A female suicide bomber — the latest Muslim “Black Widow” whose husband was killed by Russian security forces — detonated herself inside the main railway station in Volgograd today, killing at least sixteen people and wounding dozens more. The carnage would have been worse, except that the bomber apparently became nervous when she arrived at the metal detector, and blew herself up before entering the main body of the station.
In other news, France’s highest court has approved the Hollande government’s revamped tax plan, which includes a 75% income tax on the country’s highest earners.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Greece: Sales Fall Further After Christmas Bonus Cut
Down some 800 million euros compared with 2012
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, DECEMBER 27 — Up until Christmas Eve — according to shopkeepers in Greece’s major cities — stores had seen an increase in traffic but a drop in sales this festive season, as daily Kathimerini reports. Although the decent weather last weekend allowed for a stroll in city centers, above all in Athens, and big shopping malls, the value of total purchases made by consumers to date is at least 10 percent lower than the level recorded last year. Tradesmen estimate that the holiday season turnover — including that of food stores — is expected to end up below the 7-billion-euro level, at around 6.8 billion euros, and down some 800 million euros compared to last year. If these estimates prove correct, the holiday turnover will come to just one-third of that recorded in 2008, when it had amounted to 21.9 billion euros. This means that turnover has shrunk by about 70 percent within just five years. Professionals note that the catalyst for the further reduction in turnover this year after the already bad holiday season recorded last year was the abolition of the Christmas bonus for all pensioners and civil servants.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
America’s Real Crisis: The Question of Who, Or What — Is Our Authority
Underneath the maelstrom of America’s political crisis is a question that demands an answer. The question: What is America’s ultimate source of authority? Have we finally begun to evolve into humanism, as leftists claim — after centuries of ignorant, bigoted and sexist Bible fixation?
Or, can our historical beliefs be preserved in the face of a godless onslaught? Must the US now walk into an atheist worldview, complete with matching societal and political implications? The identity of American authority is the question of the age. And our answer will certainly decide the fate of America.
The battle between belief systems is as old as Israel battling the Philistines, and as recent as the West versus militant Islam. In fact, every true battle may have a spiritual core. This is in fact what Lord Horatio Nelson believed when he took on Napoleon’s plan for world domination, which would have created godless global tyranny, had Bonaparte succeeded.
It is fortunate the absurd poseur Barack overplayed his hand on the horribly malformed Affordable Healthcare Act. Watching Obamacare unveiled, finding each function ill-designed, broken or non-existent — we have a miracle of incompetence. And yet, seen historically, failure and incompetence are not the exception, but the rule in Marxist kingdoms. The spectacular failures of Lenin, Stalin and Mao instruct us the methods and goals of this ideology are not just mistaken, but impossible, and dangerous to the nth degree. Let us hope America fights off the toxic fumes of socialism and returns to or First Love before it’s too late…
Sadly, the impact of Marx’s ideas on every front has been unmitigated disaster. Western youths and credulous souls are permanently despoiled of the ability to think critically by downloading Marxism into their DNA. This explains why so many smug journalists, doctrinaire academics, hectoring politicians, and angry entertainers voice the simplistic doctrines of Marxism, like so many mindless lambs, running their legs while bleating in their sleep.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Congress, In Bipartisan Tone, Disputes Report Al Qaeda Not Involved in Deadly Benghazi Attack
House lawmakers on Sunday disputed a new report that concludes Al Qaeda played no role in the fatal 2012 terror attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.
The report, published Saturday in The New York Times, found no evidence that Al Qaeda or other international terrorist groups had a role in the assault that killed four Americans on Sept. 11, 2012, and stated the attack appeared largely fueled by anger over an American-made anti-Islamic video, as the Obama administration first claimed.
“I dispute that, and the intelligence community, to a large volume, disputes that,” Michigan GOP Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told “Fox News Sunday.” He also repeatedly said the story was “not accurate.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Congress Critical of Snowden’s Mission ‘Accomplished, ‘ as NSA Spying Case Heads to Higher Courts
Edward Snowden’s recent TV appearance in which he called for a halt to widespread NSA surveillance got low grades Sunday from Congress, as one of his legal advisers suggested the Supreme Court will ultimately decide on the issue of government spying.
Michigan GOP Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Snowden’s release of classified documents this summer jeopardized the safety of troops in Afghanistan and gave nations such as China and Russia valuable insight into how America’s intelligence services operate.
“That’s who the messenger is,” Rogers told “Fox News Sunday,” several days after Snowden, now in Russia, said in a Washington Post interview that he was trying to make the NSA better, had “already won” and achieved what he’d set out to do.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
DNC Sends Email Defending Obama From Impeachment Possibility
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) sent out a paranoid email Saturday evening urging supporters to vote for Democrats so that Republicans can’t impeach President Obama.
The email, subject line “Impeachment,” was sent to Obama for America supporters, imploring them to contribute to the DNC’s 2014 efforts. “What do these people all have in common?,” the email asked, featuring quotes from Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Rep. Kerry Bentivolio of Michigan, and Rep. Blake Farenthold of Texas discussing the possibility of impeaching Obama for one of his numerous instances of presidential misconduct.
The DNC email discussed the “I-Word” and said that “Republicans are actually excited about the idea.”
“Show these Republicans that they are way, way off-base, and give President Obama a Congress that has his back,” according to the DNC email, noting that Democrats need to win 17 GOP House seats to reclaim a majority.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-CIA Analyst: NYT Benghazi Article ‘An Effort to Revive Discredited Theory’ Of Anti-Islam Video
A former CIA analyst poured cold water over the New York Times’ new report suggesting al-Qaida was not involved in the September 11, 2012 attack against American targets in Benghazi, Libya — calling the article “an effort to revive this discredited theory that the anti-Islam video was behind it.”
Fred Fleitz spoke with Fox News’ Jamie Colby about the “bombshell” New York Times report published Saturday, which claims the murder of Libyan Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans was carried out by Libyans angry over an American-made anti-Islamic video posted on Youtube.com months before the attack.
That was the line peddled by the State Department’s Susan Rice immediately following the attack. But a slew of reports in the days and weeks that followed forced Rice and the Obama administration to backtrack, after it became clear that international Islamic terrorists — including al-Qaeda — had planned and executed at least a portion of the assault.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
It Firms Lose Billions After NSA Scandal Exposed by Whistleblower Edward Snowden
The National Security Agency scandal exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden has cost American technology companies billions of dollars in lost revenue as governments and companies in its important export markets of Asia refuse to entrust the handling of sensitive data to US companies. An analysis of financial filings from technology giants IBM and Cisco by The Independent on Sunday reveals the two businesses have seen sales slump by more than $1.7bn (£1.03bn) year-on-year in the important Asia-Pacific region since Mr Snowden revealed in June that US companies had been compromised by the NSA’s intelligence-gathering in the clandestine Prism programme.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Looking Into My 2014 Crystal Ball
2014: Year in which Americans woke to the threat of socialism-communism and, like the Tea Party movement, began to fight back
The November mid-term elections hold the promise of ridding Congress of some of the Democrats who unanimously voted for ObamaCare in 2009. It will also replace those Republicans-in-name-only, RINOs, who have joined Democrats in voting for legislation that advanced the socialism that is strangling the nation by expanding the federal government. I predict the ranks of “independent” voters will increase in 2014.
