Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/16/2014

Early results in Egypt’s constitutional referendum indicate that voters overwhelmingly approved the new constitutional, with a turnout of about 55%. Egyptian Christians in particular voiced their strong support for the constitution. Opposition leaders, however, maintain that the referendum was fraudulent and illegitimate after supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood were harassed, beaten, and killed during street demonstrations just before the vote.

In other news, prostitutes in the Spanish resort town of Ibiza have formed a cooperative and become self-employed taxpayers, thereby making themselves eligible for government pensions when they retire.

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

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

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

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

Financial Crisis
» Overstock CEO Slams “Unethical” Krugman; Hopes “Bitcoin Destroys Central Banking” (Video)
» Portugal: Gov’t Mulls Selling TAP to US Firm
» Turkey: Unemployment Soared to 9.7% in October, Says Tuik
 
USA
» Americans Who Lost Their Health Insurance Thanks to ObamaCare Now Face Sticker Shock When Buying New Plans
» Another Moses Has Died
» Did Orwell and Jones See Google and Obama Coming?
» Hollywood Movie Mogul Weinstein to Make Anti-Second Amendment Movie
» North Dakota Man Sentenced to Jail in Controversial Drone-Arrest Case
» NSA Collected 200 Million Text Messages a Day
» Nuke Commander Purge: Another 34 Missile Launch Officers Terminated by Air Force
» Obama’s Path From Critic to Overseer of Spying
» Obama: Best Gun Salesman in History!
» Obama IRS’s Crimes Against Americans to Go Unpunished
» Roundup Ready GM Soybeans Accumulate Poison More Than Equivalent Non-GM Soybeans
» Spanish-American War: Trial Run for Interventionism
» USA Now Under Full Dictatorship… Congress Continues 3 Monkey Policy
» Widely-Touted HIV Cure Turns Out to be False; Patients Once Again Test HIV Positive
» Yahoo Parts Ways With Its No. 2 Executive
 
Canada
» Edmonton Airport Tried to Give Teenager His Pipe Bomb Back After He Went Through Security: Report
» Muslim Group: PMO in War of Words Over Rabbi’s Presence on PM Trip
 
Europe and the EU
» Antitrust Chief Says Italian Car Insurance Too Pricey
» Bulgaria District Court to Hold Sitting on Radical Islam Trial
» Catalonia to Spain: Let’s Renegotiate Sovereignty
» Greece: Land Deed Confusion Costs the State 8 Bln a Year
» Italy: M5S Presents No-Confidence Motion Against De Girolamo
» Italy’s Infant Mortality Rate Among World’s Lowest
» More Explosives at Czech “Palestine” Mission
» Muslim Youths Attack Dutch Funeral
» Nigel Farage Booms “Europe is Now Run by Big Banks, Big Business, And Big Bureaucrats”
» Norway Mass Murderer Had a Fan in Sandy Hook Killer Adam Lanza
» Salvini and Le Pen Meet to Discuss Closer Relations
» Spain: Ibiza Prostitutes Form Cooperative, Called Sealeer
» Spain: 14 Arrested in Madrid as Protest Spills Into Violence
» The Mafia’s Deadly Garbage: Italy’s Growing Toxic Waste Scandal
» UK: Is There Such a Thing as a ‘Muslim Child’?
» UK: Kick it Out Threatens JC Over Anelka
» UK: Peterborough Sex Attacks: Gang Sold Girls for Sex in Playground
» UK: Peterborough Sex Gang’s ‘Sophisticated’ Grooming Tactics
» UK: Two Women Arrested for Alleged Terror Offence as Police Investigate Suspected Syria Links
 
Balkans
» The Bosnian Knot: Conflicts Unchanged in Birthplace of WWI
 
North Africa
» Egypt: As the Yes Campaign is Set to Win Referendum, Catholic Church Spokesman Calls it “A Vote Against Islamism and Sharia”
» Egypt Votes Overwhelmingly for Military-Backed Constitution
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» EU Project Helps Young Palestinians to Understand Elections
» Gaza Rocket Barrage Targets Ashkelon
 
Middle East
» Al-Qaida Militants Attack Security Facilities in Southeast Yemen, 12 Soldiers Killed
» Contrast Sen. Feinstein’s Position on Iran Sanctions Legislation Versus the Benghazi Report
» Death Toll Rises to 5 in Lebanon Car Explosion
» EU-Turkey: Brussels to Examine Judicial Amendment Pre-Vote
» Gioia Tauro Mayor’s ‘Life at Risk’ Over Syrian Chemical Arms
» Iraqis Go About Their Lives at Mercy of Nameless Bombers
» Justice or Peace? Hariri Trial Could Spark Further Unrest in Lebanon
» Syria: International Donors Pledge $2.4 Billion
» Syria: NGO: 1,000 Dead in Fighting Between Rebels, Jihadists
» Turkey: Major Reshuffle in Judiciary Amid Graft Probe Row
» Turkish Airlines Hires Foreign Pilots for Safety
 
South Asia
» Bombing at Pakistani Mosque Observing Evening Prayers Kills 6
 
Far East
» China Tests Hypersonic Aircraft
» China Mobilizes 100,000 Troops in Preparation for Korean Peninsula Crisis
» Contaminated Japanese Rivers Unleash ‘Perennial Supply’ Of Radiation Into Pacific Ocean
» On the Piste in North Korea: Regime’s Luxury Ski Resort Opens for Business
» Radioactive Fish Continue to be Caught Near Fukushima
 
Australia — Pacific
» Kangaroo in 400-Year-Old Manuscript Could Change Australian History
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Somali Pirate Clampdown Caused Drop in Global Piracy, Imb Reveals
 
Latin America
» Argentina Suspends Construction of Monsanto’s Unconstitutional GMO Seed Plant
 
Immigration
» Greece: Stop Expelling Immigrants Says Council of Europe
» Italy: FI Politician Jokes That Blacks ‘Do Not Need Make-Up’
» Italy: Kyenge Sent Suspicious Powder as Racism Row Escalates
» Italy: Northern League Senators Protest Plans to Soften Immigration Rules
» Oslo’s Rapid Growth Redefines Nordic Identity
 
Culture Wars
» Michelle’s Abortion-Boosting 50th
 
General
» Fly Like a Bird: The V Formation Finally Explained
» International Olympic Committee Bans Image of U.S. Constitution, Calling it “Propaganda”
 

Overstock CEO Slams “Unethical” Krugman; Hopes “Bitcoin Destroys Central Banking” (Video)

Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne goes to town on Keynesian Crony Paul Krugman in this brief interview. Byrne blasts Krugman for everything from his “unethical” involvement in the Enron debacle to his present day view that “the market failed so we need more government; or freedom failed so we need more government.” Noting that Krugman may have done “some great work before he went crazy,” he rants against the Fed apologist for his “bitcoin is evil” comments adding that he hopes “Bitcoin can destroy central banking.” Byrne pulls no punches in his attack on Krugman and his “Keynesian magic money tree theories,” as he explains why the so-called ‘economist’ would be against a ‘bounded currency’.

Well worth a few minutes… as Byrne covers everything from Krugman’s craziness, Friedman’s warnings, Russia-style central-planning, and Federal Reserve failures… quite astounding…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Portugal: Gov’t Mulls Selling TAP to US Firm

As crisis-busting austerity measure

(ANSAmed) — LISBON, JANUARY 15 — The Portuguese government is in talks to sell TAP national airline to US magnate Frank Lorenzo in a crisis-busting austerity measure, local media reported Wednesday.

The government reportedly plans to sell off the airline within the year after it rejected in 2013 an offer from Brazilian investor German Efromovich’s Synergy Group, which it said was too low. Lorenzo, who is the chairman of Savoy Capital venture capital firm, might also balk at acquiring TAP because it would come with strings attached, such as an obligation to take on its subsidiaries. The Savoy board reportedly includes a Portuguese investor, which could be a card in the seller’s favor, according to local media.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey: Unemployment Soared to 9.7% in October, Says Tuik

(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, JANUARY 15 — Unemployment in Turkey soared by 0.6 percentage points to 9.7% in October, Hurriyet online reports quoting data released today by the Turkish Statistical Institute (Tuik), revealing youth unemployment still remains on rise.

The number of the unemployed in the country has reached 2.7 million people with 202,000 more citizens joining the ranks of unemployment compared to last year from the same period, according to the data encompassing projection of September, October and November. Unemployment among the non-agricultural sectors also rose 0.5 points to 11.9% during the same period. On a monthly basis, the unemployment rate fell for the first time since February, as September unemployment was at 9.9%. Meanwhile, unemployment among the youth, aged 14 to 15 years, rose by 1.2 percentage points to 19.3%. In a comment released after announcing the figures, Odeabank said the bank predicts the unemployment rate to plunge to 9.5% this year with a slight drop.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Americans Who Lost Their Health Insurance Thanks to ObamaCare Now Face Sticker Shock When Buying New Plans

As reported by The Associated Press, this scenario is repeating itself all over the country:

Dean Griffin liked the health insurance he purchased for himself and his wife three years ago and thought he’d be able to keep the plan even after the federal Affordable Care Act took effect.

