The alleged Libyan terrorist (or is it the Libyan alleged terrorist?) Abu Anas al-Libi has been moved from a military vessel in the Mediterranean to the United States. Mr. al-Libi, who is suspected of planning the 1998 African embassy bombings, was captured ten days ago in Libya.
In other news, thanks to fracking, the United States will edge out both Saudi Arabia and Russia in oil and natural gas production this year.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Andy Bostom, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, 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.
Cash-for-Castles: Italy Sells Off Historic Sites to Plug Budget Holes
A Grand Inquisitor’s villa, a Pope’s fort and a Venetian island will be sold off to fill Italy’s depleted state coffers, local media reports. It’s hoped the 50 historic sites will raise 500 million euros needed to obey strict EU austerity rules.
The plan to offer some of Italy’s state-owned real estate to private investors is part of an emergency decree aimed at keeping the country’s 2013 budget deficit within 3 percent threshold set by Brussels, the Corriere della Serra newspaper reports.
Apart from receiving direct revenue from the sell-offs, Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s government is hoping the castles and villas will be converted into hotels, restaurants and museums, creating much-needed jobs for the country’s struggling economy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ABC Madrid
The deterioration in the public accounts of Europe’s countries is putting at risk the survival of the welfare state. The search is now on for a new model, which could be built upon participatory democracy.
Jose María Carrascal
The biggest news story of recent times has hardly made the headlines. It came in a speech delivered by the new King of the Netherlands during a ceremonial act — the official opening of the parliamentary year — when he announced the “replacement of the traditional welfare state by a participatory society”.
In other words, he declared the end of a sacrosanct system without setting out an alternative. While King Willem-Alexander delivered the speech, it was actually written by the Dutch government — a government made up not of conservatives like Margaret Thatcher and Angela Merkel, but of liberals and social democrats. In the next paragraph came an explanation: “The transition to a participatory society is particularly relevant for social security and for people who are in need of long-term care. The traditional welfare state of the second half of the 20th Century has created precisely in these areas systems that, in their current form, cannot be sustained”.
Does it have to be stated any more clearly? Well, the explanation lies in the numbers. The Netherlands, which has grown tired of trying to teach lessons to the countries of southern Europe for not doing what they should have done, will miss its own deficit targets this year, while its economic growth slumps to 1.25 percent and purchasing power by half a percentage point. This situation has forced the government to announce a budget cut of €6bn. According to Willem-Alexander, “a strong and sensible people can adapt to such changes”.
The ‘participatory society’
The heart of the current trend and this speech reveal that it is not a matter of extraordinary circumstances requiring a simple adjustment before we can go back to the way things were, once the bad times pass. No, it is a question of bringing in profound changes, of laying the foundations of a new society, of launching a new model to take over from the one currently in force that is no longer working. In conclusion, it comes down to replacing the welfare state with something quite different — a system dubbed the “participatory society”….
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Spain’s Wealth Divide Widest in Europe: Charity
The gap between Spain’s richest and poorest is now the widest in Europe with some three million people living in extreme poverty, a new study reveals.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The U.S. Has Repeatedly Defaulted
Some people argue that countries can’t default. But that’s false.
It is widely stated that the U.S. government has never defaulted. However, that is also a myth.
Catherine Rampbell reports in the New York Times:
The United States has actually defaulted on its debt obligations before.
The first time was in 1790, the only episode Professor Reinhart unearthed in which the United States defaulted on its external debt obligations. It also defaulted on its domestic debt obligations then, too.
Then in 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, the United States had another domestic debt default related to the repayment of gold-based obligations.
Donald Marron points out at Forbes:
The United States defaulted on some Treasury bills in 1979 (ht: Jason Zweig). And it paid a steep price for stiffing bondholders.
Terry Zivney and Richard Marcus describe the default in The Financial Review…:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Documentary Filmmaker Alleges Police Brutality at Million Vet March
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
On Sunday, documentary filmmaker Dennis Michael Lynch alleged multiple instances of police brutality at the “Million Vets March” in Washington, D.C.
According to Lynch, he and “several women” were assaulted by police during the protest.
“I had words with one cop who hit me,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
Lynch said the incident happened after protesters brought barricades to the White House.
“When they got to the White House they stacked the barricades. It was wild. The police came in. They demanded we move away from the fence. But nobody was doing anything wrong? It was peaceful. However they used force. I was literally right there the entire time,” he wrote, explaining that he was protecting a boy who was being trampled by the crowd.
He emphasized the veterans and the other protesters were not violent.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) When the federal EBT food stamp system suffered a critical failure on Saturday, local retailers were disconnected from the federal food stamp database that keeps track of how much credit is left on each individual EBT card. Seizing the opportunity provided by the glitch, EBT card holders in Louisiana ransacked their local Wal-Mart stores, stuffing their shopping carts full of groceries and “paying” for them with near-empty EBT cards that essentially had unlimited account balances because all accounting was offline.
When the EBT database came back online and card purchase limits were suddenly restored, EBT card holders abandoned their full carts and just walked away, probably miffed that they missed out on participating in the felony theft of groceries…
Here’s the life-or-death lesson in all this:
Most people who live off the government have no concept of private property. They literally do not believe that stealing large quantities of food from someone else is morally wrong. In fact, they believe that YOUR stored food actually belongs to THEM because they are “entitled” to live off you like parasites. This is the only life they know, and this is how they are born, raised and trained by the Democrats to remain wholly subservient to the government for their entire lives.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Engineered Opposition Operative Celebrates WWII Memorial Closure
Denigrates veterans as Confederate flag waving Tea Party nuts.
Markos Alberto Moulitsas Zúñiga, the head honcho at the Daily Kos and a documented CIA flunky (see my Daily Kos: CIA Engineered Controlled Opposition?), has posted a celebration of the government’s closure of the World War II Memorial.
Markos, posting under the nom de guerre “Kos,” characterizes WWII vets and other veterans as “several hundred confederate flag waving and impeachment-sign carrying nuts” who did not deserve news coverage by the corporate media “because, really, who gives a shit about a bunch of Tea Party cranks? The Tea Party’s approval ratings are in the toilet. No one outside the fringe likes them anymore.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Eugene F. Fama, Lars Peter Hansen and Robert J. Shiller Awarded Nobel in Economic Sciences
Three American professors — Eugene F. Fama, Lars Peter Hansen and Robert J. Shiller — were awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science Monday for showing that stock prices, while unpredictable in the short term, tend to follow established rules in the long term.
Their work, done individually rather than in cooperation, “laid the foundation for the current understanding of asset prices,” according to a statement from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the annual prize.
| [Return to headlines] |
Feds Order Barricades Back Up at WWII Memorial
While the government is supposedly still in “shutdown,” more money is being spent on new barricades to fence off the World War II memorial in DC, just hours after outraged veterans removed the old barricades and dumped them outside the White House.
Installing new government shutdown barricades at World War II Memorial. pic.twitter.com/qsNX8hMbHi
— Dave Rysak (@DaveFox5DC) October 14, 2013
Some have cited the White House’s vindictiveness over the barricades as an example of how Obama is behaving like “President Stompy Feet” in punishing Americans for the government shut down.
Others said re-installing the barricades was another “slap in the face” for veterans and noted that the White House is a lot more keen to secure war memorials than they are the country’s border.
After wounded veterans and their supporters helped remove the barricades and dump them outside the White House yesterday during the ‘Million Vet March’, the feds sent in baton-wielding riot cops in an attempt to intimidate the protesters.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
In Push for Muslim School Holiday, Some Montgomery Students Will Stay Home
On other holidays, the choice has been difficult: Education or faith? But this year, with the Muslim holy day of Eid al-Adha on Tuesday, the Shraim family decided against school. Their teenagers might fall behind in their classes. They might feel torn. But they will stay home to celebrate. The Germantown family is joining others across Montgomery County in an effort to makethe Islamic holy day into a full-fledged school holiday. They point out that school is closed for Christmas, Good Friday and Easter. It also is closed for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Libyan Al Qaeda Suspect Brought to US Soil
A suspected Libyan terrorist who was being held aboard a U.S. warship after being nabbed in Libya is now in the United States, federal sources tell Fox News.
The Al Qaeda suspect, known as Abu Anas al-Libi, has been under federal indictment in New York for more than a decade.
U.S. special operations forces snatched him in Libya earlier this month. He’s expected to stand trial over whether he helped plan and conduct surveillance for the bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NASA Research Stalled by Government Shutdown
The government shutdown brought research at NASA facilities around the United States to a standstill when it went into effect on Oct. 1.
At the space agency’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., research at all stages of development has been put on hold while a skeleton crew of employees keep only the most essential projects on track during the government shutdown.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Naturally: DCCC Fundraising Off Photo of Confederate Flag at ‘Million Vets March’
One jackass brings a confederate flag, so opportunists use it to malign this guy. Sorry, not playing your game. pic.twitter.com/c5fGBLu5TU
— Jimmy (@JimmyPrinceton) October 13, 2013
Some of the people who like to claim to live by the mantra “don’t blame an entire group of people for the actions of the few” are doing just that again, and all without even knowing who exactly was carrying a confederate flag in Washington, D.C., on Sunday. We know it wasn’t the above patriot, but the Dems don’t care who they malign in the process of their broad-brushsmear campaign.
