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Michael Adebolajo, who admitted killing British soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich last May, testified that his act was not murder because he was a soldier of Allah and fighting in a war. During his testimony at the Old Bailey, Mr. Adebolajo also said that the terrorists of Al Qaeda were his beloved brothers.
In other news, the Traditions Club in Bryan, Texas has set a new world record by building a 21-foot-high gingerbread house, the largest ever made.
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Thanks to Andy Bostom, Fjordman, Insubria, JP, Kitman, Nilk, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
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Lending dropped 3.7% in October, 4.9% to businesses
(ANSA) — Rome, December 9 — Bank loans to households and firms in recession-hit suffered a record fall in October, the Bank of Italy said Monday.
The central bank said loans to households and non-financial firms were 3.7% down, “the biggest drop on record”.
It added that a 4.9% drop in loans to firms was a record drop too.
Loans to households were down 1.3% in October, the Bank of Italy said. The data is worrying sign as attempts to pull the Italian economy out of its longest recession in over 20 years will be hampered if families and businesses have trouble obtaining credit.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Squinzi Says Italian Business Continues to Feel Despair
Signals of economic recovery remain weak, says business group
(ANSA) — Naples, December 9 — Italian businesses are continuing to despair and do not have optimism in the nascent economic recovery, Giorgio Squinzi, president of the big-business lobby group Confindustria, said Monday.
“The signals of recovery are weak and (businesses) cannot grasp these with any particular optimism,” said Squinzi.
“Around businesses I see so much despair,” he added.
Continued difficulties in obtaining credit, uncompetitive labour costs, and sluggish payments to businesses from government for work performed are all contributing to the despair felt by many businesses, said Squinzi.
The government of Premier Enrico Letta and some economists have predicted the Italian economy is likely already emerging from recession but that has not led to optimism.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
21-Foot High Gingerbread House in Texas Sets World Record
BRYAN, Texas — Holiday cheer in Texas has become even sweeter thanks to a giant gingerbread house that has broken a world record for confectionary construction.
Coming in at 35.8 million calories and covering an area of 2,520 square feet, or nearly the size of a tennis court, the 21-foot high gingerbread house in Bryan, Texas, 90 miles northwest of Houston, has been declared the biggest ever by Guinness World Records.
The house, with an edible exterior mounted over a wooden frame, was built by the Traditions Club near Texas A&M University to help raise money for a trauma center at the regional St. Joseph’s Hospital. “We think big around here and we are competitive,” said Bill Horton, general manager of the club.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
American Airlines Merges With US Airways After Antitrust Suit
American Airlines and US Airways have merged, creating the world’s largest carrier and overcoming concerns the deal would hurt consumers. An antitrust lawsuit had stalled the merger in August.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Community Rallies Behind Knockout Game Victim
LEE COUNTY, FL — Last week he was the victim of a brutal attack. This week he’s been overwhelmed by the community’s kindness.
Last Monday, a group of Cypress Lake High School students attacked Bob Lerberg while he was working in his garden. Since then several people have reached out to him offering their support and asking how they can help him out — including a man who finished landscaping Lerberg’s garden and another man who organized a support rally for Lerberg on Facebook.
“This has been a hard time for me. It’s good to know that there are people who care,” Lerberg said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Elizabeth Warren Gives Hillary Plenty to Ponder
Gone is the presumption that Hillary Clinton would glide through a 2016 Democratic primary election. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren is widely considered Hillary’s greatest threat — if she decides to run.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Knockout Game Goes Terribly Right as Woman Wails on Her Attacker
Well, this participant of the knockout game probably will reconsider future engagements after being beatdown by the woman he punched. The video shows the assailant targeting the woman, who doesn’t go down after he lands his punch. She turns around and starts punching him repeatedly in the head — but, only after the man next to her delivers an epic kick to the face.
According to OpposingViews.com, the incident occurred in a Las Vegas, Nevada shopping mall.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mysterious China-Themed ‘City’ Proposed in New York’s Catskills
U.S. immigration officials are considering a proposal from Chinese investors to create a multibillion-dollar development in New York’s Catskills called “China City” — raising concerns among critics about the potential cost to U.S. taxpayers and, according to one analyst, the possibility it could be a “stalking horse” for the Beijing government. A spokesman from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services told FoxNews.com that the proposal for Thompson, N.Y., has not been approved but is under consideration.
If approved, every province in China would have an office there and foreign investors funding the development would receive green cards for their $500,000 checks under the EB-5 program designed to lure foreign investment, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, a conservative organization staunchly opposed to the project.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spy agencies in covert push to infiltrate virtual world of online gaming
To the National Security Agency analyst writing a briefing to his superiors, the situation was clear: their current surveillance efforts were lacking something. The agency’s impressive arsenal of cable taps and sophisticated hacking attacks was not enough. What it really needed was a horde of undercover Orcs.
That vision of spycraft sparked a concerted drive by the NSA and its UK sister agency GCHQ to infiltrate the massive communities playing online games, according to secret documents disclosed by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NYT, Guardian Report That NSA Delves Into RPGs
According to newspaper reports, US and UK intelligence agencies have spied on gamers, monitoring online fantasies such as “World of Warcraft.” Major US tech companies have called for limits to surveillance on citizens.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Poor Black and Hispanic Men Are the Face of H.I.V.
The AIDS epidemic in America is rapidly becoming concentrated among poor, young black and Hispanic men who have sex with men.
