Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/1/2014

Park authorities in the Italian seaside resort of Nervi have begun capturing and neutering grey squirrels. The European Union has asked Italy to exterminate the grey squirrel, which is an American intruder, to keep it from supplanting the native red squirrel. In a compromise with animal rights activists, the authorities are employing this more humane method to accomplish the same end.

In other news, “Australian” fighters who traveled to Syria to join the jihad are being trained by Al Qaeda affiliates to continue their jihad when they return home to Oz.

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

Thanks to Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, MC, Nilk, Steen, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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

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

Financial Crisis
» Bailout Troika ‘In Breach’ of EU Human Rights Laws
» Italian State Takes 170 Days to Pay Bills
» It’s Official: Real Wages Have Been Falling for the Longest Period in Half a Century
 
USA
» Amanda Knox Could be Extradited, Legal Expert Says
» Anger Rising: Obama’s an ‘Enemy Combatant’
» Brooklyn School Cutting Gifted Program to Boost Diversity
» Common Sense Alert: Catching the Bad Guy Without a Description?
» Donations to Karl Rove’s Groups Drop 98% After Targeting Tea Party
» Fact or Fiction?: Lead Can be Turned Into Gold
» Fellow Democrats Press Obama to Approve Keystone, Following Environmental Report
» Lefty Rag: More Despotism
» ‘McCarthyism’ By the Numbers
» Microsoft Said to be Preparing to Make Satya Nadella CEO
» Obama Has Done More to Circumvent Congress Than Bush
» On the Highway to Heaven: Ohio Biker is Buried in Leathers Astride His Beloved 1967 Harley-Davidson in a Huge Transparent Casket
» Phonehenge — This is Life in a Tyranny
» Prominent Tea Party Groups Raise Almost $8m in Last Six Months of Fiscal Year 2013
» ‘She is the Ice Maiden’: Amanda Knox Has Reinvented Herself as a Teary American TV Star But She Was Cold and Unemotional When in an Italian Jail, Says Prison Guard
» Tea Party: Grass Roots or Head in the Clouds?
» Ted Cruz is No Larry McDonald
 
Canada
» Canadian Gov’t: Spying Revelations Are a Lie, Greenwald is a ‘Porn Spy’
 
Europe and the EU
» Anti-Terrorist Sqaud Finds Car Laden With Arms, Explosives in Southern Athens
» Austrian Actor Maximilian Schell Dies, Aged 83
» Boulder Smashes Through Italian Farm
» EU Has Secret Plan for Police to ‘Remote Stop’ Cars
» France: Hollande Refuses to Answer ‘Affair’ Question
» French Teen Jihadists Charged
» Is There a Future for French Jews? An Interview With Michel Gurfinkiel
» Italy: Postal Worker Wins Damages After 3 Holdups in a Year
» Italy: Grey Squirrels Captured, Neutered to Preserve Red Squirrels
» Italy: Napolitano Blasts India’s Handling of Marines Case
» Italy: 58% of Italians Favour Renzi Replacing Letta, Says Poll
» Snowshoe Runners Hunt World Title in Sweden
» Sweden: Few Convicted for Thefts Against the Elderly
» Sweden: European Court Blocks Expulsion of African Teen
» UK: Boy, Six, Suspended From School for Four Days After He Was Found to Have a Packet of Mini Cheddars in His Lunchbox
» UK: County’s [Kent] First Domed Mosque Set to Open
» UK: English is No Longer the First Language for the Majority Pupils at One in Nine Schools
» UK: Illegal Mosque Finally Shut Down
» UK: Judges to Get Advice on Veils After Woman Pleads Guilty
» UK: Michael Mosley Infests Himself With Tapeworms
» UK: Magistrate Attacks Soft Touch Justice System That Allows Criminals to Walk Free With a ‘Slapped Wrist’ After Burglars Ransack His Home
» UK: Revealed: The One in Nine Schools Where English is Not First Language
» UK: Stratford Street Pastors Going From Strength to Strength
» UK: Wrong About the Muslim World
» UKIP’s Rise Haunts Left-Wingers as Well as Conservatives
» Van Rompuy: ‘Future of Ukraine Belongs With EU’
 
North Africa
» Don’t be Fooled by Tunisia’s Constitution
» Egypt: Electronic Gates for Unveiling Explosive Devices in Metro
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» ‘2014 is Going to be a Very Bad Year for Hamas’
» Denmark’s Largest Bank Divests From Israel’s Hapoalim Over Settlement Construction
» EU Repeats Offer of ‘Unprecedented’ Aid for Israel and Palestine
» Hamas, Islamic Jihad Gunmen Now in West Bank
» Israeli Soldiers Wound 26 Palestinians in Demonstration
» Oxfam is Wrong on Israel
 
Middle East
» 16 Soldiers Killed in Checkpoint Attack in SE Yemen
» Austrian Rape Victim Was Arrested for Having Sex Outside of Marriage in UAE When She Reported the Crime… and Told She Had to Marry Her Attacker
» Jihadists Flock to Turkish Camps to Plan New Atrocities in Europe
» Officials: Sunni-Shiite Tribal Battle Over Land Kills 65 in Northwest Yemen
» Several Dead After Car Bomb Explodes in Shiite Stronghold of Lebanon
» Skousen: Why North Korea is the Trigger
» Syria Becoming Magnet for Young French Muslims
» UN’s Ban Calls for Earnest Syrian Talks
» Women Across the Globe Celebrate World Hijab Day
 
Russia
» Russian FM Threatens Euronews on Ukraine Reporting
» U.S. Embassy Likely Paying Ukraine Rioters
» Ukraine Crisis Creates Bad Will Between NATO and Russia
» Ukraine Divides World Powers at Munich Security Conference
 
South Asia
» Afghan Presidential Election Campaign to Begin, As Country Weighs Successors to Karzai
» Afghan Troops Need More Training, Critical International Forces Remain After 2014
» Campaign Aides of Afghan Presidential Candidate Shot Dead
» Indian Tigers Make Successful Comeback
» Indonesia Volcano Erupts Again Killing at Least 14
» Malaysian Fury After Slap Parents Are Held
» Sumatran Volcano Spews Fatal Ash Clouds
» Thailand Election: Several Hurt in Bangkok Gun Battle
» Thailand: Gunfire in Bangkok Ahead of Election
» The Quest of India’s ‘Lost Jewish Tribe’
» US Troops Pulling Out of Afghanistan
 
Far East
» 12 Wounded in Bomb Attack in S. Philippines
» A New Cultural Revolution: China’s War Against Hong Kong Publications
» China: Lunar New Year Ushers in Greatest Human Migration
» China: Slaughterhouse Said to Process “Horrifying” Number of Whale Sharks Annually
» Threatwatch: Mother Virus of China’s Deadly Bird Flu
 
