The Turkish lira has reached a record low against both the dollar and the euro. The currency’s new plunge occurred after the government announced that Turkey’s public debt had increased significantly. The Istanbul stock market also plummeted when the announcement was made.
In other news, the Dutch authorities have arrested a young man and a teenage girl for their suspected role in helping a 15-year-old girl to travel to Syria to fight in the jihad.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Derius, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, Steen, Takuan Seiyo, 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.
Italy: Over 200,000 Jobs at Risk Says Union
Rome, 15 January (AKI) — A total of 208,283 people claimed benefits for temporarily laid off workers last year, meaning they are in real danger of being made permanently unemployed in the near future, the Cisl trade union said on Wednesday.
There were 522,000 fewer people employed in the third quarter of 2013, of whom 333,000 were in the economically less developed south, Cisl said, describing the situation as “desolate”.
Jobs were being lost “continuously” and “rapidly” including those held by workers on temporary contracts, the union said.
Unemployment reached a record 12.7 pecent of the workforce in November with nearly 42 percent of under-25s out of work, central statistics bureau Istat reported last week.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Milan Stock Exchange Rises by 1.6% to Pre-Crisis Levels
FTSE Mib surpasses 20,000 points, European indexes soaring
(ANSA) — Milan, January 15 — Milan’s leading stock exchange, the FTSE Mib, passed the 20,000-point mark late Wednesday afternoon — a level last seen in July 2011 before a devastating eurozone crisis hit Italy — and ended the day’s trading up by 1.6%.
The FTSE Mib closed at 20,045 points after passing the 20,000 mark last seen July 5, 2011.
The spread between Italy’s 10-year bond and German Bunds closed at 203 points, down from 207 basis points at Tuesday’s close, with the yield on Italian ten-year paper at 3.86%. The spread between ultra-safe German bonds and the Italian equivalent gives an indication of how investors view prospects for the Italian economy.
Markets cheered as the FTSE Mib passed 20,000 points, a sort of benchmark for the pre-crisis period.
Soon after the Milan index last saw that level, financial markets were hit hard as the eurozone crisis began, combining a government debt crisis, a banking crisis and a growth-and-competitive crisis.
While the crisis started in Greece, it quickly struck at confidence in numerous other European markets — including Italy.
For months it was feared that Italy would fall into a Greek-style meltdown, a situation that led to the resignation of former premier Silvio Berlusconi in November 2011 and the appointment of a caretaker government headed by former European commissioner Mario Monti.
Almost all of Europe’s major stock exchange indexes were rising at the end of the trading day Wednesday. Frankfurt’s DAX hit a new record at 9,733.81 points after rising by 2.03%, while Paris was up 1.35% with the CAC 40 at 4,332.07, London was up by 0.78% with the FTSE 100 at 6,819.86, and Madrid rose 1.38% leading the IBEX 35 to close at 10,525.00.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Letta Says He Want to ‘Proceed Quickly’ on Privatization
Government intends to sell parts of publicly owned assets
(ANSA) — Rome, January 15 — The Italian government wants to move quickly on its privatization plans, Premier Enrico Letta said Wednesday.
During a meeting with members of the privatization committee, Letta — who had just returned from a three-day State visit to Mexico — said the government intends to “proceed quickly” on the sale of parts of certain publicly owned assets.
The meeting of the committee, established by the economy ministry, included Economy Minister Fabrizio Saccomanni.
In November, Letta announced that Italy will raise up to 12 billion euros from the sale of government stakes in several companies including oil and gas giant Eni.
Half the proceeds from the sale, which should net between 10 billion euros and 12 billion euros, will be used to fund economic stimulus measures, said Letta.
The other half will be applied to reducing Italy’s debt, said Letta, who added that this privatization package was only the first with more sales likely in the future.
The Italian government has also been in talks to possibly sell off up to 40% of the postal service for at least four billion euros, Letta’s office has said.
That sale would inject much-needed capital in Italy, whose debt of over two trillion euros makes it one of the largest debtor nations in the world.
Poste Italiane is a public company but in total control of the Italian government, whose sole shareholder is the economy ministry.
It also provides financial in addition to postal services.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
More Europe is the Answer to the Global Crisis Says Letta
Italian premier says leaders up to challenge in Mexico speech
(ANSA) — Mexico City, January 14 — Italian Premier Enrico Letta on Tuesday said strengthening the European Union is the only way out of the global economic crisis.
Speaking on a State visit to Mexico, where he was accompanied by Italian industrialists, Letta decried the rising tide of populist anti-EU sentiment, which blames EU technocrats for the crisis as well as the austerity measures prescribed to remedy it.
“It’s easy to blame Europe, but I say Europe is the solution,” Letta told attendees at a Mexican foreign ministry conference. “If we had had a stronger Europe four years ago we would have dealt with the financial crisis much better. We need political leaders capable of facing up to public opinion and telling it we need more Europe, because this is the only way we can face the global crisis,” the premier said.
His comments came as the EU gears up for European parliament elections in May, when analysts estimate nationalist, extreme right-wing, and other euro-skeptical parties are likely to gain ground.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain’s Youth Unemployment Now at Unbelievably High Levels
The news: During tough economic times, Spain’s youth unemployment has reached a record 57.7%. As of November 2013, a total of 983,000 people in Spain under age 25 are out of work.
The previous record was held by Greece, which had 58.4% of their youth unemployed in August of last year. That number went down to 54.8% two months later. Total European unemployment sits at 12.1%, an all-time high.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Level of Economic Freedom in the United States is at an All-Time Low
Americans have never had less economic freedom than they do right now. The 2014 Index of Economic Freedom has just been released, and it turns out that the level of economic freedom in the United States has now fallen for seven consecutive years. But of course none of us need a report or a survey to tell us that.
All we have to do is open our eyes and look around. At this point our entire society is completely dominated by control freaks and bureaucrats. Our economy is literally being suffocated to death by millions of laws, rules and regulations and each year brings a fresh tsunami of red tape. As you will see below, the U.S. government issued more than 80,000 pages of brand new rules and regulations last year on top of what we already had. Even if we didn’t have all of the other monumental economic problems that we are currently facing, all of this bureaucracy alone would be enough to kill our economy.
Yes, every society needs a few basic rules. We would have total chaos if we did not have any laws at all. But in general, when there is more economic freedom there tends to be more economic prosperity. In fact, the greatest period of economic growth in U.S. history was during a time when the federal government was much smaller, there was no Federal Reserve and there was no income tax. Most Americans do not know this.
Those that founded this nation intended for it to be a place where freedom was maximized and government intrusion into our lives was minimized.
The photo posted below was shared by U.S. Senator Mike Lee on his Facebook page. Study it carefully…
[Comments: Check out the photo and read Senator Mike Lee’s comments.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Lira Hits Another Record Low
Hitting the psychologically key level of 3 lira to the euro
(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, JANUARY 15 — The Turkish Lira slumped to a record low against the U.S. dollar and the euro after the announcement of current account deficit data that fueled concerns over the country’s financing vulnerabilities, as daily Hurriyet reports. The Turkish currency sank yesterday to a record low against the euro, hitting the psychologically key level of three lira to the euro. After starting off the day at around the 2.18 level, the Turkish currency jumped to an all-time record of 2.1977 against the dollar. The Istanbul stock market also lost ground, sliding 1.32% to 67,221.75 points. The slump followed the Central Bank’s announcement that Turkey’s current account deficit had risen to USD 3.9 billion in November from USD 2.9 billion the previous month. The current account deficit recorded USD 55.9 billion in January-November indicating an increase of USD 12.3 billion, while the current account deficit excluding non-monetary gold decreased by USD 3.5 million over the same period of the previous year decreasing to USD 45.5 billion, the statement released on the bank’s website read. The current account deficit has also become USD 60.8 billion on an annual basis.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Voodoo Economics and Unemployment
This wave of new immigrants has a different agenda and that is why blanket amnesty must be stopped
Ninety-two millions of Americans are unemployed yet the spin masters are telling voters with a straight face that the economy is recovering nicely. The much touted 6.7 percent (U-3) unemployment rate has dropped again miraculously in December thanks to voodoo economics and statistics that totally discount millions of discouraged workers who have dropped out the labor force and stopped looking for work.
If Americans out of the labor force are counted, the unemployed rate is the U-6 reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 13 percent. The civilian labor force participation also dropped to 62.8 percent.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
We Will be Told Hyperinflation is Necessary, Proper, Patriotic and Ethical
Our monetary leaders do not understand the true nature of money and banking.
Hyperinflation leads to the complete breakdown in the demand for a currency, which means simply that no one wishes to hold it. Everyone wants to get rid of that kind of money as fast as possible. Prices, denominated in the hyper-inflated currency, suddenly and dramatically go through the roof. The most famous examples, although there are many others, are Germany in the early 1920s and Zimbabwe just a few years ago. German Reichsmarks and Zim dollars were printed in million and even trillion unit denominations.
We may scoff at such insanity and assume that America could never suffer from such an event. We are modern. We know too much. Our monetary leaders are wise and have unprecedented power to prevent such an awful outcome.
Think again.
Our monetary leaders do not understand the true nature of money and banking; thus, they advocate monetary expansion as the cure for every economic ill. The multiple quantitative easing programs perfectly illustrate this mindset. Furthermore, our monetary leaders actually advocate a steady increase in the price level, what is popularly known as inflation. Any perceived reduction in the inflation rate is seen as a potentially dangerous deflationary trend, which must be countered by an increase in the money supply, a reduction in interest rates, and/or quantitative easing. So an increase in inflation will be viewed as success, which must be built upon to ensure that it continues. This mindset will prevail even when inflation runs at extremely high rates.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
“They Got Away With Murdering My Son”: Mother of Police Beating Victim
Protesters gathered on Monday evening to rally against the not guilty verdicts of two former officers in the beating death of a mentally ill homeless man.
An Orange County jury found Manuel Ramos and Jay Cicinelli not guilty of all charges — including manslaughter — in the 2011 death of Kelly Thomas. A surveillance video showed police pummeling and stun-gunning him.
Ron and Cathy Thomas told reporters that the verdict effectively tells police officers that they can kill people and get away with it.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Big Banks Launder Hundreds of Billions of Illegal Drug Cartel Money
The big banks have laundered hundreds of billions of dollars for drug cartels.
See this, this, this, this, thisand this (indeed, drug dealers kept the banking system afloat during the depths of the 2008 financial crisis).
The HSBC employee who blew the whistle on the banks’ money laundering for terrorists and drug cartels says said: “America is losing the drug war because our banks are [still] financing the cartels”, and “Banks financing drug cartels … affects every single American”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
There are lots of Americans who, after the first five years of living under the governance of Barack Hussein Obama, have concluded that, among his most notable characteristics, he is an incompetent, a pathological liar, a Marxist, and, fearful as the prospect is, a potential dictator who will not leave office when a new President is due to be sworn in.
The fears are largely based on the astonishingly lax Congress that, with the exception of Rep. Darrell Issa and the House Oversight and Reform Committee, has done little to investigate the many scandals that litter the Obama administration.
It doesn’t help that the Department of Justice and possibly the FBI have been politically corrupted.
It doesn’t help when the Commander-in-Chief has forced a significant number of the armed forces top generals and admirals into early retirement or removed them from duty. The question is why.
It doesn’t help when we learn of the purchase of millions of dollars of ammunition by the Department of Homeland Security and other measures that appear to be turning it into an internal army.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Congressman Looking to Introduce Bill to Stop TSA “Barking Orders” At Public
A Democratic Congressman is looking at the possibility of introducing legislation that would make it law for TSA employees to treat the public with respect and politeness at transport hubs.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) revealed the potential move at a Congressional hearing this week into the TSA’s Screening Partnership Program.
“There’s no excuse for someone barking orders continuously at the public at any airport in America who is an employee of the federal government, or a contractor for the federal government,” Connolly said. “I’d lose my job if I treated the public that way and rightfully so. My staff would be fired if I find that they treated my public that way.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Defense Contractor Tried to Smuggle F-35 Blueprints to Iran
An engineer for a major American defense contractor tried to smuggle thousands of secret documents, including blueprints, on America’s multi-billion-dollar F-35 stealth fighter to Iran in boxes labeled as “household goods,” U.S. prosecutors say.
Mozaffar Khazaee, a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen, was reportedly arrested late last week as he was attempting to travel to Germany and then on to Iran. Weeks earlier, Khazaee had arranged for a shipping company to take boxes containing “sensitive technical manuals, specification sheets, and other proprietary material” related to the F-35 and its engines to a contact in Iran, according to an affidavit filed by a Special Agent of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.
The reams of documents were discovered in November when Customs officers inspected a truck shipment Khazaee had sent from Connecticut to California, which was intended to go on to Hamadan, Iran, the affidavit said. The 44 boxes, which had been described to the shipping company as containing “books and college-related items, two suitcases, a vacuum cleaner and some other items,” actually held “thousands of pages contained in dozens of manuals/binders relating to the JSF (F-35 Joint Strike Fighter) program.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Devil’ Baby Terrifies New Yorkers in an Epic Viral Video Prank
Last fall, patrons at a coffee shop were frightened when a young woman used her telekinetic powers to lift a rude patron off the floor. And now, people are getting scared out of their wits by a demonic baby popping out of a stroller with horrific screams and projectile vomiting.
OK, so it isn’t a real demon baby. It’s a remote-controlled animatronic creation that surprised random New Yorkers while hidden cameras captured their reactions. And it wasn’t just a prank; the stunt is actually a viral promotion for this weekend’s found-footage horror movie, “Devil’s Due”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Engineer Accused of Trying to Smuggle Military Jet Engine Documents, Blueprints to Iran
former engineer for a U.S. defense contractor has been arrested and accused of trying to ship thousands of pages of documents, blueprints, technical manuals, and diagrams of military aircraft engines to Iran.
The U.S. Attorney’s office for Connecticut said Mozaffar Khazaee, 59, was arrested at Newark Liberty International Airport Thursday after arriving from Indianapolis and before attempting to board a flight to Frankfurt, Germany en route to Tehran. He is charged with transporting, transmitting and transferring in interstate or foreign commerce goods obtained by theft, conversion or fraud, and faces as long as 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.
The Hartford Court reported Monday that Khazaee is a former engineer at East Hartford, Conn.-based Pratt & Whitney, where he worked on a team that conducted strength and durability evaluations for all the company’s engine components, including the F119 engine for the military’s F-22 Raptor engine. The paper reported that Khazaee was laid off in August along with approximately 400 other employees and moved to Indianapolis later in the year.
Federal authorities were put on Khazaee’s trail when a shipment of boxes labeled “household goods” arrived in Long Beach, Calif. from Khazaee’s home in Manchester, Conn. Court documents say that the label was addressed to Khazaee’s brother-in-law, Mohammad Payendah, in Hamadan, Iran…
| — Hat tip: Takuan Seiyo | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-Obama Pastor Jeremiah Wright Slams President in Speech
Jeremiah Wright, the former spiritual mentor to President Obama who shouted “God damn America,” was a keynote speaker at a Wednesday breakfast held by the Chicago Teachers Union to honor Martin Luther King Jr. He used the occasion to slam the president’s military and foreign policy.
In his speech, Wright said that although King declared “I have a dream, Barack says, I have a drone.” He called for a rejection of the “three-headed demon” of “racism, militarism and capitalism,” according to a report by the Chicago Sun-Times.
“Every Tuesday morning, there’s a kill list that the president decides who they’re going to kill this week,” Wright said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-Pratt and Whitney Dual Iranian US Citizen Caught Shipping Files to Iran
One wonders what is in the heads of security officials at Pratt & Whitney in East Hartford when they cleared Mozaffar Khazaee to work on testing of the engines for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Khazee, a dual US Iranian citizen since 1991 got laid off by P&W last August and steals hundreds of pages of documentation when he left for Indianapolis. He was caught by customs officials in Long Beach , Californai shipping boxes of the F-35 documentation and manuals to his brother in Tehran, He’s arrested at Newark international Airport last Thursday prior to boarding a flight that would have ultimately taken him to Tehran. Was Khazee simply a disaffected laid off P&W employee with misplaced loyalties or was he a so-called sleeper agent. for the Islamic Regime in Iran? Certainly, he could have done a better job of concealing the documents that he purloined. That incompetence may ultimately have been his undoing. Doubtless both the Pentagon and P&W security will have their hands full investigating this latest security breach. Is this a case of inadequate clearance checks by the maligned o security clerance contractor USIS who you may recall cleared Snowden when he took his
job in Hawaii with Booz Allen and skipped out with a veritable treasure trove of NSA intercepts to his ultimate destination in Russia? Note that P&W,’s parent corporation, United Technolgies Corporation, was caught in an earlier episode with passing unauthorized helicopter software information to Chian for which it paid $75 million in fines in 2012…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Google’s Reach Expands Into Your Home More Via $3.2 Billion Nest Acquisition
Google said Monday that it will pay $3.2 billion in cash for Nest, which makes smart thermostats and smoke alarms. Rest assured that Google is hoping to plug smart homes together with Android devices, its developer ecosystem and treasure trove of data.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
House Passes $1.1 Trillion Spending Bill and Sends it to Senate
The House on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly, 359-67, to approve a $1.1 trillion spending bill for the current fiscal year, shrugging off the angry threats of Tea Party activists and conservative groups whose power has ebbed as Congress has moved toward fiscal cooperation.
The legislation, 1,582 pages in length and unveiled only two nights ago, embodies precisely what many House Republicans have railed against since the Tea Party movement began, a massive bill dropped in the cover of darkness and voted on before lawmakers could possibly have read it.
The conservative political action committee Club For Growth denounced it and said a vote for it would hurt any lawmaker’s conservative scorecard. Heritage Action, the political arm of the Heritage Foundation, castigated it as a profligate budget buster that is returning Washington to its free-spending ways.
| [Return to headlines] |
Is Your Cell Phone Worth Risking Your Life?
Two people have been killed and one person is in critical condition after falling into the Chicago River on Sunday night. A cell phone was dropped over the rail onto the river which was still frozen slightly. The man apparently jumped over the rail to retrieve his cell phone and fell into the icy river and the two other friends jumped in after in an attempt to save their friend. An eyewitness reported hearing screaming and running to the area to find nobody around. The police have found two of the three friends but the third friend has been presumed dead and only one person survived.
This unfortunate situation which caused the death of two people and another severe injury whose wellbeing is in many people’s thoughts and prayers as well as for the families hurt in this incident.
This tragic event unfortunately has pointed out a major problem that plagues our current society and its dependence or love of technology that a person is willing to risk their life for a cell phone. I can understand why the friends would try to rescue a friend from falling into a frozen river but this situation would not have occurred if the phone was just left alone. This is a microcosm of the problem which has plagued the entire United States and its obsession and dependence on technology even willing to risk your life in order to save a cell phone proves how far people will go for something which can be replaced.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Low Flying Homeland Security Helicopter to Test for Radiation
The Department of Homeland Security has announced that it will begin periodically flying a large helicopter at extremely low altitudes over Baltimore for years to come to detect background radiation in preparation for a nuclear attack.
Beginning this week, the federal agency will use a “massive helicopter” from the National Nuclear Security Administration to test for naturally occurring radiation by flying at an altitude of just 150 feet.
“That is low. That’s like ten stories on a normal building so that’s not very high at all,” Captain Jeff Long told CBS Baltimore, adding that the chopper is much larger and louder than normal helicopters.
The DHS says it is conducting the tests so authorities can respond more quickly in the event of a dirty bomb or a nuclear attack.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
More Racial Protectionism From Holder, And a Message to White Americans
by Allen West
When the concept of doing a website was presented to me, initially I scoffed thinking there wouldn’t be enough critical material daily to comment on — boy was I wrong. Every day I am amazed at the insanity I witness in our America and here is another example. According to a report in The Hill, Attorney General Eric Holder is at it again with his racial preference policies.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Holidays in the USA: Sign the Petition
Sumayyah McTaggart, a confident homeschooled eighth grader, from Great Falls, VA along with her friend Aman Hazer of Dunn-Loring, VA take civics classes at Compass Homeschooling Enrichment in Oakton, VA. Fatimah Dandashi of Falls Church, VA, a seventh grader also has classes with the same civics teacher, Leila Leoncavallo.
Assigned a class project, two weeks ago, to petition the government about an issue that they were passionate about, the three formed a petition on the White House website. Inspired by the Montgomery County Equality4Eid campaign and concerned about attending class on Eid day, the three friends decided to address the issue of recognizing Eid day on the calendar…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
N.S.A. Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers
WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency has implanted software in nearly 100,000 computers around the world that allows the United States to conduct surveillance on those machines and can also create a digital highway for launching cyberattacks.
While most of the software is inserted by gaining access to computer networks, the N.S.A. has increasingly made use of a secret technology that enables it to enter and alter data in computers even if they are not connected to the Internet, according to N.S.A. documents, computer experts and American officials.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NSA Uses Radio Waves to Snoop on Off-Line Computers Worldwide
The National Security Agency has placed software on nearly 100,000 computers around the world that allows the U.S. to conduct surveillance on those machines using radio frequency technology, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
The secret technology allows the agency to gain access to computers that other countries have tried to protect from spying or cyberattacks, even if they aren’t connected to the Internet, The Times reported, citing NSA documents, computer experts and U.S. officials.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Announces Plan to Rule by Executive Order
Obama has officially announced plans to trash the Constitution and move forward with a socialist-corporatist dictatorship without input from Congress or the American people. He made the announcement Tuesday during a cabinet meeting.
“We’re not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the kind of help they need. I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone,” Obama said.
“And I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward in helping to make sure our kids are getting the best education possible, making sure that our businesses are getting the kind of support and help they need to grow and advance, to make sure that people are getting the skills that they need to get those jobs that our businesses are creating.”
Article I Section I of the Constitution clearly states all legislative powers reside with Congress. The founders were inspired by the writings of Montesquieu and insisted on three separate branches of government and instituted a system of checks and balances to prevent tyranny. “There can be no liberty where the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person,” Montesquieu wrote.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Petition on White House Site Calls for Public Schools to Recognize Muslim Holidays
A small group of Muslim students from the Commonwealth of Virginia have created a petition on a White House website calling for public schools to recognize Muslim holidays. Posted on the White House’s “We the People” site last month, as of Tuesday morning the petition has garnered over 28,000 signatories from across the United States…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Police Beat Elderly Deaf Man for ‘Refusing Orders’
An elderly deaf Oklahoma man was beat by two highway patrol troopers earlier this month for allegedly refusing to comply during a traffic stop.
According to reports, 64-year-old Pearl Pearson left the scene of a minor automobile accident before being pulled over by Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers on January 3.
After issuing several vocal commands from their police vehicle, troopers claim Pearson refused to show his hands. Despite a large placard on his driver’s door stating, “Driver is deaf,” Pearson claims troopers immediately began hitting his face as he attempted to show his ID, which also states that he is hearing-impaired.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Prediction: Racial Quota for School Discipline Will Aggravate Zero Tolerance
(CNSNews.com) — The Obama administration’s new “guidance package” aimed at reducing out-of-school suspensions and eliminating racial disparities in school disciplinary proceedings will not reduce or eliminate widely criticized “zero tolerance” policies but exacerbate them instead, according to a former Education Department lawyer.
“The irony is the more overbroad and sweeping and draconian your disciplinary rules, the less disparate impact you have, and they’re telling the schools you must get rid of your disparate impacts,” Hans Bader, now a senior attorney at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), told CNSNews.com.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Report: US Spy Agency Infiltrates Personal Computers Worldwide
The U.S. National Security Agency is reported to have implanted malicious software in nearly 100,000 computers worldwide, allowing the U.S. to conduct surveillance on those machines while creating a digital highway for launching cyberatacks
The New York Times reported that the N.S.A. inserts most of the software by gaining access to computer networks, but has also increasingly made use of a secret technology that enables it to enter and alter data in computers even if they are not connected to the internet.
The Times also said that the N.S.A. has successfully implanted the software into such targets as Russian military networks, systems used by Mexican police and drug cartels, trade groups inside the European Union, and anti-terrorism partners such as Saudi Arabia, India and Pakistan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Retired Cop Accused of Murdering Man at Cinema for Texting
Authorities say a retired police officer has been charged with fatally shooting a man during an argument over text messaging at a Florida theatre.
Sheriff’s spokeswoman Melanie Snow said two couples had been watching Lone Survivor on Monday at a cinema north of Tampa. She said 71-year-old Curtis Reeves asked 43-year-old Chad Oulson to stop texting and an argument led to the shooting.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Security Risks of Embedded Systems
We’re at a crisis point now with regard to the security of embedded systems, where computing is embedded into the hardware itself — as with the Internet of Things. These embedded computers are riddled with vulnerabilities, and there’s no good way to patch them…
If we don’t solve this soon, we’re in for a security disaster as hackers figure out that it’s easier to hack routers than computers. At a recent Def Con, a researcher looked at thirty home routers and broke into half of them — including some of the most popular and common brands. (www.defcon.org/images/defcon-18/dc-18-presentations/Heffner/DEFCON-18-Heffner-Routers.pdf)
To understand the problem, you need to understand the embedded systems market.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Senate Dems Plan to Pressure TV Networks Into Covering Climate Change
Senate Democrats pledging to get more aggressive on climate change will soon pressure the major TV networks to give the topic far greater attention on the Sunday talking-head shows.
Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, are gathering colleagues’ signatures on a letter to the networks asserting that they’re ignoring global warming.
“It is beyond my comprehension that you have ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox, that their Sunday shows have discussed climate change in 2012, collectively, for all of eight minutes,” Sanders said, citing analysis by the liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) openly identifies himself as a socialist.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Teacher Who Saved Students in NM School Shooting Praised as ‘Amazing Man’
With a sawed-off shotgun pointed straight at him, a New Mexico social studies teacher calmly talked a 12-year-old student into putting down his weapon — and stopped the country’s latest school shooting from being something much worse.
Two students were shot, an 11-year-old boy hit in the face and a 13-year-old girl hit in the shoulder. The teacher, John Masterson, was being praised as a hero for ending the crisis Tuesday before others were shot.
“He is an amazing man,” said Gov. Susana Martinez, who met with the teacher. “He stood there and allowed the gun to be pointed right at him so there would be no more young kids hurt.”
Advertise | AdChoicesThe suspected shooter, whose name has not been released, was in police custody early Wednesday. State police said the boy came to Berrendo Middle School on Tuesday morning with a 20-gauge, sawed-off shotgun hidden in a bag.
Authorities said he opened fire just after 8 a.m. in the gym, where about 500 students.
“I just saw blood everywhere,” Essance Sosa, 12, told The Associated Press. “Everyone started screaming and running.”
The two victims taken to a local hospital, then flown by helicopter to a better-equipped facility in Lubbock, Texas. The boy was taken to surgery twice and was listed in critical coundition. The girl was stable.
The boy’s name was not released. The girl was identified by the governor as Kendal Sanders.
“I am asking that all New Mexicans keep these children in your prayers,” Martinez told reporters…
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The Thinnest Americans Are Asian Americans, CDC Data Show
Which Americans are least likely to be overweight or obese? Asian Americans, by a long shot. New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal that 38.6% of Asian American adults have a body mass index over 25, the threshold for being considered overweight. That’s far below the 66.7% rate among whites, 76.7% rate among blacks and 78.8% rate among Latinos.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Virtual Society is Being Built: Refining the Matrix
Research on simulating the human brain is marching forward. Corporations are attempting to build devices that talk to their users in a “realistic” fashion.
These computers would continuously update profiles of their owners, seeking to read their emotional states and preferences and respond to them.
The old phrase, “the machine age,” takes on new meaning. Sellers are betting that consumers want machines that understand them. This bet has a corollary: human to human interaction is just too complicated and unpredictable.
Instead, machines can be programmed to reflect their users. Narcissism wins…
There’s one major stumbling block. The emotional range of an alive and alert human is too wide, too subtle, and too varied to embed in a machine that is supposed to stand in as a friend and companion.
The response to that problem is: reduce the range of the human user.
This campaign has been underway for some time. Watch movies, watch television shows and video games, listen to popular music, listen to politicians. It’s all about reduction. Simplification. Lowest common denominators.
Observe the slogans of social movements. If you have the stomach for it, go into a public school and watch what teachers are doing to your children.
[…]
This isn’t really about machines acting more like humans. It’s about humans acting like machines.
[Comment: Good article. ]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Warped Priorities of the American Press
In a shocking development, the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., has put its weight and prestige behind the bogus “news organization” Al Jazeera and its reporters, now jailed in Egypt, for associating with the pro-terrorist Muslim Brotherhood.
A statement issued by the NPC calls for the “immediate release” of “imprisoned Al Jazeera journalists” in Egypt, but fails to take into account the pro-terrorist nature of this so-called “independent” news organization and its documented links to the Muslim Brotherhood.
NPC President Angela Greiling Keane, whose name appears on the statement, is a reporter for Bloomberg News who mostly covers transportation issues and has no record of expertise in foreign affairs. Her bio says, “She’s written about topics ranging from Chevrolet Volt fires to Toyota’s lobbyist revolving door to the Postal Service buying too many Simpsons cartoon stamps.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ultimate Nightmare: Anti-Gun Michael Bloomberg as Future Defense Secretary
A potential future candidate, Bloomberg will likely expand current gun confiscation training by the military if appointed head of Pentagon.
Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, known for his anti-gun agenda, was considered to succeed Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense and will likely be a candidate in the future, a nightmare scenario considering that the military is already training to confiscate firearms from Americans.
In his latest book Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War, Gates revealed that Bloomberg was on his “short list” of candidates considered to succeed him.
As Bloomberg is well known for abusing his authority to attack gun rights, this revelation, combined with past revelations of soldiers already training to disarm Americans, is very concerning for peaceful gun owners.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Could US Lose Access to Keystone Oil? Canada Moves to Plan B
Where crude oil is concerned, Canada waits for no country. It doesn’t matter how wealthy or how friendly that country is — or whether that country is the United States.
With the Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline stuck in limbo on the U.S. side, Canada’s Energy Board recently gave a thumbs up to a $6.5 billion pipeline designed to carry 525,000 barrels of oil per day from the oil sands of Alberta to ships on the British Columbia coast. The final destination is most likely Asia.
The development has the U.S. oil industry attacking the Obama administration over its drawn-out process.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
83 Sicilian Assemblymembers, 14 Consultants Probed for Graft
‘Allegedly spent 10 mn euros on jewelry, designer lingerie’
(ANSA) — Palermo, January 14 — Palermo prosecutors on Tuesday placed 83 Sicilian Regional Assembly (ARS) members and 14 of their consultants and employees under investigation for illicitly spending an estimated 10 million euros in public funds on jewelry, designer lingerie, and stays in luxury hotels.
The embezzlement probe covers the last and second-to-last legislature, finance police sources said. Among those called in for questioning are former Democratic Party (PD) regional assembly whip Antonello Cracolici, who is the current chairman of the ARS institutional affairs commission.
“All the charges are related to my activity as whip. I haven’t been charged with pocketing a single euro,” Cracolici told the assembly, adding he will explain more in a news briefing Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Amazing Story of Anglo-Saxon King Oswald Who Inspired Tolkien’s Aragorn
King Oswald of Northumbria is little-known today, but a new book argues that he should be remembered as the king who united Britain and turned the English into Christians.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ancient Nordic Grog Intoxicated the Elite
Ancient Scandinavians quaffed an alcoholic mixture of barley, honey, cranberries, herbs and even grape wine imported from Greece and Rome, new research finds.
This Nordic “grog” predates the Vikings. It was found buried in tombs alongside warriors and priestesses, and is now available at liquor stores across the United States, thanks to a reconstruction effort by Patrick McGovern, a biomolecular archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and Delaware-based Dogfish Head Craft Brewery.
“You’d think, with all these different ingredients, it sort of makes your stomach churn,” McGovern, the study’s lead author, told LiveScience. “But actually, if you put it in the right amounts and balance out the ingredients, it really does taste very good.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Islamic Group Patrols Clubs to ‘Protect’ Polish Women
The far-right Polish Defence League (PLO) has launched “patriotic patrols” in Poland’s bars and nightclubs in a bid, it says, to protect Polish women from being chatted up by Muslims.
“We are there to observe how Muslims behave and to intervene,” the league stated on its official web site.
“In the space of one evening, in hundreds of places across the country, incidents occur involving the seduction of our female compatriots,” the league claims.
“This is a fight for the future of our country and our women,” the PLO claims.
“Because one of these girls, unwittingly charmed by an exotic prince could, along with her offspring, end up very badly in the Islamic world, which is advancing on us with great strides.”
According to the PLO, which currently has 3600 fans on its Facebook page, Polish women are warned during the patrols about the “threats” of getting involved with Muslim men, the Gazeta Wyborcza daily reports.
Poland has one of the smallest Muslim populations in Europe, with current estimates between 20,000 and 40,000. The oldest community is of about 3000 Tatars, mostly based in villages in north east Poland.
‘Defending Polish honour’
The Polish Defence League models itself on the far-right English Defence League (EDL) which was founded in Luton, southern England, in 2009 — though the organisation, which claims 25,000 members in the UK, has been in some disarray recently after the resignation of its founder members Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll.
On the PLO web site, a post by ‘Mr Niki’ dated 2 January describes a visit to one club in Warsaw where the ‘activists’ — who were “defending the honour of Polish women” — observed what they describe as “Muslims” dancing with Polish girls.
“We walked between the dancers and parted them. This was much more effective than simply talking to the ladies,” the web site says.
Not all interventions were successful, however.
“At around 3 am, one of the Muslims decided to try and seduce a beautiful but unfortunately extremely intoxicated girl. Later when she went to the restroom we waited outside and talked to her for around 15 minutes [about what she was doing] but the conservation did not end positively and she returned to her ‘chosen one’ even more submissively,” the post continues…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
China Offers Bulgaria Help With Big Projects Such as Railways and Nuclear Power
China is willing to make its expertise in areas such as high-speed rail and nuclear power available to Bulgaria as it pursues infrastructure construction projects, Premier Li Keqiang said on Tuesday, China Daily reports.
Li made the remarks at the Great Hall of the People as he met visiting Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev, the first foreign head of state to visit China this year. “China has advanced technology and rich experience in areas including high-speed railways, expressways, nuclear power and hydropower, and we expect to actively participate in infrastructure construction in Bulgaria,” Li said, according to a news release issued after the meeting.
Bulgaria, a key transit country linking central Europe and the Middle East, has an extensive network of railways and highways, and the government has approved a grand plan to upgrade and expand it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China to Electrify Belarus-Lithuania Link
BELARUS Railways (BC) has awarded China National Electric Import and Export Corporation (CUEC) a contract to electrify the 80km line from Maladzyechna, 72km northwest of Minsk, to Gudohay and the Lithuanian border.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
English-Language Media Ignores Breivik’s Coming-Out as a Nazi
by Robert Spencer
Last Friday, I published a translation of a Swedish reportabout a letter mass murderer Anders Breivik had sent to the media, in which he revealed that he was a Nazi, and that he had published his “counter-jihad manifesto” intending to destroy the counter-jihad movement. The Swedish news source Expo Idag (Expo Today) reported:…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
EU Calls for Stronger Response to Extremism
The European Union’s executive arm is calling for stronger,coordinated action to combat what it calls the rising threat of violent political extremism in Europe.
EU home affairs commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said Wednesday too few EU member countries are facing up to the threat. She says the bloc needs “strong, preventive measures to counter extremism in all its forms.”
Malmstrom and other EU commissioners want the European Union and its 28 member states to act in 10 areas. Among them: creation of an EU-wide “knowledge hub” to share best practices on dealing with political extremism, support for “exit strategies” to help people leave potentially violent groups, and using the Internet to fight extremist propaganda.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU ‘Must Intervene’ In Event of Death Penalty for Marines
Capital punishment ‘totally unacceptable,’ Tajani says
(ANSA) — Rome, January 14 — The European Union (EU) could not fail to intervene in the event of a request for the death penalty against two Italian marines on trial in India for allegedly killing two fishermen there, European Commission (EC) Vice-President Antonio Tajani said Tuesday.
Speaking on Italian radio, Tajani said he had written to EC President Jose’ Manuel Barroso proposing a suspension of free-trade negotiations with India and the renegotiation of favourable tariffs should India renege on its promise not to apply the death penalty to Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone. The marines are accused of killing Valentine (aka Gelastine) and Ajesh Binki after allegedly mistaking them for pirates and opening fire on their fishing trawler from the privately owned Italian-flagged oil-tanker MT Enrica Lexie during an anti-piracy mission off the coast of Kerala on February 15, 2012.
On Friday Indian newspaper The Hindustan Times reported that India’s anti-terrorist National Investigation Agency (NIA) was pressing to apply a severe 2002 law designed to fight terrorism in international waters against the marines that includes the possibility of capital punishment.
The alleged development comes despite previous reassurances by the Indian government that the marines would not face death. “The death penalty goes against all EU principles, Europe was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize partly for its opposition to the death penalty and so a choice such as this, against two marines engaged in anti-piracy operations, would be totally unacceptable,” said Tajani, the European Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship.
Indian news agency PTI has reported that the Indian interior minister would probably decide how the NIA is to proceed “over the next few days”. The case has sparked a diplomatic row between the governments of India and Italy, stemming from a conflict of opinions over legal jurisdiction and functional immunity.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU Strengthens Response to Radicalization, Violent Extremism
BRUSSELS, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) — The European Commission (EC) on Wednesday adopted a communique identifying 10 areas in which member states and the European Union (EU) are called to reinforce action to prevent all types of extremism that leads to violence…
[JP note: See http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/networks/radicalisation_awareness_network/index_en.htm ]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
France: Homeless Man Lived in Paris Airport for 26 Years
A homeless man has lived in the shadows of Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris for nearly three decades, it emerged this week. His path to a life spent out sight in car parks, stairwells and storage rooms at the airport is as tragic as it is simple.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French President’s ‘Lover’ Pulled From Villa Medici Jury
Paris and Rome, 15 January (AKI) — France’s culture minister has decided not to appoint president Francois Hollande’s alleged lover, actress Julie Gayet as a jury member of the country’s prestigious Villa Medici cultural institute in Rome.
“The nomination had not been signed,” said culture minister Aurelie Filippetti’s office.
The announcement came amid rumours that Gayet, a divorced mother-of-two is four months’ pregnant with Hollande’s baby
Gayet’s name had been listed on Villa Medici’s website as recently as early on Wednesday.
The news of the appointment had first been reported on Tuesday after the actress’s name had appeared on the institute’s website.
Gayet’s nomination had reportedly been put forward “before Christmas” by Villa Medici’s director Eric de Chassey.
The Villa Medici jury allocates state grants to artists.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Charity Given Full Custody of Maria, Court Rules
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JANUARY 14 — A court in Larissa, central Greece, on Tuesday ruled that the charity group Smile of the Child should be given full custody of Maria, a girl aged between 5 and 6 who was found living in a Roma camp in October with a couple that had falsely declared being her biological parents, as Kathimerini online reports. Maria was removed from a Roma camp in Farsala, near Lamia, in October when a prosecutor supervising a police operation in the area became suspicious that the family she was living with was not her own. She was placed with the Smile of the Child charity as authorities, with the help of Interpol and other local agencies around the world, investigated whether she was a victim of child trafficking after DNA tests confirmed that the couple she was living with Farsala were not her biological parents. The investigation traced the parents of the girl, who is known as Maria, to a Roma camp in Bulgaria. They said that they were having trouble supporting their large family and had given Maria to the couple in Greece for her well-being. The finding brought into question whether Maria would have to be returned to Bulgaria and placed with child care services there or whether she would remain in Greece.
The Larissa court on Tuesday deemed that it was in her best interest to remain with Smile of the Child, which will be granted full custodial rights. The couple she was found living with Farsala are currently in pretrial custody for document fraud and abduction.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Guerilla Group Claiming Murder of Golden Dawn Members Slams Left, Anarchists
A new urban guerilla organization calling itself Militant Popular Revolutionary Forces that has claimed the assassination of two Golden Members, Argyris Kapelonis, 22 and Giorgos Fountoulis, 26, in Neo Iraklio in northern Athens, on November 1, 2013, slammed a portion of the Greek left and certain anarchists in a new declaration posted on an anti-establishment website on Wednesday.
In its 21-page statement, the organization condemned reaction to the Neo Iraklio murders by members of the Greek left and a number of anarchists who had referred to the assissinations as a settling of scores or had raised the issue of conpiracy and the involvement of secret agents.
The guerilla organization claimed that this kind of reaction aided the state’s efforts to “isolate and carry out a crackdown on revolutionaries who had opted for armed struggle.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Mafia Boss to Teach Prison Law Course
A former Italian mafia boss serving a life sentence will teach a course on prison law for practising lawyers, with classes to be held in the remote facility where he is being held in Sardinia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Farmers Slaughter Wolves in Protest
Farmers in Tuscany are illegally killing wolves and leaving the carcasses in villages and towns in a form of protest against the deaths of their livestock.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi Says PD Will Wait for Letta’s Call on De Girolamo
Ag minister under fire over appointments, ‘should address MPs’
(see related) (ANSA) — Rome, January 14 — The head of the center-right Democratic Party (PD) on Thursday chimed in on the sensitive case of Agriculture Minister Nunzia De Girolamo, under fire following the publication of wiretaps of her conversations regarding appointments in the southern province of Benevento.
“We’ll see what (Premier Enrico Letta) decides, it’s up to him to decide the fate of the ministers,” said Florence Mayor Matteo Renzi on Twitter of his fellow PD member. “The PD has asked her to explain her version of events before parliament. Nobody partakes in political processes in absentia”. Letta’s government has recently been hit by tension following repeated calls from Renzi to speed up action on institutional and economic reforms after his landslide victory in a party primary last month. Renzi’s activism has unsettled the balance between the PD and its main coalition partner, De Girolamo’s NCD, a group of pro-government centre-left moderates who split from loyalists of Silvio Berlusconi in November when it became clear that the ex-premier was intent on withdrawing his support for the executive.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Liguria Ex-Vice President Arrested in Spending Probe
Nicolò Scialfa accused of embezzlement and forgery
(ANSA) — Genoa, January 14 — Finance police on Tuesday arrested the former vice-president of the northern Liguria region Nicolò Scialfa in connection with a probe into spending by councillors representing his then-political party, Italia dei Valori (IdV).
Scialfa, now a regional councillor for splinter group Diritti e Libertà, is accused of embezzlement and forgery of public documents. He was IdV caucus leader at the time of the alleged spending abuses between 2010 and 2012. Finance police have also searched the homes of three other people in connection with the probe: current IdV caucus leader Maruska Piredda; Stefano Quaini, who has since quit politics; and Marylin Fusco, a councillor for Diritti e Libertà. They are under investigation for allegedly dealing in false documentation, embezzlement and aggravated fraud for the attainment of public funds.
Meanwhile, Scialfa has been placed under house arrest. Investigators claim he stole 70,000 euros from party funds. Prosecutors began investigations in autumn 2012 after it emerged that the IdV group in the Liguria regional council had already spent its entire budget of 230,000 euros for that year. Piredda reportedly then had to pay the group’s five employees out of her own pocket. “I feel bad but I am not going to resign,” said Scialfa on being placed under investigation in January 2013. “I am innocent, if I have made errors of evaluation I will discuss them with the judges and I will take full responsibility for my actions”.
He subsequently resigned as regional vice-president at the end of the month. Liguria is just one of a number of regional councils to have been hit by scandals over party spending of public funds.
In Lazio, the alleged misappropriation of funds by the caucus leader for ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s former People of Freedom (PdL) party led to the resignation of the PdL regional governor, Renata Polverini, in late 2012.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Far Right Slams Minister’s ‘Racial Immunity’
The editor of the Northern League party newspaper has claimed Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge enjoys “racial immunity”, in response to criticism after the agenda of Italy’s first black minister was published by the paper.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Rightwing Party Holds Protest to Urge Marines’ Return
Rome, 13 January (AKI) — Italy’s conservative Fratelli D’Italia party on Monday held a protest at the Italian parliament in Rome on Monday to call for the repatriation of two Italian marines facing trial in India for murder.
The protest was led by party president Ignazio La Russa and Rome’s former mayor Gianni Alemanno, and attended by Italy’s former foreign minister Giulio Terzi who resigned in March last year after the marines were returned to India.
Alemanno said Italy’s foreign minister Emma Bonino should resign if she failed to bring the marines home and said Rome sever diplomatic and trade ties with India.
“This blow to Italy is truly unacceptable…Italy must break off diplomatic and commercial relations, “ he stated.
Salvatore Girone and Massimiliano Latorre were detained in India after allegedly shooting the two fishermen while guarding an Italian oil tanker off the southern state of Kerala in February 2012.
The two marines claim they thought the two unarmed fishermen were pirates and only fired warning shots in the air.
Italy says the incident happened in international waters and the marines should be tried at home while India claims jurisdiction, saying the killings occurred in its own territorial waters.
In a statement last Friday, Italy’s prime minister Enrico Letta warned the government would “take all necessary action” to ensure the marines were spared trial under anti-piracy legislation that carried the death penalty.
Letta earlier on Friday held a summit with Bonino after Indian press reports that the marines could be sentenced to death if found guilty under India’s SUA Act.
The case sparked a major diplomatic row last year when Italy refused to return Girone and Latorre to India to face trial after New Delhi allowed them home to vote in national elections.
Rome only relented and sent the pair back to India after receiving assurances they would not face the death penalty.
India’s interior minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, said on Friday the government would decide in the next few days whether to allow India’s National Investigation Agency to filed charges against Girone and Latorre.
The NIA wants to charge the pair under Section 3 of India’s SUA Act.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Star-Aligned Temples Hint at Pompeii’s Religious Mix
Mount Vesuvius looms large in the story of Pompeii — but the temples of the ill-fated Roman town might have looked to loftier bodies. A preliminary survey of 11 temples in the ruins found evidence that at least nine were aligned with the rising of particular stars or with the position of the sun or moon on days of cultural significance.
If confirmed, the discovery could offer a unique perspective on the blending of religions in the heyday of the Roman Empire. Pompeii had been a Greek and Phoenician port of call for hundreds of years before it fell under Roman rule in 80 BC.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Two Arrested After 15-Year-Old Girl Heads for Syria
A man aged 20 and a 17-year-old girl from The Hague have been arrested on suspicion of helping a 15-year-old girl travel to Syria, Nos television said on Wednesday afternoon. Police managed to stop the girl before she got on a plane for the civil war-torn country after friends warned them about the plan.
The national counter-terrorism office said last year some 100 Dutch youngsters have left the country to take part in jihadist missions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Only 26% of Italian Business Executives Are Women
Eastern European countries lead in business gender equality
(ANSA) — Venice, January 14 — While almost one in two, or 46%, of Latvian managers are women, in Italy that percentage is just over one in four, or 26%, a D.A.S. legal expenses insurance company report showed Tuesday.
Italy lags behind most EU countries in terms of women business executives, followed only by Greece (25%), Macedonia (23%), Luxembourg (18%), and Cyprus (16%), against an EU average of 33%.
France, Lithuania, Hungary and Slovenia, beat the EU average with 39% of female managers, followed by Poland (38%), Bulgaria (36%), and Sweden (34%).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘Spain Must Step up War on Corruption’: EU
Spain needs to ramp up its fight against corruption by introducing key reforms aimed at greater transparency, the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption group said in a new report released on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Fake Imam Arrested on Drugs Charges
A Moroccan drug trafficker who disguised himself as an imam, or Islamic leader, while on the run from prison in Spain has been arrested in Palma de Mallorca.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Steel Manufactured in Scotland 2,500 Years Ago
Scientists have determined that fragments of artifacts recovered from the Broxmouth Iron Age hill fort in the 1970s were forged from high-carbon steel. The objects, which date to between 490 and 375 B.C., may have been tools or weapons. “The process of manufacturing steel requires extensive knowledge, skill and craftsmanship. It is far from straightforward, which is why such an early example of its production tells us so much about the people who once occupied this hill fort,” said Gerry McDonnell of the University of Bradford. The site featured well-preserved roundhouses, hill fort entrances, and an Iron Age cemetery.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Islamization of Germany in 2013
by Soeren Kern
In December, two new studies, one funded by the German government, found that the majority of Muslims believe that Islamic Sharia law should take precedence over the secular constitutions and laws of their European host countries.
“Critics of Islamic ideology and its organizations are constantly confronted with lawsuits and have to legally defend themselves against the accusations of blasphemy or incitement-to-hatred. Even if it does not come to a conviction, such processes cost a lot of time and money…Thus… we are experiencing a de facto application of Islamic law.” — Felix Strüning, Gustav Stresemann Foundation Report.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Lords accused of ‘arrogance and contempt’ after claiming British public cannot be trusted on Europe
Peers have been accused of showing “contempt” for British voters over the proposed EU referendum, saying the public cannot be trusted to make the right decision.
Dozens of members of the House of Lords today attacked Conservative plans to set in law an in/out vote on Britain’s membership of the European Union by 2017.
There are growing fears the bill will be killed at committee stage by Labour and Liberal Democrat peers, despite it sailing through the Commons and receiving an unopposed second reading in the Lords.
Lord Mandelson, the former EU Commissioner, said any vote would be a “lottery” in which the electorate would be swayed by irrelevant issues.
He told peers David Cameron had been “taken hostage by the militant tendency” in the Tory Party and was “grandstanding to the Ukip gallery.”…
| — Hat tip: Derius | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Launches Fightback From Cricklewood Flat
As their movement is branded a terrorist organisation in Egypt, the few Brotherhood leaders that remain free have relocated to a north London suburb
IT IS an unlikely setting from which to launch a fightback against Egypt’s new military rulers. But a cramped flat above a disused kebab shop in North London has become the focal point of the Muslim Brotherhood’s effort to regroup after President Mohamed Morsi was forced from office and his movement declared a terrorist organisation…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
A MAN pinned his girlfriend down and raped her in front of their baby son, and told her she must obey him because he was a Muslim, a court was told. The Mail has decided not to identify the rapist, who is in his early 20s, so his relationship with his victim can be revealed.
She was 16 when they met, but he began beating her three months into the relationship and raped her at her home in Hull in May last year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Muslim World Leader Opens Mosque in Sussex
The county of Sussex is to have its first Ahmadiyya Muslim Mosque opened in Crawley on Saturday 18th January. It will be inaugurated by His Holiness, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the worldwide head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. The ceremony will be attended by more than 200 guests representing all the major faiths as well as representatives from parliament and civic society…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Muslim Prayer and Community Centre Planned for Outskirts of Ely
A vacant warehouse on the outskirts of Ely could be transformed into a Muslim community and prayer centre, Ely News can reveal. The Ely Muslims group hit the headlines in 2011 when they announced they wanted to build a prayer centre in Ely. An area of the Paradise Centre fields was highlighted as the most suitable location for the facility but, following opposition from local people, the idea was dropped…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Objections to Muslim Cemetery in Catherine-De-Barnes Village
People living in a West Midlands village have objected to plans to build a 4,000-plot Muslim cemetery. Solihull council said it had received “a number” of letters against the plans for the burial ground at Catherine-de-Barnes, near Solihull.
Local people said the development was inappropriate and would cause traffic problems in the village, which has a population of about 600. More than 900 people have signed a petition against it, campaigners said. Councillor Bob Sleigh, who represents the area, said there was enough space for burials at the two main cemeteries in Solihull Borough, Widney Manor and Woodlands…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Tommy Robinson’s School Visit Cancelled
Since he left the EDL, Tommy Robinson’s approach and attitudes have shifted discernibly. He draws attention to stories which present Muslims in a good light and, as far as I have noticed, consistently avoids the bigoted lows of his EDL career. However there is still room for improvement…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Coptic Christian Children: Kidnapped and Killed for Cash
By Raymond Ibrahim
Yet another Coptic Christian child was recently kidnapped in Egypt. Thirteen-year-old Cyril Rif’at Fayiz was abducted in the Minya district by “unknown persons” who later called the child’s parents demanding one million Egyptian pounds, nearly the equivalent of $150,000 USD.
This phenomenon—kidnapping and holding Coptic children captive for large ransoms—has become a regular feature of the Egyptian landscape, particularly in Minya, Upper Egypt.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Interior Minister — We Will Use Live Ammunition to Protect Ballot Boxes
Egypt’s Minister of Interior Mohamed Ibrahim has warned that any attacks on the ballot boxes following the end of the constitutional referendum would be met with strict reactions, in a televised interview aired on a satellite channel on Tuesday.
Ibrahim accused the Muslim Brotherhood of attempting to disrupt the voting process, which is taking place under security control. He threatened that anyone who thinks of “approaching the ballot boxes would be shot with live ammunition.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Eight Pro-Morsi Protestors Die in Egypt Amid Voting
Special forces on the streets with orders to shoot
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, JANUARY 14 — At least eight protestors supporting ousted president Mohamed Morsi have lost their lives in the first day of Egypt’s constitutional referendum. The deaths have occurred in Beni Suez, Giza, south of Cairo, and in Sohag in Upper Egypt, where 6 people died.
The interior ministry has deployed rapid intervention forces across all the country’s governorates to ensure security for the voting. According to an interior ministry statement reported by the state TV, soldiers have been given the order to “shoot” anyone trying to “assault voters”. “Voting is a national duty,” interim prime minister Hazem El-Beblawi was quoted by MENA as saying. The PM expressed optimism about the expected outcome of the constitutional referendum. Witnesses say there has been “unprecedented turnout” in Upper Egypt (southern Egypt), especially by the Coptic community, despite threats of retaliation by fundamentalists appearing on Facebook. Military overflights have occurred in some areas the capital, but speculation that at least one military helicopter had dropped flyers urging the population to vote “Yes” to the referendum has been found to be baseless.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU ‘Should Deny Access to Settlers, Not Only Goods’
‘Israel hindering talks’, Abbas advisor; Pope visit amid tension
(by Elisa Pinna) (ANSAmed) — ROME- “Strong international pressure” on Israel is required, as the country continues to hinder peace talks with Palestinians despite US Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts, ANSA was told in an interview by one of Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas’s closest advisors.
Nemer Hammad, previously PLO ambassador to Rome, has launched an appeal to the European Union to tighten the boycott that the EU has in place on products from Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian Territories. He called on the EU to boycott settlers as well, “without any exceptions”, noting that only through international isolation was South Africa able to rid itself of apartheid. “There are seven ministers in the Netanyahu government — including Foreign Minister Lieberman — who live in illegal settlements according to UN rulings,” Abbas’s advisor said, suggesting that European countries should consider a “blockade” at the borders against these politicians as well as all the inhabitants of the Jewish outposts built within the 1967 Palestinian borders. “Time is of the essence,” he noted. The negotiations foresee nine months of talks set to end on April 30. Six months have already gone by “without Israel making any concession”. Moreover ,Netanyahu’s negotiators have created “new obstacles”, Hammad said, “including a demand that Palestinians recognize Israel as a ‘Jewish State’.” “The incredible thing is that they are demanding this only of Palestinians. Why don’t they submit an official request to the UN, or the United States, or Italy? The reason is clear: if we recognize Israel as a ‘Jewish State’, the Israeli Arab minority (about 25% of the population) would lose their right to citizenship and Mahmoud Abbas would go down in history as the man who ‘sold’ his own brethren,” he said. Despite Kerry’s efforts, the Palestinian representative does not believe that the talks will lead to anything and instead expects to see a difficult future for the region. Pope Francis’s visit may also happen “at a very delicate moment”. While in these hours US Secretary of State John Kerry is speaking about the Middle East and Syria with the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Hammad underscored that if an agreement is not reached by April (when the 9 months set down by US mediators ends), the Palestinian Authority will resume its currently suspended initiatives at the UN and the International Criminal Court.
In retaliation, Israel “has already threatened to unilaterally annex Palestinian Territories”, and thus the situation may be very tense when Pope Francis visits Jerusalem and Bethlehem on May 25-26. Abbas’s advisor noted that, having said this, the pope’s visit will have a “strong symbolic importance” even though, at the negotiations level, “Israel will not accept anyone”.
“Israeli authorities don’t even want US mediation, just imagine whether they would ever agree to a role by the Vatican or the Pope,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Editor Defends Sharon-Hitler Comparison
By Benjamin Weinthal
Israel’s envoy to Sweden slams Mideast specialist for comments; Jönsson: I was referring to Sharon’s military policies during the 1950s.
Isaac Bachman, Israel’s ambassador to Sweden, slammed Per Jönsson, an associate editor at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI), on Tuesday for comparing the military policies of the late Ariel Sharon to the Nazi regime.
Jönsson told the tabloid Expressen on Sunday that Sharon’s “military methods against Palestinians and Jordanians can almost be likened to those of Hitler and Stalin,” and, “Ben-Gurion gave him carte blanche to do whatever he wanted.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
16 Killed, 69 Wounded in Attacks in Iraq’s Capital
BAGHDAD, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) — At least 16 people were killed and 69 others wounded in a wave of violent attacks in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Wednesday, police said. Five people were killed and 12 others wounded when a car bomb exploded in a popular market in Husseiniya area of northern Baghdad, a police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
In car bomb explosion in Shaib area of north eastern Baghdad, three people were killed and 13 others wounded, while two civilians were killed and ten others injured when a car bomb exploded in Shala area of northwestern Baghdad, the police source said.
Two people were killed and eight wounded when a car bomb exploded in Andalus Square in central Baghdad, he said, adding that two civilians were killed and five wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in a popular market in al-Obeidi area of eastern Baghdad.
Separately, an car bomb explosion in al-Sanah street in central Baghdad killed one civilian and injured nine others, the source said, adding that another 12 people were injured when a car bomb exploded in Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad. An Iraqi police officer was killed when a sticky bomb struck his car in Zafaraniyah area of eastern Baghdad, he added.
Iraq is witnessing its worst violence in recent years. According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, a total of 8,868 Iraqis, including 7,818 civilians and civilian police personnel, were killed in 2013, which is the highest annual death toll for years.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Al-Qaeda Syria Branch Executes Dozens of Rival Islamists, Activists Claim
The Islamist State of Iraq and the Levant has killed dozens of rival Islamist rebels in Syria over the last couple of days as the Al-Qaeda-linked group regained most of the territory it lost in the northeastern Raqqa province, according to activists.
Up to 100 rebel fighters from the Nusra Front, another Al-Qaeda-linked group, and Ahrar al-Sham brigade were executed after being captured by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the town of Tel Abiad, on the border with Turkey, Reuters quoted activists as saying.
“About 70 bodies, most shot in the head, were collected and sent to the Raqqa National hospital,” an unnamed activist said. “Many of those executed had been wounded in the fighting. The fact that Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham are ideologically similar to the ISIL did not matter.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqi Death Toll Rises to at Least 58
(AGI) — Baghdad, Jan 15 — The death toll in Iraq has risen to at least 58 and at least seven car bombs have exploded in the capital’s Shiite areas killing 37 people and injuring 78. A bomb has killed 18 people and wounded 16 in Shatub blowing up a tent hosting the funeral of a member of the Sunni militia Sawha. In the Shiite city of Dujail, 50 km north of the capital, another car bomb killed three people and wounded seven.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
NATO Assures Turkey That New Missile Defense System Not Designed to Protect Israel
Turkey has accepted assurances a planned NATO missile defense system in which it is playing a part is not designed to protect Israel as well, the alliance’s deputy secretary-general said on Wednesday.
Alexander Vershbow said objections by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s government had resulted in part from confusion about a Turkish-hosted NATO radar. Ankara had been further assuaged by alliance Patriot anti-missile batteries assigned to protect its territory from Syria.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rouhani Trumpets P5+1 Deal; While Senate Dems Back Off New Sanctions Legislation
As if on cue, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani trumpets how the Islamic Regime won big time with the announced Joint Plan of Action (JPA) implementation last Sunday in Geneva. As The Guardian noted in a report, “Iran nuclear deal means ‘surrender’ for Western Powers, says Rouhani”:
Speaking on Tuesday in the oil-rich province of Khuzestan, Rouhani said the “Geneva deal means the surrender of big powers before the great nation of Iran”.Problem is it could thwart the Obama Administration’s campaign to stifle new bi-partisan sanctions legislation , the Nuclear Weapons Free Iran Act (NWFIA), S1881.
However, under White House threat to veto NWFIA, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid ,according to a report from The Weekly Standard, has blocked bringing the measure up for a floor vote. Note these comments from Reid, Democrat Senators and Minority Leader McConnell in The Hill report, “Dems back away from Iran sanctions legislation”: […]
Yesterday, an Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET) conference call on Iran’s intentions over its nuclear program featured former Israeli Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger and Dr. Michael Ledeen of the Washington, DC-based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Dr. Ledeen is an impassioned advocate for both sanctions and support for regime change via what he argues could be a significant Iranian opposition. Amb. Ettinger suggested that perhaps something more is required, when he commented:
Only one option to avoid facing an Iran which could become an uncontrollable strategic apocalyptic threat. That option is surgical, devastating, disproportional military preemption against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Syria’s Assad Slams Saudi Ideology as ‘Threat to World’
Damascus (AFP) — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned during a meeting in Damascus on Wednesday with Iran’s foreign minister that Saudi Arabia’s political and religious ideology is “a threat to the world,” state television reported.
He was referring to Wahhabism, an ultra-conservative Sunni Muslim tradition which is predominant in Saudi Arabia, a key backer of Syria’s revolt against Assad.
“President Assad warns during his meeting with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif of the threat posed by Wahhabi thinking to all the world, not just to the region,” the report said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Western Spies Reach Out to Assad on Counter-Terror
‘West knows there’s no alternative to Assad’ says Syrian FM
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, JANUARY 15 — Western intelligence officials have met secretly with the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to discuss counter-terrorism, Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Miqdad told the BBC on Wednesday.
Western governments have finally realized “there is no alternative to the leadership of Assad”, the minister said without specifying which countries have covertly sent officials to Damascus.
Some of these governments resumed contacts with the Syrian regime in view of the Geneva II international peace conference on January 22, the minister added.
“Some said they wanted to send feelers out, others still said they want to cooperate on security matters because the terrorists that Western Europe has been sending into Turkey and Syria have become a threat to them as well”, Miqdad said.
Citing Western and Middle Eastern diplomatic sources, The Wall Street Journal said France, Germany, Spain and the UK, all of whom withdrew their ambassadors from Syria, sent spies to Damascus beginning in November to exchange information on the more than 1,000 European jihadists fighting in extremist Islamic groups in Syria.
This does not mean diplomatic relations have resumed, the sources said.
There have been unconfirmed reports that a retired operative from MI6 British military intelligence first visited Syria last summer.
A Spanish intelligence spokesperson admitted the agency has shared information with Damascus on Spaniards joining radical groups in Syria.
Islamic extremism is a threat not only to the Middle East but to the entire world, Assad said at his meeting Wednesday with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
The minister arrived from Jordan, where he had been as part of a regional tour that also included a visit to Lebanon on Monday.
“The Syrian people and others in the region have realized the dangers of Wahhabism”, state news agency SANA cited Assad as saying in reference to an ultra-conservative branch of Sunni Islam espoused by the Saudi royal family.
Along with Qatar, Saudi Arabia is a key supporter of the anti-Assad insurgency.
“Everyone must stand up against Wahhabism so it can be extirpated”, Assad reportedly said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: At Least 26 Dead in Carbombing North of Aleppo
Belgian al-Qaeda leader killed in north, sources said
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, JANUARY 15 — A car bomb that exploded north of Aleppo near the Turkish border left at least 26 people dead, the Syrian National Observatory for Human Rights made known Wednesday.
The body count could increase as many were seriously injured, the human rights observers said, adding the attack was carried out by an Iraqi-Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate based in the town of Jarablos.
Also on Wednesday, an al-Qaeda leader of Belgian nationality who went by the name of Abu al-Bara was killed in northern Syria, local activists in the Idlib region told ANSAmed via Skype.
Bara was known as “the Belgian emir” and as the “emir of Saraqeb”, a northwestern town that has seen fierce fighting between between Syrian rebels and the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Neither report has yet been independently confirmed.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Jihadi Group Bans Women From Sitting on Chairs
Last week I reported how the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and Levant had, among other stipulations, issued a decree “banning” women from sitting on chairs. This information was derived from a Syrian news clip (link in original post). But no reason was given for this seemingly bizarre rule.
However, digging around through some fatwas and opinions, apparently the fear and logic is that, by sitting on chairs, women may move the wrong way and thus get sexually aroused.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Firms Warned Over Trade With ‘Sensitive Countries&
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 14 — Turkey’s Economy Ministry has warned Turkish businessmen over commercial contacts with “politically sensitive countries,” sending out a letter urging them to inform the ministry about their visits to those nations, as daily Hurriyet reports. In the circular sent through industrial and commercial chambers, the ministry asked companies to inform the government about any contacts that will be had in the forming of trade alliances in such countries. “Bilateral visits should be declared to the ministry in advance and they should be coordinated by the Economy Ministry, in consultation with the Foreign Affairs Ministry,” it added. The note does not specify which circumstances could put a country into the “politically sensitive” category, but the ministry’s warning has been interpreted as being prompted by the political struggles in Middle Eastern countries. In particular, Turkey’s political row with Egypt and the violence in neighboring Syria and Iraq have affected Turkish companies’ business in these countries. A number of Turkish companies halted their operations until the end of violence that erupted in Egypt after the ousting of former President Mohamed Morsi.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: President Gul Proposes Constitutional Amendment
Instead of controversial Erdogan bill limiting judiciary’s power
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 15 — Turkish President Abdullah Gul on Wednesday proposed a constitutional amendment for judicial reform to replace Islamic Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s bill, which has sparked alarm in the EU and the US and which the opposition has denounced as unconstitutional.
Erdogan, whose government has been rocked by a corruption scandal, proposed an amendment placing the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) under justice ministry control, sparking Western concern about the judiciary’s independence and respect for the rule of law in Turkey.
“A constitutional amendment would fix the problem without damaging Turkey”, Gul said at a joint press conference with Slovenian President Borut Pahor. The Turkish opposition claims Erdogan’s move is designed to cover up a wide-reaching graft probe which has led to the arrest of several of his key allies. Gul met with opposition leaders and Erdogan on Monday in a mediation attempt.
Erdogan on Tuesday said he is willing to put the amendment bill on hold if the opposition agrees to a constitutional amendment to the same effect.
Any such amendment to the Charter must vouchsafe the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary and ensure the government can’t interfere with corruption probes, said principal opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu from the social-democratic Republican People’s Party (CHP).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Newly-Discovered US Witness Report Describes Evidence of 1939 Katyn Massacre
A researcher says she has uncovered vital testimony from a U.S. officer who in 1943 was forced by the Nazis to watch as they exhumed thousands of Polish officers killed on Soviet leader Josef Stalin’s orders.
At a news conference Wednesday in Warsaw, U.S. researcher Krystyna Piorkowska said she found the Paris-dated May 10, 1945, testimony of former American prisoner of war Lt. Col. John H. Van Vliet Jr. in the U.S. National Archives near Washington last November. It was filed among other unrelated World War II documents from the U.S. Embassy in Paris.
The sworn deposition provides evidence of Soviet responsibility for the 1940 massacre of some 22,000 Polish officers in the Katyn forest and other places in what was then the Soviet Union. The Soviet Red Army had taken the Polish officers prisoner after invading eastern Poland in September 1939.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Mulls Tougher Anti-Terror Legislation
MOSCOW, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) — Russia’s top legislative body received on Wednesday a package of draft bills set to toughen anti-terror measures and increase punishment for involvement in terrorist activities.
Three bills, which envisage expanding powers of the Federal Security Service (FSB), increasing anti-money-laundering measures and regulating electronic information flows, were submitted to the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Four Militants Killed in Anti-Terror Operation in S. Russia
MOSCOW, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) — Four militants and three security officers were killed in a recent anti-terror operation in Russia’s southern republic of Dagestan, authorities said Wednesday. The National Anti-terror Committee (NAC) said a special police unit stormed a private house occupied by militants in the town of Karlanyurt, and seized some handmade bombs and antipersonnel mines. Besides the fatalities, five security officers were wounded in the operation…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Three Members of Russia’s Special Forces Killed in Shootout With Islamic Jihadists
Three members of Russia’s special forces have been killed and five wounded in a house siege near Khasavyurt in Dagestan, which also left four suspected militants dead. Militants opened fire with machine-guns and grenades in a bid to escape under cover of darkness, Russia’s National Anti-Terrorist Committee (NAK) said. One of those killed was suspected of organising a bomb attack last month.
Russia has been fighting Islamist militants in Dagestan for years. It has stepped up security operations in the run-up to the Winter Olympics, due to open on 7 February in the Black Sea city of Sochi, 900km (560 miles) to the west of Khasavyurt.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Britain Grants Asylum to Afghan Atheist
Britain has granted asylum to an atheist from Afghanistan due to fears he would be prosecuted back home, in what is believed to be the first case of its kind, his lawyers said Tuesday. The unnamed man was brought up a Muslim but after arriving in Britain in 2007 at the age of 16 gradually lost his faith, according to the university whose law school helped his case.
His leave to remain was due to expire in 2013 but he feared being sent back to Afghanistan, where he risked being prosecuted for abandoning his faith.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Woman Gang Raped in India
Six men brutally attack a lost tourist in New Delhi
A 51-year-old Danish woman was gang raped by a group of men in New Delhi, India late last night. The attack was confirmed to DR Nyheder by a spokesperson at the Foreign Affairs Ministry. “The embassy in New Delhi has provided the best possible consular assistance to the woman,” said a duty officer at the ministry.
The rape allegedly took place late Tuesday night after the woman was threatened with a knife by a group of more than six men, according to the ministry. The woman had become lost after a museum visit prior to the incident, according to an Indian police spokesperson.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Tourist and German Aid Worker Raped in India
(AGI) New Delhi, Jan 15 — A Danish tourist aged 50, and a German aid worker aged 18, have been raped in India. The Danish woman was assaulted by eight people in New Delhi after she asked for directions to her hotel. She was dragged to a secluded place and then raped by each man in turn. Police were called after she told staff at her hotel what happened. Just under a year ago a 23-year-old student, died from her injuries after being raped.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Woman Allegedly Gang-Raped, Robbed in India
A 51-year-old Danish tourist was gang-raped near a popular shopping area in New Delhi after she got lost and approached a group of men for directions back to her hotel, police said Wednesday. The attack is the latest crime to focus attention on the scourge of sexual violence in India.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India: Evangelical Clergyman Stabbed to Death in Andhra Pradesh
Four unknown men visited the home of Rev Sanjeevulu, head of the ‘Friends of Hebron.’ After beating beat him and stabbing him seven times, they also attacked his wife, who managed to escape. Christians who asked for justice were arrested by the authorities. “Although the motive of the attack is not yet known,” said a Christian leader, “It could be premeditated murder.”
Hyderabad (AsiaNews) — A group of strangers murdered an evangelical pastor in Andhra Pradesh and tried to kill his wife as well before they fled the scene of the crime.
At present, the government appears unable to deliver justice in the case, but was able to arrest a group of Christians who demonstrated to demand the arrest of the culprits.
The murder victim, Rev Sanjeevulu, died yesterday after two days of suffering.
According to some sources, on the afternoon of 11 January four men visited Rev Sanjeevulu’s home in Vikarabad, a village that is 64 kilometres from the state capital of Hyderabad. The clergyman heads a group called the ‘Friends of Hebron’.
On the doorstep of the reverend’s home, the men said they wanted to “pray with the pastor,” but as soon as he came out, they stabbed him seven times and beat him with clubs and sticks.
After she heard screams, Sanjeevulu’s wife rushed to him, whereupon the attackers tried to kill her as well. Although she was stabbed, she luckily managed to escape and survived.
The pastor was admitted to Yashoda hospital (pictured) where, despite medical treatment, he died yesterday afternoon from his stab wounds.
The day after the attack, many Christians and friends of the clergyman went to the hospital where they expressed their sorrow for the attack.
Christian leaders in Hyderabad organised a dharna (sit-in protest) demanding justice from the government.
Some of the faithful marched outside the offices of the Chief Minister to demand the arrest of the culprits, but were themselves arrested.
Police did announce that it was launching an investigation into the incident.
Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Churches, told AsiaNews that he was “deeply saddened” by the murder of the clergyman.
“Although the motive of the attack is not yet known, we must strongly condemn the fact that anti-Christian persecution has made a comeback in Andhra Pradesh. We need to see justice done,” George said.
“Approximately three months ago,” he added, “we know that Sanjeevulu had a heated discussion with some members of a Hindu fundamentalist group, who threatened him. It could be premeditated murder.” (N.C.)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Teenage German Tourist Raped on Indian Train
A German charity worker was allegedly raped while sleeping on a train in southern India on Friday — the second European to report a rape in the country within a week.
The teenager was attacked while asleep on a train travelling from Mangalore in western India to Chennai on the east coast, where she was heading to volunteer with a charity.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Credit Growth Slows as Foreign Reserves Jump
China’s broadest measure of new credit fell in December while money-supply growth and new yuan loans trailed estimates amid a cash crunch and government efforts to curb speculative lending.
Aggregate financing was 1.23 trillion yuan ($204 billion), the People’s Bank of China said today in Beijing. That compared with 1.63 trillion yuan a year earlier. China’s foreign-exchange reserves, the world’s largest, rose to a record $3.82 trillion at the end of December from September’s $3.66 trillion.
A record decline in new credit in the second half signals limits on the pace of economic expansion this year as policy makers focus on controlling financial risks and implementing the broadest reforms since the 1990s. The jump in reserves highlights China’s challenge in coping with capital inflows while trying to reduce intervention in the currency.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China: High-Speed Rail Network to be Doubled
China has announced it will spend £60bn this year in an effort to almost double the size of its high-speed rail network. The investment forms part of a project which represents the largest and fastest rail expansion programme in the world.
Since 2008, and in the time Britain has taken only to debate the merits of one line — HS2 — which would be just over 100 miles long, China has built 6,000 miles of track, much of it elevated, and invested in 1,000 high-speed trains. The network is currently almost double the combined length of Europe and Japan’s railway networks.
The programme, the government says, forms a key part of the country’s drive to modernise, urbanise and pull the Chinese people out of poverty.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China’s 120mph Railway Arriving in Laos
China’s mammoth engineering project to construct a railway from southwest China’s Yunnan Province all the way to Singapore is set to transform rural Laos
Beijing has long dreamed of a high-speed railway connecting it to southeast Asia, enabling Chinese goods to move south in greater quantities, while the natural resources of its neighbours travel north to China. Now, the line is set to become a reality, one that will draw the region even closer in to China’s economic embrace.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Firm’s Bid to Allow Parents to Pick Their Smartest Embryos
A Chinese firm claims it is getting closer to allowing parents to pick the embryo most likely to succeed. esearcher believe that 50-80% of what determines IQ could be inherited. Now a Chinese firm is mapping the genes of people who are gifted in maths in a bid to isolate the genes that make them smarter that the average person.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A MEMORIAL service has been held at a western Sydney mosque for slain Muslim woman Amira Karroum, and her husband Yusuf Ali. Ms Karroum’s sister Rose requested the Masjid Noor mosque in Granville hold the service, last night, for worshippers to mourn the couple who were killed in Syria late last week. Both Ms Karroum and Mr Ali were worshippers at the mosque before Mr Ali moved to Syria mid-last year…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Central African Conflicts Risk Spreading
Conflicts in South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo are threatening — to varying degrees — to engulf the region. Rebels fighting in one country use another as a safe haven.
There is a relentless stream of bad news coming out of Central Africa. After months of violence between the Muslim Seleka rebels and the Christian anti-balaka militia in the Central Africa Republic (CAR), controversial interim president Michel Djotodia has now stepped down. A new provisional leader Alexandre-Ferdinand Nguendet has promised an end to the anarchy, but the unrest persists and people are still being killed…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Sudan: Umma Party Warns Opposition Leader Against Supporting Splinter Youth Group
Khartoum — The National Umma Party (NUP) warned the head of opposition National Consensus Forces (NCF) Farouq Abu Eissa against interfering in its internal affairs after a meeting between the latter and a splinter youth group…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Confirmed: The DEA Struck a Deal With Mexico’s Most Notorious Drug Cartel
An investigation by El Universal found that between the years 2000 and 2012, the U.S. government had an arrangement with Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel that allowed the organization to smuggle billions of dollars of drugs while Sinaloa provided information on rival cartels.
Sinaloa, led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, supplies 80% of the drugs entering the Chicago area and has a presence in cities across the U.S.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Michoacán Tense After Deadly Clashes Between Mexican Troops and Vigilantes
At least two dead after attempt to disarm self-defence groups fighting Knights Templar drug cartel is met with violent resistance
The Mexican drug war hotspot of Michoacán is simmering with tension in the wake of deadly clashes between soldiers and self-defence groups that have left at least two dead. Efforts of the Mexican security forces to disarm vigilantes waging a battle against local cartels were met with violent resistance by the groups, who said that dropping their weapons would leave them at the mercy of the Knights Templar drug cartel…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
EU Must Open Doors to Avoid Syrian Refugee Catastrophe, Says UN
Colin Firth, Michael Palin and Grayson Perry condemn lack of British action over what David Milliband calls ‘the defining humanitarian crisis of our time’
The crisis posed by millions of refugees from Syria’s civil war flooding into neighbouring countries is becoming a humanitarian and political catastrophe that can only be eased if Europe opens its doors, the UN and European commission have warned.
The UNHCR, European commission and British Refugee Council have urged EU leaders to acknowledge the exceptional crisis posed by the Syrian civil war and accept the temporary settlement of Syrian refugees inside their borders — relaxing “fortress” policies designed to keep migrants out of Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Integration Minister Target of Racist Slurs
As parliament debates decriminalizing illegal immigration
(ANSA) — Rome, January 14 — The anti-immigration Northern League’s newspaper La Padania on Tuesday published Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge’s daily schedule as Italy’s parliament debated abolishing a League-sponsored law criminalizing illegal immigration.
The so-called Bossi-Fini law was ratified under the previous center-right administration, in which the League was a minority coalition partner. Kyenge, a Congolese-born Italian, has been the target of repeated racist slurs from the Northern League since becoming integration minister under the current left-right administration led by Democratic Party (PD) Premier Enrico Letta.
“Kyenge is in favor of Negritude like in France, but we can do without it,” Northern League Senate whip Massimo Bitonci said during the debate on the floor.
The PD promptly blasted the League and Bitonci’s statement as racist and subversive.
“Bitonci peppered his speech on the proposed abolition of the anti-immigration law with racist and sexist abuse against Minister Kyenge. His action goes hand in hand with La Padania’s extremely grave initiative targeting the minister,” said Democratic Party MP Anna Finocchiaro, who chairs parliament’s Constitutional Affairs Commission. “The League newspaper’s decision to publish Minister Kyenge’s schedule is tantamount to intimidation. Before taking further action, we urge the League to call its party newspaper to order,” said PD Senators Mauro Del Barba and Roberto Cociancich. “The PD will do everything in its power to ratify the Ius Soli law (granting automatic citizenship for all children born in Italy’,” they added. “Our homegrown racists think they’re living in Alabama or Mississippi half a century ago, or in South Africa under apartheid. Someone please tell them we live in the third millennium in a civilized country,” Left Ecology and Freedom (SEL) party leader Nichi Vendola tweeted.
“The League is trying to regain lost consensus by taking subversive positions. The PD’s answer is to call for Ius Soli and abolition of the crime of clandestine immigration,” said Senator Mario Morgoni, who is in the PD leadership.
“Racism and verbal violence have become the League’s distinguishing characteristics, in the absence of an actual program. What was once a grassroots movement appears to have turned into a xenophobic lair,” said Davide Faraone, who runs the PD education and welfare committee.
“We urge the judiciary to look into this matter. Cecile Kyenge is a wise and courageous woman as well as a tenacious and determined democratic minister,” said Sandra Zampa, another top PD member.
Also on Tuesday, the Northern League said it was ready to “welcome” Kyenge in Milan on Saturday, when she is scheduled to launch the Romact/Romed2 program of intercultural mediators for the Roma people, who are heavily discriminated against in Italy.
“The minister for the ‘disintegration’ of our communities will be in Milan on Saturday. We will be there too,” said Northern League provincial secretary Igor Iezzi, who is also an elected city official.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
José Manuel Barroso Accuses David Cameron of ‘Chauvinism and Scaremongering’ On EU Immigration
Britain’s attempt to restrict unfettered EU immigration is “chauvinistic” and “scaremongering populist rhetoric” that threatens to inflame extremism, says European Commission president
David Cameron’s call for European Union free movement rights to be restricted is “narrow, chauvinistic” and based on “scaremongering stereotypes”, José Manuel Barroso has warned. The European Commission president told MEPs on Wednesday that rights allowing all EU citizens to live, work and claim benefits across Europe are “a civilisation progress”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Grapple With Pros and Cons of Immigration
Swiss politician Martin Suter doesn’t have to look far to see the drawbacks from a European Union agreement that has permitted thousands of Germans, French and other Europeans to settle in Switzerland.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rewards of gift vouchers, extra holidays and cash bonuses are being given to Home Office staff who help deport asylum seekers, it was revealed today. Immigration officers get up to £50 in vouchers if they reach the target of winning 70 per cent of tribunal cases in which asylum seekers are appealing against being removed from Britain. To get there they are being offered the incentives as part of Home Office reward schemes, it has emerged.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Children Are the Path to Successful Tyranny
You can’t subjugate a Christian people. They won’t stand for it! A Christian culture will recognize and reject tyranny before tyranny can get a foothold. This is because a Biblically-literate and devoted people will not allow their civil government to tyrannically usurp the jurisdictions of self-government, family government, and church government.
A Christian people, by virtue of their understanding of God’s creation, their knowledge of history, their comprehension of the divine origin of law, and their assurance of heavenly citizenship, will never suffer earthly leaders who do not speak and act lawfully. A Christian people would not be so foolish as to allow those who mock law and justice to lead them.
In order, therefore, to subjugate and enslave a Christian people, you must first de-Christianize them. You must remove, from the culture, that which prevents you from conquering them. Piece by piece, Christian beliefs must be removed, along with the memory of those beliefs, from the minds of the people. This will take time.
You must concentrate on the children. You must take them away from their parents and everyday, day by day, indoctrinate them to reject and forget the Christian ideas and habits of their fathers and their mothers, their grandfathers and their grandmothers. This is precisely what government schools were designed to do. This is what they have done and continue to do.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Left’s Disdain for the Will to Live
A New York Times editor and his wife’s obsession with one cancer patient’s fight for survival
Lisa Bonchek Adams is a 43-year-old woman with three children and Stage IV metastatic breast cancer. In the seven years since she was first diagnosed, Adams has dedicated an enormous amount of time and energy to chronicling her battle with the disease, via hundreds of thousands of tweets and a blog.
In two columns that offer great insight into the progressive mindset, former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller, and his wife, Emma Gilbey Keller, have taken Adams to task for having the audacity to prolong her own life, and publicly write about her efforts to do so. As far as these two are concerned, Adams isn’t dying quickly enough, or privately enough, to suit their sensibilities.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Left Foot Forward Forces Oxfam Climbdown Over Speaker’s Homophobic Comments
Oxfam has cancelled an exhibition which was due to take place on Friday after Left Foot Forward presented information to the charity detailing homophobic and potentially anti-semitic comments made by one of the organisers…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Climate Change: The Case of the Missing Heat
Sixteen years into the mysterious ‘global-warming hiatus’, scientists are piecing together an explanation.
Although there have been jumps and dips, average atmospheric temperatures have risen little since 1998, in seeming defiance of projections of climate models and the ever-increasing emissions of greenhouse gases. Climate sceptics have seized on the temperature trends as evidence that global warming has ground to a halt.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mastermind of 9/11 Says Koran ‘Forbids’ Violence to Spread Islam
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed makes his first public statement in five years, saying ‘Holy Koran forbids us to use force as a means of converting’
The self-proclaimed mastermind of the September 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, has released a manifesto claiming that the Koran forbids the use of violence to spread Islam. The document, published Tuesday by The Huffington Post and Britain’s Channel 4 News, marks Mohammed’s first public communication since 2009, when the US government officially accused him of terrorism…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Supercomputer Takes 40 Minutes to Model 1 Second of Brain Activity
Despite rumors, the singularity, or point at which artificial intelligence can overtake human smarts, still isn’t quite here. One of the world’s most powerful supercomputers is still no match for the humble human brain, taking 40 minutes to replicate a single second of brain activity.
Researchers in Germany and Japan used K, the fourth-most powerful supercomputer in the world, to simulate brain activity. With more than 700,000 processor cores and 1.4 million gigabytes of RAM, K simulated the interplay of 1.73 billion nerve cells and more than 10 trillion synapses, or junctions between brain cells. Though that may sound like a lot of brain cells and connections, it represents just 1 percent of the human brain’s network.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Re: “Newly-Discovered US Witness Report Describes Evidence of 1939 Katyn Massacre”. Diana West, in American Betrayal, pp 214-218, describes Col. VanVleit’s experiences and the fate of a report which was suppressed by Army Intelligence Chief, General Clayton Bissell, who marked it Top Secret and ordered VanVleit to keep quiet. VanVliet’s report evidently disappeared from army archives. This document is welcome find.
“At a recent Def Con, a researcher looked at thirty home routers and broke into half of them — including some of the most popular and common brands. ”
One of the world’s foremost security/encryption experts does not even bother to put a password on his router. He says the only security is to use encryption between endpoints i.e. between his email client and the email client of the recipient.
>> . . . Sharon’s “military methods against Palestinians and Jordanians can almost be likened to those of Hitler and Stalin,” and, “Ben-Gurion gave him carte blanche to do whatever he wanted.” <<
This from a Swede whose own country is famed for its role in the battle against National Socialism. Famed, I say.