Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/31/2014

A man who says he had been at sea for 16 months in a tiny boat was washed ashore in the Marshall Islands. The man, who speaks only Spanish, says he was on his way from Mexico to El Salvador when his boat was cast adrift in the Pacific. He subsisted on sea turtles, fish, and seagulls during his ordeal. He had reportedly been traveling with a companion, who died several months ago.

In other news, an undetermined number of officials in Iraq’s Human Rights Ministry were taken hostage yesterday in Baghdad when gunmen stormed their building.

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

Thanks to Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, KGS, MC, Nilk, 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.

Financial Crisis
» Economic Giant India Feels Growing Pains
» Faltering Economy in Turkey is Self-Inflicted
» Financial Turmoil Hits Emerging Economies
» One in Three Italians Can’t Make Ends Meet — Report
» Third Banker Commits Suicide Within a Week
 
USA
» Are Liberals Trying to Annoy Us?
» Bridgewater Mosque Hearing to Continue Feb. 24
» Christie Knew About Lane Closings as They Happened, Ex-Ally Says
» Dershowitz, Legal Experts Say Vindictive D’Souza Indictment Came From Higher Up
» First Graphene Radio Broadcast is a Wireless Wonder
» Former Paterson Mosque Director Named Head of Civil-Rights Advocacy Group
» Girl Banned From Selling Cupcakes Proves Government Out of Control
» Google Patent Seeks to Transmit Your Cellphone Videos to Law Enforcement
» Google Shares Surge on Steep Fourth-Quarter Earnings Growth
» Government Report Paves Way for Obama’s Approval of Keystone Pipeline
» How Do We Know if Security Measures Work Against Terrorists?
» New Jersey Chief Imam Showers Praises on Cocorioko Publisher for Incomparable Community Service
» Sheryl Sandberg Among Youngest Women Billionaires as Facebook Shares Climb
» Spy Agencies Work on Psychologically Profiling Everyone
» The Most Important Takeaways From the Ex-TSA Screener’s Exposé
» Totalitarian Troubadour
» Wal-Mart: Food Stamp Cuts Hurt Our Profits
» Washington State Edges Closer to Taxing Drivers by the Mile
» Yahoo Reports Email Accounts Breached Through Stolen Passwords
 
Canada
» Canadian Intelligence Captured Data From Airport Travelers Via Wifi
 
Europe and the EU
» 102-Year-Old French Cyclist Breaks World Record Riding 26.927 Kilometers in One Hour
» Amanda Knox’s Former Italian Boyfriend Drove to Austria Before Verdict
» Britain Fighting in the First World War Was ‘The Biggest Error in Modern History’ According to Leading Historian
» British Universities Determined to Islamize the Country
» Catholic France, Adieu; Welcome, Islam
» Charlemagne’s Bones Are (Probably) Real
» Defendant in Bulgaria’s ‘Imam’ Trial Stirs Outrage
» Denmark: Copenhagen Airport to Double in Size
» Elon Musk in Norway to Thank Tesla Buyers
» France: Over €600,000 Found at Comedian Dieudonné’s Home
» French Teen ‘Jihadists’ Face Terror Probe
» French ‘Would-be Jihadists’ Go on Trial in Paris
» Hollande and Cameron Disagree on EU Reform in England
» House of Lords Votes Down UK Referendum Bill
» Islamic Extremism on the Rise in Sweden: Study
» Italian Marines Case Delayed Pending High Court Decision
» Italy: Speaker Denounces ‘Serious Sexist Insults’ In House
» Norway: ‘Don’t Stop Serving Pork for Muslims’: Minister
» Prince Charles Slams Climate-Change Deniers
» Prince Charles Calls Climate-Change Deniers ‘Headless Chicken Brigade’
» Roma Are EU Citizens Too, Romanian President Says
» Socialist Party Quits Denmark’s Coalition Gov’t
» Spain Rethinks Universal Jurisdiction
» Steinmeier, Kerry Optimistic That Tensions Over NSA Affair Will be Overcome
» Talks on Transnistrian Dispute to Open in February: OSCE
» UK: 700 Police Launch Dawn Raids Targeted at Notorious Brixton-Based Gang
» UK: Court Told of ‘Frenzied’ Knife Attack at Birmingham Mosque
» UK: Jeremy Paxman Talks to the Jesus and Mo Artist …
» UK: Veil Row Defendant Admits Charge
» Who Represents Sweden’s Muslim Voters?
 
Balkans
» Bosnian Salafists Movement on Mission to Recruit
 
North Africa
» Egypt ‘Safe’, Britons Told
» Egyptian Forces Kill Mosque Imam in Alexandria
» UNESCO Team Express ‘Shock’ At Egypt’s Islamic Museum Losses, Pledges Assistance
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Caroline Glick: Trying to Scare Us
» IAF Aircraft Hit Terror Targets in Gaza
» Muslims Provoke Christians in Nazareth
» Three Cheers for Scarlett Johansson’s Stand Against the Ugly, Illiberal Boycott Israel Movement
 
Middle East
» 700 Britons Fighting in Syria Terror Groups, Warns Hollande
» Austrian Woman Who Alleged She Was Raped in Dubai Allowed to Return Home
» Evictions Taint Turkey’s Murky Megaprojects
» IMF Warns Dubai of Risk of Real Estate Bubble if Megaprojects Not Implemented ‘Prudently’
» Iraq: Officials Taken as Hostages by Gunmen in Baghdad
» Iraq: 8 Killed in Crossfire Between Iraqi Forces and Gunmen in Baghdad
» Iraqi Army Kills 40 Al-Qaeda Insurgents in Fallujah
» More Than 1,000 Killed in Iraq in January
» Qatar’s Armed Forces Buy Barcelona Hotel for $107 Million
» Report: Saudi Court Sentences Shiite to 15 Years Prison for Demanding Troops Leave Bahrain
» The Rise of Erdogan’s Islamist Tyranny
» Top Islamic Leader Calls on U.S. To Wage ‘Jihad for Allah’
 
Russia
» A Taste for Vodka Blamed for High Russian Male Deaths
» Missing Ukrainian Activist Found After Torture Ordeal
» Siemens Sets Its Sights on Moscow Metro Overhaul
» Ukraine’s Armed Forces Call for Yanukovych Action as Activist Bulatov Claims Torture
 
Caucasus
» Caucasian Muslims Board Issues Statement on Communities Functioning in Ashurbey and Mushvigabad Mosques
 
South Asia
» 10 Militants Killed, 20 Injured in S Afghanistan
» Bangladesh Sentences 14 to Death for Arms Smuggling, Including Head of Islamist Party
» Burma: UK Minister Condemns Violence Against Muslims
» Leicester Imam Asim Hafi in Final Afghan Visit
» Pakistani PM Gives ‘Another Chance’ To Islamists
 
Far East
» Beijing Smog Contains Witches’ Brew of Microbes
» Egypt Denounces Chinese Blasts
» H7N9: Hong Kong People Are ‘More Alert’ To the Risks of Bird Flu Than China
» India-Japan Ties ‘Increasingly Important’
» The Philippines’ ‘Kidnapping Capital’
» Vatican Trove of Catholic Persecution in Japan
 
Australia — Pacific
» Australian Man Survives for 28 Days on Butterflies, Mussels
» Australian State Divided After Shark Cull Gets the Green Light
» Kings Cross Cops Brace for Curfew
» Man Claims to Have Survived 16 Months Adrift in Pacific
» Man Washed up on Boat on Marshall Islands Says He’s Been Adrift 16 Months, Report Says
» Residents to Report School to ICAC
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Blast by Suspected Extremists Kills 7, Injures 3 in Northeastern Nigeria
» Impoverished Zimbabweans Turn to Gambling in Desperate Search for Quick Cash
» Polish Troops Leave for Central African Republic Mission
» Tanzania Becoming the New Chinese Province in Africa
» Tension Remains High in Central African Republic Due to Presence of Ex-Seleka Rebels
 
Immigration
» Amnesty Will Cause Illegal Immigration to Explode
» Benefits for EU Migrants: Brussels Warns Germany Against Populism
» Bracing for Amnesty
» Buchanan: Boehner Will Lose Speakership if He Pushes for Immigration Reform
» Denmark: Police Break up People Smuggling Gang
» Finland: Vantaa Now Has More Speakers of Russian and Estonian Than Swedish
» How the GOP Lost Middle America
» Italy: Caritas 2013 Report Shows No Change in Numbers
» Mexico Protects Its Borders Better Than U.S.
» More New Citizens, Student Visas in France
» Sweden: Malmö Somalis Suffer Integration ‘Black Hole’
 
Culture Wars
» Norway: ‘I’m Against Gender Quotas’: Equality Minister
» Radical Feminists’ War on Churches
 
General
» At Least 20% of Neanderthal DNA is in Humans
» When Was Jesus Born?
 

Economic Giant India Feels Growing Pains

The latest turmoil affecting the currency and lending markets of the world’s emerging economies has hit India particularly hard. As the country’s structural problems become more evident, some see an opportunity at hand.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Faltering Economy in Turkey is Self-Inflicted

This week’s rate hike by the Turkish Central Bank helped only briefly: After the US Fed decided to cut back on bond purchases, the lira took another tumble. But the problems in Turkey are largely self-inflicted.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Financial Turmoil Hits Emerging Economies

The pressure is on emerging nations after the US central bank further cut its stimulus. Currencies in Turkey, India and Brazil have fallen. This is unlikely to set off a global crisis but may make for a bumpy 2014.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

One in Three Italians Can’t Make Ends Meet — Report

51.8% have to draw on personal savings, Eurispes says

(ANSA) — Rome, January 30 — Nearly one in three Italians are unable to make ends meet and stretch their salary until the end of the month, a private Italian think-tank said Thursday.

In its annual country report, Eurispes highlighted how many people in crisis-hit Italy “are now affected by the so-called fourth-week, if not third-week, syndrome”, in reference to the point at which personal income runs out. It said 51.8% of Italians get through the month only by drawing on their savings. One in four Italians have taken out a loan in the last three years, with almost a third of loans in the range of 1,000-10,000 euros.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Third Banker Commits Suicide Within a Week

A third banker has committed suicide within the space of a week, once again prompting speculation that some kind of financial collapse could be just around the corner.