Nationally, 25 percent of new infections are in black and Hispanic men, and in New York City it is 45 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the city’s health department. Nationally, when only men under 25 infected through gay sex are counted, 80 percent are black or Hispanic — even though they engage in less high-risk behavior than their white peers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rapid Growth in Saudi Students Enrolling at US Institutions
Iran ranks number 15 on the list with nearly 8,744 students studying in the US
A study titled “Opendoors” by Washington-based Institute of International Education (IIE), in partnership with the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, says that Saudi Arabia is ranked among the top five countries of foreign students’ origin list.
With an enrollment of nearly 44,500 students in the academic year of 2012-2013 (up from 34,139 in the previous year), Saudi Arabia came fourth in the list after China, India and South Korea, according to the study.
“The US always has a higher number of Saudi scholarships because it is a big country and has better universities,” Khalid Al Yahya, an American-educated Saudi expert on sustainable development, told Gulf News.
“The cooperation between the US and Saudi goes long back. The first scholarships in fifties and sixties of the last century were to America,” added Al Yahya, who had a scholarship and received his Ph.D from University of Connecticut in 2002, before getting a fellowship with Harvard university the following year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The 19 Superbugs That Rule Earth’s Hidden Depths
They’re everywhere. No matter where scientists look in the depths of Earth’s crust, the same 19 microorganisms keep popping up. Nobody knows how these cosmopolitan bugs went global.
An international coalition of researchers are probing depths from 100 to 2000 metres beneath the surface. They use mineshafts, wells and drilling rigs, in locations scattered from Canada to Antarctica and the bottom of the ocean. Samples brought back from the deep are sent to the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where Sharon Grim has been analysing them for microbial life.
Microbes on the move
“There seems to be a core group of microbes that appears again and again in all of these environments,” says Rick Colwell of Oregon State University in Corvallis.
“I’m willing to think about the subsurface biosphere as being the once and future refuge for microbial life,” says Colwell. “And when the sun goes through its cycle and Earth is fried, that will be the last place where life will wink out.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Canada Split Over Muslim Hijab-Style Police Uniform
City authorities in Edmonton, Alberta, have unveiled a new hijab-style headscarf as part of its police uniform for Muslim women officers. Not all Canadian provinces, notably French-speaking Quebec, want to follow suit.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Airbus-Maker EADS Set to Cut 1,000 French Jobs
Some 1,000 jobs are set to to be lost in France, after European aerospace giant and the maker of Airbus aircraft, EADS announced on Monday that it would be cutting some 5,800 European posts from its defence and space division.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Berlin Thieves Steal 300 Phones in One Minute
Thieves stole 300 phones in just one minute on Sunday after driving a stolen car into a shopping centre in the middle of Berlin.
The group of four men smashed the Ford Fiesta through glass doors of the Alexa shopping centre at 5.30am on Sunday, and charged 45 metres through the main concourse, the Tagesspiegel newspaper reported.
The group jumped out of the car, ran up the escalator to the centre’s branch of electronics giant Media Markt, where they sprinted 50 metres through the shop to the phone section and grabbed as many handsets as they could.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Defendant in UK Soldier’s Killing Says He Loves Al-Qaida, Considers Them ‘Brothers in Islam’
A man accused of killing a British soldier in a frenzied knife attack on a London street has told a court that he loved al-Qaida and considers its members his brothers. Testifying calmly Monday at his murder trial, Michael Adebolajo said, “I love them. I consider them brothers in Islam,”
Adebolajo said he handed a note to a witness at the scene to make sure the public understood his motive for killing Lee Rigby, a 25-year-old soldier who was hit with a car, dragged into the street and repeatedly hacked with knives. Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, 22, deny the murder charge. Adebolajo said the killing was in the context of a “war between the Muslims and the British people.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Pia K: Mandela Was a Terrorist
Icon’s death hasn’t softened former Dansk Folkeparti leader’s stance
While the rest of the world has spent the last few days singing the praises of the late Nelson Mandela, Pia Kjærsgaard, the former head of Dansk Folkeparti, is sticking to her conviction that Mandela’s African National Congress (ANC) was a terrorist organisation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Yahya Hassan’s Attacker Found Guilty
The poet was attacked from behind in Copenhagen Central Station in November by a convicted terrorist
The convicted terrorist Isaac Meyer was today found guilty of assaulting the poet Yahya Hassan in Copenhagen Central Station in November.
Hassan is known for his poetry that condemns the behaviour of some immigrants and Muslims who live in ghettos. He has re-ignited a national debate on immigration, and his poems resulted in racism charges being filed against him earlier this month.
Hassan originally claimed that Meyer called him a “non-believer” as he attacked Hassan from behind, but the poet told the court today that he couldn’t remember very much of the assault.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Conference on How to Keep Anglicisms Out of Media
1994 law defends purity of French language, but it’s not enough
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, DECEMBER 9 — Linguists and broadcast media editors on Monday met at the Collège de France in Paris to discuss ways to keep English from encroaching into the French language.
Titled ‘What is the future of the French language in audiovisual media?’, the conference held at the venerable humanist education and research center founded in 1530 was attended by the likes of Erik Orsenna, a member of the ancient and prestigious Academie Francaise. Founded by Cardinal Richelieu in 1635, its job is to safeguard the rules and the purity of the French language.
“Sticking anglicisms in everywhere has something extraordinarily shabby about it”, Orsenna told Le Parisien newspaper. “One wants to be fashionable, one feels just so international, but at the end of the day, one is a bit of a loser”.
A 1994 law saying that French “is the language of teaching, work, trade, and public services” throughout the territory of France has led to companies like General Electric Medical Systems being found guilty of not translating their product instructions into French.
Radio, TV, and mass retail are among the sectors most invaded by anglicisms, Le Parisien reported, citing numerous Anglo-Saxon terms now commonly used in supermarkets.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: ‘Paris is Becoming Like the Bronx’: Ex-Top Cop
Just months before mayoral elections in Paris, focus has turned to the city’s crime rate, after a former French police chief-turned-election candidate caused a stir by comparing the French capital to the notorious New York borough of the Bronx.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Deutsche Post Completes First Drone Flight
Deutsche Post used a drone to deliver a package for the first time on Monday, flying a box from a pharmacy across the Rhine just a week after Amazon carried off a similar stunt.
Deutsche Post dubbed its yellow drone the Paketkopter and said it carried medicine from a pharmacist in Bonn across the Rhine to its own head office. “We are at the beginning of the research project,” said DHL manager Ole Nordhoff. “It is an exciting bit of technology.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Standing Again — With Nerve-Controlled Robotics
Paraplegics at a clinic in Bochum to Germany are learning to move again at a rate doctors consider remarkable. The catalyst? A robotic exoskeleton with a futuristic form of steering.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
International Press Hails Renzi Win as ‘Hope for Italy’
‘Victory may revitalize or destabilize left’
(ANSA) — Rome, December 9 — International media outlets have hailed the win of Florence Mayor Matteo Renzi at the center-left Democratic Party (PD) primary on Sunday as ‘the new hope in Italian politics’. The BBC noted in a profile Monday on the 38-year-old that his “rise is seen as a sign of much-needed generational change,” and that he enjoys “by far the highest approval rating of any politician in the country,” asking whether he might not be “Another Blair?”. Media outlets from the US to France have all given a great deal of attention to the Florence mayor’s fast rise to the top. While many say that he is likely to bring in watershed change by revitalizing the center-left, some say that there is also the risk that he might “destabilize” the government under Enrico Letta. The Guardian noted that Renzi’s win “boosts the left’s election hopes” and that the young mayor is also popular with many center-right voters. The Financial Times said that his victory “will boost morale for the Democrats”.
Germany’s Suddeutsche Zeitung called the Florence mayor “the new hope in Italian politics”, while Die Welt commented on the “surprisingly clear” win of the “wonder boy of Italian politics” and noted that problems may arise within a “difficult collaboration with Prime Minister Enrico Letta”. Handesblatt said that the cornerstones of Renzi’s politics — labor reform and lower taxes — may end up being a bone of contention with Letta. Le Monde called Renzi “post-ideological” and compared his ways with those of Ségolène Royal, the Socialist candidate in the 2007 French presidential election who lost to Nicolas Sarkozy. Le Parisien focused on his Blair-like politics and the “Florentine sense of humor” of the new PD leader. El Pais headlined with “Renzi’s win revitalizes the Italian center-left”, noting that his “charismatic and direct” style may very well mark a radical change in direction. The Wall Street Journal carried the headline “Rising Star of Italian Left Ascends in Primary”, warning that his win might, however, destabilize the Letta government.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Premier Criticizes Euroskeptics as Speaking Nonsense
Letta says Europe should dare to dream of being a positive force
(ANSA) — Milan, December 9 — Italian Premier Enrico Letta denounced Euroskeptics as speaking nonsense Monday while urging proponents of a united Europe to dream of becoming a strong, positive force in the world.
“The world has completely changed,” and Europe must decide what its role will be and how best to use its influence, Letta said during a speech at an Italian-Slovenian Investment Forum.
“Europe must be united” and prepared to use its “soft power” in the world, particularly against “rising giants” from emerging countries, said Letta, who called for a different and improved path for Europe. In the coming decade, said Letta, “Europe must decide whether to be decisive and influential,” or divided and irrelevant.
At the same time, he denounced Euroskeptics, such as Italy’s Northern League, which elected Matteo Salvini as its new national secretary on the weekend.
Letta criticized politicians who build their platforms on chauvinism towards other Europeans.
“Stop and look at the (tiny amount) of difference that there is between us and the Germans, between us and the French, between us and the British — it is pure myopia in the face of an enormous global challenge,” said Letta.
“It can help you to win an election, but eventually (you) build only rubble”. Such attitudes are “disastrously short-sighted” but have gained power as the economic crisis that has shaken the world, and hit Europe especially hard, has frightened many into supporting nationalist parties, he warned.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: New Centre-Left Leader Renzi Promises Fresh Start
Florence mayor crushes rivals in primaries
(ANSAmed) — Rome, December 9 — Florence Mayor Matteo Renzi promised to give Italy a fresh start after winning the primary to be the leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD).
The telegenic 38-year-old, who has been compared to the young Tony Blair, crushed his two rivals in Sunday’s primary, winning around 70% of the votes cast by close to three million centre-left supporters.
Renzi, who has led a long campaign for the old guard of Italian politics to be “scrapped”, lost a primary last year to be the centre-left’s premier candidate ahead of February’s general election.
His confrontation approach and unashamed ambition stirred skepticism among the PD’s rank and file, a large part of which stems from the transformed rump of what used to be Western Europe’s largest Communist party.
