A curfew has been imposed on major cities in the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of violent rioting by Muslims. The protesters were reacting to rumors that Indian border police burned a Koran and attacked an imam. At least four people have been killed.
In other news, a controversy has arisen in Denmark after it was revealed that at least thirty daycare centers have stopped serving pork to any of their charges, out of concern for the sensibilities of “religious groups”. The Danish People’s party has drawn attention to the issue, and has called on the government to take action to reverse the daycare centers’ restrictions.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, LH, LS, Papa Whiskey, Steen, 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.
Britain faces further tax rises and spending cuts totalling nearly £60billion to get the creaking public finances back under control, the Treasury watchdog warned yesterday.
The Office for Budget Responsibility said decades of austerity are required on top of the £153billion measures already planned to return the ballooning national debt to pre-recession levels.
‘It is clear that longer-term spending pressures, if unaddressed, would put finances on an unsustainable path,’ said chairman Robert Chote.
Mr Chote added that future governments faced ‘difficult choices’ to tackle the costs ‘of an ageing population and upward pressure on health spending’.
George Osborne has outlined austerity lasting until 2017-18 to wipe out the deficit racked up by Labour.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Passes Divisive Public-Sector Reform Bill
The Greek Parliament has passed an unpopular bill that paves the way for mass public-sector layoffs in order to unlock the country’s next bailout loan. Ahead of the vote, the bill was met with mass protests and strikes.
The bill received the necessary majority of 151 votes in the 300-seat parliament, narrowly approving a sweeping range of reforms late Wednesday. The bill is tied to the country’s next tranche of bailout loans from the European Union and International Monetary Fund (IMF) worth 6.8 billion euros (8.9 billion dollars).
The bill includes extremely unpopular plans for a transfer and layoff scheme for 25,000 public workers — mainly teachers and municipal police. Civil servants now face a so-called mobility reserve program that subjects them to involuntary transfers and possible dismissals.
Hundreds of protesters had gathered outside parliament for the vote, after a week of protests and strikes that saw thousands walk off the job in protest.
Civil servants have already been subjected to cuts in pay and pensions over the past three years. The government has also promised to cut an additional 15,000 jobs by
the end of 2014.
The crucial vote came hours ahead of a visit to Athens by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Approves Scheme to Fire Thousands of Public Workers
Greece’s shaky coalition government scraped through a vote on Wednesday on a bill to sack public sector workers as thousands chanting anti-austerity slogans protested outside parliament.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Accuses Cohen of Failing to Prevent SAC Insider Trading
Federal regulators filed a civil action against Steven A. Cohen on Friday, blaming the billionaire hedge fund manager for “failing to supervise” employees accused of insider trading.
The action, filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, delivers a serious blow to Mr. Cohen, the founder of SAC Capital Advisors. The agency is seeking to bar Mr. Cohen from overseeing investor funds, a death knell to a hedge fund manager.
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UK: Police ‘Could Not Handle More Riots’ After Budget Cuts
Police forces would be unable to cope with a repeat of the 2011 riots because of budget cuts, the body representing rank and file officers has warned.
Steve White, the vice-chairman of the Police Federation, claimed some officers were being forced to work 14 days straight due to numbers being stretched.
His comments came ahead of the publication of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary’s latest report on the effects of the Government’s austerity measures on the police.
Asked if the police could deal with a wave of unrest on the scale of that in English cities in 2011, Mr White told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I don’t think they could.
“Recently we have seen deployments of police officers out in Northern Ireland for the G8 and indeed for the problems that they had over there, and our officers did extremely well.
“But what you’ve got to remember, when you lose a large number of officers to a large operation, whether it be in this country or anywhere else, you have got to backfill in order to maintain the service.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In mid-May, five men and two women said to be “chemical engineers” and “recent graduates” were found trespassing on the Quabbin Reservoir property after dark, sparking a statewide terror alert, especially after the attacks on the Boston Marathon that had happened the month prior.
The group, which included Muslim adults from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Singapore, were detained by authorities, interviewed and later released. After an investigation, it was decided they were not engaging or planning to engage in criminal or terrorist activity.
Although trespassing in and of itself was against the law, the clerk magistrate decided this week not to issue criminal complaints against those in the group, which had been summoned to Belchertown district court, according to The Republican. But the state police are appealing the decision because the trespassing took place at a “critical infrastructure key resource site,” Massachusetts State Police Spokesman David Procopio told The Republican.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
14,000 Abandoned Wind Turbines in the USA (Pioneer)
The US has had wind farms since 1981, what the left and the green movement don’t want to talk about regarding windmills is (as usual) the truth. The truth is: windmills, like solar panels, break down. And like solar panels, windmills produce less energy before they break down than the energy it took to make them. That’s the part liberals forget: making windmills and solar panels takes energy, energy from coal, oil, and diesel, energy that extracts and refines raw materials, energy that transports those materials to where they will be re-shaped into finished goods, energy to manufacture those goods. More energy than those finished windmills and solar panels will ever produce.
There are many hidden truths about the world of wind turbines from the pollution and environmental damage caused in China by manufacturing bird choppers, the blight on people’s lives of noise and the flicker factor and the countless numbers of birds that are killed each year by these blots on the landscape. The symbol of Green renewable energy, our saviour from the non existent problem of Global Warming, abandoned wind farms are starting to litter the planet as globally governments cut the subsidies taxes that consumers pay for the privilege of having a very expensive power source that does not work every day for various reasons like it’s too cold or the wind speed is too high.
The US experience with wind farms has left over 14,000 wind turbines abandoned and slowly decaying, in most instances the turbines are just left as symbols of a dying Climate Religion, nowhere have the Green Environmentalists appeared to clear up their mess or even complain about the abandoned wind farms.
[…]
The truth is: wind energy is just a tax scam. Ben Lieberman, a senior policy analyst focusing on energy and environmental issues for the Heritage Foundation, is not surprised. He asks:
“If wind power made sense, why would it need a government subsidy in the first place? It’s a bubble which bursts as soon as the government subsidies end.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Arpaio’s CCP: Obama’s Shocking Past Revealed (Video)
New Jersey police detective and lead investigator for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Cold Case Posse, Mike Zullo, appeared on the Alex Jones Show yesterday to discuss new developments regarding Obama’s birth certificate.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Brother Roger” And the Racial Agitators
When conservatives complain about Al Sharpton, they usually note his relationship to NBC news or his hosting a show on MSNBC. But a new book says the racial agitator and Democratic Party politician has considerable clout with Fox News, and in fact played a role in getting conservative Glenn Beck fired from the channel.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson says “people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton do not deserve to be called civil rights leaders. They are not. They are hustlers and pimps who make a living off inflaming racial tensions.”
However, The Zev Chafets book, Roger Ailes: Off Camera, has some revealing passages about the clout that Sharpton and Jackson have with the chairman and CEO of Fox News. It says Ailes took a phone call from Sharpton after Beck, then a Fox News host, staged a rally at the Lincoln Memorial 47 years to the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I have a dream” speech at the same location. Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally, designed to pay tribute to America’s military personnel and restore traditional values, was strongly attacked by figures such as Sharpton and George Soros-funded groups like Media Matters, then campaigning to have Beck fired from Fox News.
Chafets says Reverend Alveda King, a national pro-life leader, delivered a conservative “I have a dream” message of her own at the Beck-sponsored rally that was “infuriating to many viewers,” and Ailes as well.”Ailes didn’t like it much, either,” he reports. However, the book doesn’t explain why Ailes took issue with the rally or the speech.
The book adds, “When Al Sharpton called him [Ailes] to complain, Sharpton was surprised to hear Ailes say he would ‘take care’ of it.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Congress Celebrates Nelson Mandela’s 95th Birthday
Members of Congress honored Nelson Mandela’s 95th birthday on Thursday, as the former South Africa leader remained hospitalized in critical condition.
