Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/12/2014

When allegations surfaced in the press that French President François Hollande was having an affair with a much younger woman, his official mistress Valerie Trierweiler — who styles herself the “French First Lady” — took refuge in a hospital, where she will reportedly have a rest and some “tests”.

In other news, George Soros praised Republican leaders for “fighting back” against the Tea Party, which he views as a threat to the transition to global governance as well as to the American economy.

Meanwhile, the implementation of the “P5+1” plan will begin on January 20, which is when Iran has promised to start eliminating its uranium stockpile.

has been admitted to hospital after media reports of an alleged affair involving President Francois Hollande.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fjordman, JD, Jerry Gordon, LS, Steen, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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

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

Financial Crisis
» America’s Unemployment Sinkhole
» Cutting Veterans’ Pensions vs Cupboard is Bare
» George Soros Bashes Tea Party, Laments ‘Absence of Proper Global Governance’
» Italian Credit Crunch Expected to Continue in 2014
» More People Went to a Single Hockey Game Than Found Jobs in December
» MSNBC: December Jobs Report is ‘Horrific, Awful and Ugly’ (Video)
» The Progressive Solution to Joblessness: “Stop Looking!”
» Top Strategist: A Shocking Revelation About Gold Mining Companies
» UK: Hard-Working Families Forced to Pay Extra £528 Extra on Council Tax Bills to Cover £2.4billion Debt Left by People Who Refuse to Pay
 
USA
» Detroit Police Chief: Legal Gun Owners Can Deter Crime
» Forkgate: New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio Caught Eating Pizza With a Fork and Knife
» Horror Cell Phone Footage Shows Teenage Girls Holding Down Peer Before She Was Brutally Gang Raped
» Massive Die-Off of West Coast Sea Life Accelerates
» More DHS-Funded Police Surveillance Cameras; No Drop in Crime
» ObamaCare Mix of Sick-to-Healthy and Old-to-Young Even Worse Than Expected
» ObamaCare “Approval” Drops to Record Low
» Report: Holiday Hackers Attacked at Least Three Other Major Retailers
» Sylvester Stallone: “Rocky Made Me Insufferable”
» What Happens to All the Salt We Dump on the Roads?
» What Are the Chances? The Mysterious Death of Loretta Fuddy
» ‘Year of Action’: Obama Vows More Executive Orders
 
Europe and the EU
» Assad’s Civil War Aflame in British Suburbia as Syrian Leader’s in-Laws Punished by Neighbours
» Comedian Dieudonne Abandons Controversial French Show
» Corruption Rife in British Police Force, Says Independent
» French President’s Image Not Harmed by Affair Rumours
» French First Lady in Hospital After Alleged Hollande Affair
» How British Taxpayers Fund ‘Marxist’ Manifesto for European Superstate
» Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: Frog Freezes Solid While Searching for a Mate on Icy Norwegian Lake
» Norway: Mass Murderer Breivik Reveals Himself a Nazi, Says He Fabricated His “Manifesto” To Destroy Counter-Jihad Movement
» UK: ‘Bruiser’ Balls Dragged Apart From Screaming Alexander…
» UK: A Real Whitehall Farce… Ministers Spend £10,000 on Acting Lessons in a Bid to Boost Performance
» UK: Boro Taxis ‘Will Not Take Disabled People’ In Fares Row
» UK: BBC’s Six-Year Cover-Up of Secret ‘Green Propaganda’ Training for Top Executives
» UK: Daughter Whose Mother Was Raped and Murdered Will Never Know Where She Was Buried Because Her Killer’s Human Rights Are Being Protected
» UK: Father of 22’s Thug Son is a Murderer Who Spent 17 Years in Jail for Kicking His Ex-Babysitter to Death in ‘Merciless and Prolonged Attack’
» UK: Grieving Families Face £1,000 ‘Death Tax’ As Councils Cash in on Burials
» UK: Mark Duggan Coroner Invites the Family of Shot Gangster to Help Change Police Tactics
» UK: Police Boss Excuses Women Who Shoplift and Says It’s Because of Welfare Cuts
» UK: Your Mobile Phone is Watching You, Writes David Davis
» UK: Young People Who Use ‘Skunk’ Cannabis Daily ‘Have Psychotic Episodes Earlier’
 
North Africa
» At Least 22 Killed in Tribal Clashes in Libya
» Libyan Cabinet Minister Killed
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Ariel Sharon: Larger Than Life
» Israelis Pay Last Respects to Warrior-Statesman Sharon
 
Middle East
» Iran Nuclear Deal to Take Effect on Jan. 20, World Powers Say
» Iran to Start Eliminating Uranium Stockpile January 20, White House Says
» Iran and P5+1 Reach Deal on Six Month Freeze Under Joint Plan of Action
» Jihad Leader Arrested Disguised as Woman in Syria
» Still Time to Attack Iran: The Illusion of a Comprehensive Nuclear Deal
» Syria: ‘500 Killed in Week-Long Rebel-on-Rebel Clashes’
» Syria: Abducted Italian Jesuit Priest ‘Held in Al-Qaeda Jail’
» The Cauldron — Part 2
 
South Asia
» India Must Keep Its Promises, Says Italian PM Letta
» Indonesia Bans Iron Ore Exports
 
Far East
» Fukushima Harms Commerce as Russia Rejects Radioactive Japanese Cars
» Some Chinese Malls Have “Husband Storage” Facilities for the Shopping-Averse
» Washington: Beijing’s Programs in South China Sea “Provocative and Dangerous”
 
Australia — Pacific
» ‘The Most Amazing Husband and Father Any Family Could Wish For’
» The Dutch Nearly Beat James Cook to New Zealand
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Black Rhino Hunt Permit Auctioned in US
» Kenyan Mall Massacre Gunmen Were All Killed in the Attack, According to FBI Official
 
Latin America
» A&E Glorifies Homophobes (And Mass-Murdering Warmongers)
 
Immigration
» Over 100 African Migrants Saved in Strait of Sicily
 

America’s Unemployment Sinkhole

A President who thinks that extending unemployment compensation “creates jobs” is so out of touch with reality that it should come as no surprise that Obama has the worst record of unemployment rates since the days of the Great Depression in the 1930s.

The latest employment figures for December showed that the economy only added 74,000 non-farm jobs, the fewest in three years! The government claims that the unemployment rate dropped 0.3% — the first time in 60 months that it dropped below 7%. And the official rate is bogus. The government only counts people as unemployed only if they are actively looking for work.

