Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/21/2013

While President Obama was paying a visit to the West Bank, Hamas was firing missiles into the southern Israeli town of Sderot.

Depending on your paranoia index, possible explanations might be:

1.   The timing of the missile attack was a complete coincidence.
2.   Hamas was sending Mahmoud Abbas a message.
3.   Hamas was sending President Obama a message.
4.   #2 and #3 combined.
5.   The mujahideen of Hamas were carrying out instructions relayed to them from…
 

Well, you decide.

In other news, the European Central Bank gave Cyprus an ultimatum: levy a “haircut tax” on depositors in your banks, or face bankruptcy. Cyprus has ordered banks to close until Tuesday, in hopes of resolving the crisis, but if the ECB has its way the banks may not reopen at all.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, JD, JP, LH, LN, MC, McR, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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

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

Financial Crisis
» Accept Raid on Savings or Face Ruin, Cyprus Warned After Hopes of Russia-Led Rescue Are Put on Ice
» Arizona Could Soon Approve Gold, Silver as Legal Tender
» Cyprus Banks Face Bankruptcy, Central Bank Threatens Withdrawal
» EU Creeps Closer to Full Banking Union: Banks Will be Overseen in a “European” Way
» European Central Bank Issues Ultimatum to Cyprus
» Gap Widens Between Spain’s Rich and Poor
» Iceland’s Grassroots Constitution on Thin Ice
» Maltese Finance Minister Scicluna Says Cyprus Had ‘Pistol at Its Head’ During Eurogroup
» Nearly Half of (Irish) Republic’s Children Living in ‘Welfare Households’
» Why is the World Economy Doomed? The Global Financial Pyramid Scheme by the Numbers
 
USA
» Bellevue Mosque: The Only Mosque in Town
» Big Sis Refuses to Answer Congress on Bullet Purchases
» Brain Circuits Uniquely Disrupted in Gulf War Syndrome
» Citizen Tells Gun-Grabbers: You Are “Coloring Outside the Lines of Constitutional Parameters”
» Film Fans Re-Shoot Classic Movie Moments Without the Weapons
» Franklin Graham on the Wrong Side of the Bible and History
» GM Salmon Rejected by Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Aldi and Other Food Retailers
» Kerry Commits U.S. To U.N. Arms Trade Treaty Gun Grab
» ‘Monsanto Protection Act’ To be Voted on by Congress — Take Action Now to Fight Back Against Biotech Tyranny
» Rifleman by Victor Gregg is a Book You Ought to Read
» U.S. Offers Reward for Capture of Two U.S.-Born Alleged Islamic Militants
» What’s With All the Tea Party Turncoats?
» When is the President the Commander in Chief?
» World’s Thinnest Endoscope is Width of a Human Hair
 
Europe and the EU
» Athens Lodges Complaint Over Turkish Research Ship Entering Greek Waters
» Belgian Mathematician Wins Abel Prize
» Birth of a Universe
» Denmark: 30 Arrested in New Gang Raid
» Denmark: Controversial Muslim in Copenhagen
» ENAR Report: Islamophobia Widespread Across Europe
» European Jihadists: The Latest Export
» Germany: Al-Qaeda Document Suggests Attacking ‘Pipelines, Internet and Tankers’
» Greenland Government Ready to Ban Danish From Parliament
» Millions Don’t Help Roma Integration in Bulgaria
» Planck Shows Almost Perfect Cosmos — Plus Axis of Evil
» Planck Telescope Peers Into the Primordial Universe
» Pre-Viking Tunic Found on Glacier as Warming Trend Aids Archaeology
» Researchers Publish Improved Neanderthal Genome
» Rich Russians Set Sights on Spanish Homes
» Steep Rise in Racism and Intolerance in France
» Swede Jailed for Plotting Terror Crimes in Cyprus
» The Great Green Con No. 1: The Hard Proof That Finally Shows Global Warming Forecasts That Are Costing You Billions Were Wrong All Along
» UK: ‘We Want Our Daughter Jailed’: Middle-Class Mother Slams Judge for Allowing Teenage Daughter to Walk Free After She Looted Home During ‘Campaign of Spite’
» UK: British Universities Need Radical Ideas, Not Bigotry
» UK: Fewer Police Officers Will be Sent to Investigate Missing People Cases Under New Plans Announced Today
» UK: Hero Street Cleaner ‘Stabbed to Death by Burglar After Tackling Him With Broom as He Fled House’
» UK: Napalm Death V&A Gig Cancelled Over Gallery Damage Fear
» UK: Trendy? No, Using Twitter Makes Our Leaders Look More Vacuous Than They Are Already
» UK: V&A Scraps Napalm Death Gig for Fear Decibel Levels Will Damage the Ming Vases
» UK: With Enemies Like These, Michael Gove Doesn’t Need Friends
» Universe Older Than Thought, Best Space-Time Map Yet Reveals
 
North Africa
» Egypt: State Commissioners Recommend Dissolution of Brotherhood
» Egyptian Prosecution Detains Islamist Group Coordinator for Street Fight
» Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Legalized: Lawyer
» Muslims Attack Christians in Egypt’s South
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» A Bloody Endless Peace
» As Obama Sets Out for PA, Gaza Terrorists Attack Sderot
» Gaza Militants Fire Rockets as Barack Obama Meets Abbas in Ramallah
 
Middle East
» As Iran Builds the Bomb, Its Youth Hit the Bottle
» David Cameron Uses PMQs to Confirm That He’s Considering More Intervention in Syria
» Dutch Jihadist Dies in Syria
» Gruesome Video Shows Syrian Rebel Beheading Civilian
» Kurdish Militant Leader Ocalan Calls for Ceasefire With Turkey
» Second Dutch Youth Dies in Syria
» Tunisian Architect Turned Jihadist Talks of Holy War in Syria
» Turkey: Jailed PKK Leader Ocalan Declares Ceasefire
» Turkey: Ankara May Challenge Cypriot Use of Gas Reserves in Bailout
» UAE: Dubai Art Festival Begins With Focus on West Africa
 
Russia
» Bolshoi Ballet Turned Into ‘Giant Brothel’
» Russia Between Outrage and Hysteria Over Cyprus
 
South Asia
» 12 Killed as Blast Hits Refugee Camp in NW Pakistan
» 5 Dead in Central Myanmar Religious Rioting
» Buddhists and Muslims Clash in Central Burma Town
» India: Drug Abuse Threatens Punjab’s Population
» Indonesia: West Java: Christians in the Streets to Stop Church Demolition, Charges Against Clergyman
 
Far East
» Report From China: What Keeps the Muslim World Back?
» The New Arms Race in Asia
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Ghana: Pandemonium in Obuasi; One Shot, Taxi Driver Forced to Hop for Wrong Parking
» Ghana: Stop Sponsoring Muslims to Mecca — Presby Moderator Tells Gov’t
» Liberia: Ethnic Clashes in Zorzor
» Nigeria: Aftermath of Kano Attack Senate to FG — Change Anti-Terror Tack
» Singing, Spirituality and Islam — If Music be the Food of Love
» West Africa: At UN-Backed Meeting, African States Seek to Combat Piracy in Gulf of Guinea
 
Immigration
» Germany to Take in 5,000 More Syrian Refugees
» Saudi Arabian Travelers Gain Fast Entry in the US in 2014
 
Culture Wars
» Obama Frees Foreign Criminals But Seeks to Deport German Homeschoolers
» Public School Play Mocks Bible
» UK: Tim Loughton MP: Political Correctness is Becoming More — Not Less — of a Problem
 
General
» Asceticism and Humility: The Life of Pope Francis’ Namesake
» Wind Power Will Worsen Climate, Scientists Find

Accept Raid on Savings or Face Ruin, Cyprus Warned After Hopes of Russia-Led Rescue Are Put on Ice

Cyprus faced threats of economic oblivion yesterday as hopes of a Russian rescue for the debt-riddled island were put on ice.

With the country on the verge of bankruptcy, officials announced the banks would not reopen until next Tuesday while the country seeks a bailout.

But Germany and the European Central Bank told the country’s government that unless an agreement was reached, ‘there’s a danger that they won’t be able to open the banks again at all’.

The government is today expected to impose exchange controls to prevent money being taken out of the country.

But German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble raised the stakes with his warning that it needs to agree to a highly unpopular tax raid on bank deposits…

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev last night turned on Europe and accused EU countries of deliberately trying to wreck the Cypriot banking system for their own benefit.

Questioning the decision to close the banks in Cyprus, where Russians have stashed more than £30billion, he said: ‘It is likely that the goal was to destroy [the Cypriot banking system].’

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Arizona Could Soon Approve Gold, Silver as Legal Tender

Arizona could soon become the second U.S. state to recognize gold and silver as legal tender if the Arizona House approves SB 1439.

The bill has already won the approval of Arizona’s State Senate and the Arizona House Financial Institutions Committee which voted the legislation out of committee on a 4-2 vote Monday. The measure now goes to a vote of the Arizona House.

Thus far, only the State of Utah has officially recognized gold and silver as legal tender, (See: Gold, silver coins now officially legal tender in Utah) although the issue has been under consideration this year in four states including Arizona. The Arizona bill defines legal tender as a mode of paying debts and taxes.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Cyprus Banks Face Bankruptcy, Central Bank Threatens Withdrawal

Cyprus has just four days to agree on a new plan to raise much needed funds to avoid bankruptcy. The European Central Bank warned Thursday it would stop propping up the country’s banks if no solution was found.

Scrambling to devise a “Plan B” that would secure the much needed 5.8 billion euros ($7.5 billion) demanded by international creditors in exchange for an increased bailout package for the embattled nation, party leaders raced to devise a plan that would appease both Parliament and the country’s international creditors.

One measure agreed on by lawmakers on Thursday was the establishment of an “Investment Solidarity Fund” that would be financed through donations from Cypriots, business people and foreign investors, said Demetris Syllouris, head of a small right-winged party who was in talks with the government.

Legal and technical details are sill being finalized, with the bill being reviewed by the Cabinet Thursday evening, Christos Stylianides, a government spokesperson said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

EU Creeps Closer to Full Banking Union: Banks Will be Overseen in a “European” Way

As Cyprus continues to fizz with uncertainty, EU officials say they have cleared some major obstacles on the way to establishing full banking union to help stabilise the eurozone.

Agreement has been reached on the legal framework to create a centralised banking supervisor.

Sven Giegold is an MEP involved in drafting the legislation: “The compromise we have found today is a breakthrough for a common banking supervision. It is important that the culture of ever decreasing standards in bank supervision is finally over. It means it is no longer about protecting one’s own financial centre and big banks will be overseen equally in a European way.”

Last year EU leaders agreed to establish joint banking supervision, which will act under the umbrella of the European Central Bank.

           — Hat tip: LH [Return to headlines]

European Central Bank Issues Ultimatum to Cyprus

The European Central Bank warned Cyprus Thursday that it has four days to raise €5.6 billion to avoid bankruptcy — or risk losing bailout funds. The government ruled out the unpopular levy on bank funds during Thursday’s Plan B talks.

Cyprus has four days to agree on a new plan to raise funds to avoid bankruptcy, with the European Central Bank warning Thursday it will pull the plug on the country’s banks at the start of next week if no solution is found.

Facing the ultimatum, the Cypriot government was racing to cement a new package that will please both Parliament and the country’s potential international creditors.

Party leaders met with the president to consider a range of measures that could raise the 5.8 billion euros ($7.5 billion) needed to qualify for 10 billion euros ($12.9 billion) in rescue loans from the eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund.

One measure agreed on Thursday was the creation of an “Investment Solidarity Fund” that would appeal for donations from ordinary Cypriots, businessmen and foreign investors, said Demetris Syllouris, head of a small right-wing party who was in the meeting with the president.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Gap Widens Between Spain’s Rich and Poor

The income gap between the richest and poorest people in Spain has grown by 30 percent since 2006 in the wake of the country’s sharp economic downturn, the Spanish branch of Catholic charity Caritas said on Wednesday.

Falling salaries, government cuts to social benefits and high unemployment — currently at a record 26 percent — are behind the “unprecedented rise in income inequality” which is among the highest in the European Union, the charity said in a new report.

“The strong growth of social inequality reveals a fractured society.

Over time it will become harder and harder for poor people to escape social exclusion,” Caritas secretary general Sebastian Mora said during a presentation of the report.

“The erosion of social policies has had an impact on the most vulnerable groups,” he added.

Spain is going through a double-dip recession having never recovered from the collapse of a decade-long property bubble in 2008 and the government is implementing the steepest spending cuts since the country returned to democracy following the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975 in order to rein in a ballooning public deficit.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Iceland’s Grassroots Constitution on Thin Ice

Many in Iceland are hoping parliament will pass a constitution written in an unprecedented grassroots initiative, spurred by the onset of the financial crisis. But politics as usual may get in the document’s way.

Time is running out, acknowledges parliamentarian Birgitta Jonsdottir with a sigh. She’s hoping that the Icelandic parliament, the “Althing,” will approve the new constitution. That’s one of the last things left to do in this session before a general election in April. However, she’s worried that critics will block it.

The new document has a number of unique features, including the fact that it was drawn up in a process in which every citizen had a chance to participate. The draft represents the first time that a country has tried to write a new constitution in a grassroots fashion. The financial crisis that began five years ago set the unusual project in motion.

Jonsdottir is a member of the Icelandic opposition party The Movement and she is well-known as a Wikileaks activist. She says people had lost all trust in politics as they watched their country slip into a deep crisis. The three largest banks went bankrupt, and many people lost their savings. Tensions ran high as demonstrations rocked the country.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Maltese Finance Minister Scicluna Says Cyprus Had ‘Pistol at Its Head’ During Eurogroup

Maltese Finance Minister Edward Scicluna has likened the pressure that his Cypriot counterpart Michalis Sarris came under during a Eurogroup in Brussels earlier this week, when a tax on depositors in Cyprus was agreed, to having a pistol put to his head.

“It it took nearly 10 long hours before the Cypriot minister’s body and soul became exhausted enough for him to assent to this accord,” wrote Scicluna in an article in The Times of Malta

“As soon as that happened (German Finance Minister Wolfgang) Schauble demanded that all wire transfers to and from the Cypriot banks would cease forthwith.”

Scicluna added that the way Cyprus was treated by some of its partners should serve as a lesson to other small euro member states.

“Cyprus, more than all the others, holds a special place not so much with regard to the unique factors which brought about the financial crisis upon it but as a case study of how an EU micro-Mediterranean island member state is expected to be treated if ever its unfortunate turn would come to seek aid from its fellow member states,” he wrote.

“The feeling one got on exiting the meeting in the early hours of the day was that never in one’s life would one like to dream the experience let alone live it.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Nearly Half of (Irish) Republic’s Children Living in ‘Welfare Households’

Almost half of the State’s children are living in households in receipt of social welfare, an Oireachtas committee has heard.

The chairwoman of the group that recommended a two-tier child benefit system, Ita Mangan, also told the Oireachtas social protection committee that one in five youngsters lived in a home where income was less than €20,000 ($ 27,000) a year.

“One of the things I found quite alarming is that almost half of the children of this country are living in social welfare households. Something like 47 or 48 per cent are actually living in households which are receiving a weekly social welfare payment,” Ms Mangan said.

“The solution to that is not better or worse child . . . payments. The solution to that is employment and getting people off social welfare. That is one of the single greatest issues that needs to be addressed.”

The majority of the households Ms Mangan referred to would be in receipt of means-tested benefits such as jobseeker’s allowance, disability allowance or one-parent family payments.. Some would be receiving insurance-based payments such as jobseeker’s benefit, while in other cases invalidity pensions could be the payment.

‘Squeezed middle’

Ms Mangan said the vast majority of children did not live in very rich households, with 80 per cent of them living in homes where the income was under €80,000. “But more importantly, 20 per cent live in households who are earning under €20,000.”

Fianna Fáil social protection spokesman Willie O’Dea, a committee member, said if the proposed system was introduced “an awful lot of low income people who are out there working for a living are going to be hit”.

He also said people in what he described as the “squeezed middle” would be disproportionately affected..

Quoting from the group’s report, Mr O’Dea said families in receipt of Family Income Supplements (FIS) would experience a reduction in their overall income. Ms Mangan said the group was looking closely at some type of “in-work” benefit to replace FIS.

The advisory group on tax and social welfare has suggested a new child-benefit payment, with “top-ups” for low-income families, replacing FIS and Qualified Child Increases (QCI). Ms Mangan said QCIs were creating a “disincentive to work”.

‘Top-up payment’

Families will only qualify for maximum child benefit payment if they earn less than €25,000 ($33,750) under the system proposed in the group’s report submitted to Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton in April 2012, but not published until last month.

A reduced standard rate of about €110 a month would be paid for each child, The largest possible weekly “top-up” would be €38, but this supplement would be cut as income increased beyond €25,000. For every €1 over €25,000 earned by a household, 20 cent would be withdrawn from the “top-up” payment.

Ms Mangan told the committee that in 2013 more than €2.8 billion would be spent on various child-related payments by the Department of Social Protection. This accounts for about 14 per cent of expenditure on social protection of more than €20 billion. The child benefit payment accounts for two-thirds of expenditure on child and family income supports as it is paid on a universal basis to some 609,000 families for about 1.16 million children.

Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh questioned Ms Mangan about the delay in publishing the report. He asked if the group had indicated to the Minister any reason to delay. Ms Mangan said publication of the report was a matter for the Minister.

           — Hat tip: McR [Return to headlines]

Why is the World Economy Doomed? The Global Financial Pyramid Scheme by the Numbers

Why is the global economy in so much trouble? How can so many people be so absolutely certain that the world financial system is going to crash? Well, the truth is that when you take a look at the cold, hard numbers it is not difficult to see why the global financial pyramid scheme is destined to fail. In the United States today, there is approximately 56 trillion dollars of total debt in our financial system, but there is only about 9 trillion dollars in our bank accounts. So you could take every single penny out of the banks, multiply it by six, and you still would not have enough money to pay off all of our debts. Overall, there is about 190 trillion dollars of total debt on the planet. But global GDP is only about 70 trillion dollars. And the total notional value of all derivatives around the globe is somewhere between 600 trillion and 1500 trillion dollars. So we have a gigantic problem on our hands. The global financial system is a very shaky house of cards that has been constructed on a foundation of debt, leverage and incredibly risky derivatives. We are living in the greatest financial bubble in world history, and it isn’t going to take much to topple the entire thing. And when it falls, it is going to be the largest financial disaster in the history of the planet.

The global financial system is more interconnected today than ever before, and a crisis at one major bank or in one area of the world can spread at lightning speed. As I wrote about yesterday, the entire European banking system is leveraged 26 to 1 at this point. A decline in asset values of just 4 percent would totally wipe out the equity of many of those banks, and once a financial panic begins we could potentially see major financial institutions start to go down like dominoes.

We got a small taste of what that is like back in 2008, and it is inevitable that it will happen again.

Anyone that would tell you that the current global financial system is sustainable does not know what they are talking about. Just look at the numbers that I have posted below.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Bellevue Mosque: The Only Mosque in Town

Bellevue’s mosque is packed to the gills with worshippers from around the world. Thank goodness for parking lot ecumenicalism. A Crosscut collaboration with Seattle magazine.

At midday on a chilly January Friday, 400-plus people pile into a drafty, plain white building perched between a Mormon Church and a 7-Eleven in Bellevue’s polyglot Lake Hills neighborhood. This used to be a Korean church; now it’s the Islamic Center of Eastside, ICOE or the Bellevue Mosque for short, and this is jumu’ah, the weekly prayer service at the heart of Islamic worship…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Big Sis Refuses to Answer Congress on Bullet Purchases

Speaking at CPAC with Infowars and We Are Change reporter, Luke Rudkowski, Congressman Timothy Huelscamp revealed this week that the Department of Homeland Security has refused to answer questions from “multiple” members of Congress regarding its recent purchase of huge amounts of weapons and ammunition.

“They have no answer for that question. They refuse to answer to answer that,” Huelscamp said.

“I’ve got a list of various questions of agencies about multiple things. Far from being the most transparent administration in the world, they are the most closed and opaque,” the Congressman added.

“They refuse to let us know what is going on, so I don’t really have an answer for that. Multiple members of Congress are asking those questions,” he added.

“It comes down to during the budget process, during the appropriations process, are we willing to hold DHS’s feet to the fire?”

“We’re going to find out… I say we don’t fund them ‘til we get an answer. Those type of things really challenge Americans. They are worried about this administration,” Huelscamp urged.

Watch the clip below:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Brain Circuits Uniquely Disrupted in Gulf War Syndrome

When she returned from serving in the Gulf conflict in 1991, US Air Force nurse Denise Nichols experienced sudden aches, fatigue and cognitive problems, but had no idea ‘what was causing them. They grew worse: even helping her daughter with multiplication tables became difficult, she says, and eventually she had to quit her job.

Nichols wasn’t alone. About a third of Gulf war veterans — possibly as many as 250,000 — returned with a similar set of symptoms.

Now an imaging study has found that these veterans have what appear to be unique structural changes in the wiring of their brains. This fits with the scientific consensus that Gulf War Syndrome (GWS) is a physical condition rather than a psychosomatic one, and should be treated with painkilling drugs instead of counselling.

The military in various countries has in the past consistently denied that there is a physical basis to GWS. Although the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) now officially accepts that the disorder is physical, the issue has been mired in controversy.

Earlier this month, Steven Coughlin, a former senior epidemiologist at the VA, testified to a Congressional panel that the VA had suppressed and manipulated research data so as to suggest that the disorder was psychosomatic.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Citizen Tells Gun-Grabbers: You Are “Coloring Outside the Lines of Constitutional Parameters”

On March 14, Connecticut resident Mark Steed delivered an articulate response to the state legislature’s plan to roll back the Second Amendment.

“This is the third day I’ve taken off of work to come here to, like so many of the rest of us, to plead with you for us to keep our guns because of some wing-nut in Newtown, Connecticut,” the Vernon, Connecticut, resident said. “If that isn’t inherently wrong, I don’t know what is. That these bills are even in proposed form is scary enough. That any of you could possibly be undecided is scary enough. What are you looking at?”

He then proceeded to inform state officials what they are looking at — the dismantlement of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights under the irrational rubric of “common sense” and “gun safety,” two highly misleading catchwords currently used by government and its corporate media to cover the attack on the cornerstone of the Bill of Rights, the Second Amendment.

“Adam Lanza commits a crime and I’m here to grovel and plead for my rights?” an outraged Steed said.

Connecticut officialdom went on to ignore Mr. Steed’s argument. On March 18 an advisory panel convened to make proposals that if implemented will destroy Second Amendment rights in the state. The recommendations include required registration of all guns and mandatory background checks for all buyers. The Sandy Hook Advisory Commission has forwarded the recommendations to Connecticut’s governor, Dannel Malloy. The state currently has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country.

“The reason that your jobs are becoming so difficult is because you’re coloring outside the lines of constitutional parameters,” Steed told the officials. “That’s the bottom line. You are trying to marriage up public safety with constitutional rights. The Constitution did not guarantee public safety, it guaranteed liberty. And sometimes what comes with liberty is tragedy, unfortunately.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Film Fans Re-Shoot Classic Movie Moments Without the Weapons

A new internet craze has seen movie fans trying to doctor film history by replacing guns with something altogether more positive — a thumbs up pose.

The images suggest that some of Hollywood’s most recognisable characters, from Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry to Jamie Foxx’s Django, should have swapped their weapons [with a thumbs up hand gesture].

But despite the message of pacifism encouraged by the posts, film buffs will be left scratching their heads as they are forced to look upon the scenes in a completely different way.

[Comment: Yeah, a “spontaneous” internet craze. Sure. By sheer coincidence the UN anti-small arms treaty is coming up for “debate” in the USA. Notice that there are no pictures of the victims of Stalin, Mao, Pol-Pot, Hitler with guns in their hands being converted to a “thumbs up sign”. What’s the matter can’t they find any such pictures to convert? This “spontaneous internet craze” is pure psyops anti-gun propaganda.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Franklin Graham on the Wrong Side of the Bible and History

According to Time magazine, “Rev. Franklin Graham and other leading evangelical figures are publicly backing efforts to require background checks for all gun purchases, providing a shot in the arm to stalled congressional efforts to enact elements of President Barack Obama’s gun control plan.

“Graham, the son of evangelist Billy Graham and the president of Christian relief organization Samaritan’s Purse, and Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission told TIME they have agreed to back universal background check legislation put forward by the administration in the wake of last year’s shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

“‘As ministers, we agreed together that we could stand on a united front for universal background checks,’ Graham told TIME, noting he had many conversations with civil rights leader Rev. Amos Brown on the subject. ‘We think that’s reasonable and responsible.’“

See the TIME report at; Franklin Graham Backs Universal Background Checks

My disappointment, and even anger, at Mr. Graham’s endorsement of universal background checks cannot be put into words. When America falls into tyranny and oppression it will be with the help and assistance of the likes of Franklin Graham and Richard Land. In fact, it is no hyperbole to say that pastors and Christians all over America are facilitating their own slavery.

Adolf Hitler would never have been able to become the fuhrer of Germany without the collaboration and cooperation of Germany’s evangelical pastors and churches. It is an absolute truth that the blood of Hitler’s victims flows to the doorsteps of Germany’s churches. There were some 14,000 evangelical churches in Germany at the time Hitler and his fellow Nazis were rising to power. Out of those 14,000 pastors and churches, only 800 had the courage and sagacity to oppose Hitler. That equates to about 5%.

Graham and Land are either totally ignorant of the meaning and ramification of “universal background checks” or they are willing participants in America’s subservience to an ever-burgeoning police state. Either way, they are both on the wrong side of the Bible and history.

Let’s be clear about what is being proposed. President Barack Obama and his gaggle of gun-grabbers are trying to accomplish three things: 1) they want to ban all semi-automatic rifles, 2) they want to ban all high-capacity magazines, 3) they want to ban the right of individuals to freely buy and sell their personal firearms.

This third initiative is commonly called “universal background checks.” But what it would actually do is prohibit private citizens from being able to freely buy and sell their own personal firearms. This is an egregious assault against both the right to keep and bear arms and the private ownership of personal property…

Furthermore, instituting a universal background check system would create a national database of all firearms bought and sold in America. Ladies and gentlemen, this is nothing more than a back door universal gun registration ploy. Every gun owner in America would be entered into a giant national database akin to the system proposed by Adolf Hitler and virtually every other tyrant and dictator of modern history. And as any honest student of history knows, gun registration is ALWAYS a precursor to gun confiscation. ALWAYS!

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

GM Salmon Rejected by Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Aldi and Other Food Retailers

(NaturalNews) In yet another blow to GMOs, several major U.S. food retailers have signed on to the “Campaign for GE-Free Seafood” found at http://www.foe.org/gefreeseafood

These retailers include Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Aldi and many more. It’s the latest private sector blow to the deceptive biotech industry. Consumers overwhelming reject GMOs even if the FDA conspires with biotechnology companies to try to shove genetically engineered food down their throats. Activist organizations like Natural News, the Organic Consumers Association and the Institute for Responsible Technology have helped organize constant grassroots pressure on food retailers to either label GMOs or reject them outright…

The mainstream media, I can tell you firsthand, has engaged in a longstanding conspiracy to attack GMO labeling, deny the presence of GMOs in food and spread quack science propaganda that favors the biotech industry. But they are losing this battle over GMOs and losing their audiences at the same time. The New York Times, in particular, is an absolute disgrace when it comes to reporting to truth about GMOs, and it’s no surprise the NYT seems constantly on the verge of bankruptcy while being known as the “toilet paper of record.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Kerry Commits U.S. To U.N. Arms Trade Treaty Gun Grab

U.S. Rights: As the world body meets this week to hammer out an agreement to restrict international arms trade, our Secretary of State commits us to pushing a treaty that may also restrict our Second Amendment rights.

Last Friday, the day of the week when unpopular or controversial announcements are traditionally made, Secretary of State John Kerry announced U.S. support for the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), a final version of which is being hammered out in New York beginning this week.

Certainly the ATT is controversial. Touted as a means of getting a handle on an international arms trade valued at $60 billion a year, its stated purpose is to keep illicit weapons out of the hands of terrorists, insurgent fighters and organized crime at an international level.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

‘Monsanto Protection Act’ To be Voted on by Congress — Take Action Now to Fight Back Against Biotech Tyranny

(NaturalNews) The U.S. Congress is right now moving forward with the passage of the 2013 Agricultural Appropriations Bill (AAB), also known as H.R. 933, which currently contains an added “rider” that would allow agricultural biotechnology corporations like Monsanto to bypass the legal system in approving, growing and selling illegal genetically-modified (GM) seeds and crops.

Dubbed the Monsanto Protection Act by an unofficial cohort of family-scale farmers and health freedom advocates, the so-called Farmer Assurance Provision of the Agricultural Appropriations Bill threatens to undo constitutional guidelines that allow the justice system to rightly intervene in cases where the safety of illegally-approved GMOs are called into question.

If passed, the Farmer Assurance Provision would basically allow GMO purveyors like Monsanto and BASF to continue marketing and planting GM seeds found to have been illegally approved by federal regulatory bodies. Currently, federal courts can enact a moratorium while a case is in progress, but the Farmer Assurance Provision would nix this power and allow the biotechnology industry to continue business as normal without restraint.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Rifleman by Victor Gregg is a Book You Ought to Read

by Walter Ellis

I live in New York and until this month I had never heard of Victor Gregg, the World War II veteran whose 2011 memoir, Rifleman, was hailed as possibly the most honest and outspoken ever written by an enlisted soldier and ‘an outstanding book that deserves to become a classic’…

Rifleman is not a leftist text. Nor is it remotely pacifist. It is an account of war by someone who if you’d come at him out of the desert in 1942 would have fixed his ‘sword’ and, unlike Orwell, run you through without a second’s thought. What marks the author out is that he would have remembered afterwards what he did and weighed it up in the years to come…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

U.S. Offers Reward for Capture of Two U.S.-Born Alleged Islamic Militants

The U.S. government on Wednesday offered rewards of up to $5 million each for information leading to the capture or conviction of two U.S. citizens alleged to have become fighters for the Somalia-based Islamic militant group al Shabaab.

In announcements posted on its “Rewards for Justice” website, the State Department identified the two men as Omar Shafik Hammami, alias Abu Mansour al-Amriki, and Jehad Serwan Mostafa, alias Ahmed Gurey or Anwar al-Amriki. Hammami is a former resident of Alabama and Mostafa a former resident of California, it said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

What’s With All the Tea Party Turncoats?

Two of the most popular Tea Party politicians of 2010 Marco Rubio and Rand Paul, have been brought into the establishment fold, bantered about as “the future of the Republican Party…” But what have they given up in exchange for this meteoric rise in political capital?

During their campaigns for office in the 2010 election, both candidates were aligned with the vast majority of Tea Party supporters on an array of critical issues…

* Both were opposed to amnesty for millions of illegal aliens * Both were strongly for national sovereignty and security * Both espoused the Constitutional Rule of Law * Both opposed nationalized health care * Both opposed second amendment infringements * Both opposed unbridled federal authority * Both called themselves “constitutionalists” * Both opposed foreign entanglements and Obama’s toppling of foreign governments * Both promised to balance the federal budget * Both opposed any further raising of the debt ceiling

However, since their election in 2010, both have moved further and further to the left, no longer representing those who placed them in power and becoming more and more just another set of establishment republicans…

The so-called “experts” and “leaders” of our nation are leading the nation to total ruin. Through their use of Democratic Socialism via the Democratic Socialists of America congressional caucuses, Black, Progressive and Hispanic, our federal government is actively engaged in changing America from a Constitutional Republic to a third world member of the Global One World Order.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

When is the President the Commander in Chief?

President is not the Commander in Chief unless war is properly declared

In the 20th century, America has been involved in 19 conflicts in which Congress has not declared war as the Constitution requires and service members have lost their lives in each of these 19 conflicts. The total number of service members who died as a result of these unconstitutional wars, which are conflicts not declared by the constitutionally predetermined authority, is just less than 100,000. But even the loss of one life is a tragedy to the family of the killed service member and is completely illegal when the conflict was not approved by representatives of the people and the States.

Conflicts that are not declared by Congress are unwarranted and most of this unwarranted militarism is the result of the American public’s apathetic understanding of and desire for accountability to constitutional war powers, the Law of Nations, the Just War Doctrine,[1] and the role of the President as Commander in Chief. If the President is always the Commander in Chief, then one would expect he has the authority to use the military, without the consent of Congress, whenever and however he thinks best to ‘protect’ the nation. Coincidentally, many Presidents in the 20th century have used the military in this manner.

The belief that the President is the Commander in Chief when he takes the oath of office is not in accordance with the “supreme law of the Land”, which is the US Constitution. The first clause in Article II, Section 2 of the US Constitution declares, “The President shall be the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into actual Service of the United States.” Without ambiguity this clause states the President only becomes the Commander in Chief when the armed forces; i.e., Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, National Guard, and Reserves are “called” into Service of the United States.

The power to “call” up the armed forces into “Service”, is only delegated to Congress and is found in Article I, which lists most all[2] of the powers delegated to Congress. “We the people” have delegated the following powers to Congress in clauses 11 through 16 of Article I, Section 8: “to declare war,” “raise and support Armies,” “provide and maintain a navy,” “make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces,” “to provide for the calling forth the Militia,” “to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

World’s Thinnest Endoscope is Width of a Human Hair

THIN as a human hair and with a resolution four times that of similar devices, the world’s slimmest endoscope could soon visualise the parts other scopes cannot reach.

Endoscopes are used to look inside the body, and usually consist of a bundle of fibres that transmit light and images. Joseph Kahn at Stanford University, California, and colleagues have now created one out of just a single optical fibre. Usually, single fibres scramble the light signal, so the team developed an algorithm to reconstruct images.

Currently, the prototype can show objects 2.5 micrometres in size — a third of the diameter of a red blood cell — but the team reckons it will be able to improve the resolution to 0.3 micrometres.

The endoscope could be used to observe brain activity in minute detail or to detect cancer cells (Optics Express, doi.org/ktc).

“Just as the telecoms industry has devised ways to squeeze more information content through optical fibres, this team have done the same for medical endoscopy,” says Stephen Boppart at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Athens Lodges Complaint Over Turkish Research Ship Entering Greek Waters

Athens lodged an official complaint with Ankara on Wednesday after a Turkish research vessel entered the area between the islands of Rhodes and Kastellorizo in the southern Aegean, encroaching upon Greece’s continental shelf, whose boundaries are disputed by Turkey.

According to diplomatic sources in Athens, the Bilim 2 research vessel entered the area between the two islands without first informing Greek authorities of its plans to conduct oceanographic surveys. Although the move itself did not constitute a challenge to Greece’s territorial rights, the fact that Turkish authorities failed to formally alert their Greek counterparts of their plans was deemed by Athens as adequate reason to complain, particularly as it came just a few days after senior Turkish officials said they would avoid any actions that could fuel tensions between the two countries.

Wednesday’s development also came just over a week after Turkey challenged Greece’s sovereign rights south of Rhodes and Kastellorizo and the right of the Aegean islands to a continental shelf, claiming that the Aegean should be treated as a special case as the islands are so close to the Turkish coast. Turkey’s note verbale to the United Nations was sent in response to a diplomatic message sent to the international organization by Greece last month.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Belgian Mathematician Wins Abel Prize

OSLO, March 20 (Xinhua) — The 69-year-old Belgian mathematician Pierre Deligne was awarded on Wednesday this year’s Abel Prize for his extraordinary contributions to mathematical sciences. Pierre Deligne, born on Octpber 3, 1944, was announced as this year’s winner of the Abel Prize by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters “for seminal contributions to algebraic geometry and for their transformative impact on number theory, representation theory, and related fields.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Birth of a Universe

The European Space Agency ESA has published a groundbreaking photo that shows “relic radiation,” light that dates back to the Big Bang. Scientists hope the new detailed map will help their understanding of the universe.

The ESA’s new map, which it published on Thursday, was compiled using images collected by the space agency’s Planck satellite.

“This is a giant leap in our understanding of the origins of the universe,” the ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain told reporters in Paris.

Thanks to the collected data, experts were able to determine that the universe has been expanding at a slower rate than previously believed, making it about 80 million years older.

“This image is the closest one yet of the Big Bang. You are looking 13.8 billion years ago.”

According to the Big Bang theory, the visible portion of the universe was once smaller than an atom. It then exploded within the period of a less than a second, cooled and expanded faster than the speed of light.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Denmark: 30 Arrested in New Gang Raid

Police continue crackdown with raid on 62 addresses outside Copenhagen

A co-ordinated police action early this morning resulted in the arrests of 30 people with ties to criminal gangs. The arrests came as part of a sweep of 62 addresses in eastern Denmark carried out by police and tax authorities.

Police also said they confiscated five guns, narcotics and about 600,000 kroner in cash in the sweeps.

The raid is the latest in a series of raids in recent weeks of homes and hangouts of suspected gang members.

Copenhagen Police chief superintendent, and head of this morning’s raid, Jørgen Skov said the police had been looking for suspects in a number of gang-related crimes, including attempted murder and violent assaults as well as weapons and narcotics violations.

“The raid has run smoothly. We have gotten pretty much all the people we were after and about half of the 30 arrestees will appear at a preliminary hearing tomorrow,” Skov said in a press statement.

The police said that apart from arresting suspects, they were also hoping to discourage people from affiliating with gangs.

“We make it clear for gang members that we under no circumstances will accept violent conflicts and that we will do what we can to catch criminals,” said Skov.

Today’s arrests came as police were investigating a shooting they said was part of the ongoing gang conflict. Three people were arrested and have now been charged with attempted murder after five shots were fired at a man in the Nørrebro district yesterday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Denmark: Controversial Muslim in Copenhagen

Khalid Yasin is to lecture in Copenhagen, presence criticised.

Khalid Yasin, the controversial American Muslim lecturer who supports the death penalty for homosexuals and has said that HIV is a Western conspiracy, is to visit Denmark Friday, shortly after a similar speaking appearance in Britain was cancelled.

Yasin has been invited to lecture by the Viden om Islam (Ed: Knowledge about Islam) organisation at the Metropol in Nørrebro. He is to speak on the subject of “We Are 1”, on solidarity and community in Islam, as part of a charity event in favour of Syria.

VIOMIS is prepared to provide information about the event, but is not prepared to discuss Yasin’s person.

“We have chosen not to comment on him as a person. That is what we have decided and chosen not to do,” VIOMIS Spokesman Alexander Chebil tells politiken.dk.

It is the second time that Yasin, who is also known as Abu Muhammad, has visited Denmark. He spoke at an event in Nørrebrohallen in 2010, urging young people to leave gang environments and suggesting how to better integrate in Danish society.

On that occasion, his visit was subject to extensive media and political controversy and demonstrations.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

ENAR Report: Islamophobia Widespread Across Europe

A ground breaking report on Islamophobia in Europe has documented the extent of the problem. Discrimination against Muslims in Europe is widespread, the report says. According to the study covering 26 national reports, Muslims continue to experience discrimination in a range of areas, more specifically in employment, education and access to goods and services. This is the first pan-European qualitative survey on Muslim communities in Europe, part of the Europe Network Against Racism’s 2011/12 Shadow Report on Racism in Europe and released ahead of International Day Against Racial Discrimination…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

European Jihadists: The Latest Export

by Soeren Kern

“I ended up running for my life, barefoot and handcuffed, while British jihadists — young men with south London accents — shot to kill. And not a Syrian in sight. This wasn’t what I had expected.” — John Cantlie, British photographer

More than 1,000 Muslims from across Europe are currently active as Islamic jihadists, or holy warriors, in Syria, which has replaced Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia as the main destination for militant Islamists seeking to obtain immediate combat experience with little or no official scrutiny.

As the number of European jihadists in Syria grows, European officials are beginning to express concerns about the threat these “enemies within” will pose when they return to Europe.

In Britain, for example, Foreign Secretary William Hague recently said, “Syria is now the number one destination for jihadists anywhere in the world today. This includes a number of individuals connected with the United Kingdom and other European countries. They may not pose a threat to us when they first go to Syria, but if they survive, some may return ideologically hardened and with experience of weapons and explosives.”

British authorities believe that more than 100 British Muslims have gone to fight in Syria in the hope of overthrowing the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and replacing it with an Islamic state.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Germany: Al-Qaeda Document Suggests Attacking ‘Pipelines, Internet and Tankers’

A secret al-Qaeda document discovered at Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Pakistan sets out a strategy for attacking economically important targets including “pipelines, internet cables and tankers”.

The document, written by al-Qaeda planner Younis al-Mauretani, suggests planting recruits in jobs which could later be useful in attacks, such as oil or gas transportation, and directing supporters to study chemistry and physics. The US Department of Justice passed the letter to German prosecutors last year for use in an ongoing trial in Düsseldorf, according to the German newspaper Die Zeit. Three FBI agents were in court in Düsseldorf to give evidence about the authenticity of the letter. The four defendants in the case are accused of plotting a bomb attack in Germany under the direction of al-Qaeda. The trial is due to hear from the FBI agents again on Thursday. A Moroccan recruit mentioned in the letter has the same date of birth as one of the defendants in the Düsseldorf case…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Greenland Government Ready to Ban Danish From Parliament

A majority in Greenland’s newly elected coalition government is ready to require that Greenlandic be spoken in parliament

Greenland’s new coalition government is ready to pursue independence-minded policies, including banning Danish from being spoken in the self-governing territory’s national assembly.

Two of the election’s big victors — Greenland’s largest party Siumut, which received 42.8 percent of the votes, and the nationalist Partii Inuit, which garnered 6.4 percent — both campaigned on policies of increased independence from Copenhagen.

Although Partii Inuit campaigned to require that Greenlandic, the country’s official language, be spoken in parliament, new premier Aleqa Hammond said yesterday after the new government was formed that such a move would only be made with the accept of Greenlanders.

Whether the language policy will pass depends on the votes of the third coalition member, Atassut, which is typically Greenland’s most pro-Danish party.

“If Siumut and Partii Inuit could choose, Danish would be banned as a political language from day one,” Lars Hovbakke Sørensen, a historian specialising in Greenlandic affairs, said.

Although Atassut would likely prevent an outright ban, Sørensen predicted that the new government would be required to address the matter after making it such a big election issue.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Millions Don’t Help Roma Integration in Bulgaria

There are more Roma in Bulgaria than any other EU nation. Some 10 percent of the population belong to the minority group and despite receiving millions for their integration Roma remain marginalized in Bulgarian society.

Roma live an average of 10 years less than other Bulgarians, according to official statistics. Cancer among Roma is more likely to end fatally and tuberculosis in Roma neighborhoods is between two and five times more common than the rest of the country and child mortality rates are almost three times higher.

In 2005, the European Union provided several million euros funding for programs devoted to the early diagnosis of tuberculosis and other diseases among Bulgaria’s lower classes. Some 1.85 million euros in EU funds also paid for three mobile laboratories and three ultrasound machines, and another 800,000 euros has been earmarked for expert consulting and educational projects.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Planck Shows Almost Perfect Cosmos — Plus Axis of Evil

The universe is almost perfect, 80 million years older than we thought, and maybe a little bit evil.

That’s the conclusion of a four-year mission conducted by the European Space Agency’s Planck spacecraft, which has created the highest-resolution map yet of the entire cosmic microwave background (CMB) — the first light to travel across a newly transparent universe about 380,000 years after the big bang.

“It might look like a dirty rugby ball or a piece of modern art, but I can assure you cosmologists would have hacked our computers or given up their children to get a copy of this map,” said George Efstathiou at a press conference at ESA headquarters in Paris, France, this morning.

Planck’s map greatly improves cosmologists’ understanding of the universe, but it does not solve lingering mysteries over unusual patterns in the CMB. These include a “preferred” direction in the way the temperature of the light varies, dubbed the cosmic “axis of evil”, as well as an inexplicably cold spot that could be evidence for universes beyond our own (see image, right).

Planck has been looking for variations in the temperature of the CMB, which emerged at around 3000 kelvin, but by now has cooled to just a few degrees above absolute zero, on average.

Planck has also confirmed WMAP’s detection of a large unexplained cold spot in the CMB, which some cosmologists took as a sign that there are universes beyond our own. One model of inflation, called eternal inflation, suggests that new universes are continually popping into existence and expanding. This expansion could cause another universe to collide with ours, creating a “bruise” that would show up as a cold spot in the sky.

These anomalies are sure to be debated for many years to come now that cosmologists have a new source of data. Planck scientists have already used their measurements to refine the speed at which the universe is expanding, described by a parameter called the Hubble constant. The new value means that a galaxy roughly 1 million light years away is moving away from us at 20.59 kilometres per second — less than the current value. The result in turn puts the age of the universe at around 13.82 billion years, roughly 80 million years older than previously thought.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Planck Telescope Peers Into the Primordial Universe

Analysis of cosmic microwave background backs sudden ‘inflation’ after Big Bang.

The Planck space telescope has delivered the most detailed picture yet of the cosmic microwave background, the residual glow of the Big Bang.

Scientists unveiling the results from the €600 million European Space Agency (ESA) probe said that they shed fresh light on the first instants of our Universe’s birth. They also peg the age of the Universe at 13.81 billion years — slightly older than previously estimated.

“For cosmologists, this map is a goldmine of information,” says George Efstathiou, director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmology at the University of Cambridge, UK, one of Planck’s lead researchers.

Planck’s results strongly support the idea that in the 10-32 seconds or so after the Big Bang, the Universe expanded at a staggering rate — a process dubbed inflation.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Pre-Viking Tunic Found on Glacier as Warming Trend Aids Archaeology

A pre-Viking woolen tunic found beside a thawing glacier in south Norway shows how global warming is proving something of a boon for archaeology, scientists said on Thursday.

The greenish-brown, loose-fitting outer clothing — suitable for a person up to about 5 feet, 9 inches tall (176 centimeters) — was found 6,560 feet (2,000 meters) above sea level on what may have been a Roman-era trade route in south Norway. Carbon dating showed it was made around the year 300.

“The tunic was well-used — it was repaired several times,” said Marianne Vedeler, a conservation expert at Norway’s Museum of Cultural History.

The tunic is made of lamb’s wool with a diamond pattern that had darkened with time. Only a handful of similar tunics have survived so long in Europe.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Researchers Publish Improved Neanderthal Genome

LEIPZIG, GERMANY—A team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology has published a new, highly accurate sequencing of a Neanderthal genome. The sample was taken from a toe bone discovered in a Siberian cave. “The genome of a Neanderthal is now there in a form as accurate as that of any person walking the streets today,” said lead geneticist Svante Paabo. The information will allow researchers to compare the Neanderthal genome with those of Denisovans and modern humans.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Rich Russians Set Sights on Spanish Homes

With the financial situation in Russian holiday home hotspot Cyprus looking increasingly dicey and Spanish property prices in freefall, more and more rich Russians are eyeing up a move west to Spain.

Russians are snapping up luxury villas surrounded by lush vegetation along Spain’s rugged Mediterranean coast, drawn by a mild climate and relaxed lifestyle.

At the same time, they are helping to prop up the country’s ailing economy and housing sector.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Steep Rise in Racism and Intolerance in France

Racist, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic acts and threats have risen steeply in France, according to a report published on Thursday by the country’s racism watchdog. Levels of intolerance in the country were a real “concern”, the watchdog concluded.

In its annual report, the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH) revealed that racist acts and threats in France had risen by 23 percent in 2012.

The country’s police and gendarmerie forces reported 1,539 racist acts and threats last year, the report says.

In its report entitled ‘Racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism in France’ the commission concluded that intolerance had become entrenched in a ‘concerning’ manner.

Bernadette Hetier, co president of anti-racism group MRAP said poverty was partly to blame for the rise.

“When there’s social injustice and social misery it gives allows far-right ideas a basis to take hold,” Hetier told The Local.

“When there is social misery, people always look for someone to blame and that someone just happens to be from North Africa or Romania or where ever.”

The commission reported that cases of anti-Muslim racism and anti-Semitism exploded in 2012 by 30 percent and 58 percent respectively.

Part of the reason for this, the commission says, was the impact of Mohamed Merah, the self-proclaimed Islamist extremist who killed seven people, including three Jewish children in March last year.

Political tensions in the Middle East and the release of a controversial film caricaturing the Prophet Muhammed were also to blame for a rise in racist acts.

But the jump cannot be blamed on Merah or political tensions alone, with the commission noting that for the last three years in France “indicators of racism and intolerance are rising”.

“This phenomenon is rooted in the long term, which is a particularly worrying trend,” it says.

The Commission singled out the internet and the country’s politicians as being contributory factors for legitimizing racist language.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Swede Jailed for Plotting Terror Crimes in Cyprus

A Swedish man has been sentenced to prison for his suspected involvement in planning terror crimes against Israeli visitors in Cyprus.

The 24-year-old man, who is half Lebanese, was convicted on several charges.

“This means that he will be in prison but it doesn’t yet determine for exactly how long, this will be decided on March 28th. But he has been deemed guilty on several counts,” an Sveriges Television (SVT) reporter on the scene said.

The 24-year-old was arrested in early July last year on the suspicion of planning terrorist attacks on Israeli tourists, actions he carried out in secret for the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

The man is believed to have made maps during a visit to the Mediterranean island in November 2011, taking into account popular modes of transport frequented by Israeli tourists.

British police tipped off the local officers who made the arrest.

The sentenced Swede told officials that he was paid for his work. It is believed the plan was to recreate a similar attack to July’s bus bombing in Bulgaria which killed seven people.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

The Great Green Con No. 1: The Hard Proof That Finally Shows Global Warming Forecasts That Are Costing You Billions Were Wrong All Along

No, the world ISN’T getting warmer (as you may have noticed). Now we reveal the official data that’s making scientists suddenly change their minds about climate doom. So will eco-funded MPs stop waging a green crusade with your money? Well… what do YOU think?

The Mail on Sunday today presents irrefutable evidence that official predictions of global climate warming have been catastrophically flawed.

The graph on this page blows apart the ‘scientific basis’ for Britain reshaping its entire economy and spending billions in taxes and subsidies in order to cut emissions of greenhouse gases. These moves have already added £100 a year to household energy bills.

           — Hat tip: LN [Return to headlines]

UK: ‘We Want Our Daughter Jailed’: Middle-Class Mother Slams Judge for Allowing Teenage Daughter to Walk Free After She Looted Home During ‘Campaign of Spite’

A middle-class mother who has been tormented by her own tearaway daughter today criticised a judge for letting her go free after she looted the family home.

Ruth Lynch was left devastated after 19-year-old Jennice burgled the house three times in a month, stealing jewellery and her father’s beloved gold watch.

The teenage mother was given a suspended sentence which Mrs Lynch described as a ‘joke’, adding: ‘It’s about time she got severely punished.’

Jennice lives off benefits as well as financial help from her parents, who bought her a flat and look after her two young children.

But she nonetheless deliberately targeted the family’s £300,000 house in Whitworth, Lancashire, at one point showering her own children’s toys with glass during a break-in.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: British Universities Need Radical Ideas, Not Bigotry

As the new Government-backed anti-Muslim hatred body, ‘Tell MAMA’ has just reported a rising level of anti-Muslim hatred and sentiment is creeping into British life. We appear to have passed the point where Baroness Warsi referred to Islamophobia ‘passing the dinner party test’.

Muhammad Abdul Bari

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Fewer Police Officers Will be Sent to Investigate Missing People Cases Under New Plans Announced Today

Police forces across the country will change the way that they deal with missing people following failures in cases such as the Rochdale child sex ring.

Plans announced today will stop officers getting called out to around a third of missing people cases.

The aim is to free up officers’ time and to improve the way forces deal with children who repeatedly go missing from care, and might fall prey to sexual abuse…

However David Tucker, head of policy at the NSPCC, said the charity fears the new definitions could put children at risk.

‘We are very concerned that the new definition of “missing persons” will put vulnerable children at risk of being groomed and sexually exploited,’ he said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Hero Street Cleaner ‘Stabbed to Death by Burglar After Tackling Him With Broom as He Fled House’

A street cleaner was stabbed to death by an armed burglar he tackled with his broom after seeing him flee a house he had broken into, a court has heard.

Polish national Piotr Mikiewicz, 40, saw Roger Buckingham coming out of a property with a laptop computer and a kitchen knife when he investigated the alarm, a jury at the Old Bailey heard.

The brave cleaner repeatedly hit the thief with his broom as he tried to stop Buckingham fleeing the affluent semi-detached property in Shepherds Bush, west London.

But Buckingham allegedly stabbed him in the chest with the knife and ran off, leaving Mr Mikiewicz dying on the ground, the court heard.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Napalm Death V&A Gig Cancelled Over Gallery Damage Fear

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) has cancelled a Napalm Death concert over fears the high decibel levels could damage the “fabric of the building”.

The grindcore band’s gig was to feature three ceramic sound systems which could disintegrate due to the sound levels. The London museum said it dropped the event after safety inspections. The band was due to play on 22 March in the Europe Galleries — currently undergoing refurbishment. Friday’s concert, called Bustleholm, was a one-off experimental collaboration between the band and artist Keith Harrison, who is a resident ceramic artist at the V&A in South Kensington…

[JP note: See also www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/2399/bustleholme-keith-harrison-napalm-death-at-the-va-3686/ ]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Trendy? No, Using Twitter Makes Our Leaders Look More Vacuous Than They Are Already

Hours before his Budget speech, George Osborne unleashed his first tweet upon the world, proclaiming that he ‘would present a budget that tackles the economy’s problems head on’ and help those ‘who want to work hard and get on’.

Wow! You can imagine his spin doctors persuading him to open a Twitter account so that he could deliver this bombshell. David Cameron does it. So does the Pope. And Rupert Murdoch. And the Royal Family. The Chancellor of the Exchequer must join in. Connect with the people.

Evidently he’s learned quickly. His debut had many of the characteristics of public figures who tweet.

It was boring. It revealed absolutely nothing. And it was almost certainly not written by him.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: V&A Scraps Napalm Death Gig for Fear Decibel Levels Will Damage the Ming Vases

Band boast volume of their gigs is so high that fans are sometimes physically sick

The Victoria and Albert Museum has cancelled an “experimental” concert by a death metal rock band amid fears that the high decibel levels could destroy some of its most treasured artefacts, including Ming vases and priceless sculptures. Napalm Death, who boast that the volume of their gigs is so high that fans are sometimes physically sick, were due to perform in the august surroundings this Friday as part of a collaboration with the museum’s in-house artist Keith Harrison.

The British band planned to play inside a specially-constructed ceramic sculpture with the idea that the piece would explode under the force of hits such as Order of the Leech and Fear, Emptiness, Despair. But the free concert has now been cancelled for health and safety reasons. In a statement, the museum said: “A safety inspection has revealed concerns that the high level of decibels would damage the historic fabric of the building. “The V&A is committed to an exciting programme but the safety of our visitors and our building remains our priority.”…

[JP note: ¿ ]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: With Enemies Like These, Michael Gove Doesn’t Need Friends

by Toby Young

Below is my fisk of the letter in the Telegraph this morning from 100 academics attacking Michael Gove’s proposed curriculum reforms.

We are writing to warn of the dangers posed by Michael Gove’s new National Curriculum which could severely erode educational standards. The proposed curriculum consists of endless lists of spellings, facts and rules. This mountain of data will not develop children’s ability to think, including problem-solving, critical understanding and creativity.

The third sentence is a prime example of Eduspeak. As John Rentoul points out in the Independent:

The syntax is hideous but, worse, it betrays an inability to think clearly. What does “critical understanding” mean? Why is “creativity” “included” in either “thinking” or the “ability to think”? It is garbage and, worse than that, it is wrong. The letter can be boiled down to one banal statement: that Gove is putting too much emphasis on children learning “endless lists of spellings, facts and rules” and not enough on the “ability to think”. It is a false and patronising contrast.

Much of it demands too much too young. This will put pressure on teachers to rely on rote learning without understanding. Inappropriate demands will lead to failure and demoralisation. The learner is largely ignored. Little account is taken of children’s potential interests and capacities, or that young children need to relate abstract ideas to their experience, lives and activity.

The assumption underlying this point, and one that informs much of the criticism of the new National Curriculum, is that asking children to commit facts to their long-term memories — always characterised as “rote learning” — will impede the development of their higher-order thinking skills. In fact, all the research evidence about how the human brain develops indicates that the two are entirely complementary. Here is Daniel T. Willingham, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, summarising the evidence:

Data from the last thirty years lead to a conclusion that is not scientifically challengeable: thinking well requires knowing facts and that’s true not just because you need something to think about. The very processes that teachers care about most — critical thinking processes such as reasoning and problem solving — are intimately intertwined with factual knowledge that is stored in long-term memory (not just found in the environment). (Daniel T. Willingham, Why Don’t Our Students Like School? (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009), p.28.)

[…]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Universe Older Than Thought, Best Space-Time Map Yet Reveals

The universe is 100 million years older than thought, according to the best-ever map of the oldest light in space.

The adjustment brings the universe’s age to 13.82 billion years, and means space and time are expanding slightly slower than scientists thought.

These discoveries come from a new all-sky map of ancient cosmic light by Europe’s Planck mission, which has measured what’s called the cosmic microwave background in greater detail than ever before.

“Astronomers worldwide have been on the edge of their seats waiting for this map,” said Joan Centrella, Planck program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, in a statement. NASA contributed technology for the Planck spacecraft, which is managed by the European Space Agency. “These measurements are profoundly important to many areas of science, as well as future space missions.”

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is light dating from just 380,000 years after the Big Bang. Before that time, the universe was so hot and dense that light couldn’t travel through space without getting mired in a thick plasma of protons and electrons. When the universe finally cooled and expanded enough for atoms to form, light could travel freely for the first time, and this light has been flying through the universe ever since.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Egypt: State Commissioners Recommend Dissolution of Brotherhood

State commissioners of Egypt’s Administrative Court have recommended the dissolution of the Muslim Brotherhood for lacking legal basis, a channel reported. State commissioners’ recommendations are not binding on the court who will hear the appeals of dissolving the Brotherhood on March 26.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Egyptian Prosecution Detains Islamist Group Coordinator for Street Fight

CAIRO, March 20 (Xinhua) — Egypt’s prosecution detained on Wednesday a coordinator of an Islamist group in connection with “a street war,” for four days pending investigations.

Gamal Saber, coordinator of “Hazemoon group” affiliated with former Salafist presidential candidate Hazem Salah Abu-Islamil, was arrested along with his son, who allegedly killed a 15-year- old boy in a soccer game dispute. Saber has denied either he or his son had taken part in the clash which left three killed and 25 injured on Monday. The General Prosecution also ordered to arrest another 30 people involved in the fight between residents of two neighborhoods in Cairo. The police had decided not to detain Saber and his son at any local station for fear that Hazemoon members might protest and break into the facility.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Legalized: Lawyer

CAIRO, March 20 (Xinhua) — Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has already been legalized, the group’s lawyer said on Wednesday evening. On Wednesday, the State Commissioners Authority of the Supreme Administrative Court issued a report recommending to dismantle the Brotherhood, arguing that “the group does not have a legal basis.” A few hours later, however, the Brotherhood’s lawyer Abdel- Moniem Abdel-Maqsoud said in a statement that the judicial body’s report was meaningless, since the Brotherhood had already been legalized…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Muslims Attack Christians in Egypt’s South

Hundreds of Muslim villagers in Egypt’s south have attacked Christian-owned stores in search of a girl whose family claims was abducted. The villagers assaulted the stores Tuesday and surrounded two churches in the city of al-Wasta in Bani Suef province in Egypt’s south. Security forces guarded the churches. No casualties were reported…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

A Bloody Endless Peace

As you read this, Obama is probably stumbling through some ceremony or speech in Israel. The speeches all say the usual things, but there really is only one purpose to the visit. There really ever only is one purpose to these visits. The revisiting of the endless peace war.

Two decades after the peace process has failed in every way imaginable. Two decades after cemeteries on both sides are full of the casualties of peace. Two decades which have created two abortive Palestinian states at war with one another and with Israel.

Two decades later, it’s still time for peace.

Peace time means that it’s time to ring up some more Israeli concessions in the hopes of getting the terrorists and their quarreling states back to the negotiating table for another photo op in the glorious album of peacemakers. And if the photos are properly posed, perhaps there will even be another Nobel Peace Prize in it for all the participants.

It would be nice to think that the peace disease was one of those viruses carried only in the bloodstream of liberals. But it’s not.

Every so often I am asked about a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian-Arab-Muslim conflict and the interrogators are baffled when I tell them that there is no solution. “No solution at all? But there has to be a solution. What of all the moderate voices of goodwill? What of all the mothers who only want to raise their children to sing happy songs about peace? What about all the old soldiers who are tired of war? What if we get them all in a room to shake hands and pose for photos? Then won’t there be peace?”

As society has become more progressive, it has become progressively more difficult to explain even even to intelligent people that the world simply does not work that way.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

As Obama Sets Out for PA, Gaza Terrorists Attack Sderot

A rocket fired at Israel from Gaza caused heavy damage to a house in Sderot Thursday morning, Israel Radio reported

A rocket fired at Israel from Gaza caused heavy damage to a house in Sderot Thursday morning, Israel Radio reported. Police rushed to the scene to inspect the damage and to determine if there were any injuries.

Two Red Alert warning signals were heard in southern Israel Thursday morning, as U.S. President Barack H. Obama prepared to depart Jerusalem for Ramallah for meetings with top Palestinian Authority officials. One was heard in Sderot, and the second was heard in the Sha’ar Hanegev area near the Gaza border, Israel Radio said.

There was no confirmation of damage from the second rocket. Police are investigating. Two other attacks were reported, but the rockets apparently fell on the Gaza side of the border fence.

Currently southern Israel is not being defended by the Iron Dome system, which under normal circumstances might have been used to deflect a missile coming into a residential area. However, the Iron Dome system that is usually deployed in southern Israel was moved to Ben Gurion Airport, where it was reviewed by Obama. The President had originally been set to review the system at its usual deployment site, but due to his tight schedule the IDF decided to move the battery to Ben Gurion for Obama’s inspection.

Obama is set to visit Ramallah today for talks with top PA officials. Israeli analysts said that the rockets fired at Israel Thursday morning were apparently a message for Obama from Hamas — that no matter what the results of his talks with PA chief Mahmoud Abbas, nothing can be accomplished in the PA without Hamas’ say-so.

           — Hat tip: MC [Return to headlines]

Gaza Militants Fire Rockets as Barack Obama Meets Abbas in Ramallah

Hours after militants in Gaza fired two rockets at Israel, President Barack Obama arrives in the West Bank to meet Palestinian leaders dismayed by his failure to meet expectations that he could help deliver them a state.

Mr Obama met with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah at 0900 GMT and then Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, on the second day of his visit to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan, which is dominated by challenges posed by Iran and Syria. The president and Mr Abbas will hold a working lunch, followed by a news conference. Mr Obama and Mr Fayyad will then visit a youth centre in Ramallah.

This morning, two rockets fired by militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip hit southern Israel. In only the second such attack since November, the rockets crashed down in Sderot, a border town often targeted by rockets, which Mr Obama visited in a previous visit to Israel while a presidential candidate in 2008…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

As Iran Builds the Bomb, Its Youth Hit the Bottle

Official sources in Iran say 200,000 people are dependent on alcohol. This figure is likely to be higher, however, because the rulers of the Islamic Republic are reluctant to admit the existence of social ills.

“Very often my friends have to be treated for alcohol consumption in hospital,” 20-year-old Anoush said. He lives in the capital Tehran and knows many illegal alcohol “dealers.”

Alcohol is banned in Iran. Getting caught with it three times can even carry the death penalty. To the young people in the totalitarian religious state, this may not matter. Alcohol is nothing unusual to them. “Laws are there to be broken,” Anoush said. At private parties, teenagers drink themselves into a coma to forget their worries and fears, at least for a short time.

Iran has a young population. The average age is 27. But the country is isolated. The international community suspects Tehran is secretly seeking to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies this and insists it wants to use nuclear power only for civilian purposes, although its plants are closed to international inspectors. The UN Security Council has therefore imposed several rounds of sanctions against Iran.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

David Cameron Uses PMQs to Confirm That He’s Considering More Intervention in Syria

Ed Miliband asked a first set of questions about the banking crisis in Cyprus. Cameron replied by saying that the UK has exempted itself from €urozone rescue deals but, on a general point, he stated that deposit protection schemes should be respected.

Ed Miliband’s second set of questions focus on whether the arms embargo to Syria should be lifted. David Cameron replies by saying that the current set of policies are clearly not working and 70,000 people have already died under Assad’s “hateful regime”. The Labour leader struck a very cautious note, worrying that the situation could be made worse if the arms embargo was lifted. The PM replied that the discussions of EU leaders that he had intended reminded him of the arguments made in the 1990s with regard to Bosnia. The British government — along with France — is clearly tip-toeing towards a more interventionist policy…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Dutch Jihadist Dies in Syria

THE HAGUE, March 21 (Xinhua) — A 20-year-old Dutch jihadist died in Syria last week, Dutch newspapers reported Thursday, basing their information on sources within the Moroccan community in the Netherlands. According to the reports, the mother of Mourad M. was informed Friday about the death of her son. His elder brother is allegedly still involved in fights within Syria. Last week, the National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV) raised the terrorism threat level in the Netherlands from “limited” to “substantial”. According to the NCTV, close to a hundred so-called jihadist travelers individuals have recently left the Netherlands for various countries in Africa and the Middle East, especially Syria.

“These jihadist travelers can return to the Netherlands highly radicalized, traumatized and with a strong desire to commit violence, thus posing a significant threat to this country,” said the NCTV.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Gruesome Video Shows Syrian Rebel Beheading Civilian

[WARNING: *** EXTREMELY DISTURBING CONTENT ***]

A gruesome YouTube video shows a member of the US-backed Free Syrian Army beheading a civilian in yet another example of how the west is supporting an uprising led by violent jihadist extremists.

WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC VIDEO. VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED. We expect this video to be removed from YouTube shortly.

The clip, which should not be watched by those of a nervous disposition, shows a masked man hacking away at a prisoner’s head with a machete before holding the severed head up in the air as those around him shout in celebration.

This is by no means the first time FSA militants have been caught on camera beheading civilians. Back in December we featured a video showing Syrian rebels forcing a child to behead a bound prisoner.

Later that same month, the Australian reported how rebels beheaded a young Christian man by the name of Andrei Arbashe because he complained about how the rebels were acting like bandits. After cutting him up into pieces, FSA fighters fed Arbashe to the dogs. The report noted that the incident underscored how, “rebels are committing atrocities against innocent civilians.”

Another video which emerged last month shows Syrian rebels chanting “Allahu Akbar” before cutting off the head of a civilian and dumping him in a hole in the ground.

These same insurgents have openly espoused their hatred for America as they ransack Christian churches, burn US flags, chant anti-American slogans and sing the praises of Osama Bin Laden while glorifying the 9/11 attacks…

Given the fact that the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi was carried out by some of the very same terrorists the administration armed in the overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi, for how much longer can Obama hide the fact that the US is once again throwing its weight behind bloodthirsty jihadists who hate the United States, hate the ideals of justice and freedom, and who are willing to commit the most savage acts of barbarity in pursuit of their extremist doctrine?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Kurdish Militant Leader Ocalan Calls for Ceasefire With Turkey

Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abduallah Ocalan has called for a ceasefire and the withdrawal of Kurdish militants from Turkish territory, ending months of secret negotiations between the leader and Turkey’s spy agency.

Abduallah Ocalan, the leader of the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) called Thursday for his fighters to halt hostilities and withdraw from Turkey as part of a peace accord seen by many as a major step towards ending the 29-year conflict that has cost more than 40,000 lives, most of them Kurds.

“Let guns be silenced and politics dominate,” Ocalan wrote in a letter written from his prison cell which was read by a Kurdish legislator in the Kurdish language at a mass rally.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Second Dutch Youth Dies in Syria

A second Dutch Moroccan man has died fighting with rebel forces in Syria, Nos television said on Thursday.

The victim is said to be a 20-year-old from Delft or Rotterdam and named Sofian, the broadcaster said.

On Wednesday it emerged that another young jihadist from Delft had died last week.

The Dutch counter terrorism unit said earlier around 100 jihadists had left the Netherlands for Syria and other countries in recent months. The increased radicalisation of young Dutch Muslims is reason to raise the risk of attack from limited to substantial, the NCTV said.

The chairman of the Dutch multicultural think-tank Forum told the broadcaster it is not a surprise that Dutch young men are being killed. ‘There are a lot of youths who have a romantic idea about fighting in Syria. But in reality they are cannon fodder,’ Sadik Harchaoui said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Tunisian Architect Turned Jihadist Talks of Holy War in Syria

Abou Ayman is a young Tunisian architect who left everything behind to wage holy war thousands of kilometers from his home. He is one of several thousand foreign jihadists currently fighting against the Syrian regime.

Syria’s best-known rebels, those who belong to the Free Syrian Army, say they are fighting with one sole objective: to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad. In contrast, jihadist rebel groups — most notoriously, Jabhat al-Nusra — are fighting in the name of Islam, and their ranks are swelling.

As an example of their growing influence, one need look no further than the videos paying tribute to the “muhajirins” (foreign jihadists) that died in Syria. These videos, in which Islamic fighters openly discuss their goals, have been making the rounds on social networks.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Turkey: Jailed PKK Leader Ocalan Declares Ceasefire

A statement from the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, Abdullah Ocalan, announced a historic ceasefire with Turkey on Thursday and a possible end to a three-decade-old conflict that has killed tens of thousands.

Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan ordered his fighters on Thursday to cease fire and withdraw from Turkish soil as a step to ending a conflict that has killed 40,000 people, riven the country and battered its economy.

Hundreds of thousands of Kurds gathered in the regional centre of Diyarbakir cheered and waved banners bearing Ocalan’s moustachioed image when a statement by the rebel leader, held since 1999 on a prison island in the Marmara Sea, was read out by a Kurdish politician.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Turkey: Ankara May Challenge Cypriot Use of Gas Reserves in Bailout

Turkey could challenge any move by Cyprus to speed up offshore natural gas exploration as a way of attracting desperately needed investment to save its teetering economy, senior Turkish officials said on Thursday.

The European Union has given the island until Monday to raise the billions of euros it needs to clinch an international bailout or face the collapse of its financial system and likely exit from the euro currency zone.

Cyprus is in talks with Moscow over possible Russian investments. Cypriot Finance Minister Michalis Sarris has identified the divided island’s offshore gas riches as one area in which Russia could invest.

“This resource belongs to two communities and the future of this resource can’t be subject to the will of southern Cyprus alone. (We) may act against such initiatives if necessary,” one of the Turkish officials told Reuters. “The exclusive use of this resource … by southern Cyprus is out of question … and unacceptable.”

Cypriot efforts to monetise as yet undeveloped offshore gas fields and position them as a vital source of energy for Europe have raised tensions with Turkey, which demands a joint approach and a share of the revenue.

“We are discussing all legal means … We could take the case to the European Union but we will use all political and legal channels,” the official said without elaborating.

Moscow would tighten its grip on European supplies if it invested in natural gas fields in the Mediterranean south of Cyprus as part of a deal to solve the island’s financial crisis.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

UAE: Dubai Art Festival Begins With Focus on West Africa

DUBAI, March 20 (Xinhua) — The seventh Art Dubai, one of the Middle East’s biggest contemporary art events, started Wednesday, with a special focus on the colorful artworks from West African countries. The four-day Art Dubai, with the participation of 75 galleries from 30 countries, is a series of exhibitions of art, related discussions and art tours…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Bolshoi Ballet Turned Into ‘Giant Brothel’

A former ballerina at the Bolshoi Ballet has claimed that the company turned into a ‘giant brothel’ after female dancers were forced to sleep with wealthy patrons.

Anastasia Volochokova, 37, speaking in an interview on a television talk show in Russia, said mainly dancers in the corps du ballet were made to sleep with benefactors but soloists were also sometimes forced to. Volochokova claimed that the dancers were told to attend ‘grand dinners’ and were given the choice of having sex with a rich patron or not going on tour or performing at the Bolshoi. The former soloist was controversially fired from the company in 2003 when the General Director, Anatoly Iksanov, claimed she was too fat and tall to be picked up by the male dancers…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Russia Between Outrage and Hysteria Over Cyprus

State TV runs special reports, Prime Minister Medvedev refers to “Soviet methods,” populist Zhirinovsky wears black — all because of the Cyprus bank levy. But, how is the banking crisis viewed by the Russian public?

A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin described the bank levy initially planned for Cyprus as “unfair, unprofessional and dangerous.” Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev even spoke of ‘expropriation’ reminiscent of the Soviet era.

The levy has since been rejected by the Mediterranean island’s parliament. The Russian TV station RTR interrupted its programming to report on the vote. It showed tables of Russian companies registered in Cyprus and the amount of Russian money in the island’s banks. But there was no mention as to whether those billions had been properly taxed in Russia, or whether it was “dirty money” from semi-legal enterprises.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

12 Killed as Blast Hits Refugee Camp in NW Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, March 21 (Xinhua) — At least 12 people were killed and 35 others injured when a bomb hit a refugee camp in Pakistan’ s northwest city of Nowshera on Thursday morning, local district officials said. Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Nowshera said that the death toll may further rise as over 25 among the injured are in critical condition. The blast happened at about 11:40 a.m. (local time) when internally displaced people from neighboring Khyber tribal area were gathering at a food distribution center in Nowshera’s Jalozai camp, the largest refugee camp in the country that is a home to over 70,000 refugees from the country’s tribal areas and Afghanistan…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

5 Dead in Central Myanmar Religious Rioting

At least five people have died and a mosque has been burned in two days of rioting in a central Myanmar town triggered by an argument between a Muslim shopkeeper and his Buddhist customers…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Buddhists and Muslims Clash in Central Burma Town

Reports from Burma say deadly rioting has taken place between Muslims and Buddhists in a central town.

At least 10 people were reported killed and mosques burned in Meiktila town, south of Mandalay, which has a large Muslim population. Officials declared a curfew overnight in the wake of the violence. This appears to be the most serious sectarian clash since almost 200 people were killed last year in unrest in the western state of Rakhine…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

India: Drug Abuse Threatens Punjab’s Population

The Indian state of Punjab is in the grip of a drug abuse crisis. Surveys indicate that more than half of all rural households are home to at least one drug addict, a problem most severe along the Pakistan border.

Manish Khular, an 18-year-old school dropout is smoking smack, an adulterated form of heroin, in a dingy flat along with a bunch of friends. He carefully prepares a wrap of the drug, then leans over the heated silver foil to smoke it before lolling back, staring wide-eyed at the ceiling.

“This is bliss. I have been doing this for nearly two years. I can’t get off,” Khular told DW. He gradually drifts into a stupor.

Drug abuse is not new but matters have been getting worse in recent months as almost a whole generation of young people is being lost to a menace that has literally shattered the physical and mental health of Punjab’s youth.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Indonesia: West Java: Christians in the Streets to Stop Church Demolition, Charges Against Clergyman

About a hundred members of a Bekasi church are demonstrating in favour of religious freedom. Local authorities plan to demolish their place of worship in a few hours time. After the community’s pastor files a case against a Muslim leader who proffered death threats against him, he finds himself charged with defamation and could go to jail.

Jakarta (AsiaNews) — About a hundred of protesters from the Huria Kristen Batak Protestant (HKBP) Filadelfia Church in Bekasi (West Java) took to the streets in suburban Jakarta in a final attempt to save their church, which they have been using for the past 13 years. Not far from their place of worship, some 200 Muslims are staging a counter protest, chanting and shouting slogans against them like “Demolish the church right away” and “They are infidels and they build churches without permits”.

The building in question has been closed, official seals placed on its doors by local authorities claiming (along with Muslim groups) that it was built without the proper permits. Demolition, city officials said, was a matter of a few hours. Meanwhile, the pastor that runs the church has been charged of “defamation”. In the past, he was the target of death threats.

Increasingly and despite the fact that religious freedom is protected under the constitution, the Christian minority in the world’s most populous Muslim nation is the victim of abuse and discrimination.

In their attempt to save their church, demonstrators invoked Jesus. “All we are doing is pray; we are not breaking any law,” they stressed. However, pleas and appeals appear to be getting them nowhere. The demolition of Bekasi’s Filadelfia Church appears more and more likely after years of battle before the courts between the community and local authorities.

On the margins of this case, police recently announced that it had opened a file against Rev Palti Panjaitan, a member of the Filadelfia Church, for defamation after charges were filed against him by Abdul Azis, a Muslim extremist leader who had made death threats against the Christian clergyman in the past.

In view of these threats, Rev Panjaitan had filed charges the Muslim extremist leader in April 2012. Instead of investigating the case, police dragged its feet in order to let it lapse. However in December 2012, Abdul Azis filed defamation charges against the Christian leader.

And that is not all. Members of the Filadelfia Church have also been the victims of attacks during their religious services, which they have had to hold in the open after they were barred from their church building. Now their pastor is under investigation and could go to jail.

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

Report From China: What Keeps the Muslim World Back?

by Harold Rhode

Because the Chinese direct their energy toward the future, and rarely focus on past grievances, their approach possibly offers more hope for a better life, in which their people’s standard of living increases, and China — from their point of view — takes what they regard as its rightful place on the world stage.

The Chinese, at behind-the-scenes conferences and discussions during the past few months, kept saying they were perplexed about the Muslim world’s — particularly the Arab world’s — inability to deal with the modern world. The Chinese and the Muslims, they repeated, had suffered the same humiliation and occupation by foreigners over the past two hundred years, but the Chinese and Muslim reactions to these experiences seem so completely different.

“We also suffered,” the Chinese said, “but now we control our destiny, and are doing everything we can to learn from these foreigners so that we can benefit from the modern world and ensure that we do not suffer this humiliation again. We Chinese ‘look to the future.’“

The Muslims, on the other hand, the Chinese stated, seem to have a different approach: Instead of looking to the future, they “are mired in the past,” more concerned about taking revenge against those foreigners whom they believe had humiliated and oppressed them.

It was because of this focus on the past, these Chinese intellectuals and leaders stated, that Arabs and Muslims were therefore unable to build societies which could participate in the modern world. “Revenge and victimhood,” these Chinese argued, could permanently cause “the Arabs and Muslim world” to “remain behind the West and Asia.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

The New Arms Race in Asia

Two recent studies have shown that, essentially, an arms race is in full swing in Asia — cause for serious concern, considering the number of simmering conflicts in the region.

The national interests of Asian countries are growing along with their economic clout and affluence, prompting governments in the region to protect their spheres of influence with a wide array of weapons purchases.

Two trends in the international arms trade, in particular, have caught the attention of Western governments. For one, for the first time since the Cold War, the ranking of the world’s five largest arms exporters has changed.

China has pushed Britain out of the Top Five. And secondly, military expenditures in Asia in 2012 exceeded those of the European Union for the first time ever.

“The global shift in military power is continuing,” concluded the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in its annual “Military Balance” report issued last week (March 14, 2013).

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Ghana: Pandemonium in Obuasi; One Shot, Taxi Driver Forced to Hop for Wrong Parking

One person has been shot accidentally in Obuasi by a combined team of police and military men in an effort to rid one suburb of the mining town, Wawasi, of illegal Chinese workers and galamsey operators. Luv FM’s Erastus Asare Donkor reports the place is in a state of pandemonium…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Ghana: Stop Sponsoring Muslims to Mecca — Presby Moderator Tells Gov’t

The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Martey is calling on government to discontinue the sponsorship of Muslims to the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca.

Prof. Martey contends that funds used for the sponsorship — irrespective of the source — must rather be channeled into developmental projects in communities…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Liberia: Ethnic Clashes in Zorzor

Reports emanating from Zorzor, Lofa County have revealed that heavy ethnic clashes have ensued again in the district. According to the information, several persons have been wounded and houses reportedly set ablaze. The incident according to reports erupted between two tribal groups; the Lormas and the Mandingos in the town of Zelah in Zorzor District. The clashes started at dawn yesterday, March 19, 2012 following the alleged burning of the ‘poro society shrine’ belonging to the Lorma tribe…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Nigeria: Aftermath of Kano Attack Senate to FG — Change Anti-Terror Tack

Kano/Abuja — The Senate yesterday urged the Federal Government to consider “other options” in the efforts to combat the insurgency bedevilling parts of the North. Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over a session where Monday’s suicide bombings in Kano were discussed, said while giving a summary of the proceedings that the government should look to adopting new measures to end the bloodshed. “What happened in Kano was regrettable and we must do everything possible as a nation to end this kind of carnage. The Federal Government should consider other options towards resolving the crisis,” he said, without giving specific suggestions…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Singing, Spirituality and Islam — If Music be the Food of Love

by Thembi Mutch

Zanzibar City — From Timbuktu to Zanzibar and Senegal to Sudan, music can both unite and divide Muslim communities. Some see it as a problem, some as the solution.

A crowd of young women in burkas and some men gather outside a café in Zanzibar, bewildered by the sight: an African woman, in a West African ‘Mumu’ (kaftan) and covered head, playing Ghazal poetry as an Islamic call to prayer. Sitting on the café terrace and accompanied by an acoustic guitar, Nawal’s clear voice captivates the audience — until it is broken by the cry of a visibly upset street vendor. “How dare you use the name of Allah in a song!”, he shouts. “You use keyboards in your praise of Allah”, Nawal retorts calmly…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

West Africa: At UN-Backed Meeting, African States Seek to Combat Piracy in Gulf of Guinea

Representatives from three African sub-regional organizations focused on ways to cooperate to eliminate piracy in the Gulf of Guinea during a United Nations-backed meeting held this week in Cotonou, Benin. During the Ministerial Conference on Maritime Security held yesterday, the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the Economic Community of African States (ECOWAS) and the Gulf of Guinea Commission (CGG), which together represent 25 African States, adopted three key documents to address piracy and organized crime. The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for West Africa, Said Djinnit, welcomed “the speed with which ECCAS, ECOWAS and the CGG paved the way towards a future integrated policy framework to fight against organized crime and piracy off the Gulf of Guinea with the assistance of the UN and other partners […]”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Germany to Take in 5,000 More Syrian Refugees

Germany said Wednesday evening it was prepared to take in another 5,000 Syrian refugees in the coming months in response to deteriorating conditions in the war-ravaged country.

Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said Berlin would grant asylum to 3,000 Syrians from June at the latest, followed by another 2,000 later this year in response to an “increasingly difficult” situation.

The offer would bring to about 13,000 the number of Syrian refugees taken in by Germany since the start of 2012.

“We want to take quick action,” Friedrich told reporters.

He said a German delegation would soon tour refugee camps in countries neighbouring Syria to choose candidates among those who have fled the two-year-old war.

He said families with several children and minors living alone in the camps would be given priority, adding that Christians would likely also be given preferential treatment because “they are under particular threat of persecution.”

Refugees with relatives already living in Germany would also have priority, he added.

Friedrich said Germany had already taken in about 8,000 Syrian refugees in the last 14 months and expressed hope that other European Union countries would follow suit.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Saudi Arabian Travelers Gain Fast Entry in the US in 2014

A Department of Homeland Security program intended to give “trusted traveler” status to low-risk airline passengers soon will be extended to Saudi travelers, opening the program to criticism for accommodating the country that produced 15 of the 19 hijackers behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Sources voiced concern about the decision to the Investigative Project on Terrorism, which issued a report Wednesday on the under-the-radar announcement — which was first made by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano after meeting in January with her Saudi counterpart. According to the IPT, this would be the first time the Saudi government has been given such a direct role in fast-tracking people for entry into the United States.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Obama Frees Foreign Criminals But Seeks to Deport German Homeschoolers

By Brenda Walker

We learned recently of the Obama administration’s decision to release thousands of criminal aliens onto American streets, using approaching sequester budget cuts as an excuse.

But do not think that the Obama crowd objects to deportation generally. In fact, Eric Holder’s Justice Department is working to deport a German family pursuing an asylum claim because Germany bars homeschooling.

Eric Holder has taken the position that homeschooling is not a human right regarding asylum, but that policy could affect American parents as well. About two million students are currently homeschooled in the United States, about 2.9 percent of the total. The German family case may signal a crackdown coming from Washington on the freedom of US parents to educate their own children.

Some European nations want every kid put in the state schools to absorb the diversity belief system. Sweden is particularly bad for demanding even little toddlers be immersed in state-approved social attitudes.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Public School Play Mocks Bible

[Warning: * Disturbing Content *]

As the U.S. Supreme Court psyches itself to redefine the age-old and divinely-ordained institution of marriage, public school authorities and students in South Hadley, Massachusetts, put on a little play called “The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told.”

The weekend performance by the public school is a mockery of the Holy Bible from a sodomite/lesbian point of view. It’s supposed to be funny. Ha, ha: Adam and Steve in the Garden of Eden, plus a lesbian pair, and so forth. Makes you want to break out in guffaws, doesn’t it? There’s even a scene in which Adam has sex with an animal, aboard the Ark. Don’t take my word for it; see a rave review.

Despite receiving thousands of protests from all over the country, and the efforts of live protesters outside the theater, the public school went ahead and did it anyway.

The flagrant blasphemy is obvious. More needs to be said about the hypocrisy of so-called educators.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Tim Loughton MP: Political Correctness is Becoming More — Not Less — of a Problem

Tim Loughton is the Member of Parliament for East Worthing and Shoreham, and was Parliamentary Under Secretary for Children and Families from 2010 until 2012.

Are you or have you ever been a homophobe seems to have become the new McCarthyism of our age? Given the urgency and frenzy of the lobby pushing forward the Gay Marriage Bill you wouldn’t think that no one had actually been able to give it a democratic mandate at the last election. At the evidence sessions of the committee which has just finished scrutinising the legislation Labour MPs tore into the Catholic Bishops as if they were prosecutors at a war crimes trial…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Asceticism and Humility: The Life of Pope Francis’ Namesake

By Hans-Ulrich Stoldt

At a time when the Catholic Church was sinking into opulence and pomposity, a powerful religious countercurrent formed in the High Middle Ages: beggar-monks like Francis of Assisi, who preached abstinence and humility. A profile of the religious leader who has become the new pope’s namesake.

Editor’s note: After his election to the papacy this week, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina chose Pope Francis as his name. It’s an homage to Saint Francis of Assisi, the 13th century Catholic friar and preacher who founded the beggar-monk movement through his Franciscan order. He emphasized a life of asceticism and humility, and created a powerful voice for the poor the church couldn’t ignore.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Wind Power Will Worsen Climate, Scientists Find

The problem is that the energy that windmills “harvest” has to come from somewhere, and where it comes from is the wind’s velocity: simply put, the wind blowing through a windmill slows down. This drag, or “wind shadow,” is a critical component of wind farm design, as it means that windmills cannot be placed too close to each other and still remain effective.

The new study found; however, that it’s not just windmills that have wind shadows — wind farms cast their own, larger shadows, made up of the interactive effect of all the individual windmills. And that means that wind farms cannot be placed too close to each other, either. And the more wind farms you build, the more shadows you create, until you are actually altering wind patterns on a planetary scale.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

One thought on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/21/2013

  1. I’ve seen Napalm Death in concert, they’re really not any louder than other grindcore bands.

Comments are closed.