The erosion of the Democratic Party base will continue as ObamaCare afflicts millions of Americans who will lose their healthcare insurance plans, be deprived of using their personal physician, and see their costs increase. It is the essence of communism, providing the government with control over one’s life and, in too many cases, causing many to die for the lack of plans they previously had or the costs of those they are required to purchase. Those leaving the party will include women and the younger generation leaving college to discover there aren’t any jobs to help them cope with the debt they incurred to attend. Hispanics, too, show signs of leaving.
It is hard to predict what will occur within the Republican Party whose leadership has engaged in denunciations of the Tea Party movement. However, when the Tea Party movement elects more committed conservative GOP candidates, it will save the nation and the party. Suffice to say that Obamacare will be the gift that keeps on giving in 2014. It will, in time, be repealed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Loretta Fuddy: The Most Unlucky Person of 2013 — Or Was She Killed to Cover a Big Lie?
Are the White House plumbers at it again?
A Cessna crashes in Hawaii, and eight survive — but one woman, for some reason, could not be rescued. Her name was Loretta Fuddy, she was 65 years old, and she happened to be the Hawaiian health official who released the notorious copy of President Obama’s long form birth certificate.
A political storm erupted when a PDF birth certificate appeared on the White House’s website back in April 2011. Although ridiculed, and blacked out by the mainstream media, the issue has not gone away. This latest tragic accident’ will only increase interest in the story of Obama’s true roots, and what may have been done to cover up the truth…
We’re also told that Fuddy (photo above) had previously said that she had something to release to the media. It looks like that won’t be happening now…
For those who took the time to actually examine the Birth Certificate in question, it is widely accepted as a digital forgery.
Beyond this, it’s fairly obvious, even to a novice researcher, how a story has been woven to place Barack Obama in Hawaii at the time of his birth, as well as establish that Barack Sr from Kenya was indeed his father. Without this story in place, he would not qualify as President…
This really should get your “gray matter” to churning, even if you are an Obama fan. I wouldn’t want my hero to be made out to be a liar, would you?
For all you “anti-Fox News” folks, none of this information came from Fox. All of it can be verified from legitimate sources (Wikipedia, the Kapiolani hospital website itself, and a good history book, as noted herein). It is very easy for someone to check out.
4 Simple Questions:
2. The birth certificate that the White House released lists Obama’s birth as August 4, 1961 & Lists Barack Hussein Obama as his father. No big deal, Right ? At the time of Obama’s birth, it also shows that his father is aged 25 years old, and that Obama’s father was born in “Kenya , East Africa “.
This wouldn’t seem like anything of concern, except the fact that Kenya did not even exist until 1963, two whole years after Obama’s birth, and 27 years after his father’s birth.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The end of free speech will not necessarily come when there are soldiers in the streets, secret police in the alleyways and a mustachioed man screaming at you on a television set that can’t be turned off no matter how hard you turn the knob or click the buttons.
Some of these things existed in totalitarian countries, but they were there to sweep up the hardened dissenters who refused to be silenced. The vast majority of citizens did not have bugged phones or men in trench-coats following them around.
That was what their friends and neighbors were for.
The first line of offense by a totalitarian society against freedom of speech is crowdsourced to the people in the streets. No secret police force is large enough to spy on everyone all the time.
Nor does it need to. That is what informers are for.
Some of the informers are committed fanatics. Others do whatever they are told. And the worst do it for the pleasure of destroying someone else. Whatever their varying motives, ideology or malice, such people become even more dangerous in groups where they become a morality mob.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mark of the Beast Technology Celebrated as New Revolutionary “World of Wonder”
The world in the not-so-distant future will be increasingly populated by computerised people like Amal Graafstra. The 37-year-old doesn’t need a key or password to get into his car, home or computer. He’s programmed them to unlock at the mere wave of his hands, which are implanted with radio frequency identification tags. The move in the Bay Area and beyond to outfit people with electronic devices that can be swallowed, implanted in their bodies or attached to their skin via “smart tattoos” could revolutionise health care and change the way people interact with devices and one another. Researchers and executives are envisioning the day not long from now when devices placed in people will enable them to control computers, prosthetic devices and many other things…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NSA Used Transoceanic Spy System, Says Der Spiegel
(AGI) Berlin, Dec 29 — The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) also used a transoceanic spying system to transmit data from Telecom Italia, amongst others, the German newspaper Der Spiegel reported. The newspaper has seen a classified document on data transmission in Europe, North Africa and Asia, in which experts from the Office of Tailored Access Operations (TAO) claimed to have obtained information on the workings of the Sea-Me-We-4 underwater cable system. The document was dated Feb. 13, 2013.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The “US National ID Law” (Real ID) Takes Effect in 2014
The REAL ID Act’s biometric enforcement will start next year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced today. The enforcement steps will begin in April 2014 within restricted areas of the DHS headquarters, followed by a phased approach, with substantial enforcement in [Zenith] 2016. The 2005 REAL ID Act prohibits the federal government from accepting driver’s licenses and ID cards that do not meet minimum security standards set by DHS, no later than May 2017. The minimum standards require that driver’s license security features be routinely upgraded to be counterfeit resistant and require applicants to provide documentary proofs confirm true identity. REAL ID compliant driver’s licenses and ID cards are key elements of the nation’s homeland security strategy. Enforcement of the law will clarify and differentiate between…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Mafia Culture That Once Was the US Government is Getting Worse Daily
Mitch McConnell, the minority leader, accused Democrats of an “incredible abuse of power” and of running the country like a “banana republic.” In retrospect, how could it have been otherwise? These aren’t conventional political rivals we’re talking about. They are more like warring mafia families. James Gandolfini may have left us in 2013, but the spirit of the mob boss still dominates in the Capitol. Not only is it legal to put contracts out on each other here, it is expected. The political killings are accomplished by syndicates known as the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, run by the senators themselves with the goal of unseating rivals across the aisle: not just disagreeing with them, but taking them out.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Scotsman Hunting Nazis of New York: Britain’s War on Hitler’s Agents
Uncovered documents show how British agents, headed by Highland clan chief Donald MacLaren, took on Nazi sympathisers in the US…
Sullivan & Cromwell, a powerful New York law firm, brokered numerous deals between American business and the German companies that helped bring Hitler to power.
The partners included John Foster Dulles, who later became Secretary of State, and his brother, Allen Dulles, America’s wartime spymaster, who became the first head of the CIA.
Standard Oil, founded by the Rockefellers, was entwined with IG Farben, Nazi Germany’s most powerful conglomerate. Brown Brothers Harriman, the oldest private bank in the United States, was connected to Fritz Thyssen, the German steel magnate who had financed Hitler.
Thyssen ran his American business through the Union Banking Corporation, based in New York. Its directors included Prescott Bush, father of President George Bush and grandfather of President George W. Bush.
Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, was the author of the anti-Semitic pamphlet, The International Jew. He received a medal from Nazi Germany in 1938. Hitler kept a portrait of him in his office.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Universities Reversing Anti-Israel Stance
The following is a list of institutions whose presidents or chancellors have publicly rejected the academic boycott of Israel in recent days. The Executive Committee of the Association of American Universities, which represents 62 top institutions in the U.S. and Canada, has also expressed its strong opposition to the boycott, as has the American Association of University Professors, which counts more than 48,000 members.
(Updated 3:27 p.m. EST, 12/28. Current tally: 78)
[NOTE: This is a big and important list. Check for your school; you may be surprised. The author hat-tips law professor William A. Jacobson at Legal Insurrection for “his diligence”.]
| [Return to headlines] |
The news item below has been covered in different ways depending on the outlet reporting it. The Daily Mail, a UK publication, used this absurd caption: ‘Residents form ‘vigilante groups’ after cuts to sheriff department’s budget mean police only respond to life-threatening incidents’. Obviously the dopey female who wrote the piece has zero understanding of the issue. But, let’s take a look at this happening in the county where Newswithviews has their home office:
Citizens take law into own hands after cash-strapped Ore. county guts sheriff’s office
“When budget woes reduced the sheriff’s department in one rural Oregon county to a bare-bones force, residents decided to take matters into their own hands — — creating armed patrol groups in defiance of local officials…
Because the situation is dire and dangerous, a couple of citizens decided it was time to step up to the plate and formed the “North Valley Community Watch, a county-wide organization dedicated to helping citizens in non-life-threatening situations, primarily property crimes. It is one of a handful of community groups that have formed since the cuts. Without a robust Sheriff’s Office, their mission is broader than the typical neighborhood watch group.
“Selig’s community watch group, looking to fill in the law enforcement cracks, now meets once a month to discuss crime and teach its approximately 100 members about personal safety. The group also has a trained “response team,” which consists of 12 people who will respond to the scene of a reported non-life-threatening situation if called.
“Though the “response team” members do carry legal firearms, Selig said the team’s main goal is to provide a deterrent presence, and that none of them have ever fired a shot. He said those involved in his group believe there is no substitute for well-trained law enforcement, but they feel they have no other choice but to protect their community. “We believe responsible citizens doing responsible things make it hard for criminals to do irresponsible things,” he said.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
El Hierro Island’s Volcano Ready to Erupt
(SOURCE) Two years after a new underwater volcano appeared offshore of El Hierro in the Canary Islands, earthquake swarms and a sudden change in height suggest a new eruption is brewing near the island’s villages, officials announced Friday.
After the announcement, one of the largest temblors ever recorded at the volcanic island, a magnitude-5.1 earthquake, struck offshore of El Hierro at 12:46 p.m. ET (5:46 p.m. local time) today, the National Geographic Institute reported. Residents on the island reported strong shaking, and the quake was felt throughout the Canary Islands, according to news reports. The earthquake’ s epicenter was 9 miles (15 kilometers) deep.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
France: Michael Schumacher ‘Suffers Serious Head Injuries in Skiing Accident’
It is claimed the seven-time world champion in Formula 1 fell in Méribel ski resort, in the French Alps, and was transported to hospital where he is being treated for a head injury.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
France’s 75% Tax Rate Gains Approval by Top Court
France’s highest court has approved a 75% tax on high earners that is one of President Francois Hollande’s signature policies.
The initial proposal to tax individual incomes was ruled unconstitutional by the Constitutional Council almost exactly one year ago.
But the government modified it to make employers liable for the 75% tax on salaries exceeding 1m euros (£830,000).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
France: Former F1 Champion Michael Schumacher Critically Injured While Skiing
Seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher is in critical condition after he suffered a head injury in a skiing accident in the French Alps Sunday.
The hospital where he is being treated, The French Mountain Gendarmerie, said the 44-year-old arrived in a coma and underwent brain surgery after sustaining a serious head trauma. The hospital said Schumacher was wearing a helmet when he had a hard fall at the Meribel resort.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hitler’s Hunt for the Holy Grail and the Ghent Altarpiece
Why did Hitler crave the missing panel in the famous Ghent Altarpiece? Maybe because the Nazi’s paranormal research group thought the masterpiece contained a map to the Holy Grail.
On the night of 10 April 1934, one of the twelve oak panels that comprise Jan van Eyck’s famous painting, Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, was stolen from Saint Bavo Cathedral, in Ghent, Belgium. Often referred to as “The Ghent Altarpiece,” this monumental oil painting is arguably the single most influential painting ever made. It is also the most-frequently stolen, having been burgled, in its entirety or in parts, at least six times — quite a feat, considering that it is the size of a barn door (14 x 11.5 feet) and weighs about two tons. It was the most-desired artwork by the Nazis, including Hitler and his second-in-command, Hermann Göring.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Northern League Chief Whips Up Secessionist Sentiment
Salvini says independence, changes to euro answer to crisis
(ANSA) — Venice, December 27 — Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italy’s regionalist Northern League, began whipping up secessionist sentiment amongst his Northern Italian base on Friday, indicating independence as well as apossible exit from the euro single currency as the solution to the dire economic straits the North of Italy is facing.
“In order to relaunch employment, the only solution is independence” Salvini said. “Snall and medium-sized companies are asking us to accelerate on this battle.” Salvini said the single currency has devastated the Northern Italian economy, reducing it to poverty in the 11 years since its introduction and pushing unemployment levels never seen before World War II, Salvini added.
Salvini went on to say that the options that could be considered were the two-tie euro system that divided up the euro zone into a core group and a periphery group of participants, as well as the return to national currencies.
“What’s certain is that the euro is the death of our economy” and that this point would be a political battlecry for the Northern League in the upcoming elòections.
“We are not euro sceptics, but instead we are the last of the convinced Europeans,” he said. “However, if we need to exit the euro to relaunch the economy, this will be our battle.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Government Aims to Level Rome’s Municipal Budget
(AGI) Rome, Dec 27 — Rome’s municipal budget will be levelled and high rents paid by the public administration reduced by a new bill launched by the government, said Prime Minister Enrico Letta on Friday.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Insults and Threats Against MP From Grillo’s Facebook Page
(AGI) Rome, Dec 28 — Insults and death threats were posted against the MPs of the Left Ecology and Freedom Party and the centrist Civic Choice Party from the Five Star Movement leader Beppe Grillo’s Facebook page. The two MPs, Titti Di Salvo and Andrea Romano, were shown on a video calling on Parliament to speed up the proceedings in view of the Christmas holidays with a caption saying: “They were afraid that the 5SM would make them work during the holidays! Look at the reaction of these MPs paid by tax-payers. Show it around, everybody must know”.
