Anti-government protesters in Tunis chased an Al Jazeera TV crew out of Kasbah Square today. The protesters were angry over what they consider biased coverage by Al Jazeera, which they see as supportive of Tunisia’s Salafist government.
In other news, pirates attacked an oil supply ship off the coast of Nigeria and kidnapped two of its officers, both of them Americans.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Nick, Winds of Jihad, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
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Detroit Bankruptcy Case Goes to Court
A court case began Wednesday to determine if Detroit will become the biggest ever US city to be declared bankrupt. City officials say the move will help Detroit solve its crippling debt problems, but unions and pension funds are strongly opposed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Growing Rift With Saudi Arabia Threatens to Severely Damage the Petrodollar
The number one American export is U.S. dollars. It is paper currency that is backed up by absolutely nothing, but the rest of the world has been using it to trade with one another and so there is tremendous global demand for our dollars. The linchpin of this system is the petrodollar. For decades, if you have wanted to buy oil virtually anywhere in the world you have had to do so with U.S. dollars. But if one of the biggest oil exporters on the planet, such as Saudi Arabia, decided to start accepting other currencies as payment for oil, the petrodollar monopoly would disintegrate very rapidly. For years, everyone assumed that nothing like that would happen any time soon, but now Saudi officials are warning of a “major shift” in relations with the United States. In fact, the Saudis are so upset at the Obama administration that “all options” are reportedly “on the table”. If it gets to the point where the Saudis decide to make a major move away from the petrodollar monopoly, it will be absolutely catastrophic for the U.S. economy. Demand for the dollar hinges on its use for oil.
The biggest reason why having good relations with Saudi Arabia is so important to the United States is because the petrodollar monopoly will not work without them. For decades, Washington D.C. has gone to extraordinary lengths to keep the Saudis happy. But now the Saudis are becoming increasingly frustrated that the U.S. military is not being used to fight their wars for them. The following is from a recent Daily Mail report…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Uh Oh: 47 Million Food Stamp Recipients Are Having Their Benefits Cut Back on November 1st
47.6 million Americans are about to have their food stamp benefits cut, and most of them have absolutely no idea that it is about to happen. Needless to say, a lot of them are going to be very angry when they discover that they cannot buy as much food for their families anymore. The reason that this is happening is because a temporary boost to food stamp benefits that was put in during the last recession is expiring. But most of the people that are having their benefits cut will not understand this.
Most of them will just be very upset that the government is “taking money away” from them. And considering the “mini-riots” that we witnessed earlier this month when the system that processes food stamp payments went down for a few hours, it is obvious that a lot of food stamp recipients can very easily be pushed over the edge. So what would happen if we have another “debt ceiling crisis” in Washington D.C. early next year and food stamp benefits are temporarily cut off completely?
Wherever “austerity” has been tried in Europe, it has resulted in protests and riots. Could a similar thing happen in this country?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Alan Grayson: ‘Spokesman’ of Nazi-Backed Occupy Wall Street
Democratic Party hack Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) has stooped to a new low in the demonization of Republicans in general, and the Tea Party in particular. On Monday, he sent out a fundraising email using the racist imagery of a burning cross and equating the Tea Party with the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). However, Alan Grayson would do well to acquaint himself with which party is in fact the home of the KKK — and while he’s at it, he could perhaps explain why he is a self-described “spokesman” for the Nazi- and David Duke-backed Occupy Wall Street movement.
Though it is a regular occurrence among Democrats to reflexively label as “racist” anyone who disagrees with their agendas regarding virtually any policy supported by Barack Obama, most of them have enough awareness to steer clear of referring to the Ku Klux Klan in particular. There’s a good reason for that: it was a group of southern Democrats who founded the Ku Klux Klan. It was Democrats who fought against the passage of every civil rights law beginning in 1860s, and continuing through 1950s and 1960s.
Furthermore, the late Democratic senator from West Virginia, Robert Byrd, was an actual member of the KKK, who led many of his fellow Democrats in an unsuccessful 14-hour filibuster against the 1964 Civil Rights Act. That would be the same Civil Rights Act supported by far higher percentages of Republicans than Democrats in both chambers of Congress. That same ratio held true the following year, when a greater percentage of Republicans than Democrats endorsed the Voting rights Act of 1965 that ended many of the pernicious restrictions used by states to deny black Americans the right to vote.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Barack Obama and the People of the Lie
The evil pathology now poisoning our White House and the values of our Constitutional Republic is malignant narcissism.
Christian Psychiatrist M. Scott Peck (1936 — 2005) wrote the definitive book on Barack Hussein Obama in 1983, although, of course, he never met him or mentioned him. The title of Peck’s book is “The People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil.” While Dr. Peck is more widely known for his best-selling “The Road Less Travelled,” his “The People of the Lie” remains one of the most important scientific contributions to the study of the origins of evil…
We need to take Dr. Peck’s “The People of the Lie” very seriously if we hope to overcome the evil in our midst. Below, I have taken the liberty to cite Dr. Peck as if he were writing about Obama as his prime example of malignant narcissism today. All the words are his save those in brackets, which are mine. Readers, please correct me where you believe I may be wrong:
“The evil, [like Obama] always hide their motives with lies (p. 105).
“The words “image,” “appearance,” and “outwardly” are crucial to understanding the morality of the evil. While [people like Obama] seem to lack any motivation to be good, they intensely desire to appear good. Their “goodness” is all on a level of pretense. It is, in effect, a lie. That is why they are “the people of the lie” . . . Actually, the lie is designed not so much to deceive others as to deceive themselves. They cannot or will not tolerate the pain of self-reproach. The decorum with which people [like Obama] lead their lives is maintained as a mirror in which they can see themselves reflected righteously (p. 75).
“[Obama’s] malignant narcissism is characterized by an unsubmitted will. All adults who are mentally healthy submit themselves one way or another to something higher than themselves, be it God or truth or love or some other ideal. They do what God wants them to do rather than what they would desire. “Thy will, not mine, be done,” the God-submitted person says. They believe in what is true rather than what they would like to be true. . . Not so the evil, however. In the conflict between their guilt and their will, it is the guilt that must go and the will that must win (p. 78).”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
By 2042: New Latino-Hispanic Majority US Population Demographic
Within a 45-year span, Latino-Americans jumped from three percent of the population to 35 percent of the population on their way to 51 percent of the American population by 2042. They will dominate in the four southern Border States. They will make enormous ethnic, religious and cultural impact on all of America.
Today, virtually every business phone answering service offers: press “1” for Spanish, press “2” for English. Another language expects to make its presence known as millions upon millions of Muslims enter America and force their language upon the landscape. Press “3” for Arabic already manifests in Detroit, Michigan also known as “Dearbornistan.”…
Former Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm spelled out in his famous speech — How to Destroy America: “Here is how they destroyed their countries. First, turn America into a bilingual or multi lingual and bicultural country. History shows that no nation can survive the tension, conflict and antagonism of two or more competing languages and cultures. It is a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; however, it is a curse for a society to be bilingual. The historical scholar Seymour Lipset put it this way, “The histories of bilingual and bicultural societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension and tragedy. Canada, Belgium, Malaysia, and Lebanon — all face crises of national existence in which minorities press for autonomy, if not independence. Pakistan and Cyprus have divided. Nigeria suppressed an ethnic rebellion. France faces difficulties with Basques, Bretons and Corsicans.”
[Comment: Search the internet for Gov. Richard Lamm’s entire speech “How To Destroy America”. Highly recommended reading if you have not read it already.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
CNBC Reporter Apologizes if He Offended Cruz: I Chose ‘Mexican Music’ To Represent Texas
The left-leaning CNBC economics reporter who asked for “Mexican music” to be played on Tuesday when an image of Sen. Tex Cruz (R-TX), who is partly of Cuban descent, came on the screen apologized “if” his “remarks were insensitive.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Does Army Consider Christians, Tea Party, A Terror Threat?
Soldiers attending a pre-deployment briefing at Fort Hood say they were told that evangelical Christians and members of the Tea Party were a threat to the nation and that any soldier donating to those groups would be subjected to punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
A soldier who attended the Oct. 17th briefing told me the counter-intelligence agent in charge of the meeting spent nearly a half hour discussing how evangelical Christians and groups like the American Family Association were “tearing the country apart.”
[Comment: Part of a pattern of demonization.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
F.D.A. Seeks Tighter Control on Prescriptions for Class of Painkillers
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday recommended tighter controls on how doctors prescribe the most commonly used narcotic painkillers.
The move, which represents a major policy shift, follows a decade-long debate over whether the widely abused drugs, which contain the narcotic hydrocodone, should be controlled as tightly as more powerful painkillers such as OxyContin.
The drugs at issue contain a combination of hydrocodone and an over-the-counter painkiller like acetaminophen or aspirin and are sold either as generics or under brand names like Vicodin or Lortab. Doctors use the medications to treat pain from injuries, arthritis, dental extractions and other problems.
| [Return to headlines] |
Feds Order School to Ban Packed Lunches Without Doctor’s Note
Parents not allowed to provide non-GMO food while kids fed nachos & ice cream
A school in Richmond, Virginia is following federal government instructions by telling parents that they need to have a doctor’s note in order for their children to be allowed to bring packed lunches to school, another example of how the nanny state is encroaching via the public education system.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Full Spectrum Military Surveillance of Americans Gets a Boost
According to former NSA boss Gen. Michael Hayden, the Pentagon’s “full spectrum military cyberspace operations” are now fully integrated with NSA’s superabundant surveillance.
Hayden told the Washington Post that NSA and U.S. Cyber Command functions are “indistinguishable. That’s how badly they overlap.”
“Now, would I keep Cyber Command at Fort Meade? Absolutely. Would I integrate the two to the best I can while respecting U.S. law? Absolutely,” said Hayden.
This is not really news, of course, because the NSA already operates under the aegis of the Pentagon. The point here is that Gen. Hayden is emphasizing the fact that communications surveillance of the American public is increasingly a military affair and control and command is becoming more centralized.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How Many Lies Can the White House Tell Before the Walls Collapse?
Obama has no one to blame but himself:
He was the one who campaigned, in 2008, on Hope and Change. He was the one who deployed high-flying rhetoric to promise a new day in Washington politics.
He was the one who said he was going elevate the level of discourse and make government transparent. He positioned himself as a new kind of leader. He was the one who turned his candidacy into a religious experience.
He was the one who convinced voters he stood above the fray, as a man and as a symbol, and on that basis they boarded his train and rode it all the way.
He was the one who, inheriting a desperate economy, made his signature move upon gaining office:
Obamacare.
Not jobs. Not prosecutions of corporate and banking criminals.
He made devastating choices for all Americans.
He was and is the one who has presided over a sinking economic ship…
So many actions and omissions of madness…it leaves us with the reasonable conclusion that Obama’s Presidency was designed from the outset to flame out and fail.
And the principal target was the economy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Lt. Col. Allen West: No Fast Track for Obama’s Next Power Grab
President Obama is seeking power the Constitution has assigned to Congress. Soon, he will formally ask Congress to surrender its constitutional authority and grant him “Fast Track” Trade Promotion Authority…
– From the abuse of executive orders, to recess appointments, to the stonewalling of congressional oversight on Fast and Furious, Benghazi, NSA, IRS intimidation, and other scandals, this administration has shown contempt for the constitutionally mandated co-equal role of the Congress.
Given this record, Congress must not cede its constitutional authority and instead reject President Obama’s request for “Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority.”
President Obama wants fast track power so he can conclude the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), an expansive system of global governance that would deal a mortal blow to American sovereignty and our Constitution.
Fast track overrides the Constitution once — the Trans-Pacific Partnership overrides it forever.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NSA Monitored Calls of 35 World Leaders After US Official Handed Over Contacts
The National Security Agency monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders after being given the numbers by an official in another US government department, according to a classified document provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The confidential memo reveals that the NSA encourages senior officials in its “customer” departments, such the White House, State and the Pentagon, to share their “Rolodexes” so the agency can add the phone numbers of leading foreign politicians to their surveillance systems.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Population Control Agenda is Being Relentlessly Pushed in American Public Schools
Do you want your kids to be taught that the earth has too many people and that they should have no more than two children for the good of the planet? Yes, I know that this sounds absolutely crazy, but this is actually the kind of propaganda that is being forced upon our young people all over America. The population control agenda is being relentlessly pushed in high school textbooks, in classroom instruction and by outside organizations that are given constant access to our high school students. As you will see below, the number one population control organization in the United States, Planned Parenthood, conducts nearly 900 presentations in high schools in the Los Angeles area every single year. And the population control propaganda gets even worse once our kids go off to college. I know — I spent eight years in the classroom at U.S. public universities and most parents would be absolutely horrified to learn what their children are being taught.
These days, the population control propaganda is becoming more blatant than ever. Recently, Father John Hollowell was walking down the halls of an Indiana high school when he came across the following banner hanging above some lockers:
[…]
And it is important to remember that Planned Parenthood is far from a “neutral” organization. In fact, the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, once made the following statement…
“The most merciful thing that a family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.”
Is that what you want your kids to be taught?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Privacy Fears Grow as Cities Increase Surveillance
OAKLAND, Calif. — Federal grants of $7 million awarded to this city were meant largely to help thwart terror attacks at its bustling port. But instead, the money is going to a police initiative that will collect and analyze reams of surveillance data from around town — from gunshot-detection sensors in the barrios of East Oakland to license plate readers mounted on police cars patrolling the city’s upscale hills.
The new system, scheduled to begin next summer, is the latest example of how cities are compiling and processing large amounts of information, known as big data, for routine law enforcement. And the system underscores how technology has enabled the tracking of people in many aspects of life.
The police can monitor a fire hose of social media posts to look for evidence of criminal activities; transportation agencies can track commuters’ toll payments when drivers use an electronic pass; and the National Security Agency, as news reports this summer revealed, scooped up telephone records of millions of cellphone customers in the United States.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A teenager, charged with murder after his math teacher was found slashed to death with a box cutter, had hid out in the school with the weapon he stole from an art class, sources claimed tonight. The body of Colleen Ritzer, 24, was found in woods behind Danvers High School on Wednesday morning after she was allegedly killed by 14-year-old student Philip Chism.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Seal Veteran: Military Leaders Being Asked if They Will Disarm Americans
Litmus test includes question of whether top brass are comfortable with ordering NCOs to fire on U.S. citizens
Former Navy SEAL Ben Smith warns that the Obama administration is asking top brass in the military if they would be comfortable with disarming U.S. citizens, a litmus test that includes gauging whether they would be prepared to order NCOs to fire on Americans.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Soros Donates Big Bucks, Joins Ready for Hillary National Finance Council
Billionaire investor and hedge fund titan George Soros is backing an effort to lure Hillary Clinton into a 2016 White House bid. Soros signed on to be a co-chair for Ready for Hillary, a super PAC trying to trump up support for a presidential run by Clinton.
As of September 2013, Soros had a net worth of $20 billion.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Soros-Connected Vote-Counting Firm Expands in U.S.
A Spanish vote-tabulation firm with ties to billionaire globalist George Soros is purchasing software to give it greater power over the voting in U.S. elections.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
TSA Grants Itself Authority to Spy on Citizens 24/7 Even Before You Fly
The Draconian groping measures instituted by the TSA inside United States airports is about to be trumped by an even greater spy assault on our rights outside of the airport. In fact, the TSA’s latest siege against the Bill of Rights involves the 24/7 tracking of citizens even before they enter the airport.
Under a new ‘security measure’ that the TSA has magically decided it has the authority to enact, it is ‘expanding its screening of passengers’ to include the systematic use of private and government databases in order to obtain more information on passengers. What that means is that the TSA can now access your car registration information, your employment information, and much more.
This means that TSA ‘agents’ with two weeks of training, the same ‘agents’ who we continually see arrested for perverted acts like the harboring of child porn, can now spy on you to even greater depths.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was relentlessly heckled over the Benghazi terrorist attack as she tried to deliver a speech at a New York university on Wednesday night.
Clinton was speaking at the University of Buffalo as part of the university’s ‘Distinguished Speakers Series’ when a man in the crowd began screaming about the attack that left three people dead, including Libyan Ambassador Chris Stevens.
‘Benghazi, Benghazi — you let them die,’ the man screamed as Clinton continued to give her speech.
After about 40 seconds of yelling Clinton appeared to acknowledge the screaming man.
‘We have to be willing to come together as citizens to focus on the kind of future we want, which doesn’t include yelling. It includes sitting down and talking to one another,’ she said sternly.
The crowd then erupted with applause.
The heckler isn’t the only person who blames Clinton for the attack — the mother of one of the four Americans killed in the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya told CNN’s Jake Tapper earlier this year that she also blames Clinton for her son’s death…
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
2014 European Elections: Europe’s Economic Elite Backs the Euro
De Volkskrant Amsterdam
The anti-euro parties may be stronger than ever in the next European Parliament. But unless they start working together, they will not be able to backtrack on the single currency, brought in by the economic elites of Europe in the pursuit of their own joint interests. Excerpts.
Meindert Fennema
Writing in De Volkskrant on October 2, 2013, Frits Bolkestein[former European commissioner and president of the Dutch liberal VVD party] declares his unhappiness with the euro:
“The monetary union is a failure. The euro has proved to be a sleeping pill that has induced the countries running deficits to indulge in a dream of dolce far niente instead of worrying about their own competitiveness. The result is a transfer union that is threatening to establish itself permanently. The monetary union was intended to foster friendship among the peoples of Europe. Instead, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is being compared to Hitler in the countries running deficits. The Netherlands are caught in the trap and no longer know how to escape it.”
According to Bolkestein, the collapse of the euro is both inevitable and necessary. This prospect, though, is neither tempting nor likely. If I reach this conclusion, it is not just because that the rescue measures that reinforce the power of the European institutions are now being taken at dazzling speed — for example, the compliance test applied to budgets of member countries, or the strengthening and improvement of the Court of European Auditors, or even, of course, the creation of a permanent European Financial Stability Fund. These are all initiatives that would have been inconceivable just five years ago.
Corporations bet on a unified Europe long ago
If I believe that the European Union will continue to move forward on the path of political unification, as Helmut Kohl predicted back in 1991, it is also because a European economic elite has appeared on the scene. Searches that I carried out together with Eelke Heemskerk on the establishment of a European network by European “Captains of Industry” led us to conclude that businesses had put their money on a unified Europe a long time ago. This process has been evident since the end of the 1970s….
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Two Men Sentenced Over Prison Rape
Two prisoners have been found guilty of raping a fellow prisoner by a court in Linz, Upper Austria.
The 18-year-old has been given a two and a half year prison sentence and the 17-year-old has been given a further one year to his current sentence and has been ordered to an institute for mentally disturbed prisoners.
The pair were being held in custody in Linz when the incident occurred. The pair deny the incident occurred.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Armed Police Force Man Out of Toilet
Police were called to an apartment in Vienna, Austria after a domestic bust up lead to a man threatening his girlfriend with a knife and then fleeing to a toilet on the corridor of their apartment block and setting toilet paper on fire.
Armed police had to break down the door to arrest the man and save him from the blaze. The 21-year-old man was arrested.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Blonde Angel’ Sparks Call for Roma Camp Sweeps
Italy’s far-right Northern League party has called for inspections of all Roma communities in the country after a Roma couple was charged with abducting a girl dubbed the “blonde angel” in Greece.
“The Northern League has submitted an urgent question to [Interior] Minister Angelino Alfano in order for checks to be done to immediately verify, in all Roma camps in our country, whether there is a similar situation to the recent one in Greece,” MP Gianluca Buonanno was quoted in AgenParl, a parliament news site, as saying.
The statement comes a week after police discovered a blonde girl in a Roma camp in central Greece after she was allegedly kidnapped. A couple have been charged with abducting the girl, thought to be between five and six years old, after DNA tests proved they were not her parents.
An international appeal has been launched to find the girl’s family, with the case prompting debate about whether similar cases exist across Europe. On Tuesday, a blonde girl was taken by police from a Roma family in Ireland after doubts were raised over her parentage, international media reported.
Responding to Buonanno’s comments, Dezideriu Gergely, executive director of the European Roma Rights Centre, said the Northern League has “an open anti-Roma agenda”.
He warned that comments such as Buonanno’s could lead to racial profiling: “As this Italian case shows, there can be calls in society to profile who is Roma or not.
“Not all Roma are dark skinned; some have blue or green eyes. How about Roma who have mixed families?”
“We are discussing cases [in Greece and Ireland] which have to be looked upon as two incidents with individual responsibility. This should not reflect on the entire community and should not be regarded as a label for the entire Roma community,” Gergely told The Local.
People are drawn into child trafficking due to extreme poverty, irrespective of ethnicity, he said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
EU-China Solar Panel Dispute: Brussels Cracks Under Pressure
Dziennik Gazeta Prawna
“China has won a major trading dispute with EU over solar panels,” writes Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, commenting on an October 22 decision by the European Commission’s anti-dumping advisory committee to accept a Commission proposal that “actually scraps” EU import duties on Chinese solar panels. Their introduction triggered a major trade dispute between the EU and China. The daily notes that —
It was enough for Beijing to threaten retaliatory sanctions targeting German industry [in particular German cars] and wines from Latin countries to make Brussels beat a retreat.
According to European solar panel manufacturers, Chinese companies have breached the rules of fair competition by taking advantage of generous government subisidies to sell their products very cheaply on the EU market.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Europe Gone Wild: Back to Nature on the Continent
Conservationists want to turn parts of Europe back into wilderness, teeming with wild horses, lynxes and native bison. But there are varying interpretations of what “wilderness” means and conflict over how much it should be managed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Four Lithuanians Probed for Italian Teen Murder in Kent
Reason for killing not aired
(ANSA) — London, October 23 — Four Lithuanian nationals have been placed under investigation in connection with the murder of 19-year-old Italian Joele Leotta in Maidstone, Kent, local police said.
They did not say why Leotta was killed, other than saying the murder was not racially motivated.
The waiter died after he was kicked and punched by a gang of men aged 21 to 45.
Police earlier said seven “European” men had been remanded in custody and two released.
Leotta, who may also have been stabbed in the attack, had travelled from his home in the northern town of Nibionno, near the city of Lecco, to Britain 10 days earlier to learn English and find work.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: Man’s Body Found Hanging in Paris Flat, Eight Years After He Died
Owner of flat in French capital finds body which had been hanging for eight years, after previous owner committed suicide.
The new owner of an apartment near the French capital found the mummified body of the previous owner which had been hanging for eight years. The body was found in the apartment in the Paris suburb of Bussy-Saint-Georges on Friday, after the flat was sold at auction following its repossession by the bank, according to police and judicial sources.
The previous owner, a former security guard of Cambodian origin, appears to have committed suicide by hanging himself with a sheet. The man, aged around 40 when he died, had not been heard from since 2005 when he filed a complaint against his firing. He had cut ties with his family years before and neighbours believed he had returned to Cambodia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany, France to Unite in Anger Over U.S. Spying Accusations
(Reuters) — German and French accusations that the United States has run spying operations in their countries, including possibly bugging Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone, are likely to dominate an EU leaders’ meeting starting on Thursday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Munich: Michael Stürzenberger Attacked by Turkish Muselmaniac
by sheikyermami
Munich: During yesterday’s rally at Munich’s Rotkreuzplatz Michael Stürzenberger, the most courageous man in Europe, again involved passers-by in intensive discussions about the many anti-constitutional commands of the Koran. A Muselmaniac denied it, as usual, until he was shown the original Arabic Quran from Saudi Arabia. He grabbed it and wanted to run off with it. Suddenly, another Muslim from the back rushed up fast and hit the national chairman of the BAVARIAN FREEDOM PARTY in the face with his fist. Stürzenberger’s glasses shattered into three pieces and flew to the ground. He was bleeding from a cut below the eye. Four police officers pounced on the Turkish Muslim, threw him to the ground and held him there. . Photos or film footage of the attack are unavailable, unfortunately, because the local council of the city of Munich has forbidden the FREEDOM PARTY to film or photograph counter-demonstrators. Clearly the City Council has a vested interest to prevent that the general public will be alerted to how aggressive and violent Muslims and left-wing extremists are in Munich. Some Lefties were gloating happily about the attack, applauded and laughed. [more from PI in German] . The German text is below the fold!…
| — Hat tip: Winds of Jihad | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Senate Speaker Under Fire for Berlusconi Vote ‘Insinuations’
Grasso said ballot on ejecting ex-premier should not be secret
(ANSA) — Rome, October 23 — Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso came under heavy fire from Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party on Wednesday for suggesting a vote on whether to eject the ex-premier from parliament should not be secret in order to ensure it is untainted.
The floor of the Upper House is expected to vote next month on whether to strip Berlusconi of his Senate seat on the basis of a 2012 anti-corruption law after a tax-fraud conviction against the 77-year-old was upheld by the supreme court, making it definitive.
The centre-right PdL says the existing rules that state the ballot should be secret should apply.
But many lawmakers in Premier Enrico Letta’s centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) want the rules changed because they fear a secret ballot would help Berlusconi to persuade lawmakers to break their parties’ line and vote for him to keep his seat.
Grasso, a PD member and former national anti-Mafia prosecutor, seemed to side with them on Tuesday.
“If it’s a secret vote, it’ll be necessary to see whether it really is a vote of conscience or whether it depends on other interests,” he said. “If it’s an open vote, everything will be clearer”.
This stirred an angry reaction from his predecessor as Senate Speaker, Renato Schifani. “It’s extremely serious that Speaker Grasso is talking about the possibility of an open vote, as the regulations on this issue are clear and unequivocal,” said Schifani, who is now the PdL’s Senate whip. “It’s incredible to suspect that Senators could pursue interests other than their conscience in a secret vote and we hope that it’s an unfortunate misunderstanding. “Clarification would be opportune”. Renato Brunetta, the PdL’s Lower House whip, said Grasso was guilty of making a “very serious insinuation”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy ‘Was Spied on by U.S. NSA, ‘ Says Greenwald
Rome also target of British espionage, says American journalist
(ANSA) — Rome, October 24 — The Italian government was among the foreign administrations spied on by the US National Security Agency (NSA), Glenn Greenwald, the America journalist who first published former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s leaked documents, has said. “The NSA carries out many espionage activities on European governments, including Italy’s,” Greenwald told Italian weekly l’Espresso.
Greenwald gave the interview to l’Espresso before the furore over alleged US spying on the phone calls of German Chancellor Angela Merkel exploded.
He added that the British intelligence services also spied on data in Italian telephone calls and Internet traffic and exchanged the information with the NSA.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Po Rises One Metre in 24 Hours Amid Torrential Rain
Storms pound northern and central Italy
(ANSA) — Rome, October 24 — Unrelenting rain in northern Italy has caused the country’s longest river, the Po, to rise one metre over the course of 24 hours, agriculture association Coldiretti reported on Thursday.
The Po flows from west to east across almost the entire width of northern Italy, and was measured at the Becca Bridge, located in the province of Pavia, south of Milan.
Storms pummelled Tuscany once more, after causing one death, flooding, evacuations and several rescues earlier this week.
The area between Florence and Siena were hit particularly hard.
Fire brigade divers rescued a woman in a rural Tuscany near the city of Grosseto who was trapped in her water-filled car.
An elderly couple was stranded in their home when a high voltage power line fell across a road. Firefighters in an amphibious vehicle came to the rescue of a number of janitors stuck in a flooded school the rural Tuscan town of Volterra.
Volterra’s mayor closed schools in two nearby villages.
In the coastal city of Livorno, an intense downpour between 4:30 and 5:15 Thursday morning unleashed 21.6 mm of rain in 10 minutes.
Cornices and roof tiles were ripped away in gusts of up to 65 km per hour.
Coldiretti said extreme weather influenced by climate change has caused damages of roughly one billion euros to agriculture so far in Italy this year.
The farmers’ association also pointed out that five million Italians live in unstable hydrogeological zones, at risk of flooding or landslides.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Neanderthal Gums Relieved by Toothpicks
Fossil teeth point to Neanderthals relying on toothpicks to ease gum disease.
Our long-lost Homo neanderthalensis cousins used the toothpicks to clean their teeth and even relieve the pain of gum disease, suggests a team at Spain’s Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES). The practice, one suspects, likely beat using a spear.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norse Parliament Found Under Scottish Car Park
An 11th century Norse Viking parliament has been found beneath a car park in a small town in the Scottish highlands, the second time a ‘thing’ has ever been discovered in the UK.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Hunter Misses Elk and Hits Man on the Toilet
A 70-year-man has been seriously injured in Norway after a stray bullet from an elk hunt whizzed straight through the wooden wall of his country cabin and into his abdomen.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Out of Hand’: Europe Furious Over US Spying Allegations
The newest allegations of US spying have unleashed a torrent of criticism and concern in Europe. If suspicions unearthed by SPIEGEL that the US tapped Chancellor Merkel’s cell phone turn out to be true, the ramifications for trans-Atlantic ties could be immense.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Paris Also Snoops on US, Says Ex-French Spy Boss
Spying on allies is all in a day’s work, the former head of France’s domestic intelligence agency (pictured) said on Thursday, following reports that the US National Security Agency recorded millions of French phone calls.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Romania Charges Ex-Chief of Communist Prison With Genocide
Romanian prosecutors have charged the former commander of a Communist labor camp with genocide. Ion Ficior is accused of playing a decisive role in the deaths of more than 100 political prisoners.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Shock After Italian Teen Beaten to Death in UK
Four Lithuanians charged in murder of 19-year-old Joele Leotta
(ANSA) — Rome, October 23 — Italy was shocked Wednesday at reports of a brutal gang slaying at the weekend of a northern Italian teenager who had gone to England to study and find work.
Four Lithuanian nationals have been charged with attacking and killing 19-year-old Joele Leotta in Maidstone, Kent, British police said.
The four will appear via video link in Medway Magistrates’ Court tomorrow, police sources said.
They were named as Tomas Gelezinis, 30, Saulius Tamoliunas, 23, Linas Zidonis, 21, and Aleksandras Zuravliovas, 26. The four also face charges of aggravated battery in connection with an assault on a second Italian victim.
Police said they had arrested a 30-year-old man, the tenth person of interest in the ongoing murder investigation. Initial reports suggested the gang attacked and killed Leotta, following him into his apartment, after accusing him of stealing jobs.
But police stressed that although they cannot say anything about a motive, they were not treating the case as racially motivated.
Earlier, police said seven men had been remanded in custody and two released in connection with the fatal beating.
Richard Allan, spokesman for the Kent Police, told ANSA that he could give no more details other than the fact the seven suspects were “European”.
Earlier, police said the men were “of foreign nationality, not British”.
There were unconfirmed reports they might be Bulgarian, Polish and Lithuanian.
Another unconfirmed report suggested that the murder might have been a case of mistaken identity.
What is certain is that Leotta died after he was kicked and punched by a gang of men aged 21 to 45.
Leotta, who may also have been stabbed in the attack, had travelled from his home in the northern town of Nibionno, near the city of Lecco, to Britain 10 days earlier to learn English and find work.
“It’s not possible you can be killed because of a job,” Leotta’s cousin told ANSA.
His father said: “All I know is he’s dead.
“He’d just arrived there. He wasn’t a trouble-maker”.
Friends, neighbours and officials told ANSA “He was a good lad, forced to go abroad to earn a decent wage”.
His basketball coach said “he wasn’t the kind of kid who went looking for trouble”.
A friend of the victim sustained injuries to the neck, head and back that do not threaten his life. Authorities say Alex Galbiati was being treated in hospital.
Leotta’s family, informed of the killing on Monday, has travelled to Kent.
They are being assisted by the Consul General of Italy in London, Massimiliano Mazzanti, who told ANSA that he is following the case closely.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Every Child Should Get Free Vitamins to Stave Off Rickets, Chief Doctor Says
Every child in the country should be given free vitamins by the NHS in order to stave off the return of rickets, the Chief Medical Officer for England has said.
Experts said the changes should be introduced because too many children were being denied vital nutrients by poor diets, while getting too little sunshine because they spend too much time indoors on computers and gaming consoles.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: PM Announces New Measures to Help Muslim Students and Entrepreneurs
Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
New proposals will extend availability of Start-Up and student loans to make them consistent with Islamic financial principles.
The proposals, announced by the Prime Minister at his annual Eid al-Adha reception, will benefit aspiring Muslim entrepreneurs and students who may be deterred from starting their own business or entering higher education due to their religious financial beliefs. The proposals will see the schemes becoming more accessible to anyone who adopts similar financial principles — not just Muslims.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UN’s Zwarte Piet Critic is an ‘Unpaid Volunteer’ Says Belgian Paper
The United Nations official who said the Netherlands’ Sinterklaas festivities should be scrapped because Zwarte Piet is a throw-back to slavery is a volunteer who is not paid by the UN and does not speak on behalf of the organisation, according to Belgian newspaper De Morgen.
There has been an outcry in the Netherlands since Verene Shepherd made her comments about Zwarte Piet and racism on a television programme. But according to UN spokesman Xabier Celaya in De Morgen, Shepherd is an ‘independent expert chosen by member states’.
Sinterklaas is also celebrated in Belgium and the festivities there also include Zwarte Piet.
Unesco
Shepherd leads a four-person strong working group which was set up in 2008. In January the team, known as the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, wrote to the Dutch government asking for clarification about the character of Zwarte Piet. It also asked about plans to have the festivities included in Unesco world heritage listings.
Marc Jacobs, Belgian’s Unesco representative, said in an opinion piece on website deredactie.be, that Shepherd’s group does not represent Unesco in any case. ‘The four signatories are not a Unesco recognised body but used United Nations letter paper,’ he said.
However, according to the Volkskrant, the team will publish a report on the case which will be presented to the UN’s high commissioner on human rights or the human rights council.
That could lead to a UN resolution, UN expert Dick Leurdijk of the Clingendael institute told the paper. Eventually, the Netherlands could be recommended to drop the Sinterklaas festivities, although the Netherlands would be free to refuse to do this, Leurdijk said.
Groningen
Meanwhile, Groningen city council is reportedly considering inviting Shepherd to the northern city to witness the arrival of Sinterklaas and his Zwarte Piets on November 16.
The council wants to show Shepherd ‘what an enormous children’s party’ is celebrted every year, the NRC reported.
However, the town of Hoogezand has cancelled plans to include multi-coloured Piets in its Sinkerklaas celebrations for disadvantaged children after receiving email threats and accusations that officials were traitors.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
US Spy Scandal Takes Centre Stage at EU Summit
Letta joins others in branding case ‘unacceptable’ if true
(ANSA) — Brussels, October 24 — A widening US spy scandal on Thursday took centre stage at the EU summit in Brussels as reports of European phone and email tapping by the US National Security Agency (NSA) triggered alarm.
As furor spread over reports this week that the NSA had eavesdropped on millions of phone calls in France, tapped Italian communications and government, and had listened in on the cell phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European leaders carved room in their tightly planned meetings to put data privacy and a response to US spying on the forefront of their agendas.
European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding urged leaders at the Brussels summit to deliver a “strong and unequivocal” response from their meetings on Thursday, a spokesperson for Reding said.
The European Council meeting opened on the NSA spy scandal and its implications, invading a slot scheduled for digital innovation and development.
New privacy laws for personal data are now also on the table.
“In the draft of conclusions from the EU summit, which the leaders are discussing today, there is reference to the need to approve a directive on data protection next year, because it is important to reestablish trust,” European Council President Herman van Rompuy declared.
NSA snooping was already the focus of a bilateral meeting between Merkel and French President Francois Hollande after revelations of the NSA’s massive collection of French communications by newspaper Le Monde this week, but is now expected also to be broached in a bilateral meeting between Italian Premier Enrico Letta and Hollande, originally focused on migrant policy.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on Thursday summoned the US ambassador to Berlin for a 14:00 appointment regarding reports of NSA tapping Merkel’s cell phone splashed across the front pages of Germany’s major newspapers.
A spokesperson for the foreign minister said the aim of the meeting was to “clearly explain to (the ambassador) the position of the (German) federal government”.
A German parliament supervisory group in Berlin held an extraordinary meeting to discuss NSA spying on the chancellor, a hypothesis that Austrian Chancellor Michael Spindelegger called “unacceptable”.
Spindelegger pointed out that the alleged act “is not yet proven” and called for an investigation.
After reports emerged earlier this week that the NSA had included Italian communications in its notorious Prism digital spying programme, news broke on Thursday indicating the NSA also spied on the Italian government.
“The NSA carries out many espionage activities on European governments, including Italy’s,” said Glenn Greenwald, the American journalist who first published former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s leaked documents in an interview with Italian weekly l’Expresso.
Greenwald added that the British intelligence services also spied on data in Italian telephone calls and Internet traffic and exchanged the information with the NSA.
Moreover, Italian secret services had a role in British data collection courtesy of a “third-level agreement”, Greenwald said.
Italian Premier Enrico Letta said Thursday that reports the NSA spied on the Italian government would be “unacceptable” if true.
“We cannot accept that there are shady areas or doubts,” Letta told reporters in Brussels.
“Obviously all the checks must be made, but we want all the truth. It’s not acceptable, nor imaginable, that there are activities of this type”.
The director of the Italian intelligence agency DIS, Gianpiero Massolo, has denied any sensitive Italian data was passed to US intelligence and dismissed the notion that Italian embassies in the US were being spied on when he was called to testify to the Italian parliament’s intelligence supervisory committee Copasir last June.
Copasir summoned Massolo when the first news reports based on documents leaked by Snowden broke to explain what the Italian intelligence director knew about US spying on Italy and Italians.
Ex-French intelligence chief Bernard Squarcini, meanwhile, dismissed the furor over NSA’s intrusions as ingenuous and naive.
“The Americans spy on us on an industrial and commercial level just as we spy on them, because it is in the national interest to defend our companies,” Squarcini told newspaper Le Figaro in an interview.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libyan Air Force Colonel Assassinated in Benghazi
(AGI) Tripoli, Oct 24 — A Libyan air force colonel, Adel Jalil al Tawahi, was assassinated by unknown persons while leaving his home on Thursday, in the Hadaiq district of Benghazi. Al Tawahi, who worked at the Benina air base, was shot several times in the head and chest. Benina played an important role in the armed uprising in 2011 that put an end to four decades of the dictatorship of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Cyrenaica Announces it Has Formed a New Government
After declaring semi-autonomy from Tripoli after Gaddafi ousting
(ANSAmed) — TRIPOLI, OCTOBER 24 — The eastern coastal Libyan region of Cyrenaica has formed a government, its National Transitional Council told reporters at a news briefing Thursday.
The birthplace of the Libyan civil war that toppled dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Cyrenaica declared semi-autonomy from Tripoli in March 2012.
The new government is made up of 23 ministers representing all the cities and peoples living in the four districts of Ajdabiya, Benghazi, Green Mountain, and Tobruk, authorities said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Protesters in Tunis Chase Al Jazeera Crew Out
Students rally over dead agents, Ennahda offices set on fire
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, OCTOBER 24 — Demonstrators staging an anti-government sit-in on Thursday chased an Al Jazeera TV crew out of Kasbah Square in the nation’s capital. Protesters had greeted the crew with shouts of “Al Jazeera go home”. The Tunisian opposition has long accused the Qatari-owned broadcaster of pro-government bias in its coverage of the country, which is currently led by the Islamic Ennahda party.
Al Jazeera has also been accused of manipulating footage of opposition events to favor ruling parties.
Also on Thursday, funerals were held for six national guardsmen and a policeman who were gunned down yesterday by militiamen in the central town of Sidi Ali Ben Aoun and in the northern town of Menzel Bourguiba.
High schools and universities throughout the country were paralyzed as thousands of students took to the streets to protest the massacre. Secular students clashed with ultra-orthodox Salafists at La Manouba public university. Also on Thursday, moments of tension were reported in the cities of Kasserine and Kef, where Ennahda party offices was set on fire. Dozens of onlookers stood outside, cheering when smoke started pouring out of the windows.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Three Days of National Mourning for Tunisian Officers Killed
7 National Guard members shot by terrorists on Wednesday
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, OCTOBER 24 — Beginning Thursday and through Saturday, Tunisia will be in national mourning in honor of seven National Guard officers killed Wednesday afternoon in the Sidi Bouzid governorate in a shootout with an Islamist terrorist group. The decision was made by Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki, who Thursday evening said in an address to the nation that the military and police would be granted “any and all means to defeat the plague of terrorism”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
(AGI) Tunis, Oct 24 — Tunisian demonstrators on Thursday set fire to the Islamist Ennahda party’s headquarters in the north-western city of Kef. Eyewitnesses said the building first suffered an arson attack and was later looted by demonstrators.
The attack took place on day one of a three-day mourning period marking the funeral of one of six policemen killed during a gunfight with jihadist militants. Mired by instability, the Tunisian government has postponed talks designed to break the country’s on-going political deadlock.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Church Provides US$ 72 Million in Aid to 20 Syrian Cities
The Pontifical Council ‘Cor Unum’ presents a summary of its actions so far. Altogether, “55 entities [are] working in the field [. . .] and 32 Catholic institutions [are] involved so far” under the coordination of Caritas Lebanon.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) — Catholic humanitarian organisations have allocated US$ 72 million to cope with the crisis in Syria and neighbouring regions, with help sent to 20 Syrian cities. Aid was also delivered to refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, Cyprus, and Egypt.
“These are the data recorded on 9 October, as a result of the mapping of aid distributed in Syria, carried out following the meeting for the co-ordination of Catholic charitable associations present in the Syrian situation, convened by the Pontifical Council Cor Unum from 4 to 5 June 2013,” the Council said in a statement. Altogether, “55 entities [are] working in the field [. . .] and 32 Catholic institutions [are] involved so far”.
In the same statement, the Council noted that “Until now, the difficulty of obtaining information regarding the needs of the population affected and the development of the political and social population has led to the sometimes sporadic nature of the aid given, and to a multiplicity of forms of support to the institutions present in the field.”
Hence, the decision was taken to create “an office for co-ordinating information on the humanitarian aid allocated by the Catholic Church, with the aim of avoiding the dispersal of efforts and ensuring a homogeneous approach. Management activity was entrusted to Caritas Middle East-North Africa, based in Beirut; it will have the task of appraising and monitoring the extent of the aid gathered, and of sharing necessary information with all the institutions involved, including those not present at the Cor Unum meeting.
“This tool will allow the Church to obtain a complete picture of humanitarian aid efforts, with the intention of providing a detailed analysis of the needs in the field; to transfer to Caritas Syria the information necessary on charitable works in aid of the Syrian population; to highlight the profile of the Catholic Church among those involved in the humanitarian sector in Syria, and to share information within the network of Catholic organisations involved, both inside and outside Syrian territory.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Gives Christians 80 Lashes for Communion Wine as UN Blasts Human Rights Record
Four Iranian Christians were reportedly sentenced to 80 lashes for drinking wine for communion, a shocking punishment meted out even as a new United Nations report blasted the Islamic republic for its systematic persecution of non-Muslims.
The four men were sentenced Oct. 6 after being arrested in a house church last December and charged with consuming alcohol in violation of the theocracy’s strict laws, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide. They were among several Christians punished for their faith in a nation where converting from Islam to Christianity can bring the death penalty.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Kismet’ Looks at Impact of Turkish Soaps on Women
Greek-Cypriot docu analysis effects on social,religious life
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, OCTOBER 23 — Turkish soap operas have millions of fans all across the Balkans, the Middle East and North Africa and this is a well-known fact. But what remains largely unexplored, as daily Kathimerini notes, is how they have affected the social and religious lives of Muslim women, especially in the Arab world, and changed the way they see themselves and their role in society. The impact of Turkish soaps on Muslim women is the subject of a new Greek-Cypriot documentary by Nina Maria Paschalidou, which will be competing at the International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam (IDFA) from November 20 to December 1, the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (AMNA) reported. “Kismet” was filmed in Turkey, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bulgaria and Greece. The director also attended several shoots of popular Turkish soap operas, talked to famous stars of the genre, and chatted with female fans about how they identify with the heroines and whether they see the serials as a springboard for their emancipation. In Cairo, for example, a women’s rights activist and victim of sexual assault tells Paschalidou that the series “What is Fatmagul’s fault?” has shattered all sorts of taboos and encouraged women to come forward and speak openly on the subject of rape. Another woman, in the UAE, confesses that after watching the same series she decided to divorce her husband, whom she had been forced to marry while still a child.
Paschalidou also interviewed a number of imams for “Kismet,” who, unsurprisingly, criticized Turkish soaps and the role models that they promote. The director also notes how some fear that Turkish soap operas are one of the key factors in a spike in the divorce rate in the Arab world. “In Egypt, the women watch the shows separately from the men,” Paschalidou told AMNA. “These shows openly and simply address Muslim women on issues such as marriage, divorce, personal relationships and love. They are exported to 80 countries and now, after the success of ‘Suleiman the Magnificent,’ to even more than that. The fact is that the Turkish powerhouse industry, television, has even helped independent Turkish cinema as the soaps feature very famous actors who also play in films.” Today, Turkish soap operas shown on local television have become a weekly staple for hundreds of thousands of Greek women.
So what is it that makes the programs so popular with women in Orthodox Christian Greece? “It is in part because they are simply trendy right now, but mainly because they broke an ethnic taboo,” Paschalidou said. “In the film we focus on a Turkish woman married to a Greek who is learning Turkish by watching the soap operas, but also on a Greek woman of Asia Minor descent who has been deeply influenced by the soap ‘Suleiman the Magnificent’.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Extracting Clues, Lessons of Beirut Attack, 30 Years Later
US and French soldiers on Wednesday honoured the 299 servicemen killed in the Beirut barracks bombing of October 23, 1983. But 30 years later, there are still doubts surrounding the attack, although the lessons are quite clear.
Thirty years ago, a truck packed with explosives and inflammable gas ploughed through the security rim of the US Marines headquarters in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, blasting the building and killing 241 Americans — the deadliest single-day death toll for the US Marine Corps since the World War II Battle of Iwo Jima.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Qur’anic Scholars and Imams Oppose a Woman’s Right to Drive
Some Muslim leaders are horrified by the prospect that on 26 October a group of women might break the law by driving a car. Yet, nowhere in the Qur’an does it say that women cannot drive. Under the existing law, women who break the rule could get ten lashes. For some Qur’anic scholars, women drivers are at risk of bearing children with physical problems.
Riyadh (AsiaNews/Agencies) — At least 150 Muslim leaders, including imams and Qur’anic scholars, protested yesterday in front of the royal palace in order to stop a campaign by Saudi women for the right to drive a car.
Although neither Islamic law nor Saudi’s traffic laws explicitly ban women from driving, Saudi authorities still do not issue driver’s licenses to women.
Since the right-to-drive campaign was launched last month, Saudi women have been uploading videos and sharing pictures online of themselves driving. On 26 October, many of them plan to invade Saudi roads. So far, 16,000 signatures have been collected.
In Saudi Arabia, women cannot leave home or go abroad on their own. To do so, they need the husband’s permission and a family escort.
Granting women the right to drive is seen as a defeat for men that could lead to society’s “moral decay”. For this reason, if a woman is caught driving, she can be sentenced to ten lashes.
For some time, King Abdullah has been trying to nudge Saudi society towards greater liberalisation, but he has come up against conservative opposition.
For some of Muslim experts in fact, women drivers could harm their ovaries and give birth to children with physical problems.
According to some imams and Qur’anic scholars, the pro-women this campaign is funded by the United States.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Society: Jewish Youth Leaving Turkey Due to Political Strain
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, OCTOBER 24 — The negative atmosphere and deteriorating relationship between Turkey and Israel is putting pressure on the small community of nearly 15,000 Jews in Turkey and prompting young Turkish Jews to emigrate from the country, as Turkish daily Hurriyet reports from Jerusalem.
Anti-Semitism, triggered by harsh statements from the Turkish government, has led to the migration of hundreds of Jewish youngsters from Turkey to the U.S. or Europe, Nesim Guvenis, deputy chairman the Association of Turkish Jews in Israel, told Hurriyet recently. This unease went before the Mavi Marmara incident, and was aggravated by the notorious “one minute” spat between the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Israeli President Shimon Peres in Davos, according to Guvenis. Guvenis is one of the 80,000 Turkish Jews in Israel who migrated in 1981. His primary reason for migrating was his two children’s unease in the politically tense Turkey of the late 1970s. “They didn’t want to go to university where leftists or other groups were putting pressure on them to take sides at school. They went to university in Israel and we also had to move again after a couple of years. The first two years in Israel were difficult, and we had to learn the language. But I don’t regret it,” he said. Guvenis also expressed unease on the remarks of Turkish leaders against Jews, which he says does not contribute to perception of Turkish people. “Look the environment in Turkey at the moment. We are uncomfortable with being ‘othered’… I am more Turkish than many. But we couldn’t make them believe it,” he said. Israeli businessman now hesitate to make new investments in Turkey due to the atmosphere of enmity, Guvenis also noted, contrasting the present day with the past, when Turkey had much stronger relations with Israel.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Blogger Tal Al-Mallouhi Freed After 4 Years in Prison
Long considered youngest prisoner of conscience in the world
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, OCTOBER 24 — The well-known Syrian blogger Tal Al-Mallouhi was freed Thursday after four years in a Syrian jail as part of a prisoner exchange involving Turkish, Qatari and Lebanese security services, reports the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). She had been sentenced to five years in jail for spying in 2011. Al-Mallohi’s release was part of the liberation of an unspecified number of Syrian women detained in Syrian regime jails in exchange for nine Lebanese Shiites captured in May 2012 by Syrian fighters and of two Turkish pilots taken hostage by Lebanese militiamen in August 2013. Al-Mallouhi, who was detained in December 2009 at age 19 and is the granddaughter of a former Syrian minister, was long held to be the youngest prisoner of conscience in the world. Born in Homs, a city that has since been almost entirely destroyed by the conflict underway in Syria, Al-Mallouhi was found guilty of spying for the CIA in early 2011. Syrian media at the time reported that some of her writings appearing on three different blogs proved her guilt, in which she expressed support for the Palestinian issue, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the radical Palestinian movement, as well as others in which she criticised former US president George W. Bush, who Al-Mallouhi compared with Hitler.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The group ‘Islamic State Isis’ has distributed a video in which a Jihad warrior from Belgium calls for Jihad. “I first want to focus my message to the descendants of apes and pigs.”
The movie ends with a call to Belgian youth to either come to Syria or carry out attacks ‘In the heart of Europe’. “I call upon the youth to stand up for the religion of Allah. Each of you must do his best to come here. Hurry up .. Oh youth in Europe!, and specifically in Antwerp, Vilvoorde, Brussels, Gent and Mechelen. Stand up and join our ranks. Do not be a servant of democracy, but be a servant of Allah.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Real Reason for Saudi Arabia’s Shift Away From U.S.
Saudi Arabia has warned of a shift away from the U.S.
Here’s the real reason: China just dethroned the U.S. as the world’s largest importer of oil.
As Oil Price notes:
Last month the world witnessed a paradigm shift: China surpassed the United States as the world’s largest consumer of foreign oil, importing 6.3 million barrels per day compared to the United States’ 6.24 million. This trend is likely to continue and this gap is likely to grow, according to the EIA’s October short-term energy outlook.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why Saudi Arabia is the Next South Africa
That oil-rich Saudi Arabia will face the same sanctions and global opprobrium which South Africa suffered in the 1980s may seem unlikely today. But the evolution in global attitudes toward women’s rights suggests that gender discrimination is fast becoming unacceptable. The men who rule Saudi Arabia and countries like it would be wise to change their policies toward their female citizens, before change is forced on them.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greenpeace Activists Still Face Long Prison Sentence After Change of Charges
Greenpeace said that the new charges of hooliganism change nothing and that the organisation will continue in its quest to free 30 activists
The Russian government has dropped the piracy charges against the 30 Greenpeace activists who have been held in a Murmansk prison since September 19 after a failed attempt to board a Gazprom oil rig in the Arctic Ocean.
Instead, Danish citizen Anne Mie Roer Jensen and the 29 other activists now face charges of hooliganism, which can carry a punishment of up to seven years in prison.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India: Dark Skin Campaign Seeks to Stop Prejudice
A campaign called ‘Dark is Beautiful’ has gained popularity in India and is bringing an important debate to the forefront: the idea that beauty is equated with fair skin.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Sharif Urges Obama to End Drone Strikes
Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif has called for an end to US drone strikes in Pakistan during a meeting with US President Obama. Meanwhile, both leaders pledged to cooperate on security issues that have strained ties.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Former Chinese Leader Hu Jintao Indicted
On October 10th, Spain’s top criminal court indicted former Chinese leader Hu Jintao “as part of an investigation into whether the Chinese government tortured and repressed the people of Tibet as part of an attempted genocide,” in the words of one news report.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of Dogs Killed by Contaminated Jerky Treats Made in China; FDA Still Mystified by Cause
(NaturalNews) Thousands of family dogs across the USA have been sickened by pet jerky treats made in China, and nearly 600 dogs have died. The FDA has issued a warning over the deadly jerky treats but has not forced any sort of product recall.
So far, the cause of the fatalities remains a mystery. The FDA says it has tested jerky treats for heavy metals, pesticides, antibiotics, chemicals and even Salmonella but cannot find the cause. The agency is warning pet owners to watch their pets for symptoms of poisoning which may include “decreased appetite, decreased activity, vomiting, diarrhea (sometimes with blood or mucus), increased water consumption and / or increased urination.”
According to USA Today, the deadly jerky treats “come mostly from China,” and the number of dogs sickened or killed by these treats has been rising all year.
The treats causing this epidemic of death, says USA Today, are “made of chicken, duck, sweet potatoes or dried fruit.”
Most consumers do not fully realize that pet treats do NOT have to list their country of origin. Many pet treats are highly deceptive on their packaging, sometimes showing a logo of the continental USA and claiming to be “made with beef from the USA” even though the treats themselves are manufactured in China using toxic chemicals.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Next Frontier in the Move to Ban Tanning Beds
Australia cracks down on indoor tanning amid global push to cut skin-cancer rates
While public-health officials in the U.S. consider placing warnings about cancer risk on tanning beds, authorities in Australia are going much further to discourage their use: They are banning the devices altogether.
Australian officials say the crackdown is a response to the country having some of the highest skin-cancer rates in the world. Skin cancer accounts for over 80% of all new cases of cancer diagnosed in the country each year, according to Australia’s Cancer Council, and caused more than 2,000 deaths in 2011, the latest available data.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hassan Abdi Dhuhulow is the first Westgate Mall attacker to be identified. His sister expressed shock at his involvement in the bloody four-day siege: ‘I don’t believe that is him. It doesn’t look like him.’
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Tried to Stop Kenya Mall Attacker
Norway’s intelligence agency tried to stop Hassan Abdi Dhuhulow, the Norwegian citizen linked to Kenya’s Westgate mall attack, as he was planning to leave the country to join the Somali militant group Al-Shabaab, its chief has told AP.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pirates Kidnap Two U.S. Sailors Off Nigerian Coast: Sources
(Reuters) — Pirates attacked an oil supply vessel off the Nigerian coast and kidnapped the captain and chief engineer, both U.S. citizens, American officials said on Thursday as the Nigerian military ordered its Navy to rescue the men.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The world’s most wanted woman, Samantha Lewthwaite, hired a luxury health clinic in South Africa for the birth of her fourth child, it has been revealed. The terror suspect, nicknamed the ‘White Widow’, is believed to have first travelled to the country in 2008, a year after her suicide bomber husband Germaine Lindsay committed the July 7 attacks in London.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Self-Assembly on the Savanna: IKEA Shelters House Refugees
The Swedish furniture giant IKEA has sent self-assembly huts to the savanna of Ethiopia to house Somali refugees. If the test case proves successful, they soon could be used as alternatives to tents in other parts of the world.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
European Mars Rover Prototype Takes Big Test Drive in Chile Desert
A disruptive dust devil did not stop a European Mars rover prototype from finishing its work in the Chilean desert recently, though the wind storm did force researchers to take shelter as it carried away a chair from the nearby remote control center.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cheap Flights From Africa Fuelling Illegal Immigration, Claims EU
Illegal immigration into Europe is being fuelled by airlines that sell budget tickets from North Africa for as little as €150, a senior EU border control official has warned.
Migrants buy low-cost, one-way tickets from Morocco and Algeria to Turkey and then slip into Europe via Turkey’s porous land borders with Greece and Bulgaria, according to Gil Arias, the deputy executive director of Frontex.
They are able to take advantage of a recent policy of so-called visa diplomacy on the part of Turkey, which has sought to expand its influence in the Middle East by relaxing visa restrictions for citizens from other Muslim nations.
The route is quicker and safer than taking a people-smuggling boat across the Mediterranean.
Two such vessels sank earlier this month in the waters between Libya and Lampedusa in Italy, with the loss of more than 500 lives.
“Due to this visa policy by Turkey to the North African nations, people are flying to Istanbul on cheap flights and then on to Greece and more recently, Bulgaria,” said Mr Arias, who previously served as a police inspector and border control official in Spain.
“When they get there they discard their travel documents, and will sometimes pretend to be either Palestinians or Syrians in order to try to claim refugee status.”
There is no suggestion that airlines are complicit in illegal immigration, but Mr Arias said Frontex was powerless to stop them carrying such passengers — mainly Moroccan and Algerian passport-holders. He said there was no evidence in advance that the passengers were planning to cross into the European Union.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mexicans are running from drug cartel horrors and seeking asylum in skyrocketing numbers. Refugees tell the Daily News they ran for their lives for chance at safety in the U.S., where more than 23,000 Mexicans fled in the first nine months of 2013.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Malmstrom: EU Portal Now Available in Arabic
it gives infos on policies and procedures of 28 Member States
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, OCTOBER 24 — After the English, French and Spanish versions, the EU Immigration Portal is now available also in Arabic. “I am very pleased that today the portal will also be available in Arabic and easily accessible to all those who are looking for information about sometimes complicated procedures” the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Cecilia Malmstrom, announced.
“Many people who want to move to the European Union do not know what possibilities exist, how to apply for a resident or work permit. This is why in November 2011 I launched the ‘EU Immigration Portal’“ she added.
The ‘EU Immigration Portal’ is a website with hands-on information for foreign nationals interested in moving to the EU. It offers explanation of the possibilities of legal migration into the EU and of the risks related to irregular migration. It is intended for potential immigrants, third-country nationals already in the EU and other stakeholders such as governments and NGOs.
The site (http://ec.europa.eu/immigration/) offers more than 600 pages of text, bringing together the EU legislation on immigration and the immigration policies and procedures of the 28 Member States.
Workers, researchers, students and those looking to join their families already in the EU can find information adapted to their needs, about the Member State they are interested in moving to. The Portal also links directly to the websites of national authorities dealing with immigration. Users can also find straightforward information about their rights and whether they need a visa to come to the EU.
Migrants and potential migrants also find a vast contact directory of governmental and non governmental organisations which can help them. A Portuguese version of the site is underway. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Some 127 Migrants Rescued From Fishing Boat Near Lampedusa
Conditions at sea poor, boat sighted by border patrol
(ANSA) — Lampedusa, October 24 — Coast Guard patrol boats rescued about 127 migrants crammed on to a 15-metre-long fishing boat that was in serious distress about seven miles south of Lampedusa, authorities said Thursday.
Conditions at sea were rough, with significant winds as the migrants were transferred on to two Coast Guard vessels heading towards Lampedusa. The boat had initially been sighted by a police patrol boat involved in an international maritime border control.
It noted that the boat was in serious trouble.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Left’s New Crusade: Adult-Kid Sex
Exclusive: Matt Barber exposes ‘progressive’ effort to roll-back laws against pedophilia
[WARNING: * Disturbing Content *]
Two years ago I — along with the venerable child advocate Dr. Judith Reisman — attended a Maryland conference hosted by the pedophile group B4U-ACT. Around 50 individuals were in attendance, including a number of admitted pedophiles (or “minor-attracted persons,” as they euphemistically prefer).
Also present were a few self-described “gay activists” and several supportive mental-health professionals. World renowned “sexologist” Dr. Fred Berlin of Johns Hopkins University gave the keynote address, opening with: “I want to completely support the goal of B4U-ACT.”
Here are some highlights from the conference:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Offensive’ Halloween Costumes Banned by US University
University of Colorado Boulder tells students to avoid costumes including cowboys, indians, white trash or anything potentially deemed offensive.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Geneva Conference Moves Toward Criminalizing “Islamophobia”
by Deborah Weiss
In its quest to criminalize speech that’s critical of all Islam-related topics, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)* endorsed the formation of a new Advisory Media Committee to address “Islamophobia.”
This past September, the OIC held “The First International Conference on Islamophobia: Law & Media.” The conference endorsed numerous recommendations which arose from prior workshops on Islamophobia from media, legal and political perspectives. A main conclusion was the consensus to institutionalize the conference and create an Advisory Media Committee to meet under the newly established OIC Media Forum based in Istanbul Turkey.
Supposedly, the purpose of the conference was to support an OIC campaign to “correct the image of Islam and Muslims in Europe and North America.” By this, it means to whitewash the intolerant, violent and discriminatory aspects of Islam and Islamists. The OIC has launched a campaign to provide disinformation to the public, delinking all Islam from these undesirable traits and attacks all who insist on these truths, as bigots, racists and Islamophobes.
The OIC is a 57 member organization consisting of Muslim countries whose long term goal is the worldwide implementation of Sharia law and seemingly the ultimate establishment of a Caliphate. Its members tend to vote together as a block in the UN, so it is extremely powerful, despite the fact that few people have heard of it.
Its present goal is the international criminalization of all speech that “defames” Islam, which the OIC defines as anything that sheds a negative light on Islam or Muslims, even when it’s true.
Its target is the West and one of its tactics is to accuse those who criticize Islam or its various interpretations as “Islamophobic.” It is attempting to pass the equivalent of Islamic blasphemy codes in the West, using accusations of bigotry to silence anyone who speaks the truth about Islamic terrorism or Islamic persecution of religious minorities.
The OIC uses international bodies such as the UN and international “consensus building” as a platform to achieve its goals. Certainly, if the OIC straightforwardly informed America and Europe of its aspirations to silence speech, it would gain no strides. Therefore, it uses bureaucratic, unaccountable entities such as the UN as a means to make inroads, using watered down language and words that sound palatable to the West in order to deceive the public about its underlying goals…
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Organization Creating Digital Back-Up of Monuments Before Islamic Supremacists Destroy Them
Kacyra said the project was born out of the heartbreak of seeing the Taliban pulverize the Afghan Buddha statues in 2001, but Gustavo Araoz, a senior preservationist who’s helping CyArk draw up a list of its next 400 sites, says similar destruction is playing out in slow motion across the globe.
“This happens every day at a smaller and much less dramatic scale,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Four Lithuanians charged with murdering a young Italian in Kent[UK].Leader of EU Socialist group of MEPs blames UKIP……He declared:`The xenophobic,aggressive,climate inflamed by populists such as UKIP and rhetoric of Conservative ministers is now leading to murder in the streets of Britain.`[Report from Daily Mail.]……..This man is an Austrian whose party is being hard-pressed by the populist Freedom Party which wants to leave the EU.
And so the disinformation and villification of UKIP begins.