Australia — Pacific
» Al-Qaeda Terrorist Threat to Australia
» Australians Try Muslims’ Hijab
» Bunbury Man Arrested After Alleged Priest Assault
» Could There be a One Punch Law Re-Think in Wa?
» Furor Over Great Barrier Reef Port Expansion
» Radicalised Muslims Bring the Jihad Back Home
» Virtual Cash Moves Into the Real World
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Foreign Retailers in Zimbabwe Decry President Mugabe’s Indigenisation Policy
» Nigeria: The Meaning and Significance of World Hijab Day
» South Sudan Rebel Leader Says Government Derailing Peace Talks
» Tanzania: Two French Nationals Found Dead in Isles
 
Immigration
» Australia vs. Indonesia Approaches a Flashpoint
» How the GOP Lost Middle America
» Lifeboat Reportedly Used by Australia to Return Asylum Seekers Found in Java
» McCain Happy That House is Pushing Amnesty
» Obama Says He’s Open to Taking Executive Action on Immigration
 
Culture Wars
» Hollywood Female Stars Paid Way Less After 34
» Scotland: Same-Sex Row Adoption Agency to Keep Charity Status
» The Era of Genetically-Altered Humans Could Begin This Year
» UK: David Silvester Gay Marriage Flood Row Councillor’s Home ‘Egged’
 
General
» Adults Tested for ADHD Symptoms in Huge Study
 

Bailout Troika ‘In Breach’ of EU Human Rights Laws

Austerity programmes agreed with the troika of international lenders (the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund) are in breach of the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights, according to a German legal expert.

Andreas Fischer-Lescano, a professor of European law and politics at the University of Bremen was tasked by the European Trade Union Confederation to look at the legality of so-called memorandums of understanding (MoU) signed between bailed-out countries and their lenders.

He concluded that under the EU charter of fundamental rights, a legal text which became binding for member states in 2009, several austerity measures enshrined in the MoUs can be fought in courts.

“There are certain limits to what you can write in a memorandum of understanding. In a bank contract too, there are limits to what can be written, courts and laws are always limiting that. In international agreements it should be the same, the troika MoU is not beyond the law either,” Lescano told this website.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italian State Takes 170 Days to Pay Bills

Confartiginato reports Italy for violations to EC

(ANSA) — Rome, January 31 — The Italian public body took an average of 170 days to pay its bills in 2013, making Italy’s civil service the slowest in the European Union, Italian artisans association Confartigianato said on Friday.

The Italian public administration was more than twice as slow as those of most other EU countries, which averaged of 61 days.

The Italian public administration’s debts toward the private sector also lead the EU at 4% of the gross domestic product.

Confartigianato President Giorgio Merletti on Friday formally reported the Italian public administration to the European Commission for non-compliance, delivering a dossier to EC Vice-President Antonio Tajani in Rome. A law decree passed in late 2012 set a legal limit of 30 days for bill-paying both the public and private sectors — in accordance with an EC directive — but makes an exception of 60 days in some cases for the public administration. The law has been in force since January 1, 2013. “We are asking for the intervention of the European Commission and the Italian government because late payments are a noose around the neck of the entrepreneurs, they stifle the ability to compete, and undermine opportunities for boosting economic development for our country,” said Merletti.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

It’s Official: Real Wages Have Been Falling for the Longest Period in Half a Century

Real wage growth averaged 2.9 per cent in the 1970s and 1980s, 1.5 per cent in the 1990s, 1.2 per cent in 2000s, but has fallen to minus 2.2 per cent since 2010.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Amanda Knox Could be Extradited, Legal Expert Says

Law professor says treaty trumps U.S. constitution

(ANSA) — New York, January 31 — Amanda Knox could face extradition to Italy, a leading international criminal lawyer told ANSA in an interview on Friday.

Christopher Blakesley, a professor at the University of Nevada, called extradition “absolutely possible” for Knox, who has been living in the United States.

Knox received a jail sentence of 28 years and six months after she and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were found guilty in a Florence court Thursday for the 2007 murder of British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia. The appeals-level verdict was the fourth ruling on the case and it is now expected to go to the Italian supreme court. Blakesley, who teaches at the William S. Boyd School of Law in Las Vegas, said a 1984 bilateral treaty between the United States and Italy obliges the US to obey an extradition request, if made.

The professor added that the treaty takes precedence over the US constitution, but the case would likely be adjudicated in federal court.

One key issue to be determined would be whether Knox’s conviction constitutes a case of “double jeopardy”. The US constitution protects citizens from being tried again on the same criminal charges once a person has been acquitted of them in court. Thursday’s verdict in a Florence middle court represents the fourth verdict for Knox and Sollecito, after the Italian supreme court rejected an acquittal made by a previous middle appeals court. Some have hypothesized that the double-jeopardy clause could save Knox from extradition, but Blakesley is not sure. According to Blakesley, under Italian law Knox’s new conviction does not come from a new trial, but from a new stage of the same trial. In addition, the US signed the treaty with Italy knowing full well the laws that govern its justice system, he said.

Blakesley said that the last word, however, would lie with the US secretary of state, who holds veto power on extraditions.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Anger Rising: Obama’s an ‘Enemy Combatant’

Calls to ‘impeach,’ ‘execute’ at town hall surprise congressman: ‘You look so sweet’

Voters in Republican Rep. Jim Bridenstine’s Oklahoma district may look meek and mild, maybe even sweet, but their opinions of President Obama reveal nothing but a battleground “take-no-prisoners” attitude.

One lady, for example, said there needs to be changes in the Senate so “we can impeach the S-O-B.”

Said another: “He’s not president as far as I’m concerned. … Should be executed. He’s an enemy combatant.”

She complained that Congress is doing nothing, and that “allows this moron to make decisions.”

“He has no authority. None.”

The video was uploaded just this week, but it’s unclear when the meeting was held, and the congressman’s office was unable to provide details immediately.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Brooklyn School Cutting Gifted Program to Boost Diversity

Ditmas Park’s P.S. 139 Principal Mary McDonald told parents the elementary school would no longer accept kindergartners applications for the SOAR program. Future classes will be ‘heterogeneously grouped.’

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Common Sense Alert: Catching the Bad Guy Without a Description?

There once was a time when Americans had common sense. That time appears to be long gone. Just look at the recent uproar at the University of Minnesota. Some students and faculty members are petitioning to have race not mentioned in the campus police alerts when looking for the bad guy. They feel it’s better not to offend than to get the most accurate description possible. Good grief!

Imagine you are walking along the campus of the University of Minnesota. You are now face to face with an armed robber. You give him your money, and he takes off. The police show up and you give them a description. Now, the police take your information and release a bulletin, but all it states is: “Be on the look out for some guy. If you see him, watch out!”

My example, of course, is an exaggeration, but it shows the ridiculous nature of the debate that is going at the university. As reported by CBS 4 in Minnesota, school officials are “working with black student and facility organizations after they wrote a letter to the school’s president about the racial descriptions given in crime alerts.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Donations to Karl Rove’s Groups Drop 98% After Targeting Tea Party

After wasting nearly $325 million during the 2012 election cycle with nothing to show for it and then declaring war on the Tea Party, donations to Karl Rove’s three Crossroads groups decreased by 98% last year. The groups reportedly raised a paltry $6.1 million combined in 2013.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Fact or Fiction?: Lead Can be Turned Into Gold

Particle accelerators make possible the ancient alchemist’s dream—but at a steep cost

In 1980, when the bismuth-to-gold experiment was carried out, running particle beams through the Bevalac cost about $5,000 an hour, “and we probably used about a day of beam time,” recalls Oregon State University nuclear chemist Walter Loveland, one of the researchers on the project.

