In response to a recent series of “grooming” scandals in Britain, a new Muslim group has been formed to help teach Muslims that the Koran forbids all forms of sexual abuse. The group is accomplishing this purpose by issuing sermons that are read out by imams in mosques during Friday prayers.
In other news, the Saudi government has reaffirmed its ruling that women may not work as waitresses in restaurants, but only in the kitchen.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, McR, Papa Whiskey, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
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France to Spend Despite Deficit Warning
President Francois Hollande said France will maintain public spending despite warnings it may breach a revised deficit limit, reports AFP. Its government budget watchdog projected a 4.1% deficit by the end of year if the French economy failed to grow. Hollande is aiming for a 3.7% deficit target.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hollande: Treaty Change ‘Necessary’ To Deepen Eurozone
A two-day European summit ended in Brussels on Friday (28 June) with calls for deeper economic integration among the 17 countries sharing the euro currency. French President François Hollande said a revision of the EU treaty “will be necessary” to harmonise economic policy and complete the euro area with its own budget and “social dimension”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Derivatives Furore ‘Misunderstanding’ Says Economy Minister
‘No risk of loss’ says Saccomanni
(see related stories) (ANSA) — Rome, June 26 — Economy Minister Fabrizio Saccomanni on Wednesday said reports that Italy could lose billions of euros on derivatives contracts that were restructured last year were the result of a “misunderstanding”. The Financial Times said Wednesday that the losses could stem from the restructuring of eight derivatives contracts with foreign banks with an overall value of 31.7 billion euros that was documented in a Treasury report to the State Audit Court.
“It’s a big misunderstanding, there’s no loss,” Saccomanni said.
“It was a normal periodic control by the Audit Court and there’s no negative effect on the public finances”. European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said that “for now nothing changes” in the EU’s assessment of Italy’s national accounts in the light of the report on the derivatives.
In May the European Commission recommended the closure of an excessive-deficit procedure that it opened against Italy in 2009. It decided to do this with Italy’s deficit-GDP ratio forecast to be 2.9% this year, under the 3% threshold.
It was 3% in 2012 after former premier Mario Monti’s emergency government passed big tax increases and spending cuts.
“The Commission and (EU statistics office) Eurostat check the data on the accounts twice a year and it has already been done once in 2013,” said Rehn. “We are waiting to do it again in October”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Has ‘Touched Bottom’ Of Crisis, But Taxes ‘Unbearable’
Confindustria sees only ‘scattered evidence’ of recovery
(ANSA) — Rome, June 27 — Industrial employers’ confederation Confindustria said Thursday that Italy had “touched the bottom” of the economic crisis.
But Confindustria’s research centre added in a report that it could only see “scattered evidence” of recovery and stressed that the high tax burden was unsustainable for Italian business.
“We have touched the bottom,” the report said. “In the sixth year of crisis, there are signs here and there of the end of the fall and, more randomly, indications of a turning point.
“There’s a mixed bunch of scattered evidence that makes it possible to perceive the start of the recovery, although this does not represent a solid basis to forecast it”.
Confindustria also bemoaned the tax hikes former premier Mario Monti’s emergency technocrat administration introduced last year as part of austerity measures to restore health to Italy’s public finances.
These further raised the country’s already high tax burden and contributed to deepening its longest recession in over 20 years.
“Tax pressure is reaching a historic high of 44.6% of GDP in 2013 and it will remain unsustainably high in 2014,” the report said.
Confindustria praised Premier Enrico Letta’s left-right administration, which replaced Monti’s government in April, for putting greater emphasis on promoting growth.
But the confederation’s chief economist, Luca Paolazzi, said the measures approved up to now were “very limited” and that the government “lacked a plan” to combat the crisis. The research centre sounded the alarm about Italian firms losing competitiveness too, saying rising labour costs and falling productivity were hitting business hard.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
New EU Plan Will Make Every Bank Account in Europe Vulnerable to Cyprus-Style Wealth Confiscation
Did you actually believe that they were not going to use the precedent that they set in Cyprus? On Thursday, EU finance ministers agreed to a shocking new plan that will make every bank account in Europe vulnerable to Cyprus-style bail-ins. In other words, the wealth confiscation that we just witnessed in Cyprus will now be used as a template for future bank failures all over Europe. That means that if you have a bank account in Europe, you could wake up some morning and every penny in that account over 100,000 euros could be gone.
That is exactly what happened in Cyprus, and now EU officials plan to do the same thing all over Europe. For quite a while EU officials insisted that Cyprus was a “special case”, but now we see that was a lie. International outrage over what happened in Cyprus has died down, and now they are pushing forward with what they probably had planned all along. But why have they chosen this specific moment to implement such a plan? Are they anticipating that we will see a wave of bank failures soon? Do they know something that they aren’t telling us?
Amazingly, this announcement received very little notice in the international media. The fact that bank account confiscation will now be a permanent part of the plan to bail out troubled banks in Europe should have made headline news all over the globe. The following is how CNN described the plan…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
19 Surveys Which Prove That a Large Chunk of the Population is Made Up of Totally Clueless Sheeple
Are we too stupid to continue as a nation? That may seem like a harsh question, but I think that it is one that we need to ask. Even though we have more access to information today than ever before, it seems like the U.S. population just keeps becoming more ignorant. So at what point does a society become so “dumbed-down” that it can no longer function effectively? We like to complain about our leaders, but the truth is that we are the ones that elected them. They are a reflection of who we are as a society.
And when you compare Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner to men like George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, they don’t fare too well. Sadly, the truth is that most of our founding fathers would not have a prayer of being elected today. Instead, they would be labeled as crazy “extremists” for insisting that we follow the U.S. Constitution. In our entertainment-addicted society, Lady Gaga would have a much greater chance of being elected president today than George Washington would. That is how far we have fallen.
Perhaps you think that I am being overly pessimistic.
Perhaps you think that I should have more faith in the American people.
Well, just consider the evidence. The following are 19 surveys which prove that a large chunk of the population is made up of totally clueless sheeple…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Another White House Play Date With Muslim Jihad
[…]
Earlier this week, the indefatigable Investigative Project on Terrorism blew the whistle on the Obama administration’s latest flirtation with Muslim jihad. Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah bragged on his website that he had met with Team Obama on June 13. IPT reported that bin Bayyah was invited by National Security Council official Gayle Smith “to learn from you and we need to be looking for new mechanisms to communicate with you and the Association of Muslim Scholars.”
Someone associated with bin Bayyah deleted his website reference to the meeting, but the Internet is forever. The White House has now ‘fessed up to the confab.
[…]
This sharia thug, who has worked with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to boost his progressive-friendly cred, lobbied the United Nations to outlaw all mockery and criticism of Allah. He raised money to benefit the terror group Hamas. He is a top lieutenant of Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf Qaradawi, who exhorts followers to kill every last Jew; sanctioned suicide bombings and the killing of our soldiers; expressed support for executing apostates and stoning gays; and declared that the “U.S. is an enemy of Islam that has already declared war on Islam under the disguise of war on terrorism and provides Israel with unlimited support.”
As jihad watchdogs have reported, the administration has rolled out the red carpet for dozens of Muslim Brotherhood officers, flacks and sympathizers. IPT noted last year: “White House visitor logs show that top U.S. policy-makers are soliciting and receiving advice from people who, at best, view the war on terrorism as an unchecked war on Muslims. These persons’ perspectives and preferred policies handcuff law enforcement and weaken our resolve when it comes to confronting terrorism.”
[Obama’s not a Muslim — to be one, he’d have to venerate something besides himself — but given his execrable policies, he might as well be. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Bible Signed by Albert Einstein in 1932, Given to Friend Sells for $68,500 at Auction in NYC
A Bible with an inscription from Albert Einstein has sold for $68,500 at an auction in New York City.
The Bible was part of a fine books and manuscripts auction at Bonhams on Tuesday. The German-born physicist and his wife signed it in 1932 and gifted it to an American friend named Harriett Hamilton.
The auction house says Einstein writes in the German inscription the Bible “is a great source of wisdom and consolation and should be read frequently.”
The Bible’s final price far exceeds its pre-sale estimate of between $1,500 and $2,500. The final price includes the auction house’s commission.
The auction house hasn’t said who bought the Bible.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gun Control Advocate: Ban Anything With a Sharp Edge
A video has emerged of a gun control advocate at a Second Amendment rally in Philadelphia arguing that not only guns but knives, nails, forks and anything with a sharp edge should be banned and that the government should develop new kitchen utensils that are unable to harm people in order to keep everybody safe.
The video, published by Story Leak’s Anthony Gucciardi, is a shocking illustration of how vehemently many Americans support the nanny state.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘I Believe in America and What it Stands for’: America’s Deadliest Soldier Details Time in Army
With 2,746 confirmed kills, Army Sergeant 1st Class Dillard “C.J.” Johnson is one of the deadliest American soldiers on record. He details his time in Iraq in his new book, ‘Carnivore.’
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mechanical Eye Will Help Wine-Makers Improve Vintages
An automated grape counter will help growers see which parts of their vineyards need special attention
SPRAWLING grapevines sweep over us as we steer our all-terrain vehicle down a lush row in a vineyard in California’s fertile Central valley. The sunset at the end of the row is on its last blaze of pink, but a strobe light on the vehicle illuminates tight clusters of small, hard grapes on the vines. Inside the cab, high-resolution photos of the foliage around us flash on a laptop screen.
In the passenger seat is Stephen Nuske, a roboticist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who is leading a trial of an automated grape-counting system he hopes will help vineyard managers to produce better wine. To find out which parts of a vineyard might need extra pruning, watering or spraying with pesticide, growers need to know how much fruit is present, where it is and under how much foliage. Yet counting grapes in a huge vineyard is laborious and difficult, requiring workers to feel through the branches for each bunch. Wine-makers often sample just a few branches to estimate what their yield will be, but vineyards tend to vary so much that such predictions are only accurate to within about 30 per cent of the eventual weight of the harvest.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nancy Pelosi: On 4th of July, Celebrate Obamacare
Because of ObamaCare, the Fourth of July has taken on a whole new significance: not only do Americans celebrate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, they also celebrate “health independence” delivered by the law.
“Next week, when we celebrate Independence Day we’ll also be observing health independence,” Pelosi told reporters today, explaining that “this week marks one year since the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act. It captures the spirit of our founders,” she added, citing the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence.”So, we’ve had Social Security, Medicare, and now health independence, so that’s something our members will take home to celebrate over this Independence Day.”
Pelosi also used the holiday to fault Republicans for not reversing the spending cuts mandated by sequestration. “If Paul Revere were here today, we would need someone like him to be running through the streets saying, ‘sequester is coming!’“ she said. “This is very fundamentally important to the success of our country, to the survival of many here, to the strength of our military as well as to the success of our economy.”
| — Hat tip: McR | [Return to headlines] |
Parents Angry When Their Children’s Information Given to Big Business
…if I told you the schools are doing psychological work-ups on children to change their personality & study their genetic make-up to change how they think or act, would you be upset? Would you be upset if I told you about a data base that collects this information & gives it to big business? Let’s talk more about the process…
The ‘Race to the Top’ models explicitly state that “authentic affective engagement” must be used for interpersonal & higher order thinking skills to be developed. What does this mean? Affective means attitudes & values. Interpersonal means your child’s personality & how he/she reacts to the world around them. Higher order thinking skills are value judgments, opinions, or decision making. This is the new term coined for brainwashing. Wipe the slate clean from what you have been taught by your parents, your grandparents, your minister, your elected officials. Learn new ways of thinking about your country, your God, your family. Your child is being primed as a global citizen that moves & thinks like a drone, together & in cooperation with each other.
So, what type of information is in those records? ‘Race To the Top’ programs & all software contractors & testing contractors can now easily move forward to create individualized education modules, testing, & curriculum referred to as “learning genomes.” Remember, the Common Core-College & Career Ready Standards are being approved in over 46 states. Federal funding, ESEA, Title I flexibility waivers, are being approved in almost all of the states bypassing No Child Left Behind. With federal money comes federal accountability.
The Next Generation Learning Innovation Labs contracted through CCSSO (Chief State School Officers) & the Stupski Foundation (which ceased operations in July 2012) were guinea pig models for these individualized programs where the money will eventually follow the child with the proposed changes in the federal Reauthorization of (ESEA), Elementary & Secondary Education Act, & IDEA, (Special Ed), Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, regulations. The agenda will move forward by-passing local & state representative government when federal money directly goes to the child.
Why is this concept important? Because, in order to move toward global citizenship, the government must be able to access the individual. FERPA had to be expanded to allow access to individual records & to be able to start at a young age. What better place to start than in school & pre-school. Compulsory attendance makes it so. This is a “sea of change.” This is your country that is being taken over by rogue socialists who want to control people & this country entirely.
Of course we have seen this before in OBE & other named agendas. This time it is different. Never has the federal government been allowed to access the individual. Obamacare made this possible. Thank you, Justice Roberts.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tensions Flare With Ecuador, Hong Kong Over Snowden
Tensions flared Thursday between the Obama administration and countries that appear to be helping NSA leaker Edward Snowden, with the State Department pointedly warning a defiant Ecuador there will be “grave consequences” if the foreign government grants Snowden asylum.
State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell also ripped Hong Kong officials for trying to claim a day earlier that a misspelled middle name on Snowden’s paperwork contributed to him being allowed to catch a flight from Hong Kong to Moscow over the weekend.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Glue Holding America Together
As it fragments into various camps, the country is being held together by a common popular culture.
By a.d. 200, the Roman Republic was a distant memory. Few citizens of the global Roman Empire even knew of their illustrious ancestors like Scipio or Cicero. Millions no longer spoke Latin. Italian emperors were a rarity. There were no national elections.
Yet Rome endured as a global power for three more centuries. What held it together?
A stubborn common popular culture and the prosperity of Mediterranean-wide standardization kept things going. The Egyptian, the Numidian, the Iberian, and the Greek assumed that everything from Roman clay lamps and glass to good roads and plentiful grain was available to millions throughout the Mediterranean world.
As long as the sea was free of pirates, thieves were cleared from the roads, and merchants were allowed to profit, few cared whether the lawless Caracalla or the unhinged Elagabalus was emperor in distant Rome.
Something likewise both depressing and encouraging is happening to the United States. Few Americans seem to worry that our present leaders have lied to or misled Congress and the American people without consequences.
Most young people cannot distinguish the First Amendment from the Fourth Amendment — and do not worry about the fact that they cannot. Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln are mere names of grammar schools, otherwise unidentifiable to most.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Europol Says Italian Mafia Threaten Elections in EU
Danger ‘without equal’ says report
(ANSA) — Brussels, June 25 — Italian organised crime groups present a danger “without equal” for free elections in the European Union (EU), the EU law enforcement agency Europol has said in a report.
Italian mafia groups manage to “manipulate elections” and “place their own men”, even in administrations that are far from territories they control, said the report entitled Threat Assessment, The Italian Mafia.
The European economic crisis has strengthened the reach of Italian mafia groups, according to the report, which said sophisticated money-laundering schemes not only seek to justify immense, illicit wealth but also undermine free markets by competing under-cost and creating quasi-monopolies in certain sectors.
Mafia groups increasingly target new areas of the legal economy, including green energy — such as wind farms — and the Internet, the report.
Italian mafia groups’ main criminal activities outside of Italy, however, are drug-trafficking, money-laundering, corruption and counterfeit goods.
The 18-page document also traced the salient characteristics of the Sicilys Cosa Nostra, the Calabrian-based ‘Ndrangheta, Campania’s Camorra and Puglian criminal groups, highlighting their similarities. differences and areas of operation.
The Cosa Nostra is described as “the oldest, most traditional and most widespread manifestation of the Sicilian Mafia” with tentacles reaching into the economies of South Africa, Canada, USA, Venezuela and Spain.
The ‘Ndrangheta is identified as one of the “most threatening” organized crime groups on a global level, due to its “enormous financial might” and “immense corruptive power,” with a presence in Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, US, Colombia and Australia.
The Camorra is noted for its violence and its presence outside Italy in Spain, France, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, USA, Latin America and Eastern Europe.
Puglian organized crime groups are often wrongly identified as the Sacra Corona Unita (SCU), the report says.
In truth, Puglia has two main mafia groups, the SCU and the Societa’ Foggiana, as well as a number of smaller groups that display bandit-like behavior. Puglian crime groups are less international than others, but still have a presence in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Albania, according to Europol.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Former Priest Charged With Sex Abuse of Children in Sicily
‘Induced boys to pose for nude photos’
(ANSA) — Sciacca, June 26 — A former priest was charged Wednesday with committing sexual acts with minors and is expected to appear in court next month. Davide Mordino, 42, the former pastor of the Basilica of Saint Calogero in Sciacca, a town on the southwest coast of Sicily, is under house arrest until his court appearance July 17.
Police say the former priest performed sexual acts with four boys, while two others say he tried to assault them as well.
Mordino, who left the basilica just before Christmas in 2009, is accused of having induced minors to pose naked for photos.
The arrest comes a day after police in Rome announced they were investigating reports of a sexual-abuse and prostitution ring involving minors and operating out of local churches.
Police said that no priests were under investigation in Rome, but a police officer is accused of organizing the ring. A teacher and lay officials at some churches in the capital are being investigated.
Authorities say that boys, many foreign-born and recruited around Rome’s main Termini railway station, worked as prostitutes inside the churches.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: Drop Charges Against Sarkozy: Prosecutors
A prosecutor in the south-western city of Bordeaux on Friday called for charges to be dropped against former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is accused of taking financial advantage of the L’Oreal heiress and billionaire Liliane Bettencourt.
Sarkozy’s numerous legal woes could soon be somewhat lightened, after a prosecutor on Friday asked a court in Bordeaux to dismiss the case against him, relating to the ongoing political funding scandal known as the Bettencourt Affair.
Citing “an absence of charges,” prosecutor Claude Laplaud called for Sarkozy to be cleared, after being accused in March of taking financial advantage of the “weakness” of Bettencourt, the 90-year-old heiress to the l’Oréal empire, who suffers from dementia.
Laplaud also called on Friday for charges to be dropped against former French minister Eric Woerth, businessman Stéphane Courbit, lawyer Pascal Wilhelm, as well as a notary and nurse in the employ of Bettencourt.
The charges centred on claims Sarkozy had accepted envelopes stuffed with cash from the world’s richest woman to fund his 2007 election campaign.
The allegation is that Sarkozy obtained significant amounts of money from her, breaching electoral spending limits and taking advantage of a person weakened by ill health.
Bettencourt’s former accountant, Claire Thibout, told police in 2010 she had handed envelopes filled with cash to Bettencourt’s right-hand man, Patrice de Maistre, on the understanding it was to be passed on to Sarkozy’s campaign treasurer, Eric Woerth.
Investigators suspect up to €4 million of Bettencourt’s cash subsequently made its way into the coffers of Sarkozy’s UMP party.
Sarkozy lost immunity from prosecution when he was defeated in the 2012 presidential election by Socialist François Hollande.
Sarkozy, 58, has always maintained that he visited Bettencourt’s residence only once during the campaign, to meet her late husband. Members of the multi-billionaire’s staff have, however, contradicted his version of events.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Faced With “Loudspeaker Jihad”
by Soeren Kern
“First there was no mention of a muezzin when the mosque was inaugurated; then on Fridays only; then three times a day, now five times a day.” — Interview in Die Zeit
A Turkish mosque in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia has begun sounding public calls to prayer from an outdoor loudspeaker system mounted on the roof of the edifice.
The mosque is one of a growing number of Islamic institutions in Germany (and other parts of Western Europe) publicly calling the Muslim faithful to prayer — five times a day, seven days a week — with cries of Allahu Akbar (“Allah is Greater”).
Observers believe a precedent has now been established, and that many of the other 3,000 mosques in Germany will soon begin jumping on the muezzin loudspeaker bandwagon.
The sonorous prayer calls (known as adhan in Arabic) can be heard from great distances when amplified through electric loudspeakers; some German towns and cities are actually beginning to evoke the sounds and images of the Islamic Middle East.
The latest “muezzin event” involves the Fatih Camii Mosque in Wipperfürth, a factory town situated 40 kilometers (25 miles) north-east of Cologne, which, on June 21, began publicly calling the Muslim faithful to prayer during a formal “muezzin-induction ceremony” attended by local and foreign dignitaries, including the Turkish consul, Mustafa Kemal Basa.
The Fatih Camii Mosque — run by the Turkish-Islamic Union for Islamic Affairs (DITIB), a branch of the Turkish government that controls over 900 mosques in Germany — received municipal approval for a muezzin publicly to call Muslims to the mosque for prayer five times a day after Mayor Michael von Rekowski said he wanted to show the world that Wipperfürth “takes pride in being an intercultural and interreligious community.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Grass Stains: Nobel Laureate Blasted for Questioning Merkel’s Past
Nobel laureate Günter Grass has become a master at stepping on his tongue lately. This week, he did it again, casting aspersions about Chancellor Merkel’s East German past. Critics have blasted Grass, pointing to the author’s own prior membership in the SS.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Looks for Range of Benefits From TAP Deal
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JUNE 27 — The curse which has plagued proposals for major energy pipelines through Greece was broken on Wednesday, as the consortium that will utilize the Shah Deniz natural gas reserve in Azerbaijan chose the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) over rival project Nabucco West for the transmission of the commodity to Central Europe, as Kathimerini reports. Representatives of the British Petroleum-led consortium visited Athens on Wednesday and informed Prime Minister Antonis Samaras of their decision to opt for the pipeline that goes through Greece, Albania and Italy. For Greece, TAP constitutes a foreign direct investment worth 1.5 billion euros — one of the biggest in this country — and will create 2,000 jobs directly and another 10,000 indirectly.
According to a study by the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE), the opening of the southern natural gas corridor through Greece will create 413-445 million euros of added value for the Greek economy. On a geopolitical level, the Azeris’ decision to choose TAP means that Greece is finally becoming an important link in the energy chain that will transmit Azeri gas to Central and Western Europe, aimed at diversifying the supply of the fuel that has hitherto been dominated by Russia.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy:16 Local Health Officials Cited in Fraud Probe
‘Failed to stop co-worker scamming 5 mln euros’
(ANSA) — Rome, June 28 — Italian police on Friday cited 16 workers at a national-health agency in the northern Italian city of Treviso on suspicion of abetting a five-million-euro scam.
Police said the 16 failed to stop a co-worker fraudulently giving doctors’ fees and treatment rebates to relatives and friends between 1996 and 2007.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sensitive Robotic Hand Within Human Grasp
German robot scientists say they have made a key breakthrough with a cheap, light-weight robotic hand which can grasp objects almost as well as human fingers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Ikea Refugee Homes Are ‘Cheap and Tough’
With Ikea set to send flatpack refugee homes to war-torn countries, The Local chats to Swedish designer Johan Karlsson about why a flatpack house is cheaper, more durable and above all a better home than a tent.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Democrat Has Close Ties to Far-Right Site
Sweden Democrat politician Kent Ekeroth is closely involved in the running of a notorious anti-immigrant website and exerts influence over editorial content, according to media revelations on Thursday.
Ekeroth, who retained his parliamentary seat despite being one of the protagonists in the so-called “iron-bar scandal” involving leading Sweden Democrats, has previously claimed that he only assists Avpixlat with fundraising.
But an email correspondence published by the Aftonbladet daily on Thursday shows that Ekeroth communicates with editors regarding the content and presentation of the website that typically publishes a strongly anti-immigrant bias.
“Come on now — make the site more interesting and alive. It looks dead at the moment,” reads one of the email sent by Ekeroth to Avpixlat.
Ekeroth has also provided Axpixlat with links to YouTube clips which have appeared on the site shortly after, Aftonbladet revealed.
The Local reported last week that Ekeroth had been ordered to pay 160,921 kronor ($25,000) in taxes for money sent to his bank account as donations to Avpixlat and its predecessor Politiskt Inkorrekt.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Secret Service Reacts to Banana ‘Attack’ on PM
A reporter who “pulled a banana” on Sweden’s Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has revealed how he was almost taken down by the country’s secret service agents who thought he was armed and dangerous.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Nine-Year-Old Prodigy Applies to Zurich Uni
A nine-year-old gifted student is making news in German-speaking Switzerland for his bid to register for courses at Zurich university ETH, the federal institute of technology.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Top Prelate, Spy, Broker Arrested in Vatican Bank Probe
IOR woes continue
(ANSA) — Rome, June 28 — Italian police on Friday arrested a prelate in charge of Vatican accounts, a member of Italy’s domestic intelligence service and a financial broker in a probe into suspected currency violations at the Vatican Bank, IOR.
Msgr Nunzio Scarano is head of analytic accounts at the Holy See’s asset-management agency APSA. He was arrested on suspicion of corruption and fraud in currency dealings along with Giovanni Maria Zito, an agent in the AISI intelligence agency, and Rome broker Giovanni Carenzio.
Police said Scarano and Zito got a private jet to fly back from Switzerland to Italy 20 million euros in cash for a family who were friends with the prelate.
Zito is suspected of getting 400,000 euros for arranging cover for the flight.
Scarano has been named in a separate probe into receiving money in Salerno near Naples.
IOR has been hit by two probes in the last four years and has appointed a new head to try to get it onto the white list of countries with top anti-money-laundering credentials.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK Mosques Giving Anti-Grooming Sermons in Response to Sex Abuse Cases
Some 500 UK mosques are planning sermons condemning the sexual abuse of children, following the sentencing of seven men of South Asian origin convicted of a series of crimes against underage girls.
The effort organized by the group Together Against Grooming means that the message was being delivered at Friday prayers at participating mosques.
The anti-grooming group wants imams to stress that the Quran rules out all forms of sexual abuse and that Muslims have a responsibility to protect children and other vulnerable people.
Spokesman Ansar Ali says it is unprecedented for Islamic leaders throughout Britain to band together to deliver a collective message on the same day. A number of prominent Muslim groups in Britain have endorsed the new group.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘We Could Lose 87,000 Maritime Jobs in Spain’
Spanish shipbuilders warned on Thursday they risk being ruined by being forced to pay back billions of euros of state aid if EU authorities rule that the subsidies were unauthorized.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Conference in Paris on Distribution of Arab Films
problems outside their countries and internationally
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, JUNE 27 — What is the situation of the cinema industry in the Arab world? What are the obstacles, and how can one overcome them in order to increase the distribution of Arab films? The European Union’s Euromed Audiovisual programme is to hold a conference on the distribution and promotion of Arab films. According to the Enpi website (www.enpi-info.eu) the event will take place in partnership with the Arab Film Festival, IMAG’IMA, and will be held at the Arab World Institute (Institut du monde arabe) in Paris, from June 28 to July 3.
While production of Arab films has increased over the last years, Arab films struggle to find distributors outside their respective countries and to be sold internationally. A large number of films have found success in their home countries, such as Moroccan director Noureddine Lakhmari or Palestine filmmaker Annemarie Jacir, but distribution in neighbouring Arab countries remains difficult. Arab films are also not very present at European film markets or on video-on-demand platforms, despite being well represented at several international film festivals.
These themes will be discussed with professionals from the promotion, distribution and video-on-demand sectors on July 1.
The Euromed Audiovisual III programme aims to contribute to the development and strengthening of the capacity of the film sector in the ENPI South region (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestinian Territories, Syria, Tunisia) and to contribute significantly to mutual understanding, intercultural dialogue and cultural diversity.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia Divided Over Anti-Ben Ali Party Members Law
Exclusion law could turn into witch hunt, opposition says
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JUNE 28 — Post-revolutionary Tunisia navigates in choppy waters ahead of a national Constituent Assembly debate on a proposed political exclusion law designed to remove all former members of the Rassemblement Constitutionnel Democratique (RCD), ousted President Zine El Abedine Ben Ali’s party.
Proposed by the center-right Islamic party Ennahda and President Moncef Marzouki’s Congress for the Republic from the ruling coalition, the so-called “law on the immunization of the revolution” would affect an estimated 60,000 Tunisians.
Critics say it will essentially become an instrument of revenge in the hands of those appointed to draw up the exclusion lists, and could also lead to a spate of unjust condemnations given that many Tunisians were forced to join Ben Ali’s party.
Former premier Beji Caid Essebsi’s leftist secular party, Nidaa Tounes (Call for Tunisia), which is the strongest opponent to Ennahda, says the draft law will essentially decapitate the country’s public administration system.
Also in the mix is the League for the Protection of the Revolution, a quasi paramilitary outfit known for attacking journalists, politicians, trade unionists, and civil society organizations. In the latest such incident, its members yesterday beat up a reporter trying to cover a League demonstration in front of the Constituent Assembly building.
The League enjoys unofficial protection from some sectors in the justice system, with its members sometimes released just hours after being arrested for assault.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Obama’s War of Bad Ideas
US foreign policy is failing worldwide.
The Russian and Chinese embrace of indicted traitor Edward Snowden is just the latest demonstration of the contempt in which the US is held by an ever increasing number of adversarial states around the world.
Iran has also gotten a piece of the action.
As part of the regime’s bread and circuses approach to its subjects, supreme dictator Ali Khamenei had pretend reformer Hassan Rohani win the presidential election in a landslide two weeks ago. Rohani has a long record of advancing Iran’s nuclear program, both as a national security chief and as a senior nuclear negotiator. He also has a record of deep involvement in acts of mass terror, including the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and wounded hundreds.
Yet rather than distance itself from Rohani the phony, the Obama administration has celebrated Iranian democracy and embraced him as a reformer. Obama’s spokesmen say they look forward to renewing nuclear talks with Rohani, and so made clear — yet again — that the US has no intention of preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power…
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| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
A British teenager is still fighting for his life after he was stripped naked and ‘stabbed 17 times’ for kissing a local girl in a Turkish bar.
Dwayne Ward, 17, was found soaked in blood in a garden in the Tepe district of Marmaris, by locals after a night out with his older brother on Tuesday.
A police report revealed Dwayne said: ‘I was having fun while I was out and I kissed a Turkish girl at the bar I was in.’
‘I went to another bar and that was when they hit me in the head with a hard object.’
He then added, according to The Sun: ‘I don’t remember the rest.’
The teenager, from Middlesbrough, Cleveland, was on holiday with his brother Darren, 32, and their mother Doris.
He was found at 7.30am with injuries including cuts to the throat, chest, groin, legs and back.
The teenager was taken to the intensive care unit of the Marmaris State Hospital — he is reportedly in a critical condition.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
François Hollande Cosies Up to Qatar With His Principles in His Pocket
The French president’s trip to Doha shows he is prepared to sideline his socialism if the petrodollar price is right
What price French socialism? That’s the question President François Hollande is being asked as he tries to reconcile his “Mr Normal” image with his unashamed courting of the multibillionaires of Qatar.
Before coming to power last year, Hollande admitted: “I don’t like the rich,” and pledged a top income tax rate of 75%. That, like so many of his much-vaunted plans, hasn’t quite worked (the legislation is still in the pipeline) but his antipathy towards the wealthy has already seen some flee the country, mainly to more liberal tax regimes including the UK and Russia.
In which case, those who remain ask, why on earth did Hollande look so gleeful last week on a visit to Qatar’s outgoing emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani, and his Harrow-educated son Sheikh Tamim? Hollande appeared to have shed all reservations about high-end, trans-border capitalism as he highlighted the “mutual respect and understanding” between France and Qatar, encouraging the liquid gas-rich emirate to pour its petrodollars into everything from prestige Paris real estate to the city’s troubled immigrant suburbs. The equivalent of some £10bn has arrived over the last five years, with Qatari investors given every incentive to keep the cash coming, including the waiving of stamp duty on their property purchases in France.
Qatar is, of course, casting its asset net across the world. You can see its influence all over the UK — from Harrods to major sporting events such as the horse racing at Ascot, through almost every new luxury development in Knightsbridge and Chelsea — but there is something extremely peculiar about the most overtly leftwing head of state in Europe becoming so reliant on the Gulf state’s largesse.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Full Disclosure: What the Media Isn’t Telling You About War in Syria (Video)
Ben Swann uncovers what the media refuses to explain.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: No Waitresses Allowed in Restaurants
Women are still banned from working as waitresses and cashiers in restaurants and are only allowed to work in the kitchens of these establishments, a Ministry of Labor official said here recently.
According to local media, Fahad Al-Tukhaifi, assistant undersecretary for development, said a ministerial decision was issued a year ago stipulating that women hired to work in restaurants must be limited to the kitchen and not perform serving or hosting tasks.
He said no instructions were issued concerning women working in grocery stores and laundries. He added that the feminization of abaya shops would be fully implemented on July 7.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syrians Behead Christians for Helping Military, As CIA Ships in Arms
A priest and another Christian were beheaded before a cheering crowd by Syrian insurgents who say they aided and abetted the enemy, President Bashar Assad’s military, foreign media reported.
An undated video that made the Internet rounds on Wednesday showed two unnamed men with tied hands surrounded by a cheering crowd of dozens, just moments before their heads were cut off with a small knife, Syria Report said. The attackers in the video then lifted the head for show, and placed it back on the body. The incident took place in the countryside of Idlib, the media report said.
Syria Report said that foreign militants have increased attacks on civilians in recent weeks — and that many of these insurgents are supported by the West and by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. Just recently, a Catholic priest was recently executed by radicals, and last month, an entire Christian village in Homs was burned to the ground, Syria Report said. Moreover, two Christian bishops kidnapped in Aleppo at the beginning of the year are still missing.
The reported beheading of the two Christians comes about the same time America has started sending arms to rebel fighters, the Wall Street Journal revealed this week. The Journal reported the Central Intelligence Agency just began transporting weapons to Jordan for eventual transfer to Syrian fighters.
The weapons transfer is aimed at helping Free Syrian forces oust Mr. Assad. It’s scheduled to coincide with arms shipments from other European and Arab allies for a planned and coordinated rebel attack set for August, the Journal reported.
The CIA weapons transfer will take about three weeks, and involves light arms — and possibly antitank missiles, the Journal said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Baku Has Chosen TAP to Transport Gas Via Greece
Rival Nabucco West excluded. Athens to see 12.000 new jobs
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS — Azerbaijan has chosen the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) for transporting natural gas to Western Europe via Greece over rival Nabucco West, Kathimerini online reported.
The decision was reportedly delivered to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras in Athens on Wednesday by representatives of British Petroleum in Shah Deniz and the Azeri state energy company Socar. A signing of the Host Government Agreement for the TAP project was expected to be signed by Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras, Deputy Energy Minister Asimakis Papageorgiou and TAP Managing Director Kjetil Tungland later in the day.
The 800-kilometer TAP pipeline project is being developed by Statoil ASA, EON Ruhrgas AG and EGL AG to initially ship 10 billion cubic meters of Azeri gas a year to Italy via Greece and Albania from the Turkish border. The proposal is competing with the OMV AG-led Nabucco West development, which would run for 1,300 kilometers from Turkey to Austria via Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, for the right to export the fuel.
Albania, Greece and Italy signed in Athens in February an agreement that gives the full political backing of the three countries to the TAP project. According to a study by the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE), Greece will see investments of 1.5 billion euros as a result of the pipeline with the direct creation of 2,000 jobs, while another 10,000 would be created indirectly. IOBE also sees the pipeline bringing 18 billion euros of added value to the Greek economy during the course of its operation.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Family, Lawyers Allowed to Visit Hero Pakistani Doctor Who Helped Get Bin Laden
In a surprise move, Pakistani regional officials lifted the ban on relatives and lawyers visiting Shakil Afridi, the doctor who has been jailed ever since he helped the CIA pinpoint the compound where Usama bin Laden was hiding in advance of the 2011 raid that killed the terror mastermind.
The move, by the provincial government of Pakistan’s northwest region, came after U.S. Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan James Dobbin met with Pakistani leaders earlier this week. Family members, who have long expressed concerns for Afridi’s health and safety, and legal representatives, who have been cut off from their client, will now be able to see him once a month.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In China, Black Apples Growing on Trees. Government Torpedoes New Anti-Pollution Law
The country seems condemned to live in a blanket of industrial fumes: Hebei province hub for coal production has black apples growing on trees. In Qinghai Tibetan monks may have to leave tehir monastery because “they cannot even open their eyes.” And the government torpedoes new law for the protection of the environment.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
U.N. Agencies in North Korea Carrying in Cash to Keep Operations Afloat
United Nations agencies working in North Korea, which is under harsh Western sanctions, are facing a financial crisis of their own, leading at least some of them to carry in cash from neighboring China to keep their struggling operations afloat.
According to a memo circulated last month by the treasurer of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), which serves as the lead operational agency for the U.N. in North Korea, the U.N.’s flagship anti-poverty agency is no longer able to transfer money into its North Korean accounts, “due to the impact of sanctions and the closure of key banking channels.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“Waiting for the Other Shoe” — the Supreme Court Rules on Same-Sex Marriage
On the last day of its term, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today on two same-sex marriage cases. Both are important cases, and both will go far in redefining the most basic institution of human civilization. The Court knew it was making history. A majority of the justices clearly intended to make history, and future generations will indeed remember this day. But for what?
[…]
In an equally scathing dissent handed down in the DOMA case today, Scalia called the decision “jaw-dropping.” He castigated the Court’s majority for usurping the democratic process and for condemning all opposition to same-sex unions as “irrational and hateful.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
It’s Not About Gay Marriage, It’s About Banishing God
There has always been gay behavior in our country and around the world. This is not new. However, the gay agenda and rights battles end up being nothing but another weapon on our Judeo Christian values and Christian core. This latest assault at the hands of the Supreme Court is a vicious and aggressive attack on families, the safety of our children, traditional and historical boundaries surrounding sex and its expression.
The battle in some states for Gay marriage by gay activists is not new. The Supreme Court sucking out or moral DNA and definition of marriage is. What gay activists and the leftist progressives don’t realize is that the more they gut our Christian traditions, laws and morals from our culture, the more the increasingly blank canvas demands to be filled by something else. Something quite deadly is eager and willing to fill it.
Who is lining up to fill the canvas and be the new picture of America? — Islam, Agenda 21 and Communism.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Polygamists Celebrate Supreme Court’s Marriage Rulings
“The nuclear family, with a dad and a mom and two or three kids, is not the majority anymore,” one polygamist cheers.
The Supreme Court’s rulings in favor of same-sex marriage Wednesday were greeted with excitement by polygamists across the country, who viewed the gay rights victory as a crucial step toward the country’s inevitable acceptance of plural marriage.
Anne Wilde, a vocal advocate for polygamist rights who practiced the lifestyle herself until her husband died in 2003, praised the court’s decision as a sign that society’s stringent attachment to traditional “family values” is evolving…
Gay rights advocates have long sought to distance themselves from polygamists in order to undermine social conservatives’ slippery-slope argument, as articulated on Twitter Wednesday by talk radio host Bryan Fischer: “The DOMA ruling has now made the normalization of polygamy, pedophilia, incest and bestiality inevitable. Matter of time.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
By Bruce Bawer
Five days before 9/11, a famous Norwegian social anthropologist (and Norway may well be the only nation on Earth where there is such a thing as a famous social anthropologist) instructed her countrywomen that the way to bring down the high number of rapes — most of which, even way back then, were already being committed by “non-Western immigrants” — was for them to stop dressing in a manner that Muslim men found provocative. Norway, she lectured, was steadily becoming “a multicultural society,” and Norwegian women, if they didn’t want to wind up being brutally ravished in an alleyway by some Pakistani gang, should choose their wardrobes appropriately. Period.
That anthropologist, whose name is Unni Wikan, didn’t score any points that day for heroically championing women’s equality, but she was, at least, being honest. The rise in rapes in Norway — as throughout Western Europe — was almost entirely a product of Islamic immigration. That was a fact she didn’t attempt to disguise.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“Grooming scandals”???
How about crimes against humanity?!!
That sounds more like it.
UK Mosques Giving Anti-Grooming Sermons in Response to Sex Abuse Cases–
Does this remind anyone else of the Catholic Church telling the Corleones that it is not nice to kill and steal?