But the majority of the party has cast aside its reservations about a candidate who is capable of reaching out of centrist voters after it squandered a big lead on the opinion polls before the general election and ended up being part of a unstable left-right coalition government.
“This is not the end of a left, it is the end for a group of the left’s political leaders,” said Renzi, who is set to announce a new party executive at a news conference later on Monday.
“We have to show that we can win.
“From now on there will be no more shady deals. We have to take account of the two and a half million people who voted (in the primary). “They won’t give us a second chance to change things”.
Renzi’s widely expected election to the leadership will inevitably change the PD’s relationship with the government led by Premier Enrico Letta, a member of the centre-left party.
Letta, who is 47 and also part of the new guard of Italian, said he was confident there would be no problems even though Renzi frequently been critical of the executive.
“We will work with team spirit with the PD’s new secretary in a way that is fruitful and useful to Italy and to the centre left,” Letta said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Man Burns to Death in Attempt to Steal Copper
A man has died while trying to steal copper — one of the fastest growing crimes in Italy — from a factory in the southern Italian region of Benevento. The man, who police are yet unable to identify, burned to death after attempting to steal copper from electrical wiring from Iron Sud, an abandoned factory in Limatola, Articolo Tre reported.
His death comes as Italy is attempting to crack down on copper thieves, an ever-growing problem amid rising poverty in the crisis-hit country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Roma Youth Gets Sentence Reduced for Killing Policeman
Slashed from 15 to nine, was underage at the time
(ANSA) — Milan, December 9 — The juvenile section of the Milan Appeals Court has sentenced Remi Nikolic to nine years and eight months of detention for killing a policeman in January 2012. Nikolic was driving an off-road vehicle when he slammed into the 42-year-old Niccolo’ Savarino on patrol duty, killing him and dragging his body for some 200 metres.
The young man from the Roma community had not yet reached the age of 18 at the time of the crime.
In March he was sentenced to 15 years in jail.
The prosecution had initially requested a 26-year sentence.
The appeals court decided to take into consideration all possible attenuating circumstances and the age of the perpetrator at the time of the act, thus opting to reduce the initial sentence.
Nikolic’s lack of education and “family circumstances” were also upheld as reasons for a less harsh sentence. The 19-year-old will remain in juvenile detention until age 21 and will then be transferred to an adult penitentiary.
Having already served almost two years, he may however be let out on parole in less than three years.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Record Trade: German Exports Reach All-Time High
German exports have hit a new record, reaching €99.1 billion in October. There is little reason for renewed criticism of German economic policy, however, because imports grew at an even greater pace.
Total German exports in October rose to €99.1 billion ($136 billion), a new all-time high. The previous record of €98.7 billion was set back in March 2012, according to the Federal Statistical Office on Monday. The latest figure also represents an increase on the same month last year of 0.6 percent.
A repeat of the recent international criticism over Germany’s massive trade surplus, however, is unlikely, as imports rose at an even greater rate than exports — at a surprising 2.9 percent. Thus the trade balance, the difference between exports and imports, shrunk to €17.9 billion from the record high of €20.4 billion reached in September.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland: UKIP Boss Heaps Praise on Islam-Baiter
THE interim chair of Ukip Scotland has been criticised over his support for a notorious far-right politician in the Netherlands who backs a ban on what he terms the “fascist” Koran.
Misty Thackeray has described Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders, who said Islam was the biggest threat to civilisation, as “great”. He also said it would have better had sacked Ukip Scotland leader Lord Christopher Monckton silently vanished “up the Orinoco.” As revealed by the Sunday Herald, Ukip in Scotland is imploding due to tensions between senior members. Of nine shortlisted candidates for the European election, at least six quit over the alleged tactics used by one candidate, Otto Inglis.
Ukip chief Nigel Farage then sacked Monckton by email. That led to Scottish chair Mike Scott-Hayward and fundraiser Malcolm Macaskill quitting in protest. Local branch officials also resigned in a show of solidarity with Monckton, who said Ukip north of the Border had been “wiped out”. Thackeray said he had been asked to act as Scottish chairman until the next annual general meeting, but his hardline right-wing views are causing alarm. The Glasgow-based 52-year-old, described as a security consultant on a business database, praised Wilders on Facebook last year…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Greens Demand Gender-Equal Snowplowing
It is high time that snow-clearing routines became more gender equal, according to the Green Party in Stockholm, which says that “vulnerable groups” are at a disadvantage during the winter season since clearing roads from snow is prioritised over clearing cycle lanes, walking paths and public-transport areas, all of which are reportedly used by more women than men.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Anjem Choudary: Muslim Vigilantes Who Terrorised Non-Believers ‘Deserve Pat on Back’
Hardline Islamic preacher Anjem Choudary today said two followers jailed for attacking non-Muslims “deserve a pat on the back”. Convert Jordan Horner, 19, and Ricardo MacFarlane, 26, admitted being part of a “Muslim Patrol”, a group of vigilantes opposing Western culture on the streets of the East End…
Judge Rebecca Poulet told them: “Islam is a peaceful religion and this conduct was anything but.”…
[JP note: Pull the other one, Becky.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Michael Adebolajo Tells Court He Killed Lee Rigby in ‘Military Attack’
Accused tells jury: ‘We planned a military attack’, which involved … the death of a soldier.’
