Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/9/2013

Metal thieves in Germany caused 17,000 trains to be delayed last year. The rising price of copper has made the theft of cables and other fixtures lucrative for thieves, despite the risk of electrocution.

In other news, Ahmadis, Shiites, and Christians took to the streets of Jakarta in Indonesia, demanding religious freedom.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, KGS, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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

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

Financial Crisis
» Bank Loans in Italy Down 1.3% in February
» Der Spiegel Suspects Deposits Haircut in Greece
» Italians’ Spending Power Crumbles in Recession
» Italian Households’ Spending Power Fell 4.8% in 2012
» Italy: Fiat Industrial Meets Targets, Eyes Merger With CNH
» Italy: Confindustria Calls for Simpler Govt Reimbursement Methods
» Italy: Two More Suicides Linked to Economic Woes
» OECD: Slovenia May Need More to Shore Up Banks
» Spanish PM Rajoy Wants an ECB Like US Federal Reserve
 
USA
» 7-Year-Old Nabbed on Felony BB Gun Charges
» Feral Pigs Going Hog-Wild in US
» Media Misrepresenting Judicial Confirmations
» Meet Your Future Enemy: Pentagon Developing Humanoid Terminator Robots That Will Soon Carry Weapons (Video)
» Met Getting Cubist Art Valued at $1 Billion in ‘Transformative’ Gift
» Newtown Killer Refused to Identify His Gender: ‘I Choose Not to Answer’
» School: Americans Don’t Have Right to Bear Arms
» Six Alinsky Rules That Explain Obama’s Words and Deeds
» Suspect Detained in Lone Star College Campus Stabbing
» Tennessee First State to Establish Balance of Powers Committee
» US Navy Presents New Laser Cannon
» What’s With This Weird in-Flight Incident Over the Film ‘Alex Cross’?
» Why is Yeshiva University’s Cardozo Law School Honoring Former President Carter?
 
Europe and the EU
» Flu Vaccine Linked to High Risk of Narcolepsy in Those Under 30: Study
» ‘France is in Need of a Dose of Thatcherism’
» France: Bordeaux Vineyards to Dry Up by 2050: Study
» Golden Dawn Clash With Roma During Raid on Kalamata Hospital Days After Video Challenge
» Italy: Berlusconi Says Bersani ‘Finally Open to Meeting’
» Italy: Probe Launched Into Rome Vote-Buying Allegations
» Italy: Roma and Sinti Delegation Meets With House Speaker
» Italy: Prodi Still Bookies’ Tip for President
» Italy: Fiat Will Back RCS Capital Increase, John Elkann Says
» Italy: Grillo Demands Commissions, Accuses Parties of ‘Coup’
» Metal Thieves Delay 17,000 German Trains
» Netherlands: Former Civil Servant Faces 15 Years in Jail for Spying for Russia
» No UK Taboo: Unlike in America, Some Britons Happy to Publicly Celebrate Former PM’s Death
» Remembering the Iron Lady
» Scotland: Businesswoman, 27, Was ‘Taped to a Chair and Tortured for Two Weeks Before Being Murdered by Sadistic Gang’
» Space Station May Test ‘Spooky’ Entanglement Over Largest Distance Yet
» Swiss Banks Keen to Avoid Tax Cheats: Experts
» The Good Life
» UK: A Prime Minister and a Party That Are Still in Thatcher’s Shadow
» UK: Hacked Off: I Am Going to Have Such Fun With These People
» UK: Left’s Chorus of Hatred: Champagne in the Streets, Students Union Cheers and Vile Internet Taunts
» UK: Landlord Left to Clear Up House of Horrors After Benefits Mother and Her Four Children Leave Behind 50 Bags of Rubbish
» UK: Margaret Thatcher: A Champion of Freedom for Workers, Nations and the World
» UK: Nurse: ‘Girl Encouraged Sex’
» UK: Sadistic Couple Lured Girl, 14, To Hotel and Turned Her Into Their Sex Slave Over 24 Hours After Meeting Her in Internet Chat Room
» UK: Sex Suspect Denies Knowing Alleged Victim Was 14 Years Old [Bullfinch Trial]
» UK: The Pygmies Who Brought Mrs Thatcher Down
» UK: Woman Cyclist is Killed After She is Crushed by Tipper Truck in Rush Hour Horror
 
North Africa
» Algeria: Foreign Capital Wary of 51/49 Rule
» Gagging Journalists and Comedians in the Countries of the Arab Spring
» Special Ops Veterans’ Group Calls for Select Probe of Benghazi Attack
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Hamas-Backed Cops in Gaza Shave Heads of Young Men With Long Hair in New Islamic Crackdown
» Natural Gas Deal With Israel’s Leviathan Field Puts Shell’s Woodside Pty. Investment in Play
» The Two State Solution: History’s Negation
 
Middle East
» Iran Celebrates National Nuclear Day With Two New Projects
» Iraqi Al-Qaida and Syria Militants Announce Merger
» Syria: At Least 15 Killed in Damascus Suicide Bombing
» Turkish Airlines to Buy 95 Planes From Boeing
 
Russia
» Samara: The Russian City Being ‘Eaten Alive’ By Giant Sinkholes
 
South Asia
» Ban Ki-moon Hopes for ‘Harmonious Resolution’ In Marines Row
» Bangladesh: Tension Flares Over ‘Blasphemy’ And Free Speech
» India: Tamil Nadu: More Anti-Christian Violence: Pentecostal Church Torched
» Indonesia: Hundreds of Christians, Ahmadis and Shias Take to the Streets in Jakarta for Religious Freedom
 
Far East
» North Korea Severs Final Link With South in New Escalation of Nuclear Crisis
 
Australia — Pacific
» Court Told Man Was Preparing for War Before Arrest
 
Immigration
» Congress Repeating the Second Basic Law of Stupidity
» Immigrants Target Greece’s Sea Border
 
Culture Wars
» The Psycho-Therapeutic School System: Pathologizing Childhood
 
General
» Man Wiggles Rat’s Tail Using Only His Thoughts
» Shodan: The Scariest Search Engine on the Internet
» What is Sustainability?

Bank Loans in Italy Down 1.3% in February

Number of people failing to make loan payments increases

(ANSA) — Rome, April 9 — The Bank of Italy said Tuesday that the number of bank loans granted in February was 1.3% down on the same month in 2011.

It is an alarming sign as attempts to pull the Italian economy out of its longest recession in 20 years will be hampered if households and businesses have trouble obtaining credit.

It said loans to non-financial companies were down 2.6% in February compared to the same month in 2011 and down 0.7% for households. It added that the percentage of bank loans in which clients failed to meet repayments increased to 18.6% in the 12 months up to January, compared to 17.5% in January.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Der Spiegel Suspects Deposits Haircut in Greece

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, APRIL 9 — After the suspension of a planned merger of the National Bank of Greece and Eurobank because of capitalization problems and opposition from Greece’s international lenders, the German magazine Der Spiegel said it believes the Greek government is planning to confiscate some of the deposits in banks as happened on Cyprus. The magazine — as GreekReporter website writes — said the decision raised suspicion that in an economic emergency that the government would go after bank accounts. Tax revenues are far off expectations despite big tax hikes as part of austerity measures that include pay cuts and slashed pensions. The Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) said it didn’t want the merger because it would create the largest lender in the country, with some 170 billion euros, and be too big if there were solvency problems, as happened on Cyprus. Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras and a spokesman for Prime Minister Antonis Samaras have assured that despite the suspension of the merger bank accounts are safe and won’t be touched. There was no response on the Spiegel report.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italians’ Spending Power Crumbles in Recession

Higher taxes, inflation eat into salaries

(By Paul Virgo) (ANSA) — Rome, April 9 — National statistics agency Istat released a series of alarming figures about the state of Italy’s recession-hit economy on Tuesday, including data that showed Italians’ spending power crumbled by almost 5% last year.

Istat said households’ spending power fell 4.8% in 2012 with respect to 2011, adding that the decline was even worse in the last quarter, when it was down 5.4% on the same period in the previous year. Factors include government tax hikes eating into disposal income and price rises outstripping increases in salaries to cause real incomes to fall. Last week, Istat said Italy’s tax burden hit a record high of 52% in the fourth quarter of 2012, up 1.5% on the same period in 2011.

The average burden for the whole of 2012 also reached a record of 44%, up 1.4% on 2011.

On Tuesday, meanwhile, Istat said hourly wages rose 1.4% in February with respect to the same month in 2012.

But with inflation at 1.9%, this meant that real incomes fell by 0.5%, as prices rose by more than salaries. The agency provided a modicum of consolation on Tuesday, saying that the drop in real income was less than in previous months.

The tax burden has risen after hikes contained in austerity measures by outgoing Premier Mario Monti’s emergency government to steer Italy out of the centre of the eurozone crisis.

These measures eased concerns on the international money markets about Italy’s ability to weather the crisis but they also deepened the country’s recession and pushed unemployment up to record highs of well over 11%.

Close to three million people are out of work and the jobless levels for the young are particularly alarming.

Earlier this month Istat said 37.8% of young people were jobless in February.

On Tuesday Istat also released figures that showed how lower purchasing power had translated into drops in saving and consumer spending The agency said that consumer spending was 1.6% lower in 2012 than in 2011 and that Italians’ propensity to save money had fallen to its lowest level since records on this began in 1990.

It said 8.2% of Italian households’ earnings were saved in 2012, down 0.5% on 2011. There was also bad news on Tuesday from the Bank of Italy, which said the number of bank loans granted in February was 1.3% down on the same month in 2011. This is a worrying sign as attempts to pull the Italian economy out of its longest recession in 20 years will be hampered if households and businesses have trouble obtaining credit. The central bank said loans to non-financial companies were down 2.6% in February compared to the same month in 2011 and down 0.7% for households. It added that the percentage of bank loans in which clients failed to meet repayments increased to 18.6% in the 12 months up to January, compared to 17.5% in January.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italian Households’ Spending Power Fell 4.8% in 2012

Higher taxes, inflation outstripping salaries, both factors

(ANSAmed) — Rome — The spending power of households in recession-hit Italy fell 4.8% in 2012 with respect to the previous year, Istat said on Tuesday.

Factors include government tax hikes eating into disposal income and price rises outstripping increases in salaries to cause real incomes to fall. The national statistic agency said the fall in spending power was even higher in the last quarter of 2012, when it was down 5.4% on the same period in 2011. It added that consumer spending was 1.6% lower in 2012 than in 2011 and that Italians’ propensity to save money had fallen to its lowest level since records on this began in 1990.

