Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/1/2014

A public prosecutor in the Caucasian republic of Dagestan was killed today by a bomb. The Palestinian ambassador to the Czech Republic was also killed by an explosion in his home in Prague, but that blast may have been caused by a malfunctioning anti-theft device on a household safe.

In other explosive news, three soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up in Aden.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Financial Crisis
» China’s Local Debt Swells to 17.9 Trillion Yuan in Audit
» Gold Futures Drop, Adding to Annual Losses
» How Will the Economy Improve in 2014 if Almost Everyone Has Less Money to Spend?
» Is America About to Reach a Breaking Point? Anger Grows as Unemployment Benefits Get Cut
» Italy: Poverty Hits Record High Amid Recession
» Italy: About 50% of Pensioners Get Less Than 1,000 Euros Per Month
» Italy: Milan Bourse Up 16.56% in 2013
» Market Crash in the Works: “A Canary May Have Just Keeled Over”
» Poll: One of Two Greeks Wants to Emigrate
» The Perils of Preoccupation — Keep Your Eyes on the Shiny Ball
 
USA
» 13 Injured in Blast, Fire in Minneapolis Apartment Building
» 13 Injured After Explosion Near University of Minnesota Campus
» 2013: How Alternative Media Influenced the Year of Awakening
» 4.6 Million Snapchat Phone Numbers and Usernames Leaked
» An American Feminist Fighting Sharia: An Interview With Dr. Phyllis Chesler
» Apple Denies Knowledge of NSA’s ‘Complete’ Access to iPhone
» Apple Denies Ever Working With the NSA
» Building Explosion in Minneapolis Injures 13 People, 6 Critically, Authorities Say
» Conn. Gun Registration Photo Foreshadows Gun Confiscation
» Dell’s Twitter Account Apologizes for the ‘Inconvenience’ of Helping NSA Install Spyware
» Duping the Left: New York Mayor Bill De Blasio and President Hillary Clinton
» Gun Confiscation — The New World Order’s New Year’s Resolution (Videos)
» Is the NSA Quartering “Digital” Troops Within Our Homes?
» Life in the Emerging American Police State: What’s in Store for Our Freedoms in 2014?
» MSNBC Host Melissa Harris-Perry Apologizes for Attack on Mitt Romney’s Adopted Black Grandson
» Obama Pollster: Reporters Should Stop Covering Polls in 2014
» Sean Azzariti, Iraq War Vet, First to Legally Buy Pot
» Soft Killing the American People Using Toxic Food, Toxic Water and Toxic Vaccines
» The NSA Can Hijack Your Wi-Fi From 8 Miles Away
» US Government Orders 14 Million Doses of Potassium Iodide
» Wings-Leafs Winter Classic at the Big House Set to Break Record — Maybe
 
Europe and the EU
» Britain at a Crossroads
» Czech Probe Into Palestinian Diplomat’s Death
» Europe is Slowly Strangling the Life Out of National Democracy
» France Rejects Italy Plea for Mona Lisa
» Germany: Hanover Hire First Turkish Boss in Bundesliga
» Greece: Foreign Arrivals Reach 17.7 Mln This Year
» Spain: Prisoners Raise Hope for ETA Disarmament
» Sweden: Knife Attacks and Gunshot Wounds on the Rise
» Swedish Scientists: Sleep Protects Your Brain
» UK: Daily Mail Lifts Veil of Secrecy: Judge Threw Over Trial of Two Muslim Lawyers on Trial for Perverting the Course of Justice ‘For Cultural Reasons’
» UK: Euro Court Must be Reined in, Declares Top Judge: Former Lord Chief Justice Says it is Undermining Parliament’s Sovereignty
» UK: Justin Welby: Church of England Must be Realistic About Dwindling Congregation
» UK: Muslim Husbands With More Than One Wife to Get Extra Benefits as Ministers Recognise Polygamy
» UK: You Can’t Parody Islam, Says Palin
 
North Africa
» Egypt: Police Arrest 15 Pro-Brotherhood Female Students at Azhar University
» Egypt: Coptic Christian Fears and Muslim Brotherhood Dreams for the New Year
» Libya: Assassinations Escalate in Benghazi
» Tensions High in Western Sahara Despite New Moroccan Plan to Boost Living Standards
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Haniya Defies Cairo to Keep Links With Muslim Brotherhood
» Israeli Military Ready to Hit Gaza Militants: Official
» Israeli Anger Over Prisoner Release Threatens to Cloud John Kerry’s Visit
» West Bank Fatalities Tripled in 2013
 
Middle East
» Greek Exports to Turkey Up Sevenfold in a Decade
» Iraqi Militia That Kidnapped and Killed British Hostages to Contest Elections
» Outgoing Top Muslim Envoy Seeks Accord With Christians
» Russia-Syria Sign Mediterranean Prospecting Deal
» Saudi Prince Facing Execution for Murder After Senior Royalty Insisted ‘There is No Difference Between Rich and Poor’
» Spectacular Dubai Dazzles Entire World With Record Fireworks Show
» Three Soldiers Die in Car-Bomb Attack on Barracks in Yemen
» UN Says Violence Claimed Lives of 7,818 Civilians in Iraq in 2013, Highest Toll in Years
 
Russia
» Falsifiers of History
» Russian Bomb Attacks Death Toll Rises to 34
» Volgograd Bombings: CIA’s Chechen Assets Attack Russia Ahead of Winter Olympics
 
Caucasus
» Bomb Kills Dagestan Assistant Public Prosecutor
 
South Asia
» Flight From an Afghan Seraglio
» Indonesian Anti-Terror Squad Kill 6 Militants
» Malaysia:19 Muslim Couples Nabbed for Khalwat on New Year Day
» Pakistan: Akbar S. Ahmad Stresses Dialogue to Promote Understanding Between Muslims and World
» US Seeks to Block Afghan Prisoner Release, Says Scores of Detainees Pose ‘Legitimate Threats’
 
Far East
» Chinese Tycoon Chen Guangbiao Says He is in Talks to Buy New York Times
» Chinese Doctor Admits Selling Patients’ Newborns
» Chinese President Orders PLA to Prepare for War
» Giant Yellow Duck Explodes in Taiwan…Again
» North Korea Boasts of Removal of ‘Factionalist Filth’ After Uncle Executed
» Plumes of Mysterious Steam Rise From Crippled Nuclear Reactor at Fukushima
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Captured French Priest Returns Home
» French Priest Freed After Cameroon Kidnapping
» ‘Let 2014 be a Year of True Patriotism and Reconciliation, ‘ President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Says in New Year’s Message to the Liberian People
» South Africa: New South African Beers Flavored With Boer History
 
Latin America
» Fast and Furious Gun Turns Up After Mexican Resort Shootout
 
Immigration
» Albanian Police Seize 11 Illegal Immigrants
» Italy: New Citizenship Law in 2014: Kyenge
» Non-EU Citizens Will be Able to Work in Britain After Bulgarian Restrictions Lifted
» Obama Deported Only 0.2 Percent of 11.7 Million Illegals in 2013
» Sold Out! Flights and Buses Full as Romanians and Bulgarians Head for the UK
 
Culture Wars
» Pedophilia: Doctor Claims It’s a Sexual Orientation
» ‘Spain’s Abortion Law is Pure Ideology’: Le Monde
» U.S. Marines Weaken Fitness Requirement for Women, Won’t Make Them Do Three Pull-Ups
» What and What of Pono Choices
 

China’s Local Debt Swells to 17.9 Trillion Yuan in Audit

China’s local-government debt swelled to 17.9 trillion yuan ($2.95 trillion), underscoring risks to the financial system as President Xi Jinping rolls out economic reforms.

China’s borrowing spree in recent years has evoked comparisons to debt surges that tipped Asian nations into crisis in the late 1990s and preceded Japan’s lost decades. The audit result adds pressure for Xi, yesterday named head of a Communist Party leading group for reform, to repair a fiscal system that starves local governments of tax revenue.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Gold Futures Drop, Adding to Annual Losses

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Gold and silver futures fell on Monday, with both metals looking at their worst yearly losses in at least 30 years.

It has been a brutal year for gold, with the continuous contract on the metal down 28% since Jan. 1, according to FactSet data. Silver has declined even more, dropping 35% since the start of the year. Those are the worst yearly percentage losses for each metal since at least 1984, where FactSet’s data starts.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

How Will the Economy Improve in 2014 if Almost Everyone Has Less Money to Spend?

Is the U.S. consumer tapped out? If so, how in the world will the U.S. economy possibly improve in 2014? Most Americans know that the U.S. economy is heavily dependent on consumer spending. If average Americans are not out there spending money, the economy tends not to do very well.

Unfortunately, retail sales during the holiday season appear to be quite disappointing and the middle class continues to deeply struggle. And for a whole bunch of reasons things are likely going to be even tougher in 2014. Families are going to have less money in their pockets to spend thanks to much higher health insurance premiums under Obamacare, a wide variety of tax increases, higher interest rates on debt, and cuts in government welfare programs. The short-lived bubble of false prosperity that we have been enjoying for the last couple of years is rapidly coming to an end, and 2014 certainly promises to be a very “interesting year”.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Is America About to Reach a Breaking Point? Anger Grows as Unemployment Benefits Get Cut

In America today, there are close to 50 million people living in poverty and there are more than 100 million people that get money from the federal government every month. As the middle class disintegrates, poverty is climbing to unprecedented levels.

Even though the stock market has been setting record high after record high, the amount of anger and frustration boiling just under the surface in our nation grows with each passing day. And now extended unemployment benefits have been cut off for 1.3 millionunemployed Americans, and it is being projected that a total of 5 million unemployed Americans will lose their benefits by the end of 2014. In addition, as I have written about previously, 47 million Americans recently had their food stamp benefits reduced. The conditions for a “perfect storm” are certainly being created. So how much longer will it be until we see all of this anger and frustration boil over in the streets of our major cities? Is America about to reach a breaking point?

If you think that the title of this article is “alarmist”, you probably have not been paying attention to what has been happening over the past few weeks. For example, a 600 person brawl broke out at at movie theater in Jacksonville, Florida just the other day:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Poverty Hits Record High Amid Recession

Absolute poverty double since 2005, triple in north

(ANSA) — Rome, December 30 — The number of people in crisis-hit Italy living in absolute poverty has doubled between 2005 and 2012 and tripled in the industrial north, up to 6.4% from 2.5%, according to an annual report on social cohesion by national statistics bureau Istat released on Monday.

Overall, more than 1.7 million families live in a state of absolute poverty for a total of 4.8 million individuals amid rising unemployment and a stubborn recession, Istat said.

Households or individuals are classified as living below the poverty line when their monthly expenditure does not enable them to acquire goods and services considered essential for a an acceptable standard of living, the report said.

Such a threshold varies according to geographical location and the number of household members and their age.

Istat noted earlier this year for example that the percentage of Italian families with three or more children living in absolute poverty jumped to 16.2% last year from 10.4% in 2011 while the number of single-parent families in absolute poverty jumped to 9.1% from 5.8% the previous year.

The report on social cohesion released on Monday also highlighted that 12.7% of families and 15.8% of individuals living in Italy suffered from relative poverty in 2012, the highest level since 1997 when the bureau started recording poverty levels in the country.

Overall, 3.2 million families — or 9.5 million individuals — lived in relative poverty in 2012.

The relative poverty threshold was measured by Istat as an average monthly budget for a two-member household which did not exceed 990,88 euros last year.

Italy has seen the risk-of-poverty rate rise to almost 30% in 2012, according to the ‘Europe 2020’ report, the highest recorded in Europe after Greece, the report on social cohesion also noted.

After eight consecutive quarters of negative growth, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) was flat in the July-September period with respect to the previous three months.

The government forecasts that Italy is returning to positive growth in the fourth quarter of this year.

Italian Premier Enrico Letta said earlier this month that he was confident Italy’s economy can grow 1% next year and 2% in 2015.

Unemployment in Italy has reached record levels of over 12%, with more than four in 10 under-25s out of work during the recession.

The downturn was made deeper by EU-mandated austerity measures adopted by the emergency technocrat government of Letta’s predecessor, Mario Monti, to avert a Greek-style financial meltdown.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: About 50% of Pensioners Get Less Than 1,000 Euros Per Month

Only 15.1% receive over 2,000 in State subsidy

(ANSA) — Rome, December 30 — Almost one in two Italian pensioners receives a gross monthly state pension below 1,000 euros, on top of which the 46.3% of Italian retirees receiving the sum need to pay taxes, according to a recent report issued by national statistics office Istat. Some 38.6% receive a gross monthly pension of between 1,000 euros and 2,000 euros, bringing the total with a gross pension of under 2,000 euros to 84.9%, according to 2012 figures. Only 15.1% of Italian retirees receive a gross pension that is over 2,000 euros.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Milan Bourse Up 16.56% in 2013

Capitalisation 438 bn euros or 28% of GDP

(ANSA) — Milan, December 30 — The value of stocks traded on the Milan bourse rose 16.56% in 2013, Borsa Italiana said Monday.

On December 23, the last day of standard-volume trading, the Italian stock exchange had a capitalisation of 438 billion euros, 19.9% higher than a year previously.

This was the equivalent of 28.1% of Italian GDP, up from 22% at the end of 2012.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Market Crash in the Works: “A Canary May Have Just Keeled Over”

As holiday shoppers raided Black Friday sales and internet retailers ahead of Christmas, the establishment media heralded a new era of economic boom for the 2013 shopping season.

But things are not at all as they may seem if all you do is follow official government statistics and propagandized mainstream news report.

In the week leading up to Christmas, for example, retail analysis firm ShopperTalk advised that brick & mortar retail traffic was down over 20% this year.

…In-store retail sales decreased by 3.1 percent from the same week last year. Retail brick-and-mortar shopper traffic decreased by 21.2 percent compared to the same time period in 2012.

Some would argue that much of this foot traffic jumped to the internet to make their holiday purchases, but according to the National Retail Federation sales online were only slated to rise 3.9% this year, which is nothing to write home about considering annual retail sales for the last 10 years rose an average of 3.3%.

Consumers, it seems, are starting to feel the pinch of widespread job losses, wage reductions, cuts to government assistance and termination of unemployment benefits for millions.

But the cuts in consumer spending don’t just stop with traditional American holiday staples like electronics, brand name clothing and furniture.

It is affecting all consumer markets.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Poll: One of Two Greeks Wants to Emigrate

Greeks believe the worst is yet to come in 2014

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS — One out of two Greeks would seek better luck abroad if the right opportunity arises, as GreekReporter website writes quoting an opinion poll that was conducted by Kapa Research on behalf of the newspaper To Vima.

Poll results showed that Greeks anticipate the new year with far greater anxiety and fear as they believe the worst is yet to come. Some 55.6% of the polled, stated they would leave Greece if the right opportunity arises. Another interesting aspect of the poll is that 45.9% stated they would consider leaving the large cities and starting a new life in the countryside. The feeling of despair is obvious in Greek society as seven out of ten Greeks believe that the worse is yet to come (68.6%) while only one out of four (25.1%) believes that the situation will improve in the future. The respondents of the poll were also asked to describe the future of Greece with one word and the answers were indicative of their pessimism; seven out of ten believe that the words “devastation” (27.3%), “static” (25.1%) and “crisis” (18.3%) are the right words to use when it comes to the country’s future.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

The Perils of Preoccupation — Keep Your Eyes on the Shiny Ball

Collapsing the U.S. economy, Keynesian economics, Cloward-Piven strategy, Saul Alinksy tactics

About a million people crammed into New York City’s Times Square and vicinity last night to watch the mother of all shiny, diversionary trinkets, the infamous New Year’s Eve ball, make its way down a flagpole to mark the end of 2013…

Behind the veil of normalcy exist the machinations of the globalists, who are working toward collapsing the U.S. economy through a mixture of Keynesian economics, the Cloward-Piven strategy and Saul Alinksy tactics through the use of the puppets they’ve groomed and placed into positions of power. Their grand objective is to create a system of global governance consisting of a single global currency and a state accepted religion, all under a single world government. They look upon the sovereignty of the United States as a speed bump on the road to their communist utopia. Sadly, too few people see through the falling confetti and past the glare of the shiny trinkets to fully comprehend the enormity of the lie.

Notice that the giant political pundits behind the microphones and television cameras rarely, if ever, discuss the big picture or acknowledge the enormity of the lie. Instead, they keep the masses entertained by containing their discussion within the well-defined boundaries of the right-left paradigm of political pabulum. They are highly compensated servants of the globalists who instruct them to keep the attention of their followers away from the truth by marginalizing truth seekers. It’s no accident that most Americans continue to be mesmerized by their neuro-linguistic programming skills and are saturated by their omnipresence within the mainstream media. Their followers are dissuaded from broaching such “fringe” topics of the globalist agenda, the economic Ponzi scheme constructed by the globalists, and even the constitutional legitimacy of a man selected to oversee the de-construction of the United States. Along with their globalist handlers, they laugh at you for your naivety, or perhaps they have also become victims of the lie through their enchantment with their own utopian lifestyle bestowed upon them for their cooperation.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

13 Injured in Blast, Fire in Minneapolis Apartment Building

(CNN) — An explosion and fire at an apartment building in Minneapolis left 13 people hospitalized Wednesday. Six are in critical condition, Minneapolis Fire Chief John Fruetel told CNN.

There may still be people inside the building. Fruetel said not everyone has been accounted for.

Most of the injuries are from burns and “trauma of people that came out through the windows,” said Robert Ball, a spokesman for Hennepin County Emergency Medical Services. Officials don’t know whether people jumped out, fell or were pushed out by the explosion.

The three-story building was destroyed, with the roof and the second and third floors collapsing, Fruetel said.

The first floor contained a business; above it were 10 residential units, nine of which “would have been occupied at the time,” he said.

Authorities did not know immediately how many people live in those units.

Heavy flames were seen coming out of the second- and third-story windows.

Hours after the incident, firefighters were still working to contain the blaze. They tried to enter the building but were able to get in only a little way.

Freezing weather in the city presents challenges and dangers for firefighters, since water used to try to put out the flames can quickly turn to ice, Ball said.

A mosque is located near the building. It was not immediately known whether it suffered damage.

It will be “some time” before officials can determine the cause of the fire, Fruetel said.

[Return to headlines]
 

13 Injured After Explosion Near University of Minnesota Campus

Numerous media outlets in Minneapolis are reporting a massive building explosion and fire there this morning.

Firefighters battle a blaze sparked by an explosion at 514 Cedar Ave. in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2014. Photo by Chris Polydorff/St. Paul Pioneer Press Thirteen people were injured, six of them critically, in an explosion and fire at a Minneapolis apartment building early on Wednesday in frigid temperatures, officials said.

The blast and blaze, which engulfed several apartments and a grocery store, started about 8 a.m., they said.

Huge flames shot from windows and clouds of billowing smoke enveloped the building as firefighters battled the early New Year’s Day blaze in below-freezing temperatures.

Firefighters climbed an aerial ladder with hoses douse the fire, and the water quickly formed icicles and a shell of ice encased the building.

Thirteen people were injured and rushed to local hospitals, Minneapolis Fire Chief John Fruetel told reporters at the scene.

Six of those injured were in critical condition, he said.

Residents of the building suffered burns and injuries due to falling or jumping out of windows, Robert Ball of Hennepin County Emergency Services told KARE, a local television station.

The cause of the fire was under investigation, Fruetel said.

“It will certainly take us some time to determine the cause and origin of the fire,” he said.

The three-story building is located in an ethnic community of predominantly Somali immigrants, near the campus of the University of Minnesota.

The Pioneer Press newspaper’s website reports an estimated 50 firefighters and several rigs were on the scene at 514 Cedar Ave. as of 9:30 a.m. Smoke from the fire clouded the neighborhood and the stretch of Interstate 94 that runs perpendicular to the neighborhood.

In an audio file of the police call that reported the fire, an officer could be heard saying that people were jumping out of second-floor windows and that injured residents were on the street, the Pioneer Press reports.

Ball said there have been no reports of deaths, but Minneapolis Fire Chief John Fruetel said not everyone has been accounted for. Ball said it’s still too dangerous for firefighters to sweep through the premises.

[Return to headlines]
 

2013: How Alternative Media Influenced the Year of Awakening

As President Obama forged ahead with the admitted decade long plan to destabilize the middle east, as revealed by General Wesley Clark in 2007, the United States’ support of Al Qaeda became increasingly evident. Although the presence of Al Qaeda jihadists in Libya made some headlines, President Obama’s public support of Al Qaeda in the Syrian conflict has forced major outlets to finally state the obvious…

The alternative media’s relentless coverage of the situation in Syria, which exposed the hypocrisy and lies from the beginning, ultimately helped block the establishment’s attempt to launch a major war…

Despite the establishment’s attempts to twist and downplay the discovery, investigative reports by Infowars uncovering the federal government’s purchase of more than two billion rounds of hollow point ammunition were forced into the mainstream earlier this year. The story, reaching millions and even prompting a congressional investigation, garnered the attention of several military figures, who quickly refuted the government’s claim of needing the ammunition for training.

“We never trained with hollow points, we didn’t even see hollow points my entire four and a half years in the Marine Corps,” retired Marine Richard Mason told reporters in Pennsylvania.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

4.6 Million Snapchat Phone Numbers and Usernames Leaked

The phone numbers and usernames of more than 4.6 million North American Snapchat users have been leaked online. SnapchatDB, an unofficial site run by an anonymous individual or group, allows open access to two files — one an SQL dump, one CSV text — that show details of the photo-sharing app’s users alongside their location.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

An American Feminist Fighting Sharia: An Interview With Dr. Phyllis Chesler

by Jerry Gordon

In December 2003 we organized a summit with noted counter-Jihadists at a private university club in Manhattan. We were endeavoring to develop a concerted campaign in America to warn about the threat of Qur’anic doctrine and sharia to Constitutional guarantees of free expression, liberty and freedom. We had assembled notable figures from both academic and non-academic research sources to attend the conference. Among the attendees was Dr. Phyllis Chesler, noted radical feminist, author of bestselling books and peer-reviewed journal articles, ground breaking pioneer in the fields of women’s studies and founder of the Women’s Psychology Association…

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

Apple Denies Knowledge of NSA’s ‘Complete’ Access to iPhone

Apple on Tuesday vehemently denied suggestions from a security analyst that the company may have helped the NSA to develop backdoor access to the iPhone. The statement came from security research Jacob Appelbaum, who revealed the existence of a secret program code-named DROPOUTJEEP by which the National Security Agency (NSA) appears to have nearly total access to the Apple iPhone.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Apple Denies Ever Working With the NSA

Yesterday, we broke the story that during the 30th Chaos Communication Congress, it was revealed that according to the NSA (the slide in question) virtually every Apple product can be “backdoored”, and that the presenter of the discovery Jacob Applebaum openly asked Apple if it was just its “shitty software” that provided the NSA with this privacy invading loophole, or if it was Apple secretly working in collaboration with the NSA that permitted this betrayal of the iconic company’s customers.

Moments ago the WSJ reported that according to Apple, it was just the “shitty software”, as the company denied ever working with the NSA.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Building Explosion in Minneapolis Injures 13 People, 6 Critically, Authorities Say

A fire has engulfed several apartment units following an explosion in Minneapolis, injuring up to 13 people — 6 critically — authorities said Wednesday.

Minneapolis Fire Chief John Fruetel said 13 people were injured and transported to area hospitals following a fiery blast at approximately 8:16 a.m. The victims have injuries ranging from burns to trauma. Some fell or jumped from the windows of the three-story building following the explosion, authorities said.

Fruetel said he did not know how many people were in the 10 unit-building at the time of the blast. He also said not all residents have been accounted for.

“We don’t know the reason for the fire,” Fruetel told reporters, adding that the roof as well as the second and third floors collapsed.

“It’s very early on in the investigation,” he said.

Plumes of thick, gray smoke could be seen rising from the building. Firefighters are on scene, but their efforts are being hampered by sub-zero temperatures.

Greg Nelson of the Minneapolis Emergency Communications Center said the building contains apartments, a grocery store and a mosque.

[Return to headlines]
 

Conn. Gun Registration Photo Foreshadows Gun Confiscation

“Looks like Weimar Germany”

A photo depicting gun owners in Connecticut waiting in line to register their firearms is sparking outrage, with one Twitter user claiming the scene “Looks like Weimar Germany.”

MT @votermom: Looks like Weimar Germany @chipwoods @MaxCUA CT men waiting in line to register guns pic.twitter.com/p98evBa0td @rdbrewer4

— Doreen Dickson (@DoreenHDickson) January 1, 2014

Yesterday was the last day Connecticut residents could register “certain assault weapons as well as high-capacity magazines,” under a new state law, according to NBC Connecticut.

However, reports of long lines and threats that unregistered firearm owners would immediately become criminals come January 1st for possessing “illegal contraband” merely serve to scare gun owners into complying with the unconstitutional mandate, but the tactic isn’t working.

As of Christmas only a paltry 25,000 “assault weapons” had been registered, in addition to only 17,000 “high-capacity” magazines.

“I’m willing to bet that 25,000 registered assault weapons represents a minority of the firearms that are legally required to be registered under the law,” suspected J.D. Tuccille of Reason. “Considering that the vast majority of ‘assault weapons’ use magazines restricted under the new law, and that most people purchase multiple magazines for their rifles, 17,000 registrations in that category should be seen as wildly underwhelming.”

While only a dismal minority actually showed up to registration events, the move to implement the law shows the state means business when it comes to eviscerating the peoples’ rights.

“The gun-grabbers have managed to scare less than ten-percent of Connecticut gun owners into compliance with this unconstitutional new law, men and women who never cherished nor understood liberty, nor the blood sacrifices made for them by previous generations,” observed Bob Owens writing for BearingArms.com. “Over time, the government will tighten these restrictions even more, until those foolish enough to sign up for this registration scheme are disarmed entirely.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Dell’s Twitter Account Apologizes for the ‘Inconvenience’ of Helping NSA Install Spyware

There are times when big brands with “social media people” might want to teach those junior level employees to recognize that using one of the standard “scripted” answers might be inappropriate. Take, for example, if you’re Dell and a new report has come out suggesting that the NSA has pretty much compromised your servers at the BIOS level with spy bugs, then, when someone — especially a respected security guy like Martin Wismeijer — tweets at you, you don’t go with the standard scripted “sorry for the inconvenience” response. But, apparently, that’s not how Dell handled things this time (thanks to Mike Mozart for the pointer):

@DellCares @dellcarespro Inconvenience? You got to be F*ckin kidding me! You place an NSA bug in our servers and call it an inconvenience?

— Martijn Wismeijer (@twiet) December 31, 2013

In case you can’t read that, Wismeijer complained on Twitter about finding out that his Dell server is bugged by the NSA (which might be an exaggeration…) and included the @DellCares account in his tweet. That account wrote:…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Duping the Left: New York Mayor Bill De Blasio and President Hillary Clinton

Bill de Blasio is a Democrat who works for banksters and globalists while spouting progressive gibberish.

Early Wednesday, former New York city councilman Bill de Blasio was sworn into office as mayor. His task, according to the New York Times, is “to morph New York City’s municipal machinery into a closely watched laboratory for populist theories of government that have never before been enacted on such a large scale.”…

Bankster business as usual “will continue to gain momentum under de Blasio,” Johnson notes. “Disguised as a champion of the little guy, the new mayor will prove to be Wall Street’s best friend by feigning to shoulder the popular resentment towards NYC’s thieving banksters and lulling the angered masses back to sleep. It worked with Obama in D.C. and there’s no reason why it can’t work in the nation’s equally-influential seat of power.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Gun Confiscation — The New World Order’s New Year’s Resolution (Videos)

Will the Second Amendment be completely eradicated in 2014?

For many Americans, 2013 was the year “gun confiscation” became an undeniable reality, but it has merely set the precedent for what’s to come in 2014.

The Second Amendment represents the biggest obstacle blocking the elimination of individual sovereignty and private property, and is one of the only things preventing a total Homeland Security dictatorship.

However, in states like California and New York, laws restricting firearms have already been passed, and gun confiscation from private citizens is already being forcibly carried out.

As Infowars has furiously documented, numerous federal, state and local law enforcement agencies have divulged they are being trained to confiscate Americans’ firearms. One Austin politician even flat-out stated this is the ultimate goal behind “gun control” (see below).

These warnings go hand-in-hand with rumors of a litmus test in which commanding officers gauge whether soldiers would feel comfortable firing on Americans who resist orders.

All of this leads us to question how long it will be before the rest of the nation imposes such measures, and begs the question as to whether military and police will ultimately comply with orders to violently engage the public.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Is the NSA Quartering “Digital” Troops Within Our Homes?

We have extensively documented that the U.S. government is trampling virtually every single Constitutional right set forth in the Bill of Rights.

One of the few rights which we thought the government still respects is the the 3rd Amendment, which prohibits the government forcing people to house troops:

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

But security expert Jacob Appelbaum notes that the NSA may be digitally violating the 3rd Amendment.

By way of background, this week Appelbaum was the main force behind an expose in Spiegel — and gave a must-watch talk — on the NSA’s systemic offensive programs to commandeer computers and computer systems, phone connections and phone systems, and communications networks of all types.

Appelbaum shows that the NSA has literally taken over our computer and our phones, physically intercepting laptop shipments and installing bugware before themselves shipping the laptop on to the consumer, installing special hardware that overcomes all privacy attempts, including “air gaps” (i.e. keep a computer unplugged from the Internet). Appelbaum also notes that spyware can suck up a lot of system resources on a computer or smartphone.

And he says this is the digital equivalent of soldiers being stationed in our houses against our will:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Life in the Emerging American Police State: What’s in Store for Our Freedoms in 2014?

It’s hard to understand how anyone could be surprised by the news that the National Security Agency has been systematically collecting information on all telephone calls placed in the United States, and yet the news media have treated it as a complete revelation. Nevertheless, such outlandish government spying been going on domestically since the 1970s, when Senator Frank Church (D-Ida.), who served as the chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence that investigated the NSA’s breaches, warned the public against allowing the government to overstep its authority in the name of national security. Church recognized that such surveillance powers “at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter. There would be no place to hide.” Recent reports indicate that the NSA, in conjunction with the CIA and FBI, has actually gone so far as to intercept laptop computers ordered online in order to install spyware on them.

Militarized police

With almost 13,000 agencies in all 50 states and four U.S. territories participating in a military “recycling” program, community police forces across the country continue to be transformed into outposts of the military, with police agencies acquiring military-grade hardware — tanks, weaponry, and other equipment designed for the battlefield — in droves. Keep in mind that once acquired, this military equipment, which is beyond the budget and scope of most communities, finds itself put to all manner of uses by local law enforcement agencies under the rationale that “if we have it, we might as well use it” — the same rationale, by the way, used with deadly results to justify assigning SWAT teams to carry out routine law enforcement work such as delivering a warrant.

Police shootings of unarmed citizens

Owing in large part to the militarization of local law enforcement agencies, not a week goes by without more reports of hair-raising incidents by police imbued with a take-no-prisoners attitude and a battlefield approach to the communities in which they serve. Sadly, it is no longer unusual to hear about incidents in which police shoot unarmed individuals first and ask questions later, such as the 16-year-old teenager who skipped school only to be shot by police after they mistook him for a fleeing burglar. Then there was the unarmed black man in Texas “who was pursued and shot in the back of the neck by Austin Police… after failing to properly identify himself and leaving the scene of an unrelated incident.” And who could forget the 19-year-old Seattle woman who was accidentally shot in the leg by police after she refused to show her hands? The lesson to be learned: this is what happens when you take a young man (or woman), raise him on a diet of violence, hype him up on the power of the gun in his holster and the superiority of his uniform, render him woefully ignorant of how to handle a situation without resorting to violence, train him well in military tactics but allow him to be illiterate about the Constitution, and never stress to him that he is to be a peacemaker and a peacekeeper, respectful of and subservient to the taxpayers, who are in fact his masters and employers.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

MSNBC Host Melissa Harris-Perry Apologizes for Attack on Mitt Romney’s Adopted Black Grandson

Sarah Palin slammed the ‘lamestream media’ for an MSNBC segment on Melissa Harris-Perry’s show mocking Mitt Romney’s adopted black grandson. The host apologized Tuesday for causing offense. This marks the second time the cable network has been criticized for a personal attack against a Republican personality.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Pollster: Reporters Should Stop Covering Polls in 2014

After a year of seeing President Obama’s approval ratings plummet, the president’s pollster is offering a strikingly candid and pessimistic New Year’s resolution.

Reporters should go the next “year without reporting any public polling data,” Joel Benenson, president and CEO of Benenson Strategy Group, said.

[Comment: Close the shades. “The train is moving”. (Reference to old Communist joke.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Sean Azzariti, Iraq War Vet, First to Legally Buy Pot

Colorado became the first state in the nation where adults of age can buy recreational marijuana, and the first man to make a pot purchase tweeted about the honor.

Sean Azzariti is an Iraq war veteran who has been an activist for the legalization of weed, saying marijuana helps alleviate his symptoms from post-traumatic stress disorder, according to multiple news outlets. His purchase was staged by activists as a ceremonial first buy for the media.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Soft Killing the American People Using Toxic Food, Toxic Water and Toxic Vaccines

Have you noticed that there has been an absolute explosion in the number of people developing chronic illnesses, heart disease, diabetes and cancer? If you are like most Americans, you probably have quite a few family members and friends that are seriously ill right now. Sadly, most Americans have absolutely no idea why this is happening.

Most of them just assume that all of this sickness is just “normal”. But that is not the case at all. The truth is that we are slowly killing ourselves by what we eat, by what we drink and by what we allow to be injected into our bodies. The vast majority of people out there have never even heard about the dangers posed by aspartame, fluoride, genetically-modified food, pesticides, high fructose corn syrup, pharmaceutical drugs, cell phones and toxic vaccines. Most of them have no idea that our food is toxic, our water is toxic and our vaccines are toxic. Right now, it is estimated that approximately 70,000 chemicals are being used for commercial purposes, and as a result of our “modern lifestyles” we are literally being endlessly bombarded with toxins. This has resulted in a massive tsunami of death, disease and chronic illness in America. But very few people actually understand what is being done to all of us. The following are just a few of the ways that the “soft killing” of the American people is taking place…

Sometimes, it is the ingredients that are actually listed on the side of the box that are the most dangerous. Take aspartame for example. Once upon a time, it was listed as a biochemical warfare agent by the Pentagon. But now it is in thousands of food products in our grocery stores.

So is it safe for us to eat? According to an article on Mercola.com, it has a long track record of causing adverse reactions and the government refuses to do anything about it…

And I don’t even have the space in this article to get into the study that showed a 40 percent increased risk of brain tumors from using cell phones…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The NSA Can Hijack Your Wi-Fi From 8 Miles Away

If you’re already hyperventilating over a report published this weekend offering new details on National Security Administration spying, an enlightening presentation by the report’s co-author might put you out cold.

Security researcher Jacob Appelbaum elaborated on what he’s learned about NSA spying tactics and tools during a lecture at the Chaos Communications Congress in Hamburg.

Appelbaum co-wrote a Der Spiegel report published Sunday that sheds light on what the NSA can access, including your iPhone, your newly purchased laptop computer, and most major security architecture.

But in his lecture, Appelbaum dropped this nugget: The NSA can tap into your wireless signal from up to eight miles away.

As proof, Appelbaum offered up a top secret NSA document detailing the capabilities of “Nightstand,” a wireless exploitation and injection tool that can — undetected — deliver spyware via your wireless card. The document is from 2008, so it’s possible the capabilities have been expanded since then.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

US Government Orders 14 Million Doses of Potassium Iodide

Huge purchase linked to ongoing Fukushima crisis?

The Department of Health and Human Services has ordered 14 million doses of potassium iodide, the compound that protects the body from radioactive poisoning in the aftermath of severe nuclear accidents, to be delivered before the beginning of February.

According to a solicitation posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website, the DHHS asks contractors to supply, “potassium iodide tablet, 65mg, unit dose package of 20s; 700,000 packages (of 20s),” a total of 14 million tablets. The packages must be delivered on or before February 1, 2014.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Wings-Leafs Winter Classic at the Big House Set to Break Record — Maybe

Will Wednesday’s NHL Winter Classic between the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs set a world hockey attendance record?

Maybe.

The NHL has sold 105,500 tickets for the event, the league confirmed Tuesday. Believe it or not, that doesn’t constitute a sellout in the truest sense of the word. Michigan Stadium could fit an additional several thousand fans — the football capacity is 109,901 — and tickets for the event remained available on NHL.com as of Tuesday afternoon.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Britain at a Crossroads

Change was in the air in January 1914 — but no one anticipated the slaughter that was to begin that summer

A hundred years ago today, on January 1 1914, many people in Britain awoke to the new year with a sense of foreboding about the future. The Archbishop of York, Cosmo Gordon Lang, gave expression to this feeling in his New Year message when he warned that 1914 “may well prove a very fateful year in the history of our land”.

Reading Lang’s words now, one is struck at first by how prescient they seem; but this is an illusion produced by the distortion of hindsight. In fact, the Archbishop wasn’t suggesting that war with Germany, so frequently imagined and predicted in Britain during the early years of the 20th century, was likely to break out in the course of 1914. Instead, his message referred to three violent challenges to the established order that appeared either imminent or were already taking place: a civil war in Ireland, class conflict and a sex war…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Czech Probe Into Palestinian Diplomat’s Death

Prague investigators believe blast that killed Jamal al-Jamal, ambassador to Czech Republic, was not a terrorist attack.

The blast that killed a Palestinian ambassador to the Czech Republic at his Prague residence was an accident, police said. Prague police said the explosion on Wednesday morning was likely caused by an anti-theft system on the door of a safe that Jamal al-Jamal was opening at the time.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Europe is Slowly Strangling the Life Out of National Democracy

Decisions affecting the lives of voters are being taken by bureaucrats and unelected ‘experts’

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990 was in theory the finest moment for Western democracy. But it was also the moment when it started to fail. Mair argues that political elites have turned Europe into “a protected sphere, safe from the demands of voters and their representatives”.

This European political directorate has taken decision-making away from national parliaments. On virtually everything that matters, from the economy to immigration, decisions are made elsewhere.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

France Rejects Italy Plea for Mona Lisa

France has turned down a request by Florence to display its prized Mona Lisa in the country in which it was painted. For over 200 years, France has jealously guarded Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa in the Louvre museum — and it doesn’t look like it will be returning to Italy any time soon.

Florence has lost its battle to bring the masterpiece — known as the “Gioconda” in Italian — back to its native Italy for an exhibition, La Stampa reported on Tuesday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: Hanover Hire First Turkish Boss in Bundesliga

Tayfun Korkut made Bundesliga history on Tuesday after being named coach of Hanover, the first time a Turk has managed a club in Germany’s top division.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Greece: Foreign Arrivals Reach 17.7 Mln This Year

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, DECEMBER 31 — Foreign tourism arrivals in 2013 in Greece have beaten all records and expectations, as, according to the Association of Hellenic Tourism Enterprises (SETE), the latest estimate for the whole of the year is a total of 17.7 million visitors to Greece. The figure for the year to end-October already stands at more than 17 million. On the revenues front, as daily Kathimerini reports, SETE estimates that tourism has brought in 11.7 billion euros this year, one of the best figures ever, while that number rises to 12.2 billion when takings from cruise passengers are also taken into account.

The latest data from the Civil Aviation Authority that Kathimerini has seen show an 8.8 percent increase in arrivals by air to Greek airports in the first 11 months of the year, reaching 13.95 million. Domestic arrivals in the same period posted a 2.3% drop, amounting to 4.68 million. In November alone, foreign arrivals by plane posted a 7.7% annual increase to 319,794, while domestic arrivals fell 0.8% to 324,667. In Cyprus, arrivals from abroad in the first 11 months of the year fell 2.5% on an annual basis to 2.41 million, according to the island’s statistical service.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Spain: Prisoners Raise Hope for ETA Disarmament

Jailed Basque separatists have raised hopes that they may be moving towards disarming ETA, western Europe’s last major armed secessionist group, by softening their stance on key demands.

The prisoners gave ground on one of the most sensitive aspects of the stand-off between ETA and the Spanish and French authorities — the terms of their jailing and potential release.

In a statement on December 28, EPPK, a collective representing hundreds of jailed ETA members, dropped its long-standing demand for a general amnesty.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Knife Attacks and Gunshot Wounds on the Rise

The emergency wards at hospitals in Sweden’s three biggest cities see more people stabbed by knives or shot at, than ten year ago, Swedish Radio News reports. The increase has lead to Swedish surgeons turning to countries with more experience from such injuries, like for example the US and South Africa, to learn more.

Back in 2003, 4-5 percent of the injuries came from so called “penetrative violence”, such as gunshots and knife wounds. Today, it is more like ten percent, according to the trauma unit at Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm.

Surgeons at the hospital are now trained to better deal with the injuries, and among the teachers are surgeons from the US and South Africa, where the “penetrative violence” is between 30 and 50 percent, says Louis Riddez, chief surgeon at Karolinska.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Swedish Scientists: Sleep Protects Your Brain

A research team at Uppsala University have said they have found further evidence that sleep helps to promote the health of brain cells in a new paper published in a specialist medical journal.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Daily Mail Lifts Veil of Secrecy: Judge Threw Over Trial of Two Muslim Lawyers on Trial for Perverting the Course of Justice ‘For Cultural Reasons’

A judge allowed two Muslim solicitors accused of trying to cheat the legal system to hide behind a cloak of secrecy for ‘cultural reasons’, the Daily Mail can disclose.

He banned reporting of the case of Asha Khan, 30, and her brother Kashif, 34, to prevent them allegedly being shamed in the eyes of their community.

In the latest farce involving secret justice, the pair were told they could enjoy the court’s protection because members of their family would pass judgment if the case was reported.

It is a privilege rarely bestowed on defendants in the justice system, which has operated on the principle of transparency for centuries. However, following a challenge by the Daily Mail, the restriction was lifted — enabling the case to be reported.

Judge Peter Hughes reversed his original ban after deciding that the principle of open justice was more important than saving the embarrassment of a defendant.

After almost a year of court appearances and legal argument, Miss Khan has been convicted of attempting to pervert the course of justice, while her brother was acquitted of the charge.

They were on trial accused of helping their father, Mohammed, dodge a speeding fine by pretending he was not driving at the time of the offence.

In a saga with echoes of the Chris Huhne scandal, he allowed a man who worked for the family to take the blame instead.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Euro Court Must be Reined in, Declares Top Judge: Former Lord Chief Justice Says it is Undermining Parliament’s Sovereignty

The former head of Britain’s judiciary has said European judges are creating a ‘very serious problem’ by undermining Parliament’s sovereignty.

Lord Judge, who was the Lord Chief Justice until September, said the unelected European Court of Human Rights should not impose rulings on the UK.

He also challenged the court’s president, Judge Dean Spielmann, saying: ‘His view means that the court in Europe is entitled to tell every country in Europe how it should organise itself.’

The remarks come weeks after Lord Judge warned that the ECHR was seeking to become a US-style ‘Supreme Court of Europe’.

The comments, the strongest by such a senior figure, will be welcomed by David Cameron.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Justin Welby: Church of England Must be Realistic About Dwindling Congregation

The Most Rev Justin Welby says a good vicar can still increase the size of their flock

The Church of England must be realistic about dwindling congregations but a good vicar can still increase the size of their flock, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said. The Most Rev Justin Welby said the church would not find new worshippers “accidentally” and so had to set a clear target of filling more pews if it was to tackle the decline in church-going in Britain. In comments that hinted at the language of corporate expansion, the former oil executive challenged his priests to turn the tide and draw new worshippers to the Anglican faith. “The reality is that where you have a good vicar, you will find growing churches,” he said. The Archbishop said an initiative to engage with new worshippers by holding services in non-traditional venues like pubs and clubs had already swollen the church’s ranks by the equivalent of two dioceses…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Muslim Husbands With More Than One Wife to Get Extra Benefits as Ministers Recognise Polygamy

Ministers have decided that, even though bigamy is a crime in Britain, polygamous marriages can be recognised formally by the state — provided they took place overseas, in countries where they are legal. The outcome will chiefly benefit Muslim men with more than one wife.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: You Can’t Parody Islam, Says Palin

Monty Python star believes religious sensitivities have increased so much it would be impossible to make Life of Brian today

During his Monty Python days he poked fun at everyone from the Establishment to Christianity.

But thanks to the threat of ‘heavily armed’ fanatics, Michael Palin has admitted there is one comedy taboo he is too scared to break- Islam.

The 70-year-old said religious sensitivities have increased so much since his comedy days it would now be impossible to make 1979 film Life of Brian — which satirised the life of Jesus — let alone laugh at Muslims.

He said: ‘Religion is more difficult to talk about. I don’t think we could do Life of Brian any more. A parody of Islam would be even harder.

‘We all saw what happened to Salman Rushdie and none of us want to get into all that. It’s a pity but that’s the way it is. There are people out there without a sense of humour and they’re heavily armed.’

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt: Police Arrest 15 Pro-Brotherhood Female Students at Azhar University

Security forces have arrested 15 pro-Muslim Brotherhood female students after they had attempted to disrupt exams and assault their colleagues at the girls’ faculty of engineering in Azhar University, the Interior Ministry said. Pro-Brotherhood female students stirred chaos to terrorise students and prevent them from taking their exams, the ministry said in a statement on its Facebook page.

Security forces intervened to restore order and allow exams to be conducted after a one-hour delay. The arrested students mounted the faculty of engineering’s building rooftop and assaulted security forces by hurling stones and chairs at them, the statement said. On Sunday, the prosecution began extensive investigations with 22 pro-Brotherhood Azhar students on charges of committing acts of violence.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt: Coptic Christian Fears and Muslim Brotherhood Dreams for the New Year

Cairo, Egypt-With the Christmas/New Year celebrations of Christian Copts, which last until mid-January, a rising fear is spreading among Egyptians that the Muslim Brotherhood is poised to carry out attacks on the Copts. The Muslim Brotherhood considers the Copts the major cause of having them dispelled from power through their support of the Army in the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi. The Christmas Octave is a prime time to find Copts together in celebration — to the Brotherhood both a perfect time to take revenge of Christians through acts of terrorism, and a way to portray the Egyptian Army as a force too weak to face terrorism.

With the date set on the vote for the new Constitution, the Brotherhood — recently classified as a terrorist group — aims to launch a number of bombings and random killings in order to scare people from voting, knowing that most will agree on the new Constitution, especially Christians.

The new Constitution bans political parties based on religions, or the use of religious slogans and houses of worship in electoral campaigns, which means the end of many religious parties that were formed after the revolution of January 2011.

Egyptians in general and Christians in particular, are expected to turn out in large numbers in support of the new Constitution, which brings to an end the transitional phase which has caused hardship in Egypt and speeds up the election of a new president and parliament.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Libya: Assassinations Escalate in Benghazi

Benghazi and Essam Mohamed in Tripoli — Recently retired security officer Colonel Muftah Hamid Najam was killed in a drive-by shooting while Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed Ammami, a lecturer at Benghazi University, was shot dead in the Hay Assalam district.

Also on Sunday, security services found a decomposed headless body in the Hawari area. The corpse is believed to belong to Haji Attiya Al-Naaili, the father of a senior Saiqa brigade officer. The 65-year-old man was kidnapped in November and his head was discovered near his son’s home in Salem on December 17th…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Tensions High in Western Sahara Despite New Moroccan Plan to Boost Living Standards

Helmeted Moroccan riot police waded into the small crowds of women in brightly colored shawls who chanted slogans for independence on the streets of Laayoune, the capital of the disputed territories of the Western Sahara. Every time one group of the mostly women and children protesters was dispersed, another would appear farther down the street, attracting phalanxes of police. The confrontations continued long after dark and degenerated into stone-throwing contests.

The harsh police response against the Sahrawis, as the region’s native inhabitants are known, contrasted with the conciliatory gestures the Moroccan government have been extending to the restive desert territory that it annexed 38 years ago.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Haniya Defies Cairo to Keep Links With Muslim Brotherhood

Hamas PM rejects Egypt’s branding of Brotherhood as ‘terrorist’, saying Islamist movement would not abandon its links with Brotherhood.

GAZA CITY- Gaza’s Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya rejected on Tuesday Egypt’s branding of the Muslim Brotherhood a “terrorist” organisation, saying his Islamist movement would not abandon its links with the Brotherhood.

“No one can push Hamas to reject its ideology or its history,” he told a news conference, stressing he “rejects the description of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorists”. “We don’t expect a country like Egypt, which is a safe place for the Palestinian people and resistance, to abandon its (principles) and rank Hamas as a terrorist organisation,” he said.

Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, is the Palestinian affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood. Egyptian prosecutors and police accuse the Brotherhood of having links with Hamas and Sinai militants.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Israeli Military Ready to Hit Gaza Militants: Official

JERUSALEM, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) — The Israeli military would inevitably “deal a hard blow” to militant groups operating in the Gaza Strip, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon warned on Tuesday. “The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will be required to hit Gaza hard, in a way that harms the capabilities of the organizations operating there,” Ya’alon said during a visit to a division-level exercise at the Tze’elim Ground Forces Training Center in the Negev Desert…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Israeli Anger Over Prisoner Release Threatens to Cloud John Kerry’s Visit

The release of Palestinian prisoners has set off an Israeli backlash ahead of John Kerry’s 10th visit to the Holy Land in the past 10 months

The release of long-term Palestinian prisoners jailed for “terrorism” triggered an angry Israeli backlash on Tuesday that threatened to overshadow the expected arrival of John Kerry, the US secretary of state, to begin talks on a proposed “framework” peace agreement.

Twenty-six inmates incarcerated since before the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords were given a hero’s welcome in the West Bank city of Ramallah after being freed from Israeli custody early on Tuesday. They were the third of four batches of prisoners Israel agreed to release last July, as part of the price for re-starting long-stalled peace talks with the Palestinians.

But scenes of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, kissing and hugging each prisoner after their release provoked revulsion in Israel, with critics complaining that most of the inmates had been convicted of murdering Israelis. “Each one of us sees this and we ask ourselves, can we make peace with these people, who welcome murderers with flowers as if they were heroes,” Silvan Shalom, the Israeli regional development minister, told Israel Radio…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

West Bank Fatalities Tripled in 2013

Gaza situation stable, says Israeli NGO

(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, DECEMBER 31 — Violence and the victims of violence have risen in the West Bank in 2013, according to Israeli NGO Betzelem.

Casualties this year included 27 Palestinians (three times more than in 2012) and five Israelis (both civilian and military).

Nine Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip in 2013, as well as one Israeli who died while working on border fences, the NGO said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Greek Exports to Turkey Up Sevenfold in a Decade

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, DECEMBER 31 — Greek exports to Turkey, such as cotton, fuel and plastics, have increased sevenfold within a decade, soaring from 369 million euros in 2002 to 2.6 billion in 2012, as daily Kathimerini reports quoting official figures. There was a 38% increase from 2011 to 2012 as well.

Turkish exports to Greece also grew from 645 million euros in 2002 to 1.02 billion last year, despite a 9.73% annual decline in 2012 compared with 2011. Tourism from Turkey has also soared, posting a 57.6% annual increase last year, while in January-February 2013 the number of Turkish visitors to Greece doubled compared to the same period last year. In total, about half a million Turkish citizens arrived in Greece on a visa.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Iraqi Militia That Kidnapped and Killed British Hostages to Contest Elections

Kidnappers who seized Peter Moore and put his bodyguards to death are joining mainstream politics despite continuing murder inquiry

An Iraqi militia group responsible for the killing of four British hostages and numerous British soldiers has been allowed to enter mainstream politics, despite not laying down its weapons. The League of the Righteous, an Iranian-backed Shia militant group, masterminded the abduction of Peter Moore, a British computer consultant, along with his four bodyguards in Baghdad in 2007. In what proved one of Britain’s most notorious hostage cases, Mr Moore was eventually released two and a half years later while his four bodyguards were killed in captivity.

Now the League is planning to contest Iraq’s general election in late April, despite the fact that the British police murder inquiry into the deaths of the four bodyguards — all of them Britons — remains open. The parliamentary polls come as Sunni extremists loyal to al-Qaeda have increased their terror campaigns against Shia civilians, prompting fear of tit-for-tat revenge strikes by Shia militias like the League…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Outgoing Top Muslim Envoy Seeks Accord With Christians

(Reuters) — The outgoing head of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) said on Tuesday some Muslim states should broaden rights for religious minorities. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, who stepped down on Monday after nine years as secretary general of the 57-country group representing the Islamic world, also said Western countries should do more to combat an increase of prejudice against Muslims there. Concern among churches worldwide for fellow Christians in the Middle East has risen in recent years as wars and Islamist rebels have killed or driven many from their homes there…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Russia-Syria Sign Mediterranean Prospecting Deal

Moscow strengthening its position in the area

(ANSAmed) — ROME, DECEMBER 31 — Russia and Syria on Christmas Day reportedly entered into a 90-million-dollar, 25-year oil prospecting deal.

“With a move that remained unnoticed in the midst of Christmas festivities, Putin consolidated Russia’s position in one of the world’s most interesting new regions in terms of oil and hydrocarbons”, the Financial Times newspaper wrote.

The contract between Russian company Soyuzneftegaz and Damascus was reportedly signed in the Syrian capital, and “grants the Russians prospecting rights over a 2,190 square-kilometer section of Syrian territorial waters”, according to Lebanese newspaper Daily Star. “This is the first-ever contract for oil and gas exploration in Syrian waters”. The relatively recent discovery of the Leviathan gas field in the eastern Mediterranean has caused area powers including Cyprus, Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey to jockey for position. Syria and Lebanon have accused Israel of intent to steal the Lebanese quota, while Israel and Cyprus signed a deal to exploit resources in waters between their coasts: that deal stoked the rage of Ankara, because the northern occupied portion of Cyprus, which only Turkey recognizes, was not part of the consultations.

The real extent of recently discovered oil and gas fields is yet to be determined: it would take significant investments, but political instability in the area has kept major international oil companies at bay. “The advent of Russia could be a game-changer”, wrote Financial Times analyst Nick Butler. “Moscow has surprisingly cordial relations with Israel, and significant interests in Cyprus”.

“For many in the region, Russia appears as a more reliable ally than the US and Europe, which appear to be in a withdrawal phase. Putin’s advance is filling a void”, Butler wrote.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Saudi Prince Facing Execution for Murder After Senior Royalty Insisted ‘There is No Difference Between Rich and Poor’

A Saudi prince who murdered a fellow Saudi may be executed, a newspaper reported on Sunday, in a rare example of a member of the kingdom’s ruling family facing the death penalty.

The English-language Arab News did not name the prince or his victim, but said a senior member of the family and government, Crown Prince Salman, had ‘cleared the way for the possible execution of a prince convicted of murdering a Saudi citizen’.

In a message about the case to Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, Prince Salman said: ‘Sharia (Islamic law) shall be applied to all without exception’, the daily reported.

Prince Salman’s message followed a statement from the victim’s father that he was not ready to pardon the killer and he was not happy with the amount offered as blood money.

The families of murder victims are encouraged by authorities to accept blood money instead of insisting on execution.

The paper quoted Crown Prince Salman’s message as saying: ‘There is no difference between big and small, rich and poor … Nobody is allowed to interfere with the judiciary’s decision. This is the tradition of this state. We are committed to following the sharia.’

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Spectacular Dubai Dazzles Entire World With Record Fireworks Show

Dubai shatters world record for largest ever pyrotechnic display on New Year’s Eve with show involving more than half million fireworks

DUBAI — Dubai shattered the world record for the largest ever pyrotechnic display on New Year’s Eve with a show involving more than half a million fireworks, Guinness World Records said Wednesday.

“Ten months in planning, over 500,000 fireworks were used during the display which lasted around six minutes, with Guinness World Records adjudicators on hand to confirm that a new record had been set,” the Guinness website said.

The display spanned 94 kilometres (58.4 miles) of the Dubai coast, which boasts an archipelago of man-made islands and Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower, Guinness said.

Enough fireworks were launched in the first minute of the display to break the previous record, set by Kuwait in 2011 with an hour-long show of 77,282 fireworks.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Three Soldiers Die in Car-Bomb Attack on Barracks in Yemen

(AGI) Aden (Yemen), Dec 31 — A suicide bomber blew up his vehicle in front of the police headquarters in the harbour city of Aden, Yemen, killing at least three soldiers. The bomber managed to drive his car through the entrance gate to the compound. Two more suicide bombers attempted to follow him in another vehicle loaded with explosives but were stopped by the police. The bombers are suspected of being members of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the local branch of the organisation founded by Osama bin Laden.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

UN Says Violence Claimed Lives of 7,818 Civilians in Iraq in 2013, Highest Toll in Years

BAGHDAD — The United Nations mission to Iraq says violence claimed the lives of 7,818 civilians in 2013, the highest annual death toll in years. The U.N. figures issued Wednesday gave a total of 759 people killed in December alone, including 661 civilians and 98 members of the security forces. The U.N.’s monthly figures for both civilians and security forces over the year totaled 8,868.

Violence in Iraq surged in April after the Shiite-led government staged a deadly crackdown on a Sunni protest camp. Iraq’s al-Qaida branch has capitalized on the soaring sectarian tensions and on the civil war in neighboring Syria to rebuild itself. It has targeted civilians, particularly in Shiite areas of Baghdad, with waves of coordinated car bombings and other deadly attacks.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Falsifiers of History

Disinformation: Daily manufactured news, programs, and statistics from the mainstream media, Teachers, Schools

“The absolute worst — and often irreparable — damage done to the Free World has been caused by the Kremlin’s disinformation operations designed to change the past.” — Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa

The Oxford dictionary defines “disinformation” as false information that is intended to mislead, especially propaganda issued by a government organization to a rival power or the media.” The word originated in the 1950s with the Russian word, “dezinformatsiya.”

According to Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, the KGB manual he perused long time ago clearly described on the first page in upper case letters, “IF YOU ARE GOOD AT DISINFORMATION, YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH ANYTHING.” (p. 80)

Pacepa reveals that Kremlin’s “dezinformatsiya” goes back to 16th century Russia. In his opinion, the most successful disinformation attack had been launched against the Vatican and the Catholic Church, culminating into a “vicious war against Pope Pius XII and the Judeo-Christian world that broke out in 1945 and has never ended.”

Misinformation and disinformation are not interchangeable, he clarified. “Misinformation is an official government tool while disinformation is a secret intelligence tool.”

Lt. Gen. Pacepa, who defected from the Soviet bloc and was intimately knowledgeable of its security, explained that “During the Cold War, more people in the Soviet bloc worked for the disinformation machinery than for the Soviet army and defense industry put together.” (p. 38)

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Russian Bomb Attacks Death Toll Rises to 34

(AGI) Moscow, Dec 31 — The number of dead in the two bomb attacks in the Russian city of Volgograd has risen to 34. In the 24 hours since the attacks, Russian police have picked up 87 suspects in operation Whirlwind, which involves 5,200 officers. Police have so far confiscated 152 weapons and 4.7 kilogrammes of drugs and have inspected 152 hotels, 104 dormitories, 32 bus stations and 23 railway stations.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Volgograd Bombings: CIA’s Chechen Assets Attack Russia Ahead of Winter Olympics

The New York Time’s tidy encapsulation on the Dagestan conflict, a sideshow in the artificially spawned Chechnya conflict, omits a few pertinent facts. First and foremost, the struggle in the North Caucasus region is part of a larger effort to instigate trouble in Russia’s southern, primarily Muslim republics. “Ethnic Muslim populations in this region of Russia and of the former Soviet Union, including Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan and into China’s Xinjiang Province, have been the target of various US and NATO intelligence operations since the Cold War era ended in 1990,” writes F. William Engdahl. “Washington sees manipulation of Muslim groups as the vehicle to bring uncontrollable chaos to Russia and Central Asia. It’s being carried out by some of the same organizations engaged in creating chaos and destruction inside Syria against the government of Bashar Al-Assad.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Bomb Kills Dagestan Assistant Public Prosecutor

(AGI) Machackala, Dec 31 — A bomb placed under a car has killed Rasul Gasanov, the assistant public prosecutor for Buinaksk in Dagestan. The attack follows bombings in Volgograd, which have claimed 34 lives.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Flight From an Afghan Seraglio

by Jerry Gordon

An American Bride in Kabul: A Memoir
by Phillis Chesler

Want to know what it is like to live as a non-Muslim woman under Islamic gender apartheid? Dr. Phyllis Chesler, noted feminist author and defender of universal women’s rights, experienced sharia first hand during a brief marriage to an Afghan Muslim husband and troubled sojourn in Kabul, Afghanistan. During this time she was a virtual prisoner in purdah, the women’s enclosure, in a polygamous household of a wealthy prominent family. For Chesler this was a defining moment in her subsequent professional career which was largely motivated by her flight from the failed fantasies of a brief marriage to an Afghan college classmate, Abdul Kareem. Her virtual imprisonment, administered by her Afghan mother-in-law intent on either converting or killing her is described in chilling detail in her latest book, An American Bride in Kabul: A Memoir.

This reviewer had first heard the elements of this memoir over a decade ago from the author. Like many others who had we urged her to record this fascinating encounter with Islamic gender apartheid that had endangered her life in Afghanistan. Chesler subsequently wrote limited treatments of the episode in a chapter her book, The Death of Feminism: What’s Next in the Struggle for Women’s Freedom and a Middle East Quarterly article in 2006, “How Afghan Captivity Shaped my Feminism.”

Five decades ago as a naïve young scholarship student at an elite northeastern college Chesler succumbed to bohemian fantasies and enticements of traveling the world when she married the “debonair, dapper” scion of a wealthy Afghan family, Abdul Kareem. There could not have been an odder misalliance…

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

Indonesian Anti-Terror Squad Kill 6 Militants

JAKARTA, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) — Indonesia’s counter-terrorism police has killed six suspected militants and arrested one near Jakarta since Tuesday evening, local media reported Wednesday. Five men were found dead in a bathroom in Jakarta’s southwestern outskirts of Ciputat on Wednesday morning after exchanging fire with police for 10 hours, said local online news kompas.com…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Malaysia:19 Muslim Couples Nabbed for Khalwat on New Year Day

A mother of two and an eight-month pregnant woman were among 19 Muslim couples detained here by Penang Religious Department for committing khalwat (close proximity) on New Year Day. The pre-dawn raid was carried out from 2am on several budget hotels in Sebarang Perai and Timur Laut districts from

Department’s chief enforcement officer Khairul Azman Azizan said the 29-year-old mother had taken her two children, aged between three and six year-old, to the hotel room to be with her boyfriend. “They tried to pass themselves off as married couple but checks revealed they were not married,” he said.

Khairul said they also detained an eight-month pregnant woman with her boyfriend after they failed to prove that they were married. He said those detained were in their 20s to 40s and included students from the local higher learning institutions.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pakistan: Akbar S. Ahmad Stresses Dialogue to Promote Understanding Between Muslims and World

Wednesday, January 01, 2014 — Islamabad—Eminent scholar, Prof Dr Akbar S. Ahmad has stressesed the need for dialogue between the Muslims and rest of the world to promote understanding between the two sides with a view to promoting peace and harmony at the global level…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

US Seeks to Block Afghan Prisoner Release, Says Scores of Detainees Pose ‘Legitimate Threats’

KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S. officials are seeking to block a move by an Afghan panel to free 88 detainees from a prison north of Kabul the Americans say would pose a security threat if released.

Spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Col. Dave Lapan, says the Afghan panel “exceeded its mandate” in ordering the release of 650 detainees from Parwan Detention Facility earlier this week.

Already, 562 of the prisoners have been freed while the 88 the United States has issues with remain behind bars.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Chinese Tycoon Chen Guangbiao Says He is in Talks to Buy New York Times

First he handed out cash to victims of China’s 2008 earthquake. Then he sold “canned fresh air” to residents of smog-ridden Beijing. Now Chen Guangbiao, listed as one of China’s 400 richest people and a man known as much for his publicity stunts as his wealth, claims he is in talks to buy the New York Times.

“Soon, I will go to America to do three things,” Chen told a crowd Monday night at a news media award reception in the southern Chinese boom town of Shenzhen, according to the semi-official China News Service.

The first, he said, “is to go discuss the acquisition of the New York Times”. Asked later to elaborate on his plans, Chen simply told reporters “the negotiation is currently underway”.

However, the publisher of the New York Times has previously denied it is up for sale.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Chinese Doctor Admits Selling Patients’ Newborns

A Chinese doctor has admitted in court that she stole babies from the hospital where she worked and sold them to human traffickers, state media and a court said. Zhang Shuxia, a locally respected and soon-to-retire obstetrician, stood trial on Monday in northern Shaanxi province’s Fuping county, according to online postings from the court.

Zhang told parents their newborns had congenital problems and persuaded them to “sign and give the babies up,” the court postings said. Calls to the Weinan Intermediate People’s Court and the local Communist Party propaganda department went unanswered.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Chinese President Orders PLA to Prepare for War

The recent spate of bellicose militaristic rhetoric emanating out of Chinese state media has continued in the form of a 7,500 word Xinhua editorial which outlines how Chinese president Xi Jinping has ordered the People’s Liberation Army to prepare for war.

According to a summary of the editorial, China’s “Mission Action 2013” exercise was part of a move, “to deepen preparations for potential conflict to ensure that the troops are ready if called upon not only to fight, but to win.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Giant Yellow Duck Explodes in Taiwan…Again

TAIPEI (AFP) — A giant yellow duck on display in a northern Taiwan port exploded on Tuesday, just hours before it was expected to attract a big crowd to count down the new year. The 18m tall duck on show at Keelung burst around noon and deflated into a floating yellow disc, only 11 days after it went on display.

It was the second time that a giant inflatable duck — a bath toy replica created by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman — had burst while on show in Taiwan.

“We want to apologise to the fans of the yellow rubber duck…. the weather is fine today and we haven’t found the cause of the problem. We will carefully examine the duck to determine the cause,” organiser Huang Jing-tai told reporters.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

North Korea Boasts of Removal of ‘Factionalist Filth’ After Uncle Executed

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is boasting of internal strength in the new year because of the elimination of “factionalist filth” — a reference to his once powerful uncle and mentor, who was purged and executed last month. Kim made the comments Wednesday in a public speech that will be closely scrutinized for clues about the opaque country’s intentions and policy goals.

Analysts are divided about what Jang Song Thaek’s execution means, but many believe it shows Kim Jong Un has yet to establish the same absolute power that his father and grandfather enjoyed.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Plumes of Mysterious Steam Rise From Crippled Nuclear Reactor at Fukushima

Fresh plumes of most probably radioactive steam have been detected rising from the reactor 3 building at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, said the facility’s operator company.

The steam has been detected by surveillance cameras and appeared to be coming from the fifth floor of the mostly-destroyed building housing crippled reactor 3, according to Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), the plant’s operator.

The steam was first spotted on December 19 for a short period of time, then again on December 24, 25, 27, according to a report TEPCO published on its website.

The company, responsible for the cleanup of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, has not explained the source of the steam or the reason it is rising from the reactor building. High levels of radiation have complicated entry into the building and further inspection of the situation.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Captured French Priest Returns Home

French President Francois Hollande praised the “courage” of a Roman Catholic priest held hostage for seven weeks by Islamic militants in Cameroon as the cleric arrived home to a joyous welcome on Wednesday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

French Priest Freed After Cameroon Kidnapping

A French priest kidnapped in northern Cameroon last month has been set free. In a statement Tuesday, French President Francois Hollande thanked authorities in Cameroon and Nigeria for their help in securing the release of the Reverend Georges Vandenbeusch.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was traveling to Cameroon to bring Vandenbeusch back home. The priest was abducted November 13 near the town of Koza, about 30 kilometers from the border with Nigeria…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

‘Let 2014 be a Year of True Patriotism and Reconciliation, ‘ President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Says in New Year’s Message to the Liberian People

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is calling on all Liberians to let the New Year, 2014, be one of true patriotism and reconciliation that will highlight the positive things that unite us…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

South Africa: New South African Beers Flavored With Boer History

Johannesburg — Part 3 of a five-part series on South Africa’s craft beer boom

Bearded men wrapped in bandoliers of bullets give steely stares into the camera in an image from 1900. Most are gripping rifles, wearing hats and have pipes in their mouths. In another photograph on a sand-washed wall of the simple bar, a little boy, skeletal and sallow from malnutrition, sits on a chair, gazing blankly into the distance.

The Irish Ale House, a few stone buildings on a dusty, rocky farm in South Africa’s Northwest Province, is more than just a brewery. It’s a monument to the Irish Brigade, a group of Irishmen who fought with the country’s Boers against the English in the Anglo-Boer War, from 1899 to 1902…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Fast and Furious Gun Turns Up After Mexican Resort Shootout

A dramatic shootout between authorities and suspected cartel gunmen at a Mexican seaside resort this month has ties to a botched U.S. gun operation.

A U.S. official said Tuesday that investigators have traced at least one firearm recovered at a December 18 gunfight in Puerto Peñasco, across from the Arizona border, to Operation Fast and Furious.

That’s the disastrous operation run by agents in the Phoenix office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Albanian Police Seize 11 Illegal Immigrants

TIRANA, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) — Albanian border police on Tuesday seized 11 immigrants in Gjirokaster, south of Albania, who were arriving in Albanian territory from Greece. Immigrants, mostly from Eritrea and Somalia, were blocked in Dervican, about 7 km off Gjirokaster city and their final destination was Italy, the local police said in a statement. This is the third operation in the last seven days by Gjirokaster police forces with focus on illegal immigrants in Albanian territory.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: New Citizenship Law in 2014: Kyenge

Next year Italy will roll out a new citizenship law, affecting tens of thousands of babies born each year, Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge has said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Non-EU Citizens Will be Able to Work in Britain After Bulgarian Restrictions Lifted

Hundreds of thousands of people from poor countries outside the European Union will be free to find jobs in Britain as a result of restrictions on Romanians and Bulgarians being lifted

Hundreds of thousands of people from poor countries outside the European Union will be free to find jobs in Britain as a result of restrictions on Romanians and Bulgarians being lifted today. Romania and Bulgaria, whose citizens will now have the right to work freely in the UK, are offering passports to people in non-EU countries including Moldova and Macedonia. Historic ties also mean that some Serbs, Ukrainians and Turks are eligible to claim passports that would allow them to work anywhere in the EU…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Deported Only 0.2 Percent of 11.7 Million Illegals in 2013

Fewer than 0.2 percent of the 11.7 million illegal aliens in the United States were deported in 2012 for violating immigration laws, according to data released by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

“It is a drop in the bucket,” Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, told The Daily Caller. “Relative to the (agency) resources and tools they have been given to do this job, it is a record low,” said Vaughan.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sold Out! Flights and Buses Full as Romanians and Bulgarians Head for the UK

Bulgarians and Romanians were last night preparing to travel to Britain as restrictions on working here are lifted tomorrow. Almost all flights from Romania to England are full — even though one airline doubled the number to meet demand — with one-way tickets selling for up to £3,000 each. And all tickets for seats on buses leaving the Bulgarian capital of Sofia until January 9 have been snapped up.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pedophilia: Doctor Claims It’s a Sexual Orientation

When a nationwide clamor among homosexual activists resulted in many states legalizing same-sex marriage, many concerned Americans worried the debate would open the door for even more egregious perversions to become culturally accepted. While the radical left roundly lambasted such predictions, recent court rulings regarding bigamy and increased efforts to legitimize the sexual abuse of children indicate the concern was well-founded.

Dr. James Cantor of Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health is at the forefront of the disturbing trend. He recently presented his findings that pedophilia is a genetic predisposition that is as deeply rooted as any other sexual proclivity.

This is the same argument that has been used for decades to rationalize homosexuality. It should come as no surprise the left — which is tolerant of virtually any view short of biblical morality — is moving toward explaining other reprehensible behavior in the same manner.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Spain’s Abortion Law is Pure Ideology’: Le Monde

France’s prestigious Le Monde newspaper dedicated their Monday editorial to Spain’s new abortion law, calling it both ‘regressive’ and a politically motivated attack on ‘the left’s moral high ground’.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

U.S. Marines Weaken Fitness Requirement for Women, Won’t Make Them Do Three Pull-Ups

The U.S. Marine Corps has quietly walked back a 2012 directive from the service’s highest-ranking officer that would have rejected female recruits and officer candidates who can’t perform three chin-ups as part of their physical fitness training.

The reason — 55 per cent of the women attempting the test are failing. Just one per cent of men can’t complete the exercise. ‘Women aren’t able to make the minimum standard of three pull-ups,’ Marine spokesman Capt. Eric Flanagan told reporters on Friday.

The startling admission, and the military’s course-correction, came after just three out of 15 females successfully graduated from the Marine Corps’ enlisted infantry training course in November.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

What and What of Pono Choices

The Hawaii Republican Assembly was able to find a copy of the teachers’ handbook for “Pono Choices” online. We now know exactly what our children are learning, who is behind this lascivious program and what the pushers’ real intentions are. Interestingly enough, the handbook was linked to in an article by American Life League’s (ALL) Stop Planned Parenthood (STOPP). The guide is from September, 2013 when “Pono Choices” was supposedly being “tested” on our children.

HERE is the link. Brace yourselves. The content within definitely demonstrates lower values.

In case you do not have the time to read all 22 pages and click all the links, here are some select highlights of the controversial 10-module Pono Choices instruction. Here is what our children are learning instead of improving their math skills, writing skills, and reading comprehension.

Module 1 provides the jarring introduction into a world of pregnancy and infectious sexual diseases. Despite the assumed safety of the classroom for learning traditional subjects, ground rules are established by Pono Choices for a “safe learning environment”. But the road ahead is anything but safe.

In Module 2, we learn that a key resource in developing Pono Choices is a controversial group which very few in Hawaii know about: Advocates for Youth. Talk about radical social engineering; parents should be sitting down when they read this. The main philosophy of Advocates for Youth is that children have “sexual rights”. This is cited in the Pono Choices program handbook as the very conclusion children should come to in understanding what is “pono”. Good luck maintaining order in your household when your children believe they have a “right” to be sexually active.

In Module 3, “Lessons in Anatomy/Puberty”, we learn that another key resource of the Pono Choices program is the little-known Healthy Teen Network. Their vision for America is “a national community where all adolescents and young adults, including teen parents, are supported and empowered to lead healthy sexual, reproductive, and family lives.” Gosh, that sounds like a really great idea, but it is really all about sexual fulfillment as taught by educators with a presumed societal stamp of approval. Always beware of liberal programs shrouded in “nice” sounding language.

Not surprisingly, the leading partner in the Pono Choices program, Planned Parenthood (PP), makes its appearance during Module 3. Planned Parenthood just happens to be America’s largest abortion provider for profit…

Well that explains it. No wonder Hawaii’s Democrats have been keeping their cutting edge sex education curriculum a secret. What the public schools are now teaching our 11-13 year olds through the so-called Pono Choices program is a mind-blowing crash course in prurience, permissiveness and perversion. Hence the programs quickly adopted nickname: Porno Choices. Let’s not forget that $800,000 of your tax money was spent to develop this program…

Part of their true agenda is to undermine the traditional family. They increasingly want to marginalize the roles of mothers and fathers, so that social engineers can inject their values instead. The more they can steal power from parents, the more government steps in and takes that power.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

4 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/1/2014

  1. The “Pallestinian ambassador” (ehm, how did they get those without a state?) in Prague whacked himself with explosives (no infidels killed, thank God). Police found a stash of guns in his residence (confirmed) and other explosives (unconfirmed). Police evacuated the buildings around around the residence. Something must have spooked them real bad, but they are not telling.

    The “Palestinians” are trying to lie themselves out of it (the usual) but they did not coordinate and their stories dont match, the comments on the news and blogs are just hillarious.

    The most common reaction of the general public: “We have an embassy of those people here? I did not know that. I want them out, NOW, every last f-ing one of them!”

    Happy New Year from Prague.

    Petr

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