The first of the over 600 comments received were: “Lazybones” and “Why haven’t wen burned them with a flame thrower yet?”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel Trying to Stymie Junker’s EU Hopes, Says Spiegel
(AGI) Berlin, Dec 29 — Angela Merkel is said to be working behind the scenes to prevent former Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker from taking the European People’s Party (EPP) to the European elections, the German newspaper Der Spiegel reported. The newspaper noted that if Mr Juncker did manage to steer the centre-right pan-European movement to success at the elections on May 25, he might then aspire to becoming President of the European Commission. It also said that Mrs Merkel felt that the European heads of state and government had lost sympathy with Mr Juncker.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Politics Costs Italian Taxpayers €757 Each
UIL report says politics employs more than one million. At least €7 billion a year down the drain
ROME — The secretary of the UIL union federation Luigi Angeletti made a promise to Enrico Letta just after Mr Letta became prime minister last May. The PM would receive a detailed study showing that substantial savings could be made on the cost of politics and that the resources could be used to cut taxes for workers and pensioners. Yesterday, the study landed on Mr Letta’s desk. Mr Angeletti presented the document, now posted on the UIL website, at a media briefing. The eighteen pages and plentiful tables analyse the cost of administering public institutions, running public corporations and paying for consultancies, official cars and much else, a cost that comes to €23.2 billion a year. That’s the equivalent of 1.5% of Italy’s GDP.
About 1.1 million Italians — roughly five per cent of the working population — make a living directly or indirectly from politics. On average, politics costs every man, woman and child in the country €386, or as the UIL report puts it €757 each, if we consider the 30 million or so Italians who actually pay income tax. According to the UIL’s experts, the cost of politics could be slashed by almost one third, saving €7 billion that could be used to lower employment taxes.
Let’s look at the report in more detail. Spending in 2013 for central and decentralised government administration will come to €6.1 billion, or 4.6% less than 2012, but performance is anything but consistent. Regional authorities may have trimmed 11.5% off spending but the cabinet office will spend 11.6% more in 2013 than in 2012, paying out €458 million instead of €411 million. Public-sector consultancy contracts will cost €2.2 billion while another €2.6 billion will be needed to keep public administration and public corporations running. Fully €5.2 billion is allocated for other expenses: official cars, political appointees and health authority executives. The remainder of the €23.2 billion is the €7.1 billion that Mr Angeletti claims could be cut from spending on the “oversized institutional system”, as the report edited by Guglielmo Loy calls it…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
A prolific criminal escaped prosecution with a ‘slap on the wrist’ on 50 occasions, it was revealed yesterday.
The unnamed offender was given cautions for dozens of crimes dating back 12 years by Northumbria Police.
The force, which refused to disclose any details about the man or his offences, now admits the punishments were used ‘inappropriately’.
The figure is the latest shocking evidence of how police forces are misusing cautions and other out-of-court disposals.
Critics suspect persistent thugs, vandals and shoplifters are being dealt with too leniently by officers who simply want to get them ‘off the books’.
They are concerned at the widespread use of cautions, which do not count as criminal convictions but are a means of rapidly closing police inquiries.
Under a simple caution, an offender only has to admit their guilt and a record of the offence is kept for a limited period before being deleted.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tens of Thousands Protest Against Government in Kiev
Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched on the central square of Kiev, Ukraine’s capital, nearing the end of more than a month of rallies against the government’s decision to shelve a key trade deal with the EU.
The deal would have boosted economic ties between Ukraine and Europe, potentially loosening Russia’s grip on the country. The turnout at Sunday’s protest was noticeably lower than at some of the earlier demonstrations, which drew hundreds of thousands of participants.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Two border officials sacked over their alleged links to Islamist terrorists are suing the Government at the European Court of Human Rights.
Kashif Tariq was suspended by the Home Office because of his cousin’s involvement in a transatlantic bomb plot.
Bilal Gulamhussein was taken off duty because he was accused of being a ‘close associate’ of alleged insurgents fighting British troops in Iraq during the British occupation.
The pair had their security clearances revoked but Government lawyers used controversial ‘secret courts’ rules to stop them seeing the key evidence against them.
Now they are claiming their rights to fair hearings were breached and have launched proceedings against the UK.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Criminals Use Social Media to ‘Taunt Victims and Attempt to Intimidate Witnesses’, Charity Warns
The number of prisoners caught with active Facebook accounts has almost double in the last year, new figures have revealed.
A leading charity has warned offenders accessing social media can be ‘hugely distressing’ for their victims after it was revealed the number of active Facebook accounts detected had increased by almost 50 per cent.
Victim Support has said some criminals have even used the internet to ‘taunt victims and attempt to intimidate witnesses’.
Prisoners are banned from updating their Facebook accounts while serving their sentence or asking others to do so from outside prison.
The Ministry of Justice has warned any inmates who are caught breaking the rules will be ‘stripped of privileges’ and the matter ‘referred to the police’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Plans for a network of cycle pathways high above the streets of London have been unveiled by one of the world’s most prominent architects.
SkyCycle is a 135-mile network of roads that would be constructed above existing suburban rail lines to create new cycle routes throughout the capital and has been developed by cycling enthusiast Sir Norman Foster, who designed St Mary Axe, known as ‘The Gherkin’, and the new Wembley Stadium.
The three-storey high routes would be accessed via ramps at more than 200 points.
The first phase is a four mile stretch from east London to Liverpool Street Station would cost an estimated £220m…
The developers — Exterior Architecture, Foster + Partners and Space Syntax — added that London’s railway lines were originally built for steam trains and as a result follow contours that naturally reduce the amount of energy expended and avoid steep gradients, a boon for cyclists.
[Commenter alexluffrum, Cheltenham, United Kingdom, “ Imagine if that gets covered in ice. Will there be salt gritters to dissolve the ice? Could become lethal otherwise.”]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Social Workers Are Weighing in and Taking Away Children From Parents
Obese children have been taken away by social workers after being overfed by their families, it has been revealed…
In the past year alone, five British children have been taken from their families because of overfeeding, according to a survey by the Sunday Express.
[Comment: Taking the children away rather recommending a course on nutrition and health.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Just 51/2 weeks ago The British Conservative Party (Tories) appointed Lynton Crosby to begin work on the party’s 2015 parliamentary re-election campaign. Troubled by weak poll numbers and a base defecting to a principled new UK Independence Party (UKIP), the Australian “master of dark political arts” has been drafted in to save the government’s position of power.
David Cameron’s Tories have suffered from three significant problems. One is the departure from his base on important issues such as the legalization of gay-marriage. Second is the general unrest with excessive immigration which is tied to the EU membership that Cameron is indecisive about. Third, as a result of the first two are defections to UKIP in significant numbers, including major donors.
Crosby favours a wedge strategy, one that he appears to have quickly employed. The dissenting or opposing party to the Tories is not the traditional enemy — Labour & Liberal Democrats (Lib-Dems) but the relatively new UKIP. This is where they are hemorrhaging support.
Subsequently Tory central is aligning itself with some policies that UKIP has run and built on such as the growing criticism of immigration policy along with having a good moan about all the families with bunches of children who get a mass of social benefits.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Bomb Blast Strikes Military Building North of Cairo
A bomb went off near a military intelligence facility north of Cairo on Sunday, wounding four soldiers, security officials said. The explosion occurred in Sharqiya province in the Nile Delta, and destroyed the front compound wall of the building, officials said in a statement.
It is the third bomb attack in Egypt in less than a week: on Tuesday, a suicide car bomber killed 15 people at a police compound in Mansoura, north of Cairo, and on Thursday, a bomb in Cairo wounded five people on a bus.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Defense Chief Voices Concern in Call to Egypt Army Head
(Reuters) — The top U.S. defense official expressed “concern” about recent developments in Egypt in a call on Sunday to Egyptian army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the Pentagon said.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel expressed his condolences for the victims of a spate of recent bomb attacks in Egypt, and offered U.S. assistance to investigate the incidents, a Pentagon spokesman said in a statement.
A bomb exploded outside an Egyptian army building north of Cairo on Sunday, the latest in a series of violent incidents in Egypt. The Egyptian Army labeled the incident a terrorist attack, but did not name the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group it declared a terrorist organization last week.
In his call with Sisi, Hagel also “stressed the role of political inclusiveness,” and the two men discussed “the balance between security and freedom,” spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said in the statement.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Former MK Eldad: Time to Treat the Temple Mount Like a Holy Site
Former MK slams government’s conduct with respect to the Temple Mount, after secret report reveals serious Israeli failures since 1967.
Former MK Professor Aryeh Eldad, head of the Professors for a Strong Israel organization, sharply criticized on Sunday the way the State of Israel has been conducting itself since 1967 with respect to the Temple Mount. Eldad’s remarks come in the wake of the publication of the contents of a secret report by the State Comptroller regarding the enforcement, or lack thereof, of the law at the Temple Mount.
Eldad told Arutz Sheva that the contents of the report, as they were published by the American website, indicate how much the government failed when it abandoned the Temple Mount and left it in the hands of the Waqf which was appointed by the Jordanian government.
He further noted that the report shows that the Jerusalem Municipality , the Israel Antiquities Authority and other law enforcement officials do not operate on the Temple Mount. Only the police operates on the Temple Mount, but it avoids confrontation with the Waqf in order to maintain its good relations with it. When this is the case, said Eldad, it is no wonder that the Arab illegal construction at the site continues undisturbed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Israel’s Christians Who Defend the Jewish State
The Wall Street Journal Weekend edition had an article by former Ha’aretz editor Adi Schwartz, “Israel’s Christian Awakening” discussing the grass roots movement led by a Greek Orthodox Priest, Fr. Gabriel Naddaf, a charismatic former spokesperson for the Greek Orthodox Patriarch in Jerusalem. He hails from the village of Yaffia, located between Migdal Ha’emek and Nazareth. Nazareth, with its Church of the Annunciation is the largest Arab town in Israel. Once the boyhood town of Jesus and predominately Christian, it is now majority Muslim. Despite this, there are plans afoot to build a 100 foot statue of the community’s most famous son.
Fr. Naddaf, who has been featured in the Jerusalem Post, Ecumenical News, Fox News, and Times of Israel this year is doing something important. He and a team of Christian IDF serving officers and reservists have formed the Israel Christian Recruitment Forum. The aim of the group, Schwartz notes, is “to increase the number of Christians joining the Israel Defense Forces” from among the 130,000 Arabic -speaking Christians who constitute 1.6% of Israel’s 8 million population. Those Israeli Arabic speaking Christians are either Greek Catholic or Greek Orthodox. Some of their liturgy harkens back to the language of their non -Arabic ancient forbearers, the Arameans — derived from the ancient name for Syria, Aram, who spoke the lingua franca of Jesus and many ancient Jews, Aramaic. By contrast there are 1.3 Million Arab Muslims in the Jewish nation.[…]
When I shared these courageous acts of solidarity with the Jewish state by these Israeli Christians with author and scholar Bat Ye’or, she responded in an email:
This is quite a change! It is amazing that it took a century for Christians in the Middle East to understand that they were not Arab and that Muslims were not their friends. It is true that they were forced into this situation by France and England which declared that they will no more help them and that Christians had to militate into the Arab Nationalism non-sense.
Yuval Brandsetter in a Jerusalem Post op ed about Fr. Naddaf, “The Good Father, “noted something that impressed us. This evident assertion of Israeli Christian identification and solidarity with Israel was a rejection of Dhimmitude; the 1,400 years of Islamic Imperialism imposed on Jews and Christians under the pact of Omar. He wrote:
In spite of his lowly position, or maybe because of it, Fr. Gabriel Naddaf has reached the conclusion that Christians Arabs residing in Israel must link their fortunes to the Jewish state. In acting on this conclusion with fortitude and a f
ree mind, Fr. Naddaf stands in defiance of the 1,300-year legacy of dhimmitude — the legacy that both his Jerusalem Patriarch and Istanbul’s Ecumenical Patriarch continue to observe…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Admin to IDF Generals: Stop Being So Concerned About Israel’s Security
The Obama administration is pressuring Israeli generals to stop publicly voicing their concerns about the administration’s security proposals in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and instead endorse the administration’s plans, according to Israeli media reports.
The administration is seeking a complete or partial IDF withdrawal from the Jordan Valley, where the border between Israel and Jordan lies at the eastern edge of Judea and Samaria, also called the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority has long sought control of the valley. However, Israel and Jordan are opposed to an IDF withdrawal, which they fear would enable the transit of terrorists and arms through Jordan into the West Bank.
After a prominent retired Israeli general spoke out against IDF withdrawal from the Jordan Valley, Israeli media reported that the Obama administration’s head envoy to the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Martin Indyk, convened a meeting of Israeli security officials. He pressured them to drop their objections to the plan and make media appearances in support of it to help sell a skeptical Israeli public on the benefits of a reduction in security.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Prof. Efraim Inbar says upcoming elections will not just be a popularity contest for Erdogan, but ‘a struggle for Turkey’s soul.’
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the charismatic leader of the Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Prime Minister of Turkey, is embroiled in a significant graft scandal that might precipitate the end of his rule, writes Prof. Efraim Inbar, director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies.
Erdogan’s leadership is contested these days as never before, says Inbar, and it is not clear yet how he and his Islamist AKP party will come out of the current political crisis. “The secularists in Turkey now have a chance to further erode Erdogan’s popularity,” and the more conservative secular elements on the Turkish political spectrum might build an alliance with the influential Fetullah Gülen movement to remove Erdogan, he speculates.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Hezbollah Paying $25k Per Dead Fighter to Keep Families Quiet’
Source claims Iranian-backed Shia terrorist group paying families of fighters killed in Syria to conceal cause of relatives’ deaths.
Hezbollah is reportedly paying the families of its fighters killed in Syria to keep quiet about the circumstances surrounding their relatives’ deaths.