It said 8.2% of Italian households’ earnings were saved in 2012, down 0.5% on 2011.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Fiat Industrial Meets Targets, Eyes Merger With CNH

Net profit of 921 million euros in 2012, up 31%

(ANSA) — Turin, April 8 — Fiat Industrial, the holding company of the non-automotive assets of Fiat SpA, recorded a net profit of 921 million euros in 2012, up 31% over the previous year, according to results presented at a shareholders’ meeting on Monday. Revenue grew by 6.2% to reach 25.8 billion euros while trading profit was up 23.3% to 2.07 billion euros on the back of continued strong performance from US agricultural and construction equipment manufacturer CNH Global NV. Consequently the company is to pay out a total dividend of 275 million euros, translating into 0.225 euros per ordinary share. “In 2012, its second year after splitting from (Fiat) Auto, Fiat Industrial has met all its targets,” said Chairman Sergio Marchionne.

The CEO of automobile manufacturer Fiat SpA on Monday also confirmed 2013 targets of a 5% increase in revenues, a trading margin of between 8.3% and 8.5% and net industrial debt of between 1.1 billion euros and 1.4 billion euros. Fiat in 2010 spun off Fiat Industrial to hold its non-automotive activities, which include the production of trucks, commercial vehicles and buses, under the Iveco marque, as well as the non-automotive sector of its Powertrain subsidiary that develops engines and transmissions.

This operation freed Fiat to prepare for a future merger with Chrysler, that it acquired control of in 2009 with an initial 20% stake that has since expanded to almost 60%. The two automakers are expected to merge before the end of 2015.

Fiat Industrial became operational on January 1, 2011. Its main assets are truck and tractor makers Iveco and CNH, of which it owns around 88%.

CNH is a world leader in the production of farm and construction equipment that it markets worldwide under the brands Case and New Holland.

A merger with CNH could be concluded this summer, Marchionne told shareholders on Monday. “The merger operation will be subject to the necessary extraordinary assemblies and it will probably become effective in the third quarter of this year,” said Marchionne. “The move will bring to a close a long process of simplification launched over two years ago.

“With the merger Fiat Industrial and CNH will become a totally integrated, multinational group that is able to compete in the capital-goods sector at the highest level.

“It will be one of the biggest and strongest groups in the sector, present in markets throughout the world and finally free to create its own destiny”. Shares in the new unit will trade in New York, with a possible secondary listing on the Milan Stock Exchange.

“Fiat Industrial shareholders will receive one NewCo (new company) share for each Fiat Industrial share held and CNH minority shareholders will receive 3.828 NewCo shares for each CNH share held,” Marchionne said. “NewCo will adopt a loyalty voting structure to promote a stable shareholder base by rewarding long-term share ownership.

“From a strategic viewpoint, we consider this step vital to the future growth, simplification, autonomy and efficiency of the Group”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Confindustria Calls for Simpler Govt Reimbursement Methods

Plan to free 40 billion euros ‘unworkable’

(ANSA) — Rome, April 9 — The process for businesses to claim 40 billion euros in long outstanding government payments is too complicated and must be revised, Italy’s big-business organization said Tuesday.

The decree unlocking the payments “is a very important measure,” but it’s too complex, Marcella Panucci, director-general of Confindustria, said in an interview on Italy’s Channel 5.

Problems are created by the many layers of bureaucracies involved between different levels of government, said Panucci.

Confindustria has proposed simplified procedures, “and we hope that Parliament accepts these corrections… the priority is to ensure that the money arrives immediately to enterprises, since the situation in the real economy is dramatic and we can not wait”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Two More Suicides Linked to Economic Woes

Factory worker near Belluno, carpenter on Sardinia add to toll

(ANSA) — Rome, April 9 — Two men committed suicide in northern Italy and on Sardinia Tuesday amid a rising toll of deaths linked to economic woes.

A man afraid of losing his job in an eyewear factory near Belluno and a carpenter whose business was in trouble in central Sardinia took their own lives.

Last week three people — a couple and the woman’s brother — committed suicide in Marche, gaining front-page headlines.

Businesses are closing and unemployment at a record high in Italy’s worst recession for 20 years.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

OECD: Slovenia May Need More to Shore Up Banks

by Leos Rousek

The cost of fixing Slovenia’s banking sector could be significantly higher than estimated, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Tuesday.

Slovenia’s government may exceed its estimate of the €1 billion ($1.3 billion) needed to boost the capital of the country’s ailing banks because it has based its cost estimates on a “most likely already outdated” analysis, the OECD said.

“The authorities evaluate recapitalization needs at up to 3% of GDP (€1 billion),” the OECD said in its latest report on Slovenia. “Yet, capital needs are uncertain and could in fact be significantly higher.”

The biennial report was presented jointly with the Slovenian government.

Slovenia has recently raised fears that it may become another candidate for an international bailout and international bond markets have priced the country’s debt at levels above that of Spain and other struggling euro-zone countries.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Spanish PM Rajoy Wants an ECB Like US Federal Reserve

To be able to inject cash into economy, foster recovery

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, APRIL 8 — The Spanish government would like the European Central Bank’s mandate to be extended to enable it to inject cash directly into eurozone economies to foster recovery, similar to the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of England. Spain’s PM Mariano Rajoy made this comment in a press conference after a Madrid meeting on Monday with Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron.

Rajoy said that Europeans should ask themselves whether the ECB should have similar powers to those of other central banks in the world and noted the importance of the Bank of Japan’s decision to bring in a program worth billions of euros to stimulate the Japanese economy. The conservative premier said that the EU should introduce reforms just as nations do in order to improve the countries’ finances and foster growth.

The Spanish prime minister called for an “urgent and major” effort by the EU to help its members, since — “as seen in the case of Portugal” — the harsh austerity measures approved by countries in southern Europe are “insufficient” to guarantee funding for member states. According to the leader of Spain’s Popular Party, the EU should be “strong, flexible and have at its disposition instruments that other nations in the world can call on”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

7-Year-Old Nabbed on Felony BB Gun Charges

Sam Grant nearly celebrated his eighth birthday party in jail.

The North Carolina boy had been charged with two felony counts of discharging his BB gun.

The parents of a then-seven-year-old North Carolina boy are beyond angry after their son was charged with two felony counts of possessing a BB gun. Just moments before the child was expected to answer to the allegations before a Catawba County judge — the charges were dropped…

Robbins said his son is a good boy who made a bad mistake.

“My wife and I were just completely torn up over the whole thing,” he said. “My son — he didn’t understand the severity of the charge but he understood the severity of what he did.”

And he was especially angry at local officials.

“It was infuriating what they wanted to do to that child,” he said. “This whole gun control thing is just nuts. For them to use a minor child — to prove a point and make an example — for certain groups — is just crazy.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Feral Pigs Going Hog-Wild in US

Feral pigs are becoming a wild problem in the United States.

The wild hogs can now be found in three-fourths of U.S. states — and their populations are growing in many areas — and are estimated to cause $1.5 billion in damages each year, the Associated Press reports. There are currently more than 5 million wild hogs in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

By all accounts, the animals are quite intelligent. They also sport razor-sharp tusks and can be aggressive toward people and pets. They have a remarkable knack for causing trouble, ranging from eating threatened species like dune lizards and spreading invasive weeds to carrying and transmitting more than 30 different kinds of diseases to humans, livestock and other wildlife, according to the AP. Feral pigs’ habit of digging and rooting around in the ground also tears up gardens and crop fields, and creates holes in roads that serve as hazards for cars and tractors.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Media Misrepresenting Judicial Confirmations

The path to rule by executive order by the Obama Administration runs directly through the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. “There are few things more vital on the president’s second-term agenda,” Constitutional Accountability Center president Doug Kendall told The Washington Post last week. “With legislative priorities gridlocked in Congress, the president’s best hope for advancing his agenda is through executive action, and that runs through the D.C. Circuit.”

Currently, the D.C. Circuit, which is considered one notch below the U.S. Supreme Court and deals with many challenges to executive branch actions, has four openings. It currently has four Republican appointees and three Democrats. This is the same court that ruled in January that President Obama lacked the authority to make the three recess appointments he made to the National Labor Relations Board.

As the White House looks to pack the court with those favorable to its causes, so too the media swallows whole the Administration’s agenda.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Meet Your Future Enemy: Pentagon Developing Humanoid Terminator Robots That Will Soon Carry Weapons (Video)

(NaturalNews) Watch the video embedded below: It reveals the “Petman” humanoid robot funded by the Department of Defense. Like something ripped right out of a sci-fi movie, the robot sweats to regulate body temperature, and it can be dressed in chemical suits, camo or other uniforms to resemble humans. The picture you see at the top of this article is take from the actual humanoid robot currently under development.

Have no illusions about where this is headed: The Pentagon wants to develop and deploy a robotic army of autonomous soldiers that will kill without hesitation. It’s only a matter of time before these robots are armed with rifles, grenade launchers and more. Their target acquisition systems can be a hybrid combination of both thermal and night vision technologies, allowing them to see humans at night and even detect heat signatures through building walls.

Watch these videos to see just how far this technology has already come:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Met Getting Cubist Art Valued at $1 Billion in ‘Transformative’ Gift

In one of the most significant gifts in the history of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the philanthropist and cosmetics tycoon Leonard A. Lauder has promised the institution his collection of 78 Cubist paintings, drawings and sculptures.

The trove of signature works, which includes 33 Picassos, 17 Braques, 14 Légers and 14 works by Gris, is valued at more than $1 billion. The gift was approved by the Met’s board at a meeting Tuesday afternoon.

Scholars say the collection is among the world’s greatest and fills a glaring gap in the Met’s holdings, which have been notably weak in early-20th-century art.

“In one fell swoop this puts the Met at the forefront of early-20th-century art,” Thomas P. Campbell, the Met’s director, said. “It is an unreproducible collection, something museum directors only dream about.”

[Return to headlines]

Newtown Killer Refused to Identify His Gender: ‘I Choose Not to Answer’

(CNSNews.com) — Adam Lanza, who murdered 20 first graders and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. on Dec. 14, refused to identify himself by a gender when registering at college, according to documents obtained by CBS News.

“I choose not to answer,” Lanza said when asked his gender on a form for Western Connecticut State University.

“We got some intriguing new information and a strange new picture of Lanza today,” anchor Scott Pelley said on the April 1 edition of CBS Evening News.