One of the men accused of murdering Lee Rigby has said in court for the first time that he killed the fusilier, telling the jury that he was “obeying the command of Allah”. Michael Adebolajo described himself as a “soldier of Allah” and said he killed Rigby on 22 May outside Woolwich military barracks in south London.
Asked by prosecutor Richard Whittam QC whether he planned to kill Rigby on that date, Adebolajo answered: “Yes.” Giving evidence from the witness box of the Old Bailey, Adebolajo said: “I am a soldier of Allah and as I’ve explained part of fighting jihad sometimes it tells killing the enemy soldier.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Woolwich: ‘I Am a Soldier and This is a War.’
Michael Adebolajo, one of the men accused of killing Lee Rigby, tells a court of his love for his “brothers” in al Qaeda.
One of the men accused of murdering off-duty soldier Lee Rigby has described himself as a “soldier” fighting a war. Michael Adebolajo also spoke of his “love” for al Qaeda, telling the Old Bailey he considers members of the terrorist group to be his “brothers”. The 28-year-old was dressed in black and surrounded by five security guards.
Fusilier Rigby’s relatives sat feet away as he spoke to the court. The soldier’s mother and widow left the hearing in tears as Mr Adebolajo described how he and co-defendant Michael Adebowale killed him. He said he could see Drummer Rigby was still moving after he hit him with a car and that after striking at his head he used another knife to try and decapitate him…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Why Do Spaniards Love Cocaine So Much?
How did Spaniards come to be among the biggest consumers of cocaine in Europe? Is there something about the drug that makes it a perfect fit for Spain? The Local talked to movers and shakers in the field to get the inside story.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Four Terrorists Involved in Bombing Soldiers’ Bus in Sinai Arrested
Security bodies apprehended four terrorists who were specialized in manufacturing and planting explosives and mines and targeting security troops.
These four elements were involved in the bombing of the bus in which eleven soldiers were killed in Sinai. A security source said the terrorists were carried to sovereign bodies in Cairo for interrogation…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Tear Gas in Cairo as Muslim Brotherhood Leader Starts Trial
As the trial of the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood got under way in Cairo, students continued protests for a second day. Police fired tear gas on demonstrators as the defendant denounced the trial.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Police Storms Al-Azhar University, Arrests 10 Students
Police armored vehicles broke into Al-Azhar University and arrested 10 Muslim Brotherhood students, while hundreds others fled as teargas bombs were fired. Dozens of the Brotherhood students reportedly blocked Nasr road on Monday, and the clashes that ensued lead to the torching of a private bus.
Skirmishes between police and hundreds of the Muslim Brotherhood students extended to outside the campus reaching the National Security Agency headquarters in Nasr City. The students hurled stones at police and chanted slogans against Interior Ministry. They also set central security armored vehicle and another police one on fire, while troops fired teargas and sound bombs to disperse the protests.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Al-Jazeera Fires Reporter for Questioning Arafat ‘Assassination’
An Al-Jazeera reporter was fired last week for questioning the objectivity of the investigations surrounding the death of PLO leader Yasser Arafat, according to The Washington Free Beacon. The reporter was part of the network’s investigative team into the death, which was controversially declared a “poisoning” by Swiss officials in October.
Al-Jazeera has been one of the prime networks advocating the theory that the PLO leader was poisoned by polonium in 2004, and has been actively presenting the story with that bias since 2012.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan Agrees to Pact With Iran, While Resisting US Accord
Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed on a cooperation pact with Iran, despite continuing to resist signing a security agreement with the U.S., Reuters reported. Karzai made the deal with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran Sunday.
“Afghanistan agreed on a long-term friendship and cooperation pact with Iran,” Karzai’s spokesman Aimal Faizi said, according to Reuters. “The pact will be for long-term political, security, economic and cultural cooperation, regional peace and security.”
Afghanistan signed a cooperation pact with Iran in August covering mainly security issues, but Faizi said the proposed new agreement would have a broader scope.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqi Kurdistan Fights Female Circumcision
Female circumcision is slowly declining in Iraqi Kurdistan. Years of campaigning and a law against the practise have borne fruit. Some villages went from 100 percent of all young girls being circumcised to none.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kuwait Court Finds 70 Opposition Members Not Guilty Over 2011 Parliament Storming
A Kuwaiti court on Monday acquitted 70 members of the country’s opposition, including several former lawmakers, of charges related to the 2011 storming of the parliament in the oil-rich nation.
Kuwait is a longtime U.S. ally and OPEC member state that stands out among the Gulf Arab states for its unusually robust political culture. Although the Western-backed emir controls all key government posts and policies, Kuwait’s parliament has the most powers of any elected body among the Gulf monarchies, and opposition lawmakers have openly criticized the ruling family.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Old Foes Saudi Arabia, Iran Seek Common Ground in Bahrain Talks
Saudi Arabia and Iran are sworn enemies, but a recent panel discussion in Bahrain explored how the two Middle East rivals could find common ground.
Talks at the International Institute of Strategic Studies’ annual security summit in Manama focused partly on the two regional powers, especially in light of recent negotiations Iran held with the U.S. over its nuclear program.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Qatar: Four in Ten Marriages End in Divorce
Often due to domestic violence, but women disadvantaged in court
(ANSAmed) — DOHA, DECEMBER 9 — Four in ten marriages between citizens of the conservative Islamic emirate of Qatar end in divorce, Doha-based The Peninsula newspaper reported Monday.
Foreign residents of Qatar have a lower divorce rate, or 25%, data from the country’s Supreme Council for Family Affairs showed.