Glenn Seaborg, who shared the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work with heavy elements and who died in 1999, was the senior author on the resulting study. “It would cost more than one quadrillion dollars per ounce to produce gold by this experiment,” Seaborg told the Associated Press that year. The going rate for an ounce of gold at the time? About $560.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Fellow Democrats Press Obama to Approve Keystone, Following Environmental Report

President Obama is facing increasing pressure from Senate Democrats to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline, following the release Friday of a State Department report that raised no major environmental concerns. “Today’s Environmental Impact Statement confirms what Alaskans already know — there are ways to safely and responsibly diversify our domestic energy supply,” said Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska. “Move this project forward.”

Begich also said he will continue to “demand” that Obama approve the $7 billion pipeline project while reminding him that development in Alaska’s Arctic Ocean and National Petroleum Reserve is critical in securing the county’s energy independence from foreign countries.

He was joined Friday by Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu in calling on Obama to approve the project, proposed back in 2010.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Lefty Rag: More Despotism

Exclusive: Matt Barber notes Josef Stalin liked the ‘go it alone’ approach, too

Hypocrisy, thy name is liberalism. What a difference a few years makes. Remember when “progressive” media types chided President George W. Bush till they were blue in the face for “going it alone” on Iraq? Well, apparently “going it alone” is totally cool if you have a “D” after your name.

David Corn, Washington bureau chief over at the uber-liberal Mother Jones is disappointed that an increasingly imperialist Barack Obama wasn’t imperialist enough during his recent State of the Union Address. He’s furious that our already chestless Commander-in-Hearing-Himself-Talk showed off his bona fides in weakness and “let the Republicans off easy.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

‘McCarthyism’ By the Numbers

by M. Stanton Evans

A big deal in the online world of late has been a bitter debate about the conduct of American policy in our 50-year Cold War with the Soviet Union and its agents.

At the center of this fierce dispute is author Diana West, whose recent book, American Betrayal (St. Martin’s), is a hard-hitting critique of President Franklin Roosevelt, his aide Harry Hopkins, and various of their colleagues, saying concessions they made to Moscow during the Second World War were calamitous for US and free world interests. She further contends that such concessions were frequently influenced by concealed pro-Reds and Soviet agents serving on official American payrolls.

So arguing, Ms. West has triggered a barrage of charges from defenders of FDR and others, challenging her thesis, her scholarship, and even her mental stability, saying that such a book should never have been written. “Right wing loopy,” “conspiracy theorist,” and not properly “house-trained” are among the epithets hurled in her direction.

This concerted onslaught has been in my view brutal and unseemly, but in one respect at least it’s served a useful purpose. That positive angle — counter-intuitive at first glance — is that the accusations leveled against Ms. West include numerous references to “McCarthyism”— alluding to the senator from Wisconsin who gave his name to a decisive epoch in our death struggle with the Kremlin.

It’s untrue that McCarthy never spotted a single Communist or Soviet agent, or — per one variation — came up with only a handful of valid cases. He in fact tracked down a small army of such people, and the roster given here is merely a sampling of the flagrant suspects who attracted his attention.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Microsoft Said to be Preparing to Make Satya Nadella CEO

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)’s board is preparing to make Satya Nadella, the company’s enterprise and cloud chief, chief executive officer and is discussing replacing Bill Gates as chairman, according to people with knowledge of the process.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Has Done More to Circumvent Congress Than Bush

Could we be in the midst of an “imperial presidency”? That’s the question the Christian Science Monitor posed in a recent cover story.

It’s generally former President George W. Bush that gets hammered for overreaching his executive authority, but the CSM article lays out evidence showing that President Barack Obama has gone far beyond his predecessor.

While Bush and Obama have issued roughly the same number of executive orders in their first five years as president, the scope of Obama’s actions are more far-reaching than Bush’s.

“It’s really the character of the actions, and their subject,” Jonathan Turley, a constitutional scholar at George Washington University, told the CSM. “In my view, Obama has surpassed George W. Bush in the level of circumvention of Congress and the assertion of excessive presidential power. I don’t think it’s a close question.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

On the Highway to Heaven: Ohio Biker is Buried in Leathers Astride His Beloved 1967 Harley-Davidson in a Huge Transparent Casket

The family of an Ohio biker has fulfilled his dying wish by burying him astride his beloved Harley-Davidson in a see-through casket. Dressed in his leathers and sunglasses, and sitting on top of his 1967 Electra Glide cruiser, Billy Standley, who died on Sunday, was taken for one last ride. The body of the 82-year-old, who died of lung cancer, was visible through the transparent Plexiglas coffin that his bike has been placed in.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Phonehenge — This is Life in a Tyranny

Do you like living in a tyranny?

A man constructed a large castle-like building over the course of 30 years, on his property out in rural California. I looked at the pictures, it was magnificent art! The government came in a destroyed the place. It took them a month to dismantle and destroy it, while they had thrown the man who built it into jail! This is no longer the USA !!!!!

WAKE UP!

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Prominent Tea Party Groups Raise Almost $8m in Last Six Months of Fiscal Year 2013

The tea party might have a lot of enemies, but they also have friends — with deep pockets. Two national tea party groups were given a combined total of almost $8 million during the last six months of fiscal year 2013, according to Roll Call.

The Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund filed receipts of over $4 million and disbursements of $3.8 million leaving a little over $1 million cash on hand at the end of 2013, Roll Call reported. Almost $3 million came from donors who gave $200 or less each. The largest donor, Cary Katz, CEO of College Loan Corp in Nevada, gave $50,000 to the super PAC.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

‘She is the Ice Maiden’: Amanda Knox Has Reinvented Herself as a Teary American TV Star But She Was Cold and Unemotional When in an Italian Jail, Says Prison Guard

Amanda Knox is a brilliant actress and a secret ‘Ice Maiden’ who has reinvented herself as a warm compassionate human being, according to a prison guard who watched over her in jail.

Angela Antonietti, a favourite guard of Knox’s at Capanne prison, near Perugia, has revealed that her charge never cried or showed remorse during her time inside.

Hours after an Italian court convicted her for a second time of killing British student Meredith Kercher in 2007, the 26-year-old made an emotional — but defiant — U.S. TV appearance insisting her innocence.

But Ms Antonietti has labeled her tears nothing more than an act and said Knox ‘never, ever’ talked of her ‘friend’, Miss Kercher…

Ms Antonietti, who worked as a prison warden for 25 years, said she came to dislike Knox immensely during her time at the prison, and told of how she would sing and dance around her cell during the day, and ‘sleep like a baby’ at night.

She said the only emotion Knox, then 22, ever showed was when she was waiting for her mother to send her the second Harry Potter book.

She added: ‘Her behaviour wasn’t human. Even the doctor didn’t understand her.’