Lauded as the “George Washington” and “Abraham Lincoln” of South Africa, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., joined his colleagues to celebrate the third annual Mandela Day. Senators and House members illustrated the freedom fighter’s life reading several quotes Mandela scribed.
“I have walked that long road to freedom,” Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said, reiterating Mandela’s words. “I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.”
Waters named Mandela “the most significant historic figure in the world of the past 100 years.” A member of the Congressional Black Caucus, Waters fought against the South African apartheid that ended in 1994 when Mandela became president.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dry Asparagus Prompts Questions About Racial Discrimination in University City
UNIVERSITY CITY — A dried-out batch of asparagus has touched off a debate about racial discrimination, grocery stores and the role of citizen-led commissions.
It started in May when resident David Olander was perusing the produce section of the University City Schnucks. He noticed the asparagus weren’t resting in a tray of water.
“It was just sitting there dried out,” said Olander, a member of the city’s human relations commission.
Olander summoned an assistant manager, and then he asked the question: Did the quality of the asparagus have any relationship to the store’s location in a black neighborhood?
“‘I certainly hope not,’“ Olander recalled the manager saying.
Olander’s experience prompted him to write a letter to Schnucks CEO Scott Schnuck, and out of that came a meeting with Schnucks employees.
But the letter and meeting were tinged with allegations that the St. Louis area’s largest grocery chain was discriminating against minority communities — accusations that Schnucks vehemently denies.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev: New Pictures of Suspected Boston Bomber Leaked in Response to Rolling Stone Cover
A police photographer, furious with a Rolling Stone magazine cover photo he says glamorises the surviving Boston Marathon suspect, has released gritty images from the day Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured.
The photos released to Boston Magazine on Thursday by Massachusetts State Police tactical photographer Sgt. Sean Murphy — who has been relieved of his duties and ordered not to speak to the media as a result — show a downcast, dishevelled Tsarnaev with the red dot of a sniper’s rifle laser sight on his forehead. Murphy said in a statement to the magazine that Tsarnaev is evil and his photos show the “real Boston bomber, not someone fluffed and buffed for the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.” The photos were taken when Tsarnaev was captured April 19, bleeding and hiding in a boat in a suburban backyard…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Fort Hood Survivor Goes Off on Eric Holder: ‘Not Only Am I Disappointed, I’M Embarrassed’
As jury selection officially began in the “workplace violence” trial of the Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly Fort Hood shooting rampage, Maj. Nidal Hasan on Wednesday told potential jurors he supports the Taliban and a radical Islamist who killed a U.S. soldier.
Appearing on Fox News Wednesday, Fort Hood survivor Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford blasted Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department for allowing the incident to be labeled as “workplace violence” rather than the act of terrorism it clearly was. Because of the distinction, the brave men and women who were injured in the terrorist attack are not eligible for decorations, such as a Purple Heart, or combat-related benefits.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
GOP Establishment: Stupid or Sinister?
A question I’ve been asked a lot lately goes a little something like this:
Beyond the fact it betrays the rule of law and rewards lawbreakers by giving them what they broke the law for in the first place, I don’t understand why all these Republican “leaders” want to engage in a scamnesty program that will just result in adding over $6 trillion more in debt for taxpayers while simultaneously allowing Democrats to register millions of more new voters. Hispanics have voted Republican only 31% of the time since 1980. Do they want the whole country to look as broke as California following the Reagan Amnesty, which was a Republican-leaning state for decades (GOP won California in 7 of the 10 previous presidential elections prior to the Reagan Amnesty, and now less than 30% of Californians are registered Republicans)? Are these GOP “leaders” so stupid as to not understand they’re actively aiding and abetting their own destruction?
The answer, of course, is yes — they are this stupid. But the answer doesn’t end there. To truly understand what’s driving the GOP ruling class’ self-immolation train, you have to realize why they’re this stupid.
There are two reasons for their stupidity…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Judge in Manning Case Won’t Dismiss Charge of Aiding Enemy
The military judge in the trial of Pfc. Bradley Manning decided on Thursday not to drop a charge accusing Private Manning of “aiding the enemy.” If he is found guilty of the charge, he faces a life sentence in military custody with no chance of parole.
In February, Private Manning, a 25-year-old Army intelligence analyst, admitted to having leaked hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks. He denied that he was guilty of 12 counts, including aiding the enemy, but pleaded guilty to 10 lesser offenses that could have put him in jail for up to 20 years.
The government has said it will not pursue the death penalty against Private Manning.
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Judge Jeanine Absolutely Drops the Hammer on the Scandal-Infested Obama Administration (Video)
Judge Jeanine Pirro has done the impossible and topped her epic rants on Benghazi and her previous “rant of the year” on the jihadi bomber mama. This eleven-minute epic beat-down would have Obama crying to his mama if it took place in a debate.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Politics and Justice in Florida
Angela Corey, the state attorney who has become a household name as the prosecutor in the Zimmerman trial, has a reputation: for overcharging, withholding evidence, and retaliating, professionally and personally, against critics. But she was handpicked by the Florida governor and attorney general for the Zimmerman case.
Why?
It’s a question that may never be satisfactorily answered — but the evidence suggests the perfect storm in the Sunshine State: a maelstrom of weak-kneed Republicans, coercion, cronyism, and plain bad judgment.
[…]
[Florifa Gov.] Rick Scott, [Florida Atty. Gen.] Pam Bondi (whose office declined a request for comment), and Angela Corey were closely connected years before the Zimmerman trial.
[…]
In such a high-profile case, one that called for prudence, dispassion, and a thoughtful consideration of the evidence, Corey seems to have been a particularly bad choice for the assignment.
At the crucial moment, required to choose between dutiful officials and the growing mob, Florida’s Republican leaders buckled.
[The grubby truth of this evil case is slowly coming out. These creatures should be driven from office. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Scientists Seek to Collect a ‘Blood Database’ Of All U.S. Newborns for ‘Research’ Purposes
(NaturalNews) It’s bad enough that Americans are being constitutionally squeezed at just about every level of government, now scientists want to get into the act.
In the name of conducting “research,” bioethicists are now arguing that blood samples left over from newborns are a wealth of potential information and as such should just be made available to scientists for study purposes, and not necessarily with the consent of the child’s parents.
“Retention and use, without explicit parental permission, of residual dried blood samples from newborn screening has generated public controversy over concerns about violations of family privacy rights and loss of parental autonomy,” write Michelle Huckaby Lewis, Michael E. Scheurer, Robert C. Green and Amy L. McGuire, in an op-ed for the journal Science Translational Medicine.
“The public debate about this issue has included little discussion about the destruction of a potentially valuable public resource that can be used for research that may yield improvements in public health,” the team wrote. “The research community must advocate for policies and infrastructure that promote retention of residual dried blood samples and their use in biomedical research.”
So, rather than have that debate, it sounds as though this particular group of “bioethicists” is arguing to have the rules changed to simply allow the scientific community access to what analysts say amounts to about four million infant blood samples annually.
Already the concept is proving controversial.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The CDC is Lying to You Again: Flu Fiction vs. Flu Reality
In 2010, the CDC reports 500 deaths from the flu.
But the CDC PR people have trumpeted, over and over, that 36,000 people die every year in the US from the flu.
They’ve hyped this number, to emphasize how dangerous the flu is. They use the 36,000 number as a way to promote the flu vaccine. They use it to work for their pimps in the pharmaceutical industry…
As you can see above, the CDC has a mortality category called “Pneumonia plus Influenza.” They initially lump the numbers of deaths together. This gives the superficial impression of many deaths. Then, they break it down.
How do they justify that combination-category? They claim that many pneumonia deaths stem from the flu. They use a computer model to make the calculations.
But in conventional medical literature, there are at least 10 different types of pneumonia. Trying to model which ones stem from flu cases is a fool’s errand.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Boston Magazine has responded to Rolling Stone’s controversial new cover giving accused marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev the glam rock star treatment with incredible new photos of his capture.
This Tsarnaev — bloody and in the fixed beam of a sniper rifle — is “the real face of terror,” the magazine said: “In response to the controversial Rolling Stone cover, new photos of Tsarnaev’s capture emerge.”
A bloody Dzhokhar Tsarnaev with a sniper rifle trained on him. (Photo credit: Sean Murphy/Boston Magazine)
The photos come from Sgt. Sean Murphy, a tactical photographer with the Massachusetts State Police who wanted to counter the message from the Rolling Stone cover, the magazine said.
“I believe that the image that was portrayed by Rolling Stone magazine was an insult to any person who has every worn a uniform of any color or any police organization or military branch, and the family members who have ever lost a loved one serving in the line of duty,” Murphy told Boston Magazine. “…What Rolling Stone did was wrong. This guy is evil. This is the real Boston bomber. Not someone fluffed and buffed for the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.”
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Three-Fourths of Small Businesses to Fire Workers or Cut Hours Due to ObamaCare
(NaturalNews) The administration is doing everything it can, spending tens of millions of taxpayer dollars and hiring legions of new federal workers, aimed at convincing you that Obamacare won’t be the “train wreck” one of its chief authors in the Senate, the retiring Montana senior statesman Max Baucus, has claimed it will be.
Besides skyrocketing costs, Obamacare will lead to physicians retiring early so they don’t have to deal with its plethora of punitive mandates, force existing doctors to limit services, punish Americans who choose to opt out — and, most importantly in Obama’s lousy economy — force employers to let workers go or substantially cut their hours.
But hey, that’s not us talking here, though we’ve been accused of fomenting “right-wing propaganda.” That is the talk of business owners themselves.
No relief in sight
In fact, according to a just-published survey, a staggering 74 percent of small businesses — nearly three-quarters — say they will have to cut hours and jobs in order to stay afloat, thanks to the employer mandate in Obamacare, which requires businesses with 50 or more full-timers to buy them expensive health insurance. This is in spite of the fact that President Obama, in a purely political move — and one that may even be illegal — has decided to delay implementation of the employer mandate until after 2015 (after the 2014 elections).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Trans-Atlantic Trade Talks Not Overshadowed by NSA Scandal
As talks on the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership began this week in Washington, a second topic loomed large: US intelligence programs. Germany wanted to make sure the issue didn’t fade into the background.
As EU and US delegations met in Washington for the first week-long round of negotiations on a proposed shared trade area, German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich was just a few hundred meters away in the White House for talks about controversial US surveillance programs.
After the heated discussions following US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden’s disclosures about his country’s surveillance procedures, it was apparently a question of self-respect for Friedrich to have a dialogue on equal footing with partners in the US.
Limited impact on talks
However, Jacob Kirkegaard of the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics says Snowden’s revelations and the fallout that ensued seemed not to overshadow the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) discussions as they got under way.
“Apparently the topic of the surveillance programs did not play a big role. The delegations got into the matters at hand relatively quickly,” the economist said. He believes that both delegations have developed a degree of basic trust in one another that will ease the upcoming negotiations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Trayvon Protester Strikes Woman Pleading to Bring Granddaughter to Hospital
Trayvon Martin demonstrators reportedly struck a woman who pleaded with them to let her pass so she could get her granddaughter, who was suffering from an allergic reaction to some medication, to a Houston hospital on Monday.
The girl’s grandmother, who asked Click2Houston.com to identify her only as Georgia, said hundreds of protesters spilled onto a bridge and highway, shouting, “No justice, no peace,” blocking all traffic.
“One of them was hitting the windshield and I was just screaming, ‘We’ve got to get to the hospital,’ and they were screaming and chanting,” Georgia said. “All I could think of was, I got to get my granddaughter to the hospital.”
Georgia’s daughter, who was driving the car, said Georgia rolled down the window to beg the demonstrators to let them pass, but a man reached into the window and “just started hitting her.”
Video footage of the incident shows a man grabbing Georgia as her car, one in a line of many trying to pass the crowd by driving on the grassy shoulder, tries to pass through. Protesters also held up an ambulance trying to navigate around stalled cars and the crowd.
“I think it’s ridiculous that they’re taking it this far. It’s going to become a civil war almost,” Georgia said. “It’s crazy.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Navy Vet a Real-Life Jason Bourne; Wakes Up With No Memory But Speaks Perfect Swedish
(NaturalNews) The fictional character Jason Bourne is a covert intelligence operative who survives an intense mind control “reprogramming” process to become a government assassin. After being shot while on an assassination mission, he forgets his identity and tries to rediscover his true past. That’s the storyline of the Bourne series of motion pictures.
Last week, a possible real-life Jason Bourne awoke in a motel room. While his I.D. revealed he was a U.S. Navy veteran named Michael Boatwright, he awoke without any memory of being able to speak English whatsoever. He now speaks Swedish and insists his name is Johan Ek.
When he looks in the mirror, he doesn’t recognize his own face, and he has no memory of his past…
When Michael Boatright (picture on the right) was discovered in the hotel room, he had, “…a duffel bag of casual athletic clothes, a backpack, five tennis rackets, two cell phones, some cash, a set of old photos and four forms of identification: a passport, California identification card, veteran’s medical card and a Social Security card.”…
What’s especially mysterious about all this is the fact that this man apparently speaks flawless Swedish. This is a tremendous clue that something beyond the norm is going on because even if a typical American learns to speak Swedish, he’s going to speak it with an American accent.
Boatwright apparently speaks it flawlessly. Like a native. This immediately limits the range of possible explanations for this phenomenon.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
West Virginia Dismisses False Flag Allegations
West Virginia Public Broadcasting has issued a statement on the communities’ Beckley’s Best Facebook page, assuring the public (and conspiracy theorists) that the National Guard training exercises taking place at the same time and location as the National Boy Scout Jamboree, are not indicative of a false flag event.
On June 28, 2012 Gov. Tomblin signed off on a Proclamation by the State of West Virginia’s Executive Department declaring a state of emergency for numerous counties from July 14 to July 26.
In the document, the governor orders “the implementation of the State Emergency Operations Plan, the activation of the State Emergency Operations Center in a manner and location to be established by the Director of the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management…”
As we reported last month, the 2013 Boy Scout Jamboree has been receiving loads of attention after Nevada governor candidate David Lory VanDerBeerk announced that he has inside information regarding the event. That information has led him to believe that the Jamboree could be the scene of the next false flag event carried out by the US government.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Whistle-Blower From Higher Education Services Corporation Comes Forward
A whistle-blower from Higher Education Services Corporation in Albany New York came forward and advised Attorney Orly Taitz that she personally reviewed Barack Obama’s financial aid information, which stated that financial aid was given to Obama as foreign student and as a citizen of Indonesia.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Debate Stirred After Pork Pulled From Daycare Menu
Dansk Folkeparti angered by the news that around 30 daycares in Denmark no longer serve pork, although Copenhagen’s deputy mayor for immigration blames the fuss on the cucumber season
Pork is increasingly being taken off the menu for children in the nation’s daycares in order to accommodate religious groups, tabloid Ekstra Bladet reported this week.
According to the tabloid’s survey, pork is no longer served in around 30 daycare institutions across the country, while Ishøj Council — which has a large Muslim population — has introduced a blanket policy not serve pork at any of its daycares or nurseries.
Ekstra Bladet reports that several Copenhagen daycares have also stopped serving pork and have started to serve only meat which is slaughtered according to Islamic ‘halal’ guidelines.
One of the institutions to stop serving pork, Trækronerne in Ishøj, explained that it didn’t want to differentially treat the children.
“Meals are an important and communal part of the day where children experience being part of an inclusive community,” the institution’s manager, Helle Jensen, told Ritzau. “To make sure this is the case, it is important that we do not treat the children differently.”
The news stimulated a spirited debate in the Danish media and among politicians.
Martin Henriksen, the immigration spokesperson for Dansk Folkeparti, has demanded that the government intervene.
“It’s disconcerting that our public institutions are brining up Danish children to take excessive consideration to Muslims,” Henriksen wrote in a press release. “I don’t care for it and I cannot imagine that the practice is legal because it is discriminatory to those who value Danish food culture.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Designed 3D Printed Shoes Debut on Paris Catwalk
A manufacturer of 3D printers and production systems for prototyping and manufacturing Stratasys has announced the unveiling of 12 pairs of 3D printed shoes during Paris Fashion Week. In collaboration with Dutch designers Iris van Herpen and Creative Director of United Nude (shoe above) Rem D. Koolhaas, Stratasys 3D printed the shoes with a number of intricate geometries designed to mimic elements of nature. Following the success of van Herpen’s recent collaboration with Stratasys for an elaborate 3D printed dress, Van Herpen teamed up with Rem D. Koolhaas to design a tree root inspired shoe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Prosecutor Proposal ‘Too Risky’: Swedish Minister
The Swedish government has rejected European Commission proposals to set up a European Public Prosecutor’s Office, with Justice Minister Beatrice Ask calling the plan to prevent fraudsters avoiding prosecution by fleeing to another EU country risky.
“Even though it is meant to protect EU funds, there is a risk of starting a trend where a prosecutor acts across member states,” Ask told news agency TT. “It’s not a development we want to see and we remain very, very sceptical.”
Despite additional opt-outs from the UK, Ireland and Denmark, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso stated that he expected the new office to be in place by early 2015.
“It will be significant in strengthening the protection for taxpayers’ money and opportunities to access fraud cases involving EU funds,” Barroso said.
Despite the Swedish government’s hesitance, by signing the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, Sweden may already have paved the way for the office to be established, since the treaty provides its legal foundation.
Ask added that the number of countries in support of the idea are in the minority.
In order for the European Public Prosecutor’s Office to come into being, at least nine member states must support the proposal.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Grim Evidence of a Crime
Here’s a photo of the track that caused the derailment of the Paris-Limoges train near Brétigny-sur-Orge. You can clearly see that a piece is missing between the rails. The piece, called an “éclisse” in French, is a sort of wedge or splint that holds the rails together. The experts, engineers, and union leaders say such a piece has never come apart on its own. It had to be the work of criminals. The photo is from François Desouche, and I will have more on this story tomorrow.. Some have expressed astonishment at the swiftness with which the government acted to cover up the strong possibility of a crime.
Also, four “young persons” were arrested. The cell phone of one of them contained a message in which the following question was asked: “Did you find anything in the baggage?” An indication that they had been looting the belongings of the victims.
At Riposte Laïque they’re calling it jihad.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
France: Thieves ‘Stole From Victims of Train Crash’
Callous, opportunistic thieves from Brétigny-sur-Orge, where a train derailed killing six people last Friday, threw stones at police and rescue workers and stole possessions from accident victims, an explosive new police document has alleged.
The contents of the document, revealed by Le Point magazine on Thursday, said individuals from the southern Paris suburb “hampered the progress of rescue vehicles by throwing projectiles at them.”
Hundreds of police and paramedics rushed to the scene last Friday after an Intercity train from Paris to Limoges derailed in the station in Bretigny, leaving six dead and dozens of passengers injured, nine of them critical.
Riot police, who were out in force to secure the area around the scene of the intercity train accident, had to push back the individuals, the report said.
“Certain trouble-makers had succeeded in seizing personal possessions scattered on the ground or on the victims themselves,” says the document from the CRS (Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité), a unit of the French National Police.
Earlier this week four people were arrested on suspicion of stealing a mobile phone from a rescue worker.
And the new CRS report supports what the Alliance Police Nationale union has stated about “problems” at the accident site.
If it is confirmed by the investigation, it will show the attitude of those who have accused the union of lying and manipulation is “shameful, scandalous and inadmissible,” a spokesman for the police union is quoted as saying by AFP.
However, the union has been accused of exaggerating the facts.
A police source interviewed by AFP called for prudence over the contents of the report. He said an investigation is under way to verify the claims by means of interviewing emergency personnel and police on the scene, along with studying video footage taken at the time.
Another police source told Le Figaro: “There could have been some projectiles thrown when the police put up the security cordon. But the situation was quickly calmed.
So far, authorities have officially denied there were any thefts from passengers while police have stated publicly that no passengers have reported any crime.
Immediately following the crash, many journalists who were on the scene reported the rock throwing, but this was later downplayed by Red Cross and ambulance service officials who said they were able to work in a “totally normal fashion”.
On Friday, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, the MP for the Essonne region, where the accident took place, demanded an explanation over the reports.
Morizet said she felt “disgust and horror” on reading the report. “There is a vulturistic side to this incident — people trying to take advantage of a tragic situation.
“We were told (by the Minister of Transport) that this was an isolated incident. But it now appears more serious than that. If the government has tried to cover this up, its a real problem,” the candidate for mayor of Paris added.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Is it ‘Adios’ For Spanish Bullfights?
In Spain, the summer bullfighting season has begun. Once a time of celebration, the current recession and animal rights campaigners are casting doubt on the future of one of the country’s most emblematic pastimes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Priceless Monet, Matisse and Picasso Works Burned by Gallery Raiders
All seven paintings stolen in a raid on Rotterdam’s Kunsthal last October have been destroyed in a fire after the thieves failed to sell them, investigators have confirmed.
The €18 million haul, including works by Monet, Matisse and Picasso, was taken in the early hours of October 16 before being transported to Romania.
Six suspects are due to stand trial in Romania in connection with the theft, including the mother of one of the robbers.
Organised crime specialists found traces of distinctive red and yellow paint in ashes taken from the woman’s home, leading them to conclude that the paintings had been burned there, Romanian TV station PRO TV reported.
“It became clear to me that they had done something terrible and we were scared of being punished,” she is said to have told police.
Romanian media reports suggest the gang took the drastic after realising the paintings were too valuable to sell on the black market.
They initially tried to sell them to the Russian mafia and a fashion mogul in Bucharest, who claims to have been approached by the three raiders carrying the paintings rolled up in a shopping bag.
Having failed to find a buyer the gang slowly realised that their elaborate raid would earn them nothing beyond the attentions of Interpol, and set about trying to cover their tracks.
They buried the works in a local graveyard before throwing them on the fire in the woman’s flat in the village of Carcaliu, in eastern Romania, together with the household rubbish.
The ashes were found in May and taken for analysis, where traces of paint and the remains of nails used to pin the canvas to the frame were found.
The seven destroyed works were on display in the Kunsthal as part of an exhibition of avant-garde art to celebrate the gallery’s 20th anniversary.
They were on loan from the Triton Foundation, one of Europe’s largest collections of 20th-century art.
Security at the gallery has been stepped up in the wake of the robbery, which took less than two minutes to carry out.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Attempting to Railroad EU Acceptance of GMOs Through New ‘Free Trade’ Agreements
(NaturalNews) Contradicting promises he once made back on the campaign trail to protect the environment and defend the public against unscrupulous corporate interests, Barack Obama is currently pushing for the establishment of two new “free trade” agreements that would not only allow corporations to undermine the rule of law here in the U.S., but also railroad through forced acceptance of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) in the European Union (EU) and elsewhere, where existing regulatory policies largely prohibit their cultivation and unlabeled sale.
Known individually as the U.S.-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP), the two agreements, which are currently being negotiated, would eliminate a number of so-called trade barriers that restrict how multi-national corporations can conduct their businesses. Besides threatening to deconstruct all sorts of environmental protections and labor standards, TTIP and TTP would also make it easier for private corporate interests to dictate agricultural policy, particularly in areas of the world where GMOs have been rejected by the people.
Of primary concern is the EU, where regulators have been busy fighting off aggressive biotechnology interests that are hell-bent on forcing public acceptance of GMOs.
[…]
With this gross liberalization of agricultural trade policy will also come the elimination of American law as an authoritative force in guiding corporate behavior, including corporations that are based in the U.S. As explained in-depth over at U.S. News & World Report, international, extrajudicial “investor-state” tribunals run by corporations will dictate how trade disputes are to be handled, effectively bypassing the legal justice system designed to protect public interest.
“Foreign corporations operating within the U.S. would be permitted to appeal key American legal or regulatory rulings to an international tribunal,” writes Zach Carter for the Huffington Post. “That international tribunal would be granted the power to overrule American law,” and even proceed to exploit the legal system for the purpose of extracting money from taxpayers in the process.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: No Extension to Ban on Stubbed Snow Tires
The city of Stockholm has decided not to extend a ban on stubbed winter tires, which are held partly responsible for the poor air quality on some heavily trafficked Stockholm streets.
Currently, drivers using stubbed snow tires are prevented from using one Stockholm street and the Stockholm county administrative board wanted to extend the ban to two more streets.
Swedish minister of environment Lena Ek told Swedish Radio that she is disappointed in the decision.
Sweden has been warned that it could face costly fines from the EU because of the air pollution in some areas of Stockholm.
Ek called the decision regrettable. She claimed that 6,000 people die prematurely in Sweden every year because of poor air quality.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Boris Johnson Tells TfL to Rewrite ‘Anti-Israel’ Emirates Airline Cable Car Contract
Transport for London was today forced to rewrite its contract for the Thames cable car after it emerged it could have been subject to United Arab Emirates foreign policy. The £36 million deal with the Dubai-owned Emirates airline appeared to prevent TfL from entering into other contracts on the cable car with Israeli-owned or backed businesses.
The contract, published under freedom of information laws, also apparently banned TfL from financing the project through Israeli banks if that was ever required. In addition, Mayor Boris Johnson and TfL officials were prohibited from criticising the deal and the UAE royal family and government.
Mr Johnson, who was unaware of the problems with the contract, intervened today to ask TfL to remove the offending clauses. They will be rewritten in the next couple of weeks. TfL originally insisted it was “factually incorrect” to suggest it could not enter into contracts of its own choosing and the clause was simply there to protect the sponsor’s commercial interests…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Man Held Over ‘Hang Lee Rigby’s Killers’ Graffiti on Bomber Command Memorial
A man has been arrested on suspicion of daubing “Lee Rigby’s killers should hang” on the RAF Bomber Command War Memorial in central London. A 20-year-old was held at his home in Manchester last Tuesday on suspicion of an act of criminal damage at the memorial in Park Lane on June 5, Scotland Yard said.
The RAF Bomber Command War Memorial, which was created to remember the thousands of RAF crew who lost their lives in the Second World War, was vandalised twice in just over a week following the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby in Woolwich, south east London, on May 22. In the first incident on May 27, the word “Islam” was scrawled across the monument. Red graffiti was also found on the Animals in War Memorial in Hyde Park, which honours animals that have served and died for the British military forces.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Wolverhampton Mosque: Explosion Debris Found Near Site
Police questioning two Ukrainian men under anti-terror laws say the “seat of an explosion and debris” have been discovered on a roundabout near Wolverhampton’s Central Mosque.
Police questioning two Ukrainian men under anti-terror laws have found the site of an explosion near a mosque.
West Midlands Police said the “seat of an explosion and debris” were discovered late last night on a roundabout near Wolverhampton’s Central Mosque.
The find was made following the arrest of two men in Small Heath, Birmingham, on Thursday, in connection with blasts close to mosques in Walsall and Tipton. The men, aged 25 and 22, are being questioned on suspicion of being involved in the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism. A police spokesman confirmed that last night’s discovery was made on the Fiveways traffic island by officers and Army bomb disposal experts as they searched land around the Wolverhampton mosque…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: We Need to Grow in Understanding of Muslims, English Bishop Says
Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel and Brighton has written a pastoral letter urging Catholics in his diocese to reach out to Muslims. In the letter he quoted from the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on non-Christian religions, Nostra Aetate, which said: “The Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions.”
Bishop Conry wrote: “These words and sentiments are very important for our time, when latent suspicions and hostility can easily be brought to the surface again by tragic events like the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich.” He continued: “I am writing this on the first day of the Muslim holy season of Ramadan. I ask that you accept this urge to dialogue, so that at least we might understand one another more. Very often our image of Islam is simply the one presented by the media, and how often do we complain that the media view distorts the reality of the Catholic Church? We must not in our minds associate the word ‘Muslim’ with any of the negative and pejorative terms often linked to it in the media.”
He said that inter-religious dialogue was “not just a dialogue of charity”, but also a “dialogue of hope.” “Hope and trust in God who wills all people to be saved and who, in Christ and the Holy Spirit, is already at work in all that is true and holy in other religions,” said Bishop Conry.
[JP note: Amusing.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UN Slams Calderoli for Calling Black Minister an Orangutan
‘Absolutely shocking, but strong reaction encouraging’
(ANSA) — Geneva, July 19 — The United Nations on Friday told ANSA it was “absolutely shocking” that Deputy Senate Speaker Roberto Calderoli likened Italy’s first black minister to an orangutan. According to Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the strong reaction against his remarks have however been “encouraging,” given that “this is not the first time Italian politicians have made these types of comments”. “But this does not hide the fact that (Calderoli’s remarks) are absolutely unacceptable,” he added. Since insulting Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge over the weekend, Calderoli has been pressured to resign by politicians from both the right and the left. But his own party, the anti-immigrant Northern League, has rallied around him, chiding critics for what they regard as a lack of a sense of humor. Prosecutors are investigating Calderoli for aggravated defamation and incitement of racial hatred.
While he is only the latest member of the League to make racial slurs against Congolese-born Kyenge since her appointment in April, he is the highest profile, having served as a minister in a government of three-time premier Silvio Berlusconi.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Does Long-Lost Pyramid Discovery Rival Those of Giza?
Mysterious, pyramid-like structures spotted in the Egyptian desert by an amateur satellite archaeologist might be long-lost pyramids after all, according to a new investigation into the enigmatic mounds.
Angela Micol, who last year found the structures using Google Earth 5,000 miles away in North Carolina, says puzzling features have been uncovered during a preliminary ground proofing expedition, revealing cavities and shafts.
“Moreover, it has emerged these formations are labeled as pyramids on several old and rare maps,” Micol told Discovery News.
Located about 90 miles apart, the two possible pyramid complexes appeared as groupings of mounds in curious positions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Islamists May Turn Into Capitalists. Then Again They May Not
by Douglas Murray
A number of columnists have written recently about how we have all misunderstood ‘the Arab Spring’. Most prevalent among them has been the claim that when the current youth-bulge in these countries grows up they will in fact turn into capitalist entrepreneurs.
I concede that it is possible. It would certainly be highly desirable. But as an idea it ignores the thing which secular Western commentators continuously ignore: that is the small matter of ideology. On this note, might I heartily recommend the following two videos? The first is a recent Friday sermon from the Egyptian cleric Muhammad Zoghbi calling on Allah to annihilate the Jews and the Shiites. Viewers will notice how moved certain of his congregation are by these imprecations…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Coup D’etat in Turkey. Erdogan and AKP Dismantle Turkish Republic
Christof Lehmann (nsnbc),- On Saturday Turkey’s Prime Minister R. Tayyip Erdogan and the Freedom and Justice Party passed legislation in Turkey’s parliament that significantly changed the status of Turkey’s armed forces. Law changes, endowing police and intelligence services with sweeping powers over protesters are expected. The law changes constitute part of a soft-power, but de facto coup d’etat and prepare the dismantling of the Turkish Republic.
On Saturday, the Turkish parliament amended a regulation for Turkey’s armed forces, which ended the military’s role as guardian of Turkey’s constitution and the status of Turkey as a secular republic.
Likewise, legislation is being prepared to endow Turkey’s police and national intelligence service with sweeping powers. The legislative changes constitute additional steps in years of use of Turkey’s democratic institutions by the Muslim Brotherhood or Freedom and Justice Party government, to rein in the power of the army, that was once prone to staging coups when the national integrity or the secular status of Turkey’s constitution was threatened, and an additional step to endow Turkey’s police with sweeping powers as instrument of political control.
Amendment of Armed Forces Regulation Part of de facto Coup d’Etat. Prior to the amendment of the armed forces regulation, article 35 specified, that it was among the duties of Turkey’s Armed Forces to protect and preserve the Turkish Republic.
After Saturday’s amendment of article 35, the article states, that it is the duty of the Armed Forces of Turkey to defend the nation against external threats and dangers. The amendment thus reduces the military’s function to that of an instrument, solely for the protection of the boundaries of the nation, but not the protection of the republic.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Hostages in Yemen: ‘We Will be Shot in 10 Days Unless You Do Something’
A video has been posted online of a Dutch journalist and her husband who were abducted at gunpoint in Yemen a month ago.
Judith Spiegel and Boudewijn Berendsen say they will be killed in the next 10 days unless the government negotiates their release.
The short video was uploaded to YouTube on Saturday and shows the couple pleading with the authorities not to abandon them. It is not known when it was filmed.
Spiegel says: “These men are armed. If no solution is found in 10 days, they will shoot us.
“Family, media, Dutch people: do something. We need to get out of here.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Suicide Bomber Kills 20 in Iraqi Sunni Mosque
(Reuters) — A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a Sunni mosque in central Iraq, killing at least 20 people in the middle of a sermon on Friday.
The explosion took place in the town of Wajihiya in the ethnically and religiously diverse province of Diyala, which has seen an increasing number of attacks in recent weeks…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Saudis’ Unprecedented Break With Washington Over Egypt
By F. William Engdahl
One of the least commented aspects of ousting Egypt’s Morsi is the defiant act of the Saudi Royal House in backing the ouster of the Brotherhood and supporting the military restoration. The Saudi move is unprecedented in its open defiance of White House declared backing for the Muslim Brotherhood. The implications of the split are huge…
| — Hat tip: LS | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Kurds and Islamists Clash Along Turkish Border
In Ras al-Ain, Kurds inflict a heavy blow against anti-Assad Islamist fighters. Caught between rebels and the regime, the Kurds have set up their own People’s Protection Units.
Damascus (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Syria’s civil war could be further complicated by a third player intervening in the already complex rebel patchwork fighting Assad. Along the Turkish border, Kurds fighting to protect their territory in northeastern Syria inflicted a crushing defeat on the al-Qaeda linked al-Nusra Front. The clash between Kurdish fighters and jihadists erupted after Al-Nusra Front attacked a convoy of Kurdish fighters.
Local sources said that at least nine jihadists were killed in Ras al-Ain, a strategically important Kurdish area on the border between Syria and Turkey used by foreign fighters to swell rebel ranks in the struggle against the regime.
Kurdish fighters took total control of Ras al-Ain “after 24 hours of fighting. The (jihadist) groups were expelled from the whole of Ras al-Ain, including the border post” with Turkey, one source said.
People’s Protection Units (YPG) are the armed wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), a Syrian Kurdish political party.
Since the beginning of the civil war in 2011, Syria’s Kurdish minority has always defended its own interests.
Set up for this purpose, People’s Protection Units have kept away from both the rebel cause and the regime, holding a neutral position or opposing both sides depending on circumstances.
In early April, the Lebanese newspaper L’Orient Le Jour published reports about Kurds and rebels joining forces against the army in the northern neighbourhoods of Aleppo, but clashes like yesterday’s have already occurred in recent months in north-eastern Syria.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: Curfew Imposed in Kashmir After Qur’an Burning
Some members of the Border Security Forces (BSF) are thought to have desecrated Islam’s holy book and beaten up an imam. When hundreds of people protested outside a BSF camp, agents opened fire, killing four and wounding 42.
Srinagar (AsiaNews/Agencies) — A curfew has been imposed in the main cities of the State of Jammu and Kashmir after violence broke out yesterday in the district of Ramban following the burning of a copy of the Qur’an and the beating of an imam in Dadam. Four people died and 42 were injured in clashes with India’s Border Security Force (BSF).
The BSF is made up special units from the Indian Armed Forces, responsible for monitoring the country’s borders. Known for their violent behavior, BSF agents have often been involved in trafficking and smuggling.
According to some witnesses, members of the BSF desecrated a copy of the Qur’an and attacked an Islamic cleric. When the news spread, hundreds of people gathered near a BSF camp in Ramban. At some point, troops opened fire, injuring dozens of people and killing four.
After the clash, tensions rose further, so much so that the authorities of the Indian state decided to impose a curfew in many cities, including Srinagar, the state capital.
About a thousand Hindu pilgrims heading for the temple of Amarnath were stopped.
Today, some extremist groups have called for a strike throughout Jammu and Kashmir in protest against yesterday’s violence.
“It is highly unacceptable to shoot at unarmed protesters just because they were reportedly protesting [against the] manhandling of an Imam of their area,” said in a statement Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
India’s Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has also called the incident “regrettable” and ordered an inquiry.
In recent years, violence in Kashmir has subsided from a peak in the 90s, but the tensions related to the division of the area are still deeply felt, especially among radical Islamic groups.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Aceh: Increasing Intolerance Against Christians: 17 House Churches Closed
The Muslim majority province is led by Zaini Abdullah, who has based his political fortune on the “full application” of sharia. Jakarta protests and demands the governor “respect religious plurality,” but Christian leaders denounce violence and persecution by the Islamic community.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — The Islamist pressures against Christian communities in Aceh “have become intolerable. Within a year, with non-existent legal pretexts, 17 house churches have been closed: these also include Catholic chapels. The islamization of the province continues , just as promised by the governor Abdullah. “ It is the sense of the Annual Report published by IndonesianChristian.org, Protestant organization which monitors the situation of the Christian community in Indonesia.
The forced closure of places of worship and threats against Protestant congregations, says the text, “increase unabated. But this will only create tensions manipulated from the outside between the Christian and Islamic communities. The government must guarantee religious plurality and respect: or risk clashes and violence”. Favor Bancin, of the Synod of the churches in Indonesia is of the same opinion, adding: “The behavior of local authorities is a potential threat to the tolerant atmosphere we see deteriorating over time.”
Indonesia is the most populous Muslim nation in the world and, while guaranteeing the constitutional principles of religious freedom, it is more and more often the scene of attacks and violence against minorities, whether they are Christians, Ahmadi Muslims or of other faiths. In the province of Aceh — the only one in the Archipelago — the Islamic law (sharia) applies and in many other areas the influence of the Muslim religion in the lives of citizens is becoming more radical and extreme. In addition, certain rules such as the building permit — the infamous IMB — are exploited to prevent the building or close Christian places of worship, as is the case for some time in Bogor regency, West Java, for the faithful of the Yasmin Church .
Behind this upsurge is the current governor of Aceh, Zaini Abdullah, who has spent years in exile in Sweden for his activities within the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). During his election campaign, the Islamic politician stated several times that “he would not hesitate to apply the Koranic laws in the province.” And a few months after his election his words have become reality.
For its part, the central government is seeking to curb this trend. Interior Minister Gamawan Fauzi has repeatedly warned that these activities “are not acceptable. Indonesia exercises a spirit of pluralism and must continue to do so. Tolerance must be guaranteed and the majority can not crush the minority violating their civil rights “.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Java: Crowd of Thousands Force Islamic Fundamentalists to Flee
The militant Islamic Defender Front (FPI) were trying to cause unrest in Pathean. The accidental death of a woman sparked the anger of the population, who attacked the extremists and forced them to flee. Indonesian society no longer tolerates the radical organization.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — This morning, thousands of Indonesians attacked and chased members of the Islamic Defender Front (FPI), Islamic extremist group, from Patehan (Kendal Regency, Central Java). Members of the fundamentalist organization ran riot around the city on motorcycles and in vans, to disturb the public peace and cause unrest among the population, fasting for Ramadan.
Tension rose when militants on board a van knocked down three people. One of them, a woman, died. Bystanders attempted to stop the vehicle to question the driver, but the militants fled the scene. At that point, thousands on the Islamic extremists, forcing them to flee. 27 of them sought refuge in a mosque nearby.
Police arrived on the scene and calmed the anger of the crowd, allowing the militants to leave. Inside the place of worship officers found and confiscated weapons and heavy artillery, belonging to FPI members.
At first Syihabuddin, branch president of FPI in Central Java, denied that anyone in the group had hit and killed the woman. However, his statement was followed by an official apology, claiming that it was an accident.
Increasingly the people of Indonesia seem less willing to stand for the excesses, violent and provocative attitudes of the Islamic Defender Front. Last year in Palangkaraya (province of central Borneo) the Dayak — Aboriginal population — prevented the local president of FPI from landing. A few months ago in Pontianak (West Borneo Province) Dayak thousands of young people organized a rally to protest the presence of the Islamic extremist group.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysian Lawmakers Struggle to Maintain Harmony
The difficulty of maintaining racial and religious harmony in Malaysia became clear last week with the withdrawal of a law that would allow only one parent to give consent for the religious conversion of a child.
As the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins, life in the Southeast Asian metropolis of Kuala Lumpur continues at bustling speed. A time to reflect and pray, one wouldn’t know Ramadan is here, as traffic is at gridlock and businesses remain open into late hours.
Sixty percent of Malaysia’s 29 million people are Muslim of ethnic Malay origin. Laws here state that if you are Malay, you are automatically a Muslim. Matters of theology have always been sensitive in this multi-racial country, which also has a sizeable Chinese and Indian minority. Approximately nine percent are Christians, with 850,000 Catholics.
During the 22-year term of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) party has always pushed to affirm the rights of Malays in politics and civil society. But according to rights groups and activists, Malaysia’s ethnic and religious minorities struggle to be heard.
T. Vigneswaran, a convenience store worker, is Indian and of the Hindu faith. He tells DW that while economic progress continues, social and political progress is going much slower.
“I am part of a minority in this country, the poorest minority, and sometimes I feel our rights are not enforced, or respected,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistani Christian Violently Attacked for Protecting His Daughters
The perpetrators are two young Muslim men, still on the loose. The Christian suffered a head injury and a broken arm. The man: “I may not be rich, but I will fight for justice and for the respect and the dignity of my family.”
Islamabad (AsiaNews) — Insulted, threatened, beaten and humiliated: this is what happened to a Christian family in Pakistan, attacked by some Muslims, who own a brick factory. The attackers wanted to “punish” Rafique Masih, a 50 year old father, for trying to defend his daughters, harassed by the constant taunts of Muhammad Umai and Muhammad Zubair, nephews of the owner of the factory.
“This inhuman act — Rafique Masih tells AsiaNews — happened because we are poor and we had requested a loan of 70 thousand rupees (770 dollars) from the owners of the brick factory. They think that poor Christians do not deserve respect and that therefore they can do whatever they want. I may not be rich, but I will fight for justice and for the respect and the dignity of my family. “
Rafique and his wife have seven children, four girls and three boys. After his eldest daughter, Iram, 17, was yet again verbally harassed on July 10 last, the father went to tell the two young men not to bother his daughters anymore. In response, Muslims began to verbally abuse him, insulting him and his family and threatening to “teach him a lesson.”
After the argument the Christian returned home, but the same evening Muhammad Umai and Muhammad Zubair appeared at his door looking to continue the argument. Mehboob Masih, 23, one of the sons opened the door, refusing to call his father. At that point the two burst into the house armed with wooden sticks and bricks and began to beat the boy and his father, who came to see what was happening.
The attackers wounded Rafique’s head and broke his arm. Then they slapped and insulted his daughters, trying to drag them into the street to humiliate them. Only the intervention of some neighbors made them desist. At that point, the Muslims held the Christians in their own home, threatening to crush anyone who rushed to their aid and preventing the family from receiving medical treatment.
A few days later, on July 13, some relatives were able to rescue the family with the help of the Justice and Peace Commission (Ncjp), which has been providing medical care and assistance. However, the culprits are still at large.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: disturbing Content.]
Two teenage sisters have been murdered in Pakistan after they were accused of tarnishing their family’s name by making a video of themselves dancing in the rain.
The girls, aged 15 and 16, are seen running around in traditional dress with two other younger children outside their bungalow in the town of Chilas, in the northern region of Gilgit.
The sisters, named as Noor Basra and Noor Sheza, appear to break into dance and one even flashes a smile at the camera.
However, when the footage was circulated via mobile phones, it caused outrage in the conservative Pakistani town.
Last Sunday the girls were shot alongside their mother in their home by five gunmen.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Winemakers Eye Vast Chinese Markets, But Limited Production Exposes Weaknesses
Chinese journalist and wine specialist Jade Li appeared surprised to hear that the yield of the Mylonas Winery near Keratea in eastern Attica stood at 400 kilos of wine grapes per 1,000 square meters and that the estate’s vines covered an area of just 12 hectares.
Yet by Greek standards the Mylonas vineyard is comparatively large, given that fewer than 100 local wine producers have more than 100 acres to work with. In practice, the average Greek vineyard is no bigger than 5 acres.
“Which Greek grape varieties do you produce?” the Chinese journalist continued as she examined a bottle carrying the Cabernet label. “We have plenty of French wines in China, so we are not interested in Greek wines made of French grape varieties. We are now looking for new flavors and we’d like wines from the Mediterranean region. The Chinese enjoy fruity wines.”
Li was one of 15 Chinese journalists who visited Greece recently. The members of the group were hosted by a local interprofessional wine organization as part of a program to promote Greek wine abroad in collaboration with the Hellenic Foreign Trade Board, HEPO.
The group also visited Naoussa in northern Greece, where they tasted the Xinomavro grape variety, as well as the Peloponnese area of Nemea, where they sampled the Agiorgitiko variety. The winetasting sessions were complemented by visits to archaeological sites, given that for many foreigners Greece represents ancient culture and civilization, which would also explain why wine bottle labels featuring ancient Greek references immediately caught their attention.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa: Standing Up for Liv Shange
Nationalisation of the mines and expropriation of land are pretty emotional issues. The small fringe of supporters of these ideas — from the ultra-left wing to champagne socialists of the Julius Malema ilk — are deeply passionate about them. Those who oppose them are equally fervent.
Does this mean that those who espouse such views are not welcome in South Africa?
Should Malema be squeezed out of political discourse because he wants to nationalise the mines and banks? Should state resources and institutions be abused to keep out people with whom we disagree on these issues?
No. Not in the democratic South Africa we have built since 1994. These questions come to mind because of the curious case of a woman called Liv Shange. Shange is Swedish and is married to a South African, Xolani Shange.
She is a member of the radical Democratic Socialist Movement and the new, verbose Workers and Socialist Party. You may have seen her on TV at the height of protests following the Marikana massacre: she was the diminutive white woman who organised workers, addressed them, and in some instances spoke for their cause, largely in pitch-perfect Zulu.
The DSM and WASP sound like they are in cloud cuckoo-land. They want a republic of workers with all assets belonging to the democratic state.
Ideologically, they are on the radical side of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republic.
Does the fact that they sound kooky, and that their economic policies are so hopelessly antiquated and impractical, mean that they cannot live, love and prosper in the liberal dispensation that we have? Do they deserve to be, and should they be, victimised by the state?
Liv Shange is in Sweden right now with her three children, visiting her relatives during the school holidays. On July 14 she is supposed to return to South Africa with her children so that they can start school on July 15.
However, it turns out that our government may not allow her back into South Africa.
Apparently, the Department of Home Affairs is now investigating Shange, who has lived here for nearly 10 years, and may not allow her back into the country.
Why? There are allegedly irregularities with her residence status. Surely, someone in a marriage relationship with a South African — with children from the union — and a long time living in this country should not suddenly have a problem with their residence status?
What’s really going on here? Well, it turns out that her residence status may not be the reason why she won’t be allowed back into the country. It all started with Gwede Mantashe, the ANC secretary-general, who accused Shange of being “behind the anarchy” at Marikana.
A logical response to Mantashe is this: it was our own SA Police Services who shot and killed 34 mineworkers that afternoon in August last year, not Shange.
So who is responsible for the “anarchy” in Marikana?
Anyway, some discrepancy in Shange’s residence status is seemingly being used to keep her out of South Africa — despite her living here and being married to a South African — because the Mantashes of this world are scared of being challenged. The State apparatus is being used to harass and bar people that the current government may not agree with.
This is dangerous.
The point to be made is that Shange’s economic policies may be wrong, she may be militantly leftist and may possibly be at odds with virtually everything the ANC and the chattering classes may hold dear.
But we are a democracy, and we are a democracy that allows a multiplicity of ideas and voices.
If Shange and her comrades are wrong, then we must meet them in the marketplace of ideas, and prove her wrong. If Shange’s ideas — and those of the DSM and WASP — are shallow, then let our works show her up as nothing but a political tourist.
The only reason to exclude people from our midst is if they advocate and foment violence. Shange has not done this. Instead, it was our own state which corralled, shot down and killed 34 mineworkers on August 16.
Shange and WASP are not calling for a violent overthrow of the government. Instead, WASP wants to contest the elections next year. She is putting her beliefs to the test. We should welcome people like her. The people will judge them at the ballot box.
The minute we start excluding people from South Africa because we disagree with their political ideas then we face absolute and utter ruin.
If Liv Shange is not allowed into South Africa on July 14, then we should all stand up and make a lot of noise. Today it is Liv Shange. Tomorrow it will be me. Then it will be your daughter.
| — Hat tip: LH | [Return to headlines] |
GOP trio says leaders ‘completely sold’ on legalization
WASHINGTON — The congresswoman and former presidential candidate could not be more clear, nor the situation she sees more urgent.
“The Republic is at stake” if “amnesty” is included in any immigration bill that becomes law, Rep. Michele Bachmann told WND last month.
Now, she says, the situation has actually gotten worse.
Bachmann and her House colleagues, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, and Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, have a new warning: Their own congressional leaders have joined the opposition and the only one who can stop amnesty now is you, the voter.
Amnesty is the term conservatives use to describe a path to legalization for illegal immigrants in legislation such as the bill passed in the Senate last month.
Bachmann says that bill is essentially the same as the one introduced by senators John McCain, R-Ariz., and the late Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and defeated in 2007 after a huge backlash by the conservative grassroots.
She says the 2007 bill caused her phone lines “to melt,” provoking more outrage than even Obamacare.
This time? The phones are silent.
Bachmann thinks that’s because people simply aren’t aware that the same thing is happening again…
Bachmann says the reason for this is very clear: It’s all about gaining more political power. Complete power, in fact.
“Once President Obama gets legalization, then he’s got literally tens of millions of individuals he could potentially put on his voting roles to cement in place his policies for progressivism,” the congresswoman warned.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: We Have to Wean the Country Off the Drug of Immigration
by Fraser Nelson
Education and welfare reforms, not imported labour, are the way to solve our mounting debt
Across the street from The Daily Telegraph’s offices lies the new gateway to Britain: Victoria Coach Station. It is there that the tired, the poor, the huddled masses arrive after their 26-hour bus journeys. The ticket from Warsaw costs £75, but once here, they stand a fairly good chance of earning it back within a week. The economy may still be on its uppers, but Britain’s appetite for immigrant workers is undimmed. Every day, some 1,100 arrive. Most not only find jobs, but tend to get paid more for them than the average native — not bad in a country nursing youth unemployment of 20 per cent…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Betelgeuse: The Eventual Supernova
Betelgeuse is a star nearing the end of its life. Because it is creating heavier and heavier elements in its core that could be used for stars after it dies, a NASA story once dubbed the red giant a workaholic.
The star is a famous one among amateur astronomers not only for its size and brightness, but also because it is part of Orion, a bright winter constellation in the Northern Hemisphere.
Professional astronomers also keep a close eye on the star, as it is notoriously variable: its diameter changes from anywhere between 550 to 920 times the sun’s diameter. In 2013, astronomers said Betelgeuse is likely to crash into a “cosmic wall” of interstellar dust in a few thousand years.
When astronomers say Betelgeuse is expected to explode soon, they mean shortly in astronomical terms: within a million years, according to several sources. Predicting exactly when it will turn into a supernova is difficult, however, as it depends on precise calculations of its mass as well as an understanding of what is going on inside the star.
Betelgeuse is so vast — its size would extend beyond Jupiter’s orbit if it were placed in the sun’s position in the solar system — that several telescopes have captured images of the star and spotted it shedding mass. Starting in 1993 and continuing for at least 15 years, its radius shrank by 15 percent, an astonishing amount for so short a time.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gene Breakthrough Shows Neanderthals in New Light
WHEN Neanderthal bones were discovered in the 19th century, their robust build and heavy brows led palaeontologists to characterise them as brutish, and their name is still pejorative today.
Since then, we have found ample circumstantial evidence to suggest this stereotype is far from fair. Tools, jewellery and even cosmetics discovered among Neanderthal bones suggest that they were uncannily like us — a view strengthened when their genome was sequenced, showing a remarkable genetic overlap.
Now the Neanderthal epigenome — the system of on/off switches that modify gene activity — has been deciphered (see “First look into workings of the Neanderthal brain”), allowing us to directly assess the mental life of our extinct cousins for the first time.
This work is just beginning. Whether it clears the Neanderthal name remains to be seen.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Halalgoogling’ site says it filters search results according to Islamic law.
Existing search engines aren’t catered to the needs and concerns of Muslims, according to “Halalgoogling”, a new site that seeks to provide a more Muslim-friendly alternative. Halalgoogling functions much like Google or Bing, but with a built-in “advanced special filtering system” that blocks content deemed “haram”, or forbidden in Islam.
There are several other “halal” search alternatives on the web, though none have achieved widespread popularity. Halalgoogling aims to succeed where others have failed by offering a variety of specialty search options, such as sports, news, and shopping.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
By Mordechai Nisan
The books and articles by Bat Ye’or on Islam and jihad, dhimmitude and the collapse of Oriental Christianity, Eurabia and the Muslim-Christian anti-Zionist alliance, compose an oeuvre of historic proportions and scholarly significance. In a period of some thirty years she wrote five major works that substantiated with massive evidence the historic persecution of Jews and Christians (dhimmis) under Islamic rule and the contemporary Arab project for the Islamization of Europe and the West.
A young refugee from Egypt who migrated to England, “a small woman, fragile, shy” as she writes in the preface of her latest book, Understanding Dhimmitude, Bat Ye’or has invested extraordinary energy (with the assistance and encouragement of her late husband David Littman) in the education of a generation about hidden histories, malevolent schemes, insidious incremental long-term processes, treacherous elites, and human sufferings, which are markedly unknown to public awareness.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jammu and Kashmir? Sounds like our old friend Islamic Rage Boy at work…