Koranic law allows divorce but does not necessarily create an even playing field between the genders. “Family law is generally interpreted to the detriment of women, guaranteeing men a privileged status in cases of divorce, inheritance, and child custody”, according to the Human Rights Watch (HRW) 2013 report on Qatar.
While domestic violence remains a leading cause for divorce in Qatar, the emirate does not have a law specifically making this conduct a crime, according to HRW.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Saudis Fearing Syrian Blowback Expand Rehab for Jihadis
After a month in Saudi Arabia’s rehabilitation center for would-be jihadis, Bader al-Anazi says he’s still angry at the killing of Sunni Muslims in Syria. He just doesn’t feel driven to join the war himself. Now he runs his own building and consumer-finance companies, set up with government help.
That’s part of the service offered by the rehab program, a frontline in the oil-rich nation’s fight against al-Qaeda and one that’s set to expand. Housed in an inconspicuous complex of brown buildings on the outskirts of Riyadh, it uses art and sport as well as theology and psychology to channel the kind of religious anger that has rebounded on Saudi leaders in the past.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Daily Taraf Countersues Premier Erdogan
For defamation after terror probe against paper
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, DECEMBER 9 — Leading independent newspaper Taraf, against which magistrates in Istanbul have opened a probe on espionage and terrorism charges at the request of Premier Recep Tayyp Erdogan, has decided to countersue the head of government. The probe was opened after the daily published confidential documents involving the government.
On Saturday Erdogan slammed the journalist who wrote the report as a ‘traitor’, Turkish media reported.
The Turkish premiership, Mit secret services and national security council Mgk on Friday sued Taraf and its journalist Mehmet Baransu — who risks up to 43 years in jail — after the paper published confidential documents dating back to 2004 regarding the decision taken by Mgk, and signed by Erdogan, to ‘eliminate’ the influential Islamic brotherhood of Fetullah Gulen.
The publication of the Mgk documents put Erdogan in a difficult position and further worsened the conflict between the premier and Gulen movement which in 2002 helped the Islamic Akp party rise to power. Taraf also made public other classified documents according to which Gulen movement members were filed.
The paper said it is suing Erdogan in a criminal lawsuit for defaming it and for attempting to influence magistrates.
Addressing a convention on Saturday, Erdogan said ‘revealing state secrets is not freedom but treason’ and called on magistrates to ‘do their duty’.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
With US Ties Frayed, Saudi Calls for Gulf Union
With its decades-old US alliance strained over the Syria war and a nuclear deal with Iran, Saudi Arabia is calling on the Gulf monarchies to unite for their own self-defence.
Riyadh has called for an enhanced union with fellow Gulf Cooperation Council states Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which together account for 40 percent of the world’s oil reserves and a quarter of its natural gas. “All countries have realised that blind dependence on a foreign power is no longer acceptable. GCC countries must decide their own futures,” said Madani.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Police Begin Forcing Ukraine’s Pro-EU Protesters From Central Kyiv
Ukrainian security forces have moved in on pro-EU demonstrators. By Monday evening, reports emerged that police had encircled protest camps, dispersed demonstrators and stormed the main opposition party’s headquarters.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Putin Dissolves State News Agency, Tightens Grip on Russia Media
(Reuters) — President Vladimir Putin tightened his control over Russia’s media on Monday by dissolving the main state news agency and replacing it with an organization that is to promote Moscow’s image abroad.
The move to abolish RIA Novosti and create a news agency to be known as Rossiya Segodnya is the second in two weeks strengthening Putin’s hold on the media as he tries to reassert his authority after protests against his rule.
Most Russian media outlets are already loyal to Putin, and opponents get little air time, but the shake-up underlined their importance to Putin keeping power and the Kremlin’s concern about the president’s ratings and image.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine’s President Agrees to Talks With Opposition
Faced with ongoing mass protests against his decision to abandon a deal with the EU in favour of possible closer ties with Russia, Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovich backed on Monday holding talks with the opposition to discuss a compromise.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukrainian Opposition Says Headquarters in Kiev Stormed by Authorities
Armed masked men stormed the headquarters of a top Ukrainian opposition party in Kiev Monday and stole computer servers, according to eyewitness reports. A spokeswoman for the party of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko blames police for the raid, but police have denied any involvement, sources told Reuters.
The move comes as the Ukrainian capital has been crippled by massive anti-government protests.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Brain Drain of Medical Students in India Higher Than Ever
Many Indian medical students prefer to study abroad because of the high fees and a limited capacity in their country’s schools. Indian health experts say the trend is damaging for the South Asian nation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dozens Arrested After Rare Singapore Riots
Singapore’s streets were littered with burnt cars on Monday after hundreds of South Asian workers rioted in the island nation’s worst unrest in more than 40 years. The riot began after a 33-year-old Indian worker was hit and killed by a private bus.
State-linked broadcaster MediaCorp said it was the first riot in Singapore since racial disturbances in 1969. Singapore depends heavily on guest workers, with labourers from South Asia dominating sectors like construction. Many congregate in Little India on Sundays to shop, dine and drink. The incident immediately triggered online attacks on foreign workers in Singapore but officials called for calm.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hagel in Pakistan, Hoping to Soothe Troubled Relationship
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel arrived in Pakistan Monday for meetings with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the nation’s new army chief, hoping to further repair a strained and sputtering relationship between Washington and Islamabad.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hero Bin Laden Doctor Decries Treatment in Letter Smuggled Out of Pakistani Prison
The hero doctor jailed in Pakistan for helping the U.S. kill Usama bin Laden bared his frustration with the country’s tribal court system in a letter smuggled out by a supporter last week.