But the 64-year-old recently received a letter notifying him the plan was being canceled because it didn’t cover certain benefits required under the law.

The Griffins, who are retired and live near Philadelphia along the Delaware border, were paying $770 a month for a plan that had a $2,500 deductible. Under Obamacare, however, their plan didn’t include minimum coverage levels and requirements. The government, you see, is now deciding what kind of health coverage you must carry; that’s what Obamacare does.

But under the Obamacare exchange in Pennsylvania, the closest plan they could afford was a “Bronze” plan costing more than $1,200 and with deductibles in excess of $25,000.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Another Moses Has Died

The liberty movement lost another one of its patriarchs last Saturday. My friend, Jack McLamb, passed away. Without a doubt, Jack was one of the staunchest allies that liberty and constitutional government ever had. He was doing it and saying it a long time before most of us were even thinking about it. Jack was top shelf, one of the best. He will not be easily replaced.

Jack McLamb was a retired Phoenix, Arizona, police officer. He is still today the most decorated policeman in the State of Arizona. And just about every time that Jack would reference that honor, he would add, “I was also the most fired.” I think he was more proud of the second distinction than the first.

Jack McLamb was the originator of the “Officer Friendly” program where policemen would visit schoolchildren in the classroom. He was an Arizona Regional Police Academy Instructor and a hostage negotiator for the FBI. He was the publisher of “Aid & Abet” newsletter, and president of The American Citizens & Lawmen Association. He was also the author of Operation Vampire Killer 2000, which, in many respects, was years ahead of its time. Jack was an Oath Keeper and before Oath Keepers came along, Jack headed a national organization called Military and Police Against The New World Order. He was also a Vietnam veteran.

To see a sampling of the numerous honors bestowed upon Jack McLamb and the many positions, assignments, and activities in which he was involved, go here:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Did Orwell and Jones See Google and Obama Coming?

Today’s headlines seem as fantastic as yesterday’s science fiction, and one wonders if Orwell, Jones and others among the genre didn’t have Barack Obama’s government and his friends at the ever-growing behemoth known as Google in mind when they penned their depressing dystopian tomes.

The IRS uses its authority to punish the president’s critics, even as the agency is handed virtually unlimited power to monitor and enforce ObamaCare, the most draconian program ever to work its way through the corrupt halls of all three branches of the United States Government.

The National Security Agency, already suspect in the eyes of many Americans, has placed software on nearly 100,000 computers worldwide, which allows the United States to conduct surveillance using radio frequency technology. According to recently published reports, the technology allows the NSA to gain access to computers even if they are not connected to the Internet.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Hollywood Movie Mogul Weinstein to Make Anti-Second Amendment Movie

Tells Howard Stern Americans do not have a right to own firearms

Movie producer and Obama supporter Harvey Weinstein will produce a film with actor Meryl Streep targeting the National Rifle Association and attacking the constitutional right of Americans to own firearms.

“I shouldn’t say this, but I’ll tell it to you, Howard,” Weinstein told radio show host Howard Stern, according to MTV. “I’m going to make a movie with Meryl Streep, and we’re going to take this head-on. And they’re going to wish they weren’t alive after I’m done with them.”…

Weinstein said his project with Streep will rival the 1939 movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and will have the effect of making firearms stocks “crash and burn.”

“I don’t think we need guns in this country. And I hate it,” he said. Weinstein said people in other countries need firearms, but not Americans…

Weinstein ignores the historical reality of gun control. After taking power in Nazi Germany, Hitler not only used gun registration records to disarm Jews, but all Germans the regime considered enemies of the state. The Holocaust was possible because Jews were disarmed and had no way to defend themselves.

Weinstein’s comment that he would have resisted going to Auschwitz if he “found a gun” demonstrates a dangerous ignorance. He now wants to use the power of cinema to spread the liberal idea that guns are evil, unnecessary and government would never persecute and murder political opponents as it did repeatedly in the 20th century under the rule of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and others.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

North Dakota Man Sentenced to Jail in Controversial Drone-Arrest Case

The first American man arrested with the help of a Predator drone has also become the first man who will go to jail because of it.

Tuesday, Rodney Brossart, a North Dakotan cattle rancher, was sentenced to three years in prison, with all but six months suspended, for terrorizing police officers who were trying to arrest him at his property in 2011. The strange case garnered national attention because it was the first time a law enforcement agency had used an unmanned aerial vehicle to assist in carrying out an arrest.

Brossart’s trouble began in 2011, when six cows wandered onto his property. After Brossart refused to return the cows to their owner, the Grand Forks, N.D., SWAT team was called in to arrest the man. What followed was a 16-hour, armed standoff that eventually ended when the SWAT team called in a Predator drone on loan from the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Patrol. The drone was able to locate Brossart and his three armed sons on the property and let police know it was safe it make to make an arrest. Brossart was allegedly tased during the arrest.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

NSA Collected 200 Million Text Messages a Day

The NSA has collected almost 200 million text messages a day from across the globe, reveal Edward Snowden documents.

The National Security Agency (NSA) has collected almost 200 million text messages a day from across the globe, using them to extract data including location, contact networks and credit card details, The Guardian reported on Thursday. The report is based on material provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The documents also reveal that the UK spy agency GCHQ has made use of the NSA database to search the metadata of “untargeted and unwarranted” communications belonging to people in the UK.

The NSA program, codenamed Dishfire, collects “pretty much everything it can”, according to GCHQ documents, rather than merely storing the communications of existing surveillance targets.

The NSA has made extensive use of its vast text message database to extract information on people’s travel plans, contact books, financial transactions and more — including of individuals under no suspicion of illegal activity, according to The Guardian.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Nuke Commander Purge: Another 34 Missile Launch Officers Terminated by Air Force

Air Force strips 34 launch officers of certifications following the termination of the nation’s top two nuke commanders

A few short months after two of the top nuke commanders in the United States were removed for minor offenses, an additional 34 nuclear missile launch officers have now been stripped of their certification following a ‘cheating scandal’ in which the Air Force says some officers were ‘texting answers’ to each other during a monthly test on missile operation.

This round of terminations in regards to nuclear launch commanders follows the original termination of the second highest nuclear commander (Navy Vice Adm. Tim Giardina) back on September 3rd of last year — the same date that Alex Jones and I released exclusive high level intel revealing a covert nuclear arms transfer from Texas’ Dyess Airforce base to South Carolina. And subsequently, the same day that Senator Lindsay Graham would hours later appear in a press statement to warn against a ‘nuclear attack’ on South Carolina in the event that we did not pursue war with Syria (the agenda being pushed at the time).

In a summary of these events, I spoke with Alex on his Nightly News program in which we broke it all down in depth:…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama’s Path From Critic to Overseer of Spying

As a young lawmaker defining himself as a presidential candidate, Barack Obama visited a center for scholars in August 2007 to give a speech on terrorism. He described a surveillance state run amok and vowed to rein it in. “That means no more illegal wiretapping of American citizens,” he declared. “No more national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime.”

More than six years later, the onetime constitutional lawyer is now the commander in chief presiding over a surveillance state that some of his own advisers think has once again gotten out of control. On Friday, he will give another speech, this time at the Justice Department defending government spying even as he adjusts it to address a wave of public concern over civil liberties.

[…]

So while instituting additional procedural changes, Mr. Obama undertook no major overhaul of the surveillance programs he inherited. ‘He’s sitting on the other end of the pen now,’ said the former Obama aide. ‘He has more information than he did then. And he trusts himself to use these powers more than he did the Bush administration.’ “

[“Trusts himself,” eh? Now THAT’S reassuring. — PW]

“Feeling little pressure to curb the security agencies, Mr. Obama largely left them alone until Mr. Snowden began disclosing secret programs last year. Mr. Obama was angry at the revelations, privately excoriating Mr. Snowden as a self-important narcissist who had not thought through the consequences of his actions.”

[“A self-important narcissist” — takes one to know one, it seems. — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

Obama: Best Gun Salesman in History!

Individual freedom is the birthright of ALL Americans. The single most important obligation an American has toward the constitution is to protect it and thereby protect our birthright — freedom.

The cause of the surge in gun sales in America? First and foremost is a President who stated clearly that he intended to seek “sensible” gun control laws. Gun owners believe that the gun grabber’s definition of sensible” is entirely different from theirs. “Sensible” to a gun owner means keeping your weapon pointed down range at all times, safety on ‘til you’re ready to fire, etc. These phrases aren’t even included in the lexicon of the gun grabbing Left. When I hear the phrase: “sensible gun control regulations/laws” I cringe.