Reaction from the Left came about so abrupt and simultaneously you’d almost think it had been coordinated in advance. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is certainly wasting no time:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NSA Collects Millions of E-Mail Address Books Globally
The National Security Agency is harvesting hundreds of millions of contact lists from personal e-mail and instant messaging accounts around the world, many of them belonging to Americans, according to senior intelligence officials and top secret documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
Although the collection takes place overseas, two senior U.S. intelligence officials acknowledged that it sweeps in the contacts of many Americans. They declined to offer an estimate but did not dispute that the number is likely to be in the millions or tens of millions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Private-Public Water Partnership, UN Agenda 21
Liberals drank the UN Agenda 21 Kool-Aid and are now forcing it down our throats in the name of saving us from ourselves
Water pollution affects industrialized, developing, and under-developed nations. We should not worry though, the United Nations has a plan for that; we are living in the “water for life decade 2005-2015.” Its website, “UN Water,” proclaimed at the January 8-10, 2013 conference, “Preparing for the 2013 International Year. Water Cooperation: Making it Happen!”
How is this going to happen? It is called “water diplomacy,” forming private-public partnerships, “supporting all stakeholders, including those in governments, international organizations, private sector, civil society, and academia at an appropriate level while considering cultural aspects in different cooperation initiatives.” It sounds purposefully complex and confusing but it is just another arm of the United Nations’ ever encroaching agenda.
This conference proclaimed the World Water Week which was held September 1-6, 2013, during the “International Year of Water Cooperation” under the theme “Water Cooperation — Building Partnerships”. The event was an addition to the World Water Day, held on March 22, “to generate general attention on the importance of water and to advocate for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.”
The United Nations has been seriously involved in controlling water use policy in the 178 countries that have signed the 40 chapters of the UN Sustainable Development, June 3-14, 1992 Rio Conference on Environment and Development, better known as UN Agenda 21.
[…]
The UN report also recommended that water should be rationed for sustainable food production in agriculture. We know what happened in San Joaquin Valley, California, a few years ago when the fate of a tiny fish (the smelt) overrode the survival of thousands of acres of farms and orchards. Hundreds of farmers who had raised fruits and vegetables for generations were bankrupted when water for irrigation was withheld in spite of national protests.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Radio Host Michael Savage Calls for Answers Over Missing Nuke Report (Video)
Top radio host Michael Savage has joined in calling for answers regarding the leaked secret transfer of nuclear weapons to South Carolina that was followed by both warnings of a nuclear strike by South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham and the termination of the top two US nuke commanders.
Originally reported by myself and Alex Jones back on September 3rd, a number of disturbing red flags have continued to give further evidence to the high level military intelligence source that initially exposed the transfer of the off-the-record nuclear warheads from Dyess Air Force base to South Carolina — and still, the irrelevant mega media has ultimately failed to even investigate. Once again, the real media continues to dominate along with investigative radio personalities in reporting on the news that matters.
As Savage points out, specifically speaking on my report last Friday concerning how the termination of a high level nuke commander coincided with the exact September 3rd date of the secret transfer, what we truly need is answers. And while we are already talking about an issue that is deeply concerning at a base level, what really give the secret transfer a disturbing amount of depth are the events that followed the leaked intel.
It was Senator Lindsey Graham who came out later on the same day in warning against a ‘nuclear attack’ in South Carolina if we did not take military action in Syria. Then we also consider the fact that two of the top nuke commanders in the United States were terminated for laughable reasons, and it becomes an even larger red flag scenario. What is most amazing to me, however, is the fact that the termination of the commanders was actually leaked to the Associated Press and others.
What this means is that United States government did not want us to know that the commanders were terminated — specifically that the second top commander was fired on the same day as the secret nuke transfer report.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Riot Police Use Force Against Elderly Vets Outside White House
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
WWII veterans rammed with batons as they protest peacefully
Shocking video shows hyped-up riot police hitting and shoving elderly war veterans with batons at a peaceful protest outside the White House.
One officer can be seen screaming at the top of his lungs while brandishing his baton towards the peaceful veterans.
WARNING: Some strong language:
Earlier today, the veterans tore down the barricades blocking access to outdoor war memorials, such as the National World War II Memorial and the Marine Corps War Memorial.
They then carried the barricades and stacked them in front of the White House.
The Obama administration purposely decided to erect the barricades to keep the public from visiting war memorials during the government shutdown.
These war memorials, such as the WWII memorial, are outdoor architectural structures in a park with no official entrance.
It took focused effort, under direction by the Obama administration, to block access to these memorials.
An anonymous park service official told the Washington Times that they had been ordered to “make life as difficult for people as we can” during the government shutdown.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Statue of Liberty Reopens for First Time in Two Weeks
Tourists delighted by monument reopening which had fallen victim to shutdown
The Statue of Liberty was back to her shining best on Sunday, reopened to tourists for the first time since falling victim to the US government shutdown two weeks ago.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Edges Saudi Arabia, Russia in Oil and Gas
The International Energy Agency made headlines nearly one year ago with its bold forecast that the United States was on track to being the world’s top oil and natural gas producer by 2017.
It turns out that the United States is fracking its way to the top far faster than the experts anticipated. The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Friday released figures showing that the United States will surpass both Saudi Arabia and Russia in oil and natural gas production this year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Adieu IHT, Hello International New York Times
The International Herald Tribune published its last edition as a brand on Monday with a special supplement marking the paper’s 125-year history. On Tuesday, the Paris-based daily hits the stands with a new masthead, The International New York Times.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
BA Calls on EU to Prevent Aid for Alitalia
Shareholders of troubled Alitalia vote on capital increase
(ANSA) — London, October 14 — British Airways demanded Monday that the European Union intervene to prevent Italy from providing state aid to troubled carrier Alitalia.
The demand came as shareholders in the Italian flagship air carrier were scheduled to vote on a financial package that includes a 300-million-euro capital increase for the loss-making airline.
Alitalia had been narrowly saved from the danger of defaulting on its big debts last Friday when its board members approved a major government-led bailout, featuring the capital increase and loans worth 200 million euros.
One of the lead players in the capital increase is Italy’s state-owned postal company, Poste Italiane, which is reportedly making a 75-million-euro contribution.
Rival carrier British Airways said that such a move was illegal under EU laws governing state assistance to businesses.
“We expect the European Commission to take action to suspend such aid (which is )manifestly illegal,” said International Airlines Group (IAG), the holding company that owns British Airways, Iberia and Vueling.
It also claimed to be historically opposed to public involvement in the private sector, saying that amounts to protectionism.
“We have always been opposed to any form of State aid,” added IAG.
“Protectionism undermines competition and encourages those airlines in bankruptcy that are not in step with economic reality”.
British newspaper the Financial Times sounded a similar note earlier in the day when it wrote that a better solution would be to let Alitalia’s biggest shareholder, Air France-KLM, take outright control.
The Dutch-French company is the owner of a 25% stake.
“Industrial protectionism is back in vogue in Rome. It is not a pretty sight,” read an editorial in the FT. Premier Enrico Letta’s office said those allegations were untrue, with Alitalia’s shareholders set to vote on the bailout on Monday.
“It’s not protectionism, it’s the opposite,” government sources told ANSA. “The Alitalia operation aims to get to negotiations for a merger with an international partner in conditions for it to be possible to have positive outcomes”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Butchering in Denmark 12,000 Years Ago
Big-game hunts about 12,000 years ago involved feasting on a meaty morsel popular with today’s gourmets, followed by chopping, hauling, bone tossing, jewelry making and boasting. All of these activities are suggested by remains found at a prehistoric Danish butchering site, called Lundy Mose. Bone fragments belonging to wild boar, red deer and aurochs were unearthed. But the hunters clearly had a taste for elk meat, since elk remains were prevalent at the site, located in South Zealand, Denmark.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia: ‘In Two Months of EU Membership, Exports Fell by 11%’
Poslovni Dnevnik, 14 October 2013
According to initial government estimates, following Croatia’s accession to the EU on July 1, exports fell by 11 per cent, when compared with the same period in the previous year.
