700,000 Italians have become unemployed since the global economic crisis began, and the number is expected to rise to 817,000 before the end of next year. By that time the unemployment rate in Italy is expected to rise to almost 14%.
In other news, the emergence of the deadly MERS virus in Saudi Arabia has caused concern among virologists that pilgrims on this year’s hajj will pick up the virus and spread it when they return to their home countries.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
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Around 700,000 People Made Jobless in Italy During Crisis
Confindustria says figure will climb to 817,000 by end of 2014
(ANSA) — Rome, June 27 — Industrial employers’ confederation Confindustria said on Thursday that around 700,000 people in recession-ravaged Italy have been put out of work since 2007, just before the start of the global economic crisis. Confindustria’s research centre said in a report that it expects this figure to rise to 817,000 by the end of next year.
It also forecast that unemployment will climb to 12.4% by the end of this year and 12.7% by the end of 2014.
The report added that these figures would be 13.9% and 14% respectively if the calculations include people idled after being temporarily laid off by their firms.
National statistics agency Istat recently said that unemployment in Italy has reached a record high of 12%, with close to three million people out of work.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Govt Breaking Law Over Pension, Benefit Claims, Says Study
Citizens group says that applicants dying before granted rights
(ANSA) — Rome, June 25 — Bureaucratic delays in assessing and awarding pensions and other benefits frequently go beyond the legal limits in Italy, a report released Tuesday said.
It found that an applicant must wait an average of eight months for a medical examination in relation to some benefits — far beyond the legal 120-day limit, said the report.
And it can take almost one year before benefits are granted, which means that in some cases the applicant dies in the meantime.
Last year, problems were reported by 45.6% of applicants, far beyond the 28.4% reported in 2011, said the study by the Active Citizens organisation, which looked at almost 3,900 case files.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
More Italians Not Buying Auto Insurance Due to High Costs
‘System troubled by economic crisis’
(ANSA) — Rome, June 26 — More and more Italians are not buying auto insurance because the rates are too high, the head of Italy’s insurance supervisory body said Wednesday.
“Rates can and must come down,” said Salvatore Rossi, head of IVASS.
Italian insurance rates generally are so high that, with the economic crisis already hitting family budgets hard, many are choosing to forgo insurance, said Rossi.
“It is a dangerous signal — the increasing number of vehicles traveling without insurance,” he added.
In the interest of supporting the insurance system, and the public wellbeing, a permanent solution must be found, he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
ATF Arming Robbers in Hatched Plots, Leaving Many Dead
In sting operations similar to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing which left six dead, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms are pressuring and arming people to rob fictitious drug “stash houses” and the busts have left at least seven people dead, according to USA Today.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Feds Warn About “Fireworks Bombs”
Security officials said U.S. police should be on the alert for bombs made from July Fourth fireworks during the upcoming holiday week.
ABC News said the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI sent out a nationwide notice to law enforcement agencies reminding officers and agents a lot of fireworks are sold in July, and some could end up in the wrong hands.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greenwald on ‘Coming’ Leak: NSA Can Obtain One Billion Cell Phone Calls a Day, Store Them and Listen
The NSA has a “brand new” technology that enables one billion cell phone calls a day to be redirected into its data hoards and stored, according to the Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald, who said that a new leak of Snowden’s documents was ‘coming soon.’
Calling it part of a “globalized system to destroy all privacy,” and the enduring creation of a climate of fear, Greenwald outlined the capabilities of the NSA to store every single call while having “the capability to listen to them at any time,” while speaking via Skype to the Socialism Conference in Chicago, on Friday.
Greenwald was the first journalist to leak Snowden’s documents, having travelled to Hong Kong to review them prior to exposure.
“What we’re really talking about here is a globalized system that prevents any form of electronic communication from taking place without its being stored and monitored by the National Security Agency,” he said.
While he underlined that the NSA are not necessarily listening in on the full billion calls, he pointed out their capability to do so and the lack of accountability with “virtually no safeguards” which the NSA were being held to.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
“How the Jews Defeated Hitler” is the title of a new book by Dr. Benjamin Ginsberg PhD, subtitled “Exploding the Myth of Jewish Passivity in the Face of Nazism.” The title is counter-intuitive because, as is well known, the Nazis murdered six million Jews in Europe during the course of a deliberate genocide that has since become known as the Holocaust.
The author is a professor of political science and is chair of the Center for Advanced Governmental Studies at Johns Hopkins University and the book is more than just a history of that horrific period of history. It is not that long ago…
Where resistance fighters emerged, Ginsburg notes that “Germany relied, especially in Western Europe, on the help of local police forces to deal with partisans, and, especially in France and Holland, whose local police were quite helpful.” In occupied France, “The French police helpfully compiled a card index of all the Jews of Paris by name, street, occupation, and nationality.”
Therein lies the fears and concerns of Americans as they slowly come to realize that their government not only knows where they live, but a great deal of information about them courtesy of the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security, the National Security Agency, right on down to their local law enforcement authorities.
If or when Obamacare is fully implemented, anonymous bureaucrats will be able to “target” selected Americans who are seeking medical care for death simply by denying it. No need to set up concentration camps to kill them en mass. Just as the little girl who needed a lung transplant that was initially denied by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, individuals identified as “patriots” or other enemies of the state could simply be allowed to die.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
More Than 25,000 Bumblebees Fall From Oregon Sky Due to Insecticide Poisoning
(NaturalNews) Shoppers at a local Target store in Wilsonville, Oregon, just outside of Portland were shocked recently to step outside the big box depot into a sea of already dead and dying bumblebees. As reported by KATU.com news, more than 25,000 dead bumblebees were found littered around the store’s parking lot during National Pollinator Week, a direct result of European Linden trees located in planters throughout the same parking lot having been sprayed with a highly toxic insecticide known as Safari.
European Linden trees produce luscious flowers that are rich in both nectar and pollen, which is a major draw for bumblebees and other pollinating bees during bloom season. And these same trees, which are plenteous in the Wilsonville Target’s parking lot, are a major destination for local bumblebees who feed on their nutrients and help pollinate other plants.
But the property manager of the strip mall where the Wilsonville Target is located apparently had other plans for these bees, as he or she reportedly ordered that all the trees be sprayed with an insecticide chemical known as Safari, even though it is currently bloom season. According to the information page created for Safari by its manufacturer, Valent Professional Products, Safari is a broad-spectrum insecticide that kills all sorts of insects, including bees.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Must Read: Look What Just Happened: Damning Expose of the Greatest Fraud in History
[Comment: Detailed list of interconnections. Make sure you are seated properly so you don’t accidently fall off your chair while reading article.]
Any one of these ‘coincidences’ when taken singularly appear to not mean much, but when taken as a whole, a computer would blow a main circuit if you asked it to calculate the odds that they have occurred by chance alone. Sit back, get a favorite beverage, and then read and ponder the Obama-related ‘coincidences’ … then super-impose the bigger picture of most recent events i.e. Fast and furious, Benghazi, the IRS scandal and the NSA revelations … then pray for our country…
In 2003 Obama and his wife attended a dinner in honor of Rashid Khalidi, who just happened to be a former PLO operative, harsh critic of Israel, and advocate of Palestinian rights, and who Obama claims he does not know, even though the Obamas just happened to have dined more than once at the home of Khalidi and his wife, Mona, and just happened to have used them as occasional baby-sitters. Obama reportedly praised Khalidi at the decidedly anti-Semitic event, which William Ayers just happened to also attend, and the event Obama pretends he never attended was sponsored by the Arab American Action Network, to which Obama just happened to have funneled cash while serving on the board of the Woods Fund with William Ayers, and one speaker at the dinner remarked that if Palestinians cannot secure a return of their land, Israel “will never see a day of peace,” and entertainment at the dinner included a Muslim children’s dance whose performances just happened to include simulated beheadings with fake swords, and stomping on American, Israeli, and British flags, and Obama allegedly told the audience that “Israel has no God-given right to occupy Palestine” and there has been “genocide against the Palestinian people by (the) Israelis,” and the Los Angeles Times has a videotape of the event but just happens to refuse to make it public.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New Vaccine Praised as a Cure for Type 1 Diabetes
(NaturalNews) After 40 years of unsuccessful attempts to develop a vaccine to prevent type 1 diabetes, a joint effort by California-based Stanford University and Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands announced this past Wednesday that they may have stumbled upon the key to finally make it happen. Their article — published in the journal Science Translational Medicine — releases Phase 2 data that it has genetically engineered a vaccine to shut down specific aspects of the immune system that leads to type 1 diabetes, while doing no harm to the immune system as a whole…
As ridiculous as this sounds, what is the difference between the claims this article makes and a mechanic claiming that a perfectly well-functioning engine will not be adversely affected by shutting down just one part? It would be absurd to assume that an engine can run without an alternator or carburetor. So, why are researchers asking people to believe that the human body — the most intricate engine of all — is not dependent on every component of its immune system? It is an irrevocable fact that any drug or vaccine that inhibits proper any aspect of immune function will naturally cascade to effect the entire body in one way or another.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Recall Looms for Colorado Lawmaker Who Supported Gun Control Bill
A group of gun-rights activists seeking to oust a top Democratic state lawmaker in Colorado over the passage of strict gun control legislation on Monday turned in double the signatures needed to force a recall election.
KDVR reports the group turned in over 16,000 signatures, more than double the 7,178 valid signatures needed, to the Colorado Secretary of State’s office in the effort to recall Colorado Senate President John Morse.
“This sends a strong message,” Rob Harris, who delivered three boxes full of petitions to the office, told KDVR. “We’ve obtained enough signatures to recall a state legislator for the first time in the history of Colorado.”
The Secretary of State’s office now has 15 days to determine whether enough of the signatures are valid, and then Morse’s office has another 15 days to contest the validity of the signatures.
Morse tells KDVR he is going to fight the recall effort.
“We’ll go through these signatures with a fine-toothed comb,” Morse told the station. “And we’ll file some protests with the Secretary of State’s office because we know a lot of these signatures were gathered based on misinformation and lies.”
He also insisted he will not resign his seat to avoid a recall election.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Researchers Develop X-Ray Vision With Wi-Fi
Do you really wish you had X-ray vision? Sure, it would be fun to see what your neighbors are doing behind those walls — until you see something you wish you hadn’t.
Regardless, researchers at MIT have developed a sensing technology that uses low-power Wi-Fi to detect moving people. It follows other wall-penetrating sensor tech using radar and heavy equipment.
The Wi-Vi system by Dina Katabi and Fadel Adib sends out a low-power Wi-Fi signal and tracks its reflections to sense people moving around, even if they’re in closed rooms or behind walls.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video of interview with Sheriff Joe Arpaio: “There’s No Doubt Obama Birth Certificate Forged”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Texas Panhandle Town Wants Gun Makers
Amarillo, Texas wants out-of-state firearm manufacturers to escape anti-self-defense climates and relocate to their city in the northwestern reaches of the Texas frontier.
Video: KFDA News Channel 10
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Guardian Revealed a Major NSA ‘Scoop’ Then Deleted it From Their Website
The Guardian released another shocking NSA scoop on Saturday, revealing collusion and mass harvesting of personal communications among the United States and at least six European Union countries — only to delete it from their website hours after publication.
The article, titled “Revealed: secret European deals to hand over private data to America,” was written by Jamie Doward, who reported information from Wayne Madsen, a former Navy Lt. and NSA employee for 12 years.
Doward wrote:
Madsen said the countries had “formal second and third party status” under signal intelligence (sigint) agreements that compels them to hand over data, including mobile phone and internet information to the NSA if requested.
Under international intelligence agreements, confirmed by declassified documents, nations are categorised by the US according to their trust level. The US is first party while the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand enjoy second party relationships. Germany and France have third party relationships.
He went on to say that seven European countries and the U.S. have access to a fiberoptic cable network, intercepting phone calls, emails, and user logs from websites. The article describes Madsen as having “been attacked for holding controversial views on espionage issues.”
That’s a light way of putting it.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Time is Running Out as World War III Looms on the Horizon
The United States of America has been overtaken from within by a group of heartless and soulless individuals with designs on reshaping the world into a state of global governance. They are members of both political parties, and part of their plans include reshaping the Middle East at any cost, including the inevitable and incalculable cost of human life. Currently at the helm is Barack Hussein Obama, although his way was paved by the majority of his predecessors and elected officials of both parties.
He was purposely selected as the man for the job to insure that the inappropriately celebrated Arab Spring that swept North Africa and the Middle East was conducted as planned. It was a staged and orchestrated event by the globalists and those in power in the U.S. and elsewhere. Using your tax dollars and in your name, the United States has been providing funding and operational support to the groups toppling governments in favor of radical Islamic control. Such control is nothing but a necessary means to an end. While many correctly decry the brutality of Islam, few realize that is a tool of the globalists. They are not thinking big enough. The lie is bigger than you have been told.
As I have previously written, a window of understanding, or a glimpse into this agenda, exists in the murderous events that took place in Benghazi on September 11, 2012. Full disclosure into this event would reveal a criminal enterprise so vast and staggering that it would eclipse anything we’ve ever seen. Benghazi was not about any film, protest, or even a kidnapping operation. It was about weapons smuggling to Syria to assist Islamic terrorists to topple Assad, install a Muslim Brotherhood-backed regime, causing further regional destabilization leading to a massive global war. Full disclosure would reveal that the United States, through the approval of members of both political parties we elected and acting in our name, are siding with associates having direct ties to al Qaeda and other Islamic groups. The truth is sickening, revolting and shocking…
(Warning: Graphic description follows) For anyone doubting what is on the immediate horizon, I would like to direct your attention to a picture I first saw published on the website Before it’s News last week. The picture accompanies a graphic video and tells the story of an innocent, crying and distraught four-year-old girl chained to a fence by the anti-Assad Islamic terrorists — the very group the United States is funding. Perhaps you’ve seen it. She was chained to the fence and forced to watch the decapitation and dismemberment of her parents, whose crime was being members of the Shia sect.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Turn Your Back This Fourth of July
In a few days, we will all have an opportunity to peacefully inflict a major psychological blow on the rapidly coalescing police state by the simple but powerful act of refusing to play along with the absurd pantomime on the 4th of July that we live in an even nominally free country — one with the rule of law, an operative Constitution and respect for individual rights. One that isn’t a thugocracy.
We can turn our backs on the flag. Decline to participate when urged to cheer and sing. No fireworks. No barbeques.
We can sit down — and bow our heads.
We can mention the unmentionable: That there is no longer any meaningful limit to the power of the government over our lives. No line beyond which it may not tread. That it lies, spies and tyrannizes.
We can admit to ourselves the shoddy — and frightening — reality bubbling up all around us.
By so doing, we can shatter the illusion that this government operates with anything remotely approximating our consent. This is absolutely essential. The 4th of July pantomime requires that we deny the obvious — that we instead pretend we’re free people living in a free country; one in which the government is accountable to the people, one in which the government is limited by law…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
USDA Approves Horse Slaughterhouse to Produce Meat for Human Consumption
(NaturalNews) The next burger you bite into might be a horsemeat burger, thanks to the U.S. government approving horse slaughterhouses to produce meat for human consumption. Valley Meat Co in Roswell, New Mexico, is being green-lighted by the USDA, which will routinely send inspectors to make sure it is slaughtering horses and processing horse meat in a “clean” way.
Additional horse meat plants are expected to be approved by the USDA in Missouri and Iowa. While horse meat can’t legally be sold in the USA for human consumption, it can be used in pet food. It may also turn up in the U.S. food supply despite its legal status because it can be sold to Mexico for human consumption, then re-labeled and shipped back into the USA for use as a low-cost meat filler. Horse meat has already been identified in a scandalous food operation in Europe, where meatballs sold throughout European grocery stores were found to be made with horse meat…
The USDA says, “it was required by law to issue the grant of inspection because Valley Meat met all federal requirements,” reports Reuters, which also says that 130,000 horses are slaughtered each year in Canada and Mexico.
U.S. companies want a piece of that business, it seems, because horses can be acquired for virtually free…
Instead of having the courage to give their own horse a dignified death — i.e. having the vet administer a lethal injection, saying a prayer and burying it on the land it enjoyed — many owners call the slaughterhouse to have the horse hauled away and subjected to a terrifying, gruesome death in a meat packing plant, surrounded by other screaming horses who are in the process of being murdered.
Horse slaughterhouses are therefore able to purchase these horses for a dollar amount that’s far below the actual cost to raise a horse. The horses are transported to the slaughterhouse facility (which is actually the largest cost of the entire thing due to fuel prices) and then their throats are slit to begin the “processing” of the meat.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia and Italy May Clash Over Prosecco and Proshek
Zagreb wants to protect Dalmatian wine
(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, JUNE 28 — With Croatia’s entrance into the European Union on July 1, a dispute may arise between Italian and Croatian wine producers on the marketing and sale of two wines — the Italian prosecco and the Croatian proshek — with names similar enough to potentially confuse consumers but which are entirely different. Croatian proshek is a sweet, mild traditional Dalmatian wine normally served after meals and is made from raisins. Italian prosecco is instead a D.O.C. white wine which already enjoys EU protection and is produced in the Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia regions.
Requests from Italy have already been lodged for Croatia to give up the name of its wine, while the Croatian Winegrowers Association has announced that it will be taking all necessary steps to protect the Dalmatian wine at the European level with its original name. “Proshek has been produced in Dalmatia for centuries. A bottle dating back to the end of the 19th century has recently been found. Alongside the Croatian agriculture ministry, we are preparing the documentation to prevent our right to sell it under its traditional name from being taken from us,” said a member of the association. Minister Tihomir Jakovina has already contacted the institutions in Brussels under whose jurisdiction the matter falls, but the official procedure can only begin once Croatia enters the EU. “I don’t see any problem. They are two entirely different wines of similar but not identical names,” the Croatian minister said a few weeks ago in announcing that in any case, if necessary, “the Zagreb government will do everything possible to protect Croatian wine producers”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Dozens of Italian Public Employees Caught in Nepotism Sting
Accused of abusing employment rules intended to help unemployed
(ANSA) — Rome, June 28 — Finance police on Friday charged 45 public employees and officials in the provincial government of Latina, a coastal city about 70 km south of Rome, in a nepotism probe.
Investigators say provincial officials ignored employment regulations and prerequisites to hire dozens of relatives of provincial councillors, managers and aldermen. The financial damage of the case to the provincial government is estimated at five million euros. The public employees in question all illicitly used a special provision for hiring unemployed people from vocational training programs. In some cases, public employees quit jobs in the provincial administration to access this privileged route to better employment, prosecutors believe.
Investigators found that the only people who managed to take advantage of the special employment provision were relations of provincial public administrators, managers or politicians.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
French LVMH Acquires Majority Share of Cova Pastry Brand
Historic Milan confectioners continue to be managed by family
(ANSA) — Milan, June 27 — French holding LVMH, the world’s largest luxury group, acquired a majority shareholding in Milan’s historical Cova pastry-shop brand, based in the heart of the city’s well-heeled fashion district, the company said on Thursday.
Family-owned Cova shop, founded in 1817 on the spot where the La Scala theater is today, has been located on the stylish via Monte Napoleone since 1950.
Owners Mario Faccioli and daughters, Paola and Daniela, will stay on as members of the management team “to ensure the continuity and success” of the brand, the LVMH said.
The French group said that the acquisition was made to “vigorously support the development (of Cova) at the international level”.
Cova open shops abroad starting in 1994 with its pioneer oversees pastry shop in Hong Kong and franchises its products in Tokyo and Shanghai and in parts of Italy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Bribed’ Ex-Berlusconi Senator Agrees to Plea Bargain
‘Accepted millions from ex-premier to tank Prodi govt’
(ANSA) — Naples, June 27 — A former Senator accused of taking bribes from ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi to switch parties and force a government to fall agreed to a plea bargain with prosecutors on Thursday. Sergio De Gregorio accepted a suspended sentence of one year and eight months in prison, which judges are expected to approve. De Gregorio defected from the centre-left during Romano Prodi’s 2006-2008 government and eventually joined Berlusconi’s party.
Berlusconi allegedly paid the turncoat three million euros to switch to the centre-right.
The Prodi government fell in 2008 after losing the support of the Senate, leading to new elections that Berlusconi won.
De Gregorio originally admitted to receiving two million euros from Berlusconi, which he did not declare for tax purposes, but denied that it was bribe money.
Prosecutors in Naples want Berlusconi to stand trial in this case.
The ex-premier was convicted in a separate case earlier this week of having sex with an underaged prostitute and abuse of office.
Berlusconi has been hit on numerous fronts by legal woes, which he chalks up to left-wing magistrates who allegedly have it out for him for political reasons.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Police Seize 20 Million Euros in Assets From Berlusconi MP
Investigators probe Angelucci’s government grant applications
(ANSA) — Rome, June 27 — Authorities seized 20 million euros in assets Thursday as part of a probe into the business affairs of Antonio Angelucci, an elected member of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party.
Rome prosecutors are looking into whether two publishing operations owned by Angelucci fraudulently received grants in 2006 and 2007.
According to finance police, the two companies claimed to belong to different publishers in order to double up on their grant claims.
Investigators say Angelucci, through a network of individuals and foreign holdings, hid the real control of the companies.
Like Angelucci, legal representatives of the company Arnaldo Rossi and Roberto Crespi, are also under investigation for forgery and aggravated fraud involving public funds.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s ‘Brain Movement’ Not Problem, Says Foreign Minister
Seeking work out of country shows youth open to experience
(ANSA) — Rome, June 27 — There is nothing wrong with young Italians seeking work abroad, Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino said on Thursday.
“I would like for us to move beyond the polemics about (the country’s) brain drain,” Bonino said at a meeting of the General Council of Italians Abroad (CGIE) in Rome.
The high number of young Italians seeking opportunities out of the country has been fingered by politicians and by Italy’s powerful employers’ association Confindustria as a costly sap of resources.
Italy’s brain drain has cost the country at least five billion euros in recent years and given a “precious gift” to the country’s competitors, Confindustria President Giorgio Squinzi said in May.
Bonino said that she preferred the term “brain movement” to “brain drain”.
“There is no doubt that the country is not having its best economic moment…but there is nothing wrong if young people want to work outside of the country. Actually, I see it as a willingness to be open and test one’s skills in the world,” Bonino said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Vatican Official Arrested in Money-Flight Probe
Spy, broker also held in ‘tax-dodge’ case
(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 a failed attempt to fly 20 million euros of alleged tax-evasion proceeds from Switzerland back to Italy.
Msgr Nunzio Scarano was until recently 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 the cash for three Salerno-based shipowner brothers who were friends with Scarano.
Zito is suspected of getting 400,000 euros for arranging cover for the flight.
Scarano was suspended a month ago after being named in a separate probe into receiving money in Salerno.
Police said brothers Paolo, Cesare and Maurizio D’Amico, whose fleet is based in Salerno but who are prominent in Rome business circles, were the alleged beneficiaries of what they called “a complex and expensive operation to evade airport customs controls and bring back into Italy money that is believed to be the fruit of tax evasion”.
Scarano was in custody in Rome’s Regina Coeli prison while Zito is being held in a military prison at Santa Maria Capua Vetere near Naples and broker Giovanni Carenzio in Naples’ Poggioreale jail.
Prosecutors said they were probing Scarano’s “huge” financial and property assets.
“The office has started a series of checks to clear up the origin of the huge financial and property holdings of Msgr Nunzio Scarano,” the prosecutors’ office said. The Vatican itself said it would cooperate “fully” with the probe, Spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told reporters.
Lombardi stressed that Scarano had been suspended after the initial probe was opened “more than a month ago”.
The Holy See has yet to receive a formal request from relevant Italian authorities, Lombardi added. Police said the probe into Scarano’s attempt to circumvent laws on importing foreign currency was part of a wider investigation into suspected irregularities at the Vatican Bank, the Istituto per le Opere Religiose (Institute for Religious Works, IOR).
That probe concerns alleged shady transactions at IOR, in which former president Ettore Gotti Tedeschi and his former No.2 were placed under investigation.
IOR, to which APSA is indirectly linked, told ANSA Friday it aimed to “cooperate fully with Italian authorities” and launch an internal inquiry “in line with the zero-tolerance policy promoted by (new) president Ernst von Freyberg”. German aristocrat and industrialist von Freyberg, appointed in February by Pope Benedict XVI in one of his last official acts as pontiff, last month vowed to bring greater transparency to an “august” institution which has been touched by “unwarranted” money-laundering accusations.
Von Freyberg said the bank planned to open up and be more transparent through the publication of its profit and loss accounts online by the year’s end and by running checks on its 19,000 account holders.
In addition, the bank will start to have a different “communication policy”, and plans to give interviews with “qualified representatives of the international press”, von Freyberg said.
The Vatican Bank has made a series of moves to show greater transparency since Argentinian Jesuit bishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis in March, succeeding Benedict XVI, the first pontiff to voluntarily abdicate in 700 years.
As a new broom with a reputation for plain-talking rigour and a lily-white image after being cleared of links with the infamous 1970-’80s ‘Dirty War’ junta in his country, Francis is reportedly keen to remove stains from IOR’s reputation and get it onto the ‘white list’ of countries with unimpeachable anti-money-laundering credentials. The new pope has vowed to take on power elites in the Curia, or central governance, of the Catholic Church, and recently admitted he would even have to tackle a gay lobby. Two days ago Francis set up a pontifical commission on IOR, to brief the pontiff on the bank’s activities and make sure it operated in harmony with the “Church’s mission”.
After coming into the prosecutors’ cross-hairs, IOR has started working with the Council of Europe’s Moneyval anti-money-laundering agency in a bid to make it onto the white list.
In a report last July, Moneyval said that the Holy See had made progress on financial transparency, but added that more reforms were needed.
The Italian press has increasingly speculated on the fate of the scandal-plagued bank, wondering whether the pontiff might reorganize or shut it down.
The new IOR panel will be chaired by Cardinal Raffaele Farina, and it will include another three prelates and Harvard Law Professor Mary Ann Glendon, a former United States Ambassador to the Holy See.
Last month the Vatican’s financial watchdog published its first annual report on the Holy See’s efforts to combat money laundering and funding terrorism.
In it, the Financial Information Authority (AIF) said it had uncovered six cases of suspect transactions in 2012, a notable increase since 2011 when only one such case was flagged.
Two of those cases were sent on to Vatican prosecutors for a probe.
AIF Director Rene’ Bruelhart did not go into the specifics of the transactions, specifying only that “they were not tied to financing terrorism”.
Established by Benedict XVI in 2010, the AIF is charged with monitoring the commercial and monetary activities of Vatican agencies like the Vatican Bank.
Over the years the Vatican Bank has acquired a murky image on transparency.
There have been allegations that IOR was used to launder money most notably by ‘God’s Banker’ Roberto Calvi, the former head of Italy’s biggest private bank, whose body was found hanging under Blackfriar’s Bridge in London in 1982, a suspected victim of the Sicilian mafia.
IOR was also named in kickbacks probes stemming from the 1990 collapse of public-private chemicals colossus Enimont, part of the Clean Hands investigations that swept away Italy’s old political establishment.
More recently, there has been a series of Italian TV reports and a best-selling book claiming to show how individuals have used IOR to squirrel away money, dodging Italian regulations.
A Vatican report to Moneyval is due in December on the basis of a questionnaire the Holy See will receive in September.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Bunga Bunga Girls Now Live in Fear
Polanco: “I wouldn’t like them to come after us” Conceição: “The girls kept quiet for money”
MILAN — A tired and very sleepy Iris Berardi tries to put on an attitude after being woken up at midday: “I don’t even know what happened. Who cares?” Lucky her. Although she was one of the first bunga bunga girls, Iris Bernardi is not mentioned in the operative part of the Berlusconi verdict. This means she is not one of the witnesses who risk charges of perjury. Like Manuela Ferrera, for example. Ms Ferrera evinces a certain verbosity after her self-imposed media blackout. “I have nothing to say”. Has she heard about Silvio Berlusconi? “I respect him. I like him”. Of course, but what about you? “I told the truth”. Really? “I told them what I had to. However…”. Here we go. “However, I first met Silvio with my parents and they would never have sent their daughter off with bad person, a, shall we say, paedophile. Am I wrong?”
Women who’ve been on the run for some time. Clinging to touchingly childish excuses. A friendly Marystelle Garcia Polanco blames her mobile, which needs topping up. Imma De Vivo just keeps saying “Hello? Hello?” as if she were afflicted by a bout of deafness. Ms De Vivo holds out with nary a wobble until late at night while Ms Polanco agrees to talk almost at once, mainly so as not to ruin the rest of her day: “The seven years? I was expecting it. We all knew. I wouldn’t like them to come after us now”. Is she thinking it over? “I’m thinking it over with my lawyer. It’s a bit difficult, you see”. What’s so difficult? “I don’t know. But I could make a spontaneous statement to the magistrates before I get summonsed”. Will Roberta Bonasia be seeing the magistrates? What does she think? “Mm”. What is she afraid of? “The problem, see, is that I can’t talk”. How so? “No I can’t, sorry”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Teacher Accused of Sexual Abuse at Amsterdam Jewish School
A former teacher at the Cheider orthodox Jewish school in Amsterdam has been accused of sexually abusing pupils by a number of parents, the Telegraaf reports on Friday.
The teacher, in his 20s and named as Ephraim S, moved to Tel Aviv after he was sacked for ‘inappropriate behaviour’. The Netherlands has now officially asked Israel for its help in the case, the Telegraaf says.
According to one report, S had sexual contact with a 16-year-old pupil. Other pupils came forward with similar stories after S was dismissed, the paper said.
Private tuition
S now gives tuition to children in Israel, sources told the paper. The public prosecution department has apparently confirmed the school made a formal complaint against him.
S has refused to comment on the claims.
The Cheider school in Amsterdam caters for children aged two to 18 and has some 200 pupils. Children have to obey a strict dress code and there are separate lessons for girls and boys.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Prelate and Secret Service Officer Arrested in Vatican Bank Inquiry
Finance broker also detained in inquiry by Rome prosecutors
ROME — Less than forty-eight hours after Pope Francis appointed a commission of cardinals to report on the activities of IOR, the Institute for the Works of Religion better known as the Vatican bank, the Vatican’s relations with Italy have taken a spectacular new turn. A high-ranking prelate, a secret service office and a finance broker have been arrested in the course of investigations into IOR by the Rome prosecution service. The prelate is Mgr Nunzio Scarano, bishop of Salerno. All three face charges of corruption and fraud. Rome prosecutors applied for the arrest warrants in the wake of investigations carried out by the financial police currency unit and investigating magistrate Barbara Callari granted the applications…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Report: NSA Joint Wiretapping With Foreign Nations
Here’s a report by Wayne Madsen showing not only how the NSA and British Government Communications Headquarters are wiretapping together, but the sinister spy agency is also cooperating with Germany and France:
“The Observer of the UK interviewed the editor on the National Security Agency’s Second, Third, and Fourth Party agreements with other intelligence services that pointed out that German and French protestations about the NSA and British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) jointly tapping the transatlantic cable in Cornwall not withstanding, the NSA also cooperates with Berlin and Paris in collecting private information on European citizens.
“On June 29, after The Guardian ran the story prior to The Observer running it on its web site and featuring it as a splash in its June 30 print edition, the story was pulled by The Guardian and The Observer. The second print edition of The Observer also deleted the story but not before the first print run reached London area news agents, as well as those in other British and European cities.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sicily: Six Arrested for ‘Benefits Fraud’
Gang ‘scammed INPS, INAIL’
(ANSA) — Agrigento, June 28 — Italia police on Friday arrested six people in this Sicilian city on suspicion of falsely claiming millions of euros in benefits.
Police said the alleged “gang” fraudulently obtained compensation from Italy’s work accident insurance agency INAIL and bogus jobless allowances from pension agency INPS.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovo: Serbian Named Police Chief in North, Accord
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE/PRISTINA, JUNE 25 — The Kosovo government today announced the appointment of Serbian Nenad Djuric as the first regional commander for northern Kosovo.
According to Belgrade media, Djuric’s appointment is the latest stage in the implementation of the agreement between Belgrade and Pristina on April 19 between Serbia’s prime minister Ivica Dacic and Kosovo’s prime minister Hasim Taci.
They still have to define other points in their agreement, including amnesty on the part of Pristina to problems related to energy and telecommunications.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Hajj Pilgrimage in Focus Amid Virus Fears
Virologists are casting a worried eye on this year’s Islamic hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia as they struggle with the enigmatic, deadly virus known as MERS which is striking hardest in the kingdom.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: * Disturbing Content *]
The father of a British teenager who was stabbed 17 times while on holiday in Turkey said his son is a ‘man-and-a-half’.
Dwayne Ward, 17, is recovering in hospital today after a five hour operation and a blood transfusion following the attack, in which he was stripped naked and left for dead.
His father Wayne, 52, said his son has sat up in hospital and has refused to be broken by the ordeal.
The builder said he was terrified his son would die but said he has shown the ‘courage of 10 men’.
He told The Sunday Mirror: ‘I can’t tell you how proud I am of him. You can’t imagine what he’s endured but it hasn’t damaged his spirit.
‘It’s me that keeps crying — it’s just so overwhelming what they did to him. ‘
Mr Ward, who flew out to his son’s bedside on Friday, said the teenager has even asked for a McDonald’s from hospital.
Dwayne, from Middlesbrough, was found with his wrists slashed and his body soaked in blood in a garden in the Tepe district of Marmaris by locals.
He had cuts to his throat, chest, groin, legs and back and had been stabbed in the chest, puncturing his lung.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Projection of Moscow’s Mindset
By Dmitry Shlapentokh
Russia’s relations with the Asian people, as projected in recent movies, provides important insight not just about Russian domestic but also foreign policy, including Moscow’s view of the current conflicts in the Middle East.
Since the end of Vladimir Putin’s first term as president, the Russian movie industry has produced several historical movies on Asia and Russia’s relations with the Asian people. Most have had broad public responses, indicated by heated debates in cyberspace.
A movie about Genghis Khan, Mongol, created in 2007 and directed by Sergei Bodrov, was one of the most prominent. It dwelt on Khan’s extraordinary life, rising from an unknown man, even a slave at certain times of his early life, to became the creator of a huge empire.
His extraordinary brutality, even by the criteria of his time, was overlooked, as well as Khan’s descendents’ conquest of Russia. The emphasis was on Khan’s vitality, energy, talent and extraordinary will. In the movie, the East has positive implications whereas the West has a negative image.
In 2008, on the eve of Putin’s passing his presidential scepter to Dmitry Medvedev (at least formally), a new movie, The Fall of an Empire — the Lesson of Byzantium, created by Archimandrite Tikhon, allegedly Putin’s confessor, was shown on the official government TV channel, indicating its paramount ideological importance.
The movie dealt with history and the end of the Byzantine Empire, clearly identified here with Russia. While having a lot of similarities in its overall ideological framework with that of Mongol, Tikhon’s movie has much less pleasing images of the East than Bogrov’s work. The movie has decidedly anti-Western overtones.
According to this movie, the West is sly and deceptive; and one should not trust Western smiles and handshakes. Still, the most dangerous factor is not Western duplicity or even the fact that Western crusaders devastated Constantinople in 1204, but the corrosive influence of Western culture, which weakened the Byzantium Empire…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Merck: Dead Vioxx Victims Worth $1500 Each
Despite the death and destruction wreaked by Vioxx around the world, the pharmaceutical industry is no more motivated today than it was 10 years ago to be thorough and cautious when assessing the safety of a new drug being brought to market.
It is quite simply a more profitable business decision for companies like Merck to cut corners when assessing a drug’s safety and lean on the FDA to get drugs approved quickly because even when thousands upon thousands of people are harmed or killed as was the case with Vioxx, the damages from lawsuits are trivial compared with the revenue earned by the drug in the years it manages to stay on the market.
Payouts to victims or victims’ families are nothing more than a minor cost of doing business that pales in comparison to the blockbuster revenues to be earned for shareholders and executive bonuses.
Case in point.
Last month, Merck reached a settlement with the 1700 Australians who claimed Vioxx gave them heart problems or killed their loved ones.
The settlement amount?
A paltry $540,000, which translates to $314 per claimant! In addition, the settlement stipulates that no future claims could be brought against Merck for the drug — even by those who were not part of the current proceedings!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Species Alteration: Is GMO Rewiring Our DNA?
In mice who were fed this dRNA, the liver completely changed its cell organization, and the mice grew strangely. The same effects were found when these dRNA were added to human cells. Allegedly, this GMO food can be turning on cancer causing genes, or quiet our immune systems. In other ways, the wheat we are consuming is so different than organic wheat that it is causing us to be addicted to it. Some are calling it bioterrorism for this reason.
GMO food plants make these new dRNA so that the gene structure is silenced or amplified in very specific ways. There are no evaluations of dRNA and how it will affect our genes by the FDA, and Monsanto is working on dRNA technology, buying up companies that are developing it so that it can be issued as the next round of GMO food they unleash unwittingly on us.
Researchers in Australia and New Zealand are exposing this issue. Even inhalation of the GMO company’s sprays can change the way our bodies produce DNA and associated proteins. Most frightening is the fact that this dRNA can translate through the offspring of the people exposed to it. In Canada, new research is showing that pregnant women’s blood samples contained traces of toxins found in GMO foods. Who knows what the long term ramifications are of messing with our very genetic structure, but they can’t be promising considering the track record of Monsanto thus far.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Compares Nelson Mandela to George Washington
Although President Obama will not get a chance to see Nelson Mandela on his trip to South Africa, he is using his historic visit to pay tribute to the man he calls a hero to the world and will meet today with the Mandela family.
At a joint press conference with South African President Jacob Zuma this morning, President Obama spoke extensively about Mandela’s legacy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama and Nelson Mandela: George Washington a Communist?
Obama: No difference between a founding father and a communist terrorist.
There is absolutely no comparison between George Washington and Nelson Mandela.
George Washington was a Founding Father. He presided over the convention that drafted the Constitution and warned the nation against partisanship, sectionalism, and involvement in foreign wars.
Nelson Mandela was… well, a communist and a terrorist.
Mandela was a member of the South African Communist Party. He co-founded Umkhonto we Sizwe, a terrorist organization that killed civilians, including children. Fast food outlets and supermarkets were favored targets. In addition to terrorist bombings, the military wing of the African National Congress tortured and executed suspected government agents.
Post-apartheid South Africa is ruled by the ANC and the South African Communist Party. The ruling ANC defines itself as a “disciplined force of the left.”
Listening to Obama, however, you wouldn’t know that Nelson Mandela is a former communist and terrorist. He has compared the aging terrorist to George Washington.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
If Obama’s Amnesty Goes Through, Within 5 Years, America is Finished
“All that our republic has stood for is about to be destroyed”
Mario Obledo, founding member/former nat’l director of Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), former CA Sect’y Health/Welfare on Tom Leykis radio talk show (Hear the quote here — URL)
“We’re going to take over all the political institutions in California. In five years the Hispanics are going to be the majority population of this state.” Caller: “You also made the statement that California is going to become a Hispanic state and if anyone doesn’t like it they should leave — did you say that?” Obledo: “I did. They ought to go back to Europe.“
In 2007, hordes of illegal aliens who are not immigrants or undocumented “residents”, marched by the tens of thousands across this country demanding special treatment after they lied and cheated their way into our country. Since 1986, when Ronald Reagan opened the flood gates for this decades old invasion, illegal aliens have financially destroyed states and their resources; hospitals, school districts and welfare in all forms. Tens of billions spent for law enforcement for all the crimes committed by illegals, over loading jails and prisons. Not to mention the tens of thousands of Americans killed by illegal aliens.
24+ million Americans out of work while 11.5 million jobs are held by illegals who have no right to even be on U.S. soil. Millions of those liars, cheats and thieves have ruined the lives of so many by stealing their identity in order to steal jobs that belong to Americans and naturalized Americans who came here legally to begin a new life.
[Comment: Informative and sobering article. A must read for Americans.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Foreign Residents Outpacing Population Growth
Over four million non-Italians in country
(ANSA) — Rome, June 25 — Italy’s foreign population grew by 7.4% in 2012, dwarfing the overall population growth of 0.5%, the national statistics agency reported Tuesday. According to Istat, last year 59,685,227 people resided in Italy. Of them, 4,300,000 were foreign citizens. Overall the population grew by 291,020 since the end of 2011.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Passage of the Amnesty Bill Will Spell the End of Our Republic
The true purpose of this amnesty proposal is to capture future votes for the Democratic Party. Those who do not acknowledge that blatantly obvious fact either suffer from some debilitating mental illness or are working for the other side.
On rare occasions, even the Left admit the objective. Eliseo Medina, the honorary Chair of the Democratic Socialists of America, and International Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), said in 2008:
…”If we reform the immigration laws, it puts 12 million people on the path to citizenship and eventually voters. Can you imagine if we have …even two out of three, if we get 8 million new voters… we will create a governing coalition for the long term, not just for an election cycle.”
The “governing coalition for the long term” refers of course to the “permanent progressive majority” Democrats have fantasized about for decades.
The number of illegals in this country is repeatedly cited as 11 million. This is almost certainly an underestimate. In reality the number is 20 to 30 million or more, according to a 2007 study in Social Contract. Bear Stearns estimated about 20 million in 2005. When amnesty passed in 1986, official estimates were 1.2 million illegals. There were actually 2.7 million — more than double. Within ten years, INS estimated the illegal population had grown to 10 million. It is delusional to believe the number has only increased by another 1 million in the 17 years since. Furthermore, when amnesty passes, the newly-legal aliens will invite their relatives to come, further inflating that number through chain migration…
The original Gang-of-Eight bill was really bad, as became readily apparent quite quickly. The overtly fraudulent Schumer-Corker-Hoeven Amendment was offered as a fig leaf to reassure fools that the original bill — which already promised in-and-of-itself to enhance border security — would actually enhance border security. But in reality it makes things worse. The amendment:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Church of England to Blend Christianity With Paganism to Attract Spiritualists
Here’s a new twist on church growth: creating a pagan atmosphere and branding campaign for New Age spiritualists in order to increase the number of bodies in the pews. The Church of England is actually training its ministers to create “a pagan church where Christianity [is] very much in the center” to attract spiritual believers. That means changing the Anglican church doctrine to make it more inclusive for people of alternative beliefs. The Church of England admits that its motive is to retain congregation numbers who have embraced paganism. The Church Mission Society, which is training ministers to “break new ground” in order to get spiritual people into churches. If you’ve come from a Seeker-Driven model, that might actually sound like a good thing. Get them in the doors and tell them about Jesus, right? But make no mistake; that is not what is happening here. The Jesus the Church of England is re-creating is not the Jesus of the Bible.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama to Force All Churches to Perform Gay Marriages?
Freshly glowing on the heels of his Supreme Court victory on the defeat of exclusive heterosexual marriage, Barack Hussein Obama pursed his lips today and said that he would not “force churches to perform gay marriages”. Let us give you a few reasons why this is a lie and that forcing churches to perform gay marriage is precisely his goal:
1. Taxpayer-funded abortion: Obama promised that there would be no taxpayer-funded abortions. Guess what? He lied.
2. Jerusalem As Israel’s Capital: When running for President he said that he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Then guess what?, he didn’t.
3. Bill Passing In Washington: Obama promised that “The Public Will Have 5 Days To Look At Every Bill That Lands On My Desk” Guess what? This has never happened one time. Total lie…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands Throng Paris Streets for Gay Pride
Tens of thousands of people thronged the streets of Paris to mark the city’s Gay Pride on Saturday, exactly one month to the day since France celebrated its first gay marriage.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |