Bill Gates, the now-aged whiz kid of Microsoft, is in Norway lobbying the new prime minister, Erna Solberg. Mr. Gates is pushing for the Norwegian government to invest more of its oil-fund money in Sub-Saharan Africa.
In other news, Piotr Pavlensky, the Russian activist who nailed his scrotum to a cobblestone in Red Square, may be facing five years in prison for his actions.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Almost 10,000 Bankruptcies in Italy in Nine Months
Up 12% on January-September period in 2012
(ANSA) — Milan, November 15 — Almost 10,000 businesses went bankrupt in recession-hit Italy in the first nine months of this year, according to a study by the Cerved market-research agency seen by ANSA ahead of publication.
The agency said that the total of 9,902 bankruptcies was up 12% on the same period last year, making it the “the highest level seen in over a decade”. It added that in the third quarter of this year around 14,000 companies filed for voluntary liquidation, up 5.3% on the July-September period in 2012. According to the data, over 50,000 firms filed for liquidation in the first nine months of this year, up 5.2% on the same period in 2012.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU Spurs Eurosceptics With Debt Warning: Letta
Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta accused Brussels of playing into the hands of eurosceptics on Friday in a sharp rebuke to a European Commission warning on Italy’s high debt levels.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Success or Failure Could Influence EU, Letta Says
EU return to expansion could be partially affected
(ANSA) — Leipzig, November 14 — Italy is a nation whose success of failure could influence part of the European Union’s emerging from recession, according to comments made by Italian Premier Enrico Letta, who was speaking at the annual congress of Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Leipzig, Germany.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
JPMorgan Chase Begs for Mercy While Not Giving Us Any
JPMorgan Chase & Co. cancelled a planned question and answer session on Twitter yesterday after Americans began asking the bank real questions prior to the start of the session, denying JPMorgan Chase the ability to control the narrative.
Tomorrow at 1pm ET $JPM Vice Chairman Jimmy Lee takes over @JPMorgan to answer your questions for 1 hour. Tweet your Q early using #AskJPM
— J.P. Morgan (@jpmorgan) November 13, 2013
The bank, the largest in the U.S., set up the Q&A session by asking Twitter users to send in questions, marked with the hashtag #AskJPM, for veteran investment banker Jimmy Lee to answer.
Americans then proceeded to ask the bank questions immersed in truth…
After being overwhelmed with questions exposing its ruthless and inhuman behavior, JPMorgan Chase cancelled the session entirely.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Peter Schiff: “Gold is Being Undermined by the Fantasy of a U.S. Recovery”
With gold down 10 of the last 11 days (until today), Peter Schiff tells CNBC that this temporary downswing is due to “the fantasy of a US recovery,” that so many actually believe and thus, due to this ‘recovery’ the Fed will taper back its quantitative easing.
“It’s not gonna happen,” Schiff explains, “we have a phony recovery,” and the Fed will more likely increase the amount of QE in order to sustain it, “which is very bullish for gold.” Crucially, Schiff clarifies that he “doesn’t think a taper is inevitable,” as many believe, “but an end to QE won’t happen by the Fed’s choice — the market will force them to tread on the brakes as the USD collapses.“
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Federal Reserve is Monetizing a Staggering Amount of U.S. Government Debt
The Federal Reserve is creating hundreds of billions of dollars out of thin air and using that money to buy U.S. government debt and mortgage-backed securities and take them out of circulation. Since the middle of 2008, these purchases have caused the Fed’s balance sheet to balloon from under a trillion dollars to nearly four trillion dollars. This represents the greatest central bank intervention in the history of the planet, and Janet Yellen says that she does not anticipate that it will end any time soon because “the recovery is still fragile”.
Of course, as I showed the other day, the truth is that quantitative easing has done essentially nothing for the average person on the street. But what QE has done is that it has sent stocks soaring to record highs. Unfortunately, this stock market bubble is completely and totally divorced from economic reality, and when the easy money is taken away the bubble will collapse. Just look at what happened a few months ago when Ben Bernanke suggested that the Fed may begin to “taper” the amount of quantitative easing that it was doing. The mere suggestion that the flow of easy money would start to slow down a little bit was enough to send the market into deep convulsions. This is why the Federal Reserve cannot stop monetizing debt. The moment the Fed stops, it could throw our financial markets into a crisis even worse than what we saw back in 2008…
But anyone with half a brain should have been able to see that this debt-based financial system that the Federal Reserve is at the heart of was going to end tragically anyway. The 100 year anniversary of the Federal Reserve is coming up, and the truth is that it should have been abolished long ago.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
16 American Cities Foreign Governments Warn Their Citizens About
Planning a trip abroad? It’s probably best to check out the State Department’s list of travel warnings for countries with unsafe political situations. At the moment, the State Department has issued travel warnings for 34 countries, from the Central African Republic and El Salvador to Iraq and North Korea.
Well, just as State warns Americans about dangerous places to travel, so too do foreign ministries in other countries — and some countries warn their citizens to avoid heading to certain cities in the U.S. France, in particular, warns travelers to be careful in a large number of specific cities.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Calls for Capitol Police Navy Yard Congressional Inquiry
The union representing officers with the US Capitol Police (USCP) has called for a congressional inquiry into the decision to pull a Swat team from the scene of a mass shooting in September.
A USCP tactical response team arrived first at the Washington Navy Yard but was told by a supervisor to leave instead of entering the building.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
CIA Looking at Your Financial Transactions
In 2010, the Washington Post, the former crown jewel of Operation Mockingbird, the CIA takeover of corporate media, reported there were at that time 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies in 10,000 locations in the United States working feverishly on the grand ruse that is counterterrorism, homeland security, and intelligence. According to the Post, the so-called intelligence community, more accurately a monolith rivaling anything created by the former Soviet Union or East Germany’s Stasi combined, in toto includes 854,000 people holding top-secret clearances.
Now we learn that the CIA is “secretly” — secret because it is posted on the New York Times website — collecting financial transaction records from the likes of Western Union under the Patriot Act. This is the same law exploited by the NSA. This massive violation of the Fourth Amendment is overseen by the secret FISA court, its very existence a magnificent violation of the Constitution.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Congressman Warns of ObamaCare “Secret Security Force”
Rep. Louie Gohmert: “I want to know are they are they using weapons to train, or are they being taught to use syringes and health care items?”
During an appearance on the Janet Mefferd Show, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) warned that a provision within Obamacare could create an armed “secret security force”.
Referring to a section of the gargantuan Obamacare law which discusses “the president’s own commissioned and non-commissioned officer corps,” Gohmert drew attention to the notion that under the pretext of a “national emergency,” such individuals could be used to impose some form of medical martial law.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
DHS Creates New Fusion Centers, Taking Control of Local Police
As the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) doles out billions of dollars to convince local police departments to surrender control to the federal agency, a recent report indicates that intelligence gathered at precincts-cum-surveillance-centers will be shared among all levels of law enforcement…
In July, McCaul co-authored with Representative Peter King (R-N.Y.) a report on the progress of the establishment of the nationwide spread of the fusion centers. The press release announcing the report reveals the pair’s support for a program that dismantles federalism and accelerates the militarization of local police and the consolidation of control of those departments to the federal government. The McCaul-King report states:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FAA Announces Impending Launch of Surveillance Drones
Presumably to coincide with the upcoming patriotic holiday, the Federal Aviation Administration made it official on November 8, just before Veterans Day, that its homeland surveillance plan which had been quietly in-work since February 2012, when Barack Obama signed the FAA reauthorization bill, was set to test some 7,500 drones across six sites nation wide, in preparation for a switchover from military applications during the “War on Terror” to domestic crime-fighting, data-collection and — if there is time left over — rescue operations.
Respected media outlets like Business Insider, USA Today, United Press International, The New American and even the American Civil Liberties Union panned the budding scheme in 2012. But reporters were expecting a major roll-out to be closer to the year 2020. Author-educator Charles Scaliger revealed to The New American that these drones were capable of targeting a plot of land the size of a person’s backyard; some armed, others not. His story carried a photo of a sprawling structure implementing the coming drone surveillance on US soil.
Related stories started unfolding as well, but public outcry remained tepid. A Washington Times cover story by staff reporter Ben Wolfgang centered on an August convention hosted by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, which was showcasing its wares for all kinds of interested parties — law enforcement, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and maybe even a few salivating terrorists. Photos showed “drones” (a term discouraged by convention hosts, in favor of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) so small they could fit on the corner of a table or in the palm of one’s hand.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Family Dollar Customer Shoots Robber
Mobile Police say a customer at a Family Dollar that was being robbed shot the suspect multiple times. Police say the suspect got into the store while employees were unloading a truck.
The suspect grabbed one of the employees, forced him to the front of the store and demanded money from the register. While holding the employee at gunpoint, police say a customer fired his weapon and hit the suspect suspect multiple times.
A second male subject was seen running from the store.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Google: US Government Spying Has Tripled Since 2010
A 32 percent jump in requests for user data just in the last year; NSA surveillance stats remain under FISA gag order
Google announced Thursday that the number of requests for individual user data by the US government has increased threefold in the same number of years.
The Search Engine’s statistics, released in its Transparency Report, show that In the six months of 2013, the government issued 10,918 requests for data on 21,683 users, a huge increase on just 3,580 requests in the latter half of 2009, when Google first began compiling the figures.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
GOP Should Not be Part of Democrat Hypocrisy
In “The Godfather, Part II,” mafia boss Michael Corleone tells a corrupt politician, “We are both part of the same hypocrisy, senator.” Similarly, the same may now be said of Democrats and Republicans in Congress. Let me qualify that opinion by stating that while there still remain a few Republicans whom I would support, there are no Democrats for whom I would ever again cast a vote.
– From ObamaCare to Benghazi, from government-sponsored gun-running operations to 13-figure deficits as far as the eye can see, from petty, vindictive government shutdowns to outright bureaucratic lies about everything on their president’s agenda, congressional Democrats have thus far supported Barack Obama in his stated quest to “fundamentally transform the United States of America.”
As radical leftist turned conservative David Horowitz pointed out in a recent speech to the Heritage Foundation, “The Communist Party is the Democratic Party.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Homeland Security Must Disclose ‘Internet Kill Switch,’ Court Rules
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) must disclose its plans for a so-called Internet “kill switch,” a federal court ruled on Tuesday.
The United States District Court for the District of Columbia rejected the agency’s arguments that its protocols surrounding an Internet kill switch were exempt from public disclosure and ordered the agency to release the records in 30 days. However, the court left the door open for the agency to appeal the ruling.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Homeowner Charged in Detroit-Area Shooting That Stirred Racial Tension
A Dearborn Heights, Mich., homeowner was charged Friday with second-degree murder, manslaughter and felony firearms possession in the death of Renisha Marie McBride, a 19-year-old woman who was shot in the face as she stood on the man’s porch in the middle of the night nearly two weeks ago.
The case had stirred racial tensions in Detroit, a mostly black city, and its whiter suburbs, like Dearborn Heights, just across the city line. It is still unclear precisely what happened in the early morning hours of Nov. 2, when Ms. McBride crashed her car and hours later ended up on the doorstep of the defendant, who was identified as Theodore Wafer, 54, who is white.
Asked if race was an issue, the Wayne County prosecutor, Kym L. Worthy, at a news conference Friday morning, said, “Race is not relevant.”
| [Return to headlines] |
House Passes Bill Letting People Keep Their Health Plans
Defying a veto threat from President Obama, the House on Friday approved legislation that would allow health insurance companies to renew individual insurance policies and sell similar policies to new customers next year even if the coverage does not provide all the benefits and consumer protections required by the new health care law.
The vote was 261 to 157, with 39 Democrats bucking their party leadership to vote in favor of the bill.
The legislation would go further than the fix announced on Thursday by Mr. Obama, who said he would temporarily waive some requirements of the law and allow insurers to renew “current policies for current enrollees.”
| [Return to headlines] |
House Democrat on ObamaCare “I Don’t Know How Obama ****ed This Up So Badly”
For five years, congressional Democrats have sprung to his defense when Obama’s been in trouble. Now though, amid the dismal reality of Obamacare, Politico reports a familiar refrain from Democratic sources: Obama’s “if-you-like-it-you-can-keep-it” promise on insurance policies is his “Read my lips, no new taxes” moment — a reference to the broken promise that came to damage President George H.W. Bush’s credibility with his fellow Republicans. His one-time allies are no longer sure that it’s wise to follow him into battle, leaving Obama and his law not only vulnerable to existing critics, but open to new attacks from his own party. Democratic sources say, Obama can expect that lawmakers will be quicker to criticize him — and distance themselves from his policies.
[Comment: How can Democrats “distance” themselves? These are the same people who ALL voted for Obamacare, some without reading it.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Leaked Treaty: Worse Than SOPA and ACTA
We noted last year:
An international treaty being negotiated in secret which would not only crack down on Internet privacy much more than SOPA or ACTA, but would actually destroy the sovereignty of the U.S. and all other signatories.
It is called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
We also noted that even Congressmen are furious that the bill was being kept secret from the American public.
And that the TPP is an anti-American power grab by big corporations.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
It is my opinion that we need to purge the Congress a year from now to the extent allowable under law and then finish the job in 2016.
There is a certain group of US Senators and Congresspersons who should, every single one, be targets of campaigns to replace them in Congress. See, it was DEMOCRATS WHO BROUGHT AMERICA OBAMACARE. Remember, not a single Republican cast a vote in favor of Obamacare in either house of the Congress. No Republican voted in favor of ObamaCare — not one.
The Democratic Party is running scared today, in a deep panic, as they understand the chickens are about to come home to roost. They brought this upon themselves, they deserve what they are about to receive at the polls.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ObamaCare Down? Blame the Hackers
The Obama administration has gained a helping hand from the Department of Homeland Security as it tries to explain why HealthCare.gov is a mess.
Government bureaucrats say they are hot on the trail of hackers who reportedly engaged in attacks against the crippled system. DHS officialdom, however, said the attack failed…
The lack of political or social message attached to the attack raises an important question.
Is it possible the attack was staged by the government as part of an orchestrated effort to divert attention away from its dismal failure to roll-out a functioning Obamacare enrollment website?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ObamaCare ‘Fix’ Affirms Obama as Absolute Dictator With Power to Change Laws as He Pleases
In a desperate bid to save the rapidly collapsing Obamacare socialized medicine program, President Obama announced a “fix” yesterday that would “allow” health insurance companies to avoid cancelling whatever plans haven’t already been cancelled due to Obamacare itself.
In doing so, Obama effectively declares himself absolute dictator over all laws across the country, assuming the power to enforce, ignore or alter laws at he pleases.
The problem with this is that such powers do not exist in the Office of the President. Like everything else surrounding Obamacare, Obama himself is simply inventing new powers as he goes along and hoping no one will question his assumed (illegal) authority…
Like everything else in the Obama administration, this “fix” is nothing more than deceptive smooth talking to gloss over a problem and promote the delusion that everything is working just fine.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Secret Treaty Will Merge America Into the Emerging One World Economic System
Did you know that the Obama administration is negotiating a super secret “trade agreement” that is so sensitive that he isn’t even allowing members of Congress to see it? The Trans-Pacific Partnership is being called the “NAFTA of the Pacific” and “NAFTA on steroids”, but the truth is that it is so much more than just a trade agreement. This treaty has 29 chapters, but only 5 of them have to do with trade.
[…]
There are some very good reasons why Obama does not want the American people to know anything about what is in this treaty. This agreement will impose very strict Internet copyright rules on the American people, it will ban all “Buy American” laws, it will give Wall Street banks much more freedom to trade risky derivatives and it will force even more domestic manufacturing offshore.
It contains a whole host of things that Obama would be unable to get through Congress on his own. But he is hoping to spring this on Congress at the last minute and get them to agree to this “free trade agreement” before they realize all of the things that are contained in it.
The secrecy surrounding these treaty negotiations have really been unprecedented. The following is an excerpt from a recent article by Kurt Nimmo…
[…]
And Obama reportedly is seeking “trade promotion authority” which would give him the ability to sign this treaty before Congress even votes on it…
Normally free -trade agreements must be authorized by a majority of the House and Senate, usually in lengthy proceedings.
However, the White House is seeking what is known as “trade promotion authority” which would fast track approval of the TPP by requiring Congress to vote on the likely lengthy trade agreement within 90 days and without any amendments.
The authority also allows Obama to sign the agreement before Congress even has a chance to vote on it, with lawmakers getting only a quick post-facto vote.
This is so insidious that it is hard to find the words to describe it.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Seattle Wi-Fi Spy Network Has Not Been Deactivated
White boxes still broadcasting signal day after police promised to switch them off
Despite claims by the Seattle Police Department that a wi-fi mesh network which had the capability to store an individual’s last 1,000 locations via their cellphone had been deactivated in response to a privacy outcry, the network still appears to be active…
The system can track cellphones even if they are not connected to the network, according to promotional documents by manufacturer Aruba Networks, which bragged that the grid could ensnare “rogue” or “unassociated” devices.The system can also collect a mobile user’s IP address, mobile device type, apps used, and historical locations.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
What happened in Geneva last week was the most significant international event since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The collapse of the Soviet Union signaled the rise of the United States as the sole global superpower. The developments in the six-party nuclear talks with Iran in Geneva last week signaled the end of American world leadership.
Global leadership is based on two things — power and credibility. The United States remains the most powerful actor in the world. But last week, American credibility was shattered.
Secretary of State John Kerry spent the first part of last week lying to Israeli and Gulf Arab leaders and threatening the Israeli people. He lied to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the Saudis about the content of the deal US and European negotiators had achieved with the Iranians.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Your wallet and credit cards are obsolete. You may as well leave them at home on a shelf near your dusty antique collection, reminding you of ancient history. While shopping for your shampoo and toothpaste, you need naught but to wave your right hand over a scanner at the checkout counter to pay for and collect your goods, as the amount due will be automatically withdrawn from your bank account.
But, of course, this is either too fantastical to be true, or too far off in the future for you to worry about. Right?
Survey says: Incorrect.
The technology at our hands (literally) before 2017 will cover, and exceed, such a feat.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
There is No Fix: “The Entire System Will Detonate Within the First Year”
We’ve got a serious problem on our hands and it’s one that many Obamacare apologists refuse to admit.
The Patient Affordable Care Act is an unprecedented catastrophe in the making.
While millions of Americans are losing their health care coverage within weeks, the health care exchanges advocated by Obamacare supporters are in shambles. So far, a little over 100,000 people have signed up. Moreover, what’s important to understand is that none of these people have yet paid a premium, so in essence, those are preliminary numbers. When the monthly bill comes due, we’ll see how many people actually have the money to pay the exorbitant new rates.
The key problem is one of basic arithmetic…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Trans-Pacific Partnership Ready for Christmas Delivery?
As the end of 2013 approaches, so does President Obama’s deadline for approving the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
The TPP is a direct and deadly attack on sovereignty and representative government masquerading as a Pacific Rim trade pact…
President Obama’s fascination with intertwining the economic welfare of the United States with China is perhaps one reason a recent commentator called the TPP “another disaster from a proven liar.”
[…]
Apart from the secrecy, a few drafts of key provisions of the TPP have been leaked to the Internet. One thing all the leaks reveal is that large corporations would be allowed to assume powers that constitutionally belong to Congress and to the states.…
[…]
Obama is negotiating a trade pact that would constitute a judicial authority higher than even the U.S. Supreme Court that could overrule federal court rulings applying U.S. law to foreign companies. That is unconstitutional…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
We Finally Have the Real Reason Behind ObamaCare: Discrimination and Wealth Transfer
The legislative name for ObamaCare is the Affordable Care Act. This name was chosen precisely to appeal to Americans to consider buying a health insurance plan from a government-run exchange. Who doesn’t like the idea of something that is “affordable”? By using that term, it suggested that the current system of health care was the opposite — “unafforable”.
The Affordable Care Act was merely a red herring for what the government really thought about the healthcare system — that it was discriminatory, and could be used as another vessel for wealth transfer.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bill Gates Wants Norway’s $800 Billion Fund to Spend More in Africa, Asia
(Reuters) — Philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates called on Norway’s $800 billion oil fund, one of the biggest investors in the world, to spend more in the poorest countries, gaining the prime minister’s support with his proposal.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Internet Anonymity Programmes Might be Banned
A politician wants to ban the program Tor, which helps activists around the world stay anonymous but is also used by criminals to distribute illicit material
Troels Ørting, the head of the European Cybercrime Centre at the EU policing agency Europol, told Politiken newspaper that Tor was increasingly being used by criminals to cover their tracks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Did European Hunter-Gatherers Domesticate Dogs?
Robert Wayne from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Olaf Thalmann of the University of Turku in Finland used 18 ancient samples from dog and wolf fossils found mostly in Europe to reconstruct their mitochondrial genomes and build a family tree. They found that most living dogs are more closely related to ancient wolves than modern ones. “The (gray wolf) population that gave rise to modern dogs is most likely extinct,” said Thalmann. Based upon mutation rates and genetic differences, they think that dog domestication began between 18,800 and 32,100 years ago in Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dog Ancestors Were Ice Age Man’s Best Friend
The bond between dogs and humans was forged in Ice Age Europe and is thousands of years older than previously thought, a study suggests
Dogs first became man’s best friend in Ice Age Europe up to between 19,000 and 32,000 years ago, scientists have discovered. Genetic evidence analysed by Finnish researchers found that the wolf ancestors of modern dogs were most likely tamed by hunter-gatherers thousands of years earlier than previously thought.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Five Steps France Must Take to Tackle Racism
The United Nations condemned on Friday the recent series of racist slurs against a black French minister. As the country continues its soul searching over the issue, the leader of a French black organisation spells out what needs to be done to stem the rise in racism.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gates Tells Norway to Invest Oil Fund in Africa
Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has urged Norway’s $800 billion oil fund to invest in roads, rail and power in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
The Microsoft-founder was in Norway on Friday to lobby Prime Minister Erna Solberg to maintain Norway’s funding for projects run by his charitable foundation.
He said that pouring oil fund money into infrastructure in poor countries, even if it was done for profit, would nonetheless bring huge benefits to the countries invested in.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Neo-Nazi Protest Against Planned Mosque in Leipzig
Pigs heads inflame tensions
BERLIN — When the call came into the Leipzig fire department late Thursday, it sounded routine: A small refuse fire in a dumpster. But the location was a bit odd, on the site of what is planned as the first mosque to be built in the former East Germany since the fall of the Berlin Wall. And, when firefighters arrived, there was a small trash fire, but the situation next to that was anything but routine: Five severed pig heads, on stakes and driven into the future mosque’s ground, above a trough of what appeared to be pig blood…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Construction of Athens Mosque Finally Begins
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, NOVEMBER 15 — After nearly 13 years of delay, the Greek government announced on Thursday that the construction of the first mosque in Athens will finally begin.
According to the The Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks — as GreekReporter websiter informs -, a Greek consortium has been chosen. The four previous attempts of the state to find a company that would take on the construction project had failed. The project will have to be completed within six months of contracts being signed. The building of 600 square metres, will have a budget of 946,000 euros. The mosque will be built on former military property and it won’t have a minaret.
The construction of the mosque was cancelled several times. It was first announced in 2000, before the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens in, However the Greek Orthodox Church was opposed to the project. Although this will be the first official mosque, there are many non-official places of worship in Athens, Greece due to the numerous Muslim immigrants. Their constantly increasing number makes the construction of a mosque necessary. In 2011, the Greek government was forced to adopt a law that would ensure the construction of the mosque. However the project was delayed because of concerns over the location, and because of protests from right-wing extremists, such as members and supporters of Golden Dawn. The only official mosque in Greece is in Komotini, a town in east Thrace where a minority group of Muslim Turks live.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Air France-KLM Snubs Alitalia’s Capital Increase
French-Dutch carrier says Italian business plan not adequate
(ANSA) — Rome November 14 — Air France-KLM on Thursday announced it will not participate in a 300-million euro capital increase for Alitalia.
The move comes after the French-Dutch carrier voted against a restructuring plan passed by Alitalia’s board on Wednesday.
Air France-KLM praised Alitalia’s progress on operating performance, service and cost control, but said the new industrial plan does not go far enough to reduce Alitalia’s towering debt.
Air France-KLM is the Italian airline’s largest shareholder with a 25% stake.
Alitalia’s revised industrial plan includes deep cost reductions, efficiency gains, and other measures to beef up competitiveness.
Sources told ANSA the plan foresees 200 million euros in spending cuts and 2,000 layoffs, half of those coming from expiring work contracts.
Air France-KLM said it was not enough.
“Even if the industrial component of the new plan presented yesterday by Alitalia is a step in the right direction and is receiving Air France-KLM’s full support, the necessary financial restructuring measures are still not yet met,” Thursday’s statement said.
The French-Dutch stakeholder reportedly also disapproved of the plan to slash domestic flights and increase international and intercontinental flights, a source told ANSA.
Air France-KLM said it remains committed to its eight-year partnership with Alitalia signed in 2009.
The airline group also intends to convert Alitalia bonds to equity to “keep a strong relationship between the airlines through the stake of Air France-KLM in Alitalia”.
Last month, Alitalia’s board approved a 500-million-euro budget package that included the 300-million-euro capital increase and 200 million euros in new lines of credit.
So far, Alitalia has gathered subscriptions for 136 million euros — less than half of the stated goal.
The Italian airlines board on Wednesday also voted to extend the participation deadline to November 27, saying it wanted to give shareholders time to reflect on the new industrial plan.
Sources told ANSA the new deadline was also set to follow a shareholder assembly of Poste Italiane on November 20.
Last month, the Italian postal company agreed to underwrite the capital increase to the tune of 75 million euros, while Italian banks Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit said they would put in up to a maximum of 100 million euros.
Alitalia will now look for other international partners after Air France-KLM declined to put more capital on the table, the Italian infrastructure minister said. “Now it will be effectively possible, for the company above all, and the government to the extent of its responsibilities, to launch a search for another international carrier interested in a strong partnership with Alitalia,” said Maurizio Lupi.
Possible candidates are rumored to be Air China, Etihad and Aeroflot.
While Aeroflot made no comment, sources say the Russian airline views its market and that of Alitalia as complementary, but only if the Italian airline puts a satisfactory restructuring plan in place.
Unions are expected to meet, perhaps as soon as Friday, to prepare their response to the new plan.
Trade union CGIL leader Susanna Camusso warned that if Alitalia attempts major layoffs, CGIL’s response will be “very hard”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Alitalia Potential Allies May be Russian or Chinese
United Arab Emirates airline, even European ones touted too
(ANSA) — Rome, November 14 — Amongst potential future partners touted as allies for Italy’s struggling flagship carrier Alitalia are Russian, Chinese and United Arab Emirates airlines, even though some European ones may come forward and express interest, sources say.
The Italian government is starting to scout for partners after Air France-KLM on Thursday announced it will not participate in a 300-million euro capital increase for Alitalia.
The announcement followed in the wake of the French-Dutch carrier voting against a restructuring plan passed by Alitalia’s board on Wednesday.
Air France-KLM in fact praised Alitalia’s progress on operating performance, service and cost cuts, but said more needed to be done to address the large debt pile the airline has to contend with. Air France-KLM is the Italian airline’s largest shareholder with a 25% stake.
Amongst the possible partners is Russian carrier Aeroflot, founded in 1923 and 51% owned by the state. The airline owns 137 planes and in April 2006 joined the Skyteam alliance, which Alitalia also belongs to. Meanwhile, Hainan airlines, the largest private carrier in China, could be interested in Alitalia and would bring significant synergies as the Italian rival would provide it with an important European hub. It owns 128 aircraft, most of which are Boeing 737s. It operates some 500 routes in five continents.
Last but not least is Etihad airways of the United Arab Emirates, which may be interested in Rome’s Fiumicino airport as an access point into Europe and as a transit point through which to shuttle passengers to Asia and other global destinations. The airline has a 66-craft fleet and operates some 1000 flights a week. The airline also owns 60% of Airberlin, Europe’s sixth-largest player, and 40% of Air Seychelles.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Has World’s Biggest Public-Sector Fat Cats
OECD says Italians distrust government, but like police
(By Sandra Cordon) (ANSA) — Paris, November 14 — Senior government managers in recession-weary Italy were the highest paid among the 34 member States within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the agency reported Thursday.
Average salaries for senior Italian public-sector managers were the equivalent of $650,000 — almost three times the OECD average of $232,000, the Paris-based agency said in a major report on citizen satisfaction with their governments.
Other findings touched on public trust in government officials, welfare and education spending, and the use of government services via the Internet.
Based on 2011 data, the survey found that Italian public-sector salaries were far ahead of the second-highest paid in New Zealand, where top public administrators’ salaries averaged $397,000.
In the United Kingdom, the average was $348,000 annually followed by the United States, where the average salary was $275,000.
Back in the eurozone, a senior public official in France — at the same level as that measured in Italy — earned an average of $260,000 annually, while in Germany the average was $231,000.
The OECD report comes at a time when Italy is struggling to emerge from its worst recession in 20 years with rising unemployment, falling living standards and increasing levels of poverty. In response to the report, the Italian government said Thursday that a ceiling was put in place last year to cap the gross salaries of public executives at 302,937 euros per year, roughly the equivalent of about $408,000 US.
Meanwhile, the OECD also found that only 28% of Italian citizens surveyed in 2012 had confidence in their government, slightly lower than findings from a previous study in 2007 and well below the average confidence level of 40% across the other 34 OECD member States.
That stands in dramatic contrast to the highest level of confidence which was reported among citizens of Switzerland, where 77% expressed confidence in their government, and Luxembourg at 74%.
The very lowest levels were reported in Greece, with just 13% of citizens surveyed expressing confidence in their government at a time that country was roiled with fiscal and economic woes.
Japan and the Czech Republic also showed lower levels of confidence at 17% than Italians had expressed.
The OECD report found that Italians also had little confidence in their judicial system, with 38% compared with an OECD average of 51%; but slightly higher levels of confidence in police agencies, at 76% among Italians compared with the 72% on average.
Italians should enjoy good social services as the report showed that public spending on welfare in 2011 reached almost 50% of national gross domestic product (GDP) compared with a 45.4% average across the OECD’s 34 member States.
However, spending on education in Italy was below average, at 8.5% of GDP compared with an average of 12.5%.
Italy also had one of the worst records for using the Internet to deal with public administration, lagging almost every other country.
According to the report, only 19% of Italian citizens used the Internet to interact with local and national government, against an OECD average of 50%.
Only Chile, with 7% access, had a worse record while all the major European countries were above 40% use, from the UK at 43% to Spain at 45%, Germany at 51% and France at 61%. Switzerland led the pack with 88% of citizens connecting online with their governments.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: SEL Deputy Whip Pumps for Wide-Reaching Compensation Ceiling
Bill would limit pay to company and public administration chiefs
(ANSA) — Rome, November 14 — Deputy House whip for Italy’s Freedom Ecology Left (SEL) on Thursday used OECD data to pump for a bill that would cap the salaries of top public officials.
The bill would also limit compensation for senior executives of listed companies, companies that receive public financing, and companies in which the state is a stakeholder. The list of affected companies would include 33 companies in which the state is stakeholder, such as oil and gas giant ENI and the defense contractor Finmeccanica, as well as journalism companies, which receive State financing. “OECD data on compensation for public managers indicate the paradoxical reality that (SEL) denounced some time ago, which pertains also to managers of private companies, banks and insurance companies,” said Titti Di Salvo.
“A table in the Economist (magazine) says that heads of Italian companies are paid 957 dollars per hour, 546 in Germany, 616 in France.
“This bill will arrive in the House within two months. It is a measure that aims to overcome that Italian paradox that while the country is in crisis, businesses close and youth unemployment rises, Pharaonic compensation for top managers continues to have no relationship to the compensation of employees — among the lowest in Europe — and the health of the enterprises”.
Di Salvo said the bill is better than a 302,000-euro-salary-ceiling for public managers proposed by the public administration ministry, which the deputy said was full of loopholes.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Tells Party Doves ‘Free to Go’
Center-right rupture appears imminent
(ANSA) — Rome, November 15 — Three-time premier Silvio Berlusconi on Friday said that doves in his party unwilling to adopt a hard line against a drive to strip him of his Senate seat “are free to go,” suggesting an imminent rupture in his center-right party. “Those who believe in us, stay and fight,” he added.
The statement was released amid the latest negotiation with Angelino Alfano, deputy premier and interior minister, and Fabrizio Cicchitto, a prominent member from Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party, both pro-government doves. The PdL is in danger of a split between doves and hardline hawks, who are in favor of breaking off the government alliance with the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) if Berlusconi is ejected from parliament following a binding conviction for tax fraud. The split may take place 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. Berlusconi’s criticism of a lack of party unity was apparent in his statement Friday: “Why should moderate Italians unite behind us when we were the first to divide ourselves? “Tomorrow at the podium I will repeat once more the reasons why it is critical to stay united and fight together, we moderates who will unite the moderates”. Berlusconi and PdL hawks are furious that 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 the first definitive sentence in two decades of legal entanglements. A vote on the ban is scheduled on the floor of the Senate November 27. The doves agree with Berlusconi’s assertion that he is the victim of a campaign of persecution by left-wing judges who are trying to wipe him off the political scene. But Alfano and his supporters 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.
At a meeting Wednesday Alfano told Berlusconi his legal problems and the fate the government should be kept separate, while stressing that the party moderates would continue to fight against him being turfed out of parliament, the sources said. The three-time premier has said several times it would be unthinkable for his party to cooperate with the PD if it commits “political homicide” by getting him stripped of his seat. Berlusconi has also warned the doves that they risk political oblivion if they break away from the rest of the party.
Alfano led a PdL rebellion that forced Berlusconi to back down on a bid to scupper Letta’s grand-coalition government last month.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Liechtenstein to Sign OECD Tax Convention
Liechtenstein said on Thursday it would sign an international agreement on fighting tax evasion, marking a change from its long ingrained banking secrecy practices. It said this reflected its “commitment to tax cooperation based on widely supported international standards.”
The movement to weaken banking secrecy policies in Liechtenstein and other well-known “tax havens”, such as neighbouring Switzerland, arose after the financial crisis of 2008 and subsequent eurozone debt crisis, as cash-strapped countries began going more aggressively after tax evaders and the banks that helped them.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
by Andrew Harrod
A Danish appeals court recently upheld the conviction under a Danish hate speech law of an Iranian-Danish woman for her remarks condemnatory of Islam. Coming amidst the controversial statements by another Dane of Muslim background, this conviction raises troubling questions about who may say what about Islam.
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.”
As explained in an interview, Bazrafkan had appropriated the text with light personal editing from the free speech activist Lars Kragh Andersen. Bazrafkan acted in solidarity with Andersen after his conviction under Section 266b of the Danish Penal Code (in Danish here) for the same posting at the news website 180Grader. As one English translation reads, Section 266b punishes any public “pronouncement or other communication by which a group of persons are threatened, insulted or denigrated due to their race, skin color, national or ethnic origin, religion or sexual orientation.”
Bazrafkan’s motive was “to show Lars support because, as a Danish Iranian, I know what a big problem Islamic regimes are.” “Islamic codes give men the rights to do whatever they want to women and children,” something called “disgusting” by Bazrafkan, and “also prevent people in Iran from discussing and saying what they want.” Bazrafkan sought an “artistic manifesto to show that we cannot say what we want and we cannot criticize Islamic regimes.” Accordingly, Bazrafkan’s website includes a video showing a casually-clothed Bazrafkan jump roping on top of an Ayatollah Khomeini photo (other Bazrafkan criticisms of Islam and Iran are available here and here).
Denmark’s Western High Court on September 16, 2013, convicted her on prosecutorial appeal from successful district court defense. From a panel of three judges and jurors each, five found Bazrafkan guilty of presenting “statements in which a group of people are mocked and degraded because of their belief.” The reviewing court sentenced Bazrafkan to a 5,000 Kroner fine or five days in prison, a decision she intends to appeal to the Danish Supreme Court before going to prison in lieu of paying the fine…
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Swiss Tina Turner Gives Up US Citizenship
Rock star and longtime Swiss resident Tina Turner is no longer an American citizen, according to a US media report. The Washington Post, citing an activity report from the US Embassy in Bern, said on Tuesday that Turner paid a visit there on October 24th to relinquish her citizenship. Turner, 73, retired as a singer in 2009 and has been living in Switzerland for 20 years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Pink Diamond Shatters Sale Record in Geneva
A plum-sized diamond known as the “Pink Star” was auctioned in Geneva on Wednesday for $83 million, including the commission, a world record for a gemstone.
The winning bidder, a bearded man apparently in his sixties sporting a Jewish skullcap, was pitted in a one-on-race against a telephone competitor.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Muslim Brotherhood Thrives in Britain
by Douglas Murray
The Muslim Brotherhood aren’t doing so well in Egypt at the moment. Happily they are making some gains in Britain. On Tuesday the organisation’s dauphin — Tariq Ramadan, famous Islamist ideas man, grandson of the Brotherhood’s founder and prominent double-speaker gave the Orwell prize’s annual ‘Orwell lecture’. I wonder which direction Orwell’s body is spinning in?
And elsewhere, at London’s SOAS (the School of Oriental and African Studies, better known as the School of Organised Anti-Semitism) a speaker who is opposed to the Muslim Brotherhood was chased from the stage by Muslim Brotherhoood supporters. It is worth watching the video of what turned into an Islamist rally just to remind yourself of how well spent our taxpayer money is. There are so very many reasons to keep on funding universities when they provide such forums for thought and free expression.
All in all, a good week for the Brotherhood here in London. On the one hand the heavies can intimidate the heretics and infidels until they give in. And on the other hand the soft approach will find itself lauded and honoured by Britain’s pliant and quiescent liberals. Allahu Akbar.
[JP note: Aloha Akbar.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The Veil Casts Its Long Shadow Over Swedish Islam-Critic
by Ingrid Carlqvist
When Kamil Ryba, leader of the Swedish Defence League, had gone through pass control in the airport of Warsaw, he was thrown to the ground, handcuffed and dragged into a room where the security police was waiting.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Protests as ‘Child Marriage’ Imam Back at Birmingham Mosque
Sajid Zafar Hussain was suspended from his post at Sparkhill’s Jamatia Islamic Centre after agreeing to arrange the wedding of a 14-year-old girl
An imam caught agreeing to marry off a 14-year-old girl has been welcomed back to his mosque job, despite protests from worshippers. Sajid Zafar Hussain has spent the past month suspended from his post at the Jamatia Islamic Centre on Woodlands Road, Sparkhill. He was caught on film agreeing to arrange the wedding ceremony by undercover TV reporters posing as the mother and brother of the schoolgirl. Mr Hussain was immediately suspended by the mosque but the Mail has discovered he was allowed to return to work last Monday. Yet the decision has divided worshippers, with one mosque member claiming the ‘unjustifiable’ return had caused bad feeling. They said: “When the imam entered the mosque to lead prayers a number of members and trustees protested and asked if he would do the decent thing and resign to avoid causing division within the community. The imam refused to comment…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican Plays Down Mafia ‘Threat’ Against Pope
The Vatican has downplayed a warning that Pope Francis could be targeted by the mafia because of his reforms to Holy See financial bodies.
There is no reason for concern, and there is no need to feed alarmism,” Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said. He added that the Vatican — and, by extension, the Pope — was “extremely calm” regarding the alleged threat.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Might be Admitted as New CERN Member on December 12
Bypassing EU funding ban on Israeli projects beyond ‘67 borders
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, 12 NOV — Israel may be the first non-European State to join the European Nuclear Research Council (CERN), Haaretz daily reported Tuesday.
Based in Geneva, CERN operates the world’s largest particle physics laboratory.
Its 20 member States must vote unanimously to admit a new member, which could take place at the next CERN council meeting on December 12. “It’s a very long and complex process, but votes have favored Israel in the past. We are in the running and trust that we will become full-fledged members on December 12”, Israeli UN Ambassador Eviatar Manor told Haaretz. Israel’s candidacy might succeed because it would not require EU funds, scientists and diplomats told the newspaper.
The EU recently stopped funding Israeli projects based beyond the 1967 borders in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.
Established in 1955 as a joint effort to foster international cooperation and understanding, CERN allows smaller countries to participate in advanced physics experiments without having to unnecessarily burden their science budgets.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Uses Iron Fist to Quell Migrant Workers Unrest
Approximately 23,000 Ethiopian workers hand themselves into police custody after five deaths and hundreds of arrests. Clashes began in Riyadh after police begin detaining illegal immigrants. Some 2 million foreigners are expected to leave.
Riyadh (AsiaNews/Agencies) — About 23,000 Ethiopians surrendered to Saudi authorities after a clampdown on illegal migrant workers began in the oil-rich kingdom last week. According to Saudi police, the clashes that followed left at least five people dead (three Saudis, one Sudanese and one Ethiopian). On Sunday, Ethiopian diplomatic sources said that three Ethiopian citizens had been killed.
Unrest broke out on Wednesday in Riyadh’s Manfuhah district, one of the capital’s poorest neighbourhoods, home to many immigrants. The disturbances began when migrants started protesting against a nationwide government crackdown on foreign workers following the end of an amnesty a few weeks ago.
Yesterday Ethiopian migrants blocked traffic in the capital, hurling stones and other objects at police and bystanders. Police arrested 561 rioters and at least 70 people were injured. Five people also died but their nationality has yet to be determined.
In response to Ethiopian complaints, Riyadh governor Prince Khaled bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz said the crackdown was aimed at illegal migrants, not any “specific group”.
“We will continue these campaigns until we ensure all residents in our country are staying legally,” he is quoted as saying.
Launched at the start of the year, the removal of illegal immigrants was suspended for few months to allow millions of immigrants living in the kingdom to legalise their position by 3 November. So far, four million migrants were given work permits for jobs that often entail inhuman conditions.
According to Saudi officials, the removal of illegal immigrants is needed to cut the unemployment rate among native Saudis, which stands at 12 per cent. The government wants to have companies hire at least one Saudi per ten foreigners — too often foreigners are preferred by Saudi employers because they can be kept in quasi slave conditions.
The labour correction campaign is expected to end in the exodus of at least 2 million workers. Many of them — Bangladeshis, Indians, Filipinos, Nepalis, Pakistanis and Yemenis — have already left the country in the past three months.
More than 30,000 Yemenis have reportedly crossed to their home country in the past two weeks.
Fadal Abu Ainain, an economist and adviser for several private companies, told ArabNews that the campaign has created “a huge vacuum”, which “will see the need for companies to hire local workers” since “inspection raids have left 20 percent of jobs vacant”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
By Caroline B. Glick
What happened in Geneva last week was the most significant international event since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The collapse of the Soviet Union signaled the rise of the United States as the sole global superpower. The developments in the six-party nuclear talks with Iran in Geneva last week signaled the end of American world leadership.
Global leadership is based on two things — power and credibility. The United States remains the most powerful actor in the world. But last week, American credibility was shattered.
Secretary of State John Kerry spent the first part of last week lying to Israeli and Gulf Arab leaders and threatening the Israeli people. He lied to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the Saudis about the content of the deal US and European negotiators had achieved with the Iranians.
Kerry told them that in exchange for Iran temporarily freezing its nuclear weapons development program, the US and its allies would free up no more than $5 billion in Iranian funds seized and frozen in foreign banks.
Kerry threatened the Israeli people with terrorism and murder — and so invited both — if Israel fails to accept his demands for territorial surrender to PLO terrorists that reject Israel’s right to exist.
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Artist Faces Five Years in Jail for Nailing Scrotum
Performance in Red Square called aggravated hooliganism
(ANSA) — Moscow, November 15 — A performance artist who nailed his scrotum to the pavement in Moscow’s Red Square could face as much as five years in prison on charges of hooliganism, according to published reports Friday.
Russian news agency Interfax, citing police sources, said that Piotr Pavlensky faces prison for his latest shock performance which he said was designed to denounce the “apathy, indifference and fatalism” of society towards what he called his country’s police state.
The particular charge of hooliganism against Pavlensky, who stripped naked and nailed his scrotum to the pavement, includes allegations that the act was motivated by political ideological, racial, ethnic or religious hatred towards a particular social group.
That same charge was laid almost two years ago against punk rock group Pussy Riot for their protest song performed in Moscow’s main cathedral.
That led to jail terms of as much as two years against the three young women in the band.
One of the Pussy Riot members has since been released but the lead singer was sent to an internment camp in Siberia.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
India: T J Joseph, Christian Teacher Accused of Blasphemy (And Mutilated) Is Fully Acquitted
Kerala Court hands down acquittal on appeal. In 2010, Islamic extremists accused the teacher of having offended Muhammad. While denying any responsibility, a group of strangers cut off his hand and part of his right arm. After being suspended and then fired by the school authorities, today the teacher was offered his job again.
Mumbai ( AsiaNews) — TJ Joseph , a Christian teacher accused of blasphemy in 2010, following which a group of strangers cut off his right hand and part of the arm, has finally been acquitted. The court of Thodupuzha in Kerala today heard the appeal filed by the teacher and acquitted him of all charges. A ruling , Sajan George , president of the Global Council of Indian Christians ( GCIC ) told AsiaNews, “for which we must thank the Indian judicial system . The case of Professor Joseph was one of the darkest pages in Kerala’s recent history ..”
It is March 2010, the teacher, a professor at Newman College, was accused of blasphemy by the Islamic fundamentalist group Popular Front of India ( PFI ) . According to the extremists, he added offensive questions about Muhammad to an exam questionnaire. Under constant threats, the man apologized publicly for his “unintentional error “ .
A few months later, however , a group of strangers attacked him in Muvattupuzha ( Ernakulam district ) , cutting off the hand and part of his right arm . TJ Joseph survived the attack, but in September the same year the school authorities fired him, without any possibility of a pension.
According to Sajan George , the most serious aspects of this episode “ was the attitude of the police, who registered the complaint against him and also arrested him, and of the institution , which has suspended him from duty . Fortunately, the Mahatma Gandhi University, to which Newman College is affiliated, revoked the decision of the school authorities and have offered him his job back”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China Plans to Ease 1-Child Policy and End Labor Camps
The Chinese government will ease its one-child family restrictions and abolish “re-education through labor” camps, significantly curtailing two policies that for decades have defined the state’s power to control citizens’ lives, the Communist Party said on Friday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Japanese Government Set to Borrow Additional $30 Bn for Fukushima Costs
(NaturalNews) The price tag for the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan just jumped $30 billion. The Japanese government has recently announced a new borrowing spree to increase cleanup funds of the dilapidated area from $50 billion to $80 billion.
This will increase cleanup spending by over 35 percent as the reality of the damage continues to set in. Along with cleanup costs, some of the money will be used to compensate those people who won’t be able to return to their homes.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Can Obama Legalize 11 Million Immigrants on His Own?
It’s now looking extremely unlikely that Congress will enact immigration reform this year. And that raises a question: Could President Obama use his executive powers to effectively legalize some of the 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the United States?
This possibility has actually been raised several times before. Back in August, Sen. Marco Rubio warned House Republicans that if they don’t pass a bill, Obama will act on his own: “I believe that this president will be tempted, if nothing happens in Congress,” Rubio said, “to issue an executive order as he did for the Dream Act kids a year ago, where he basically legalizes 11 million people by the sign of a pen.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UN Concerned That European Union Countries May be Denying Entry to Syrians, Other Asylum-Seekers
15 November 2013 — The United Nations refugee agency today said it is deeply concerned over reports of some European Union (EU) countries denying entry or forcibly returning asylum-seekers, including people who fled the Syrian conflict.
“If practices to prevent asylum-seekers from accessing territory and procedures are taking place, UNHCR calls on States to cease them immediately,” the spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Adrian Edwards, told reporters in Geneva.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Of all the nations on the entire planet, the United States is the most lonely place to be. We have the highest percentage of one person households on the entire globe, and the average size of our households has been steadily decreasing. Studies have shown that the number of close friends that Americans have is falling, and we have the highest divorce rate in the world by a wide margin.
So why is this happening? Does this have anything to do with the fact that America is abandoning the traditional family structure? Back in the 1960s, the “sexual revolution” fundamentally changed the way that millions of Americans viewed sex and love. By throwing out all of the old boundaries, many Americans believed that they would ultimately be able to have more sex and more love. Today, this manifests itself in a “hookup culture” that is constantly being promoted as “healthy” in our popular music, in our television shows and in our movies. But instead of this “hookup culture” resulting in more sex and more love, most Americans are discovering that it leads to just the opposite. We have become a nation of desperately lonely people that have very few real ties to others.
Never in the history of our nation have Americans been so isolated from one another. Most people get up in the morning, drive to work or school, perhaps do a little shopping afterwards, and then drive home again. The rest of the evening is typically spent in front of the television or on some sort of electronic device…
Could a lot of this have been avoided if we would have just fully embraced the traditional family structure as a nation?
Wouldn’t most of us be doing a lot better if we lived in homes that were filled with happy, healthy families?
Just consider what the consequences of “free love” and the “hookup culture” have been for America…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Toddler Given Up for Temporary Foster Care to Gay Couple
Middle-aged men are friends of the child’s family
(ANSA) — Bologna, November 15 — A court for minors in the northern Italian city of Bologna gave up a three-year-old girl for temporary foster care to a homosexual couple, newspaper Corriere della Sera reported on Friday.
Prosecutors had opposed the measure, claiming the couple were unfit to care for the toddler.
The two middle-aged men reportedly live in another city in the Emilia Romagna region around Bologna and know the three-year-old and her troubled family well.
The court ruled that the men, both reportedly making a good living and judged ‘stable and trustworthy’ by social services, could provide as foster parents to the little girl the stability and wellbeing required by the law.
Under Italian legislation, only married couples are entitled to adopt while temporary foster care can be given to any ‘family community’ formed by two people acting as parents or by a single person.
Last January Italy’s supreme court, the Cassation, recognized the right of homosexuals to become foster parents.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The Last Test: Americans Are Finally Embracing Mixed-Race Marriage.
By Stanley B. Greenberg
In 2010, a record 10 percent of opposite-sex married couples told America’s census takers that they lived in an interracial household—up from 7.4 percent in 2000. Given America’s racial history with blacks, Latinos, Japanese and Chinese, 1 in 10 is no doubt a pretty intriguing fact about the country, a reflection of big social transformations that have taken place over the past few decades, and worth examination on its own. But the numbers don’t just tell us about where the country is—they suggest a dramatic story about where it’s headed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Watch Student Decimate Common Core: Founding Fathers ‘Turning in Their Graves’
A Tennessee high school student spoke from personal experience when he gave a highly critical speech on Common Core at the Knox County School Board meeting earlier this month.
Ethan Young, a senior at Farragut High School, recited the history of Common Core, beginning in 2009 when the National Governor’s Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, partnered with a nonprofit funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NSA Snooping Takes Down U.S. Computer Networking Business
Cisco emerging markets earnings drop significantly following Snowden revelations
It was only a matter of time before NSA surveillance revelations began to take down the communications infrastructure business.
On Thursday, Cisco, the multinational computer networking giant headquartered in Silicon Valley, reported an unexpected 10 percent sales drop during the current quarter.
“It’s not the only factor, but Cisco says the backlash over U.S. surveillance has definitely hit orders in China,” writes David Meyer for Gigacom. “Orders in other developing countries have also plummeted, and again the NSA is being cited as a possible factor.”
Damage estimates are significant. On Wednesday, the corporation reported a sudden 21 percent plummet across the board in emerging markets. Its revenue dropped 25 percent in Brazil, 18 percent in India, Mexico and China, and 30 percent in Russia.
In October it was reported that the NSA has a backdoor in some Cisco products. A backdoor is a way to get around normal user authentication and gain covert use of a computer system.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |