Unemployment in Greece reached a record high of 27.2% in January. For young people aged 15-24, the rate was more than 59%.
In other news, the latest assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency is that North Korea has achieved the capability of placing a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Diana West, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, 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.
Bitcoin Crashes Over 50% Just One Day After Bold Public Prediction by Mike Adams of Natural News
(NaturalNews) In what has to be the most accurate currency crash prediction ever made, bitcoin crashed today from $266 to a low of $105 in a rapid “free fall” market crash pattern, erasing $1 billion in currency valuation in a matter of hours. I openly and publicly predicted all this would occur yesterday, in both a Natural News article as well as national radio via the Alex Jones Show broadcast aired on over 120 am stations.
But the real story here isn’t that I accurately made this dire prediction less than 24 hours before it took place; the real story is that this crash was almost certainly caused by a covert central bank “stress test” of the pliability of the bitcoin market. That’s all explained below. (This is a Natural News exclusive. Nobody else has realized this yet…)
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cyprus Bailout Swells to 23 Billion Euros, Reports
(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, APRIL 11 — A draft document by Cyprus’ international creditors shows the island nation will have to take on the lion’s share of the measures needed to avoid the nation’s bankruptcy. The draft document, as daily Kathimerini online reports quoting news agencies, says the restructuring imposed on Cyprus’ financial system, including heavy losses on large bank deposits, additional taxes, privatizations and a part-sale of the central bank’s gold reserves are expected to net 13 billion euros. The country’s international creditors — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — are set to grant the Mediterranean island nation a 10 billion euros rescue loan package. Cyprus — a member of the 17-nation eurozone — was initially expected to contribute only 7 billion euros to the bailout package.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Cyprus Looting & Socializing the Losses: The Global Banksters Who Redefined Theft Into “Haircut”
Once upon a time a haircut meant “the act or an instance of cutting the hair.” In recent years, unbeknownst to an unsuspecting, trusting public, the slang stock exchange expression of “haircut” has become an acceptable banking practice to collectively apply to your bank accounts, according to the central bankers, world leaders and shadowy banker cabals like the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Basel Committee. Just ask the folks in Cyprus.
“Haircut” in stock exchange slang means: “a percentage of the value of an asset deducted to account for possible fall in its value before it can be liquidated?” Translation: we can take your money that’s in our banks before you can get it. Ha! Ha! Suckers!
Now that we are all clued in to what the Globalist banking cabals have known and planned for years, let’s be clear. Nobody’s bank deposits are immune from the Cyprus confiscation model “haircut” to recapitalize the bankers’ financial institutions by taking/stealing your money if the banks become insolvent, which is just a nicer word for bankrupt. As previously reported, in bankster-speak, it’s also called “socializing the losses.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greece’s Unemployment Hits New Record
Greece’s jobless rate has soared to a new high. The younger generation remains the worst hit by a protracted recession and austerity measures the government needs to implement in return for foreign loans.
Unemployment in crisis-stricken eurozone member Greece hit a new record of 27.2 percent in January, the national statistics agency ELSTAT reported on Thursday.
It said 1.348 million people were registered as being jobless in the first month of the new year. In December 2012, the rate still stood at 25.7 percent, while it was put at 21.5 percent in January 2012.
ELSTAT confirmed that unemployment continued to hit the younger generation hardest, with the jobless rate in the 15-24 age group reaching 59.3 percent.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Interest Rates Fall at Italian Bond Auctions
3-year BTPs drops to 2.29%, 15-year bond down to 4.68%
(see related story on spread) (ANSA) — Rome, April 11 — The interest rate on Italian bonds fell at two Treasury auctions on Thursday, despite the country’s ongoing political deadlock.
The average rate on the three-year BTP bond fell to 2.29%, compared to 2.48% at the last equivalent auction.
The Treasury hit its target of selling 1.67 billion euros’ worth of the bonds, which will mature in May 2016.
It also sold 1.67 billion euros’ worth of 15-year BTPs set to mature in September 2028, with an average interest rate of 4.68%, compared to 4.90% at the last sale.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Monti Rebuffs European Commission Over ‘Contagion’
‘There is no risk from Italy’ says outgoing premier
(ANSA) — London, April 11 — Outgoing Italian Premier Mario Monti on Thursday rebutted a European Council (EC) report that said Italy had major economic imbalances that could affect the euro economy. “There is no contagion from Italy,” said Monti. In its report issued Wednesday on 13 EU states whose economies were considered in need of “in-depth reviews”, the EC said that Italy’s economy required urgent attention. The comments made headlines across Italy Thursday.
“Italy is experiencing macroeconomic imbalances, which require monitoring and decisive policy action,” the EC said.
“In particular, macroeconomic developments in the areas of export performance and the underlying loss of competitiveness as well as high public indebtedness in an environment of subdued growth deserve continued attention in order to reduce the risk of adverse effects on the functioning of the Italian economy and of the Economic and Monetary Union”.
Monti made his comments on the sidelines of a G8 meeting of foreign ministers in London. He has served as interim foreign minister since the resignation last month of Giulio Terzi.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Cancer Care Rationing Begins in America as Cancer Clinics Turn Away Thousands of Medicare Patients
(NaturalNews) Federal sequestration measures that came into effect on April 1 are making it impossible for many cancer clinics across the country to administer conventional care to patients, and particularly to those on Medicare. Consequently, thousands of cancer patients with taxpayer-funded insurance coverage are being turned away, according to reports, as clinics simply do not have the capacity nor the funding to administer expensive pharmaceutical-based treatments such as chemotherapy.
According to the Washington Post, many cancer clinics are having to turn away patients without adequate coverage, or else face potential closure of their practices. Since many of the latest cancer drugs now cost upwards of $35,000 or more per year, it is grossly unsustainable to deliver such treatments to patients without adequate insurance coverage — doing so would spell financial suicide for even the most successful and well-funded cancer clinics.
“If we treated the patients receiving the most expensive drugs, we’d be out of business in six months to a year,” said Jeff Vacirca, chief executive of North Shore Hematology Oncology Associates in New York, to the Washington Post. “The drugs we’re going to lose money on we’re not going to administer right now.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Guidance on the [Redacted] Threat
The latest from a People’s Cube friend in New York:
By Marion Dreyfus
Global City, Eurabi-asiaca
Since early, no, mid-twentieth century, [redacted] citizens have been growing more concerned about the number of [redacted] working or residing in their midst. All such [redactions] are henceforth considered 100% unexceptionable, free of any [redacted] harassment, frisking or interrogation.
Members of this sub-majoritarian community, now called [redacted] in recognition of current media sensibilities and stylebooks, have barricaded themselves in [redacted] loci, in order to resist the onslaught of those distraught by changes in their culture / neighborhood / language.
Those not hewing to the [redacted] party line, who used to be understood universally as [redacted], are now effectively transferring dictionary definitions to slimmer but stricter compendia of received and acceptable linguistic carriers, once called vocabulary, or words.
~
Increasing focus on the impermissible terminology of the [redacted] culture has made the journalist’s career endeavor harder than ever, since [pronoun neutral] cache of accepted terms for once-prosaic issues and themes, people and cultural byways has become so strictured as to make a 500-word op-ed almost [redacted] impossible.
Dictionary compilers and aggregators are, however, earnestly at work unwriting as many formerly accepted terms and phrases as possible, the better to guide media hirelings in their efforts to convey as much of the news as [redacted] possible. In a similar vein, history books and research papers will be combed for [redacted] no-no’s and purged phraseology.
Many countries, consequently, are now taboo to cite, lest persons wrongly infer criticism of their culture or resource usage. Any but the mildest of identifiers are now strictly [redacted]. Defining a person’s height, age, weight, religion or ethnicity is now cause for systemic lawsuits from all aggrieved parties, of which there are as many as one can shake a [redacted] at.
[see poster at URL, above]
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Gun Control is Anti-Women: Rapists Empowered by Gun Restrictions
[WARNING: ** Disturbing Content **]
(NaturalNews) In New York City on a recent morning, a man approached a woman standing at a Queens bus stop, forced her to a nearby cemetery by knifepoint, then proceeded to rape her.
The man, whom the victim described as 25-30 years old, approached the 41-year-old victim and asked her who she was waiting for, according to police. When the woman answered, “my husband,” the thug put a knife to her back, then proceeded to walk her to a high school parking lot, where he made her empty her pockets. He then forced her to the cemetery and committed his heinous, cowardly act of sexual assault.
A few months ago, in December, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, speaking at a local press conference just a few feet away from heavily armed men whose job is to protect Hizzoner from harm, was lecturing city residents and the nation in general on the need for more gun control.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Nuclear Fusion Rocket Could Reach Mars in 30 Days
Nuclear fusion, the energy source that fuels the sun and other active stars, could one day propel rockets that allow humans to go to Mars and back in 30 days, researchers say.
Fusion-powered rockets promise to solve problems of deep-space travel that have long plagued plans for manned missions to Mars — long journeys, high costs and health risks, among them. Scientists at the University of Washington and a space-propulsion company named MSNW say they are getting to closer to creating a feasible fuel for travel to other planets.
“Using existing rocket fuels, it’s nearly impossible for humans to explore much beyond Earth,” John Slough, a UW research associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics, said in a statement. “We are hoping to give us a much more powerful source of energy in space that could eventually lead to making interplanetary travel commonplace.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Political Correctness and Fascism
Political correctness is like a tsunami in that no one understands the extent of its danger until after the massive wave sweeps across the land and then recedes.