“Mike Dueker, the chief economist at Russell Investments, was found dead at the side of a highway that leads to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington state, according to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department. He was 50,” reports Bloomberg.

Dueker fell down a 50 foot embankment in what police are describing as a suicide. He was reported missing on January 29 by friends, who said he had been “having problems at work.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Are Liberals Trying to Annoy Us?

Lunacy of the Left is endless, because it is deliberate

Republicans need to recognize an important fact: Liberalism is not driven by any real political philosophy but by resentment, bitterness, and anger toward mainstream society. Conservatives keep trying to patiently and politely point out where Democrat candidates are factually and logically wrong.

That cannot work because liberalism is not about facts or logic. You can’t explain the Democrat Party (which liberals took over starting in 1968). What is happening to our country is not about issues. (But, a clarification: I am focusing here on liberal activists and leaders. Many ordinary individuals are just caught up in their rhetoric.)

The Left irritates society with ever-more loony ideas. Conservatives think they can reason with liberals. But crazy is their goal, because liberals are trying to annoy people on purpose. Upsetting the mainstream is a way of expressing anger and bitterness. So reasoning with liberals is exactly what they don’t want. They want to make you upset. Conservatives are trying to argue logic to a teenage boy who is bitter and angry at his parents. Liberalism is like a teenage girl who really wants to annoy her parents by dating a 30 year old covered in tattoos from a biker gang. Liberal “complaints” are actually proxies substituting for other issues.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Bridgewater Mosque Hearing to Continue Feb. 24

BRIDGEWATER — A Planning Board hearing on a controversial plan to convert the former Redwood Inn into a mosque will continue on Feb. 24. The hearing on the proposal by the AlFalah Center adjourned Wednesday evening after residents cross-examined project architect Ralph Finelli for three hours on the application. Most of the questions focused on how Finelli calculated the mosque’s maximum occupancy at 437 people and the proposed 47 1/2-foot minaret…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Christie Knew About Lane Closings as They Happened, Ex-Ally Says

The Port Authority official who personally oversaw the lane closings on the George Washington Bridge in the scandal now swirling around Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey said on Friday that the governor knew about the lane closings when they were happening, and that he had the evidence to prove it.

In a letter released by his lawyer, the official, David Wildstein, a high school friend of Mr. Christie’s who was appointed with the governor’s blessing at the Port Authority, which controls the bridge, described the order to close the lanes as “the Christie administration’s order” and said “evidence exists as well tying Mr. Christie to having knowledge of the lane closures, during the period when the lanes were closed, contrary to what the Governor stated publicly in a two-hour press conference” three weeks ago.

“Mr. Wildstein contests the accuracy of various statements that the Governor made about him and he can prove the inaccuracy of some,” the letter added.

The letter marked the first signal that Mr. Christie was aware of the closings, something he repeatedly denied during a two-hour press conference earlier this month.

In early January, documents revealed that a deputy chief of staff to Mr. Christie, Bridget Anne Kelly, had sent an email to Mr. Wildstein saying, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” the town at the New Jersey end of the bridge, where Mr. Christie’s aides had pursued but failed to receive an endorsement from the mayor.

Mr. Christie has steadfastly denied that he knew before this month that anyone in his administration was responsible for the lane closings, and his administration has tried to portray it as the actions of a rogue staff member.

[Return to headlines]
 

Dershowitz, Legal Experts Say Vindictive D’Souza Indictment Came From Higher Up

Famed liberal Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz joined other legal experts in slamming the Obama administration for targeting conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza for campaign finance law violations.

“This is clearly a case of selective prosecution for one of the most common things done during elections, which is to get people to raise money for you,”Dershowitz told Newsmax. “If they went after everyone who did this, there would be no room in jails for murderers.”…

The incident reminded Dershowitz of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s feared secret police chief, Lavrentiy Beria, who said, “Show me the man, and I’ll find you the crime.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

First Graphene Radio Broadcast is a Wireless Wonder

Three letters beamed across a lab bench may spark a revolution in wireless communication. The seemingly simple transmission of “IBM” was received by the first working radio chip to be made from the modern wonder material, graphene — sheets of carbon, each just one atom thick.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Former Paterson Mosque Director Named Head of Civil-Rights Advocacy Group

Mohamed El Filali, one of North Jersey’s most well-known and outspoken Muslim leaders, has been named executive director of the state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Girl Banned From Selling Cupcakes Proves Government Out of Control

America is being suffocated to death by red tape. You are about to read about an 11-year-old girl in Illinois that had her cupcake business brutally shut down by government bureaucrats. Her name is Chloe Stirling and her crime was doing something that we used to applaud young people in America for doing.

Instead of sitting on her sofa and watching television all day, she actually started her own business. And it turned out there her little business started thriving. In fact, it started doing so well that a local newspaper took notice of it. Well, that is when the control freaks swooped in and took her business away and banned her from selling any more cupcakes. The really sad thing is that people are being paid to do this with our tax dollars. All over America, little entrepreneurs are having their lemonade stands shut down and are being banned from selling Girl Scout cookies, and our tax dollars are paying the people that are doing it. As I wrote about earlier this month, the level of economic freedom in the United States is at an all-time low, and it gets worse with each passing year. The country that so many of us love is dying, and it is being replaced with something that I like to call “the USSA”.

In the Union of Soviet Socialist Americans, you have to have a government “license” or “permit” to do just about anything. If the government does not give you permission, you can get into a whole lot of trouble.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Google Patent Seeks to Transmit Your Cellphone Videos to Law Enforcement

System could have nightmare implications for privacy, freedom of assembly

Google has filed a patent for identifying when a “mob” event takes place by detecting when a number of cellphone videos or photos are taken at one particular location with the intention of forwarding such information to law enforcement authorities.

“When there are at least a given number of video clips with similar time stamps and geolocation stamps uploaded to a repository, it is inferred that an event of interest has likely occurred, and a notification signal is transmitted (e.g., to a law enforcement agency, to a news organization, to a publisher of a periodical, to a public blog, etc.),” states US Patent #20140025755.

The patent raises questions about what level of remote access Google or any other company should have to your cellphone, and how such information may be abused or misinterpreted to alert authorities to ‘suspicious behavior’ which is in fact completely lawful.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Google Shares Surge on Steep Fourth-Quarter Earnings Growth

Shares in Google have jumped, with its latest earnings figures showed the US Internet giant remains a cash machine. The firm’s ad growth offset a steep price decline and losses from the sell-off of Motorola.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Government Report Paves Way for Obama’s Approval of Keystone Pipeline

The State Department released a report on Friday that could pave the way toward President Obama’s approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

The long-awaited environmental impact statement on the project concludes that approval or denial of the pipeline, which would carry 830,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta to the Gulf Coast, is unlikely to prompt oil companies to change the rate of their extraction of carbon-heavy tar sands oil, a State Department official said. Either way, the tar sands oil, which produces significantly more planet-warming carbon pollution than standard methods of drilling, is coming out of the ground, the report says.

In his second term, Mr. Obama has sought to make his fight against climate change a cornerstone of his legacy. In a major speech on the environment last summer, Mr. Obama said that he would approve the pipeline only if it would not “significantly exacerbate” the problem of carbon pollution. He said the pipeline’s net effects on the climate would be “absolutely critical” to his decision.

The conclusions of the report appear to indicate that the project has passed Mr. Obama’s climate criteria, an outcome expected to outrage environmentalists, who have rallied, protested, marched and been arrested in demonstrations around the country against the pipeline.

[Return to headlines]
 

How Do We Know if Security Measures Work Against Terrorists?

The United States spends $200 billion a year on homeland security. This includes physical barriers, guards, closed-circuit TV, explosives detection, body scanners, security software and other technology and services intended to keep the nation safe from terrorists and other non-military adversaries. Does it work? And how do we measure the results?

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

New Jersey Chief Imam Showers Praises on Cocorioko Publisher for Incomparable Community Service

The Chief Imam of one of the leading muslim jamaats in New Jersey has highly commended the Publisher of COCORIOKO , Rev. Leeroy Wilfred Kabs-Kanu, for the incomparable service he is providing the New Jersey community. Imam Alhaji Abdullah Savage made the commendation when members of the Mabohanday Social Club of New Jersey and the All People’s Congress ( APC ) New Jersey Branch congregated at his residence in Piscataway, New Jersey last Friday to express condolences to him on the death of his wife, Haja Sally Savage…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Sheryl Sandberg Among Youngest Women Billionaires as Facebook Shares Climb

In her book Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg detailed her negotiations with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as she was being scouted for the position of chief operating officer. Poised to become the social network’s number two, the Harvard MBA noted that she was “dying” to accept the job but was “afraid of doing anything that might botch the deal.”

“I could play hardball, but then maybe Mark would not want to work with me,” she wrote in a chapter titled “Success and Likeability.” “Was it worth it when I knew that ultimately I was going to accept the offer?”

Six years after she took the job, Sandberg has reached another milestone. Facebook’s COO is now the world’s newest billionaire.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Spy Agencies Work on Psychologically Profiling Everyone

Newly-released documents from Edward Snowden show that the NSA and other spy agencies are tracking people’s psychological and lifestyle traits such as sexual preference, extroversion-versus-introversion, and whether people are leaders or followers. See this and this.

For example, the following are slides leaked by Snowden from Britain’s spy service regarding profiling people psychologically:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Most Important Takeaways From the Ex-TSA Screener’s Exposé

Insider confirms shocking level of corruption that infests federal agency

In an article for Politico Magazine, former TSA screener Jason Harrington exposed the endemic corruption which infests the federal agency, including how TSA workers laughed at naked images of passengers, targeted attractive women and harassed travelers who didn’t display the proper attitude.

Although most of his revelations were already known (we were labeled “conspiracy theorists” for saying the same thing), for guy who saw it with his own eyes every day from the inside to go public with this kind of information is huge. Given that Harrington’s article is lengthy, we’ve summarized the key points with relevant quotes from the piece below.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Totalitarian Troubadour

We shouldn’t forget that Pete Seeger was Communism’s pied piper.

By John Fund

Roche vividly recalled how American Stalinists suddenly flipped on the issue of Nazi Germany after the Hitler-Stalin pact of 1939 brought the two former adversaries together. “Stalinists acclaimed this treaty as the high point of 20th century diplomacy,” Roche wrote in 1979. He vividly recalled “the laudatory speech” that the future congresswoman Bella Abzug gave in support of the pact at Hunter College in 1940.

The next year, Pete Seeger, a member of the Young Communist League, lent his support for the effort to stop America from going to war to fight the Nazis. The Communist-party line at the time was that the war between Britain and Germany was “phony” and a mere pretext for big American corporations to get Hitler to attack Soviet Russia. The album Seeger and his fellow Almanac Singers, an early folk-music group, released was called “Songs for John Doe.” Its songs opposed the military draft and other policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Wal-Mart: Food Stamp Cuts Hurt Our Profits

Wal-Mart’s CFO practically admits that the company largely benefits at the expense of taxpayers

Wal-Mart announced today that cuts in a federal food stamp program as well as record cold temperatures hurt its fourth quarter profits.

After previously reporting “relatively flat” sales for the quarter, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. now says that sales for its namesake store and its Sam’s Club locations would be “slightly negative” for the November-January quarter, according to Agence France-Presse.

Wal-Mart’s Chief Financial Officer, Charles Holley, blamed the revised forecast on deeper-than-expected cuts to the U.S. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the extreme cold weather occurring in the past month.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Washington State Edges Closer to Taxing Drivers by the Mile

Lawmakers ludicrously claim tax-per-mile needed to offset prevalence of fuel-efficient cars

Lawmakers in Washington state are edging closer to implementing a new system that would monitor and tax drivers based on miles driven, under a new highway funding proposal.

The Washington State Transportation Commission says the motor fuel tax, which currently pays for 76% of transportation investments, is unsustainable “over the long term.”

In a dizzying twist of logic, the Transportation Commission blames the prevalence of fuel-efficient cars as the reason the state now needs a per-mile tax, arguing that “the move to cleaner, smarter vehicles must be accompanied by a change in the way we pay for our roads.”

“According to the study, drivers could be charged three ways; either with a flat-fee, by having odometers checked, or with an electronic device installed in cars to measure how many miles are driven,” a King 5 News report states.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Yahoo Reports Email Accounts Breached Through Stolen Passwords

Yahoo alerted users of its free email service Thursday that hackers slipped into accounts to loot information using stolen passwords.

The California company did not disclose the extent of the breach, but said that it is asking those affected to change their passwords.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Canadian Intelligence Captured Data From Airport Travelers Via Wifi

A top secret document retrieved by U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden and obtained by CBC News shows that Canada’s electronic spy agency used information from the free internet service at a major Canadian airport to track the wireless devices of thousands of ordinary airline passengers for days after they left the terminal.

After reviewing the document, one of Canada’s foremost authorities on cyber-security says the clandestine operation by the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) was almost certainly illegal.

Ronald Deibert told CBC News: “I can’t see any circumstance in which this would not be unlawful, under current Canadian law, under our Charter, under CSEC’s mandates.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

102-Year-Old French Cyclist Breaks World Record Riding 26.927 Kilometers in One Hour

Age hasn’t slowed French cyclist Robert Marchand. The 102-year-old broke his own world record in the over-100s category Friday, riding 26.927 kilometers (16.7 miles) in one hour, more than 2.5 kilometers better than his previous best time in the race against the clock two years ago.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Amanda Knox’s Former Italian Boyfriend Drove to Austria Before Verdict

Amanda Knox’s ex-boyfriend left Italy and drove to Austria while an appeals court deliberated his fate, police said Friday, but he eventually returned to Italy and surrendered his passport following their joint conviction for murdering British student Meredith Kercher.

Raffaele Sollecito’s lengthy travels were revealed on the same day that Knox made clear she would never voluntarily return to Italy to serve the 28 1/2-year sentence handed down by an appeals court.

“I will never go willingly back to the place,” she said on ABC’s Good Morning America program. “I’m going to fight this until the very end. It’s not right, and it’s not fair.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Britain Fighting in the First World War Was ‘The Biggest Error in Modern History’ According to Leading Historian

Harvard professor Niall Ferguson argues that Britain should never have entered the war against Germany, saying that ‘the cost was catastrophic’.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

British Universities Determined to Islamize the Country

Elsewhere, Universities UK (UUK) — the so-called “voice of UK universities” — had issued guidelines saying that gender segregation, if requested by the speaker (knowing full well there are plenty of speakers who will make just that request) was perfectly ok with them. The guidance has caused a furore in Britain with a street protest last week, condemnation from government ministers, and even a word from Downing St. The Prime Minister was said to “feel very strongly” about the matter and “doesn’t believe guest speakers should be allowed to address segregated audiences”.

The guidance had been issued following a report by the anti-extremist group Student Rights which monitored events organised by university Islamic societies over a year-long period and found that just over a quarter of them had explicitly promoted segregation by gender, or implied this would be the case.

Following condemnation from the Prime Minister, the Chief Executive of UUK Nicola Dandridge attempted something of a back peddle and insisted that “Universities UK agrees entirely with the prime minister that universities should not enforce gender segregation on audiences at the request of guest speakers. However, where the gender segregation is voluntary, the law is unclear.”

Dandridge seems a bit confused, here is the problem: “voluntary segregation” is simply not possible, or plausible. Take this example; if a room is “segregated” and I go in there and decide to sit with the men, will I be moved? If yes, then it is enforced. If I will not be asked to move, then the room is not segregated. Can we have some common sense here please?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Catholic France, Adieu; Welcome, Islam

by Giulio Meotti

Minarets instead of church towers, muezzins instead of churchbells. A different France.

The secular and libertarian magazine Causeur asks: “Is this the end of the bell towers of France?”.

Until last week, the church bells of Boissettes, a town of five hundred inhabitants in the district of the Seine, were ringing every half hour. Then, the Administrative Court of Paris has stopped the bells, as an alleged violation of the 1905 law on the separation of church and state.

The story seems a perfect epitaph to an essay that appeared ten years ago by Danièle Hervieu -Léger, “Catholicisme, la fin d’un monde”. The French sociologist used a term, “Exculturation”, which doesn’t depict a battle still open, but a game over. For French Catholicism…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Charlemagne’s Bones Are (Probably) Real

German scientists have announced after almost 26 years of research that the bones interred for centuries at Aachen Cathedral are likely to be those of Charlemagne.

Researchers confirmed on Wednesday evening — 1,200 years to the day since Charlemagne died — that the 94 bones and bone fragments taken from the supposed resting place of the King of the Franks and founder of what was to become the Holy Roman Empire came from a tall, thin, older man.

The team first opened the sarcophagus of the first emperor in western Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire in secret in 1988 and presented their results for the first time on Wednesday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Defendant in Bulgaria’s ‘Imam’ Trial Stirs Outrage

The Thursday session in Bulgaria’s notorious radical Islam and religious hatred case started out scandalously over the attitude of one of the defendants. Ahmed Mussa Ahmed refused to stand up when the presiding judge was entering the courtroom. He stated from his seat that he was a Muslim and shows respect only for Allah. His own lawyer told media that this was a huge gaffe and demonstration of contempt for the Court…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Denmark: Copenhagen Airport to Double in Size

Major expansion planned to accommodate for expected passenger increase

Copenhagen Airport announced an expansion plan today that would see the number of passengers passing through the facility nearly double from 24 million to 40 million each year. “This is not a pipe dream,” Thomas Woldbye, head of the airport, told DR Nyheder. “This is a concrete expansion plan based on detailed preparation work.” The 40 million passenger goal won’t be realised before 2035, but construction will start next year.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Elon Musk in Norway to Thank Tesla Buyers

US tech billionaire Elon Musk is in Norway to say thank you to the 2,100 people in the country who bought one of his Tesla S electric sports cars, making it the vehicle’s second biggest market after the United States.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

France: Over €600,000 Found at Comedian Dieudonné’s Home

Police investigating Dieudonné M’bala M’bala’s failure to pay fines related to his anti-Semitism convictions seized large amounts of euros and dollars in co-ordinated raids on his home and theatre on January 28, 2014.

His lawyer acknowledged the cash seizure but declined to confirm the amounts. “It is the income from the theatre’s box office. It is all transparent,” Jacques Verdier told AFP. He added that ticket receipts proved the origin of the cash was legal.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

French Teen ‘Jihadists’ Face Terror Probe

Just days after two French high school boys were brought back from Turkey after trying to join jihadists fighting in Syria, they could face anti-terror charges. Prosecutors have asked the teens to be kept under official supervision for the time being.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

French ‘Would-be Jihadists’ Go on Trial in Paris

The trial of three French men accused of attempting to travel to Syria to join jihadists fighting in the country began in Paris on Thursday. Youssef Ettaoujar, 26, Salah-Eddine Gourmat, 24, and 21-year-old Fares Farsi wanted to go to Syria to procure weapons, undergo military training, and go into combat, prosecutors claim.

They say the men, who all lived with their parents in the Paris area, had planned to travel to a Syrian refugee camp in Turkey to make contacts before then travelling on to Syria. However, police had placed them under surveillance and the three were arrested in May 2012 at an airport near Saint-Etienne as they attempted to board a flight to Turkey.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Hollande and Cameron Disagree on EU Reform in England

French President Francois Hollande has rejected British plans to revise EU treaties. At a meeting in England, Hollande said the issue was “not a priority” for Paris, also urging Britain to remain in Europe.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

House of Lords Votes Down UK Referendum Bill

Plans to put an UK referendum on EU membership into law have been dashed after the House of Lords voted to block the bill by 180 votes to 130. Prime Minister David Cameron said his pledge for a referendum in 2017 would still stand if his Conservative party wins re-election.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Islamic Extremism on the Rise in Sweden: Study

Violent Islamic extremists in Sweden pose an increased threat to the public, a government investigation found on Friday, with the prime risks coming from those who have travelled to war zones for military training.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italian Marines Case Delayed Pending High Court Decision

Pair facing death penalty in India

(ANSA) — New Delhi, January 30 — Two Italian marines who may face the death penalty in India saw their trial delayed until late February on Thursday, heightening tension in what has become an international matter.

A special court in the Indian capital of New Delhi announced it would postpone until February 25 the case of Italian marines Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone who may face the death penalty in India for allegedly killing two Indian fishermen two years ago.

The court announced the delay pending a ruling that is expected from the Supreme Court which is expected to rule February 3 on a reported move by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) to prosecute the pair under a harsh anti-terrorism law that bears the death penalty, despite previous reassurances from the Indian foreign ministry that the marines would not face capital punishment.

The Italian petition to the Indian Supreme Court said that the pair should be released due to long delays in the pre-trial process, following their arrest almost two years ago.

It also called on Indian magistrates to “immediately press charges without recurring to the anti-terrorism law,” and to let the marines return to Italy to wait until they actually stand trial, judicial sources in Italy have said.

The case that has drawn concerns from the heads of the European Union and the United States has reportedly also expressed support for Italy in the row.

One lawmaker in Italy has likened capital punishment to an act of war.

“(If the punishment is approved, it will be) an attack on Italy,” Fabrizio Cicchitto, chairman of the Lower House foreign affairs committee, said after a recent visit to the Italian marines.

The pair are accused of killing fishermen Valentine (aka Gelastine) and Ajesh Binki after allegedly mistaking them for pirates and opening fire on their fishing trawler while guarding the privately owned Italian-flagged oil-tanker MT Enrica Lexie off the coast of Kerala on February 15, 2012.

The European Union has gone so far as to threaten India with economic consequences if the death penalty is not taken off the table.

India enjoys trade preferences with the EU, and bilateral talks to set up a free-trade agreement are ongoing.

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso warned Wednesday that the fate of the two Italian marines would “have an impact on the whole EU”.

“The EU is against the death penalty in any situation,” he added after meeting Italian Premier Enrico Letta.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Speaker Denounces ‘Serious Sexist Insults’ In House

M5S member says sexual favours used by some to enter parliament

(ANSA) — Rome, January 30 — Lower House Speaker Laura Boldrini on Thursday denounced very serious sexist insults thrown about following scuffles inside the chamber that saw one female politician slapped by a male colleague on Wednesday.

“Yesterday, we witnessed serious incidents,” that create an institutional atmosphere that is “intolerable and incompatible” with parliamentary debate, Boldrini said, to applause from some politicians.

After she spoke, seven members of her Democratic Party (PD) filed a complaint against Massimo De Rosa, member of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), for throwing out sexual insults.

He denied that, and said he had simply suggested that some people got into parliament only because they had performed some sexual favours.

“I was referring to all: men and women,” he said.

“I was not referring to anyone in particular — not even (Alessandra) Moretti”.

Moretti was one of seven PD members who have filed a complaint against De Rosa.

Meanwhile, PD Senator Federico Fornaro complained that although personal attacks were made by members of the M5S against Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, who they are trying to impeach, other parties are acting badly as well.

“I wonder what else needs to happen to (demonstrate) that we have reached the point of no return for our democracy,” said Fornaro. “As an Italian I am ashamed of what I have seen and heard”.

Earlier, a lawmaker of the centrist Civic Choice on Thursday apologised for allegedly slapping a female colleague of M5S during a protest in the House the day before.

Stefano Dambruoso, an officer called a quaestor responsible for keeping order in the Lower House of parliament, said however his allegedly unintentional gesture had been aimed at preventing Loredana Lupo and her M5S colleagues from attacking Boldrini.

Members of the M5S were angry with Boldrini after she used the Speaker’s guillotine powers for the first time in history to interrupt a filibuster they were was staging so a decree providing for the revaluation of the share capital of the Bank of Italy could pass before it was timed it out. MS5 is opposed to the measure because they believe it only benefits the nation’s banks.

Dambruoso on Thursday refused to resign over the incident, claiming he had simply “done his duty”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Norway: ‘Don’t Stop Serving Pork for Muslims’: Minister

Norway’s agriculture minister has called on the country’s prisons, hospitals and nursery schools to serve more pork, claiming that the meat is being pulled off the menu to avoid offending the country’s Muslim minority.

“We cannot stop serving pork because Muslims have moved to Norway,” Sylvi Listhaug, a politician for the right-wing Progress Party, said this week. “Those responsible for food in public institutions should put pork on the menu, and then make sure that those who do not eat pork can get something else,” she said.

Bjørn-Ole Juul-Hansen, the managing director of the Norwegian meat industry association, told NRK that public institutions in the country were now serving pork less often, although he could provide no statistics to back up the claim.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Prince Charles Slams Climate-Change Deniers

Prince Charles has called people who deny human-made climate change a “headless chicken brigade” who are ignoring overwhelming scientific evidence.

The heir to the British throne, a dedicated environmentalist, accused “powerful groups of deniers” of mounting “a barrage of sheer intimidation” against opponents.

He made the comments at a Buckingham Palace awards ceremony on Thursday.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Prince Charles Calls Climate-Change Deniers ‘Headless Chicken Brigade’

Prince Charles has called people who deny human-made climate change a “headless chicken brigade” who are ignoring overwhelming scientific evidence.

The heir to the British throne, a dedicated environmentalist, accused “powerful groups of deniers” of mounting “a barrage of sheer intimidation” against opponents. He made the comments at a Buckingham Palace awards ceremony on Thursday.

Charles said it was “baffling … that in our modern world we have such blind trust in science and technology that we all accept what science tells us about everything — until, that is, it comes to climate science.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Roma Are EU Citizens Too, Romanian President Says

Berlin — Romanian President Traian Basescu on Friday (31 January) strongly defended freedom of movement within the EU, saying Roma have the same rights as other EU citizens and should not be misused for populist campaigns.

Seven years after Romania joined the EU, Basescu said that his country is still not “fully integrated” as it is waiting to be accepted in the border-free Schengen area and, sometime in 2018-2019, in the eurozone.

“But I am happy from 1 January we are now fully integrated on the EU labour market,” the President told journalists in Berlin, in reference to the lifting of labour market restrictions for Romanian and Bulgarian citizens.

Basescu criticised the campaign against so-called social tourism in Germany, led by the Bavarian Conservatives (the CSU), whose slogan for the EU elections is “who cheats is kicked out.”

“First of all I reject the term migration within the EU. We are all EU citizens, there is a single market, so there is no ‘migration’,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Socialist Party Quits Denmark’s Coalition Gov’t

COPENHAGEN, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) — The Socialist People’s Party quit Denmark’s coalition government Thursday amid friction over the controversial sale of a stake in state-controlled energy group Dong Energy to Goldman Sachs and other investors…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Spain Rethinks Universal Jurisdiction

by Soeren Kern

Lawmakers from Spain’s ruling center-right Popular Party have submitted a bill that would limit the conditions under which Spanish judges can investigate genocide or crimes against humanity committed outside the borders of Spain.

The move—which comes just weeks after a Spanish judge issued arrest warrants for five high-ranking Chinese officials over alleged human rights abuses in Tibet—would restrict the reach of Spain’s law on universal jurisdiction only to those cases directly involving Spanish citizens or foreign nationals habitually resident in Spain.

Universal jurisdiction is a legal concept whereby states can claim criminal jurisdiction over persons whose alleged crimes were committed outside the boundaries of the prosecuting state, regardless of nationality, country of residence, or any other relation with the prosecuting country.

Spanish judges have gained a reputation for activism in recent years by using the principle of universal jurisdiction to pursue cases against suspected human rights violators overseas, most famously the former Chilean dictator, General Augusto Pinochet.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Steinmeier, Kerry Optimistic That Tensions Over NSA Affair Will be Overcome

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and US Secretary of State John Kerry have used a meeting in Berlin to smooth over relations hurt by the NSA scandal. Kerry later met with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Talks on Transnistrian Dispute to Open in February: OSCE

BUCHAREST, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) — The negotiations on settling the Transnistrian dispute will open in Austria’s capital city of Vienna next month, an official with Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said here Thursday.

The first round of talks for this year under the 5+2 format, including Moldova, Transnistria, Russia, Ukraine, the OSCE, the United States and the European Union, will start on Feb. 27, said Radojko Bogojevic, the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the Transdniestrian settlement.

Transnistria, a largely Russian-and-Ukrainian-speaking area, declared independence in 1991 from the Romanian-speaking majority of Moldova…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: 700 Police Launch Dawn Raids Targeted at Notorious Brixton-Based Gang

Police swooped on the leaders of a notorious London gang today with raids on addresses in the capital, the Home Counties and even Scotland. Detectives say the Brixton-based Gas Gang has expanded its drug-dealing operations and is now linked to several towns and cities around the UK…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Court Told of ‘Frenzied’ Knife Attack at Birmingham Mosque

Accused on trial for two counts of attempted murder at Ward End Muslim centre

A court has been told how a man launched a “frenzied” knife attack on worshippers at a Birmingham mosque and then almost killed a police officer who had come to try and arrest him. Mohamoud Elmi plunged a blade into the stomach of PC Adam Koch , who’s life was saved by a doctor who had been attending the Ward End mosque, Birmingham Crown Court heard…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Jeremy Paxman Talks to the Jesus and Mo Artist …

by Jeremy Coyne

As you may know, Liberal Democrat Maajid Nawaz, a Muslim and candidate for M.P., tweeted a perfectly innocuous Jesus and Mo cartoon, which has of course aroused ire in not just the British Muslim community, but among left-wing Brits, who are scared to death of Muslim ire and cowed by thoughts of appearing “Islamophobic.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Veil Row Defendant Admits Charge

A Muslim woman who was allowed to wear a full-face veil in court during her trial has admitted witness intimidation.

The jury trying Rebekah Dawson, 22, at Blackfriars Crown Court in London was discharged this afternoon after failing to reach a verdict after deliberating for more than 12 hours. But in a dramatic twist after a short delay, Dawson came back into court and admitted the same charge of witness intimidation that she had denied at trial…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Who Represents Sweden’s Muslim Voters?

Why can a Moderate get away with supporting Muslim polygamy, while the Social Democrats get accused of playing the religion card when promoting a Muslim within the party. A new report about Sweden’s Muslim voters prompts more questions than it answers.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Bosnian Salafists Movement on Mission to Recruit

Radical Salafists from Bosnia-Herzegovina are among those who fight in Syria’s civil war. Recently, they have stepped up efforts to recruit young people to follow suit. Experts say war returnees are especially dangerous.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt ‘Safe’, Britons Told

Tour operators have insisted that Egypt remains safe, and urged Britons to keep travelling there, despite last weekend’s violence in Cairo

At least 80 people were killed during demonstrations to mark the third anniversary of the 2011 revolution. Four bombs exploded in the capital, including one in the city centre that badly damaged the Museum of Islamic Art, and two in Giza. A fifth bomb exploded in Suez. According to the Foreign Office, Westerners, including Britons, were targeted by protestors…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Egyptian Forces Kill Mosque Imam in Alexandria

Security forces in Egypt have killed the imam of a mosque in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria after raiding his house and severely beating him. Sheikh Akram, the imam of the Ali Ibn Abi Talib Mosque, was killed on Thursday in the Ajamy area of the northern city.

Egyptian officials accused him of promoting anti-government sentiments in his sermons. Sheikh Akram’s family says security forces threw him off the balcony of his house, but security forces claim he fell while trying to escape arrest…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UNESCO Team Express ‘Shock’ At Egypt’s Islamic Museum Losses, Pledges Assistance

UNESCO pledged Friday to help restore a renowned museum dedicated to Islamic history in Cairo that was devastated by a bomb last week, with officials expressing “shock” at the scale of the damage.

The Museum of Islamic Art was across the street from the truck bomb that targeted the Egyptian capital’s security headquarters on Jan. 24. It killed four people and caused damage to buildings for hundreds of meters (yards) around, smashing the museum’s facade and sending debris crashing onto exhibits.

Egypt’s Antiquities Minister Mohammed Ibrahim said that 164 of the 1,471 items on display were damaged, of which 90 could be reassembled or restored. He said that most of the 74 irreparably damaged items were glass and porcelain, smashed to powder.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Caroline Glick: Trying to Scare Us

Finance Minister Yair Lapid delivered a scary speech on Wednesday. At the Institute of National Security Studies conference, Lapid warned that if we don’t accept US Secretary of State John Kerry’s framework for negotiations, the Europeans are going to take away our money.

Lapid claimed that Israel’s economic future is dependent on surrendering Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria to the PLO. If we don’t, he said, the EU will abrogate its economic association agreement with us. And such a move on Europe’s part will cause serious harm to our economy.

According to Lapid, “If negotiations with the Palestinians stall or blow up and we enter the reality of a European boycott, even a very partial one, the Israeli economy will retreat, the cost of living will rise, budgets for education, health, welfare and security will be cut [and] many international markets will be closed to us.”

On the other hand, if we give up Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, Lapid promises that we will all get rich.

It took less than 10 minutes for Lapid’s remarks to be exposed as utter nonsense…

           — Hat tip: Caroline Glick [Return to headlines]
 

IAF Aircraft Hit Terror Targets in Gaza

Israeli Air Force (IAF) aircraft targeted several terror-related sites in Gaza on Thursday night, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement.

According to the statement, the airstrikes targeted a weapons facility and a terrorist center in northern Gaza, as well as a weapons storage site in southern Gaza.

Direct hits were identified, and all aircraft returned safely to their bases, the IDF said.

The attack was a direct response to earlier rockets and mortars that targeted southern Israel, the statement said, referring to an attack Thursday evening which targeted the city of Netivot. […]

[It was a noisy night, but everything went over our heads this time.]

           — Hat tip: MC [Return to headlines]
 

Muslims Provoke Christians in Nazareth

In Northern Israeli Nazareth, one of the most important places in the life of Jesus Christ and thus a much sought out place of pilgrimage for Christians, Muslims once again have just put up a large billboard on which the Christians are warned about their alleged heresy.

The text, composed in English, quotes the Koran:

“O people of the Scripture (Christians)! Do not exceed the limits in your religion. Say nothing but the truth about Allah (The One True God). The Christ Jesus, Son of Mary was only a Messenger of God and His word conveyed to Mary and a spirit created by Him. So believe in God, and His Messengers and do not say: ‘Three gods (trinity)’ Cease! it will be better for you. Indeed, Allah is the One and Only God. His Holiness is far above having a son.” (Quran 4:171)

To the right of the text is an Israeli stop sign.

It’s hard to imagine that any Christian would turn from his faith because of this sign; the Muslims also know this. Therefore, this text could be totally understood as a threat against Christianity in general. If Christians, though, would dare to put up a warning in Mecca that Muslims should turn from their heresy, there would be dead before the sign was even standing.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Three Cheers for Scarlett Johansson’s Stand Against the Ugly, Illiberal Boycott Israel Movement

by Brendan O’Neill

As if her otherworldly beauty and screen presence were not enough, here is another reason to love Scarlett Johansson: Oxfam, of which she was an ambassador, hinted that she should cut her ties with SodaStream on the basis that it maintains factories in Israeli settlements and she responded by cutting her ties with Oxfam!

[…]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

700 Britons Fighting in Syria Terror Groups, Warns Hollande

François Hollande, the French president, says up to 700 Britons are in Middle Eastern country — twice as many as previously feared

Twice as many British fanatics may be fighting in Syria as previously feared. After talks with David Cameron on the conflict, François Hollande, the French president, told a press conference that up to 700 Britons were in the Middle Eastern country.

Mr Hollande said Britain and France shared the “same level” of young people who had headed out to join extremist groups.

Downing Street played down his comments immediately, and stood by estimates that 350 Britons are fighting in Syria. However, senior Whitehall sources accept that the numbers are increasing constantly and that estimates are based only on those the police and intelligence services know to have travelled out.

Syria is the biggest attraction for would-be jihadists, and MI5 and counter-terrorism police fear Britons will be trained in terror techniques there. Last month, an al-Qaeda defector in Syria told The Daily Telegraph that Britons were being encouraged to return home to carry out atrocities. Fighters are trained in how to make and detonate car bombs and suicide vests and are sent back to set up terror cells, the defector from the Islamic State of Iraq and al—Shams (ISIS) claimed.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Austrian Woman Who Alleged She Was Raped in Dubai Allowed to Return Home

An Austrian woman has returned home from Dubai nearly two months after she filed rape charges that led to authorities there briefly jailing her and taking her passport. The 29-year-old arrived late Thursday. Foreign Ministry official Michael Linhart said Friday that it was unclear whether she still faces charges in Dubai of having sex outside marriage.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Evictions Taint Turkey’s Murky Megaprojects

As a huge corruption scandal rocks Turkey’s ruling party, Ankara is pushing ahead with several northern Istanbul megaprojects tainted by corruption. Thousands of villagers are being evicted from their ancestral homes.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

IMF Warns Dubai of Risk of Real Estate Bubble if Megaprojects Not Implemented ‘Prudently’

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The International Monetary Fund is warning that Dubai’s megaprojects could increase the risk of a real estate bubble.

The city, part of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, has long had a penchant for monumental buildings and development projects, notably a large area around a new airport with hotels, housing and a new conference center to host the world Expo 2020.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Iraq: Officials Taken as Hostages by Gunmen in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) — Gunmen stormed an office of Iraq’s Human Rights Ministry in the capital of Baghdad on Thursday and seized a number of officials, a police source said. The attack occurred before noon when eight gunmen broke into the office in al-Qanat area after a clash with the guards and took unknown number of officials as hostages, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Iraq: 8 Killed in Crossfire Between Iraqi Forces and Gunmen in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) — Six gunmen and two security members were killed when gunmen stormed a government building in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Thursday, an interior ministry source said. The attack occurred before noon when four gunmen and two suicide bombers broke into an office belonging to the Ministry of Transportation, which is adjacent to an office of Iraq’s Human Rights Ministry in eastern Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Iraqi Army Kills 40 Al-Qaeda Insurgents in Fallujah

Forty insurgents of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an al-Qaeda — linked group, are dead after a clash with the Iraqi army in the volatile western city of Fallujah, a military spokesman said Friday.

An army ground and air offensive in the city was responsible for “killing 40 terrorists and destroying 15 vehicles loaded with weaponry,” General Mohammed al — Askari added in a statement.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

More Than 1,000 Killed in Iraq in January

More than 1,000 people were killed in Iraq in January, official data showed on Friday, as security forces grapple with a surge in bloodshed and a standoff with militants. A total of 1,013 people — 795 civilians, 122 soldiers and 96 policemen — died as a result of violence, according to data compiled by the ministries of health, interior and defence.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Qatar’s Armed Forces Buy Barcelona Hotel for $107 Million

The investment arm of the Qatari armed forces, the Qatar Armed Forces Investment Portfolio (QAFIP) bought the five-star Marriott Renaissance Barcelona hotel for $107mn, London-based newspaper The Guardian reported on Friday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Report: Saudi Court Sentences Shiite to 15 Years Prison for Demanding Troops Leave Bahrain

Saudi state-linked newspapers say a court in the capital Riyadh has sentenced a Saudi Shiite man to 15 years in prison and 70 lashes for protesting and demanding the Sunni-ruled kingdom’s troops leave neighboring Bahrain. Al-Madina’s Friday report did not state the specific charge, but Shiite protesters are often given lengthy sentences for sedition.

Saudi Arabia sent troops to Bahrain in 2011 to help quell Shiite protests against the island nation’s Sunni monarchy.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Rise of Erdogan’s Islamist Tyranny

by Jerry Gordon

Can you have a one party tyranny in a parliamentary system, especially one in which you have competing Islamist parties? The answer maybe a decided yes, when it comes to Turkey. The actions over the past few months, bespeak of the Jeffersonian definition, “Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry.”

Since December 17, 2013, Turkey has been wracked by corruption revelations that have reached the Premier, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his family.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Top Islamic Leader Calls on U.S. To Wage ‘Jihad for Allah’

By Raymond Ibrahim

A video of Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi calling on the U.S. government to wage jihad for Allah in Syria, is currently making the rounds on Arabic media and Facebook, to mockery and dismay.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

A Taste for Vodka Blamed for High Russian Male Deaths

A quarter of all Russian men die before they reach their mid-fifties and their passion for alcohol — particularly vodka — is largely to blame according to a new report. A study of more than 150,000 people found extraordinarily high premature death rates among males, some of whom admitted drinking three or more bottles a week of Russia’s favourite tipple.

David Zaridze, from the Russian Cancer Research Centre in Moscow, one of the research units behind the study said: “No single country has ever recorded such statistics. Such figures only appear in war time. I call it a demographical crisis.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Missing Ukrainian Activist Found After Torture Ordeal

A leading Ukrainian opposition activist who vanished for eight days emerged bloodied and badly beaten on Friday, saying his captors cut off an ear and drove nails through his hands before dumping him in a forest.

Dmytro Bulatov, a 35-year-old member of the opposition movement involved in street protests against President Viktor Yanukovych, appeared with his face swollen and caked in blood on Ukrainian television after going missing from Kiev on January 22.

Speaking slowly and visibly shaken by his experience, Bulatov said his unknown captors blindfolded and abused him before dumping him in a forest outside the Ukrainian capital, from where he was able to make his way to a nearby village.

“My hands…they crucified me, nailed me, cut my ear off, cut my face,” Bulatov told Ukraine’s Channel 5 television, still wearing his blood-soaked clothes and pointing to holes on his palms. “Thank God I am alive.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Siemens Sets Its Sights on Moscow Metro Overhaul

German engineering giant Siemens has said it is planning to team up with a Russian partner to join bidding procedures for an overhaul of Moscow’s metro network. It expected possible orders to be big and lucrative.

The German company reported that together with its partner it was willing to invest 160 million euros ($216 million) in the cooperation project to be based in the Russian capital, adding the joint venture would employ up to 800 people.

Moscow authorities had indicated they needed to overhaul its metro train fleet, planning to order up to 2,000 new wagons.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ukraine’s Armed Forces Call for Yanukovych Action as Activist Bulatov Claims Torture

Ukraine’s armed forces have called on President Yanukovych to take “urgent steps” to stabilize the country. Meanwhile claims by an opposition activist that he’d been tortured have been met with international criticism.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Caucasian Muslims Board Issues Statement on Communities Functioning in Ashurbey and Mushvigabad Mosques

Baku. Mubariz Aslanov — APA. Caucasian Muslims Board has issued a statement on the communities functioning in Ashurbey and Mushfigabad mosques. The press service told APA that the media outlets had recently disseminated various reports that Caucasian Muslims Board fails to control the communities functioning in Ashurbey and Mushfigabad mosques and appoint religious leaders to these mosques…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

10 Militants Killed, 20 Injured in S Afghanistan

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) — Ten militants were killed and 20 others injured in an ongoing military operation conducted by Afghan security forces in southern Afghan province of Helmand, authorities said on Thursday…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Bangladesh Sentences 14 to Death for Arms Smuggling, Including Head of Islamist Party

DHAKA, Bangladesh — The head of the main Bangladeshi Islamist opposition party was among 14 people sentenced to death on Thursday on charges of smuggling weapons to a rebel group in neighbouring India.

Security officials had seized more than 4,000 firearms and 1 million bullets and other military equipment in April 2004 when they were being unloaded from fishing boats. According to case documents, the weapons and ammunition were destined for a former Indian insurgency group called the United Liberation Front of Asom…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Burma: UK Minister Condemns Violence Against Muslims

Violence targeting Muslims and the escalating humanitarian situation in Rakhine State could gravely undermine Myanmar’s reform process, Britain’s Foreign Office Minister Hugo Swire warned in Yangon on January 30. Mr Swire expressed disappointment at the government’s apparent reluctance to address inter-communal violence…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Leicester Imam Asim Hafi in Final Afghan Visit

A Leicester Imam has met Afghan and British troops during his final visit to military personnel on duty in Afghanistan. Imam Asim Hafiz spent two weeks travelling to British and Afghan bases in Kabul and Helmand Province, where he met troops of different faiths and ranks.

Imam Hafiz, 37, a religious adviser to the armed forces who was awarded the OBE in the new year honours for his work, was in Afghanistan to highlight the importance of religious and cultural understanding. His last visit before troops pull out of the country was in his role as Islamic religious adviser to the Chief of the Defence Staff. He led prayers in various locations with Afghan soldiers, British Muslim soldiers and members of the US Marine Corps…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Pakistani PM Gives ‘Another Chance’ To Islamists

Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif has come under fire for preferring peace talks over military action against the Taliban. Experts say Islamabad lacks strategy to deal with the militants, who are getting stronger by the day.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Beijing Smog Contains Witches’ Brew of Microbes

Metagenomic survey reveals traces of pathogens and allergens in the city’s air

For people racked by the dreaded ‘Beijing cough’, it is all too clear that particles in the city’s thick smogs pose a public-health problem. But much less clear is the impact — or even the identity — of the microbes that also drift through the brown haze.

Chinese researchers have now used genome sequencing to identify about 1,300 different microbial species in an exceptionally soupy smog that hit Beijing in January 2013 (ref. 1). Reassuringly, most of the microbes they found are benign — but a few are responsible for allergies and respiratory disease in humans. And on days with heavier pollution, the proportion of DNA from these allergens and pathogens increased, suggesting that they might present an additional health threat to vulnerable groups, such as older people or those with weakened immune systems.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt Denounces Chinese Blasts

Egypt strongly denounced explosions in China’s Western region of Xinjiang in which more than a dozen people died on Friday 24/1/2014. In a statement, the Foreign Ministry asserted that Egypt stands with “the Chinese people and government in combating terrorism and extremism.”

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

H7N9: Hong Kong People Are ‘More Alert’ To the Risks of Bird Flu Than China

Hong Kong has banned the sale of live chickens ahead of the Lunar New Year as the city deals with the latest outbreak of H7N9 avian influenza. Already, there are more cases of the virus than last year.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

India-Japan Ties ‘Increasingly Important’

With China looking to extend its influence and territorial control throughout the Asia-Pacific, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, are investing more in their bilateral alliance.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Philippines’ ‘Kidnapping Capital’

The conflict between separatists and the Filipino government in the southern island of Mindanao has damaged the local economy. Manila’s efforts to curb terrorism and promote tourism don’t seem to be working.

Mindanao is the second largest island of the Philippines. For four decades, it has been the center of a separatist conflict, which has claimed more than 120,000 lives. The fighting started in the 1960s when the Muslim minority — known as the Moros — began an armed struggle against Manila, demanding a separate homeland in the south.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Vatican Trove of Catholic Persecution in Japan

A trove of ancient documents unearthed at the Vatican could shed light on the brutal crackdown on Christianity in isolationist Japan under its samurai rulers, scholars say.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Australian Man Survives for 28 Days on Butterflies, Mussels

An Australian man who was missing for 28 days ate butterflies, mussels and fruit to survive. According to Courier Mail, Stephen Currie was discovered by local residents in a remote area outside Tableland, surprising authorities who had called off a search for him three weeks ago.

Currie, 40, lost 33 pounds and was discovered shoeless and shirtless, the report said. He was reported missing on Dec. 29, sparking an extensive air and land search, which included the area’s caves.

Mareeba Police Detective Sen-Constable Vince Marcel said Currie made bedding out of bark and slept in the sand covered with paper bark.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Australian State Divided After Shark Cull Gets the Green Light

A plan to kill sharks off the coast of Western Australia is set to begin this week. Authorities say their strategy will reduce the risk of attack to members of the public, but critics warn it could harm the ecosystem.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Kings Cross Cops Brace for Curfew

With up to 20,000 revellers expected to spill onto Kings Cross streets at the same time every Friday and Saturday night under proposed curfews, police are bracing for a surge in dealing with intoxicated partygoers. The mandatory eight-year jail term for a one-punch attack resulting in death by an intoxicated person comes into effect this weekend…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Man Claims to Have Survived 16 Months Adrift in Pacific

Jose Ivan, found off Marshall Islands, says he set out from Mexico, 8,000 miles away, and survived on turtles and fish

An emaciated man whose boat washed up on a remote Pacific atoll this week claims he survived 16 months adrift in the Pacific, floating more than 8,000 miles from Mexico.

The man, with long hair and beard, was discovered on Thursday when his 24ft (7.3m) fibreglass boat with propellerless engines floated on to the reef at Ebon atoll and he was spotted by two locals.

“His condition isn’t good but he’s getting better,” said Ola Fjeldstad, a Norwegian anthropology student doing research on Ebon, the southern most outpost of the Marshall Islands. “The boat is really scratched up and looks like it has been in the water for a long time.”

Fjeldstad said the man, dressed only in a pair of ragged underpants, claimed he left Mexico for El Salvador in September 2012 with a companion who died at sea several months ago. Details of his survival were sketchy, Fjeldstad added, as the man spoke only Spanish, but he said his name was Jose Ivan.

Ivan indicated to Fjeldstad that he survived by eating turtles, birds and fish and drinking turtle blood when there was no rain. No fishing gear was on the boat and Ivan suggested he caught turtles and birds with his bare hands. There was a turtle on the boat when it landed at Ebon.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Man Washed up on Boat on Marshall Islands Says He’s Been Adrift 16 Months, Report Says

An emaciated man whose boat washed up on the shores of the Pacific’s Marshall Islands is reportedly telling a harrowing tale of being adrift for 16 months, surviving on fish, birds, and turtle blood.

The man—who only speaks Spanish—says he drifted more than 8,000 miles in his 24-foot fiberglass boat, after leaving Mexico for El Salvador in September 2012, the AFP reports. He had been traveling with a companion who he says died at sea several months ago.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Residents to Report School to ICAC

A CROWDED western Sydney Islamic school is using public parks for play activities after building a hall and toilet block on playgrounds without council approval.

The Al Amanah College at Liverpool has also constructed a playground not much bigger than a basketball court over an area intended to be an off-street turning bay for the safe pick-up and drop-off of students.

Neighbour Tony Geci said he is preparing a report to the Independent Commission Against Corruption after Liverpool Council gave retrospective approval for the building works just two days before Christmas and increased student capacity at the private Islamic primary and high school.

Mr Geci said his family have occupied a neighbouring house for 43 years and the noise and traffic is unbearable and unsafe.

The school is wedged between houses on a suburban Liverpool block and opened in 2002 with 168 students.

By 2008 it had hit 600 students but only in December got retrospective council approval for that capacity.

“It’s either incompetence or corruption,” Mr Geci said.

Mr Geci said in approving the retrospective works council had ignored the Independent Hearing and Assessment Panel’s November recommendation that the site was “probably not suitable for an increase in student numbers to 600”.

The panel said if the school did want that number of students, a new development application should be lodged. Council made no such condition.

Al Amanah principal Mohamad El Dana rejected suggestions of overcrowding and said modified development applications had met all approvals and certifications required.

“I believe that the council has adequately assessed the modification application including noise and traffic impact, council’s planning officers were satisfied that there is no significant impact and recommended approval as stated in the council’s report to IHAP,” Mr El Dana said.

“The school is committed to provide safe and supportive environment to our students and to the school community in general.

“The school has never used neighbouring parks for regular sporting activities or as playground. However, the school as all other schools can use public parks occasionally on different occasions and events.”

Mr Geci is a full-time carer for his ailing 82-year-old mother and before he took on that role in September 2012, he did not believe her complaints about the noise from the school.

“For me personally, it is driving me crazy. I soon realised what mum was on about,” Mr Geci said.

           — Hat tip: Nilk [Return to headlines]
 

Blast by Suspected Extremists Kills 7, Injures 3 in Northeastern Nigeria

A Nigerian police official says seven people were killed and three injured when their bus ran over a homemade bomb planted by suspected Islamic extremists in a northeastern village. Borno state police commissioner Lawan Tanko said said Friday’s blast occurred in Kuthra village and the injured are receiving treatment in the main town of Gwoza.

Gwoza is about 90 kilometers (60 miles) from Kawuri, a village where gunmen also believed to be extremists attacked the market last Sunday with guns and explosives, killing at least 85 people. They also left behind improvised explosive devices.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Impoverished Zimbabweans Turn to Gambling in Desperate Search for Quick Cash

Poor and desperate Zimbabweans hang out in Harare’s crowded low-end betting halls, placing stakes as little as U.S. 20 cents on world soccer matches and international horse and dog races with fervent hopes of getting quick returns on their bit of cash.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Polish Troops Leave for Central African Republic Mission

WARSAW, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) — A Polish military contingent that will assist French forces in the International Support Mission in the Central African Leadership in the Central African Republic (CAR) left Warsaw for Orleans in France on Thursday, local media reported.

Lech Majewski, general commander of the Polish Armed Forces said Polish troops’ participation in the “humanitarian and peace” mission “marks a new dimension in Polish-French relations.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Tanzania Becoming the New Chinese Province in Africa

Tanzania’s strong relations with China go back to the era of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere and Mao Tse Tung. The Chinese ‘Dragon’ is now set to invest billions of dollars in the iron and coal mining sectors of the country that will last for more than a century

[…]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Tension Remains High in Central African Republic Due to Presence of Ex-Seleka Rebels

BANGUI, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) — Despite appeals for peace by Transition President Catherine Samba Panza, tension is still high in Bangui, the capital of Central African Republic, and other towns where ex-Seleka rebels have weapons and vehicles.

The ex-rebels have acquired about 50 vehicles and reinforced their presence in towns such as Sibut, 180 km northeast of the capital, Marcelin Youyou, a member of Central African Republic’s National Transition Council (CNT), which is acting as the transition parliament, told Xinhua on Thursday.

“These armed men arrived in the town and started demanding the division of Central African Republic into two; Muslim North and Christian South,” Youyou said…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Amnesty Will Cause Illegal Immigration to Explode

1986 amnesty lead to a sharp increase in illegal immigration, which will happen again under current proposals

The number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. has more than doubled since the last time Congress granted immigration amnesty in 1986, a trend which will continue if current amnesty proposals become law.

– From the time President Ronald Reagan granted amnesty to unauthorized immigrants by signing the Immigration Reform and Control Act in 1986, the total number of illegal immigrants living in the U.S. increased from five million to a current estimate of over 11.7 million…

Immigration in itself is not a bad thing, but currently big government advocates are giving illegal immigrants taxpayer-funded benefits such as welfare and healthcare in order to ensure their support for authoritarian politicians who work against the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

They want amnesty so they can accelerate the immigration of people into the U.S. who are used to living in poverty under tyrannical regimes with very few rights.

Noted 16th-century historian Niccolo Machiavelli explained this strategy in his treatise The Prince, in which he pointed out the ease of controlling such populations and the challenge of subjugating those who know liberty.

“He who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it, may expect to be destroyed by it, for in rebellion it has always the watch-word of liberty and its ancient privileges as a rallying point, which neither time nor benefits will ever cause it to forget,” he wrote.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Benefits for EU Migrants: Brussels Warns Germany Against Populism

Officials in Brussels have been highly critical of a German provision that limits access by EU nationals to its unemployment benefits. In an interview, EU Commissioner László Andor criticizes “unscrupulous politicians” seeking to foment populism.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Bracing for Amnesty

Columnist Ann Coulter, who was privy to a report produced by conservative stalwart Phyllis Schlafly, reveals just how “big” immigration per se has been for the GOP. “Schlafly’s report overwhelmingly demonstrates that merely continuing our current immigration policies spells doom for the Republican Party,” Coulter writes, later adding that “there’s never been a period when a majority of immigrants weren’t Democrats.”

The statistics are daunting. For example, while 81 percent of native-born Americans believe schools should teach students to be proud of America, only half of naturalized U.S. citizens do. Sixty-seven percent of native-born Americans believe the Constitution supersedes international law, compared to only 37 percent of naturalized citizens. Immigrants also express substantial support for ObamaCare, bigger government, gun control, and affirmative action. Every one of those positions is (or ought to be) antithetical to the interests of the GOP. Coulter then gets to the central argument that apparently eludes them. “Republicans have no obligation to assist the Democrats as they change the country in a way that favors them electorally, particularly when it does great harm to the people already here.”

The harm that would befall American workers is inarguable. The CBO reveals that wages for Americans would be adversely affected for more than a decade, and that the unemployment rate would-be “slightly” higher until 2020. Black and Hispanic Americans, many of whom would be competing directly with the newly legalized immigrants for jobs, already endure unemployment rates higher than the national average. That the Democrats consider them temporarily expendable in their quest for electoral hegemony is understandable. That the GOP would blow a golden opportunity to make serious inroads with them while Democrats are pursuing that hegemony, is truly remarkable.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Buchanan: Boehner Will Lose Speakership if He Pushes for Immigration Reform

Pat Buchanan warns that an imminent Republican debate over immigration will play into the hands of the Democratic party.

With the widespread unpopularity of Obamacare, Republicans should instead focus on the embattled health-care law ahead of the 2014 midterm election.

By pivoting to the issue of immigration, Republicans are “walking right into the trap.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Denmark: Police Break up People Smuggling Gang

A suspected people smuggling gang, which used Polish taxi drivers to transport 200 migrants into Germany, was broken up on Wednesday. Two Russians, aged 32 and 39, were arrested in Berlin and three in Poland, suspected of being part an organized criminal network, composed mainly of Russians of Chechen origin. They allegedly transported Chechen migrants illegally from Russia through Poland and into Germany.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Finland: Vantaa Now Has More Speakers of Russian and Estonian Than Swedish

Russian and Estonian speakers now outnumber Swedish speakers in the city of Vantaa. As the country’s second national language, the status of the Swedish language is protected by law, but pressure is mounting to offer services in Russian and Estonian as well. The change is already apparent in the city’s recruiting efforts.

           — Hat tip: KGS [Return to headlines]
 

How the GOP Lost Middle America

by Patrick J. Buchanan

Out of the Republican retreat on Maryland’s Eastern shore comes word that the House leadership is raising the white flag of surrender on immigration.

The GOP will agree to halt the deportation of 12 million illegal aliens and sign on to a blanket amnesty. It only asks that the 12 million not be put on a path to citizenship.

Sorry, but losers do not dictate terms. Rich Trumka of the AFL-CIO says amnesty is no longer enough. Illegal aliens must be put on a path to citizenship and given green cards to work — and join unions.

Rep. Paul Ryan and the Wall Street Journal are for throwing in the towel. Legalize them all and start them on the path to citizenship.

A full and final capitulation. Let’s get it over with.

To understand why and how the Republican Party lost Middle America, and faces demographic death, we need to go back to Bush I.

At the Cold War’s end, the GOP reached a fork in the road. The determination of Middle Americans to preserve the country they grew up in suddenly collided with the profit motive of Corporate America.

The Fortune 500 wanted to close factories in the USA and ship production abroad — where unions did not exist, regulations were light, taxes were low, and wages were a fraction of what they were here in America.

Corporate America was going global and wanted to be rid of its American workforce, the best paid on earth, and replace it with cheap foreign labor.

While manufacturing sought to move production abroad, hotels, motels, bars, restaurants, farms and construction companies that could not move abroad also wanted to replace their expensive American workers.

Thanks to the Republican Party, Corporate America got it all…

           — Hat tip: Takuan Seiyo [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Caritas 2013 Report Shows No Change in Numbers

Poorer than Italians, steady rate of arrivals and departures

(by Angela Abbrescia)(ANSAmed) — ROME — Immigration remained at a constant level last year in Italy, with about five million foreigners in Italy including both documented and undocumented ones, and immigrant families continue to be poorer than their Italian counterparts. The overview provided by the Caritas e Migrantes 2013 report bears a great deal of resemblance to the previous year’s, though this time observations and proposals have also been included — such as that immigration detention centers (CIE) be shut down as they are expensive, ineffective and useless. The 23rd edition of the report on migration was presented in the Italian capital on Thursday in the presence of Minister for Integration Cecile Kyenge and the head of the Senate Human Rights Commission, Luigi Manconi. Migration continued to Italy over the past year but did not rise, while the increase in migrants (due to family reunification and new births) was almost entirely nullified by the departures of other migrants, either to return to their home countries or to move elsewhere. Migrant had to deal with the economic crisis from a disadvantaged position, as the median income of migrants is only 56% that of Italians, and a fourth of foreigners were unable to pay their rent and bills on time, compared with 10.5% and 8.3%, respectively. Especially serious was the problem of housing, as migrants experienced problems with it three times more than Italians did last year. Though foreigners living in the southern part of the country are poorer than those in the central and northern ones, the distance between the situation of migrants and Italians is narrower in the south. On the issue of unemployment, the report underscored that while among Italians it hit the young hardest, among foreigners it tended to be the family’s main breadwinner to suffer from the loss of a job. While the demand for foreign labor decreased, in areas like personal services employment continued to grow. From a religious standpoint, there are only 6 official mosques, 36 Sikh temples and 335 Orthodox Christian churches, but ever more Sikh and Buddhist temples, Muslim prayer rooms, Neo-Pentacostal churches and other places of worship are being seen across the country. Some 16% more immigrants were granted citizenship, and there is a rising number of pupils in schools with foreign citizenship who were born in Italy, says the report: children who in many cases have never been to the country of origin of their parents (50%). The issue of reform for the citizenship law was cited by Minister Kyenge, who said that “the next few weeks will be decisive”, since the measure has been put onto the Parliament’s agenda for immediately after the electoral law. An entire chapter was set aside for the CIE. “Places of insecurity more than social security for migrants, and which should therefore be closed,” the general director of Migrantes, Monsignor Gian Carlo Perego, called them.

The report underscored that the treatment of migrants in the CIE is in no way useful for border control or regulating migratory flows, and that it instead seems to “soothe” the anxieties of those who see foreigners as a danger to security.

The lengthening of maximum stay in the centers to 18 months did nothing to improve the efficiency of the centers, it said, and in fact seems to to have reduced the number of people being repatriated after being held.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Mexico Protects Its Borders Better Than U.S.

Mexico regards illegal immigrants as felons.

Even though the country’s rural living standards are generally poor, it has its own immigration problems. People from Cuba regularly attempt to cross its borders, and others from Central and South America emigrate there as well.

However, unlike in the U.S., people that enter Mexico illegally can endure harsh detentions, are regarded as felons and can be at any time subject to a citizens’ arrest.

Indeed, one United Nations Human Rights representative upon visiting Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala, remarked,

Mexico is one of the countries where illegal immigrants are highly vulnerable to human rights violations and become victims of degrading sexual exploitation and slavery-like practices, and are denied access to education and healthcare.

The Guatemalan border is Mexico’s most porous, and border guards act with violent vigilance to protect it. “The guards’ use of violence, rape, and extortion against those seeking to cross into Mexico has, in fact, managed the border so well that the country has only a minimal illegal-immigration problem,” DiscoverTheNetworks.org has pointed out.

Despite their own country’s harsh treatment of undocumented immigrants, no one in Mexico is calling for “reform” to their immigration policies. Instead, members of Mexico’s fleeing population sometimes become adamantly vocal once they enter the U.S. illegally, and join protests organized by leftist coalitions against our already incredibly lax border policies.

But in Mexico, don’t think this type of behavior would be tolerated.

For starters, illegal immigrants are barred from upsetting “the equilibrium of the national demographics,” according to Mexico’s immigration policy.

Under Mexico’s Immigration Law, illegal immigration is considered a felony punishable by up to two years in prison “and a fine of three hundred to five thousand pesos will be imposed on the foreigner who enters the country illegally.”

Migrants are only welcomed “according to their possibilities of contributing to national progress,” and only after immigration officials “ensure” that “immigrants will be useful elements for the country and that they have the necessary funds for their sustenance” and for their dependents.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

More New Citizens, Student Visas in France

France under President François Hollande is a slightly more welcoming place for immigrants, according to new data released on Friday by the country’s top cop. However, the statistics show not everything is different.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Malmö Somalis Suffer Integration ‘Black Hole’

Somali immigrants in Malmö are “stuck in a trap” due to a dire local job market, creating overcrowding and low self-confidence, a new report said on Friday. Researchers urged city hall, and pensioners, to address the problem.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Norway: ‘I’m Against Gender Quotas’: Equality Minister

Norway’s equality minister has declared that she is opposed to gender quotas or affirmative action designed at increasing equality for women in the workplace, although she stressed she would not seek to rewrite Norway’s existing rules.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Radical Feminists’ War on Churches

by Enza Ferreri

The similarity between Muslims on one hand and feminist and homosexual activists on the other may superficially seem shocking, but in fact it is normal, indeed predictable. Their enemy is the same: the decency and morality deriving from Christian civilisation. Muslim mobs desecrate and burn churches, they break crosses. And so do feminists, with their LGBT allies.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

At Least 20% of Neanderthal DNA is in Humans

At least one-fifth of the Neanderthal genome may lurk within modern humans, influencing the skin, hair and diseases people have today, researchers say.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

When Was Jesus Born?

Although millions of people celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on Dec. 25, most scholars agree that he wasn’t born on that day, or even in the year 1 A.D.

Researchers believe the Roman Catholic Church settled on Dec. 25 for many reasons, such as that date’s ties to the winter solstice and Saturnalia, a festival dedicated to the Roman deity Saturn. By choosing this day to celebrate Jesus’ birthday, the church could co-opt the popular pagan festival, as well as the winter celebrations of other pagan religions.

But nobody really knows exactly when Jesus was born.

Some scholars think that he was born between 6 B.C. and 4 B.C., based partly on the biblical story of Herod the Great. Not long before Herod’s demise, which is believed to have occurred in 4 B.C., the ruler of Judea supposedly ordered the death of all male infants who were under the age of two and lived in the vicinity of Bethlehem, in an attempt to kill Jesus.

Theologians have also suggested that Jesus was born in the spring, based on the biblical narrative that shepherds were watching over their flocks in the fields on the night of Jesus’ birth — something they would have done in the spring, not the winter.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

9 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/31/2014

  1. I’ll ask the Pleidians! The “Star” was one of theirs I believe, off course on its way home? Actually the whole Christmas narrative is a nice story. I live with a family of pleidians, who inhabit the cupboards next to the house boiler/airing cupboard. I am thinking of charging rent….They offered to iron my Church robes and act as altar “servers” but flying Pleidians supplying bread and wine during the service may make the congregation a bit upset. The average Pleidian is anywhere from 10″ to 24″ in height….

    No seriously, the Roman Church (less the Pleidians of course) nicked the Saturnalia from the Roman Pantheon. Quite appropriate really as “Slaves became masters and Masters slaves”…..The Roman governor of the time was not the one said to be in control and Herod himself was later. So Christianity adopted and adapated from earlier existing lore. The important bit is that Jesus did exist, as he is mentioned in Tacitus and other sources of the time but especially in Josephus.

    Borrowing from older beliefs is a common factor in ancient world. I am very fond of Mithraism that is more sophisticated than Christianity and from which it borrowed the Trinity. The Trinity is a very old idea (ask the Pleidians with their three man crews). The Romans had their “Capitoline Triad” too. There is also the German “three mother godesses” “trinity” a great favourite of the Roman legions. And no I do not worship “Mithras” but I admire the philosophy. I admire Kant too and Beethoven.

    In the “Holy Koran”, Mohammed nicked the flight of Joseph and Mary to Egypt, after Gabriel (not a Pleidian) warned them about “Herod”- “Moh’s Flight to Medina”. Then he borrowed the Christmas story, as did Christianty from the Mithraists. His own sojourn and “birth” in a cave and the customary visit from Gabriel give the game away. Then there is the famous “visit to Jerusalem and Heaven” by Mohammed- straight out of Elijah…..

    When those that profess “faith” and “Absolutism” as in “Born Agains” and “Moslems”, claiming that the “Koran” and the Bible are “God’s Word”, they should be mindful of what I have said above. The Bible too has at least 65 different authors over a period of 1600 years. How do we know?

    Types of language and script. We know of at least 20 claiming to be “Moses”. The Book of Daniel was written as a political pamphlet in the times of the War of The Maccabees. The Koran too, unlike the Bible is a political pamphlet….(Ask the Pleidians).

    I use humour and jest because I think religion and “faith” need some levity but I make a serious point. Jesus apparently had a great sense of fun.

    As for “faith”, what it actually means is to accept an Absolute self evident Truth. If one has to “believe” in it, it cannot be the Reality it claims to be can it? Think about that perhaps as folk seem to have lost their ability to critically think these days under the onslaught of atheism and “Islam”. Feeling and emotion is all. Look at the global mayhem…

    Allah is not the same “God” as Jaweh. Truth is not a belief but fact- self-evident fact- and Jesus is and always will be the Truth. He was unique…and denying Him does not change who He really is. That is real faith- acceptance of reality.

  2. I’ve just been revisiting some older posts here (I know, I should get a life!) Under “Breivik’s Double-Psychology” on 24th January, Dymphna writes: “I hope it is one more nail in the coffin of the trivial meme IQ as a predictor of anything beyond itself. In other words, he is prima facie evidence that intelligence unmoored from any other factors (how dare an American use the English language so eloquently?) isn’t sufficient evidence to make a full human being.”

    This, in my not necessarily humble opinion, is the best argument in favour of democracy, along with Churchill’s view that it’s the least bad form of government. Simple (or uneducated) people have an inherent decency (God, I sound like Tolstoy)- provided that it’s not been corrupted by ideologues, religious or secular; and history suggests that intellectuals are equally capable of being similarly corrupted, with less excuse. Having attained a degree of maturity (?) at 65, I realised long ago that what’s in people’s heads is less important than what’s in their hearts. Possibly sentimental, but it works for me.

  3. As usual, very little on the antics of the French gov in the press. There is an increasing dissatisfaction. It is common currency to mock Holland.

    On the theme of sex, parenthood, another demo is going to take place in Paris tomorrow. The authorities have everything covered to give this demo a very bad name, even before it takes place, (police but the media as well). It is sooooo evident, and the opposition has caught onto this fact by a great tongue in chic article: (in French)

    http://lepanierasalades.wordpress.com/2014/01/29/depeche-afp-reactions-a-lissue-de-la-manif-pour-tous-du-2-fevrier-2014/

    It will be the 3rd demo in as many weeks….

    Rome also will have a similar demo, as well as Lyon. What about other places? does anyone know ???

    The authorities really want to swipe the demonstrators in it, to such extent that the organisers of the demo have asked for court bailiffs to be present, to play a neutral part, watch and monitor the police. That’s basically unheard of.

    Vive la Manif!

    • Further to the message, around 250 people got detained by the police last week, in what was a police trap, effectively. To sum it up, 2 of them have had deferred sentence of two months imprisonment, because they tried to move and throw a barrier in the direction of the police. Another one has seen her procedure annulled for a legal flaw. She was accused of having thrown an empty beer towards the police roadblock.

      Police heavy on tame demonstrators and compare that with what going on in the Ukraine. It is madness.

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