But the most important reason Americans are purchasing guns and ammunition at monumental rates is because they sense they may be called upon to defend their constitution — and their country — from a Marxist takeover in the near future. Americans are preparing to defend themselves and their freedom by force of arms — if it becomes necessary.

I know. THAT is a difficult truth to come to grips with, but there it is.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama IRS’s Crimes Against Americans to Go Unpunished

Sham “investigation” by an Obama donor claims no wrong-doing — who’s fighting back?

While the media hypocritically train their focus on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s bridge-closing scandal, the Obama administration is quietly sweeping its IRS scandal, in which officials terrorized citizens for years with invasive investigations, audits, burdensome litigation, and threats of criminal prosecution, under the rug.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, law enforcement officials have leaked the news that the FBI will not file criminal charges regarding the IRS’s disproportionate scrutiny of conservative groups. The officials insisted that investigators found nothing that would constitute a violation of criminal law. What they claimed to have found was evidence of bureaucratic mismanagement, leading to the enforcement of rules that were misunderstood. The case remains under investigation, but barring some unexpected discovery of additional evidence, it becomes increasingly unlikely criminal charges will be filed.

House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who is in the midst of his own probe of the scandal, wasn’t buying it. “There is little reason for the American people to have confidence in this investigation,” Issa and oversight subcommittee chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) wrote in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Roundup Ready GM Soybeans Accumulate Poison More Than Equivalent Non-GM Soybeans

The scientists’ new paper, published in Food Chemistry and titled “Compositional differences in soybeans on the market: glyphosate accumulates in Roundup Ready GM soybeans” (available online ahead of print), reveals startling research that examines the significant differences that could be posed by eating genetically engineered foods, despite the fact that they look identical to non-GM versions. GM soybeans account for an unsettling 93% of U.S. and 75% of global soybean crop production.

Shockingly, analysis found that GM soybeans engineered to be tolerant to the herbicide glyphosate were actually accumulating high levels of residues from glyphosate and AMPA — a degradation product of glyphosate — taken up by the plants during the growing season. Glyphosate is absorbed throughout the plant, including in both the leaves and beans. Both toxins have been found to be bioavailable when taken orally and were found in the final “market ready” food product in every sample tested.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Spanish-American War: Trial Run for Interventionism

U.S. Secretary of State John Hay called the Spanish-American War of 1898 a “splendid little war.” Superficially, the description seemed apt. After the battleship Maine mysteriously exploded in Havana Harbor — an incident then blamed on Spain — America went to war, our citizens urged to free Cuba from Spanish rule as well as avenge the Maine. Largely a naval war, an American squadron under Commodore George Dewey destroyed the Spanish squadron at Manila; likewise, the U.S. Navy crushed Spain’s Caribbean squadron off Cuba’s port of Santiago. In each engagement, the United States suffered only one fatality. Things went tougher for American troops in Cuba, where malaria and yellow fever proved as daunting as Spanish bullets. But American schoolchildren would thereafter thrill to tales of Teddy Roosevelt and his “Rough Riders,” and of the famed charge up San Juan Hill. Defeated on land and sea, Spain sued for peace. The war lasted less than four months; our fighting forces distinguished themselves with valor; and the United States, acquiring territory from Puerto Rico to the Philippines, emerged as a “world power.”

However, behind victory’s fervor lay deceptions, and principles of the Founding Fathers were discarded, portending future misery for Americans.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

USA Now Under Full Dictatorship… Congress Continues 3 Monkey Policy

A President’s refusal to follow the US Constitution and other US laws is an illegal use of his power

On 14 January 2014, Dictator-in-Chief Barack Hussein Obama all but announced his dictatorship to the world. At a Presser photo-op, Obama announced the irrelevancy of Congress when he stated firmly:

“One of the things I’ll be emphasizing in this meeting is the fact that we are not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the kind of help that they need.”

“I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward…”

Our US Congress (you know…the House Representatives and Senators we elected to keep our country’s foundational structure intact) have betrayed the people almost as badly as has Obama. Obama betrayed Americans by lying about virtually everything he told them before his second term “election.” Congress has betrayed us by utilizing their 3-Monkey policy: ‘See nothing… Hear nothing…Say nothing’.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Widely-Touted HIV Cure Turns Out to be False; Patients Once Again Test HIV Positive

(NaturalNews) It was big news back in 2013 — science unveils an alleged cure for AIDS after two men from Boston test negative for HIV following successful bone marrow transplants, read the glowing headlines. Except this apparently was not the case. New reports now indicate that both of the men have relapsed, so to speak, and are now back on their previous regimen of conventional antiretroviral therapy following rediagnosis with HIV.

According to Reuters, scientists are “inspired” by the failure, as they believe that it has taken them one step closer toward finding a real cure. But in the meantime, the scientific community is trying to figure out what went wrong. What was previously believed to be understood about the nature of the supposed human immunodeficiency virus has quickly unraveled, and scientists are now poised to continue their inquiry into how the disease actually works.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Yahoo Parts Ways With Its No. 2 Executive

Yahoo’s No. 2 executive, Henrique de Castro, has been fired by his boss, Marissa Mayer, a little more than a year after she wooed him away from Google to help her turn around the struggling Internet company.

Yahoo, which has lost ground in recent years to competitors like Google and Facebook, announced Mr. de Castro’s departure in a terse, two-sentence document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission after the stock market closed on Wednesaday.

There was none of the usual corporate boilerplate that typically sugarcoats such departures — no praise for his service from Yahoo’s chief executive, Ms. Mayer, no mention of a sudden interest that Mr. de Castro had taken in spending more time with his family. A Yahoo spokeswoman said the company had no further comment on the matter.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Edmonton Airport Tried to Give Teenager His Pipe Bomb Back After He Went Through Security: Report

A teenager who was allowed to fly after trying to get a pipe bomb through airport security refused when the screeners tried to give the device back to him, the Edmonton Journal reports.

A source tells the Journal there is a video of security officials at Edmonton International Airport flagging the device — described as a “a six-inch steel pipe containing gunpowder with 4 1/2 feet of fuse from either end” — then attempting to give it back to 18-year-old Skylar Murphy. Murphy refused, and the pipe bomb was kept by the airport as the teen continued on to a plane travelling to Mexico…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Muslim Group: PMO in War of Words Over Rabbi’s Presence on PM Trip

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper hasn’t even started packing for his first visit to the Middle East, but the trip already has its first controversy.

A Canadian Muslim group wants Harper’s officials to boot a Toronto rabbi out of the official delegation that will travel with the prime minister.

In a letter sent to Harper on Tuesday, the National Council of Canadian Muslims said it objected to the presence of Toronto Rabbi Daniel Korobkin as part of Harper’s official delegation.

Korobkin declined to comment, but Jason MacDonald, the prime minister’s director of communications, slammed the NCCM — formerly known as the Canadian Council on American-Islamist Relations, or CAIR-CAN — for even making the suggestion.

“We will not take seriously criticism from an organization with documented ties to a terrorist organization such as Hamas,” MacDonald said.

“The delegation accompanying the prime minister to the Middle East includes a range of stakeholders from various business, religious and community organizations.”

Korobkin is the senior rabbi at Beth Avraham Yoseph Congregation, the largest Orthodox congregation in Canada, and is a former regional vice-president of the Rabbinical Council of America.

The NCCM rejected MacDonald’s statement as “absolutely false” and says it is neither associated with any terrorist group nor is it anti-Semitic.

In an e-mail, NCCM executive director Ihsaan Gardee said: “Our legal counsel is of the view that this statement is defamatory and libelous and we will be taking this up with the PMO. Furthermore, the statement is below the dignity of the office of the prime minister in responding to legitimate concerns raised by Canadians and only serves to distract from the legitimate issues raised.”

The NCCM said Korobkin should be disqualified from going to Israel with the prime minister because, in September, Korobkin “introduced, defended and praised” two American anti-Muslim campaigners.

Those two campaigners, Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, are founders of a group called Stop Islamization of America. Korobkin gave some brief remarks at an event in Toronto where Geller was the featured speaker.

The NCCM, which says it is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit group that funds its work through donations, has had a long-running battle with Geller and Spencer…

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

Antitrust Chief Says Italian Car Insurance Too Pricey

Pitruzzella calls Italian policies the most expensive in Europe

(ANSA) — Rome, January 15 — The president of the Italian Competition Authority on Wednesday said Italians are paying too much for car insurance.

“In Italy, we have the most expensive policies in Europe.

It is an indisputable and unbearable situation for the consumer,” Giovanni Pitruzzella told RAI Radio1. Pitruzella blamed “a combination of factors, among them the fact that there is a lot of fraud (and) there is a problem with compensation costs due to the amounts required by specific (official) tables”.

“It’s necessary, however, also to act in the face of insurance companies that don’t do enough. It’s necessary to stimulate more competition and encourage more efficient behaviour in the fight against fraud,” Pitruzella added.