The decline for the month of August alone was 19 per cent, writes Poslovni Dnevnik. During the first eight months of this year, exports were down by 6.3 per cent when compared with 2012. The reason for the fall-off, notes the newspaper, has do with the impact of EU accession —
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Police Admit to Not Pursuing Bicycle Thefts
Police admit to using more resources in combating street crime and drugs than bicycle theft, admit that “it’s not good enough”
For a country that prides itself on being the icon of a bicycle-friendly nation, authorities have embraced a surprisingly laissez-faire approach to bike theft.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Contains 3,600 Criminal Organisations, A Report Says
(AGI) Berlin, Oct 13 — There are 3,600 active criminal organisations in the EU, while 880,000 people are being used as work slaves, a quarter of whom are sexually exploited, a CRIM report said. CRIM is the European Parliament’s Organised Crime, Corruption and Money Laundering body. The Spiegel newspaper has revealed the contents of the report, which will go before the Strasbourg Assembly on Oct. 23. The report also says that criminal organisations are making over 25 billion euros a year from human trafficking alone.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Fitzgerald: Countering the Jihad
[Re-posted from 2005]
“When I ask her what “solution” there might be to prevent the European collapse of which she speaks, Ms. Fallaci flares up like a lit match. “How do you dare to ask me for a solution?”
— — from an interview
The word “solution” is the wrong word. Had the reporter asked, or had Fallaci replied, that “what could be done to limit the damage, to contain or reverse the power of Muslims and the Jihad worldwide” then a coherent answer might have been offered, by Fallaci or by someone else. […]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
France: €1 Coins Land Chinese Tourists in Paris Jail Cell
Two Chinese tourists in Paris found themselves in hot water recently with anti-fraud authorities. After paying their €70 hotel bill in €1 coins, police found €3,700 in change in their possession, and arrested them on suspicion of forgery.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: ‘Queen of Suburbs’ Takes Shock Win in Marseille Poll
Socialist Senator Samia Ghali, born of Algerian parents and who says her education was “on the streets” of the rough north suburbs of Marseille, has taken the lead to become the party’s mayoral candidate in next year’s local elections.
Born of Algerian parents, Samia Ghali (pictured left) is PS Senator for Marseille’s restive northern suburbs. Last year, she called for the army to patrol troubled districts in a bid to stem rampant gun crime and the growing dominance of drugs gangs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Far-Right in ‘Final Warning’ To Main Parties
France’s political establishment has been coming to terms with the shock by-election victory of the far-right National Front. Some on the Left and Right have already begun the blame game, while others are making dire predictions for next year’s elections.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hunter-Gatherers and Farmers Lived Side-by-Side
Hunter-gatherers and immigrant farmers lived side-by-side for more than 2,000 years in Central Europe, before the hunter-gatherer communities died out or were absorbed into the farming population.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ireland: New Islamic Cultural Centre Opens in Cork City
Dawah Centre had been warned by council last month on alleged use as place of worship
The owner of a new Islamic Cultural Centre on Shandon Street in Cork city, which was officially opened yesterday, has pledged to make the facility a vibrant part of the wider community. The Cork Dawah Centre hit the headlines last month when it emerged that the planning department at the local city council had issued a warning letter to owner Dr Farghal Radwan over how the building was being operated. The concern was that the building was allegedly being used outside specific opening hours and as a place of worship rather than an information and cultural centre.
The centre was officially opened yesterday by the Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr Catherine Clancy. An open day followed which enabled locals to tour the centre and learn more about its work. Dr Radwan, who is a consultant anaesthetist at the Bon Secours Hospital, said he is hopeful “misconceptions” about the centre will be cleared up in the coming weeks…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Italian MPs Among Highest Paid in Europe
Italian MPs are paid €11,703 a month and receive €4,003 in overnight expenses, far higher than many of their European counterparts, research has found.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Decency Spared Jews at Ferramonti Concentration Camp During Holocaust
This past weekend, my friend , Baron Bodissey (Ned May) at the Gates of Vienna (GoV) sent me an article, translated from the Italian Journal, The Local , on the 70th anniversary of the liberation of an Italian concentration camp for Jews at Ferramonti di Tarsia in Calabria, Southern Italy. May asked me for a comment and the result was this GoV post, Remembering Ferramonti.
The camp at Ferramonti held 2000 Jews, mainly non-Italians. One of the first acts of decency by the Badoglio government that opted out of the Axis in September 1943 was release of Jewish and fellow Italians jailed by the Fascist regime of Mussolini. Allied occupation of Southern Italy had followed after the fall of Sicily to combined American and British forces and creation of air bases. Bases that would carry the air war to Central Europe and special operations support to Yugoslavian resistance forces across the Adriatic. Tough slogging and brutal battles would still follow the liberation of camps like Ferramonti until the Italian peninsula was liberated in early May 1945. The campaign in the Italian peninsula would become the testing ground for the Jewish Brigade in the British Army. Many in whose ranks post war would facilitate the illegal repatriation of tens of thousands of Jewish Holocaust survivors at Ferramonti and other locations in liberated Italy via the Mossad LeAliya Bet program to pre-State Israel in the British Palestine Mandate.
The picture of a visit by then Jewish Agency Political Department head Moshe Sharett and British Jewish officers to Ferramonti from the Yad Va Shem archives in April 1944 tells another important story . Sharett’s presence at Ferramonti signified his involvement in establishment of the Jewish Brigade and its post war role as the underground Mossad LeAliyah Bet program that brought Jewish Holocaust survivors including some of those depicted at Ferramonti to what ultimately became the Jewish nation of Israel. Sharett, the pre-State’s Jewish Agency’s emissary became Israel’s first Foreign Minister upon Independence in May 1948. He was heavily involved with the negotiations that ended with a cease fire agreement on the Island of Rhodes in 1949…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Venice Tests €5 Billion ‘Moses’ Flood Barriers
Flood-prone Venice on Saturday carried out the first test of its 5.4 billion euro ($7.3 billion) barrier system known as “Moses”, designed to protect the Renaissance city from rising sea levels.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Uncertainty Hangs Over German War Criminal Priebke’s Funeral
Church and civil officials block ceremony or burial in Rome
(ANSA) — Rome, October 13 — Civil and religious leaders in Rome have refused to allow a funeral in the capital for Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke, creating uncertainty about where and how the body of the former SS officer, who died at the age of 100 last week, will be laid to rest.
Priebke, who never repudiated his Nazi past, was serving a life sentence under house arrest in the Italian capital for his part in a 1944 reprisal at a quarry known as the Ardeatine Caves outside Rome that killed 335 men and boys including 75 Jews.
Priebke’s death has also exposed tensions that remain in Rome nearly 70 years after Italy’s fascist regime was crushed.
A white sheet with the words “Priebke executioner” appeared at the Ardeantine Caves, whereas “Honour to Priebke” was written with a Swastika near the war criminal’s home over the weekend. The atrocity, ordered by Hitler a day after 33 SS policemen from the northern Italian German-speaking city of Bolzano were killed by a partisan bomb in Rome, was one of the worst war crimes in Italy in the Second World War.
Priebke’s lawyer Paolo Giachini said late last week that a private funeral, attended only by close friends and family, would be held in a downtown church in Rome, perhaps on Tuesday of this week.
But Roman mayor Ignazio Marino and Catholic church authorities quickly moved to shut down that possibility.
Marino announced that “any form of solemn funeral will be denied. To bury Priebke in Rome would be a slap that our city will not receive”.
Father Antonio Curcio, who leads Priebke’s parish church, the Santa Maria Immacolata di Lourdes, on Saturday declared, “the Vicariate has said it can’t be done in a church”.
“The Church is full of mercy toward everyone, even the greatest sinners, but in a case like this, an open church funeral would assume the appearance of an underestimation, a rehabilitation, up to an approval” of Piebke, Monsignor Mauro Cozzoli, professor of moral theology at the pontifical Lateran University, explained to ANSA on Sunday.
The Jewish Community in Rome threatened to lead street protests if Priebke is permitted a tomb in the Italian capital.
“It would be like killing those victims a second time,” said Riccardo Pacifici, the Jewish organisation’s president.
But Priebke’s lawyer insisted that his client, as a practising Catholic, is entitled to a church funeral, citing the Lateran Treaty between the Italian fascist government and the Vatican in 1929. “The Lateran Treaty provides for each person to practise their religion in the seat that permits it. Thus even Priebke has a right. The church belongs to the faithful and Priebke was a worshipper,” said Giachini.
The Argentinian government has also refused to allow his body to be returned to be buried next to his wife Giachini revealed last week that even in his last spoken testament, his client expressed no remorse for his deeds.
“It’s my way of seeing the world, my ideals, what was the world view for us Germans and is still linked to a sense of self love and honour,” Priebke said, according to his lawyer.
Some extreme right militants on Facebook organized a meeting under Priebke’s former home to honour him with “a fascist salute”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Letta’s Office Rebuts FT’s Protectionist Jibe Over Alitalia
Financial daily accuses govt of sending contradictory signals
(ANSA) — Rome, October 14 — Premier Enrico Letta’s office on Monday rejected criticism from British daily the Financial Times that the government’s moves to save Alitalia from bankruptcy showed it had taken a protectionist stance.
The loss-making airline was saved from the danger of defaulting on its big debts on Friday when its board members approved a big government-led bailout, featuring a 300-million-euro capital increase and loans worth 200 million euros.
