Two motorcycle-riding gunmen opened fire on a crowd of Coptic Christians as they left a church after a wedding in Giza, Egypt. The pastor of the church reported that three people were killed and eighteen wounded. No arrests have yet been made.
In other news, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal warned his country that fracking as a method of oil extraction, as practiced in the USA and elsewhere, poses an economic threat to Saudi Arabia.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, KGS, Mary Abdelmassih, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Ireland: the Taoiseach Enda Kenny is Wrong to Claim That Austerity is Coming to an End
The Irish economy remains in depression. It is the ECB’s bailout of the banks we are being invited to celebrate
Anti-austerity protesters in politician masks gather on O’Connell Street in Dublin city centre as the Irish government announces its budget for 2014. Photograph: Brendan Donnelly/Brendan Donnelly/Demotix/Corbis
Ireland is being held up once more as the star pupil of the austerity school of economics in Europe, with the Taoiseach Enda Kenny arguing that his government is exiting the bailout programme set by the troika of European Union, the European Central Bank and the IMF. He says the era of austerity is coming to an end.
Both of these claims are clearly questionable, but they do illuminate some important features of the situation in Europe — including Britain.
The policy of the Dublin government will continue to be set by the troika for many years to come. In fact the EU has already put in place a system of budget monitoring, regulation and even sanctions that will enshrine permanent austerity for all members of the euro. In addition, it has become customary for the IMF to put in place a new credit facility once initial bailout money runs dry which has its own strings attached. Therefore it is untrue that austerity is at an end. Instead, the assets and loans held by Irish banks have become so devalued as a result of economic weakness that the risk of a new bailout for their creditors is rising.
There is also an important reason why Ireland cannot be emulated by countries such as Greece and Portugal. At the outset of the crisis, the Irish economy was vastly more prosperous. And after a prolonged slump across the European periphery, that remains the case. One measure of the failure of successive Dublin governments is that living standards have fallen so far that they have fallen back towards British levels, having pulled ahead before the turn of the last century.
There is always a chorus in Britain that wants to ascribe all economic ills to the EU. But George Osborne’s threat to maintain austerity until at least 2018 and to aim for budget surpluses matches the perma-austerity of Brussels, Frankfurt and Washington. The lazy assertion of British Eurosceptics of both left and right, that we are better off outside the euro, is disproved by the fact that in international currency terms the British economy has contracted by more than any other country. Britain has not prospered from devaluation.
Similarly, the outbreak of self-congratulation both sides of the Irish Sea is entirely misplaced. The recent self-criticism from the Office for Budget Responsibility regarding its own hopeless forecasting record includes a clear verdict that the source of the very weak recovery in Britain is an unexpected increase on government consumption.
Dublin governments tend to lack the age-old arrogance of the British political elite and so seek plaudits abroad. The governing coalition of the rightwing Fine Gael and Irish Labour parties looks to be patted on the back or perhaps the head, for a forecast that government finances will shift into what is called a primary surplus, that is a surplus on government finances before interest payments are taken into account. But this is a claim increasingly made by supporters of the governments implementing austerity in Portugal and Greece too, and is largely meaningless. Unless the growth rate of the economy exceeds this growing interest bill, the level of government debt becomes unsustainable.
But for the time being the immediate risk of government default has been sharply lowered. This is partly due to the commitment of the ECB to “do whatever it takes” to maintain the euro. Whatever extends to unlimited for bailouts for creditors, mainly European and British banks, but not a euro for the governments.
It is this life-support operation for the banks we are now invited to celebrate. The party is likely to be shortlived as austerity is hollowing out the economy. Without investment productive capacity declines. In Ireland, net new investment (after deducting depreciation, wear and tear and so on) is close to zero. The economy remains in a depression, one of whose effects is to pile up bad loans at the retail banks, including distressed mortgage payers. Austerity is the enemy of growth and cannot resolve the crisis.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Young Industrialists Blast Govt, Political Class
Administration is ‘deaf to voice of country’
(ANSA) — Naples, October 18 — Italy’s young industrialists blasted Premier Enrico Letta’s government as being “deaf” on Friday and said the country’s political class as a whole was ignorant.
Letta presented the budget for 2014 this week, but the package has been widely criticised by unions, some members of the parties supporting the grand-coalition government, and business leaders, who have said it is too timid with spending and tax cuts and does not do enough to boost growth.
Italy is struggling to emerge from its longest recession in two decades.
“If the government makes a triumph out of the fact that it managed to avoid raising taxes, it means it is deaf to the voice of the real nation,” said Jacopo Morelli, the head of the under-40s section of industry confederation Confindustria, at a meeting in Naples. Morelli said that Italy’s high tax burden and red tape are “killing firms”.
He went on to bemoan “too much ignorance in the country’s political class”, which he said “lowered the quality of thought and language” in public debate.
Morelli complained that reforms were “not even considered” in a parliament “that does not even have the dignity to give itself a decent electoral law”.
Moves to replace the much criticised current electoral system, which has been branded the “pigsty” and failed to produce a clear winner in February’s general election, have been held up by disagreements among the parties.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Nine Signs That China is Making a Move Against the U.S. Dollar
Major exporting nations accumulate huge piles of our dollars, but instead of just letting all of that money sit there, they often invest large portions of their currency reserves into U.S. Treasury bonds which can easily be liquidated if needed.
So if the U.S. financial system is the core of the global financial system, then U.S. debt is “the core of the core” as some people put it. U.S. Treasury bonds fuel the print, borrow, spend cycle that the global economy depends upon.
That is why a U.S. debt default would be such a big deal. A default would cause interest rates to skyrocket and the entire global economic system to go haywire.
Unfortunately for us, the U.S. debt spiral cannot go on indefinitely. Our debt is growing far, far more rapidly than our GDP is, and therefore our debt is completely and totally unsustainable.
The Chinese understand what is going on, and when the dust settles they plan to be the last ones standing. In the aftermath of a U.S. collapse, China anticipates having the largest economy on the planet, more gold than anyone else, and a respected international currency that the rest of the globe will be able to use to conduct international trade.
And China is not just going to sit back and wait for all of this to happen. In fact, they are already doing lots of things to get the ball moving. The following are 9 signs that China is making a move against the U.S. dollar…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Seven Out of 10 Italians Fear Losing Job
10% of families living in poverty, 37% helped by parents
(ANSA) — Cernobbio, October 18 — Seven out of 10 people in recession-hit Italy fear losing their jobs, 53% are afraid they won’t be able to support their family and 16% admitted they personally knew somebody who had stolen food out of need, according to a survey carried out by farmers’ association Coldiretti and polling institute Ixe’ released on Friday.
The survey on ‘the perception of the crisis and Made in Italy’ presented at a forum on agriculture and nutrition in the northern Italian town of Cernobbio on Lake Como also found that 22% of Italian families said they would be in dire financial straits this fall.
And while 42% of Italians had no financial concerns, almost half of those polled, 45%, just about make it to the end of the month once all bills are paid and cannot afford any extras while another two million families, roughly 10%, live in poverty, the study said.
Families offer key support in this context, the survey said, with 37% forced to ask parents for money, 14% to ask relatives and 4% to ask their children.
Only 14% asked banks for loans while 8% asked their friends.
Overall, 35% of those polled were not optimistic and thought the situation would get worse, 51% thought it would remain unvaried while 14% were optimistic.
“The research showed strong concern together with resignation towards the general situation the country and people’s personal plights,” said the president of Coldiretti, Sergio Marini.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Brooklyn Group of Black Youths Blocks White Couple’s Car, Bloody Victims in Racial Attack: Cops
Authorities say Ronald and Alana Russo were pummeled by attackers — ranging in age from 12 to 18 — who showered them with racial slurs. One Brooklyn teen says he was falsely arrested because he was wearing the same outfit as one of the assailants.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
City of Wichita on Alert After Potential Threat to Water System
The FBI notified the City of Wichita of the potential threat a couple of days ago.
The FBI are not going into specifics about the threat, but city officials want to reassure residents that the water is safe to drink and use.
The City of Wichita sells millions of gallons of water each year to several nearby communities like Derby and Valley Center.
But now Wichita’s water system along with systems in three other cities in the mid-west are being looked at closely after the FBI received word of a potential threat.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Democrat Says Members of Tea Party Faction in House Are “Domestic Enemies”
Republican House members who are not long-term political careerists and who have not sworn allegiance to the Democrat faction of the corporatist party ruling the United States — instead of swearing allegiance to the Constitution — are “domestic enemies,” according to Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen…
The last time we heard from the Tennessee “progressive” Cohen, he blamed the National Rifle Association for the Navy Yard shooting.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Did the Obama Administration Know Healthcare.Gov Would Fail?
The British multinational in charge of processing Obamacare paper applications received a hefty contract boost just days before Healthcare.gov’s disastrous roll-out, a sign that the Obama administration may have expected serious problems with the website.
The Business of Federal Technology (FCW) reports that on Sept. 26, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) increased their planned payout to Serco’s U.S. subsidiary by 75 percent, adding an extra $87 million to the $114 million promised for processing initial Obamacare enrollment applications.
The contract documents do not explain the last-minute infusion of federal dollars, and neither Serco nor CMS would disclose why the agreement was modified so soon before the rollout.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hell trap of communism: What good is medical insurance if the medical care is unavailable, non-existent, sub-standard, inhumane?
Jane* went to bed one night last week, thanking God for her many blessings. She woke up next morning screaming, an entirely different person. Hallucinating, alternating between an imaginary world that only she could see and hear. Her family took her to the local hospital. She was admitted immediately and routine blood tests and an MRI were ordered.
Because Jane is 74 years old and a “unit” under ObamaCare, her utility to society must be low in the complicated formula the bureaucrats have devised to kill as many inconvenient elderly as possible.
New rules under Medicare and Tricare required that a case manager be assigned to her. Jane was no longer a patient with feelings, humanity, personality, but a “case.” Think of her case manager as someone whose sole purpose was to provide as little care as possible to an elderly American in dire need.
[Comment: A sobering account of Commiecare.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Healthcare.Gov Obama’s Biggest Lollygag to Date
Forbes magazine hit the nail on the head when it headlined “Obama’s Website is Crashing Because It Doesn’t Want You to Know How Costly Its Plans Are”.
“A growing consensus of IT experts, outside and inside the government, have figured out a principal reason why the website for Obamacare’s federally-sponsored insurance exchange is crashing. Healthcare.gov forces you to to create an account and enter detailed personal information before you can start shopping. This, in turn, creates a massive traffic bottleneck, as the government verifies your information and decides whether or not you’re eligible for subsidies. HHS bureaucrats knew this would make the website run more slowly. But they were more afraid that letting people see the underlying cost of Obamacare’s insurance plans would scare people away. (Forbes, Oct. 14, 2013).
And little wonder the government is afraid.
“Based on a Manhattan Institute analysis of the HHS numbers, Obamacare will increase underlying insurance rates for younger men by an average of 97 to 99 percent, and for younger women by an average of 55 to 62 percent. Worse off is North Carolina, which will see individual-market rates triple for women, and quadruple for men.” (Forbes, Sept. 25, 2013).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
In 23 Advanced Economies: U.S. Adults Rank 21st in Math Skills
The U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) on Friday released the initial results of an international survey of adult skills in literacy and mathematics, revealing that Americans rank 21st in “numeracy” and are tied for 15th in literacy among adults in 23 advanced economies.
American adults also scored below the average in both numeracy and literacy for all respondents in all 23 advanced economies.
Japan and Finland ranked first and second in both categories and Italy and Spain took the bottom two spots in both.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mark Levin Explains Obama’s “Coup” On the Constitution
God help America when even the American Constitution cannot help prevent an ill-intentioned president from robbing it of its birthrights.
While the mainstream media continues to hide the truth from Americans, what happened today in Washington,D.C. was a Congressional stand down during the brazen daylight robbery of America’s financial security.
The lying mainstream media and the talking heads will provide cover for the Barack Obama regime, hiding what happened in the White Noise that comes with all they report.
Knowing what was coming today, Mark Levin called the act giving Obama total control of the purse strings what it really is on his radio show last night. Levin called it what it is: “a coup”.
Levin explained in plain English how Obama holds the nation at ransom in order to seize the power of the purse from Congress. What Obama did is a first, because it absolutely guts the Constitution.
Other players throughout history who have pulled palace coups in democratic societies have been led away from the corridors of power in handcuffs, and worse.
Levin explains that Obama has absolutely no constitutional power in pulling off this high-handed coup because the power of the purse was explicitly given to the peoples’ House of Representatives in the Constitution.
You can listen to Levin’s full segment below:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Norquist vs. Cruz Represents Battle Between Establishment and Conservative Republicans
Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist has emerged as the Republican establishment’s leading crusader and mouthpiece against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), repeatedly denigrating Cruz for fighting against Obamacare with a tactic that Norquist alleges hurt Republicans.
Obamacare is wreaking havoc on the healthcare choices Americans have in addition to forcing employers to reduce employees’ hours in an already down economy. This has put a spotlight on many of the law’s failures in a way those like Norquist were never able to do in a sustained manner.
Norquist has single-handedly tried to obliterate Cruz in nearly every outlet that has given him a microphone. He has said Cruz’s effort to defund Obamacare never had a chance to work without mentioning that Cruz had said Democrats in red states could be persuaded to support defunding Obamacare only if Republicans were united first, which was what Cruz sought to do from the outset.
Cruz likened Republicans who were opposed to the defunding efforts to the Air Force bombing their own troops, undermining the chances of success.
Before and especially after the government shutdown, Norquist attacked Cruz for throwing Republicans into traffic and wandering away. He has said Cruz has dragged Republicans across broken glass, dismissed Cruz’s “tactic,” condescendingly suggested Cruz was now wiser, said Cruz has “crashed and burned,” and even demanded that Cruz apologize not only to Republicans but to the constituents for whom Cruz was fighting and to whom he was listening.
Norquist’s fight against Cruz represents the broader struggle within the Republican party between an establishment desperately clinging to its past power and a growing grassroots-powered conservative movement that represents the future…
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Democrat in NYC Gets Muslim Backing
While the public’s attention has been focused on the battles between the White House and Congress, the race for mayor has been unfolding in New York City, with national implications. In the city of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Obama-backed “progressive” Democratic frontrunner is promising to close down New York Police Department surveillance of radical Muslims and replace Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
Bill De Blasio has also promised to incorporate two Muslim holidays in the New York City public school system.
His embrace of Islam as an emerging political force was highlighted in an extraordinary New York Times article about his controversial past and support for communist regimes in Nicaragua and Cuba.
The Times had previously been known for its unrelenting attacks on the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and Police Commissioner Kelly.
At stake in the mayoral contest is not just whether de Blasio’s Obama-style tax-and-spending policies could bankrupt the city, but whether another major terrorist attack will be allowed to occur because of left-wing pressure to discontinue aggressive police tactics and surveillance activities. De Blasio’s opponent on November 5 is moderate Republican Joe Lhota.
The New York City Police Department reports, “There have been 16 known terrorist plots against New York City since September 11, 2001.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Dream Come True — Nationalizing Education
H.R. 5 -Power, Control, Funding, and Enforcement Aligned to Common Core Standards, Identifies the Student, Sets the Stage For Nationalizing Education
Obamacare was first to mandate to the individual. Now, education! Is this really what the American people want? Nationalizing education? HR 5, the re-authorization of ESEA, Elementary and Secondary Education Act, passed the House without a whimper. Two remarkable turns of events: first, on July 19, 2013, the Republican held House of Representatives gives Obama the socialist agenda that he dreams of-federalizing all of education and contributing to the loss of representative government. Second, the Common Core State Standards being passed in every state closed that loop. If this legislation passes this fall in combination with SB 1094, the federal government will be able to dictate what is taught in the classroom by fiat.
Local and state control will erode when federal funds go directly to the individual student bypassing all local & state authority. The individual student is identified, monitored, and targeted for intervention with the Common Core Standards. Common Core + HR 5 + SB 1094 =federal control of ALL education-private schools included with the Choice Amendments attached in HR 5. When HR 5 is combined to SB 1094, the companion bill in the Senate that was voted out of committee, the compromise will be disastrous for the Republic destroying public education, private education, and how local government functions.
Let’s explain how the Common Core Standards identifies ‘Johnny’ in the classroom for the federal government. But, keep in mind, the Common Core Standard’s key component is standardization in all 50 states.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rand Paul: Another Shutdown Stickup
During the shutdown, 85 percent of government stayed open despite the hoopla reported in the media. Government is now 100 percent open. Debt-ceiling deadlines have been averted, but the real problem remains: a $17 trillion debt and a president who continues to pile on new debt at a rate of $1 million a minute.
The government shutdown occurred because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid allows the Senate to lurch from deadline to deadline without passing a single appropriations bill. Had he done his job and passed each of the 12 appropriations bills, the government could have stayed open.
Opening government has not resolved the big picture — a debt problem so large that it dwarfs all deadlines and threatens the very fabric of the nation. What remains is an unsustainable debt, precisely the problem that motivated me to run for office.
There was never any reason to shut down government. If both sides were willing to compromise, we could have found amicable solutions to these severe problems. But let the record state clearly, no significant spending restraint was accomplished because President Obama steadfastly refused to negotiate. Let us also remember his promise that he will negotiate as long as the compromises are outside of any budgetary deadlines.
We’ve heard this before, and I, for one, am skeptical.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The “Hope and Change” Of ObamaCare
Prior to passage of Obamacare, Americans spoke out against the individual mandate; they didn’t want to change the health care they had; they didn’t want a 3,000-page bill that empowered 15 Washington bureaucrats to decide the future of the doctor-patient relationship. — Fred Upton
As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight. And it is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness. — Justice William O. Douglas, US Supreme Court (1939-75)
Obama Care is moving quickly to destroy what was once the best healthcare system in the world. I have several friends who have already experienced the change in our healthcare system, and more importantly, the change in their insurance benefits. This especially goes to the denial of medical procedures, and the quality of care. In fact, last December, 2012, a nurse told me the elderly had already been financially affected by Obama Care. Their once small co-pays of five to ten dollars were now skyrocketing to $150.00, and more. With fixed incomes, the co-pays have become a roadblock to proper care for the elderly…
The Daily World of November 8, 1975 carried a very interesting article entitled, “Planning is Socialism’s Trademark,” by Morris Zeitlin. The Daily World (newspaper of the Communist Party USA) was formerly known as The Daily Worker, and was founded in 1924. The importance of this article lies in its blatant admission that regionalism (Communism), which is gradually becoming the accepted method of unelected governance in the United States (unelected councils and task forces, participatory democracy, public-private partnerships, etc.) is the form of government used in democratic socialist and communist countries. Link, page 134
In older dictionaries, you will find Soviet defined as “unelected councils.”
[…]
Obama said, “This unelected board that we’ve created — what this is, is a group of health care experts, doctors, et cetera, to figure out how can we reduce the cost of care in the system overall.” Obama continued to say death panels would make “the cost of care more effective.”
Do you understand this? An “unelected board” is a bunch of bureaucrats who are appointed, not elected by the people. They cannot be fired by the people! Unelected boards are a Soviet form of government.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The GOP’s ‘supposed’ leader within the Senate crushed the valiant efforts of Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, and freedom-loving patriots absorbed another salvo designed to destroy our constitutional republic. Apparently, we know the price for zipper-lip McConnell’s treason.
Two billion dollars is the price for the latest Judas-like abandonment in the ‘ObamaCare-OBoehnerCare-O’ConnellCare’ saga. With the Bluegrass Backstabbing, the Minority Leader has joined the Senatorial Hall of Shame that includes Mary Landrieu (Louisiana Purchase), Ben Nelson (Cornhusker Kickback), Patrick Leahy, Chris Dodd, Max ‘ObamaCare is a train-wreck’ Baucus, and others, in deploying legislated euthanasia…
By now, it is readily apparent that our solution cannot be found within the District of Corruption, but there is one way to ensure ‘term limits’, if the 87%, who do not like the direction of the country, will act in unison. We need to unseat the establishment elite within both parties through an electoral enema. The one way to do this is to NEVER vote for an incumbent! It doesn’t make any difference if an incumbent is the next George Washington, he or she goes; no more career politicians within Congress! This means the House of Representatives starts over every two years. It will take three elections to decontaminate the entire Senate, but, ‘oh, what a feeling it will be’, akin to the first day of Spring, after an unusually severe winter!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Press Endures Obama’s Unrequited Love
Press acts and sounds like an abused wife.
Some years ago Bernard Goldberg wrote a book, “A Slobbering Love Affair With Obama”, about the way the press treated his 2008-9 campaign and election as President. The mainstream press continues to protect Obama, often rather blatantly. The curious thing about this is that it is not reciprocated. More and more, the press acts and sounds like an abused wife.
A case in point is the way the networks — ABC, NBC and CBS — covered the government shutdown. A new report from the Media Research Center analyzed the coverage, finding 41 stories that blamed the Republican Party and zero — none — that blamed the Democrats. There were 17 stories that blamed both sides. Recall, please, the shutdown continued because the President refused to negotiate and the Democrat-controlled Senate refused to vote on any bills sent over from the House.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Spirit of the Late Larry Grathwohl Still Haunts Bill Ayers
The spirit of courageous FBI-informant Larry Grathwohl — who spent a lifetime challenging unrepentant domestic terrorist Bill Ayers — haunts him still.
It was Grathwohl who awakened America to the inherent dangers of Barack Obama in the run up to the 2008 presidential election when he described a meeting he attended where Bill Ayers and Weather Underground members talked openly about how they would have to murder an estimated 25 million people following the revolution they were then attempting to foment…
“Larry Grathwohl, the FBI informant who infiltrated the terrorist group and later wrote the 1976 book “Bringing Down America,” said Ayers, told him personally that fellow Weather Underground member Bernadine Dohrn, now his wife, set the bomb that killed San Francisco Park Police Sgt. Brian McDonnell i n 1970. (Perry Chiaramonte, Fox News, Oct. 16, 2013).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tough Questions for FBI Over Marathon Bombing Response
A top U.S. Senator is demanding answers from the FBI about what they knew about the Tsarnaev brothers and when they knew it, asking if agents had recruited either suspected Marathon bomber as informants and if the bureau had the pair under surveillance before releasing their images to the public.
The FBI issued a strongly worded denial that the Joint Terrorism Task Force, which they lead, knew the identities of the Tsarnaevs before the shootout in Watertown that ended one of their lives or that they were ever sources for the FBI.
But in a letter to the head of FBI, which was obtained exclusively by FOX Undercover, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley is asking the questions that have been on the minds of many in state and local law enforcement. Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, is the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, with broad oversight over the Department of Justice and the FBI.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Unlike WTC7, L.A. High-Rise Remains Standing After Blaze
At least 214 firefighters battled the blaze that erupted in a two-bedroom unit on the 11th floor of the Barrington Plaza, a 386-unit luxury apartment building built in 1961.
The firefighters managed to keep the fire contained near its origin before putting it out after 71 minutes, according to KTLA 5.
A woman found the child with an older man, both unconscious, in a stairwell after the fire.
The cause of the fire is currently unknown as of this writing.
It is known, however, that the fire-damaged building did not follow the “law” of physics as observed on Sept. 11, 2001, in which the 47-story 7 World Trade Center in New York City, also known as Building 7, collapsed at almost free-fall speed.
Building 7 was not hit by an airplane prior to its destruction and suffered minimal fire damage, yet still managed to completely collapse in a similar fashion as an imploded building.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Who Will Tell Obama He Has No Clothes?
A friend recently called and asked, “So when do you think Obama will declare martial law?” Until last week, I would have dismissed such speculation as conspiratorial. Now I’m not so sure.
Before this phony government “shutdown,” if you had asked whether I believed that American military and law enforcement personnel would follow an order from Barack Obama, or any other president, to turn their guns on their own countrymen, I would have said no. However, after witnessing the behavior of armed National Park Service officers unnecessarily closing our national monuments, parks, and even our military cemeteries in Europe, while simultaneously allowing a protest demonstration by illegal aliens on the National Mall, I am no longer confident in that belief.
It’s as though Obama is using every weapon in his arsenal to create civil division among the people. Why?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
3D Printing Brings Ancient Egyptians to Life
Forensics is used for far more than entertaining people with far-fetched ideas of how much information can be gathered at a crime scene. Anthropologists can use forensics to determine how people lived and died thousands of years ago. Now, forensics, combined with additive manufacturing (AM), can also show us what these people looked like.
Researchers at the Redpath Museum in Montreal, Canada, led by professional forensic artist Victoria Lywood, used CT scans to produce digital images of the features of three ancient Egyptian mummies. Information from the scans was processed and turned into data that was fed into a 3D printer.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
As the EU Broadens Its Base of Power, Opposition Grows
European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation
The European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation (ECTR), a “tolerance watchdog” and EU pressure group has called on the union to establish units under the guidance of the Ministry of Justice to monitor political, religious & social groups to assure adherence to guidelines of tolerance toward one another.
In particular, group libel is targeted to sanction an organization where it calls out another organization in an intolerant way. Defined ‘vulnerable groups’ will receive special protections, the ECTR report stating “Members of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups are entitled to a special protection” in addition to the normal legal protections afforded by the state.
ECTR said it hopes to take “concrete action to combat intolerance, in particular with a view to eliminating racism, colour bias, ethnic discrimination, religious intolerance, totalitarian ideologies, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-feminism and homophobia;” while “overt approval of a totalitarian ideology, xenophobia or anti-Semitism,” will be subject to criminal sanctions.
The biggest problems will likely come from the ruling body’s interpretation of religious intolerance and totalitarian ideologies. No doubt Christian proselytizing will be strictly curtailed with Muslims being considered a vulnerable group. Meanwhile anything straying toward s conservatism or further from the centre-right position will be ruled as totalitarian. This despite the fact that half the left-wing governments in Europe already exhibit totalitarianism!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Britain Has Paid Out Millions to Criminals in Human Rights Cases
Britain has lost 202 cases in the European Court of Human Rights including to murderers, terrorists, paedophiles and rapists, resulting in payouts of £4.4 million, it has emerged.
The taxpayer funded compensation awarded by Strasbourg judges since 1998 averages at around £22,000 a head, and recipients have included British double agent George Blake and extremist cleric Abu Hamza.
The figures, released by the House of Commons and seen by the Daily Mail, have increased pressure on the Government to pull out of the European Convention in order to reform human rights law.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EC Asks for Alitalia Rescue Information From Italy
European bodies seek details for airline assistance
(ANSA) — Brussels, October 18 — The European Commission asked Friday for more information about a recent Alitalia aid package — particularly, a controversial injection of 75 million euros from Italy’s post office — which was recently approved for the troubled airline.
The EC earlier this week expressed concern it had not been given advance notice of measures approved by major shareholders to keep the airline aloft, in order to confirm these were compatible with EU law.
A spokesman for Competition Commissioner Joaquìn Almunia has said that it could not rule out the possibility that State aid was involved in the Alitalia bailout package, because of the involvement of the Italian post office. “All states are obliged to notify the Commission when it comes to State aid,” the spokesman said earlier this week.
On Monday, shareholders in the troubled carrier unanimously approved an emergency 300-million-euro capital hike to save the airline from bankruptcy. The state-owned post office, Poste Italiane, will buy up to 75 million euros in any unsubscribed shares in the capital increase. That triggered immediate outrage from the parent company of British Airways and Spanish carrier Iberia, the International Airlines Group, which quickly called on the Commission to intervene, saying the package amounted to State aid and broke EU law because of the post office.
The capital increase is part of a government-led 500-million-euro rescue package, which includes 200 million euros in loans approved by the board last Friday, when the carrier was in danger of defaulting on its big debts within days.
Italian banks Intesa Sanpaolo and Unicredit will guarantee to take a stake worth up to 100 million euros.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The black French justice minister, who was labelled a monkey by a Front National, is being sued by the party over the ‘outrageous’ claim that it is racist and homophobic
Marine Le Pen’s far-Right Front National (FN), which had to jettison a party member for comparing Christiane Taubira to a monkey, now plans to sue the minister for her “outrageous” claim that the FN is racist and homophobic.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Govt Denies Official Request From Rome for Priebke Burial
Berlin, 18 Oct. (AKI) — The mystery over the fate of Erich Priebke’s mortal remains deepened on Friday when a German government spokesman denied Italy had officially asked for the Nazi war criminal to be buried in his homeland.
“I don’t know of any such thing,” foreign ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer told a news conference in Berlin when the government was asked to confirm reports of contacts with Rome to inter Priebke in Germany.
Schaefer did not elaborate.
German chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert told journalists he hoped Priebke would be buried “in an appropriate fashion”.
“The name of this man stands for the appalling crimes committed by him against Italians,” Seibert said.
“Justice caught up with him. Now he is dead.”It is to be hoped that the mortal remains of Mr Priebke will be laid to rest in an appropriate fashion.”
Priebke, has been at the centre of a furore since his death last week under house arrest in the Italian capital at the age of 100. He was convicted in 1998 for his role in Italy’s worst World War II atrocity, a reprisal massacre by the Nazis of 335 Italian men and boys including 75 Jews at Rome’s Ardeatine Caves.
Argentina, where he fled to and lived for nearly 50 years after the war, refused to grant Priebke’s request to be buried there next to his wife. Meanwhile, officials in his hometown of Henningsdorf in northwest Germany initially said he could not be buried there as he and his family were not residents.
The Vatican banned a funeral for Priebke in in any church in Rome and the city’s mayor refused to allow him to be buried there amid fears his grave would become a neo-Nazi shrine.
Italian authorities stopped Priebke’s funeral on Tuesday in a town near Rome held by priests an ultra-traditionalist Catholic priests after street riots. Since then, there have been conflicting reports over the whereabouts of his body.
Italian officials said Priebke body had been been taken to a military airport near Rome while contacts were made with Germany over his possible repatriation.
But Priebke’s lawyer said the family alleged his body was stolen early on Wednesday and taken to an unknown location, claims denied by unnamed sources contacted by Adnkronos who said the body was still at Pratica di Mare military airport.
Priebke never repented his crimes and remained faithful to Nazi ideology until the end.
In a video released by his lawyer after his death, Priebke said the Ardeatine Caves massacre had been “dreadful” but said he and his fellow soldiers had not option but to follow orders which came directly from Adolf Hitler.
Those who refused to execute the victims faced being shot themselves, Priebke claimed.
The 24 March 1944 massacre was a reprisal for the deaths of 33 German soldiers in central Rome the previous day in an ambush by Italian resistance fighters.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Taxman Serves Maradona With 39-Million-Euro Bill
Argentina legend signs document
(ANSA) — Rome, October 18 — The Italian inland revenue agency on Friday served Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona with a bill for oustanding taxes of 39 million euros on his late 1980s glory-day earnings with Napoli.
Contrary to previous statements from Maradona’s lawyer, the agency says the footballer owes them money for unpaid taxes on off-the-books earnings in sponsorship and merchandising deals from his time at Napoli.
The agency said that Maradona’s lawyer had misinterpreted a ruling that pardons soccer club Napoli, but not its players.
Maradona has come to Italy to watch Friday night’s Serie A top-of-the-table clash between AS Roma and his former club, which has a two-point lead over the Romans. One of Maradona’s lawyers, Angelo Pisani, said earlier this year that a court had ruled that tax checks run on the time Maradona played for the Italian club between 1984 and 1991 were invalid and therefore he could now “return to Italy a free man”.
Maradona is revered in Naples for helping the city’s soccer team to win two Serie A titles and the UEFA Cup.
The former player had a diamond-studded earring and a Rolex watch seized, among other assets, on past visits to Italy.
Maradona said last year that he felt persecuted by the Italian tax authorities. “Every time I return I have a horrible feeling. I’m angry with the Italian tax authorities, who make me feel like a thief, a fraudster,” he said.
“I’ve never stolen anything from Italy or the Italian people. I just gave joy and fun on the field”.
Maradona said the tax debt was not down to him but to Napoli club officials who “did things on the sly”.
During his time with Napoli Maradona also helped Argentina to win the 1986 World Cup, scoring the famous ‘Hand of God’ goal and the most highly voted ‘best goal ever’ against England along the way.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italians Remain Pro-EU But Want More Help, Says Survey
Euro seen as central, says Eurobarometer survey
(ANSA) — Brussels, October 18 — Italians believe in European integration and have greater faith in the EU than people in other member States but would like more help as the country copes with its longest recession in over 20 years, according to the latest Eurobaromoter economic and social survey commissioned by the European Parliament and released on Friday.
The majority of Italians said they were convinced the EU was able to solve problems better than individual countries, that the euro was crucial in quenching the negative impact of the crisis and that they would like to see the EU budget used to stimulate economic growth and fund scientific research.
The priorities cited instead by the majority of other European nationalities were welfare, education and healthcare.
Overall, 53% of Italians interviewed — a sample of 1,019 citizens — thought anti-crisis measures approved by the EU were more effective than those passed individually by member States, with only 37% saying the opposite.
On the other hand, 50% of other European nationalities polled believed in coordinated measures while 41% trusted those passed by single member States more.
The gap between Italians and other Europeans further increased over the euro currency.
Asked whether it reduced the effects of the crisis, 49% of Italians said yes and 42% no.
Europeans on average were more skeptical, with 51% saying the single currency had not helped and 38% vouching for the euro.
Both Italians and Europeans believe the EU should focus first and foremost on unemployment and growth.
However, 58% of Italians would like the EU budget to be dedicated to economic growth and 36% to scientific research while for the rest of Europe, 50%, wants stronger welfare policies, 43% more education and training, 41% stronger public healthcare — all sectors Italians are less interested in.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Tax-Office Chief Arrested in Pesaro
‘Turned blind eye to 50-60 mn euros in dodged taxes’
(ANSA) — Pesaro, October 18 — The chief inspector of an inland-revenue office in the Marche city of Pesaro was arrested Friday on suspicion of taking bribes from a furniture-making company.
Police said Piero Micheli was paid to turn a blind eye to 50-60 million euros in dodged taxes.
Seven other people have been placed under investigation including two tax-agency staff.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Life Term for Last Cephalonia Massacre German
Alfred Stork, 90, ordered execution of at least 117 Italians
(ANSA) — Rome, October 19 — A Rome military court on Friday gave life imprisonment to the last surviving German officer who took part in the massacre of thousands of Italian soldiers on the Greek island of Cephalonia in World War II.
The former Wermacht officer, 90-year-old ex-corporal Alfred Stork, was found guilty of ordering the execution of at least 117 Italian officers after they surrendered.
Among the evidence against Stork was a 2005 confession, later retracted, in which he told German prosecutors he was a member of one of the two execution platoons.
The incident was just one episode amid a much larger massacre which came after the 1943 armistice between Italy and the Allies that instructed Italian troops to switch sides.
After news of the September 8 armistice filtered across to the island on September 14, 1943, General Antonio Gandin told each of his men in the Acqui division to follow his own conscience and choose between three alternatives: fight on alongside the Germans, surrender his weapons, or keep them and resist German attacks.
Over the next eight days, 1,300 men died in battle, 5,155 were shot after being taken prisoner, and 3,000 drowned when a ship carrying them to Nazi concentration camps sank.
The bodies of 200 men were tossed down a well, from which they were only recovered and sent back home a few months before former Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi’s visit in 2001.
To the outrage of Italy, a German court cleared then 86-year-old former lieutenant Otmar Muhlhauser of war-crime charges in 2006.
Muhlhauser, who died in 2009, reportedly admitted he had personally ordered the execution of hundreds of soldiers including General Gandin.
The incident forms the backdrop to the best-selling 1994 novel, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, which became a film in 2001 starring Nicholas Cage and Penelope Cruz.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Somali Girl Smuggled Into Britain to Have Her ‘Organs Harvested’
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
The unnamed girl was brought to the UK from Somalia with the intention of removing her organs and selling them on to those desperate for a transplant.
Child protection charities warned that the case was unlikely to be an isolated incident as traffickers were likely to have smuggled a group of children into the country.
The case emerged in a government report which showed that the number of human trafficking victims in the UK has risen by more than 50 per cent last year and reached record levels.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Titanic Band Leader’s Violin Fetches Record €1.06 Million
The violin played by the Titanic’s band leader to calm passengers as the ocean liner sank was auctioned in England on Saturday for £900,000 (€1.06 million), a world record for memorabilia from the famously doomed ship.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Transport Minister Says Italy Will Answer EU on Alitalia
‘Don’t need to justify ourselves,’ says Lupi
(ANSA) — Rome, October 18 — Italy’s Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi said Rome was working on preparing an answer to the European Commission’s request for more information on a recently-approved Alitalia salvage package, specifically in relation to a controversial injection of 75 million euros from Italy’s State-owned postal company.
“We are working on answering the European Union, though we don’t have to justify ourselves,” said Lupo. “We will present them with all the requested documentation in order to permit them to verify that it is not State aid but an important industrial project”. The EC earlier this week expressed concern it had not been given advance notice of the measures that were recently approved for the troubled airline by its largest shareholders in a bid to keep it aloft, in order to confirm these were compatible with EU law.
A spokesman for Competition Commissioner Joaquìn Almunia has said that it could not rule out the possibility that State aid was involved in the Alitalia bailout package, because of the involvement of the Italian post office. “All states are obliged to notify the Commission when it comes to State aid,” the spokesman said earlier this week.
Earlier this week shareholders unanimously approved an emergency 300-million-euro capital increase to save the airline from bankruptcy. The state-owned post office, Poste Italiane, will inject up to 75 million euros in exchange for any unsubscribed shares in the capital increase. The announcement triggered immediate outrage from the parent company of British Airways and Spanish carrier Iberia, the International Airlines Group, which quickly called on the Commission to intervene, saying the package amounted to State aid and broke EU law because of the post office.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Inmates Bullied Into Converting to Islam
The Prison Officers Association says the increase in forced conversions is down to the growing power of Muslim gangs.
Sky News has learned that increasing numbers of British inmates are being bullied into converting to Islam while in jail. The Prison Officers Association says it is symptomatic of the growing power and influence of Muslim gangs in prison. However, there are also concerns that some of those converts could be radicalised by more extremist elements in prison.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Brussels Gives Green Light to Albania and Macedonia
Il Sole-24 Ore, Gazeta Wyborcza
“Albania is attempting the big step of EU accession”, headlines Il Sole 24 Ore following the European Commission’s decision to recommend granting candidate status to the Balkan country in its report on priorities for enlargement in 2014, issued on October 16.
Brussels’ assessment of Albania found that the country has made significant progress with regard to political and economic requirements, although it “needs to meet further key priorities, with particular focus on administration reform, the rule of law and fundamental rights”. Albania’s candidacy will now have to be approved by the European council, where Il Sole expects a “heated debate” on the issue —
The UK is grumbling, highlighting the weakness of the fight against corruption [in Albania], while Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Denmark doubt the country’s ability to defend the progress that has been made. Italy, however, welcomes Balkan enlargement, if only for its economic interest. The last census counted over 400 Italian businesses in the country.
In its report, the Commission also recommended for the fifth time that accession negotiations should begin with with Macedonia, however the Greek government is bracing itself to use its veto yet again, writes Gazeta Wyborcza Athens is demanding that the former Yugoslav republic change its name to avoid confusion with the Greek province of Macedonia. In a gesture of good will, authorities in Skopje have already changed the country’s flag and its constitution, but refuse to compromise on the country’s name. According to GW, Nikola Gruevski’s “authoritarian” government “is using the conflict to generate national support”, a tactic that enables it to avoid dealing with other issues. The newspaper continues —
While the nationalistic hysteria muzzles public debate, the country’s real problems remain unsolved. They include the passing of this year’s budget after opposition MPs had been thrown out of parliament, and an agreement signed between the government and the opposition on the foot of pressure from EU, which only remains an agreement on paper.
The daily warns that in the wake of another year of such rule, the European Commission may not be able to renew its recommendation that Macedonia meets all political conditions for accession.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Gunmen Attack Christian Wedding in Egypt, 3 Killed, 18 Injured
by Mary Abdelmassih
(AINA) — Two unidentified gunmen riding motorcycles opened fire on guests exiting the Virgin Church, located in Warrag, Giza. The gunmen fired automatic weapons as the guests exited the church after attending a wedding ceremony. According to Reverend Justus, the pastor of the church, one man, one women and one 8 year old girl were killed, and 18 were injured.
Reverend Justus said the gunmen were masked and were able to flee despite traffic congestion.
The Director of Giza Security formed a task force to find the gunmen. The Corniche Road leading to the area was evacuated. The attack is yet to be classified as “criminal” or “terrorist.”
A youtube video (Arabic) shows scenes from the church after the attack.
| — Hat tip: Mary Abdelmassih | [Return to headlines] |
History and Artifacts of Egypt is Being Sold Openly on the Internet!
Funding for terrorist groups comes from both trading in drugs and antiquities
After two massive revolutions toppled two presidents in the dream for a better country, the Egypt of today lives in confusion and chaos. With the focus on the ongoing prosecution of terrorism and the Muslim Brotherhood, the smuggling and looting of Egyptian antiquities gets a pass.
The current climate has encouraged criminals to brazenly promote their activities without fear of law. The antiquities trade is now being openly brokered on the Internet, with seller, buyer and broker comfortably discussing price and details concerning ancient items — starting with Pharaonic monuments — which are more in demand — ending with the Ptolemaic, Assyrian, Roman, Coptic and Islamic Antiquities.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Former Gaddafi Spy Chief Asks to be Tried in the ICC
The Hague court denied his petition a week ago
(ANSAmed) — TRIPOLI, OCTOBER 18 — Former Gaddafi secret service chief Abdullah Senussi on Friday asked to be tried at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, which denied his petition a week ago today.
“Libya lacks both the capacity and the will to give my client a fair trial”, defense attorney Ben Emerson said in a communique.
Senussi has been held in Tripoli for 13 months without access to a lawyer or to his family despite repeated requests, Emerson added.
The ICC last Friday ruled that Senussi cannot be tried for war crimes in The Hague because he will be tried for those same crimes in Libya.
The trial against Senussi and the one against Gaddafi’s second-born son Saif al-Islam are among the most important trials due to be held against high officials of the former regime, and could uncover long-held secrets under the dictatorship. Senussi faces charges of human rights violations committed over the past 40 years, including the 1996 extrajudicial executions of more than 1,200 prisoners in Abu Salim prison. Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International have denounced the possibility that hundreds of death sentences could be handed down against supporters of the deposed colonel. Former education minister, Ahmed Ibrahim, was sentenced to death on July 31 along with five other defendants for incitement to discord and civil war.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya’s Military Police Chief Killed in Benghazi
Unknown assailants gunned down Libya’s military police chief, Colonel Ahmed Mustapha al-Barghathi, Friday in the restive eastern city of Benghazi, security services said.
Gunmen shot Barghathi outside his home, Colonel Abdullah al-Zaidi, spokesman for the security services, told Agence France-Presse.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia’s ‘Democracy Year Zero’ At Asiatica Film Festival
Resistance and democracy by documentary filmmaker Chebli
(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 17 — ‘Democracy Year Zero’ tells of Tunisia’s revolution and transition through showing its people’s passions, emotions, hopes, anger and disappointments. The film by Amira Chebli and Christophe Cotteret is one of the many at the the XVI Asiatica Film Festival in Rome at the Pelanda complex in the Italian capital’s Testaccio area until October 20. The documentary film tells of the initial uprisings in the Gafsa mining region in January 2008 and runs through to the first free elections and their results October 26, 2011. Many interviews are shown in the feature-length documentary, the first by the young Tunisian director. It is divided into two parts: “resistance” and “democracy”, from the viewpoint of the far-left, “the only one that was not involved with the regime”. Many social and political groups are shown, “which we try to give a voice to in our work”, and both a future prime minister (Mohamed Ghannouchi) and the dissident blogger Slim Amamou — who went on to become Youth and Sport Minister — appear in the film.
It begins with an interview with the writer and politician Gilbert Naccache, long-time opponent of Bourghiba — under whom he was jailed from 1968 to 1979 — and later of Ben Ali. “He is the connecting thread of our tale,” said Chebli, a 26-year-old actress, director and ballerina who studied at the Tunis School of Fine Arts. She said that what makes this film stand out from all the others over the past few years on the Tunisian uprising is that ‘Democracy Year Zero’ is the view of two directors coming from diametrically opposite backgrounds: “A French man, who knows very little about Tunisia and is extremely objective and detached, and a Tunisian woman who isn’t objective in the least and very much involved in the situation.” Their film covers a period of about three years. Since then, the hopes of many have turned into disappointments. “It is disappointment over the victory of an Islamist party, but there is also perhaps even stronger disappointment over the strategic weakness of an opposition that was entirely unprepared to put forward a strong alternative.” What’s worse, she said, “is that the country has taken a step backwards in comparison with the gains made under the Ben Ali regime. Take women, for example. Today the new government has made the Tunisian Association of Women Democrats — a very old institution that conducted a many struggles under Ben Ali — out to be an enemy of society. There is an attempt to undermine the freedoms women acquired through the Personal Status Law.” Chebli will be focusing on women’s condition in her next project. She added that freedom of expression is also suffering.
“There is still censorship on the television and at the cinema.
I experience this first-hand in one of the television fiction series (the last I agreed to shoot) in which the female role I played — that of a strong woman in the pre-revolutionary period — was partially eliminated through the cutting of dialogue.
Unfortunately, women are still obliged to be presented as meek little flowers”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
About 31 Per Cent of Israelis Are “At Risk of Poverty”
A report by the Central Bureau of Statistics, published yesterday, compares Israel with European Union member states. More Israelis and Europeans are at risk of poverty. Forty per cent of Israeli children are at risk of falling below the poverty line compared with a 20 per cent average in the EU.
Jerusalem (AsiaNews/Agencies) — A recent report by by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) indicates that 31 per cent of Israelis are at risk of plunging into poverty, compared with an average of 17 per cent in the European Union. Among EU states, Spain and Greece had the highest percentage of citizens at risk of poverty — 20 per cent.
The CBS report, which looked at data from 2011, showed a rise in the number of Israelis and Europeans who are at risk of poverty.
In 2011, 31 per cent of Israelis were at risk of poverty, compared to 26 per cent in 2001.
Apart from Germany and Sweden, Israel had the sharpest rise in the number of citizens at risk of falling into poverty when compared with the EU states.
The data also show that in 2011, the percentage of Israeli children at risk of falling below the poverty line stood at 40 per cent, compared with a 20 per cent average in the EU bloc.
In 2005, the percentage of Israeli children who were at risk of poverty stood at 38.3 per cent.
The sharpest rise in the number of children at risk of poverty in the EU was registered in Sweden (from 10.5 per cent eight years ago to 14.5 per cent in 2011).
According to the CBS data, 44 per cent of single-parent families in Israel were at risk of poverty in 2011, compared with 41 per cent in 2001.
On average, 35 per cent of single-parent families in the EU were at risk of falling below the poverty line in 2011.
By contrast, employment in Israel is doing better than in Europe. The employment proportion of the working age population is slightly higher than in the EU.
In 2012, the unemployment rate among Israelis aged 25-64 stood at 5.9 per cent, compared with a 7 per cent average in states belonging to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Again: Arabs Fly Nazi Flag Near Road
The flag was hung high above the highway between Halhoul and the Etzion Bloc.
For at least the second time in five months, Arab residents of Beit Umar in the Palestinian Authority (PA) have placed a Nazi flag over a major thoroughfare where Jews pass in their vehicles.
Beit Umar is located between Halhoul and the Etzion Bloc, not far from Hevron.
Soldiers from the Haruv battalion in Kfir Regiment tried to take down the flag Saturday, but encountered difficulty because it was placed very high up.
A similar event took place at Beit Umar in May, when hundreds of residents of Gush Etzion who drove down Highway 60 were astounded to see an oversized Nazi flag flying next to a mosque in the Arab town.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
East Jerusalem: June 1967, Really Ms. Rudoren?
I read through the New York Times Book Review, today. Besides reviews of Phillip Roth and Norman Mailer biographies, I was arrested by a picture used in Jodi Rudoren’s review, “Forged in Battle” of Yossi Klein Halevi’s latest book, Like Dreamers: The story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation. The title of Halevi’s book is a send up from Psalm 126, Shir Hama’a lot (A Song of Ascents) about Jews returning to Zion from their Babylonian Captivity. The picture-see above- is one of two legendary ones taken on the day that Israeli paratroopers had routed Jordanian Legionnaires in a tough battle that resulted in the reunification of Israel’s eternal capital of Jerusalem after 19 years of occupation by the Kingdom of Jordan following the 1948/49 War. The historic picture by Micha Bar Am for Magnum Photos shows a kippot- wearing paratrooper with a tallit (prayer shawl) of machine gun ammunition while he prayed at the Kotel, the Western Wall of the Temple Mount. Presumably thanking Ha Shem for the deliverance of Jerusalem into Israeli hands. But it is the inscription under the Micha Bar Am photo that communicates the current biases of and the New York Times Book Review editors. It read “East Jerusalem, June 1967”; not Jerusalem, June 1967. That feeds into the Palestinian Narrative that doesn’t recognize the Jewish state of Israel. In their view Israel unlawfully took back Jerusalem which rightfully belongs to the Palestinians as the capitol of their once and future state. Halevi, Rudoren and the Editors of the New York Times Book Review should re-read the verses of Psalm 126. Ha Shem has reaffirmed his covenant with the people of Israel in the “miracle” of reunification of Jerusalem achieved through his ‘better angels’; those courageous IDF Paratroopers in f Halevi’s book, Like Dreamers…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Americans Performing Hajj Attacked in Saudi Arabia
WASHINGTON, October 18, 2013 — A group of Americans visiting Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj were threatened and attacked earlier this week on Oct. 16 by a radicalized group of extremists. On one of the nights where Hajj pilgrims are required to stay overnight in the city of Mina, a group of young men began asking different sets of pilgrims if they were from the United States.
When they encountered a group that identified themselves as not only Americans, but also as Shiite Muslims, they were threatened and attacked by the group of men, who were apparently armed with knives and other blades.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Warns Saudis About Fracking Threat
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, July 29 (UPI) — Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a Saudi businessman, says oil fracking could undermine the country’s economy.
The prince said the use of the fracking process to extract gas and oil in other countries, including the United States, threatens oil-rich Saudi Arabia. Naimi said in May that rising U.S. shale oil supplies would not be a problem for oil exporters.
About 92 percent of the Saudi Arabian government’s budget for 2013 is made up of oil money, Sky News said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Gregorios III: Christians Do Not Need Assad to Survive
The Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch condemns acts of violence against the religious minority, which constituted 7.8 per cent of Syria’s population in 2011. For the prelate, Christians are a valuable asset for Syria who, along with Muslims, can create a “new vision” for the country.
Damascus (AsiaNews) — Christians are a great asset for ending the conflict and do not need to Assad to survive, Gregorios III Laham, Patriarch of Antioch Greek Catholic, told the BBC in an interview. “We have to have a new vision,” the bishop said, “and that is our work as Christians, especially the Christian Arabs have to play this role to change the vision.”
Praising the recent decision to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons, the prelate said it brought new hope to the country. He stressed, however, that to stop the war there must be a desire for reconciliation, and a peace conference must be organised.
Gregorios III is adamant that a stable solution would come only when all foreign fighters go back home. Only this way can a national unity government be created, with members from the opposition and the regime.
The war and the violence have reached such a level that Assad’s departure has become secondary, he added.
Hunger, poverty and Islamist attacks have displaced or forced out more than 450,000 Syrian Christians, this in a community which, before the revolution, numbered some 1.75 million people, or 7.8 per cent of the population. Yet, despite the exodus, the Melkite bishop is convinced that the Christian community will survive.
With the fragmentation of the Free Syrian Army, the only secularist group fighting Assad, jihadists from various countries have been able to step in and now control various parts of the country, including the province of Aleppo.
Until 2012, the war was largely political, not based on sectarian hatred. This gave the Christian minority some protection from both the army and rebels.
Now, with the rise of extremist groups such as al-Jabhat Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, considered by Islamists themselves as the most radical groups in Syria, the conflict has turned into a sectarian war with an exponential rise in violence against Christians.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The Problem of Israeli Jihadis Joining Al Qaeda in Syria
When we evince concern about foreign Jihadis joining al Qaeda affiliates like al Shabaab in Somalia, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen and the Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria, we tend to think of recruits from Canada, the US, UK and the EU. But Israel? C’mon, really? We forget that among Israel’s Arab Muslim population are extremist groups like the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, otherwise known as Hamas in Israel, seeking to establish an Emirate at the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. There are other groups and lots of access to Arabic language social media with extremist chat rooms and websites to suggest that young Israeli Arab Muslim men might follow in the way of Allah, Jihad. Couple that with the ability of these Israeli Jihadis to enter adjacent Syria to join al Qaeda affiliates fighting the Assad regime.
The Long War Journal published an account by David Barnett “ Israeli Arab reported killed fighting in Syria may be alive” of one Israeli jihadi who joined Jabhat al Nusra . He was previously reported killed and surprised his parents in Israel with a call from Syria indicating he was alive.
Barnett presents evidence that more than 10 Israeli Muslim jihadis have left to fight in Syria and a number have returned only to be detained by Shin Bet and convicted.
The Shin Bet has warned on a number of occasions since the start of fighting in Syria that authorities “fear they [Israeli Arabs] will be exploited by terrorists [in Syria], both as a source of information about targets in Israel, as well as for carrying out military operations against Israel.”…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands of Syrian Christians Ask for Russian Citizenship
Russia’s Foreign Ministry posts an appeal by Christians from Qalamoun, blaming the West for supporting the terrorists, praising Russia as a factor of peace. For the “first time since the Nativity of Christ,” Christians” are under threat of “banishment from our land”.
Moscow (AsiaNews/Agencies) — About 50,000 Syrian Christians have asked for Russian citizenship, fearing “banishment from our land” for “first time since the Nativity of Christ,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said on its website where it published an appeal by residents of Qalamoun, an area of predominantly Christian villages, like Maaloula, which was recently targeted by the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front. For the petitioners, the West is to blame for supporting “terrorists” in their attacks against Syria. By contrast, the Russian Federation is praised as “a powerful factor of global peace and stability”.
“Since Syrian law allows dual citizenship, we have decided to seek citizenship of the Russian Federation if this is possible. Russian citizenship would be an honour for any Syrian Christian who wished to acquire it,” the group said in its letter to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“Our appeal does not mean that we have any mistrust in the Syrian army or government. However, we are scared of the conspiracy of the West and hateful fanatics who are waging a brutal war against our country,” the letter went on to say.
Classified as a UNESCO heritage site, Maaloula lies 40 km north of Damascus. The village is famous throughout the world as one of the symbols of Christianity in the Middle East and is the only place in the world where Aramaic is still spoken. The village is considered a symbol of religious coexistence.
“It is for the first time since the Nativity of Christ that we Christians of Qalamoun living in the villages of Saidnaya, Maara Saidnaya, Maaloula and Maaroun are under threat of banishment from our land. We prefer death to exile and life in refugee camps, and so we will defend our land, honour and faith, and will not leave the land on which Christ walked,” the letter said.
“The Christians of Qalamoun believe that the purpose of the Western-backed terrorists is to eliminate our presence in what is our native land, and with some of the most revolting methods as well, including savage murders of ordinary people,” the letter read.
“We see the Russian Federation as a powerful factor of global peace and stability. Russia pursues a firm line in the defence of Syria, its people and its territorial integrity,” the letter added.
The attack by Islamic extremists in Maaloula has become a symbol of Christian suffering in the Middle Eastern country.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is connected to the rebels, has confirmed the presence of al-Qaeda affiliated groups among the fighters that invaded the town.
During their attack, the extremists defiled the monasteries of St Thecla and St Sergius, destroying the crosses on their domes and wrecking their ancient sacred furniture. (N.A./S.C.)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Marines Training Al-Qaeda-Linked Syrian Jihadists in Saudi Arabia
Twelve years after 9/11, the U.S. has changed sides. The Long War Journal reported on June 29 that the Al Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant, which is “al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria,” has “cooperated with Free Syrian Army units to establish sharia, or Islamic law, in Aleppo and in eastern Syria.” What is the Free Syrian Army? The “moderates” whom we are training and to whom we are giving weapons.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands of Citizens in India Killed by Reckless Big Pharma Drug Trials
(NaturalNews) The second largest country in the world, India, has become a hotbed of pharmaceutical fraud, as unscrupulous drug companies, mostly from the West, continue to use India’s generally poorer populations as human guinea pigs in unethical and flat-out inhumane clinical trials. And India’s Supreme Court is finally taking action against this massive organized crime ring by ordering India’s health ministry to justify its approval of 162 global clinical trials to take place in the country.
Because it is a rapidly developing nation with lax regulatory protocols, India has been a primary target of the pharmaceutical cartel in its never-ending quest to dominate the medical systems of the world. Major drug companies have been largely successful in swindling the Indian government to approve trials for all sorts of “new chemical entities” (NCEs), many of which have been tested on rural Indians in poorer communities, where there is minimal access to proper medical care.
The situation has apparently gotten so out of control in India that several human rights advocacy groups have taken to the legal system for a remedy, filing a petition back in February pressuring government officials to take action. India’s Supreme Court listened and, following a recent hearing, agreed to give the government an ultimatum that forces it to provide evidence backing the science behind its approval of these trials. The health ministry reportedly has just two weeks to comply with this order.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has quietly decided to release more than $1.6 billion in military and economic aid to Pakistan that was suspended when relations between the two countries disintegrated over the covert raid that killed Osama bin Laden and deadly U.S. airstrikes against Pakistani soldiers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Why Have Young People in Japan Stopped Having Sex?
What happens to a country when its young people stop having sex? Japan is finding out… Abigail Haworth investigates
Ai Aoyama is a sex and relationship counsellor who works out of her narrow three-storey home on a Tokyo back street. Her first name means “love” in Japanese, and is a keepsake from her earlier days as a professional dominatrix. Back then, about 15 years ago, she was Queen Ai, or Queen Love, and she did “all the usual things” like tying people up and dripping hot wax on their nipples. Her work today, she says, is far more challenging. Aoyama, 52, is trying to cure what Japan’s media calls sekkusu shinai shokogun, or “celibacy syndrome”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Boko Haram Islamists Kill 19 in at Nigeria-Cameroon Border
(AGI) Kano (Nigeria), Oct 20 — Boko Haram gunmen killed at least 19 people near the border between Nigeria and Cameroon on Sunday. Riding on motorcycles and armed with AK-47s, the Islamists blocked the highway near the town of Logumani, 30 kilometres from the border, killing 19 motorists and burning three trucks, residents said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Immigrants’ Interest in Repatriations Growing Fast
Almost 2,000 migrants in Greece have applied for voluntary repatriation since the beginning of July, largely due to joblessness.
Since the summer, 832 Pakistanis, 361 Bangladeshis and 142 Georgians have been among those who have chosen to return home. “The people who ask to leave Greece face huge problems,” said Daniel Esdras, the head of IOM in Greece. “Nine in 10 are homeless and have to look for food every day. They have realized they are in a tragic situation, a dead end.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Samaras to Discuss Immmigration With Counterparts in Malta, Italy
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will be accompanied by Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias on visits to Malta and Italy on Monday to discuss immigration issues.
The meeting comes in the wake of hundreds of migrants drowning in the Mediterranean as they tried to reach Southern Europe. Muscat said he felt his country had been “abandoned” by the European Union. “As things stand, we are building a cemetery within our Mediterranean Sea,” Muscat said last week.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Illegals Aren’t “Going to Take it Anymore”?
Supporters of illegal aliens and illegals who have zero respect for our laws are “frustrated” the Outlaw Congress hasn’t passed yet another massive amnesty to give liars, cheats and thieves a free pass to citizenship:
They’re Not Going To Take It Anymore: New Generation Of Immigrant Advocates Take Radical Approach(url)
[…]
Going back to the piece above: “Last Friday, the actions outside a federal courthouse in Tucson prompted a judge to cancel deportation proceedings. Some 15 people were arrested after immigration rights activists blocked two buses bringing suspected illegal immigrants to a federal courthouse in Tucson. A few days later, on Tuesday, officers in Tucson pepper-sprayed members of a crowd trying to prevent U.S. Border Patrol agents from detaining two people who originally police encountered during a traffic stop.”
That article is about a “new generation” of children of illegal parents who don’t give a tinker’s dam about OUR laws. Children of illegal aliens (dubbed DREAMERS) should be mad at their parents for sneaking into OUR country or smuggling them as children into OUR country in the first place. Like their parents they have NO legal rights, period. They are NOT American citizens despite the propaganda sold under a silly name: anchor babies — especially Mexicans. It doesn’t matter if the mother sneaks across the border and drops the baby in some hospital, that baby’s legal nationality is Mexican under their Constitution — NOT a U.S. citizen.
Edward J. Erler, Professor of Political Science, California State University, San Bernardino, in his column (I hope you take the time to read all of it): Birthright Citizenship and Dual Citizenship: Harbingers of Administrative Tyranny
“In sum, this legacy of feudalism — which we today call birthright citizenship — was decisively rejected as the ground of American citizenship by the Fourteenth Amendment and the Expatriation Act of 1868. It is absurd, then, to believe that the Fourteenth Amendment confers the boon of American citizenship on the children of illegal aliens. Nor does the denial of birthright citizenship visit the sins of the parents on the children, as is often claimed, since the children of illegal aliens born in the U.S. are not being denied anything to which they have a right. Their allegiance should follow that of their parents during their minority. Furthermore, it is difficult to fathom how those who defy American law can derive benefits for their children by their defiance — or that any sovereign nation would allow such a thing.”
He further points out: “But in any case, to say that children of legal aliens are entitled to citizenship is one thing; after all, their parents are in the country with the permission of the U.S. It is entirely different with illegal aliens, who are here without permission. Thus repeal of the current policy of birthright citizenship for the children of illegal aliens would not require a constitutional amendment.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Integration Minister Calls for Humanity Toward Migrants
Kyenge says EU border agency FRONTEX should change approach
(ANSA) — Brussels, October 17 — Italian Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge told journalists before a meeting with the European Commissioner for Home Affairs in Brussels that the EU external border agency FRONTEX needs to show more humanity toward migrants.
“Reinforce FRONTEX, but also go toward humanitarianism. That is what Italy has begun to do and asks from Europe — to look for a change in FRONTEX’s approach,” Kyenge said before her meeting with the Swedish EU commissioner Cecile Malmstrom.
Kyenge also called for looking at a disastrous shipwreck near the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, in which 364 migrants — mostly Somalis and Eritreans — lost their lives “not only as a tragedy but also as an opportunity for changing our vision”.
On Tuesday, ANSA reported a rift in the European Council in talks underway for guidelines concerning maritime surveillance in FRONTEX operations on the matter of rescue operations and landings.
According to an October 10 document, a copy of which ANSA is in possession of, Italy, Cyprus, France, Greece, Malta and Spain ask that the matter remain in the boundaries of “international conventions” and that new elements are not brought in containing “inflexible aspects that do not add any value”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mexican Gov’t to Hand Out ID Cards to Foreign Nationals — In North Carolina
More than 24,000 Mexicans live in Western North Carolina, according to the Consulate General of Mexico’s Raleigh, N.C., office. Nearly 9,000 of them live in Buncombe County, and about 8,500 in Henderson County. For the past three years, the Consulate has brought its office to Asheville so that these legal immigrants can get help with a variety of needs.
“Without the proper identification, people who have immigrated to this country from Mexico cannot even get a library card, let alone utilities or a bank account,” says Carolina McCready, co-director of the nonprofit El Centro of Henderson County. To overcome such barriers and help meet vital identification needs in the local Mexican community, El Centro is hosting a visit from the Mexican Consulate on Saturday, Oct. 19, from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. at the WNC AG Center in the Expo Building.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
More Illegal Immigrants Ask for Asylum
‘Credible Fear’ Claims Rise as Migrants Seek to Avoid Deportation
27,546 migrants made credible-fear claims after entering the U.S. illegally in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, according to Department of Homeland Security data. That is up from 10,730 such cases in fiscal 2012 and 3,273 in 2008. A few of these people entered from Canada or as stowaways. But the majority entered via Mexico—some from as far away as Africa or Asia—border officials say.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
As Texas Governor Rick Perry said in his book ‘Fed Up’, “We have already been burned once by false promises of border security in exchange for tying security to other aspects of the immigration debate. President Reagan, in 1986, signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act, which legalized close to 3 million undocumented immigrants.”
“The law was supposed to be a comprehensive solution with provisions intended to clamp down on border security. These provisions were never enforced, and the subsequent explosion in illegal crossings has resulted in some eleven million illegal aliens living in the United States today.”
Amnesty was an issue in the 2012 elections and it will be an issue in 2014 so long the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act”, S.744 awaits a vote. It is a very bad law for a number of reasons. First among them is the fact that there are the millions of aliens who are here illegally, but who cost natural-born and naturalized Americans billions…
The Democrats know that, if they issue a form of instant citizenship to illegal aliens, most of whom are Latino, they will have a loyal voting bloc that will give them control of Congress and the White House for decades to come. They don’t really care what impact the expansion of already over-extended entitlement and welfare programs will have on the economy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rain, God’s Water Regulated by Progressives
Progressives and the U.N. are obsessed with water, among many other things, as a way to control what people do in their daily lives.
The ever-wise United Nations guestimates that by 2025, “1.8 billion people will live in areas plagued by water scarcity, with two-thirds of the world’s population living in water-stressed regions as a result of use, growth, and climate change.” Non-existent global warming/climate change is the culprit even though the earth has been cooling for the last 15 years.
Rainwater has thus become a contentious issue which must be regulated by EPA say environmentalists and their progressive supporters around the country who make their life mission to control the rest of us because we are so ignorant, we must be told what to do in painful detail. A wise judge in Virginia struck down the attempted rainwater regulation by the EPA. However, it did not stop other states and local boards to proceed with implementation of its regulation…
As I described in my previous article, United Nations has a strong vested interest to control our water supply and our passage through the seas, oceans, our shipping, fishing, and mineral and oil exploration on the bottom of the ocean. They are controlling it through Agenda 21, chapters 17 and 18 signed by 178 countries, including the United States, and through the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) which has not yet been ratified by the Senate for lack of sufficient votes. They will keep trying until they have the votes.
Executive Order 13603 from March 16, 2012 gives the Department of Defense authority over all water resources. The order also covers all food, transportation, energy, construction materials, “health resources,” farm equipment, fertilizers, and all fuels that can be commandeered and controlled by our government both in peacetime and during national emergencies.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
In other news, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal warned his country that fracking as a method of oil extraction, as practiced in the USA and elsewhere, poses an economic threat to Saudi Arabia.
Let’s do it then!
I think you have to extend Prince Alwaleed’s logic a bit further.
Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam and the Saudi aristocracy wrap themselves in the cloak of respectability as guardians of the faith and diligent exporters of the creed both overtly ( dawah ) and covertly ( jihad ).
To the western mind, Price Alwaleed is making an economic case – “We need to diversify our economy” is how we read it.
Diversify Saudi Arabia in to what – ecotourism ?
The subtext to the faithful, and particularly their activist arms in North America is:
Fracking threatens the steady flow of the wealth of the developed world to the Gulf Islamic states – especially Saudi Arabia.
This is by extension a threat to the faith.
Therefore – get busy stopping fracking. ie expect Ismalic faith reps to jump on the ‘save the planet, stop fracking’ bandwagon; funds to flow even faster to litigious environmental groups to use protest, pressure, media and lawfare; AND, in the top tier, if a true believer wants to self-detonate for The Cause, please try and do so near gas pipeline hubs.
Worth revisiting this space in about a year’s time.
good post e non…
it’s obvious to me that fracking is racist…