“Many of the government’s measures, if correctly implemented, can serve to correctly tackle the problem. The process of (market) reform must continue,” Pitruzella concluded.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Bulgaria District Court to Hold Sitting on Radical Islam Trial

Pazardzhik. Bulgaria District Court in the town of Pazardzhik is to hold a new sitting on the radical Islam trial at 9.30 a.m. It is expected the court will hear testimony from the 13 defendants accused of spreading anti-democratic ideology through preaching Salafist ideology. If the court does not manage to hear all the testimony today, the court will resume the activity tomorrow again at 9.30 a.m.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Catalonia to Spain: Let’s Renegotiate Sovereignty

Displaying their own brand of national pride, pro-separatists in Catalonia in September reconfirmed a desire to establish a new country in Europe.

Now, the president of the autonomously governed region of Spain is ramping up the campaign ahead of a planned referendum later this year on Catalan independence.

The parties in Catalonia’s parliament are mostly in favour of holding such a referendum.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Greece: Land Deed Confusion Costs the State 8 Bln a Year

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JANUARY 15 — Problems related to landownership status and usage cost Greece a cool 8 billion euros per year, daily Kathimerini reports quoting a study conducted by the National Bank of Greece which calls for the urgent completion of the land registry and forest maps as well as extensive reforms. Notably, the study also asks the state to be particularly cautious lest recent investment incentives such as the fast-track process and the new framework for luxury tourism accommodation lead to environmental destruction and the downgrading of the country’s tourism product. The NBG study shows that nearly half of Greece’s surface area (65,000 square kilometers out of a total of more than 130,000 sq.km.) is claimed by private owners. However, according to historical sources, title deeds have only been issued issued for 40,000 sq.km. of that, most of which stemmed from the land distribution between 1871 and 1938. The remaining 25,000 sq.km. may have legal title deeds according to the law regarding adverse possession, provided they do not concern forestland, which as a rule remain public. However, the state’s forest claims amount to some 80,000 sq.km., or 60% of Greece’s surface area, as they are based on air photos dating to 1945.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: M5S Presents No-Confidence Motion Against De Girolamo

Agriculture minister under fire over Benevento appointments

(ANSA) — Rome, January 15 — The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) on Wednesday presented a no-confidence motion against Italian Agriculture Minister Nunzia De Girolamo. “A politician who behaves this way is not worthy of representing citizens,” said M5S MP Silvia Giordano, who co-signed the motion with M5S Lower House Whip Federico D’Inca.

D’Inca said he has asked Chamber Speaker Laura Boldrini to put the motion on the parliament calendar to be heard immediately.

Pressure for De Girolamo to resign has followed transcripts of recordings of her conversations regarding appointments in the southern province of Benevento.

The wiretaps stemmed from an investigation into health sector appointments and contracts in which the 38-year-old minister is not being probed.

Nevertheless, De Girolamo has been accused of improper interference by some, and the furore is increasing the turmoil Premier Enrico Letta’s left-right coalition government is enduring.

Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, the leader of De Girolamo’s New Centre Right (NCD) party, defended his political colleague, saying the 38-year-old minister “is not running away”.

“She is ready to report to parliament. She’ll do it with great strength and I am convinced that she will demonstrate that there was nothing improper in her behaviour,” Alfano on Wednesday told Radio Anch’io. Earlier this week Alfano said the wiretaps had been published illegally.

The Italian data protection authority said Tuesday it was “closely following developments” in the De Girolamo case, and accused “transcript journalism” of “seriously violating people’s private lives, often irreparably”.

While stressing that her job was in Premier Enrico “Letta’s hands”, De Girolamo defended her position and said she had been the victim of “an unprecedented media lynching”.

But Letta’s centre-left Democratic Party (PD), the biggest group in parliament, has urged her to give a full explanation.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy’s Infant Mortality Rate Among World’s Lowest

About four deaths of under-fives per 1,000

(ANSA) — Rome, January 15 — Italy has one of the lowest mortality rates in the world for children under age five, the Italian national statistics agency ISTAT said Wednesday. ISTAT noted that there were 2,084 under-five deaths in 2011, compared with 399,505 in 1887: a reduction from 347 deaths per 1,000 births to about four per 1,000. Sweden has the lowest under-five mortality rate in Europe, followed by France.

While in the late 19th century young children in Italy died mainly due to infectious diseases, 72% of deaths are now due to conditions of birth (48%) and genetic defects (24%), ISTAT said.

In 2011, 85% of deaths of those under age five in Italy occurred in the first year of life and a full half in the first seven days. The agency reported that the mortality rate at birth was 2.9 per 1,000 in 2011. It is higher for children born to mothers of foreign nationalities living in Italy, at 4.3 per 1,000.

Since 2006 the mortality rate of native Italians has always been lower than that of their foreign counterparts, though both have seen reductions. An analysis of infant mortality — linked as it is to healthcare, environmental and social conditions — can indicate differing levels of wealth between Italians and immigrants. Foreign women give birth to more children with health problems, especially ones related to the cardiocirculatory system, which medical advances have enabled to survive the first month but often not beyond that.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

More Explosives at Czech “Palestine” Mission

CZECH investigators have discovered explosives at the Palestinian embassy complex in Prague where a possibly booby-trapped safe killed the ambassador on January 1, police say. Police discovered 12 illegal weapons following the explosion at the embassy that killed Ambassador Jamal al-Jamal, but this is the first time that authorities said explosives were also found in the new complex that includes the embassy and the ambassador’s residence.

Police said on Thursday they received a letter from the Palestinian authorities saying the weapons were given to them as gifts by the officials of the former communist Czechoslovakia.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Muslim Youths Attack Dutch Funeral

A funeral procession in Amersfoort, Netherlands, has been disrupted by Muslim youths in a religiously motivated incident.

According to Dutch news programme EO Uitgesproken, relatives were escorting the body of a Mrs Hazeleger for burial when children of Moroccan origin ambushed the motorcade. Some students of the local Islamic school started screaming and making obscene gestures, before asking undertaker Gre te Braak whether the deceased lady was a Muslim.

After being told that she wasn’t a Muslim, the youths then ran to the car and hit the roof with their fists, allegedly shouting, “One dog less”.

According to Gre te Braak, this is not the first time that such an incident has occurred. “With increasing regularity funerals are disrupted by youths.”

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]
 

Nigel Farage Booms “Europe is Now Run by Big Banks, Big Business, And Big Bureaucrats”

With Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras settling into his role as EU President, UKIP’s Nigel Farage stunned the “Goldman Sachs puppet” with a 150-second tirade of truthiness he has likely never experienced. Farage sacrastically remarks how Greeks “will be dancing in the streets” at Samaras’ ‘successful’ negotiation on MiFiD reminding him that “60% of youth are unemployed and the neo-nazi party are on the march.” Europe is now run by “big business, big banks, and big bureaucrats,” Farage goes on, suggesting the smarmy-looking Samaras should “rename his party from New Democracy to No Democracy.” People do not want a United State of Europe, the outspoken UKIP leader explains, they want a “Europe of sovereign states,” and concludes ominously, “the European elections will be a watershed.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Norway Mass Murderer Had a Fan in Sandy Hook Killer Adam Lanza

Adam Lanza posted hundreds of messages on a fan site for a video game based on the Columbine shootings his admiration for mass murderers such as Norwegian killer, Anders Breivik, who murdered 77 people in 2011.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Salvini and Le Pen Meet to Discuss Closer Relations

Euroskeptic ties grow between National Front and Northern League

(ANSA) — Strasbourg, January 15 — Ties between Italy’s anti-immigrant Northern League and France’s far-right National Front are becoming ever stronger.

Leaders from the two parties met at the European Parliament on Wednesday to discuss a joint strategy ahead of European parliamentary elections.

The new leader of Italy’s Northern League, Matteo Salvini, had in recent days said that he wanted to cooperate with Marine Le Pen’s National Front.

The Northern League, which campaigns for greater autonomy for Italy’s wealthier northern regions, shares the National Front’s Euroskepticism and the French party’s hardline stance on migrants.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Spain: Ibiza Prostitutes Form Cooperative, Called Sealeer

‘We want to pay taxes, retire with pensions’

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JANUARY 15 — A group of 11 female sex workers has formed an Ibiza-based cooperative called Sealeer in order to become self-employed taxpayers, making them eligible for pensions once they retire.

The first of its kind in Spain, the cooperative is made up of Spanish, French, Italian, and Eastern European women.

“Our main objective is to sign up for social security so our jobs can be regulated and we can be protected on retirement”, said spokeswoman Maria José Lopez Armesto. “We’re like football players: we make a lot of money while we’re young, but after 50, society excludes us. We have no pensions”.

Working girls make at least 4,000 euros a month tax-free, and the cooperative wants to change that.