“His college records were delivered to us after we requested them under the Connecticut open records law,” said Pelley. “Lanza enrolled in courses at Western Connecticut State University. When asked his gender he wrote, ‘I choose not to answer.’ When asked to describe himself, he wrote again ‘I choose not to answer.’“

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

School: Americans Don’t Have Right to Bear Arms

The father of a Connecticut child is furious after discovering that his son’s school is teaching students that Americans don’t have a Second Amendment right to bear arms.

“I am appalled,” said Steven Boibeaux, of Bristol. “It sounds to me like they are trying to indoctrinate our kids.”

Boibeaux’s son is an eighth grader at Northeast Middle School. On Monday his social studies teacher gave students a worksheet titled, ‘The Second Amendment Today.’

[Return to headlines]

Six Alinsky Rules That Explain Obama’s Words and Deeds

In spite of the media’s conspicuous silence on the matter, it is no secret that Saul Alinsky’s manual for “community organizers” — Rules for Radicals — exerted an immeasurable influence over the world’s most well recognized community organizer, President Barack Obama. Thus, to understand why Obama does what he does, we need to be familiar with the vision that Alinsky delineated in his book.

Below are six ideas, six “rules,” that the Godfather of community organizing packs between the covers of Rules, ideas that Obama’s imbibed hook, line, and sinker.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Suspect Detained in Lone Star College Campus Stabbing

At least 15 people were injured and a suspect was in custody after a stabbing at the Cy-Fair campus of Lone Star College Tuesday morning.

The suspect is Dylan Quick, 20, a law enforcement source told the Chronicle.

The stabbings happened about 11:20 a.m. at the campus at 9191 Barker Cypress, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputy Thomas Gilliland, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office, said one suspect was detained after he was wrestled to the ground by a student.

Sheriff Adrian Garcia initially said in a statement that the suspect was a 21-year-old student.

“The entire campus is being searched for evidence,” the statement said.

[Return to headlines]

Tennessee First State to Establish Balance of Powers Committee

The United States Patriots Union and The North American Law Center (NALC) have been working since the 2011 state legislative sessions to enact a broad-based State’s Rights bill titled The Balance of Powers Act. The model legislation has been introduced in numerous states in 2011, 2012 and 2013, passing nowhere until last week, where Tennessee became the first state to establish a Balance of Powers Committee in the state legislature.

Due to massive daily overreaches and abuses of federal authority over numerous federal administrations, none more egregious than the anti-American Obama administration, and congressional republicans totally missing in action as it relates to their primary job of keeping the executive branch in constitutional check, it has become necessary for the people, via their states, to enforce the Constitution and Bill of Rights from the state level.

The Tennessee State Legislature will soon begin reviewing and dealing with federal abuses of power from the newly formed Balance of Powers Committee. The people must support these brave representatives of the people, as they take a firm constitutional stand for the people.

Before the people are forced to fight in the streets to defend their natural rights, protected by the Constitution and Bill of Rights, State governments simply must stand up to an abusive federal government on behalf of the people, via peaceful legitimate governmental processes.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

US Navy Presents New Laser Cannon

The US Navy has announced it is preparing to roll out a new sea-based laser weapon capable of shooting down surveillance drones. But a congressional report warned it may not work in the fog.

The US Navy announced late on Monday that it had developed a new laser weapon that would be deployed in 2014, two years ahead of schedule. It would be fitted aboard the USS Ponce, an amphibious transport ship retrofitted as a waterborne staging base.

“The future is here,” ONR official Peter Morrision said, while Chief of Naval Research Admiral Matthew Klunder said the cost of one blast of “directed energy” could be less than $1.

“Compare that to the hundreds of thousands of dollars it costs to fire a missile, and you can begin to see the merits of this capability,” he said in a US Navy statement, adding that they had posted a video of a laser test on YouTube.

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) and Naval Sea Systems Command successfully tested high-energy lasers against a moving target ship and a remotely piloted drone.

“The solid-state laser is a big step forward to revolutionizing modern warfare with directed energy, just as gunpowder did in the era of knives and swords.”

A March 14 report from the non-partisan Congressional Research Center described the new weapon as a potential game-changer in naval warfare, but it also noted some drawbacks, including the potential it could accidentally hit satellites or aircraft.

Weather also affects lasers, the report added. “Lasers might not work well, or at all, in rain or fog, preventing lasers from being an all-weather solution,” it said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

What’s With This Weird in-Flight Incident Over the Film ‘Alex Cross’?

You have to keep in mind that this is an account from the passengers themselves, provided to The Atlantic and then later recounted by Fox News, but it sounds plausible enough in an age of heightened security awareness but little common sense in the application of said awareness.

I’ll summarize before quoting part of the passenger’s missive. A couple was flying United Airlines with two young children, ages 8 and 4, when the in-flight movie began. It was Alex Cross, which has a lot of violence and sexual content. The couple asked if the screen could be folded up so their kids couldn’t see it as it was clearly inappropriate for them to be watching. The flight attendants and the purser claimed this was impossible, and then added they wouldn’t do it if they could because it would prevent the passengers behind them from seeing the movie. The passengers behind them then piped up that they agreed with the couple, and that folding up the screen would be just fine with them. But the crew still refused.

Undaunted, the passengers asked for the name of the pilot and wanted to know if he had the authority to address the situation. Here’s what happened next, again, according to the passengers:

“More than an hour later the captain, [name withheld for now], announced that due to “security concerns”, our flight was being diverted to Chicago’s ORD. Although this sounded ominous, all passengers, us included, were calm. After landing a Chicago police officer boarded the plane and, to our disbelief, approached us and asked that we collect our belongings, and follow her to disembark. The captain, apparently, felt that our complaint constituted grave danger to the aircraft, crew and the other passengers, and that this danger justified inconveniencing his crew, a few of whom “timed out” during the diversion, and a full plane of your customers, causing dozens of them to miss their connections, wasting time, precious jet fuel, and adding to United’s carbon footprint. Not to mention unnecessarily involving several of Chicago’s finest, two Border Protection officers and several United and ORD managers, and an FBI agent, who all met us at the gate. After we were interviewed (for less than 5 minutes), our identities and backgrounds checked, we were booked on the next flight to BWI, and had to linger in the terminal for hours with our exhausted and terrified little boys.

“Everyone involved: The FBI agent, the police officers, United employees, the passengers around us and (we were told) some of the crew, were incredulous, and explicit in their condemnation of Captain [XX]’s actions. However, even United’s Area Supervisor, although cordial and helpful, was powerless to override the Captain’s decision that we be removed from the plane.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Why is Yeshiva University’s Cardozo Law School Honoring Former President Carter?

The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (Cardozo Law School) at Yeshiva University (YU) is in the midst of a controversy over an award to former President Jimmy Carter by the student editorial board of The Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution (CJCR) that was announced for Wednesday, April 10th. If you visit the CJCR website, it touts itself as:…

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]

Flu Vaccine Linked to High Risk of Narcolepsy in Those Under 30: Study

(NaturalNews) Children are not the only ones at high risk of developing the chronic neurological disorder narcolepsy in conjunction with the pandemic swine flu vaccine Pandemrix, according to a new study. The latest among several in recent years to link the two, the new paper found that people age 20 and younger have a roughly tripled risk of developing narcolepsy if they get the H1N1 jab, while people 30 and younger have about a doubled risk…

But Persson’s study is not the first to pin Pandemrix as a trigger of narcolepsy. Similar research published just a few weeks ago in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) just a few weeks ago concluded that getting the swine flu vaccine increases ones risk of developing narcolepsy by as much as 1,400 percent (http://www.naturalnews.com). Similarly, a review published in the journal PLoS ONE identified a 1,700 percent increased risk of narcolepsy in those vaccinated for swine flu (www.naturalnews.com/035501_vaccines_narcolepsy_children.html).

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

‘France is in Need of a Dose of Thatcherism’

After the death of Margaret Thatcher, there has been much talk in France about the impact of her economic policies on the UK. Paris based Professor of Economics, Tomasz Michalski tells The Local why France could do with its own dose of Thatcherism.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

France: Bordeaux Vineyards to Dry Up by 2050: Study

A new report published this week spells bad news for lovers of French wine. The study predicts global warming will nearly wipe out production in the traditional regions of Bordeaux and the Rhône Valley by the year 2050.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Golden Dawn Clash With Roma During Raid on Kalamata Hospital Days After Video Challenge

Members of Kalamata’s Roma community in the southern Peloponnese on Monday night nearly came to blows with a group of ultranationalist Golden Dawn members who were at the local general hospital demanding identification papers from private nurses to determine whether they were Greek or foreign, local media reported on Tuesday.

Golden Dawn, which was elected into Parliament in June on a rabid anti-migrant platform, has been raiding hospitals around the country in a bid to locate foreign workers and apply pressure on hospital administrations to ban them from working.

On Monday, a group of Roma men had brought a 22-year-old member of their community into the Kalamata general hospital with injuries, which, they said, had been the result of a racially-motivated attack. When they saw the Golden Dawn representatives, which included MP Dimitris Koukoutsis, they accused them of inciting the attack and nearly came to blows with the far-rightists.

Hospital security staff called in the police to help break up the scuffle.

The altercation, meanwhile, comes days after a leading member of a Roma settlement in Komotini in northern Greece challenged Golden Dawn to open combat following statements by a member of the ultranationalist group that the Roma are not Greeks.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Italy: Berlusconi Says Bersani ‘Finally Open to Meeting’

Date not yet announced as pressure mounts to forge coalition

(ANSA) — Rome, April 8 — Ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi of the center-right People of Freedom (PdL) party on Monday said that Pier Luigi Bersani of the center-left Democratic Party (PD) “was finally open to meeting” amid the country’s political impasse.

“The date isn’t fixed,” said Berlusconi, who reiterated his call to form a broad coalition in parliament. “Everyone knows my and the PdL’s position: we must give the country a stable and strong government,” he said. Berlusconi has insisted on forming a broad coalition with the center-left since elections late February produced no clear winner. Bersani has repeatedly shrugged off alliance offers, despite growing criticism from his opponents and many media commentators, as well as causing friction within the center-left PD. PD rising star and touted future leader Matteo Renzi has accused Italian parties of “time-wasting” while the country suffers. Even the veteran pro-PD founder and editorialist of left-leaning daily La Repubblica, Eugenio Scalfari, scolded Bersani for his apparent obstinacy in a leader comment Sunday, saying that bid was “evidently exhausted”.

In reply Monday, Bersani wrote to La Repubblica saying Italy needs a stable government able to respond quickly to its economic crisis, rather than a body that is constantly focused on its own survival. “Our country is really in trouble,” Bersani said in the letter. He condemned the continued uncertainty around Italy’s future government as taking a cruel toll on economic prospects but repeated his disdain for a coalition with the centre-right led by Berlusconi. “They multiply the conditions of extreme malaise and worsen a radical drop in confidence,” said Bersani in his letter. “We want a government, of course. But a government that can act unequivocally…in the common life of the citizens. “Not a government that lives in acrobatics”. But working in partnership with Berlusconi is an option favoured by a growing number of Bersani’s PD, and not just Renzi. The PD is obliged to team up with the media magnate-turned-politician, they say, because it won a majority in the lower house of parliament in late-February elections but failed to win a majority in the equally powerful Senate. Bersani argues that he can gamble on securing a Senate confidence vote for a minority ‘government of change’ with policies gauged to appeal to comedian Grillo’s 5-Star Movement — despite the comedian-turned-politician’s blanket refusal to deal with either the PD or PdL, which he damns as equal culprits in a malfunctioning system that has delivered debt, corruption and recession. The latest PD figure to come out in favour of a right-left coalition was Dario Franceschini, former leader of the more centrist Daisy party that formed the PD with the ex-Communist Democratic Left in 2007. “I really can’t see any alternative,” Franceschini told reporters.

The PD will try to win more public support next Saturday with an anti-poverty rally announced Monday.

Meanwhile, despite reports that Berlusconi was cooling to the alliance idea, the PdL maintained Monday that Bersani “desperately” needs the centre-right’s support to tackle Italy’s economic woes. “The priority for the PdL is to help Italy to exit quickly from the crisis by supporting businesses and families,” by working with Bersani, said Barbara Saltamartini, a member of the PdL national directorate. Senior PdL figures over the weekend slammed Bersani’s “overweening pride” in allegedly putting personal ambition before the country’s needs. Bersani denied such claims in the La Repubblica letter, reiterating that he was “always ready” to stand aside if a more accommodating figure emerged. Italian President Giorgio Napolitano appointed 10 ‘wise men’ to propose possible consensus policies including a much-needed electoral reform after a first government-formation bid by Bersani flopped 10 days ago. The two panels of institutional and political-economic experts are likely to produce their proposals Thursday, sources close to the panels said Monday. But even the head of the institutional reform panel, Constitutional Court chief Valerio Onida, has come out publicly as saying their work is just a diversion and there is no plausible way out of the post-election stalemate. Onida was forced to apologise after falling victim to a prank radio phone call and candidly voicing his deep skepticism about the utility of the wise men’s work. A successor to Napolitano, due to be named by mid-May, may well dissolve parliament and call another snap vote, pundits say, despite Napolitano’s best efforts to avoid this.

Prolonged political stability is being closely watched by the financial markets, ever ready to pounce, and Italy’s eurozone partners who are worried about any further pressure on the bloc after the recent Cyprus banking crisis.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Probe Launched Into Rome Vote-Buying Allegations

Ethnic Roma among those allegedly bribed for support

(ANSA) — Rome, April 8 — Allegations of vote-buying during Sunday’s Democratic Party (PD) primary for the mayoral election in Rome are under investigation.

A probe was launched Monday into complaints that someone paid for votes in the primaries that saw Senator and surgeon Ignazio Marino become the centre-left candidate for Rome’s mayor.

He beat five other candidates in Sunday’s primary leading to elections scheduled for May 26 and 27.

Rome’s deputy mayor Sveva Belviso confirmed the investigation into the complaints of vote-buying that began immediately after the primaries.

Over 100,000 people showed up at the polls, including alleged long queues of ethnic Roma at polling stations. Marino denies any wrongdoing.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Roma and Sinti Delegation Meets With House Speaker

Minority representatives ask for end to segregation

(ANSA) — Rome, April 8 — A delegation of Roma and Sinti met with Italian House Speaker Laura Boldrini on Monday in Rome on the UN-established international day celebrating the minority group that has been defined as Europe’s most discriminated. Representatives from eight Romani families living in Italy met with the former spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and spoke about their living conditions and situation in Italy.

“We have two requests — that we are recognized officially as one of Italy’s ethnic minorities and that an alternative to the system of segregated camps as housing be eliminated,” the delegation said.

“I know how ancient your history is, as well as how it is marked by tragedies and attempts at extermination. More needs to be done to make your history known…and to overcome prejudice and discrimination,” Boldrini said.

International Roma and Sinti Day has been celebrated yearly on April 8 since 1979 and was created by the UN to highlight the past and present struggles of the ethnic minority.

Italy has continuously been criticized by human rights watchdogs like Amnesty International for ongoing discrimination against the Roma people’s rights to education, housing, health care and employment.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Prodi Still Bookies’ Tip for President

Letta, D’Alema, Bonino, Amato, Marino also touted

(ANSA) — Rome, April 9 — Ex-premier Romano Prodi is still Italian bookmakers’ top tip to become next Italian president in voting starting April 18.

Despite the opposition of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party, the second-biggest parliamentary force, former centre-left premier Prodi is quoted at 1.65 to 1 by Bet2875.

Berlusconi’s long-time right-hand man Gianni Letta is second at 1.85 despite the opposition of the Democratic Party, which emerged from February elections as the top party but did not get a majority in the Senate, leading to a hung parliament.

Former PD leader Massimo D’Alema is a 2-to-1 tip, Agipronews reported.

D’Alema has been cited as acceptable by Berlusconi but he does not enjoy wide popularity among centre-left rank and file.

Former European human rights chief Emma Bonino of the Radical Party, who would be Italy’s first woman president, has come back up in the betting, to 2.1, followed closely by another former centre-left premier Berlusconi has said he might accept, Giuliano Amato, at 2.2.

Ex-Senate Speaker Franco Marino, a centre-lefter with broader appeal, is on 2.45 to 1.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Fiat Will Back RCS Capital Increase, John Elkann Says

Restructuring plan for Corriere della Sera’s parent ‘credible’

(ANSA) — Turin, April 9 — Fiat SpA Chairman John Elkann on Tuesday said Fiat would participate in the 400-million-euro capital-increase operation being organized by Italian publishing company RCS, owner of national daily Il Corriere della Sera, among other companies.

On Tuesday, Elkann, one of the heirs to the Fiat empire and the controlling Agnelli family’s public face, said “Fiat will adhere to the capital increase (because) the plan is credible”.

However, Elkann didn’t commit to participating in an eventual purchase of unsold shares.

“It’s very premature, we’ll see ahead when there’s a better idea of the amount of unsold shares”.

Fiat is one of several members of a shareholder pact that controls 58% of the Italian publisher, which faces bankruptcy unless it successfully raises new capital.

Other leading shareholders include merchant bank Mediobanca, fashion entrepreneur Diego Della Valle (majority owner of the Tod’s Group) and the Benetton family.

According to press reports, not all members of the shareholder pact agree to the restructuring plan which would be put in place following the capital increase.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Italy: Grillo Demands Commissions, Accuses Parties of ‘Coup’

M5S leader says it’s a ‘lie’ that new govt needed

(see related stories) (ANSA) — Rome, April 9 — 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Beppe Grillo on Tuesday demanded parliament’s new commissions be set up immediately and accused the established parties of staging a “coup”.

He said that the claim that the commissions cannot be set up until a new government is sworn in was a “lie” used by the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) to stop M5S introducing reforms that would truly change the country. The comedian-turned-politician said these included the application of an ineligibility law that would exclude Berlusconi from politics, a conflict-of-interest law and a bill to scrap public funding of political parties with retroactive effect.

“The coup started years ago,” Grillo wrote on his popular blog, which gave birth to the Internet-based M5S in 2009.

“It’s a coup in broad daylight to delegitimize and empty parliament. Italy is no longer a parliamentary republic, as stipulated in the Constitution, but a party republic…

“There is no Constitutional impediment or impediment of any type that stops them (the commissions) being set up, but the parties don’t want them.

“The reason is simple. Now there’s a newcomer to parliament, an unforeseen event, the M5S, which wants to launch a series of laws as soon as possible that are like garlic for vampires to the PD and the PdL”. He said that if the commissions are not set up Italy risked a year of parliamentary paralysis.

“The country is collapsing and legislative activity is on hold. It’s suicide,” said Grillo, adding that the parties should be put in the hands of special commissioners if the commissions are not launched.

“Parliament must go back to being sovereign”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Metal Thieves Delay 17,000 German Trains

Metal thieves targeting Germany’s railway Deutsche Bahn delayed 17,000 trains last year by stealing among other things copper cable worth around €17 million.

“The thieves are risking their lives for a few euros and do not only cause great material damage for Deutsche Bahn but create problems for above all our customers,” Gerd Neubeck, the rail operator’s head of security told the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung.

The paper on Tuesday reported figures showing the damage caused by metal thieves who target railway tracks and overhead cables for the copper, which is easy to sell for cash.

The profits to be made are increasingly attractive as commodity prices have been rising fast. The paper said experts estimated the cost of such thefts across Europe could be nearly €9 billion.

Deutsche Bahn got together last summer with energy producer RWE, Deutsche Telekom and the Association of German Metal Dealers to form a security association to swap ideas and experiences as well as information about new thefts.

The Süddeutsche Zeitung reported figures collected by this group, showing that last year metal thieves struck Deutsche Bahn 2,700 times, around 4,000 hours of train delays. Energy firm RWE was also hit 423 times last year, causing €2.1 million worth of damage.

In one case in the Rhineland a tram driver found himself stranded in the middle of town because the overhead cables were missing.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Netherlands: Former Civil Servant Faces 15 Years in Jail for Spying for Russia

A 61-year-old former consular worker at the Dutch foreign affairs ministry faces 15 years in jail for selling state information to Russia since 2008.

The public prosecution department said on Tuesday that Raymond P should be jailed for 15 years for selling political and military secrets relating to the EU and Nato to a couple in Germany, who then passed it on to the Russian secret service.

He is also charged with corruption, money laundering and illegal possession of a firearm, the department said in a statement.

The couple in Germany, known by the names Andreas and Heidrum Anschlag, were actually Russian spies who posed as a normal family, having arrived in the country at the end of the 1980s, pretending to be Austrians of South American origin, according to earlier media reports.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

No UK Taboo: Unlike in America, Some Britons Happy to Publicly Celebrate Former PM’s Death

LONDON — While some Britons mourned the passing of Margaret Thatcher, others raised glasses of champagne in impromptu street parties. And Judy Garland’s song “Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead” is surging up the UK singles charts.

A Guardian newspaper cartoon depicted Thatcher descending into hell, the Socialist Worker front page said “Rejoice,” and a movie marquee was rearranged to read: “Margaret Thatchers Dead LOL.”

Many societies soften their take on divisive leaders as they age — notably the United States, where even unpopular presidents are warmly eulogized in death — but emotions in Britain are as raw as they were when the Iron Lady was in power.

Yes, Thatcher was an unusually divisive figure blamed by many for crippling Britain’s labor unions and sabotaging workers’ rights, but the willingness of small groups of Britons to publicly mock a longtime national leader hours after her death reflects a British contempt for power and its practitioners that many believe stands in contrast to attitudes in the United States.

There were no similar scenes of jubilation after the 1994 death of Richard Nixon, a polarizing figure who is the only U.S. president to resign from office, said Robert McGeehan, an associate fellow at the Institute for the Study of Americas.

“This really shows the dissimilarity between the two countries,” said McGeehan, a dual national who worked with Thatcher in academia after she left office. “One does not recall, with the passing of controversial figures in the U.S., anything remotely resembling the really crude approach we’ve seen over here,” he said. “There is a class ingredient here that we simply don’t have in America. They like to perpetuate this; the bitterness goes from father to son.”

In contrast, he said, Nixon — disgraced by the Watergate scandal and facing impeachment — eventually rehabilitated his public image and was treated as a respected elder statesmen by the time of his death.

There are key differences between the two political systems, despite their common roots. In Britain, the prime minister is not the head of state — a position filled by the monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, who is also the head of the Church of England — while in the U.S. the president fills the dual role as head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Remembering the Iron Lady

Confession time: The grocer’s daughter was the only world leader to whom I ever sent a Valentine’s Day card.

I did so in 1980, just a few months after she began her eleven-year run as the United Kingdom’s only female prime minister (1979-1990). There was nothing romantic about it. It was simply a gesture of friendship across an ocean to someone — a kindred heart and spirit — who so clearly understood the dangers posed at that time by an assertive, expansionist Soviet empire that had just invaded Afghanistan. Mrs. Thatcher was just the kind of friend that the US needed at that time. I was surprised, and humbled, when I received a gracious acknowledgment of my card from one of the PM’s secretaries.

Lady Thatcher, who passed away Monday at age 87, helped to define her era. During her eleven years at 10 Downing Street, she was one of those commanding presences about whom it could be said, “Tell me what you think of Margaret Thatcher, and I’ll tell you who you are.”

Those who believed then or believe now in traditional values — private property, voluntary cooperation, hard work receiving its deserved reward, individual rights, principled opposition to suffocating statism (the welfare state at home, Marxism-Leninism abroad) — admired, even adored, this one-of-a-kind leader. Leftist ideologues, comprehending the existential threat she posed to their beliefs and impotent in the face of her moral and intellectual clarity, futilely denigrated her.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Scotland: Businesswoman, 27, Was ‘Taped to a Chair and Tortured for Two Weeks Before Being Murdered by Sadistic Gang’

[WARNING: ** Disturbing Content **]

Two men have been jailed for life for abducting, torturing and murdering businesswoman Lynda Spence, who disappeared two years ago.

Colin Coats and Philip Wade taped the financial adviser to a chair in a flat in Ayrshire, in Scotland, in April 2011 and assaulted her every day for more than a fortnight, then killed her.

Her body has never been found.

Trial judge Lord Pentland said Coats was the ‘prime mover’ behind the 27-year-old’s kidnapping and that he is convinced of his ‘devious and cruel personality’.

Coats and Wade, both 42, forced Ms Spence into a car in Glasgow, on April 14 2011 and drove her to West Kilbride, Ayrshire, where friends David Parker and Paul Smith let them in to Parker’s flat in Meadowfoot Road…

It became clear during the trial that Ms Spence dreamed up fictitious characters who were supposedly in charge of a large-scale land deal at Stansted Airport, said to be ‘worth millions’.

Ms Spence strung Coats along for the best part of a year, promising him a return of more than £3million when the deal went through. He asked for it in overseas bearer bonds as a way of evading UK tax.

She came up with the bonds but they were worthless, nothing more than a novelty forged on fake Danish government-headed paper.

It was Ms Spence’s financial dealings with Coats that eventually led to her brutal and untimely death.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Space Station May Test ‘Spooky’ Entanglement Over Largest Distance Yet

“Spooky” quantum entanglement connects two particles so that actions performed on one reflect on the other. Now, scientists propose testing entanglement over the greatest distance yet via an experiment on the International Space Station.

Until now, entanglement has been established on relatively small scales in labs on Earth. But now physicists propose sending half of an entangled particle pair to the space station, which orbits about 250 miles (400 kilometers) above the planet.

“According to quantum physics, entanglement is independent of distance,” physicist Rupert Ursin of the Austrian Academy of Sciences said in a statement. “Our proposed Bell-type experiment will show that particles are entangled, over large distances — around 500 km — for the very first time in an experiment.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Swiss Banks Keen to Avoid Tax Cheats: Experts

Amid a massive scandal involving France’s former budget minister and an undeclared Swiss bank account, Swiss banks are more eager than ever to kick out tax cheats and clear their names, bankers and industry experts say.

Tax evasion has become “a real problem for Swiss banks, because it is damaging their reputation” an analyst with a large Zurich-based bank told AFP, requesting anonymity.

“A few years ago, the banks saw taxation as the client’s problem, but today, that has changed. It has become the bank’s problem,” he added.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

The Good Life

Conviction: Thatcher and Reagan convinced millions that they were fighting for the good life. And they delivered

Margaret Thatcher’s death has touched such a nerve because her passing takes place in the shadow of mediocrities like David Cameron who talk a great deal but say nothing at all, whose preferred form of communication is to avoid controversy. Likewise so many American conservatives turn to memories of Reagan because when they turn toward the marble mecca of D.C., all they see from their party are former conservatives scurrying to evolve into blithering idiots in time for the next election.

The missing element is conviction. When conservatives remember Thatcher and Reagan, they hear the echoes of clear and principled messages. Neither of them were perfect as politicians, but their rhetoric was perfect because they knew what they believed, said it clearly and colorfully and enjoyed themselves doing it.

Modern conservative parties eschew that kind of plain talk. They flee from principle selecting candidates who speak as indirectly as possible and mean as little of what they say as they can get away with. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But no cause is advanced in the course of these evolutions from communication to obfuscation.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: A Prime Minister and a Party That Are Still in Thatcher’s Shadow

by Paul Goodman

David Cameron’s well-judged tribute to Margaret Thatcher won’t make the coming days any less difficult for him. For although he will have a certain ceremonial position during the coming week, and a certain status as the leader of the party she once herself led, he also has certain difficulty: namely, that he is dwarved by her giant shadow. This would be true of any imaginable Conservative leader. But it is accentuated by a single fact. She won three elections. He hasn’t — yet — won one, and it may never happen…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Hacked Off: I Am Going to Have Such Fun With These People

by Andrew Gilligan

The other week I wrote a piece detailing how Hacked Off, the group shrilly campaigning for a controlled press, had achieved their goal by “using all the red-top tricks they claim to hate — broad-brush condemnations, simplistic arguments, distorted facts, behind-the-scenes political deal making, celebrity stardust and the emotive deployment of victims.” I also described how, as well as helping victims of press abuse, Hacked Off wants to “force the press to serve defined social and political objectives — at the expense, if necessary, of the right to free expression.”

Hacked Off’s celebrity supporters reacted in characteristically calm and measured fashion. “Wow, Andrew Gilligan still knows how to write lies,” hissed Stephen Fry. No actual lies were cited, you understand, but for the kind of people who support Hacked Off, any fact with which they disagree is self-evidently false, and soon to be eliminated by their new “voluntary independent self-regulator.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Left’s Chorus of Hatred: Champagne in the Streets, Students Union Cheers and Vile Internet Taunts

[WARNING: * Disturbing content* ]

Baroness Thatcher’s death unleashed a wave of vitriol and hatred from the Left.

The first of several planned ‘Thatcher death parties’ across the country began last night with more than 200 revellers gathering in Brixton, south London.

They danced the conga, drank champagne and chanted: ‘Maggie, Maggie, Maggie — Dead, Dead, Dead.’

[…]

The Scottish parliament caused outrage by refusing to mark Baroness Thatcher’s death by flying its flags at half mast.

[Comment: Communists and useful idiots showing their true nature.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Landlord Left to Clear Up House of Horrors After Benefits Mother and Her Four Children Leave Behind 50 Bags of Rubbish

[WARNING: * Disturbing content* ]

A landlord spent nearly a year trying to evict his tenants — and this was the appalling mess they left behind.

A mother and her four children had lived in the house owned by Jagjit Singh in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, for two years but she had not paid the £550-a-month rent since last May.

The family finally moved out of the property after a lengthy eviction battle but Mr Singh, 53, was horrified to find piles of bin bags, litter and dirt after he regained access to the house.

Mr Singh claims the fight to get his tenants out of his house in the Horninglow area of the town has cost him more than £5,000 in missed rent payments and £650 in solicitor’s fees, and he says he will need to spend about £2,000 to clean it up and make repairs.

He says the family, with children aged from about 10 to 17 years old, had their rent paid by housing benefit, which is usually paid directly to landlords.

‘The lady stopped paying rent last year, and I’ve been trying to get her out ever since. I had to go to court to get an eviction notice.’

He said a court had ordered the tenant to pay back the missed payments, but his solicitor advised him he had no chance of seeing his money again.

Mr Singh said: ‘It has been left absolutely ruined. There has been a lot of damage done…’

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Margaret Thatcher: A Champion of Freedom for Workers, Nations and the World

Charles Moore, Baroness Thatcher’s authorised biographer, analyses her personal strengths — and her weaknesses.

Margaret Thatcher loved her country. Like Charles de Gaulle in France, she had a certain idea of it. This idea was forged by a God-fearing, hard-working provincial childhood and by the Second World War. She believed in our strenuous virtues. The British, to her, were brave and free and unique. When, during the Falklands crisis, she suddenly found war leadership thrust upon her, she quoted Shakespeare: ‘‘Nought shall make us rue if England to itself do rest but true.’’ She wanted Britain — and especially England — to be true to itself…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Nurse: ‘Girl Encouraged Sex’

A MARRIED male nurse accused of rape today said a 16-year-old overdose patient forced herself on him in a hospital toilet.

Oliver Balicao, who has two children aged seven and nine, admits sleeping with the depressed girl after she was admitted for a paracetamol overdose…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: Sadistic Couple Lured Girl, 14, To Hotel and Turned Her Into Their Sex Slave Over 24 Hours After Meeting Her in Internet Chat Room

[WARNING: ** Disturbing Content **]

A young sadistic couple acted out dark sexual fantasies on a 14-year-old girl after grooming her on internet chat rooms, a court heard today.

Married engineer Christopher Zeb, 26, and his deviant mistress Poppy Knight, 22, blindfolded, bit and bruised their teenage victim in a seedy 24-hour sex session in a hotel.

The schoolgirl, whose name police found in a document in Zeb’s home entitled ‘Slaves In Training’, told her mother she was going to stay with a schoolfriend before catching a train to Manchester and spending the night with the couple.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Sex Suspect Denies Knowing Alleged Victim Was 14 Years Old [Bullfinch Trial]

IT is “inconceivable” a man did not know the girl he was having sex with was 14, the Old Bailey heard this afternoon.

Defendant Mohammed Hussain told the jury he had sex with the girl about five times from early 2011 but said she had told him she was 17. Hussain is one of nine men to deny involvement in a child sex exploitation ring in Oxford. He faces three charges of sexual activity with a child…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

UK: The Pygmies Who Brought Mrs Thatcher Down

Politics attracts the ambitious, and there is nothing wrong with ambition. Mrs Thatcher had it and she respected it in others.

But what was incomprehensible to her was ambition devoid of a purpose beyond its own fulfilment.

This, in her view, summed up several of those with whom she crossed swords, but above all Michael Heseltine.

Heseltine, supported by Geoffrey Howe and Nigel Lawson, were the key figures in that sordid business. But apart from their dislike of the prime minister and degrees of enthusiasm for Europe, the three main figures that ended the Thatcher era had nothing in common.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

UK: Woman Cyclist is Killed After She is Crushed by Tipper Truck in Rush Hour Horror

A cyclist died after colliding with a lorry during rush hour in front of horrified commuters in central London today.

The emergency services arrived within three minutes of the accident but the cyclist, who was in her mid thirties, was pronounced dead at the scene in Victoria at 8.25 am.

The bicycle was thought to have caught under the wheels of the construction lorry as the cyclist and the driver both turned left…

Mayor Boris Johnson joined the calls for greater safety for vulnerable cyclists.

He said today that he wants to ban HGVs from the capital unless they are fitted with extra safety measures, including ‘skirts’ and special mirrors.

Last year a total of 14 cyclists died in accidents in London.

A study by Transport for London found that although lorries only make up just five per cent of traffic, they are responsible for half of all cyclist deaths.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Algeria: Foreign Capital Wary of 51/49 Rule

Algeria wants WTO access, but must liberalize its economy first

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS- Algeria’s 51/49 joint venture ownership rule and its intellectual property regulations remain obstacles to its joining the World Trade Organization (WTO), officials said at the 11th round of negotiations for accession ending April 4.

The 51/49 rule ensures that management of joint ventures with foreign investors remains in Algerian hands, and while foreign companies have not so far been deterred from entering into the profitable Algerian public works sector, it could drive away investors wary of non-liberalized, state-managed markets, analysts said. During the April 2-4 round of negotiations, the Algerian delegation met with member state representatives from Argentina, Australia, Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway, Turkey, and the US, and signed bilateral agreements with Cuba, Brazil, Switzerland, and Uruguay.

Since it was set up in 1995, the working group in charge of Algeria’s accession to the WTO has held 10 formal and two informal meetings. Another round of negotiations could be held in the fall, APS news agency quoted Algerian Trade Minister Mustapha Benbada as saying.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Gagging Journalists and Comedians in the Countries of the Arab Spring

The Arab Journalists Union reports continued threats, arrests, investigations and targeted killings against intellectuals, comedians, and reporters. The worst cases are in Islamist-ruled Tunisia and Egypt. Egyptian journalist André Azzam looks at the situation of post-Arab spring media. The Muslim Brotherhood wants to take away Egyptians’ sense of humour.

Cairo (AsiaNews) — Governments in countries affected by the Arab spring are trying to gag the free media that emerged following the revolutions of 2011. In recent months, there has been a spate of arrests, acts of intimidation, and death threats against journalists, comedians, writers and intellectuals, in Tunisia, cradle of the revolt movement, and Egypt. The free media point the finger at governments led by parties affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, Ehnnada in Tunisia and the Justice and Freedom Party in Egypt, which after riding the revolutionary wave now use the same methods of censorship as the regimes swept away by people’s desire for greater freedom.

Yesterday, the Arab Journalists Union (AJU) met in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, where it slammed Arab governments that limit freedom of information with legal action that verge on the dictatorial.

The AJU noted that many young reporters working in Tunisia and Egypt have been prosecuted and imprisoned solely for criticising the ruling Islamist political establishment, which has instead given ample leeway to Salafi-controlled networks and television channels.

In Tunisia, after the death of Chokri Belaid, leader of the secularist camp, hundreds of journalists, writers, intellectuals and professionals received arrest warrants or legal complaints.

Groups affiliated with Ennahda have apparently drawn up “death lists” with the names of “overly” critical reporters.

However, the most egregious cases have occurred in Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood has targeted the free press, as well as satirical programmes created following Mubarak’s fall.

A few days ago, news of the arrest and subsequent release on bail of showman Bassem Youssef was front-page news around the world. His crime was to poke fun at President Mohamed Morsi and the sermons of Salafi imams, who after decades of censorship are ubiquitous on dozens of satellite channels.

Egyptian journalist André Azzam told AsiaNews that unfortunately “Youssef is not the only case of censorship in Egypt. Satire, current affairs programmes and entertainment shows are a breath of fresh air, pure oxygen for Egyptians eager to breathe free after 40 years of dictatorship.”

“We must not forget the three main demands of the January 2011 revolution were bread, freedom and social justice,” Azzam noted. And “Bassem Youssef is something very special,” he added, “because his programme al Bernameg is based solely on comedy, on having fun. With his biting wit, the former cardiologist reflects one aspect of the Egyptian soul, its sense of humour.”

Quick with jokes (nokat) and anecdotes, he helps people overcome the most difficult moments of their lives. Like many of his colleagues, “Youssef never attacks people or try to tear them down. He laughs at their failings, provides viewers with a moment of escape whilst helping them look differently at the situation of our country.”

For Azzam, Egyptians need such characters to boost their courage in a situation of rising tensions, as evinced by the recent wave of Islamist attacks against Copts that left several dead and scores injured. In addition, as the reporter points out, many other celebrities from the entertainment industry have also faced threats, arrests, trials and murders.

They are Ibrahim Issa, founder of the popular weekly Al-Dustour; Amr Adib, a well-known TV anchorman who created and hosts of El Qahira El Yawm talk show; Wael al Ibrashi, the popular face of current affairs programme The Truth, on Dream TV, a private channel; Yousri Foda, an investigative journalist and creator of Akhir Kalam (Final Word); Al Hussayny, an Egyptian journalist who was killed in demonstrations against the Brotherhood on 5 December 5, 2012; Rim Magued, a journalist for the weekly Al-Ahram Hebdo; Hala Sarhan, one of the most famous Egyptian television anchorwomen who was forced into exile under the Mubarak and is now, once again, under fire from Islamists’; and Lamia al Hadidi, an archaeologist and historian targeted by Salafis for her steadfast defence of Egypt’s cultural heritage. (S.C.)

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

Special Ops Veterans’ Group Calls for Select Probe of Benghazi Attack

More than 700 Special Operations veterans are urging members of Congress to back a select committee to investigate last year’s Benghazi terrorist attack, according to a letter first obtained by Fox News.

The letter from the group, “Special Operations Speaks,” supports the appointment of a special committee tasked with the single mission of investigating the attack that left Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans dead, and shut down the CIA operation in an annex of the Benghazi consulate, in the Sept. 11, 2012 attack.

“Congress must show some leadership and provide answers to the public as to what actually occurred in Benghazi. Americans have a right to demand a full accounting on this issue,” the letter stated.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Hamas-Backed Cops in Gaza Shave Heads of Young Men With Long Hair in New Islamic Crackdown

Police in Hamas-ruled Gaza have started grabbing young men with long or gel-styled spiky hair off the streets, bundling them into jeeps and shaving their heads, two of those targeted have said.

It is the latest sign that the Islamic militants are imposing their strict practices on the population, reported the Associated Press.

Hamas has been slowly forcing its fundamentalist interpretation of the religion on already conservative Gaza since it overran the territory in 2007.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Natural Gas Deal With Israel’s Leviathan Field Puts Shell’s Woodside Pty. Investment in Play

In our NER article we noted the announcement of a $2.0 billion deal between No. 2 Australian energy firm, Woodside Petroleum, Pty. (Woodside) and the Leviathan partners, Nobel, Delek and Avner. That deal will provide Woodside with a controlling interest in exchange for production of liquefied natural gas for export. We had this comment: As motivation for the Leviathan Woodside deal, David Wurmser of Delphi Global Analysis in an inFocus article cited the large and growing Asian natural gas markets. Israeli natural gas would be delivered via a pipeline connecting the Israeli port of Ashkelon with Eilat in the Red Sea, thereby avoiding transit through the insecure Suez Canal. With the attention paid by the international media to the startup of gas deliveries from the Tamar field, the world energy markets turned to the implications of the Woodside Leviathan deal on Shell’s remaining investment in Woodside. A recent Wall Street Journal Deal Journal Australia blog post revealed why Shell is seeking to sell out its minority investment in Woodside: A recent move by Australia’s Woodside Petroleum Ltd. WPL.AU -2.03% to acquire a controlling stake in Israel’s biggest natural gas field has presented its minority owner Royal Dutch Shell PLC RDSB.LN -1.11%with a potential political challenge keeping its Arabic partners on side. Royal Dutch Shell PLC is no stranger to the hazards of doing business in the Middle East. However analysts say the Anglo-Dutch oil company may look offload its 23.1% interest in Woodside, valued at about $7 billion, to avoid any further strains. “Given the geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and Shell’s significant investments in the region outside of Israel, we anticipate a sell down to dispel any perception amongst other Middle Eastern countries that Shell is investing either directly or indirectly in Israel,” said Luke Smith, an analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia CBA.AU -1.54%. … Roni Biron, Tel Aviv based analyst at UBS Securities Israel Ltd. told Bloomberg: I wouldn’t jump to the conclusion that Woodside will cancel the Leviathan deal because of Shell. Woodside’s CEO Peter Coleman at the Houston HIS/CERA energy conference in early March 2013 expressed “confidence” about closing on the purchase of Nobel partner interest in the overall Leviathan deal. Scrappy Australian upstart Woodside beat out the likes of Gazprom, France’s Total and China’s National Offshore Oil Corporation when the Leviathan deal was announced in December 2012. If Shell succumbs to Middle East intimidation and sells out its interest to Australian mining and energy giant BHP Billiton, makes both economic and strategic good sense. Advance Australia Fair.

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]

The Two State Solution: History’s Negation

I remember an article some few years ago in the Wall Street Journal titled, The Ugly Premise of Settlement Opponents, in which James Woolsey, former director of Central Intelligence under President Clinton, pointed out that the charter of the Fatah party — which is that of the Palestinian Authority’s putative president, Mahmoud Abbas — foresees a “Palestine free of Jews.” He referred to the Fatah demand that:

Israel must give up all of Jerusalem before it would begin negotiations on a two-state solution.

Mr. Woolsey also referred to President Obama’s embrace of the Palestinian Arab’s judenrein policy in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) as well as in the eastern half of Jerusalem. The judenrein policy employed by the German Nazis was designed to ethnically cleanse areas of Jews throughout Europe, which the Wehrmacht had invaded and occupied. The chilling words, “Juden raus,” Jews out! barked in German by Hitler’s brutish soldiers, attended all such terrifying aktions.

In Obama’s now notorious Cairo speech, his first major address on becoming president, he essentially embraced the PA’s anti-Semitic policy by announcing that Jewish neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem are “settlements.” In fact many of the Jewish neighborhoods that were on Obama’s proscribed list are, in actuality, in southern or northern areas of Israel’s capital, Jerusalem, but facts don’t seem to matter to so many…

Remember, there has never in all of recorded history existed an independent, sovereign state called Palestine. And remember the so-called Palestinians are an Arab invention. No such people by that name have existed in centuries past. Here is an Arab leader and PLO executive committee member, Zuheir Mohsen, admitting this fact himself on March 31, 1977, in the Dutch newspaper, Trouw:

“The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese… Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism…”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Iran Celebrates National Nuclear Day With Two New Projects

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has launched two new nuclear projects that will allow the country to enrich uranium. The move came just days after nuclear talks with international leaders made little progress.

New facilities for mining and processing uranium opened in central Iran on Tuesday, coinciding with the country’s National Day of Nuclear Technology.

In a televised statement, President Ahmadinejad celebrated the event, urging Western leaders to accept Iran’s right to pursue uranium enrichment.

“(Western nations have) tried their utmost to prevent Iran from going nuclear, but Iran has gone nuclear,” the Iranian president said. “Nobody will be able to stop it,”

Western leaders, fearing that Iran seeks to build nuclear weapons, have attempted on numerous occasions to persuade Tehran from pursuing a nuclear program by holding numerous talks and imposing crippling sanctions on the country.

But Tehran maintains it wants to enrich uranium for the benefit of its energy program and has remained defiant even as the international bans have hurt its economy.

“This nuclear technology and power and science have been institutionalized … All the stages are in our control and every day that we go forward a new horizon opens up for the Iranian nation,” said Ahmadinejad on Tuesday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Iraqi Al-Qaida and Syria Militants Announce Merger

By Bassem Mroue and Maamoun Youssef

BEIRUT (AP) — Al-Qaida’s branch in Iraq said it has merged with Syria’s extremist Jabhat al-Nusra, a move that shows the rising confidence of radicals within the Syrian rebel movement and is likely to trigger renewed fears among its international backers.

A website linked to Jabhat Al-Nusra confirmed on Tuesday the merger with the Islamic State of Iraq, whose leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi first made the announcement in a 21-minute audio posted on militant websites late Monday.

Jabhat Al-Nusra has taken an ever-bigger role in Syria’s conflict over the last year, fighting in key battles and staging several large suicide bombings. The U.S. has designated it a terrorist organization.

           — Hat tip: KGS [Return to headlines]

Syria: At Least 15 Killed in Damascus Suicide Bombing

A suicide car bomb has killed at least 15 people and wounded 53 in the main business district of Damascus.

The bomb near a school in the Sabaa Bahrat district, which also houses the Central Bank and Finance Ministry, set cars ablaze and damaged buildings, state television footage showed. A Damascus resident described the blast as the biggest she had heard in the capital during the two-year-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad. She said large plumes of black smoke were rising from the Sabaa Bahrat district…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Turkish Airlines to Buy 95 Planes From Boeing

AFP — The Turkish national carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) said on Tuesday that it would buy 95 more planes from US aerospace giant Boeing.

“Our board of directors has decided to buy 20 planes in 2016, 20 in 2018, 15 in 2019, 30 in 2020 and 10 in 2021 from Boeing to meet the need for narrow-body planes,” a THY statement said, adding that 70 of the orders were firm ones, and 25 were options.

Financial details were not provided, however.

The announcement came less than a month after the airline said it would buy up to 117 planes from Boeing’s main rival, the European manufacturer Airbus, with those deliveries scheduled between 2015 and 2020.

In December, THY passed orders for 15 long-haul A330 planes from Airbus and 15 777-300ER from Boeing. In February the airline followed up with a firm order for two more A330-300s.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Samara: The Russian City Being ‘Eaten Alive’ By Giant Sinkholes

They may look like stills from an apocalyptic horror film, but these images have become a daily reality for residents in a Russian city.

Citizens of Samara, in south east Russia, live in fear of the ground literally disappearing beneath them after huge sinkholes have started to appear all over their city, leaving devastation in their wake.

The yawning underground caverns are all believed to have sprung up in recent weeks swallowing cars, buses and claiming at least one life.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Ban Ki-moon Hopes for ‘Harmonious Resolution’ In Marines Row

Italian anti-piracy guards on trial in India for homicide

(ANSA) — Rome, April 9 — United Nations Secretary-General Ban-ki Moon said in Rome Tuesday that he hoped for a “harmonious and judicious” resolution “with dialogue” to Italy’s row with India over two Italian marines on trial in New Delhi for alleged homicide. Ban said he discussed the “regrettable situation that involves two UN nations with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano this morning” and was due to discuss it again later Tuesday with outgoing Premier and interim Foreign Minister Mario Monti. Last month Monti stepped in to fill the shoes of Giulio Terzi who stepped down as foreign minister over the diplomatic tug-of-war with India. Italian anti-pirate marines Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone are in India on charges of shooting and killing fishermen Jelestine “Valentine” 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, Italy agreed to hand the men over to Indian authorities last month despite contesting India’s right to jurisdiction, given the incident took place in international waters.

Italy has repeatedly said it welcomes independent third-party arbitration.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]

Bangladesh: Tension Flares Over ‘Blasphemy’ And Free Speech

Despite pressure from Islamist groups, Bangladesh’s PM Sheikh Hasina has said her government will not introduce new blasphemy laws to punish bloggers. Meanwhile, rights groups demand the release of detained bloggers.

Bangladesh remains tense as Islamists continue to demand the death penalty for bloggers who they accuse of defaming Islam and insulting the Prophet Muhammad. They want the government to introduce a new blasphemy law to punish the bloggers.

Over the weekend, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Bangladesh’s capital city Dhaka demanding that “atheist” bloggers be executed for defaming Islam.

The Islamists also want Islamic education to be made compulsory in schools, members of the minority Ahmadiyya sect to be declared non-Muslims, and the restoration of pledges to Allah in the constitution, which Hasina’s government had done away with.

Scores of people were injured over the weekend in clashes between pro-government activists and Islamists.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

India: Tamil Nadu: More Anti-Christian Violence: Pentecostal Church Torched

Two young faithful were able to extinguish the flames, avoiding tragedy. Leaders of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC): “Hindu Nationalist groups foment anti-Christian hatred. The construction of new places of worship also at risk”.

Mumbai (AsiaNews) — Religious intolerance against the Christian minority is intensifying in Tamil Nadu. Overnight a group of unknown people set fire to Bethel Bible Church, a Pentecostal church in the village Puthasanthai (district of Namakal). Thanks providential intervention of two members of the community, who were sleeping in the building, the fire was extinguished before demolishing the place of worship. Rev. Paul Arguman reported the matter to the police, who have placed surveillance units around the church and “vowed” to bring the perpetrators to justice.

According to Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), the Hindu Munnani, the Hindu nationalist religious organization in favor of the anti-conversion laws is responsible for the growing religious intolerance in Tamil Nadu, by “inciting hatred against Christians.”

“Discrimination — said the GCIC leader — also targets on places of worship. In Kanyakumari district written permission is required from the district collector [district administrator, ed] to build a church or a prayer room. However, very often authorities deny these documents, or leave them pending for a long time. “

The attempted arson attack is the third anti-Christian incident in 2013 in the Indian State. In 2012, the GCIC recorded 13. The anti-conversion law in Tamil Nadu approved in 2002 was repealed in 2005 by the Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa.

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

Indonesia: Hundreds of Christians, Ahmadis and Shias Take to the Streets in Jakarta for Religious Freedom

At least 300 people marched through the streets of the capital, ending their protest in front of Parliament. They shouted slogans, prayed and sang the national anthem. Protestant clergyman says their message was for the authorities, including President Yudhoyono, which are not doing anything about it. Protest is a reaction to recent anti-minority attacks.

Jakarta (AsiaNews) — Seals on Protestant Churches, threats to Catholics during Holy Week, the closure of mosques and institutions belonging to the Ahmadi sect are but a few of the big and small examples of marginalisation minorities endure every day. In order to raise awareness among the public and foreign media on the frequent violations of the rights of religious minorities, hundreds of Christians, Ahmadis and Shia Muslims marched yesterday through the streets of Jakarta. They called on the much criticised government to take swift and effective action to ensure full religious freedom and equal rights for all of Indonesia’s citizens as guaranteed by the constitution and the country’s founding principles of Pancasila. The archipelago is the world’s most populous (and predominantly Sunni) Muslim nation.

The 300 protesters who met yesterday in the streets of the capital shouted slogans and prayed together, each according to his or her faith. After that, they sang the national anthem and marched towards the People’s Representative Council (House of Representative) building.

In the past, members of the Yasmin Church (YC) and the Batak Christian Protestant Church (HBKP) had chosen for their protest another symbolically charged site, the official residence of the President,.