“My legal right to consult with my lawyers is being denied,” wrote Dr. Shakil Afridi, who worked with the CIA on a vaccination ruse that helped confirm the Al Qaeda leader’s presence in an Abbottabad compound, paving the way for the May 2011 SEAL mission in which he was killed.
The one-and-a half page letter, handwritten in Urdu and smuggled out of the Peshawar Central Jail, comes as Afridi awaits a Dec. 18 decision which could result in a new trial. He was sentenced to 33 years in prison for colluding with terrorists, although the conviction was widely seen as punishment for aiding the U.S. in an operation that proved embarrassing for Pakistan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Singapore Leader Calls for Restraint After Riot by Migrant Workers
SINGAPORE — Singapore’s prime minister urged citizens not to react negatively toward migrant workers on Monday following the first rioting in 40 years in the wealthy state, which prides itself on being an island of calm in an often chaotic region.
The disorder involved mostly Indian guest workers and broke out in the Little India district on Sunday night after an Indian worker was hit and killed by a bus driven by a Singaporean. Cars were torched and eighteen people were injured as crowds hurled rocks at authorities.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thai PM Calls Early Elections as 100,000 March in Bangkok
Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra announced on Monday that she will dissolve the lower house of parliament and call early elections as 100,000 protesters marched through the streets of Bangkok, with many denouncing the move as “not enough”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra Pledges Dissolution of Parliament, Elections
Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has proposed new elections for early February, hours after dissolving parliament. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people are taking part in fresh anti-government protests.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How the US and China Can Help Each Other in Space
As China sends its first rover to the moon, veteran US astronaut Leroy Chiao says it’s time for NASA to reach out and cooperate
What does the US have to gain — or lose — by cooperating with China on crewed missions?
We have everything to gain if we cooperate and everything to lose if we don’t. Right now we can’t launch our own astronauts into space. We have experience and know-how, but we don’t have the budget. To stay in a leadership position, we should bring China into the ISS programme and the Orion programme to go beyond low Earth orbit while we develop commercial launch capability.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Japan Turns to Robots as Population Declines
Fifty years ago, scientists predicted that robots would carry out today’s tiresome tasks. Those predictions may have been wide off the mark, but with an ageing population Japan is pushing ahead with robotic assistance.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kim Jong Un’s Uncle Sacked, Says North Korea
North Korea confirmed Monday that leader Kim Jong Un’s uncle, Jang Song Thaek, has been dismissed for committing “criminal acts”. Jang was previously considered his nephew’s mentor and the power behind the throne.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
North Korea Acknowledges Kim Jong Un’s Uncle Removed From Power
North Korea has acknowledged the widely-reported purge of the powerful uncle of the country’s leader Kim Jong Un, claiming he was removed from power for “anti-state” acts and “double dealing.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rights Group: North Korea Expanding Prison Camps
New housing structures, enlarged production facilities and tighter controls: Based on the analysis of satellite imagery, rights group Amnesty International claims North Korea is expanding its gulags.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
AN ASYLUM seeker has been charged for allegedly sexually assaulting seven teenage girls at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre yesterday.
Mohammad Salem Nazari, 33, who has only been in Australia for six months on a bridging visa, is accused of indecently assaulting the girls, aged 14 to 18, in the rapids section of the centre between 4pm and 4.30pm.
[6 months? Didn’t take him long to get up to speed. — Nilk]
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Man Charged Over Alleged Assault of Seven Teenage Girls at Sydney Pool
An asylum seeker accused of indecently assaulting seven teenage girls at a Sydney pool yesterday has been remanded in custody.
Mohammed Nazari has been charged with five counts of indecently assaulting a person under 16 and two counts of assaulting with an act of indecency.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa Expands Mandela Service on Well-Wishers’ Flood
South Africa will expand Nelson Mandela’s memorial service to cater for at least 200,000 people, more than first planned, as ordinary citizens to foreign heads of state clamor to pay tribute to the former president.
Three additional sports facilities, including the Ellis Park ground in Johannesburg, will screen the service tomorrow at the city’s FNB Stadium, host of the 2010 Soccer World Cup final, the government said. Representatives from 87 countries including the U.S. will attend memorial events, South Africa’s International Relations Ministry said today.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Western Leaders Wearing Winnie’s Necklace to Mandela Memorial
Barack and Michelle Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, George and Laura Bush will all figuratively wear a necklace at Nelson Mandela’s memorial tomorrow—the Winnie Mandela necklace that is the most grotesque one of all time.
Time and the politically correct era can never wash away the Crime of Humanity foisted on the blacks of South Africa when Communist African National Congress (ANC) ‘freedom fighters’ and ‘liberators’ sent hundreds to their death via the burning tire necklace.
The crime of the so many black brothers and sisters chosen for Death by Necklace? Suspicion of being “too friendly to whites”.
ANC members would take black people and hack off their hands or tie them behind the person’s back with barbed wire. Then a gasoline-filled tire would be set alight around the victim’s (“traitor’s”) neck and they would slowly and very painfully burn to death…
“Winnie Mandela famously screamed to thousands at a large open-air rally in 1985/86: “with our matches and necklaces, we’ll liberate this country!”, implying that those who do not take ANC’s side will be burnt alive. Such threats by Winnie Mandela could very well be considered terrorism against the very people she claimed to intend liberating.”
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Britain’s Immigration Debate is Utterly Mad
by Douglas Murray
This week’s Mail on Sunday carried two stories on the same page about immigration. Perhaps unwittingly the two stories — and one man in particular — demonstrate the craziness of this country’s immigration debate…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Troops Called to Deal With Asylum Applications
There are more and more asylum seekers in Germany and the immigration office can barely keep up with the applications. Now, soldiers are being called in to speed up the process — though not without controversy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rescue Workers Save Ninety African Migrants
Spanish rescue services on the weekend rescued 90 African migrants who were making a desperate attempt to reach Europe in makeshift boats, according to officials.
Thousands of undocumented migrants from Africa try to cross the 15-kilometre (nine-mile) strait from Morocco into Spain on makeshift boats and inflatable dinghies each year. Some travel thousands of miles overland, being handed from smuggler to smuggler, ending up at one of many ports in northern Africa for a cramped and treacherous sea crossing to European soil.
Thousands of migrants also try to enter Spanish soil overland by scaling the border fences that surround Ceuta and Melilla, two Spanish exclaves surrounded by Morocco that have the European Union’s only land borders with Africa.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rotterdam and the Hague Rebel Against EU Immigrant Influx
Two of Holland’s biggest cities will deny tax or social security numbers to Romanians or Bulgarians who fail to pass housing and employment checks
Rotterdam and The Hague are ready to defy the European Union by denying immigrants a national registration number unless they meet stringent checks amid fears of an influx of Romanian and Bulgarians next year. The municipal authorities in the two cities have warned that they will defy central government by carrying out inspections to make sure EU migrants have honest employment and are not living in overcrowded accommodation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedes in Uproar Over ‘Xenophobic’ Book Ad
A decision by a Swedish newspaper to run an advert for a book critical of multiculturalism, immigration policy, and media reporting of the issue has been slammed by critics who argue that the ad is tainted by xenophobia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Ad for Book on Immigration Causes Upset
An advertisement for a book on Swedish immigration policy, published in newspaper Dagens Nyheter on Sunday, has caused a stir on social media, with critics claiming it amounts to racist propaganda and should not appear in a national daily.
The ad, from a publisher called Debattförlaget, lists statistics on immigration taken, it states, from Statistics Sweden, the Swedish Migration Board and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions.
The headline of the ad reads: “What do YOU know about immigration and immigration policy?” It urges readers to find out more in a book whose title translates as “Immigration and Cover-ups: An Objective Report From a Distorted Era”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: ‘Potential Terrorists Could be Among Migrants’
The exodus of refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria represents a security threat to the European Union, Italy’s foreign minister said on Monday, warning that potential terrorists could be among the displaced.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Elusive Dark Matter May Have Already Been Found
The mysterious dark matter that makes up most of the matter in the universe may already have been detected with superconducting circuits, researchers say.
Dark matter is currently one of the greatest mysteries in the cosmos — an invisible substance thought to make up five-sixths of all matter in the universe. The scientific consensus right now is that dark matter is composed of a new type of particle, one that interacts very weakly at best with all the known forces of the universe, except gravity. As such, dark matter is invisible and nearly completely intangible, mostly only detectable via the gravitational pull it exerts.
Now, theoretical physicist Christian Beck at Queen Mary University of London suggests much smaller benchtop detectors might be capable of detecting axions, which are leading theoretical candidates for dark matter particles.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hidden Oceans on Jupiter’s Icy Moon Europa May Explain Strange Terrain
Churning seas beneath the icy surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa might explain the chaotic jumble of cracks and ridges around its equator, scientists say. These findings hint Europa may be even more habitable for alien life than previously thought, researchers added.
Europa is nearly the size of Earth’s moon. Under an icy crust maybe 10 to 15 miles (15 to 25 kilometers) thick, investigators think Europa possesses an ocean perhaps up to 100 miles (160 km) deep. Since there is life virtually wherever there is water on Earth, researchers have long entertained the notion that Europa could support life.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Radiation on Mars ‘Manageable’ For Manned Mission, Curiosity Rover Reveals
The risk of radiation exposure is not a show-stopper for a long-term manned mission to Mars, new results from NASA’s Curiosity rover suggest.
A mission consisting of a 180-day cruise to Mars, a 500-day stay on the Red Planet and a 180-day return flight to Earth would expose astronauts to a cumulative radiation dose of about 1.01 sieverts, measurements by Curiosity’s Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) instrument indicate.
To put that in perspective: The European Space Agency generally limits its astronauts to a total career radiation dose of 1 sievert, which is associated with a 5-percent increase in lifetime fatal cancer risk.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Reminder: Jihad Makes Islam’s Borders, And Innards, Bloody
by Andrew Bostom
As of Sunday December 8, 2013, there were at least 22,023 documented fatal terror attacks committed by Muslims since the cataclysmic acts of jihad terrorism on 9/11/2001. This is by nature a gross underestimate given the horrific level of jihad violence across the globe, which has gone underreported. [ref 1]
Dr. Tina Magaard—a Sorbonne-trained linguist specializing in textual analysis—published detailed research findings in 2005 [ref 1a] (summarized in 2007) [ref 2] comparing the foundational texts of ten major religions. Magaard concluded from her hard data—driven analyses:…
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |