The IMF is warning that the Arab oil states of the Middle East are facing future budget deficits, some of them as early as 2014. In the wake of the “Arab Spring”, many governments increased their public spending to soothe popular unrest, and — at the present price of oil — will not be able to maintain their budgets in balance.
In other news, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has given up hope of obtaining a presidential pardon for his tax fraud conviction, but is striving to avoid being ejected from the Senate, which he fears would lead to an “open season” against him on other charges.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Andy Bostom, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, KGS, Kitman, RR, Steen, 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.
Andrew Huszar: Confessions of a Quantitative Easer: “I Can Only Say: I’m Sorry, America”
“I can only say: I’m sorry, America. As a former Federal Reserve official, I was responsible for executing the centerpiece program of the Fed’s first plunge into the bond-buying experiment known as quantitative easing…. We were working feverishly to preserve the impression that the Fed knew what it was doing… The central bank continues to spin QE as a tool for helping Main Street. But I’ve come to recognize the program for what it really is: the greatest backdoor Wall Street bailout of all time…. Having racked up hundreds of billions of dollars in opaque Fed subsidies, U.S. banks have seen their collective stock price triple since March 2009. The biggest ones have only become more of a cartel: 0.2% of them now control more than 70% of the U.S. bank assets. As for the rest of America, good luck….. The implication is that the Fed is dutifully compensating for the rest of Washington’s dysfunction. But the Fed is at the center of that dysfunction.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Democrat Bill Would Let Obama Increase Debt Limit; Congress Wouldn’t Need to Vote
(CNSNews.com) — Democratic senators have introduced legislation that would grant President Barack Obama, and subsequent presidents, the authority to increase the legal limit on the federal government’s debt unless Congress subsequently voted to disapprove the increase.
The bill would effectively take elected members of Congress off the hook for approving an increase in the debt. If the president certified that he was going to increase the debt limit, Congress could simply let him do it without taking a vote — and putting members on the record.
Article 1, Section 8, Clause 2 of the Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to borrow money. It says: “Congress shall have power … to borrow money on the credit of the United States.”
Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) have introduced the Pay Our Bills Act, which would “permanently allow Congress to disapprove debt ceiling increases, instead of approving them.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Detroit’s Decision to Fend Off Bankruptcy: Pay Pensions or Banks?
This is David Allen’s second visit to Engine 40’s fire station on Detroit’s west side since February 2012 when a wall collapsed on him during a fire leaving him unable to walk without an aide. Last time he was here to clean out his locker. This time, as Detroit careens towards bankruptcy, he is back to talk with colleagues about their prospects…
Allen and his colleagues are among 30,000 Detroit city workers, past and present, who are about to learn what will happen to their pensions and healthcare if the city is allowed to file for a historic bankruptcy — the largest of its kind in history.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
House Voted to Get Banksters Back in the Derivatives Business
Wholesale destruction of U.S. economy may now continue without interruption
In late October, the House passed a “bipartisan tweak” to the Dodd-Frank bill Congress earlier passed off as “reform” after the banksters nearly crashed the financial system in 2008.
H.R. 992, the Swaps Regulatory Improvement Act, authored primarily by Citibank lobbyists, will allow predatory Wall Street financial institutions to once again engage in high-risk derivatives trading. Losses will be socialized and paid for by the American taxpayer through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or FDIC…
Wall Street lobbyists targeted House Democrats. 70 of them came out in support of the bill. Only two Republicans voted thumbs down. They were washed away by overwhelming support for bankster criminality.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
IMF Warns of Deficit Risk for Gulf States After Arab Uprisings
For excessive spending. Bahrain in deficit, Riyadh at risk from 2018
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI — Oil-rich Gulf monarchies are likely to see a budget gap starting in 2016 unless they begin reducing spending based on oil revenue estimates, warns the International Monetary Fund. The IMF said in a report released this week that oil-producing nations outside of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), such as Libya and Iraq, are also at risk. At the current rate of government spending and the price of crude oil at 120 dollars per barrel, Bahrain is already experiencing a deficit and Oman is expected to do so in 2015.
Saudi Arabia would instead be in the red as of 2018, according to IMF calculations. Libya and Iraq will continue to see a surplus at least until 2014, but an expected drop in oil production could lead to revenue too low to balance the spending immediately afterwards. Government spending by Middle Eastern states rose sharply following the Arab uprisings that shook the entire region starting in 2011. Many governments chose to modernise and develop infrastructure to better serve their populations, while at the same time raising wages and creating a stronger social safety net for the unemployed. Some countries, such as the United Arab Emirates, have already revised their budgets to prevent a deficit. However, the IMF holds that the revisions are not quick or effective enough to mitigate the risk.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Meet One of the Victims of Obama’s “Economic Recovery”
Have you ever cried yourself to sleep because you had no idea how you were going to pay the bills even though you were working as hard as you possibly could? You are about to hear from a single mother that has been there. Her name is Yolanda Vestal and she is another victim of Obama’s “economic recovery”. Yes, things have never been better for the top 0.01 percent of ultra-wealthy Americans that have got millions of dollars invested in the stock market. But for most of the rest of the country, things are very hard right now.
At this point, more than 102 million working age Americans do not have a job, and 40 percent of those that are actually working earn less than $20,000 a year in wages. If we actually are experiencing an “economic recovery”, then why is the federal government spending nearly a trillion dollars a year on welfare? And that does not even include entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare. We live in a nation where poverty is exploding and the middle class is shrinking with each passing day. But nothing is ever going to get fixed if we all stick our heads in the sand and pretend that everything is “just fine”.
What you are about to read is an open letter to Barack Obama that has gone absolutely viral on the Internet in recent days. It is a letter that a single mother named Yolanda Vestal posted on her Facebook page, and it has really struck a nerve because countless other young parents can clearly identify with what she is going through. The following is the text of her letter…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Economy: Wall Street Thrives, Main Street Dies
The man at the center of the storm has blown a giant hole in the notion that the Obama administration is looking out for middle class Americans. “Andrew Huszar: Confessions of a Quantitative Easer,” is a piece written for the Wall Street Journal by Huszar himself, revealing that he was the person responsible “for executing the centerpiece program of the Fed’s first plunge into the bond-buying experiment known as quantitative easing.”
Four years later, the scales have fallen from his eyes. “The central bank continues to spin QE as a tool for helping Main Street,” Huszar writes. “But I’ve come to recognize the program for what it really is: the greatest backdoor Wall Street bailout of all time.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
2019: The Future of Doctors Under Obama Universal Coverage for Health (O.U.C.H.)
The year was 2019, in the third term of the Reign of Obama the Secular. Owing to an extreme left wing Supreme Court stacked with four Obama appointees, who managed to declare the United States Constitution itself unconstitutional to the extent that it limited the ability of the Great One to serve no more than two terms, Obama was well on his way to becoming the first President since Roosevelt to be elected to four terms.
A generation that voted for free stuff in 2008, 2012, and 2016 begat another generation of voters who wanted free stuff. In time, the number of voters expecting free stuff — and knowing they would get it from Uncle Sugar — reached a tipping point. They soon outnumbered those who worked, paid taxes, and created jobs. For the next decade they continued to vote for politicians who promised free stuff. Of course, this ensured that the King of Free Stuff, Obama the Secular — who never met a government program he did not like — would be re-elected for life.
By 2019, the government had acquired Government Motors — which produced the Obamobile — a tinny scaled-down, politically correct Smart Car powered by chicken manure, which got 150 miles per gallon and rode two people and one sack of groceries comfortably. If you did not hit anything harder that a marshmallow, did not want to ride farther than ten miles, and did not need to carry anything, the Obamobile was great — and guaranteed not to crush you in an impact less than 5 miles per hour.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Company Admits New ‘Smart’ Street Lights Can Analyze Voices, Track People
To aid Homeland Security in “protecting its citizens”
The company behind a new ‘smart’ street lighting system which is being rolled out in major cities like Las Vegas admits that the technology has the capability of analyzing voices and tracking people, features that will aid the Department of Homeland Security in “protecting its citizens.”
We first reported on Intellistreets bragging of its product’s “homeland security” applications back in 2011, with the backlash from privacy advocates causing the company to remove a promotional video from YouTube. The video was later restored (see above), although comments were disabled.
However, Illuminating Concepts, the company behind Intellistreets, seems to be more comfortable in acknowledging the “security” aspects of its devices now that it has secured numerous lucrative government contracts to supply street lighting in several major cities.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dems Give Obama Ultimatum: Fix Health Plan Cancellations by Friday
House Democrats delivered a fix-it-or-else ultimatum Wednesday to President Obama, giving his administration until Friday to find an affordable solution for the millions of Americans losing their health plans under ObamaCare — or risk some Democrats backing a Republican solution.
The ultimatum from President Obama’s own party is another sign of the unrest within the Democratic caucus about the cancellation notices.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
DHS Funds Installation of White Boxes That Can Track Population of Entire City
Federal agency, police refuse to explain mesh network planned for “citywide deployment” in Seattle
Strange new off-white boxes popping up in downtown Seattle use wi-fi networks that can record the last 1,000 locations of a person using their cellphone’s MAC address, but the Department of Homeland Security — which funded the network to the tune of $2.7 million dollars — has refused to address the nightmare privacy implications of a system that could lead to the permanent tracking of an entire city’s population.
A report by The Stranger, a weekly Seattle newspaper, exposes how the boxes, which are attached to utility poles and include vertical antennae, can track cellphones even if they are not connected to the system’s wi-fi network.
Aruba — the company that provided the boxes to the Seattle Police Department — brags in its technical literature about how the boxes can keep track of “rogue” or “unassociated” devices, in other words your cellphone even if you have refused to let the system access your device’s wi-fi component.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Environmental Conservation Easements Trump-ing Property Rights
Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) with its “comprehensive planning” of Virginia’s rural areas
A new battle is waging in Virginia involving the restriction of land use in rural areas. The protagonists are the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) with its “comprehensive planning” of Virginia’s rural areas and Donald Trump with his proposed Trump National Golf Club in Albemarle County near Charlottesville, Virginia.
Trump Virginia Acquisitions, LLC, bought Patricia Kluge’s Estate Winery and Vineyard in 2011, a 1,200-acre property with a dormant nine-hole golf course designed by Arnold Palmer. Trump’s proposed golf course, expanded to 18-holes, will take up 480 acres, 216 which were placed under “conservation easement” by Patricia Kluge in 2006.
A “conservation easement” imposes certain restrictions on the homeowner’s use of their property in exchange for tax breaks. Dr. Cohen said that “golf courses with conservation easements are common throughout the United States, including on courses owned by Donald Trump.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Exclusive: Govt Documents Reveal DHS Domestic Spy Takeover
Government documents obtained exclusively by Infowars expose massive DHS domestic spy grid designed to track citizens in real time through mega government databases.
Exclusive documents obtained by Infowars from an insider government source have revealed the true origin and nature of the highly secretive ‘mesh network’ spy grid that has garnered massive media attention due to the fact that the network’s strange downtown Seattle spy boxes can track the last 1,000 GPS locations of cellphone users. But as new documents reveal, the grid is far deeper than the media is telling you. The Seattle DHS spy system ultimately ties in with an enormous stealth database that acts as an intelligence hub for all of your personal data.
On page 55 of the “Port Security Video Surveillance System with Wireless Mesh Network” project document that we have obtained, a diagram reveals the system’s basic communication abilities in regards to the Port of Seattle that the DHS has refused to comment on despite funding with millions in taxpayer dollars:
[…]
According to reports from Kiro 7 News, the mesh network devices can capture a mobile user’s IP address, mobile device type, apps used, current location and even historical location down to the last 1,000 places visited.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New Jersey Deer With Arrow in Its Head Saved After Nine-Day Stakeout
The deer, which regularly frequented the backyard of Susan Darrah’s Rockaway Township home, was caught and tranquilized before the blade and arrow shaft were pulled out. It was then given antibiotics to prevent any infection and tagged so it can be tracked in the future.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Administration Says More Than 100,000 Have Selected a Health Plan
New data shows that just over 100,000 people picked health plans in the first month of open enrollment through the state and federal insurance marketplaces established by the Affordable Care Act, a figure far lower than the Obama administration initially estimated would sign up during that period.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius disclosed the much-anticipated numbers during a conference call with reporters on Wednesday.
| [Return to headlines] |
ObamaCare: The Truth About Navigators
James O’Keefe, the guerrilla videographer who helped bring down ACORN (the “community organizing” group that Barack Obama worked for as a lawyer and trainer) and got NPR’s president fired, is back.
This time, his undercover investigators focused on Obamacare’s “navigators,” the nearly 50,000 people who, in the words of the Department of Health and Human Services, “will serve as an in-person resource for Americans who want additional assistance in shopping for and enrolling in plans” on the Obamacare exchanges (at least when they’re finally working). The total value of grants doled out for nonprofits and community organizations to hire navigators has topped $67 million nationwide, and some of the money is going to a group run by ACORN’s highly controversial founder.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey’s Ambassador to the USA, Namik Tan, TIKA President Serdar Çam, Warm Springs Reservation tribal leader Joseph Moses, a number of American-Indians and other guests attended the ceremony.
Ambassador Tan and TIKA President Çam presented the symbolic check to Moses.
The donation will be used in bringing water to about 5 thousand American-Indians residing in Warm Springs region.
Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Presidency (TIKA) will donate $200,000 to American-Indians in Oregon, USA.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Was “Mystery Bullet” At Parkland Hospital Supposed to be the Original Magic Bullet?
One of the first nurses present at Parkland Hospital to receive the fatally wounded Kennedy has very recently told an audience she observed a bullet lodged between the president’s ear and shoulder. This bullet, or any mention of it, later completely vanished from the autopsy-reports.
As the Sunday Mirror reports, the nurse recalls a “mystery bullet” lodged in the president’s body “ between his ear and his shoulder”.
“It was pointed at its tip and showed no signs of damage.”, Hall noted. “There was no blunting of the bullet or scarring around the shell from where it had been fired.”
“I’d had a great deal of experience working with gunshot wounds, but I had never seen anything like this before. It was about one-and-a-half inches long — nothing like the bullets that were later produced.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Apple Probed Over ‘Billion-Euro Fraud’ In Italy
‘Suspected of underestimating taxable income’
(ANSA) — Milan, November 13 — Milan prosecutors are investigating computer hardware giant Apple for alleged fraud of some one billion euros, judicial sources said Wednesday. The California-based corporation is believed to be suspected of underestimating its taxable income from 2010 to 2011.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Commission to Investigate Germany’s Budget Surplus
The European Commission announced on Wednesday it will launch an investigation into Germany’s economy. The EU executive fears the high current account surplus of the biggest economy in Europe may be damaging the eurozone economy.
The announcement came after the US critised Germany, accusing Berlin of relying too much on exports and not doing enough to raise demand at home, which could hamper Europe’s economic stability.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Why Can’t We Admit We’re Scared of Islamism?
Let’s face it — we only challenge religions that won’t hurt us, and governments that won’t arrest us
by Nick Cohen
Firoozeh Bazrafkan is frightened of nothing. Five foot tall, 31 years old, and so thin you think a puff of wind could blow her away, she still has the courage to be a truly radical artist and challenge those who might hurt her. She fights for women’s rights and intellectual freedom, and her background means her fight has to be directed against radical Islam. As a Danish citizen, she saw journalists go into hiding and mobs attack her country’s embassies just because Jyllands-Posten published cartoons of Muhammad that were so tame you could hardly call them ‘satirical’. Bazrafkan is also the daughter of an Iranian family, and the Islamic Republic’s subjugation of women revolts her…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Erdogan’s AKP Party Joins Cameron’s Conservative Political Family
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has joined the European Conservatives and Reformists political family, the Turkish government announced yesterday (12 November).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Euroskeptic Union: Right-Wing Populists Forge EU Alliance
Right-wing populists are trying to create a powerful faction in the European Parliament. Leading the efforts are Geert Wilders from the Netherlands and Marine le Pen of France — and their initiative has big implications for Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Finns Party Politician in Lieksa Faces Criminal Probe
A Somali group in the eastern town of Lieksa is filing a criminal complaint accusing a local Finns Party politician of slander. The local police have already independently launched their own investigation into a suspected case of incitement against an ethnic group and discrimination.
A Somali group in the eastern town of Lieksa is filing a criminal complaint accusing a local Finns Party politician, Esko Saastamoinen, of slander. The local police have already independently launched their own investigation into a suspected case of incitement against an ethnic group and discrimination.
Until this week, Saastamoinen led the Finns Party delegation on the city council. At a public meeting on Monday, he demanded that the delegation be given a new meeting room. He said this was necessary because the current room was also used by a Somali working group at other times each week.
Comment revealed in local paper
“The Finns Party chair told the city secretary that he feared that his members might catch something infectious if they used the room. His party comrade then said in an agitated tone of voice that the venue should be fumigated,” in order to sterilise it, says Marja Mölsä, editor in chief of the local newspaper Lieksan Lehti, who was sitting nearby.
“If we had not done a story on this, no-one would have ever heard about it,” she adds.
The Somali committee is aimed at improving cooperation between immigrants and the mainstream population in the town. Lieksa is a town of some 12,000, located about 100 kilometres north of Joensuu in the North Karelia region of eastern Finland.
“We cannot accept this behaviour, which is a racist attack and an insult toward one part of the population. These words were partly directed at children and women,” say committee chair Mohamed Hersi and deputy chair Liibaan Maalin in a statement…
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
France: Unpopular Socialist Hollande Struggles With Winter of Discontent
French leader Francois Hollande, the country’s most unpopular president on record, was battling Tuesday to contain a rising tide of social discontent amid rumours of an imminent cabinet reshuffle.
The Socialist head of state faces more unrest this week with fresh protests against government policies scheduled by teachers and self-employed tradespeople in the wake of recent violent demonstrations against a proposed new tax on heavy goods vehicles.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: First Edition of Hippocrates Works to be Auctioned
A very rare and snakeskin-bound book of collected works
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, NOVEMBER 12 — Greece’s leading auction house Petros Vergos has announced that it will put a first collected edition of Hippocrates’ works on auction on the 20th of November, as daily To Vima online reports. The collected edition was first published in 1529 by the Aldus press and is considered to be amongst the most beautiful editions released by the Venetian press house.
This particular copy of Hippocrates’ works has been bound in snake skin by the early 20th century French book binder Emil Karajan, who wanted to decorate the book with the serpent of Asclepius, the symbol of medical science.
Amongst other items in the auction are various rare books, documents, pictures and etchings, including items belonging to Nikolaos Gyzis from 1876-1900 and a large portrait of Hungarian dancer Nikolska at the Parthenon temple on the Acropolis.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘High Electricity Costs Threaten European Prosperity’
Der Standard, 13 November 2013
“Europe is increasingly losing ground in terms of energy when compared to other economic powers,” points out the 2013 World Energy Outlook Special Report presented on November 12 by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
At a time when cheap gas has triggered the re-industrialisation of the United States, “investors have withdrawn from Europe,” remarks Der Standard. Between now and 2035, the production and the export of products whose manufacture requires large amounts of energy will increase significantly in emerging Asian countries, and to a lesser degree in the United States. However, points out the daily —
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: McDonald’s Unveils Chianina Burger
Made from same beef used in ‘bistecca alla fiorentina’ steak
(ANSA) — Florence, November 12 — McDonald’s unveiled a new hamburger for the Italian market Tuesday made 100% from prized Chianina beef. The Gran Chianina, made from the same cattle butchered for the famous ‘bistecca alla fiorentina’ steak, will be available Wednesday in all 470 McDonald’s locations across the country for three weeks. Other ingredients for the burger, such as a walnut sauce, onion rings, lettuce and pecorino romano cheese, also come from Italian suppliers. The burger is being produced in partnership with the Consortium for the Protection of the White Central Apennine Steer and farmer’s association Coldiretti.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Former EUR Manager Indicted in Rome Bus Graft Probe
Riccardo Mancini charged with taking bribe from Breda Menarini
(ANSA) — Rome, November 12 — The former CEO of the company that runs the historic EUR district in Rome was indicted for alleged graft on bus contracts Tuesday.
Riccardo Mancini, ex-CEO of EUR SpA, is charged with accepting a bribe of 800,000 euros from leading bus-maker Breda Menarini to supply Rome with 45 buses.
The case is one of several involving contracts linked to former Rome mayor Gianni Alemanno, who is not accused of wrongdoing. EUR was built by Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini as a model district for the 1942 World’s Fair, which was scratched because of WWII.
Many of its buildings have been backdrops for films.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Berlusconi Pimps’ Indicted for 26 Prostitutes
‘Queen Bee’ Sabina Began, Gianpaolo Tarantini among defendants
(ANSA) — Bari, November 12 — An Italian judge on Tuesday indicted seven suspects involved in allegedly supplying ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi with dozens of women for sex parties in exchange for public contracts.
The suspects include Bari businessman Gianpaolo Tarantini, whom Berlusconi is also accused of paying to hush up the alleged procurement, and German actress Sabina Began, known by the nickname ‘Queen Bee’.
The trial is set to begin February 6 in Bari. Charges include the aiding and exploitation of prostitution of 26 women, many of them escorts, who between 2008 and 2009 were brought to the residences of then premier Berlusconi.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: 22 Arrested for Health Contract Rigging
Public and private officials probed in Brindisi
(ANSA) — Brindisi, November 12 — Italian police arrested 22 people Tuesday as part of a probe into alleged contract rigging at the local health authority in the south-eastern Italian city of Brindisi. Both public officials and private companies working in the health sector are among those under investigation, police said.
As many as 61 contracts signed between 2006 and 2012 are being investigated for offenses ranging from conspiracy, public corruption, violation of privacy and bid rigging.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi’s Party in Chaos as Hawks Fight Doves
Split beckons ahead of Saturday’s national assembly
(ANSA) — Rome, November 12 — Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party was in chaos on Tuesday as bitter in-fighting that looks likely to lead in a split continued to rage.
The centre-right group is in danger of dividing between pro-government doves and Berlusconi loyalists who are in favour of breaking off the government alliance with the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) if their leader is ejected from parliament.
The PD, Premier Enrico Letta’s party, has supported a drive for Berlusconi to be stripped of his Senate seat after the supreme court upheld a tax-fraud conviction against the 77-year-old media magnate, making it definitive.
A vote on ejecting the three-time premier from the Upper House, on the basis of a 2012 anti-corruption law that the PdL says is being applied retroactively, is scheduled to take place on November 27. The split may come at Saturday’s national assembly of the PdL, which has been called to make it possible for the party to be replaced with a new group taking its former name, Forza Italia.
The Berlusconi loyalists, or hawks, are reportedly intent on settling scores with the doves at the assembly after they forced Berlusconi to make an embarrassing U-turn last month and back down on a bid to sink the government. The tension has become so high that a senior PdL dove said the moderates in the party may desert Saturday’s meeting.
“In the last few hours the fire has become more extreme from the stokers, loyalists and hawks, so it seems that the conditions do not exist for a serene debate,” Fabrizio Cicchitto, the PdL’s former Lower House whip, told Naples daily Il Mattino. “I add that it is not clear what the agenda is or what the climate of such a delicate meeting will be. So the doubts about our participation are worthy of being examined”. According to some reports, no debate will be allowed at Saturday’s meeting, only Berlusconi will speak and the only motion to be voted on will be one prepared by the hawks. “We all have to agree that we’re going back to Forza Italia and all the positions in the party are for Berlusconi to decide, as he’s the one who wins the votes for everyone,” said Daniela Santanchè, one of Berlusconi’s staunchest loyalist. Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, the leader of the doves, said Tuesday that he was hopeful the PdL party could pull back from the brink of a painful split.
“We hope and are confident that our movement can remain united,” said Alfano, who has effectively been stripped of his position of PdL secretary. Alfano, formerly Berlusconi’s heir apparent in the party, led the rebellion that forced the three-time premier to back down last month and vote in favour of a confidence motion in Letta’s government, just days after telling the PdL’s ministers to resign. The doves and hawks both believe that Berlusconi is the victim of a campaign of persecution by left-wing judges who are trying to wipe him off the political scene.
But the doves do not think the party should sink the government over Berlusconi’s legal problems, as the country struggles to emerge from its longest recession in over two decades.
Alfano made an appeal to Berlusconi’s sense of responsibility on Tuesday.
“Berlusconi, who is the victim of a great judicial injustice, has always behaved as a statesman,” he said. “I’m convinced Berlusconi has been rewarded by this line and will continue to be rewarded by it”. At the weekend Alfano called on Berlusconi to continue to back the government even if he is ejected from the Senate.
The ex-premier responded that it would be unthinkable for his party to cooperate with the PD if it commits “political homicide” by getting him stripped of his seat and warned the doves that they risked political oblivion.
Letta, meanwhile, said Monday that sinking his grand-coalition government, which was cobbled together by traditional foes in the PdL and PD in April to end the deadlock after February’s inconclusive general election, would achieve nothing. His logic is that fresh elections would probably produce another inconclusive outcome and another grand coalition unless the current widely criticised election law is changed. Many experts think Letta would be able to keep his government afloat with the support of PdL rebels if Berlusconi tried to torpedo it again.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Fears Being at Prosecutors’ Mercy if Ejected
Senate to vote on Nov 27 on stripping ex-premier of seat
(ANSA) — Rome, November 12 — Silvio Berlusconi told a meeting of young loyalists of his People of Freedom (PdL) party late on Tuesday that he feared being at the mercy of Italian prosecutors if he is ejected from parliament this month, ANSA sources said.
The floor of the Senate is set to vote on whether to strip the three-time premier of his seat on November 27 on the basis of a 2012 anti-corruption law after the supreme court upheld a tax-conviction against him in August, making it definitive.
Berlusconi says the sentence, his first definitive conviction in two decades of legal battles, is the result of a campaign by left-wing magistrates to persecute him for political reasons.
He also argues the 2012 anti-corruption law is being applied retroactively in his case, which is against the Italian Constitution.
The anti-corruption law was adopted before the supreme court upheld the tax-fraud conviction, although the original sentence predates it.
If Berlusconi is stripped of his Senate seat he will lose his parliamentary immunity from arrest.
The 77year-old media magnate is set to serve one year of community service for the tax-fraud sentence — cut from four years by an amnesty.
He is also appealing a six-year sentence for sex with an underage prostitute and abuse of power to cover it up; and a one-year sentence for involvement in the publication of an illegally obtained wiretap.
The three-time premier, who is threatening to bring Italy’s unprecedented right-left government down if the office ban is enforced, has been indicted on charges of bribing a Senator to switch sides too.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Has Given Up on Pardon, Says Defence Lawyer
Former premier wants to service sentence doing social work
(ANSA) — Milan, November 13 — The period has expired in which ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi could have sought a pardon for his first definitive criminal conviction, his defense lawyer said Wednesday. The period of eligibility “has faded away,” said Franco Coppi, one of Berlusconi’s lawyers.
The question of a possible pardon for the three-time former premier has been discussed since his conviction for tax fraud in August — the first time in more than 20 cases that a conviction against Berlusconi stood.
His lawyers have denied reports that Berlusconi’s adult children appealed to President Giorgio Napolitano for a pardon.
Berlusconi’s conviction has been a hot political topic in the Senate, which is set to vote later this month on ejecting him from his seat there.
The lawyer’s comments came during an appeal hearing after Berlusconi was found to have participated in the publication of an illegally obtained wiretap in his brother Paolo Berlusconi’s conservative newspaper Il Giornale.
The ex-premier was given a one-year jail term in relation to the case.
The wiretap concerned a conversation in 2005 between one of Berlusconi’s political opponents, Piero Fassino, then the head of the former centre-left Democratic Left (DS) party, and Giovanni Consorte, the former chairman of Unipol, an association of insurers historically linked to the DS, the heir to Italy’s Communist Party.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Corrupt Power Swap Emerges From Fonsai Insurance Probe
Ligresti allegedly contacted Berlusconi in deal w/top watchdog
(ANSA) — Milan, November 13 — Former insurance magnate Salvatore Ligresti allegedly contacted ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, while he was in office, as part of a corrupt swap to obtain lax oversight by Italy’s insurance watchdog, a Milan-based probe revealed on Wednesday. Ligresti allegedly reached out to Berlusconi seeking the appointment of Giancarlo Giannini as chairman of the Antitrust Authority, according to the written conclusion of the investigation into alleged accounting fraud at the Fonsai insurance group.
Giannini at the time was the head of Italy’s insurance regulator ISVAP — now known as IVASS — and the appointment to the antitrust authority was to take place at the end of Giannini’s mandate as ISVAP chief.
Prosecutor Luigi Orsi claimed that Giannini, in exchange, saw to it that the insurance regulator was “inefficient and slow” in its oversight of Fonsai in exchange for Ligresti’s promise. Giannini and Ligresti are both accused of corruption in the probe into alleged accounting fraud and market manipulation at the troubled Italian insurance group.
No information indicating legal trouble for Berlusconi has been revealed in the case. A trial date has been set for December for Ligresti and four other suspects, including Fonsai manager Emanuele Erbetta and Ligresti’s daughters, Jonella and Giulia. The group are accused of involvement in accounting irregularities that enabled Ligresti, according to the indictment, to acquire illegal dividends of 200 million euros.
The Ligresti family are the former majority owners of the Fonsai and Milano Assicurazioni insurance companies.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Four Mn Fake Euros Seized in Turin Roma Camps
Two arrested for defrauding French tourist
(ANSA) — Turin, November 13 — Italian police on Wednesday seized four million counterfeit euro notes in two Roma camps in Turin.
Two Roma men, aged 37 and 29, were arrested on suspicion of defrauding a French tourist.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Intesa Sanpaolo 9-Mth Profits Fall
Q3 profits up
(ANSA) — Milan, November 13 — Italy’s second-biggest bank Intesa Sanpaolo posted a net profit of 640 million euros in the first nine months of the year, down from 1.68 billion in the same period of 2012, the Turin-based bank said Wednesday.
Profits in the third quarter of 2013 were up to 218 million euros from 116 million in the third quarter of 2012.
Intesa is No.2 to Unicredit.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Milan Prosecutors Probe Apple for Tax Fraud’
Milan, 13 Nov. (AKI) — Prosecutors in Milan are investigating US technology giant Apple for allegedly failing to declare over a billion euros of income to Italy’s tax authority, judicial sources said on Wednesday.
The California-based multinational is suspected of hiding over 1.3 billion dollars of its income from 2010 to 2011, according to the sources.
Italy’s tax authority has become more aggressive towards corporations amid a global crackdown on tax evasion by multinationals.
In June, Italian fashion designers Dolce & Gabbana were fined nearly 500 million euros and given a 20-month suspended prison sentence for dodging around a billion euros of tax. The pair deny wrongdoing.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Saviano Fined 30,000 Euros for ‘Gomorrah’ Defamation
‘Mistakenly called businessman a cocaine trafficker’
(ANSA) — Milan, November 13 — Best-selling Italian author Roberto Saviano was fined 30,000 euros by a court in Milan Wednesday for defamation in his award-winning 2006 book Gomorrah, an exposé of the Naples-based Camorra mafia. Saviano, whose book was adapted into a film that won second prize at Cannes and five European Film Awards in 2008, was found guilty in a civil suit of defaming businessman Enzo Boccolato, cited on page 291 as “preparing to weave a large network of cocaine trafficking”. Saviano’s publishing company Arnoldo Mondadori, part of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s media empire, was also named in the fine, and both were ordered, at their own expense, to publish the judgement in double-sized print in Italian daily La Repubblica within 30 days. After multiple death threats from the mob over the years, Saviano continues to live under 24-hour police protection.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Consob, Financial Police Visit Telecom Italia Offices
Inspectors concerned with major financial moves by firm
(ANSA) — Rome, November 13 — Finance police and officials from market regular Consob inspected Telecom Italia offices in Rome and Milan on Wednesday, days after a series of significant financial decisions by the company.
Inspectors were following up on a major meeting last Thursday of the board of directors of Telecom Italia, including a decision to sell its unit in Argentina and the possible issuance of a bond worth about four billion euros.
Some investors are concerned with Telecom Italia’s plans, which the company says are designed to avoid a credit-rating downgrade.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Le Pen, Wilders Eye Eurosceptic Alliance for EU Elections
(Reuters) — Eurosceptics Geert Wilders of the Netherlands and Marine Le Pen of France will discuss closer cooperation on Wednesday in a bid to capitalize on voter frustration with mainstream politics before 2014 European parliament elections.
The two anti-euro, anti-immigration politicians have talked of joining forces for months to win a wider pan-European stage. Europe’s nationalist parties have historically struggled to overcome differences and form long-lasting alliances.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
By Andrew Harrod
The artist Firoozeh Bazrafkan ran afoul of Danish authorities with a blog entry printed in a December 2011 issue of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper of 2005 Danish Muhammad caricature notoriety. Bazrafkan expressed being “very convinced that Muslim men around the world rape, abuse and kill their daughters.” Such abuse resulted “according to my understanding as a Danish-Iranian” from a “defective and inhumane culture—if you can even call it a culture at all.” Bazrafkan deemed Islam a “defective and inhumane religion whose textbook, the Koran, is more immoral, deplorable and crazy than manuals of the two other global religions combined.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Unique Neanderthal Camp Found During Car Park Dig in Den Bosch
The remains of a Neanderthal camp have been found during the building of an underground car park in Den Bosch, local broadcaster Omroep Brabant said on Wednesday. The camp is dated from between 40,000 and 70,000 years ago and is unique in Dutch archeological history, archeologists says.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New Six-Runway Thames Estuary Airport Proposed in UK
LONDON (Reuters) — A new six-runway hub airport on the Thames estuary to the east of London could be built within seven years at a cost of $76 billion, said a consortium formed by London Mayor Boris Johnson to address the capital’s air capacity crunch.
The British government and business groups want to expand flights to fast-growing economies to ensure the UK can tap into billions of pounds of trade opportunities. With Heathrow, London’s biggest airport, operating at 99 percent capacity, more runways are needed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
PVV, Front National Announce Alliance to Combat Brussels Monster
The Netherlands’ anti-immigration PVV and French far-right group Front National are to form an alliance within Europe to counteract the ‘Brussels monster’, the two party leaders said on Wednesday.
PVV founder Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen, daughter of the Front National founder Jean Marie, said in a joint press conference in The Hague the new alliance will act as a counterweight to the ‘elite’ power block formed by the EU.
‘We are the old European states but we have to ask permission for everything from Brussels,’ Le Pen said. ‘We have to accept being told who may cross our borders. We want to give our people back their freedom.’
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Residents of Milan, Rome Among Richest in Italy’s Big Cities
Wealthiest people in the country live in Basiglio, near Milan
(ANSA) — Rome, November 13 — Italy’s business capital of Milan was the wealthiest major city in the country when measured by the average taxable income per capita, according to Finance department figures released Wednesday.
Rome ranked second among major centres, while further down the peninsula average incomes dropped, the 2011 tax figures showed.
The richest community in the country was Basiglio, located near Milan, with an average taxable income of 53,589 euros.
Milan led the big-city rankings with an average taxable income of 36,252 euros per citizen, followed by Rome with 30,543 euros on average.
Close behind was the city of Pavia, with an average per capita income of 30,308 followed by Padua at 29,914 euros; Treviso, at 29,645 euros; Siena, at 29,019 euros; Bologna, at 28,809 euros; Varese with 28,804 euros; Parma, with 28,436 euros; Cagliari, at 28,309 euros; Lecco at 28,246 euros; and Florence at 28,131 euros.
Further south, according to the statistics, the city of Lecce reported an average income of 26,835 euros; Bari, with 25,877 euros; Naples with 25,875 euros; and Palermo with 25,612 euros in average taxable income.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Man Nearly Loses Penis After Prostitute Attack
A Malaga man almost had his penis sliced off by a knife-wielding prostitute after an argument over the price of an orgy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Basel Muslims Call for Holy War
Muslims distribute regularly in Basel diatribes with explicit calls to kill Jews and Christians and to deprive them of their money — the Basel Religion officer looks away.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
‘The Simpsons’ Lampoons Italian Politics
Bart’s school ‘more corrupt than Italy’s parliament’
(ANSA) — Rome, November 13 — A recent episode of hit TV show The Simpsons lampooned Italy’s government as a model of corruption.
In the 534th episode of the Fox network’s beloved animated series now in its 25th season, Springfield news anchor Kent Brockman shows school principal Seymour Skinner an undercover video: all the kids employ wildly different methods of cheating on a test, and all their tests turn out identical.
At the end of the clip, Brockman accuses Skinner of running a dodgy school that is “more corrupt than the Italian parliament”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tiny EU Nation of Malta to Start Selling Citizenship With Practically No Strings Attached
VALLETTA, Malta — Malta, a European Union member, will be selling citizenship with practically no strings attached for 650,000 euros ($865,000).
The Maltese Parliament on Wednesday approved the amendment to the citizenship law. The revised law is expected to go into effect within a few weeks.
Opposition Nationalist Party lawmakers have vowed to repeal the law and revoke all citizenships granted under it if their party returns to power.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Boris Island’ London Airport Designs Unveiled
Designs and details of how a Thames estuary airport would work have been unveiled. London Britannia Airport, the proposed six-runway airport formerly known as Boris Island, would cost £47.3bn. The consortium behind the scheme claims it could be built within seven years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Whitewashing Amsterdam’s Islamization
By Bruce Bawer
I haven’t lived in Amsterdam for fourteen years, but I’ve returned to it many times, and I’ve witnessed the dire consequences of its steady, and increasingly manifest, Islamization. I still love it, but I tread more carefully now on those cobbled streets; and precisely because I do love it, I worry about what’s happening to it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
World’s Oldest String Found at French Neanderthal Site
CALL it prehistoric string theory. The earliest evidence of string has been found — apparently created by our Neanderthal cousins.
Perishable materials usually rot away, so the oldest string on record only dates back 30,000 years. But perforations in small stone and tooth artefacts from Neanderthal sites in France suggest the pieces were threaded on string and worn as pendants. “The wear patterns provide circumstantial evidence of early use of string, but the evidence is not definitive,” says Bruce Hardy at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Similar circumstantial evidence has been found in perforated shells.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnian Who Shot at US Embassy in Bosnia Expresses Regret, Seeks Shorter Sentence
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — A Bosnian man who was imprisoned for 18 years for shooting at the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo and wounding a local policeman there has asked a court to reduce his sentence, saying he acted after being brainwashed by videos his radical Muslim friends had shown him.
Mevlid Jasarevic told the appeals court Wednesday that his attack in 2011 was “incredibly stupid.” His defense lawyer argued that he didn’t intend to kill anyone and that the penalty for his act of terrorism was too harsh.
Jasarevic, a Muslim, said after seeing the videos he attacked the embassy to draw attention to the plight of Muslims worldwide.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Ansar Al Sharia, Security Relies on Islamic Law
Group believed to be responsible for killing of US ambassador
(ANSAmed) — TRIPOLI — Security in Libya depends on the implementation of Islamic law Sharia, according to a statement released on Tuesday by Jihadist group Ansar Al Sharia.
The group in Libya is believed to be responsible for the 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi in which Ambassador Chris Stevens and another three US officials died.
The Salafite militants also said it did not recognize state institutions, including security services, accusing them of apostasy and of being evil forces serving tyrants. Sharia is hailed as the only legitimate law in the country.
The group of ‘partisans of Islamic law’ was created in eastern Libya during the 2011 uprising which ousted Muammar Gaddafi. The statement was released after the visit Monday of Premier Ali Zeidan to Benghazi to discuss security with special forces chief Wanis Bu Khamada.
The Cyrenaica region over the past few months has been at the centre of clashes, attacks and political homicides almost on a daily basis.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
A Poisonous Legacy: Palestinian Muslim Incitement From Islam’s Jew-Hating Canon
Since the Jews poisoned Muhammad to death, they must be guilty of poisoning Yasir Arafat, too!
by Andrew Bostom
Yesterday (11/12/13) Palestinian Media Watch released video extracts of a November 8, 2013 sermon broadcast on the official Palestinian Authority (PA) TV network by PA Minister of Religious Affairs, al-Habbash. The good Minister insisted (despite expert forensic opinion to the contrary) Yasir Arafat was poisoned by Jews.
Validating my analysis of the founder of the modern Palestinian Arab Muslim jihadist movement, ex-Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin el-Husseini, in a monograph just published 11/9/13, al-Habbash invoked the alleged poisoning of Islam’s prophet Muhammad by a Khaybar Jewess. This salient example of Islam’s ancient, Jew-hating canon (i.e., in the hadith and sira) was promulgated by el-Husseini, notably in a 1937 “fatwa,” which sought to galvanize the global Muslim umma to wage an annihilationist jihad for the destruction of Palestinian Jewry. El-Husseini’s accurate recapitulation of the canonical Muslim source narrative, in his 1937 proclamation, maintains:…
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
America and Israel Created a Monster Computer Virus Which Now Threatens Nuclear Reactors Worldwide
In their obsession to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, the U.S. and Israel created a computer virus (called “Stuxnet”) to take out Iran’s nuclear reactors.
The virus appears to have spread to other countries.
One of the world’s top computer security experts — Eugene Kaspersky — said this week that the virus has attacked a Russian nuclear reactor. As The Register notes:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hezbollah Leader Makes Rare Public Appearance Attending a Religious Shiite Ceremony in Beirut
BEIRUT — The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group has made a rare public appearance, showing up in a giant hall south of Beirut to attend a Shiite Muslim religious ceremony.
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah stood in front of hundreds of supporters who pushed forward to see him while chanting “at your service Nasrallah.”
Nasrallah has made few public appearances since his group fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006 for fear of assassination by Israel.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kuwait: Couple Admits Murder of Maid After Two Months — Body Buried in Desert
A Farwaniya couple admitted that they killed their housemaid and buried her body in the desert two months ago, local dailies reported yesterday. The actual motives behind the murder remain unknown as the couple only confessed that the worker was ‘beaten to death’ by her female employer.
The case was discovered late Saturday night when a Kuwaiti man approached Fahaheel police station officers and said that his wife killed their Asian maid inside their Farwaniya apartment in September before they buried her in an open space at the Jahra desert near the Seventh Ring Road. The case was handed over to Farwaniya police station officers “where the man met Farwaniya Investigations Department Director Col Mansour Al-Hajri and his Deputy Lt Co Hamad Al-Ajmi”, according to a security source quoted by Al-Rai daily yes- terday. The two officials then notified the Interior Ministry’s Assistant Undersecretary for Criminal Investigation Maj Gen Abdulhameed Al-Awadhi and General Director of the Criminal Investigations Department, Brig Gen Mahmoud Al- Tabbakh about the case.
According to the source who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the two senior officials gave instructions to form a security team including crime scene investigators to follow up with the case.
The team headed with the man to the place where the victim was buried, while another team went after his wife with an arrest warrant. The source added that the investigators could not find the body at first, whereas the man’s wife denied her husband’s accounts categorically. She brought to police’s attention that she had reported her maid missing at similar time to the one her husband said the crime was committed.
The husband later told police that the murder story was fabricated, and that he pressed false charges against his wife ‘in revenge’ following a domestic dispute. “The investigators were not convinced, and decided to go on with their investigation and summon the building’s keeper for questioning”, the source said.
He added that the keeper revealed that he saw the couple carrying a ‘large box’ out of their apartment at night two months ago. “Based on those testimonies, the criminal investigators went back to the supposed burial site; this time with sniffer dogs, and were able to find the grave”, the source said. The man later confessed that his wife used a club to beat the maid up until the victim collapsed.
They put her body in a box after confirming that she was dead, then buried her in the desert. Al-Watan daily reported the story yesterday and identified the husband as a 41- year-old unemployed Kuwaiti man and his wife as a 27-year-old bedoon (stateless resident), also unemployed.
They refrained from providing more information about the housemaid other than what was mentioned in Al-Rai’s report. Al-Watan quoted a source with knowledge of the investigation, who indicated that the husband cited ‘feeling of guilt’ in addition to the recent discovery of a dead body in Doha desert as the reason he decided to reveal the crime. The source who also requested anonymity to speak gave more details about the murder day. “The man said that he rushed back home after his wife called, and found his maid in a terrible condition and bleeding. He added that the maid soon died after his wife prevented him from taking her to the hospital”, the source said. The two are held at the Public Prosecution pending legal action.
The Interior Ministry declined to comment on the case when contacted for a statement yesterday. Stories about physical, verbal and sexual abuse of housemaids are reported frequently in Kuwait where more than 800,000 domestic helpers work in houses, apartments and private properties. Last year, the criminal court sentenced a Kuwaiti couple to death for the premeditated murder of their Asian domestic helper.
The country’s sponsorship system, which organizes the local labor market, lacks sufficient regulations to regulate domestic workers’ affairs, and has been under fire for the past few years for failure to guarantee maids’ basic rights. A maid’s job requires staying at her employer’s house for most of the day, making those more susceptible to forced labor and abuse compared to other workers.
| — Hat tip: RR | [Return to headlines] |
Kuwait: Govt Confirms First Case of Deadly Mers Virus
Kuwait City, 13 Nov. (AKI) — Kuwait’s health ministry on Wednesday confirmed the country’s first case of the deadly MERS coronavirus in a 47-year-old man, the official Kuna news agency reported.
“The first case of coronavirus has been discovered in the country for a citizen who was moved to the Infectious Diseases Hospital in a critical condition,” Kuna quoted the health ministry as saying.
The patient suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure, Kuna and other reports from the region said, without stating his identity, laboratory that confirmed he had MERS or or how he caught it.
The doctor who diagnosed MERS in the patient has also been infected, daily al-Rai reported, citing unnamed medical sources.
Kuwait the fifth state in the Gulf to report cases of MERS, which has killed already killed 64 people worldwide, the majority in Saudi Arabia.
Like the SARS virus that broke in Asia in 2003, it appears to cause a lung infection, high temperature and breathing difficulties.
There have been 153 confirmed cases of MERS worldwide, including the 64 deaths, the World Health Organisation said on its website on Monday.
In August, researchers pointed to Arabian camels as possible hosts of the virus, which is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible ‘cousin’ of SARS.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Pope: Enough Children Killed by Mortar Fire
Five killed Monday by rebels in school in downtown Damascus
(ANSAmed) — VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis said during a general audience on Wednesday that he was greatly pained by news that mortar fire two days ago killed a number of children as they were going back home from school and a bus driver while other children were injured.
‘Please, so these tragedies don’t ever happen again, let’s pray fervently’, he pleaded. The faithful applauded.
On Monday mortar fire and rockets in downtown Damascus allegedly fired by anti-Assad rebels caused the death of five children who were killed by fire that hit their school between Bab Tuma and Qassa, according to Syrian official sources and eye witnesses. The attack was reportedly carried out by anti-Assad rebels. Another three people were killed by a rocket.
On Sunday mortar fire killed a man and his four children.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Army Captures Much of Contested Suburb of Damascus
Syrian troops captured a contested suburb of Damascus on Wednesday as the government forged ahead with a punishing military offensive that already has taken four other opposition strongholds south of the capital, state media said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UAE: Italian State-of-the-Art Furnishings Shine in Dubai
At third Italian Luxury Interiors exhibition, Nov. 11-14
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, NOVEMBER 12 — State-of-the-art Italian decoration and furnishing craftsmanship are on display at the ongoing Italian Luxury Interiors exhibition, now it its third edition. The Italian ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Giorgio Starace, inaugurated the luxury showcase yesterday along with Consul Giovanni Favilli and Italian Trade Commission (ICE) Director Ferdinando Fiore. Organized by ICE, the event showcases 34 designers of house linens, furniture, home decoration and accessories, marble and mosaics. “The home furnishing market has regained altitude after the crisis, which hit Dubai in 2009”, Fiore told ANSAmed.
“Exports grew from 112 million euros in 2010 to 137 million euros in 2012”, he added. “The trend continues positive in 2013, with a 38% increase in the first half of the year”.
In a linear, elegant setting, the exhibitors have brought the Dubai public refined bed linens in all their textile and decorative conjugations, candles as works of art, and the never banal design of every single complement — from chairs to couches, from lamps to beds and bookcases. The ancient mastery of mosaics, marbles, glass and leather joins forces with other exclusive materials, such as metals from Turin and lava and terracotta from Etna.
“These objects and concepts not only arouse immense interest, they also arouse emotions — something that goes beyond their immediate function to their intrinsic beauty and esthetics”, Starace commented.
The exhibition can be visited at Dubai’s five-star resort of Madinat Jumeirah, through November 14.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan Opium Production Hits Record
Afghanistan’s opium production surged to record levels this year, despite international efforts over the past decade to wean the country off the narcotics trade, according to a report by the UN’s drug control agency.
The harvest this May resulted in 5,500 metric tons of opium, 49% higher than last year and more than the combined output of the rest of the world. Even Afghan provinces with some past successes in combating poppy cultivation saw those trends reversed, according to this year’s annual UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Bullets That Killed Indian Fishermen Larger Than Those of Marines’ Rifles’
Rome, 13 Nov. (AKI) — The two Indian fishermen alleged shot dead by two Italian marines were killed by 7.62-bore bullets, while Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone’s rifles used 5.56-bore bullets, the Italian edition of the Huffington Post website reported on Wednesday.
Earlier, the Italian government envoy expressed strong doubts over the ballistic evidence used by Indian investigators to charge Latorre and Girone with murder in the case.
There were “inconsistencies” between the bullets lodged in the two Indian fishermen’s bodies and Latorre and Girone’s rifles, Staffan De Mistura told the Italian parliament’s defence and foreign affiairs committees on Wednesday.
The fishermen’s employer also stated the incident took place at a completely different time of day from the official records of the stand-off with the oil tanker Enrica Lexie guarded by the Italian marines, the Huffington Post said.
“It was 9.30 pm, I heard a tremendous noise,” the paper quoted Freddy Bosco, the fishing boat’s owner as telling the Venad News channel in Kerala, southern India, where the incident took place.
Yet all the official documentation records the time of the incident as 4.30 pm, the Huffington Post noted.
Latorre and Girone are currently on bail pending trial and are living and working at the Italian embassy in New Delhi.
Latorre and Girone claim they believed the two fishermen were pirates and merely fired warning shots into the sea in the direction of their boat after it came too close to the oil tanker.
Italy alleges the incident took place in international waters and that India does not have jurisdiction in the case.
The case sparked a major diplomatic row between India and Italy earlier this year.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: West Java: Islamists Against Christian Businessman Accused of Proselytising
Padang Islamic leaders launch a campaign against the construction of a shopping centre owned by James T. Riady, a Jakarta-based Protestant businessman, famous across the country for building malls that include stores, schools and hospitals.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — Anti-Christian sentiment is on the rise in Padang, capital of West Sumatra province. In recent weeks, several Islamist groups, including the Minangkabau People’s Forum, have organised demonstrations and issued press releases against what they call the ‘Christianisation’ of the province.
Recently, Islamists have also targeted the construction of a shopping mall (pictured) with attached schools and hospitals by the Lippo Group, a company owned by James T. Riady, a Protestant businessman from Jakarta who is a personal friend of former US president Bill Clinton.
Posters denouncing the Lippo Group mall construction appeared on 5 November, Islamic New Year, on the walls of Nurural Mosque.
“We are opposed to the plan to build a shopping centre with hospitals and schools in our area,” said Masfar Rasyid, a local Islamist leader,
For many Indonesian Islamist leaders, Riady uses his shopping malls to spread Christianity in Padang. For the Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI), at least 600 locals have converted so far to Christianity.
This is not an isolated incident. In recent years, anti-Christian Islamist activity has increased across the country. On more than one occasion, Catholic and Protestant communities have been the victims of violent attacks.
When it comes to intolerance, West Java is second only to Aceh, Indonesia’s only Sharia-ruled province. In Bogor for example, the Yasmin Church has been attacked dozens of times.
Local Ahmadi Muslims, deemed heretical by Sunni Muslims, have also been victimised by Islamists.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Japanese Physician Calls for Evacuation of Tokyo
Strange things happening — Medications don’t seem to work — Rare diseases increasing dramatically
[…] radioactive substances coming from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have reached Tokyo, and huge amounts of contaminated waste is being burned here as well, I cannot deny the possibility that we are inhaling radioactive substances contained in the air. Again, let me repeat that after the nuclear accident, enormous amounts of nuclear substances were released in the environment. Therefore, if we see an increase in symptoms that are different from the ones we’ve seen before, we physicians should “first consider the effects of radioactivity.” […]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Oldest Big Cat Fossils Discovered in Tibet
The earliest known big cat lived in what is now China between 5.9 million and 4.1 million years ago, newfound fossils of the ancient prowler suggest.
The fossils, which were discovered on the Tibetan plateau, belong to a sister species of the snow leopard that prowls the Himalayan region today, said study co-author Zhijie Jack Tseng, a paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
The new study also reveals that all cats diverged about 16 million years ago, about 5 million years earlier than was previously thought.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Destitution, death, looting, mob rule, and a complete breakdown of law & order. That’s what’s happening in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, and it’s yet another stark example of what any post-disaster environment will look like, whether it’s in a third world nation or the United States of America.
Video: Desperate survivors seek food
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
South Korea Reveals Moon-Lander Plans
Country’s space agency releases images of lunar module and rover ahead of 2020 launch.
South Korea has unveiled designs for its planned Moon lander, a key part of President Park Geun-hye’s pledge to revitalize the country’s aerospace industry and space programme.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“Many cases of sickness and death among young generations” not reported
In Japan, it’s really a total blackout of media, even though there are lots and lots of people who have been developing symptoms. That information itself cannot come out because of the control of the media and the doctors, like the Society of Medicine in Japan, are denying even now that there have been health damages […] I just wanted to remind you that this is really a real thing. It’s not only the anxiety, it is happening. I think this is the most important thing. But there are very few people who talk about this […] I was outside on the 15th of March in Tokyo, and then about 1 month later, I had fever of like 103ºF for 8 days. And this [baby] boy, he was totally healthy, now he’s OK, but at the time he had 101ºF fever on and off for 13 times in the duration of 3 months. He had rash all over and he was really, really sick […] he became real skinny and he stopped growing for 3 or 4 months. It is really happening. I have 2 nodules in my thyroid, and my boy has countless number of minor nodules. So what I wanted to stress most, the most important thing is the symptoms are happening. I want you to know, and I want you to spread this information.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US is the Enemy, Says Chinese Military Documentary
A documentary film produced by top personnel in the Chinese military says that the United States has for decades been attempting to subvert China and bring down the Communist Party.
The film, which runs for 92 minutes and was produced by the National Defense University, first appeared on Chinese video websites in late October, and was taken down several days later. Titled Silent Battle, it sounds a somber warning bell against what it says are American designs to attack the ideology and culture of China’s communist system, through such nefarious means as “economic infiltration.”
The chief producers of the film, which was made in June, are two senior generals of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA): Liu Yazhou, a general and the political commissar of the PLA’s National Defense University, and Wang Xibin, also a general.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U. S. Blacklists Nigeria’s Boko Haram as Terror Group
(AGI) Washington, Nov 13 — The Nigerian Islamic Boko Haram group has officially been blacklisted by the U.S. as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation, along with the Ansaru Islamist splinter group. “These designations are an important and appropriate step, but only one tool in what must be a comprehensive approach by the Nigerian government to counter these groups,” a State Department statement said. This means that the U.S.
justice system is now empowered to block all financial dealings or transactions between America and these organisations.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Comic Slams Norway’s Treatment of Somalis
Norway’s treatment of Somali asylum seekers has come under attack in a series of comic strips funded by billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundation.
One of the two Norway strips tell the story of Faiid, a young Somali stuck in a kafkaesque round of asylum interviews, which send him into a deep depression, making him start to wish he’d stayed in his war-torn homeland.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Migrant Quota Rewrites Opposition’s Election Bid
A Social Democrat party edict to make sure every fourth candidate on its lists for upcoming elections has non-Nordic roots has pushed traditional union-affiliated candidates down to non-electable rankings.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Toy Catalogues Challenge Gender Stereotypes
Right-wing MP says it is “pathetic and perverse” that BR and Toys R Us catalogues display children playing with toys normally associated with the opposite gender
Parents flipping through Christmas catalogues for toy stores Toys R Us and BR will be confronted by pictures of boys playing with dolls and girls playing with train sets.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Rules That Gay Africans Are Entitled to Asylum
A gay refugee from an African country where people are jailed for being a homosexual does qualify for asylum, the EU rules
The fear of imprisonment for homosexuality in African countries is grounds for asylum in the European Union, Europe’s highest court has ruled.
According to the European Court of Justice, a gay refugee from a country where people are jailed for being homosexual does qualify as a persecuted group eligible for asylum.
The court’s ruling concerned three homosexual men from Sierra Leone, Uganda and Senegal who had sought asylum in Holland, but is binding for all EU countries, including Britain.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Psychiatric Group Backtracks on Pedophilia Classification
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has backtracked on its designation of pedophilia as a “sexual orientation,” following backlash from conservative family organizations. In May the APA, which according to its website represents more than 33,000 psychiatrists in the United States and elsewhere, released the fifth edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), in which pedophilia is described as a sexual “orientation.”
The revelation led conservative groups such as Liberty Counsel and the American Family Association to condemn the new designation as the latest in the APA’s efforts to appear politically correct with regard to sexual aberrations. “Just as the American Psychiatric Association declared homosexuality an ‘orientation’ under tremendous pressure from homosexual activists in the early seventies,” said the AFA’s Sandy Rios, “now, under pressure from pedophile activists, they have declared the desire for sex with children an ‘orientation,’ too.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Soros-Linked Group Pushes Sex to Sell ObamaCare
“Let’s get physical,” Progress Now ad enourages. Obamacare will cover “free” birth control
A cabal of wealthy and influential Democrats, under the cover a Colorado-based group called Progress Now, are attempting to push Obamacare on young Americans through a salacious propaganda campaign.
“Got insurance?” an online ad posted on the Thanks Obamacare campaign website inquires. It then encourages young women to have sex and not worry about pregnancy because “health insurance [mandated by Obamacare] covers the pills.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
China, Cuba, Russia, Saudi Elected to Top U.N. Rights Body
By Louis Charbonneau
(Reuters) — China, Cuba, Russia and Saudi Arabia on Tuesday won three-year seats on the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, the United Nations’ top rights body, despite concerns about abuses and restrictions on freedoms in all four nations.
Also winning seats on the 47-nation council were Algeria, Britain, France, Mexico, Maldives, Morocco, Namibia, South Africa, Vietnam, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
The annual election for one-third of the council’s membership was held in the 193-nation U.N. General Assembly. South Sudan and Uruguay failed to win election to the council because of competitive slates in their respective regional groups. The other regions had uncontested ballots.
The newly elected countries will be on the council from 2014 through 2016.
“With the return of China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Cuba, human rights defenders will have their work cut out for them at the Human Rights Council next year,” said Peggy Hicks of the New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch.
“Fortunately, no states have a veto in Geneva so a hard-working majority can still achieve concrete results,” she said.
Hicks said members of council that are committed to human rights will need to redouble their efforts on a number of key problems — the civil war in Syria, the question of accountability for crimes committed during the final months of Sri Lanka’s civil war, and the war in Central African Republic.
According to U.N. Watch, a Geneva-based advocacy group that monitors the United Nations, only four of the 16 candidates for the 14 open seats were qualified to be members of the rights council on the basis of their human rights records — Britain, France, Macedonia and Mexico.
Originally Iran and Syria had been planning to run for the Human Rights Council but pulled out amid criticism of their rights records.
Questionable Rights Records
There was a small protest against China’s policy on Tibet across the street from the United Nations as the vote took place.
Western countries accused China last month of arresting activists, curbing Internet use and suppressing ethnic minorities, as the United Nations formally reviewed its rights record for the first time since Xi Jinping became president in March.
Saudi Arabia’s human rights record also came under fire last month at the United Nations with critics accusing the kingdom of jailing activists without due process and abusing the basic rights of Saudi women and foreign workers.
Jordan withdrew from the election after Saudi Arabia abandoned its seat on the U.N. Security Council to protest the 15-nation body’s inaction on Syria, the Middle East peace process and Iran. Western diplomats said Jordan stepped aside to allow the Saudis an almost certain victory on the uncontested Human Rights Council voting slate for the Asia Group, which includes Asian and Middle Eastern states. Despite its withdrawal from the election, Jordan received 16 votes.
Jordan is set to take the Saudi Security Council seat, diplomats say, although to do so will require the General Assembly to hold a special election.
In response to criticism of its human rights record, Cuba said in May that it would consider letting in U.N. human rights investigators to examine allegations of torture and repression and allowing Red Cross officials access to its prisons for the first time in nearly 25 years.
The European Union, Human Rights Watch and others have criticized Russia’s rights record as well. They have voiced concerns about restrictive legislation, prosecutions against activists and limits on press freedom.
Russia ranks 148th out of 179 countries on the World Press Freedom index compiled by the journalist watchdog Reporters Without Borders. Pressure on the media in Russia has increased since President Vladimir Putin returned to power last year following an unprecedented wave of opposition protests.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia, People’s Republic of China Will Join UN ‘Human Rights’ Council
Due to an absence of competition, Tuesday’s vote at the General Assembly in New York will see China, Russia and Saudi Arabia all return to the council in January, just one year after term limits obliged them to stand down. They will be joined by Vietnam, which will take a seat for the first time since the Geneva-based HRC was established in 2006.
The State Department’s latest report on human rights in China describes it as “an authoritarian state in which the Chinese Communist Party constitutionally is the paramount authority.” The report also cited China for its coercive one-child-per couple policy which sometimes resulted in “forced abortion” or “forced sterilization.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sky-High Microbes: How Far Up Can Life Exist?
Organisms could live more than 30 miles (50 kilometers) above Earth’s surface, in an atmospheric zone known as the stratopause, scientists say.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Having just scrolled through this latest ‘newsfeed’ it has come to me that what a sick place the world has become.