Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/7/2013

The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously today to impose a new batch of sanctions on North Korea in response to the hermit kingdom’s most recent nuclear test. Just before the UN announced its decision, North Korea threatened a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States if sanctions were imposed.

In financial news, unemployment in France rose to 10.2%, the highest level since 1999. Meanwhile, the “Troika” is looking to find cause for firing 7,000 to 8,000 civil servants in Greece, in order to help the country cut expenses and meet its austerity obligations.

In other news, John Brennan was confirmed as the new director of the C.I.A. by a Senate vote of 63 to 34.

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

Thanks to BD, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JB, JD, Jerry Gordon, Steen, TV, 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
» Corporatism: A System of Control Designed by the Monopoly Men of the Global Elite
» Failure to Prosecute Fraud Causes Economic Downturns
» Fire Engulfs Our Nation: Racing for the Exits
» French Unemployment Hits 10.2%, Highest Since 1999
» Greece: Troika Searching for Sackable Civil Servants
» Ireland: Debt Breathing Space But No Salvation
» Italy: Monte Dei Paschi Bank Director Found Dead in Siena
» Spain: Corruption ‘Main Concern’ After Unemployment
» Spain Sells 5 Bln Euro in Bonds. Yields Down, Demand Up
» The Dow Hits an All-Time High! Translation: A Bubble is Always Biggest Right Before it Bursts
 
USA
» America is in the Throes of a Burgeoning Police State; Christians, Please Wake Up
» Anger at Venezuela Oil Firm That Lowered Flags for Chavez in Houston
» Barack Obama ‘Has Authority to Use Drone Strikes to Kill Americans on US Soil’
» Big Sis Ignores Question on Domestic Arms Build-Up
» Bill Gates Descends on Austin in Controlled Pre-Planned Appearance
» Colorado Dem to Rape Survivor: Statistics Say a Gun Wouldn’t Have Helped You
» Cop Advice for Home Invasions? Be a Victim
» FBI ‘Secretly Spying’ On Google Users, Company Reveals
» Florida ALAC Legislation Advances in the 2013 Tallahassee Session
» Florida State Senator Files Bill Requiring Anger Management Before Buying Ammunition
» Government Emergency Alert Test Interrupts Rand Paul Filibuster
» Gun Confiscation Has Begun: Gun Owner Alert! (Video)
» It’s Now Clear: Obama Intends to Use Drone Strikes to Kill American Journalists and Political Enemies
» Marine Corps Veteran Questions DHS on Huge Ammo Buys (Video)
» Media Portrays DHS Ammo Purchases as Conspiracy Theory
» Rand Paul’s Filibuster Shows the GOP What Leadership Looks Like
» Respect the Office, Not Necessarily the Man
» Samira Ibrahim: Anti-Semite: 9/11 Fan and One of Time’s 100 Influentials
» Senate Confirms John O. Brennan as C.I.A. Director
» The Slow Slide Into Dictatorship
» The Speech No One Heard
» Video: Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder Discusses the DHS Moves to Watch Missourians
» Who is General Welfare?
 
Europe and the EU
» American Cardinals ‘Working’ For Non-European Pope
» British Father Cleared of Drowning Drunk Irishman on Booze Cruise by Throwing Him Overboard 17 Years Ago
» Daniel Pipes: Defending Lars Hedegaard: “A Stew of Anti-Muslim Bile and Conspiracy-Laden Forecasts”
» ‘Dirty Dozen’ Cardinals Shouldn’t be ‘Papabili’ Says Snap
» EU Postpones Bulgaria and Romania’s Schengen Membership
» Five Complaints Filed Against Italy in EU Court in 2012
» Germany: Berlin Beating Suspects Face Manslaughter
» Grillo Accuses Italian Media of Attacks
» Italy: Vote Preferable to Anti-EU Govt Says Monti
» Italy’s Movimento 5 Stelle Won Most Votes in Lower House
» Italy: PD Passes Bersani’s Proposal: No Alliance With Berlusconi
» Italy: Berlusconi Given One-Year Jail Term for Wiretap Publication
» Italy: Campari Sales Up 5.2% Last Year
» Priest Sex-Abuse Film Opens in Italy Around Papal Election
» Romania: ‘Halt Ion! Verboten Simeon! Nein!’
» Ticino League Leader Giuliano Bignasca Found Dead
» UK: Businessman ‘Sold Golf Ball Finding Machines as Bomb Detection Devices for Thousands of Dollars Each’
» UK: Forced Marriage Unit Intervened to Save 2-Year-Old Victim, Statistics Show
» UK: Five-Year-Old Who Fell Unconscious Outside Medical Centre Was Turned Away ‘Because He Wasn’t a Patient’
» UK: Murdered on the Bus to School: Girl, 16, Is Stabbed to Death on Top Deck as Police Arrest Man, 22, On Suspicion of Murder After a Chase
» UK: More Than 20% of Everyone’s Income Tax Bill Goes Straight to Benefits
» UK: Schoolchildren ‘Losing the Power to Concentrate in Class’
 
North Africa
» Egypt: Locusts: A Dark Omen for Muslim Brotherhood, A Delicacy for Jews
» Gunmen Attack Private Libyan TV and Abduct Owner
» Libya: For Tripoli Catholics, Anti-Christian Attacks Due to Climate of Impunity and Violence
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Norway Warns of Palestinian Donor Fatigue
» Palestinians Get Embassy Status in Sweden
» Peres Wants EU to Act Against Terrorism, Hamas
 
Middle East
» Arab League and Great Britain Back Syria’s Armed Opposition
» Manila Demands Syrian Rebels Free 21 Filipino UN Observers
» Osama Bin Laden’s Spokesman and Son-in-Law Captured in Jordan — and Will Appear in New York Court Tomorrow
» Top U.S. Commander Says it is Possible to Bring Iran to Its Knees
» Turkey’s National Interests Limit Press Freedom, Erdogan
» UANI Calls on UNIDO to Stop Funding Projects in Iran, End Its Relationships With Iranian Regime
 
Russia
» Moscow Plans to Name Street After Chavez
 
South Asia
» Bangladesh: Islamic Party Wants to Expel Minorities, Reunify With Pakistan
» India: ‘Do We Really Need This Biomedical Waste Project?’
» Infowars Confronts Bill Gates on Eugenics Vaccine Program: Exclusive
 
Far East
» Luxury Lifestyle of Tomboy Chinese Heiress Goes Viral (But Not Everyone’s Impressed)
» Malaysia Invaded — 100s of Terrorists Land on Beaches, Western Media Mute
» Sabah: Malaysia’s Prime Minister Rejects Filipino “Sultan’s” Ceasefire Offer
» U.N. Plans More Cash for North Korea’s Dictatorial Regime
» United Nations Security Council Unanimously Approves New Sanctions on North Korea
» Villages Turned Into Concentration Camps in North Korea as Brutal Regime Struggles to House Hundreds of Thousands of Political Prisoners
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Barack Obama’s Stepbrother Loses Election in Kenya
 
Latin America
» Chavez Was an “Uncommon and Strong Man” Writes Putin
» Maduro: Chavez Body to be Permanently Displayed
» Video: Why Hugo Chavez Was Bad News: Special Report
 
Immigration
» Leaked Memo Shows 5,000 Could be Released Under Budget Cuts, Says Goodlatte
 
Culture Wars
» ‘Church Needs a Gay Pope’ Says Outspoken Italian Priest
» CPAC and the Conservatives
» GOP House Approves CR That Funds All Obamacare — Including Regulation Attacking Religious Freedom
» How Moral Imbeciles Choose Judges
» The Supreme Court to Decide the Future Direction of Marriage in America

Corporatism: A System of Control Designed by the Monopoly Men of the Global Elite

The Dow is at a record high and so are corporate profits — so why does it feel like most of the country is deeply suffering right now? Real household income is the lowest that it has been in a decade, poverty is absolutely soaring, 47 million Americans are on food stamps and the middle class is being systematically destroyed. How can big corporations be doing so well while most American families are having such a hard time? Isn’t their wealth supposed to “trickle down” to the rest of us? Unfortunately, that is not how the real world works. Today, most big corporations are trying to minimize the number of “expensive” American workers on their payrolls as much as they can. If the big corporation that is employing you can figure out a way to replace you with a worker in China or with a robot, it will probably do it. Corporations are in existence to maximize wealth for their shareholders, and most of the time the largest corporations are dominated by the monopoly men of the global elite.

Over the decades, the politicians that have their campaigns funded by these monopoly men have rigged the game so that the big corporations are able to easily dominate everything. But this was never what those that founded this country intended. America was supposed to be a place where the power of collectivist institutions would be greatly limited, and individuals and small businesses would be free to compete in a capitalist system that would reward anyone that had a good idea and that was willing to work hard. But today, our economy is completely and totally dominated by a massively bloated federal government and by absolutely gigantic predator corporations that are greatly favored by our massively bloated federal government. Our founders tried to warn us about the dangers of allowing government, banks and corporations to accumulate too much power, but we didn’t listen. Now they dominate everything, and the rest of us are fighting for table scraps.

In early America, most states had strict laws governing the size and scope of corporations. Individuals and small businesses thrived in such an environment, and the United States experienced a period of explosive economic growth. We showed the rest of the world that capitalism really works, and we eventually built the largest middle class that the world had ever seen.

But now we have replaced capitalism with something that I like to call “corporatism”. In many ways, it shares a lot of characteristics with communism, and that is why nations such as communist China have embraced it so readily. Under “corporatism”, monolithic predator corporations run around sucking up as much wealth and economic power as they possibly can…

Once again, I want to make it very clear that I am not advocating socialism as the answer in any way, shape or form. Socialism takes away the incentive to create wealth and it almost always results in almost all of the economic rewards going to a very tiny elite anyway.

As I said earlier, what we need is a return to a much more pure form of capitalism, but this is so foreign to the way that most people think that most people will not be able to grasp this.

It certainly would be possible to greatly reduce the power of the federal government and greatly reduce the power of the big corporations at the same time, but this is so “outside the box” for most people that they cannot even conceive of doing such a thing…

By the way, that is another way that the monopoly men of the global elite get all of our money. They enslave us to debt, and we spend year after year of our lives slaving away to make them even wealthier.

They are very smart. There is a reason why they have 32 TRILLION dollars stashed away in offshore tax havens. They know how to play the game, and they are very happy that most of the rest of us are asleep.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Failure to Prosecute Fraud Causes Economic Downturns

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said today:

“I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions [banks] becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy”

As we’ve repeatedly noted, this is wholly untrue.

If the big banks were important to the economy, would so many prominent economists, financial experts and bankers be calling for them to be broken up?

If the big banks generated prosperity for the economy, would they have to be virtually 100% subsidized to keep them afloat?

If the big banks were helpful for an economic recovery, would they be prolonging our economic instability?

In fact, failing to prosecute criminal fraud has been destabilizing the economy since at least 2007 … and will cause huge crashes in the future.

After all, the main driver of economic growth is a strong rule of law.

Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says that we have to prosecute fraud or else the economy won’t recover:

“The legal system is supposed to be the codification of our norms and beliefs, things that we need to make our system work. If the legal system is seen as exploitative, then confidence in our whole system starts eroding. And that’s really the problem that’s going on.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Fire Engulfs Our Nation: Racing for the Exits

On February 20, 2003, a deadly fire caused by the use of pyrotechnics resulted in the deaths of 100 people and the injuries of 230 others at the Station nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island. According to official investigative accounts, it took less than six minutes for the nightclub to be fully engulfed in flames and completely destroyed. In just over five minutes, the lives of many people were changed forever, and no one inside of the club saw it coming until it was too late.

At present, the United States of America is metaphorically comparable to that nightclub, and the citizens of the U.S. as its patrons. Our elected officials (past and present), the Federal Reserve, and the Wall Street elite are the individuals who lit the fuse. Unlike the individual who lit the pyrotechnic display at the nightclub, however, those involved in destroying our national economy are arsonists who are intentionally burning our country to the ground. They have no allegiance to the U.S., her citizens, or anything beyond their collective lust for a global economy.

Others are intentionally blocking some of the exits. Unfortunately, too few people understand what is taking place, or they have become transfixed by the unchecked flames of the wayward pyrotechnics of the international bankers. You are being looted, right now, as you read this.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

French Unemployment Hits 10.2%, Highest Since 1999

Over 25% of under-24s jobless, all-time record high

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, MARCH 7 — The unemployment rate in France during the fourth quarter of 2012 stood at 10.2%, the highest since the second half of 1999, reports the national statistics agency INSEE.

Among those under age 24, unemployment was instead at 25.7%, the highest ever on-record since monitoring began in 1975.

Unemployment among the young was the figure which rose most sharply in the last quarter of 2012, up 1.6% compared with the previous quarter, which was at +3.4% on the same period in 2011.

An increase in unemployment was also experienced by those over age 49, with the figure rising to 7.2% and at its highest level since 2000. INSEE noted that there are currently 2.9 million jobless in France, if calculated on the International Labour Organization method. However, according to a study conducted by the institute itself, there are over 3.7 million people in the country who “do not have a job and would like one”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Greece: Troika Searching for Sackable Civil Servants

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MARCH 6 — The Greek government is in the process of identifying civil servants who have violated the code of conduct, who used false documents to obtain their position or who have been absent without leave in a bid to respond to demands for layoffs by the country’s international creditors.

The ministries of Finance and Administrative Reform expect that the monitoring will help to select between 7,000 and 8,000 public sector workers who will leave the civil service by the end of 2014, with the completion of all legal procedures. This will be the main issue at Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras’s meeting on Wednesday with the troika — as the representatives of European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund are collectively known — which is pressing Athens for immediate progress on the subject. The program of departures from the public sector is the most important prior action required for the disbursement of the March tranche of the bailout package, worth 2.8 billion euros as daily Kathimerini reports. The troika will also hold a meeting with Development Minister Costis Hatzidakis on Wednesday so he can provide them with a clear picture of the course of the streamlining program ahead of their key meeting on Thursday with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Ireland: Debt Breathing Space But No Salvation

Irish Independent

The EU has agreed an extension for Ireland and Portugal to give them more time to repay their bailout loans. Meeting on March 5, the 27 finance ministers hailed their “successful steps” towards re-entering the markets.

Under the deal, the troika of the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund will agree a new repayment schedule for a significant chunk of Ireland’s €40bn in bailout loans that had been due to be repaid before 2016. However, for Irish Independent columnist David McWilliams, the deal is little more than a “gentleman’s default” designed to buy time. He warns —

The Irish economy may emerge from the bailout unreformed and weaker, unlike the original plan. […] We can see that the EU needs a victory in Ireland because its entire “austerity works” strategy is based on Ireland squeezing itself out of the bailout next year. […] All that has happened is the debt pack is reshuffled to avoid a principal default but the economy is not just fragile but less able to take on the challenges of the globalisation.

In a sense this might be the worst of all worlds — a fictitious victory based on kicking the debt problem out to future generations.

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

Italy: Monte Dei Paschi Bank Director Found Dead in Siena

Siena, 7 March (AKI) — The communications chief of troubled Italian bank Monte Paschi di Siena has been found dead in the Tuscan city of Siena, apparently after committing suicide.

David Rossi’s body was found on the ground outside the scandal-hit bank’s 14th-century headquarters, seemingly after throwing himself from a high floor of the building late on Wednesday.

Police said on Thursday they had seized an apparent suicide note that 51-year-old Rossi had left for his wife in his office saying “I made a blunder”.

An autopsy was due to be carried out on his body on Thursday as police carried out a finger-tip search of his office, where he left his mobile phone and jacket on the back of his chair.

The office was sealed off immediately after the discovery of Rossis’ body.

“The death of David Rossi is a terrible tragedy,” Monte dei Paschi said on its Facebook page.

“This tragic event imposes first of all respect for his person, for the mourning of his family and for all of us, and calls on us to find the strength and the courage to go ahead and continue in our commitment.”

Rossi was among several MPS employees whose homes and offices were searched by police last month although he was not being investigated in a probe into am alleged fraud conspiracy at the bank.

MPS, the world’s oldest bank and Italy’s largest lender, was thrown into crisis in January when a series of shady derivatives and structured finance deals were uncovered that produced losses of 730 million euros.

The bank’s finance department is at the centre of a graft probe into the multi-milllion euro losses which led to a 3.9 billion euro government bailout of MPS.

On Monday the probe was extended to insider trading and investigators searches homes belonging to two MPS lawyers and six million euros of assets included money and shares linked to MPS’s former finance chief Gianluca Baldassarri, his former deputy Alesandro Toccafondi and two other suspects in the probe.

Baldassarri was arrested on 14 February on suspicion of conspiracy to commit fraud. He left MPS shortly after the arrival of new chief executive Fabrizio Viola in January 2012,.

Rossi was considered close to MPS’s former president Giuseppe Mussari, who left the bank last year and headed the bank at the time of the suspect derivatives deals in 2008-2009.

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

Spain: Corruption ‘Main Concern’ After Unemployment

40% worried about corruption after PP illegal fund scandal

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, 7 MARCH — After unemployment Spaniards are most fearful of corruption, a study by the National Sociological Research Centre has found.

Corruption beat off worries about economic and political difficulties, as well as health issues. The research was carried out in the week of 4-12 February at the height of a Partido Popular scandal about alleged illegal-funds. The survey shows that in February corruption and tax evasion were the main reasons for concern for 40% of Spaniards versus 17.7% in January. 79.9% of Spaniards fret about unemployment, 35.4% about their finances, 29.7% about the political situation and 10.5% about their health.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Spain Sells 5 Bln Euro in Bonds. Yields Down, Demand Up

(ANSAmed) — ROMA, 7 MARCH — Spain has gone full throttle at auction, selling all 5 billion euros of 2015, 2018, and 2023 bonds, as yields tumble. Rates slipped to 2.632% from 2.713% on 2015 titles, and shrank to 3.572% from 4.123% on 2018 bonds at auction in February. 2023 yields slid to 4.917% from 5.202%. Demand is on the rise across all titles versus previous auctions.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

The Dow Hits an All-Time High! Translation: A Bubble is Always Biggest Right Before it Bursts

Reckless money printing by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has pumped up the Dow to a brand new all-time high. So what comes next? Will the Dow go even higher? Hopefully it will. In fact, it would be great if the Dow was able to hit 15,000 before it finally came crashing down. That would give all of us some more time to prepare for the nightmarish economic crisis that is rapidly approaching. As you will see below, the U.S. economy is in far, far worse shape than it was the last time the Dow reached a record high back in 2007. In addition, all of the long-term trends that are ripping our economy to shreds just continue to get even worse and our debt just continues to explode. Unfortunately, the Dow has become completely divorced from economic reality in recent years because of Fed manipulation. All of this funny money that the Federal Reserve has been cranking out has made the wealthy even wealthier, but this bubble will not last for too much longer. What goes up must come down. And remember, a bubble is always biggest right before it bursts.

Fortunately, it looks like an increasing number of people out there are starting to recognize that the primary reason why stocks have been going up is because of the Fed. Just check out this excerpt from a recent article by the USA Today editorial board…

[…]

What the Fed has done to the money supply in recent years has been absolutely unprecedented. Just check out how our money supply has skyrocketed since the last financial crisis…

[…]

As I have also written about previously, the money printing that the Fed is doing right now is not nearly enough to stop the mammoth derivatives crisis that is coming.

A derivatives crisis was one of the primary reasons for the financial crash of 2008, but most Americans still have no idea what derivatives are.

They can be very complex, but I think that it is easiest just to think of them as side bets.

When someone buys a derivative, they are not buying anything real. They are simply betting that something will or will not happen.

For example, if you bet $100 that the Chicago Cubs will win the World Series this year, would you be “investing” in anything real?

Of course not.

Well, it is the same with most derivatives.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

America is in the Throes of a Burgeoning Police State; Christians, Please Wake Up

What is it going to take for pastors and churches to wake up and realize that America is in the throes of a burgeoning police state? Ladies and gentlemen, the long-standing veneration for law and order does not include blind submission to governmental abuse of power. Yet, it seems that very few Christian conservatives are even paying attention to what is happening before their very eyes.

For example, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has purchased over 2 billion rounds of hollow-point ammunition (enough to wage a 30-year war); the DHS has purchased over 7,000 AR-15s. The DHS calls them Personal Defense Weapons (PDW). These are the same semi-automatic rifles with high capacity magazines that when you and I buy them are called “assault rifles.” Plus, the DHS has purchased over 2,700 armored vehicles, the same kind that the US military uses in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Department of Defense (DOD) calls them MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected). They carry .50 caliber weapons that fire from inside the vehicle. The vehicle itself is impervious to mines and small-arms fire. They are the vehicle of choice for our combat troops in the Middle East.

See this report at Investor’s Business Daily: DHS Buys Special Armored Fighting Vehicles

Pray tell, why does the DHS need that kind of firepower? And who do they anticipate using all of this firepower on?

If all of that isn’t disconcerting enough, we have now learned that the DHS has spent 2 million dollars on producing shooting targets of American gun owners. These are called “non-traditional threat” targets. They include pregnant women, elderly citizens, mothers in playgrounds, and even little children. These targets are produced by a company called Law Enforcement Targets, Inc. The company calls these targets “No More Hesitation” targets.

See a report and photos of the targets: DHS Supplier Provides Shooting Targets Of American Gun Owners

What is the DHS planning to do? Turn the entire continental United States into one big giant Waco?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Anger at Venezuela Oil Firm That Lowered Flags for Chavez in Houston

A Venezuelan-owned oil company caused outrage this week after flying flags at half-mast at its American office after the death of Hugo Chavez.

Citgo, which is owned by the Venezuelan government, lowered its flags as a tribute to the late President, incensing residents in Houston, Texas, and Lake Charles, Louisiana, who said they were offended by the gesture.

Protocol allows flags to be lowered for foreign dignitaries, but Chavez was a controversial leader who as was antagonistic towards the U.S.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Barack Obama ‘Has Authority to Use Drone Strikes to Kill Americans on US Soil’

President Barack Obama has the authority to use an unmanned drone strike to kill US citizens on American soil, his attorney general has said.

Eric Holder argued that using lethal military force against an American in his home country would be legal and justified in an “extraordinary circumstance” comparable to the September 11 terrorist attacks.

“The president could conceivably have no choice but to authorise the military to use such force if necessary to protect the homeland,” Mr Holder said.

His statement was described as “more than frightening” by Senator Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, who had demanded to know the Obama administration’s position on the subject.

“It is an affront the constitutional due process rights of all Americans,” said Mr Paul, a 50-year-old favourite of the anti-government Tea Party movement, who is expected to run for president in 2016.

Mr Holder wrote to Mr Paul after the senator threatened to block the appointment of John Brennan as the director of the CIA unless he received answers to a series of questions on its activities.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Big Sis Ignores Question on Domestic Arms Build-Up

Are huge tank like vehicles destined for police use?

Department of Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano ignored a question regarding the federal agency’s alleged purchase of thousands of armored vehicles, as she hurried off surrounded by Secret Service agents, following a speech at an airline security event.

We are Change reporter Luke Rudkowski approached Napolitano, or ‘Big Sis’ as she will forever be known, following her presentation to a crowd at the 21st AVSEC World conference in New York.

Rudkowski asked Napolitano about the reported purchase of around 2,700 armored trucks that many believe are to be deployed to local law enforcement agencies around the country.

While some have suggested that the vehicles were purchased not for local law enforcement, but for The United States Marine Corps, it is clear that the DHS does have a fleet of armoured vehicles intended for use in the US.

Here is a demonstration video of such a vehicle by ICE agents:

[Comment: see url for pic of the light armoured vehicles.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Bill Gates Descends on Austin in Controlled Pre-Planned Appearance

Billionaire eugenicist Bill Gates will be delivering a student address at 3:00 p.m. at the new Bill & Melinda Gates Computer Science Complex and Dell Computer Science Hall on the University of Texas at Austin campus today. Computer science majors attending were required to secure a numbered wristband from the department in advance, which included an instruction sheet congratulating them on receiving a ticket to the lecture and informing them no recording or photography would be allowed.

When I called to inquire about press passes, I was promptly but apologetically informed that all media had already been “arranged in advance.”

Why would media need to be arranged in advance for a simple hour-long speaking engagement with some college kids?

Is it because Bill Gates does not want to have to answer questions about how over 50 Chadian children, some as young as seven years old, recently hallucinated, convulsed, and were ultimately paralyzed after receiving an Africa-specific meningitis vaccine linked to his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation?

Perhaps he doesn’t want to be confronted on how this is becoming a pattern, considering 47,500 children were also paralyzed by Gates-linked vaccines in India in 2011.[url]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Colorado Dem to Rape Survivor: Statistics Say a Gun Wouldn’t Have Helped You

Monday, the Colorado legislature held a hearing regarding its proposal to ban concealed carry on college campuses. Amanda Collins, a rape survivor and gun rights advocate, was allowed to share her story.

When she was finished, she asked the lawmakers “How does rendering me defenseless protect you against a violent crime.”…

Then, it was the Democrat’s turn. State Senator Evie Hudak’s answer was as idiotic as it was insulting.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Cop Advice for Home Invasions? Be a Victim

Project Veritas visited police stations nationwide and asked law enforcement officials how they could protect themselves in the event of an armed break-in. “Go get some bleach. Go get ammonia,” one officer instructed. Yet another officer instructed the undercover journalist to, “lock yourself in a bedroom” and “start yelling and screaming.”

Vice President Joe Biden recently advised Americans to, “get a shotgun” for home protection. But when asked whether or not they should follow the Vice President’s advice, law enforcement officials told the undercover journalists they would be arrested for doing so.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

FBI ‘Secretly Spying’ On Google Users, Company Reveals

I used National Security Letters — a form of surveillance that privacy watchdogs call “frightening and invasive” — to surreptitiously seek information on Google users, the web giant has just revealed.

Google’s disclosure is “an unprecedented win for transparency,” privacy experts said Wednesday. But it’s just one small step forward.

“Serious concerns and questions remain about the use of NSLs,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Dan Auerbach and Eva Galperin wrote. For one thing, the agency issued 16,511 National Security Letters in 2011, the last year for which data was available. But Google was gagged from saying just how many letters it received — leaving key questions unanswered.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Florida ALAC Legislation Advances in the 2013 Tallahassee Session

In our NER interview with Christopher Holton of the Washington, DC-based Center for Security Policy (CSP), “The American Alliance Fighting Foreign Laws Which Threaten Our Constitutional Freedoms,” we noted that American Law for American Courts Legislation (ALAC) was making headway towards passage in the 2013 Session in Tallahassee. The Florida version of ALAC (HB351/SB58) is entitled “Application of Foreign Law in Certain Cases”. The legislation is directed at: Clarifying that the public policies expressed in the act apply to violations of a natural person’s fundamental liberties, rights, and privileges guaranteed by the State Constitution or the United States Constitution; providing that the act does not apply to a corporation, partnership, or other form of business association, except when necessary to provide effective relief in proceedings under or relating to chapters 61 and 88, F.S., etc. We noted in the introduction to the NER interview with Holton: On February 21, 2013, the Florida House Judiciary Committee voted 11 — 2 in favor of the Florida version of ALAC, HB 351 (Application of Foreign Law in Certain Cases). Florida Family Association, which has been active in promoting ALAC and combating it critics, reported that: All committees in the Florida House of Representatives have approved this legislation (HB 351). HB 351 is pending a second reading before the full house. On March 6, 2013 the Senate version, SB58, was heard before the senior Chamber Judiciary Committee and the measure passed on a voice vote, 6 to 3. The Senate version of ALAC in Florida now goes to the Committee on Governmental Oversight and Accountability. The Co-chair of Florida Senate Committee on Governmental Oversight and Accountability is Sen. Alan Hays (R). Hays was the sponsor of a prior version of ALAC (SB1360) during the 2012 Session in Tallahassee. He is repeating that role in the current 2013 Session. We had met Sen. Hays last session on both the Florida version of ALAC and the Florida Stands with Israel Resolution. The Israel Resolution passed both Houses unanimously in the 2012 Session. Hays is committed to see that SB58 passes the Senate this year. He has new and important allies in the new Senate, especially President, Sen. Don Gaetz (R) who represents a district in Florida’s Northwest Panhandle. The opponents of ALAC, the Florida ACLU, Hasan Shibley, Florida CAIR chapter executive director, United Voices for America, founded by ex- CAIR Tampa Chapter executive director, Ahmed Bedier, and David Barkey religious freedom counsel for the ADL mislead the mainstream media that their objections caused the failure of the Florida ALAC to be called up for a final vote in the Senate. That was not the case.

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]

Florida State Senator Files Bill Requiring Anger Management Before Buying Ammunition

A mandatory anger management program before you can buy ammunition? That’s what one Florida lawmaker who represents part of Duval County wants to see happen.

State Senator Audrey Gibson, a Democrat representing District 9, said she is surprised at the reaction the bill she filed Friday is getting. She intended the bill to reduce anger not cause anger, but she says her office has gotten phone calls not only from Floridians but even some from out of state.

Bill 1678 is two-fold. It would require a three day waiting period for the sale of any firearm, but what is stirring the most controversy is a requirement that would make it a crime to buy ammunition unless you presented a certificate showing you completed a minimum two hour anger management program either online or face to face. If it becomes law, you would be required to renew the certification every 10 years.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Government Emergency Alert Test Interrupts Rand Paul Filibuster

Rand Paul’s filibuster, during which he demanded the Obama administration promise not to kill Americans with drone strikes on U.S. soil, was interrupted by a test of the government’s emergency alert system.

Footage from C-SPAN shows the Kentucky Senator speaking before an EAS alert for the New York region cuts in. The system has stoked concerns that the government is preparing to take over all civilian communication outlets under the guise of a national emergency.

Some will see the timing of the emergency alert test as more than coincidental, given what Senator was discussing during his filibuster of John Brennan’s nomination to be CIA director.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Gun Confiscation Has Begun: Gun Owner Alert! (Video)

The Military is out directing traffic during public events, armed drones are set to fly over America with direction to track and trace law abiding gun owning citizens. The globalist police state grid has been slowly tighten its grip around the American public for decades. Now, as the control grid reaches its final stages and with the Bill of Rights almost completely destroyed, the globalists are playing the same card that mass murdering tyrants have always played: disarming the public.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

It’s Now Clear: Obama Intends to Use Drone Strikes to Kill American Journalists and Political Enemies

President Obama plans to use military drones in the skies over the United States to assassinate journalists, patriots and critics of his administration. That’s the inescapable conclusion from the emerging pattern of evidence now publicly available — keep reading for details.

Front and center in this pattern of evidence is the 16-page memo that was just released by Obama’s lawyers in the Department of Justice. This memo puts forth a “legal justification” for the President to order the drone assassination of any American citizen he names — anytime, anywhere, for any reason. This new power claimed by the President has no basis in federal law or the Constitution. It is an invented power of absolute tyranny that puts the power to decide who lives and who dies in the hands of one man. This document essentially legalizes the President acting as a serial murderer.

It is claimed that the purpose of this new power to simply name any American the President doesn’t like and immediately have them struck by a Hellfire missile launched from a drone is designed to “protect America.” Yet the 16-page memo that claims to justify all this was intentionally written to include Americans on U.S. soil as potential targets.

As Judge Andrew Napolitano explained just a few days ago on Fox News:

“This 16-page white paper is written so vaguely that the logic from it could… permit the President to kill Americans here in the United States.”

That’s the whole point, actually. If Americans on U.S. soil were to be excluded from such drone assassinations, such language would have been made readily apparent in the memo. But no such language is found in the memo. In fact, the tone of the document quite clearly states that the President has the authority to order drone killings of U.S. citizens anywhere in the world, under any circumstances.

[…]

Of course, anyone who raises these points will be immediately dismissed with the claim that all this new power in the hands of the President will only be used “against terrorists.”

Okay, then who are the terrorists, exactly? It turns out they are YOU!

As Judge Napolitano recently explained:

The [Janet Napolitano DHS] memorandum said that people who are pro-life, people who believe in the right to keep and bear arms, returning veterans, people who think the government is too big and the IRS is too powerful, could be characterized as domestic terrorists. That could characterize two-thirds of the country. (Click here to see related video.)

Another DHS report named as terrorists anyone who opposes illegal immigration, abortion or federal taxes…

Drone strikes are completely silent because the Hellfire missiles arrive faster than the speed of sound. You don’t even hear the missile until after the explosion. The blast radius of a Hellfire missile is 15 — 20 meters, and everything inside that radius is completely obliterated. This is more than enough to destroy entire homes, apartments and office buildings, not to mention vehicles and even light bunkers…

If you think any of this seems outlandish, you aren’t paying attention. The 16-page drone assassination memo has already been published. The NDAA is federal law. The DHS memos are real. All of us who question government, who own firearms, and who believe in the Bill of Rights have already been named terrorists.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Marine Corps Veteran Questions DHS on Huge Ammo Buys (Video)

A military veteran has questioned why the Department of Homeland Security is purchasing enormous amounts of ammunition, making it clear that he believes the bullets cannot possibly be for training purposes.

Commenting on the DHS’s procurement of roughly 2 billion hollow point bullets over the course of the last year, former Marine Richard Mason told reporters with WHPTV News in Pennsylvania that he has serious concerns.

“We never trained with hollow points, we didn’t even see hollow points my entire four and a half years in the Marine Corps,” Mason said…

To put the DHS’ ammunition solicitations in perspective, during the height of active battle operations in Iraq, US soldiers used 5.5 million rounds of ammunition a month. Extrapolating the figures, the DHS has purchased enough bullets over the last year to wage a full scale war for almost 30 years.

Last September, the DHS also purchased no less than 7,000 fully automatic assault rifles, labeling them “Personal Defense Weapons.

Purchases of large quantities of body armor by the DHS has also caused shortages. Last year, the agency also put out an urgent order for “riot gear” in anticipation of civil unrest. The agency has also ordered bullet-proof checkpoint booths and hired hundreds of new security guards to protect government buildings over the course of the last 12 months.

There is also strong evidence to suggest that the DHS has recently bought around 2,700 armored military style trucks. The agency has also cemented a $2 million dollar relationship with a contractor that recently had to apologize for producing shooting targets of pregnant women, children and elderly gun owners depicted in residential settings.

Coupled with continued and sustained secrecy surrounding these purchases and contracts, many Americans are convinced that the federal government is “stockpiling” in preparation for “civil unrest.”

The DHS’ primary concern is now centered around thwarting “homegrown terrorism,” but information produced and used by the DHS to train its personnel routinely equates conservative and libertarian political ideology with domestic extremism.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Media Portrays DHS Ammo Purchases as Conspiracy Theory

The establishment media, aided by a raft of leftist websites, is still portraying concern over the Department of Homeland Security’s purchase of some 2 billion rounds of ammunition as a conspiracy theory by regurgitating the glib statement of a single DHS official.

The latest examples include Media Matters and Raw Story, both of which attacked Fox Business host Lou Dobbs for daring to raise the issue on his March 4 broadcast during an interview with the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre…

Apparently, the mainstream media has failed to grasp that concerns about government activity cannot be “debunked” by merely repeating glib statements issued by government officials.

Amidst all the so-called “debunkings” of the bullet buys, the media has also conveniently ignored the DHS’ purchase of 7,000 fully automatic assault rifles last September as well as the agency’s $2 million dollar relationship with a contractor that recently had to apologize for producing shooting targets of pregnant women, children and elderly gun owners depicted in residential settings.

The DHS has also been busy buying large supplies of body armor, leading to shortages. Last year, the agency put out an urgent order for “riot gear” in anticipation of civil unrest. The agency has also ordered bullet-proof checkpoint booths and hired hundreds of new security guards to protect government buildings over the course of the last 12 months. None of this has been addressed by the mainstream media.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Rand Paul’s Filibuster Shows the GOP What Leadership Looks Like

Last night, John McCain and Lindsay Graham were feasting with the President. The dinner was designed to give the President and top GOP members an opportunity to discuss the sequester and other budgetary matters. It took place at the toney, five-star, Jefferson Hotel — just a few blocks from the White House. Graham would later describe their meal as encouraging, saying “This is how you solve problems.”

As they sat down to dine Rand Paul was on the floor of the Senate, entering the eighth hour of his epic 13 hour filibuster, fighting for the simple concept that Americans shouldn’t be murdered by their own government.

Every so often, in order to give Paul a break, Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio would ask a long-winded question but, otherwise, he’d been speaking non-stop since 11:30 AM. He’d done so without aid of a teleprompter, and he hadn’t resorted to reading a phone book or the Constitution into the record. It was — at that point — essentially an eight hour lecture on the liberty. Paul focused on the administration’s bizarre unwillingness to declare the drone-murder of U.S. citizens, on U.S. soil, unconstitutional and he tore into Eric Holder’s dodgy answers about limits on Presidential power.

He did this again, and again, and again.

In eight hours, he’d done more to fight for the Constitution than Senators like McCain and Graham have in their entire political careers. …and the effort was catching fire.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Respect the Office, Not Necessarily the Man

Obama does not deserve the respect due the office of the President. He is an empty suit man who can’t speak without a tele-prompter. Presidency marked by constant drama, distortions, exaggerations.

The President of the United States is elected as America’s leader and represents the nation to other countries abroad. The specific roles and responsibilities of the President are clearly laid out in Article II of the U.S. Constitution. The office of President has a great deal of legitimate power and associated respect.

Respect is a deference to a right, privilege, privileged position, or someone or something considered to have certain rights or privileges; proper acceptance or courtesy. The incumbent can be judged separately and critically based on their individual performance against the expectations of the office. Barack Hussein Obama can no longer hide behind the office of the President to demand deference and respect, because his personal performance is so abysmal and so contrary to the high expectations of that office that he no longer earns the respect of a sitting President, but rather that of a partisan political operative undermining the strength and good name of the office.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Samira Ibrahim: Anti-Semite: 9/11 Fan and One of Time’s 100 Influentials

Sam Tadros of the Hudson Institute Center for Religious Freedom has an in depth article, on Egyptian ‘human rights icon’, Ms. Samira Ibrahim in The Weekly Standard, “Michelle Obama and John Kerry to Honor Anti-Semite and 9/11 Fan.” . . . Ms. Ibrahim is one of five Muslim women to bestowed with a prestigious human rights honor at a State department ceremony on Friday, March 8th with a human rights honor by First lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry. We seriously doubt whetehr there is one Coptic Christian honoree among the other women honorees in the group of ten to be so honored by our government.

[. . .]

Given First Lady Michelle Obama’s recent appearance on the Academy Awards presenting a best picture award from the Academy of Motion Pictures for the CIA bio-pic “Argo”, we can appreciate that tomorrow’s event at Foggy Bottom may be in furtherance of her husband’s priority of giving equal time to maintaining the dialog with the Muslim Ummah. Secretary of State Kerry, former US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair may be quite another matter. He is viewed by many as being a disaster for Israel with his notions of fielding diplomatic shock troops to engage in dialogue with Israel’s existential enemy, a nearly nuclear enabled Islamic Republic in Tehran. Kerry might overlook Ms. Samira’s indiscreet 9/11 comments. However, many of us, can’t. Kerry also has Jewish heritage skeletons in his family’s closet. Kerry only occasionally dusts off his hidden Jewish ancestry when it suits him. See here. However, as he is no longer running for the US Senate from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts so that hidden origins background is promptly forgotten. Especially when Kerry bestows a bon mot of $250 million of US taxpayer funds on anti-Semitic Egyptian President Morsi praising the country’s ‘one vote, one man, one time’, Islamic democracy. Perhaps, the lone exception was his retort last week to Islamist Turkish PM Erdogan about the latter’s crass “Zionism as crimes against humanity” — a send up on the late Yasser Arafat’s “Zionism is Racism” pitch for the UN Resolution back in 1975 and his Holocaust denying, Moscow PhD sucessor, PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Arafat, lest we forgot, was of Egyptian origins and had membership in the Muslim Brotherhood. That didn’t impede him from adopting his black and white checkered Kaffiyeh pose as a Palestinian, another made up name muddling up the modern Middle East. Ms. Ibrahim will doubtless walk away with her award from the First Lady and Secretary Kerry tomorrow, beaming. Because, she was able to pull the wool over their eyes while the obsessively PC media ululates about this honors ceremony at Foggy Bottom.

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]

Senate Confirms John O. Brennan as C.I.A. Director

The Senate on Thursday afternoon approved John O. Brennan’s nomination to lead the Central Intelligence Agency by a vote of 63 to 34.

The vote followed a filibuster by Senator Rand Paul, who spent nearly 13 hours on the Senate floor in pursuit of more information about the administration’s domestic drone policy. After receiving a brief letter from Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. assuring him that the president does not have the “authority to use a drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil,” Mr. Paul declared his effort a success, and ultimately voted to end debate (though against the nomination), bringing the total votes in favor of cloture to 81 over 16 against.

[Return to headlines]

The Slow Slide Into Dictatorship

Senate filibusters notwithstanding, there is no way this will end well unless someone has the courage and the forethought to initiate impeachment proceedings.

A few months back Fox News’ Alan Colmes commented to the effect that anyone who sees a parallel between pre-WWII Germany and Obama’s America is in dire need of psychiatric help. Most people (and I think Alan Colmes in particular) don’t understand that Hitler’s rise to power came at the behest of German voters, who were swayed by the scapegoating and blaming of Germany’s problems on Jews and duplicitous Communists. Hitler’s rise to absolute power came about quite legally through a series of laws passed through the Reichstag, Germany’s then parliament. Ultimately those laws established the National Socialist (NAZI) party (note the word “socialist”) as the only legal political party in Germany by 1934.

Many writers today are loath to make a comparison to the rise of Hitler’s Power in comparison to the rise in Barack Obama’s power because they claim it is “extreme” or “trite.” Be that as it may, there are some definite parallels between the rise of Hitler and that of Obama. Both were rabble-rousers, both were socialists, both had extensive political support from voters as well as big businesses and yes, both were demagogues. In addition, both were also in perpetual campaign mode.

Oh yes, and both assumed increased dictatorial powers over time.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

The Speech No One Heard

Nation is sliding toward another financial crisis

On Tuesday, March 5, Senate Republican Leader, Mitch McConnell, offered some remarks on the Senate floor that were largely, if not completely, ignored by the mainstream media. They were a stark warning about a dysfunctional government led by a President who is already in full campaign mode for the 2014 midterm elections.

“Back in November,” said McConnell, “the American people sent a divided government to Washington. I know this is not the outcome President Obama had hoped for. I know he wanted complete control of Washington, just like he had the first two years of his presidency.”

Citing the President’s goal of a Democrat controlled House, in addition to the Senate in 2014, McConnell cited the rebooting of his political organization, the provoking of “manufactured crisis with Congress, engineering show votes in the Senate, and traveling around the country to campaign relentlessly against his opponents.” That’s a nice way of saying that the President and the Democrat Party have embarked on the deliberate demonization of Republicans.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Video: Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder Discusses the DHS Moves to Watch Missourians

The opening salvo to a legal battle that will ensue.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Who is General Welfare?

When properly understood, the general welfare clause does not have anything to do with social justice or redistribution of wealth

If we were to go “Jay-Walking” across America, randomly asking people about the US Constitution’s general welfare clause, we might get the question in return, “who?” Yet, general welfare is a ‘what’ not a ‘who’ and scholarly left-leaning individuals would quickly define the clause by linking it to social justice; a concept completely at odds with America’s founding principles and the clause’s original intent.

Social justice, which is based on equality of outcome, is a euphemism for social in-justice, because as socialism and communalism’s founding principle it violates God given rights to achieve social equality. These utopian ideas may sound good to the uninformed ear, but in order to achieve outcome equality government or some other authority within society must take property and possessions from those who have more than others and redistribute it to those who do not. Redistribution of wealth is a Marxist idea that should not have any place in American society.

When properly understood, the general welfare clause does not have anything to do with social justice or redistribution of wealth. General welfare appears two times in the Constitution, once in the preamble and the other in Article I, Section 8. The preamble states, among other things, the Constitution was established to promote the general welfare, and in Article I section 8 the first power delegated to Congress is, “To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to … provide for the …general welfare of the United States[.]”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

American Cardinals ‘Working’ For Non-European Pope

Group seeking allies, slower selection process to find candidate

(By Nina Fabrizio) (ANSA) — Vatican City, March 6 — The conflicting approach to communications which has emerged over the past few days among the cardinals gathered in Rome ahead of the conclave is largely a result of the activity by North American “electors”, who are looking for a non-European candidate to take the papacy.

In these days of pre-conclave ‘general congregations’, the American cardinals are moving decisively in this direction, according to informed sources.

The American cardinals are working on finding common ground with the Latin Americans and looking for a way to involve the Africans too.

In secret meetings taking place outside the official congregation sessions, North American and Brazilian cardinals are talking, with the aim of “sealing” an alliance to find a candidate to offer in opposition to a possible candidate presented by a European front, molded around the Curia, the Vatican’s Rome-based central administration.

The College of Cardinals’ diktat for its members to hold a media silence, which led to the ending of the daily briefings by the American cardinals, is also — according to people in the know — the result of a net divide that has formed among cardinals.

The Americans are determined to stop Benedict XVI’s successor being an Italian or European, believing that Europe is no longer able to produce a pope focused on renovation and modernity.

The origin of this attitude has much to do with resentment felt towards the Curia’s management of recent years and bitterness towards matters that the Americans consider “unclear”.

The Americans repeatedly, during the daily press briefings, declared their desire to know the contents of the “poisonous” dossiers of the VatiLeaks case. They do not seem totally convinced that Benedict resigned purely for age and health reasons.

It’s not a coincidence that in the United States, the reference point for the local bishops conference is the nuncio Monsignor Carlo Maria Vigano’, someone who knows the Vatican’s inside stories and ended up as the heart of the Vatileaks scandal — better than most.

It seems that for his role in trying to put an end to a series of opaque practices, he was denied the much sought-after presidency of the Vatican Governorate and was “promoted” with a job that sent him away as an ambassador to the U.S.

Despite their maneuvering, the Americans have not yet produced a candidate name, and for this reason they are among those calling for more time in the selection process. The ideal for this group, which has 11 votes, is to find a candidate from the Americas, but not necessarily one from the United States. They know all too well that a US candidate would not stand much of a chance — the country’s role as “superpower” works against them.

An understanding could be found around a Latin American candidate, as desired by the Latin Americans electors (who have 19 votes), who — on the other hand — have also expressed support for the French-Canadian Marc Ouellet (Canada has three votes), who has spent a long time in Colombia.

However, Ouellet’s candidacy is a long shot because of his brother’s jailing in Canada in a child sex abuse case.

A possible alliance between North and South Americans could see Africans (11 votes) come into play. In this case, Ghana’s Peter Turkson could play a key role.

While aiming for an African candidate, the Africans also appear keen to support a non-European candidate. If this scenario were to materialize, this front would enter the Conclave with 44 votes, enough to put forth a strong candidacy in the first round of voting. Eight years ago Benedict was said to have received 46 votes in the first round, enough to propel him towards election.

Meanwhile, on the other front, there are the cardinals who would seem keener to accelerate the process, there is still no convergence on a single candidate. The most accredited European candidates in this pre-Conclave period remain Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan, and Peter Erdo, the archbishop of Budapest. Then there is the group of Genoa-linked cardinals, led by Tarcisio Bertone, Domenico Calcagno and Angelo Bagnasco, who are said to support the candidacy of Mauro Piacenza, a candidate who also appeals to the Opus Dei.

In recent days, the name of Francesco Coccopalmerio has also been making the rounds.

Coccopalmiero is a respected jurist but his appeal, in terms of votes, is still to be tested.

Finally, the candidate of Giovanni Battista Re, one of the “grand electors”, appears to be, again, a Latin American, but one with ties to the Curia — the Brazilian Odilo Pedro Scherer.

However Scherer, who served as an officer of the Congregation of Cardinals when it was under the leadership of Re, does not appear to appeal to the other South American cardinals.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

British Father Cleared of Drowning Drunk Irishman on Booze Cruise by Throwing Him Overboard 17 Years Ago

A British father-of-two was cleared today of pushing an Irish tourist to his death off a Tenerife booze cruise nearly 17 years ago.

A Spanish jury acquitted kitchen fitter Darren Sapstead of any involvement in Garry Walton’s drowning on November 7, 1996, after five hours of deliberations.

The decision marked the end of a long fight by Mr Sapstead, from Woodham Ferrers, near Chelmsford, Essex, to clear his name.

He clapped his hands and shouted ‘Yes’ as his defence lawyer mouthed ‘You’re not guilty’ in English seconds after the jury spokeswoman announced the unanimous 9-0 verdict in Spanish.

Garry’s builder dad Robert, 60, originally from Leeds, West Yorkshire, but now living in Tooraneena, Dungarvan, south east Ireland, buried his head in his hands and wife Catherine, 59, stared silently ahead with tears in her eyes.

The distraught Walton family, who included Robert’s sisters Debbie and Rachel, left the court in the Tenerife capital Santa Cruz afterwards by a back door without making any comment.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Daniel Pipes: Defending Lars Hedegaard: “A Stew of Anti-Muslim Bile and Conspiracy-Laden Forecasts”

At 11:20 a.m. on Feb. 5, Lars Hedegaard answered his door bell to an apparent mailman. Instead of receiving a package, however, the 70-year-old Danish historian and journalist found himself face to face with a would-be assassin about one third his age. The assailant shot him once, narrowly missing his head. The gun locked, Hedegaard wrestled with him, and the young man fled.

Given Hedegaard’s criticism of Islam and his even being taken to court on criminal charges of “hate speech,” the attack reverberated in Denmark and beyond. The Associated Press reported this incident, which was featured prominently in the British press, including the Guardian, the Daily Mail, and the Spectator, as well as in Canada’s National Post. The Wall Street Journal published an article by him about his experience.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

‘Dirty Dozen’ Cardinals Shouldn’t be ‘Papabili’ Says Snap

Vatican rejects sex-abuse survivors’ list

(ANSA) — Rome, March 6 — A group representing American survivors of sexual abuse by priests on Wednesday named a ‘Dirty Dozen’ of cardinals they said should not be ‘papabili’ or candidates for pope because of their handling of child sex abuse claims.

The Vatican replied that it would not be swayed by the list.

The list of those deemed unsuitable to succeed Benedict XVI was drawn up on the basis of “their actions and/or public comment about child sex abuse and cover-up in the church,” said SNAP, the Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests.

SNAP representatives Barbara Dorris and David Clohessy read out the list to journalists in a Rome hotel.

The cardinals, who will attend an upcoming conclave, are: Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico; Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras; Timothy Michael Dolan of New York; Angelo Scola and Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, both from Italy; Australia’s George Pell; Dominik Duka of the Czech Republic; Donald Wuerl of Washington DC; Marc Ouellet from Quebec; Sean O’Malley from Boston; Argentina’s Leonardo Sandri; and Peter Turkson from Ghana.

“We urge the College of Cardinals to elect none of these 12 as the next pope. And we urge them to stop pretending the crisis has abated,” said Dorris and Clohessy.

Clohessy said SNAP was particularly opposed to Dolan, since the US-based advocacy group was more familiar with him than other cardinals. One instance SNAP cited involved internal Church documents released by a judge last summer, “which show that Dolan devised a secret plan to pay pedophile priests $20,000 each to quietly leave the ministry,” said SNAP. “At least 12 priests are known to have gotten payouts”.

Other “dirty dozen” cardinals of note were Maradiaga, Turkson and Bertone. Maradiaga, said the group, opposes bishops involving the police in sex-abuse allegations. “I would be willing to go to jail before harming one of my priests,” he once said. “I am not a policeman”. The group chided Turkson for claiming last month that there were few child-molesting clerics in Africa because the culture there did not tolerate gay people.

Bertone is criticized for not believing that a bishop should be required to report a priest who has been accused of sex abuse, saying “if a priest cannot confide in his bishop for fear of being denounced it would mean there is no more liberty of conscience”. He also blames child sex abuse by priests on the “homosexual infiltration” of the clergy, SNAP points out. They said they wanted the Church to put “pressure” on all 12, saying the dozen cardinals “should stop pretending the worst is over”.

“Tragically, the worst is almost certainly ahead,” Dorris and Clohessy said.

The one thing to learn from Benedict’s pontificate, they said, was that “the knowledge of this crisis does not guarantee an adequate concrete response.

They accused the German pontiff of “a lot of words but little action”.

“At the end of the day, none of those gestures or words did anything to make a single child safer,” said Clohessy. Vatican Spokesman Father Federico Lombardi rejected SNAP’s bid to affect the election of the new pope.

“We have known SNAP’s position for some time and we believe it is not up to SNAP to say who should come to the conclave or grant qualifications to the cardinals who are gathering there. “I believe that it is up to the cardinals themselves to judge who is suitable and who is not suitable, without asking for advice from SNAP”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

EU Postpones Bulgaria and Romania’s Schengen Membership

(AGI) Brussels, Mar 7 — The European Union’s Council of Interior Ministers has postponed the decision regarding Bulgaria and Romania’s membership in the visa-free and free trade Schengen zone. Despite the EU Commission and Parliament having acknowledged the two countries’ fulfilment of the relevant criteria, on Wednesday some countries (including Finland, Germany and the Netherlands) reiterated their specific objections to their admission.

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

Five Complaints Filed Against Italy in EU Court in 2012

Down from 16 in 2009

(ANSA) — Brussels, March 6 — Five complaints were filed against Italy in 2012 for violating European Union law, according to statistics released by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg on Monday.

The number continues a downward trend that began a couple of years ago. There were seven complaints filed against Italy in 2011, six in 2010 and 16 in 2009. Italy was convicted of violating EU law three times in 2012.

Italian judges issued 65 preliminary rulings out of a total of 404 presented by EU-country judges.

Italian judges are outpaced only by German judges on how often they seek recourse at the Luxembourg court.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Germany: Berlin Beating Suspects Face Manslaughter

Nearly five months after a 20-year-old man was brutally beaten to death in central Berlin, prosecutors have charged some of his attackers with manslaughter. But two have fled abroad.

The four suspects aged between 19 and 21 faced charges of grievous bodily harm, prosecution spokesman Martin Steltner said late on Wednesday. Two of them also faced manslaughter charges for kicking and beating the victim, identified as Jonny K., at the city’s Alexanderplatz square late one evening in October.

A police investigation determined there was no intent to kill the victim, but his death sparked a public discussion about youth violence.

Three of the four suspects have been held since last autumn while two others, Onur U. und Bilal K., fled to Turkey.

Authorities in Berlin have since contacted their Turkish counterparts to demand their extradition, which could be problematic if they only hold Turkish citizenship.

“We are continuing to do everything we can to ensure they are put before a court,” said Berlin’s Justice Minister Thomas Heilmann.

           — Hat tip: BD [Return to headlines]

Grillo Accuses Italian Media of Attacks

Industry’s assault on M5S ‘disconcerting, pathological, sick’

(ANSA) — Rome, March 7 — Former comedian Beppe Grillo, whose 5-Star Movement (M5S) emerged as the kingmaker in inconclusive February 24-25 Italian national elections — on Thursday took swipes at Italy’s media industry, saying that attacks against his movement had “passed limits never before seen in the history of the Republic”.

The media’s attacks against M5S were “disconcerting, pathological, sick (and) monstrous (and) were getting out of the control of their instigators,” Grillo said in his blog, the main channel he uses to communicate with his fans, and now voters.

In particular, Grillo singled out the media’s “crazed assault on the Universo Hotel in Rome” where newly elected M5S MPs gathered Monday as something which was “no longer information, but continuous contempt, defamation, attacks — even physical — against a new, incorrupt and peaceful political force”.

Separately, in his blog Grillo also called for a breakup of Italian state-owned television RAI and for new regulations on private broadcasters.

RAI should sell off two of its three main free-to-air channels, he said. “It is indispensable to create only one public television broadcaster, without any ties to the parties and politics and free of advertising. The other two can be sold to the market”.

Commenting on the country’s private broadcasters — the main three of which are owned by former premier Silvio Berlusconi, head of the People of Freedoms (PdL) party — Grillo said: “It is necessary to also review private broadcasters’ concession contracts and create a code of conduct to which they must adhere”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Vote Preferable to Anti-EU Govt Says Monti

Market reactions to halted reforms could be unfavorable

(ANSA) — Rome, March 6 — Outgoing Premier Mario Monti said on Wednesday that markets would react more positively if Italy returned to the polls than if a government with anti-European Union leanings took over.

“If the alternative is a government ready to interrupt Italy’s European path or that of reforms, I believe that it would be better to call new elections,” Monti said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy’s Movimento 5 Stelle Won Most Votes in Lower House

(AGI) — Rome, Mar 6 — There was a 45,372 vote gap in the Chamber of Deputies, Italian parliament’s lower house, between Beppe Grillo’s Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S, which won 8,691,406 votes) and the Democratic Party (PD, which won 8,646,034). The election figures have been made official by the Court of Cassation’s electoral office, which has now sent its reports to the Chamber of Deputies. The center-left coalition won the majority with 10,049,393 votes. Sinistra ecologia e liberta (a green leftists party) won 1,089,231 votes, Centro democratico won 167,328 and Sudtiroler Volkspartei won 146,800. (AGI) ..

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

Italy: PD Passes Bersani’s Proposal: No Alliance With Berlusconi

(AGI) — Rome, Mar 6 — The PD’s executive meeting approved Pierluigi Bersani’s report with only one abstention. The Democratic Party’s Secretary rejected the possibility of a grand coalition with Berlusconi: “It is not acceptable to have a Government with a guy who, four months prior to the elections, starts lashing out against the situation that he himself created. We have to say this very clearly. He is an unviable and unreliable option”. The report then goes on to say: “Do you think that something like this represents a solution? Does our country need to be in another quagmire? It would be like putting a lid on a pressure cooker, running the risk of making it explode”.

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

Italy: Berlusconi Given One-Year Jail Term for Wiretap Publication

Brother Paolo sentenced to two years, three months

(ANSAmed) — Milan, March 7 — Ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi was handed a one-year prison term by a Milan court on Thursday for involvement in the publication of an illegally obtained wiretap in his brother Paolo’s conservative newspaper Il Giornale. Paolo Berlusconi was given a sentence of two years, three months in the first ruling on the case. In Italy prison sentences for non-violent crimes do not usually become effective until the two-tier appeals system has been exhausted. The wiretap concerned a conversation in 2005 between one of Berlusconi’s political opponents, Piero Fassino, the then head of the former centre-left Democratic Left (DS) party, and Giovanni Consorte, the former chairman of Unipol, an association of insurers historically linked to the DS, the heir to Italy’s Communist Party.

At the time Unipol came close to taking over one of Italy’s leading banks, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL), and Fassino was recorded as saying “we have a bank!”.

Fassino, now mayor of Turin, was widely criticised for the comment, especially among the rank and file of the DS, which has since turned into a larger centre-left group, the Democratic Party.

The court ordered Silvio and Paolo Berlusconi to pay 80,000 euros in damages to Fassino.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Campari Sales Up 5.2% Last Year

Boom in U.S., Australia, Argentina, Russia

(ANSA) — Milan, March 7 — Italian beverages giant Campari posted sales of 1,340.8 million euros in 2012, 5.2% up on 2011, the iconic Italian company said Thursday.

Net profit was 1.6% down at 56.7 million euros.

Campari said sales went well in the United States, Australia, Argentina and Russia, “helping to offset difficulties” in Italy, Germany and Brazil.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Priest Sex-Abuse Film Opens in Italy Around Papal Election

Mea Maxima Culpa follows victims at school for the deaf

(ANSA) — Florence, March 6 — A new documentary about priest sex abuse is opening in Italy around the time that cardinals are convening in Rome to elect a new pope. Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney’s new film Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God premieres in Florence March 18. The hard-hitting documentary about the Vatican’s record on managing child-abusing priests spans decades and continents, beginning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Father Lawrence Murphy is believed to have abused up to 200 schoolboys as head of the St John’s School for the Deaf. Gibney and his production team also look into the headline-grabbing Irish case of Tony Walsh, a convicted serial abuser of both sexes who preyed on children at funerals, and the way the Vatican hushed up the sex crimes of Mexican priest Marcial Maciel, a senior associate of Pope John Paul II, before sending him to retire in a Florida mansion.

The film hits movie theaters nationwide on March 20. Cardinals are currently in Rome ahead of the conclave to elect a successor to Benedict XVI, who stepped down last week.

They have yet to announce a date for the start of the conclave. Advocacy groups have been pressuring cardinals to make priest sex abuse — especially of children — a central focal point when considering candidates for the new pontiff.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Romania: ‘Halt Ion! Verboten Simeon! Nein!’

Jurnalul National, 7 March 2013

The European Council for Justice and Home Affairs (JHA), which is to meet on March 7, will not decide on the applications of Romania and Bulgaria to join the Schengen Area.

Decisions affecting the border-free area have to be unanimous. And Germany and Finland have already announced that they would veto the accession of the two countries, which they insist continue to be marked by a high level of corruption.

Finnish Interior Minister, Päivi Räsänen, even went as far as to declare that Bulgaria and Romania were too easily allowed into the the EU.

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

Ticino League Leader Giuliano Bignasca Found Dead

(AGI) — Milan, Mar 7 — The leader of the national conservative Ticino League, Giuliano Bignasca, was found dead in his home in Lugano, Switzerland, on Thursday. The exact cause of death was unknown, but he may have have died from a sudden illness. Mr Bignasca, who was 67, founded the Swiss isolationist group in 1991.

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

UK: Businessman ‘Sold Golf Ball Finding Machines as Bomb Detection Devices for Thousands of Dollars Each’

A businessman sold bomb detection devices for up to $40,000 that were little more than golf ball finders, a court has heard today.

‘Fantastic’ claims were made about the fake detectors marketed by James McCormick, 56, but had no grounding in science and were bought for ‘handsome’ sums, the Old Bailey was told.

McCormick’s Advanced Detection Equipment was marketed to the military, governments and police forces around the world.

McCormick, of Langport, Somerset, denies three counts of fraud at the Old Bailey.

Prosecutors told the court that the devices did not work and were no better than trying to detect explosives at random.

Brochures featuring men in military-type outfits promised detection of substances from planes, underwater, underground and through walls, said Richard Whittam QC, prosecuting.

But the three models, the ADE650, 651 and 101, were shams and did not work, he added.

He said the 651 model could be sold for as much as $40,000.

The forerunner of the 101, the 100, ‘was actually a golfball finder that could be purchased in the USA for less than 20 US dollars’, he said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Forced Marriage Unit Intervened to Save 2-Year-Old Victim, Statistics Show

By Jessica Elgot

A two-year-old was the youngest child at risk of being forced into marriage, one of 250 children aided by the UK’s Forced Marriage Unit, according to new statistics.

Around 80 of those helped were under the age of 15 when authorities had intervened, and statistics identify those between the ages of 16-25 as being the age most at risk.

Anup Manota, project manager at forced marriage charity Karma Nirvana, told Huff Post UK he believes this is the “tip of the iceberg”.

He said: “Many of the victims have in fact been promised to someone from birth, or maybe even before birth, with families saying the daughter or son is promised to another family in exchange for business or land. We are finding that is a common occurrence.

“The child grows up and they do not realise they have a choice. We have been doing more and more work in primary schools, it has to be done tactfully but teachers need to know the risks, to be sensitive when children from these communities are taken away for extended periods.”

The FMU, a joint initiative of the Foreign Office and the Home Office, intervened in 1,485 cases last year, with 82% were female and 18% male. Many forced marriages go unreported.

Home Office Minister for Crime Prevention, Jeremy Browne, said on publication of the new statistics: “Forced marriage is a devastating form of abuse that is absolutely unacceptable in our society.

“The new figures show an alarming number of victims, including the young and vulnerable.

“It is vital we protect them. By criminalising forced marriage the government is sending a strong message that this terrible practice will not be tolerated.”

Other statistics show more than 20 gay or lesbian potential victims of forced marriage, and more than 100 disabled people.

           — Hat tip: TV [Return to headlines]

UK: Five-Year-Old Who Fell Unconscious Outside Medical Centre Was Turned Away ‘Because He Wasn’t a Patient’

A mother has spoken of her disgust after staff at a medical centre refused to treat her unconscious five year-old son because he wasn’t registered at the practice.

Natalie Midgley, 27, desperately tried to revive her son Junior after he collapsed just a few yards from the centre.

But when a family friend ran in for help she was told to phone 999 because the youngster wasn’t registered there and wasn’t known to them.

Ms Midgley was with her son when she dropped the friend off for a medical appointment at Petersgate Medical Centre, near Scawthorpe, Doncaster.

Her son, who had been suffering from undiagnosed seizures for nearly six months, then suddenly collapsed.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Murdered on the Bus to School: Girl, 16, Is Stabbed to Death on Top Deck as Police Arrest Man, 22, On Suspicion of Murder After a Chase

Tributes were paid today to a 16-year-old girl stabbed to death as she travelled to school on a busy bus in Birmingham city centre.

Christina Edkins was attacked on the top deck of the number 9 First West Midlands service as it pulled into a stop on the Hagley Road at 7.37am.

She had only been on the bus for a matter of minutes as she made her way to Leasowes High School in Halesowen.

Officers and paramedics rushed to the scene after the bus driver reported that a passenger had been wounded.

But despite frantic efforts to resuscitate her, she was pronounced dead at the scene.

A 22-year-old man was arrested a short distance away on suspicion of her murder at 12.20pm — around five hours after the attack.

He was held near Morrisons in Harborne Roadduring a foot chase after officers spotted someone acting ‘furtively’ who fitted the description of the suspect.

Police had earlier described the suspect as ‘extremely dangerous’ and feared he may still be carrying weapons.

Detective Superintendent Richard Baker, of West Midlands Police, said they had been looking for a black man in his late teens or early 20s who was wearing a black hoodie with a tiger or leopard motif on the back.

Det Supt Baker said he also had either a white bandage around his right hand or was carrying a small white bag.

He said it was not known whether the suspect knew the victim.

The bus was driven from the scene, with the body still in-situ just before midday and and the Hagley Road was then re-opened.

More…

Around three hours after the attack, a man was detained and spoken in Lower Temple Street in the centre of the city, but was released without being arrested.

West Midlands Police said the girl had been identified and officers have broken the tragic news of her death to her family.

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]

UK: More Than 20% of Everyone’s Income Tax Bill Goes Straight to Benefits

The Prime Minister defended cutting welfare spending, as MailOnline revealed a fifth of income tax goes straight to fund Britain’s vast benefits bill.

New Treasury figures reveal the average taxpayer now spends more than £1,100 each on benefits, excluding pensions, while a further £370 goes on paying interest on the nation’s debts.

Chancellor George Osborne is coming under Cabinet pressure ahead of this month’s Budget to find more savings from welfare as ministers resist deeper cuts to defence, police and business.

Today the Prime Minister said the country would not be able to afford to fund care for the elderly if the nation is ‘squandering billions on welfare for people who could work’.

Speaking in West Yorkshire, Mr Cameron said there was no ‘magic money tree’ that allowed the Government to spend and borrow more.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Schoolchildren ‘Losing the Power to Concentrate in Class’

A generation of internet-obsessed schoolchildren is losing the ability to concentrate in lessons and make proper conversation with friends, according to a leading headmaster.

In a speech today, he will warn that children are now unable to concentrate “for more than the shortest of periods”.

The decline is being fuelled by a breakdown in traditional family units, with children expending large amounts of energy being pulled between divorced parents, he says.

Mr Boddy, headmaster of St James Senior Boys’ School in Ashford, Surrey, also claims that pupils are losing the art of “proper concentrated conversation” because they are so used to communicating with friends via Facebook.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Egypt: Locusts: A Dark Omen for Muslim Brotherhood, A Delicacy for Jews

Over 30 million insects have invaded the Giza plateau, destroying crops along the Nile at Cairo before heading for Israel. The population on social networks invites the Muslim Brotherhood to resign and asks: “ Is this ‘the good’ the Muslim Brotherhood promised to bring us?”. Middle Eastern Orthodox Jews come out at night to hunt insects and eat them, rising controversy for European Rabbis.

Cairo (AsiaNews / Agencies) — After invading Cairo and the neighboring cities, more than 30 million locusts from Sudan have arrived in Israel, leaving behind thousands of hectares of destroyed fields. It is the worst invasion since the one that devastated Cairo in 2007. In addition to material incalculable damage, the invasion of insects also provoking comment: For most of the Egyptians it is an ominous sign for the future, reminiscent of the plague from the time of Moses. For many Jews, especially Yemenites, it is instead an opportunity to stock up on a traditional snack.

Every three years swarms ranging from 10 to 100 million locusts migrate from Sudan. Their location depends on the wind and the obstacles they face.

The swarm, which in recent days hit the Giza plateau and agricultural areas on both banks of the Nile arrived overnight in the Negev desert in Israel. According to experts, the invasion could have been avoided. The Egyptian army tried unsuccessfully to stop the locusts in the desert, using poisons deemed too light. The Israeli military were able instead to confine the locusts to the desert.

“Is this ‘the good’ the Muslim Brotherhood promised to bring us?” tweets, a young blogger, expressing the opinion of thousands of Egyptians frustrated by the failures of the government, who cannot even defend them from insects. “The phenomenon is cyclical — responds Karam Saber, a lawyer from the Egypt Center for Human Rigths — It’s an easy procedure, and the country should be prepared for it. Tools to combat locusts are developed on a yearly basis. The weakness of Egypt’s government reflected on the Ministry of Agriculture and resulted in what we see today. “

In Israel, the locusts have resurrected an age old dispute dating back to the 17th century. Orthodox Jews from Yemen and other areas of the Middle East, traditionally eat insects and have taken advantage of to stock up on the locusts. Many rabbis of European origin have challenged their fellow-Middle Easterns quoting an ancient law prohibiting some types of locusts not deemed “Kosher”, i.e. that do not comply with the dictates of the Mosaic Law. Despite the no of many religious leaders, on Israeli cooking websites people continue to post locusts recipes that can be eaten fried, raw, with hot sauce or grilled.

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

Gunmen Attack Private Libyan TV and Abduct Owner

(AGI) Tripoli — Security is still amiss in Libya. Several gunmen stormed the headquarters of Alessama TV, a private television channel known to be close to Mahmoud Jibril’s liberal coalition. The gunmen seized the the owner Jomaa Al-Osta and four journalists, the Human Rights Commission of the Libyan parliament said. Mohammed al-Sharkassi, an anchor at Alassema TV and one of the people abducted, told a colleague that the gunmen “ identified themselves as former rebels who were critical of the television editorial policy.”

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

Libya: For Tripoli Catholics, Anti-Christian Attacks Due to Climate of Impunity and Violence

Local sources tell AsiaNews that the attack on Fr Helmi, a Egyptian priest in Tripoli, is unconnected to Muslim extremism. Islamists are not currently carrying out a plan to expel Christians from the country.

Tripoli (AsiaNews) — “The lack of security, armed militias and arms trafficking are hindering the work of Catholic clergymen and lay people in Tripolitania, not Muslim extremism,” local sources told AsiaNews, anonymous for security reasons. The attack in Tripoli last Saturday against Fr Magdi Helmi, a Catholic priest from Egypt, by armed men is the result of the chaos created by the fall of Dictator Muammar Gaddafi, not anti-Christian hatred.

Fr Helmi is parish priest at St Francis Catholic Church in Tripoli. Over the years, he worked with young Christians living in the Libyan capital, especially Arab Christians, and migrants from Sudan.

“His attack must be seen against a backdrop of widespread crime and violence,” sources said. “Until now, such attacks are not due to anti-Christian hatred by Muslim extremists.” That problem is found in Cyrenaica, where Islamists are stronger.

“In Benghazi, Derna and other cities, foreigners, mostly Christians, are victims of ever more serious acts of discrimination. Even so, it is still too early to think that there is a plan to expel all Christians from Libya.”

Since Gaddafi’s fall, the number of attacks against foreign residents has increased. The most affected are Egyptians, especially Catholic and Orthodox Copts. On 3 February, an armed group attacked a religious building in the capital of Cyrenaica and assaulted two Coptic clergymen, Fr Paul Isaac and his assistant.

On 28 February, the authorities arrested 48 Egyptian peddlers on charges of proselytising. Twenty were eventually sent home following the intervention of Egyptian authorities.

Also last month, four foreigners from Egypt, South Africa, South Korea and a Swede with a US passport were arrested for allegedly circulating Bibles and other religious material. They are currently in a Tripoli jail waiting for trial.

Catholic religious orders have also been targeted by Muslim militias despite operating in the country for decades in hospitals and nursing homes.

In January, Islamists forced the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus out of the city of Bayda.

In October, the same thing happened to the Sisters of the Convent of the Sacred Family of Spoleto in Derna who felt they had to leave the city even though local residents wanted them to stay. (S.C.)

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

Norway Warns of Palestinian Donor Fatigue

Norway, the chair of a group of donors to the Palestinian Authority (PA), said on Wednesday the political deadlock in the Middle East was causing “fatigue” among financial backers of a future Palestinian state.

“There is a significant fatigue among many donors and a kind of questioning of whether this process leads to a Palestinian state,” said the Norwegian foreign minister, Espen Barth Eide, during a meeting with journalists in Oslo.

The Ad Hoc Liaison Committee, which groups international donors to the PA,will meet in Brussels on March 19th against a backdrop of budget difficulties aggravated by non-payment of aid pledged by global donors, mainly the United States and Arab nations.

The development aid already distributed has allowed the government of Salam Fayyad to build the institutions needed for a future state, but the current political stalemate could have dramatic consequences if donors feel discouraged, Barth Eide said.

“If the sense is that this is a deadlock and it remains a deadlock … I think that the fatigue problem will be very acute. And that means that the Palestinian Authority could collapse and … then Israel would get a much more difficult neighbour,” he said.

But the Norwegian foreign minister said there were also developments that could help break the impasse, such as the arrival of a new Israeli government without any ultra-Orthodox parties, and the possibility of greater US involvement in the Middle East after President Barack Obama was reelected.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Palestinians Get Embassy Status in Sweden

Sweden on Wednesday became the ninth European country to upgrade the status of a Palestinian representative office to that of an embassy.

The Swedish Riksdag voted by an overwhelming majority to ratify a June 28th agreement between Stockholm and Ramallah on upgrading the Palestinian Authority’s mission here.

The agreement gives the Palestinian Authority’s representation in Sweden “the same immunities, exemptions, and privileges as embassies and their representatives.”

Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Cyprus are the other European countries to have given Palestinian representation the status of an embassy.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Peres Wants EU to Act Against Terrorism, Hamas

1st meeting with Van Rompuy, who reiterated two-state solution

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MARCH 6 — In an hour-long meeting on Wednesday with EU president Herman Van Rompuy, Israel’s president Shimon Peres said that the main difficulty of the peace process was “terrorism, not settlements”.

“The EU can do much to put an end to terrorism,” Peres said, urging it to “condemn Hamas”. Rompuy reiterated the EU’s continuing support for the two-state solution, asking that “strong and decisive steps” be taken towards resuming talks.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Arab League and Great Britain Back Syria’s Armed Opposition

Arab nations are willing to arm the rebels and give the opposition-in-exile greater leeway. Great Britain agrees to provide the Free Syrian Army “non-lethal” equipment. In two years, a million Syrians have fled their country.

Damascus (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Arab League ministers announced at the end of a meeting in Cairo yesterday that member nations can help Syrian rebels by any means, including weapons. All member states, except for Algeria, Iraq and Lebanon, endorsed the decision, stressing that if the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad can be resupplied with weapons from foreign nations, the rebels too should be able to have the means to defend themselves.

Arab League Secretary-General Nabil El Arabi told a news conference that the ministers had invited the opposition Syrian National Coalition to take the Syrian seat at the League. This was held by Damascus until it was suspended from the organisation in November 2011.

Beside Arab nations, other countries are showing willingness to recognise the Syrian opposition as a legitimate partner. Yesterday, the British government announced that it would provide Syrian rebels with non-lethal equipment.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the UK would assist the rebels, providing armoured SUVs as well as body armour and communications equipment.

Lebanon, which is with Iraq the Arab country most affected by the crisis in Syria, attacked the Arab League and Western nations for their position.

For Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour, Syria’s suspension from the League should be lifted because “Communication with Syria…is essential for a political solution”.

Since the Arab spring erupted two years ago, a million Syrians have fled their country; another 70,000 have died, the UN refugee agency says.

Meanwhile, Medecins sans frontiers appealed for medical equipment and staff for the areas most affected by the fighting.

For the medical charity, one third of public hospitals are no longer functioning and those still in operation lack trained medical staff because many practitioners have fled or have been captured by the army or by the rebels and are being treated as collaborators for treating fighters on the other side.

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

Manila Demands Syrian Rebels Free 21 Filipino UN Observers

They are being held hostage by the “Martyrs of Yarmouk”, who are treating them “like guests”, but demand withdrawal of Assad’s forces from Golan region for their release. Ban Ki-moon condemns the kidnapping. The Russian ambassador asks Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey to help free the 21 prisoners of this “bizarre” kidnapping.

New York City (AsiaNews / Agencies) — The Manila government is demanding the immediate release of 21 citizens, all UN observers, taken hostage by rebel groups Syrians on the Golan Heights.

The 21 people abducted are part of a group of 300 Filipinos from the “United Nations Disengagement Observer Force [UNDOF] in the Golan Heights”. The unit is stationed on the heights between Syria and Israel to ensure the absence of military actions between the two ancient enemies since the Yom Kippur War (1973).

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, has condemned the kidnapping and the Security Council has demanded the release of 21 the hostages.

According to UN spokesman Eduardo del Buey, the UN observers were stopped yesterday by a group of 30 armed near an observation post. A video posted on the internet shows their capture, which took place near the village of Jamlah, in the province of Daraa. The group “Martyrs of Yarmouk” has claimed responsibility and is accusing the UN observers of supporting the Assad government. The group claim “they will not be released until the forces of Bashar Assad are withdrawn from the village of Jamlah, on the border with Israel. “ There have been recent clashes between Syrians rebels and army in the area. The “Martyrs of Yarmouk” first accused the observers of passing information of their position to Syrian soldiers, and then stated that they took the observers to use them as a human shield, so that the Syrians would not target them. In any case, they say they are treating the UN observers “like guests”. Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Arnulfo Burgos, said that his countrymen are “being treated well, like guests and not as an enemy force”

Russian ambassador to the UN, Vitali Churkin, described the kidnapping of the observers as “particularly bizarre and unacceptable” given that these peacekeepers are unarmed and have nothing to do with the Syrian conflict. He has also called on nations to use their influence on the Syrian opposition to free the hostages. He did not name names, but it is known that Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are suppliers of money and weapons to various groups fighting Bashar Assad.

In almost two years, the Syrian conflict, which began as an expression of the Arab Spring, has degenerated into a civil war, with regional and international dimensions. The UN Security Council is divided between support for the rebels and Assad, who is supported by Russia and China in particular.

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

Osama Bin Laden’s Spokesman and Son-in-Law Captured in Jordan — and Will Appear in New York Court Tomorrow

Osama bin Laden’s spokesman and son-in-law has already been taken to New York, where he will face a judge tomorrow following his arrest by U.S. intelligence officials in Jordan.

Sulaiman Abu Ghaith was secretly brought to the U.S. by CIA officials within the last few days, and has been questioned relentlessly since his arrival.

He is now being held in a detention facility somewhere in the New York City area and is expected to be charged tomorrow and brought to trial in federal court.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Top U.S. Commander Says it is Possible to Bring Iran to Its Knees

General James Mattis, the top commander of U.S. Forces in the Middle East, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday punitive sanctions may yet convince Iran to end its nuclear program.

But short of Iran abandoning the program — which is legal under the rules of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons — an attack on the Islamic nation is a viable and increasingly possible option for the West.

“Between economic sanctions, diplomatic isolation, and encouragement of behavior that does not cost them such a degree of political support that they end up losing power, there may yet be a way to bring them to their senses,” said Mattis.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Turkey’s National Interests Limit Press Freedom, Erdogan

PM had asked for media blackout on talks with PKK

(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, MARCH 6 — Tension continues to run high between Turkey’s Islamic prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the country’s media not linked to the government after Milliyet’s publication on Friday of speculation on recent talks between PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan and a delegation of Kurdish members of parliament on the Imrali island jail.

Ocalan is currently in talks with the government for a political solution to the conflict in Kurdistan.

Erdogan has lashed out again at journalists not linked to the government, reported Hurriyet Online, saying that “press freedom does not give the media the right to act against the country’s national interests.” Over the past few days the prime minister had accused journalists of “sabotage” and urged the media to engage in self-censorship as concerns the talks with the PKK for the sake of national interest. Some media outlets report that the government asked Milliyet’s owner, Yildirim Demiroren, to fire the two journalists — Hasan Cemal and Derya Sazak — behind the news leak on the talks with Ocalan.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

UANI Calls on UNIDO to Stop Funding Projects in Iran, End Its Relationships With Iranian Regime

NEW YORK—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Today, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) continued its UN campaign by calling on the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) to immediately end its funding of projects that support the Iranian regime, including those with sanctioned entities like the Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran (IDRO)…

           — Hat tip: JB [Return to headlines]

Moscow Plans to Name Street After Chavez

(AGI) Moscow — The Duma of Moscow is considering the possibility of naming a street after Chavez, the “last caudillo” .

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

Bangladesh: Islamic Party Wants to Expel Minorities, Reunify With Pakistan

Strikes (hartal) and acts of violence continue across the country, especially against Hindus. Fears are growing among Buddhists, Christians and tribal communities. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party joins Jamaat-e-islami seeking the fall of the government. Islamist blogs provide instructions on how to sabotage railway lines, disrupt demonstrations and attack police.

Dhaka (AsiaNews) — Acts of violence, especially against Bangladesh’s Hindu minority, and strikes (hartal) continue across the country as Jamaat-e-Islami supporters call for reunification with Pakistan, and the creation of a “pure” state, free of its non-Muslim population.

Since unrest began more than a week ago, 87 people have died-mostly police and peaceful protesters. The atmosphere is increasingly tense after the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the country’s main opposition party, decided to throw its support behind Jamaat and call for an end of war tribunals set up by the ruling Awami League. In addition, the BNP has called for the death penalty imposed on Jamaat’s deputy chief Delwar Hossain Sayeedi to be dropped, and for the government to resign.

For Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, leader of the Awami League, opposition demands are unacceptable because they would mean her defeat.

However, Jamaat appears bent on pursuing its agenda come what may. With the BNP on its side, it does not seem willing to stop its terror strategy. In fact, it has begun handing out weapons to women and children to “save Islam and its soul from danger”.

Well-organised, the Islamic party has a large pool of supporters. On a number of blogs, many of them are openly calling for reunification with Pakistan and the expulsion of Hindus, atheists and Christians. Instructions are also provided on how to sabotage railway lines, attack security forces, and cause unrest during strikes.

Some of the suggestions are quite “creative”. For example, on one site instructions are given on how to generate pictures using the photo of death-row leader Sayeedi against the background of a full moon. Waved as if they were real thing, the pictures have been used the stress the urgency to save him and avoid going to hell. In other touched up photos showing people floating in the air, radiant faces, jinn (spirits) and angels are presented as supporting the Muslim revolt.

As the country’s largest minority (9.6 per cent), Hindus have been the main target until now. What is more, most witnesses in the war crimes trials have been Hindus.1

The latest wave of attacks also suggest that other religious (Buddhist and Christian) and ethnic (tribal) minorities might be the next to be targeted, as was the case in the past.

In fact, police recently arrested a group of Muslim fundamentalists that planned to kill ten teachers at an Ahmadiyya school. Ahmadis are a Muslim religious group deemed heretical by mainstream Islam.

It is unclear what will happen now, but there are growing fears that things might get out of hand. Shahbagh, a secular-oriented non-political movement named after a Dhaka neighbourhood, continues its peaceful protests and initiatives, but is losing popularity. What appeared to be local movement inspired by the ‘Arab spring’ is becoming increasingly isolated and is seen as nothing but an ally of the Awami League.

Various political parties, including small factions within the Islamic party, have called for dialogue, but no one has yet said on what terms.

Meanwhile, Jamaat appears to be getting stronger. Although it lacks the right numbers, it has been backed by a stronger ally, the BNP, something that makes the situation even worse.

Should the BNP back away from Jamaat, it would likely allow the Awami League to win the next elections, something that might not be on BNP leader Khaleda Zia’s agenda.

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Although exact figures do not exist, Bangladesh’s War of Liberation in 1971 is said to have caused the death of up to 1.5 million civilians. At least 200,000 women were raped, mostly Hindu. About 60 per cent of all Bangladeshi refugees in India were Hindu.

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

India: ‘Do We Really Need This Biomedical Waste Project?’

Even as the project was inaugurated on Monday, he asks for a relook at criteria for implementation

The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation’s (UNIDO) project to reduce Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) from biomedical waste in the State was inaugurated on Monday, even as chairperson of Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) Vaman Acharya openly criticised the project.

Dr. Acharya, speaking after inaugurating the project, said he was not sure if the project should be implemented in the State as medical waste management (segregation and treatment) was in a much better state here.

“This project is of no use in our State because we have gone much ahead in medical waste management. I had said this in the past too. Please take a relook at the criteria on the basis of which the States are selected for the project and give us a clear proposal on what has to be done,” Dr. Acharya told the visiting UNIDO officials.

The project titled ‘Environmental sound management of medical waste’ has been launched in Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha and Punjab.

Although during his address, Dr. Acharya said the project would take off on Monday, he later told The Hindu that he would take a call on its implementation after the UNIDO officials give a detailed framework on what has to be done.

Referring to the garbage disposal crisis in Bangalore, Dr. Acharya said: “When we have dead dogs and other carcass thrown in garbage dumps on the roads, what is the problem in also having placenta in the dump? I do not say this can be allowed, but what I mean is when the city’s garbage (general waste) itself can do so much harm, I fail to understand how biomedical waste can generate higher POP,” he reiterated.

“To be part of the project, the State has to pay 20 per cent of the Rs. 40-crore project. The payment has to be shared between the pollution board, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the State Health Department. From our side, we have to pay Rs. 1.25 crore. My question is do we need the project when our hospitals have already invested so much in setting up biomedical effluent treatment plants,” he asked.

Danger of black ash

In his presentation, S.P. Dhua, Regional Coordinator of UNIDO, said the required 1,000 degrees Celsius temperature is not maintained in most incinerators as a result of which poisonous gases such as dioxin and furan are emitted from the treatment plants.

“We have surveyed several treatment plants and have found black ash in all the incinerators. This emission causes cancer, hormonal imbalance, deformities in children apart from renal problems. This project is to shift from burn technology to non-burn technology,” he explained.

Linda Gavan, project manager of UNIDO, said the $ 40 million project will be implemented in five years. While $ 10 million will be funded through the Global Environment Facility, the rest will be raised through co-financing.

M. Subha Rao, Director MoEF, and D.R. Kumaraswamy, KSPCB Chief Environmental Officer, made presentations on the implementation of the biomedial waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998, at the national and State-level, respectively.

           — Hat tip: JB [Return to headlines]

Infowars Confronts Bill Gates on Eugenics Vaccine Program: Exclusive

Bill Gates really didn’t want to be confronted on how a vaccine linked to the Gates Foundation paralyzed some 47,500 children in India[url], but Infowars reporter Melissa Melton asked him about it anyway.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Luxury Lifestyle of Tomboy Chinese Heiress Goes Viral (But Not Everyone’s Impressed)

Surrounded by beautiful young women, flying in private jets, and shopping for the top designer labels, pictures posted by Zhang Jiale on China’s answer to Twitter give a glimpse in to how the other half live.

And images of Jiale, said to be 22, living the high life have gone viral in her home country, prompting a wave of jealousy and outrage.

It may look like the playboy lifestyle but according to the website ChinaSmack, Jiale is actually the tomboy daughter of wealthy Sino Life insurance boss Zhang Jun.

The images were all posted on Jiale’s Weibo account.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Malaysia Invaded — 100s of Terrorists Land on Beaches, Western Media Mute

Hundreds of heavily armed terrorists have crossed from the Philippines and landed in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah. Dozens are already dead, and the Malaysian military has brought in aircraft and armor to confront the audacious, bizarre invasion, scattering militants into the jungles of Borneo island. A seemingly headline news event, the invasion has been downplayed and spun by the Western media, many calling militant Al Qaeda-linked terrorists, an “armed Filipino clan.”

The West’s woeful, irresponsible coverage of a burgeoning region-wide destabilization, fits in nicely with its coverage of US-Saudi funded/armed terrorism around the world, including in Syria where US-funded terrorists of the so-called “Free Syrian Army” have just taken dozens of UN peacekeepers hostage in the Golan Heights — just days after the US announced it would fund the terrorists further, to the tune of $60 million and the West’s Arab partners have just granted the terrorist faction Syria’s seat at the “Arab League.”

While the West pleads ignorance over the identity of the militants held up in the jungles of Malaysia’s Sabah state, the militant organizations themselves have declared thousands more in reinforcements are being arranged in the Philippines to join and exasperate the conflict. The Free Malaysia Today newspaper reported in its article, “10,000 Tausugs to sail to Sabah,” that:…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Sabah: Malaysia’s Prime Minister Rejects Filipino “Sultan’s” Ceasefire Offer

From Manila, Jamalul Kiram III calls for a truce and promises that the militia “will not take any initiative.” Najib Razak responds: no agreement without the “unconditional surrender.” UN Secretary-General’s appeal for an end to violence. To date, at least 40 dead, fears for the safety of civilians.

kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews / Agencies) — Tension is still high in the State of Sabah, in northern Malaysian Borneo, the theater of violent clashes between Filipino guerrillas and the of Kuala Lumpur. From his base in Manila, Jamalul Kiram III, the self-proclaimed “Filipino Sultan” and leader of the rebel movement “Royal army of the Sultanate of Sulu” has ensured that the militia “will take no further action”. There are still between 100 and 300 rebel fighters on the island, but they will “stay where they are and will not expand operations “. The response of Prime Minister Najib Razak, however, is to the point: no ceasefire, if not preceded by an “unconditional surrender.” The latest developments come in the wake of a massive Malaysian offensive, that seems to have dealt a severe blow to the militants activities.

UN Secretary-General referred to the conflict yesterday, calling for an immediate cease-fire and the opening of a dialogue between the parties. Ban Ki-moon said he was “concerned about the impact on the civilian population”, in particular for the many “migrant workers in the region.”

There are about 800 thousand Filipino migrants living in Sabah, the second largest state in Malaysia and composed of 3.1 million inhabitants. In the district of Tawau, where the fighting has been concentrated, half of the population is considered “non-Malaysian”. The violence erupted with particular intensity on March 1 last and so far has caused at least 40 deaths, including eight officers from the Malaysian police force.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Najib Razak travelled to Sabah to closely follow the developing situation. The crisis has concerned both Kuala Lumpur to Manila, already facing domestic criticism. In the Philippine capital there was a march for an end to violence and the protection of migrant workers. Issues connected to domestic and international politics are further complicating an already delicate situation: territorial rights, parliamentary elections in the Philippines and general elections in Malaysia, the peace agreement between Manila and MILF Muslim rebels, mediated by the government in Kuala Lumpur, which, however, now finds itself having to repel the internal assaults of a fundamentalist wing.

Since the fourteenth century the south of the Philippine archipelago and the territory of Sabah (now Malaysia) were under the rule of the Sultan of Sulu. However, four centuries later, the European colonial forces wrested control of the entire area. After the Second World War and the end of colonialism, Malaysia annexed the territories and in 1963 assumed the power of Sabah. On 4 February, a few hundred militants from the so-called “Royal army of the Sultanate of Sulu” occupied the territory, claiming territorial rights based on documents dating back to 1878, which establish the ownership of the area to the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu.

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

U.N. Plans More Cash for North Korea’s Dictatorial Regime

… A $7.7 million program to bolster energy production and electrical transmission with assistance from the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and the U.N. Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), also starting in 2011.

* A $4.6 million UNIDO program to “support enterprises engaged in export trade,” among other things, which would involve teaching “business English,” establishing “networks of knowledge workers,” as well as creating unspecified “knowledge management products and information services” to speed economic growth and development…

           — Hat tip: JB [Return to headlines]

United Nations Security Council Unanimously Approves New Sanctions on North Korea

The United Nations Security Council approved a new regimen of sanctions Thursday on North Korea for its underground nuclear test last month, imposing penalties on North Korean banking, travel and trade in a unanimous vote that reflected the country’s increased international isolation.

The resolution, which was drafted by the United States and China, was passed in a speedy vote hours after North Korea threatened for the first time to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States and South Korea.

[Return to headlines]

Villages Turned Into Concentration Camps in North Korea as Brutal Regime Struggles to House Hundreds of Thousands of Political Prisoners

[WARNING: Disturbing content.]

North Korea is expanding its already extensive network of prison camps, eating up entire villages as it struggles to house hundreds of thousands of political prisoners, latest satellite images have revealed.

The secretive communist regime has built a huge ‘security perimeter’ around an existing camp restricting movement in nearby villages as part of its ‘general repression’ of its people, human rights watchdog Amnesty International said today.

The reclusive country’s network of political prison camps is believed to hold at least 200,000 people and has been the scene of rapes, torture, executions and slave labour, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in January.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Barack Obama’s Stepbrother Loses Election in Kenya

(AGI) Nairobi — Barack Obama’s stepbrother has lost the election for governor of the county of Siaya in Kenya.

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

Chavez Was an “Uncommon and Strong Man” Writes Putin

(AGI) — Moscow, Mar 6 — Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Hugo Chavez in a telegram of condolence: “He was an uncommon and strong man who looked into the future and always set the highest target for himself.” Chavez laid the “solid basis” for Russo-Venezuelan relations and “looked to the future and always strove to improve it,” Putin added. (AGI) .

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

Maduro: Chavez Body to be Permanently Displayed

Hugo Chavez’s body will be permanently displayed in a special tomb, Venezuela’s Vice President, Nicolas Maduro, announced Thursday on state television.

Maduro said the official state funeral will begin tomorrow at 10:30 ET. Some 30 heads of state along with delegations from 50 countries are expected to attend. Following the ceremony, Chavez’s body will lie in state for seven additional days, so that more people can see it.

Maduro, now the interim president, also announced that Chavez’s body will be preserved in the same manner as that of Russia’s Vladimir Lenin or China’s Mao Zedong, so “he will always be with the people.”

Visitors will be able to view Chavez’s body in a special tomb now under construction in the mountains where the former leader launched his revolution.

He again called for peace and calm and thanked the public for respecting the solemnity of this occasion.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Video: Why Hugo Chavez Was Bad News: Special Report

Alex explains why Hugo Chavez’s Communist regime was bad news for Venezuelans.

Pick up Georgetown professor Carroll Quigley’s book Tragedy & Hope for the ultimate insider admission of a secret global elite and one of the most revealing looks into their goals and methodology. 1,348 pages of raw information.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Leaked Memo Shows 5,000 Could be Released Under Budget Cuts, Says Goodlatte

An internal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement memo obtained by the House Judiciary Committee says that ICE developed plans to release 5,000 detained criminal aliens by the end of March to reduce the agency’s costs under forced budget cuts.

The document was released by committee chairman Bob Goodlatte, (R-VA) on March 5.

“As of February 15, 2013, the document shows that ICE had roughly 31,000 illegal immigrants and criminal aliens in detention — already below the 34,000 mandated by Congress — and planned to reduce that number to less than 26,000 by March 31, 2013,” said a statement by Goodlatte’s office. “According to sources, roughly 2,000 criminal aliens may have already been released so far,” it said.

ICE had said that “hundreds” of non-criminal aliens had been released in mid-February ahead of the “sequestration” budget cuts.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

‘Church Needs a Gay Pope’ Says Outspoken Italian Priest

Don Andrea Gallo warns against repression, ‘leads to abuse’

(ANSA) — Genoa, March 6 — The Church needs a gay pope, outspoken LGBT rights advocate and Catholic priest Don Andrea Gallo said on Wednesday.

“A homosexual pope would be a magnificent thing. The essence of the Gospel is that we are all God’s sons and daughters and we are all equal as God’s children,” Don Gallo told Radio 24 program La Zanzara. The founder of Genoa’s San Benedetto drug-rehab community, Don Gallo has publicly defended the rights of gays and transsexuals, smoked marijuana in city hall to protest against what he says are draconian drug laws, and been branded a Communist by his opponents. “The homosexual priest must be free to express his identity and his sexuality, because repression leads to pedophilia,” Don Gallo explained, adding that he himself was sexually harassed by a bishop when he was a young priest. Also on Wednesday, 75% of readers of Asian Catholic website Ucanews.com said in a survey that pedophilia is the Catholic Church’s biggest problem, and that sexual abuse by priests should be at the top of the next pope’s agenda.

The survey was conducted from February 18-28, with 2,300 readers responding.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

CPAC and the Conservatives

The term “gay conservative” is being used by some news outlets in connection with the upcoming Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and whether certain homosexual groups should be invited to appear. There is no such thing as a “gay conservative,” unless the term “conservative” has lost all meaning. But there is a homosexual movement that has its roots in Marxism and is characterized by anti-Americanism and hatred of Christian values.

Two of this movement’s members, Bradley Manning and Floyd Corkins, have recently been in the news. Manning betrayed his country in the WikiLeaks scandal, while Corkins has pleaded guilty to trying to kill conservative officials of the Christian Family Research Council in Washington, D.C.

Rather than debate whether “gay conservatives” exist or ought to have prominent speaking roles, CPAC should be sponsoring a panel on the dangers of the homosexual movement and why some of its members seem prone to violence, terror, and treason.

Since I started out in Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) in high school, I know something about the conservative movement. It seems clear that the homosexuals are trying to make inroads in the Republican Party through the conservative movement. No one can seriously dispute this. That is partly what the CPAC controversy is all about.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

GOP House Approves CR That Funds All Obamacare — Including Regulation Attacking Religious Freedom

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted 267-151 on Wednesday to approve a $982-billion continuing resolution (CR) to fund the federal government through the rest of fiscal 2013 that fully funds the implementation of Obamacare during that period.

The House Republican leaders turned aside requests from groups of conservative members to include language in the bill that would have withheld funding for implementation of all of Obamacare, or, alternatively, that would have withheld funding for the Obamacare regulation that requires health-plans to provide cost-free coverage for sterilizations, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs.

On Tuesday, the Republican-controlled Rules Committee rejected a request by Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R.-Okla.) to allow the full House to simply vote on an amendment to the CR sponsored by Bridenstine, Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R.-Kans.) and Rep. Ron DeSantis (R.-Fla.) that would have stripped funding from implementation of Obamacare.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

How Moral Imbeciles Choose Judges

Down in Mordor-on-the-Potomac, the buzz is that we’re about to get our nation’s very first “openly gay black man” as a federal judge, and, as a bonus, our first “Asian-American lesbian” on the federal bench, too.

So man’s laws will now be administered by unrepentant sinners in open rebellion against God’s laws. Nothing can possibly go wrong with that, can it?

Oh? I’m a “racist” and a “homophobe” for bringing that up? But I didn’t bring it up. It wasn’t I who decided that skin color and sexual practices ought to be key factors in determining who’s fit to be a federal judge. We owe this innovation to our first Voter Fraud president and his merry band of yes-men in the media.

No one will dare to say, in the Senate confirmation hearings, “Since when have such external characteristics become our criteria for appointing federal judges?” It’s a perfectly sensible question, but the media mincing-machine will devour anyone bold enough to ask it. Don’t hold your breath waiting to see that kind of courage and integrity displayed by any Senator.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

The Supreme Court to Decide the Future Direction of Marriage in America

WASHINGTON, — Organizer of the event, Jason Hershey, states:

In light of the Supreme Court cases Hollingsworth v Perry and United States v Windsor on March 26 & 27, a grassroots group of Christians, mostly youth and young adults, from around the nation seek to send a clear message to the Supreme Court Justices and the nation. Using the truth of the Good News of Jesus, we will paint a picture of real marriage and family.

Press Conference on March 8 at 11 a.m. at the Supreme Court

Just as those trained to spot counterfeit currency learn by studying the real, this is to communicate the real truth about marriage, and in so doing, expose all the counterfeits.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]