According to a source in the Lebanese port city of Tripoli, which has been wracked by deadly clashes between militias supporting different sides in the Syrian civil war, the Iranian-backed group is paying $25,000 to families of operatives killed fighting Syrian rebel forces, apparently in an attempt to conceal the true extent of its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Hezbollah used to enjoy widespread popularity across the Sunni-Shia divide for fighting Israel, but is now widely reviled by Sunni groups and has faced numerous deadly attacks on its own strongholds inside Lebanon, due to its role in fighting Sunni rebels in Syria.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Pledges $3bn to Lebanese Army
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman announces largest grant ever given to the country’s armed forces.
Saudi Arabia has pledged $3bn for the Lebanese army, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman announced, calling it the largest grant ever given to the country’s armed forces. “The king of the brotherly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is offering this generous and appreciated aid of $3bn to the Lebanese army to strengthen its capabilities,” Suleiman said in a televised address on Sunday.
He said the funds would allow Lebanon’s military to purchase French weapons. He did not provide any further details of the deal, but said French President Francois Hollande was to discuss the matter during his visit Sunday to Saudi Arabia.
Lebanon’s armed forces have been struggling to deal with violence spreading over the border from Syria’s civil war.
The Sunni Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia may be seeking to bolster the army as a counterbalance to Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah, a Shia armed group and political party backed by regional Shia power Iran.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Gives $3 Billion to Strengthen Lebanese Army
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s president said Sunday that Saudi Arabia has pledged $3 billion to buy weapons from France to help support and strengthen the Lebanese army.
President Michel Sleiman made the surprise announcement, which he called the largest-ever pledge for Lebanon’s army, in a televised national address. He did not provide any further details, but said French President Francois Hollande was to discuss the matter during his visit Sunday to Saudi Arabia.
“I am happy to tell the Lebanese people that the Saudi ruler will give a grant of $3 billion to strengthen the army,” Sleiman said, according to a quotes published by the state news agency. “The Saudi grant will allow the Lebanese army to purchase weapons from France.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi ‘Mutawa’ Warn Against New Year Revelry
Religious police in country following Muslim lunar calendar warn residents against celebrating the turn of the year.
Saudi Arabia’s religious police has warned against celebrating New Year’s Eve in the ultra-conservative Gulf kingdom, the local Okaz daily reported. The Commission of the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, known unofficially as mutawa, based its warning on a religious edict from the top committee of Saudi clerics banning such celebrations, the newspaper said on Sunday. The Commission also warned Saudi gift shops not to sell any merchandise, including flowers and dolls.
Saudi Arabia follows the Muslim lunar calendar, unlike all other Gulf states that use the Gregorian calendar. Members of the commission enforce the kingdom’s rule of strict segregation between sexes. They also go around shops to make sure they are shuttered during prayer times.
The religious police have been accused of abusing their powers. But since January last year, they have become more discreet with the appointment of their new chief, cleric Abdulatif bin Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, who banned the use of unmarked cars.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
by Patrick Cockburn
World View: There is now a pool of jihadis willing to fight and die anywhere
Anti-Shia hate propaganda spread by Sunni religious figures sponsored by, or based in, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf monarchies, is creating the ingredients for a sectarian civil war engulfing the entire Muslim world. Iraq and Syria have seen the most violence, with the majority of the 766 civilian fatalities in Iraq this month being Shia pilgrims killed by suicide bombers from the al-Qa’ida umbrella group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis)
Skilled use of the internet and access to satellite television funded by or based in Sunni states has been central to the resurgence of al-Qa’ida across the Middle East, to a degree that Western politicians have so far failed to grasp.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
At Least 15 Killed and Scores Injured by ‘Female Suicide Bomber’ At Russian Train Station
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
At least 15 people have been killed and dozens more injured by a suspected female suicide bomber at a train station in Russia today.
Around 50 people are thought to be injured by the blast which occurred in the southern city of Volgograd.
It is believed a female suicide bomber is behind the attack which has raised concerns surrounding terrorism ahead of the Winter Olympics next year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Crocodile Zombie Drug Most Deadly Designer Drug Outbreak!
Russia is reporting on an addictive drug killing poor users throughout Russia that combines cheap drugs including codeine. The drug is called crocodile do to the Gangrene colored flesh eating (scaly) skin that mimics a reptiles scale. Users become more addicted to it than heroin. I am sure that it will be coming to the United States soon. How convenient in these endtimes another way to depopulate the world through drug abuse & 0verdoses. What I find most interesting is how these flu pandemics and illegal drug overdose outbreaks coincide with Washington destroying the once greatest health care system in the world. The globalists must be enjoying these results.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Deadly Blast at Railway Station in Russia’s Volgograd. Live Updates
The death toll from an explosion at a train station in Russia’s southern city Volgograd on Sunday continues to rise, with at over a dozen people killed and scores more injured in what officials said was likely an attack by a female suicide bomber. Police said that at least 18 people were killed and over 40 more injured by the blast that took place at 12:45 p.m. (8:45 a.m. GMT) in the Volgograd-1 train station.
18:50 Police identified the suicide bomber as a Dagestan national Oksana Aslanova. The woman received a special training alongside Naida Asiyalova, which carried out a similar attack in Volgograd in late October. Aslanova was the wife of a militant leader, which was eliminated by Russian security forces…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Did Soviets Really Spend $1 Billion on Mind Control Programme?
Report ‘reveals secretive parapsychology operations dating back to 1917’
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Soviets may have spent up to $1billion on unconventional psychology research from as early as 1917, it has emerged.
A new report uncovering previously classified information has revealed how the USSR worked tirelessly to come up with a mind control programme that would rival that of the U.S.
The paper by Serge Kernbach confirms for the first time that Soviets used methods to manipulate test subjects’ brains…
Researchers used various methodologies to manipulate people’s mental states and alter brain functions, including hypnosis, sensory deprivation, isolation, verbal and sexual abuse, as well as various forms of torture.
As many as 80 institutions carried out the research including universities, hospitals and colleges.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US, Russia Complete ‘Megatons to Megawatts’ Program Aimed at Eliminating Uranium
America’s energy industry is looking ahead after the mid-December conclusion of a post-Cold War deal between the U.S. and Russia that eliminated enough enriched uranium to fill 20,000 nuclear bombs — and provided nearly 10 percent of total U.S. energy consumption over two decades.
NPR reports on the completion of the unlikely “Megatons to Megawatts” program under which the U.S. spent $17 billion since 1993 buying 500 tons of downgraded nuclear fuel culled from old Russian bombs then sold to commercial energy interests in America for use in their own reactors.
And Matthew Bunn, a professor at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, calls the program one of the greatest diplomatic achievements in history.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Filmmaker Zhang Yimou Faces 7 Million Yuan Fine Over Family Size
Film director Zhang Yimou might be fined more than seven million yuan (HK$8.95 million) for violating the mainland’s birth-control policies, state media reported yesterday, as the couple said years of hiding their children had been a “pain”.
