UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for concerted global action to slow climate change, which he said caused Typhoon Haiyan to become such a destructive storm. Meanwhile, a charitable group in Ireland is decrying the failure of governments to give more than a small fraction of their pledged aid to the Philippines.
In other news, demonstrators protesting the presence of armed militias in the Libyan capital Tripoli were fired upon by those same militias. From 13 to 39 people were killed, according to various accounts of the incident, and hundreds more wounded.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Andy Bostom, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, McR, Steen, 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.
China Becomes World’s Top Gold Buyer
China has raced past India to become the world’s top gold consumer.
Gold prices may have bottomed out earlier this year, but the precious metal hasn’t lost its luster among Chinese consumers.
China has purchased 798 tonnes of the precious metal so far this year, compared to India’s 715 tonnes, according to the latest World Gold Council Report.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Euro Zone’s Rebound Feels Like Recession
The euro-zone economy’s recovery from its long slump lost its momentum in the third quarter, compounding fears that Europe could get mired in a “lost decade” of stagnation, joblessness and political discontent.
Although growth is expected to improve slightly next year, the euro zone is still a long way from regaining the level of output and jobs it had before the financial crisis that began five years ago.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Tension High as Students Lead Nationwide Protests
Unions also march, strike against 2014 budget
(ANSA) — Rome, November 15 — Social tensions broke out into sporadic violence across Italy Thursday as students took to the streets against the government’s economic policies, bolstering an eight-hour strike by unions protesting an allegedly anaemic budget they claim has welched on pledges to spark the flatlining economy into life to ease record poverty and joblessness.
Students marched en masse in most of Italy’s big cities, under banners proclaiming We Won’t Take the Blame For Your Crisis, demanding more social housing, the introduction of job-seeking benefits and more cash for schools and universities.
Although it has repeatedly vowed to allot much more spending towards stoking growth and helping underfunded sectors like education, Italy has been hampered by Brussels-dictated austerity criteria and is determined to avoid triggering another excessive-deficit procedure, like one that was recently closed, from the European Union.
Italy’s three main labour unions — CGIL, CISL and UIL — and students staged nationwide protests against the draft 2014 budget, now ending its way through parliament amid myriad amendments, saying it failed to address record unemployment, including one in four young people out of work, or boost funds to the struggling education system.
Demonstrators across the country staged protests organized by the three unions and Italy’s financial capital Milan hosted one of the main events with an estimated 2,000 people marching from Corso Venezia to Piazza della Scala under heavy rain.
“The government should not tell us it expects the economy to recover in 2014, the recovery will take place when workers will not be afraid of losing their jobs the following day”, said the leader of CGIL Susanna Camusso in Milan.
The jobless rate in Italy is over 12% and over four in 10 young people aged 15-24 are out of work.
The number of Italians suffering from some form of labor difficulty, from underemployment to unemployment, is reportedly nearly nine million.
Addressing demonstrators in Milan, Camusso said CGIL, CISL and UIL were asking the government one thing — “to raise the incomes of employees and pensioners” to boost consumer spending and production.
The CGIL leader said unions will continue to protest until the government “will give responses” after drafting a budget law which she said only focuses on curbing the country’s massive public debt, which climbed to 2.068565 trillion euros in September.
The budget bill now going through parliament has been widely accused of not including enough growth-stoking measures in a country which has been in recession since the third quarter of 2011.
Unions say that promised cuts on take-home pay and labour costs have turned out to be “risibly small”.
The government has said it will try to beef them up as much as possible and has reminded protesters, including members of its coalition, that Italy has extremely small wiggle room because of EU-mandated fiscal restraints.
The leader of UIL Luigi Angeletti, closing a demonstration in the central Italian city of Perugia, also criticized the budget bill as having only the effect of “stabilizing unemployment”. CISL chief Bonanni also denounced Italy’s huge tax burden which he said will be “the tomb of Italy’s economy and democracy”.
Presenting the draft bill last month, Italian Premier Enrico Letta said Italy’s overall tax burden would fall from 44% to 43.3% in three years under the draft budget law.
Thousands of students across Italy, from Sicily to Turin, also protested on Friday to demand more funding for public schools and universities in the budget bill.
In Rome, where clashes between demonstrators and police were reported as in Bologna in the North and Cagliari in Sardinia, groups of students protested in front of the education ministry and across the city centre.
Milan saw hundreds of students take to the streets and a small group of left-wing militants broke into Google’s headquarters, dirtying the walls with graffiti.
On Friday the European Commission said Italy could not benefit from a possible stimulus-spending exemption, sometimes granted beyond the mandatory 3% deficit-to-GDP limit, because its public debt, the second-biggest in the eurozone behind Greece’s, was still rising.
Premier Enrico Letta said the budget was keeping fiscal consolidation on the right track and the debt would start falling.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Janet Yellen and the Fed Bubble Machine
A lone voice that will assuredly be overwhelmed came from Louisiana Republican Senator David Vitter, who had the courage to call a spade a spade. “I’ll be voting no” on Yellen’s confirmation, he said. Vitter said Yellen made it clear “she would continue the Fed’s current policies of continuing ‘Too Big to Fail’ and free money, quantitative easing, with no wind down in sight.”
Despite Vitter’s criticism the Senate will undoubtedly move to replace Bubbles Ben with Calamity Janet. Before this can happen, the confirmers might want to look at Federal Reserve transcripts from 2006. They reveal a carefree attitude about the housing market that would implode with a deafening roar soon thereafter.
“They saw it. They saw that housing was crashing. They joked about the problems that home builders were having in selling homes,” said Binyamin Appelbaum, a reporter for The New York Times, earlier this year.
Banksters often do that. They laugh and chortle over the misery of the little people who suffer under the sledge hammer of their economic policies.
The Federal Reserve cartel inflates asset bubbles and then allows them to crash. Bernanke admitted as much in 2002. “Regarding the Great Depression. You’re right, we did it. We’re very sorry,” he said during a speech at a University of Chicago conference honoring Milton Friedman on his 90th birthday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Youth Joblessness Could Tear Eurozone Apart, WEF Warns
The World Economic Forum (WEF) has warned that a lost generation of jobless youth in the eurozone could tear Europe apart if policymakers fail to address the chronic levels of unemployment.
The warning came on Friday, as the WEF presented its outlook on the global agenda for 2014.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
“I Can’t Believe” This is Happening in America
My “I Can’t Believe This is Happening to America” list is growing larger by the day. It is so vast now, I can write a book. Would my book have an audience? Judging by the eagerness with which most Americans have embraced the transformational hope and change of our country to communist utopia, the answer is no.
I can’t believe New Yorkers have elected a blatant Marxist as their mayor. I can’t believe Terry McAuliffe is the governor of Virginia. The American men who fought in the Revolutionary War must be turning in their graves knowing that the hallowed ground in Virginia they defended against the British tyranny is now run by Marxist Democrats.
I voted last Tuesday, I took with me to the precinct a piece of toilet paper I found on my last trip to Romania, a “former” communist country where the apparatchiks went underground for a while and are now resurfacing with a vengeance. Twenty-four years later, the commies have not perfected the intricate art of making toilet paper — it was covered with splinters within the layers. On the bright side, this time toilet paper was available and I did not have to fight hundreds of people in line for three hours in order to purchase one roll. I showed my strip of toilet paper to the people who were checking I.D.s asking them if this was the kind of country they wanted. Most laughed, did not realize that I carried this over 7,000 miles with me, and turned back to their duties to make sure all the low information and illegal citizens voted. Why bother? It won’t happen here, we have everything, and we live in the land of abundance — for now.
It was a cruel joke to pretend that poll watchers were making sure voting was legitimate. All illegal aliens in my county have driver licenses. There is no place on the driver’s license that says, illegal or non-citizen, you cannot vote. Dead people voted early and repeatedly. The 2010 Census said that our county’s population grew by 40 percent in the last ten years and most of that growth came from the illegal alien population. They are not hiding in the shadows as progressives/Marxists say, they are living around us with no fear of deportation or shame of criminality.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
After Condom Law, Porn Film Permits Plummet
The number of permits pulled to make porn films in Los Angeles County has declined an estimated 95 percent — from about 480 issued in 2012 to only 24 through the first nine months of this year — since a law requiring adult film actors to use condoms took effect, officials said Friday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Are Too Many Americans Truly Useful Idiots?
“A good Communist finds use for everything, and nothing is more useful than a useful idiot,” said Nicoali Lenin and Lenin’s useful idiots abound and we find them in the most unexpected places. A letter to our local newspaper explained why he felt Oregon has its share of idiots in our government — a statement that could be expressed today by disgusted citizens throughout our once sovereign Republic country.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) managers could be deemed the useful idiots in Washington, D.C. with their “navigators” as well as in Oregon that is now hiring 400 workers to begin helping people manually fill out the paper work because Oregon’s website isn’t working either. The new employees will be receiving $12 to $14 an hour depending on past experience. And on November 2 the Washington Post reported that a memo written by David Cutler, a Harvard University professor, warned the Obama administration of serious flaws in the planned roll-out-of the Affordable Care Act. In particular, Cutler, health adviser to the President’s 2008 campaign, emphasized that those in charge lacked the necessary experience of running a business startup.[1] Eventually all these “health care navigators” will be unionized and voting Democrat.
But perhaps the most revealing has been the author of the National best seller “The Ultimate Obama Survival Guide,” by Wayne Allyn Root who says ObamaCare is a fantastic success and admits he is a member of the two-party system — a Republican. He says the GOP should stop calling ObamaCare a train wreck. That means it’s a mistake, or accident; however it’s not a failure, its Obama’s grand success. He wants to bring the U.S. to its knees, to capitulate- so we agree under duress to accept big government. It’s Hegelian dialectics in play once again. Obamacare was intended to bring about the Marxist dream — redistribution of wealth, to finish off the middle class ($25,000 to $50,000) and make them dependent on government too. Obama’s hero and mentor was Saul Alinsky — a radical Marxist intent on destroying capitalism. While the Tea Party folks are trying to stop it, they are being maligned by their own Republican Party. The RNC is planning to “neutralize” the unprecedented Tea Party Movement from 2010 hoping to purge the constitutional patriots from the party.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-FBI Agent Pleads Guilty to Leaking Secrets About Yemen Operation to AP
A former FBI explosives expert was sentenced Thursday to roughly 3 1/2 years in prison for possessing and disclosing secret information, which he has said included intelligence he gave to The Associated Press for a story about a U.S. operation in Yemen in 2012.
The story on Yemen led to a federal leaks investigation and the seizure of AP phone records in the government’s search for the source.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Feinstein Promotes Bill to Strengthen NSA and Its Warrantless Searches
A Senate bill promoted as a surveillance reform would codify the ability of the National Security Agency to search its troves of foreign phone and email communications for Americans’ information, and permit law enforcement agencies to search the vast databases as well.
The Fisa Improvements Act, promoted by Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who chairs the Senate intelligence committee, would both make permanent a loophole permitting the NSA to search for Americans’ identifying information without a warrant — and, civil libertarians fear, contains an ambiguity that might allow the FBI, the DEA and other law enforcement agencies to do the same thing.
“For the first time, the statute would explicitly allow the government to proactively search through the NSA data troves of information without a warrant,” said Michelle Richardson, the surveillance lobbyist for the ACLU.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Food Stamp Opportunists Who Raided Walmart During EBT Glitch to be Cut Off From Program
(NaturalNews) The ruthless hordes of food stamp recipients that went wild last month during a major glitch in the Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) program could end up getting cut off from the program forever, claim new reports. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal recently announced that everyone who participated in fraud in his state by raiding stores and going on out-of-control shopping sprees will soon receive letters notifying them of either a temporary or permanent loss of benefits.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gun Control Advocate Threatens to ‘Shoot and Kill’ Recall Activists (Video)
Warning: Strong language.
An apparent gun control supporter threatened to “go home and get a gun and come back and kill” a group of Second Amendment activists seeking signatures on a recall petition against Colorado Sen. Evie Hudak.
After September’s recall of Colorado Sen. Angela Giron and Senate President John Morse over their anti-gun stance, a group called Recall Hudak Too is trying to extend its success by tossing Hudak out of office, according to Capitol City Project.
While collecting signatures in front of the public library in Arvada, Colo., a man riding by on a bicycle can be heard to say, “I’m going to go home and get a gun and come back and kill you m****r f****rs. Would you like that?”
Hudak is best known for her insensitive questioning of rape victim Amanda Collins during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings before the state passed highly restrictive gun control measures.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
House Plans to Let You ‘Keep Your Plan’ — President Obama Plans to Veto Their Plan
Yesterday, during the worst press conference in Presidential history, Barack Obama decided that he wanted to suspend part of his own law for a year. Essentially, he passed the buck to insurance companies by announcing that they could reinstate cancelled, allegedly-but-not-really substandard, insurance policies until sometime in 2014 — presumably after the mid-term elections.
Just about everyone agrees that this is illegal, unconstitutional, and that the President can’t do it without Congress passing some kind of legislation to make it happen.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
House Votes to Let Americans Keep Health Plans; 39 Dems Defy Obama
Nearly 40 House Democrats defied President Obama and helped the Republican majority pass a bill Friday that lets Americans keep, for one year, health plans that do not comply with Obamacare.
The defections from 39 members of Mr. Obama’s party highlighted the pressure on Congress to help people who lost coverage because of the president’s signature law, as balky websites keep a veil over alternative plans and pressure mounts on the Democrat-led Senate to forge a remedy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
House Dems Refuse to Apologize for ObamaCare Broken Promises (Video)
Arrogant House Democrats refused to apologize Thursday for parroting their leader’s repeated lie that Americans can keep their health insurance plans if they liked them.
After President Obama’s Thursday press conference, four Democratic House leaders held their own press conference and basically told millions of Americans who have lost their health insurance thanks to Obamacare they had nothing to apologize for.
According to Yahoo News, “Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, the top four House Democrats — Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Assistant Leader James Clyburn, Whip Steny Hoyer and House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra — were asked if they would apologize to any constituents who felt misled by Democrats. Each declined.”
“I don’t think there’s anything for us to apologize for,” Clyburn said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Madison, Jefferson vs. Obama, Reid, Pelosi on ObamaCare Exemptions
Thomas Jefferson believed that “legislators ought not to stand above the law they create but ought generally to be bound by it as are ordinary persons.” So noted the U.S. Supreme Court in its 1972 decision in Gravel v. United States.
James Madison expounded on this principle in The Federalist, No. 57, explaining that Congress “can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as on the great mass of the society.”
It is a principle based on plain fairness and common sense. And it is going to play a key role in the ongoing battle over ObamaCare.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New Mesh Network Documents Confirm Police Vehicle’s Real-Time Access to DHS Spy Cameras
Following bombshell documents released by Storyleak and Infowars last Tuesday uncovering Seattle’s expansive $2.6 million Homeland Security funded mesh network surveillance grid, new documents hidden deep inside the 2012 proposal request (# DIT-2996) give even greater detail into the government’s ability to track and database virtually any person.
After local media began questioning the appearance of mysterious “off-white boxes” attached to utility poles in the downtown area, reports uncovered the mesh network devices’ ability to siphon off unsuspecting mobile user’s IP addresses as well as the last 1,000 locations visited. Storyleak and Infowars’ exclusive documents went one step further in revealing the vast amount of local and even federal agencies tied into the network’s information-gathering center.
A new file entitled the “Police Video Diagram” proves police officers’ ability to access and control live-video feed from the city’s expansive collection of surveillance cameras, all from the comfort of their police cruisers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Obama is an Actor Trained by Harry Lennix
During an appearance on the Alex Jones Show, Chicago radio host Eric ‘Mancow’ Muller revealed that actor Harry Lennix told him he was hired to train Obama how to look presidential by mimicking the actor’s demeanor and body language…
Muller, who knew Obama in Chicago before he became president, said Lennix told him that, “He was the actor hired to teach Obama to be Harry Lennix — watch The Blacklist and you can see Obama — this is an actor that we hired in our president.”
“He’s leaving our studio and sees a cut-out of Obama and says ‘he’s a rat bastard’ — oh because I’m black I have to like Obama,” said Muller.
“He says, Mancow do I remind you of him?…Barack Obama is me, you’ve seen me on TV, you’ve seen me on movies, he is me.”
Mancow says Lennix told him, “He mimicked me, he followed me for years, and they wanted me to train him and teach him how to act…like a an educated south side African-American,” adding that Lennix thought Obama was “very stupid” and had “been taught to act like this.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
San Francisco Rallies for ‘Batkid’ Miles Scott, Leukaemia Survivor
Thousands of people in San Francisco have turned out to help a boy recovering from leukaemia fulfil his wish to be Batman for a day.
Miles Scott, five, participated in events across the city including fighting mock crimes and receiving an honour from the mayor.
Make-A-Wish Foundation, which organised the event, received pledges from more than 10,000 people to lend a hand.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Seattle Elects Socialist Candidate to City Council
Seattle voters have elected a socialist to city council for the first time in modern history.
Kshama Sawant’s lead continued to grow on Friday, prompting 16-year incumbent Richard Conlin to concede.
Even in this liberal city, Sawant’s win has surprised many here. Conlin was backed by the city’s political establishment. On election night, she trailed by four percentage points. She wasn’t a veteran politician, having only run in one previous campaign.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Serious Talk of Repealing ObamaCare Now Surfacing
Repeal Obamacare? Isn’t that what the Republicans have tried to do time and again for three years?
Yes. Only now, they may be getting new Democratic support. Here’s why:
- Obamacare has been — and continues to be a disaster.
- Obama, a Democrat president, lied to get it passed.
- Tens of millions of Americans are being told they are losing their current healthcare plans because of minimum coverage requirements under the law.
- Not a single Republican voted for Obamacare.
- Democrats who did vote for Obamacare are coming up for reelection next year — and Obamacare’s damage is only going to get worse beginning next year.
So all of a sudden, Obamacare has become an albatross around Democrats’ necks. They own it. And now they are running for cover.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How do you fundamentally transform a nation from what it has been to what a clique of ideologues wants it to be? The easiest way is to convince the general population that what the would-be masters want is what the people want. Those seeking to subvert a culture must take a long view. They must realize that this will be a multistage project that will take generations to achieve.
As an example that will strike home and ring true to every engaged American let’s look at how the Progressives have incrementally moved us from the best educated, most politically engaged population in History to a flock of militantly apathetic fans. Couch potatoes waiting for the next game or reality show unaware how our government operates and impatient with anyone who tries to explain it to them. How did they nudged us from the most self-reliant people in the world to a line of people waiting hat in hand for the next transfer payment?
The first goal was the educational system. Capture that and it was possible to raise up generations who either thought as they did or who didn’t think at all. Dumb it down, exchange confused thinking for critical thinking and soon the people who once asked hard questions will swallow easy answers. The best place to start is at the colleges and universities. If you can convince a generation of teachers that the snake-oil you’re selling will cure everything you will soon have them indoctrinating generations that the sickness is really the cure.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Texas A&M Law Professor: Constitution is Obsolete, Second Amendment Must be Repealed
Prof. Penrose teaches students in her Constitutional law course that the Bill of Rights is outdated.
Mary Margaret Penrose made her statement during a panel discussion on gun control at the University of Connecticut School of Law in Hartford…
Texas A&M’s current and former students have overwhelmingly rejected her views.
“She’s entitled to her opinion, but if she is not teaching what she’s being paid to teach, she should be fired,” tx4guns said on the TexAgs message board frequented by former students.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Health Care Charts Obama Doesn’t Want You to See
The Obama administration continues to struggle with the embarrassing rollout of its main domestic-policy scheme, Obamacare. The problems are not just limited to a dysfunctional website that took more time to build than it took to defeat Hitler after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
For example, a lot of focus has been on those Americans who had health insurance before the Affordable Care Act passed, who continue to have health insurance now, but whose policies will be canceled at the beginning of next year because of the law. These Americans are receiving especially large amounts of attention because President Obama lied over and over again when he promised before, during and even after the debate over his health care bill that if they liked their health care plan they could keep it. Period.
Now that it has become abundantly clear that the president was knowingly spouting untruths when he made this promise, the administration and its acolytes in media and academia are in full spin mode.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UnitedHealth Drops Thousands of Doctors From Insurance Plans: WSJ
UnitedHealth Group dropped thousands of doctors from its networks in recent weeks, leaving many elderly patients unsure whether they need to switch plans to continue seeing their doctors, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
The insurer said in October that underfunding of Medicare Advantage plans for the elderly could not be fully offset by the company’s other healthcare business. The company also reported spending more healthcare premiums on medical claims in the third quarter, due mainly to government cuts to payments for Medicare Advantage services.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘What Better Costume, You Know What I Mean?’
From ABC’s Channel 10 in San Diego via WND:
Elysia Roiz has a 2-year-old special-needs son and she was desperate for money, so she donned a burqa and tried to rob a Wells Fargo bank, the report said.
But after she passed a demand note, the station reported, the teller pushed a panic button and Roiz fled without a dime.
And she was arrested two months later in Tijuana.
She admitted to the station it wasn’t fair to hide in religious garb.
“I know in other countries they’ve outlawed it, because of people, mostly men hiding firearms inside burqas, and I don’t think it was fair of me to exploit that, but what better costume, you know what I mean?” Roiz asked.
She told the station the garment should be outlawed.
“I don’t want to be disrespectful, but I mean, that stuff is so oppressive, like I mean, we fought a lot in the ‘70s, women did, so that kind of stuff didn’t happen, doesn’t happen.”
According to the creeping shariah website, which marked the events and arguments, CAIR spokesman Hanif Mohebi said, “No one has or should use any symbols or clothing of [religion] in order to commit any crimes.”
[NOTE: FAIL + ROOM TEMPERATURE IQ]
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Wi-Fi Spy Network Installed in Los Angeles?
A series of photographs obtained by Infowars suggests that a similar wi-fi mesh network to the one which generated controversy in Seattle over its ability to track cellphone users is currently being installed in Los Angeles.
In February, the Wall Street Journal reported on Time Warner’s rollout of an outdoor wi-fi network in L.A. which was activated in the fall of 2012. According to the report, in January Time Warner announced that it would, “roll out 10,000 more hot spots in Los Angeles and other cities in the coming year.”
The photos obtained by Infowars suggest that this rollout is now gathering pace. The images, which were taken today, show white boxes with antennas similar to those in Seattle that are affixed to utility poles. One of the images shows an installation van emblazoned with the name of a company called ‘Wiring Connection’.
The boxes are being installed in residential areas on the outskirts of town away from the city center, suggesting that the rollout may have blanketed most of the city.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch National Arrested in Belgium for Preparing Attacks
A 23-year-old Dutch national has been arrested in Belgium because he was involved in ‘concrete preparations’ for terror attacks, RTL reported on Friday.
The man is said to come from the village of Clinge in the southern province of Zeeland.
‘It was a question of days,’ the spokesman said. ‘We had information that the threats were very concrete. The man was working out the practicalities.’
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
As I learned from reading Diana West’s opus, American Betrayal, General Dwight D. Eisenhower extolled the suitability of both the Italian Po Valley, and the Aegean Sea “Second Front” approaches during the late November, 1943 Cairo Conference. Specifically, Ike opined the following at Cairo on November 26, 1943, as reported in United States Department of State, Foreign relations of the United States diplomatic papers, The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, (1943), pp. 359-60:…
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Olive Oil Exports Jump 10% in 2013 to Record High
Coldiretti says sales hit 1.3 bn euros
(ANSA) — Rome, November 14 — Italian olive oil exports jumped 10% in 2013 to a record high of 1.3 billion euros, according to estimates by farmers’ association Coldiretti based on data from national statistics agency Istat. The steepest increases were posted in emerging markets such as Oceania, which jumped 32%, and Asia, which posted a 16% increase. More traditional markets also experienced strong demand, with Germany absorbing almost one bottle of all three produced, resulting in a 5% increase of sales, ahead of France and Britain. Chinese purchases remained stable, while Japanese ones jumped 18%, overtaking France and becoming in turn this year the third-biggest buyer in the world after the US and Germany.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Perugia Escort ‘Evades 500,000 Euros in Taxes’
Files no income despite ‘expensive lifestyle’
(ANSA) — Perugia, November 15 — An escort in Perugia was cited Friday for allegedly evading 500,000 euros in taxes. The woman, a 30-year-old Spanish citizen of Colombian origin, had filed no income despite what police said was an expensive lifestyle.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Underage Prostitute Says She ‘Wanted Too Much’
Police release statement of 14-year-old in Rome sex ring
(ANSA) — Rome, November 15 — Statements from one of the girls involved in an underage prostitution ring in Rome were released by police Friday, revealing her desire for “too much” money drove her to sell sex. “We want too much. To make all this money either you sell drugs or your body,” the youngest of the girls, 14 at the time, told a prosecutor and a psychologist. “I want my own options with money. Either I deal drugs or I do this”. Investigators believe several underage girls were involved in the network, and that as many as 20-30 clients paid them for sex in the upscale Parioli neighborhood.
The story made headlines last month when police revealed that two of the girls studied at the same Rome high school and allegedly began working in May after being lured through a social network called ‘Bakeca Incontri’ (Meetings Bulletin Board).
They allegedly went to school in the morning and worked in the afternoon, making up to 300 euros per client and used the money to supply their pimps, including one of their mothers, with drugs, according to police sources.
Police said Wednesday they have identified between 20 and 30 possible clients, most of whom were well-off.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: State Railway Must Hire Short Woman, Court Rules
Cassation rules height limit discriminatory
(ANSA) — Rome, November 15 — Italy’s highest appeals court, the Cassation, on Friday ruled that Italian State railway Trenitalia must hire a woman who in 2004 had passed a test to become a train conductor but was subsequently turned down “only because she wasn’t tall enough”.
Her height, just below the minimum 1.6 meters required, would not compromise her work, the high court said.
A first degree court had first ruled against the worker saying she did not meet physical requirements to become a train conductor or engine driver.
An appeals court in 2009 had then ruled in favour of the woman, saying Trenitalia had to hire her and pay all due salaries since 2004, saying the regulation regarding height was unreasonable and “indirectly discriminatory as it set the same height limit for women and men” though Italy’s Constitutional Court has recognized “statistically and objectively a physical difference according to gender”.
The Cassation backed this ruling though Trenitalia has said the woman’s height “could have a negative influence” when getting off the train and pulling the emergency brake.
The Cassation confirmed the tasks were marginal and could be carried out by her.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Letta Says He Stands Behind Beleaguered Justice Minister
Premier maintains support for Cancellieri despite scandal
(ANSA) — Rome, November 15 — Prime Minister Enrico Letta said Friday that his confidence in his beleaguered justice minister was unshaken.
Following a meeting with Anna Maria Cancellieri, sources said that Letta emerged to say that he continued to support her despite allegations that she meddled in an important fraud case.
Cancellieri faces a confidence vote in parliament next Wednesday over allegations that she asked prison authorities to release Giulia Ligresti from jail and order her instead into house arrest.
Ligresti is a member of a major Italian business dynasty who was arrested in July for alleged involvement in cooking the books at the Fonsai insurance group.
Last week Cancellieri denied those allegations before both houses of parliament. However, on Friday, Italian daily La Repubblica cited leaked police reports which showed Cancellieri and her husband maintained telephone contact with Ligresti’s uncle Antonino.
So far Cancellieri had not told parliament she was in touch with the Ligresti family, which has links to hers. The minister’s son, Piergiorgio Peluso, is a former manager at the insurance group and received a whopping five-million-euro severance payoff after a short spell there.
In a statement she argued she “never lied to parliament or prosecutors”, and said she was merely seeking medical advice from Antonino Ligresti, a doctor, and that she would not resign.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Justice Min Defends Conduct as New Evidence Emerges
Leaked phone calls prompt cries for ouster over fraud case
(ANSA) — Rome, November 15 — Anna Maria Cancellieri, Italy’s embattled justice minister, rebuffed calls to resign Friday after new evidence surfaced suggesting she may have meddled in a high-profile fraud case her critics link to family ties.
Next Wednesday, Cancellieri faces a confidence vote in parliament after allegedly soliciting prison authorities to release from prison to house arrest Giulia Ligresti, a member of a major Italian business dynasty who was arrested in July for alleged involvement in cooking the books at the Fonsai insurance group.
Last week she denied those allegations before both houses of parliament. On Friday, Italian daily La Repubblica cited leaked police reports which showed she and her husband maintained telephone contact with Ligresti’s uncle Antonino.
Antonino’s brother is Giulia’s father Salvatore Ligresti, the family patriarch and former honorary chairman of Fonsai, who is also under house arrest along with two former executives from the insurance company.
So far Cancellieri had not told parliament she was in touch with the Ligresti family, which has links to hers. The minister’s son, Piergiorgio Peluso, is a former manager at the insurance group and received a whopping five-million-euro severance payoff after a short spell there.
In a statement she argued she “never lied to parliament or prosecutors”, and said she was merely seeking medical advice from Antonino Ligresti, a doctor, and that she would not resign.
Cancellieri’s detractors include the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, who called for the confidence vote next week. Others include Puglia Governor Nichi Vendola, head of the left-wing SEL party. “The minister should have tendered her resignation,” said Vendola.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Schettino Having Affair With RAI Journalist, Reports Bild
‘He abandoned the ship and now his wife’
(ANSA) — Berlin, November 12 — The ex-captain on trial for his role in the Costa Concordia shipwreck is having an affair with the journalist who has been covering the disaster since its beginning for Italy’s state-broadcaster RAI, the German tabloid Bild reported Sunday.
“He abandoned the ship and now his wife” read the headline of the Bild story, which pointed out that 12 of the 32 people who died in the January 2012 shipwreck off the Tuscan coast were Germans.
Ex-captain Francesco Schettino is on trial for multiple manslaughter and dereliction of duty in the Tuscan city of Grosseto. A Moldovan dancer who once defended Schettino for his role in the catastrophe admitted in court last month that she was having an affair with him on the ship.
Investigators found Domnica Cemortan’s suitcase in the ex-captain’s cabin, and that she had not paid for the cruise.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Ranks Second-Highest in Europe for Sales of Viagra
Over 6 mn pills sold in 2013 to treat erectile dysfunction
(ANSA) — Milan, November 13 — The Lombardy region in northwestern Italy leads the country in the volume sold of the medication Viagra, while central Emilia Romagna reports the greatest per capita annual sales, according to figures released Wednesday.
As the medication to treat erectile dysfunction marks its 15th anniversary, the research shows that Italy is the second-largest consumer of Viagra in Europe, after Britain, with 86 million tablets sold since it came to market.
In Italy, more than six million pills have been sold to date this year, with Lombardy claiming more than one million of those tablets.
Measured on a per capita basis, Emilia Romagna reported an average sales volume of 588 tablets for every 1,000 men over age 40, followed by Tuscany with levels of 563 pills for every 1,000 men over 40.
The region of Liguria reported sales of 546 pills per 1,000 men over 40 while the region that consumed the least amount was Basilicata, with only 230 Viagra pills for every 1,000 men over age 40.
Among Italian cities, Rome holds the record for the largest number of tablets sold this year, at more than over 570,000, followed by Piacenza, Rimini and Livorno.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: M5S Leader Says Redundancy Fund is Outdated
(AGI) Rome, Nov 15 — Five Star Movement leader Beppe Grillo, interviewed by Tg1 news, said: “The redundancy fund is a knick-knack invented by the Agnelli family in the seventies. I think it’s unconstitutional, because it is a discriminatory measure. What about the budget law, which they call ‘stability law’? That’s a semantic fraud. What stability are they going on about? It’s just like the old budget law, they throw everything in it. Do you think it’s normal for the law on femicide to include a clause prohibiting the abolishment of provincial councils?”. Grillo also added that the guaranteed minimum income can be funded “through a tax reform”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Mario Monti ‘Genuflected to Germany’, Says Berlusconi
(AGI) Rome, Nov. 16 — Silvio Berlusconi described former Prime Minister Mario Monti’s political approach as “genuflecting to Germany by having Parliament approve the Tobin tax when no one else did”. Berlusconi made this assertion at the PDL party’s national council.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: 45,000 Celebrate Sinterklaas Arrival in Groningen
The arrival of Sinterklaas in Groningen was attended by some 45,000 people and there were no protests about the inclusion of Zwarte Piet in the parade, Nos television said on Saturday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Terror Suspect Targeted the Belgian State and the VRT
In Sint-Niklaas (East Flanders) police apprehended a man who is suspected of plotting several terrorist attacks. Investigators explained that the man had the intention of overthrowing the Belgian state, and that he also had plans for an attack against the Flemish broadcaster VRT.
The 23-year-old man of Dutch descent was arrested late on Wednesday. He had tried to recruit people to take part in terrorist attacks, visiting pubs and cafes. However, this was not a big success.
Just like Anders Breivik in Norway, he had written a complete 80 page manifesto, about how he would overthrow the Belgian state. The VRT news desk found out that he wanted to install a Flemish Republic. He had chosen the occasion of King’s Day to carry out his bold plans. The man allegedly argues that the Belgian state is too much of a puppet on a string led by the Americans.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Plans to Build Stalybridge Mosque Rejected by Council Planners Because of ‘Unwanted Traffic’
More than 1,500 people signed a petition against the plans to create a community centre and place for prayer on the site of Kenworthy Street’s former Pineapple Inn.
Religious leaders hoping to build a mosque in Stalybridge have been turned down by council planners. More than 1,500 people signed a petition against the plans to create a community centre and place for prayer on the site of Kenworthy Street’s former Pineapple Inn. Objectors claimed it would bring unwanted traffic and parked cars on an already busy road. Understanding Islam — the charity behind the application — say they are ‘disappointed’ but still hopeful of finding a home in the town…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
31 Killed in Attack on Anti-Militia Protesters in Libya Capital
TRIPOLI, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) — A group of militiamen opened fire here on Friday at hundreds of protesters, killing at least 31 people and wounding 230 others, the Libyan Health Ministry said. Some militiamen who opened fire with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns at hundreds of protesters, who were demanding the armed group from the city of Misrata to move out of the capital, according to a Xinhua reporter at the scene. The group is allegedly involved in the bloody clashes last Thursday in the Tripoli.
Speaking at a press conference, Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan blamed both the protesters and the militia for the violence. But Taha Bashaga, regional commander of the Misrata militia group, told a TV that the protesters were armed and opened fire first, insisting that his brigades not leave Tripoli until the country draws up a new constitution. Two years after the 2011 conflict, the Libyan authorities are still struggling to rein in tens of armed militia groups roaming the country. Murders and kidnappings of security officers as well as protests are registered on daily basis.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Algerian President Bouteflika to Run for Fourth Term
(AGI) Algiers, Nov 16 — Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, 76, will be running for his fourth presidential term in general elections to be held in April 2014. The Central Committee of the National Liberation Front (NLF), which has been in power since Algeria’s independence from France in 1962, made the decision at the end of its meeting in Algiers.
Bouteflika, who has been Algeria’s president since 1999, has been honourary leader of the NLF since 2005 and returned from three months of medical treatment in France in July after a mild stroke.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Warms to Russia as US Ties Cool
Russia’s defence and foreign ministers have ended a highly anticipated two-day visit to Cairo, with officials from both countries promising deeper ties but offering few specifics and making no mention of a much-rumoured multibillion-dollar arms deal.
The visit comes as many in Egypt begin to see Russia as a more reliable ally than the US, which has become increasingly unpopular because of its perceived support for the Muslim Brotherhood and its mild criticism of the military’s removal of President Mohamed Morsi in July.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Militia Open Fire on Tripoli Demonstrators Killing 13
(AGI) Tripoli, Nov 15 — According to Libyan press agency Lana, 13 people were killed and 130 injured on Friday, during anti-militia protests. The demonstrators were asking the armed groups and ex rebels — who have continually refused to lay down their weapons, two years after the overthrowing of Gaddafi — to leave the city. But the peaceful demonstration ended in a bloodbath as militiamen opened fire.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Anti-Government Protests Cost Over $6.4 Bln Claims Minister
Tripoli, 14 Nov. (AKI) — Protests at Libya’s ports and oil fields have cost the country more than 6.4 billion euros, economy minister Mustafa Abu Fanas said on Thursday.
“If these blockages continue it will have a big negative impact,” Fanas told reporters, putting the losses at 6.43 billion dollars (almost 8 billion Libyan dinars) since the summer.
The protests have reduced Libya’s crude oil exports to a trickle, he said.
“There are now very intense efforts so this problem will perhaps be solved.”
Tribes, armed militia and members of the Berber minority have seized most oil ports and fields since August to demand more rights or pay rises.
Two years after the fall of late strongman Muammar Gaddaf, Libya remains in turmoil. Its economy is expected to shrink by 5.1 percent this year, the International Monetary Fund said this week.
Crude output has fallen to 90,000 barrels per day from 1.6 million under Gaddafi.haos in Libya two years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.
Crude oil and gas are the country’s main natural resources.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: U.S. Offering 10 Mln USD Reward for Information on Benghazi Attack
WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) — The Obama administration has offered up to 10 million dollars since January for information leading to the arrest of attackers on the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi, the State Department said on Friday. The disclosure about the offer made under the agency’s “Rewards for Justice” program was unveiled in a letter sent to members of Congress, as some lawmakers had complained that the department was not using all possible means to deliver on promises by President Barack Obama and others to bring the perpetrators to justice…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Bars Intelligence Expert From Testifying in US Anti-Terrorism Case
Contretemps arose this weekend over the testimony by an Israeli intelligence officer in a US Federal court case. The case involves a $332 million award made by a Washington, DC Federal court in May 2012 to the family of the late Daniel Wultz of Weston, Florida. 16 year old American Daniel Wultz was mortally wounded while on a family vacation in Israel in an April 2006 suicide bombing attack by an operative of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) at a Tel Aviv shawarma stand that killed ten others and injuring dozens, including his father, Tuly, a former IDF special ops officer. We had posted on the May 2012 Wultz federal court award and the background of the tragic 2006 Tel Aviv suicide bombing that took the innocent lives of young Wultz and others, here. The Wultz claim was brought by the Shurat HaDin Israel law Center of Tel Aviv headed by Nitsana Darshan Leitner and US co-counsel New York attorney Robert Tolchin.
On Friday, November 15, 2013 the Israeli government filed a motion in US Federal Court seeking to block the appearance of former Israeli intelligence officer Uzi Shaya from appearing at a Federal Court hearing on November 25, 2013. The motion filed by the Israeli government would prevent the presentation of testimony by Shaya that he had notified officials of the Bank of China in 2005 that it held questionable funds allegedly provided by Syria and Iran then transferred to the PIJ funding the 2006 Tel Aviv terror attack. The Jerusalem Report in August 2013 reported that Shaya had filed an affidavit in the matter and was ‘inclined to testify’. This came amid reports that China was putting pressure on Israel to bar his testimony. The Israeli government in its motion filed on Friday indicated that the appearance of Shaya would jeopardize national security interests and counter terrorism secrets. Many believe that the Israeli government brought this to a head to prevent any damage to burgeoning economic relations with the People’s Republic of China.
A Reuters’ report, “Israel looks to muzzle witness in U.S. anti-terror case”, noted the circumstances behind the Israeli government motion barring Shaya’s testimony and the comments of plaintiff counsel Nitsana Darshan Leitner…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
New Arabic-Hebrew Language Emerges
Fusion of colloquial forms
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, NOVEMBER 15 — A new idiom is gaining ground in Israel, where a kaleidoscope of languages can be heard at any given time and in any given place, including Hebrew, Arabic, English, French, Russian, Yiddish and Amharic. After noting the emergence of a dialect that has become ever more popular during the past few years among Arab Israelis (20% of the population), two linguists — Abd Rahman Mar’i and Rubik Rosenthal — gave it a name, ‘Arabic-Hebrew’, and published a book on it: “Walla be-Seder”, which roughly translates as ‘My goodness, ok”. Living in a society in which Hebrew is the most widely used language, the Arab minority has taken up some of the most common terms and incorporated them into the Arabic glossary. In particular, the book’s authors note, this can be seen especially in areas frequented by both communities, such as supermarkets, hospitals, pharmacies, mechanic’s shops and on public transport.
It is common to hear conversations in Arabic be punctuated with such typical Hebrew expressions as “Be-Seder” (ok), “Yofi” (excellent), and “Kol ha-Cavod” (hats-off). Even Israeli military slang has managed to get a foothold in the parlance of the Arab minority: a very attractive young woman is commonly called a “Pzazza” (bomb) and an expert in their field is known as a “Totach” (cannon). In reality, the trend goes both ways and quite a few Arabic expressions have become common among those using Hebrew to communicate, including “Yalla” (come on), “Ahla” (at the best), “Sababa” (awesome), “Keif” (enjoyable), “Maafan” (repugnant) and “Dawin” (vain). Mar’i and Rosenthal also note that “Arabic-Hebrew” is being seen ever more on internet sites, films (such as the action film “Ajami”, a candidate for an Oscar and shot in the Arab quarters of Jaffa), and Israeli TV shows, such as the very popular “Arab Work” sit-com by the writer Said Kash’a. The authors say that the idiom has become so deeply entrenched that even Arab Israelis are amazed to see that their dialect is not always understandable in the streets of Cairo and Amman. They also note that not only the cultural elite of Arab Israelis are hostile to the trend, but also Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza. Among those living in the Occupied Territories, “Arabic-Hebrew” is still at an embryonic state, though Hebrew terms related to the military occupation are sometimes used, such as “Segher” (closed military zone) and “Tariq al-Okef” (detour due to checkpoints).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Archeology: UNESCO Warns of Black Market in Arab States
Unauthorized digging at sites left unguarded
(ANSAmed) — PAESTUM (SALERNO), NOVEMBER 15 — The archeological heritage of such countries as Egypt, Syria and Libya is being targeted by the black market in antiquities, warned Mounir Bouchenaki, Special Advisor to the Director General of UNESCO and Director General of its Arab Center for World Heritage. In speaking at the the Mediterranean Bourse of Archaeological Tourism in Paestum, he said that “the Arab Spring has not yet been a true one for the cultural heritage of these countries”. The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, said Bouchenaki, is “strongly concerned about the situation, not only about the people suffering from the political crises in the Arab region, but also cultural heritage, which has been targeted by traders in antiquities on the black market. Over the past few months we have been seeing a huge number of artifacts taken out of the country and sold illegally.” The problem is the security of archeological sites.
“Unauthorised excavations are being carried out,” Bouchenaki continued, “in sites that no longer have the same security measures and protection they had in previous years, prior to the political turbulence. Unfortunately, we have seen this in the past — look at what happened in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, for example.” Thus, unauthorised digs bring artifacts to the surface that fetch high prices on the black market.
On this issue, UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova is working with other international organizations to be able to intervene as soon as the political situation allows for it.
“UNESCO’s Director General,” Bouchenaki — the Algerian former ICCROM Director General and former head of UNESCO’s Cultural Heritage Department — said, “would like to coordinate with all the specialised organisations like the International Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), the International Council of Museums (ICOM), and the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage (ICCROM) to make sure that as soon as security conditions are restored in the country — and I am referring especially to Syria — there will be intervention for the protection” of the archeological sites. In reference to the situation in Syria, representatives from the Italian Development Cooperation office of the Foreign Ministry underscored at the Paestum Bourse that plans to renovate and reorganize the Damascus National Museum and restructure the Damascus Citadel have been put on hold.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqi Kurdish President, Turkey’s Erdogan Seek to Bolster Ties
(Reuters) — The president of Iraqi Kurdistan visited southeastern Turkey for the first time in two decades on Saturday, a trip meant to shore up support for a flagging Kurdish peace process there and bolster Turkey’s influence across its troubled southern borders.
Kurds, often described as the world’s largest stateless ethnic group, number about 30 million, concentrated in parts of Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq. While they have had partial autonomy in Iraqi Kurdistan since 1991, nationalist movements have long been suppressed in Turkey, Syria and Iran.
Turkey’s efforts to make peace with the PKK has been given a fresh sense of urgency by Syria’s 2-1/2 year civil war, in which Kurds have made major territorial gains in recent weeks, paving the way for their long-declared plans for independent governance in parts of Syria just over Turkey’s southern border.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Said to be Working With Saudi Arabia on Iran Strike Plan
Riyadh reported to give Jerusalem okay to use Saudi airspace on cooperate on other tactical support, according to Sunday Times.
Israel is working on coordinating plans for a possible military strike with Saudi Arabia, with Riyadh prepared to provide tactical support to Jerusalem, a British newspaper reported early Sunday.
The two countries have both united in worry that the West may come to terms with Iran, easing sanctions and allowing the Islamic Republic to continue its nuclear program.
| [Return to headlines] |
Trapped French Footballer Asks for Help to Leave Qatar
Calls on former World Cup 2022 ambassadors Zidane and Guardiola
(ANSAmed) — DOHA, NOVEMBER 15 — The French footballer Zahir Belounis has asked Zinedine Zidane and Pep Guardiola to help him leave Qatar, where he has been forced to remain for months without a salary alongside his wife and daughters. Belounis wrote a letter to Zidane and Guardiola, former ambassadors for the 2022 World Cup scheduled to take place in Qatar, calling on them to help him leave the emirate where he has been barred from leaving since 2012, when he spoke out against the Qatar team Al-Jaish for two years of non-payment of wages. “I know that you served as ambassadors for Qatar’s 2022 World Cup bid,” said Belounis in his open letter. “You did this with good intentions but the reality is that if Qatar does not scrap its ‘exit visa’ system, then there will be hundreds, maybe thousands, of people trapped here.” The ‘kafala’ system, which forbids foreign workers from leaving the country without authorization from their Qatari employer, is in force in Qatar. French embassy efforts in Doha have proven unsuccessful, while FIFA has said it cannot help Belounis, since the footballer lodged a complaint with a Qatar court rather than referring the matter to its dispute resolution chamber. Belounis thus decided to request the help of two well-known former colleagues, Real Madrid captain Zidane and Bayern Monaco coach Guardiola.
“People are being kept far from their countries because of the exit visa system. This system should not exist. We need people like you, who love sport and its (good) image, to make our voices heard,” he wrote. Several human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have spoken out against the “kafala” system. The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has also said that 4,000 foreign workers may die in Qatar before 2022 due to serious violations of their rights.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Powerful Blast Rocks Kabul, Several Killed, Injured
KABUL, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) — A powerful blast rocked Afghan capital Kabul on Saturday, leaving several people killed and injured, a local security official said. “The blast apparently a suicide car bomb happened next to the police academy and the venue of the consultative Loya Jirga, leaving several people dead and injured,”the official told Xinhua but declined to be identified.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh: Anti-Hindu Pogrom to Avenge Death of a Young Muslim
About a thousand Muslim residents in Barisla Sadar attacked and burned down the Hindu side of the village of Charaicha : the number of those killed and injured still unknown. According to the police riots were sparked by the death of the young Parvez , a Muslim , who was killed in a fight with his Hindu peers.
Dhaka (AsiaNews) — A mob of about a thousand Muslims from Barisal Sadar attacked the Hindu village of Charaicha overnight, burning more than 16 homes and brutally beating anyone who tried to stop them. The raid was sparked by the death of a Muslim boy, Parvez Gazi, two days ago in unclear circumstances during a game of badminton.
According to police investigations, four young Muslim men were playing in a badminton court in the village of Charaicha on November 14th. The four were Parvez , his younger brother Pavel and two friends named Shamim and Jahirul . According to the victim’s parents, the group got into a fight with some peers Hindu identified as Dhiman , Pijush and some others. After a brief exchange of insults a fight started that ended with the death of Parvez , who was stabbed.
The other three were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where they recounted the incident. Their account led to the decision in favour of a punitive raid , which culminated with the burning of the houses later extinguished by firefighters. The number of victims and injured is still unknown.
The Hindu community is 8 , 2 % of the population of Bangladesh, which for the most part is made up of Muslims. In absolute terms of population, however, the country is the third nation in the world for the number of Hindu faithful after India and Nepal. Along with Buddhists and Christians, Hindus are often the victim of attacks and discrimination.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Billions of Taxpayer Dollars Funding Insurgents in Afghanistan
Data reveal that billions of American taxpayer dollars continue to fund questionable or openly corrupt contractors in Afghanistan. The findings underscore the inability of the American military to filter suspicious contractors from the thousands who work with the United States on a regular basis to build bases and transport supplies.
The New York Times reported that American investigators uncovered data surrounding the Zurmat Material Testing Laboratory, affiliated with the Zurmat Group, an Afghan company that “investigators say was paid to do work at an American-controlled facility in November 2012, despite having been blacklisted two months before by one part of the military for providing bomb-making materials to insurgents.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: West Java: Fakes Conversion to Islam to be Marry, Christian Soap Actor Risks Jail
The protagonist of the story is the young Protestant actor Jonas Rivanno. To tie the knot with his colleague Asmirandah Zantman he pretended to embrace Islam and changes his religion on his identity document. But continues to declare himself a Christian. For the family of the woman this is a shock and betrayal. The Islamists ready to report him to the police.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — In order to get married with a Muslim, the actor of a popular Indonesian soap opera Jonas Rivanno, a Protestant Christian, pretended to convert to Islam through the imam of a mosque in Depor , Bogor regency (West Java). He had to change religion on his identity documents to formalize the engagement, but following the marriage last October with his young colleague Asmirandah Zantman — of mixed Dutch and Sundanese blood — he said he had never abandoned Jesus and that his religion is still Christianity. An affront to the woman’s family who, supported by local fringe of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI ) accuse the man of treason and now intend to report him to the police for treason.
Intermarriage between followers of different religions is always a delicate issue in Indonesia. Civil unions follow the ceremony, officiated beforehand, in front of a religious authority. Only at a later time are they civilly recognized, which is nothing more than a mere ratification of what has already happened.
In short without a previous ceremony in a church, or mosque, or in any other place of worship, under the supervision of a religious leader, the marriage is not considered civilly valid or morally right in Indonesia. This makes mixed marriages virtually impossible, because in Islam the husband also becomes “the only lord and master” of the woman , a role that a Christian or any member of another religion can have.
What’s significant about the love story between the two actors of soap , the Christian Jonas and the Muslim Asmirandah ( with blood Sundanese , the population of West Java which strictly applies Islam) is the intervention , or rather interference of the FPI . The extremists, on the pretext of the purity of Islam and defense of the family, are interfering in a matter of a family nature , once again crossing boundaries ( and personal freedom ).
Jonas has repeatedly stated that he “was not a Muslim, but still Christian.” The mother of Asmirandah named Sanny, reacted in public with weeping and mourning , accusing her son-in-law of betraying them and of being shocked with his behavior . For Islamists the profession of faith is valid to all intents and is coupled by the complaint to the judiciary — with anofficial announcement — by Habib Idrus Al Ghadri , leader of the section of Depok.
Indonesia is the most populous Muslim nation in the world. Although individual rights are protected under the constitution, including religious freedom, the country has seen a rise in violent attacks against minorities and laws that discriminate based on gender. In Aceh, local authorities have implemented Islamic law, the only province in the archipelago to do so; however, more and more regions are coming under the influence of radical extremist views of Islam. Increasingly, bans are imposed in personal matters and the lives of citizens.
Leading this campaign of “Islamization” are the members of the Islamic Defender Front who call the shots in different areas by imposing rules and regulations inspired by sharia, such as the prohibition of alcoholic beverages and other regulations in the field of sexual morality. The group — opposed by a large part of the civilian population — is also accused of using violence to achieve their objectives, and in the past has launched a series of attacks since 2000, affecting among others the Embassy of the United States and bars, nightclubs, and private clubs, especially during Ramadan, the holy month of fasting and prayer.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Troops Leave Bala Buluk
(AGI) Rome, Nov 15 — Italian troops left Forward Operating Base ‘Tobruk’, in Bala Buluk, Afghanistan, on Friday morning.
‘Tobruk’ was the last outpost of the Transition Support Unit South (TSU-S). Italian troops have now completed the process of handing over security responsibilities to Afghan forces in the province of Farah.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Hands Over Refurbished Aircraft Carrier to India
MOSCOW, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) — Russia has handed over a refurbished aircraft carrier to the Indian Navy in a ceremony at the Arctic port of Severodvinsk on Saturday morning. INS Vikramaditya, converted from the Admiral Gorshkov heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser, was officially transferred at the ceremony. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin and Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony attended the ceremony, local media reported, citing arms exporter Rosoboronexport. Originally built in the Soviet era, the 2.3-billion-U.S. dollar worth Kiev-class warship was being reconditioned and was due to be ready for delivery in 2012…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Ban Says Philippines Typhoon a ‘Warning’ On Climate Change
UN leader Ban Ki-moon said Saturday a super typhoon that killed thousands in the Philippines was an example of climate change and should serve as a warning to mankind.
Ban was speaking at the Tallin University in Estonia on a tour of several Baltic states before joining a second week of climate talks in Poland.
The UN chief said the world was facing a tipping point, as countries thrash out a deal to be signed in 2015 to cut Earth-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Global Alarmists Waste No Time Exploiting Typhoon Haiyan
A Pastor in England contacted me through Facebook to share a petition he wanted people to sign. I’ve only spoken to him once (about 4 years ago) and the message was in the personal inbox which peaked my curiosity. (FB users know that most messaging in ‘on the wall’ rather than private).
He urged us to stand with the Philippines after the disaster of the typhoon and to sign the petition. I didn’t see how a petition could help so I read it in order to see what sort of aid his Christian groups might be involved in.
Low and behold the petition blatantly blamed the ferocity of the typhoon on global warming and carbon emissions; and what they want, far from ‘standing with the Philippines’ is to “ratchet up pollution controls and help poorer communities with funding.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Irish Charity Condemns International Response to Typhoon
Goal says failure of rich nations to meet United Nations call for funding is a ‘disgrace’
The head of Irish aid agency Goal has branded the international response to the Typhoon Haiyan disaster in the Philippines as “completely inadequate”.
Chief executive Barry Andrews also described the failure of rich nations to meet the United Nations call for funding a “disgrace”.
Mr Andrews noted the UN said yesterday only 19 per cent of its call for funding had been met by international governments.
“The situation on the ground in the Philippines is almost beyond description,” he said. “The UN made a call for funding in the amount of €300m and to date a fraction of that has been met. The failure to meet that funding is a disgrace.”
He called on the international community to provide cash and clear commitments to help the tens of thousands of people in dire need of assistance following last week’s disaster.
Mr Andrews also said the Irish Government can take a leadership position on this issue, “as we have done so many times in the past”.
The UN was less scathing in its comments on the international reaction today, with one senior official saying many countries had come forward to help.
“The response from the international community has not been overwhelming compared to the magnitude of the disaster, but it has been very generous so far,” Jens Laerke of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told the Geneva news briefing today.
Meanwhile, l ong-delayed emergency supplies flowed into the typhoon-ravaged central Philippines today, reaching desperate families who had to fend for themselves for days, as the United Nations more than doubled its estimate of homeless to nearly two million.
The aid effort was still patchy, with relief officials reporting a surge in desperate, hungry survivors trying to leave the coastal city of Ormoc, 105km west of Tacloban, the worst-affected major city.
More than a week after Typhoon Haiyan killed at least 3,633 with tree-snapping winds and tsunami-like waves, hundreds of international aid workers set up makeshift hospitals and trucked in supplies.
Helicopters from a US aircraft carrier ferried medicine and water to remote, battered areas.
Residents of Tanauan, a fishing town about 15km southeast of Tacloban, said they only started receiving substantial aid yesterday after being forced to survive on biscuits and dispose of dead bodies on their own for days.
More than 60 people were buried behind the municipal office in the district of 50,000 people.
Down the road, dozens of corpses were interred under a roundabout.
“I think (the response) was quite slow. This town was isolated. Media didn’t come here. We were out of circulation for three days,” said Penny Tecson, the wife of the district’s mayor. She was running the recovery operation while her husband, Pel Tecson, was in Tacloban to coordinate the district’s first large-scale delivery of aid from the national government.
| — Hat tip: McR | [Return to headlines] |
Police Station Attacked in China, 11 Dead
(AGI) Beijing, Nov 16 — At least 11 people were killed in an attack by a group of armed men against a police station in Serikbuya, a town in the autonomous Chinese region of Xinjiang, located approximately 400km southwest of the region’s capital, Urumqi. According to the official state press Xinhua, nine men armed with axes and knives managed to kill two policemen and wounded two more before being shot down by other officers.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Kenya: White Widow Samantha Lewthwaite Wanted for SEVEN More Murders Including Pastors
British fugitive Samantha Lewthwaite is wanted for seven murders in Kenya, including the executions of two radical Muslim clerics and two respected Protestant pastors, police yesterday revealed. The White Widow, 29, has become a volatile maniac, leaving a trail of death and destruction in a bloody revenge campaign against those who cross her, security services believe. She is said to have ordered the murders of four religious leaders in Kenya and three others linked to her al-Shabaab terror group. Anti-terror police named the White Widow as number one suspect in the cowardly slaughter of Protestant pastors Charles Matole and Ebrahim Kidata…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Democrat: Legalizing Illegal Immigrants is the “Solution” To ObamaCare
Rep. Jared Polis said Friday the key problem with health care right now is that illegal immigrants aren’t included in Obamacare, and said part of the solution is to pass a bill granting them citizenship rights.
The House is debating a GOP-written bill that would allow Americans to keep their health plans that have been canceled under Obamacare, but Mr. Polis, a Colorado Democrat, said the chamber should instead be looking at ways to make sure everyone in the country is covered by the Affordable Care Act — including illegal immigrants.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Freedom of Movement: ‘Romanians Humiliated by Schengen Wall’
Jurnalul National, 13 November 2013
“Romania and Bulgaria will not enter the Schengen Area on January 1, 2014,” announced European Commission President José Manuel Barroso on November 11.
This amounts to “proof of the lack of responsibility of European leaders,” remarks Jurnalul National —
This latest declaration is a 180-degree U-turn on his affirmation in September to the effect that ‘Romania and Bulgaria are ready to enter Schengen.’ Romanians have once again been made to feel like ‘second class citizens’ in a Europe, which tries to convince people that this not what it wants!
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Obama to Stop Deporting Illegal Relatives of U.S. Troops, Veterans
The Obama administration on Friday carved out yet another category of illegal immigrants it says it will no longer deport — in this case saying that relatives of U.S. troops and veterans who previously served can apply to stay in the country.
The administration said it was making the move because it was worried illegal immigration was hurting military readiness, and this would be a way to relieve some of the “stress and anxiety” faced by troops whose relatives are illegal immigrants.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Speaking in a loud voice, the bearded man in traditional Pakistani garb gave a short speech, which was greeted with enthusiastic applause.
He was addressing a meeting in the community centre of Page Hall, a shabby grid of terrace streets in Sheffield, and giving voice to what many in the audience had long thought — but dared not say.
‘We want to claim our streets back. Tensions are building here. We need to do something or it will be too late,’ pronounced 34-year-old Kashmir Malik, a local restaurant owner from an immigrant family who grew up in Yorkshire and is a successful businessman.
That meeting of 100 local people just a few weeks ago was a significant one for troubled Page Hall.
Mr Malik had captured the mood of the vast majority of English and Pakistani people who live and work in this ordinary suburb, which has been utterly overwhelmed in the past three years by Roma migrants who have settled here having left a poverty-stricken part of Slovakia.
The number of arrivals has been huge.
Community centre staff estimate that up to 900 Roma Slovak families have now made the Page Hall area their home. The area, say locals, has reached ‘breaking point’.
This week David Blunkett, the MP for this part of Sheffield and former Labour Home Secretary, took the hugely significant step of warning of possible riots if the newcomers do not change their anti-social activities…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Army Vet Suspended for Using God-Reference in His Signature Line
A Stockton, Calif., hospital has suspended a 10-year employee because he included “God Bless America” in the signature line of his emails, even though he obeyed an order to remove the offending phrase.
Boots Hawks, a military veteran, returned to work Nov. 6 at Dameron Hospital to find lock combinations and his computer password had been changed, according to Pacific Justice Institute, or PJI, which is representing him.
“Rarely do we see something as shocking as supervisors placing a hard-working military veteran on leave right before Veterans’ Day for saying something patriotic,” said PJI[Pacific Justice Institute] President Brad Dacus.
“The hospital’s actions were outrageous and illegal. We expect a swift apology and full restoration of Mr. Hawks’ rights,” he said.
[…]
A letter from PJI Staff Attorney Matthew McReynolds to the hospital’s chief nursing officer, Janine Hawkins, argued the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the California Fair Employment and Housing act bar workplace discrimination on the basis of religion.
“In light of the widespread dissemination of a plethora of philosophical statements among hospital employees and management, the directive that Mr. Hawks delete ‘God Bless America’ is indefensible,” McReynolds said.
He explained that the hospital ordered the censorship, and when Hawks complied, he said he wanted to consult with legal counsel.
That apparently, according to the hospital, constituted “insubordination.”
“It is untenable and insulting to claim that his compliance and consultation with legal counsel is insubordinate. On the contrary, it is common sense,” the letter said.
McReynolds noted that Hawks has been a dedicated employee for 10 years, earning such distinctions as ‘Employee of the Year’ for his work in quality assurance.
Prior to joining the hospital staff, Hawks spent 20 years in the U.S. Army, attaining the rank of sergeant first class. PJI is demanding that supervisors rescind their disciplinary action and their censorship.
[…]
| [Return to headlines] |
BBC Minimizes Christian Persecution
by Raymond Ibrahim
While it is no secret that the so-called mainstream media habitually fail to report on the international phenomenon of Christian persecution, few are aware that they sometimes actively work to undermine the efforts of those who do expose it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New XBox to Produce Child Porn
XBox One will be able to see your kids’ privates
The most startling revelation is that the new Kinect device, to be sold in combination with the XBox One, at times has the ability to map out in high-definition the shape of genitalia, something fine and dandy for consenting adults, but which could be a source of consternation for parents concerned over the privacy of their kids’ junk.
The cameras aren’t exactly designed to scope out your man or womanhood; it just happens that way because the technology simply works too well, says Fast Company writer Mark Wilson.
In viewing a demo of the new Kinect from Microsoft Research, Wilson says he noticed something unmistakable that gave him cause for concern. “… I noticed, alongside the intricacies of a hoodie and jeans — and there’s no graceful way to put this — a dong.”
“The Kinect hardware/software is now so effective at deciphering the bumps and folds of clothing,” says Wilson, “that it can pinpoint a man’s package down to its pant leg, carving out the distinctive folds in our trousers that society, backed by a bit of shadowy denim, has become remarkable at ignoring.”…
As Wilson notes, allowing the new Kinect into your living room is on par with inviting one of the TSA’s millimeter wave scanners or backscatter X-ray machines into your home. But in contrast to the somewhat voluntary nature of the TSA’s prying eyes, the most unnerving thing about Kinect’s genitalia-viewing potential is that the gaming market’s target audience is primarily children and most will not know they can “opt-out.”
[Comment: Check out the level of detail in the picture captured by Xbox kinect.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: News Anchor Banned From Wearing Cross on Air
(The Local) A newsreader for Norway’ s state news channel has been banned from wearing a cross on air, after the programme received angry complaints from viewers.
Siv Kristin Söllmann, who reads NRK’ s regional news for southern Norway, last month came on air several times wearing a discreet 1.4cm long gold cross, studded with tiny black diamonds.
Immediately, viewers began to call in with complaints, pushing Anders Sörheim, the regional editor, to instruct her not to wear the symbol in future.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland: Assisted-Suicide Bill Targets Elderly, Disabled
(LifeNews) Margo Macdonald MSP today launched her new assisted suicide bill in Scotland. The Scottish government has said it does not support a change in the law and the British Medical Association (BMA) has in response reiterated its opposition to assisted suicide.
The bill comes the day after the launch of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition of Europe (EPCE) in Brussels. The Care Not Killing Alliance, a founding member of EPCE, has today produced a detailed response which is reproduced here. Macdonald’s last bill was overwhelmingly defeated by 85-16.
In 2010 MSP Margo MacDonald’s very similar End of Life Assistance Bill was defeated by 85 votes to 16, in a free vote at the Scottish Parliament.
This should have settled the debate in Scotland for a generation.
Yet, Ms MacDonald now proposes her Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Bill, under which people as young as 16 would be able to tell their GP about their desire for assisted suicide.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bat Ye’or’s Foreword to “The Mufti’s Islamic Jew-Hatred”
Foreword by Bat Ye’or
The issue of anti-Jewish incitement and indoctrination in Islamic theology and jurisprudence was examined, unfettered, in seminal academic publications by Western scholars during the end of the 19th century, through the early to mid-20th century. However, with rare exceptions, since the 1970s, if not somewhat earlier, an ever increasing censorship from major Western European, American, and Israeli academic institutions has managed to obfuscate this subject. Concomitantly, an obsessive self-flagellating Western public opinion has emerged, forged by well-funded “anti-racist” state networks in UN organizations, international policy groups, and the media. Denouncing racist bigotry exclusively in Europe, America and above all, Israel, these utopians aggressively promoted immigration and globalization as the only antidote to Judeo-Christian racism.
Yet the texts published herein present another picture, truer and less partial. Along with other doctrinal Islamic writings in the same vein concerning Christians, often referred to as mushrikun (polytheists associating a partner to Allah), Buddhists, Hindus and others, they were intentionally concealed. Bringing these texts to public awareness allegedly undermined efforts designed to promote a harmonious “global society.” Among other questions raised by Dr. Bostom’s essay, one wonders about the connections between deliberately tailored scholarship, and the pursuit of delusive policies.
But there is more to ponder on this issue…
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
Is it Right to Waste Helium on Party Balloons?
The US has been selling off its helium reserve, established in the 1920s to provide gas for airships — but even so, shortages have been occurring. Some scientists believe a finite resource that could one day run out should not be used for party balloons.
In the universe as a whole, it is one of the commonest elements, second only to hydrogen in its abundance. On Earth it is relatively rare, and one of the few elements that escapes gravity and leaks away into space.
“We’re going to be looking back and thinking, I can’t believe people just used to fill up their balloons with it, when it’s so precious and unique,” says Cambridge University chemist Peter Wothers, who has called for the end to helium-filled party balloons. “It is something we need to think about.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |