British Prime Minister David Cameron has vowed to “drain the swamp” that creates Islamic extremists in the UK. To that end, he has established a special anti-radicalism task force, which he himself will chair.
In other news, demonstrations are continuing in Turkish cities, and there are reports that a second protester has been killed. The unrest has even spread to northern (Turkish-occupied) Cyprus.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Greece: New Property Tax Via Power Bills From July
(ANSAmed) ATHENS, JUNE 3 — As of late July 2013, electricity bills issued by the Greek Public Power Corporation (PPC) will include the new special property tax for this year, which will be 15% lower than the extraordinary levy paid in 2011 and 2012, as daily Kathimerini reports. As the payment of the 2012 tax ends, property owners will effectively be asked to pay the 2013 tax in their next power bill. The 2013 tax is set to be smaller as there will be more owners paying this year. PPC has issued a statement warning that any consumers who fail to pay the special property tax for 2012 through the electricity bill by its deadline date will have to refer to tax authorities for the settlement of their tax debts, as the company will be returning all data on unpaid taxes to the Finance Ministry. Any consumers who have not settled their dues for this tax will not be able to get a payment plan for their debts to the tax authorities.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Man Believed to Have Committed Suicide Over Money, Ill Wife
Firefighters pull body of 65-year-old man from rural water tank
(ANSA) — Palermo, June 3 — The body of a 65-year-old man was recovered from a water cistern in the countryside of Ragusa province in Sicily Monday morning by firefighters.
Authorities believe the man, a former local government worker, had not been paid for several months and likely committed suicide.
The man was under extra stress because his wife was recently admitted to hospital.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
More Than 12 Million Italians Turned to Private Health Care
Report says more than 61% paid to avoid waiting lists
(ANSA) — Rome, June 4 — More than 12 million Italians have turned to some form of private health care, driven by long waiting lists in the public system, says a report released Tuesday.
As many as 61.6% of the 12.2 million Italians paying for private health services blamed long waiting lists for their decision, while just 18% said they thought they would receive better care outside the publicly funded system, according to the report by statistics institute Censis.
By far, dentists report the largest number of private patients, with 90% paying their own bills.
About 57% of gynecological visits are privately paid while 36% of rehabilitation services are financed outside the public system.
The report suggests that government cuts to the health care system over the past two years are responsible for longer wait times for medical care, driving more patients to pay privately.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Suicide Rate in Italy Jumps by 40% in First Three Months
Study says largest amount reported in northeast
(ANSA) — Rome, June 4 — The suicide rate in Italy jumped by 40% in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2012, according to a human-rights report released Tuesday.
In almost half of these suicides, the “precarious” economic situation was cited as a cause, and loss of employment was named in 28.1%, said the Report on Global Rights 2013. It found that fully 121 people were reported dead by their own hand in the 15-month period that began in January 2012 and continued through the first three months of this year. That includes 89 in all of 2012, and 32 in the first three months of this year, said researcher Sergio Segio.
The largest group of suicides — 30% — occurred in Italy’s northeast areas, followed by almost 26% in the centre and 14.6% in the south.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
America’s Greatest Affliction: The Presstitute Media
When Gerald Celente branded the American media “presstitutes,” he got it right. The US print and TV media (and NPR) whore for Washington and the corporations. Reporting the real news is their last concern. The presstitutes are a Ministry of Propaganda and Coverup. This is true of the entire Western media, a collection of bought-and-paid-for whores.
It seems that every day I witness a dozen or more examples. Take May 31 for example. The presstitutes report that US Secretary of State John Kerry and his German counterpart are working on Russia to convince that country to be a “party to peace” in Syria by not supplying the Syrian government, whose country has been invaded, with arms. Kerry and the Israelis especially do not want Russia to deliver the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system to Syria.
This was the extent of the presstitutes’ report. The presstitutes made no mention of the fact that the invasion of Syria by al-Qaeda affiliated radical Muslims was organized and equipped by Washington via its proxies in the region, such as Saudia Arabia and the oil emirates. Americans sufficiently stupid to rely on the presstitute media do not know that it is not Syrians who want to overthrow their government, but Washington, Israel, and radical Islamists who object to Syria’s secular non-confrontational government.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Fox News Radio commentator, Todd Starnes has an update on the controversy about tonight’s American Muslim Advisory Council of Tennessee event at the Manchester Tennessee Coffee County Conference Center featuring US Attorney for Eastern Tennessee Bill Killian and Kenneth Moore, FBI Special Agent in the Knoxsville office, “DOJ Warns Anti-Muslim Rhetoric Could Violate Law”. Killian tries to rebut critics of the event as somehow not about Sharia but about Muslim civil rights. Andy Miller of the Tennessee freedom Coalition lays it on the line about the US DOJ pushing erosion of protected free speech in the US, starting in the Buckle of the Bible Belt. “There’s an effort to step on free speech — any speech that’s contrary to Islam,” Miller told Fox News. “It seems like our federal government is going down that path.” Miller said Tennessee has become a battleground over what he called a crackdown on anti-Muslim speech. “This is the Bible Belt,” he told Fox News. “There’s an effort to prove that if they can do it here, they can do it anywhere.”
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Richard Hamblyn
On a sunny afternoon in 1938, an American entomologist named Philip Jackson Darlington stood at an open fifth-floor window at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology armed with a bucket of frogs. As a small crowd gathered below, Darlington proceeded to hurl the frogs, one by one, through the window and onto the lawn where the Museum’s director, Thomas Barbour, was waiting. As each unfortunate creature made landfall, Barbour called up, “that one’s dead”, until the bucket was empty and the experiment appeared to be over…
Plate theory explains why similar rocks and species are found on opposite sides of oceans and continents, which leads us back to the Harvard frogs, a story with a surprising ending. With a lawn full of apparently dead amphibians, it seemed that Barbour had won the argument: wind was clearly too perilous as a means of species dispersal. But within a few minutes, the dazed frogs began to stir, and soon every one was hopping around the museum grounds, having survived its calamitous fall. It was Darlington’s point that was proved.
“Every astronomer is a paleontologist”, notes Neil Shubin, but on the evidence of this dazzling excursion into life, the universe and everything, every palaeontologist is also a biologist, a physicist and a cosmologist rolled into one, a magical storyteller whose work succeeds in reminding us how at home we are in our universe.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Congressional Report Proves Taxpayers Are Subsidizing Wal-Mart Employees
A Congressional report released Thursday confirms what many Americans have suspected all along: Taxpayers are subsidizing Wal-Mart’s workforce. The running-joke that says “for every dollar you save at Wal-Mart you spend two dollars more in taxes” isn’t far off the mark.
The report, prepared by Democrats in the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, focused on “Wal-Mart’s low wages and their effect on taxpayers and economic growth” and found that Wal-Mart pays its employees such low wages they can’t even afford the necessities of life, and taxpayers are forced to pick up the tab.
“Taxpayer-funded public benefit programs make up the difference between Wal-Mart’s low wages and the costs of subsistence.”
The report analyzed data released by Wisconsin’s Medicaid program, because Wisconsin had the most recent information, and their findings were appalling.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Conservative Manchurian Candidate Radio Talk Show Hosts
Let’s start with what would be the primary objective of a radio talk show host or media personality. The most effective means of indoctrination and brainwashing is that which controls the consciousness of the masses of people who are tuning in. The way the Big Brother media, a cult, ideological group, or foreign agents of influence can most effectively control people’s minds and thus their behavior is by controlling what they think about. By simply ignoring or not calling attention to certain topics on a long-term and consistent basis, you can create the idea in millions of people that these things are not important, not worthy of attention, insignificant, don’t really exist, or that they are part of some conspiracy theory that does not warrant the attention of any sane, intelligent and responsible individual.
Mind Control 101 starts with the basics, the understanding that adults are very vulnerable to peer pressure, just like a bunch of teenagers in high school. Due to his or her insecurities and the tremendous psychological need to be loved and respected by society or his peers, an average person will act, dress, think, talk and behave in such a way as to be accepted and not rejected. In the subconscious of most men and women there is a deep terror of rejection! This fear of rejection by the group is one of the most powerful psychological drivers for brainwashing. In addition, it is simple and effective and it works.
Here is how the science of mind control plays out on the terrain of human consciousness. Tragically, the American people by and large are deeply insecure and through their insecurity they can be manipulated. That is why the advertising and marketing industries produce various ads that are targeted towards “solving” this insecurity. If you buy such and such a product you will be respected, considered sexually attractive, get the guy or girl of your dreams, recover your youth, and solve whatever problem the advertisers tell you that you have. Massive amounts of money are spent on advertisements each day to motivate you to buy that car that will make you look important, because, after all, you don’t feel important. However, if you purchase this car, item of clothing, house, appliance, or technology like an iPhone you will be important, and therefore accepted.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Monday pressed for eliminating the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) amid the scandal over the agency’s targeting of conservative political groups.
Cruz called for replacing the current tax system with a flat tax.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Did Tolerance of Antisemitism Contribute to Florida Atlantic University President’s Resignation?
Please watch and share the following background video about what is taking place at Florida Atlantic University: www.exposingfau.com.
On May 15, 2013, Florida Atlantic University President, Dr. Mary Jane Saunders, resigned after less than three years as head of the Boca Raton-based university. As noted by WPTV, Channel 5 News several controversies figured in her decision to resign: Over the past twelve months she has witnessed protests over the proposed naming of a football stadium for a prison company, anger over a professor’s lesson that involved stepping on the name Jesus, accusations that anti-Semitism is harbored by administrators and a backlash over a professor who raised questions about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings and the Boston Marathon bombings. In a late March 2013 Iconoclast post we addressed two of those controversies: FAU has two problems in the combined Passover Easter Holy Week: “Stomp Jesus” and a modern blood libel perpetrated by Muslim Student extremists in blatant anti-Semitic and anti-Israel incidents. The “Stomp Jesus” incident furor led to a request for an investigation by Florida Governor Rick Scott in a letter to the Florida State University System Chancellor, while the other matter deserves equal and immediate attention. The “Stomp Jesus” incident at FAU is not the only concerning matter. There is evidence of antisemitism and even charges of modern blood libel arising from incidents perpetrated by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) plastering eviction notices on dorm rooms of Jewish Students in 2012. Noor Fawzy was the leader of SJP that perpetrated these incidents on campus during Apartheid Awareness Week. The ultimate outrage at FAU was the prestigious award presented to SJP leader and Political Science Major Noor Fawzy last month. Fawzy received “FAU’s 2013 Stan and Renee Wimberley Scholar award in recognition of outstanding academic achievement, along with evidence of leadership, campus involvement and community service.”
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey Calls Special Election for U.S. Senate for October
In a decision fraught with political implications, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey announced on Tuesday that he would schedule a special election in October for the Senate seat left vacant by the death of Frank R. Lautenberg on Monday.
The move was expected to draw criticism from Democrats in the state, arguing that such a move by Mr. Christie, a Republican, would amount to squandering taxpayer money to protect his own political ambitions. Scheduling a special election rather than adding the vote for the Senate seat to the November ballot would cost millions of dollars.
A special Oct. 16 ballot means the choice of a new senator will not overshadow the race for governor, which will now remain at the top of statewide ballots in November. Republicans in the state are counting on Mr. Christie, who has been hoping that a landslide re-election victory will help propel a possible run for president in 2016, to draw his supporters to the polls, helping Republican candidates for the state Legislature and for many local offices.
| [Return to headlines] |
How Extensive is the NSA Domestic Surveillance of U.S. Media? Is it Legal?
The question that must be asked and answered now is does the National Security Agency (NSA) domestic surveillance program apply to the U.S. citizens in the media as well? The reason this question must be asked is because it appears, my Canada Free Press colleague, private investigator of the Northeast Intelligence Network, journalist, and popular radio show host of the Hagmann & Hagmann report, Doug Hagmann, has apparently been caught up in the NSA’s media dragnet.
Just like the Posse Comitatus laws prohibit the use domestically of the military and militarized weapons inside the United States or against U.S. citizens, reserving those authorities and tools to policing agencies, the NSA’s tools are restricted domestically from use against U.S. citizens and businesses. A fact which is apparently lost on the Obama administration, as we already see in Jewel vs. NSA, as the Electronic Frontier Foundation is meticulously documenting.
Hagmann has been on the forefront of reporting dubious DHS programs and the cover-up of the attack in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, for well over a year. He can be credited as one of the primary media outlets blowing the whistle on Benghazi with numerous hard-hitting expose’s which in large part have kept the story alive, until Congress had no choice but to act. Otherwise Benghazi would have been shut down by now. As I previously reported, the Republicans already tried to roll over on Benghazi when they wrongly confirmed an Obama administration false narrative regarding denying sending anyone help in Benghazi.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Issa Dismisses Carney as a ‘Paid Liar’
The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee blasted White House press secretary Jay Carney on Sunday, calling him a “paid liar” who is not being truthful about the scandal at the Internal Revenue Service.
“Their paid liar, their spokesperson, the picture behind, he’s still making up things about what happened and calling this a local rogue,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” gesturing to a graphic of Carney on the set.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Judge Wants Details of Fort Hood Suspect’s Defense Strategy Before Decision on Trial Delay
FORT HOOD, Texas — A judge says she won’t decide whether to delay the Fort Hood shooting suspect’s trial until he provides evidence to support his defense strategy — and she might not accept it.
Maj. Nidal Hasan said Tuesday his defense will explain that he killed 13 people in the 2009 shooting rampage because soldiers were about to deploy to Afghanistan. He says he was trying to prevent the imminent death of Taliban fighters.
A “defense of others” strategy requires defendants to prove they killed a person or people to protect others from immediate danger or death.
Hasan, who’s representing himself at his murder trial, is seeking a three-month delay. The judge may rule Wednesday, delaying jury selection until at least Monday.
He faces the death penalty or life without parole if convicted.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Super Secret Treaty Which Will Push the Deindustrialization of America Into Overdrive
Did you know that Barack Obama has been secretly negotiating the most important trade agreement since the formation of the World Trade Organization? Did you know that this agreement will impose very strict Internet copyright rules, ban all “Buy American” laws, give Wall Street banks much more freedom to trade risky derivatives and force even more domestic manufacturing offshore? If you have not heard about this treaty, don’t feel bad. Obama has refused to even give Congress a copy of the draft agreement and he has banned members of Congress from attending the negotiations. The plan is to keep this treaty secret until the very last minute and then to railroad it through Congress and have it signed into law by October. The treaty is known as “the Trans-Pacific Partnership”, and the nations that are reported to be involved in the development of this treaty include the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Brunei, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia. Opponents of this treaty refer to it as “the NAFTA of the Pacific”, and if it is enacted it will push the deindustrialization of America into overdrive.
The “one world” economic agenda that Barack Obama has been pushing is absolutely killing the U.S. economy. As you will see later in this article, we are losing jobs and businesses at an astounding pace. And each new “free trade” agreement makes things even worse.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama/Holder Justice Department Threatens First Amendment
Reacting to reports that the Obama Department of Justice may prosecute those who write and post articles offensive to Muslims, Pamela Geller of the American Freedom Defense Initiative has vowed, “We will fight you on this every step of the way. We will drag your dhimmi asses all the way to the Supreme Court. This is Sharia enforcement, and we are not going to stand for it.”
The term “dhimmi” refers to submission to or enforcement of Islamic law, also called Sharia.
Geller, who also co-founded Stop Islamization of Nations (SION) with Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, has endorsed a rally for free speech on June 4 in Manchester, Tennessee, to protest anti-free speech comments by Bill Killian, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
Killian has generated outrage by vowing to use federal civil rights laws to punish those making critical comments about Islam.
A local paper reports that Killian and Kenneth Moore, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Knoxville, Tennessee, Division, are speaking at a public event and “will provide input on how civil rights can be violated by those who post inflammatory documents targeted at Muslims on social media.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Growing Threat of Smart Meters
Sustainable Development is code for a policy designed to transform human society, essentially eliminating individual life decisions and replacing them with top — down, one-size-fits-all government control. In steady fashion, the agenda for this new policy, designed at the international level, is put into place piece by piece with a new government council here, and new regulation there, each designed to appear as a “local” development program. Like the proverbial frog in the slowly boiling pot, many Americans fail to notice the rise in government heat.
The main course of action to impose the new agenda is through the pretense of environmental protection; “Sorry about your rights, but if we don’t save the planet, then we will all perish!” And so with the devastation of a thousand pin pricks, America and its form or government is being changed through the creation of non-elected boards, councils and regional governments, designed to enforce the new regulations and “assure that we protect the environment.”
The pin pricks come disguised as such issues as controls on community development; controls on use of private property; controls on use of open space; creation of development areas, many times under the excuse of historic preservation; communities designed on the blue print of pack and stack housing; making it harder to drive as roads are narrowed, even forcing cars to share the road with bicycles; the enforcement of expensive mass transit boondoggle projects; and the never ending spending spree on inefficient, unworkable alternative energy, such as wind and solar power.
In fact, control of energy and water are the two most effective tools in the enforcement of the Sustainable Development agenda. Without energy and water, human society stops. Using strict controls on how, or even if, energy and water can be used provides government with the power to dictate every aspect of society.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
W. Virginia Professor Says NRA Members Deserve Firing Squad for Treason
In an op/ed article for the Charleston Gazette, Christopher Swindell, a journalism professor at Marshall University in West Virginia, says NRA advocates are a treasonous bunch and they should all be executed before a firing squad.
In his article, Swindell says, “Watching the celebration at the NRA convention over the defeat of background checks was the most nauseating experience of the day.”
Swindell goes on to explain that he’s not a “New York gun control liberal.” He says he supports having a shotgun for home defense, a handgun for limited conceal/carry, and having an assortment of hunting rifles.
But, he says the gun safety debate is “B.S.” “This foaming at the mouth, Obamar is coming for the guns, Nanny Bloomberg is a bad billionaire, and most despicable of all, those survivors and victims are pawns in the liberal agenda is knuckle-dragging Cretan talk.”
And then Swindell really gets riled up:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Vienna School Bans Teaching About Gates of Vienna to Avoid Offending Muslims
by Daniel Greenfield
One day, if this goes on, schools will no longer be allowed to teach about September 11, just as many European schools are not allowed to teach about the Holocaust, to avoid offending Muslims. Between the blasphemy/incitement laws and the voluntary censorship, a bubble of historical ignorance is being created and maintained in the hopes that this will prevent acts of Muslim terror and avoid exposing the failure of Muslim integration into multiculturalism…
While the story is current, it would appear that similar incidents took place in 2009 and 2012 in Austria. Unfortunately Austria does have an extended history of pandering to Muslim terrorists and Islamists with entirely predictable results. And the Greens appear to be going wild.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Cyprus: Istanbul’s Protests Spread to Streets in the North
In the so-called Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
(ANSAmed) NICOSIA, JUNE 3 — Anti government protests have spread to the Turkish-occupied part of Cyprus (the so called Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Trnc, recognized only by Ankara), with thousands of people demonstrating against the administration of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
As Turkish Cypriot media report, students gathered Saturday to protest the events in Istanbul and express their grievances over the policies of the Erdogan government and what they describe as police terror, according to Melis Tutan, a journalist in northern Nicosia. Tutan said that thousands of people took to the streets of Nicosia, Kyrenia, Famagusta and Morphou.
Activists gathered in front of Turkey’s embassy and chanted slogans against Erdogan and his ruling AKP party. A group of students shouted “We send greetings from the island, Nicosia Taksim are shoulder to shoulder against fascism”. At one point police barricaded the area and there were a few small scuffles, but no injuries were reported. Many civil organizations and students walked together towards the Turkish Embassy in occupied Nicosia. Demonstrations in Cyprus were organised via Facebook and Twitter, with more action planned for the next days.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Assaults by Groups on the Rise
The total number of assaults has fallen in recent years, but assaults by groups are on the rise
The number of assaults carried out by groups of young people has risen dramatically, according to new Justice Ministry figures.
In 2005, 32 percent of all assaults were carried out by groups two to six young people. In 2011, those groups were responsible for 46 percent of assaults.
The number of assaults carried out by larger groups also rose from eight to 15 percent of total assaults.
Britta Kyvsgaard, who heads the Justice Ministry’s research department and compiles the ministry’s annual study of crime victims, said the result was statistically significant.
“It’s a clear sign that group violence has become more common,” Kyvsgaard told Jyllands-Posten newspaper. “We haven’t done any research on the causes but it’s a scary development.”
There have been several high-profile reports of unprovoked violence in recent weeks, including the assault of an 18-year-old at Nørreport station by four young men, and a 59-year-old dog walker in Odense. Both were hospitalised and were placed in medicinally induced comas.
The news led Dansk Folkeparti to call for stiffer penalties for group assaults, though the chairman of the association of judges, Mikael Sjöberg, responded that tougher sentences for those who take part in group attacks had already been passed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
European Commission Presents New Report Amid Schengen Reforms
BRUSSELS, June 3 (Xinhua) — The European Commission on Monday released its third biannual overview on Schengen governance, in the middle of its efforts to push forward its legislative proposals on strengthened Schengen rules and an EU-based evaluation mechanism.
Covering the period from last November to this April, the latest Schengen “health check” found no serious deficiencies of Schengen rules through spot checks in several countries in terms of police cooperation, air borders, land borders, and visa issuing, among others.
In the six-month period, controls at internal borders was reintroduced once by Norway, on the occasion of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony last December, during which over 3,000 people were checked and 27 were refused or apprehended, according to the report…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Far-Right Extremists Chased Through London by Women Dressed as Badgers
A rally by extremists from the British National Party and the English Defence League was dwarfed by opposition campaigners staging rival protests in London on Saturday 1 June.
Shortly after lunch, a die-hard core of around 50 BNP and EDL supporters was confronted outside parliament by hundreds of activists from anti-extremist groups including Unite Against Fascism and Hope Not Hate.
But in the event, both groups were upstaged by agitators of a different stripe. Decked out from head to toe in black and white, the group that won the day were campaigning neither for race war nor ethnic equality, but an end to the government’s cull on badgers.
And it was the pro-badger campaigners who appeared to steal a march on the political activists.
Young women dressed in fake fur were seen chasing doughty nationalist supporters down London’s Whitehall as a large number of security forces in iridescent jackets looked on from police lines.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Classical Music Calms ‘Rowdy’ Paris Commuters
Train stations in the Paris region have begun blasting classical music on to platforms, in what some observers see as a move to calm down youths who might otherwise attack or hassle fellow commuters.
Rail network SNCF has begun playing classical music on platforms along its J, L and RER A lines, after a competition inviting commuters in the Paris region to choose which melodies they would like to listen to on their daily slog to work.
“After a bit of experimenting at the Poissy station, we listened to the feedback from clients and interviewed passengers who said that classical music made their journey more pleasant,” head of the project Bruno Rocher told online magazing StreetPress.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Free Police Who ‘Started’ Paris Riots: Prosecutor
An appeals court prosecutor has argued that two French policemen implicated in the fatal electrocution of two fleeing teens, be freed of charges. The incident sparked social unrest across France in 2005,
Helen Catton, General Counsel of the Court of Appeals in Rennes, in Brittany, said on Tuesday that the two policemen should be cleared of liability stemming from an incident in October 2005.
The officers were involved in a chase that led to Zyed Benna and Bouna Traoré taking refuge in an electricity substation in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois. The two teenagers died after being electrocuted.
In 2007, the teenagers’ families accused the policemen of failing to aid Benna, 17, and Traoré, who was 15 when he died. The policemen were subsequently investigated for endangering the lives of others for their part in the chase, but were cleared of charges in April 2011.
The decision, however, was contested by two NGOs: AC-Lefeu and Contre le contrôle au facie’s.
AC-Lefeu was established in the wake of riots and car-burning triggered by the grisly deaths of Benna and Traoré, while Contre le contrôle au facie’s formed in early 2011 as a pressure group to stop the police performing identity checks based on physical appearance.
In September 2012, the two NGOs demanded that the Justice Minister intervene while Change.org called for the French to sign a petition that the dismissal be revoked. By October, an appeals court (Cour de cassation) overturned the dismissal or ‘non-lieu.’
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French ‘Learned Wine-Making’ From Italians
Despite now being perhaps the global capital of wine, France imported its earliest wine and learned wine-making from ancient Italians, according to archaeological evidence unearthed by US researchers.
The earliest evidence of wine in France suggests that it came from Italy, and that it was mixed with basil, thyme and other herbs, according to research published on Monday.
This early wine may have been used as medicine, and likely was imbibed by the wealthy and powerful before eventually becoming a popular beverage enjoyed by the masses, researchers said.
The artifacts found at the French port site of Lattara, near the southern city of Montpellier, suggest that winemaking took root in France as early as 500 BC, as a result of libations and traditions introduced by the ancient Etruscans in what is now Italy.
“Even though France is now the centre of the world’s wine culture, wine was originally an import to France,” lead author Patrick McGovern told The Local.
“What the research shows is that the Etruscans, by importing wine to France, built up a great desire for wine in that area. Then the locals took the next logical step and grew the grapes and made the wine themselves,” said McGovern, who is director of the biomolecular archaeology laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Court to Jail ‘Anti-White’ Racist for Attack
A man in the southern French city of Toulon has been given a jail sentence after racially abusing a white man, before attacking him. The victim was called a ‘dirty white’, and told ‘this is a place for Arabs.’
A court in the southern city of Toulon sentenced a local man to a year in prison this week, with nine months suspended, after he racially abused a white man and later attacked him.
The assailant, aged in his thirties and of north African origins, was found to have shouted “You dirty white, I’m going to smash you. This is a place for Arabs,” at the victim, who was in a carpark with five friends, both male and female, on the night of May 10th.
The attacker, accompanied by his own entourage and already drunk, according to TF1 television, then punched and head-butted two of the group, who were all aged in their twenties.
Police were called to the scene and arrested the assailant.
A court in Toulon on Monday convicted the thirty-something of collective assault and public injury, the latter relating to his racist abuse.
He was sentenced to a year in prison, but will only serve three months of those, after the court put him on probation for nine months.
This is only the latest incident of ‘anti-white racism’ to hit France.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Drops Its Longest Word: Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz
Germany’s longest word — Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz — a 63-letter long title of a law regulating the testing of beef, has officially ceased to exist.
The word — which refers to the “law for the delegation of monitoring beef labelling”, has been repealed by a regional parliament after the EU lifted a recommendation to carry out BSE tests on healthy cattle. German is famous for its compound nouns, which frequently become so cumbersome they have to be reduced to abbreviations. The beef labelling law, introduced in 1999 to protect consumers from BSE, was commonly transcribed as the “RkReÜAÜG”, but even everyday words are shortened to initials so Lastkraftwagen — lorry — becomes Lkw…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Conservatives Question Pink Prison Cells
Some western German prisons put angry offenders in pink cells to try to calm them down, despite there being little hard evidence that it works. Conservative politicians asked on Monday whether the “Barbie rooms” should be scrapped.
After studies in 2010 suggested that putting a person in a pink room lowered their blood pressure, four jails in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) reached for the brushes and coated several cells. Hotheaded inmates have been forced into them for the past three years, but to not much success.
And with no clear proof that it works, the conservative opposition in the state, the Christian Democrats, asked on Monday if NRW’s centre-left coalition government if it had “discovered the mystical effect of a Barbie rooms” and if not, whether were they planning to end the project.
NRW’s governing Social Democrats replied said “there are no clear intentions” to do so. A Dortmund prison, however, has painted over its pink cells.
Prisons in Hagen, Attendorn and Kleve are all still carrying on with the calming technique, which originated in Switzerland. Jails there and in the United States were finding that the pink cells were working on their inmates.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Photos: Secret Shots of Hitler’s Bunker
Starting in 1987, Robert Conrad risked his freedom to secretly photograph Adolf Hitler’s decaying bunker in what was then East Berlin. Disguised as a construction worker, he snuck inside some 30 times, and has now finally revealed his work.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Lawyer Suggested Cosy Court-Prosecutor Relations
Ghedini say Milan judges prejudiced against ex-premier
(see related story) (ANSA) — Rome, June 3 — Silvio Berlusconi’s defence team on Monday reiterated its claim of bias against the Milan court hearing a trial into allegations the ex-premier paid to have sex with an underage prostitute.
Lawyer Niccolo’ Ghedini, who is also a lawmaker for Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party, also suggested the court had cosy relations with prosecutors. In several ongoing and previous trials, Berlusconi has always denied wrongdoing, claiming he is the victim of a minority group of allegedly left-wing prosecutors and judges who he says are persecuting him for political reasons.
Last month Italy’s supreme Court of Cassation rejected Berlusconi’s petition for the sex trial and for an unsuccessful appeal against a four-year conviction for fraud at his media empire to be transferred to Brescia, saying claims of bias by Milan judges were “defamatory accusations”.
Ghedini, however, said the defence’s position had not changed as it responded to the prosecution’s request Berlusconi be handed a six-year jail term for allegedly paying for sex with a Moroccan former dancer known as Ruby before she was 18 and allegedly abusing his power in a bid to cover up the affair.
“The impression is that I generate annoyance as the defence lawyer,” said Ghedini.
“The prosecution does not seem to generate a similar annoyance,” added the lawyer, who said the judges shared “cultural closeness” to the prosecutors. “Right or wrongly, we consider the court prejudiced”. Berlusconi and Ruby, whose real name is Karima El Mahroug, both deny having sex and say monies the woman received from the ex-premier were gifts. Lead prosecutor Ilda Boccassini told the court last month that there was “no doubt” Ruby was a prostitute and had had sex with Berlusconi.
The court is expected to announce its verdict on June 24.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Union Says Many Former Mafia Businesses Fail in Legal Hands
CGIL presents 100,000 signatures asking government to save jobs
(ANSA) — Rome, June 3 — The mafia does a better job running businesses and protecting its workers than do many legitimate employers, a union official complained Monday.
The CGIL union claims that too many businesses seized from mafia figures and sold to legitimate entrepreneurs are failing — and that is jeopardizing the jobs of their workers.
It claims that the number of confiscated businesses has jumped by 70% since the beginning of the economic crisis in 2008.
And as many as 90% of those fail, claims the CGIL, which met with government officials about the problem.
Serena Sorrentino, federal secretary of the CGIL, says that 100,000 signatures have been collected on a petition calling on government to do more to help confiscated businesses remain afloat and thus, protect workers’ jobs. It notes that the regions with the highest number of seized companies include Sicily, accounting for 36%, Campania, with 20%, Lombardy, 13%, and Lazio, with 8%. The businesses are mostly in the service sector, at 55% of former mafia companies; and construction, representing 27%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Monti Senator Probed in Huge Fraud Investigation
As much as 22 million euros reportedly stolen from INPS funds
(ANSA) — Rome, June 3 — Senator Aldo Di Biagio, a member of ex-premier Mario Monti’s Civic Choice party, and three other people are under investigation in an alleged social security fraud involving as much as 22 million euros, sources said Monday.
Di Biagio, 48, is suspected of criminal conspiracy and criminal association in a probe into an alleged fraud to siphon millions of euros from Italy’s social-security agency INPS and the justice ministry.
At least four people, including lawyers and civil servants, are facing arrest in connection with the alleged fraud, judicial sources said.
They are suspected of criminal association, fraud against the Italian State, forgery and money laundering involving the INPS fund.
INPS is the fund that Italian workers pay into for their retirement pensions. It also handles many benefits, such as disability and unemployment benefits. Paola Della Monica, the investigating judge, issued arrest warrants on Monday for four people.
In judicial documents, she accuses Di Biagio — who was only elected to the Senate three months ago — of directly benefiting from the fraudulent receipt of 443,589 euros found in bank drafts issued by Banca Intesa Sanpaolo.
Others named in the various documents include Nicola Staniscia and Gina Tralicci, according to investigators.
It’s believed the overall scam involved false claims and appeals against the INPS, to obtain increased benefits. However, many names that were used in these claims belonged to Italian residents who were dead or had moved to other countries.
The proceeds of the fraudulent activities were used to buy property in Italy and or hidden in bank accounts in other parts of Europe and in Panama, according to investigators.
Di Biagio is a former head of the International relations office in the ministry of agriculture and forestry and became a parliamentarian with ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) political party.
However, in July 2010 he left the PdL to join a group of politicians who formed a new group, the Future and Freedom for Italy.
Then, in February’s national general election he was nominated to the Senate election list for Monti’s Civic Choice party and won election.
Investigators are now moving to seize property, documents, and exercise arrest warrants, authorities say.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Bertolucci, Benigni Sign Petition for Trade Exemption
Petitioners fear culture on the table in trade talks with U.S.
(By Sandra Cordon) (ANSA) — Rome, June 4 — From film stars and directors like Roberto Benigni and Bernardo Bertolucci, to television networks, unions and business groups, the cry is rising for the Italian government to protect its domestic media industry.
More than 100 big names and organizations signed a petition presented Tuesday to Premier Enrico Letta, calling for continued support and a reprieve from feared cuts to cultural subsidies which could follow a free-trade pact between Europe and the United States.
Given the US domination of the global entertainment industry, the Italian petitioners say they fear for the survival of the domestic industry and the survival of national cultural institutions.
“Italy is, together with other European countries, in favour of excluding the culture and audiovisual (industries) from commercial treaties between the EU and the US,” said the petition. At the core of the conflict are subsidies awarded by government to help cultural industries flourish in a sector where major American firms dominate.
But now, the fear is that subsidies will be slashed in a free-trade deal between the US and the EU.
In such pacts, negotiators often demand a so-called “level playing field” which usually translates as slashing government support for any relevant economic sector.
That cannot be allowed, said the petition, urging the government to ensure Italy’s cultural sector is exempt from such cuts.
Cultural exceptions, first introduced by France to treat culture differently from other merchandise, aim at curbing the American film industry’s dominance in European markets. The petitioners’ concerns arise from the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which appeared in draft form earlier this year but made no mention of the cultural exception. Negotiations on the accord are scheduled to begin by summer.
More broadly, they also fear the “liberalization” of cultural industries — essentially, treating culture like any other commodity that can be bought and sold.
Such treatment will not only destroy culture, but also undermine the Italian economy by moving any profits — and taxable revenues — offshore.
In the growing virtual marketplace, say the petition signatories, many companies operating in the cultural sector have no real corporate home or ties to any particular country.
These firms “do not invest in networks and content nor the territories..(they) do not create value, or value added, or generate taxable revenue,” said the petition.
Others to sign the Italian petition included Oscar-winning filmmakers Giuseppe Tornatore and Gabriele Salvatores, as well as State broadcaster RAI, former premier Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset media giant, and the powerful Confindustria business confederation. The petition will be presented to the European Parliament, with its 27 member states, on June 14.
The Italian petition is similar to movements in other European countries.
As well, a similar document was circulated at the recent Cannes international film festival, and signed by such filmmakers Michael Haneke, Michel Hazanavicius, Catherine Breillat, Costa Gavras, Pedro Almodovar, Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne and Aki Kaurismaki.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘Outraged and Disturbed’: Germany Blasts Egyptian Nonprofit Verdict
An Egyptian court found dozens of nonprofit workers guilty on Tuesday and closed down the offices of a number of NGOs. The German government called the verdict an outrage.
An Egyptian court on Tuesday handed down a harsh verdict in a trial against foreign-funded nonprofit organizations, and sentenced 43 NGO workers to up to five years in jail. The German foundation Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, which is associated with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party, was among the organizations affected, with former KAS branch head Andreas Jacobs likewise convicted on Tuesday. The court ordered that assets be seized from several of the NGOs as well, including three from the US.
Most of the foreign defendants had long since left Egypt by the time the sentence was handed down on Tuesday and will face no time behind bars. The organizations’ Egyptian employees, however, will likely be taken into custody, though they can appeal the verdict. Hans Pöttering, the former European Parliament president who is now head of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, said that he will do everything he can to contest the verdict.
Tuesday’s convictions come after a year-long trial which damaged Cairo’s relationship with the US and Germany. In March 2012, a ban on leaving the country imposed on two German defendants was lifted after Berlin paid a €250,000 bond for each of them. The US also managed to pull most American defendants out of Egypt against a bond payment.
The groups that will now see their offices and property confiscated include the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute, Freedom House, a journalist training center and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. Defendants from Serbia, Jordan, Lebanon and elsewhere were also tried.
‘Untenable and Unfounded’
“The absurd verdicts against our employees concern me deeply,” said Pöttering on Tuesday. “The trial has nothing to do with the rule of law. During the course of the entire trial, it became more than obvious just how untenable and unfounded the accusations are.”
The trial is the result of raids on 17 Egyptian and foreign NGOs in Cairo carried out in December 2011, during the military rule that followed the resignation of autocrat Hosni Mubarak in February of that year. Egyptian officials said the raids were the product of investigations into illegal “financing from abroad.” In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE at the time, Jacobs, who led the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung office in Cairo at the time, said that the accusations were “completely absurd.”
During a visit to Berlin this January, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi signed a cultural agreement with Berlin which in part was to provide German NGOs with a legal framework for operating in Cairo. Whether the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung will be allowed to continue maintaining an office in Egypt is unclear. The organization has been active in Egypt for 30 years.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle criticized the verdict on Tuesday. “We are extremely outraged and disturbed to a great degree by the harsh verdict passed against employees of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and the forced closure of its office,” he said. He said that Berlin will support the foundation in its efforts to challenge the verdict. “The actions taken by the Egyptian judiciary are worrisome. They weaken civil society, an important pillar of democracy in a newly democratic Egypt.”
Former German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was even more direct. “The verdict is a difficult burden for bilateral relations and is inacceptable,” he told the daily Die Welt. He said the trial was “scandalous” and demanded that NGOs be allowed to continue their work “without fear of harassment.”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Femen Activists to Stand Trial for Offending Public Decency
Tunis, 4 June (AKI) — Three feminists from the Ukrainian group Femen were on Wednesday due to be tried in the Tunisian capital Tunis for ‘offending public decency’ after they held a topless protest there last week.
The trio, one German and two French women face prison sentences of up to six months if they are convicted.
They were arrested on 29 of May after they bared their breasts outside the justice ministry in support of detained Tunisian feminist Amina Tyler.
Tyler was on Wednesday due to be interrogated by an investigative judge in the southern city of Kerouan for ‘desecrating a cemetery and carrying self-defence spray’.
Amnesty International last Friday called for Tunisian authorities to release Tyler, whose real name is Amina Sboui, saying the charges against her appeared to be politically motivated and infringed her freedom of expression.
Sboui was arrested in Kerouan on 19 May, apparently after painting the word “Femen” on a wall near a cemetery in protest at hardline Islamists from Ansar al-Sharia who had hoped to hold a conference in the city before it was banned by police.
She was arrested outside the cemetery and charged with possession of a self-defence spray — for which she was convicted and fined 300 Tunisian dinars (about 184 dollars), Amnesty said.
Sboui was remanded in custody last Thursday on accusations of desecrating a cemetery, belonging to a criminal organisation and undermining public morals, offences which carry punishments of several years’ imprisonment under the Tunisian Penal Code, Amnesty noted.
Sboui came to national and international attention and had to go into hiding after receiving death threats when she posted a photo of herself bare-chested on Facebook in a Femen-inspired protest.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Protest Spreads to Northern Cyprus
Students in Turkish-occupied sector rally against Erdogan
(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, JUNE 4 — The violent anti-government protests ongoing in several Turkish cities spread on Saturday to Northern Cyprus, which has been under Turkish occupation since 1974.
Proclaimed unilaterally in 1983, the so-called Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) is recognized solely by Ankara. Turkish-Cypriot TV broadcast footage of hundreds of mostly student protesters in various parts of Lefkosa, the Turkish-occupied sector of Nicosia, and in the coastal cities of Famagosta, Kerynia and Morphou. Students gathered at the Turkish embassy in Lefkosa, chanting slogans against Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan and in solidarity with protesters in Turkey.
“Best wishes from Cyprus, Nicosia and Taksim Square side by side against fascism”, they shouted.
Turkish-Cypriot police cordoned the embassy off and clashed briefly with demonstrators. There were no reported injuries.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Cameron Vows to ‘Drain the Swamp’ Creating Islamic Extremism
Cabinet task force set up after killing of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich makes number of proposals
David Cameron has pledged fresh action “to drain the swamp” that is creating British Islamic extremism as he gave his first report on his taskforce set up after the killing of Drummer Lee Rigby outside Woolwich barracks. The cabinet-level taskforce met for the first time on Tuesday and resolved to counter not just violent extremist views, but also extremism in all its forms.
No 10 said the taskforce will focus on:
- Whether rules for charities are too lax and allow extremists to prosper.
- Fresh action to disrupt groups that incite hatred or violence, including extremists on university campuses and in prisons.
- More support for madrasas to prevent radicalisation, including help for mosques that want to expel extremists and recruit imams who understand Britain.
- Discussions with internet service providers on a new code of conduct requiring companies to be more proactive in taking down extremist websites and messages.>
Many of the proposals have been examined by this government and the previous Labour administration, but there have been suggestions that the revamped Prevent strategy may have become institutionalised and ineffective. “What this mustn’t be is just another opportunity to discuss Britishness or British identity”, Cameron told MPs in a statement to the Commons…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
One of the men accused of murdering Drummer Lee Rigby today told a court he now wanted to be known as Mujaahid Abu Hamza. Holding a copy of the Koran in his right hand, Michael Adebolajo, 28, asked to be charged under the new name.
He also refused to stand when deputy chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnott entered court, and he blew kisses to a friend in the public gallery…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: David Cameron Holds Meeting of Anti-Radicalism Task Force
A new taskforce to challenge and disrupt Islamic extremists was meeting for the first time in Downing Street today.
Chaired by the Prime Minister, it was launched to find new ways to combat the rise of hate preachers and the terrorists they inspire. Police and MI5 leaders will be called to join the discussions when specific measures are being drafted but this afternoon’s inaugural session was called to decide priorities. It will focus on radicals who groom vulnerable worshippers in mosques, students at universities and prisoners in jails…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Details of Lincoln Anti-Mosque Protest Revealed
The East Anglian Patriots, the group behind this Saturday’s demonstration against the building of a mosque in Lincoln, have released details of the protest. They say on their Facebook page that protestors should gather at 1pm at Lincoln train station where they will be met by police officers and stewards…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Eight Bronze Age Boats Surface at Fens Creek in Record Find
3,000-year-old fleet discovered in a Cambridgeshire quarry on the outskirts of Peterborough
A fleet of eight prehistoric boats, including one almost nine metres long, has been discovered in a Cambridgeshire quarry on the outskirts of Peterborough.
The vessels, all deliberately sunk more than 3,000 years ago, are the largest group of bronze age boats ever found in the same UK site and most are startlingly well preserved. One is covered inside and out with decorative carving described by conservator Ian Panter as looking “as if they’d been playing noughts and crosses all over it”. Another has handles carved from the oak tree trunk for lifting it out of the water. One still floated after 3,000 years and one has traces of fires lit on the wide flat deck on which the catch was evidently cooked…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Islamophilia — a Very Metropolitan Malady
by Douglas Murray
Readers might like to know that I have a new book out today. It is called ‘Islamophilia: a very metropolitan malady’ and is available on kindle, e-readers and all that sort of thing. It is available from the publishers, emBooks here and from Amazon here.
I will have more to say in the coming days, but in the meantime here is what the publisher — Melanie Phillips — has to say: ‘This is not a book about Islam, Muslims or terrorism. It is instead about those utterly ridiculous public figures — including movie stars, literary giants, pop idols, army generals, bishops, museum curators and politicians — in whom an epidemic loss of cultural nerve and the terror of losing their reputation in fashionable circles has made them victims of the debilitating affliction of Islamophilia. It is savagely, jaw-droppingly, laugh-out-loud funny.’
[Reader comment by Augustus on 3 June 2013.]
Muslims consider every mosque built as a victory against the kafir. According to a recent census, there are now more than 500 of these in Holland, and it’s only a small country. No wonder the people are fed up.
“Islam, the theology of an immoral Arab (the Prophet Mohammed), is a dead thing. It might possibly have suited tribes of nomads in the desert, but it’s no good for a modern progressive State.” -Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (founder of modern Turkey)
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Lee Rigby Will Burn in Hellfire. But Michael is a Nice Man
Hate preacher Choudary’s vile rant on Woolwich
…yet still they don’t arrest him
HATE preacher Anjem Choudary has been filmed claiming murdered soldier Lee Rigby will “burn in hellfire”.
He also told followers that Michael Adebolajo, accused of killing Lee in Woolwich, South London, is “a nice man”.
Police have repeatedly failed to arrest Choudary over his inflammatory outbursts. Vile Choudary told his followers Lee deserves no sympathy — but insisted those accused of his barbaric murder are martyrs…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Police Crime Commissioner Visits Bolton Mosque Which Was Daubed With Racist Graffiti
POLICE and crime commissioner Tony Lloyd visited a mosque daubed with racist graffiti — to thank members for maintaining calm. Police were called to the Masjid-E-Usman Mosque in Astley Street, Halliwell, just hours after the Drummer Lee Rigby was killed in Woolwich. Mr Lloyd thanked members of the mosque for not reacting to the comments at Friday prayers…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: PM ‘Won’t Stand for EDL Trying to Demonise Islam’
by Esmerelda Weatherwax
From ITV News
In a speech in the House of Commons David Cameron paid tribute to the security services and also vowed that the government will not stand for extremists or, “groups like the English Defence League who try to demonise Islam and try and stoke up anti-Muslim hatred. Just as we will not stand for those who pervert Islam to preach extremism, neither will we stand for groups like the English Defence League who try to demonise Islam and try and stoke up anti-Muslim hatred by bringing disorder and violence to our towns and cities.”
Mr Cameron, you listen now and you listen good. The EDL don’t need to demonise Islam; Islam does a very good job of demonising Islam, as we can see every time we open a newspaper or switch on the TV. The EDL doesn’t murder British servicemen with machetes outside the barracks. Or blow up 52 taxpaying commuters on London Transport. Or plot to blow up aeroplanes in the skies above US cities. Or drive explosive laden cars into the passenger lounge of Glasgow Airport. Or run little non-Muslim girls as sex slaves and kebab meat…
[Reader comment by Brett-MCS on 3 June 2013.]
Well said. The crazy thing is that Cameron is making widespread violence more likely, not less: He is confirming to the people of Britain that the government and the police will continue to ignore their real concerns about violent and supremacist immigrants. He is forcing the people of Britain to think more seriously about what they will have to do themselves to save their own country, because the government and police will manifestly do nothing about the real problem. That very perception is why the EDL exists and that is why it will continue to expand. Cameron’s pathetic bleating is ensuring that.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Art of Planning Applications: Canaletto and a Proposed ‘Mosque’ For Island Gardens
This, from the Tate, is Canaletto’s View of Greenwich from the River (c 1750-2). Beautiful, isn’t it? The view is from what is now called Island Gardens at the southern end of the Isle of Dogs. Here’s the photo on Tower Hamlets council’s website.
It’s a public park, or as the council puts it, “this charming riverside park” — part of the green space our politicians insist is so precious in our borough. It’s also in a World Heritage Site buffer zone, which means anything that obstructs the view is forbidden by international treaty. Here’s another view
Now, this one is particularly interesting because at the far left-hand corner of that photo, a parcel of land is now under threat. Someone wants to build on it. Not a visitor centre showing the history of the park and its famous heritage, but a portable cabin, where, according to the applicant, the activities of “peoples of Muslim faith and ethnic minorities will be of primary focus”…
There have been rumours that this parcel of land has already been sold off by the council and I know the Tories are trying to get that clarified by the council’s directors. If so, it would be a major scandal … but I doubt that’s the case.
However, we should actually be grateful to the slightly disingenuous planning application from Mr A Hannan. It’s clear that something should be done with the site they want to use. And a small community centre isn’t too bad a thing. But let’s make it religion-free, shall we: there are plenty of other places to pray. And let’s encourage people to mix. What about a One O’Clock Club, a children’s activity centre, such as the one in Victoria Park?
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Woolwich Killing a Betrayal of Islam, Says Cameron
The fatal attack on soldier Lee Rigby was a betrayal of Islam and the Muslim community, the prime minister has said.
In his first Commons statement about last month’s killing in Woolwich, south London, David Cameron said it was important to learn lessons. Those responsible tried to “justify their actions by an extremist ideology that perverts and warps Islam to… justify violence”, he said. A task force, chaired by the PM, met earlier to look at radicalisation…
[JP note: Fail.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Court Convicts Activist of Insulting President
Cairo, 3 June (AKI) — An Cairo court on Monday found activist Ahmed Douma guilty of insulting Egypt’s Islamist president Mohammed Morsi and handed him a six-month suspended sentence.
Douma was also convicted of circulation false news on a television programme .
The court said such acts “undermine state security and terrorise people”, according to Al-Ahram Online.
The court set bail for Douma at 550 euros.
He is the first prominent critic Morsi to be convicted on such charges and was detained on 30 April after calling Morsi a killer and a criminal.
Dozens of activists including Douma’s wife Nourhanne Hifzi gathered outside the court in protest at the sentence and chanted “Why is the government afraid of you, Douma?”
Douma claimed Morsi lost his legitimacy after a security crackdown on protesters in the coastal city of Port Said that left 40 people dead in February.
He also accused Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood group of being behind a brutal raid on peaceful protesters outside Morsi’s office last year.
Morsi’s government accuses its opponents stoking unrest to undermine his rule.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Activist Sentenced to Prison for Insulting Mursi
Cairo — A high-profile Egyptian blogger and activist Ahmed Douma was sentenced to six months in jail on Monday for insulting President Mohamed Morsi and circulated false news on television. Douma, who has been detained since 30 April, was convicted on a number of charges including insulting the president and circulating false news on a television programme. He had called President Morsi a killer and a criminal, and said that he is wanted by the state…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Cairo: Thousands of Judges Protest Against Islamization of Society
The protesters called for the repeal of the law on pre-retirement of judicial officials. Approximately 13 thousand judges to be sent into retirement. For protest leaders the move is an attempt by the Muslim Brotherhood to maintain power in the judicial field.
Cairo (AsiaNews / Agencies) — Thousands of Egyptian judges last night invaded the square before the High Court in Cairo to demand the end of the rule of the Islamist Justice and protest against the early retirement of more than 13 thousand officials.
The demonstration was organized by the Egyptian Judges Club, a union collects about 90% of Egyptian judges. It comes after the verdict issued in recent days by the Egyptian Constitutional Court which has judged the laws that govern the Shura Council (parliament), dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood unconstitutional, thus rendering void the controversial proposed laws made in recent years, such as the ‘attribution of extraordinary powers to president Morsi and the ability of the same to appoint key officials of the Egyptian judicial system.
In recent months the government and President Mohammed Morsi have defended the draft law on lowering the retirement age of civil servants as an attempt to eliminate the judges loyal to the regime of Mubarak. However, according to leaders of the protest the move would allow the Muslim Brotherhood to place only judges related to the movement within the courts in order to stem the loss of support among the population.
Since Mohammed Morsi’s rise to power sentences for blasphemy and offense to the president have increased. Recently, Ahmed Duma, an activist, was sentenced to six months in prison for criticizing President Morsi on social networks. Another example of the gradual Islamization of the justice system is the case of Dimyana Ubeid Abdel al-Nour, a Christian teacher on trial for insulting Islam and Muhammad during a lesson. The woman has always declared herself innocent. In her history lesson she had spoken of her respect for the Orthodox Coptic Patriarch Shenouda III.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Rasmussen Announces NATO Training Program
NATO will help Libya contain jihadists in south, but not deploy
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, JUNE 4 — NATO has agreed to help train Libyan security forces to contain the growing presence of al-Qaeda linked rebels in southern Libya but will not send troops into the North African country, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen made known here on Tuesday.
“Training can take place outside Libya, so troop deployment won’t be necessary”, Rasmussen said. NATO decided yesterday to send a delegation to Tripoli to assess what is needed on the ground.
“They will identify areas in which NATO can contribute added value, and report back by the end of June. We intend to coordinate closely with other national and international efforts”, the secretary general explained.
Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan requested the assistance in meetings last week with EU ministers — including Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino — and Rasmussen, who raised the issue with US President Barack Obama in Washington last Friday.
Obama responded that “NATO plays a key role in aiding Libya to have the means to control its borders and to keep border areas from becoming terrorist sanctuaries”.
A NATO support and training mission for Libya has been on the drawing boards since the end of military operations there in October 2011. Libyan authorities have since had difficulty fighting off growing numbers of jihadists coming over its southern borders with Mali, Chad, and the Niger.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
NATO to Send Expert Team to Libya: NATO Chief
BRUSSELS, June 4 (Xinhua) — NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Tuesday that the military alliance had decided to send an expert team to Libya to evaluate a possible mission to train local forces after the Libyan government made a request last week. “Allies yesterday decided to send an expert-level delegation to engage on the details of the request. The delegation will identify the areas in which NATO could add value,” Rasmussen said on his arrival of a two-day NATO defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Foils Terror Plot by Hamas Militant: Statement
JERUSALEM, June 3 (Xinhua) — Israel’s Shin Bet security service said Tuesday that security forces have arrested a Palestinian from the West Bank city of Ramallah who planned kidnapping and shooting attacks against Israelis under the instructions of a Hamas militant. The Palestinian was named as 26-year-old Bahar Sa’ad. He was detained last month amidst preparations to launch the attacks, The Jerusalem Post quoted a Shin Bet statement as saying…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Aims to Keep Stoning as Punishment for Adultery, Rights Group Says
(CNN) — Stoning remains the way Iranians — overwhelmingly women — are punished for committing adultery, Human Rights Watch said Monday. The international group blasted a judicial council in Iraq, made up of 12 religious jurists, for inserting a stoning provision into a draft law where it had been previously removed.
Last November, security agents with the country’s judiciary moved the bodies of four women who had been stoned to the Tehran medical examiner’s office, according to reports on the Melli-Mazhabi site, which opposed Iran’s government, the U.S. State Department says. CNN cannot confirm the reports.
According to the State Department’s report, the unconfirmed accounts say the women’s bodies had facial wounds that indicated torture, beatings and stoning.
Officials denied the reports but did not provide alternative explanations for the causes of death, according to the State Department report, adding that the women were allegedly charged with engaging in “illegitimate relationships” and drug use.
There are no statistics that indicate the number of stoning victims, but human rights groups say Iranian authorities are holding at least 10 women and men who face execution by stoning on adultery charges, Human Rights Watch says.
At least 70 people have been executed by stoning in Iran since 1980, the rights group said, and the last known execution by stoning was in 2009.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Ankara Plans Bill for Large Families, Working Mother
(ANSAmed) ANKARA, JUNE 3 — The Turkish government is planning to adopt a graduated pension scheme in which workers will be able to retire earlier based on the number of children they have, as part of a measure against the country’s ageing population, an issue which has become increasing apparent in recent years as World Bulletin reports. A draft bill that was jointly prepared by the Ministry of Labor and Social Services, the Finance Ministry, the Family and Social Policy Ministry, the Ministry of Development and the Health Ministry will be presented to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as soon as it is completed and will be sent to Parliament for approval. Some details about the content of the bill were recently revealed to the media. According to a Milliyet daily, the bill includes a graduated pension scheme that encourages working people to have more children if they want to retire earlier. The ministries are still working on this scheme, and it is as of yet uncertain if this will be adopted. Another incentive reportedly included in the bill is extending maternity leave from four to six months.
Providing job security, financial support and flexible working hours for women with children are reportedly also in the ministries’ proposal. According to the bill, women’s salaries during their maternity leave will be paid by the state, employers will not be allowed to fire female employees while they are on maternity leave and child benefit payments will be increased. In addition, according to the bill, public institutions and organizations will have to provide childcare services for their female employees. Pregnant women will be able to leave the office if they have medical appointments during their pregnancies and will continue to be paid during their leaves of absence. Pregnant employees also cannot be made to do any hard labor by their employers.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Protests: Second Fatality Reported as Widespread Civil Unrest Continues
A 22-year-old man died in a hospital after being shot during anti-government protests in southern Turkey, as trade unions prepare to strike in support of those on the streets.
“Abdullah Comert was seriously wounded … after gunfire from an unidentified person,” the NTV television station said, quoting a statement from the local governor’s office in the Hatay province. He died in hospital, the private station added.
With the latest casualty, the death toll rose to at least two in what has become a wave of protests against the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government in cities across the country. Hasan Akgol, a main opposition party lawmaker, said Comert was a member of the youth branch of the Republican People’s Party (CHP). Police have launched an investigation into the incident…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Italian FM Bonino Strongly Condemns Police Violence
‘Right to peaceful protest a pillar of democracy’, Bonino says
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JUNE 4 — Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino on Tuesday strongly condemned police violence against anti-government demonstrators in Turkey.
“The disproportionate use of force by police cannot be an acceptable answer to the protests”, the minister said in a note. “The right to demonstrate peacefully is an essential pillar of democracy, as are pluralism and tolerance”.
“The news coming from Turkey is a source of great apprehension, and the fact that the ongoing tensions have caused a number of victims is very serious. We expect all parties in Turkey to take action to stop all forms of violence and to promote the necessary climate of dialogue and peaceful debate between differing positions and orientations”. “Italy still believes firmly in a European outlook for Turkey and in its role as a fundamental factor of stability and security on a regional scale”, the minister went on. “We trust that Turkey will overcome this difficult moment, confirming it is a mature democracy that, in the words of Turkish President Abdullah Gul, does not live solely on free elections”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: ‘Welcome to Resistanbul’
Die Tageszeitung, 3 June 2013
“The first real victory over [Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan was celebrated on June 1 by nearly 500,000 demonstrators in Taksim Square, in Istanbul’s city centre. All over Turkey, demonstrators called on the government to resign, reports German daily Die Tageszeitung. The demonstrations continued during the entire weekend.
The protests were sparked by the proposal to build a shopping mall in place of Gezi Park, in the centre of Taksim Square, the paper writes, adding —
This time Erdogan’s arrogance led him to make a mistake. The conflict around the park turned into a settling of scores for the ban on alcohol, pressure on universities, curbs on freedom of speech and the cockiness with which the Islamists imposed their will, thinking that the country belonged only to them.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: ‘He Has Not Learned His Lesson’
Taraf, 3 June 2013
Large demonstrations have been held around Taksim Square in Istanbul since May 31, protesting at plans to convert the square’s Gezi Park into a shopping mall.
Violent clashes took place each day with police. At the same time, news of the protest spread through social networks and opposition parties, and has become a challenge to the power of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
According to Turkish daily Taraf —
The prime minister has not understood that people from all walks of life are in the street to say: ‘We don’t want anything imposed on us.’
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Erdogan Besieged in His Ivory Tower
Radikal Istanbul
Why have the demonstrations against an urban planning project in Istanbul turned into protests against the power of the Prime Minister? Because he has refused to listen to criticism for far too long and seems determined to push ahead regardless, writes a columnist.
Orhan Kemal Cengiz
Hearing the comments made by the Prime Minister after the start of the events in Taksim Square, one quickly grasps the problems democracy is facing in our country. Recep Tayyip Erdogan is criticising everyone: the opposition, the protesters, and even the police, who went too far in their use of tear gas. Just in passing, he forgets to criticise his own actions and those of his government. Even the Governor of Istanbul has been spared.
And so the responsibility for the latest events falls entirely on junior police officers. If it was just a matter of police excesses, in a democratic state the government should be accountable for them. What’s more, Turkey has no law that sets out precisely the conditions under which this gas may be used. The government that has given the police such power has not even taken the trouble to bring in a little legislation on this subject.
That said, the crisis that started in Gezi Park goes far beyond the excesses of the police in using tear gas. Indeed, it is a true civil disobedience movement that is emerging today, following a mobilisation against the felling of trees, the legal basis for which is questionable [Radikal has revealed the existence of an official expert report denying the legitimacy of this project to transform the Gezi Park]. What we are witnessing is a response to a form of State terrorism that denies the right of assembly and demonstration.
Responding violently to demonstrators
Erdogan, who is holed up in an ivory tower where criticism can no longer reach him, is unwilling to see that the projects he has decided on and considers useful to the community actually raise serious objections in many sections of society. He does not want to hear that this society no longer accepts that all the decision-making levers should be in the hands of one man….
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
U.N. Panel Reports Increasing Brutality by Both Sides in Syria Conflict
Reporting “new levels of brutality” in Syria’s more than two-year-old conflict, United Nations investigators said on Tuesday that they believed chemical weapons and thermobaric bombs were used in recent weeks and urged the international community to cut off supplies of weapons that could only result in more civilian casualties.
The Commission of Inquiry investigating the hostilities in Syria said “there are reasonable grounds to believe limited quantities of toxic chemicals were used” in Aleppo and Damascus on March 19, in Aleppo again on April 13 and in Idlib on April 29.
“Crimes that shock the conscience have become a daily reality,” said Paulo Pinheiro, the panel’s chairman.
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War Crimes a ‘Daily Reality’ of Syrian Civil War, UN Says
War crimes and crimes against humanity have become a “daily reality” in Syria’s civil war, UN investigators say, noting that both sides of the conflict have been behind the massacre and torture of civilians, and may have used chemical weapons.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
War Drums Syria: When the Ethnic Cleansing & Religious Persecution Begins
As previously reported, according to one of my sources, Benghazi was a nation-state attack, not a terrorist attack or as the Obama administration wanted the world to believe — a Youtube video attack that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, on September 11, 2012. Benghazi was a direct response from Iran and by extension their proxy partner Russia in the battle that is now being fought in Syria.
Do not be deceived by President Barack Obama’s “weakness” in public image regarding arming the Syrian rebels. You are being played. The battle in Syria has been fueled by the Obama administration’s CIA gunrunning and arms smuggling to Syrian rebels from Libya through Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. Hence the attack in Benghazi. Are you awake yet or did you think it was a strange coincidence that had nothing to do with anything that Iranian soldiers and Hezbollah are fighting for Assad in Syria? This is a battle for their survival as well…
When the religious persecution and ethnic cleansing starts in Syria, no one, I repeat, no one is safe or immune. Just like Iraq when the sectarian slaughter broke out, Christians, Jews, people of all faiths and non-believers were persecuted or slaughtered with the Sunnis and Shiites. Remember Syria is the backdoor to Iran. Iran also bordered Iraq.
Following is the short version of a long story that did not see the light of day during the Iraq war that I am reporting now as a red-alert warning of what will happen in Syria if the Obama/Saudi/NATO Middle East project is not stopped…
It will be even nastier in Syria, than Iraq, if the U.S. continues to intervene. But this time it will be much worse. Russia is backing Iran and Syria. As previously reported, President Putin doesn’t want the Muslim Brotherhood on his doorstep. Would you?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why Cameron’s Warning on Syria Leaves Me Feeling Nervous
by James Forsyth
David Cameron’s Commons statement today contained two blunt warnings. In a significant escalation of the argument over communications data, he warned that ‘we will suffer’ if we don’t make progress on the matter. He also declared that not intervening in Syria could boost extremism and mean that the situation there becomes a ‘tragedy for us too’.
On communications data, I suspect that there’s a limit to how much progress he can make with his coalition partners. The vibe from the Clegg camp is that they have no desire to back down on this issue and feel that many of their critics are being opportunistic post Woolwich.
However, it was Cameron’s warning on Syria—which I suspect will receive less coverage—that struck me more. Listening to Cameron compare Bosnia and Syria, it was clear that Cameron feels that lending support to the official opposition is a moral imperative. He also, as his warning about Syria becoming Britain’s ‘tragedy too’ showed, has clearly persuaded himself that not helping the rebels will boost extremism. Strikingly, Cameron refused to commit to a Commons vote if Britain used the ending of the arms embargo to send supplies to the official opposition.
Cameron’s words left me feeling nervous. I fear that in Syria there are no good options any more. I struggle to see how in so fluid a situation we could ensure that any supplies or weapons we sent to the official opposition didn’t end up in the hands of the Islamist extremist, anti-Assad forces. If Britain does send weapons to Syria, I fear that we would be starting off down a very dangerous path.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Russia to Send Nuclear Submarines to Southern Seas
Russia plans to resume nuclear submarine patrols in the southern seas after a hiatus of more than 20 years following the break-up of the Soviet Union, Itar-Tass news agency reported on Saturday, in another example of efforts to revive Moscow’s military.
The plan to send Borei-class submarines, designed to carry 16 long-range nuclear missiles, to the southern hemisphere follows President Vladimir Putin’s decision in March to deploy a naval unit in the Mediterranean Sea on a permanent basis starting this year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
5 Soldiers Injured by Bomb in Restive S. Thailand
BANGKOK, June 4 (Xinhua) — Five soldiers were injured by a bomb explosion in restive southern province of Pattani on Tuesday. Police said they received a report of the attack on the rural road in Pattani’s Yaring district at about 7.30 a.m. local time. At the scene, police found a 40 cm wide and 30 cm deep crater caused by the explosion, along with debris and residue from the blast. According to witnesses, seven paramilitary rangers providing security for teachers were patrolling the road on foot when a home- made bomb planted under a roadside tree was detonated. Five of the rangers were wounded. Police blamed separatist militants for the incident.
More than 5,000 people have been killed and over 9,000 hurt in over 11,000 incidents, about 3.5 incidents a day, in Thailand’s three Muslim, ethnic-Malay dominated southern border provinces — Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and four districts of Songkhla — since violence erupted in January 2004, according to Deep South Watch, which monitors the regional violence.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan Father, 3 Children Killed in Bombing in W. Province
FARAH, Afghanistan, June 4 (Xinhua) — An Afghan father and three of his children were killed Tuesday morning and the mother of the family was seriously wounded when a vehicle ran over a roadside bombing in western province of Farah, a provincial government spokesman said. “The bombing happened in Lash Wa Juwayn district at around 7 a. m. local time Tuesday while the ill-fated family was traveling in a car from district center to a nearby village,” spokesman Abdul Rahman Zhwandy told Xinhua…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
NATO Confirms 2 Soldiers Dead in E. Afghan Suicide Bombing
KABUL, June 3 (Xinhua) — Two soldiers of the NATO-led coalition forces were killed in a suicide bombing earlier Monday in eastern Afghan province of Paktia which also claimed the lives of 10 children and an Afghan cop and injured 16 others, the coalition confirmed. “Two International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) service members were killed during a vehicle borne improvised explosive device attack in eastern Afghanistan today. The attack also killed and wounded several Afghan civilians,” the NATO-led ISAF said in a press statement…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Six Wounded After Militants Attack Army Vehicles in Indian-Controlled Kashmir
SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, June 4 (Xinhua) — At least five civilians and an Indian policeman were wounded Tuesday in a grenade attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said. The grenade attack was carried out Tuesday afternoon at Anantnag town, around 60 km south of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir. “Five civilians and a policeman were wounded after suspected militants hurled a grenade this afternoon towards parked Indian army vehicles in the Lal Chowk area,” said a police official posted in the town…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Growing Ranks of Elderly Beset by Depression, Study Says
China’s old people are plagued by depression, illness and poverty, a survey showed, illustrating the challenge the country faces as its restrictive family-planning policy results in a surge in the elderly population.
Among people 60 years old and over, 22.9 percent, or 42.4 million, live on annual income of less than 3,200 yuan ($520), compared to 15.1 percent of people age 45 to 59, according to the survey, conducted in 2011-2012 by a team of academics from China, the U.S. and the World Bank which surveyed 17,708 people across China.
China faces the dilemma of becoming the first country in the world to grow old before entering the ranks of rich nations and paying for the surge in social-services demand. The proportion of China’s more than 1.3 billion people over age 60 is set to rise to 34 percent in 2050 from 12 percent in 2010, according to the report, which cited United Nations figures.
“China confronts rapid population aging at a relatively early stage of her economic development, which limits the amount of financial resources available for supporting the elderly,” the survey’s authors, including Zhao Yaohui of Peking University, wrote.
China’s challenge is even greater because more children are moving away from home and declining fertility means the elderly will have fewer people to support them, the report said.
Three decades of population planning that limited most urban couples to one child, and most rural families to one or two children, will cause a surge of China’s dependency ratio, a measure of the number of children and elderly against the working-age population. That means a smaller percentage of China’s population will be available to work.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Australian National University Capitulates to Islamophobia
The Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra has responded to an objection from its International Students Department and ordered a satiric infographic on Islam in the student publication Woroni taken down from its website and a public retraction posted. This is the latest in a string of victories in the West for the OIC Blasphemy campaign. A campaign seeking to stifle any criticism of Islam. Note there was nary a peep about similar satire published by Woroni directed at Catholicism, Mormonism, Scientology and Judaism…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Durie: Islamophobia Comes to Canberra
Dr. Mark Durie, author of The Third Choice: Islam Dhimmitude and Freedom, has more background on the Islamophobia capitulation at the Australian National University in Canberra in this Gatestone article, “Islamophobia comes to Canberra”. Durie is an Anglican pastor and an associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum. See our NER intervew with Dr. Durie, “Imperialist Islam Unveiled” in our collection, The West Speaks. Here are some perceptive comments by Durie about this latest capitulation to Islamic Blasphemy codes
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Senegal: Singer Flees Attack by Machete Gang
A hip hop singer narrowly escaped being attacked in a Senegalese school as she tried to teach children about the dangers of female genital mutilation. Sister Fa, 32, herself a victim of FGM, was touring schools in her home country to raise awareness about the dangers of the procedure when she was confronted by about 30 protesters in the village of Aere Lao.
She invited the protesters in to debate the issue, but when one of the protesters grabbed her arm she was advised to leave. She was later told that 100 men and women armed with machetes, clubs and stones, had gathered outside the school…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Somalia: Alshabab Displays Kenyan Soldiers Held Hostage
Kismayu-(Sh.M.Network) residents of Jilib town which is situated at the lower Juba region say that Alshabab yesterday evening displayed 2 men who they claimed were among the Kenyan troops. Alshabab said that they caught the two men during a planned attack at a town near the Somali border.
The islamists addressed the residents while security was tight and heavy artillery such as anti aircrafts was displayed. On other news from Kamsuma town in the lower juba region say that a man was shot dead at a local parade organized by the islamist fighters. The man was shot as hundreds of residents watched him. The man was accused of witch craft which is prohibited in Islam…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
US Offers 23 Mln Dollar Reward for African Terrorists
(AGI) — Washington, Jun 3 — The U.S. is offering a 23 million dollar reward for the capture of five top AQIM and Boko Haram terrorists. The Nigerian jihadist organisation’s Abubakar Shekau accounts for a 7 million dollar share of the reward. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’s Mokhtar Belmokhtar and Yahya Abou Al-Hammam jointly account for a 5 million dollar reward.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
US Offers $23 Million for West African Terror Chiefs
The United States has offered $23 million in reward money for help in capturing militant leaders in West Africa, including senior members of al Qaeda’s regional branch AQIM and the leader of Nigeria-based terror group Boko Haram.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
After Kicking Out Illegal Aliens Alabama is Putting American Citizens Back to Work
Since putting its tough anti-illegal alien bill (H. B. 56) into effect last September Alabama has seen an overnight increase in the number of her citizens working and a drop in the percentage of Alabamians collecting unemployment benefits.
The numbers tell the story and they are embarrassing for Obama. In the first month after H.B. 56 became law Alabama’s unemployment rate fell from 9.8 to 9.3 percent. Last month the number dropped to 8.1% which is .4% below the national average. Some quick math shows this is a 1.7% drop.
The real life Main Street result of what Alabama’s Republicans have done is visible across their state. Because of H.B. 56 an enraged Barack Obama is suing Alabama. The more than 41,000 Alabama families who now have a bread winner going off to work every day means nothing to Obama because they are not voting for Democrats anyway.
In just three months Alabama has moved up from being the 42nd worst unemployment state to the 28th on the national list.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Boots 10,000 Illegal Foreigners
(ANSAmed) ATHENS, JUNE 4 — Almost 600 illegal immigrants returned to their home countries in May, while since last August a total of 10,118 people of different nationalities have returned to their countries. According to the Hellenic Police data, as GreekReporter writes, reimbursement decisions were based on the cost of keeping or expelling them. The return to their home countries was mainly realized with commercial flights from the Athens International Airport, Eleftherios Venizelos.
The cost was covered by the European Return Fund, and national resources as well. The foreigners who were relocated to their home countries in May, mostly originated from Pakistan and Albania. There was a significant reduction in the number of undocumented migrants detected crossing into Greece in the northeastern Evros region the last few months of 2012 after a substantial increase in the number of border guards, the European Commission said on June 3 in its biannual report on the free movement of people within the Schengen area.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Citizenship a Birthright for Immigrants Says Marino
Rome, 3 June (AKI) — Children born in Italy to immigrant parents should automatically be citizens, the centre-left candidate for mayor of Rome, Ignazio Marino, said on Monday, weighing into a politically charged debate.
“A child that is born in Italy is Italian from the moment of its birth — this principle is in accordance with religious values but also with the civil dignity of individuals,” Marino told Italian public radio.
“In the Italian capital, in the third millennium, how can each child that is born not have the same rights as other children?” Marino said.
Marino, from the centre-left Democratic Party is the favourite in the run-off for Rome mayor taking place on 9-10 June after he stole a 12 point lead over conservative incumbent Gianni Alemanno in the first round of voting in May.
Italy’s first black minister, the recently appointed integration minister Cecile Kyenge, wants to grant automatic citizenship to children born to legal immigrants in Italy.
But her proposal has met with opposition from the Italian right including the anti-immigrant Northern League party. Rightwing extremists have attacked Kyenge online, and magistrates are probing racist insults and threats sent the minister.
The far-right Forza Nuova party last month called Kyenge’s proposals “absurd” and launched a campaign, ‘Immigration Kills’ in protest at several recent murders of Italians allegedly committed by immigrants.
Kyenge, a doctor born in the Democratic Republic of Congo is a member of the Democratic Party.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: MPs Begin Discussions on Citizenship Reforms
Integration Minister Kyenge says talks are a ‘starting point’
(ANSA) — Rome, June 4 — Italian MPs met on Tuesday to discuss a proposal for reforms to the country’s citizenship law for Italian-born children of migrants, Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge said.
The meeting “among a bipartisan group of parliamentarians and members of all parties” is just a “starting point”, Kyenge said.
Kyenge’s calls for reform of Italy’s citizenship laws have won support from many quarters.
However, Italy’s Interior Minister and Deputy Premier Angelino Alfano, the secretary of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party, has said the issue was not a priority for the government.
“That reforms are needed, no problem. But it shouldn’t mean that anyone can become Italian just by passing through the delivery room,” Alfano said in a radio interview last week.
Comedian-turned-political Beppe Grillo, whose anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) won around a quarter of the vote in February’s general elections, has said any changes to the citizenship law should be put to a referendum.
“We must start from birth right to citizenship and then adapt the proposal to fit the country. Children of immigrants do not have a choice where they are born, but are part of this country that is for all,” Kyenge said.
AC Milan striker and a member of the Italian national team Mario Balotelli recently said he supported proposed reforms.
Balotelli was born in Sicily to parents from Ghana and only obtained his Italian citizenship when he turned 18, the legal age in Italy for people born elsewhere.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Bipartisan Majority in Favor of Reform Citizenship Law
Granting citizenship to children born in Italy, with provisos
(ANSAmed) — ROME — A bipartisan majority consensus on on a moderate version of immigration reform emerged on Tusday from the joint House and Senate Immigration Committee, which met on Monday morning with Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge.
It appears that MPs from across the board — with the sole exception of the Northern League — are willing to work jointly on a bill that would grant citizenship to all children born in Italy, as long as they go to school and their parents have residency permits.
MPs from the Democratic Party (PD), People of Freedom Party (PdL), Civic Choice, and the Left Ecology and Freedom Party (SEL) all presented versions of citizenship bills. The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) has one in the works, and there is also a proposal from the “I Am Italy Too” committee, which has gathered 200,000 signatures. “What they all have in common is we need to leave behind the idea of ‘blood right’ (Italians are born of Italian parents), and linking citizenship to some form of laying down roots in Italy”, explained MP Khalid Chaouki (PD). The SEL version says one of the parents should be an Italian resident for at least a year, M5S for three years, PD and Civic Choice say five years.
Senator Carlo Giovanardi (PdL) proposed granting citizenship once the child enrolls in first grade, while MP Renata Polverini (PdL) said citizenship should be granted upon finishing compulsory education, at 16. Both Chaouki and Polverini were wary of antagonizing powerful PdL opponents of the bill, and thus creating problems for the administration of Premier Enrico Letta. “This is a purely parliamentary debate, it is not in the government program”, said Chaouki. “The fate of the government is not prejudiced by parliament concentrating on a civil battle”, Polverini said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Doubts Over Asylum Seekers’ Age Claims
Roughly 12 percent of asylum seekers who arrived in Sweden this year claiming to be children may actually be over 18-years-old, migration authorities have revealed using a new assessment that has prompted criticism from children’s rights groups.
During the first four months of 2013, 930 unaccompanied minors came to Sweden seeking asylum, Sveriges Radio (SR) reported on Tuesday.
However, the Swedish Migration Board (Migraitonsverket) estimates that up to 12 percent of the young people who claimed to be children are actually over the age of 18.
The estimate comes following the use of a new age verification method considered scientifically based and suitable by the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen).
In cases where migration officials have doubts about the age claims of young asylum seekers, a medical assessment is now employed during which the wrists, teeth, and skeleton are x-rayed and a doctor is called in to provide an additional opinion.
However, the new assessment has sparked criticism from Save the Children (Rädda Barnen) in Sweden, which believes children’s own accounts about their age should carry weight.
“When there are doubts, we believe they should first trust the child’s explanation,” Mikaela Hagan, who works with refugee and migration issues at Save the Children, told SR.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Many major provisions of Obamacare, along with many hundreds of minor ones, have not yet been phased in, and won’t be for about another year and a half. But ALREADY the Obamacare law’s partial implementation has resulted in rationing of care on at least one of its key promised features: pre-existing conditions.
Virtually none of the promises made for the new law have been kept, and the promises for pre-existing conditions are only the most recent to be broken.
Whether or not you choose to read the above article, this article will comment on its conclusions and also explain a truly horrible consequence of Obamacare which as yet no one, to the author’s knowledge, has noticed…
So . . . Obamacare is a WONDERFUL plan for “cutting the costs of health care.” It is all based on the SCAM of using the phrase “cut health care costs.” Here’s how it was done — another fact which, to the author’s knowledge, has not been identified elsewhere:
Yeah, “costs” will be cut. The costs to the government, and the total costs of health care spending. All you do is gradually kill off those who need most of the medical care, and VOILA, spending (“cost”) goes down. And the more you cut, the more this Machiavellian scheme of Obamacare will be able to cut on the next round.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Boy Scouts as Pederastic Cotton Candy
Exclusive: Judith Reisman predicts dire consequences of ‘eroticizing the campsite’
[WARNING: Disturbing content.]
It is estimated that in the United States, juveniles are responsible for up to one-fifth of all rapes and up to one half of all cases of child molestation committed each year (CSOM, 1999).
Juveniles are 36 percent of all sex offenders who victimize children. Seven out of eight are at least 12 years old, and 93 percent are boys (Crimes Against Children Research Center, UNH, 2010).
Juveniles are more likely than adults to commit sex offenses in groups, and their victims are younger and more likely to be male. (Crimes Against Children Research Center, UNH, 2010)
Oh, but such boy predators won’t singly or gang victimize Scouts! Perish the thought!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bilderberg’s 60-Year Trajectory Exposed
Incrementalism key to Bilderberg’s long-term agenda.
Some commenters in mainstream media are trying to downplay Bilderberg’s historical significance by suggesting the annual confabulation is a mostly reactionary body, contemplating current events but never steering them.
Studying the few reports that have managed to slip past the censors in the course of the previous decades, we can see that both the European Union and the European single currency have been nurtured and guided by the far-reaching hands of Bilderberg. For example, in the leaked transcript from the 1955 Bilderberg meeting (chaired by prince Bernhard of the Netherlands) participants speak of the “pressing need to bring the German people, together with the other peoples of Europe, into a common market”, and the desire is expressed to “arrive in the shortest possible time at the highest degree of integration, beginning with a common European market.”
In March of 2009 viscount Etienne Davignon- former Bilderberg chairman and current participant, bragged to the EUobserver online newspaper that the creation of the Euro was helped by the Bilderberg Group in the 1990’s:
“A meeting in June in Europe of the Bilderberg Group- an informal club of leading politicians, businessmen and thinkers chaired by Mr. Davignon- could also ‘improve understanding’ on future action, in the same way it helped create the Euro in the 1990s, he said.”
We now know of course that the process toward a single European currency, as well as single European “voice” has been in the making much longer than that- and has been a process developed largely under cover of secret meetings. Back in 1970, the same Etienne Davignon published a report in which the ministers of Foreign Affairs of six European nations pledged to further the European agenda through mostly informal gatherings. Furthermore, the report- to which the ministers of Foreign Affairs of all major European nations pledged allegiance- admits that the further integration of nations must follow a gradual, incremental path in carefully pre-planned “successive stages”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Michael Savage on Danger of Bilderberg 2013 and New World Order
Talk radio host Michael Savage explains why the Bilderberg meeting in Watford, England is a big deal.
Full 54 min clip here
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New Telescope Strategy Could Resolve Dark-Matter Mystery, Scientists Say
An intriguing hint of a certain type of gamma-ray light at the center of the Milky Way might be a product of elusive dark matter — or it might not be. For the past several years, scientists have debated whether the light is really there, and what it means. Now, researchers are petitioning the management team of NASA’s Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope, the observatory that saw the light, to change its observing strategy to determine once and for all whether the signal really exists.
However, even if there are extra gamma-ray photons coming from the center of the galaxy, scientists are a ways from knowing whether the photons were made by dark matter.
Theories suggest some mysterious form of matter that can’t be seen or touched is rife throughout the universe, making its presence known only through its gravitational pull. The leading theory behind this dark matter posits that it’s made of a new kind of fundamental particle called a WIMP (weakly interacting massive particle).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saturn-Like Alien Planet Found by Little Telescope
INDIANAPOLIS — Tiny telescopes in Arizona and South Africa have spotted a Saturn-like planet in orbit around a star about 700 light-years from Earth.
Scientists using the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) and other ground-based tools spied the alien planet as it passed in front of its star, a process called transiting.
The planet, called KELT-6b, can be seen from the surface of Earth for five hours as it transits — a relatively short window in which to catch the planet making its presence known. The research team required patience and luck to make their find, the scientists said.
The planet is also very close to its star; its year lasts only about 7.8 days. Although KELT-6b has no rings, its mass and size resemble the planet Saturn, scientists say.
Karen Collins, a graduate student in astrophysics at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, led the study that confirmed the discovery originally glimpsed by KELT. She used the University of Louisville’s Moore Observatory to observe the transit and collect necessary data to follow-up the initial find.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
David Cameron knows nothing about islam,indeed he appears to know very little about anything that goes on in his own country. Normally, I would call him an idiot but if I did, what would I call those people who voted for him?
If Dave really intended to “drain the swamp” every mosque and hate preacher would be sucked down the plug hole. It really does go without saying he will not take it very far, this is mostly for show to slow the haemorrhaging to UKIP. Now if the UN and US hadn’t pressured the UK to abandon every colony East of Suez, there would be a marvellous and economical solution to the current crisis. That being said, if Great Britain still had an empire it wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with! Funny old world innit?
David Cameron should know something about swamps as he spends most of his time in very murky waters. Yes, sadly, it is said that the United States was behind the demolition of the British Empire. Does that country think the world is a better place. But then if it was the UN also then was it the United States or just the Satanists in New York who are pulling the strings?
Of course our youngsters in Britain and probably the rest of Europe are told on a daily basis that the European empires were a bad thing. In Africa then nobody starved and there was a Pax Brittanica. The Empire became the Old and New Commonwealths which were still in existence when our queen was crowned 60 years ago. If it had remained that way then there might not have been a problem. But Edward Heath wrested Britain from the Old Commonwealth and joined her up with the Continent. This would not have been a bad thing if we could have kept the Old Commonwealth and the EEC. But that was not the UN’s One World Plan. The first thing they did was with Heath’s help to mingle the Old and New Commonwealth’s and then lead us and our continental cousins into the borderless totalitarian nightmare that is today’s EU.
The next stage must surely be to join multicultural Canada – probably shortly to be a republic as multiculturalism has ruptured the link with Britain’s monarchy – to multicultural America and blur the border with Mexico and beyond. Then we have the North Atlanic Union stretching from Vancouver to Helsinki.
As stated elsewhere, if only we could turn the clock back 60 years to that civilised utopia that was 1950s Britain and most continental countries this side of the Iron Curtain.
If Cameron really wanted to stop Islamic terror, he would close all the madrassas and a good many of the mosques and institutions which are obliged by the Koran to teach hatred of the infidel.
Remember the old saying– it’s too early to think about draining the swamp when you’re up to your “ears” in crocodiles.
Deal with the Islamic crocodiles first, then drain the swamp.