The “P5” powers are happy with the Iranian nuclear deal, but Israel is not. Canada is unwilling to lift sanctions on Tehran for the time being, but the French are expected to lift at least some of them next month.
In other news, a planned field trip for Danish students to in the southern Swedish city of Malmö had to be cancelled when parents became concerned with the safety of their children.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Andy Bostom, C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Egghead, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, The Observer, 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 Half of Young Italians Want to Flee
Italy’s stagnant economy is driving its best talent overseas, with almost 50 percent of young Italians wanting to work abroad, according to a new report on Monday.
Forty-eight percent of young Italians are ready to go abroad, while some 46.5 percent of those who do stay end up working in an area different from what they studied, according to the report by the Toniolo Institute and the Cariplo Foundation.
With few job opportunites for young Italians and little sign of improvement, thousands have fled the country over the past few years, with Scandinavia, Germany and the UK being among the most popular destinations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Engineers Shouldn’t Come to Spain Now’
In this week’s edition of My Spanish Career, The Local talks to Brazilian-born engineer Norberto Simionato about landing a job at Airbus and why professionals in his field are not immune to Spain’s crisis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Four in 10 Italians Can’t Afford to Plan Beyond the Day
68% of Greeks, 15% of Germans, 10% of Austrians in same boat
(ANSA) — Milan, November 25 — Four in 10 Italians live day to day, and a third of the population is unable to plan for their family’s future beyond the next six months, a new report by the liberal Centro Einaudi think tank showed Monday.
The report cited Eurobarometer data showing 39% of Italians don’t make enough to plan beyond the day, and 34% can’t plan beyond the next six months.
It also said 68% of Greeks, 15% of Germans and 10% of Austrians can’t afford to plan ahead.
Eurobarometer is a series of public opinion surveys conducted regularly on behalf of the European Commission since 1973.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Research: 60% of Families Experience Food Insecurity
23% face hunger, children go to school without breakfast
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, NOVEMBER 25 — Three in five Greek ‘socially vulnerable’ families last year had a hard time feeding their children and in some cases were unable to do so, according to a research published by Athens daily Eleftherotypia (fre press) on Monday. The research carried out in 2012 on 16,000 families and funded by the Stavros Niarchos foundation showed that 60% of the families polled suffered ‘food insecurity’ while 23% lived a state of ‘food insecurity and hunger’.
The research carried out on behalf of the foundation which has been carrying out a project to assist indigent families over the past two years, stressed that three families in five who were at risk of poverty could not afford to give children a slice of bread for breakfast before they went to school and kids often fainted in class because they were hungry.
In order to tackle a situation sparked by the economic crisis, the Foundation started over a year ago the food aid programme which also promotes healthy eating habits, funded with 16 million euros.
The project, according to the Foundation, has lowered the percentage of families experiencing food insecurity and hunger from 23% to 19% in a year with the national average food insecurity index down by 11%. Thanks to healthy eating habits, 48% of low-weight students also gained a normal weight while 47% of overweight children lost the excessive weight.
After almost two years of activity, the programme now includes 206 schools across Greece for a total of 32,358 students.
Applications to join the Niarchos Foundation’s project are 774 and are increasing on a daily basis in an indication of how deeply low-income families have been affected by the crisis, the non-profit institute noted.
“In parts of the population food insecurity affects over 60% of people, a phenomenon which seriously targets more vulnerable social groups”, said Athina Linou, president of the Institute for preventive medicine and environment and labour health ‘Prolepsis’ in Athens. ‘And children are the first victims of the crisis’.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘Italy Has No Money for Its Heritage’
Sophie Hay, from the UK, landed a dream job in the 1990s when she was posted to Pompeii to work in the competitive world of archaeology. She speaks to The Local about life in the field and Italy’s struggles to finance and maintain its ancient sites.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: MPs Seeks Shareholder Approval for Capital Increase
Siena bank hopes to raise 3 bn euros to avoid nationalization
(ANSA) — Milan, November 25 — Troubled Italian lender Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) on Monday called a board meeting where it is expected to seek the green light for a capital increase of three billion euros.
The board meeting, set for Tuesday, will be asked to approve measures from an underwriting syndicate consisting of more than 10 financial institutions.
MPS shares closed 5.8% lower at 19 euro cents by the close of trading Monday after reports of the plan.
Italy’s third-largest lender presented a restructuring plan to European authorities in June, and has been selling assets and cutting branches since then in an effort to return to profitability to avoid defaulting on government bailout funds.
Earlier this year, MPS became embroiled in scandal amid massive losses and political furore over the previous Italian government’s 3.9-billion-euro bailout plan to cover its capital needs, which also threatens the bank with State control should it default.
The bank also became the target of probes early this year after it emerged that a previously undisclosed series of derivative and structured-finance deals produced losses of around 720 million euros for MPS.
Former senior MPS officials are facing penalties totalling as much as five million euros from the Bank of Italy for alleged fraud and corruption at the world’s oldest operating bank.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Trade Boosted by Exports to China and US
Italy’s trade surplus has doubled in 12 months thanks to a rise in exports, particularly to China and the United States, new data showed on Monday as the economy prepares to end its longest post-war recession.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Judge Sets Date for Detroit Bankruptcy Decision
A judge said Monday that he’ll announce next week whether Detroit is eligible to overhaul itself in bankruptcy court, the most important decision since the largest public filing in U.S. history last summer.
Judge Steven Rhodes said he’ll announce a decision on Dec. 3 and issue a written opinion later. By disclosing the date, Rhodes eased some of the public’s anxiety about the future of the case.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Americans Are Finally Learning About False Flag Terror
Governments from around the world admit they carry out false flag terror:
- A major with the Nazi SS admitted at the Nuremberg trials that — under orders from the chief of the Gestapo — he and some other Nazi operatives faked attacks on their own people and resources which they blamed on the Poles, to justify the invasion of Poland. Nazi general Franz Halder also testified at the Nuremberg trials that Nazi leader Hermann Goering admitted to setting fire to the German parliament building, and then falsely blaming the communists for the arson
- Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev admitted in writing that the Soviet Union’s Red Army shelled the Russian village of Mainila in 1939, and declared that the fire originated from Finland as a basis launching the Winter War four days later
- Israel admits that an Israeli terrorist cell operating in Egypt planted bombs in several buildings, including U.S. diplomatic facilities, then left behind “evidence” implicating the Arabs as the culprits (one of the bombs detonated prematurely, allowing the Egyptians to identify the bombers, and several of the Israelis later confessed) (and see this and this)
- The CIA admits that it hired Iranians in the 1950s to pose as Communists and stage bombings in Iran in order to turn the country against its democratically-elected prime minister
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Car Hacking: Your Computer-Controlled Vehicle Could be Manipulated Remotely
The growing prominence of cars controlled by dozens of computers — and the ability to manipulate some with the touch of a smartphone — is leading researchers to question their vulnerability.
The circumstances surrounding the June death of investigative journalist Michael Hastings in Hollywood prompted former U.S. Coordinator for Security and Counter-Terrorism Richard Clarke to suggest that “what evidence is available publicly is consistent with a car cyber-attack.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Connecticut Police Release New Details of Newtown Shooting
Four days before Adam Lanza went on a shooting rampage at a Connecticut elementary school, his mother, Nancy, cooked him some of his favorite meals and then left for a three-day trip to New Hampshire.
On the day before the shooting, a GPS device he owned showed that he took a trip to the area around Sandy Hook Elementary School.
However, after an 11-month investigation, the Connecticut State Police could not determine a motive behind one of the nation’s deadliest mass shootings, according to a 48-page report released on Monday.
| [Return to headlines] |
Cops: On Duty Officer Raped Young Woman on Squad Car
Friday morning. On duty. Full Uniform. Marked Squad Car. Officer Jackie Neal, 40, made a traffic stop and then allegedly sexually assaulted a 19-year-old woman, according to the San Antonio Police Department.
Police said the 11-year veteran pulled the victim over on the south side and managed to get her to stand behind his squad car. San Antonio police Chief William McManus described the events that followed as “unthinkable.”
An investigation was opened after the victim contacted police. According to a statement issued by the department, Neal was taken into custody by SAPD Special Victims’ Unit detectives after officers pulled him over around 2 a.m. Saturday. He was arrested on a warrant for sexual assault, a second-degree felony.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
D.C. Cops Go ‘Nuclear’ With Traffic Cameras
A drivers’ advocacy group is decrying the latest expansion of the District’s automated traffic enforcement program.
D.C. police activated 100 new “next-generation” traffic cameras Saturday to target a growing number of motorist violations ranging from failure to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks to blocking the box.
The new cameras boost the number of automated traffic enforcement devices operated by the Metropolitan Police Department to nearly 300 cameras — an expansion that AAA Mid-Atlantic called the “nuclear option.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Four-Winged Robot Flies Like a Jellyfish
Tiny flying robots usually mimic nature’s flyers, like birds and insects — but perhaps that’s due to a lack of imagination. A four-winged design created by Leif Ristroph and colleagues at New York University, which boasts a body plan reminiscent of a jellyfish, is more stable in the air than insect-like machines.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
High School Student in Critical Condition After Being Tazed by Cops
The family of a high school student fears he will not survive injuries sustained last Wednesday after school resource officers Tazed him, the family’s attorney has stated.
17-year-old Noe Nino de Rivera is in critical condition at St. David’s Medical Center in Bastrop, Texas, after he was alleged to have interfered with two sheriff’s deputies working as resource officers, who were attempting to break up a fight between two female students.
The Cedar Creek High School student fell and hit the front of his head when one of the officers, Randy McMillan, used a Taser to subdue him. He sustained a traumatic brain injury, one of the worst his family’s attorney, Adam Loewy, says he’s witnessed in his legal career.
A spokeswoman for the sheriff’s department says the Cedar Creek High School student moved aggressively, did not respond to orders and “looked as though he was ready to fight.”
Several students, however, say de Rivera did nothing to deserve being Tased, and Lowey says he has video evidence to this effect.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How NSA Mass Surveillance is Hurting the US Economy
Privacy may not be the only casualty of the National Security Agency’s massive surveillance program. Major sectors of the US economy are reporting financial damage as the recent revelations shake consumer confidence and US trade partners distance themselves from companies that may have been compromised by the NSA or, worse, are secretly collaborating with the spy agency. Member of Congress, especially those who champion America’s competitiveness in the global marketplace, should take note and rein in the NSA now if they want to stem the damage.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that AT&T’s desired acquisition of the European company Vodaphone is in danger due to the company’s well-documented involvement in the NSA’s data-collection programs. European officials said the telecommunications giant would face “intense scrutiny” in its bid to purchase a major cell phone carrier.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of Muslims Attend Conference to Eradicate Islamophobia
Several hundred Muslims were in Atlanta this weekend to tackle two big issues: how do you overcome people’s fear of Islam, and how should the Muslim community address issues facing Muslim women. Those issues were the focus points of this Islamic World International Conference held near the Atlanta Airport…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Mother: Flu Shot is Responsible for Death of Teenage Son
A Utah mother is claiming that a flu shot is responsible for the recent death of her 19-year-old son.
Chandler Webb received the shot on October 15 during a routine physical, after he had decided to go on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The day after the exam, Chandler became extremely ill — suffering from vomiting and headaches. A little more than a week later, Chandler slipped into a coma and spent nearly a month on life support at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
No Motive Determined in Newtown Shooting, Report Says
The prosecutor who led the investigation into the Newtown school shooting said it did not determine a motive for the attack that killed 20 children and six women.
He said the gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, had significant mental health issues that affected his ability to live a normal life and interact with others but did not affect his mental state for the crimes. Lanza was obsessed with the 1999 Columbine High School attack, according to a summary report by Sedensky that was released Monday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
(AGI) Washington, Nov 25 — A CNN opinion poll shows 53 percent of Americans do not feel President Obama is honest or can be trusted. Only 40 percent of Americans feel the president is capable of effectively leading the nation, which is 12 percent fewer than June. The CNN/ORC poll was conducted between last Monday and Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
We Want Our Country Back — Will You Help Us?
Our Organizing For ReAction end goal is simple: We must do whatever it takes to fire every one of the Congressman and Senators who voted in favor of ObamaCare, which is the same as voting against the Constitution of the United States of America. The more difficult part is that, all of us are the ones in the trenches, day-in and day-out, who must get the true information circulating about his “health insurance overhaul law”. We must start thinking and doing things out-of-the-box. We must get out of our comfort zone to inform them.
We must also acknowledge that ObamaCare is the antithesis of the United States Constitution. It is the one document that the Liberals, Socialists, Marxist, The New World Order and their Oligarchic Fellow Travelers have waited and doggedly worked for the past sixty plus years. This is the one legislative action that contains all necessary rules, regulations (written or to be written) and laws for the eventual overthrow of our Constitutional Republic, if we allow it to stand, unchallenged.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Police Brutality in Dallas, Tx on 11/22/2013 (Video)
Wish you folks could’ve been in Dallas with me. Sheriff’s deputies totally went “police state ballistic” on my fellow protesters and me at the JFK protest in Dallas on 11/22. I shot some video of the blockade they set up after pushing us back violently from Dealy Plaza after we were told we could go there (total double cross!). Alex Jones can be seen at the 4:13 mark of my video and he said he will sue Dallas for this:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
By Marlin Newburn
Wayne Bennett is a Philadelphia family court judge who wears nice suits. His blog has been recognized as the top black web site in the country on several occasions. That is because he speaks aloud what many people, black and white, think — but do not have the guts to say:
White people are victims of black mob violence because they deserve it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spies Are Freaked Out About Edward Snowden’s ‘Doomsday’ Cache of Secrets
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — British and U.S. intelligence officials say they are worried about a “doomsday” cache of highly classified, heavily encrypted material they believe former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has stored on a data cloud.
The cache contains documents generated by the NSA and other agencies and includes names of U.S. and allied intelligence personnel, seven current and former U.S. officials and other sources briefed on the matter said.
One source described the cache of still unpublished material as Snowden’s “insurance policy” against arrest or physical harm.
Some Obama Administration officials have said privately that Snowden downloaded enough material to fuel two more years of news stories. “The worst is yet to come,” said one former U.S. official who follows the investigation closely.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Yale University on Lockdown as Police Seek Gunman in ‘Heavy Overcoat’
Yale University went on lockdown mode Monday to allow police to investigate a call of a person walking around campus with a gun.
USA Today reported that police say they received a call from someone who said his roommate was headed to Yale to shoot at students. The report came from an anonymous caller from a phone booth in New Haven, Conn., where the college is located, the New Haven Independent reported.
Police are searching for an “older white man, balding, in a heavy overcoat, walking toward” Linsley-Chittenden Hall on campus.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Arabic More Important Than French in UK
France may be its nearest neighbour, but for the UK the most important language for the future is not French, according to a new report by the British Council this week, that highlighted the ongoing inability of most Britons to master a foreign language.
France may be still be the most popular foreign language to learn in Britain but according to a new report by the British Council, it is no longer the most important. That mantle is taken by Spanish.
French has been pushed into third place, perhaps surprisingly by Arabic, but comes in ahead of German (5th) and Mandarin Chinese in 4th.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dental Care Becoming a ‘Luxury’ In France
Have you been left with a huge dent in your wallet after a trip to the dentist in France? According to a collective of French consumer rights associations, access to good quality dental care is becoming a “luxury” in France. They blame those holding the drills.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Editorial: Who is the “Far Right”?
by Lars Hedegaard
Considering the epithets that the Swedish media normally use to describe Dispatch International, it is perhaps an improvement that Søren Villemoes writing for the Danish newspaper Weekendavise makes do with calling us “right-wing radical”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
European MP Denounces ‘Hitler Award’ From Italian Group
Animal breeders mock activists with annual Nazi presentation
(ANSA) — Brussels, November 25 — The decision by Italian animal breeders to present a “Hitler Award” to activists it says trample human rights to protect animals was denounced Monday by a member of the European parliament.
Tiziano Motti urged European Commission Speaker Martin Schulz to investigate the dubious award presented by Italian Federfauna, denouncing it as a “serious matter”.
Federfauna, which represents people who work with animals such as breeders and farmers, has been accredited as a legitimate organization and therefore should represent democratic European values, said Motti.
The second edition of the prize was awarded by Federfauna on Sunday to the former tourism minister Michela Vittoria Brambilla for her work as an animal welfare activist.
She is founder and president of the Italian League for the Defence of Animals and the Environment.
Federfauna has defended its Hitler Award saying it is given in the name of a “personality who has distinguished himself as an animal rights advocate”.
Adolf Hitler was said to be an avid animal rights supporter, limiting hunting and regulating the transportation of livestock and known for his personal affection for animals. Jewish groups have denounced the Federfauna award as making light of Hitler’s crimes against humanity, including the murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: Suspected Paris Gunman Goes on Hunger Strike
The alleged gunman who brought panic to the streets of Paris during a shooting spree last week has gone on hunger strike, reports in France said on Sunday. Abdelhakim Dekhar, was formally charged by police on Saturday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France Planned False Flag Terror Attack in Britain
Intelligence services considered assassinating Muslim leader, blaming neo-nazis
French intelligence services planned to stage a terror attack in Britain and then blame it on neo-nazis in a bid to assassinate Muslim hate preacher Abu Hamza, according to an investigation by pressure group Hope Not Hate.
Following the 1999 nail-bombing campaign in London, carried out by far-right terrorist David Copeland, France’s Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure hatched a plan to kill the hook-handed cleric and then implicate British Nazi group Combat 18.
“The plan to kill the infamous hook-handed hate-preacher Abu Hamza al Masri, was the result of growing frustration by French security services over the inaction of British authorities in the face of the growing threat of Islamist terrorism. Specifically, the French suspected Abu Hamza of having links to the terrorists responsible for the 1995 Paris Metro bombings,” reports Israeli National News.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
French Charity Set to Feed One Million This Winter
With Christmas exactly one month away, thoughts are turning towards the homeless and needy in France. On Monday a leading French food charity announced they expected to have to feed a record one million people this winter.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Aims for 10,000 More Women Soldiers
Germany wants to recruit 10,000 more women soldiers in a bid to significantly increase the number of females in its ranks, Defence Minister Thomas de Maizière said on Sunday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Modern Missionaries: Shrinking Catholic Church Imports Priests
Faced with a shortage of priests, the Catholic Church in Germany is recruiting an increasing number of preachers from abroad like Benjamine Gaspar, who hails from India and now holds sermons at a church in the town of Bocholt.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Three More Golden Dawn MPs to Face Criminal Gang Charges
Three more Golden Dawn MPs are due to face magistrates today on charges of being part of a criminal organization.
The Golden Dawn MPs are expected to ask for time to study the case file before testifying. The judges are also planning to bring charges against three party members in connection with a violent assault on members of the Communist Party in Perama.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘They Call Us Angry Populists? I Like That’, Grillo Tweets
(AGI) Rome, Nov 24 — Five Star Movement founder Beppe Grillo has replied to a tweet posted by Prime Minister Enrico Letta, writing: “They have called us angry populists, I like that!” Grillo also launched the Twitter hashtag populistarabbioso (angry populists).
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi’s Expulsion From Senate a Coup? Maybe Unfair
(AGI) Rome, Nov 24 — Berlusconi’s expulsion from Senate a coup d’etat? “Maybe it is a big injustice because they are enforcing a criminal law retroactively and this is why we will vote against his expulsion”, Berlusconi’s former right hand and the President of the newly founded New Centre-Right Party told RaiUno’s Arena TV anchorman Massimo Giletti after viewing the footage in which Berlusconi talked to the convention of young Forza Italia activists. “Our attitude is linear and consistent but we don’t think that we can plunge the Cabinet into a crisis and break everything up after Berlusconi’s expulsion from the Senate”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Chrysler IPO Plans Won’t Proceed This Year, Says Fiat
Michigan-based automaker looking to early 2014 for launch
(ANSA) — Turin, November 25 — Italian automaker Fiat said Monday that its Chrysler unit will not proceed with an initial public offering this year.
The Michigan-based Chrysler Group will instead continue to work towards launching an IPO in the first quarter of 2014, Fiat said in a statement.
Chrysler, which is majority owned by Fiat, began measures earlier this fall to launch an IPO on financial markets in the United States in an apparent bid to end a deadlock in negotiations over its future.
Analysts have suggested that Sergio Marchionne, chief executive officer of both Chrysler and Fiat, was hoping the IPO would prod his reluctant union partner in Chrysler to sell him its minority stake and end the manoeuvring.
Long-running negotiations have broken down between the automaker and a union fund that holds 41.5% of Chrysler shares not already owned by Fiat.
VEBA, the United Auto Workers retiree health-care trust, has reportedly demanded $1 billion more for its shares than Marchionne wants to pay, despite his desire to control that stake in order to complete a merger of Fiat with Chrysler.
But Marchionne, whose Fiat now holds 58.5% of Chrysler shares, has balked at that price tag — reportedly, VEBA has asked for about $4.25 billion for the shares — and is gambling that outside investors will agree with him.
VEBA received its stake in Chrysler as part of the Fiat-Chrysler merger deal in 2009, which rescued the ailing American automaker from bankruptcy.
But since then, Chrysler has found its footing and become more financially stable than Fiat and even a money-maker for both.
Fiat has been heavily reliant on Chrysler and its financial assets to keep Fiat afloat in a home market crippled by recession and the fallout from the European debt crisis.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Prosecutors to Demand Knox, Sollecito Declared Guilty
Supreme court ‘razed acquittal to ground’
(ANSA) — Florence, November 26 — Prosecutors in a repeat appeals trial of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito are set to call for them to be found guilty of the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, saying Italy’s highest court demolished their 2011 acquittal when it sent the case back to the appeal stage. “The reasoning behind the decision to acquit was razed to the ground” by the Cassation Court in its March 25 ruling, prosecutor Alessandro Crini told the court in his final arguments Monday, on the eve of his sentencing request Tuesday. The supreme court ruled that forensic evidence had been wrongly dismissed in the acquittal and a prosecution theory about a sex game that went wrong should be re-examined. The former American student and her Italian ex-boyfriend are being retried on murder charges for the November 1, 2007, sexual assault and stabbing of Kercher, who was found dead on the floor of an apartment she shared with Knox in Perugia.
Leeds University exchange student Kercher was 21.
Knox and Sollecito were convicted in 2009 to 26 and 25 years and acquitted on appeal in 2011, having each spent four years in prison. A third suspect, Ivorian national Rudy Guede, was convicted in a fast-track trial and is serving a 16-year sentence for the sexual assault and murder of Kercher, but the Cassation Court found it unlikely he acted alone.
The retrial opened in Florence in September, and a sentence is expected in January.
Summing up his case Monday, Crini argued that testimony from homeless witness Antonio Curatolo, who said he saw Knox and Sollecito in the vicinity of the apartment the night of the murder, was “trustworthy”. The prosecutor also argued to uphold testimony from Marco Quintavalle, a shopkeeper who said he saw Knox in front of his store the morning after the murder. Knox and Sollecito have both testified they were at his apartment the night of the murder and the morning after.
Crini also pointed to what he said were contradictions in Knox’s account of the morning following the murder.
Knox said she returned to the flat to take a shower after spending the night at Sollecito’s house, but failed to notice Kercher’s room had been broken into and was a mess.
This part of her testimony is “not convincing”, Crini maintained. Knox’s attorney Luciano Ghirga said he had heard “nothing new” in the prosecutor’s arguments.
Sollecito attended Monday’s hearing, while Knox has opted to stay in the US.
The pair’s chances of acquittal were recently seen to have been boosted when DNA evidence on the alleged murder weapon were cast into doubt.
New court-appointed experts said a kitchen knife found in Sollecito’s kitchen did not in fact have Kercher’s DNA on it, contrary to previous findings. Traces of DNA from Knox were found.
Knox and Sollecito’s lawyers said her DNA was bound to be on it since they used it to cook and that destroyed the prosecution’s case.
The Kercher family, from Couldson, Surrey, have welcomed the retrial and consistently stated they want to know who committed the crime along with Guede.
In an emotional appeal to the court earlier this month, Sollecito said he had been “persecuted” and was not “the ruthless killer” the prosecution was trying to depict.
He said the trial had been a “nightmare” for him.
Knox, in umpteen statements including in a best-selling book about her experience in the Italian justice system, has said the prosecutor who “invented” a picture of her as a sex-and-drug-crazed murderer had no evidence for his theory.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Requests Review of Fraud Trial
Silvio Berlusconi on Monday requested a review of his tax fraud trial head of a vote this week that will likely force him from parliament for the first time in 20 years and make him vulnerable to arrest.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Malmö ‘Unsafe’ For Danish Schoolchildren
Plans for a student group from Denmark to make a three-day visit to Malmö in southern Sweden have been scrapped at the last minute over safety concerns voiced by Danish parents.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Paul Weston: Preventing White Genocide
In 1950, — bearing in mind there are three global races, the white European Caucasian, the African and the Asian — in 1950 white Europeans accounted for 30 percent of the global population; today we’re down to only 16 percent, and United Nations figures suggest that by 2050 we will be only 10 percent, and only having 5 percent of the world’s babies.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Police in Norway Arrest Racist Tweeter
Police in Norway have arrested a man for making racist comments on the micro-blogging service Twitter under the account name “@Negerjeger”, or “Nigger hunter”.
The man, who is in his 20s, was arrested on Friday in the northern city of Tromsö after being tracked down by the NCIS, the Norwegian police’s serious crimes unit. He was then released on Saturday after being charged with violating Norway’s racism law. He faces up to three years in prison if found guilty.
The account has caused uproar over the last month, after the man posted a stream of racist and anti-Islamic comments, and aired his support for the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik.
When a the hashtag #norskrasisme became the site of a Twitter debate on racism, he posted pictures of mixed race couples with the comment, “Nigger-loving whores contributing to a white genocide”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Scottish Independence: What Would it Mean for the Rest of the UK?
In September next year voters in Scotland will go to the polls to decide whether or not to become independent. Campaigners and commentators have made much of the implications for people north of the border — but how would an independent Scotland impact on the rest of the UK and Europe?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain’s Right Wing Honours Dictator Franco
The 38th anniversary of the death of Spain’s fascist dictator Francisco Franco was marked by both right-wing and anti-fascist demonstrations in Spain on Saturday and Sunday. The legacy of the former leader continues to divide Spain.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain’s Neanderthal Cannibals Ate 12 Raw
Research presented at London’s Royal Society has given a detailed insight into how a group of Neanderthals in Asturias (northern Spain) were butchered and eaten by a rival gang more than 51,000 years ago.
The cache of bones found in 1994 at El Sidrón cave, some 50km from the Spanish city of Oviedo, has been the subject of thorough scientific studies for the past two decades.
CSI-style forensic techniques now reveal the degree of savagery used by the cannibalistic attackers on their early human victims.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Man Crushed to Death in Elevator Accident
A man trying to fix an elevator on a ferry in Stockholm was crushed to death on Monday after the lift started moving again unexpectedly while the man was standing on its roof.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Word Wins German Slang Award
Germany’s ‘Youth Word of the Year’ comes from a Turkish word meaning boss or chief. ‘Babo’ is the best teenage slang word of 2013, according to a vote organised by dictionary publisher Langenscheidt.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK, China and Russia ‘Tapped Merkel’s Phone’
It was not just the US — Britain, Russia, China and North Korea were also tapping Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone, German security services believe, according to magazine reports.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Councillor in Race Row Says Black People and White People Can’t Work Together
Councillor Jeffrey Tucker defends himself saying: “I’m not a racist, I have good friends that are black and anyone that knows me knows I’m not like that.”
A councillor has caused a race row after saying that two councils set to merge together will not work because one is staffed by black workers and the other white workers.
Cllr Jeffrey Tucker, the leader of the Independent Resident’s Group on Havering Council in east London, said the proposed merger between back office staff from Havering and neighbouring Newham Council was a bad idea.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Gateway to Terror: A New Report From Hope Not Hate
by Sarah AB
Today Hope not Hate is launching a new report exposing the terrorist connections of al-Muhajiroun, the group led by Anjem Choudary…
[Reader comment by Jurek Molnar on 25 November 2013.]
Outstanding! After so many years studying Islamic extremism it is still fascinating to me that guys like Choudary are overall convinced that Islam as a civilisation represents the highest peak of mankind. Islamists and Moderates alike are totally convinced that even the most sophisticated Western achievements are either pure luck or intrinsically Islamic property. Islam, and there is no difference between extremists and moderates, is considered by the faithful as the perfect revelation, that contains, inherits and seals all wisdom, knowledge and achievement that’s possible.
What a guy like Choudary is angry about are not Western policies, but the fact that Islam is not dominating the world. This dominance should come by birthright since the Ummah is the best community of all, and Muslims are therefore destined to rule the World by Islamic law. The West (or any other opponent) does lack the divine license the Muslims have. Choudary is representing a type of consciousness that is similar to the racist colonial mindframes of the 19th centuries and share some ingredients of the Nazis masterrace ideology, while having a different political base to claim its right.
Nobody should get fooled, that the Islam he has in mind is a mostly genocidal slavetraders business, that still is out there to get criticised by people who think that Western culture is the root of all evil.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: London Slavery Case: Suspects ‘Former Maoist Activists’
A married couple suspected of holding three women as slaves for more than 30 years are former Maoist activists Aravindan Balakrishnan and his wife Chanda, the BBC understands.
According to Marxist archives they were leading figures at the Mao Zedong Memorial Centre based in Acre Lane, Brixton, south London, in the 1970s.
It was raided by police and five people, including the pair, were held. Mr Balakrishnan, 73, and his 67-year-old wife were arrested on Thursday.
Three women were rescued from their home in Brixton a month earlier.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Preacher Anjem Choudary’s Hotline to Terrorist White Widow
HATE preacher Anjem Choudary was last night faced with shock claims he has links to White Widow Samantha Lewthwaite.
A new report reveals the radical cleric incites his army of British fanatics to take up arms with Lewthwaite’s jihadists in Somalia. And Lewthwaite — on the run after the Kenya mall massacre — supports Choudary, 46, by praising him online, it says.
Choudary has sparked fury in Britain for burning poppies and urging Muslims to milk Britain’s benefits system.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: For Catholic Church Spokesman, “The Law is Against Violence, Does Not Restrict Human Rights”
The new law requires organisers to notify the police about the date and place of the event. For Fr Rafic Greiche, the country is just adapting its regulations to those already in place in Europe and other Western nations. The government is trying to curb violent protests organised by the Muslim Brotherhood in recent months. The law also bans political propaganda in mosques and places of worship.
Cairo (AsiaNews) — The Egyptian government adopted a controversial law designed to regulate protests. This comes after weeks of violent demonstrations led by students affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
As a protest, 19 human rights groups and Salafist political activists issued a joint statement against the new law calling it a smokescreen to give police additional powers and thwart any type of protest, including peaceful ones.
For Fr Greich Rafiq, spokesman for the Egyptian Catholic Church, the new legislation does not restrict the right to demonstrate, but tries to limit confrontations and violence.
“In Egypt,” he told AsiaNews, “there are no regulations regarding protests and sit-ins, which often turn into violent clashes. The new law reflects legislation already in place in Western countries, where organisers are required to notify police about the date and place of the protest.”
The new law also bans political propaganda in mosques and other places of worship, Fr Greiche noted. “In most cases,” he added, “the most violent protests are organised just after sermons and speeches by Islamist religious authorities in mosques.”
Interim President Adly Mansour signed the bill into law yesterday. The latter requires protest organisers to notify the authorities three days before the event instead of seven as provided by previous regulations. Police can now disperse demonstrations deemed violent by using water cannons, tear gas and lead pellets.
The law imposes fines of up US$ 40,000 and seven-year prisons sentences for possession of illegal weapons. Organising illegal demonstrations can be punished with fines from US$ 1,350 to US$ 4,000.
Gamal Eid, a lawyer and human rights activist who played a key role in the events of 2011 against Mubarak, slams the government’s decision.
“The law’s aim is to ban protests from the streets, a right which the Egyptians earned with their blood and great efforts.”
For Eid, “the law is unconstitutional and violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”
Meanwhile, Islamists continue to block the country’s main universities, including al-Azhar.
Cars have been set on fire and Molotov cocktails have been thrown against a tourist bus in Cairo. This morning a group of unknown persons threw a grenade at a police station in Hadaeq Al- Qubbah, wounding three.
Sources, anonymous for security reasons, told AsiaNews that should be used in demonstrations.
Small groups of young people, often between 14 and 17 years, roam universities campuses and streets, imposing their ideology by force, preventing the majority of students from entering and attending classes.
“This is typical a Muslim Brotherhood tactic,” sources said. “After Mohammed Morsi’s ouster, they pledged to keep the country in a state of permanent chaos.”
Last Wednesday, police arrested 38 minors in Alexandria and Cairo responsible for violence the day before, anniversary of the massacre of Mohammed Mahmoud Street in 2011.
According to the sources, these young people are paid by violent Islamists. They infiltrate rallies armed with sticks, Molotov cocktails and hand-made guns with orders to provoke violence in peaceful protests.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
German Journalist ‘Kidnapped’ In Egypt
The German government has called on Egypt to help find a German journalist who has disappeared — feared kidnapped — in Cairo after receiving death threats from Islamic extremists.
Hamed Abdel-Samad’s brother told Egyptian news site youm7 he feared the writer had been kidnapped after he disappeared from near the Al-Azhar park in Cairo on Sunday afternoon.
The German Foreign Ministry has set up a crisis team to try to find Abdel-Samed, who writes for politics magazine Cicero and wrote a book in 2009 about Islam called Mein Abschied vom Himmel (My Farewell from Heaven)
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Writer Abdel-Samad Missing in Egypt
A German writer threatened with death after criticizing Islamists has gone missing in Egypt. Police suspect that Hamed Abdel-Samad was abducted by religious extremists, but the investigation is still ongoing.
Abdel-Samad received death threats in June and religionists described him as an infidel, after he gave a speech in Cairo in which he criticized radical Islam and Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Deadly Clashes in Benghazi, At Least 15 Victims
Between soldiers,jihadists. Fighting with heavy artillery
(ANSAmd) — ROME — At least 15 people on Monday morning were reported killed and 51 injured in violent clashes between pro-government soldiers and Islamist militants with Ansar al Sharia in the eastern Libyan city Benghazi.
The pro-al Qaida group is considered responsible for the 2011 attack on the consulate in the city in which US ambassador Chris Stevens died.
Eye witnesses reported violent fighting with heavy artillery in some of the city’s main roads.
Stability in Libya was on the agenda of talks in London between Libyan Premier Ali Zeidan and US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday.
Kerry said after the meeting that Britain, the US and their allies want to help Libya get the stability it needs — an engagement also stressed by the head of the Foreign Office who stressed the need to help the Libyan government and people, without further elaborating on details.
Zeidan thanked London and Washington for their ‘constant support’.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Rifts Arise Within Tunisia’s Monolithic Ennahdha
Mass resignations and criticism from hardline faction
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, NOVEMBER 25 — Government majority party Ennahdha, which until Sunday had seemed resistant to all external pressures and endowed with full support for its leader, Rached Ghannouchi, seems to have suffered an unexpected internal upheaval. Members of a regional district have resigned in mass and violent criticism has been directed at its representatives in the government.
After showing itself to be ‘monolithic’ and managing to keep any friction and ideological battles restricted to within, Ennahdha now seems to have taken a more embattled turn. The news of a mass resignation by the entire political office of Gafsa — the Tunisian mining district that has long served as a robust reserve of votes and support for the moderate Islamist party — was announced by National Spokesman Zied Ladhari, who was thus able to give the party’s version of the events and prevent any uncomfortable interpretations. The announcement by the Gafsa leaders — who resigned in sharp disagreement with the decisions made by party leaders — are not the first in Ennahdha. However, their significance at the political level is enormous, and Ladhari has voiced hope that they will be brought back into the fold. The resignations mean that Ennahdha’s outer fringes are overtly critical of the positions taken by the national leaders in Tunis, and — especially — harbor suspicions about the latest political decisions of a party that seems too concerned with managing power and too distant from the population itself.
Criticism is also coming from the hardliners within the party’s leadership, who have long held that Ennahdha’s rule was an expression of divine will. Lotfi Zitoun, Ennahdha member and former part of the Hamadi Jebali government as well as head of the party’s hardline faction, has accused the government of populism — especially as concerns the 2014 budget law it is in the process of drawing up, which they see as being excessively hard on the middle classes. Zitoun made direct reference to Prime Minister Ali Laarayedh, second-in-command of the party and also among its right-wing faction. It is unclear what direction the situation will take in the short term, since though Zitoun is lashing out at the decision-making core of the party, after two days of talks the Shura Council (the central governing committee) came up with a document supporting national dialogue, looking outside of the party instead of dealing with tensions within it.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
What Israel Must Do to Survive
What we are witnessing today is a transnational movement driven by those with the deepest of pockets and most devout ideological belief systems to eliminate Israel — a long with the United States of America, if possible — for the purposes of wide-spread physical and Geo-political domination. The modern world is confronted with a dualistic assault upon its’ future; one is well known, and goes back more than a century. Communism didn’t die with Reagan’s victory over the U.S.S.R.; it merely went underground. Honest research into the environmental movement will verify this simple truth. What Reagan fought was in fact World War III, or the Cold War; an important bit of history “experts” frequently get wrong. Many pundits think this is an insignificant distinction; students of history will argue that historical accuracy is never trivial, always of the utmost importance, especially given the remarkable propensity of the left to re-write it. The other side of the pincer movement is Islamic-fascism, and all of the 7th Century psychotic cultural baggage that goes with it; no less dedicated to the overthrow of free capital markers and the entirety of Western civil society than Karl Marx himself.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Canada: We’re Not Lifting Iran Sanctions — For Now
Canadian government welcomes Iran deal, but will not lift sanctions until proven that Iran is keeping its end of the agreement
Canada will not lift sanctions on Iran until proof has been given that the Islamic Republic is indeed in the process of freezing its nuclear program, Shalom Toronto reports.
On Monday, Foreign Minister John Baird praised the efforts of the international community, noting that Canada has always held that every diplomatic effort should be exhausted in pursuit of preventing a nuclear Iran. However, he also stressed that the sanctions imposed on Iran had already forced it to adopt a more moderate approach in negotiations — and that the deal may, from his experience, be an attempt by Iran to deceive the West.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Deal in Hand, Will Iran Follow Path of North Korea?
Now that the Obama administration has its nuclear deal with Iran, the big question is can Tehran be trusted to make good on its promises — or, will it follow the path of North Korea?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in labeling the six-month deal with Tehran as “an historic mistake,” on Sunday invoked an infamous 2005 pact with North Korea. As part of that deal, Pyongyang agreed to abandon its nuclear program and join the Non-Proliferation Treaty in exchange for food and other aid.
North Korea conducted its first underground nuclear test a year later.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France Says EU Likely to Lift Some Sanctions on Iran in December
France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Monday that the European Union would likely lift some sanctions on Iran in December as part of the landmark deal to rollback Tehran’s nuclear programme.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tehran can continue to enrich uranium at 10,000 working centrifuges.
President Obama is hailing a weekend accord that he says has “halted the progress of the Iranian nuclear program,” and we devoutly wish this were true. The reality is that the agreement in Geneva with five Western nations takes Iran a giant step closer to becoming a de facto nuclear power.
Start with the fact that this “interim” accord fails to meet the terms of several United Nations resolutions, which specify no sanctions relief until Iran suspends all uranium enrichment. Under this deal Iran gets sanctions relief, but it does not have to give up its centrifuges that enrich uranium, does not have to stop enriching, does not have to transfer control of its enrichment stockpiles, and does not have to shut down its plutonium reactor at Arak.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Leaders Reach Iranian Deal Again, Israel Still Unhappy
The decision is being heralded as historic by many media sources with the reporting language making it sound like some great feat has been accomplished. In fact Iran has agreed to limit uranium enrichment to 5% for 6 months in exchange for a lessening of sanctions to the tune of about $7billion.
Although this falls well short of the 90% enrichment goal for major weaponry the Israelis still believe that the threshold is high enough to produce a low yield weapon, like a suitcase bomb, and point to the North Koreans as examples of those who have sidestepped such deals in the past.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Nuke Deal Fiasco Analyses Ignore Iran’s Genocidal Islamic Jew-Hatred
by Andrew Bostom
Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu, Iran’s President Rouhani, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif, all concur on this critical outcome of the interim agreement struck between Iran, the U.S. and five other world powers, announced early Sunday morning, 11/24/13: Iran’s nuclear enrichment program will continue apace.
United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), a not-for-profit, non-partisan, advocacy group which seeks to thwart Iran’s ambition to obtain nuclear weapons, issued a press release highlighting the fundamental strategic failures of the interim 6-month pact:…
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: US Consulate Attacker Sentenced to Death
Riyadh, 25 Nov. (AKI) — A Saudi court has given a man the death penalty and jailed 19 other people for up to 25 years over the deadly 2004 assault on the US Consulate in Jeddah, the official SPA news agency reports.
The report gave no details on the identity of the man sentenced to death or when he will be executed.
A further 35 suspects linked to the 6 December 2004 armed assault will face court hearings this week, SPA said.
The assault killed five consulate employees and four Saudi security personnel, one of series of attacks blamed on the Al-Qaeda terror network over the past decade.
Three of the attackers were killed in the assault and two were captured.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: The Village of Deir Atieh Invaded by Islamists: Christians Identified and Detained
Damascus (Agenzia Fides) — Militants of Islamist factions have invaded the town of Deir Atieh, north of Damascus, spreading terror, death and destruction. As Fides sources in the Greek Orthodox Church report, the attack took place on 22 November. The militants entered the municipal hospital and took hostage the sick. The museum of Deir Atieh that welcomed thousands of works and precious archaeological finds was devastated. Mosques and churches were hit and damaged. Numerous homes were looted and civilians captured and used as human shields.
The situation is particularly worrying for Christians. The population, about 25 thousand people, have begun to flee. The militiamen examine the identification documents of those who intend to leave the city and retain those who have Christian names. To be able to leave the village, a Greek Orthodox priest had to say he was married and present himself with a woman: he was allowed to go just because he had an Arab name and had no ancestry or Christian reference.
Fr. F.H., who in a note sent to Fides requested anonymity for security reasons, pleads the international community and the Holy See to mobilize in order to arrange for the release of the hostages and save the village of Deir Atieh. It is not clear, notes the source of Fides, what prompted the armed gangs to penetrate the village. Even hundreds of people from Qara, another Syrian village in the mountains of Qalamoun, 90 km from Damascus had found refuge. In recent weeks, Qara had been attacked by Islamist fighters from the city of Arzal. Among the refugees of Qara, who moved to Deir Atieh, there is also the Greek-Catholic priest Father George Luis and all his parishioners. (PA)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Troops Kill Over 100 Rebels in Siege Battle
DAMASCUS, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) — More than 100 rebel fighters have been killed over the past two days in the eastern countryside of Syrian capital Damascus as the rebels attempted to break the government troops’ siege, local al-Watan daily reported Monday. The Syrian troops repelled the rebels’ attack against military positions and checkpoints at the towns of Baharieh, Qasimieh, and Qaria al-Shamieh area in the Eastern al-Ghouta Suburb.
The incident came as hundreds of rebel fighters reportedly infiltrated from neighboring Jordan to help the trapped rebels in the besieged al-Ghouta countryside. The battles in the south and east of Damascus have been coupled with others in the northern rim of the capital, namely in Deir Attieh town, located in the al-Qalamoun Mountains…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Ten Ethnic Norwegian Converts in Syria: NRK
At least ten ethnic Norwegian converts to Islam are fighting as volunteers in the civil war in Syria, state broadcaster NRK has reported, building on information from Norway’s PST intelligence agency.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Goal of Obama’s Foreign Policy
By Caroline B. Glick
It isn’t surprising that the US and the other five powers signed a deal with Iran on Saturday. Over the past few weeks, US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry made it clear that they were committed to signing a deal with Iran as quickly as possible.
And it isn’t surprising that the deal these overeager leaders signed with the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism makes the world a much more dangerous place than it was before the agreement was concluded.
With the US and its allies far more eager to reach an accord with Iran on its illicit nuclear weapons program than Iran was, it was obvious from the outset that any deal ultimately reached, at least as long as these negotiating conditions remained in force, would facilitate rather than inhibit Iran’s quest to build a nuclear arsenal. And indeed, the sanctions relief that Iran has gained simply by signing on the dotted line will be sufficient to buffet the Iranian economy through a successful nuclear weapons test.
Iran will achieve nuclear capability while enriching itself through the deal because the deal gives Iran sanctions relief without requiring Iran to make any irreversible concessions. Indeed, Iran just received the international community’s permission to continue to enrich uranium, keep all its nuclear installations open and build new centrifuges.
While the deal isn’t surprising in and of itself, Obama’s decision to conclude it now makes clear the true goal of his foreign policy. To understand that goal, it is first necessary to consider an aspect of the deal that, on the surface, makes little sense…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: 78% of Gezi Park Detainees Were Alevis, Report
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 25 — Almost 80% of protesters detained as part of the Gezi Park protests were Alevis, according to daily Milliyet citing a report by Turkish security and intelligence authorities. The daily reported that the authorities have prepared a comprehensive and detailed analysis of the anti-governmental protests spread across the country over summer, using detainees as samples. More than 5,500 demonstrations or activities were staged within the framework of the country-wide movement dubbed “Gezi protests” that were prolonged for 112 days after being kindled in Taksim Gezi Park at the end of May, according to the analysis reported today by daily Milliyet columnist Tolga Sardan. The security forces’ study also sheds light on the characteristics of the protestors, by using more than 5,000 detainees’ personal data as samples to determine the profile of whole movement. Seventy-eight percent of people detained were Alevis, the report said. Also according to the analysis, only 12% of the suspects are “linked with political parties,” 6% of which are involved in “extremist leftist groups,” dubbed as marginal left groups by the Security Directorate. Some 4% of them also alleged to be working for “terrorist organizations and their legal organizations affiliated with them.” Around 3.6 million people attended demonstrations while 5,513 of them have been detained by the police in the 80 provinces the protests erupted in. According to a “demographic analysis” conducted by the police, half of the suspects were women. Around 15% of them are primary or secondary school graduates; a quarter of them are high-school graduates, whereas more than half of them have a background in higher education: 25% of them are university graduates and 36% of them are still studying at universities.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Protestant Christian Pastor Arrested on False Charges of Human Trafficking
Istanbul (Agenzia Fides) — The Turkish Protestant Christian Pastor Orhan Picaklar, 42, of the “Agape Church” was arrested by the police in the town of Samsun, on the Black Sea, on charges of organizing human trafficking and prostitution. The Christian community in Turkey, refer the faithful of the Turkish community “Agape” in a note sent to Fides, asks for prayers and support in order to prove his innocence. The allegations, it says, are entirely instrumental, as the Pastor was under observation for suspected “illegal missionary activity”.
On November 11, the pastor was summoned to the local police headquarters for questioning in Samsun with seven other people. Accused of being involved in the business of human trafficking, he was held in custody pending a court to formalize the charges against him. The incident also caused scandal in the media. According to the Turkish newspaper “Milliyet”, the charges are based on the testimony of a 19 year old Iranian. The Agape Church had provided accommodation to the girl along with other Christian refugees, supporting them in their studies and material needs. The Pastor and his congregation had faced false accusations in the past: the faithful define the accusations “attempts to discredit him” and “slander”. As reported to Fides, Turkish Christians pray for the Pastor, confident that his innocence will be proven soon. False accusations may even have “a positive effect on the Church and on its purity of its testimony of Christ”, it said.
Meanwhile, the church where the community “Agape” in Samsun meet was damaged by vandals. Orhan Picaklar has been in charge of the community “Agape” in Samsun since 2003. The congregation obtained the formal status of “association” in 2005 because, as other Christian communities in Turkey, the government does not grant official recognition of “church” to new communities. (PA)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Istanbul Monastery to Become Mosque
The largest Byzantium monastery in Istanbul will be converted into a mosque after its restoration next year. The Monastery of Stoudios, also known as the Imrahor Monument, will be turned into a mosque and be titled Imrahor Ilyas Bey Mosque.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Two Swedish Journalists Abducted in Syria
Two Swedish men have been abducted in Syria while on their way out of the country, the Foreign Ministry confirmed on Monday. The two men, reporter Magnus Falkehed and photographer Niclas Hammarström, are in their mid-forties and were abducted while leaving Syria.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen: 12 Al-Qaida Suspects Killed by Government Airstrikes in the Country’ South
The Yemeni Interior Ministry says government airstrikes have killed 12 suspected al-Qaida militants in the country’s south.
The statement Monday said the militants were killed in a strike this week in Abyan province that left their vehicle burned to a shell. The statement didn’t specify the day of the attack.
Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which is based in Yemen, is considered by the U.S. to be the most dangerous offshoot of the terror organization in the world.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Putin Arrives in Rome Ahead of Russia-Italy Summit
‘Plans to visit Berlusconi’, also pope, president
(ANSA) — Rome, November 25 — Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Rome Monday ahead of a summit the following day in Trieste over Italian and Russian relations. Before heading north with 11 of his ministers Tuesday, Putin is scheduled to visit Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, Pope Francis, and reportedly three-time premier and old friend Silvio Berlusconi. According to Italian media, the Russian leader intends to meet the embattled ex-premier at his Rome residence of Palazzo Grazioli.
In September Putin came to Berlusconi’s defence amid his appeal against a sentence for paying for sex with an underage prostitute nicknamed Ruby and abused his office to cover it up.
The Italian judiciary “wouldn’t have touched him if he’d been gay”, Putin told an international forum on Russia, adding that Berlusconi’s legal woes, including a tax-fraud conviction banning him from office, were due to his “living with women”.
Berlusconi has been embroiled in other sex scandals including one involving an escort who secretly taped him before and after having sex on a luxurious bed at his Rome residence given to him by Putin.
Earlier Monday Berlusconi said he will file a motion to reopen the tax-fraud case against him, pointing to “convincing” new testimony in his favor. The Senate is set to vote on ejecting him Thursday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Azerbaijani Court Convicts 29 People on Charges of Planning Series of Terror Attacks
A court in Azerbaijan has convicted 29 people on charges of plotting a series of terror attacks in the Caspian Sea country. The court in the capital Baku sentenced them Monday to prison terms ranging from nine years to life.
The prosecutors said the attackers, some of whom came from the province of Dagestan in neighboring Russia, declared jihad, or holy war, against the secular government of Azerbaijan. Dagestan has become the center of an Islamic insurgency in Russia’s North Caucasus.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan Draws Criticism From Human Rights Group Over Proposal to Bring Back Stoning
Afghanistan’s decision to consider reintroducing public stoning as a punishment has drawn a sharp rebuke from Human Rights Watch, who says it harks to the time of Taliban rule.
“It is absolutely shocking that 12 years after the fall of the Taliban government, the (Hamid) Karzai administration might bring back stoning as a punishment,” said Brad Adams, the Asia director at Human Rights Watch, according to The Guardian.
“President Karzai needs to demonstrate at least a basic commitment to human rights and reject this proposal out of hand.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan Considers Public Stoning for Adulterers
Afghanistan is considering bringing back stoning for adultery, Human Rights Watch and the justice ministry said today, possibly restoring a punishment in force during the Taliban’s brutal regime.
The penalty for married adulterers, along with flogging for unmarried offenders, appears in a draft revision of the country’s penal code being considered by the ministry of justice.
Ashraf Azimi, the head of ministry’s criminal law department, confirmed to AFP that stoning to death is included in the draft.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
For Burmese Activist, The Rohingya Issue Hides Anti-Myanmar Power Games
For Tint Swe, the country is united against the UN resolution, which calls on Myanmar authorities to grant citizenship to the Muslim minority. Today Islamic movements and nations defend the Rohingya, but were not as generous in the past. The people of Burma “feel threatened”. Criticism jeopardises the process of democratisation and development.
Yangon (AsiaNews) — A UN resolution calling on Myanmar to grant citizenship to Rohingya Muslims has created a united front between the government and the country’s political parties, including those in the opposition, finding widespread echo in social media, this according to Tint Swe, head of the of the Burma Centre in Delhi, India. The prominent exiled Burmese activist, who is a former representative of Burma’s National League for Democracy (NLD), spoke to AsiaNews about the issue.
“In the past,” the UN statements on human rights in Burma “were welcomed by an oppressed people” and represented an “encouragement”, today they are seen “through different eyes,” and are a source of “disappointment.”
For weeks, the Rohingya, a persecuted a stateless Muslim minority, have been at the centre of debate in the former Burma, especially after the United Nations last Wednesday called on Myanmar to grant them citizenship.
Burmese authorities are resisting the pressure, claiming that the Rohingya are “illegal immigrants” from Bangladesh, an opinion shared by the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD) of Aung San Suu Kyi.
For Mgr Charles Bo, archbishop of Yangon, “interreligious dialogue” and a “case-by-case” examination would be “the best solution” to resolve the issue. Having religious leaders talk would be better than any political decision, the prelate added.
As the debate continues, it seems, for once, to unite both government and opposition movements who represent the majority of Burma’s population.
In the past, Tint Swe said, UN resolutions on Myanmar touched its “60 million people”. This year, they are focused on a “small part of the population” that is the source of controversy. Only one Myanmar organisation centred on the Rohingya welcomed the UN text.
Under the military dictatorship, “from 1988 to 2012, only two [UN] special envoys visited Burma to vet human rights and the political situation,” the activist said.
Today, the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) intervened on behalf of their co-religionists. In the past, it never spoke out about the failure to respect human rights in the nation of 60 million people
The Burmese, he warns, “feel threatened” by constant external pressures and do not accept impositions from above or any changes to the country’s citizenship law, an entirely domestic affair.
During the cyclone Nargis emergency in May 2008, 138,000 people were killed, at least 6,900 of whom were Muslim, this in country where Muslims constitute 4 per cent of the population, Tint Swe noted. Following violence in Rakhine State, Muslim countries allocated “millions of dollars” but did not show the “same generosity” at the time of the disaster.
“Burma,” Tint Swe added, “is in a delicate transition from military dictatorship to the dawn of democracy. This is still fragile and could be exploited politically, economically and more.”
For him, “external pressures are being exerted not for religious or human rights reason but only for a name, Rohingya”.
The recent escalation of violence between Buddhists and Muslims in the western state of Rakhine has exacerbated tensions among the country’s various ethnic and religious groups.
Last year, bloody clashes broke out between Rohingya Muslims and Arakanese after a young Buddhist woman was raped and murdered in May 2012.
The initial violence sparked a spiral of terror that left hundreds of people dead and scores of homes destroyed.
At least 160,000 people were displaced, many forced to seek refuge abroad to escape attacks by an extremist Buddhist group, the 969 movement.
According to United Nations estimates there are at least 800,000 Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Nepal: Earliest Buddhist Shrine Found at Buddha’s Birthplace
Beneath a temple thought to mark the location of the Buddha’s birth, archaeologists may have discovered the literal roots of the religion: an ancient tree shrine that predates all known Buddhist sites by at least 300 years.
The remains of one of Asoka’s temples lie at Lumbini in Nepal, which many recognise as the birthplace of the Buddha and is an important site of pilgrimage. They found evidence of pre-Asokan stonework on the site and, below that, signs of a timber structure that could be radiocarbon dated to between 800 and 550 BC.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan’s Police Stop NATO Supply Truck Blockade
Pakistani police prevented activists who were protesting U.S. drone strikes from blocking trucks carrying NATO troop supplies to and from neighboring Afghanistan on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sharia in Action in Afghanistan: Plans to Reintroduce Public Stoning as Punishment for Adultery
Afghanistan is planning to reintroduce public stoning as punishment for adultery 12 years after the Taliban was ousted from power, according to a new draft penal code. The move has shocked human rights campaigners and will dismay donors who have poured billions of pounds into the country for reconstruction.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Angola Bans Islam, Destroys Mosques
LUANDA — According to several Angolan newspapers, Angola has become the first country in the world to ban Islam and Muslims, taking first measures by destroying mosques in the country.
“The process of legalization of Islam has not been approved by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, their mosques would be closed until further notice,” Rosa Cruz e Silva, the Angolan Minister of Culture, was quoted by Agence Ecofin on Friday, November 22.
Silva comments were given during her visit last Tuesday to the 6th Commission of the National Assembly.
She asserted that the decision was the latest is a series of efforts to ban ‘illegal’ religious sects.
According to the minister, the action was necessary to fight relentlessly against the emergence of congregations whose worshipping is contradicting with the customs of the Angolan culture.
Same as Islam, other faiths which were not legalized will face closure of their houses of worship.
“All sects on the list published by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights in the Angolan newspaper ‘Jornal de Angola’ are prohibited to conduct worship, so they should keep their doors closed,” she was quoted by Cameroon Voice?.
“In addition, we also have a long list of more than a thousand legalization applications,” she added.
| — Hat tip: The Observer | [Return to headlines] |
Angola Becomes First Nation to Ban Islam & Dismantle Mosques
A number of news outlets have reported that Angola has “banned” Islam and started to dismantle mosques in a bold effort to stem the spread of Muslim extremism.
Weekly French-language Moroccan newspaper La Nouvelle Tribune published an article on Friday sourcing “several” Angolan officials, including the Southwest African nation’s minister of culture, Rosa Cruz, who reportedly offered the following remarks, which have been translated from French: “The process of legalization of Islam has not been approved by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, their mosques would be closed until further notice.”
OnIslam.net reports that the African economic news agency Agence Ecofin wrote that Cruz made the statement at an appearance last week before the 6th Commission of the National Assembly. The website goes on to note that, “According to several Angolan newspapers, Angola has become the first country in the world to ban Islam and Muslims, taking first measures by destroying mosques in the country.”
| — Hat tip: Egghead | [Return to headlines] |
Angola ‘Bans’ Islam, Muslims, Becomes First Country to Do So
According to several newspapers, the tiny African country of Angola has become the first country in the world to ban Islam and Muslims.
The Angolan Minister of Culture, Rosa Cruz e Silva was quoted by news agencies and Angola newspapers as saying, “The process of legalisation of Islam has not been approved by the Ministry of Justice and Human rights, their mosques would be closed until further notice.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Abuja (Agenzia Fides) — I have heard of these cases, but it is difficult to evaluate them because there are so many “rumours” “, says to Fides Agency Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan Archbishop of Abuja, with regards to the allegations of Christian women abducted by the Islamic Boko Haram sect and forced to marry men belonging to the movement after being forcibly converted to Islam.
“I am not aware of specific and proven cases. Even the Nigerian press has dedicated little space to news of this nature, obviously because it has found, so far, no solid evidence”, said the Cardinal.
“That there are kidnappings is a fact, but I am not aware that there is a systematic campaign to kidnap Christian women in order to convert them to force them to marry Boko Haram members. This does not mean that there are rapes of war. These things happen unfortunately in conflict zones”, continued Cardinal Onaiyekan who adds: “ I am sorry to say but there are people who spread rumors which are not controlled in order to accentuate the sense of persecution of Christians living in areas most at risk in Nigeria. I do not think this helps us. It is always better to tell the truth”.
According to the Cardinal, Boko Haram “has suffered serious blows” inflicted by the Nigerian army which in May launched a major offensive in three States in the north of the Federation. “Boko Haram is not what it was only 7 months ago. This does not mean that it has been destroyed, but now we are faced with a set of bandit gangs dedicated to robbery rather than a guerrilla-structured organization”, concluded the Cardinal. (L.M.)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
33 Mutilated Corpses Found in Hidden Graves in Mexico Drug Lands
(Reuters) — At least 33 mutilated corpses have been found buried in an area of western Mexico where drug cartels are battling each other, officials said on Friday, the latest in a series of grisly finds amid a scourge of gang-related violence. The bodies, which showed signs of torture, were found in 19 ditches in La Barca, on the border between the states of Michoacan and Jalisco, where a clutch of rival cartels operate.
Mexico has suffered from a wave of drug-related violence, with about 1,000 people a month dying in gangland killings. About 80,000 people have died since 2007 in cartel violence.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mexican Observatory Pushes the Limits of γ-Ray Astronomy
Water tanks at 4,100 metres altitude detect high-energy bursts coming from supernova explosions and other cosmic events
After a three-hour drive southeast of Mexico City, past farmers using horse-drawn ploughs and through a village with sheep crowding the main street, the dirt road on Sierra Negra mountain splits at 4,000 metres above sea level. To the right is Orizaba, North America’s third-highest peak. To the left is a new observatory that will be hunting for the highest-energy sources known in the Universe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Adopts Measures Against African Migrants
A ‘closed facility’ will serve as detention centre
Occupied Jerusalem: The Israeli cabinet approved on Sunday measures aimed at deporting thousands of Africans who illegally entered the country and who are perceived by it as a threat to its Jewish character.
A statement from the prime minister’s office said that beyond the measures, which include a crackdown on employers and financial incentives for home-bound Africans, the interior ministry has drafted a bill that would enable to detain illegal migrants for one year without trial.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Roma Teen Rebels Against Pickpocketing ‘Slavery’
Macedonian, 16, ‘forced to marry Serb boy three years ago’
(ANSA) — Rome, November 25 — A 16-year-old Roma girl has rebelled against a pact that made her the alleged criminal slave of another Roma family she was forced to marry into three years ago, police in Rome said Monday. Police took the girl to a shelter Sunday after breaking up a fight between the families.
They said the Macedonian girl became the “property” of the other, Serbian, family at the age of 13 when her new husband, then 15, claimed her in a deal.
She was allegedly forced into pickpocketing on Rome buses and streets.
Her husband and father-in-law refused to accept her wish to leave the life of crime and go back to her original family, police said.
They were called to a Roma settlement Sunday after a violent argument broke out between the families.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Most New Jobs in Sweden Go to Immigrants
Roughly 70 percent of the more than 200,000 jobs created in Sweden since 2006 have gone to residents born abroad, new statistics show. Since 2006, when the current centre-right government took power, around 230,000 new jobs have been created in Sweden, according to figures from Statistics Sweden (SCB). The figures reveal further that 160,000 of the newly created jobs have gone to people born outside of Sweden.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Surge in Refugees Strains Migration Board
A great surge in refugees applying for asylum in Sweden has put a strain on the Migration Board, whose staff are now forced to work around the clock, six days a week, to process all the applications, news agency TT reports.
In just a few weeks the Migration Board has had a record number of 1,800 refugees applying for asylum in Sweden. These are numbers only equalled by the refugee wave after the war in Bosnia in the 1990’s.
According to the Migration Board’s preliminary numbers, a total of 56,000 refugees are expected to come to Sweden this year and 60,000 in 2014, and to be able to process all these applications on time the Board has requested an additional SEK 500,000 to hire more staff.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Majority of New Jobs to Immigrants
Around seventy percent, or 160 000, of the 230 000 new jobs created since the government came into power in 2006 have gone to people who were born outside of Sweden. That’s according to figures by Statistics Sweden (SCB), Swedish Radio News reports.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Comet ISON’s Close Sun Encounter This Week Has Scientists Fired Up
the promising Comet ISON’s close pass by the sun this week has amateur astronomers on the edge of their seats, but professional scientists are anticipating the celestial encounter with perhaps even greater relish.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Early Life Built Earth’s Continents
REWIND Earth’s story 3 or 4 billion years, to when life was emerging. The surface of our planet was starting to cool but still piping hot — possibly about 200 °C. Early, unstable continents may have been forming. Now imagine life doesn’t emerge, and press play.
This is what a new computer model allows us to do, offering the first glimpse of the role that life played in shaping the surface of our blue marble. The results paint a picture of a lifeless Earth as an unrecognisable water-world with very few continents, if any at all.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Milky Way’s Black Hole is Shooting Particle Jets
X-ray and radio observations offer the best evidence yet that, as long suspected, high-energy particles stream from the heart of our galaxy
A torrent of energetic particles appears to be spewing from the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, coming from the gigantic black hole that lies at its heart, according to a new study. Such jets are common throughout the universe, and most supermassive black holes are thought to produce them.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NASA Plans to Grow First Plants on the Moon
The U.S. may not have plans to return astronauts to the moon anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean other lifeforms won’t grace the lunar surface. NASA is teaming up with students and private space companies to grow the first plants on the moon’s surface starting in 2015.
The self-contained Lunar Plant Growth Habitat will resemble a glorified coffee can and will contain enough water, nutrients and air to grow 10 turnip seeds, 10 basil seeds, and 100 arabidopsis seeds (this plant is the lab-rat of the botany world).
If the seeds successfully germinate, they will be the first Earth plant life transported to another planetary body.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Why Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Has Lasted So Long
The mystery of why Jupiter’s Great Red Spot did not vanish centuries ago may now be solved, and the findings could help reveal more clues about the vortices in Earth’s oceans and the nurseries of stars and planets, researchers say.
The Great Red Spot is the most noticeable feature on Jupiter’s surface — a storm about 12,400 miles (20,000 kilometers) long and 7,500 miles (12,000 km) wide, about two to three times larger than Earth. Winds at its oval edges can reach up to 425 mph (680 km/h). This giant storm was first recorded in 1831 but may have first been discovered in 1665.
“Based on current theories, the Great Red Spot should have disappeared after several decades,” researcher Pedram Hassanzadeh, a geophysical fluid dynamicist at Harvard University,said in a statement. “Instead, it has been there for hundreds of years.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
@UK: Gateway to Terror: A New Report From Hope Not Hate
The new order everything is in moderation. Nothing is in excess.