As of October 2013, The Wall Street Journal reported that “The U.S. now has 90.6 million ‘non-institutionalized’ men and women over the age of 16 not working — an all-time high. That’s 10 million above the 80.5 million when President Obama took office. With total unemployment at 144.3 million, for every three Americans over the age of 16 earning a paycheck there are two who aren’t even looking for a job. That’s an ugly portent for American prosperity.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Cutting Veterans’ Pensions vs Cupboard is Bare

In late December 2013, thieves in the Outlaw Congress decided the only way to get a budget bill passed and avoid another partial government shut down was to screw veterans. Again:

Veterans Rip Paul Ryan over Budget’s Military Pension Cuts

“Veterans and conservatives are expressing outrage toward House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). The cuts to retired service members’ pensions embedded in the budget deal cut by him and Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) elicited an overwhelming surge of social media responses…

“As Breitbart News has reported, Ryan initially claimed that disabled and injured veterans’ pensions would be exempt from the cuts — a claim he then scrubbed from an official House Budget Committee document two days before the House vote on the budget deal last Thursday. Ryan and Murray now call the fact that wounded warriors are not exempt from pension cuts a “mistake,” but Ryan’s scrubbing of that document means two days prior to the House vote on the bill he was already aware of what he now calls a mistake. Nonetheless, he did nothing to try to fix it…

While a few Republicans tried to “fix the problem”, in the end, the Democratic/Communist Party USA members won:

Democrats Hold Veterans Hostage for Corporate Tax Increases

The Murray-Ryan budget cuts military pensions by $6 billion over ten years (roughly $600 million a year). If the senate would have closed the illegal alien tax loophole, it would have saved taxpayers $4.2 billion EVERY SINGLE YEAR. That’s seven-times more than what Congress is taking from our vets. “I suggested to you that the Democrats ignored this loophole because they just want to bleed our military veterans dry. Why else would they pass on saving $4.2 billion a year just to take a fraction of that from our veterans? Well on Friday, the Democrats showed their hand: they have chosen to hold our military veterans’ pensions hostage!

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

George Soros Bashes Tea Party, Laments ‘Absence of Proper Global Governance’

In an OpEd published at the Moscow Times on Sunday regarding his perception of the state of the global economy, billionaire George Soros made several radical observations. After noting that “All of the looming problems for the global economy are political in character,” he decried austerity, claiming that that the European Union “could easily be destroyed” by “stagnation.”

Regarding the United States, Soros praised the “Republican establishment” for “fighting back” against the Tea Party, who he referred to as a “coalition of religious and market fundamentalists.” Soros expressed anger over the so-called “government shutdown” and relief that “the fiscal drag exerted by sequestration is also about to expire.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italian Credit Crunch Expected to Continue in 2014

(AGI) Rome, Jan 11 — Loans to companies in Italy will fall by another one percent in 2014, a total drop of 10.5 percent from their peak in September 2011, according to the Confindustria employers’ association study centre. This year’s drop means credit will decrease by eight million euros, while Confindustria expects a 2.8 percent increase in 2015, a forecast based on the currently negative financial situation of the Italian banking sector.

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

More People Went to a Single Hockey Game Than Found Jobs in December

On January 1st, I joined a crowd of just over 105,000 people for a hockey game in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The greatest team in professional sports history, The Detroit Red Wings, was there to confront a group of Canadian wannabes who call themselves the Toronto Maple Leafs. The event was held outdoors, in a blizzard, in the University of Michigan’s “Big House” stadium. Sadly, the Wings lost. Sadder still, there were more people in the stands that day than there were jobs added to the national economy in the entire month prior.

The Labor Department has released its statistics for December and they are, in a word, horrible. According to the report issued this morning, a truly meager 74,000 jobs were added in the last month of 2013. That’s about 31,000 less than attended the Wings game. This is especially disappointing because A: most of the country has no idea what Hockey is, and B: the administration’s favorite economists were predicting 200,000 new jobs for the month.

They didn’t even get halfway to the estimate.

This is the worst performance since 2011 and, while the overall unemployment number dropped to 6.7%, it did so only because so many people gave up and left the workforce entirely. Remember that according to the feds, you’re only “unemployed” if you’re still trying to find gainful employment. If you simply walk away, they don’t bother with factoring you in.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

MSNBC: December Jobs Report is ‘Horrific, Awful and Ugly’ (Video)

Mika Brzezinski looks like her head’s about to explode

This morning, CNBC’s Michelle Caruso-Cabrera appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to announce the new, “awful,” December jobs report.

“Oh good Lord…” said host Joe Scarborough. “That’s a horrific number. That’s one of the lowest numbers we’ve seen in years.”

Morning Joe’s crack news team did make a half-hearted stab at blaming “cold weather,” but you could tell they’re just not into the argument. The fact is there’s simply no way to spin this data as anything other than dismal. They even bemoaned the fact that the unemployment rate only went down because so many people left the workforce. For MSNBC, that comes dangerously close to actual reporting.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Progressive Solution to Joblessness: “Stop Looking!”

Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress are celebrating a major “breakthrough” in the war on the W. Bush depression and persistent unemployment numbers: Stop unemployed blokes from looking!

This brilliant strategy — Stop Looking! — has proven very effective in mitigating disturbing unemployment reports which typically haunt the Obama Administration and the Democrat Party on the first Friday of every month.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Top Strategist: A Shocking Revelation About Gold Mining Companies

Within the first week of 2014 U.K.’s Royal Mint announced they had completely sold out of sovereign gold coins. On the other side of the pond, the U.S. Mint reports that the sale of silver coins hit an all-time high at the end of 2013, proving that demand for physical precious metals has not abated.

Yet, as investors the world over buy up as much physical gold as they can get their hands on, the companies that produce the gold have seen their stock prices decimated. Whether it’s the work of the shadow banking system or because Wall Street has convinced Main Street to dump their shares, precious metals have seen a significant drop from their historical highs just a couple years ago.

Top Casey Research strategist Marin Katusa gives us a shocking revelation about just how hard gold mining companies have been hit:

“I have a document [from our leasing agent] that says because of the junior mining shut downs there’s over half a million square feet available in downtown Vancouver for office lease available at a big discount.

“Do you know what it was a year and a half ago? Less than 50,000 square feet.”

Gold prices will likely explode in the future because current prices are too low for mines to operate, lowering the supply.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Hard-Working Families Forced to Pay Extra £528 Extra on Council Tax Bills to Cover £2.4billion Debt Left by People Who Refuse to Pay

Hardworking families are being forced to pay up to £528 extra in council tax every year to cover the cost of those who fail to pay their bills.

New figures show the total sum left uncollected last year totalled £2.4billion, a new record, with Liverpool council the worst offender in allowing £114million to slip through its fingers.

With every penny that goes uncollected adding to a higher bill for law-abiding families, the average UK council tax bill now includes a £102 tax-dodger subsidy.

Nine of the ten worst offenders are Labour-run councils, many of whom complain about problems caused by government budget cuts while simultaneously allowing tens of millions of pounds to vanish through council tax dodges.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Detroit Police Chief: Legal Gun Owners Can Deter Crime

If more citizens were armed, criminals would think twice about attacking them, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said Thursday. Urban police chiefs are typically in favor of gun control or reluctant to discuss the issue, but Craig on Thursday was candid about how he’s changed his mind.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Forkgate: New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio Caught Eating Pizza With a Fork and Knife

Forkgate, alternately known as pizzagate, puts de Blasio in poor company. The unholy duo of Donald Trump and Sarah Palin once dined at a midtown pizzeria, where they too used utensils.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Horror Cell Phone Footage Shows Teenage Girls Holding Down Peer Before She Was Brutally Gang Raped

[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: Two teenage girls were captured on cell phone video punching and kicking the girl before holding her down in the yard of a Florida home to be raped, police said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Massive Die-Off of West Coast Sea Life Accelerates

Locals say it’s far worse than what the national and international media is reporting

Oregon natives confirmed to Infowars Friday that strange anomalies have sprung up along the Pacific coast in what amounts to further testimony supporting the fact the media is suppressing both the surge in extremely high radiation readings along the West Coast and the subsequent die off of sea life in the area.

Several residents in the Charleston fishing village described suspicious anomalies such as disintegrating bioluminescent jellyfish and Japanese “tsunami debris” washing ashore, with one lifetime resident even telling us he saw about a hundred dead starfish near the Bastendorff Beach County Park.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

More DHS-Funded Police Surveillance Cameras; No Drop in Crime

Thousands of surveillance cameras are showing up in cities across the country without a corresponding reduction in crime. Citizens are taking notice of this fact of the federal takeover of local police, and they are speaking out.

On January 8, for example, the Texas Civil Rights Project-Houston issued a statement on its Facebook page criticizing their city’s participation in the construction of the surveillance state.

“As a community, we need to start a serious dialogue about the level of governmental intrusion in our daily lives that government foists upon us without our consent,” declared Amin Alehashem, the group’s regional director. “Government has no need to know with whom we associate, walk on the streets, attend meetings, worship, or go to dinner.”…

And just where did Houston get the money to buy these new cameras? There’s no provision for the expense in the mayor’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget, so the city’s not paying for these “critical” services so necessary for the “safety” of its citizens. Department of Homeland Security to the rescue!

In the article announcing the deployment of the new devices, KHOU reports, “The city has spent more than $18 million in federal money to build its camera system and has another $5 million in reserve.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

ObamaCare Mix of Sick-to-Healthy and Old-to-Young Even Worse Than Expected

In short, people who prefer not to enroll in ObamaCare because they preferred the options they had are now availing themselves of the opportunity to evade this monstrosity, at least for the moment. That leaves the pool even more dominated than it already would have been to people who are enrolling only because they have no other choice — mainly older people or those with pre-existing conditions. When that’s your pool, you’re in trouble. That was the idea of the individual mandate in the first place. Democrats did understand, in spite of what they said, that many people wouldn’t voluntarily sign up and they would have to be forced. So force them they would, because that would be the only way to get the premium dollars that would be necessary to provide coverage for the old and the already-sick.

The whole time Obama was assuring people that if they liked their plan they could keep their plan, he knew perfectly well that if it actually played out that way, it would drive the health insurance industry to financial ruin. But when faced with political consequences for breaking the promise, he threw the insurers under the bus and sacrificed a crucial element of his grand scheme in the service of saving his own political #. The consequence? Exactly what you see.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

ObamaCare “Approval” Drops to Record Low

For the current administration, now with a fresh developer to fix all the problems (with the website), the reality of public perception over Obamacare has gone from worst to worster-er this week. As Gallup polls show, nearly half of Americans say the Affordable Care Act will make the healthcare situation in the U.S. worse in the long run.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Report: Holiday Hackers Attacked at Least Three Other Major Retailers

If you thought you dodged a bullet during Target and Neiman Marcus’ holiday data breaches, you might want to sit down. According to a Reuters report published early this morning, at least three other well-known U.S. retailers were hacked, too.

Target’s not alone in its credit card hacking woes: this week, high-end retailer Neiman Marcus acknowledged that credit and debit cards used in… Read…

Unfortunately, we don’t know which retailers yet — only that they’re “well-known” and common in malls — but the perpetrators might be the same dudes who hacked Target and Neiman Marcus, which experienced a similar breach in December.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Sylvester Stallone: “Rocky Made Me Insufferable”

Sylvester Stallone has admitted the success of Rocky made him “insufferable” and think he was “an authority on everything”. “I abused power badly,” the US star told host Jonathan Ross during an on-stage interview at the London Palladium on Saturday. “I read some of the interviews I gave now and wish I could go back and punch myself in the face,” he continued.

But he added a dismal showing of a later film brought him back to Earth. Stallone had left the set of Rocky II to attend a first-day showing of 1978 drama Paradise Alley, only to find there were just two people in the audience. “And one of them was asleep,” he sighed, admitting it had been “a humbling experience” but “a good thing” for him in the long run.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

What Happens to All the Salt We Dump on the Roads?

In the U.S., road crews scatter about 137 pounds of salt per person annually to melt ice. Where does it go after that?

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

What Are the Chances? The Mysterious Death of Loretta Fuddy

The NTSB report pertaining to this incident was one of the most incomplete and un-sourced reports published when compared to other reports. Why?

What are the chances that the individual responsible for authenticating Barack Hussein Obama’s long for birth certificate, Loretta Fuddy, just happened to be the sole fatality out of nine on board a small plane that was forced to make an emergency water landing off the coast of Hawaii?

What are the chances that the other passengers either walked away virtually unscathed (according to eyewitness reports) or had only minor injuries while Loretta Fuddy died?…

In my 25-plus years of experience as a career investigator, I’ve seen a lot of strange things that would give one pause and cry out for explanation. Odd things that at first blush seem to defy logical explanation, only to be answered through investigation as mere coincidence (yes, ‘stuff’ does happen) or indicative of something more nefarious. In my professional opinion, the strange death of Loretta Fuddy falls squarely into the latter category.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Year of Action’: Obama Vows More Executive Orders

President Obama called Saturday for a “year of action,” and he acknowledged those plans include more executive action.

“I’ll keep doing everything I can to create new jobs and new opportunities for American families — with Congress, on my own, and with everyone willing to play their part,” Mr. Obama said in his weekly address.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Assad’s Civil War Aflame in British Suburbia as Syrian Leader’s in-Laws Punished by Neighbours

This road in the West London suburb of Acton has become the capital’s unlikely front line in Syria’ s increasingly bloody and chaotic civil war.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Comedian Dieudonne Abandons Controversial French Show

(AGI) Paris, Jan 11 — Controversial comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala told a press conference on Saturday that he was laying down his arms and obeying the law, after the French Council of State upheld a ban on his show ‘Le Mur’. Dieudonne, whose shows have been banned for anti-Semitism, had announced that a new show would take place at his Main d’Or theatre in Paris on Saturday afternoon. He appeared in traditional African costume, and said that from now on he would concentrate on his new show, ‘Asu Zoa’.

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

Corruption Rife in British Police Force, Says Independent

(AGI) London — Jan 11 — An internal Scotland Yard report published by the Independent newspaper on Saturday showed that corruption is rife among British police. At least 80 officers, half of whom are still serving, have been bribed by various local organised criminals to access confidential databases, obtain live intelligence on criminal investigations, enable proof crucial to court cases to vanish and even intimidate witnesses.

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

French President’s Image Not Harmed by Affair Rumours

(AGI) Paris, Jan 12 — Most French people think that a possible relationship between French President Francois Hollande and an actress is a private matter, according to a survey carried out by IFOB for Le Journal du Dimanche magazine. Hollande is unpopular but the continuing speculations about a possible relationship with Juliet Gayet does not appear to have harmed his image.

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

French First Lady in Hospital After Alleged Hollande Affair

French First Lady Valerie Trierweiler has been admitted to hospital after media reports of an alleged affair involving President Francois Hollande. Her office said she had been admitted on Friday “for rest and some tests”.

Mr Hollande’s unmarried partner was admitted on the day Closer magazine published images of the alleged affair. The French leader has not denied secretly visiting actress Julie Gayet at a flat near the Elysee Palace but protested at invasion of his privacy.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

How British Taxpayers Fund ‘Marxist’ Manifesto for European Superstate

British taxpayers have unwittingly funded a controversial new manifesto for the European Union which demands increased rights for illegal immigrants and a universal income for the unemployed — whether or not they seek work.

The 145-page manifesto also calls for a ban on fracking and greater powers for Brussels.

The document will be distributed to MEPs and candidates in the run-up to the European Parliament elections in May.. It is one of dozens of ‘propaganda projects’ on which the EU has ‘squandered’ tens of millions of taxpayers’ money.

Last night, one Tory MP said the manifesto ‘bordered on the criminal’ and was nothing more than ‘propaganda to build up a European superstate’. Called European Democracy, Solidarity and Equality, the document was drawn up at public expense by a little-known organisation based in Britain called European Alternatives Ltd. It received a £95,000 European Union grant to part-finance the project.

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]
 

Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: Frog Freezes Solid While Searching for a Mate on Icy Norwegian Lake

This unfortunate frog froze to death as he attempted to find a mate on Lake Bindingsvann, just outside of Oslo, Norway

Photographer Svein Nordrum, 54, discovered the creature caught out by freezing conditions. He said: ‘I was out skating for a couple of hours and, suddenly; I saw something on the surface of the ice. When I saw it was a frog, frozen stiff, I was quite shocked. I have never seen anything like it before.’

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Norway: Mass Murderer Breivik Reveals Himself a Nazi, Says He Fabricated His “Manifesto” To Destroy Counter-Jihad Movement

Breivik was not a counter-jihadist at all, and could not have been and was not incited to violence by the counter-jihad movement. And now he has finally admitted that his entire “manifesto” was intended solely to discredit the counter-jihad movement once he committed his murders.

However, don’t expect the New York Times, which put me on its front page for this, or the Daily Mail or any of the other media outlets that blamed the counter-jihad movement for his murders to issue retractions and apologies, or to take any notice of this at all: this article is only in Swedish. No English-language outlets have picked it up at all.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: ‘Bruiser’ Balls Dragged Apart From Screaming Alexander…

To stop fists flying: Tessa Jowell stops Labour heavyweights coming to blows over Europe vote

Ed Balls and Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander had to be ‘dragged apart’ when they almost came to blows during a blazing row, it was revealed last night.

Former Cabinet Minister Tessa Jowell was forced to intervene, saying she feared the Labour rivals were about to get into a ‘fisticuffs’.

The dust-up happened when the Shadow Chancellor and Mr Alexander clashed in a private room in the Commons over the party’s policy on Europe.

Mr Balls told Labour’s Shadow Cabinet he had Mr Alexander’s full support in toughening Labour’s stance on the EU.

But pro-Brussels Mr Alexander accused him of lying and the two men slugged it out in a furious confrontation.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: A Real Whitehall Farce… Ministers Spend £10,000 on Acting Lessons in a Bid to Boost Performance

Chancellor George Osborne and other Coalition Ministers splashed out £10,000 of taxpayers’ money on acting lessons from Britain’s premier drama school at the same time as overseeing deep public-spending cuts.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Boro Taxis ‘Will Not Take Disabled People’ In Fares Row

The boss of Teesside’s biggest taxi company has revealed the firm will no longer transport disabled passengers following a row over pricing. Mohammed Bashir, of Boro Taxis, said the decision had been taken on economic grounds.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: BBC’s Six-Year Cover-Up of Secret ‘Green Propaganda’ Training for Top Executives

The BBC has spent tens of thousands of pounds over six years trying to keep secret an extraordinary ‘eco’ conference which has shaped its coverage of global warming, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The controversial seminar was run by a body set up by the BBC’s own environment analyst Roger Harrabin and funded via a £67,000 grant from the then Labour government, which hoped to see its ‘line’ on climate change and other Third World issues promoted in BBC reporting.

At the event, in 2006, green activists and scientists — one of whom believes climate change is a bigger danger than global nuclear war — lectured 28 of the Corporation’s most senior executives.

Then director of television Jana Bennett opened the seminar by telling the executives to ask themselves: ‘How do you plan and run a city that is going to be submerged?’ And she asked them to consider if climate change laboratories might offer material for a thriller.

[Comment: TV becomes a brainwashing/propaganda machine when the viewer uncritically accepts and absorbs everything that is presented to him/her on the TV.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Daughter Whose Mother Was Raped and Murdered Will Never Know Where She Was Buried Because Her Killer’s Human Rights Are Being Protected

[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]

A daughter whose mother was raped and murdered is facing a lifetime of never knowing where the killer buried her — because it would breach his human rights.

Both Martin Stafford’s prison and the European Union are stopping mother-of-one Tracy Richardson, 30, of Swinton, Greater Manchester, from contacting him.

Stafford, 45, was found guilty and jailed for the murder of Michelle Gunshon and sentenced to life in prison. He was also found guilty of false imprisonment, rape and preventing the burial of a body.

Although the crimes were committed in 2004, Stafford evaded arrest when he fled the country and was only brought to justice in 2012 after a trial at Birmingham Crown Court.

He was extradited from Ireland, where he had been serving time in jail for rape and false imprisonment. But Stafford has never disclosed where he left the body of Mrs Gunshon.

Ms Richardson told the Sunday Mirror that the unidentified jail would not hand the murderer a letter from her because the governor thought it would be ‘intrusive’ and in breach of his human rights.

She then discovered police cannot ask Stafford where Mrs Gunshon’s body is buried, because he has to give them consent to ask him, according to the terms of his EU extradition from Ireland.

Ms Richardson can now only find out where her mother is buried by asking Stafford to tell her in person — but she must get a visitation order in order to do this, and that must be signed by Stafford.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Father of 22’s Thug Son is a Murderer Who Spent 17 Years in Jail for Kicking His Ex-Babysitter to Death in ‘Merciless and Prolonged Attack’

[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]

A son of the father of 22 this week spared jail for drug dealing is a killer who murdered his former babysitter in a ‘merciless and prolonged’ attack, it has emerged.

Raymond Hull’s son Adrian was just 17 when he battered 29-year-old heroin addict Nicky Morrison to death in Heysham Park, Carlisle, before throwing his body over a bridge.

A witness to the killing described how the thug kicked his helpless victim in the head at least 14 times, striking him so hard that his skull bounced off a concrete path.

Hull was ordered to be detained at Her Majesty’s Pleasure, with a minimum term of 15 years, for the murder.

It is understood that he was released just before Christmas, having served 17 years, and he has already been seen proudly posing for pictures with his freshly notorious father.

Raymond Hull burst onto the headlines this week when it emerged that he had been spared jail for dealing cannabis to look after his 22nd child, Barry, who is just seven months old.

The 58-year-old, who has children by 11 women, is a career criminal with 31 convictions — whose neighbours say lives a lavish lifestyle of foreign holidays, impressive cars and raucous late-night parties in a caravan.

Adrian Hull, now 34, already had previous convictions for causing criminal damage, threatening behaviour and arson when he was found guilty of murder.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Grieving Families Face £1,000 ‘Death Tax’ As Councils Cash in on Burials

The National Association of Funeral Directors spoke out after a council in Suffolk introduced new charges that saw the cost of a burial plot rise by almost £1,000.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Mark Duggan Coroner Invites the Family of Shot Gangster to Help Change Police Tactics

Senior circuit judge Keith Cutler said he will take ‘ the unusual, perhaps unique step’ of inviting submissions from the family following last week’s inquest verdict.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Police Boss Excuses Women Who Shoplift and Says It’s Because of Welfare Cuts

Northumbria PCC Vera Baird said there was growing evidence that women were being driven to steal nappies and food because they were getting fewer benefits.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Your Mobile Phone is Watching You, Writes David Davis

Campaigning former Shadow Home Secretary’s own phone log reveals the insidious tracking of our every move

To see exactly what metadata can do, I asked my mobile phone provider to give me all the data they held on me for a year.

What they gave me filled a shelf. At first glance, the information looked harmless — just a long list of numbers, co-ordinates, dates and times. But what it revealed was approximately 40 ‘data points’ every day, monitoring where I had been at any one time for a year.

Using the data, I plotted a day in my life on a map. I could see exactly where I had been at pretty much every point of the day. The day I chose was one I had spent at party conference, where I had met members of the public, journalists and colleagues from Parliament.

So in conjunction with those people’s phone records, the data would show everybody I met that day at least as well as if I had been a prisoner on a tag.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Young People Who Use ‘Skunk’ Cannabis Daily ‘Have Psychotic Episodes Earlier’

Mental health patients who smoked heavily had their first symptoms aged 25 compared to 31 for those who never tried the drug, according to the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

At Least 22 Killed in Tribal Clashes in Libya

(AGI) Tripoli, Jan 12 — At least 22 people have been killed and 51 injured in violent tribal clashes in the Libyan city of Sebha, sources in the city reported. Fighting between Toubou tribesmen and members of the Uled Soliman clan started on Thursday for reasons that are yet unclear. Sebha airport has been closed due to the fighting.

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

Libyan Cabinet Minister Killed

(AGI) Tripoli, Jan 12 — Hassan al-Droui, Libya’s deputy industry minister, was killed by gunmen while driving through the Maqmadas market in the coastal city of Sirte late on Saturday. Security officials said hardline Islamist militants are responsible for his murder. Hassan al-Droui had been a member of the Libyan National Transitional Council.

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

Ariel Sharon: Larger Than Life

by Caroline Glick

Ariel Sharon, who died Saturday at age 85, after being suspended comatose, between life and death for the past eight years, was the final Israeli prime minister from the generation that fought in the 1948 War of Independence.

And as with others of his generation, the growth and development of the country were reflected in his career.

Sharon was a dazzling military commander. He was one of the original authors of Israel’s trailblazing counter terror strategies. The large battles against regular armies that he commanded in the 1956 Suez campaign, the 1967 Six Day War, and the 1973 Yom Kippur War are still taught in military academies around the world for their tactical brilliance.

Sharon was a risk-taker. The most prominent shared quality of his military battles and his political ones was that they were always over high stakes.. As a general, Sharon’s gutsiness paid off in spades more often than not. As a politician, the results were less impressive…

           — Hat tip: Caroline Glick [Return to headlines]
 

Israelis Pay Last Respects to Warrior-Statesman Sharon

(Reuters) — Thousands of Israelis bade farewell on Sunday to former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the maverick warrior-statesman who helped reshape the Middle East, as his body lay in state outside parliament in Jerusalem. Sharon died at the age of 85 on Saturday after eight years in a coma caused by a stroke he suffered at the pinnacle of his political power. He will be buried on Monday in a military funeral on his farm in southern Israel.

“They say old soldiers do not die, they fade away. Arik Sharon faded away eight years ago, and now we truly say goodbye to him,” Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, using Sharon’s nickname, wrote in a tribute on Sunday.

Sharon was one of Israel’s finest military strategists and most powerful and decisive political figures.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Iran Nuclear Deal to Take Effect on Jan. 20, World Powers Say

Iran and six world powers have agreed on how to put in place an accord that would temporarily freeze much of Iran’s nuclear program, American and Iranian officials said on Sunday.

That accord would go into effect on Jan. 20.

International negotiators worked out an agreement in November to constrain much of Iran’s program for six months so that diplomats would have time to pursue a more comprehensive follow-up accord.

But before the temporary agreement could take effect, negotiators had to work out the technical procedures for carrying it out and resolve some of its ambiguities in concert with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

[Return to headlines]
 

Iran to Start Eliminating Uranium Stockpile January 20, White House Says

(CNN) — Save the date: Iran has pledged to start eliminating some of its uranium stockpile on January 20, the White House said Sunday. That gives an official start date for the six-month interim deal with Iran, which was first announced in November.

“As of that day, for the first time in almost a decade, Iran’s nuclear program will not be able to advance, and parts of it will be rolled back, while we start negotiating a comprehensive agreement to address the international community’s concerns about Iran’s program,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement Sunday.

As part of the agreement, Iran has agreed to start eliminating its stockpile of higher levels of enriched uranium, to dismantle some infrastructure that makes higher-level uranium enrichment possible, and not to start up additional centrifuges.

In exchange, some sanctions against Iran will be eased as part of “modest relief,” the White House said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Iran and P5+1 Reach Deal on Six Month Freeze Under Joint Plan of Action

In separate announcements today, Iran and the P5+1 reached agreement on the implementation of the Joint Plan of Action (JPA) to begin on January 20, 2014. The original announcement of the interim agreement between the P5+1 and the Islamic regime in Tehran had been made on November 24, 2013. Friday reports came that the JPA agreement was imminent.

AP, IRNA, and Deutsche Welle had reports on these developments with statements by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, EU Foreign Relations Commissioner Catherine Ashton, President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry. […] During the run up to today’s announcement differences between the Administration and Congress arose over pending new Iran sanctions legislation, the Nuclear Weapons Free Iran Act (NWFIA) that the White House threatened to veto. At one point during negotiations, the Iranian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif threatened to leave the Geneva meetings over the new US Sanctions initiative. In late December 2013, 230 members of Iran’s Parliament, the Majlis, signed legislation threatening to authorize uranium enrichment to 60% levels to counter the proposed NWFIA.

Among the terms agreed to was authority for the IAEA to conduct daily inspections of known Iranian nuclear facilities and supervise the neutralization of existing stock of enriched uranium at the 20% level, while Iran was granted permission to enrich to a 5% cap. However, a report from IRNA indicated that the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran had not received requests from the IAEA to open up a dedicated Tehran office, noting only that the UN agency had made frequent trips from its Vienna headquarters to conduct periodic inspections. That raises questions about the ability to enforce the provisions of the JPA..

Today’s announcement comes just prior to President Obama’s annual State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on January 28th. Further, it comes as momentum is building in the US Senate on a possible veto-proof bi-partisan majority for passage of NWFIA. It also comes prior to the scheduled January 22nd Geneva II talks on ending the 34 month long civil war in Syria. Secretary Kerry raised the prospect of inviting Iran to attend those sessions a week ago saying that the Islamic regime “might have a role to play on the sidelines”.

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

Jihad Leader Arrested Disguised as Woman in Syria

By Raymond Ibrahim

Yesterday, many Arabic-language Internet news websites posted the following pictures, purporting to be of the leader (or “emir”) of the al-Qaeda linked al-Nusra [“Victory”] Front, which is in Syria waging jihad. According to these reports, Abu Muhammad al-Jawlani had managed to pass several military checkpoints dressed as a woman, until he was arrested by the Syrian army in al-Jaswiya, al-Qusayr, in his attempt to flee to neighboring Lebanon: “He shaved his beard, worked his eyebrows, and put on mascara and lipstick till he looked exactly like a woman.”

More on this — including how al-Jawlani would certainly not be the first jihadi leader to try to escape his enemies dressed as a woman — later.

           — Hat tip: LS [Return to headlines]
 

Still Time to Attack Iran: The Illusion of a Comprehensive Nuclear Deal

By Matthew Kroenig

Much has changed in the two years since I wrote “Time to Attack Iran,” but one basic fact hasn’t: diplomacy remains unlikely to neutralize the threat from Iran’s nuclear program. A truly comprehensive diplomatic settlement between Iran and the West is still the best possible outcome, but there is little reason to believe that one can be achieved.

And that means the United States may still have to choose between bombing Iran and allowing it to acquire a nuclear bomb. That would be an awful dilemma. But a limited bombing campaign on Iran’s nuclear facilities would certainly be preferable to any attempt to contain a nuclear-armed Iran.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Syria: ‘500 Killed in Week-Long Rebel-on-Rebel Clashes’

Beirut, 10 January (AKI) — Some 500 people have died in fighting between secular and Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist rebels in northern Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights opposition monitoring group.

The casualties occurred durig fierce fighting in several Syrian towns between mainly foreign fighters from the Al-Qaeda aligned Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), the Al-Nusra Front jihadist group and secular rebels from the western-backed Free Syrian Army, the UK-based watchdog said.

ISIS fighters overran a number of Al-Nusra bases in Raqqa province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

An audio message purportedly from Al-Nusra Front head Abu Mohamed al-Jolani urged the creation of Sharia courts to resolve disputes in northern Syria and stem the worst rebel-on-rebel violence since the uprising in Syria began in March 2011.

Rebel groups needed to turn their attention to authoritarian Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s troops on “the front lines,” said the message, which was posted to Youtube earlier this week.

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

Syria: Abducted Italian Jesuit Priest ‘Held in Al-Qaeda Jail’

London, 7 January (AKI) — An Italian Jesuit priest who vanished in northern Syria last year, Paolo Dall’Oglio is detained in a prison run by Al-Qaeda’s Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat reports.

Dall’Oglio, who disappeared in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa on 28 July last year, is being held in Sed Tishreen jail located in the surrounding province, the daily cited activists as saying on Tuesday.

There are currently “highly delicate” negotiations talking place between Syrian rebels and jihadists from ISIS for control of the prison, where Dall’Oglio and other prisoners including French journalists are being held, according to the activists.

The Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the jihadist Al-Nusra Front have removed barriers erected around Sed Tishreen by their former ISIS allies between Raqqa province and the Turkish border, the activists claimed.

“The nex step should be to take control of Sed Tishreen, which is in ISIS hands, avoiding an assult in order to ensure the safety of its high-profile prisoners, the activists were quoted as telling Al-Hayat.

On Monday, the UK-based Syrian Human Right Observatory monitoring group reported that FSA fighters had ousted ISIS from Raqqa, freeing more than 50 hostages in a fourth day of clashes across the north of the country.

Raqqa become an ISIS stronghold after rebels overran the city in March last year. It was the first provincial capital to fall under rebel control.

Scores of captives, among them journalists and aid workers, had reportedly been detained by ISIS in government buildings. Those freed on Monday appeared to all be Syrians. It is understood that the western captives had earlier been moved to another location.

Conflicting reports have deepened the mystery surrounding Dall’Oglio’s fate. In October, an opposition activist told Adnkronos International (AKI) the priest was alive and was being well treated by his ISIS captors.

Earlier, the Vatican and the Italian government said in August they could not confirm a report by a pro-Syrian-government website that the priest had been executed by his captors.

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

The Cauldron — Part 2

Today’s problems in the region we call the Holy Land cannot be ignored or put on the back burner. They are in-your-face, everyday news. Hundreds of reports coming from that area weekly could be used to make the point. Israel and its neighbors are rumbling toward war!

The following news excerpt vividly illustrates that fact. The report is from a former insider of the Iranian regime. Reza Kahlili was in the CIA directorate of operations working as a spy in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. As of this writing, he serves on the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, an advisory board to Congress, and on the advisory board of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran (FDI).

“Iranian scientists are working on nuclear warheads — and trying to perfect them — at an underground site unknown to the West, according to a high-ranking intelligence officer of the Islamic regime…

“The site, approximately 14 miles long and 7.5 miles wide, consists of two facilities built deep into a mountain along with a missile facility that is surrounded by barbed wire, 45 security towers and several security posts…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

India Must Keep Its Promises, Says Italian PM Letta

(AGI) Rome, Jan 10 — India must keep the promises it has made regarding the two Italian marines held on charges of having killed two Indian fishermen in February 2012, Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta said on Friday. “It would be unacceptable if India breaks its promises,” Letta said in a television interview to RaiNews24. One day after official assurances to the contrary, Indian officials on Friday said the Italian marines could face the death penalty. “Today we held another meeting with the committee that coordinates the issue between the ministries. We have decided not to change our strategy. We expect the Indian government to keep its word and to follow up on the assurances made by the Supreme Court that the two would not be charged with piracy, and that a decision would be taken soon.” ..

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

Indonesia Bans Iron Ore Exports

(AGI) Jakarta, Jan 12 — Indonesia, the world’s third-largest democracy and one of the most important sources of minerals used to produce industrial metals, has decided to implement an export ban on unprocessed iron ore. The ban aims to boost Indonesia’s return from its mineral wealth by forcing miners to process their ores domestically. In an attempt to cushion the impact of the far-reaching measure, U.S. mining giants Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold and Newmont Mining Corp will be allowed to continue to ship billions of dollars worth of copper overseas.

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

Fukushima Harms Commerce as Russia Rejects Radioactive Japanese Cars

(NaturalNews) While officials in the United States astoundingly continue to deny that radiation levels originating from Fukushima pose a significant threat to American lives, despite many troubling pieces of evidence, Russia has shown its willingness to refuse radiation-tainted goods by turning away 130 used cars originating from Japan.

Over the course of the past year, Russia’s consumer protection agency, Rospotrebnadzor, blocked importation of the vehicles, as well as auto parts, after testing due to concerns that they were contaminated with radioactivity.

“In 2013, Russia has banned 165 batches of contaminated goods from entering the country. There were mainly used cars — 132, and spare parts for vehicles — – 33,” read a statement issued by Rospotrebnadzor.

This is not the first time that contaminated water from Fukushima has impacted global trade or imports into Russia.

Back in July 2012, Rospotrebnadzor stopped nearly 300 Japanese cars at the port of Vladivostok that it considered to be contaminated by radioactivity, according to Gennady Onishchenko, Russia’s Chief Sanitary Inspector and head of Rospotrebnadzor, who expressed worries about “glowing” Japanese autos.

According to RIA Novosti reports, out tens of thousands of Japanese cars imported each year for Russia’s significant second-hand market, dozens fail radiation inspections each month at Russian ports and are sent back. Some 112 batch lots were refused, including used cars, spare parts, watercraft and specialized equipment.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Some Chinese Malls Have “Husband Storage” Facilities for the Shopping-Averse

They offer a range of activities and services to “meet the needs of male customers,” such as smoking, internet, drinking, snacks and “beautiful attendants”

It’s a cliché to say that men—or, if you want to be gender neutral, “non-shopping companions”—don’t do well at malls. (For example, these “miserable men of Instagram.”) And in China, nifty facilities for shopping-averse men has popped up in some malls, reports Kotaku. These “husband storage” facilities—also referred to as “husband restrooms” and “husband play areas”—act as both rest stations and meeting points for men who prefer sitting around to digging through the racks. After their lady is finished shopping, she can return to the storage room and pick up her husband, much she would a winter coat left with a coat check.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Washington: Beijing’s Programs in South China Sea “Provocative and Dangerous”

The U.S. government criticizes the Chinese government’s new norms, which impose limitations and restrictions on foreign vessels in disputed waters. There is no justification in international law and the move threatens to exacerbate already tense relations in the area. Hanoi intervenes in the dispute.

Beijing ( AsiaNews / Agencies) — The United States has branded Beijing’s new norms which impose limitations and restrictions on the navigation of vessels and foreign vessels in disputed waters of the South China Sea as “provocative and potentially dangerous”. For Washington, they are likely to exacerbate already tense relations in the Asia- Pacific region, particularly between China, Vietnam and the Philippines. The government of Manila , through its diplomatic mission , has already asked Beijing for further clarification, while analysts and international policy experts point to the growing fear of an armed conflict in the region.

According to a law passed in November last year by Hainan province , in the far south of China, and in force since January 1, ships will have to ask for a “ prior permission” to transit. This is an area that includes about two of the 3.5 million km2 forming the South China Sea , a strategic area for both businesses as well as for the presence of natural resources (oil and gas) in the subsurface.

In addition to creating concern among governments in the area, these new norms are likely to exacerbate the already tense relations between Beijing and Washington. The US in recent weeks had strongly criticized the way the Chinese had created a zone of airspace control over the East China Sea .

The U.S. State Department says that the new rules on navigation have no concrete justifications “under international law” and without any clear legitimacy based on the law, the U.S. government calls on China to “ avoid those unilateral actions that might just increase the tension and undermine prospects for a diplomatic and peaceful resolution of differences. “

Meanwhile, the dispute has also involved the Vietnamese government, which claims the territorial sovereignty of large portions of the Spratlys and Paracel islands . “Any foreign activities in these areas without the consent of the Vietnamese government — said the Foreign Ministry spokesman Luong Thanh Nghi — are illegal and have no legal basis”. Vietnamese fishermen, moreover, fear serious repercussions in their own business.

In the East China Sea, China has also been involved in a dispute with Japan for sovereignty over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands and with the Philippines over the Scarborough Shoal. Beijing’s sovereignty claims in the South China Sea include the Spratly and Paracel Islands, which are also claimed by Vietnam, Brunei, Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan. Almost uninhabited, the islands and surrounding waters are rich in resources and raw materials. Hegemony in the sea is strategically important for trade and the exploitation of seabed oil and natural gas reserves, in an area where two thirds of world’s shipping takes place.

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

‘The Most Amazing Husband and Father Any Family Could Wish For’

Tributes paid to British father who died after rescuing his sons caught in riptide off Australian beach

The family of a man who died after rescuing his two children from drowning in Australia have said he was ‘the most amazing father’.

Andrew Priestley, from Leicestershire, died in hospital after getting into difficulty at Burrill Beach — around 155 miles south of Sydney on Australia’s east coast.

A statement released by the Foreign Office on behalf of the family said it was ‘heartbreakingly impossible’ to imagine life without him.

The 44-year-old was on holiday with his family when his two sons Matthew, 12, and Daniel, 10, got caught in strong currents at the beauty spot.

After entering the water and rescuing the children, it is believed Mr Priestley may have suffered a heart attack.

Reports say the father had managed to keep his two boys afloat long enough for others to rescue them.

The statement said: ‘The family of Andrew are devastated about his death in Australia. He died after saving his children.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Dutch Nearly Beat James Cook to New Zealand

A shipwreck discovered off New Zealand dates to a time before Cook’s arrival

In 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman was the first European known to have officially charted the location of New Zealand. According to the Encyclopedia of New Zealand (published by the country’s government), “Tasman’s New Zealand was only a ‘ragged line’ on the world map, which might or might not be the coast of the unknown southern land.”

As the official story goes, “the Dutch never followed up Tasman’s discovery of New Zealand.” It was not until nearly 130 years later when British explorer James Cook set sail on the HMS Endeavour that European sailors made it to New Zealand, joining the descendents of the Polynesian sailors who had settled the islands centuries before.

The discovery of a shipwreck off New Zealand’s northern coast, however, is threatening to rewrite this story of European colonization.

According to a new study, it seems that the Dutch did try to follow up on Tasman’s discovery, after all. Buried in Midge Bay, says TVNZ, is a ship, thought to be Dutch, that is younger than Tasman’s but older than Cook’s.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Black Rhino Hunt Permit Auctioned in US

A permit to hunt and kill an endangered Black Rhino in Namibia has been sold at a US auction for $350,000 (£212,000). The Dallas Safari Club in Texas says the hunt will help protect the species by removing an old aggressive rhino, and funding future conservation.

However, the auction has been fiercely criticised by conservationists, and has even drawn death threats. Namibia is home to about a third of the world’s 5,000 black rhinos, and issues just three hunting permits a year.

It is the first time a permit has been auctioned outside the southern African nation.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Kenyan Mall Massacre Gunmen Were All Killed in the Attack, According to FBI Official

Al Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab militants claimed responsibility for the attack on Nairobi’ s Westgate Mall on September 21 last year.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

A&E Glorifies Homophobes (And Mass-Murdering Warmongers)

Cuba: only regime in the history of the Western hemisphere to herd gay men and boys at Soviet bayonet-point into forced labor camps

“Who put a book by that filthy f*ggot on my shelf!” snarled Che Guevara (subject of a History Channel glorification) upon noticing a book on the shelf of the Cuban embassy in Algiers in December 1964. The disgusted Che yanked out the book by Virgilio Pinera and slammed it against the wall, while snarling more insults of the sort Phil Robertson politely eschewed in his GQ interview.

Pinera was an internationally-famous gay poet who had prospered in pre-Castro Cuba, despite its reputation in leftists circles as a “fascist, macho-ist,” society.

A year after Che Guevara’s tantrum against “filthy f*ggots!” the regime he co-founded began herding tens of thousands of Cuban men and boys into forced labor camps for the crime of fluttering their eyelashes, flapping their hands, wearing tight pants, talking with a lisp, listening to rock music, etc. Indeed, the regime hailed by rockers from Carlos Santana to Bonnie Raitt, from Stephen Stills to Chrissie Hynde and from Jackson Browne to Jimmy Buffet coined a new term for criminal activity within its Stalinist realm: “Elvispresleyism.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Over 100 African Migrants Saved in Strait of Sicily

Augusta, 10 January (AKI) — A total of 105 African migrants were due to arrive in Sicily on Friday after the Italian navy rescued them from a motorised dinghy.

The migrants, said to be from Senegal, Mali, Gambia, Guinea and Sierra Leone were due reach the port of Augusta aboard an Italian navy vessel.

A helicopter patrolling the Strait of Sicily spotted the migrants’ dinghy listing in rough seas on Thursday.

A total of 233 migrants from Africa and from Pakistan disembarked in Augusta last week after a navy frigate rescued them from a 33-foot boat off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa

Over 6,500 people have been rescued since mid-October when Italy stepped up Mediterranean patrols after more than 360 migrants drowned off Lampedusa earlier that month in one of the worst tragedies of Europe’s migrant crisis.

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

4 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/12/2014

  1. The fact that the Tea Party folks elicited such a comment by Soros can only mean he sees them as a threat to his agenda and those statist fat cats in the GOP that are doing his bidding.

    Good for the Tea party folks. I can only hope they manage to round file some of the traitors in the GOP ranks this fall.

  2. “George Soros praised Republican leaders for “fighting back” against the Tea Party,”
    That in itself is proof positive that the Tea Party needs to coalesce into a real, electable party.

  3. Ariel Sharon was more than just a soldier and statesman . He became an inspirational ideal , someone challenging the individual to find in himself the kind of stubborn courage that just refuses to accept less than victory , when all conventional wisdom points to damage control .
    By his example he shaped the psycology of the IDF , from the tank driver til the chief of staf . We have alle heard the recordings of his poverfull voice comanding the battle ,standig alone steady as a rock in the roaring floodstream of battle .
    He did not lead his men from behind . He never comanded anybody to do anything which he had not done himself in worse circumstances .
    The russian SAM missiles which had neutralized the israeli air supperiority in 1973 , was destroyed by small groups of israeli paratroupers operating far behind enemy lines . Every one of these men knew that Sharon had led countless similar missions in his youth , and that even now he burned to do it again .
    Later on the leftwing establishment used all the resources of media and legality to take away his honour and achievements . It didnt work . Too many soldiers had experienced real greatnes .

  4. Wasn’t it Mr. Soros train that derailed and exploded with crude oil on board just this last week? Does anyone wonder why the pipeline is not being built?
    Oh yes, ecologically unsound… Much better to transport it by train!

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