Early on, in the first term of the Obama administration, we felt the rumblings of the earthquake that always precedes the storm, when President Obama set the tone for how he expected sensitive issues to be handled. It wasn’t long before the Global War on Terror was renamed “Overseas Contingency Operation.” The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) quickly followed suit when it redefined terrorist attacks as “man caused disasters.” A case of trickle-down idiocy, I suppose, considering that changing a name only makes for a temporary fix.
Currently, there is a strong push by the left to change America into the opposite of everything that makes this country exceptional. They are using political correctness to get there by relabeling things once considered honorable and wholesome as inappropriate, and things once considered immoral as good. What they do not realize is they are trapping themselves in the process. Exchanging God-endowed freedoms for man-made rules is never a fair trade.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Senate Votes to Allow Debate on Gun Legislation
The Senate Thursday cleared the way for the debate on the first piece of major gun control legislation to be considered in that chamber in two decades.
With families of victims of the Newtown massacre watching silently from the chamber, the Senate thwarted a threatened filibuster with a vote of 68 to 31 and will proceed next week to debate a package of legislation that would expand background checks for gun buyers, increase the penalties for criminal sales and a variety of other amendments. Those include the renewal of the assault weapons ban which expired in 2004. Twenty-nine Republicans voted against the measure, as did two Democrats.
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Senate Votes to Overcome Filibuster of Gun Bill
WASHINGTON — The Senate crossed the first of many hurdles Thursday in the drive to pass new gun legislation, with a bipartisan vote to begin what could be weeks of debate on the issue.
By a 68-31 margin, senators moved to open formal consideration of a package of reforms to expand background checks, improve school safety and combat gun trafficking. Among Republicans, 16 voted yes, while two Democrats voted no and one did not vote.
Next week senators will be able to offer amendments that pose the real test for whether the larger bill will succeed. Both gun-rights advocates and supporters of even stricter gun control expect to offer additional proposals that would ban the sales of certain types of assault weapons ban or expand concealed weapons permits.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Silence of the Lambs in America
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
As Americans, we are witnessing the systematic dismantling of our country by the incremental erosion of our liberties and rights by methods that are shaking the very foundations upon which this country was founded. We’ve seen this before, as history is filled with examples of our current predicament; but somehow, today, things seem different to those who are paying attention. In many ways, things are indeed different, yet it is fitting to cite what was written long ago: “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”
Today’s headlines proclaim that those of us who cherish the rights bestowed upon us by our Creator are now considered to be terrorists. This is the result of the cancer of moral and cultural degradation that we have allowed to take root in the very soil stained with the blood of our forefathers. The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children. What are we going to tell our children and grandchildren about what we’ve done to stop the metastasis of tyranny?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
by Daniel Greenfield
The urban political machine was born in New York but died in Chicago. It’s no longer a separate entity from the rest of the country; one of the inconveniences of urban life along with smog, muggings and excessive regulation. The urban political machine has gone national. It’s here. It’s there. It’s everywhere…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
In their haste to ban guns, have those on the political/cultural left — and their political allies in the United States and abroad — fully considered the possible ramifications of the actions they are proposing ? Have these individuals been sufficiently forthright and transparent regarding their motives and the underlying agenda of their program? Have they informed their constituents and other interested parties of the probable effects a comprehensive ban on firearms would likely have? They have not; public discussions of the issues involved have generated much heat, but little light.
In order to more-accurately assess the probable effects of overturning the 2nd Amendment and a ban on the private ownership of firearms, it is necessary to delve more-deeply into such disciplines as history, economics, criminology and psychology. Let us do so… The History and Economics of Prohibition: A Brief Primer
Over the years and for a variety of reasons, statists — Democrat and Republican alike — have attempted to change society by using government intervention in the marketplace and in the lives of individual citizens. A number of historical examples of this phenomenon come to mind, but perhaps none are more relevant to the subject at hand than the Prohibition Era and the so-called War on Drugs.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Islam Becomes Campaign Issue
by Soeren Kern
The study — which corroborates the conclusions of other recent surveys — concludes that the image of Islam in Germany is “devastating.”
Germany’s opposition Social Democrats are courting disgruntled Muslim voters in a desperate bid to unseat German Chancellor Angela Merkel in federal elections set for September 22.
Peer Steinbrück, the 66-year-old chancellor candidate for the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), said at a campaign stop in Berlin on April 3 that he supported the idea of physical education classes in German schools being divided by gender as a courtesy to Muslims.
Responding to a question from the audience, Steinbrück said: “If schools are able to do it, then they should.” After his comment was greeted with silence, Steinbrück added that the measure should be taken “out of consideration for (Muslim) religious convictions.”
The reaction to Steinbrück’s comments was immediate and fierce from across Germany’s political spectrum, an indication that overt support for multiculturalism may actually be a political liability in this election cycle.
Barbara John, a politician with the ruling center-right Christian Democrats (CDU), said the debate over gender separation is outmoded and that “children and parents have to get used to the fact that genders here grow up together and live with the same rights.”
Maria Böhmer, a member of the Bundestag (federal parliament) for the CDU who also serves as Minister of State in the German Chancellery, said: “Peer Steinbrück is wrong! School, especially physical education, is a place of social learning. Here girls and boys learn from an early age to treat each other equally. And that race, religion and skin color do not matter! Shared learning and joint physical education promote integration in our country. Schools should be encouraged to continue along this path!”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Ranks Lowest in EU for University Degree Completion
Average graduation age 34 years old
(ANSA) — Brussels, April 11 — Italy has the lowest average of university students who complete their studies in the European Union, with just 21.7% of those who began a degree program finishing in 2012, a Eurostat survey said on Thursday.
In 2012 the average age for graduating university was 34 years old, 26.3% of graduates were women and 17.2% were men.
The figures were a slight improvement over 2010 and 2011, but continue to be the worst in the EU, where the overall average for completing university is 35.8%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Napolitano Should Enjoy Being Granddad, Says M5S House Whip
President, 87, has dismissed calls to serve a second term
(ANSA) — Rome, April 11 — Roberta Lombardi, the House whip of comedian-turned-politician Beppe Grillo’s anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), on Thursday said Giorgio Napolitano should be allowed to enjoy retirement instead of serving a second term as president of the republic.
“From what I have seen of the president I think he has the right to enjoy his old age and to be a granddad,” said Lombardi, 39, whose movement is in the process of identifying its own candidate for the next president through an online vote.
“Let’s let him go, he is 87 years old, he should enjoy old age,” she repeated.
Parliament is due to convene in a joint session from April 18 to elect a successor to Napolitano, whose seven-year mandate expires in mid-May. Political parties are locked in negotiations over who should replace him, with no clear candidates yet emerging.
Some would like to see Napolitano serve a second term in office but the incumbent president has repeatedly ruled out this possibility.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Grillo Blasts Bersani, Berlusconi’s ‘Democracy Deficit’
M5S launches online vote for next president
(ANSA) — Rome, April 11 — Firebrand 5-Star Movement (M5S) founder Beppe Grillo lashed out against center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani and center-right head Silvio Berlusconi accusing the two of having a “democracy deficit”.
Grillo was referring to the hour-long meeting Bersani and Berlusconi held on Tuesday that they said was just “the starting point” to discuss Italy’s next president and other issues.
“The bed and breakfast couple, Bersani and Berlusconi, decide the president in secret rooms excluding virtually all popular participation,” Grillo said on his movement’s blog.
The M5S on Thursday launched an online vote to select its candidate to be the successor to President Giorgio Napolitano, whose seven-year term ends next month.
The vote is open to M5S members who signed on before December 31, 2012.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Bersani Says No Risk of Centre-Left PD Splitting
Leader has come under fire from party’s rising star Renzi
(ANSA) — Rome, April 11 — Centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani said Thursday that there was no danger of his Democratic Party (PD) splitting because of internal divisions over his handling of Italy’s post-election political deadlock.
The PD’s rising star, Florence Mayor Matteo Renzi, has publicly criticised Bersani approach after the centre-left came first in February’s inconclusive general election but did not win a working majority in the Senate. Italy still has no government after Bersani failed to win support for a post-election pact with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and ruled out forming a grand coalition with ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right People of Freedom (PdL) party.
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano has asked a group of 10 ‘wise men’ to try to break the deadlock by preparing a government programme capable of winning cross-party support.
Renzi has said this means Italy is “wasting time” that should be used to combat the country’s economic ailments and argued the PD should either open talks with Berlusconi or ask to return to the polls.
The Florence mayor, who has been compared to a young Tony Blair, also crossed swords with Bersani after not being chosen among the representatives of Italy’s regions set to join lawmakers in voting for the next head of state.
Although tension is high, Bersani says his party will not divide.
“We don’t have problems of this type,” Bersani told reporters on Thursday when asked about a possible split.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Serial Bicycle Rapist Sentenced to 20 Years
Egyptian national allegedly moved around by bike
(ANSA) Milan, April 11; A Milan preliminary hearings judge on Thursday handed down a 20-year sentence against a man accused of raping 19 women, in most cases allegedly moving around by bicycle. Sameh El Melegy, an Egyptian national, was convicted following an fast-track trial on the basis of evidence collected during the preliminary investigations phase.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Teens Return 467,200 Kroner Found on Train
Two Norwegian teens returned 467,200 kroner ($81,500) they found left on a train by an elderly passenger, Norwegian media reported on Thursday.
The pair found the treasure Wednesday in a handbag left on the seat of a train running between Oslo and a small town in southeastern Norway.
“When I opened the bag, the first thing I saw were these wads and wads of bills,” one of the teens, identified as 16-year-old Bendik, told local daily Vestby Avis.
“My first thought was to call the police,” he said.
After looking in the bag more closely, the good Samaritans found the passport of its owner, a man in his 70s who was expected to pick up his money from the police on Thursday.
Police said they did not suspect any foul play behind the man’s huge quantity of cash, and said they did not know if the two teenagers had been rewarded for their honesty.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ötzi the Iceman Needed a Dentist
Ötzi the Iceman could have used a dentist. The amazingly preserved Neolithic mummy found in the Italian Alps had tooth decay, gum disease and dental trauma, new research suggests.
The new findings, published Tuesday (April 9) in the European Journal of Oral Sciences, suggest that the Iceman mummy’s grain-heavy diet took a toll on his dental health.
“It’s surprising how bad condition he is in,” said study co-author Frank Ruhli, a paleopathologist at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. “We have the whole range of disease pathologies you can imagine.”
Ötzi is probably the most-studied Neolithic man in history. More than 5,000 years ago, the ancient iceman was hit by an arrow and bled to death on a glacier in the Alps between modern-day Austria and Italy. The glacier preserved his body until it was discovered by hikers in 1991.
Since his discovery in the Ötzal Alps by the hikers, scientists have reconstructed Ötzi’s face, analyzed his clothing, scrutinized his body and sequenced his genome. (Album: A New Face for Otzi the Iceman)
These extensive studies revealed that Ötzi was a middle-aged, well-to-do agriculturalist who lived not far from where he died. He also suffered from heart disease and joint pain, and probably had Lyme disease.
But somehow, scientists had never analyzed his teeth before. So Ruhli and his colleagues used a CT scanner to analyze the condition of Ötzi’s teeth.
They found that the ancient farmer had several cavities, likely caused by his carbohydrate-rich diet.
Ötzi also showed severe wear of his tooth enamel and severe gum disease. Hard minerals in milled grains abraded the surface of his teeth and gums, exposing the bone below and making the roots loose. Similar wear-and-tear is found in the teeth of Egyptian mummies who ate milled grains, Ruhli said.
“This is like a sandpaper acting on your teeth,” Ruhli told LiveScience. “In another five to 10 years, he certainly would have lost some of his teeth.”
As a result of his poor dental health, Ötzi would have felt pain when eating hot or tough foods, Ruhli said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A recent report by CBN tells the story of a Christian worker at Heathrow airport who appears to have been sacked because she stood up for her Christian religious beliefs in response to harassment by Islamists. As in OIC countries like Pakistan, it seems that the views and opinions of Islamists trump those of other religions in the UK. It always seems to be the non-Muslims who have to give ground, bite their lips, and put themselves second.
For some time now, the UK has been experiencing an atmosphere of fear when it comes to discussing Islam. The hysteria has been stoked up by oil rich Islamic nations keen to expand the influence and power of Islam in the West. Servile Western politicians seem happy to aid and abet such nations in their goal to increase the power and influence of Islam.
Only a few years ago UK citizens could go through life without being adversely affected by religious dogma. Now that dogma is everywhere and everyone is aware of it. In the home of freedom of speech people are now aware that speaking their minds can ruin their lives.
The UK’s old rarely used blasphemy laws may have been repealed but new more extreme heresy laws have taken their place. The Racial and Religious Hatred Act of 2006 has had a chilling effect on freedom of expression and on freedom in general. It must be remembered that the right to freedom of expression has been a far more potent protect of freedom of religion that any Act of Parliament could ever hope to achieve. The point of getting rid of the old blasphemy laws was that they restricted freedom of expression and they could be used as tools of religious persecution. A situation has been created in the UK where even whispering the word Islam is not attempted lest someone becomes offended!
There is a great deal of handwringing about how ‘Islamophobia’ is on the rise in Western countries. Nothing is said about how people are oppressed by Islamic regimes for not being Muslim. Little is said about non-Muslims who feel that they are being treated like second class citizens in the West, other than that such people are somehow racist. It seems that the term ‘Islamophobia’ was invented as a way to prevent non-Muslims from being listened to when they experience abuse at the hands of Islamists.
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is doing its best to institute a global blasphemy law and to make criticism of Islam illegal. It is a key advocate for UNHRC resolution 16/18 which purports to protect religious freedom. However, there is a tendency in OIC countries for religious freedom to mean that Islam is promoted and other religions are harassed. It seems quite clear that Christians for one are not those who are being protected by UNHRC 16/18.
If an airport worker can lose her job because she is not Muslim or she does not show Islam the respect that its proponents believe that it deserves then she is not being judged by the rule of law — she is being judged by sharia law.
The case of the airport worker suggests that sharia law is now thriving in the UK. Non-Muslims are being persecuted, demonised, and discriminated against just like they are in many member states of the OIC. Like in Muslim majority countries non-Muslims in the UK are being picked on and their lack of Islamic faith is being used against them. This situation has been facilitated by successive British governments whose obsession with political correctness has meant that rights and freedoms built up over the centuries have now been lost. As a result Islamism is now out of control in the UK and there is hardly anyone who is prepared to raise even a whisper in opposition!
[see video at URL above]
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Scotland: Mosque Still on Track
RUMOURS that work has stopped on the new Kirkcaldy mosque because of a lack of funds have been quashed. Whispers about the project running out of cash have been circulating in the past few months after a lull in building activity at the new building at the corner of Hendry Road and Dunnikier Way. But, speaking to the Press this week, Mohammed Naeem, chairman of the Kirkcaldy Central Mosque, said the stories were completely untrue. He said the delay had been caused by a Glasgow roofing contractor, earmarked to carry out the specialist work, telling them that they were now too busy to do the work because of the Commonwealth Games…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Secrets to Viking Navigation Unearthed?
A mysterious Viking sundial found in Greenland may have helped the ancient mariners sail at the same north-south latitude across the Atlantic, new research suggests.
The study, detailed Tuesday (April 9) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A Mathematical and Physical Sciences, suggests that the raiding Norsemen might have been even more impressive sailors than previously thought.
“It is widely accepted that Norse people were excellent mariners. Now it seems they used much more sophisticated navigational instruments than we thought before,” said study co-author Balázs Bernáth, a researcher at Eötvös University in Hungary.
Exactly how Vikings navigated the open seas has been the subject of speculation and folklore. Researchers think the Vikings used sophisticated sun compasses to find true north and relied on a “magic” crystal to navigate on cloudy days. (Scientists recently unearthed evidence of one of these Viking sunstones.)
In 1948, an archaeologist discovered a mysterious wooden artifact under the ruins of a Benedictine monastery in a fjord in Uunartoq, Greenland, which was settled by Norse farmers during the 10th century. The half-circle had a center hole and a zigzag engraved along its perimeter. It also had several lines scratched onto the plate’s interior.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Anti-Semitism Row Rocks Top Social Democrat
Former party leader Mona Sahlin has questioned her Social Democrats peers for electing a member with ties to anti-Semitic propagandists to the governing board (partistyrelsen).
“One has to go public and say that you cannot act the way he has done,” Sahlin told the Aftonbladet newspaper.
Sahlin’s comments came after Omar Mustafa was chosen to sit on the governing board of the left-of-centre opposition party at last weekend’s party congress. He is also chairman of the Islamic Association (Islamska förbundet) in Sweden, a group which has invited speakers to Sweden with known anti-Semitic views.
“I cannot state clearly enough that I distance myself from all anti-Semitism, everything that would qualify as racial agitation, or that would collectively condemn the Jewish community,” he told the TT news agency.
But Mustafa’s claims are not good enough for Willy Silberstein, chairman of the Swedish Committee Against Antisemitism (Svenska kommittén mot antisemitism — SKMA.)
“No, I don’t think it does. When you are an established organization and invite speakers, you give them legitimacy,” Silberstein told The Local.
“It’s the same when Islamophobes invite haters from Britain. You have to say no to racism regardless of where it comes from.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Police Allow Prayer Calls at Stockholm Mosque
A mosque in the south of Stockholm was given the all-clear by Swedish police on Thursday to make prayer calls from its minaret, the first time such permission has ever been granted in the country.
The Stockholm police ruled that the call to prayer would be allowed for between three to five minutes on Fridays between midday and 1pm.
“I’m happy, very happy,” Ismail Okur, chair of the Botkyrka Islamic Association (Islamiska föreningen i Botkyrka), told Sveriges Radio (SR).
“It means a great deal for our association and above all for our religion, and for the prayer,” he added.
He added that despite the long process of getting the process allowed, he was never worried that the plans would not be approved.
In September, the Botkyrka municipality’s city planning committee voted in favour of scrapping a 1994 prohibition on allowing prayer calls, which dates back from before the construction of the mosque. The mosque was built in 2007 in the municipality’s Fittja district and has over 1,500 members.
No date has been set for the first call to prayer.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thatcher ‘No Role Model’ For Norway’s Ex-PM
The first woman democratically elected as head of government in Europe, Margaret Thatcher inspired but also exasperated a generation of women political leaders, including Norway’s first woman prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland.
“Did I learn anything from her? No.” Although she paid a customary tribute after Thatcher’s passing, ex prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, who took office in 1981 — said her British counterpart was no role model.
“I had certainly developed my own style before she became prime minister,” the Labour leader said in a statement emailed to AFP by a spokesman.
Although both women broke the ceiling of male domination in politics, the two had little else in common.
One was a leftist deeply committed to the welfare state, the other was a conservative who championed individualism. Where the former sought consensus, the latter wasn’t afraid to clash with her opponents.
Brundtland was a strong advocate of the feminist cause and in 1986 formed a groundbreaking government where almost half the ministers were women, while on the other side of the North Sea, Thatcher described feminism as “poison”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
This shocking graffiti was today spotted in central London as the drama teacher behind one of the vile Thatcher ‘death parties’ today compared Britain’s greatest post-war prime minister to Hitler.
Romany Blythe, 45, who helps troubled children at schools in Brighton, East Sussex, has created a web page called: ‘The witch is dead’ and encouraged thousands to ‘p***’ on the Iron Lady’s grave.
After being confronted about her actions, an unrepentant Ms Blyth has described herself as ‘the voice of reason’, adding: ‘they danced in the streets when Hitler died too’…
On the day of former prime minister Baroness Thatcher’s death Ms Blythe wrote on her Facebook page: ‘So the old bag has copped it finally! Party in the square tomorrow then!’
Ms Blythe has appeared in her local paper before under the name Romany Smith. In March 2012 she revealed fears her PIP breast implants on the NHS had led to a miscarriage.
She was first given the implants in 2000 after years of suffering low self esteem because of a tuberous breast deformity…
Miss Blythe is a drama teacher with a workshop company that visits secondary schools.
She specialises in ‘facilitating workshops for young, excluded and potentially criminalised individuals and uses drama techniques she has developed to explore resolution of conflict and oppression’, according to the company’s website.
On Facebook she appears in photographs holding a hammer and sickle flag and posing alongside the former Cabinet Minister Tony Benn.
[Comment: They love the socialist system, they hate anything else, so send them to the only real socialist state left. Send them to North Korea , Where they can love the system, but of course if they complain or protest it is the labour camp if unlucky, and if lucky it would be the firing squad. — PANAGRACE , BRUXELLES, Belgium, 11/4/2013 19:30 ]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: A Festival to Celebrate the Huguenots of Spitalfields
Years ago I got involved with Spitalfields, the curious, closed world of Early Georgian terraces that mark the fault-line between City wealth and neighbouring Tower Hamlets poverty. I helped broker a deal between the developers of Spitalfields market and the then crumbling pile of Christ Church, Spitalfields that got the building restored. I sat on the board of Spitalfields Music Festival (based at Christ Church) and fought battles with tea-total rectors to allow us to serve wine in concert intervals. And over time I grew to love this patch of London with its mix of gentrification, immigration and East End hardship rubbing shoulders.
But what I loved most was the Huguenot history that created the terraces in the first place. The Huguenots were French Protestants in flight from persecution in their own land. They arrived en masse — no doubt distressed, but with extraordinary resourcefulness and skills. They tended to be weavers, and built their Spitalfields houses with weaving lofts constructed like conservatories to maximise the light. And apart from bricks, mortar and fabric, their legacy resides in the names of the streets around Christ Church. Names like Fournier and Princelet where the houses, these days, carry massive pricetags, although within living memory they were run-down sweatshops for the rag trade…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has been barred from Baroness Thatcher’s funeral.
However, the country’s ambassador to Britain Alicia Castro has been invited, diplomatic sources revealed.
Details began to emerge today of the current and former world leaders invited to attend the service at St Paul’s Cathedral next Wednesday.
Celebrities invited include Jeremy Clarkson, Dam Shirley Bassey and Sir Terry Wogan.
But in an indication of the fraught diplomatic tensions over who to invite, President Kirchner has been vetoed.
After discussions with the Thatcher family it has been agreed to extend a formal invitation to the Argentine ambassador, in line with the protocol of inviting a representative from every country with whom Britain has diplomatic relations.
While most countries have been left to choose who their representative might be, Whitehall officials have made clear to Argentina that President Kirchner is not welcome after her recent attempts to reignite the struggle for control of the Falkland Islands.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Battersea Mosque Expansion Will Not Meet Demand, Critics Claim
Plans to expand a mosque topped off with a dome will not be enough to fulfill demand, fear neighbouring residents.
The trust in charge of the Battersea Mosque, in Falcon Road, Battersea, want to extend worship areas and create a dome with a pinnacle. The planning application also describes excavation to the basement for additional prayer rooms, new staircases and a new disabled lift. The proposed Mosque will measure 777 sq m, which will expand the floor area by 44 per cent. Sometimes there are up to 400 men at a time using the building, while women use the adjacent Islamic Culture and Education Centre for worship…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Birmingham Woman Accused of Failing to Disclose Terror Plot
Woolwich Crown Court was told that 23-year-old Salma Kabal from Alum Rock was aware that her former partner, Ashik Ali, was planning to commit a terrorist act but did not alert the authorities.
The trial of a Birmingham woman charged with failing to tell police what she knew about her estranged husband’s involvement in a terrorist plot has begun. Woolwich Crown Court was told that 23-year-old Salma Kabal from Alum Rock was aware that her former partner, Ashik Ali, was planning to commit a terrorist act but did not alert the authorities.
Ali was one of three men recently convicted of a plot to carry out a UK bombing campaign that could have resulted in more casualties than the 7/7 London attacks of 2005…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
A prisoner was sent on a course to teach him ‘how to get a good night’s sleep’ because he was struggling to relax at night, a court heard.
Paul Richards, 45, was in prison as he awaited trial for beating his partner Lisa Kennett when he took the classes at HMP Elmley.
A court was told Richards had trouble sleeping so was taught how to ‘meditate’ and get into a ‘good sleep pattern’.
[…]
Richards was arrested in January last year and jailed because he had a suspended sentence hanging over him for an earlier attack on his partner.
It was while being held that he was sent to classes where he was taught how to get good rest.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Labour Must Search for Answers and Not Merely Aspire to be a Repository for People’s Anger
The centre has not shifted to the left, says Tony Blair. Labour must resist the easy option of tying itself to those forces whose anti-Tory shouts are loudest.
The paradox of the financial crisis is that, despite being widely held to have been caused by under-regulated markets, it has not brought a decisive shift to the left. But what might happen is that the left believes such a shift has occurred and behaves accordingly. The risk, which is highly visible here in Britain, is that the country returns to a familiar left/right battle. The familiarity is because such a contest dominated the 20th century. The risk is because in the 21st century such a contest debilitates rather than advances the nation…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Margaret Thatcher’s Funeral: Family Veto Argentine Officials at Service
Baroness Thatcher’s family have vetoed representatives of the Argentine government attending her funeral next week.
Whitehall officials proposed the presence of Argentine officials at a meeting of the committee which is organising the funeral, code-named Operation True Blue. The Telegraph understands that Lady Thatcher’s children, Sir Mark and Carol, believe that such protocol would be “inappropriate”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Sharia courts have been described as “courts of convenience” by Keighley MP Kris Hopkins, who claims they threaten the integrity of the nation’s justice system. The MP was speaking after the Bradford Council of Mosques revealed they were in talks to start up a local Sharia panel that would offer advice and deal with legal issues within the Muslim community.
It led to Mr Hopkins writing to Justice Secretary Chris Grayling to block any such move. But the Council of Mosques has accused the Tory MP of misquoting its comments to suit his own purpose, and says it has no intention of replacing the national court system…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Margaret Thatcher: This is a State Funeral, And That’s a Mistake
by Peter Oborne
The decision to acknowledge Lady Thatcher, but not Clement Attlee, makes the Queen appear partisan and is out of kilter with the impartiality of the modern monarchy
The official line from Buckingham Palace and Downing Street is that Margaret Thatcher is not being granted a state funeral. And it is true that the Baroness will not lie in state at Westminster Hall, as Sir Winston Churchill did almost 50 years ago. In almost every other respect, however, this is the real thing. Next Wednesday, her body will be taken by gun carriage from St Clement Danes in the Strand, down Fleet Street and into St Paul’s Cathedral. There will be a gun salute at the Tower of London. And the cost of the event will be borne in large part by the taxpayer. Most important of all, the Queen is to attend.
If something looks, smells and tastes like a state funeral, then it is reasonable to conclude that it is one. The truth is that Lady Thatcher is getting very similar treatment to Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997 or the Queen Mother in 2002…
[JP note: Written by a well-known fellow traveller of the Muslim Brotherhood, what’s his game, I wonder?]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: ** Disturbing Content **]
A former Metropolitan Police PCSO with a 13 year history of child sex abuse that began when he was just 12 years old has been jailed.
Billy Wheatley, 25, videoed himself on a mobile phone abusing a girl aged just five or six and recorded sexual assaults while wearing a hidden camera.
He was working for the force in Bromley when he committed some of the series of offences that spanned 13 years.
He admitted 18 sex crimes dating back to 2000, including two counts of assaulting a girl under 13 by penetration.
Even after his arrest, Wheatley, from Sidcup, Kent, continued to make indecent images of children.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: ** Disturbing content **]
The mother of a 13-year-old boy told how he scrubbed himself in the shower for weeks after he had sex at a swingers’ party.
And she criticised the justice system after three of four defendants were cleared at Swansea Crown Court of inciting him to engage in sexual activity.
She said the verdicts had shocked the family. The mother, who can’t be named for legal reasons, said: ‘I can’t really put into words how I feel.
‘I’ve always had faith in the justice system, but not now. I don’t feel the jury made the right decision.
‘I’m fuming. I don’t think anyone realises how it has affected my son or even how it is still affecting him. He’s not taken it very well.
‘He was scrubbing himself in the shower for weeks and weeks afterwards. All hours of the day he would be scrubbing himself with boiling hot water.
‘I cannot believe that anyone thought he looked over 16. He did not look over 16 when this happened two and a half years ago.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Terrorist’s Wife Joked About Watching ‘Four Lions’ Film
The estranged wife of a man planning a suicide attack on the UK joked about watching the black comedy “Four Lions” about inept terrorists, a court heard.
Salma Kabal, 23, is alleged to have known her husband Ashik Ali and other were plotting a terrorist outrage and failed to inform the police. Ali was one of three ringleaders of a Birmingham jihad cell who were convicted earlier this year of planning a bombing campaign of up to eight suicide bombers causing mass death and injury…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Two Birmingham Men Guilty of Terror Charges
Two men from Birmingham have pleaded guilty to being part of a terrorist cell whose leaders were planning a suicide bomb attack in the UK.
Bahader Ali and Mohammed Rizwan admitted engaging in conduct in preparation of acts of terrorism. In February, Ali’s brother, Ashik Ali and two other men, Irfan Naseer and Irfan Khalid, were found guilty of planning to be suicide bombers.
Six other men have admitted terrorism charges. All are due to be sentenced later this month. Mohammed Rizwan, 29, and Bahader Ali, 34, are from the Sparkbrook area of Birmingham…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Terrorist’s Wife ‘Kept Plot to Rival 9/11 Secret Because She Wanted to Rekindle Their Romance’
The lovelorn wife of a would- be suicide bomber begged her estranged husband to father her child as he finalised plans to kill himself in a murderous attack.
Salma Kabal, 23, knew of her husband’s ambitions to blow himself up but refused to believe the pair did not have a future together, a court was told.
She told Ashik Ali she wanted him back in her life and even joked about his deadly terrorist ambitions.
In March, the 27-year-old Islamic extremist was convicted alongside two close friends of plotting a string of attacks to rival 9/11 or the London 7/7 bombings.
Yesterday, Kabal went on trial accused of failing to inform the police about the conspiracy which could have killed dozens.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Teenager, 17, Died From Leukaemia 10 Days After Doctors Sent Her Home Saying She Had Tonsillitis
A teenage girl died from a rare form of leukaemia just 10 days after doctors told her she was only suffering from tonsillitis and fatigue.
Sophie Coldwell, 17, had been feeling tired for some time, but her parents attributed it to the increased burden of schoolwork.
In fact, she was suffering from a cancer so aggressive that a hospital consultant said he had never seen anything like it — and now her family hopes to save others by raising awareness of the devastating condition.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: ** Disturbing Content **]
A teenager accused of raping an 11-year-old girl in a park had attacked another schoolgirl a year before, a court heard.
Opemipo Jaji, 18, is alleged to have followed the 11-year-old girl as she made her way home from school on a bus.
He followed her and dragged her into Jubilee Park, Enfield, north London, and subjected her to a three-hour rape ordeal in November, last year, the court heard.
Her glove had been stuffed in her mouth and she had been stripped and assaulted.
Rosina Cottage, QC, prosecuting, said the child had caught a bus in Enfield Town along with her friend at 4.30pm.
‘She was 11-year-old and was wearing her school uniform,’ said Miss Cottage.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: We’re Never More Than a Few Syllables From Disaster
by Robert Colvile
A little bad pronunciation goes a long way in Britain
‘The word everyone’s using about Thatcher,” said my colleague, halfway through the meeting, “is divissive. But it’s not that she wanted to be divissive. It’s that she lived in a divissive age.”
If it wasn’t quite a Bateman cartoon moment — “The man who mangled his words in a Telegraph leader conference” — it was because none of us knew how to respond. You couldn’t correct him by dropping “div-EYE-sive” into a sentence — that would just be rude. Instead, there followed a wonderfully British moment, as people coughed, and fiddled with their papers, and generally tried to move things along. But then someone else, either in subconscious imitation or an effort to be helpful, agreed that the Eighties were indeed pretty divissive. Suddenly, a suspicion stole in on the rest of us that we might have been getting it wrong all these years…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Woman Behind Street Parties to ‘Celebrate’ Death of Margaret Thatcher Named
The woman behind an internet campaign to organise street parties to “celebrate” the death of Baroness Thatcher has been identified as a Romany Blythe, a 45-year-old community drama teacher from south London.
Ms Blythe has been rallying fellow protesters through a group on Facebook she has set up called The Witch is Dead, which has more than 5,000 members and calls for “demonstrations of disapproval” across the country. A number of places listed on the site were locations of riots and demonstrations that took place on Monday, including Bristol city centre and George Square in Glasgow.
The University of East London graduate teaches drama and arts and has worked with a workshop company that visits secondary schools. She specialises in “facilitating workshops for young, excluded and potentially criminalised individuals and uses drama techniques she has developed to explore resolution of conflict and oppression”, according to the company’s website. She claimed she had invited more than 5,300 people to a “flash party” to mark Lady Thatcher’s passing, with the message: “Anyone else like to join us?”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria to Wipe Clean Millions of Criminal Records
To foster reintegration into civil society
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, APRIL 10 — After the definitive version of the measure is published in the official gazette over the coming days, more than a million Algerians who have had run-ins with the law but who have served their sentences will start afresh.
Given the country’s high youth unemployment rate and the Algerian government’s recent efforts to open up the labour market and enable even those who have been convicted of crimes to move forward, the move to clear these criminal records makes perfect sense. Therefore, there will be no mention on criminal certificates of previous guilty verdicts, enabling those convicted of non-serious crimes to have a shot at any job they choose. However, not everyone will be able to benefit from it.
According to ministry sources quoted on the TSA website, the measure will be linked to the seriousness of the crime committed, with only those sentenced to under 18 months eligible. The individual must also not have committed any other crimes in the subsequent ten years. The measure was strongly supposed by Algeria’s prime minister, Abdelmalek Sella, and will mostly affect the young previously barred from certain jobs due to the severity of the laws in force and their criminal records, even if they had been sentenced only to fines.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Algerian ‘Terrorist Hunter’ To Lead Fight Against Corruption
General Tartag, implacable enemy of Islamists
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, APRIL 11 — President Abdelaziz Bouteflika had promised to give no quarter to those growing wealthy through illicit means, and Algeria has now taken up arms against the blight of corruption tearing mercilessly at the country’s image.
To bring the perpetrators to justice it has called up a general known for conducting a no-holds-barred war on Islamic extremism since the 1990s.
General Bachir Tartag has been placed at the head of a group of investigators to rout out those guilty of corruption. If he uses the same methods he did during the civil war against Islamists — methods famous for their effectiveness and brutality — corruption may stand a chance of being wiped out, and fast.
The Algerian government’s decision might seem one designed simply for photo ops, but those familiar with General Tartag know well that the officer will not simply play his role in front of video cameras: he will be taking the offensive with any and all legal means available to him, as is his wont.
Algerian leaders hope that the years have not mellowed the ferocity with which Tartag — whose enemies consider him a war criminal — has always carried out the missions he has been entrusted with since the early 1990s, when Algeria did not simply have guerrilla fighters on its hands but a true civil war. It was a war won in the end, but one in which many lost their lives. His achievements, whatever the case may be, endowed him with almost hero status in the eyes of most Algerians. A few months ago his fame grew even more when he led the Directorate for Internal Security (DSI) with an iron hand. It was a personal success made possible by the physical elimination of dozens of Islamists, including many leaders and especially those from the Tizi Ouzou-Boumerdes-Bouira triangle, which until his arrival was the undisputed kingdom of the bloodiest jihadist factions.
Now, at the head of the Algerian state intelligence service, the DRS, he has a single objective: rout out the corrupt, whatever role and rank they might hold. The most widely held concern is that the judiciary is ill-equipped to deal with the problem. This is an issue that General Tartag knows well how to resolve, by first and foremost cleaning up his own field and recruiting policemen beyond suspicion, who he can set loose on those getting rich through illicit means. There are those who expect Bachir Tartag will soon rack up a great deal of enemies.
Others say he won’t last long. He, on the other hand — as taciturn as ever — has already set out to do whatever is in the State’s best interest. Come what may.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Protesters at Cathedral, Demand Sacking Interior Minister
Hundreds of protesters arrived at the Saint Mark Coptic Orthodox Cathedral on Tuesday within the proceedings of the “national unity” march planned to denounce the outbreak of sectarian violence that swamped Egypt over this week.
The protesters marched from Al-Fattah Mosque in downtown Cairo under the slogan, “Houses of worship are a red line”, the protests are going to head to the presidential palace…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Tribesmen Release a Hungarian Member of Multinational Observer Force in Egypt’s Sinai
EL-ARISH, Egypt — Armed Bedouin tribesmen briefly abducted a Hungarian member of the multinational observer force in Sinai, releasing him around two hours later after tribal elders intervened, a security official said Thursday.
An official with the force confirmed the kidnapping of the Hungarian who was traveling Thursday in a bus from el-Arish in north Sinai to Cairo, a regular trip members of the force make to the capital.
The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
The security official said the elders secured the release of the force member by mediating between the tribesman and the government. The kidnappers were demanding the release of a member of their tribe arrested earlier on drug-related charges. The official said authorities promised they would review the case of the arrested tribesman, but that they have not released him.
It is rare that members of the 12-nation force stationed in the Sinai are abducted by local tribesmen, although they have attacked the force’s buses and headquarters. The largest contingent in the Sinai force is American.
Bedouin tribesmen often briefly hold tourists to pressure the government in negotiations over the release of imprisoned relatives.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
British Government’s £15 Million Project to Support Palestinian Businesses
The British government is launching a £15-million plan to aid Palestinian businesses. UK International Development Minister Alan Duncan met Palestinian businessmen and women at the Hebron Chamber of Commerce this week to unveil the Palestinian Market Development Programme. The scheme is designed to support Palestinian firms in develop ing products targeted at new markets, expecting to generate at least £40 million in additional sales by 2019. Specific initiatives include providing grants, market analysis, commercial support and technical assistance…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Police Detain 5 Women at Jerusalem Holy Site Over Religious Rituals
JERUSALEM — Israeli police on Thursday detained five women at a Jerusalem holy site for performing religious rituals there that ultra-Orthodox Jews say are reserved for men.
The detentions come just a day after Israeli authorities proposed a compromise to defuse tensions over the issue of women’s worship at the Western Wall. The proposal, which still has to be approved by the government, envisions establishing a new section at the site where men and women can pray together.
About 120 women arrived Thursday morning for their monthly prayer service and police arrested five for wearing prayer shawls, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. He said an ultra-Orthodox man was also detained for burning a prayer book in protest.
The Western Wall, the only remaining part of the biblical Temple compound, is the holiest site where Jews can pray. It is currently divided into men’s and women’s sections. Orthodox rabbis, who control Israel’s religious institutions, oppose mixed-gender prayers.
If the new proposal by Natan Sharansky, chairman of the semi-governmental Jewish Agency, goes through, it would mark a significant victory for liberal streams of Judaism in their long quest for recognition.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Desert Sun Powers Oil-Rich Gulf Emirate
The world’s biggest thermal solar power plant has gone online in oil-rich Abu Dhabi. Shams 1 is the first plant of its kind in a desert region, providing power for thousands of homes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
John Kerry, Syria and That Old Feeling
by Diana West
I read this report and got that old feeling.
No, not that one — I got that old, Libya-Redux feeling that the air was going out of the room. That’s what happens whenever I see Uncle Sam stepping in to assist, support or enable the same forces of jihad that hit us right between the eyes on September 11, 2001. Only now we call it “Arab Spring.” When SecState John Kerry and British Foreign Minister Wm Hague meet with Ghassan Hitto, an American-citizen Muslim Brother and Hamas supporter now fronting the Syrian “opposition,” we should call it what it is: submission as the new normal, submission to the forces spreading Islamic law. If you don’t want to beat ‘em, join ‘em — or at least send them big guns. Maybe they’ll point them at Iran (could that possibly be the misbegotten “strategy”?).
So here we go again. Where we once fawned over Tunisia, Tahrir Square, and the Libya opposition, now we fawn over the Syria opposition, currently headed by Hitto. Why worry? After all, as a recent NBC headline described him, Hitto’s “a Texas straight-shooter.”
In fact, Hitto comes straight out of the US wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, as the Global Muslim Brotherhood Report makes clear.
The NBC story does finally mention the Muslim Brotherhood in relation to Hitto (barely), but let’s see how many paragraphs it takes.
The top of the story is pure happy talk, starting with the preposterous headline:…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Pork and Alcohol Banned on Dubai-Bound Qantas Flights
Accord of Australian carrier with Air Emirates on hub for Europe
(ANSAmed) — SYDNEY, APRIL 10 — Australia is divided over the consequences of a recent commercial agreement between national air carrier Qantas and Air Emirates. Qantas has moved its hub for Europe-bound flights from Singapore to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, ending a 17-year partnership with British Airways on connections between Great Britain and Australia.
As a consequence, Qantas had to remove all pork products from its menus and alcohol beverages, prohibited in Islam. It also introduced a typical Middle Eastern dish.
A spokesman for the CEO of Qantas, Alan Joyce, said the controversial decision to ban pork had a minimum impact on menus offered on flights, which often reflect the cultural influences of international destinations.
The agreement with Emirates includes the abolition of flights from Australia to Frankfurt and shared frequent-flyer miles. There will also be daily connections, served by Airbus 380 planes, between Melbourne and Sydney and London through Dubai.
The 10-year accord is part of a plan to re-launch Qantas which in 2012 announced its first annual losses since it was privatized in 1995.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Qantas Under Fire for Pork-Free Flights
Qantas has been copping flak on social media for its decision to remove food containing alcohol or pork on its new flights through Dubai. Although it is not uncommon for airlines to ditch pork from their menus when flying to and from Islamic counties, the decision by Qantas to go pork-free — a decision made out of respect for Islamic beliefs — has attracted a lot of strong comment. In a report carried by The Age, some of the less offensive comments on social media included the airline being referred to as “Al-Qantas” and “the flying Mosque-a-roo”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Mosque Conversion Raises Alarm
Christian art in Byzantine church-turned-museum is at risk after controversial court ruling
One of the most important monuments of late Byzantium, the 13th-century Church of Hagia Sophia in the Black Sea city of Trabzon, which is now a museum, will be converted into a mosque, after a legal battle that has dramatic implications for other major historical sites in Turkey. Many in Turkey believe that the Church of Hagia Sophia is a stalking horse for the possible re-conversion of its more famous namesake in Istanbul, the Hagia Sophia Museum (Ayasofya Müzesi).
For around 50 years, responsibility for the Church of Hagia Sophia in Trabzon has rested with Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The courts now accept the claim made by the General Directorate of Pious Foundations, the government body responsible for most of the country’s historical mosques, that this has been an “illegal occupation”. The court has ruled that Hagia Sophia is an inalienable part of the foundation of Sultan Mehmed II who first turned the church into a mosque after his conquest of the Empire of Trebizond in 1462.
“A building covenanted as a mosque cannot be used for any other purpose,” says Mazhar Yildirimhan, the head of the directorate’s office in Trabzon. He declined to speculate on whether this would mean covering up nearly half the wall space taken up with figurative Christian art, including the dome depicting a dynamic Christ Pantocrator. “There are modern techniques for masking the walls,” he says.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“Nebulous” Scenario Ahead of Malaysian Vote as Nationalism Outweighs Economy
Fr. Andrew Lawrence SJ points out that for the first time it is “very difficult” to predict the outcome of the polls. Ruling party’s hegemony at risk, resulting in promotion of populist policies to regain consensus. Christian vote, attentive to the fight against corruption, justice and freedom. Elections on 5 May and hopes for a “Malaysian Spring”.
Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews) — With only a few weeks to elections, scheduled for May 5, the scenario in Malaysia is bleak”, with the media — firmly in the hands of the executive — praising the outgoing government and the policies of the Prime Minister Najib Razak (National Front, Bn). It is “very difficult” to predict the outcome of the elections, but there are hopes the polls will lead to a true “Malaysian Spring”. This is according to Andrew Lawrence SJ., former editor of the Catholic Herald Malaysia. Speaking to AsiaNews the priest says issues related to nationalist propaganda will outweigh issues surrounding the economy and the country’s development.
On 3 April, the Prime Minister ordered the dissolution of parliament, paving the way for elections (13th ballot in the modern history), the Election Commission today ruled that the vote will be held on 5 May, with the beginning the election campaign scheduled for April 20. A session that promises to be uncertain and that, for the first time in 55 years, could see the end of the hegemony of the Barisan National (Bn).
The favorite remains the outgoing Prime Minister Najib Razak, who promises to fight corruption, reduce the cost of living and realize massive investments in infrastructure, including a high-speed link that will cross Borneo to reach Singapore. Recently, the government has also approved the distribution of support funds and subsidies to the poor, along with the increase of salaries for civil servants, the police and the military.
For critics these are all populist policies, to maintain control of the electorate and appease the opposition. The attempt at dialogue with the leaders of the Christian minority, which counts for 10% of the total population, also falls into this context: the attempts to archive past conflicts including the use of the word “Allah” to also define the Christian God. The main opponent of the outgoing government will be Ibhraim Anwar, who has finally overcome his problems with the law.
Stressing the attention of the Christian electorate, following the advice of the Catholic and Protestant leaders, Fr. Andrew Lawrence SJ confirmed to AsiaNews that the political picture is still somewhat “nebulous”. It is difficult to predict the outcome of the polls, said the priest, even if the ruling party “has put together all its resources and is positioned to win” and much will depend on the results that will emerge in the various constituencies. The government may be able to retain power “even with a minimal advantage,” he adds, but if this does not happen, and the result is different, we might perhaps “witness a true Malaysian Spring”.
Fr. Lawrence is convinced that economic issues “ cannot be an important issue “ in the election campaign, where prevailing issues are instead related to “the conservation of the Malay race” used by the government as a means to attract the support of the masses. And it is also for this reason, he adds, that have begun to donate “ more cash aid to the people. It is a form of bribery!,” accuses the priest, with a view buying votes that cannot benefit the nation. With regard to the vote of the Christian minority, Fr. Lawrence ensures that bishops and other Christian leaders have launched an awareness campaign, sending the faithful “pastoral letters calling on them to make a wise, just and ethical choice.” Fighting corruption and promoting good values ??, he concludes, are fundamental elements such as “justice and freedom” for all citizens. (DS)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India Aims to End Unlawful Detention of Muslims
Activists say many innocent young Muslims languish unnecessarily in Indian prisons for prolonged periods of time on charges of terrorism. The Indian government has announced plans to help them.
One midnight in July 2001 special branch police picked up Wasif Haider, 29, a Muslim sales manager of an American multinational firm from his residence in the north Indian city of Kanpur.
They tortured him in custody for three days before arresting him on charges of terrorism. Eleven cases, including rioting, waging war against the state and ferrying arms and explosives for terror attacks, were slapped against him. Haider was a Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist trained in Kashmir and had been involved in a bomb attack in Kanpur in 2000 — police claimed.
But all charges against the man fell apart in the court when a judge refused to accept the confessional video and written statements of Haider, observing that while in police custody, he might have faced coercion. In the key Kanpur bomb attack case, the court observed that “none of the witnesses were able to establish” that Haider had a hand in the attack. The court acquitted him in all cases, but not before he had languished 8 years in jail.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Premier Monti Suggests Relations Warming With India
After deaths on high seas, countries entangled in diplomatic row
(ANSA) — London, April 11 — Outgoing Italian Premier Mario Monti on Thursday suggested relations with India were warming amid a row over two Italian marines on trial there for homicide.
“India appreciated Italy’s decision to send the two marines to India, after the Italian government received certain assurances,” said Monti, speaking to journalists at a G8 summit of foreign ministers in London. Monti has been serving as interim foreign minister since Giulio Terzi resigned last month over the government’s decision to return Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone to India to face charges of killing two fishermen, Valentine (aka Gelastine) and Ajesh Binki, after allegedly mistaking them for pirates while guarding a mercantile ship off the Kerala coast in February 2012.
After a drawn-out diplomatic row, Rome agreed last month to hand over the men, whom India had temporarily paroled to vote in Italian elections, to Indian authorities. “The transparency of the Italian government has been appreciated as helpful to the course of this issue,” Monti said in London. Italy still contests India’s right to jurisdiction, given the incident took place in international waters, and has said it is open to third-party arbitration.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel Aims to Bolster Indian Economic Ties
German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a joint cabinet session Thursday as the European export power and the Asian giant seek to boost economic ties.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nepal Observes Horse Carnival to Tame Evil Spirit
KATHMANDU, April 11 (Xinhua) — When the last medieval king of Nepal Jay Prakash Malla started the horse carnival or “Ghode Jatra “ in the mid-18th century, its goal was to drive away an evil spirit called “Mapa.” Preserving the 250-year-old tradition, Nepal on Wednesday observed the “Ghode Jatra” amid a special ceremony in the presence of huge crowd in the same historical ground in Tundikhel.
As the myth goes,”Mapa,” the evil spirit, would make children seriously ill or eat them by casting black spell on them. As people became fed up, they called upon a priest for intervention. The priest, through special rituals, brought the demon under control, but could not kill it. The priest then tied the unholy spirit with mantras, covered it with an iron horse-shoe and buried it under a tree in central Kathmandu, now known as Tundikhel…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
‘Nobody Knows the Taliban Better Than Pakistan’
The chief of Pakistan’s right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami party Munawar Hasan told DW ‘nobody knows the Taliban better than Pakistan’ and that if his party succeeded in upcoming election, it would make peace with the militants.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A policeman has been shot dead while protecting a team of female polio workers in Pakistan, in the latest in a series of attacks on people connected to a UN-backed vaccination programme.
Recent months have seen a spate of deadly attacks on aid workers linked to the scheme — which has been condemned by some Islamic groups who claim it is intended to sterilise Muslim children — in Pakistan and in northern Nigeria.
No group has claimed responsibility for the latest attack in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province today, but suspicion has fallen on Islamic militants.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
China: Xi Stresses Hainan’s Development as Resort Island
HAIKOU, April 10 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for faster development of Hainan Province as an international resort island. Xi, also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks during an inspection tour from Monday through Wednesday of the island province in south China, where he chatted with fishermen returning from work in the South China Sea, visited a rose farm and a major cruise terminal, among other events…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: ** Disturbing Content **]
North Korea’s former top female spy has revealed how she was snatched from her family to serve the secretive state — then asked to blow up a civilian plane that killed 115 people.
Kim Hyun-hee, who tried to kill herself with poison after her capture by the South Koreans and later escaped the death sentence, spoke out to try to attack her former Communist government bosses as warmongers.
Speaking at a secret location in South Korea, the 51-year-old former terrorist said she believes all the latest threats from Pyongyang are nothing more than attempts to shore up support for the new young leader, Kim Jong-un.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
North Korea May Have Nuclear Missile Capability, U.S. Agency Says
A new assessment of North Korea’s nuclear capability conducted by the Pentagon’s intelligence arm has concluded for the first time, with “moderate confidence,” that the country has learned how to make a nuclear weapon small enough to be delivered by a ballistic missile.
The assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency, which has been distributed to senior administration officials and members of Congress, cautions that the weapon’s “reliability will be low,” apparently a reference to the North’s difficulty in developing accurate missiles or, perhaps, to the huge technical challenges of designing a warhead that can survive the rigors of flight and detonate on a specific target.
It is unclear whether other American intelligence agencies agree with the assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency, which has primary responsibility for monitoring the missile capabilities of adversary nations. In the case of Iraq, a decade ago, the agency was among those that argued most vociferously that Saddam Hussein had nuclear weapons.
| [Return to headlines] |
Canadian Accused of Ties to Al-Qaida Militants Serving 2 Years in Mauritanian Prison
NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania — An official in Mauritania says that a young Canadian man is serving two years in prison for his ties to al-Qaida’s north Africa branch.
Aaron Yoon is accused of having tried to leave Mauritania to head to al-Qaida-linked training camps in northern Mali, the official said Thursday.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to journalists.
A criminal court has convicted Yoon of having ties to a terrorist group and of posing a danger to the national security of Mauritania.
Authorities say the 24-year-old Yoon had come to Mauritania to study the Quran and was later recruited by radical Islamic militants to go to Mali.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Humanity’s Closest Ancestor Was Pigeon-Toed, Research Reveals
The most complete investigation of the anatomy of what may be the immediate ancestor of the human lineage is now shedding light on secrets about how it might have behaved, researchers say.
For instance, the human ancestors may have moved in an entirely new way, with a somewhat pigeon-toed gait with a twisty trunk, the researchers added.
The first specimens of the extinct species Australopithecus sediba were accidentally discovered by the 9-year-old son of a scientist in 2008, in an area in South Africa named the Cradle of Humankind, one of the richest fossil sites in Africa. Australopithecus means “southern ape,” while sediba means “fountain” in Sotho, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, due to how scientists hint the human lineage might spring from this species.
Au. sediba lived nearly 2 million years ago, about the time when scientists think the human lineage Homo originated. It possessed a bizarre jumble of human and more apelike traits, perhaps revealing this might be the species from which humans’ branch of the family tree originated.
“These skeletons are just interesting, wonderful blends of characteristics,” researcher Steven Churchill, an evolutionary anthropologist at Duke University, told LiveScience.
The findings, detailed in six papers in the April 12 issue of the journal Science, firm up the idea that Au. sediba was one of humanity’s closest ancestors.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kenya: Obama Plans University in Siaya County
SIAYA county is set to benefit from a University named after US President Barrack Obama following a proposed plan by a Kenyan-US based Professor. Professor Michael Ikua Muiga who was the Policy Staff Member of President Barack Obama, re-election campaign 2012, said plans are underway to construct the University at Nyang’oma Kogelo, Siaya County.
Muiga said they are currently sourcing for a 10 acres piece of land to expedite its construction before the end of president Obama’s tenure in office. “We are soon opening a branch in Nairobi but we want the main campus be located at Kogelo village where Obama traces his roots,” added the Professor…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Buhari Backs Amnesty for Boko Haram
Abeokuta — Former Head of State and National leader of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd.) has thrown his weight behind the proposed amnesty for Islamic sect, Boko Haram, commending the Federal Government for setting up a committee that will look into the feasibility of granting amnesty to the sect’s members. This came as the United States described the step taken by the Federal Government as a positive development and promised to work with government on the issue…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Suspected Islamic Extremists Kill 4 Involved in Education Programs for North Nigeria Students
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Officials say suspected Islamic extremists shot and killed four people involved in education programs in northeast Nigeria, including a man in charge of a program to feed poor students. The killings happened Monday on the outskirts of Bama in Borno state, a region long under attack by a radical Islamic extremist network known as Boko Haram. Authorities say the four were killed as they tried to flee the gunmen…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Brazil: Google ‘Removes Word Favela’ From Rio Maps
Google has reportedly removed the word “favela” from some of its maps of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil after pressure from the city hall and tourist boards.
Hundreds of the shanty-town communities sprawl over the hillsides and in undeveloped parts of the city, and were previously identified on maps using the Portuguese word “favela”. In recent years, safety in favelas has improved as police have taken control away from drug gangs though criminal organisations still maintain a hold on some of the slums.
But since 2009, the Mayor of Rio and tourism company Riotur have campaigned to have the word removed from the maps to reduce the prominence given to the communities. They argued that favelas with only a small number of inhabitants were given greater importance on the maps than conventional neighbourhoods such as Cosme Velho and Humaita. In response, Google has apparently removed the word “favela” from some of the areas such as Favela Sumaré and Favela Morro do Chacrinha in the north of the city…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Dino-Killing Asteroid Sparked Global Firestorm
The huge asteroid impact thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago may have painted the sky a blazing-hot red and sparked a cataclysmic global firestorm, researchers say.
Most scientists believe the mass die-off known as the K-T extinction — which saw up to 80 percent of all species vanish — was caused by an asteroid or comet that carved out the 112-mile-wide (180 kilometers) Chicxulub crater in what is today Mexico.
Researchers who created a new model of the disaster say the impact would have sent vaporized particles of rock high above the planet’s atmosphere, where they would have condensed into sand-grain-sized bits. Falling back to Earth, the hot ejected rock material may have dumped enough heat in the upper atmosphere to cause it to bake at 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit (1,482 degrees Celsius), turning the sky red for several hours.
This infrared “heat pulse” would have acted like a broiler oven, igniting tinder below and cooking every twig, bush, tree and basically every living thing not shielded underground or underwater, the researchers say.
“It’s likely that the total amount of infrared heat was equal to a 1 megaton bomb exploding every four miles over the entire Earth,” study researcher Douglas Robertson, of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, or CIRES, said in a statement.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Boat Carrying 90 Immigrants Intercepted Off Sicily Coast
Second vessel with 75 passengers to be towed to shore
(ANSAmed) — AGRIGENTO, APRIL 10 — A boat carrying 90 migrants was intercepted 100 nautical miles off the coast of the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, port authorities said Wednesday morning.
The Italian coast guard has also sent three boats to assist another vessel with 75 people aboard, including two women and a child, spotted 40 nautical miles off the coast.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Brazilian State Declares Immigration Emergency
BRASILIA, April 11 (Xinhua) — The Brazilian government on Wednesday called an emergency meeting to discuss measures to curb the influx of hundreds of illegal immigrants along its northern border. Counter-measures have not come from the meeting yet, which included the ministers of Justice, Foreign Affairs, Labor and Social Development. The heads the presidency’s Civil House and Brazil’s Federal Police also attended.
Earlier, the Acre state, the most affected by immigrants, declared a “social emergency” to get the government to help stem the tide of immigrants and allocate funds to aid those already in Brazil. State officials say there is not enough space or water to meet the refugees’ needs, and authorities fear the conditions could lead to a health crisis. Nilson Moura, justice and human rights secretary of Acre, said that more than a thousand migrants have entered the state in the past few days alone, from Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Bangladesh and Senegal…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: ** Disturbing Content **]
A sex pest was banned from every swimming pool and spa facility in Britain today after ‘violating’ a woman in a steam room.
Syrian national Ali Rashid, 44, kissed his victim ‘from her ear down to her collar bone area’ as she tried to relax at a four-star hotel.
When she backed off, he squashed her into the corner of the room, put his hand on her thigh and stroked her face.
The terrified woman reported the incident to hotel staff, saying she felt ‘trapped and disturbed’.
When quizzed by police, Rashid attempted to turn the attack around and claimed: ‘I no kiss her, she kiss me’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tens of Thousands Rally for US Immigration Reform
Tens of thousands of immigrants and activists have rallied across the US to support a bill that would contain a long-term path to citizenship for most of the country’s 11 million undocumented migrants.
In support of an upcoming Senate bill, tens of thousands of protestors rallied from Atlanta to San Francisco Wednesday, calling for comprehensive changes to immigration policy and an end to deportation. The largest crowds convened on the US capital, Washington DC.
The highly anticipated Senate bill is now expected to be unveiled as early as Monday, Democrat Robert Menendez said at a rally outside the US Capitol Wednesday. Menendez is one of eight senators — four Democrats and four Republicans — tasked with creating the bill.
Several members of the so-called Gang of Eight have said the bill would contain a long-term path to citizenship for most of the country’s 11 million undocumented migrants.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A Nigerian groom picked Celine Dion’s song The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face to walk down the aisle for a sham marriage to a woman he had met only once before.
Leeds University masters student Jayeola Abiola, 29, first saw Portuguese ‘bride’ Vania Pinheiro-Fernandes, 29, at the dress rehearsal and struggled to pronounce her name.
But clearly confident he would get away with the con, he planned for the Canadian singer’s love song to be blasted out in Hull’s Guildhall to cement their bogus life together.
However, UK Border Agency officers had been tipped off and he was arrested before he even made it into the grand 19th century building.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Is Roe v. Wade the Law of the Land?
Since the Supreme Court passed down their landmark Roe v. Wade opinion on January 22, 1973, approximately one and a half million unborn children have been sentenced to death each year in America. People who maintain the legality of abortion frequently claim “Roe v. Wade is the law of the land,” but this is contrary to what “the supreme Law of the Land” actually states and consequently, abortion is not legal by any stretch of the Constitution.
Article I, Section 1, Clause 1 of the US Constitution states, “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.”
Given that “All legislative powers” are “vested” in the Congress of the United States, then no legislative powers are vested in either the Executive or Judicial branches. The judiciary, without any legislative power, cannot make law. It is for this reason all decisions passed down from the court, since its establishment under the US Constitution, begin with the header, “Opinion of the Court.” Understanding this fact makes it clear their decision in Roe v. Wade is only their opinion applicable to that case and is not law.
In making their landmark decision, the 1973 Supreme Court overturned approximately 100 years of established, accepted, and upheld statute law. Until 1973, anti-abortion statutes had been on the law books for over a century in many States. Connecticut, in 1821, was the first State to enact anti-abortion legislation and prior to that, abortion was most likely not prevalent enough to merit State statute law, but it had been a part of common law prior to America’s founding.
After the 1973 court passed their landmark decision, every State, in fear of losing a protracted court battle, repealed their anti-abortion statutes as if the Supreme Court’s opinion was established law.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Most progressives say they’re atheists. They are great enough fools to think they inhabit a religious vacuum. They look down their noses at honest pagans and their wooden idols. But to see whether they really are atheists, or just another kind of pagan, let’s quote from one of the holy writings of progressive paganism — the opening paragraph of “Humanist Manifesto II.”
“…Using technology wisely, we can control our environment, conquer poverty, markedly reduce disease, extend our life-span, significantly modify our behavior, alter the course of human evolution and cultural development, unlock vast new powers, and provide humankind with unparalleled opportunity for achieving an abundant and meaningful life.”
No wonder pagans are offended. The most shameless used car salesman would be embarrassed to offer you a pitch like this. And yet the document has been signed by a virtual army of scientists, academics, artists, and politicians, including dozens of Nobel Prize winners — progressives all, and every last one of them a superstitious, credulous knucklehead.
This is what makes progressives pagans: they put themselves, and the work of their hands, in place of God.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: First Arrests for ‘Hate Crime’ Against Emo
The first ever arrests have been made on allegations of a hate crime against an Emo after a 16-year-old was attacked in Greater Manchester.
Four days after area’s police force announced that they would treat attacks on people of alternative sub-cultures as hate crimes they received their first complaint. A 16-year-old boy, who describes himself as an Emo, was assaulted early on Monday evening in Ashton town centre, the police confirmed. A 14-year-old boy and a 44-year-old man were arrested on suspicion of assault and have since been bailed. It was reported as a hate crime, and will be investigated as such, a spokesperson said. “Greater Manchester Police has received its first report of alternative sub-culture hate crime following an assault in Tameside,” they added. Greater Manchester became the first force in the UK to treat the offences in such a way…
[JP note: If the Emo had been Tommy Robinson, there is little doubt perhaps that the police would have arrested the Emo for disturbing the peace.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
A lesbian businesswoman is helping homosexual learner drivers dodge old-school driving instructors by opening Britain’s first ‘gay driving school.’
Karis Smith, 27, started Gay Driving School Manchester after friends complained about jokes being made by instructors about their sexuality when having lessons.
She said stories of instructors referring to pupils as ‘faggots’ or grilling transgender youngsters on whether they are a boy or a girl had left her horrified.
And she said some gay leaner drivers pretended to be heterosexual because they felt uncomfortable revealing their homosexuality to a stranger.
Now Miss Smith’s solo business is creating a stir amongst Manchester’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community with her promise to make pupils feel ‘comfortable’ over their sexuality when behind the wheel of her Ford Focus.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Earth as a Mosque: Environmental Islam
Ibrahim Abdul-Matin’s book, “Green Deen: What Islam Teaches about Protecting the Planet” begins, “the Earth is a mosque, and everything in it is sacred.” The quote is based off a hadith (a report of the Prophet Muhammad’s sayings, acts, approvals and disapprovals) which quotes the Prophet as stating when the time comes for daily prayer, it is acceptable to pray anywhere on Earth since, as mentioned above, the Earth itself is a mosque. Beyond determining protocol for fulfilling the daily prayer obligation, this hadith has been one of the foundations of the environmental movement within Islam; as Abdul-Matin relates, “Islam teaches a deep love of the planet, because loving the planet means loving ourselves and loving our Creator. That is to say, Islam teaches that we are all One.”…
[JP note: The Essence of the All is the Godhead of the True. The vision of visions heals the blindness of sight.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
It’s Fall on Titan: Icy Cloud Marks Saturn Moon’s Season
Images and data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft show that an icy cloud is growing over the south pole of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, hinting that a seven-year fall has taken hold on the celestial body’s southern hemisphere.
Researchers don’t know what the budding cloud is made of, but the same icy haze has been clearing over Titan’s north pole, where it is springtime.
“We associate this particular kind of ice cloud with winter weather on Titan, and this is the first time we have detected it anywhere but the north pole,” Donald E. Jennings, of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a statement. The research by Jennings and his colleagues is based on observations with the composite infrared spectrometer (CIRS) on the Cassini probe, which has been studying Saturn for nearly a decade.
Titan is the second-largest moon in the solar system and the only one with clouds and a dense, planet-like atmosphere. Earlier observations by Cassini showed that warm air from Titan’s southern hemisphere was rising high in its atmosphere and then being dumped over the moon’s north pole, where it cooled and descended, forming an icy cloud. (The pattern is similar to the Hadley cell on Earth, which transports heat from the tropics to the subtropics.)
The new Cassini observations suggest this large-scale pattern of air flow over Titan has reversed direction, and winter is coming for the moon’s southern hemisphere.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Viking Quartz navigation – been known about for a very long time
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visby_lenses