In an interview with Xinhua, Zhang — who fathered two sons and a daughter with his current wife, Chen Ting — said he would take full responsibility for his wrongdoing. He said his parents influenced his decisions about fatherhood. “My father told me before he died that he wished to have a boy carry on the family line,” Zhang said. “My mother felt that children needed company.”
Citing a government lawyer from the Hubin district family planning agency, which was handling the case, the report said Zhang’s annual income in the years 2000, 2003 and 2005 — the years before the births of his children and which form the basis for the fine — ranged from 2,760 yuan to 2.5 million yuan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Artificial Womb is Born and the World of the Matrix Begins
“One by one the eggs were transferred from their test-tubes to the larger containers; deftly the peritoneal lining was slit, the morula dropped into place, the saline solution poured . . . and already the bottle had passed on through an opening in the wall, slowly on into the Social Predestination Room.” Aldous Huxley, “Brave New World”
The artificial womb exists. In Tokyo, researchers have developed a technique called EUFI — extrauterine fetal incubation. They have taken goat fetuses, threaded catheters through the large vessels in the umbilical cord and supplied the fetuses with oxygenated blood while suspending them in incubators that contain artificial amniotic fluid heated to body temperature.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U. S. And Japan Reach Agreement on Okinawa Base
(AGI) Tokyo, Dec 27 — The United States and Japan have reached an agreement to move the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma on the island of Okinawa after negotiations lasting 17 years.
The Okinawan government has agreed that the base should be moved to the northern part of the island, in the less inhabited area of Nago. The agreement was reached after a meeting between the governor of Okinawa, Hirokazu Nakaiama, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who had been requesting approval of the plan for some time and who stated the government’s intention to allocate about 300 billion yen to the island until 2021, an amount that turned out to be persuasive.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Poor Weather Stalls Attempt to Rescue Ship Trapped in Ice Near Antarctica
The latest attempt to rescue 74 people trapped on a ship stuck in ice near Antarctica has been put on hold as low visibility is preventing an Australian vessel from moving forward.
The Aurora Australis icebreaker ship, which is about 28 nautical miles east of the MV Akademik Shokalskiy, has stopped in its current position due to snow showers, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said on its Twitter account.
On Saturday, a Chinese icebreaker that was en route to rescue the Russian ship was forced to turn back after being unable to push its way through the heavy sea ice.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mexican Government: 16,736 Murders in 2013
The Mexican government reported that there were 31,532 homicides in the country between January and November of 2013 including 16,736 labeled as “intentional” murder and 14,796 as “negligent” manslaughter. Those figures along with other national crime statistics were released by the Mexican government’s Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP) on Dec. 17.
On Dec. 17, Mexico’s Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP) updated the country’s national crime statistics thru November 2013.
According to Molly Molloy, a border expert at the New Mexico State University Library who tracks drug war-related violence in Mexico, Mexico is deadlier than Iraq. “Many more people (in raw numbers) die violently in Mexico than in Iraq. And when population is taken into account, Mexico’s homicide death toll still exceeds that of Iraq—a country barely emerging from foreign invasions and civil war,” Molloy told Breitbart News via email.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Alfano Defends Italy’s Immigration Law as Protest Runs on
Interior minister points to criminal record of protestors
(ANSA) — Rome, December 27 — Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano in an interview published Friday said Italy’s tough immigration law cannot be swept aside and showed little sympathy for migrants protesting their plight in a holding centre in Ponte Galeria in Rome. Ten migrants held in the Ponte Galeria Centre for Identification and Expulsion (CIE) sewed their mouths shut with needle and thread at the weekend to protest continued detention and the living conditions there.
By Friday all had unstitched their mouths, but roughly half of the centre’s immigrant detainees, or about 40, had joined a hunger strike and refused to eat lunch on Thursday.
The detainees did eat, however, on Wednesday out of respect for Christmas Day, and entrusted centre’s Catholic chaplain Emanuele Giannone with a message to the pope.
Around 15 of migrants have also taken to sleeping outside in a further sign of protest.
The protest comes after the authorities this week emptied a controversial holding facility on the island of Lampedusa, which was at the centre of an international furore when a video was broadcast showing naked migrants being sprayed with disinfectants.
Premier Enrico Letta, a member of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), promised Monday to add to the government’s January agenda the subject of revising current immigration law.
“The (migration) law contains many chapters and cannot be liquidated with a slogan. We will see in about what changes the PD proposes and evaluate them,” Alfano told newspaper La Repubblica in an interview referring to laws that, among other things, make it a criminal offence to be an undocumented migrant.
Alfano is also Deputy Premier and leads the New Centre Right (NCD) party that split from Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (FI) party last month just before the media magnate withdrew his support from Premier Enrico Letta’s left-right coalition government. Junior Interior Minister Filippo Bubbico suggested in a Tuesday interview with Avvenire, a Catholic newspaper, that a law should be put in place to limit the amount of time newcomers must spend in detention centres, explaining that the under Italian law, migrants can be held for up to 18 months, which exceeds European regulations.
It is also an affront to the dignity of migrants, he added.
Alfano stressed, however, that security issues had to be addressed.
“You can’t mess with the security of Italians. Among those who sewed their mouths closed at Ponte Galeria, half of them are drug pushers and the imam is under investigation for serious crimes like committing robbery and injury,” Alfano said.
Among the leaders of the protest is a 32-year-old Tunisian man, Mohammed Rmida, who claims to be an imam. According to the office of the prisoners’ ombudsman for the Lazio region, Rmida acts as an extremist religious leader and has criminal record for drug trafficking.
The ombudsman’s office added that Rmida has been transferred from one jail to another in the Lazio region for disciplinary reasons.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Exposed: What They Didn’t Tell You About New Wave of Migrants Heading for Booming Britain
Bulgarians and Romanians will flock to Britain in far greater numbers than forecast as our economy races ahead of the rest of Europe, a secret report predicts.
After immigration controls are lifted this week, Britons could find their jobs are squeezed in some areas — while community tensions could rise as the new wave of migrants fight for work with other Eastern Europeans who have been settled in Britain for a decade, it suggests.
The Home Office-funded review — obtained by The Mail on Sunday — also suggests that the UK could lose out financially if low-paid Bulgarians and Romanians drive out Poles on higher wages, who pay more tax.
– From Wednesday, Bulgarians and Romanians, known as A2 migrants, will have the same rights as other EU citizens to live and work throughout Europe, but Britain is likely to be seen as more attractive than other countries struggling to make an economic comeback.
The authoritative report by University of Reading academics was commissioned ahead of the change by a group of 74 councils in the South East of England, working with the UK Border Agency, police and health services, but has not been officially publicised.
Obtained under a Freedom of Information request, the 40-page report reveals that migration overall was likely to be beneficial to the UK but warns that:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of pregnant foreigners are flying to Britain just days before they give birth so that they can receive free healthcare courtesy of the NHS, a report has found.
The women are duping airlines — who normally forbid expectant mothers more than 36 weeks pregnant to fly — so they can receive the free service.
Expectant mothers trick airlines in their home countries into letting them fly by showing staff forged doctors notes which conceal the length of their pregnancies.
Most of the women who arrive at NHS hospitals then have to be admitted and allowed to give birth, the report found, because their pregnancies were too advanced for them to fly home.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
America and the Culture of Vulgarity — No End in Sight
The collapse of the barrier between popular culture and decadence has released a toxic mudslide of vulgarity into the nation’s family rooms — and just about everywhere else. There is almost no remote corner of this culture that is not marked by the toleration of vulgarity, or the outright celebration of depravity.
Lee Siegel has seen this reality, and he doesn’t like it. “When did the culture become so coarse?,” he asks, adding: “It’s a question that quickly gets you branded as either an unsophisticated rube or some angry culture warrior.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Apple Approves Gay Dating App for Children Ages 12
Apple has approved a gay social networking app that claims to be safe for children as young as 12, and aims to lead adults, teens and tweens to places that are “clean, social and fun.” In the iTunes store, Distinc.tt is described as “an LGBT app that you can bring home to Mom!” But although it’s supposedly safe for children as young as 12, it specifically states that it was created for “gay dating and chat” for LGBT or “curious adults” who are 18 and older. The app reportedly works by using “real-time collective knowledge to connect trendsetting crowds and travelers to the places and people that best reflect their distinct interests.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Danger, Danger Phil Robertson! Do Not Kiss Jackson’s Ring
For the sake of America, please, please Phil do not surrender. We have seen this scenario played out on countless occasions; the left launching a shock-and-awe gang media assault on someone who dared to publicly challenge political correctness. The target of their wrath is bludgeoned into submission; overwhelmed with daily hit pieces filled with exaggerations, distortions and even lies about the target’s original comment and intent.
I am black. In his GQ mag interview, I felt no “evil or racist” intent in Phil Robertson’s comments about the blacks he knew in his youth. And yet, Phil’s intention is irrelevant to the left. Like sharks smelling blood in the water, they pounced on an opportunity to “trap” Phil; branding him a racist and a hater of homosexuals for simply quoting the Bible…
These people on the left are despicable. They are not about fairness or truth. They are about furthering their liberal socialist progressive agenda by any means necessary. So if dividing the country along racial lines helps their cause, so be it.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
MSNBC’s Dyson: ‘Phil Robertson and Duck Dynasty Part of Majority White Supremacist Culture’
It appears that MSNBC is becoming a 24-hour race-baiting network.
On MSNBC’s Now Friday, king race-baiter Michael Eric Dyson said, “Phil Robertson and the Duck Dynasty is part of a majority white supremacist culture that either consciously or unconsciously incubates hatred toward those who are different” (video follows with transcript and commentary):
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The ‘Scandalous, ‘ Nonsensical Portrayal of Christian Faith on TV
This post contains spoilers for the Dec. 12 episode of Scandal.
A bloody body on the floor is hardly unusual during a mid-season finale, and on ABC’s popular drama Scandal, it’s practically de rigueur. What the killer said next is less common: “I have committed a sin.” And, later, of the victim: “He is a godless sinner and he deserved what he got.”
Last week’s episode played out Sally Langston’s crisis of faith, with an extended soliloquy full of heavy-handed religious jargon, set to tolling church bells. Over five minutes, Sally, played by Kate Burton, rattled off one Bible-influenced phrase after another: “poison fruit,” “unleashed a snake into our garden,” “sullied my soul,” “sold my soul,” “cross to bear,” “original sin,” and “promised land.” (Get it now, audience? She’s a CHRISTIAN!)
In the guilt and self-justification that follows, Sally’s religious hypocrisy continues to glare. On a show that puts antiheroes in “white hats” on a regular basis, she stands out as the character most often in conflict with the rest and the sole one who claims religion as her motive.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
But what if animals were declared legal persons? Animal rights activists argue that it would require an end to human ownership of those animals — just as humans cannot own each other. As lawyer Steven M. Wise, the force behind the NHRP lawsuits put it in 2002, animal personhood “would be the first and most crucial step toward unlocking the cage.”
Unlikely as it may seem, utilitarian bioethics is the counterpart to animal rights in the war on human exceptionalism. Rather than seeking to elevate some animals to the level of humans, utilitarian bioethics advocates would reduce some humans to the status of animals — with the concept of “person” again serving as the point of the spear.
Utilitarian bioethicists agree with animal rights activists that it is “speciesist” — unjust discrimination against animals — to treat humans as possessing an intrinsically higher value than animals. As in the chimpanzee cases, moral status is seen as something earned by possessing “relevant characteristics, such as being self-aware.”
Since all human beings are not so capable — some because of immaturity, others due to illness or injury — under bioethics theory, they are not “persons,” and hence, have less moral value than humans (or animals) capable of higher functioning.
Who are the so-called human non-persons? Under this theory, all unborn life, since no embryo or fetus is “conscious.” Also, newborn and younger infants who have not yet developed sufficiently to exhibit these capacities, as well as those who have lost them, such as late-stage Alzheimer’s patients.
The potential consequences of depersonalization can be seen in the ways in which we already treat unborn human life.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Senate’s Homosexual and Transgender Employment Bill Threat to Religious Liberty
In November, the U.S. Senate passed a version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), a bill that creates a special status for sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace. ENDA unjustly interferes with the liberty of employers in the free market to determine their own standards for employment, based on characteristics that (unlike race or sex) primarily involve voluntary conduct (the choice to engage in homosexual conduct or the choice to present one’s self as the opposite of one’s biological sex). In addition to this underlying threat to the free market for employment, however, ENDA poses a specific threat to religious liberty as well.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
For a few billion people around the world, Christmas is the most important and relished holiday of the year. It’s the day with the most gift-giving, the most family get-togethers, the most religious activities, and the most colorful fairy tales that children and adults almost universally embrace with sacred fervor. For many nations, no other day comes close to being as special. For this reason, it seems almost unimaginable that another day — especially an unknown one looming on the horizon — will soon unseat Christmas as the most important day in the world. Nonetheless, for humanity, the course is set. The birth of an artificial intelligence equal or greater than that of human intelligence is coming. It’s called AI Day. And once it arrives, it will rapidly usher in a new age.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
World Population Reaches 7. 2 Billion
(AGI) Berlin, Dec 28 — The world population reached 7.2 billion in 2013, increasing from 2012 by 80 million, equal to the population of Germany, according to German daily newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The newspaper published data collected by the Hannover-based German Foundation for World Population, which shows that 2.7 births occur every second. If the world were a village of 100 people, 60 of them would be Asian, 15 African, 10 European, 9 Latin American, 5 north American and one living elsewhere.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
@Deadly Blast at Railway Station in Russia’s Volgograd. Live Updates
Could this atrocity be Prince Bandar’s alleged blood soaked olive branch threatening to unleash the jihadist pressure tool on Russia.
Prince Bandar allegedly said – “I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us,”.
Re JD’s post concerning the birthplace of President Obama’s father, although Kenya gained independence only in 1963, the British called it the Kenya Colony from 1920.