“We want to normalize ourselves and be considered the same as any other worker”, said Armesto.

There are an estimated 2,200 prostitutes on Ibiza, and they double during summer tourist season. But the actual numbers are much higher if you consider girls working in private clubs and massage parlors, Armesto explained.

“They are our de facto colleagues, who suffer the same downsides to the job as we do”, Armesto said. “The only difference is they don’t get raided by police”.

She pointed to Germany and Holland, where prostitution is regulated — and where working girls are safe from human traffickers and violent pimps, and have better health care — as the cooperative’s ultimate aim.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Spain: 14 Arrested in Madrid as Protest Spills Into Violence

MADRID, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) — Fourteen people were arrested and several were injured in the Spanish capital of Madrid late on Wednesday night, when a demonstration in favor of the residents of the city of Burgos ended with violent clashes between some protestors and riot police…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

The Mafia’s Deadly Garbage: Italy’s Growing Toxic Waste Scandal

For decades, the Mafia has been dumping toxic waste illegally in the region north of Naples. Recently declassified testimony shows that leading politicians have known about the problem for years, yet done nothing about it — even as the death toll climbs.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Is There Such a Thing as a ‘Muslim Child’?

By Tom Chivers

The Times reported at the weekend that the “Muslim birthrate” is significantly higher than the British average, and that “Almost a tenth of babies and toddlers in England and Wales are Muslim.” Richard Dawkins then wrote a letter to the newspaper, saying that “Babies and toddlers are too young to know what they think about origins, moral philosophy or the meaning of life”. We would not, he points out, ascribe philosophical positions or political beliefs to a child too young to know its own name, so why is religion different?

[…]

[Reader comment by arthurenglish on 16 January 2014.]

A verse from Kipling’s ‘Stranger Within my Gate’:…

The Stranger within my gates,
He may be evil or good,
But I cannot tell what powers control —
What reasons sway his mood;
Nor when the Gods of his far-off land
Shall repossess his blood.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Kick it Out Threatens JC Over Anelka

Kick It Out, the organisation charged with tackling racism in football, reacted to concerns over its failure to condemn Nicolas Anelka’s quenelle gesture by threatening to take legal action against the JC…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Peterborough Sex Attacks: Gang Sold Girls for Sex in Playground

Two men and three teenage boys have been found guilty of a series of rapes and sexual assaults in Peterborough.

Zdeno Mirga, 18, Hassan Abdulla, 33, and three boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were convicted at the Old Bailey. The group targeted five teenage girls and are due to be sentenced on 20 February…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Peterborough Sex Gang’s ‘Sophisticated’ Grooming Tactics

A gang of men and boys convicted of sexually abusing teenage girls in Peterborough used “sophisticated” tactics to groom their victims, detectives have said.

They befriended vulnerable girls, gave them gifts, money, drugs and alcohol and used violence and intimidation to control them, subjecting them to “appalling” abuse in places such as children’s playgrounds. Two men and three teenage boys were found guilty of a series of rapes and sexual assaults on five girls.

Their convictions were the result of a “victim-led” investigation, involving Cambridgeshire Police, Peterborough City Council children’s services and other agencies. It formed part of a wider investigation, called Operation Erle, into allegations of sex abuse by other groups of men and boys against young girls…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Two Women Arrested for Alleged Terror Offence as Police Investigate Suspected Syria Links

One of the British women was held as she tried to fly to Turkey with a large quantity of cash

A British woman has been arrested for alleged terror offences amid fears she was trying to fly out of the UK to support jihadists in Syria. The 26-year-old was one of two women arrested by counter-terrorism police after she was stopped at Heathrow airport with a “large quantity of cash”. The second woman, a 27-year-old, was arrested several hours later at an address in London.

The 26-year-old was held at 9.20am as she prepared to fly to Istanbul in Turkey. Police are investigating whether her journey is linked to the Syrian conflict and whether she planned cross over the border herself to allegedly join jihadists or was taking money out to support others…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

The Bosnian Knot: Conflicts Unchanged in Birthplace of WWI

The 1914 assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo came in the midst of a bitter power struggle among major European powers in the Balkans. One hundred years and three devastating wars later, peace still eludes the multi-ethnic region.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt: As the Yes Campaign is Set to Win Referendum, Catholic Church Spokesman Calls it “A Vote Against Islamism and Sharia”

Unofficial results indicate that the Yes won 98 per cent of the vote in at least 25 districts. Turnout tops 55 per cent. Women turnout is also up. Christians cast their ballot despite Islamist attacks and threats. For Egyptian Catholic Church spokesman Fr Greich Rafiq, if the new constitution is not implemented, “we shall find ourselves with yet another odd text useful only to stock bookshelves.”

Cairo (AsiaNews) — Votes are still being counted after Egyptians cast their ballots in the country’s constitutional referendum on Tuesday and Wednesday. No official results are yet available, but partial results indicate a clear victory for the “yes” side with 98 per cent in at least 25 districts.

The only reliable figure so far is the 55 per cent turnout, a significant increase over the 33 per cent registered in December 2012 when voters were called to approve the constitution drafted by the Muslim Brotherhood-controlled government.

“Many Western media describe the result as a victory for the military,” said Egyptian Catholic Church spokesman Fr Rafiq Greich, in an interview by AsiaNews. Under the new Constitution, the military will apparently have a greater say, but for the clergyman, ordinary Egyptians “voted primarily against religious extremism, sharia and attempts by the Muslim Brotherhood to Islamise the society”.

Despite the large deployment of police and military forces, several attacks in the Sinai and elsewhere have shaken the country. In the capital, a bomb blew up outside a courthouse a few hours before voting got underway. Clashes between police and Muslim Brotherhood also left 11 people dead.

For the priest, “the large voter turnout is a show of defiance against Islamist threats, and a signal that the population has confidence in democracy.”

“Such attacks did not prevent people from voting,” the clergyman explained. “I am impressed by the large turnout of women, who until a few months ago, under the Morsi government, were in danger of oppression by the increasing Islamisation of society.”

Under the new constitution, men and women are equal with potentially new opportunities for Egyptian women.

Christians also turned out in greater numbers. In August, Islamists had attacked and destroyed hundreds of Christian houses and churches. In some places, like Delga (Upper Egypt), Islamists took over the entire town, re-imposing the “tax on infidels.”

During the referendum campaign, Christians also came under attack or received threats. In the province of Minya (Upper Egypt), members of the Muslim Brotherhood tried to intimidate the population. But the most serious case occurred in Sohag, where militants climbed on the roofs of some houses located along the city’s main street, pelting passers-by with stones and in some cases shooting at them.

In el-Fayoum (about 100 km southwest of Cairo), unknown assailants shot at the Church of St Michael the Archangel on Monday night. According to the police, the goal was to intimidate the Christian population against supporting the new Constitution.

According to Fr Greiche, unlike the constitution proposal voted in December 2012, the current one provides many advantages for minorities, including freedom of religion. Islam remains however the official religion of the state.

The new constitution has a provision requiring the government to adopt a law that would give Christians the freedom to build their own places of worship.

For the Catholic Church spokesman, we need to be realist. Whoever rules in the future, they “will have to turn into law what is enshrined in the constitution and meet the demands of the population.”

“If this does not happen,” he warns, “we shall find ourselves with yet another odd text useful only to stock bookshelves.”

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

Egypt Votes Overwhelmingly for Military-Backed Constitution

With most ballots counted, referendum “Yes” vote stands at 98 per cent, with opposition crying foul

Almost 98 per cent of voters were in favour of the new document, according to provisional counts from most of Egypt’s 27 provinces, after a short campaign in which many of those trying to oppose the constitution were harassed and arrested…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

EU Project Helps Young Palestinians to Understand Elections

activity will be replicated by other schools in the new semester

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, JANUARY 15 — An EU-funded project has been helping Palestinian children to learn about the basic process of democratic elections, seeking to lay the foundation for democratic practices among the young. This activity, managed by the Palestinian Central Elections Commission, will be replicated in different schools in the upcoming school semester.

The CEC, according to the Enpi website (www.enpi-info.eu), has just concluded the last session of the project “Election Education in Schools for 2013”. The project was funded by the European Union and implemented in coordination with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and the Friends school.

Through the exercise, which saw pupils voting for a favourite animal, students learnt about nomination, campaigning in support of their chosen animal, and voting, in a simplified process that appeals to their age. To achieve this, the CEC trained 20 educational supervisors who in turn trained around 45 teachers from the targeted schools. The concept of this exercise is for second graders to learn the basic steps of elections using an integrated educational approach engaging students.

The activity was highly evaluated by teachers, pupils, and their parents. And this is the reason why the CEC received a lot of requests from other schools to implement the exercise in the future.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Gaza Rocket Barrage Targets Ashkelon

Iron Dome intercepts five rockets fired at the city of Ashkelon. No physical injuries or damages.

Terrorists from Hamas-controlled Gaza fired a barrage of rockets towards the city of Ashkelon on Wednesday night.

Five of the rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system, which shoots down rockets before they hit populated areas.

Several other rockets may have exploded in open areas. There were no reports of physical injuries or damages. The “Red Alert” rocket siren was sounded prior to the explosions.

Wednesday night’s rocket attack follows several attacks on Monday. Gaza terrorists fired two rockets at the Negev Monday afternoon, several hours after the conclusion of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s funeral.

The rockets exploded in an area north of Sderot. There were no physical injuries and no damage reported.

Two weeks ago, Israeli Air Force (IAF) aircraft struck several targets in Gaza, hitting a terror infrastructure site in central Gaza and three concealed rocket launchers in northern Gaza. All aircraft safely returned to their bases.

The airstrikes came several hours after a rocket launched by terrorists in the Hamas-ruled territory exploded in one of the communities along the Gaza security fence.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, on Tuesday complained to the Security Council and to the UN Secretary-General over Monday’s rocket fire.

“While a nation grieved its fallen leader, rockets began falling a short distance from the funeral service,” wrote Prosor.

“In recent days, many people recalled the brave and decisive steps Sharon took to strengthen Israel and provide Palestinians in the Gaza Strip with the opportunity to build a better future,” he added, referring to Israel’s unilateral “Disengagement” from Gaza in 2005 which was orchestrated by Sharon.

“Instead, since 2005, Gaza has become a terrorist base used by Hamas to shoot rockets, carry out kidnappings, and launch attacks on Israeli citizens,” wrote Prosor.

[Return to headlines]
 

Al-Qaida Militants Attack Security Facilities in Southeast Yemen, 12 Soldiers Killed

ADEN, Yemen, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) — Al-Qaida militants attacked a police station and two military posts in the southeastern province of al-Bayda on Thursday, leaving about 12 soldiers killed, a government official told Xinhua…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Contrast Sen. Feinstein’s Position on Iran Sanctions Legislation Versus the Benghazi Report

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is much in the news as head of the Senate Intelligence Committee given the release Wednesday of the long-awaited bi-partisan Benghazi Report. Contrast that with her withering criticism of the nearly veto-proof new Iran Sanctions legislation. On Tuesday she rose on the floor of the US Senate to give a ringing condemnation of the bi-partisan Nuclear Weapons Free Iran Act (S. 1881), seeking standby sanctions authorities, as unnecessary and dangerous legislation acceding to saber rattling by our ally Israel. She castigated it for disrupting the Administration’s diplomatic initiative with Iran with what she deems a ‘strong’ P5+1 agreement triggered by concerns over Israel’s security. She observed:

And let me acknowledge Israel’s real well founded concerns, that a nuclear-armed Iran would threaten its very existence. I don’t disagree with that. I agree with it, but we’re not there yet. While I recognize and share Israel’s concern, we cannot let Israel determine when and where the United States goes to war. By stating that the United States should provide military support to Israel in a former resolution should it attack Iran, I fear that is how this bill is going to be interpreted.

The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) in a release yesterday, upbraided Sen. Feinstein for these remarks. Matt Brooks, RJC executive director said:

Senator Feinstein is within her rights to disagree with a bipartisan majority of her colleagues who support Kirk-Menendez, but her suggestion that those colleagues have ceded control over ‘when and where the United States goes to war’ to Israel is outrageous, inflammatory and completely baseless.

[…]

We are deeply troubled to see Senator Feinstein making such incendiary and inaccurate remarks on the Senate floor. We call on her to retract this reckless and false charge and apologize to her colleagues and to the millions of Americans who support a comprehensive, robust strategy to prevent the Tehran regime from obtaining nuclear weapons capability.” […]

Given her Senate floor speech on NWFIA and Israel, Sen. Feinstein might address the objections of RJC executive director Brooks by heeding the comments made during the January 14th Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET) conference call — listen to this excerpt on You Tube — by both former Israeli Amb. (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, Dr. Michael Ledeen of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and Sarah Stern, EMET’s executive director.

[…]

In an Iconoclast post in late November 2013 on the cusp of the P5+1 agreement, we raised the issue of “Could Iranian missiles threaten Florida by 2015?” I was acutely aware of this danger as a young US Army intelligence officer who lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. Sen. Feinstein was a young adult when the Soviet-backed threat nearly brought catastrophe to this hemisphere, prevented only because we were militarily prepared to act.. ..As head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Feinstein may have also been briefed on the same information. For her to disregard this clear and present danger by Iran to the US and her constituents is myopic, misleading and dangerous. The stronger stand by sanctions authorization under S. 1881 with near veto-proof bi-partisan support buttresses the diplomatic initiative the Administration is seeking to achieve. Sen. Feinstein needs to correct her Senate speech mistakes and apologize to her fellow Senators, all Americans and to our ally Israel. We must be realistic about the “catastrophic apocalyptic” threat that Iran’s nuclear program poses to regional and world peace. The current generation of Americans doesn’t have to live through another nuclear crisis as many of us and Sen. Feinstein did 52 years ago.

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

Death Toll Rises to 5 in Lebanon Car Explosion

BEIRUT, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) — The casualties from Thursday’s car explosion in east Lebanon’s Hermel city rose to at least five people killed and more than 50 injured, the Lebanese Red Cross announced.

A booby-trapped car exploded near an army barrack in Hermel in the Bekaa region, a Shiite agglomeration considered to be a heartland of Hezbollah, the country’s military party, adjacent to the eastern Lebanese border with Syria…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

EU-Turkey: Brussels to Examine Judicial Amendment Pre-Vote

‘Corruption probe must be impartial’ Fule tells Cavusoglu

(ANSAmed) — STRASBOURG, JANUARY 15 — The Turkish government’s controversial proposed amendment to its law on the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) to increase its control over the judiciary will be vetted by the EU before it goes to a vote, the EU Commission made known Tuesday.

“The Commission will examine the bill and share its views with Turkish authorities before any vote takes place”, it said in a note.

This comes after EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule met with Turkey’s new EU Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu Monday in Strasbourg.

The EU expects Turkey “to take all necessary measures to ensure recent corruption allegations will be dealt with in an impartial, transparent and non-discriminatory manner”, the statement said.

This was a reference to the recent massive purge of police chiefs and prosecutors, which are deepening EU concerns over the rule of law in Turkey because it is seen as an attempt to cover up a high-level corruption probe.

“Any change to the judicial system must not imperil Turkey’s commitment” to the the principles of EU legislation.

“Fule has entrusted Cavusoglu with this message for Ankara”, the note concluded.

Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to meet with EU Commission President Jose’ Manuel Barroso Tuesday in Brussels on what will be his first European visit since the bribery and graft probe that implicated several of his key allies.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Gioia Tauro Mayor’s ‘Life at Risk’ Over Syrian Chemical Arms

Weapons to be transferred at Calabrian city’s port

(see related) (ANSA) — Gioia Tauro, January 16 — The mayor of Gioia Tauro Renato Bellofiore on Thursday slammed a decision to transfer chemical weapons originating from Syria the Southern Italian port.

“They are putting my life at risk,” he said. “If something happens, the population will come and get me with a pitchfork”.

The mayor said that the city was devoid of a hospital that was able to handle an emergency if it arose. The mayor added that the matter was “extremely serious” and that “perhaps (Foreign) Minister (Emma) Bonino doesn’t know what democracy is”. Bellofiore said the decision was made from above and imposed onto the local population.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Iraqis Go About Their Lives at Mercy of Nameless Bombers

(Reuters) — The day after one of Iraq’s bloodiest days for months, shoppers and drivers packed the streets of Baghdad on Thursday, grimly aware that death can strike anywhere, any time. At least eight bombs hit the capital, mostly in Shi’ite districts, on Wednesday, killing 40 people and wounding 88, while attacks elsewhere pushed the national death toll to 78.

“We are afraid even when we are in our houses, because we do not know the enemy,” said Raed Mohammed, as he and his assistant put spare machine parts back on the shelves of his shop, which had been damaged by one of the blasts in the Karrada neighborhood.

“We don’t know who is targeting us. We aren’t in a war where we know who we’re fighting,” said the shopkeeper, shaven-headed apart from a neat goatee beard. “We’ve lost our sense of security. Sometimes we have days when security is good, followed by days of relentless attacks.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Justice or Peace? Hariri Trial Could Spark Further Unrest in Lebanon

Proceedings in the case of murdered ex-Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri are set to being in the Netherlands this week. The trial could cause further unrest in a country that is already on the verge of chaos.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Syria: International Donors Pledge $2.4 Billion

Ban Ki-Moon announces in Kuwait; Italy pledged $50 million

(ANSAmed) — KUWAIT CITY, JANUARY 15 — International donors including Italy have pledged a total of $2.4 billion in humanitarian aid for Syria, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said Wednesday in Kuwait at the close of the second international donor conference for the war-torn country.

This falls short of the $6.5 billion the United Nations asked for this year to help Syrians affected by the war, its largest-ever funding appeal for a single crisis. The Kuwait donor conference was attended by 62 countries, 11 UN agencies, the World Bank, five humanitarian organizations including the Red Cross, and 17 NGOs. Represented by Deputy Foreign Minister Lapo Pistelli, Italy pledged 38 million euros (approximately $50 million).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Syria: NGO: 1,000 Dead in Fighting Between Rebels, Jihadists

130 civilians killed. Death toll in 2 weeks of fighting

(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, JANUARY 16 — Over 1,000 people have died over the past two weeks in northern Syria in fighting between rebels and jihadist groups also linked to al Qaeda, according to NGO National Observatory for Human Rights in Syria. Among those killed, 608 were reportedly rebels, 312 members of the al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) and 130 civilians.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey: Major Reshuffle in Judiciary Amid Graft Probe Row

(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, JANUARY 16 — Turkey’s Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) reassigned the Chief Prosecutor of Istanbul, Turhan Colakkadi, from his office to a passive position on January 16, as a part of a reshuffle move involving some 20 prosecutors in critical positions.

The move, as daily Hurriyet reports, follows a decision by the board on January 15 to change two names in the first department of the board which is in charge of promotions and appointments, as proposed by Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag as the Chair of the HSYK. Colakkadi’s name was recently involved in a row with another Istanbul prosecutor, Muammer Akkas, last month, when Akkas wanted to open a second wave of a corruption probe right after a major one started on December 17, 2013, but was stopped as the new Istanbul Police Chief Selami Altinok who refused to implement the prosecutor’s orders to carry out the arrests.

Altinok was appointed to the post after the government had removed the former police chief, Huseyin Capkin, right after the corruption probe arrests which involved the son of the interior minister of the time. The probe has led Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to sack four of his ministers whose names were involved in allegations from the Cabinet. Erdogan considers the probe as an unnamed “coup attempt” against his government by the sympathizers of Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-resident moderate Islamist scholar who used to be an ally of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) up until recently.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Turkish Airlines Hires Foreign Pilots for Safety

(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, JANUARY 15 — Turkish Airlines (THY) employs foreign pilots to attain global quality standards, the CEO of the company said, while speaking at the graduation ceremony of the Turkish pilot academy students, as Anadolu Agency reports. “We need pilots. Aren’t there any in Turkey? There are in some schools, but we cannot take them because they are not qualified for our criteria,” THY CEO Temel Kotil said yesterday at the graduation ceremony of two-year students of THY Flight Training Academy. “Nobody should be offended, but we need to maintain some certain level of quality. I don’t want to say ‘unsafe’ referring to those pilots, but they don’t fit with our criteria,” he stated, noting the company will keep hiring foreign pilots because of these concerns. Some 63 pilots graduated yesterday and will begin performing their duties for THY planes, Kotil also said. “We wish safe flights for them.” He also said the THY does very well and targets servicing around 60 million passengers this year.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Bombing at Pakistani Mosque Observing Evening Prayers Kills 6

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A bomb ripped through a crowded mosque where evening prayers were being held Thursday, killing six people and wounding 60 others, officials said. The dead included two children…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

China Tests Hypersonic Aircraft

China has for the first time tested a hypersonic missile vehicle designed to travel several times the speed of sound, according to the Pentagon.

The test makes China the second country after the United States to conduct experimental flights with hypersonic vehicles, a technology that could allow armies to rapidly strike distant targets anywhere around the world.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

China Mobilizes 100,000 Troops in Preparation for Korean Peninsula Crisis

In what PLA sources are describing as an unusually high figure, China has mobilized 100,000 troops to take part in a border exercise as part of preparations for a Korean Peninsula crisis.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Contaminated Japanese Rivers Unleash ‘Perennial Supply’ Of Radiation Into Pacific Ocean

(NaturalNews) A study published in the Elsevier journal Anthropocene late last year has revealed that many of the rivers, streams and other waterways located throughout coastal Japan have inadvertently become delivery systems for transporting radioactive waste directly from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility into the Pacific Ocean.

Researchers from both France and Japan discovered this after conducting a thorough sediment and soil erosion analysis, which revealed the presence of cesium-137, cesium-134 and even radioactive silver in the runoff from coastal rivers. A total of 2,200 soil samples were collected as part of the study, which was originally designed to look at the normal biogeochemical cycles and dispersion of contaminants via rivers and waterways.

Since it is already known that rivers play a functional role in cleansing the natural environment of toxins, a team of scientists from the Laboratory for Climate Sciences and the Environment in France and the Center for Research in Isotopes and Environmental Dynamics in Japan decided to look at how this process works with respect to radiation distribution.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

On the Piste in North Korea: Regime’s Luxury Ski Resort Opens for Business

(CNN) — Skiing is not the first thing that immediately springs to mind when thinking about North Korea. But a luxury resort in the isolated nation is now receiving visitors. Located in Masik, Kangwon province, the hotel and resort officially opened January 1 after reportedly encountering a number of setbacks.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Radioactive Fish Continue to be Caught Near Fukushima

(NaturalNews) Japan used to account for 15 percent of global fish catches, but now, nearly three years after the earthquake and subsequent tsunami which struck Fukushima’s Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in March 2011, sales are plummeting in Fukushima and the surrounding prefectures, as the world focuses intently on radiation levels mounting in the Pacific Ocean’s sea life.

The Japanese government-affiliated Fisheries Research Agency just announced on January 10th that it had caught a black seabream fish contaminated with 12,400 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium — an amount 124 times higher than the safety standard. Two other black seabreams were found to breach the 100 Bq/kg limit at 426 Bq/kg and 197 Bq/kg.

Stories like this only confirm that Fukushima radiation is not decreasing but continuing to accumulate. Five prefectures which catch some 40,000 tons of fish every year appear to be directly affected by Fukushima, and taking radiation measurements after a catch has become just a routine part of fishing there now. Fish being caught in the waters around Fukushima are still dangerously contaminated with high levels of radiation, and the majority of these catches get destroyed rather than end up in a market or a restaurant.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Kangaroo in 400-Year-Old Manuscript Could Change Australian History

A 16th century manuscript featuring an image that looks like a kangaroo could prove that Portuguese explorers discovered Australia before the first recorded European landing in 1606

A drawing of a kangaroo on a 16th century Portuguese manuscript could potentially change the world’s understanding of Australia’s history. The manuscript, which is thought to date from between 1580 and 1620, appears to show a small kangaroo within the letters of its text. If the image actually is a kangaroo, the drawing suggests that Portuguese explorers may have discovered Australia before the first recorded European landing on the continent by Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon in 1606…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Somali Pirate Clampdown Caused Drop in Global Piracy, Imb Reveals

Piracy at sea has reached its lowest levels in six years, with 264 attacks recorded worldwide in 2013, a 40% drop since Somali piracy peaked in 2011, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) International Maritime Bureau (IMB) revealed today. 15 incidents were reported off Somalia in 2013, down from 75 in 2012, and 237 in 2011.

IMB’s annual global piracy report shows more than 300 people were taken hostage at sea last year and 21 were injured, nearly all with guns or knives. A total of 12 vessels were hijacked, 202 were boarded, 22 were fired upon and a further 28 reported attempted attacks. Nigerian pirates were particularly violent, killing one crewmember, and kidnapping 36 people to hold onshore for ransom.

“The single biggest reason for the drop in worldwide piracy is the decrease in Somali piracy off the coast of East Africa,” said Pottengal Mukundan, Director of IMB, whose Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC) has monitored world piracy since 1991. IMB says Somali pirates have been deterred by a combination of factors, including the key role of international navies, the hardening of vessels, the use of private armed security teams, and the stabilizing influence of Somalia’s central government.

“It is imperative to continue combined international efforts to tackle Somali piracy. Any complacency at this stage could re-kindle pirate activity,” warned Captain Mukundan.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Argentina Suspends Construction of Monsanto’s Unconstitutional GMO Seed Plant

The motivating force behind expanding anti-Monsanto demonstrations, including life-threatening demonstrations on the seed plant construction site, was the growing health problems near soy fields sprayed with Roundup. Farmers who sign up for Roundup Ready seeds are forced into using Roundup as part of Monsanto’s contract.

Monsanto’s end product is Roundup. It is primarily a chemical company. The birth deformities and spontaneous abortions that many farmers in the USA have reported in their GMO soy- and corn-fed livestock have plagued Argentine humans living near GMO soy fields.

The fields were often sprayed from the air. And mysterious illnesses were occurring among adults and children near those fields during the 12 years that Argentina had bought into GMO soy production to boost its economy.

Even an Associated Press investigation pointed to a clear link between the use of pesticides sold by Monsanto and worsening health problems in Argentina, as those pesticides both were airborne and polluted water sources.

While Monsanto claims that glyphosate is safe, and many international environmental, health and agricultural agencies concur, there is a sneaky little detail that’s omitted from their studies.

That detail is simply that glyphosate is not the only ingredient in their “proprietary” formula that is considered a trade secret, allowing Monsanto to play the corporate rights card stopping most from looking behind the curtain. Glyphosate is studied alone, not as part of formulas that use glyphosate with other ingredients.

Seralini’s French research team discovered that Roundup’s extreme toxicity comes from combining glyphosate with chemical adjuvants to ensure rapid plant absorption of glyphosate.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Greece: Stop Expelling Immigrants Says Council of Europe

Human rights commissioner calls for investigation into abuse

(ANSAmed) — STRASBOURG, JANUARY 15 — Greece must cease collectively deporting immigrants, Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Nils Muiznieks said in a letter to Public Order and Citizen Protection Minister Nikolaos Dendias and Shipping, Maritime Affairs and the Aegean Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis. “Numerous reports of collective expulsions of immigrants, including a large number of Syrian citizens fleeing the war, as well as reported abuse of immigrants at the hands of the coast guard and border police are a cause of great concern”, Muiznieks wrote.

The commissioner called on Greek authorities to investigate the allegations, to prevent further abuse, and to report back to him.

The Greek ministers replied that these allegations of immigrant mistreatment are already under investigation by Greek authorities, and that Muiznieks will be kept informed of any results.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: FI Politician Jokes That Blacks ‘Do Not Need Make-Up’

Member of parliament Santelli makes remark on TV

(See related on Kyenge) (ANSA) — Rome, January 15 — Black woman have “good fortune” because they do not need to wear make-up, a member of the ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (FI) political party said Wednesday.

“Black people? They have the good fortune not to need to wear make-up like us,” said Jole Santelli, an elected member of parliament representing the FI.

Santelli, a 45-year-old lawyer, make the comment during a debate about immigration during a television talk show on the public RAI network, which Congo-born Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge took part in via a link.

Immigration and racism have become particularly hot-button topics in Italy, and much abuse has been directed at Kyenge, the country’s first black cabinet minister.

Kyenge was targeted again on Wednesday when a letter leaking suspicious powder and addressed to her was delivered to the premier’s office in Rome. The minister, who has been the victim of a long series of racist slurs since being sworn in last April, has called the attacks “a threat to democracy”. Members of the anti-immigrant Northern League have often been behind verbal abuse, with one leader likening her to an orangutan last year. On Tuesday the party’s newspaper La Padania published her daily schedule as Italy’s parliament debated abolishing a League-sponsored law criminalizing illegal immigration.

Kyenge, once an undocumented immigrant herself, has been at the forefront of the drive to repeal that law.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Kyenge Sent Suspicious Powder as Racism Row Escalates

League says feud with first back minister strictly political

(By Christopher Livesay) (ANSA) — Rome, January 15 — Suspicious powder was mailed to Italy’s first black minister on Wednesday, sparking alarm in the capital and fomenting an ongoing debate over the role that race plays in political discourse as politicians battle over the country’s immigration policies. Firefighters were called to the premier’s office when the mail-processing center intercepted a letter leaking suspicious powder addressed to Congolese-born Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge. Police later confirmed the powder to be baking soda, concealed inside an envelope mailed from Palermo with no return address. Members of the anti-immigrant Northern League have often been behind non-violent, verbal abuse against Kyenge, with one leader likening her to an orangutan last year. On Tuesday the party’s newspaper La Padania published her daily schedule as Italy’s parliament debated abolishing a League-sponsored law criminalizing illegal immigration. Kyenge, once an undocumented immigrant herself, has been at the forefront of the drive to repeal that law.

“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 Tuesday. The center-left Democratic Party (PD), which is in the majority of Italy’s left-right coalition, promptly blasted the League and Bitonci’s statement as racist and subversive.

On Wednesday the League defended the term ‘Negritude’, a movement founded by blacks in France in the 1930s that embraced their African heritage and rejected French colonial racism. “Negritude is not a racist term,” said La Padania Editor-in-Chief Aurora Lussana. “Ours is a political attack on Kyenge for her absence of government action. She needs to put an end to this victimization. We’ve also gone after Development Minister Flavio Zanonato. I’d like to hear the chorus of indignation also for someone from the Veneto region”. Lombardy Governor Roberto Maroni, the former leader of the Northern League, defended the paper’s decision to publish Kyenge’s schedule, which she said was tantamount to “a threat against democracy”.

“Her appointments were on the ministry website. I don’t understand why opposing her must be considered racist while opposing me is considered democracy,” he said.

But some center-left analysts say certain statements by League members and other politicians suggest their differences with Kyenge are not strictly political. “Black people? They have the good fortune not to need to wear make-up like us,” said Jole Santelli, an MP from three-time premier Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right Forza Italia party. “They’re lucky,” she added during an immigration debate on the public RAI television network that included Minister Kyenge.

In addition to an outpouring of solidarity from fellow center-left politicians, Kyenge was bolstered by fellow cabinet member Angelino Alfano, the deputy premier and interior minister from the New Center Right party. “We have guaranteed full support for the minister, and we’re against every form of racism,” he said on Italian radio. “Then we can differ over immigration policy”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Northern League Senators Protest Plans to Soften Immigration Rules

Rome, 16 January (AKI) — Senators from Italy’s rightwing Northern League party on Thursday occupied the speaker Pietro Grasso’s office in protest at a bill to de-criminalise illegal immigration.

Italy’s parliament is currently debating the bill which includes proposals to repeal current legislation that makes illegal immigration a crime, which was sponsored by the anti-immigrant Northern League.

Congolese-born integration minister Cecile Kyenge, who has been spearheading the drive to abolish the draconian law, has been frequently been the target of verbal abuse by the Northern League and insults and threats by openly racist groups.

On Tuesday, envelope containing white powder was sent to her in Rome.

“Kyenge is paid by Italian and she is only concerned about foreigners. Job quotas reserved for foreign citizens are proposals work against Italians the unemployed,” Northern League secretary Matteo Salvini said on Thursday ahead of the sit-in at Grasso’s office.

“Abolishing the crime of illegal immigration would open the floodgates which are already hanging open,” he added.

Kyenge defended her record in office saying integration policies needed to protect the whole of Italy’s social fabric.

“I am working for Italians and for foreign citizens. Integration is an ‘interactive’ policy that includes immigration but also many other topics such as education and youth.”

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

Oslo’s Rapid Growth Redefines Nordic Identity

Oslo’s image is one of Viking history, snowy forests and fish and oil industries. But Norway’s largest city is Europe’s fastest-growing capital and it is undergoing its biggest and most controversial makeover since the 17th Century.

“The majority of immigrants live in eastern Oslo where white faces are in the minority,” explains one Norwegian taxi driver who does not want to be named. “The smart buildings are mostly in the rich areas. They are a symbol of the growing wealth gap and a lack of assimilation. I worry that we could one day see the kind of riots they’ve had in Stockholm and Paris,” he says..

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Michelle’s Abortion-Boosting 50th

As the White House celebrates Michelle Obama’s 50th birthday with a Barack Obama-hosted Saturday dance, some 327,166 babies aborted by Planned Parenthood won’t get to celebrate their birth days.

And with the $1.2 billion refreshing Planned Parenthood coffers, the same fate awaits hundreds of thousands more babies destined to lose their lives to taxpayer-funded abortion.

Days before Michelle Obama’s White House birthday celebrations this year, it was revealed that Planned Parenthood got $540.6 million in government grants in 2013 from her husband’s administration.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Fly Like a Bird: The V Formation Finally Explained

The mystery of why so many birds fly in a V formation may have been solved. Scientists from the Royal Veterinary College fitted data loggers to a flock of rare birds that were being trained to migrate by following a microlight. This revealed that the birds flew in the optimal position — gaining lift from the bird in front by remaining close to its wingtip.

The study, published in the journal Nature, also showed that the birds timed their wing beats. A previous experiment in pelicans was the first real clue to the energy-saving purpose of V formations. It revealed that birds’ heart rates went down when they were flying together in V.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

International Olympic Committee Bans Image of U.S. Constitution, Calling it “Propaganda”

The International Olympic Committee has banned a U.S. hockey goalie from depicting the opening text of the U.S. Constitution on her hockey mask, calling it “propaganda,” but will allow her to keep images of a bald eagle and the Statue of Liberty…

The committee also allowed Slovakia to keep its entire national anthem printed on its hockey jerseys.

To put it bluntly, only the U.S. Constitution was singled out for removal.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

3 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/16/2014

  1. Totally tasteless joke: in the cosmetics department of my local department store, a consultant asked what grooming aids I used. You should have seen her expression when I said “Puppies and Haribos”!

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