One of the lead players in the capital increase is Italy’s State-owned postal company, Poste Italiane, which is reportedly making a 75-million-euro contribution.
The FT said it would be better to let Alitalia’s biggest shareholder, Air France-KLM, take outright control. The Dutch-French company is the owner of a 25% stake.
“Industrial protectionism is back in vogue in Rome. It is not a pretty sight,” read an editorial in the FT. “Rome’s strategy for Alitalia sends a contradictory message. “Saying the country is open for business is easy. Sticking to this when a foreign company knocks at Italy’s doors is what matters”.
Letta’s office said the allegations were untrue, with Alitalia’s shareholders set to vote on the bailout on Monday.
“It’s not protectionism, it’s the opposite,” government sources told ANSA. “The Alitalia operation aims to get to negotiations for a merger with an international partner in conditions for it to be possible to have positive outcomes”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Priebke’s Son Calls for Burial ‘Even in Israel’
Rome refuses to host war criminal’s funeral
(See related story) (ANSA) — Buenos Aires, October 14 — The son of Erich Priebke on Monday reacted angrily at the refusal of Italian church and civic officials to permit the Nazi war criminal and former SS officer be buried or receive a funeral on their turf in Rome.
Eric Priebke died in Rome at the age of 100 last week while serving a life-sentence for his role in a 1944 reprisal at a quarry known as the Ardeatine Caves outside Rome in which 335 men and boys, including 75 Jews, were massacred.
“Where should my father be buried? For me, even in Israel. That way they’d be happy,” said Jorge Priebke, speaking to ANSA by phone from his home in Bariloche, a town in the foothills of the Andes in southwestern Argentina.
“It is almost all an injustice. Why don’t people don’t look at what is happening in the Middle East, Syria, Iran or even to those poor people at Lampedusa who die in the Mediterranean? Why do they continue, instead, to pick on someone from a war era that ended more than 60 years ago?”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Pim Fortuyn’s Killer Appeals Against Minister’s Early Parole Refusal
Volkert van der Graaf, the man jailed for 18 years for murdering politician Pim Fortuyn, is appealing against the junior justice minister’s decision to prevent him from going on trial home visits ahead of his release next year.
On Friday, junior justice minister Fred Teeven refused to grant Van der Graaf early leave, saying there would be a serious risk of public disorder and Van der Graaf and his family could also be under threat.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Northern Lights Best in a Decade This December
Norway’s official travel guide is expecting a surge of tourists rushing to see the Northern Lights this winter after NASA scientists predicted a new December peak in solar maximum activity.
“We’re expecting an increase from last year, which was already a peak year,” Mona Raa Ravndal of Visit Norway told The Local. “There’s been a gradual increase in tourists coming to see the Northern Lights since about 2007.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Mosque Probed Over Exorcism Death Claim
Oslo police are investigating whether a 21-year-old women who died while visiting a mosque this May was subjected to an illegal exorcism.
Huda Kemal died of a heart attack during a visit on May 13 to the Rabita Mosque, one of Oslo’s largest muslim centres with 2,400 members. She was given first aid on the spot, but was pronounced dead once she arrived at a nearby hospital.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Photo of the Day: A New French Delicacy?
Eating insects and worms might be common in Asia but in France, crickets and beetles have not yet managed to push foie gras and escargots snails) off the list of traditional national delicacies. But as the photo suggests, things could soon change.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pojken the Pet Dog Eats Swedish Man’s Toes
A Swedish man who is paralysed from the waist down woke up one morning to find his pet dog Pojken (“The Boy”) had eaten his toes off, prompting doctors to amputate the man’s leg below the knee.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland: Makespace Gets Go Ahead for Aberdeen Mosque
It will be the largest mosque in Aberdeen. Makespace Architects has won planning consent for a new mosque and community centre in Aberdeen, Scotland. The project will combine an existing warehouse with a new two-storey extension and provide space for 1000 worshippers as well as community services. Makespace Architects said: “Our design approach is based on our vision of Britain’s Muslim communities as progressive and creative members of society and we want the building to reflect this spirit.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Police Investigate Nut Attack on Schoolgirl
A Swedish schoolgirl with a nut allergy was left fighting for her life after being rushed to hospital when it emerged that another pupil had placed a peanut in her drink, in a case that is now involving the police.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Municipalities Scrutinise Sex Toys
Several municipalities in Sweden are checking sex toys for substances that could negatively affect human reproduction.
Authorities warn that dildos and other sex aids could contain phtalates — lubricating, chemical substances that are thought to be able to change hormone levels and cause birth defects.
Some of these substances have been banned from children’s toys since children tend to put toys in their mouths. However, up until now, the adult sex toy industry has not been scrutinised in the same way in Sweden.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Confirm Polonium on Arafat’s Clothes
Radiation experts in Lausanne have confirmed they found traces of polonium on clothing used by Yasser Arafat which “support the possibility” the veteran Palestinian leader was poisoned.
In a report published by The Lancet at the weekend, the team provide scientific details to media statements made in 2012 that they had found polonium on Arafat’s belongings.
Arafat died in France on November 11th 2004 at the age of 75, but doctors were unable to specify the cause of death.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK Shudders as Venomous Spider Creeps Across Britain
There aren’t many things that can bring a quiver to a Briton’s stiff upper lip, but a venomous arachnid named the “false widow spider” seems to be giving the entire country a case of the heebie-jeebies.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Don’t Give Up on Tommy Robinson
Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller have done so already — if I’m reading the corkscrew of an argument in this post correctly. Giving up is premature, however. I think he’s boxing clever. Listen to him in this clip (h/t Harry’s Place)…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Health fears have been raised for thousands of boys who made contact with a prolific paedophile with HIV who groomed his victims online.
Anthony Marsh, who has the virus, and Lee Davis used social networks such as Facebook and Bebo, as well as specialist gay websites, to befriend boys before sexually abusing them, South Yorkshire Police said.
The pair have admitted a total of 55 sex offences against 10 boys.
After grooming the boys online, salesman Marsh, and unemployed Davis would meet their victims and sexually abuse them.
Marsh, 53, and Davis, 39, are known to have made contact with more than 2,700 children across the country.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Is This the Man Who Took Maddie?
Scotland Yard releases two e-fits of ‘smirking’ suspect as top detective says they show man who was seen carrying a child
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
British detectives hunting for Madeleine McCann today issued two e-fits of a suspect seen carrying a little blonde girl near her parents’ holiday apartment on the night she disappeared.
Scotland Yard say a family saw him cradling a child in pyjamas, aged around three, and walking towards the beach in Praia da Luz, Portugal at around 10pm.
Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood said today he could be the man who took Madeleine on May 3, 2007, and that tracing him was of ‘vital importance’.
Detectives say the suspect may speak German and is white, aged 20 to 40 with short brown hair, medium height and build, and clean-shaven.
The images, based on statements from two key witnesses, differ — but each shows him with an intense stare and a hint of a smile…
It emerged yesterday that Greater Manchester Police arrested a man who bragged about seeing Madeleine on a Mediterranean island weeks ago.
The man claimed the missing girl had been ‘introduced’ to him. Police were informed after a barrister, who had a conversation with the man at a party in a Manchester suburb in August, reported his concerns.
The man was arrested last month on suspicion of possession of drugs and conspiracy to distribute indecent images of children.
A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police refused to comment yesterday, but sources played down the significance of the arrest.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
The investigation into the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal is to be widened amid claims he targeted patients at more hospitals than first thought.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt today revealed new evidence has come to light beyond the NHS institutions already being examined.
It suggests the disgraced former BBC presenter’s abuse of children on NHS premises may have been more regular and more serious than those offences committed at the Corporation.
Savile was believed to have committed offences at 13 hospitals. Investigations were launched into activities at Broadmoor, Stoke Mandeville and Leeds General Infirmary following the abuse revelations last year, along with inquiries at 10 other trusts.
But in an update to Parliament, Mr Hunt said more evidence has now emerged suggesting he abused patients at more hospitals.
New information has come to light relating to the existing investigations across 13 institutions as well as ‘reference to other hospitals’, the Health Secretary said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Six Arrested as Police Swoop in Hunt for Grooming and Sexual Offences Suspects
SIX men from Burton have been arrested in police raids aimed at uncovering people involved with alleged sexual offences, grooming and blackmail against a young girl. Officers swooped on seven addresses around the town yesterday morning, known to include one house in Shobnall Street, and picked up six men aged between 17 and 21. The other addresses have not been revealed…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria Adopts Tougher Terrorism Laws
Algiers — Algeria is amending legal provisions against terrorists and smugglers.
The new measures will be submitted to parliament for a vote within days, authorities told the press on Monday (October 7th). The council of ministers already approved the new measures to toughen prison penalties for terrorists and smugglers on September 30th. The proposed amendments came in a move aimed to crack down on insurgents who refuse to lay down their arms under the terms of the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation.
The new penal code will expand the definition of terrorist acts to actions mentioned in international conventions ratified by Algeria, Justice Minister Tayeb Louh said. Those include the financing of terrorism, attacks with explosive or nuclear materials, damaging air, land and naval navigation facilities, the destruction of communication means and hostage-taking…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Morsi Trial Destined to Lay Bare Obama’s Muslim Brotherhood Connections
Cairo, Egypt — Seems like President Barack Obama is taking on the role of Samson in the famous biblical story, bringing the temple down on everyone’s head after the collapse of his popularity and the exposure of his schemes to enable the extremists in Egypt.
After Obama’s defeat at the hands of Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the Egyptians — which he still refuses to admit — Obama continues to punish Egypt and its army.
In Obama’s failure to avoid an economic crisis in America, how is it he has time for War Games in Egypt?
Obama should be truly worried about how the trail of ousted President Mohammad Morsi will lead to the truth coming out on his relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood and their common goals. In fact, Obama’s latest reckless and non-calculated step could lose him a lot of friends and allies for America in the Middle East. He may not only lose Arab support but Israel’s as well, thanks to the announcement that the U.S. is freezing military and financial aid to Egypt.
U.S. aid to Egypt is not a gift or donation on a voluntary basis, but it’s a part of the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, which was signed in 1979, and which stipulates that America gives to Egypt similar aid given to Israel, whether financially or militarily, and to maintain the military balance between the two countries, ensuring the continued commitment to that treaty. The Obama administration is now in breach of those essential terms. Egypt now has the right to retreat from the Convention, which could raise a lot of anger in Israel for Obama’s position, which stands against the interests of Israel and does not benefit the interests of either Egypt or America itself…
The source also pointed out that the U.S. administration is infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood, and that there are a number of workers in the Obama administration who have received large sums of money from the international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood to put pressure on Obama to intervene and to apply more pressure on Egypt.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UN Asks Libya to Respond to Survivor Accounts That Coast Guard Shot at Refugee Boat
The U.N. refugee agency says Syrian survivors of the latest shipwreck involving migrants in the Mediterranean claim Libya’s coast guard fired on their boat. The UNHCR has asked Libya for an explanation. Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan denied the allegations in a press conference Sunday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Palestine — World Bank Exposes PLO’s Disastrous Miscalculations
The failure by the PLO to accept two offers made by Israel in 2000/1 and 2008 ceding Israel’s claims in more than 90% of the West Bank have been political and economic catastrophes for West Bank Arabs — as substantiated by a World Bank Report published this week titled “West Bank and Gaza , Area C and the Future of the Palestinian Economy”.
Whilst Israel and the PLO are once again engaged in negotiations behind closed doors for the next eight months — any prospect for their successful conclusion seems destined to founder for the same reasons that led to the collapse of the negotiations in 2000/2001 and 2008 namely:
1. The PLO refusal to recognise Israel as the national home of the Jewish people 2. The PLO insistence that any Palestinian State not be demilitarised 3. The PLO rejection of the right of Jews to live in the West Bank under any circumstances 4. The PLO objection to abandoning the claimed right for millions of Palestinian Arabs to emigrate and settle in Israel.
The World Bank Report has highlighted the following disastrous economic outcomes suffered by the West Bank Arab population — because the PLO failed to grab those two political lifelines thrown to it by Israel:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Arab Spring to Cost USD 800 Bln, HSBC’s Report
(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, OCTOBER 14 — The Arab Spring uprisings will end up costing Middle Eastern economies about USD 800 billion in lost output by the end of next year as countries struggle to restore stability, daily Hurriyet reports quoting an estimate by banking giant HSBC. In a research report, HSBC predicted that at the end of 2014, gross domestic product in the seven hardest-hit countries — Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Bahrain — would be 35% lower than it would have been if the 2011 uprisings had not happened. “The combination of a severe fiscal deterioration, and a decline in government effectiveness, security and the rule of law will weigh heavily on policymakers’ efforts, even to bring employment back to pre-revolution levels,” it said. HSBC forecast GDP growth in the Middle East and North Africa would slow to 4% this year, reviving only slightly to 4.2% next year, from 4.5% last year and 4.9% in 2011. Egypt, for example, is expected to grow just 2.2% this year and 3% next year as it faces heavy pressures on its state budget and external accounts — growth rates which many analysts believe are too low to cut its unemployment.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
As the Hajj Begins, The Destruction of Mecca’s Heritage Continues
Pilgrims follow in the footsteps of the prophet Muhammad, but there is little of his legacy left in Islam’s holiest city
Two million Muslims have flooded into Saudi Arabia’s Mina Valley from Mecca for the start of the Hajj pilgrimage this week. Dressed in simple white garments and freed from their worldly possessions, they are following in the footsteps of the prophet Muhammad. But in Islam’s holiest city, there is increasingly little sign of the prophet’s legacy — or the frugal life he espoused.
“The authorities are trying to destroy anything in Mecca that is associated with the prophet’s life,” says Irfan al-Alawi, director of the UK-based Islamic Heritage Research Foundation, who recently returned from a trip to the city.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How Jihad War Doctrine in Sunni and Shiite Islam Are Equivalent
by Andrew Bostom
Shia and Sunni doctrines on jihad are fundamentally the same. Even the so-called “requirement” for the “hidden” Shia Imam’s “consent” to wage jihad, was already argued away regarding “defensive jihad” by Abu Jaffar al-Tusi during the 11th century as the Shia of Iraq were beset by the Sunni Seljuk Turks. This position was reiterated in the 13th century by al-Hilli. These legists maintained—in a deliberately vague and elastic formulation—that Shia Muslims could be summoned to jihad by the Imam’s so-called “designee(s)”—which came to mean the “fuqaha,” or doctors of the (Shiite) Muslim Law. With the advent, at the outset of the 16th century, of the very aggressive Shiite Safavid theocracy under Shah Ismail, who claimed direct descent from the Imams, we see “non-fuqaha” rulers declaring unabashed offensive, expansionist jihad throughout this dynasty…
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
Iran May Launch Another Monkey Into Space Soon: Reports
Iran is planning to launch another monkey into space soon, according to media reports.
The Iranian newspaper Jomhuri Eslami reported Sunday (Oct. 13) that the Islamic Republic aims to blast a monkey into space sometime in the next month, according to the French news agency AFP. The liftoff would help advance the nation’s stated plans to put a human in space by 2018, Iranian officials said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kuwait: Public Reaction Over Cafe Issue ‘Mixed’
A group of angry people in Jahra protested demanding that cafes in Jahra should be closed and claimed that “immoral acts” take place at these cafes, especially the ones with closed cabins. They protested against the cafes and said that they are spoiling the youth because men and women can mix freely with each other. According to Malaak, a supervisor at Classical CafÈ, segregating men and women at cafes is not logical. “Ever since we launched our cafe 16 years ago, we have only segregated single people from families.
It’s not logical for us to separate a man from his wife and tell them to sit in different areas. If we did this, the cafe will have to shut down next,” he told the Kuwait Times. Even other Islamic conservative countries don’t apply this rule. “Saudi Arabia has a similar culture and is even more conservative than Kuwait.
This can be our model as it applies sharia strictly and they have mixed restaurants and cafes. So why should Kuwait apply such a weird rule?” he asked. Abdullah, a 26-year-old resident of Jahra agrees on closing cafes because he thinks that they don’t suit the society in Jahra. “There is a problematic cafe located in one of the shopping malls, and it badly affects the families visiting the place. Immoral acts happen there and such cafes should be removed or at least relocated to a place which is exclusive to men only. It’s been open for a few years but the situation has got worse lately and the residents are annoyed.
Some visitors who noticed inappropriate behavior called the police but as soon as they came, everybody was on their best behavior and managed to convince them that nothing happened. Because we couldn’t stop this from happening again and again, we have decided to protest as police patrols are ineffective,” he explained. 28-year-old Homoud, visits many cafes regularly and said that any decision taken should be executed in a legal manner. “Decisions should be taken according to the law. They should have evidence that some violations took place at the cafe.
The law should be applied, and if anyone is caught doing something illegal, they should be punished, along with the cafe owner. How do we guarantee they won’t demand segregation in other public places like shopping malls or restaurants next?” he wondered. “Instead of participating in such protests, they can use the parliament’s legal tools to issue laws and regulations that may improve the situation in general.
I think there are many more important issues that need to be solved like healthcare and education instead of wasting valuable time on these unnecessary and unimportant issues,” Houmoud said. “Cafes are public places which are controlled where people are not free to do as they like as everybody can see and hear them.
What is the proof that such customers indeed committed these violations? And if this was true, they are the one to be punished and closing the place is not the solution. It’s easy to report any violation to the police, and besides, I don’t think that the cafe’s management would let the customers misbehave at the cafe,” stressed 50-year old- Omar.
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Kuwait: Three Ministers in Hot Seat Over Mixed Coffee Shops — Call to Take Quick Action
Three Kuwaiti ministers could be interrogated by parliament if mixed coffee shops are not closed within one month, a lawmaker has warned. Reports in Kuwait City pointed to the presence of young women and men in these coffee shops to smoke shisha.
“We will not hesitate to grill the competent ministers if these immoral coffee shops are not shut down within one month,” MP Askar Al- Enezi said, quoted by local media. “We urge the ministers of interior, commerce and municipality to take action against these cafes all over Kuwait, but particularly in the Jahra area,” he said, referring to his constituency north east of the capital Kuwait City.
The lawmaker issued his warning as he took part in a rally on Saturday alongside other MPs, religious figures and residents in Jahra to push for action against the coffee shops accused of promoting vice and depravation. “Such coffee shops have no room in our society as they violate our very traditions and customs as well as the spirit of the Constitution which stipulates the state’s responsibility in maintaining the values of the family considered as the core of the community and in protecting the youth,” the lawmaker said. MP Sultan Al Laghisem and Mohammad Tana said that they would use all parliamentary means to ensure the end to the “moral menace” to Jahra by the coffee shops.
“There is a deep corruption of morals at these suspicious places and we will do our utmost, including quizzing, to fight it,” Mohammad Tana said, quoted by Al-Jareeda daily on Sunday.
The call to shut down the mixed cafe’s triggered a heated debate on Kuwaiti social media where the focus was on the extent of individual freedom in a country where society and families have a preponderant status. Lawmakers were also accused by some commentators of advancing a self-serving populist agenda to ensure high ratings that would allow them to be re-elected.
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Qatari Authorities Remove Artwork Disliked by Citizens
‘Printemps’ by Abdessemed away from Mathaf after criticism
(ANSAmed) — DOHA, OCTOBER 14 — Qatari museum authorities have removed artwork from the Arab contemporary art museum in Doha Mathaf following criticism by the public.
According to Doha press reports, the ‘Printemps’ video by French-Algerian artist Adel Abdessemed, screened at Mathaf, was removed because it disturbed local viewers. The video showed a number of chickens hung on a wall while they were set on fire — an image aimed at denouncing violence during the Arab spring revolutions. A number of criticism by Qatari citizens who thought the video was offensive and violated Islamic valued were published online. The artist and the museum responded saying the images shown were not real and the fire artificial but the public was nevertheless angered.
Abdessemed is not new to criticism in Qatar but it is the first time a local museum decides to remove art in order not to hurt viewers’ feelings. The five-meter-high statue ‘head kick’ in the Corniche, Doha’s main bay, represents French football player Zinedine Zidane as he kicks national Italian team player Marco Materazzi and was slammed by a number of Qataris as anti-Islamic and an hymn to violence. A number of comments posted on social networks have demanded that the statue by Abdessemed be removed.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Six Red Cross Workers Abducted in Syria
The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Sunday that six of its aid workers and a member of the Syrian Red Crescent had been kidnapped by gunmen in Syria.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: ‘We Are Not Hostile’, Jordanian King Tells Assad
Lebanese daily As Safir reports unconfirmed bilateral talk
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT — King Abdullah II of Jordan has assured Syrian President Bashar al-Assad his country has no wish to be involved in the civil war in Syria and is doing all it can to prevent militias from infiltrating across the border, leading Lebanese daily As Safir (The Ambassador) cited regional diplomatic sources as saying on Monday.
Jordan supports a political and not a military solution in Syria, the Hashemite king assured Assad in a phone conversation which neither leader has confirmed or denied, As Safir reported.
Some analysts have called Jordan’s position on the Syrian civil war since it began in spring 2011 ambiguous: on the one hand it has hosted and trained Syrian army deserters with the aid of the United States, its main international ally. On the other hand, the precariousness of its regime and its closeness to Israel — which has implicitly made known it fears the advent of an Islamist power in Syria more than a fall of Assad — force Amman to maintain at least a facade of non-belligerence towards the current Syrian regime.
The Jordanian press periodically gives ample coverage to judicial sentences handed down against Jordanian Islamic fundamentalists trying to infiltrate themselves into Syria to fight alongside the rebels.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Almost 30 People Injured and 380 Arrests in Moscow Following Clashes Between Nationalists and Police
The violence broke out in the city’s suburbs after the killing of an ethnic Russian by a man, who could have been an immigrant from Central Asia. The Orthodox Church, in solidarity with indignant locals, calls on the authorities to inflict an exemplary punishment on immigrants who do not respect the rules of civilised life.
Moscow (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Moscow is in a state of maximum alert for the risk of more ethnic riots, after at least 29 people were injured yesterday in clashes between ultra-nationalists, who had gone on a real hunt for immigrants, and police that moved in to stop vandalism in the city’s south-western suburb of Biryulevo.
Anonymous medical sources told Interfax that 23 protesters were injured, eight of them requiring hospitalisation, as well as six officers from OMON, the Russian Interior Ministry’s Special Purpose Mobile Unit.
The demonstration began as a protest against the murder of a 25-year-old ethnic Russian, allegedly by a man with the “non-Slavic” traits, probably a native of Central Asia.
During the protest, young nationalists chanted xenophobic slogans, broke the windows of a shopping mall considered a meeting place for immigrants from the Caucasus, and attacked the police.
Quickly, the situation degenerated and turned into a riot, spreading to adjacent streets. At the end, 380 people were arrested.
The violence set off alarm bells in central Moscow where the authorities closed the capital’s Manezhnaya Square, under the walls of the Kremlin, where in the winter of 2010 a large gathering of nationalists and right-wing extremists resulted in the killing of Russian football fan Yegor Sviridov by an immigrant.
Many now fear that the situation could get worse. Some, like Duma National Minorities Committee Deputy President Mikhail Starshinov, propose to establish a city district militia made up of local residents “to defend their fellow citizens.”
Tensions between Slavs, Central Asians and Russian from the Caucasus break out periodically not only in Moscow but also in other cities of the Russian Federation.
There is strong popular dissatisfaction with massive inflow of migrants to Moscow and immigration was a central topic in the capital’s latest mayoralty elections won by a Kremlin loyalist, Sergei Sobyanin.
Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, chairman of the Synodal Department for Relations between Church and Society, said that the Church understands the indignation of the people.
Hence, he called on the authorities to meet out an exemplary punishment against immigrants who do not respect the rules of civil life and urged minority communities to deliver themselves the perpetrators of such crimes before violence breaks out. (N.A.)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Moscow Riots Follow ‘Migrant’ Murder
Police in Russia have arrested at least 400 people after a protest against a murder blamed on a migrant from the North Caucasus turned violent.
The protest in southern Moscow was against the killing of a young ethnic Russian stabbed to death on Thursday. Protesters stormed a shopping centre, smashing windows, and then overran a vegetable warehouse searching for migrant workers. There were chants of “Russia for the Russians” and “White Power”. The violence comes against a background of growing tension between ethnic Russians, migrants from the Caucasus region, who are Russian citizens, and non-Russians from the former Soviet republics. Moscow police chief Anatoliy Yakunin blamed the rioting on “extremists”, many of whom he said were drunk…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
India to Hold Joint Military Exercise With Russia
NEW DELHI, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) — India and Russia will conduct joint military exercise in the deserts of the western state of Rajasthan from Friday (October 18), sources said Monday. “The Indian Army will hold war games with the Russian Army at the country’s elite Mahajan Field Firing Ranges so as to enhance bilateral defense cooperation. The event, slated for 10 days, will be conducted in semi-desert terrain conditions,” the sources said.
The range has been earlier used by India to hold joint defense exercises with countries like the U.S., the U.K., France, Thailand and Kazakhstan…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia: Christians Banned From Using “Allah “. Catholics Announce Appeal
This morning the appeals court ruled that the word be “exclusively” used by Muslims . The director of “Malaysia Herald”, Fr. Lawrence, expresses “ disappointment and shock “ and announces appeal to the Federal Court to seek redress. Minister of the State of Sarawak (Borneo ) states : Here Christians can continue to use the word Allah.
Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews / Agencies) — A Malaysian court has ruled that non-Muslims can not use the word “Allah” to refer to God , overturning an earlier ruling of 31 December 2009 in favour of Christians’ right to do so. A decision that, at the time, had created controversy and sparked extremist attacks on churches and mosques. This morning the judges of the Court of Appeal determined that the opening to non-Islamic faithful would have “created confusion within the community ..” In response , Christians recall that they have used the name “ Allah “ to define (also) the Christian God for decades and that the new provisions — strongly desired by the government, to meet the demands of the more fundamentalist segments of the country — violate their rights and religious freedom ..
Outside the court a hundred Muslim activists waved placards and chanted slogans in which they maintained that the word “Allah” be “exclusively “ used by Muslims . In the courtroom, the chief judge Apandi Mohamed Ali ruled in favour of the executive and rejected requests ( corroborated by previous judgments ) of the group led by leaders of the Catholic newspaper the Malaysia Herald. “ The usage of the word Allah is not an integral part of the faith in Christianity” the judge ruled, “the usage of the word will cause confusion in the community.”
Fr. Lawrence Andrew, editor of the Catholic newspaper , said he was “disappointed and dismayed’“ by the decision of the judges and that they will resort to the Federal Court to seek redress. The battle in court is thus not over, but it will now be up to the highest forum of the national judicial system . “It is a retrograde step in the development of law in relation to the fundamental liberty of religious minorities.” In Indonesia and the Middle East , he adds, Allah is used by Christians and Muslims alike. He therefore calls on Christians to “continue to pray for justice “ and added that the Church will not bow to an unjust sentence , but it will move ahead with the appeal .
Meanwhile, the Minister of Agricultural Development of the Malaysian state of Sarawak — one of the territories that make up the Malaysian part of Borneo Island — announced that Christians in the area can continue to use “Allah “ to define their God. He described today’s decision by judges “not authentic” and complains that only Muslims can use it. “ We (Christians in Sabah and Sarawak) have been using the word Allah for over 100 years. Why suddenly we are now told we cannot use it?.” He concludes that Muslims in Sabah and Sarawak , whom he describes as “brothers” , have never opposed the use of Allah by Christians .
The controversy over the use of the name “Allah” for the Christian God in the media and books, like the Bible, in Bahasa Malaysia broke out in 2008, when the Home Ministry threatened to revoke The Herald’s license to publish. In response, Catholic Church leaders sued the government for violating rights enshrined in the Constitution. They added that the Christians of Sabah and Sarawak have used the word “Allah” for generations without problems , as it has done for 14 years, the Catholic weekly .
In 2009, the High Court granted Catholics the right to use the term “Allah”, a ruling that shocked and angered Muslims, who consider the word exclusive to Islam. This was followed by a wave of violence with attacks and improvised explosive devices used against churches and other places of worship. In an attempt to stem the tide and appease extremist Islamists, the Malaysian government decided to appeal the High Court ruling. Malaysia, a Southeast Asian nation of some 28 million with a Muslim majority, Christians are the third largest religious group (after Buddhists) with about 2.6 million members. When a 400-year-old Latin-Malay dictionary was recently republished, it showed that the word “Allah” was used from the start to name the biblical God in the local language.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia Court Rules Non-Muslims Cannot Use ‘Allah’
A Malaysian court has ruled that non-Muslims cannot use the word Allah to refer to God, overturning a 2009 lower court ruling.
The appeals court said that allowing non-Muslims to use the word would “cause confusion in the community”. Christians argue that they have used the word in Malay for decades and that the ruling violates their rights. The 2009 ruling sparked religious tensions and led to churches and mosques being attacked. It came after the government said that a Catholic newspaper, The Herald, could not use the word in its Malay-language edition to describe the Christian God. The newspaper sued, and a court ruled in their favour in December 2009. The government then launched an appeal…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Broadcast of Chinese Military Drill Reveals Map of Taiwan
A map of Taiwan appeared in a video feed of Guangzhou Military Area Headquarters during China Network Television’s broadcast of a drill by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) codenamed “Mission Action 2013B” yesterday.
An unnamed source familiar with China’s military affairs stated that China has always been attentive to Taiwan’s naval affairs and that the Nanjing Military Area Command (MAC) and the Guangzhou Military Area Command are in charge of observing China’s southeast seas. The drill was carried out by PLA units stationed in Guangzhou; therefore, it should not be surprising to see a map of Taiwan in Guangzhou army headquarters, said the source.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Official Press Agency Calls for New Reserve Currency, And New World Order
We assume it is a coincidence that on the day in which we demonstrate China’s relentless appetite for gold, driven by what we and many others believe is the country’s desire to have a call option on a gold-backed reserve currency when the time comes, just posted in China’s official press agency, Xinhua, is an op-ed by writer Liu Chang in which he decries the “US fiscal failure which warrants a de-Americanized world” and flatly states that the world should consider a new reserve currency “that is to be created to replace the dominant U.S. dollar, so that the international community could permanently stay away from the spillover of the intensifying domestic political turmoil in the United States.”
[Comment: This is already in Hollywood movies. In the film “Looper” starring Bruce Willis as time traveller, his younger self is seen picking up a briefcase of cash near the beginning of the movie. I had to freeze the image to be sure — but it can clearly be seen — all the cash had the picture of Mao — the yuan will be the reserve currency of the future according to Hollywood. This is not the first movie where Yuan currency is the currency of choice. Predictive programming — acclimatizing the audience to what is planned for the future.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Two Chinese Universities Among the Top 50 in the World
The Beida and Qinghua rise, slightly, the ranking of the universities more competitive. But the researchers point out the lack of international spirit and the low quality of published scientific papers by Chinese teachers.
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Two of the mainland’s top universities have made moderate gains in the latest global university rankings. But researchers say the country’s universities in general need to become more international and improve the quality of their research to be more competitive. Peking University (Beida) ranked 45 in the 2013-2014 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, up one place. Qinghua University went up two notches to 50 in the list, to be released today.
The editor of the rankings, Phil Baty, said one area that might affect Chinese universities was that they focused too much on research productivity, as research output had grown rapidly. Chinese scientists published 1.14 million research papers over the past 10 years, making it the world No 2 in terms of volume, the Beijing Morning Post reported, citing a study by the Information Science and Technology Institute of China. In 2010, China ranked No4 in volume.
However, the research showed that Chinese research papers published in international journals were cited only 6.91 times on average, far below the world average of 10.69 times. He said their studies of Chinese universities suggested that both Beida and Qinghua had progressed in nurturing international collaborations and attracting top-tier faculty and students from abroad, but that they and other Chinese campuses needed to embrace greater internationalisation.
Mainland universities employ about 11,300 foreign nationals as instructors, accounting for less than 1 per cent of the total. By comparison, more than 40 per cent of the teaching staff at Hong Kong universities are expatriates. Baty said that Beida and Qinghua would continue to make inroads in the rankings, though the competition would be fierce among the world top 50. “Beyond that, there’s a need to reform the system and to have more dynamic ways of rewarding the best talent and keeping the best people in the Chinese system.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Mohammed Aboutrika to Open New Mosque in Ghana
Midfielder Mohammed Aboutrika will commission his own-sponsored mosque in Ghana when the Egyptian team arrive for the crucial 2014 World Cup playoff.
The Al Ahly ace is reported to have used his funds to build a much-needed mosque to serve the people of Tafo in the Ashanti Region. The 34-year-old will officially open the new mosque on Monday — a day before taking to the field against the Black Stars in the crucial first leg match of the playoff tie…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Swaziland: Hospital Sells Body Parts to Witch Doctors, Accusers Say
The second-largest hospital in the Southern African country of Swaziland may be operating a black market in human body parts used in magic spells, according to claims made by a reverend and others.
The organ trade at Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital in the city of Manzini has been described as “an open secret” by critics such as Rev. Grace Masilela. Accusers say people come to the hospital from neighboring South Africa to buy bones, hearts, brains and other organs.
Whether or not this particular claim is true, such a practice is not uncommon in the area.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Immigrant Mob Riots After Moscow Murder
A mob attacked shops employing immigrants and clashed with police after the murder of a young Russian that was widely blamed on a man from the Caucasus. Moscow police detained 1,200 people in a raid on migrants aimed at deterring further protests.
The Moscow authorities on Monday scrambled to calm intercommunal tensions after the Russian capital was rocked by some of its worst ethnically-fuelled rioting in years, sparked by the killing of a Russian allegedly by a Muslim migrant from the Caucasus.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Asylum Crisis: How Many Refugees Can Germany Handle?
As Germany faces the highest number of refugee claimants in decades, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the European asylum system is broken. But fixing it will involve hard decisions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Britons Want ‘Drastic Action’ on Immigration
A Sky News poll suggests two thirds of people do not believe an attempt to reduce net migration to 100,000 a year is sufficient.
More than two thirds of the British public believe the UK population is too large and the Government needs to take “drastic action” to reduce immigration, a Sky News poll has found.
Some 67% of people questioned do not believe the coalition’s attempt to reduce net migration to 100,000 a year is sufficient and think more should be done.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Ratchets Up Border Security
EUobserver.com
The EU is building up a team of heavily-guarded men to help Libya stop unwanted migrants and to collect intelligence,” reveals news website EUobserver days after at least 34 migrants drowned after reportedly setting sail to Europe from Libya.
The EU foreign service underlined that the €30m-a-year-operation, which began in April and is named Eubam Libya, does not involve EU officials conducting patrols or searches. It is expected to have a total of 111 staff when fully operational next year.
However, the large team of private security personnel who will protect EU staff in the unstable country will also transform Eubam’s Tripoli HQ into “an EU intelligence asset”, adds the website. It should provide “high quality security situation analysis” and file “security reports daily, weekly, monthly and six monthly” to EU structures, reports EUobserver, quoting the call for tender document.
Meanwhile, in a separate story, EUobserver also announces that EU border security agency Frontex is considering using aerial drones, which can be operated remotely or with a pilot, to monitor frontiers. The website continues –
The agency already operates five joint operations in the Mediterranean Sea in a broad effort, it says, to intercept migrants trying to reach Europe and from losing their lives in incidents such as the recent Lampedusa disaster.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
France: Migrants’ Tribunal at Roissy Airport Controversial
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, OCTOBER 14 — Illegal migrants arriving at the Roissy airport in Paris will be judged there under a new measure which became effective on Monday. The first tribunal for migrants came into force Monday close to the area where foreigners about to be expelled are detained.
The court is a branch of the tribunal of Meaux which is about 30 km from the airport. The small court should hold some 3,000 hearings a year with the first taking place today. A unit of the Bobigny court should open later this year.
The decision to open special tribunals for migrants close to Roissy’s runways has been criticized in France. A number of associations including the human rights league and the union representing the country’s magistrates have criticized an ‘abnormal justice’ as migrants ‘will only by judged under the eyes of police officials’.
According to data recently published by the French press, over 29,000 foreigners were detained in migrants holding centers in 2011. The same year police stopped about 12,000 people at the border.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Gateway to Freedom: Camp Preps Syrian Refugees for German Life
Friedland, a German refugee camp that has hosted displaced people since the end of World War II, welcomed its second group of Syrian refugees this week. Before starting their new lives, they will be given a crash course in all things German.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Government Presents New Rules
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, OCTOBER 14 — Greece’s government presented on Monday its new immigration rules in the wake of a decision earlier this year to scrap a previous law allowing second generation migrants to obtain Greek citizenship if their parents had been living in Greece legally for at least five years. Under the new rules, as Kathimerini online reports, the children of people who have migrated to Greece would be able to apply for citizenship once they turn 18, provided their parents are long-term legal residents. According to the Interior Ministry, the new regulations reduce by 20 the number of documents needed to apply for a residence permit. They also reduce from 50 to 19 the different types of residence permits that can be issued. Long-term residence permits would allow migrants to travel to otherarts of the European Union.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Plans Refugee Sea Operation
Italy on Monday planned a large-scale deployment of forces in the Mediterranean to manage the influx of asylum seekers as the latest boatload carrying 137 migrants arrived on its shores.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants Continue to Land at Lampedusa After Second Disaster
Over 200 feared dead in Friday’s boat wreck
(ANSA) — Lampedusa, October 14 — Migrant boats are continuing to land at Lampedusa after the second of two major wrecks off the Sicilian island on Friday.
The two disasters this month may have claimed a combined total of over 500 lives.
The official death toll from Friday’s disaster is 38 after the body of a three-year-old child was recovered but 150-250 more may be be missing after a boat thought to be carrying over 400 people capsized between Lampedusa and Malta.
There were 212 survivors.
On Sunday six bodies were recovered from the October 3 shipwreck, raising the death toll from that wreck to 364. Nevertheless, more boats packed with refugees with nothing to lose continue to arrive in Lampedusa.
The latest, a vessel with 137 people onboard including 22 women, landed at 5.00 Monday. The migrants were transferred to the island’s massively overcrowded Imbriacola holding centre.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Furious immigration minister Mark Harper personally told a failed asylum seeker to go home — on live television.
The senior Tory told Iraqi Esam Amin that his claims to stay in Britain were ‘ridiculous’ and he ‘should leave’ the country.
During the highly charged confrontation on the BBC, Mr Harper said neither the government nor the courts believed Mr Amin’s claims and the British taxpayer should not support him.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Australian ‘March for the Babies’ Turns Violent, Protestors Assaulted, Police Look on
A group of pro-abortion thugs attacked a pro-life demonstration in Melbourne, Australia, over the weekend as groups across the land took place in activities to promote the ‘40 Days for Life Campaign’. The attack was pre-planned and well co-ordinated with a number of adults being assaulted while police looked on.
Melbourne, Australia’s second biggest city sits in the State of Victoria, which authored legislation to legalize abortion right up to the time of birth. This particular march is called the ‘March for the Babies’ and specifically draws attention to this law, passed October 10th 2008.
American pro-life activist Bryan Kemper told LifeSiteNews.com he is bruised and sore, but recovering, after a mob of pro-abortion counter-protesters attacked him and his team of pro-life activists during the march. He said he was thrown to the ground and repeatedly kicked. Several other members of his team were also roughed up…
LifesiteNews.com though provides a more enlightened version of events:
Trouble began brewing even before the march began, said (Bryan) Kemper. “When the pro-life activists tried to begin the march, they were blocked by the mob of about 200 pro-abortion protesters. So we all sat in protest and started praying,” he said. “Then the police let them start attacking us.”
After this the pro-lifers tried to begin marching again, but the counter-protesters pushed back, preventing them from doing so. The standoff continued for over an hour, before the pro-lifers decided to change their route. But that was when things started to get really ugly. “As we got to the stage the pro-aborts took over our stage and starting stealing banners and signs,” said Kemper. “That is when I was knocked to the ground and kicked and stepped on.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Girls Threatened With Hate Crime Charges for Complaining About Transgender Bathroom Harassment
School tells parents boy’s rights as transgender trump their daughter’s privacy rights
Female students at Florence High School in Colorado were threatened with hate crimes charges when they complained about being harassed by a transgender boy in the girls’ bathroom.
Initial complaints about the transgender student’s behavior towards the girls were made by their parents, who were told by the school that the boy’s transgender rights trumped the privacy rights of their daughters.
When the female students continued to complain about the harassment, the school threatened to kick them off the athletic team or even hit them with hate crimes charges if they didn’t stay silent.
The Pacific Justice Institute sent a letter to the school warning them against prioritizing transgender rights over the privacy rights of female students.
“We’re not going to stand by and let 99.7 percent of our students lose their privacy and free speech rights just because .3 percent of the population are gender-confused,” the letter stated.
The school so adamantly sided with the transgender student that officials even suggested the girls give up access to most of their restrooms altogether, reported CBN News.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Goodbye Columbus, Goodbye America
Columbus may have outfoxed the Spanish court and his rivals, but he is falling victim to the court of political correctness.
The explorer who discovered America has become controversial because the very idea of America has become controversial.
There are counter-historical claims put forward by Muslim and Chinese scholars claiming that they discovered America first. And there are mobs of fake indigenous activists on every campus to whom the old Italian is as much of a villain as the bearded Uncle Sam.
Columbus Day parades are met with protests and some have been minimized or eliminated.
In California, Columbus Day became Indigenous People’s Day, which sounds like a Marxist terrorist group’s holiday. While it’s tempting to put that down to California political correctness, in South Dakota it was renamed Native American Day.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Backdoor Found in D-Link Home Routers
An easy-to-exploit backdoor has been found in seven different models of domestic routers made by D-Link and Planex.
The backdoor, if used, would let an attacker take complete control of a router or modem and spy on a home’s browsing activity.
D-Link has acknowledged the existence of the backdoor and said a fix would be available by the end of October.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New Botox Super-Toxin Has Its Details Censored
A new type of botulinum toxin — the deadliest substance known — has been discovered. Because it does not yet have an antidote, the DNA sequence behind it has been withheld from public databases. This is the first time a sequence has been kept secret over security concerns.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Quantum Computing Contender Helps Refine Google Glass
Google has revealed that its upcoming wearable computer, Glass, will in part be powered by quantum computing — although what that actually means remains unclear.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rand Paul on the Global Slaughter of Christians
“From Boston to Zanzibar, there is a worldwide war on Christianity,” declared Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky). He made the comments in a speech discussing the slaughter of Christians at the 2013 Values Voter Summit on October 11. The Kentucky Senator added,
Across the globe, Christians are under attack, almost as if we lived in the Middle Ages or if we lived under early Pagan Roman rule. . . It’s almost as if that is happening again throughout the Middle East.
Last month I noted that “We are living through a repaganizing of the West that was transformed and lifted up by Christendom.” Paul calls out the president and media for ignoring the slaughter, but in reality most people in the West are not paying any attention to the vicious attacks against Christians around the world. While this is in part due to the larger media blackout, the truth of the matter is that because of secularization, there is little spiritual discernment or clarity to recognize great evil. Perhaps the entertainment culture that fuels many American churches, driven by the perceived need to compete with the culture, exacerbates the ignorance on this issue too. Recently, Kristen Powers and Mollie Hemingway offered important articles highlighting the current plight of Christians around the world.
Watch Paul’s entire 19 minute speech below:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Were the First Artists Mostly Women?
Three-quarters of handprints in ancient cave art were left by women, study finds.
Women made most of the oldest-known cave art paintings, suggests a new analysis of ancient handprints. Most scholars had assumed these ancient artists were predominantly men, so the finding overturns decades of archaeological dogma.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
– Mayor, legislators oppose ethnic districts in Moscow –
http://rt.com/politics/mayor-moscow-china-town-213/
– Motor traffic to be restricted, security stepped up in Moscow during Eid al-Adha celebration – http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c32/912469.html