benghazi after all the t’s had been crossed and the i’s had been dotted, and the body of America’s ambassador to Libya had been dragged through the streets by “rescuers” stopping along the way to pose for cell phone pictures with his corpse.

By way of comparison it takes about 16 hours for a boatload of Libyan illegal immigrants to row to the Italian island of Lampedusa. Support for the Americans under fire in Libya would have arrived sooner if a few former members of the Harvard Rowing Team had gotten in one the many rowboats beached on the shores of Lampedusa and pushed the oars all the way to Benghazi.

It says something about the current state of asymmetrical warfare that not only can Al Qaeda throw together a coordinated string of attacks on American embassies around the region without anyone being the wiser for it, but boatloads of migrants from Libya can reach Europe faster on muscle power than American forces can reach a mission under attack while equipped with jet power.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians

Naftali Bennett Catches a Wave in Israel’s January 2013 Knesset Elections

Bennett’s rise in Knesset election polls has caught a wave of interest in both Israel and the mainstream media in the US and aboard. That was signified by articles on him that appeared this week in The Daily Beast, The New York Times and AFP. Ted Belman of Israpundit drew attention in a blog post to an article in the Israeli left wing publication +972 (the area code for Judea and Samaria) that designated the settler movement as their’ Person of The Year’. +972 had this to say about the Bennett ‘phenomenon’: The traditional focus on the center seems somewhat irrelevant, as a new role model of the Israeli Sabra emerges in figures like Bennett, who has been receiving quite a bit of publicity lately, including a feature in the New York Times. . . .Bennett, the Zionist patriot, recently said in a television interview that as an army reserve officer he would refuse orders to evacuate settlements. Refusing orders has long been a red line that few dared to cross; politicizing one’s army service was considered a taboo in mainstream Israeli society that many thought made one unelectable. The New York Times profile on Bennett noted how Netanyahu’s reaction to this taboo may have had the opposite effect. The NYT article, “Dynamic Former Netanyahu Aide Shifts Israeli Campaign Rightward,” noted: Mr. Stern of the Israel Democracy Institute said that while Mr. Bennett tries to convince voters that they can vote Jewish Home for identity reasons without threatening Mr. Netanyahu’s re-election, the prime minister is making the opposite case: that Mr. Bennett is an extremist and not a reliable partner. Hence, days of headlines filled with the refusal spat. “Our biggest problem before this was name recognition,” said a top Jewish Home figure, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of seeming to make light of a serious issue. Mr. Netanyahu, he added, “fixed that for us.” Bennett’s Stability lnitiative entails annexation of Area C which he estimates at 350,000 Jewish Israeli residents and 48,000 Palestinians. The proposal would give the option to the minority Palestinians in Area C to become Israel citizens, akin to that offered to Palestinians in East Jerusalem. Increasingly Palestinians in East Jerusalem have elected to seek Israeli citizenship. This has given rise to what Ha’aretz this weekend called a “process of surprising “Israelization”. Bennett’s Stability lnitiative would assure Israel control over 50 percent of the nation’s water supply and it would provide security for the hills overlooking the Jordan Valley.

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]

Why is Suha Arafat Back in the Spotlight?

In a Dubai TV interview on December 16, 2012, Suha Arafat, the widow of Yasser Arafat , revealed in a MEMRI translation that her late husband had perpetrated the Second Intifada in September 2000 that lasted until 2005. More than 3,000 Palestinians, 1,000 Israelis and 64 foreigners were killed in the armed uprising. The Palestinian myth created was that the visit to the Al Aqsa Mosque by then Israeli Prime Minister (PM) Ariel Sharon, triggered the Intifada. Arafat had rejected a US deal brokered by Former President Clinton with Israel at Camp David. In November 1999, Suha and then First Lady Hillary Clinton were photographed embracing during a visit to Ramallah. Clinton’s espousal of a Palestinian state was complicated by Suha’s accusations against Israel at the time:

Our people have been subjected to the daily and extensive use of poisonous gas by the Israeli forces, which has led to an increase in cancer cases among women and children.

Jerusalem Post and Daily Caller articles on New Year’s weekend drew attention to MEMRI’s translation of Suha’s revelations from the December 2012 Dubai TV interview:

Immediately after the failure of the Camp David [negotiations], I met him in Paris upon his return… Camp David had failed, and he said to me, ‘You should remain in Paris.’ I asked him why, and he said, ‘Because I am going to start an intifada. They want me to betray the Palestinian cause. They want me to give up on our principles, and I will not do so.’

I do not want Zahwa’s [Arafat’s daughter’s] friends in the future to say that Yasser Arafat abandoned the Palestinian cause and principles. I might be martyred, but I shall bequeath our historical heritage to Zahwa and to the children of Palestine.

Suha Arafat is playing the media to gain sympathy and revenge as an alleged grieving widow against PA political and security leaders for not providing adequate security that might have prevented her husband’s demise. That might deflect accusations of financial irregularities arising from alleged mishandling of donor funds. Her recent confirmation of Yasser Arafat’s premeditated Second Intifada should give no comfort to Israel, given that she continues to accuse Israel of despoiling Gaza. In the Ynet.com article she rationalized the Paris birth of her daughter Zahwa in 1995: My father was on his deathbed and in hospital and that is why I made the decision. I refused to give birth in Israel — I told them (the Israelis) — You ruined the whole of Gaza, you were the ones who destroyed our hospitals, not us.

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]

Middle East

Iraq: Iraq: Hundreds of Thousands of Sunnis on the Streets Against the Shiite Government

For the past week the main roads of the country have been blocked. In Ramadi, more than 100 thousand people have built barricades on the road leading to the Syrian border. Protests also in Fallujah, Tikrit, Mosul and Samarra. The Sunnis demand an end to anti-terrorism laws and accuse the Shiites of keeping them on the margins of society.

Baghdad (AsiaNews / Agencies) — Hundreds of thousands of Sunni Muslims are protesting against the government of Shi’ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the anti-terrorism laws and the police. In Fallujah (50 km west of Baghdad), about 60 thousand people blocked the main road leading to Baghdad. Protesters burnt flags and effigies of Shiite Islam, shouted slogans against the government accused of being manipulated by Iran. The Sunnis have expressed their support for the Syrian rebels who for the past 20 months have been fighting President Bashar Al — Assad who belongs to the minority of Alawites close to Shiite Islam.

According to local media people want to emulate the “Arab Spring” which in 2011 led to the fall of governments in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen. The climax of the protests was reached yesterday in Ramadi, with more than 100 thousand people along the road that leads to the border with Syria and Jordan. Other protests have taken place after Friday prayers in Mosul, Kurdistan, Samarra and Tikrit. Riots were sparked by the arrest in Anbar province (western Iraq) of 10 bodyguards of Rafia al-Issawi, Minister of Finance, one of the main leaders of the Sunni faction of the government.

The Sunnis were the dominant faction in Iraq for decades during Saddam Hussein’s regime, guilty of the genocide of the Shia minority. With the fall of the dictator in 2003, the international forces opted for a rise to power of the Shiite faction that gave way to a gradual marginalization of its opponents. The contrast between the two groups, however, has also led to a real conflict involving al-Qaeda terrorists and various extremist movements from neighbouring Iran, regarded as the main supporter of the government of al-Maliki.

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

Saudi Wahhabi Preacher Issues Fatwa Allowing Jihadis to Rape Syrian Women

A Wahhabi religious cleric in Saudi Arabia, Muhammed al-Arifi, who is very influential in Jihadi circles, has recently issued a fatwa (religious edict) that permits all Jihadist militants in Syria to engage in short-lived marriages with Syrian women that each lasts for a few hours in order to satisfy their sexual desires and boost their determination in killing Syrians. He called the marriage as ‘intercourse marriage’. It requires that the Syrian female be at least 14 years old, widowed, or divorced.

Is this the Western-promoted “freedom and democracy” that Syrians want?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Syrian Rebels ‘Beheaded Christian and Fed Him to Dogs’

He has just got married and his wife was about to give birth but this did not save Andrei Arbashe, a young Christian, from a horrific fate at the hands of rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s regime earlier this month.

“They beheaded him, cut him into pieces and fed him to the dogs,” said Agnes-Mariam de la Croix, mother superior of the Monastery of St James the Mutilated between Damascus and Homs.

Forget the familiar Arab spring narrative about down-trodden masses taking on the forces of evil: the Syrian conflict appears to have entered a darker phase in which the rebels are committing atrocities against innocent civilians. It does not bode well for peace.

The people who chopped up Arbashe did not seem to need much of a motive: his brother had apparently been overheard complaining about the rebels behaving like bandits.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Russia

The Greatest Subversive of Our Times

by Michael Ledeen

December 30th is Vladimir Bukovsky’s seventieth birthday. He is the only Russian barred by special law from running for president, a tribute to his immense popularity and force of character. Among the great generation of democratic dissidents—the generation that punctured the monstrous Soviet bubble and produced the celebrated sucking sound that ended the Soviet Empire and gutted the world Communist movement—Bukovsky is arguably the most important.

Otherwise that law wouldn’t be necessary.

Bukovsky has a rare combination of toughness, common sense, and good humor. He never compromised with his oppressors, even though he was subjected to the KGB’s infamous psychological and biochemical torments during his years in prison and the camps. His unrivaled courage and tenacity inspired a generation, and his standing was dramatically demonstrated when the Kremlin traded him for the Chilean Communist leader Luis Corvalan in 1976.

His memoir, To Build a Castle, is one of the masterpieces of the period, and his subsequent works document the crimes of the Soviet state, the complicity of Western leaders who played useful idiots to the evil empire, and the survival of the Soviet vision in the European Union.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

South Asia

India: Karnataka: Anti-Christian Attacks Even on Christmas

Hindu nationalists from the Bajrang Dal get banner dedicated to the 25 years of Our Lady of Velankanni removed. Christian leader tells AsiaNews that police “are silent spectators when it comes to violence against Christians.” The latest is the 40th attack against Christians this year.

Mumbai (AsiaNews) — Police are “quick to respond to the demands of Hindu nationalists,” but are “silent spectators when it comes to violence against Christians,” said Sajan George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) as he spoke about the 40th anti-Christian attack in Karnataka this year.

On Wednesday, activists from the Bajrang Dal forced the parish priest of the Stella Maris Church in Kalmady (Udupi District) to remove a banner dedicated to Our Lady of Velankanni, whose silver jubilee it is this year. The banner showed an image of Our Lady and a Brahmin with a vase in his hands.

According to tradition, various Marian appearances have been recorded in the area since the 16th century. In the first case, the Virgin, her son in her arms, asked a Hindu boy for some of the milk he was carrying.

Fr Alban D’Souza raised the banner on 8 December, to mark the 25th anniversary of the chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Velankanni. However, for Anil Bangera, a local Bajrang Dal leader, the banner “hurt the religious feelings of the Hindu community of Kalmady.”

After informing the police, Hindu nationalists told the parish priest to remove the banner and apologise for the insult. To avoid violent reactions during Christmas celebrations, Fr D’Souza removed the banner saying that “the Church had no intention of hurting anyone’s belief.”

For Sajan George, the incident “is an act of intolerance that deserves to be strongly condemned because it sows the seeds of mistrust and suspicion within the community; the more some since the apparition of Our Lady of Velankanni is part of the history and culture of this area, and the chapel is visited by believers of every religion.” (NC)

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

Far East

China’s Coral Reefs Nearly Gone, Study Finds

Coral reefs are under siege worldwide, and now a team of Australian and Chinese researchers has made an alarming discovery in the waters near China: The teeming coral reefs once found off the shores of the Asian giant have shrunk by an astonishing 80 percent over the last 30 years.

Biological surveys in the South China Sea and off mainland China revealed that losses of living coral reefs, especially in the past 10 to 15 years, present a “grim picture of decline, degradation and destruction,” said the research report, according to AFP.

Pollution, overfishing and coastal development are blamed for the disappearance of the coral reefs. “China’s ongoing economic expansion has exacerbated many wicked environmental problems,” the report authors said, as quoted by AFP.

In addition to environmental causes, regional politics also plays a part in the reefs’ destruction, the AFP reports. Several countries in the area, including Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, have competing claims on territorial waters in South Asia, making management of the area’s resources difficult.

China’s remarkable growth has been accompanied by widespread environmental destruction throughout the country, the AFP reports. The economic powerhouse suffers from some of the worst air, water and land pollution in the world, despite the government’s efforts to lead the nation toward a more sustainable growth model.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

The Princelings, Descendants of the Party’s ‘Immortals’, Are China’s New Masters

They own private companies and manage state corporations, with properties abroad or offshore. The descendants of the Party’s founders are China’s new ‘red aristocracy’ and have created one of the most unjust societies in the world with the gap between haves and have-nots reaching a danger level. At least 500 episodes of social unrest occur each day. Xi Jinping is urged to fight corruption and implement reforms; however, the study that reveals the princelings’ assets is blocked.

Beijing (AsiaNews) — The descendants of eight party founding fathers are sitting on assets worth dozens of billions of dollars. Such a connection between politics and economics undermines the fight against corruption pursued by Xi Jinping and the country’s new leaders. At the same time, such concentration of wealth is generating anger and outrage among ordinary Chinese.

A study released by Bloomberg News yesterday, which includes a number of pieces and an interesting graph, maps the breadth and history of China’s ‘red aristocracy’, describing the assets of 103 individuals, all of whom are the direct descendants and spouses of the so-called ‘eight immortals’, i.e. Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yun, Yang Shangkun, Wang Zhen, Bo Yibo, Li Xiannian, Peng Zhen and Song Renqiong.

These eight are among the founders of the Communist Party who, following Mao Zedong’s death, tried to save the country from the economic disaster caused by Mao’s policies by opening it up to foreign investments.

At the same time, to prevent the party from losing power, their loyal descendants were chosen to run new state-owned conglomerates. By the 1990s, the latter began investing in real estate, steel and coal. Eventually, they diversified into rare earths and international finance.

Bloomberg’s study shows that 26 of their heirs ran or held top positions in state-owned companies that dominate the economy. Three children alone-Wang’s son, Wang Jun , Deng’s son-in-law He Ping and Chen Yuan , the son of Mao Zedong’s economic tsar-headed or still run state-owned firms with combined assets of about US$1.6 trillion last year. That is equivalent to more than a fifth of the mainland’s annual economic output in 2011.

In the 1980s, Wang Jun and He Ping got into the arms industry, selling weapons to Iran, Myanmar, and Pakistan. They also set up a joint-venture with Ferrari, the princelings’ favourite car.

At least 43of the 103 ran their own businesses or became executives in private firms. Using family connections and their foreign education, they went to work for banks like Citigroup and Morgan Stanley. Many own or run entities linked to companies registered offshore, many in jurisdictions that offer secrecy, like the Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and Liberia.

Although their fathers ostensibly disliked the ‘bourgeois individualism” of capitalist nations, at least half of their descendants lived, studied and worked abroad.

At least 23 of their descendants and their spouses studied in the United States, including three at Harvard University and four at Stanford University. At least 18 worked for US entities, and 12 owned property in the US.

For some analysts, the Tiananmen massacre of 4 June 1989 was carried out to stop criticism from Chinese students against the princelings’ privileges (visas and funding) to study in the best universities in the world in England and America, at a time when no Chinese could do so. As long-time critic Bao Tong noted, the massacre silenced pro-democracy voices but also anti-corruption critics.

By examining thousands of pages of documents and conducting dozens of interviews, Bloomberg traced the holdings of the Immortals’ 103 direct descendants and their spouses, highlighting China’s greatest problem, social inequality.

Over the last three decades, Communist China’s leaders have claimed that more than 600 million people have been lifted out of poverty; yet they have also built one of the world’s most unequal societies.

A recent study shows that China’s Gini coefficient is 0.6. This index measures inequality and levels of instability in society. Experts believe that a coefficient higher than 0.4 can lead to social unrest.

In China’s case, episodes of social unrest due to corruption of party officials or environmental problems number at least 500 a day.

By releasing the study on China’s ‘red aristocracy’, Bloomberg is sending signals to China’s future president, Xi Jinping, that social reforms and the fight against corruption are needed if he wants to stop the rot inside the party and its potential demise.

However, Bloomberg is blocked in mainland China, and Chinese bloggers planning to post the study have been warned that they would be in trouble with the law if they did so.

Already in June, Bloomberg was blocked after it released data on the assets own by Xi Jinping and his family, estimated to be around a billion dollars.

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

Sub-Saharan Africa

Boko Haram Militias Murder 15 Christians in Nigeria

(AGI) Kano, Dec 30 — Boko Haram militias have cut the throats of 15 Christians in yet another attack in the Nigerian village of Masuri in the mainly Muslim north-east of the country.

Witnesses and NGO sources in the area have reported that based on information available, “the attackers broke into a number of specifically chosen homes and killed 15 people while they slept.” The Nigerian authorities had reported an attack in Musari without providing details and said that only five people had been killed.

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

Immigration

EU Lifts Visa for Turkish Citizens Providing Service in Germany, Netherlands and Denmark

The European Union Commission announced it would life visa requirements for Turkish citizens who provide service to Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark, asking that the booklets handed out to border officials in those countries be changed accordingly, Anatolia news agency has reported.

The new change allows for Turkish citizens providing service to stay for 2 months in Germany, and 3 months in Netherlands and Denmark without holding a visa.

The EU Commission recalled the European Court of Justiceâ€(tm)s 2009 resolution ordering Turkish citizens residing and exercising their activities in Turkey and wishing to enter the territory of a member state to provide services there, would be exempted from visa in a written statement on the upgrading of the Schengen booklet to Germany, Netherlands and Denmark.

The commission detailed the guidelines on the movement of Turkish nationals crossing the external borders of EU member states in order to provide services within the EU. According to that statement, the visa exemption for Turkish citizens applies only to Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark among the 26 Schengen countries.

Turkish architects, builders, lawyers, computer scientists, commercial agents, scientists and lecturers, artists, fitters and instructors installing or repairing machinery or informing of the use thereof, professional athletes and trainers, truck drivers and others established in Turkey are considered to be employed in jobs that provide services. They must prove their status with written statements at the borders.

           — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness [Return to headlines]

Immigrant Traffickers Arrested

Three allegedly landed 35 near Agrigento at Xmas

(ANSA) — Agrigento, December 28 — Italian police on Friday arrested three suspected Moroccan immigrant-traffickers.

The three were part of a group of five picked up on Christmas night near the Sicilian city of Agrigento, telling police another 30 had been with them.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Nobel Winner Slates Britain’s ‘Stupid’ Immigration Reforms

A Nobel prize-winning scientist whose discovery at a British university will help the UK economy become more competitive launched a blistering attack yesterday on the Government’s “stupid” immigration policy.

Russian-born physicist Professor Sir Andre Geim said new restrictions on non-European Union immigrants, including minimum salary requirements of at least £31,000 and tighter student visa rules, are blocking the brightest academics from working at British institutions.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

Switzerland: SVP Piles on the Pressure Over Foreign Criminals

Swiss ministers came under renewed pressure on Friday to pass a law to expel foreign criminals, after far-right party the SVP brought a new referendum on the issue a step closer.

The party has brought forward a new popular initiative, signed by 154,982 people, calling on the government to honour the result of a referendum held in November 2010, newspaper 20 Minutes reports. In that vote, 53 percent of voters backed the compulsory expulsion of foreigners who had committed crimes in Switzerland. The SVP accuses the government, which is obliged to implement the measures, of dragging its feet.

The government put two detailed proposals forward in May, but both of these were significantly more lenient than the original proposals — something the government said was necessary to make them compatible with international law.

The new initiative is far more detailed than the original, and if passed would give the government less room for manoeuvre. The text specifies that expulsion of foreigners who committed murder, robbery or rape would be automatic, even on a first offence. Others facing expulsion would include “notorious and incorrigible” offenders whose actions “seriously affect order and public safety,” according to Le Matin.

“It is high time to act severely against foreign criminality,” the party claims in the initiative. “Criminality remains a potent problem. The number of robberies and burglaries is literally exploding in several cantons,” it says.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars

Do Not Underestimate the Value of Culture as a Power of Change

Hope and Change, Hope and Change, Hope and Change… Millions of Americans were chanting totally mesmerized. Change at the speed of light is here and accelerating. Hope is fading away. How did we get here so fast? It did not happen overnight. We just failed to pay attention.

We underestimated the value of culture as a power of change, irreversible change. We were too busy building nations and democracy in countries living by seventh century rules written in one book to notice that our culture was being changed from within and without, partly by theocratic and totalitarian cultures, partly by globalists, and their human tools and institutions, and partly by illegally-domiciled cultures.

You cannot change “hearts and minds” in a culture that values death more than life; you cannot absorb a banana republic culture with “family values” of God and the pursuit of happiness in which happiness is not self-generated but expected from a benevolent government…

W. C. McGrew defined culture as a six-step process:

1.   A new pattern of behavior is invented, or an existing one is modified.
2.   The innovator transmits this pattern to another person.
3.   The form of the pattern is consistent.
4.   The one who acquires the pattern retains the ability to perform it long after having acquired it.
5.   The pattern spreads across a population: families, clans, troops, or bands.
6.   The pattern endures across generations.

Language, a very important element of culture, is the direct expression of a people’s national character. Johann Gottfried Herder said, “Denn jedes Volk ist Volk; es hat seine National Bildung wie seine Sprache” (Because every people is a People, it has its own national culture expressed through its language). We do not have our own official language — the government and necessity have forced the use of two languages. Immigrants, who have entered other cultures through time, have formed their own sub-cultures within the primary culture:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Italy: Top Bishop Calls ‘Femicide’ Priest’s Comments ‘Sad’

Bagnasco says Corsi’s stance also ‘serious’

(ANSA) — Genoa, December 28 — Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, Archbishop of Genoa and President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI) said on Friday that comments posted by a priest who stirred a nationwide row by suggesting women were responsible for violence against them was a “sad and serious thing”.

A flyer displayed on the San Terenzo church bulletin board this week in the northern town of Lerici by Father Piero Corsi has caused an uproar for allegedly “encouraging” violence against women.

The priest entitled the leaflet “Women and femicide — healthy self-criticism. How often do they provoke?”. Corsi on Thursday said his archbishop had advised him to take some time off for “reflection and rest”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

The New Outlaws: How Same-Sex Marriage Suffocates Freedom

Advocating gay marriage as a way of enlarging the American sphere of liberty are profoundly — and deceptively — misrepresenting their aims.

Those advocating the radical social innovation, which they label “same-sex or gay marriage,” typically claim that they are fighting for freedom, championing a basic liberty. “Freedom to Marry” is indeed the name of a national organization devoted to the advocacy of same-sex marriage. Established in 2003 by civil-rights advocate Evan Wolfson and headquartered in New York City, this group takes “We All Deserve the Freedom to Marry” as its slogan. So effective has it promulgated this perspective that even former First Lady Laura Bush endorsed homosexuals’ right to marry as a matter of basic freedom when she appeared on the Larry King Show in May 2010.

But those who advocate homosexual marriage as a way of enlarging the American sphere of liberty are profoundly — and deceptively — misrepresenting their aims. Their real aim came to light in the public controversy over remarks attributed to Queen Sophia of Spain in criticizing her country’s invention in 2005 of a homosexual right to “marry.” “If those people [homosexuals] want to live together,” commented the Spanish monarch, “dress up as bride and groom and get married they can do so, but that should not be called marriage because it is not.” Widely reported by the media, the furor over these remarks forced representatives of the Queen to issue a statement claiming that the published remarks “do not exactly match the opinions expressed by Her Majesty the Queen” and apologizing for the “ill-feeling and upset” her comments had caused. The pressures compelling this semi-retraction and apology prompted one media commentator to ponder the “interesting question” of whether on the issue of homosexual marriage, the Queen still had “the right… to express her opinion like any other citizen.”

This commentator had glimpsed the fundamental aim of those advocating homosexual marriage: it is not at all about giving homosexuals a new freedom to participate in ceremonies that they regard as weddings. It is entirely about denying freedom of public speech to anyone who would criticize such ceremonies or the sexual behaviors such ceremonies legitimize. The muzzle that homosexual activists tried (largely successfully) to put on an outspoken monarch represents only the beginning. Homosexual activists in this country deeply desire to place first thousands, and then millions, of even tighter muzzles on all who disagree with them about the nature of homosexual behavior. They well understand that enactment of laws authorizing homosexual marriage will give them sweeping powers to bind those muzzles very tightly on their fellow citizens.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Christians Have No Right to Refuse to Work on Sundays, Rules Judge

A new ruling by a High Court judge — the first on the issue in nearly a decade — says that Christians have no right to decline working on Sunday as it is not a “core component” of their beliefs.

The judgment — which upholds an earlier decision — means that individual Christians do not have any protection from being fired for not working on Sundays.

Campaigners said the decision puts Christians at a disadvantage to other religions and means the judiciary are deciding what the core beliefs of Christians can be, which they say is an interference in the right to practise religion.

The judgment was issued by Mr Justice Langstaff as he ruled on an appeal brought by a Christian woman who was sacked after she refused to work on Sundays at a care home.

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]

What is Marriage?

A defence of man-woman marriage combining the precision of scientists with the clarity of good journalists makes for essential reading.

One reason why supporters of traditional marriage are losing elections is that they are losing the war for intellectual credibility. They are too often mired in facile arguments about “tradition”, Bible passages, and bleeding heart litanies about children. Supporters of gay marriage have succeeded in ridiculing these fumbling attempts at a rationale as ignorant and homophobic.

So a robust intellectual defence of the traditional view of marriage by a group of authors which includes Princeton law professor Robert P George is a welcome addition to the debate. Labelled by the New York Times as “America’s most influential conservative Christian thinker”, George, a convert from the ranks of the Democrats, is responsible for the interdenominational manifesto The Manhattan Declarationsigned by a number of Christian leaders in support of traditional marriage, sanctity of life and religious liberty. Sherif Girgis is a Ph.D. student in philosophy at Princeton and a J.D. candidate at Yale Law School. Ryan T. Anderson, who is William E. Simon Fellow at the Heritage Foundation and editor ofthe Witherspoon Institute’s journal Public Discourse, is a Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University and a Ph.D. candidate in political philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. Altogether a formidable team.

In 2010 they published a controversial article in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, putting forward a philosophical defence for the conjugal view of marriage. It gained many responses from all sides of the debate and has proved so successful that they have expanded it into a book to further flesh out their claims and answer their opponents.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Wicca, Raelism, Animism, Christianity

All must be accorded absolute respect, according to a draconian mandate from Quebec’s education junta.

Until 2008, the curriculum of Montreal’s (private) Catholic Loyola High School included a course called “Morals and World Religions” (MWR). MWR taught students the basic history and tenets of other major religions from the Catholic perspective, which is presumably what the students’ parents were paying for.

In 2008, however, Quebec introduced a province-wide program called Ethics and Religious Culture (ERC) running throughout elementary school, and all but one high school year. Every Quebec student — even the homeschooled — is obligated to take this state-composed program. And teachers, whatever their beliefs or religious affiliation, must teach it.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20121229

Financial Crisis
» Fear of Global Recession Germany Urges US to Resolve Budget Dispute
» France’s Constitutional Council Overturns 75 Percent Super-Rich Tax
» Top French Court Overturns 75 Percent Tax Rate
 
USA
» Bronx Woman Charged With Murder as a Hate Crime in Subway Attack
» Obama’s “Wise Latina” Upholds Religious Freedom for Muslims, Not Christians
 
Europe and the EU
» French Surgeon Arrested for Alleged Extortion
» From France to Greece, Going Back to the Land
» Germany: Extremism in Bonn Student’s Tongue Cut in Possible Islamist Attack
» Italy: Former PDL Leader in Lazio Region Released to House Arrest
» Italy: State Insurance Recovers 100 Million in False 2012 Claims
» Italy: Democratic Party Welcomes Grasso as Candidate
» Italy: Berlusconi and Ex-Wife Reach Settlement
» Italy: Petrol Costs Up to 13 Cents Less at Liberalized Pumps
» Italy: Work on Rome Holocaust Museum to Start Next Spring
» Martin Amis: Islam and the Limits of Permissible Thought
» Norway: A Press Conference in Oslo With Haitham Al-Haddad
» Opponents Mock Monti After Vatican Newspaper Endorsement
» Sweden: Centre Party Split Over Radical Proposals
» UK: City’s Oldest Mosque Hoping to Expand
» UK: Councillor Calls for Calm as a House in Elswick is Attacked
» UK: New Mosque for Rotherham Plan
» UK: Revised Plans Drawn Up for New Accrington Central Mosque
» UK: Tally Ho! Let the Hunt Remind Us Who We Are
» UK: Widow of Organist Murdered on Way to Midnight Christmas Service Calls for ‘Justice Not Vengeance’
 
North Africa
» Algeria Readies for ‘Guerrilla’ Warfare
» Egypt: 150 Members Resign From Salafi Al-Nour Party
» Tensions Rising in Egypt as Opposition Leaders Are Investigated for High Treason
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Egypt Opens Rafah Crossing for Goods to Gaza
» ‘Suha Arafat Admits Husband Premeditated Intifada’
 
Middle East
» Hidden US-Israeli Military Agenda: “Break Syria Into Pieces”
» UN Syria “Peace Plan” A Fraud
 
Russia
» Innocence of Muslims Officially Banned in Russia
 
Caucasus
» Seven Militants Killed in Russia’s Dagestan
 
South Asia
» Breton Pancake Makers Spoil French Visit to Afghanistan
» Delhi Rape Death Sparks Indian Press Rage
» India: A Year of Protests, Corruption and Anger
» India: Akbaruddin in Trouble for Hate Speech
» Live: Peaceful Protests Across India; Sheila Dikshit Heckled
» Paintings Outrage Islamic Hard-Liners in Pakistan
» Pakistan: Muslim Societies Go Beyond Borders: US Scholar
» Pakistani Mob Beats to Death Muslim Accused of Blasphemy
» Pakistan Police Murders: 21 Cops Found Shot to Death in Peshawar
 
Australia — Pacific
» Knitting Overcomes Cultural Barriers
» New Year, Butt Out as On-the-Spot Smoking Fines Take Effect
» Obligation to Respect, Not Share, Our Faiths
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Angola: Official Calls for Humanisation of Prisons
» Kenya: Snake Disrupts Campaign Rally in Kilifi
» Nigeria: Gunmen Kill 25 in Adamawa, Borno
 
Immigration
» UK: Gavin Barwell MP: Four Reasons Why the Conservative Party Must Win More of Britain’s Growing Ethnic Vote
 
Culture Wars
» France: Gov’t Cracks Down on Racism, Homophobia on Twitter
 
General
» Aisha’s Cushion: Religious Art, Perception and Practice in Islam by Jamal J Elias — Review
» First ‘Alien Earth’ Will be Found in 2013, Experts Say

Financial Crisis

Fear of Global Recession Germany Urges US to Resolve Budget Dispute

All eyes are on Washington where US President Barack Obama and lawmakers are due to launch last-ditch talks Friday to avert automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that could plunge the country into recession. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle reminded all sides that they have a responsibility not just to the US, but to the global economy.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

France’s Constitutional Council Overturns 75 Percent Super-Rich Tax

France’s constitutional council on Saturday overturned a 75 percent tax rate on earnings higher than a million Euros. The policy was introduced by Socialist President Franois Hollande, who was elected in May.

The upper income tax rate sparked outrage amongst business leaders and led some of France’s richer citizens to request tax exile abroad. Among them was renowned actor Gerard Depardieu who was recently granted residence in Belgium.

The Constitutional Authority found the temporary two year rate to be unconstitutional since most types of income tax are applied to entire households, not individuals. The council therefore ruled that the proposed tax rate “failed to recognise equality before public burden.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Top French Court Overturns 75 Percent Tax Rate

France’s highest legal body, the Constitutional Council, announced on Saturday it was overturning the Socialist government’s flagship 75 percent income tax rate for high earners, marking an embarassing setback for President François Hollande.

French President François Hollande was dealt an embarassing blow on Saturday when the country’s highest legal body scrapped his controversial 75 percent upper income tax rate.

The Constitutional Council announced it was overturning the 75 percent bracket on income over 1 million euros ($1.32million) because it was “excessive” and represented a “breach of equality of taxes.”

The French government responded to the decisions by insisting it would push on with plans to impose the reform and would be submitting a revised proposal for the 75 percent upper rate in its 2013 budget.

“The government will propose a new system that conforms with the principles laid down by the decision of the Constitutional Council. It will be presented in the framework of the next Finance Act,” Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said in a statement.

The council’s decision to ditch Hollande’s flagship tax reform came after members of the opposition UMP party had asked it to review whether the levy was legal under the constitution.

The Council members, known as “the sages” decided that the way the upper tax rate was set to be imposed was unfair in the way it would affect different households.

The Council is concerned the tax would hit a married couple where one partner earned above a million euros but it would not affect a couple where each earned just under a million euros.

The tax rate, which was passed by France’s National Assembly in October, had infuriated high earners including acclaimed actor Gerard Depardieu, was due to be introduced in 2013.

Depardieu caused uproar earlier this month when he revealed he was moving to Belgium to seek tax exile status, blaming the government’s tax policies. The council’s decision may now make the actor think twice about selling his Paris mansion and upping sticks.

To opponents of the seven-month-old Socialist government, Depardieu’s move confirmed their fears that the 75 percent tax rate would spark a mass exodus of France’s most wealthy.

The measure, which Hollande insisted would only be a temporary move to help reduce public deficit, would only have to be paid by an estimated 1,500 people.

The tax reform was viewed as a symbolic move with Hollande keen for the rich to help the country during hard times. It is estimated the levy would have provided the government with an extra 210 million euros per year.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

USA

Bronx Woman Charged With Murder as a Hate Crime in Subway Attack

A 31-year-old woman was being held by the police on Saturday in connection with the death of a man who was pushed onto the tracks of a Queens subway station and crushed by an oncoming train.

The woman, Erica Menendez of the Bronx, is being charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime, according to the Queens district attorney’s office. Ms. Menendez was taken into custody by the police early Saturday morning and made comments implicating herself in the crime when questioned by detectives, according to Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for the Police Department.

A law enforcement official said that Ms. Menendez had “told the cops it was an act against Muslims,” and cited the Sept. 11 attack.

[Return to headlines]

Obama’s “Wise Latina” Upholds Religious Freedom for Muslims, Not Christians

by Daniel Greenfield

While Obama’s Justice Department has set a record for the number of cases it filed on behalf of Muslims, particularly in defense of the discriminatory Hijab, the same administration has not only failed to stand up for religious freedom of Christians, it has actually taken the lead in attacking the religious freedom of Christians…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU

French Surgeon Arrested for Alleged Extortion

Patient asked to pay unnecessarily for hernia operation

(ANSA) Bologna, December 27; A French orthopaedic surgeon practising in the city of Bologna was arrested on Thursday for allegedly extorting payment from a patient who was covered by the national health system. The doctor was taken in custody by law enforcement officers. The surgeon, who is a practising professional in Italy working in a Bologna hospital structure that receives partial funding from the state health system had allegedly forced the patient suffering from cervical hernia to pay him for surgery when the structure he works for was also being reimbursed by the national health system.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

From France to Greece, Going Back to the Land

French collective gardens; Greek church offers farming plots

(by Patrizio Nissirio) (ANSAmed) — ROME, DECEMBER 27 — In recession-battered Europe, governments are not the only ones responding to the crisis with top-down policies, be they austerity or growth measures: the grassroots has also come into play, following the back to the land concept.

Called Incroyables Comestibles, the French version of the Incredible Edible movement, which began in the UK in 2008, involves planting collective vegetable gardens in easily accessible public spaces, such as school yards and in front of police stations, from which each can pick for free, according to his or her own need. In France, this movement began in the spring of 2012, and has spread to the four corners of the Republic, thanks in part to social media.

In Greece, now in its fifth consecutive recession year, the powerful Orthodox Church, which owns about 40% of the country’s land, is offering lots to anyone willing to farm them. “We want you to know that whoever is willing to work Greek land, to contribute to the country’s food security and to the development of a modern and exportable agriculture and animal farming model, has what is left of the church’s land at their disposal,” the Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop Ieronymos, said in his traditional Christmas address to the nation. He did not, however, specify if the land is for free or for rent.

The Greek government has already started a successful program, with almost 10,000 lots of public domain land assigned to young farmers at cut-rate rental prices: 5 euros per acre per season, with a maximum of 100 acres per person. In Greece in 2008-2010, agriculture was one of the country’s few growth sectors, with 32,000 jobs created, according to the New York Times.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Germany: Extremism in Bonn Student’s Tongue Cut in Possible Islamist Attack

An Indian man in Bonn claims to have been attacked and had his tongue lacerated by Islamists. He told police that a pair of perpetrators demanded that he convert to Islam before the assault. Police believe his story to be credible.

Police in Bonn are investigating a possible attack on a 24-year-old Indian man who claims to have been the victim of an assault by two Islamists on Christmas Eve. The man, a university student had to be treated at a local hospital for a lacerated tongue following the attack.

According to the victim, he was approached by two men who asked him what his religion was before demanding that he convert to Islam. Otherwise, the men said, he was an infidel and his tongue would have to be cut out. Then, as the man tried to walk away, the two assailants attacked him from behind, the victim told police. A passerby happened across the bleeding victim and called an ambulance. He was treated at the hospital and then released.

Police investigators believe the man’s story to be credible and also believe that the incident could indeed have been the work of Islamists. He described the perpetrators as having long beards but no moustaches, a style often preferred by Salafists. There were, however, no witnesses to the attack and police are currently searching for suspects.

It is not the first time this year that Bonn has hit the headlines as a result of possible Islamist activity. In May, a Salafist was arrested after stabbing two police officers during a counter-demonstration against a display of Muhammad caricatures by a local right-wing populist party. Earlier this month, another member of the orthodox Muslim group threatened to take a hostage in order to force the perpetrator’s release from prison.

Also in Dember, a bag full of explosives was found on a platform in Bonn’s main train station in an apparent attempted bomb attack. While no charges have been filed in that case, clues reportedly lead to the Salafist community.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Italy: Former PDL Leader in Lazio Region Released to House Arrest

Fiorito faces charges of embezzling 1.3 million euros

(ANSA) — Rome, December 27 — The former caucus leader of Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party in Lazio region, Franco Fiorito, was released from jail and placed under house arrest on Thursday as he awaits trial on charges of embezzlement and inappropriate use of electoral funds.

Fiorito was arrested on October 2 for allegedly pocketing over 1.3 million euros in State-subsidized party funds. Fiorito’s arrest came amidst a swirl of political scandals and criminal charges across the political spectrum but especially involving the PdL.

Proceedings against Fiorito, who headed the PdL in Lazio region, where the capital city of Rome is located, are scheduled to begin March 19.

Similar charges have also been laid against Fiorito’s former chief secretary Bruno Galassi and Pier Luigi Boschi.

Fiorito was released on house arrest because there seemed little risk that he would repeat any offence, the court said. That contradicts a ruling earlier in December, when Italy’s highest appeals court said that Fiorito must stay in jail because he had been caught destroying evidence.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: State Insurance Recovers 100 Million in False 2012 Claims

Over 9,000 people investigated, 20 convicted for benefits fraud

(ANSA) — Rome, December 26 — Italy’s national insurance body INPS said on Wednesday that it had investigated over 9,000 suspected claims’ scams and recovered over 100 million euros from fraudulent benefits since the beginning of 2012.

The state insurance money was recovered from fake pensions, benefits claims for the deceased being withdrawn by others, pensions for inexistent disabilities and fraudulent poverty assistance.

Forty people were arrested in 2012 and 20 convicted based on reports by INPS.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Democratic Party Welcomes Grasso as Candidate

Outgoing anti-Mafia prosecutor to campaign for election with PD

(ANSA) — Rome, December 28 — The Democratic Party is welcoming outgoing national anti-mafia prosecutor Piero Grasso as a candidate in February’s election, party leader Pier Luigi Bersani announced Friday.

“We chose to put two words — morality and work — before the legislature and the rule of law as a top priority for our country,” said Bersani, whose party is currently leading polls, after meeting with Grasso.

The participation of Grasso — who announced his resignation from the judiciary Thursday — would help drive a “civic resurgence”, Bersani said, while Grasso urged a “gradual revolution” of the justice system.

Formerly Palermo chief prosecutor, Grasso was named head of Italy’s Anti-Mafia operations in 2005 replacing Pier Luigi Vigna.

As Palermo prosecutor, Grasso tracked down a string of top mobsters and moved ever closer to the biggest catch of all, Bernardo Provenzano, a fugitive who had been running the Mafia for most of his 42 years in hiding.

Grasso worked on anti-Mafia cases in the early ‘90s and coordinated investigations into the 1992 bombs that murdered Italy’s top two anti-Mafia invesigators Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino and, a year later, attacked cultural and religious targets in Rome and Milan.

Grasso is the second anti-mafia prosecutor planning to run for office following an announcement by ex-Palermo prosecutor Antonio Ingroia last week saying he will lead leftist representatives of civil society.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Berlusconi and Ex-Wife Reach Settlement

Ex-PM to pay 3 mln euros a month

(ANSA) — Milan, December 28 — Ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi has reached a settlement with his ex-wife Veronica Lario, from whom he is legally separated but yet to obtain a final divorce, Corriere della Sera newspaper reported Friday.

The media magnate and centre-right politician will give Lario three million euros a month or 36 million a year but will keep sole possession of his luxury villa outside Milan and his vast business empire will be unaffected, the daily said.

The “non-consensual” sentence, ending a three-year legal tussle, was handed down on Christmas Day “in great secret”, Corriere said.

Lario filed for divorce in May 2009 claiming her husband was frequenting minors.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Petrol Costs Up to 13 Cents Less at Liberalized Pumps

Antitrust watchdog calls for new entrants to boost competition

(ANSA) — Rome, December 28; Petrol costs as much as 13 euro cents less at the 2,000 liberalized pumps and the 86 specialized sale centers in Italy compared with prices at the distribution chains of large oil companies, according to a recent report by Italy’s antitrust authority. The competition watchdog called from the strengthening of new entrants in the petrol distribution market in order to boost competitiveness and change the current market conditions.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Work on Rome Holocaust Museum to Start Next Spring

Mayor Alemanno says final hurdles cleared

(ANSA) — Rome, December 28 — Work on Rome’s new national Holocaust Museum, to be built in the former luxury residence of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, will get under way early next year, Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno said Friday.

Alemanno said the last key city council vote would take place in mid-January and the tender would be issued two weeks afterwards, at the end of the month.

The contract would then be awarded about two months later, in early spring, he said.

“Then, unless there are legal challenges from the firms who lost out, the work can go ahead,” Alemanno said.

Work on the 22-million-euro project has been delayed several times.

The Shoah museum, seven years in the making, got a long-awaited final green light from the Italian parliament on this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, April 7.

But it was then hit by further uncertainty because of financial restrictions in the government’s stability pact.

The project envisages a conference room, library, video-archive and exhibition room carved out in the grounds of Villa Torlonia.

The museum will be built in the landscaped gardens of the villa, the grand neoclassical residence where Mussolini and his family lived between 1925 and 1943.

Designed by Italian architects Luca Zevi and Giorgio Tamburini, the museum will be in the form of a black cuboid with the names of Italian Jews deported to Nazi concentration camps during WWII etched on the walls.

Its centerpiece will be a huge plaster reproduction of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

More than a million people were killed there under the Nazis. Six million Jews died in all the death camps.

It was during the 20-year Fascist era that Italy adopted the 1938 “laws for the protection of the Italian race”. They were drawn up along the lines of the anti-Semitic laws passed earlier in Germany and were in part responsible for more than 7,000 Italian Jews being sent to their death in Nazi concentration camps.

Rome council has also approved the laying of a plaque at the city’s Tiburtina rail station to commemorate the date when thousands of Jews were deported from the Ghetto, on October 16, 1943.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Martin Amis: Islam and the Limits of Permissible Thought

by Mira Sethi

Martin Amis, the celebrated and pilloried British novelist, on freedom, terror and moving to America.

Modern Britain might have been the expected focus of conversation with Martin Amis following the publication of his latest novel, “Lionel Asbo.” After all, the book comes with the subtitle “State of England,” and the state of the place, in his eyes, rather differs from the country on glorious display during the Summer Olympics and, months before that, in the queen’s Diamond Jubilee. The England in Mr. Amis’s withering portrait is a cultural dystopia where an irredeemable thug is catapulted to national prominence after winning the lottery. Thus does modern Britain reward lethal criminality and proud ignorance with unearned riches.

But when Mr. Amis, one of the most celebrated and pilloried British novelists of recent decades, sits for an interview in his Brooklyn brownstone—he is a recent émigré from the land he so relishes anatomizing—the buzz about all things British has long faded in the news, supplanted by the autumn miseries of the Middle East. After the Arab Spring washed through the region, he says, “I was talking to my younger son. He speaks Arabic.” A hint of paternal pride passes over his face. “He’s about to do a third degree—the first one was history at Oxford, the second one was on the Muslim Brotherhood. He’s lived in Jordan as well as in Egypt. “I said to him, it seems like Islamism doesn’t look like a ubiquitous threat anymore. But he said, ‘Ah, their hour will come. They’re in government now. That’s what’s happened now. Some clever people have realized you can’t stay out of the system.’ “

Is Mr. Amis skeptical now of the “clever people” emerging from the shadows of the Arab Spring? “Well,” he says, looking lost in thought. “There’s Tunisia”—where a moderate government is establishing itself—”but it does seem the weight of the past is enormous. Egypt is 4,500 years old. It’s unbelievably ancient. And Egypt has never had democracy. Would that you could, with a snap of the finger say, ‘This is better,’ and everyone agrees it is better. But it’s going to be difficult.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Norway: A Press Conference in Oslo With Haitham Al-Haddad

I watched this so that you don’t have to! Here are a few quotes with approximate times: “I agree that I hold views that might seem odd to the Western liberal society” (10:20)

Views like this perhaps? “from my angle it does make perfect sense” (on the death penalty for apostasy in the context of an Islamic state) (13:25)

But that’s fair enough because … “treason is a capital punishment (sic) in most European countries” (14:25)

Why has he been misrepresented by so many? “There is a group of maybe Zionists who are trying to spoil my reputation” (15:30)

And finally: “I am not promoting anything that is not part of the mainstream Islam” (27:30)

Haitham al-Haddad complains (about 17:50) that it has been implied that he supports hudud punishments in the West, right now. Of course there is some difference between calling for such punishments in the UK and saying they should be practiced in an Islamic state — but it still means that Haddad’s ideal is a horrific theocracy…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Opponents Mock Monti After Vatican Newspaper Endorsement

But Italy’s top bishop praises PM

(ANSA) — Rome, December 28 — While opponents on Friday mocked the endorsement by the Vatican daily newspaper of Premier Mario Monti’s bid for election, others said they understood the move.

Italy’s top bishop Angelo Bagnasco said the endorsement built upon the fact that Monti’s administration has improved Italy’s reputation and standing internationally.

“The honesty and ability of Mont has been commonly recognized,” said Bagnasco, president of the CEI, the official assembly of Catholic bishops in Italy.

However, some church fundamentalists said the newspaper went too far because the technocrat premier could make dangerous alliances if he were elected in February.

“(There is) too much silence and too many uncertainties,” surrounding who would accompany Monti into government, warned Antonio Mazzocchi, president of the conservative Christian Reformers movement.

“As a Christian Reformist, I want to say that (the endorsement) is out of place, not to mention in bad taste”.

Monti’s political allies could include politicians who support gay marriage, warned the group.

On Thursday, the Vatican’s daily L’Osservatore Romano backed Monti’s bid for a second term at the helm of a centrist Catholic coalition.

The newspaper said Monti had launched “an appeal to restore the highest and most noble sense of politics which is still…care of the common good”.

Pier Luigi Bersani, head of the Democratic Party, which is leading in opinion polls, said he found it amusing and surprising that L’Osservatore Romano found Monti had “a strong appreciation of the nobility of politics”. Italian media has commented that the daily paper’s backing is practically a papal endorsement for Monti and a rejection of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi.

His relationship with the Vatican was damaged by an alleged affair with the Moroccan-born belly dancer ‘Ruby’ whom Berlusconi is accused of having paid for sex when she was 17.

The Vatican has said it is “troubled” by Berluscsoni’s affair, dubbed Rubygate, and L’Osservatore Romano wrote last January that it “caused a dent in Italy’s image that will be hard to repair”.

Pope Benedict XVI in his Christmas greeting urged Italian voters to keep high values in mind when making choices.

The Vatican continues to hold significant sway in Italian politics.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Sweden: Centre Party Split Over Radical Proposals

Open borders, polygamy, and an end to compulsory schooling are some of the proposals outlined in the controversial new Centre Party programme which has caused rifts in the already troubled party.

As support for Centre Party leader Annie Lööf plummets, the proposed programme risks splitting the party, which is part of the centre-right coalition government.

The radical programme has drawn harsh criticism from within the party ranks, with leading members in Skåne in southern Sweden deciding to draft a counter proposal ahead of the party convention in March.

They claim that there is a great rift between a neo-liberal “Stockholm Centre” and “the classic core voters in rural areas”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

UK: City’s Oldest Mosque Hoping to Expand

PLANS to expand Derby’s oldest mosque to develop teaching rooms and a library have been backed by hundreds of locals. The committee in charge of the Jamia mosque in Dairyhouse Road want to convert a vacant house next door to use for lectures. And more than 200 people living nearby have signed a petition backing the proposals, which have been submitted to Derby City Council…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Councillor Calls for Calm as a House in Elswick is Attacked

A COUNCILLOR is calling for calm after the home of a man charged with raping a schoolgirl came under attack.

Windows were smashed at the house of 19-year-old Abdul Zalal Miah in broad daylight on Christmas Eve.

The incident at Hull Street, Elswick, came just hours after police officially released Miah’s name and as he made his first appearance at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court.

The 19-year-old is charged with three counts of rape, possessing an offensive weapon, threats to kill and robbery after a 15-year-old schoolgirl was attacked on Tuesday, December 18.

Two teenagers aged 17 and 18 have been arrested by Northumbria Police on suspicion of aggravated burglary.

Race and human rights campaigner Dipu Ahad, who also represents the Elswick ward for Newcastle City Council, now fears targeted attacks at the Miah family home on a predominantly Bengali street could escalate over the holiday period.

“There has been a lot of police activity around the house. We are worried that this is stirring up racial tension,” he said.

“Calm now needs to be in the community. We need to support this woman first and foremost, and people shouldn’t use this to create more tension. We are now appealing to everyone for calm.”

Miah was arrested on Sunday following a six-day manhunt by Northumbria Police.

He appeared at the city’s magistrates’ court on December 24, where he was formally charged with three counts of rape, kidnap, possessing an offensive weapon, threats to kill and robbery.

He was remanded in custody by magistrate Trevor Walton until January 4 when he will appear at Newcastle Crown Court.

Miah, who spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth, was dressed in a dark blue sweat shirt and trousers. Two female members of his family sat in the public gallery.

His alleged victim reported she had been threatened with a knife and raped as she walked along Elswick Road eight days ago.

The attacker is alleged to have taken her to a secluded area between Park Close and Gloucester Terrace.

A spokesperson for Northumbria Police, said: “Police received a report of a window being broken at an address on Hull Street, Newcastle. Officers attended and two men aged 17 and 18 were arrested on suspicion of aggravated burglary.”

Read More

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]

UK: New Mosque for Rotherham Plan

ROTHERHAM could be about to get a new £3 million mosque to replace the one on Chapel Walk. The Rotherham Mosque Trust has applied for planning permission to build the mosque which will be twice the size of the current place of worship. The planned building, next to Centenary Way, would have a minaret 33.8 metres tall and facilities to display calls to prayer and other messages on electronic screens which would be placed around the tower. The plans, which have taken two years to complete, also include an IT suite and study area and car park improvements.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Revised Plans Drawn Up for New Accrington Central Mosque

COMPROMISED plans to resite a controversial new central mosque in Accrington have been drawn up by Hyndburn council. The borough’s ruling cabinet will be asked next month to approve a revised plan to locate the large Islamic worship and community centre in Grimshaw Street rather than Steiner Street as originally proposed in 2009. The new proposal has been branded ‘a fudge’ by Tory group boss Peter Britcliffe, leader of the council when the original plan was agreed at a special cabinet meeting three years ago. Current council leader Miles Parkinson rejected that claim saying it was ‘a fantastic compromise’…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Tally Ho! Let the Hunt Remind Us Who We Are

Hound, horse and human come together today in an activity as vital as our heartbeats, says Roger Scruton.

This morning hundreds of hunts across the Kingdom will be assembling for the Boxing Day meet. My family and I will appear in our polished uniforms on polished horses to stand ceremonially among our neighbours in Cirencester Park. With us will be a crowd of thousands who have come to enjoy the spectacle. For an hour, three species — hound, horse and human; carnivore, herbivore and omnivore — will stand peacefully side by side in a little patch of meadowland, radiating tranquillity. One of the local bands will be playing. The Royal Agricultural College Beagles will be there, along with people from every walk of life, who have come to gladden their eyes on the spectacle before going for lunch in the town…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Widow of Organist Murdered on Way to Midnight Christmas Service Calls for ‘Justice Not Vengeance’

The widow of a church organist who died after being brutally beaten on his way to a midnight service on Christmas Eve has insisted she wants “no vengeance” for his killers.

Alan Greaves, 68, an Anglican lay reader, was set upon just 200 yards from the door of St Saviour’s Church in High Green, Sheffield, where he was due to lead the worship at the late-night Eucharist. He was found by a passing pizza delivery driver lying on kerbside on a main road, close to the local primary school, after sustaining severe brain damage. His wife Maureen, a Christian outreach worker, spent Christmas praying at his bedside where he was on a life support machine. He passed away late on Thursday night. The family’s parish priest described the killing as a “senseless and evil” act on a night when the church was “celebrating light coming into the darkness”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

North Africa

Algeria Readies for ‘Guerrilla’ Warfare

The Algerian military is running combat simulation exercises on rocky terrain, ahead of possible confrontations against armed Islamists and terrorist brigades from northern Mali.

Since al-Qaeda and the Movement for Tawhid and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) are well-armed with weapons smuggled from Libya and stolen from within Mali, the Algerian army is taking an unconventional approach similar to guerrilla warfare. Algerian army, air force, national gendarmerie and special operation forces have trained all month in ways to conduct large-scale battles against armed groups, El Khabar reported on Sunday (December 23rd). These drills, which involve the use of modern communication devices and strategies, will run for a whole year…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Egypt: 150 Members Resign From Salafi Al-Nour Party

Another party to be formed ‘under Sharia’, says former spokesman

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, DECEMBER 27 — One hundred and fifty representatives from Egypt’s Salafi Al-Nour party from 23 governorates have resigned in mass. The resigning members cited the “soft” positions taken by the party over the past few months as the reason for the split.

According to Al Ahram Online, among them is Mohamed Nour, former spokesman of the Salafi party, who noted that the resignation from the party was amicable. He said that “we wish our former fellow party members success”. Some members of the Shura (upper house of Parliament) and several former members of the People’s Assembly (dissolved lower house) were among those resigning.

They have said that their future will be in the new political formation. “We decided to found our own political entity,” Nour said, “ open to any Egyptian citizen who wants to work for the Sharia.” It therefore seems clear that the former members of the Salafi party will not join the party under the ultra-conservative Hazem Salah Abu-Ismail. But it was by no means a hard blow, Al-Nour spokesman Nadar Bakkar stressed, saying that he wished his former fellow party members the best of luck, “wherever they intend to work politically” The exodus from Al-Nour (which means “The Light”) is not coming entirely out of the blue. For the past few months, the two extremes of the party — one more hardline and the other more open — have been facing off in a contest of wills which in late September almost led to a split in the party.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Tensions Rising in Egypt as Opposition Leaders Are Investigated for High Treason

Hamdeen Sabahi, Amr Moussa and Mohammed ElBaradei, founders of the National Salvation Front, are accused of incitement against the state and betraying the ideals of the Revolution because they led mass protests against the Islamist constitution. Controversial Morsi-appointed Public Prosecutor Talaat Ibrahim Abdallah orders the inquiry.

Cairo (AsiaNews) — Egypt’s public prosecutor, Talaat Ibrahim Abdallah, has ordered an inquiry into the leaders of the National Salvation Front, Hamdeen Sabahi, Amr Moussa and Mohammed ElBaradei. Appointed by President Mohammed Morsi, Abdallah wants the three opposition leaders, the last two former presidential candidates against Morsi, investigated on charges of “incitement” to overthrow the government and high treason. All three have led mass demonstrations against Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt’s new Qur’an-based constitution.

The legal action against the three main pro-democracy leaders comes amid criticism against the constitutional referendum, deemed invalid because of a low turnout (one third of the electorate) and numerous cases of electoral fraud by Islamists.

Unconcerned by the prevailing atmosphere of tensions, President Morsi signed the constitution on 26 December. Shortly, he will also announce the official date for new parliamentary elections.

The decision by the pro-Islamist prosecutor is further exacerbating tensions between Egyptians in favour of a secular state and defenders of a Sharia-based government, bringing the country that much closer to a civil war.

In an article published today al-Ahram online, some diplomats close to the opposition said that they had come under pressures from their superiors who want to silence all criticism against Morsi.

According to one diplomat, Egypt is now turning into a dictatorship. “I was summoned into the office of the assistant (foreign) minister,” he said. The latter “asked me to be ‘careful’ and not to confuse my role as a diplomat with that of an activist.” Another official “was told that his overt opposition to the president would undermine his chances to go a good post”. (S.C)

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

Israel and the Palestinians

Egypt Opens Rafah Crossing for Goods to Gaza

GAZA, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) — Hamas-run government in the Gaza strip announced a shipment of construction materials will enter the territory from Egypt through the Rafah crossing for the first time. “Twenty truckloads of construction materials will enter Gaza today for the Qatar-financed reconstruction projects,” Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Zaza told Xinhua…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

‘Suha Arafat Admits Husband Premeditated Intifada’

In interview, Palestinian leader’s widow says Arafat decided to launch Intifada after Camp David, according to research institute.

Yasser Arafat’s widow Suha admitted that the late Palestinian leader premeditated the Second Intifada, in an interview with Dubai TV earlier this month, according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

“Immediately after the failure of the Camp David (negotiations), I met him in Paris upon his return.… Camp David had failed, and he said to me: ‘You should remain in Paris.’ I asked him why, and he said: ‘Because I am going to start an Intifada. They want me to betray the Palestinian cause. They want me to give up on our principles, and I will not do so,’“ the research institute translated Suha as saying.

Arafat’s comments run contrary to claims that former prime minister Ariel Sharon’s infamous visit to the Temple Mount triggered the Intifada, which was launched in September 2000.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Middle East

Hidden US-Israeli Military Agenda: “Break Syria Into Pieces”

A timely article in the Jerusalem Post in June brings to the forefront the unspoken objective of US foreign policy, namely the breaking up of Syria as a sovereign nation state —along ethnic and religious lines— into several separate and “independent” political entities. The article also confirms the role of Israel in the process of political destabilization of Syria. The JP article is titled: “Veteran Kurdish politician calls on Israel to support the break-up of Syria’ (by Jonathan Spyer) (The Jerusalem Post (May 16, 2012)

The objective of the US sponsored armed insurgency is —with the help of Israel— to “Break Syria into Pieces”.

The “balkanisation of the Syrian Arab Republic” is to be carried out by fostering sectarian divisions, which will eventually lead to a “civil war” modelled on the former Yugoslavia. Last month, Syrian “opposition militants” were dispatched to Kosovo to organize training sessions using the “terrorist expertise” of the US sponsored Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in fighting the Yugoslav armed forces.

Sherkoh Abbas, President of the US based Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria (KNA) has “called on Israel to support the break-up of Syria into a series of federal structures based on the country’s various ethnicities.”

[Return to headlines]

UN Syria “Peace Plan” A Fraud

(LD) — UN “peace envoy” Lakhdar Brahimi is attempting to broker a transitional government ahead of proposed elections in Syria. For Brahimi, his efforts are not only in vain, they are entirely disingenuous. The proposal of a “transitional government” in the midst of what is in fact a foreign invasion, funded, armed, and perpetuated openly by foreign interests violates both Syria’s sovereignty and the UN’s own founding charter. It would be not unlike a UN envoy visiting Poland at the beginning of World War II, and proposing a transitional government in the midst of the Nazi invasion. The UN would clearly be a facilitator of injustice, not a broker of peace.

The LA Times reports in their article, “Lakhdar Brahimi works to revive Syria peace plan”:

“Peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi made a new push Thursday to draw Syrian officials and rebels into negotiations, aiming to revive a plan for a transitional government and elections that faltered because of disagreements over the future of President Bashar Assad.”

The UN has categorically failed to delineate between legitimate opposition inside of Syria, and bands of roving armed terrorists committing wide scale atrocities against the Syrian people — many of whom are not even from Syria, all of whom are heavily armed by the US, NATO, and its regional allies including Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar as part of a long standing plan to effect regime change in both Syria and Iran. The Western press is not only supporting the UN’s disingenuous efforts, it has gone through great lengths to delegitimize any opposition in Syria that refuses to pick up arms, or that speaks out against foreign intervention.

While the LA Times attempts to make the UN plan seem reasonable, with only Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russia standing in the way of peace, in reality, the plan is yet another effort to frame the conflict as a political struggle instead of the foreign invasion it actually is.

Syria is Being Invaded by Foreign Terrorists

The armed “rebels” the UN is refusing to condemn, constitute foreign Al Qaeda fighters, including the US State Department, United Nations, and the UK Home Office (page 5, .pdf)-listed international terrorist organization, the Libya Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), Al Nusra also known as “Al Qaeda in Iraq,” and Syrian Muslim Brotherhood extremists. None of these terrorist factions would be negotiated with by Western nations if by some means their weapons turned from Syria and back toward the West. Yet the West demands that they not only be recognized and negotiated with, but indeed handed the entire nation of Syria to rule over.

[Return to headlines]

Russia

Innocence of Muslims Officially Banned in Russia

Amateur American film “The Innocence of Muslims” has been recognized an extremist material in the Russian Federation on December 26, 2012. The film has been added to the list of extremist materials in accordance with the ruling of the Tverskoy Court of Moscow. “The Innocence of Muslims” is listed as the 1,589 item on the list, GTimes reports. Google, which owns YouTube, has already expressed its willingness to block access to the film in the Russian Federation…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Caucasus

Seven Militants Killed in Russia’s Dagestan

MOSCOW, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) — Seven militants were killed during a special operation in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, the Russian Investigative Committee said Saturday. Law enforcement officers searched an apartment in Makhachkala, capital of the republic, where the suspected gunmen were hiding, and seized pistols, submachine-gun as well as other weapons on the scene. Six militants were killed inside the apartment and one was shot dead outdoors, according to the committee. “All those killed are presumably members of the Kizil-Yurt sabotage and terrorist group. The examination is continuing,” a spokesperson from the committee’s regional department told reporters. Violence is common in Russia’s North Caucasus, especially in the republics of Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, with militants frequently mounting attacks against police officers and authorities.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

South Asia

Breton Pancake Makers Spoil French Visit to Afghanistan

Breton pancake makers were left with egg on their faces after revealing that the French defence minister will be taking thousands of crepes with him to give to French troops in Afghanistan during a “surprise” New Year’s visit.

Apparently over-eager to trumpet its publicity coup, the Paysan Breton brand breached confidentiality rules to let slip that it will be supplying 8,000 crepes for 800 French troops still in Afghanistan to coincide with the visit by Jean-Yves Le Drian, the defence minister, on New Year’s Eve…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Delhi Rape Death Sparks Indian Press Rage

A sense of anger pervades the Indian press on Saturday after the 23-year old victim of a gang-rape in Delhi died of her injuries while receiving treatment in Singapore.

News of the attack on 16 December was greeted with fury in the capital, as demonstrators took to the streets to voice their frustration at the authorities. This frustration is reflected in the words of newspaper commentators who link the incident and its fallout to prevailing cultural shortcomings and a general failure of governance in India…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

India: A Year of Protests, Corruption and Anger

If 2011 was characterized in India by a string of corruption sandals and an economic slowdown that buffeted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s tenure, 2012 was not much different.

Having barely recovered from the consequences of the multi-billion-dollar Commonwealth Games and telecom spectrum scams, the Indian government was again in a spot when yet another political scandal broke. The audit watchdog body, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India discovered that 210 billion US dollars of the country’s revenue has been lost in a coal scam — also known as “coalgate” — of enormous proportions…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

India: Akbaruddin in Trouble for Hate Speech

HYDERABAD: Akbaruddin Owaisi, the firebrand leader of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), was on Friday taken to court over his disparaging remarks against Hindus in a hate speech, the main content of which was that Muslims would need just 15 minutes without the police to show 100 crore Hindus who is more powerful…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Live: Peaceful Protests Across India; Sheila Dikshit Heckled

Singapore: The 23-year-old girl, who put up a brave battle for life after she was gang-raped and brutally assaulted in a Delhi bus on December 16 that had created a nationwide outrage, died on Saturday morning in a hospital here. The girl, who was admitted to the well-known multi-organ transplant facility Mount Elizabeth Hospital here on Thursday morning in an extremely critical condition, breathed her last at 4:45 am (2:15 am India time). She was earlier treated at the Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Paintings Outrage Islamic Hard-Liners in Pakistan

Pakistan’s leading arts college has pushed boundaries before in this conservative nation. But when a series of paintings depicting Muslim clerics in scenes with strong homosexual overtones sparked an uproar and threats of violence by Islamic extremists, it was too much.

Officials at the National College of Arts in the eastern city of Lahore shut down its academic journal, which published the paintings, pulled all its issues out of bookstores and dissolved its editorial board. Still, a court is currently considering whether the paintings’ artist, the journal’s board and the school’s head can be charged with blasphemy.

The college’s decision to cave to Islamist pressure underscores how space for progressive thought is shrinking in Pakistan as hardline interpretations of Islam gain ground. It was also a marked change for an institution that has long been one of the leading defenders of liberal views in the country.

Pakistan is an overwhelmingly Muslim nation, and the majority of its citizens have long been fairly conservative. But what has grown more pronounced in recent years is the power of religious hardliners to enforce their views on members of the population who disagree, often with the threat of violence.

The government is caught up in a war against a domestic Taliban insurgency and often seems powerless to protect its citizens. At other times it has acquiesced to hardline demands because of fear, political gain or a convergence of beliefs.

“Now you have gun-toting people out there on the streets,” said Saleema Hashmi, a former head of arts college. “You don’t know who will kill you. You know no one is there to protect you.”

The uproar was sparked when the college’s Journal of Contemporary Art and Culture over the summer published pictures of a series of paintings by artist Muhammad Ali.

Particularly infuriating to conservatives were two works that they said insulted Islam by mixing images of Muslim clerics with suggestions of homosexuality, which is deeply taboo in Pakistan.

One titled “Call for Prayer” shows a cleric and a shirtless young boy sitting beside each other on a cot. The cleric fingers rosary beads as he gazes at the boy, who seductively stretches backward with his hands clasped behind his head.

Mumtaz Mangat, a lawyer who petitioned the courts to impose blasphemy charges, argued the image implied the cleric had “fun” with the boy before conducting the traditional Muslim call for prayer.

A second painting shows the same cleric reclining in front of a Muslim shrine, holding a book by Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho in one hand as he lights a cigarette for a young boy with the other. A second young boy, who is naked with his legs strategically crossed to cover his genitals, sits at the cleric’s feet. The painting has caused particular uproar because verses from Islam’s holy book, the Quran, appear on the shrine…

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]

Pakistan: Muslim Societies Go Beyond Borders: US Scholar

When India is reckoned as a villain in the national discourse in an overly charged environment, one dimension of bilateral relations is missing by and large: religious. Having taught politics, comparative ethnicity, and Muslims of South Asia for 30 long years at State University of New York at Albay, Professor Theodore P. Wright has aptly brought out this dimension. He was talking to ‘The News’ after a seminar on Muslim Societies in Islamabad the other day. It is stating the obvious to say that all religions advocate peace and welfare for humanity in general. Scholars of different religions, however, place more focus on well being of their coreligionists as there is an avowed conviction among all of them that they are ‘chosen’ or superior to the rest. But the hate mongers seem insensitive of even this fallacy of self-welfare, perhaps because it has a shadow of welfare. And their mania is put the world’s third largest population of Muslims — living in India — in danger…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Pakistani Mob Beats to Death Muslim Accused of Blasphemy

A mob in Pakistan has stormed a police station and beaten to death a Muslim man accused of desecrating the Koran.

The victim’s body was then set alight, according to witnesses.

The unnamed victim had earlier been handed over to the police after burnt pages of the Koran were found in a mosque in Dadu district, 330km (200 miles) north of Karachi, where he had been staying overnight.

Hours later a mob went to the police station, seized the man and killed him.

The district police chief, Usman Ghani, told the BBC the gruesome incident was filmed on mobile phones. He said the footage was being reviewed to identify culprits.

Thirty people have so far been detained in connection with the attack.

The local police chief and five of his officers have been arrested for failing to protect the man.

The BBC’s Shahzeb Jillani says blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue in Pakistan, where scores of people have been killed by mobs or vigilantes.

Our correspondent in Karachi adds that the controversial laws are often misused to persecute minorities or settle scores.

Most recently, international attention focused on the case of Christian teenager Rimsha Masih, who was held over blasphemy allegations.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Pakistan Police Murders: 21 Cops Found Shot to Death in Peshawar

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Twenty-one tribal policemen believed to have been kidnapped by the Taliban were found shot dead in Pakistan’s troubled northwest tribal region early Sunday, government officials said.

Officials found the bodies shortly after midnight in the Jabai area of Frontier Region Peshawar after being notified by one policeman who escaped, said Naveed Akbar Khan, a top political official in the area. Another policeman was found seriously wounded, said Khan.

The 23 policemen went missing before dawn Thursday when militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons attacked two posts in Frontier Region Peshawar. Two policemen were also killed in the attacks.

Militants lined the policemen up on a cricket pitch late Saturday night and gunned them down, said another local official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion fell on the Pakistani Taliban, who have been waging a bloody insurgency against the government for the past few years. The tribal region is the main sanctuary for the Taliban in Pakistan.

On Saturday, an explosion ripped through a passenger bus at a terminal in the southern city of Karachi, killing six people and wounding 52 others, some of whom were in critical condition, said Seemi Jamali, a doctor at the hospital where the victims were being treated.

Police were trying to determine whether the blast, which reduced the bus to a charred skeleton, was caused by a bomb or a gas canister that exploded, said police spokesman Imran Shaukat. Many buses in Pakistan run on natural gas.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Australia — Pacific

Knitting Overcomes Cultural Barriers

The age old art of knitting is helping overcome barriers between Muslim and non-Muslim women, in an innovative cultural program in Brisbane. Women from a range of generations meet every week to share their sewing tips and experiences of life in Australia.

[JP note: See also blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100195076/australia-you-are-so-totally-gay/ ]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

New Year, Butt Out as On-the-Spot Smoking Fines Take Effect

HAPPY New Year — now stub out that cigarette.

Smoking near playgrounds and public swimming pools will be punished with a $550 on-the-spot fine as part of new state government laws to take effect in 2013.

Car registration stickers are dead while taxi drivers will be forced to wear seatbelts.

Bus, train or ferry commuters will pay between 10c and 20c more for single trips.

Grandstands and sportsgrounds, railway platforms, ferry wharves, bus stops and cab ranks will become smoke-free from January 7.

It will also be illegal to smoke within 4m of the entrance of a public building.

The ban will extend within three years to commercial outdoor dining areas and within 4m of a pedestrian entrance or exit from licensed premises, restaurants and cafes, making NSW virtually smoke-free.

The few public spaces where smoking will continue include the high rollers room at Sydney’s Star casino.

Health Minister Jillian Skinner said the tough stance was taken in a bid to reduce the number of people with a smoking-related illness.

“Smoking-related illness accounts for about 5200 deaths and 44,000 hospitalisations per year in NSW,” she said. “This costs about $8 billion annually.”

NSW Health will be relying on its own officials and council rangers to catch smokers breaking the law.

Erskineville’s Tim Hiley, who has three children aged between two and six years, welcomed the ban. He does not smoke and does not think the rules are intrusive.

“We do live in a highly regulated society, but the health of our children is very important,” he said.

The days of registration stickers will also be a thing of the past and police and road traffic authorities will rely on number plate recognition technology to determine if motorists have paid their rego.

Police have raised concerns that the change will place extra pressure on already stretched resources…

           — Hat tip: Nilk [Return to headlines]

Obligation to Respect, Not Share, Our Faiths

by Joseph Wakim

Each Christmas, my family receives more greetings and gifts from my Muslim friends than from fellow Christians. We treasure many handmade cards by Muslim children who do not celebrate Christmas. We cannot trivialise these efforts as tokenistic as they are annual and original. They are well-worded messages of peace in English and Arabic. I only wish we took the time to reciprocate this goodwill gesture at the two Islamic Eids each year

[…]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Sub-Saharan Africa

Angola: Official Calls for Humanisation of Prisons

Dundo — The Prison Service should work on the implementation of prisons humanisation process. This was said to Angop on Friday in Dundo city in the eastern Lunda Norte province by the local delegate of the Ministry of Interior, Gil Famoso Sebastião da Silva. The official, who witnessed the Christmas of the inmates of Cacanda prison, promoted by Ministry of Interior, said that the process aims to improve the living conditions, medical assistance and technical professional training of the prisoners…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Kenya: Snake Disrupts Campaign Rally in Kilifi

A rally organised by Fisheries Development minister Amason Kingi at the Rea Vipingo Grounds was on Monday disrupted after a snake crawled into the main dais. The incident, which occurred at around 3pm, forced all the guests seated at the dais, including the minister and retired Justice Stewart Madzayo, to run for safety. Others got on top of the tables as the crowd tried to kill the serpent…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Nigeria: Gunmen Kill 25 in Adamawa, Borno

No fewer than 25 people were allegedly killed Friday in separate attacks in Maiha Local Government Area of Adamawa State and Musari area of Borno State by unknown gunmen suspected to be members of the Islamic religious sect, Boko Haram. The attacks which came as people were almost celebrating a stress free Yuletide led to 20 deaths in Maiha where the terrorists also attacked offices and lodges of the Customs and residents as well as the Divisional Police Headquarters, which they set ablaze. However, out of the 35 inmates freed by the attackers from the Maiha prison, the police said have re-arrested 11. The terrorists entered a Musari within the hours of 1 am and 3 am and surreptitiously killed five people in their houses…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Immigration

UK: Gavin Barwell MP: Four Reasons Why the Conservative Party Must Win More of Britain’s Growing Ethnic Vote

In yesterday’s Independent it was reported that David Cameron believes that the Tory Party faces an existential threat if it does not increase support among voters from minority communities. In a two-part series of articles Gavin Barwell MP examines the nature of the challenge facing the Conservatives and, tomorrow, some possible solutions. Gavin is Tory MP for Croydon Central. Follow him on Twitter.

At the last General Election, more than two thirds of voters from Britain’s black and ethnic minority (BME) communities supported Labour; only 16% voted for us (source: Ethnic Minority British Election Study (PDF)). As Lord Ashcroft has observed, not being white was the single best predictor that somebody wouldn’t vote Conservative. This wasn’t solely down to ethnicity. BME voters are more likely to live in safe Labour seats where there may not be an active Conservative Party and statistically they are over-represented in lower socio-economic groups, so you would expect them to be more likely to vote Labour. But the scale of the disparity should leave us in no doubt that ethnicity is a factor…

[Reader comment by Sandy Jamieson on 28 December 2012 at about 8 pm.]

I spent a good part of Boxing Day evening in the Westfield Shopping Centre in Stratford and was shocked. White people were in a clear minority and if that’s the way Gavin Barnwell envisages Britain, I don’t want to be part of it. Add on to that the large number of Eastern and Southern Europeans and it was like being in a foreign country. I just spent most of the evening sitting in the food area, reading the Telegraph and playing Spot the White Man […]

[Reader comment by Cassandra79 on 29 December 2012 at about 9 am.]

I agree. This is the same catch 22 position conservatives find themselves in the States and it’s coming to Britain. In California for example in order to appeal to the vast majority of ethnic minorities, the Republicans would also have to be the party of more public services, more multiculturalism, more ‘Affirmative Action’ entitlements for minorities and high taxes for their White base. And as a result of last year’s election, the Democrats now have a super-majority in the Calif. State Legislature, meaning that they can raise taxes as much as they please. This means White middle class Californians have now become cash cows basically, to be milked at will until they leave the state altogether. California is a small scale version of what the entire country will look like soon. So in order to appeal to hispanics, Republicans will have to not only agree to be soft on immigration as the media keeps telling them (i.e. to win you have to let in more Democrat voters!!), they also have to be gung ho on raising taxes and jacking up benefits. This is not even remotely a vision that even a moderate ‘‘Rhino Republican’’ could accept. It is basically complete surrender to the left on all fronts and would be strongly resisted by its core base. As for the claim that Hispanics “are natural values voters” there is very little evidence for this claim. Identity politics trumps all and whatever family values they support rarely extends beyond their OWN communities. This is the same for Asian and Muslim voters who are always trumpeted as model minorities who “ought” to be voting Republican but always vote overwhelmingly Democrat. I think the reason you see an upswing in the number of people supporting secession is that its slowly dawning on people that nothing is going to work to attract more ethnic votes and seccession is the only realistic alternative if conservative politics is to have a hope of surviving in the current demographic tsunami. Unfortunately in politics demographics are infinitely more important than ideas, debate or election campaigns. Conservatives who think they can somehow ‘manage it’ are only fooling themselves.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars

France: Gov’t Cracks Down on Racism, Homophobia on Twitter

Antisemitic tweets; minister wants security procedures set up

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, DECEMBER 28 — The French government has declared war on the racism, anti-antisemitism and homophobia spreading on Twitter.

Twitter’s French timeline has recently born witness to ever more disturbing hashtags, such as #SiMonFilsestGay (if my son were gay) and #SiMaFilleRaméneUnNoir (if my daughter brought a black man home) and #unBonJuif’ (a good Jew), which has led to particularly shocking antisemitic tweets. The situation worries Francois Hollande’s Socialist government, which now would like to begin consultations with the associations involved and Twitter executives. “I hope that we can work together with the associations most closely involved to set up an alert and security system making it possible to prevent such regrettable episodes as those seen over the past few weeks from reoccurring,” government spokesperson and Women’s Rights Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem wrote today in the Le Monde paper. “This work will start on January 7, 2013. I hope, in particular, that Twitter will be able to look into the conditions to set up mechanisms making it possible to counter violations involving incitement and insult,” added Vallaud-Belkacem. The minister also underscored that these hate messages “are morally reprehensible and illegal. The fact that they are published online does not make the person committing the crime any less accountable in legal terms.”

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

General

Aisha’s Cushion: Religious Art, Perception and Practice in Islam by Jamal J Elias — Review

Does Islam forbid images of Muhammad or not? By David Shariatmadari

In a simple house in 7th-century Arabia, a woman drapes an embroidered curtain with pictures of living creatures on it across a doorway. When her husband returns, he is displeased and pulls it down. But the material isn’t wasted: the woman turns it into cushions, which remain in sight without causing further conflict…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

First ‘Alien Earth’ Will be Found in 2013, Experts Say

The first truly Earth-like alien planet is likely to be spotted next year, an epic discovery that would cause humanity to reassess its place in the universe.

While astronomers have found a number of exoplanets over the last few years that share one or two key traits with our own world — such as size or inferred surface temperature — they have yet to bag a bona fide “alien Earth.” But that should change in 2013, scientists say.

“I’m very positive that the first Earth twin will be discovered next year,” said Abel Mendez, who runs the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

News Feed 20121228

Financial Crisis
» 46,000 Greeks Under Investigation for Pension Scams
» Italy: ‘Households Face 1,500-Euro Expense Rise in 2013’
» Obama ‘Optimistic’ On Two-Party Deal; Will Press Vote in Senate Without it
 
USA
» Fast and Furious
» Losing Our Sons
» Man Pushed to His Death on New York Subway
» Record 74 Percent of Americans Oppose Arms Ban
» Regulating the Militia
» Savage Behavior
» The Sharia Threat to America
 
Canada
» Supreme Court Ruling on Niqab Smacked of Cowardice
 
Europe and the EU
» Berlusconi Says Could Tour Italy if TV Appearances Limited
» Dutch Right-Wing Politician Puts “Anti-Islam Policy Priority in 2013”
» Edvard Munch at Pains to Win Favour in Norway
» Ex-CIA Spy: Watch Out for 1/11, 2/11, 3/11
» Greece: Athens — The EU Capital City Without a Mosque
» Italy: State Broadcaster RAI to Increase Annual Fee by 1.50 Euros
» Italy: Taxi Drivers in Milan Rally Around Destitute Businessman
» Sweden: Dental Drill Fell Into Patient’s Lung
» Sweden: Police Baffled After 69 Cows Disappear
» UK: ‘Highly Respected’ Organist, 68, Dies Days After Brutal Attack as He Walked to Church to Play at Christmas Eve Midnight Mass
» UK: Disregard Muslims They’re All Labour Supporters on Benefits, Peer Tells Tories
» UK: Fury as Bury Market Boss Tells Halal Curry Maker: Sorry, You Can’t Have a Stall
» UK: Henry G Manson Asks: Can Cameron Win Ehtnic Minority Votes With Candidates Alone?
» UK: Most Tories Think Labour Will Win in 2015
» UK: Murderers and Drug Dealer to Get IVF in Prison and You’ll be Paying! Criminals Using European Human Rights Laws to Start Families at Taxpayers’ Expense
» UK: Nearly 1,000 Doctors Could Still be Practicing Despite Convictions for Possessing Child Porn and Drug Trafficking
» UK: Pig’s Head Left Outside Centre Used by Muslims
» UK: Shocking Moment Motorist, 62, Is Ambushed and Pistol-Whipped by Pair of Masked Robbers for Keys to His Range Rover
» UK: That Was Mac’s Year That Was: From the Bradley Wiggins Effect to Abu Hamza and Leveson, The Mail’s Cartoonist Picks His 2012 Favourites
 
North Africa
» Egyptian Opposition Leaders Under Investigation for ‘Plot to Topple Morsi’
» Egypt: Rights Groups Denounce Fatwa Banning Congratulation of Christians
» Libya: How Obama’s Policies Led to Benghazigate
» The Not-So-Bad Constitution of Egypt
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Why is the US Building a Secret $100 Million Underground Facility Outside Tel Aviv?
 
Middle East
» Turkish Courage Award to 13-Yr Old Palestinian Girl
» Washington’s Misplaced Support for Turkey’s Erdogan
 
South Asia
» Afghan Bombing Victims Sue German Government
» Mansfield Man Killed in Afghanistan
 
Far East
» 1 Killed, 2 Injured in S. Philippine Grenade Attack
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Central African Republic Appeals for French Help to Halt Rebel Advance
» Gambia: Imam Baba Leigh Still in Detention …
» MCC Selects Countries Eligible for New Programs
» Nigeria: Army Kills 5 Gunmen, Discovers Bomb Factory in Kaduna
» Owning a Dog ‘Is Not African’, Declares Jacob Zuma: Racism Row After South African President Says Black People With Pets Are Just Copying White Culture
» South Africa: Zuma Comments Cause Canine Chaos
 
Culture Wars
» Italy: Femicide Row Priest Says Not Quitting But Time Off
» UK: And So it Goes?

Financial Crisis

46,000 Greeks Under Investigation for Pension Scams

Swindlers cost Greek taxpayers 320 million euros a year

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, DECEMBER 27 — Almost 46,000 Greek citizens are under investigation for alleged pension fraud, Labor Minister Yannis Vroutsis made known Thursday.

The government in October 2011 uncovered massive fraud at the Greek social security fund (IKA), which over the preceding decade had paid out 7-8 billion euros in false pensions to relatives of 60,000 deceased retirees.

“We will get our money back, down to the last cent,” promised then IKA Director Rovertos Spyropoulos, and the time of reckoning has come for the 45,997 names on the government’s list of alleged scam artists.

Swindlers cost Greek taxpayers an estimated 320 million euros a year, with disability and farm pension fraud as the most prevalent strategies for ripping the government off.

Perhaps the most notorious example is the Ionian island of Zakynthos, where the government in August 2011 noticed it was paying out 6.4 million euros a year in scam disability payments to 700 people, or 2% of the population: they said they were born blind, earning Zakynthos the nickname of “Island of the Blind”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: ‘Households Face 1,500-Euro Expense Rise in 2013’

‘Unsustainable’ wave of hikes say consumers

(ANSA) — Rome, December 27 — Italian households will see their expenses rise by a whopping 1,500 euros each in 2013, consumer groups said Thursday.

Hikes in train tickets, car insurance, household bills, bank and postal charges, waste-disposal levies and the new IMU property tax will be “unsustainable” for the countless households already struggling to make ends meet, said Adusbef and Federconsumatori.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Obama ‘Optimistic’ On Two-Party Deal; Will Press Vote in Senate Without it

President Obama said Friday evening that progress was made in make-or-break talks on the fiscal crisis and pronounced himself cautiously “optimistic,” as Senate leaders worked furiously toward an agreement to avert the worst of the economic punch from landing Jan. 1.

But after a one-hour meeting with Congressional leaders at the White House, Mr. Obama warned that if the two sides don’t agree on a bill, he will urge the Democratic-controlled Senate to put forward a measure anyway, in essence daring Republicans in the House and Senate to block a floor vote on tax cuts.

“I believe such proposals could pass both houses with a bipartisa n majority as long as both leaders will allow it to come to a vote,” Mr. Obama said. “If members want to vote no, they can.”

[Return to headlines]

USA

Fast and Furious

The U.S. government’s botched “Fast and Furious” gunwalking operation is leaving a deadly legacy in Mexico where weapons related to the operation regularly show up at crime scenes. U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley said two guns linked to the operation were found last month after a gun battle between Sinaloa drug cartel members and the Mexican military.

“Fast and Furious” was an ATF operation based in Phoenix that allowed gunwalking, in which federal law enforcement agents allowed suspected criminals to buy weapons, with the hopes they would eventually lead them to Mexican drug leaders.

Some 2,000 weapons were lost under “Fast and Furious” and not one seizure was made, nor were any drug leaders arrested, officials said. The weapons are believed to still be moving back and forth across the U.S.-Mexican border and will likely show up at crime scenes for years, the Los Angeles Times reported.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Losing Our Sons

by Bruce Bawer

It is, in my view, the defining exchange of our time. It took place, not inappropriately, on Pearl Harbor Day of 2011, at one of the joint House-Senate hearings called by New York Congressman Peter King and Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman to examine the radicalization of American Muslims. As seen in the You Tube video, Congressman Dan Lungren of California poses a simple, straightforward question to a witness, Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Stockton. “Secretary Stockton,” he asks, “are we at war with violent Islamist extremism?”…

It’s a simple concept: know your enemy. After 9/11 there should have been a major educational effort to explain to American citizens the motives behind the attacks — to help them, just for starters, to understand jihad and its centrality to Islam. Instead what was set in motion under Bush, and intensified under Obama, was a comprehensive disinformation effort — an attempt to whitewash Islam, and to brand as Islamophobes all those who dare to speak the truth about it. As a result of this cowardice, two American fathers lost their sons — one of them transformed into a jihadist by hooligans who should never have been allowed into the country, and the other gunned down in an act of terrorism that officials high and low, trained in the post-9/11 Newspeak, refuse to call by its real name. In presenting its moving account of these sons and fathers, the film is, of course, also telling the story of America today — and of how our leaders’ Big Lie, perpetrated in the name of a misbegotten sensitivity, not only caused the death of Andy Long, but is, right before our eyes, strangling the very freedoms he signed up to defend.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Man Pushed to His Death on New York Subway

A woman has pushed a man to his death in front of a subway train, the second time this month someone has been killed in this way.

The man, who has not been named, was standing on the elevated platform of a 7 train in the borough of Queens at about 8pm when he was pushed by the woman, who witnesses said had been following him closely and mumbling to herself, New York Police Department chief spokesman Paul Browne said. It didn’t appear the man noticed her before he was shoved onto the tracks, police said. The woman fled, and police were searching for her. She was described as Hispanic, in her 20s, heavyset and about 5ft 5in…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Record 74 Percent of Americans Oppose Arms Ban

(AGI) Washington — A record 74 percent of Americans are firmly opposed to a ban on guns or carrying arms.

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

Regulating the Militia

The Second Amendment is about protecting ourselves from the state.

My friend Brett Joshpe has published an uncharacteristically soft-headed piece in the San Francisco Chronicle arguing that in the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook, conservatives and Republicans should support what he calls “sensible” gun-control laws. It begins with a subtext of self-congratulation (“As a conservative and a Republican, I can no longer remain silent . . . Some will consider it heresy,” etc.), casts aspersions of intellectual dishonesty (arguments for preserving our traditional rights are “disingenuous”), advances into ex homine (noting he has family in Sandy Hook, as though that confers special status on his preferences), fundamentally misunderstands the argument for the right to keep and bear arms, deputizes the electorate, and cites the presence of teddy bears as evidence for his case.

Brett, like practically every other person seeking to diminish our constitutional rights, either does not understand the purpose of the Second Amendment or refuses to address it, writing, “Gun advocates will be hard-pressed to explain why the average American citizen needs an assault weapon with a high-capacity magazine other than for recreational purposes.” The answer to this question is straightforward: The purpose of having citizens armed with paramilitary weapons is to allow them to engage in paramilitary actions. The Second Amendment is not about Bambi and burglars — whatever a well-regulated militia is, it is not a hunting party or a sport-clays club. It is remarkable to me that any educated person — let alone a Harvard Law graduate — believes that the second item on the Bill of Rights is a constitutional guarantee of enjoying a recreational activity.

There is no legitimate exception to the Second Amendment for military-style weapons, because military-style weapons are precisely what the Second Amendment guarantees our right to keep and bear. The purpose of the Second Amendment is to secure our ability to oppose enemies foreign and domestic, a guarantee against disorder and tyranny. Consider the words of Supreme Court justice Joseph Story — who was, it bears noting, appointed to the Court by the guy who wrote the Constitution:…

[Return to headlines]

Savage Behavior

Gun ban (the real reason) — Michael Savage and the link between the First and Second Amendment

Have you noticed that anyone who has recently voiced support for an American’s Second Amendment rights has been systematically vilified by those in opposition, such that it is virtually impossible to have an honest, intelligent conversation about the issue? This is not an accident, but an agenda. It is an agenda of vilification, of the planned prohibition of not only “scary guns,” but of “scary talk.” It is characterizing vocal resistance to a government agenda as a prohibited behavior. It is forcing tolerance to fit a very specific, government sanctioned ideology, beyond which becomes not only an exhibit of intolerance, but of an intent intolerable to the government.

The issue of banning weapons is only the visible part of the magic act where the weapons are only the props. The real act is taking place behind the smoke onstage, where a legitimate and rational opinion that happens to be at odds with the government’s agenda is the real target. It is the plight of Dr. Michael Savage in living color.

As the rights bestowed upon Americans by the First and Second Amendments to the U.S. Constitution are inextricably linked, the government is not only intending to prohibit our possession of certain weapons, but of certain opinions. This is not merely an attack on our Second Amendment rights, but a method to take away our ability to exercise those granted to us by the First Amendment. It is YOU they are after, if your opinions don’t conform to their purpose.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

The Sharia Threat to America

by Fred Grandy

There is a great deal of misinformation circulating with regard to sharia and the threat it poses to America and Western Civilization. Some misinformed observers and members of the Muslim Brotherhood liken concerns over sharia to prejudice and bigotry, but the facts say otherwise. Terrorism experts in the law enforcement, military and intelligence communities have cited sharia as the Jihadists’ enemy threat doctrine in an intensive study called “Shariah: The Threat to America,” a scholarly, 352-page book based on authoritative sources of sharia, or Islamic law. While sharia does include “prayer and fasting” and “worship,” sharia is also an all-encompassing legal and political code that covers aspects of life that have nothing to do with religion. Perhaps most importantly, unlike other forms of religious law, such as canon law and Jewish law, sharia is the only form of religious law extant that is also meant to apply to people of other faiths, i.e. non-Muslims. The threat from sharia has nothing to do with prejudice or bigotry. The threat from sharia is real and multifaceted…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Canada

Supreme Court Ruling on Niqab Smacked of Cowardice

TORONTO — Depending on one’s viewpoint, the Supreme Court’s decision on veiled women testifying in court was a wise compromise — or something of a disaster.

It wasn’t quite a cop-out, but it smacked of cowardice.

Sending the issue of whether face covering should be acceptable in Canadian courts back to the discretion of trial judges hearing cases seems a sorry decision by the Supremes.

Two of the nine Supremes — Justices Louis LeBel and Marshall Rothstein — got it right when they opined that the niqab violates the principle of fair and open trials, where witnesses’ faces are in the open and not hidden behind veils.

Four others, led by Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, felt that the religious “sincerity” of the niqab wearer should be taken into account by the trial judge hearing the case, and he can decide if the veil should be worn.

Good Lord!

What on earth does “religion” or “sincerity” have to do with “justice?”

The niqab — or veil, or burka — has nothing to do with religion. It is a cultural adaptation at best, a cultural affectation at worst.

Common sense dictates that a witness or central figure in a court case should not be masked, or invisible to the court.

[Return to headlines]

Europe and the EU

Berlusconi Says Could Tour Italy if TV Appearances Limited

Former premier speaks to regional Alto Adige channel

(ANSA) — Bolzano, December 28 — Ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi said he could take to the roads of Italy to seek direct contact with his potential electorate in the lead-up to the February general elections if he is forced to reduce the number of his television appearances. “I am concentrating on my television appearances”, Berlusconi said. “If these are reduced to a small number of transmissions, I think I will make a small tour of Italy”. Berlusconi made the comments during a phone interview with a journalist from Tca-Alto Adige television on whether he planned to visit the Alto Adige region during his electoral campaign. Earlier this month Italian state broadcaster RAI said it had granted Berlusconi airwave space on a series of channels in the past few days, and that it would be offering similar media exposure to other political candidates for the upcoming elections. RAI and other Italian broadcasters are committed to offering the most important political parties in the nation relatively equal visibility under the so-called “Par Condicio” or “Fairness” (equal time) rule.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Dutch Right-Wing Politician Puts “Anti-Islam Policy Priority in 2013”

THE HAGUE, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) — Dutch politician Geert Wilders, leader of the right wing populist Party of Freedom PVV, said on Thursday that anti-Islam policy will be his top priority in the forthcoming year, local media reported. “Next to all things about Europe and the economic situation the people will hear from our resistance against the ‘Islamization’ of the Netherlands,” Wilders told Dutch TV channel NOS in an interview. “I will intensify this battle, both in the Netherlands, but also internationally from Australia to America to Switzerland, or anywhere else,” he added. He said the fight was a life mission for him. He also noted a “Moroccan problem,” referring to the recent death of a soccer linesman who was attacked by some young people of Moroccan origin, and one of Antillean descent.

In 2010 the PVV won 24 seats in the Dutch parliament, partly as a result of its anti-Islamic rhetoric. As a supporting party the PVV contributed the minority cabinet of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte which fell in April 2012, after Wilders quit negotiations on austerity measures. In the parliamentary elections held in September 2012, PVV saw its seats reduced to 15.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Edvard Munch at Pains to Win Favour in Norway

He may be acclaimed in the art world and coveted by thieves but Edvard Munch is starved of recognition in his native Norway, where squabbles have delayed a new museum worthy of his oeuvre.

Next year will mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of the expressionist master, who painted the now iconic “The Scream”. But the anniversary is clouded by the city of Oslo’s inability to provide a proper setting for the art gems the painter left in his will.

Munch, who died in 1944, bequeathed an enormous collection to the Norwegian capital, including 1,100 paintings, 3,000 drawings and 18,000 etchings.

But the current Munch Museum, constructed cheaply after World War II in a rather rundown Oslo neighbourhood, does not do justice to the priceless trove.

“It’s time to have something more modern that would enable us to better welcome the public and exhibit Munch’s work from other perspectives, in broader contexts, both his and ours,” museum director Stein Olav Henrichsen said.

While all agree on the need for a better museum, there are divisions over where to place it.

Oslo’s city council agreed in 2008 to erect a building near the new, futuristic opera house on the shores of the Oslo fjord, but those plans were scrapped three years later when the populist right suddenly withdrew its support without a concrete explanation.

The move was a shock and an embarrassment: a Spanish architecture firm had already been hired and had drawn up plans for Lambda, a super-modern leaning glass building, to great expense.

The issue has been at a standstill ever since, and Oslo has been unable to come to an agreement on any of the current options.

Those include a return to the Spanish concept; or a move to the ageing main building of the National Gallery downtown; or perhaps a total renovation of the museum’s current location just outside the city centre. All are estimated to cost around 1.6 billion kroner ($285 million).

Failure to reach agreement could be interpreted as a Norwegian cold shoulder to the country’s most famous artist, in sharp contrast to his huge international appeal.

A million people recently visited a Munch exhibit that toured Paris, Frankfurt and London. And one of the four versions of “The Scream” — the only one in private hands — was sold this year at a New York auction for the record sum of $119.9 million.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Ex-CIA Spy: Watch Out for 1/11, 2/11, 3/11

Expert warns of Iran, al-Qaida teaming up for massive attacks

One of the absolute journalistic treasures WND brings you exclusively are investigative reports from Reza Kahlili, former CIA operative as a spy in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Kahlili, a pseudonym to protect his identity, is a counterterrorism expert and currently serves on the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, an advisory board authorized by Congress. He is the author of the award-winning book “A Time to Betray.”

Here’s part of his most recent exclusive report in WND:

Al-Qaida is teaming up with Iran to stage massive terror attacks on French and German targets in the next three months, according to an inside source.

Those targets include French Socialist Party headquarters, commerce centers and the Paris Metro rapid transit system…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Greece: Athens — The EU Capital City Without a Mosque

At Friday prayers and across Athens, Muslims gather in underground, cramped prayer rooms.

The makeshift facilities are illegal but this huge community faces no other option. Athens, a metropolis on the edge of the Muslim world, is the only EU capital without a mosque.

Since Greece gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1832, no government has allowed a mosque to be built in the city. It was seen by many as “un-Greek” — out of place in a country in which much more than 90% of the population are Orthodox Christians…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Italy: State Broadcaster RAI to Increase Annual Fee by 1.50 Euros

Tax deemed the most detested in Italy

(ANSA) — Rome, December 26 — State broadcaster RAI announced on Wednesday that the annual television licence fee for 2013 will be increased 1.50 euros compared to 2012, specifying that the hike was issued by the Italian economic development ministry.

Italians owning televisions are now required to pay 113.50 euros yearly for the public television subscription, to be paid by 31 January 2013.

The obligatory annual TV licence fee to help finance RAI is the country’s most unpopular tax, a survey revealed last year.

The study by the Censis research agency showed that 47.3% of Italians deemed the fee to be the tax they most detested.

RAI obtains about half of its funding from the licence fee, with the rest coming from advertising and other sources of revenue, such as sales of the overseas rights to broadcast the TV shows and films it produces.

The broadcaster is criticised on a wide variety of grounds by Italians, being blasted as too commercial by many, while others complain the schedule is not entertaining enough and there should be more Hollywood blockbusters.

Another frequent gripe is that there is too much political interference in its output, especially news shows.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Taxi Drivers in Milan Rally Around Destitute Businessman

‘Tramp’ faces 3,000-euro fine for small street sales

(ANSA) — Milan, December 28 — Taxi drivers in Milan have rallied around a former businessman who faces a 3,000 euro fine for selling cigarette lighters, small flashlights, and other items to make ends meet.

Renato Moda, who spoke over lunch at a Milan soup kitchen, says he was charged with running a business in a public area without a licence, and fined by authorities at the city’s Linate airport.

And he has no money to pay the fine.

Taxi drivers from that airport are defending the former textile salesman who lost his stores, his house, and then buried his wife.

“I had nothing more,” until he found a cell-phone charger laying on the ground, sold it to a taxi driver for three euros and began a new life as a very small-scale businessman, Moda recalled.

“At that moment, my life changed”.

At 53, Moda is a blue-eyed, handsome man who lives on the street, hanging in coffee bars to avoid the cold. “Then, on Saturday and Sunday, if I have enough money, I’m going to a hotel that costs 40 euros a night”. The taxi driver’s union says it admires Moda and mocks the police who charged him for trying to earn some wages.

“Renato is trying to rebuild his life without stealing, he is a good person for a pleasant chat and is never intrusive,” says Marco Marani, vice president of Unica FILT-CGIL.

Quipped union president Giovanni Maggiolo: “I congratulate the local police who completed this ‘bright’ operation”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Sweden: Dental Drill Fell Into Patient’s Lung

A dental implant surgery turned into a nightmare as the dentist’s drill came unstuck, fell down the patient’s throat and landed in her right lung, an accident which has now been reported to the authorities.

The patient, a 60-year-old woman, was having dental implant surgery at Västmanland County Hospital in Västerås, in central Sweden.

During surgery, the drill came loose from the grip and fell into her mouth. She was quickly pulled into a sitting position, but it was too late.

“She tried to spit it out, and was made to cough, but she’d already swallowed,” the hospital’s medical chief Per Weitz told The Local.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Sweden: Police Baffled After 69 Cows Disappear

Local police remain stumped after 69 cows disappeared without a trace from a farm in eastern Sweden — on the exact day they were due to be slaughtered.

Claes Roempke, the 47-year-old owner of the cattle, is also baffled at his loss, which he values at around 700,000 kronor ($107,600).

“When I opened the gate I saw the animals were gone,” Roempke told the Expressen newspaper.

“I have no idea where they’ve been taken. I hope they are alive and are ok.”

Police officers visited the farm in Stjärnhov on Thursday, but were unable to figure out how almost 70 cows were able to leave the farm without anyone noticing.

“We have the ID number of all the cows and will match them with the Jordbruksverket (the Swedish Board of Agriculture) register,” explained Thomas Tellebro of the Katrineholm police to the paper.

“But it is hard to get hold of people during the Christmas holiday period.”

While it remains unclear whether the cows were stolen or whether they simply fled, one thing is known for sure — on the day of the disappearance, Roempke was about to send them to the slaughterhouse himself.

The farmer is now urging the public to help by sending in any information to the police.

Meanwhile, the police are focusing on what may have happened to the cattle now.

“It’s not easy to get rid of cows. If someone comes with 69 cows to a typical slaughterhouse, the cows must be registered and that’s how the slaughterhouse sees where the cows came from,” Tellebro told the paper.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

UK: ‘Highly Respected’ Organist, 68, Dies Days After Brutal Attack as He Walked to Church to Play at Christmas Eve Midnight Mass

A ‘highly respected’ organist has died after being subjected to a random brutal attack that left him with horrific head injuries.

Grandfather Alan Greaves, 68, was on his way to Midnight Mass at St Saviour’s CoE church in High Green, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, on Christmas Eve when he was set upon with an unknown weapon.

He was found by a pizza delivery worker collapsed on the pavement outside a primary school just 300 metres from the church in what appears to be a motiveless attack.

He was rushed to hospital with severe head injuries and underwent a four-hour emergency operation but has since passed away.

Police have launched a murder investigation and are appealing for witnesses to Mr Greaves’ assault.

This afternoon, detectives said they were reviewing footage from CCTV cameras in the nearby area.

They added that it was an ‘isolated incident’ and said there would be an increase in the number of officers in the area to reassure the community.

[Return to headlines]

UK: Disregard Muslims They’re All Labour Supporters on Benefits, Peer Tells Tories

Former Conservative peer Baroness Shreela Flather has sparked outrage by claiming that all British Muslims live on benefits, prompting Britain’s largest Muslim umbrella group to brand her statement “ignorant”, “irresponsible” and “offensive”. The latest in a series of anti-Muslim outbursts by the 78-year-old cross-bench peer came as she endorsed the alleged comment by the newly appointed Tory campaign chief…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Fury as Bury Market Boss Tells Halal Curry Maker: Sorry, You Can’t Have a Stall

A curry maker was left stunned after being refused a market stall — because his products were halal. Jeff Thomson, founder of Curried Away, asked for a plot on Bury’s Artisan Markets. But he was shocked when Paul Barrah, who operates the markets on behalf of the town’s council, replied to his email simply saying: “Hi, I’m sorry but my markets don’t use halal products. Regards, Paul.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Henry G Manson Asks: Can Cameron Win Ehtnic Minority Votes With Candidates Alone?

According to reports yesterday the Conservative Party wants to increase its efforts to woo ethnic voters ahead of the election. This, alongside gay marriage, appears to be the second lesson George Osborne took from the recent US Presidential election. The Independent understands the initial aim seems to be to increase the number of minority parliamentary candidates. Conservatives currently have 11 MPs from an ethnic minority background compared to Labour who have 13. The Liberal Democrats, somewhat incredibly, have zero. It is worth reflecting on the fact that the Labour Party only has 2 more MPs than the Conservative Party despite taking pride itself on historically receiving much support from ethnic minorities and leading the way in new MPs in the late 1980s. Over the last 15 years Labour has concentrated on All Woman Shortlists in which black and Asian women have often lost. Attempts to rectify ethnic under-representation of MPs have stalled and there is a sense the party has been complacent in this area…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Most Tories Think Labour Will Win in 2015

Two-thirds of Tory members expect Ed Miliband’s Labour Party to win the next election, a poll has found.

Only 12% of Conservatives think David Cameron will secure his longed-for Commons majority when the country next goes to the polls in 2015. The findings, in a survey conducted by the website ConservativeHome, mark a gloomy end to the year for the Prime Minister, who has overseen a slump in his party’s ratings in the last 12 months. Most opinion polls now put Labour at least 10 points ahead of the Tories, with the Liberal Democrats a distant third. ConservativeHome said its findings, based on a survey of 2,500 people, showed the extent of the “pessimism” in the Tory ranks over the fortunes of the government. George Osborne’s “omnishambles” budget in March and the rise of the UK Independence Party were blamed for compounding the party’s difficulties…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Murderers and Drug Dealer to Get IVF in Prison and You’ll be Paying! Criminals Using European Human Rights Laws to Start Families at Taxpayers’ Expense

Four murderers and a drug dealer are in line for taxpayer-funded fertility treatment so that they can father a child from behind bars.

The killers are demanding to be allowed to take part in IVF treatment despite serving life sentences. Ministers may be powerless to refuse because of a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights concerning the right to a private and family life.

Turning down the prisoners’ demands could lead to court action and compensation claims running into tens of thousands of pounds.

[Return to headlines]

UK: Nearly 1,000 Doctors Could Still be Practicing Despite Convictions for Possessing Child Porn and Drug Trafficking

Up to 927 doctors could still be practicing despite being convicted for crimes such as possession of indecent child images, trafficking drugs, kerb crawling and causing death by dangerous driving.

Medical chiefs claim they cannot ban all sex offenders from working because it might breach their human rights.

But patients are not being told about the disgraced physicians, surgeons and GPs, who are still working in surgeries and hospitals across the country.

Those doctors, who have not been struck off the medical register and who have been found guilty of possessing child sex images are even thought to still be treating children.

The GMC insisted it enquired about an automatic ban on doctors who are on the sex offenders’ register but ‘advice was obtained from a leading QC who concluded that an automatic bar, without exceptions, would not be compatible with human rights legislation’.

Among those practicing with a criminal record is Benjamin Obukofe, who was found guilty by a court last year of sexually assaulting two colleagues at Spire Hospital in Leicestershire, including a girl of 17.

[Return to headlines]

UK: Pig’s Head Left Outside Centre Used by Muslims

Three people arrested in Leicester where Islamic group faces protests over plans to open centre in disused Scout hut

Three people have been arrested after a pig’s head was left outside a community centre used for prayers by Muslims in an area of Leicester that has seen heightened far-right activity in recent months.

The head of the pig, which is offensive to Muslims who consider the animal unclean and are forbidden from eating pork, was discovered by worshippers from the As Salaam group at the Thurnby Lodge centre at 7.30am on Boxing Day. A 40-year-old woman and two men, aged 37 and 46, were arrested on Wednesday.

The incident came amid tension over the group’s plans to open an Islamic centre in a disused Scout hut neighbouring the community centre. There have been months of protests, including involvement by the English Defence League and the British National party, whose leader, Nick Griffin, visited the area in August.

The As Salaam imam Mohammed Lockhat told the Guardian that the incident had only increased the group’s commitment to stay: “We were shocked and saddened by this development. It’s deeply discriminating and religiously offensive … Every single day we have got people standing outside, protesters hurling insults, racist abuse. We weren’t expecting this to happen but it was only a matter of time.”…

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]

UK: Shocking Moment Motorist, 62, Is Ambushed and Pistol-Whipped by Pair of Masked Robbers for Keys to His Range Rover

This is the shocking moment two masked thugs brutally attacked a 62-year-old man with a gun moments after he arrived home.

The footage shows how the man, who had just driven up to his house and parked his Range Rover, was punched to the floor before being repeatedly hit with the weapon.

The balaclava-clad attackers then stole the victim’s car keys and sped off in a stolen Seat Altea but left the Range Rover behind.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: That Was Mac’s Year That Was: From the Bradley Wiggins Effect to Abu Hamza and Leveson, The Mail’s Cartoonist Picks His 2012 Favourites

It was the year that saw the Olympics come to Britain, doctors and surgeons strike, and Prince Andrew abseiling down Europe’s tallest building, the Shard. Here, the peerless Mac revisits his choice cartoon moments from 2012…

[Return to headlines]

North Africa

Egyptian Opposition Leaders Under Investigation for ‘Plot to Topple Morsi’

Egypt was facing renewed political tensions on Thursday after three leading opposition figures, including a former head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, were placed under investigation for allegedly plotting to topple Mohammed Morsi, the Islamist president.

A judge is to investigate Mohammed El-Baradei, the ex-head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, along with the former foreign minister and Arab League chairman, Amr Moussa, and Hamdeen Sabahi, a former presidential candidate, over accusations that they campaigned to unseat Mr Morsi during a recent outbreak of unrest. The announcement by the new chief prosecutor, Taalat Ibrahim Abdallah, who was appointed by Mr Morsi last month, will heighten concerns that the president and his Muslim Brotherhood backers intend to scapegoat political opponents…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Egypt: Rights Groups Denounce Fatwa Banning Congratulation of Christians

The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) denounces the Fatwa, Islamic opinion, issued by the Religious Commission for Rights and Reforms that bans congratulating Christians in their festivals and holidays. It is worthy to mention that the commission includes a group of Islamic legislators and scientists representing all the Islamic groups. The fatwa comes as a religion contempt crime directed against Egyptian citizens. EOHR also stated that this fatwa comes under the umbrella of the discrimination based on race and religion, which is a crime, leads to dividing the Egyptian community. This opinion is also a violation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, signed on September 28, 1966. In this regard, EOHR stresses on refusal of all the forms of racial discrimination and calls for taking those who issued this fatwa to accountability.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Libya: How Obama’s Policies Led to Benghazigate

by Daniel Greenfield

It took some 22 hours for American help to arrive in Benghazi after all the t’s had been crossed and the i’s had been dotted, and the body of America’s ambassador to Libya had been dragged through the streets by “rescuers” stopping along the way to pose for cell phone pictures with his corpse. By way of comparison it takes about 16 hours for a boatload of Libyan illegal immigrants to row to the Italian island of Lampedusa. Support for the Americans under fire in Libya would have arrived sooner if a few former members of the Harvard Rowing Team had gotten in one of the many rowboats beached on the shores of Lampedusa and pushed the oars all the way to Benghazi…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

The Not-So-Bad Constitution of Egypt

EGYPTIAN POLITICS over the past nine months has not been an edifying sight, but the new constitution does not spell the end of democracy in Egypt. It scares the 36 per cent of Egyptian voters who rejected it, but their fears are probably misplaced.

The revolution was made in the big cities, mostly by people who were secular in outlook. However, most Egyptian voters live in rural areas that are devout and deeply conservative, so three-quarters of the votes in the first free election went to Islamic parties…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Israel and the Palestinians

Why is the US Building a Secret $100 Million Underground Facility Outside Tel Aviv?

Leave it to legendary Walter Pincus from the Washington Post to flesh out a Request for Proposal construction project planned for Israel called Site 911.

The oddly named project will cost up to $100 million, take more than two years to complete, and can only be built by workers from specific countries with proper security clearances. Palestinians need not apply.

When complete the well-guarded compound will have five levels buried underground and six additional outbuildings on the above grounds, within the perimeter. At about 127,000 square feet, the first three floors will house classrooms, an auditorium, and a laboratory — all wedged behind shock resistant doors — with radiation protection and massive security.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Middle East

Turkish Courage Award to 13-Yr Old Palestinian Girl

Ahed Tamimi challenged Israeli soldiers in West Bank

Ahed Tamimi, 13, challenged an Israeli patrol in the West Bank last month

(ANSAmed) — RAMALLAH — Ahed Tamimi, a 13-year-old Palestinian girl who gained international notoriety for standing up to an Israeli patrol in the West Bank last month, was welcomed with great honors in Turkey, where she was awarded with ‘Handala Courage Award’ in Istanbul on Wednesday, Palestinian media reported.

Video footage of Tamimi, the daughter of a Palestinian human rights activist, showing her fists to the Israeli soldiers that had arrested her brother went around the world.

Visiting Turkey as being the guest of Basaksehir Municipality of Istanbul, Ahed Tamimi attended a series of events ahead the award ceremony and opened an art exhibition titled ‘Being children in Palestine’, Anadolu Agency reported.

Handala Courage Award, handed out by the Basaksehir Municipality, was named after the cartoon character Handala created by Palestinian artist Naji al-Ahli. Handala, a 10-year-old boy, has become one of the symbols of the struggle against Israeli occupation.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Washington’s Misplaced Support for Turkey’s Erdogan

For over a decade now, US administrations have hailed Turkey’s Islamist AKP government led by Prime Minister Erdogan as a model of democracy and “moderate” Islam. In the wake of the Arab Spring, Prime Minister Erdogan traveled to Libya, Egypt and Tunisia as an extension of American “soft power” to encourage fledgling governments to adopt the Turkish version of Islamic democracy.

The problem here is that Washington is again allowing pragmatism to trump principle. The US is apparently so eager to find alternative vehicles of political expression to combat radical Islam in the Middle East that it is willing to gloss over the gross violations of basic human rights being perpetrated in its chosen “model” for the world of Islam.

It is no secret that Erdogan and his chief advisors are ardent admirers of the Ottoman state, the vast empire ruled by the Turks for 600 years. This open admiration coupled with the government’s foreign policy strategies indicate that Erdogan’s government is seeking to regain a similar type of influence in the region. The question is which Ottoman Sultan Erdogan is trying to emulate.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

South Asia

Afghan Bombing Victims Sue German Government

Families of victims of a deadly air strike in Afghanistan that killed more than 90 people in 2009 have filed a multimillion-dollar class-action lawsuit against Germany, a lawyer said Friday.

Karim Popal, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said the 10 lawsuits were claiming €3.3 million ($4.4 million) in damages from the German government.

“Many orphans and widows lost their providers due to this barbaric war crime, and many mothers their young children,” Popal said in a statement. “Nearly all the survivors are traumatised and are not receiving psychological treatment.”

Around 80 people are represented, according to news agency DPA.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Mansfield Man Killed in Afghanistan

Mansfield resident Joseph Griffin, 49, was killed on Christmas Eve in Kabul, Afghanistan by a policewoman who reportedly shot him when she decided her plans to kill the governor, police chief or an investigator would be too difficult. Griffin once worked as a deputy with the Newton County Sheriff’s Office, first from 1996 until 2000 and again in 2007. He was in Afghanistan as a military veteran advising the Afghan National Police when he was murdered by the policewoman, identified as Sgt. Nargas, a mother of four in her early 30s who joined the police force five years ago and had a clean record, according to the Associated Press…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Far East

1 Killed, 2 Injured in S. Philippine Grenade Attack

MANILA, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) — One man died while another was arrested on Thursday night after they lobbed a grenade at the house of a town mayor in southern Philippines, police confirmed Friday. Supt. Junry Buenacosa, chief of Tacurong city police in Sultan Kudarat province, said the identity of the slain suspect was not immediately known. The other suspect, Mohammad Hadji Marandin, 39, was arrested by policemen. Police were able to corner the two suspects who tried to escape after they lobbed a grenade at the house of President Quirino town mayor Emilio Salamanca in Poblacion village. The explosion injured two people including a security escort of the town official. Police have launched an investigation into the incident to determine the motive behind the attack.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central African Republic Appeals for French Help to Halt Rebel Advance

The President of the Central African Republic has called on France and the United States to help push back advancing rebel fighters, but the idea has been flatly rejected by the French President. The rebels, known as the Séléka alliance, took up arms early this month and are closing in on the capital, Bangui, after taking large swathes of the country’s north and east with little resistance from the army…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Gambia: Imam Baba Leigh Still in Detention …

Imam Baba Leigh, the Imam of Kanifing Layout Mosque was reported to have been arrested by two National Intelligence Agency Personnel at his compound in Kanifing on the 3 December 2012 but until now the Imam is nowhere to be found…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

MCC Selects Countries Eligible for New Programs

Washington — At its quarterly meeting December 19, the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) board of directors selected Liberia, Niger, Sierra Leone, Morocco and Tanzania as eligible to develop proposals for new compacts, and Guatemala as eligible for a Threshold Program. “This year’s selection decisions are a testament to the ‘MCC Effect,’ the ability of MCC to provide incentives for countries to adopt policy reforms and strengthen institutions in order to become eligible for an MCC compact,” said Daniel W. Yohannes, MCC’s chief executive officer. “Liberia, Niger and Sierra Leone have worked hard for several years to meet MCC’s rigorous eligibility standards, and the board is pleased to recognize these efforts by selecting them as eligible to develop compact proposals.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Nigeria: Army Kills 5 Gunmen, Discovers Bomb Factory in Kaduna

Operatives of the Nigerian Army yesterday killed five and injured two suspected members of the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunnah Ladda’awatih Wal-Jihad, also known as Boko Haram, following a shootout between the two groups in Kaduna. And in Abuja, there were feelers that men of the Nigerian Army foiled an attempt to attack Abuja, just as gunmen were reported to have killed six people in Riyom, near Jos, in Plateau State.

LEADERSHIP gathered that the Army operation, which lasted about five hours, took place at Namadi Road in Rigasa district of Igabi Local Government Area (LGA) in Kaduna metropolis when the men of the Nigerian Army stormed a bomb making factory in the area following a tip-off. The Army operatives, LEADERSHIP further gathered, demolished the bomb factory after hours of gun battle, arrested some suspects and also discovered already made Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs)…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Owning a Dog ‘Is Not African’, Declares Jacob Zuma: Racism Row After South African President Says Black People With Pets Are Just Copying White Culture

He is not afraid to voice controversial opinions on anything from same-sex marriage to teenage pregnancy.

But now South African president Jacob Zuma has taken the bizarre step of warning black Africans against owning a dog.

President Zuma said that owning and walking a dog, and even taking one to the vet, were not African activities, and was just copying white culture.

The president, 70, who faces investigation by the country’s anti-corruption watchdog over an upgrade to his country home, is a proud Zulu and adheres to traditional practices — including polygamy. He has six wives and believed to have fathered 20 children.

Speaking at an event in KwaZulu-Natal province, he described people who love dogs more than humans as ‘having a lack of humanity’, Durban newspaper The Mercury reports

President Zuma reportedly told an audience of black South Africans on Wednesday to stop adopting the habits of other cultures. ‘Even if you apply any kind of lotion and straighten your hair you will never be white,’ he said.

[Return to headlines]

South Africa: Zuma Comments Cause Canine Chaos

Johannesburg — It was a dog-eat-dog world on Twitter on Thursday as people argued over President Jacob Zuma’s comments that caring for a pet dog was part of “white” culture.

While a flurry of users seemed indignant that Zuma didn’t name Jock of the Bushveld his favourite four-legged South African or ask Lassie to come home, many others agreed with the president’s sentiments. One user, YanelaJ, said Zuma’s comments were accurate: “How many blacks vs whites do u c walking/running dogs.don’t count domestic worker?”

Young Communist League spokesman Khaya Xaba tweeted that a “rich man’s dog gets more in the way of vaccination, medicine and medical care than do the workers upon whom the rich man’s wealth is built.”

The Star reported on Thursday that Zuma, in a speech given at Impendle in KwaZulu-Natal, had said that spending money to buy a dog and taking it to the vet and for walks, belonged to “white” culture. He was also reported to have said that those who loved dogs more than people had “a lack of humanity”. The presidency later sent out a statement in which it explained that Zuma was only trying to “decolonise the African mind” with his statements…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Culture Wars

Italy: Femicide Row Priest Says Not Quitting But Time Off

Email ‘fake’, just ‘period of rest and reflection’

(ANSA) — Genoa, December 27 — A priest who stirred a nationwide row by suggesting women “provoked” men to rape or murder on Thursday said he was not quitting but taking a “period of rest”.

“The email saying I was stepping down was a fake,” said Father Piero Corsi.

Father Corsi said his archbishop had advised him to take some time off for “reflection and rest”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

UK: And So it Goes?

In the December 11, 2012 issue of The Telegraph, it was reported that the number of Christians in England and Wales has fallen by four million since 2001. At the same time, the number of nonbelievers has almost doubled—one in four now self-profess as a nonbeliever.

Meanwhile, the number of nonbelievers in the United States has also grown, although not in such a drastic fashion. If the trend continues, however, one in every six Americans will soon claim no faith.

There are many factors contributing to the situation in the UK, but it is clear that the root of England’s secularization lies with the Church of England’s leadership.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]