Rev Simanjutak, leader of the HKBP community, welcomed the interfaith march. It sends a clear message to the authorities, which are not paying attention to the issue. In his criticism, the Protestant clergyman does not spare President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono who has done nothing “to prevent attacks by extremist groups.”

An activist institution, the Setara Institute, has provided evidence of the seriousness of the situation, documenting at least 264 cases of attacks and episodes of direct or indirect violence against religious minorities.

Although it formally guarantees the constitutional principle of religious freedom, Indonesia is increasingly the scene of attacks and violence against minorities.

In Aceh province, the only one in the country ruled by Sharia or Islamic law, and in many other places, a more radical and extreme visions of the Muslim religion is taking root in people’s lives.

In addition, some rules, such as the infamous Izin Mendirikan Bangunan or building permit, are used to prevent the building of non-Muslim places of worship or to have them closed down and sealed.

In its response, the government has accused some minority leaders of using the permit issue to turn an administrative question into a political-religious one.

In particular, on several occasions Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali attacked the YC and HKBP for casting a bad light on the government and the country in foreign media.

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

North Korea Severs Final Link With South in New Escalation of Nuclear Crisis

North Korea has halted work at a factory complex it jointly runs with South Korea in a move towards severing its last economic link with its neighbour.

The Kaesong industrial complex lies north of the Demilitarized Zone and is the biggest employer in North Korea’s third-largest city with 53,000 staff.

Shutting it down, even temporarily, would show that the destitute country is willing to hurt its own economy to display its anger with South Korea and the United States.

The announcement came as North Korea released a bizarre video of their military dogs attacking an effigy of South Korean defence minister Kim Kwan-Jin.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Court Told Man Was Preparing for War Before Arrest

A Melbourne court has heard a man accused of terrorism-related offences spoke of preparing for war before his arrest in anti-terrorism raids last year. Adnan Karabegovic, 24, is facing 12 charges of possessing four editions of the online magazine Inspire. The publication is produced for Al Qaeda. The court heard Karabegovic was found in possession of a USB stick containing the magazines which contained articles on “open jihad.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]

Congress Repeating the Second Basic Law of Stupidity

As you read in the First Basic Law of Stupidity, our U.S. Congress works on yet another mass amnesty for 20 million illegal alien migrants now working and residing in our country in violation of dozens of our laws. Notice that Congress failed to enforce the employment laws from the 1965 Immigration Reform Law as well as the 1986 Amnesty that gave four million Mexicans instant citizenship. All totaled, those two new laws by Congress flooded this country with over 120 million more people since 1965. This next amnesty will flood the country with yet another 100 million immigrants at the bare minimum.

Today, we live in 2013 with a few other interesting facts Congress bestowed on the American people:

1. Congress placed our country into a $16.5 trillion national debt. It’s wrecking the foundation of our republic and our financial ability to survive.

2. Congress waged two useless, worthless and meaningless wars for the past 10 years at a cost of $3 trillion. Trillions more when it comes to the emotional, physical and psychological chaos incurred by our military veterans.

3.Congress outsource, insourced and offshored millions of US jobs so we now suffer 14 million unemployed and 7 million underemployed.

4.Congress killed so many jobs and job training that 47 million Americans subsist on food stamps in April of 2013.

5.Congress refuses to enforce internal immigration employment, housing and transport laws — so that we face 20 million illegal aliens scamming American workers out of jobs as well as using $346 billion annually in taxpayer services like education, medical care, anchor babies, incarceration, drug distribution, shop lifting and more.

6.Congress refuses to aid lawful American citizens with jobs, but it works its magic in allowing over eight million illegal aliens full time work in our country — and much of it off the books and no taxes collected, but we subsidize their children, health care and prison costs.

7. Congress huddles in Washington, DC to gift another 20 million illegal aliens with instant citizenship and all the cash and welfare benefits that entails. Heritage Foundation estimates $3 to $5 trillion for the cost of this new amnesty paid for by you, the legal American taxpayer.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Immigrants Target Greece’s Sea Border

Some 700 detainees continue hunger strike over conditions at Amygdaleza center

Installation of a barbed-wire fence and tightened security measures on Greece’s land border with Turkey have led to an increase in the number of clandestine immigrants seeking to sneak into Europe through the eastern Aegean Sea during the first quarter of 2013, the government said Tuesday as it called for greater burden sharing by its peers in the bloc.

A total of 880 immigrants and 13 people smugglers have been detained by the Greek coast guard since the beginning of the year, according to data released Tuesday. Officers intercepted just 32 individuals, including one smuggler, over the same period last year. The immigrant flow has risen as the weather improves. From 135 arrests in January, coast guard officials detained 351 in February and 394 in March.

In a statement sent to the press Tuesday, Merchant Marine Minister Costas Mousouroulis said that as of next week Greece was expecting further reinforcement from Frontex, the EU’s border monitoring agency.

“In any case, Brussels and all members of the EU should keep in mind that Greece’s eastern borders are also the borders of the European Union,” Mousouroulis said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

The Psycho-Therapeutic School System: Pathologizing Childhood

“There’s a tremendous push where if the kid’s behavior is thought to be quote-unquote abnormal — if they’re not sitting quietly at their desk — that’s pathological, instead of just childhood.” — Dr. Jerome Groopman, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School

According to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control, a staggering 6.4 million American children between the ages of 4 and 17 have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), whose key symptoms are inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity — characteristics that most would consider typically childish behavior. High school boys, an age group particularly prone to childish antics and drifting attention spans, are particularly prone to being labeled as ADHD, with one out of every five high school boys diagnosed with the disorder.

Presently, we’re at an all-time high of eleven percent of all school-aged children in America who have been classified as mentally ill. Why? Because they “suffer” from several of the following symptoms: they are distracted, fidget, lose things, daydream, talk nonstop, touch everything in sight, have trouble sitting still during dinner, are constantly in motion, are impatient, interrupt conversations, show their emotions without restraint, act without regard for consequences, and have difficulty waiting their turn.

The list reads like a description of me as a child. In fact, it sounds like just about every child I’ve ever known, none of whom are mentally ill. Unfortunately, society today is far less tolerant of childish behavior — hence, the growing popularity of the ADHD label, which has become the “go-to diagnosis” for children that don’t fit the psycho-therapeutic public school mold of quiet, docile and conformist.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

Man Wiggles Rat’s Tail Using Only His Thoughts

By linking the brains of a human and a rat, scientists have now helped a man wiggle a rodent’s tail using only the man’s thoughts.

These new findings are the first case of a brain-to-brain interface between species, and the first example of a noninvasive brain-to-brain interface, researchers added.

In February, scientists revealed they linked together the brains of two rats. This first known instance of a brain-to-brain interface apparently helped the rodents share data to accomplish certain tasks, even across intercontinental distances. However, this advance depended on microscopic electrodes implanted in the rats’ heads.

In the latest example of a mind-meld, researchers employed noninvasive techniques to link the brains of a human and a rat. The man had electrodes stuck onto his scalp that picked up brain-wave activity. The rat was placed in a machine that focused ultrasound pulses through its skull to its brain, and was anesthetized so that it would not wriggle its head during the experiment.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

Shodan: The Scariest Search Engine on the Internet

“When people don’t see stuff on Google, they think no one can find it. That’s not true.”

That’s according to John Matherly, creator of Shodan, the scariest search engine on the Internet.

Unlike Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), which crawls the Web looking for websites, Shodan navigates the Internet’s back channels. It’s a kind of “dark” Google, looking for the servers, webcams, printers, routers and all the other stuff that is connected to and makes up the Internet. (Shodan’s site was slow to load Monday following the publication of this story.)

Shodan runs 24/7 and collects information on about 500 million connected devices and services each month.

It’s stunning what can be found with a simple search on Shodan. Countless traffic lights, security cameras, home automation devices and heating systems are connected to the Internet and easy to spot.

Shodan searchers have found control systems for a water park, a gas station, a hotel wine cooler and a crematorium. Cybersecurity researchers have even located command and control systems for nuclear power plants and a particle-accelerating cyclotron by using Shodan.

What’s really noteworthy about Shodan’s ability to find all of this — and what makes Shodan so scary — is that very few of those devices have any kind of security built into them.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]

What is Sustainability?

Controlling the frightened low information humans into the green compliance and indoctrinating the next generation into the smart growth of green.

“Global Sustainability requires the deliberate quest of poverty, reduced resource consumption and set levels of mortality control.” — Professor Maurice King

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary lists “sustain” as “to give support or relief to, to nourish, to keep up, prolong. The Barnhart Etymological Dictionary (p. 1098) gives its Latin root of “sustinere” as “to hold up, keep up, support, endure,” as a variant to hold.

The word “sustainability” is another matter. It seems that environmentalists with a certain agenda have written the definition in Webster’s. Sustainable, besides “capable of being sustained,” is also a “method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged, sustainable techniques, sustainable agriculture, and a lifestyle involving the use of sustainable methods.”…

In addition to controlling the frightened low information humans into the green compliance and indoctrinating the next generation into the smart growth of green, there are fortunes to be made from the sustainability schemes and scams at the expense of the middle class: carbon taxes, carbon swaps, carbon footprint, electric cars, wind and solar energy generation, expensive regulations filling the coffers of government bureaucracies, of unions, and of a few elites who push the green scam zealously.

Since 1987, Sustainable Development of U.N. Agenda 21 has turned every economic activity possible into Sustainable Everything, from education to food. My local diner advertises food cooked with sustainable turkeys.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]

2 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/9/2013

  1. Please bear with me for a favorite rant of mine : contrary to what the media would have you believe, the current plague of copper theft is not due to rising prices.

    The prise of copper may be rising, but it is still ridiculously low, around 7 euros per kilo. Moreover, one has to assume that the price for stolen copper is a fraction of that.

    Practically anything that gets stolen is much, much more expensive than that. How much would a kilo of cigarettes cost, when a single pack sets you back 5 euros ? How much for a kilo of a fashionable type of Nike trainers ? How much for a kilo of iPhones ? How much for a kilo of golden necklaces ripped off people walking down the street ?

    The only reason why copper, bronze, lead, iron or other metals get stolen is that they lay around unattended, and the thieves are in cahoots with rogue traders ready to melt their loot.

  2. National Geograhic showed where a substanial part of all the copper from Europe arrives in economic terms:

    Home of Kings

    Obviously religion has nothing to do with the trade, but rather centuries old clan culture.

Comments are closed.