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Tea Party: Grass Roots or Head in the Clouds?

Thanks to the Tea Party, the Arkansas Congress is Republican for the first time in 138 years. They have attacked not only Barack Obama but the Republican Party itself. But will the Tea Party really stop at nothing?

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ted Cruz is No Larry McDonald

The drive of the Rockefellers and their allies is to create a one-world government combining super capitalism and Communism under the same tent, all under their control… Do I mean conspiracy? Yes I do. I am convinced there is such a plot, international in scope, generations old in planning, and incredibly evil in intent.” Congressman Larry P. McDonald, 1976, allegedly killed in the Korean Airlines 747 that was allegedly shot down by the Soviets

“We have four boxes with which to defend our freedom: the soap box, the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box.” -Representative Larry McDonald

“It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged.” -G. K. Chesterton

Representative Larry McDonald was born April 1, 1935 in Atlanta, Georgia and supposedly died September 1, 1983 in the Sea of Japan. He was aboard Korean Airlines Flight 007. McDonald was invited to South Korea to attend a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the United States — South Korea Mutual Defense Treaty with fellow members of Congress, Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, Senator Steve Symms of Idaho, and Representative Carroll Hubbard of Kentucky. Because of delays, the other three did not take the same flight as McDonald. A Soviet MiG-23 Flogger and three Soviet Su-15 Flagon fighters intercepted and allegedly shot down the plane over Sakhalin Island in the Sea of Japan. There were 268 others allegedly lost at sea…

During his time in Congress, McDonald introduced over 150 bills, including legislation to:

1. Repeal the Gun Control Act of 1968. 2. Remove the limitation upon the amount of outside income which a Social Security recipient may earn. 3. Award honorary U.S. Citizenship to Russian dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 4. Prohibit Federal funds from being used to finance the purchase of American agricultural commodities by any Communist country. 5. Impeach UN Ambassador Andrew Young. 6. Limit eligibility for appointment and admission to any United States service academy to men. 7. Direct the Comptroller General of the United States to audit the gold held by the United States annually. 8. Increase the national speed limit to 65 miles per hour (105 km/h) from the then-prevailing national speed limit of 55 miles per hour (89 km/h). 9. Abolish the Federal Election Commission. 20.Get the U.S. out of the United Nations.

Now let’s take a look at who we call one of the top conservatives today, namely: Texas Senator, Ted Cruz…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Canadian Gov’t: Spying Revelations Are a Lie, Greenwald is a ‘Porn Spy’

We’ve seen various government officials act in all sorts of bizarre ways after revelations of illegal spying on their own people (and foreigners), but none may be quite as bizarre as the response from the Canadian government, following the release late last night from the CBC (with help from Glenn Greenwald) that they’re spying on public WiFi connections.

That report had plenty of detail, including an internal presentation from the Canadian electronic spying agency, CSEC. In the Canadian Parliament today, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s parliamentary secretary, Paul Calandra, decided to respond to all of this by insisting it’s all a lie and then flat out insulting both the CBC and Glenn Greenwald.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Anti-Terrorist Sqaud Finds Car Laden With Arms, Explosives in Southern Athens

Authorities appeared to have discovered a significant clue on Saturday in their attempt to track down domestic terrorists when a car laden with firearms and explosives was searched in a southern Athens neighborhood. Anti-terrorist squad officers had the silver Opel found in Palaio Faliro under surveillance for around two weeks following a tip-off.

Four rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and a launcher were found during the search, which was carried out by specially trained officers and sniffer dogs. Officers also discovered four hand grenades, three AK-47 assault rifles, seven cartridges for the Kalashnikovs, a box of bullets, gloves and hoods.

The Greek police have been on alert since November 17 terrorist Savvas Xeros disappeared last month while on a prison furlough. Xeros has since issued a video in which he declared he would return to terrorist action. Police suspect that he may have teamed up with Nikos Maziotis and Paula Roupa, members of another urban guerrilla group, Revolutionary Struggle. Officers did not say on Saturday whether they could link the car in Palaio Faliro to these three or any other terrorist suspects.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Austrian Actor Maximilian Schell Dies, Aged 83

One of Austria’s most famous actors, Maximilian Schell, has passed away. Schell became the first German-language actor to win an Oscar in the post-war era for his role in the 1961 film “Judgment at Nuremberg.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Boulder Smashes Through Italian Farm

Dramatic pictures have been released showing the destruction wrought by a huge boulder that smashed through a farm in Northern Italy after being dislodged by a landslide. The massive rock narrowly missed a farm house, destroyed a barn, and stopped in a vineyard at the property in Ronchi di Termeno. A second giant boulder detached during the landslide stopped behind the house. The family living there was unharmed in the incident, on 21 January.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

EU Has Secret Plan for Police to ‘Remote Stop’ Cars

The EU is developing a secret plan to give the police the power to control cars by switching the engine off remotely

The European Union is secretly developing a “remote stopping” device to be fitted to all cars that would allow the police to disable vehicles at the flick of a switch from a control room.

Confidential documents from a committee of senior EU police officers, who hold their meetings in secret, have set out a plan entitled “remote stopping vehicles” as part of wider law enforcement surveillance and tracking measures.

“The project will work on a technological solution that can be a ‘build in standard’ for all cars that enter the European market,” said a restricted document.

The devices, which could be in all new cars by the end of the decade, would be activated by a police officer working from a computer screen in a central headquarters.

Once enabled the engine of a car used by a fugitive or other suspect would stop, the supply of fuel would be cut and the ignition switched off.

The technology, scheduled for a six-year development timetable, is aimed at bringing dangerous high-speed car chases to an end and to make redundant current stopping techniques such as spiking a vehicle’s tyres.

The proposal was outlined as part of the “key objectives” for the “European Network of Law Enforcement Technologies”, or Enlets, a secretive off-shoot of a European “working party” aimed at enhancing police cooperation across the EU.

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]
 

France: Hollande Refuses to Answer ‘Affair’ Question

French President Francois Hollande on Friday refused to answer a British journalist’s question about whether his private life had made “an international joke” out of France.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

French Teen Jihadists Charged

Two French high school students who ran away to fight in Syria were charged by a special anti-terrorism judge Friday, a rare step for suspects who are minors.

The two Muslim boys, aged 15 and 16, were charged with criminal conspiracy in connection with a terrorist enterprise and placed under court supervision, which will include educational measures, said a judicial source.

The pair, who are from the southern city of Toulouse, flew to Turkey on January 6th and crossed the border into Syria, apparently planning to join the thousands of foreigners fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

According to Interior Minister Manuel Valls, as many as 700 French nationals may have joined the fighting in Syria, with perhaps one-fifth of them converts to Islam. About a dozen are believed to be minors.

French officials fear these radicals could be a ticking time bomb whose eventual return to France will pose a major security challenge in the future.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Is There a Future for French Jews? An Interview With Michel Gurfinkiel

by Jerry Gordon

In September 2006 I attended a lecture at the Davenport residential college at Yale University given by Michel Gurfinkiel. Gurfinkiel is the founder of the conservative Jean Jacques Rousseau Institute in Paris. He is a member of the board of Crif-Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France, the central French Jewish representative council. Gurfinkiel is a much sought after commentator on French, American, and European Jewish communities, as well as, Israel issues of the day. He is also a Fellow of the Middle East Forum. Articles by him have appeared in Commentary Magazine, Mosaic, The, The Wall Street Journal, PJ Media, The New York Sun, Politique Internationale, Le Figaro, The Times, The Middle East Quarterly and The Jerusalem Post among others…

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Postal Worker Wins Damages After 3 Holdups in a Year

Almost 90,000 euros awarded for psychological damage

(ANSA) — Ravenna, January 29 — A postal employee’s appeal for damages due to psychological suffering after her office suffered three robberies in a single year was upheld Wednesday. The robberies, which occurred between 2002 and 2003, at a post office in the northern town of Ponte Nuovo, led to psychological suffering on the part of the woman, who requested early retirement as a result.

Initially awarded less than 4,000 euros in a lawsuit she filed against the postal services for lack of security, the 58-year-old woman filed an appeal three years ago. A judge has now ruled in the woman’s favor and sentenced the company to pay 87,000 euros in damages, report local media. The robbers used verbal threats, firearms, and knives to the woman’s throat. The only anti-robbery measures used by the post office were an alarm button under the counter and the safe.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Grey Squirrels Captured, Neutered to Preserve Red Squirrels

Compromise plan after activists protest EU extermination order

(ANSA) — Genoa, January 28 — Park authorities in the seaside resort of Nervi in the northwestern Liguria region on Tuesday began capturing Eastern grey squirrels before neutering them in an effort to protect the indigenous red squirrel, local sources said.

The eastern grey tree rodent, which was introduced from North America, has been deemed a threat to its red Eurasian cousin, according to the European Union (EU).

A committee from the 1979 EU Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, also known as the Bern Convention, has repeatedly asked Italy to eradicate the grey squirrel, issuing recommendations in 1999, 2005, and 2007.

Local and regional authorities came up with the compromise solution of capturing and neutering the grey squirrels after animal rights organizations and local institutions resisted the call to exterminate them. A former fishing village, Nervi possesses the largest seaside urban park in the Mediterranean. Made up of land legacies from three former estates and called the Parks of Nervi, it stretches over 22 acres (nine hectares) filled with exotic and tropical plants, typical Mediterranean flora, and many kinds of wildlife.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Napolitano Blasts India’s Handling of Marines Case

President accuses New Delhi of being ‘contradictory’

(see related stories) (ANSA) — Rome, January 31 — Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Friday blasted India’s handling of the case of two Italian marines accused of killing two Indian fisherman during an anti-piracy mission in 2012. He said in statement that the case had been managed in “contradictory, disconcerting ways by the Indian authorities”. The head of State added that he will support efforts by Premier Enrico Letta to raise awareness among Italy’s international partners about the marines, who could face the death penalty.

“The head of State will continue and intensify the contacts established on this issue with the heads of State of friendly nations, having already encountered attention and understanding about this painful case from them,” added the statement.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: 58% of Italians Favour Renzi Replacing Letta, Says Poll

About 36% don’t want new PD secretary to take premier’s job

(ANSA) — Rome, January 31 — More than half of Italians would like to see the Democratic Party (PD) government of Premier Enrico Letta replaced by the party’s new secretary Matteo Renzi, according to the results of a public opinion poll released Friday.

Fully 58% would like to see Renzi and his supporters replace Letta, according to the survey by pollsters Ixe for RAI 3 television’s program Agora.

About 36% said they were opposed to the idea of Renzi replacing Letta.

The survey was conducted on 1,000 people and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1%.

Letta was chosen to head a coalition government last April, amid the worst recession Italy has seen since the period after the Second World War.

But his budget measures have been criticized, especially as many had hoped for cuts to labour-related taxes that did not transpire.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Snowshoe Runners Hunt World Title in Sweden

Runners from twelve different countries have gathered in Rättvik in central Sweden this Saturday to compete in the World Snowshoe Championship. This is the first time that Sweden hosts the championship, news agency TT reports.

Snowshoes are footwear where a flat device is attached to the sole of a boot to distribute the weight of the person over a larger area causing the person to float on top of snow instead of sinking into it. In the past snowshoes were vital to get around in areas of deep and frequent snowfall, but are now mostly used for recreation.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Few Convicted for Thefts Against the Elderly

Every year, thousands of Sweden’s elderly get robbed by the very people hired to take care of them, newspaper Dagens Nyheter reports. But out of all the thefts that occur in the victim’s home, only 4 percent lead to a conviction.

Since 2003 the number of reported thefts taking place in seniors and disabled people’s homes has increased by 44 percent, the newspaper reports.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: European Court Blocks Expulsion of African Teen

The European Court of Human Rights has stepped in to block a deportation by the Swedish Migration Board of an 18-year-old Ethiopian girl, who has resided in Sweden for the past six years, in a move that has been hailed by her lawyer.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Boy, Six, Suspended From School for Four Days After He Was Found to Have a Packet of Mini Cheddars in His Lunchbox

Riley Pearson was banned from Colnbrook C of E Primary School near Slough for four days after teachers found his packed lunch contravened their new healthy eating policy.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: County’s [Kent] First Domed Mosque Set to Open

THERE are dozens of mosques well established in the county, but for the first time the traditional dome and minaret familiar with the building will pierce the county’s skyline. Set among the terraced houses of Richmond Road in Gillingham, the Nasir mosque will officially open next month, becoming the first purpose built facility in the county…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: English is No Longer the First Language for the Majority Pupils at One in Nine Schools

There are a total of 1,755 primary and secondary schools in England where more than half of the pupils speak another language.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Illegal Mosque Finally Shut Down

NEIGHBOURS are delighted an illegal mosque has been closed down after a four-year battle. Workmen have finally begun converting the Jaafriya Islamic Welfare Centre, which saw up 150 people cram into an old bungalow in Fairfax Drive, back into a residential property after a legal wrangle…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Judges to Get Advice on Veils After Woman Pleads Guilty

New advice could soon be issued to judges after the end of the trial of a Muslim woman who was allowed to wear a full-face veil in court. Rebekah Dawson, 22, of Hackney, admitted witness intimidation minutes after a jury at Blackfriars crown court had been unable to reach a verdict. A judicial spokeswoman said: “The Lord Chief Justice has previously indicated his intention to consult on updated guidance to the judiciary [on clothing in court].”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Michael Mosley Infests Himself With Tapeworms

BBC TV presenter Dr Michael Mosley has infected himself with a number of parasites in an effort to understand how they affect the human body. He swallowed tapeworm cysts, stuck a leech on his arm, and tried to infest himself with lice, in a new BBC Four documentary programme. The worms lived in his body for several weeks — and he felt no ill effects.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Magistrate Attacks Soft Touch Justice System That Allows Criminals to Walk Free With a ‘Slapped Wrist’ After Burglars Ransack His Home

Abid Sharif, 36, returned home from picking up a pair of airline tickets to find his mid-terrace had been broken into, trashed and looted of valuables including his wedding ring.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Revealed: The One in Nine Schools Where English is Not First Language

Official figures reveal that English is no longer the first language for the majority pupils at one in nine schools

English is no longer the first language for the majority of pupils in more than one in nine schools, new figures have revealed.

Last year the majority of children in 1,755 primary and secondary schools spoke another language at home following a sharp increase in the number of pupils with foreign born parents…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Stratford Street Pastors Going From Strength to Strength

JUST over two years since they first hit the town and Stratford Street Pastors are busier than ever.

Launched back in November 2011, the 20-strong group of Christian volunteers give up their time on Fridays to patrol the streets from 8.30pm to 3am with the aim of caring, listening and helping those they meet. Famous for their flip flops and lollipops, they have become an integral part of the town’s night time economy…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Wrong About the Muslim World

By Paul Austin Murphy

Islam is nearly always in conflict with democracy, both historically and today. There is one single contemporary phenomenon which exemplifies this perfectly. Bizarrely, it’s occurring in the West, not in the Muslim world.

In the UK, Muslims — from the BBC’s Mo Ansar, Tell MAMA, the MCB, and the Muslim Parliament — have carried out systematic and sometimes effective campaigns to bring about what amounts to sharia blasphemy law in the country. (Indeed a Liberty GB radio host is due to appear in court in March for the “hate crime” of criticizing Islam and Muslims.) These campaigns have focused on everything from books (Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses), to cartoons (the Danish cartoons), to pages on Facebook and even Twitter posts…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UKIP’s Rise Haunts Left-Wingers as Well as Conservatives

The rise of the Tea Party-esque UK Independence Party (UKIP) in the United Kingdom has often been attributed to a disillusionment within conservative circles. But recent evidence has highlighted that the political left, and the Labour Party in particular, may have just as much to fear as the Conservative Party does by way of disillusionment and defections.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Van Rompuy: ‘Future of Ukraine Belongs With EU’

EU President Van Rompuy all-but offered Ukraine a promise of future of accession in Munich Saturday, saying: “The future of Ukraine belongs with the European Union.” He added: “Some people think Europeans are naive … Our biggest carrot is a way of life. Our biggest stick: a closed door.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Don’t be Fooled by Tunisia’s Constitution

Tunisia’s constituent assembly this week approved a new constitution. It promises an independent judiciary, the separation of religion and state, equality between men and women and the protection of religious belief…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt: Electronic Gates for Unveiling Explosive Devices in Metro

Chairman of the Egyptian Company for Metro Management and Processing Abdullah Fawzy said that three electronic gates would be installed in the martyrs metro station, whose cost hits about EGP 165.000. Such a step targets preventing the access of explosive devices and weapons to the locomotives of metro. Fawzy also added that these gates would be installed in all other stations later.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

‘2014 is Going to be a Very Bad Year for Hamas’

As the Middle East descends further into violence and turmoil, the Palestinian Hamas group finds itself facing a slew of domestic and external problems. Those constraints may force it to change its role in the region.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Denmark’s Largest Bank Divests From Israel’s Hapoalim Over Settlement Construction

Denmark’s largest bank decided to pull its investments in Bank Hapoalim because of its involvement in the funding of settlement construction.

Danske Bank added Bank Hapoalim to its list of companies in which the company cannot invest due to its corporate accountability rules.

In an announcement posted on its website, the bank stated that Bank Hapoalim was acting against the rules of international humanitarian law.

Israeli website Walla reported on the Danish bank’s decision earlier on Saturday…

[Just forget about the threatened ethnic cleansing and holocaust — its only those ‘Joos’ so whose worried]

           — Hat tip: MC [Return to headlines]
 

EU Repeats Offer of ‘Unprecedented’ Aid for Israel and Palestine

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton in Munich on Saturday repeated that Europe will give an “unprecedented package” of aid to Israel and Palestine if they reach a peace accord. She spoke after a meeting of the Middle East “quartet” of leading powers trying to support Israeli-Palestinian talks.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Hamas, Islamic Jihad Gunmen Now in West Bank

by Khaled Abu Toameh

For the first time since 2007, Hamas and Islamic Jihad militiamen this week made a public appearance in the West Bank, raising fears that the two radical groups continue to maintain a military presence in areas controlled by Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority.

Palestinians were surprised to see Hamas and Islamic Jihad militiamen in broad daylight in an area controlled by the Palestinian Authority.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Israeli Soldiers Wound 26 Palestinians in Demonstration

RAMALLAH/GAZA, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) — Israeli soldiers opened fire Friday and wounded 20 Palestinians in the West Bank and 6 in the Gaza Strip during clashes with Palestinian protestors, medical officials and witnesses said. Witnesses said that Israeli soldiers dispersed dozens of Palestinians with live ammunition and rubber bullets, who demonstrated outside al-Jalazoon refugee camp near Ramallah…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Oxfam is Wrong on Israel

by Michael Curtis

On January 29, 2014 the 29-year-old actress Scarlett Johansson announced she was quitting her role as an ambassador of Oxfam, the international charity organization, whose mission is to help alleviate poverty, because of “fundamental differences” between them…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

16 Soldiers Killed in Checkpoint Attack in SE Yemen

ADEN, Yemen, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) — Gunmen killed at least 16 soldiers in an attack on a military checkpoint in Yemen’s southeastern province of Hadramout on Friday afternoon, a government official told Xinhua. “The ambush took place on the road of Shibam city in Hadramout province. Army troops at the checkpoint came under heavy gunfire, which left 16 to 18 soldiers dead,” the local government source said on condition of anonymity…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Austrian Rape Victim Was Arrested for Having Sex Outside of Marriage in UAE When She Reported the Crime… and Told She Had to Marry Her Attacker

An Austrian woman who was raped in Dubai has been arrested for having extra martial sex and was told by police she could only avoid jail if she married her attacker.

The 29-year-old student from Vienna was facing a jail sentence having been accused of having sex outside of marriage and drinking alcohol, both of which are illegal in the United Arab Emirate capital.

It was only after the Austrian Foreign Ministry intervened, that she was able to leave the country and return home.

The unnamed woman, who is understood to be Muslim, had been to a party at a hotel where the rules on alcohol are often lax, according to Austrian officials. She said the attack happened in an underground car park after a Yemeni man in Dubai approached her. When she reported it to police, she was arrested and told she could only escape being charged if she agreed to marry the man she said had attacked her.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Jihadists Flock to Turkish Camps to Plan New Atrocities in Europe

Al-Qaeda groups operating in Syria have set up three bases in southern Turkey to train foreign fighters for terrorist attacks on the US and Europe, according to intelligence sources.

Details of the three camps were disclosed yesterday by Major-General Aviv Kochavi, the head of Israel’s military intelligence — confirming fears expressed by his counterparts in Britain and the US. James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence in the US, said that a Syrian affiliate of al-Qaeda, Jabhat al-Nusra, had “aspirations” to carry out attacks on American soil…

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]
 

Officials: Sunni-Shiite Tribal Battle Over Land Kills 65 in Northwest Yemen

Security and tribal officials say a battle between Shiite and Sunni tribesman over land in northwest Yemen has left more than 65 dead. The officials say the battle, which raged all Friday and into Saturday, was between Shiite Hawthis and members of the Sunni Hashid tribe, and was over mutually desired territory in the province of Amran, north of Sanaa.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Several Dead After Car Bomb Explodes in Shiite Stronghold of Lebanon

A car bombing has left several people dead in northeastern Lebanon. The attack is thought to have been in retaliation against the Shiite militant group Hezbollah for its involvement in fighting in neighboring Syria.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Skousen: Why North Korea is the Trigger

Joel Skousen breaks down why Iran is being allowed to continue on its nuclear quest. Why North Korea is being allowed to maintain its present totalitarian regime and what will happen when all of these triggers start to be activated. Skousen predicts an all out thermal nuclear war and the human remnant which will rebuild thereafter. He even discusses Safer Places from his book. Another great interview with Joel Skousen.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Syria Becoming Magnet for Young French Muslims

The bloody three-year-old conflict in Syria has drawn thousands of Muslims to join the ranks of battalions trying to topple the regime or other fighting groups looking to conquer the region in the name of Islam.

French authorities say that more than 600 French have gone to Syria, are plotting to go or have returned, and more than 20 French have been killed in fighting. As of mid-January, a dozen French adolescents were in Syria or in transit, according to authorities.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UN’s Ban Calls for Earnest Syrian Talks

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has urged Syria’s war-divided opposition and government to quickly and earnestly resume talks in Gevena, adding that he had asked the US and Russia to “use their influence.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Women Across the Globe Celebrate World Hijab Day

Today, February 1st, women from all regions of the world are celebrating World Hijab Day. Awareness events are being held at schools, universities, and places of worship where women are coming together, wearing the hijab (headscarf), and spreading understanding of what the hijab really represents. Muslim women who have not taken the step to wear the hijab and even non-Muslim women will wear the hijab for just one day, in solidarity with their sisters across the world who do wear the hijab…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Russian FM Threatens Euronews on Ukraine Reporting

Russian FM Lavrov in Munich Friday criticised the Euronews broadcaster for running a headline, based on leaks, which said a Ukrainian activist was “tortured by Russians.” He noted: “I would be very cautious about leakages, even from such a respected channel as Euronews, where Russia has 17% of the shares.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

U.S. Embassy Likely Paying Ukraine Rioters

This is according to the subject article. Of course, nobody is going to admit that those who have been rioting for the past 2 months in Kiev are being paid to do so, but consider this.

People need to eat. People need clothing. People need medical care and other necessities of life. Most take measures to earn money to buy these things. Others have them given to them. There is no way thousands of people can live on the streets for months without someone paying for it.

Knowing these basic facts lends credence to the contention that U.S., European and other interests are funding this.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Ukraine Crisis Creates Bad Will Between NATO and Russia

The Ukraine crisis is creating new mistrust between Nato and Russia. Nato head Anders Fogh Rasmussen and US secretary of state John Kerry criticised Russia’s conduct in Ukraine and in the former Soviet region in general at a security congress in Munich on Saturday (1 February).

Rasmussen linked Russia’s recent deployment of missiles and fighter jets in Belarus and Kaliningrad to its attempt to draw a line around its former domain. “I become concerned when I hear of the deployment of offensive, not defensive, but offensive weapons systems … None of us wants a return to the dividing lines and the hostility of the past,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ukraine Divides World Powers at Munich Security Conference

At the Munich Security Conference, US Secretary of State John Kerry has expressed the solidarity of the US and EU with the people of Ukraine. His Russian counterpart has blasted the West for getting too involved.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Afghan Presidential Election Campaign to Begin, As Country Weighs Successors to Karzai

The posters are printed. The rallies are organized. A televised debate is planned. Campaign season for Afghanistan’s presidential election kicks off Sunday, and the stakes are high for the 11 candidates vying to succeed President Hamid Karzai and oversee the final chapter in a NATO-led combat mission.

The April 5 vote is a pivotal moment in Afghanistan’s history, its outcome seen as make-or-break for the country’s future and key to the level of foreign involvement here after nearly 13 years of war. Billions of dollars in funds are tied to the government’s holding a free and fair election — the first independent vote organized by Afghanistan without direct foreign assistance.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Afghan Troops Need More Training, Critical International Forces Remain After 2014

NATO’s top leaders say Afghan security forces need further training and that makes it critical for a new agreement to be signed that allows international forces to remain after the end of this year.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has so far refused to sign the security agreement, saying he wants to wait until after the country elects his successor in April. If the agreement isn’t signed, all international troops could leave by the end of 2014.

U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, NATO’s military commander, and the alliance’s civilian leader Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Saturday that Afghan forces needed continued training.

Fogh Rasmussen also says that without foreign troops, international funding could dry up — making it difficult for Afghanistan to pay its forces.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Campaign Aides of Afghan Presidential Candidate Shot Dead

Two aides to Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah have been assassinated. Their deaths come on the eve of the beginning of two months of election campaigning.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Indian Tigers Make Successful Comeback

The number of India’s once endangered tigers has increased significantly in the last two years thanks to conservation efforts. The relocation of the threatened animals to new habitats is proving to be beneficial.

Experts, however, believe that despite the increase in the tiger population, there is no room for complacency as the poachers are also looking for innovative ways to hunt down the animals.

China has become the biggest marketplace for tiger parts in the world. Driven by strong demand from traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, the body parts fetch high prices on the black market. While tiger bones sell for about 1,000 US dollars per 100 grammes, prices for tiger skins can range from 11,000 to 21,000 US dollars.

In light on this development, Belinda Wright of the Wildlife Protection Society, calls for swift action: “India has not stood up to China on this issue. This needs to be discussed at all international forums.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Indonesia Volcano Erupts Again Killing at Least 14

A rumbling volcano in western Indonesia on Saturday unleashed fresh clouds of searing gas that killed at least 14 people and injured three, only a day after villagers who fled earlier eruptions returned home thinking it was safe, officials said.

The dead included four high school students on a school trip to see the volcano and a local journalist, said National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho. He said that the government on Friday allowed nearly 14,000 people living outside a three-mile danger zone to return home after the volcano’s activity decreased.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Malaysian Fury After Slap Parents Are Held

Malaysia’s prime minister has offered help to a Muslim couple detained in Sweden for hitting their son, in a case that has provoked an outcry in the Southeast Asian country.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sumatran Volcano Spews Fatal Ash Clouds

Indonesia’s reawakened volcano Sinabung has spewed lava and hot gas, killing at least 11 people, including four pupils who were reportedly on a sightseeing visit. Villagers had returned home during an apparent lull.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Thailand Election: Several Hurt in Bangkok Gun Battle

At least six people have suffered gunshot wounds in the Thai capital, Bangkok, amid anti-government clashes ahead of Sunday’s election. The violence erupted during a stand-off between supporters and opponents of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

The shots were fired as demonstrators blockaded a building where ballot papers are being stored, in an attempt to prevent their distribution. Protesters want the government replaced by an unelected “people’s council”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Thailand: Gunfire in Bangkok Ahead of Election

One of Bangkok’s major intersections has been sprayed with gunfire, leaving at least six people wounded, on the eve of Thailand’s disputed election. Voting is expected to proceed in most of the country.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Quest of India’s ‘Lost Jewish Tribe’

The indigenous Bnei Menashe people, who claim descent from one of the “lost tribes of Israel,” live in the restive northeastern Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram. Many of them say they want to immigrate to Israel.

India’s Bnei Menashe community is comprised of the Mizo, Kuki and Chin peoples, who speak Tibeto-Burman languages. Their ancestors are believed to have settled in northeast India around 6,000 years ago. They converted to Christianity in the 19th century.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

US Troops Pulling Out of Afghanistan

The withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan is gathering momentum and by the end of 2014 all combat troops are scheduled to have left. It is proving to be a hugely challenging operation with US troops alone taking with them 218,000 items of military equipment…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

12 Wounded in Bomb Attack in S. Philippines

COTABATO CITY, Philippines, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) — At least 12 people were wounded on Saturday morning after members of breakaway Muslim rebels detonated a homemade bomb they planted along the road in the southern Philippine province of Maguindanao, a senior military official said…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

A New Cultural Revolution: China’s War Against Hong Kong Publications

The publisher Wentian Yao, who was about to release a book on Xi Jinping, was arrested on phoney charges. For several years, Beijing has done everything it can to destroy books, stop publications, and censor newspapers and magazines in Hong Kong. Although the mainland appears to be winning this “war without explosion or smoke”, its victory is but a veil hiding its real problems.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews) — Mainland authorities have arrested Hong Kong publisher Yao Wentian, of Morning Bell Press, apparently to stop him from publishing the book, Chinese Godfather: Xi Jinping. All journalists, editors and publishers in Hong Kong have got the message: there are certain words that the mainland authorities dislike, and if you use them, you too may suffer the consequences.

However, suppose we all “behave ourselves”, self-censoring to print only what we think the mainland authorities approve of. Would that help appease them? Would they then allow Hong Kong publications entry to the mainland, with access to that huge market?

The answer is definitely “No!”

One of the reasons is that the Hong Kong media (labelled “overseas media”) has become one of the usual suspects, to be taken out and blamed when needed. The Chinese authorities have never officially acknowledged that public demonstrations have roots in internal political, economic and social affairs or that they are often the direct outcomes of government policies. From self-immolation protests by Tibetans to demonstrations against the building of a waste incineration plant in Guangdong, the “overseas media” have consistently been accused of playing an “instigating” role. An easy target; not only convenient, but necessary.

In fact, the ruling Chinese Communist Party has a long track record of fighting imaginary enemies. During the 27 years of Mao Zedong’s reign, the party made seeking out and destroying the “bourgeois class” top priority in the Leninist state, often from within its own ranks.

Old habits die hard. The institutional impulse to seek out and destroy enemies persists to this day. Last year, the party’s propaganda ministry decided to take on Hong Kong publications as one of its top enemies.

In March, it issued a nationwide “special action” to inspect and blockade “Hong Kong’s politically harmful publications”. One of its mobilisation directives says: “Hong Kong has become the major source for politically harmful publications; a large number of reactionary media outlets established by hostile organisations and individuals are gathered there, many supported or financed by the United States and [other] Western countries…”

At least 12 lists of publications were issued last year alone to the ‘Offices of Anti-Pornography and Anti-Illegal Publications’ at local levels. According to a report by the office in Sanya city, Hainan province, the task was given the highest priority throughout 2013. The result: the office inspected and confiscated 689 politically harmful books, dealt with one case involving pornography and two cases involving piracy. (Never mind the rampant piracy in mainland China!)

Moreover, all mainland tour groups to Hong Kong are warned of potential punishment for anyone who purchases Hong Kong publications. Books are confiscated in large quantities by customs at all ports of entry into China. Nevertheless, the actual list of banned titles is deemed a state secret. Even when one well-known scholar went to court to sue customs, authorities still refused to show him the list.

While travellers are kept completely in the dark about what is permissible, customs officers themselves are not familiar with the official list, either. Instead, they act on a vague assumption that overseas books on Chinese contemporary history, which feature humanist values or are on religious topics, are all to be blocked. These have included Time magazine, The Cambridge History of China and even Noam Chomsky.

Book sales in Hong Kong plummeted last year. Some distributors estimate a 20 per cent drop compared with 2012.

Indeed, mainland authorities proudly proclaim that the crackdown on overseas publications is “a war without explosion or smoke” (in their own words). In this unilateral war, the army is the Communist Party’s vast bureaucracy; the objective is pointlessness; the victim is any interest in humanity’s most enduring ideas.

For an individual caught in the crossfire, however, it’s clear now that the experience can be brutal.

In battle, soldiers must sometimes improvise to achieve the seemingly impossible. In the case of Morning Bell Press, the seemingly impossible was to stop a Hong Kong publication before it had even been printed.

The improvised tactics included exploiting a decades-long friendship: when Yao’s friend asked him to take some industrial paint from Hong Kong to Shenzhen, he did as he was asked. At customs, on October 27 last year, Yao was arrested for “smuggling”.

Yao is 73 and suffers from chronic heart problems. His wife, now 74, must endure his absence while facing a mission impossible: getting him released. From this end, it is very difficult to understand how so much suffering can be justified by a book that has not yet even materialised.

No one expects the mainland’s war on Hong Kong publications to stop. The truth is that there is nothing the Hong Kong media can do to stop it. Only the Chinese Communist Party can do this, by changing its general attitude towards a free press.

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong media must uphold the highest professional standards, stick to the truth, and be faithful to our beliefs.

*Bao Pu is a publisher at New Century Press Hong Kong

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

China: Lunar New Year Ushers in Greatest Human Migration

Every winter, hundreds of millions of Chinese return home for the Spring Festival, the Chinese celebration of the Lunar New Year (which this year lands on January 31).

The mass migration, known in Chinese as chunyun, is on track to reach an unprecedented scale in 2014. According to Lian Weiliang, the deputy head of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, an estimated 3.62 billion trips will be made during the 40-day period surrounding the holiday, an increase of roughly 5.8 percent, or 200 million trips, compared with 2013.

Simply put, it is the largest annual human migration in the world.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China: Slaughterhouse Said to Process “Horrifying” Number of Whale Sharks Annually

A recently released report by a nongovernmental organization found that about 600 whale sharks and basking sharks are processed by a factory in China every year.

Whale sharks are being slaughtered: That’s the shocking news from a report issued by WildLifeRisk, a nongovernmental organization. A three-year investigation provides evidence that a factory in southeastern China is cutting up about 600 of the 21-ton (19-tonne) fish a year.

It’s illegal—whale sharks are a protected species under Chinese and international law. But it’s easy to understand why: A single carcass is worth about $30,000. The shark meat is sold for food, the fins are sold to restaurants for shark fin soup, the skin is sold to manufacturers for bags, and the oil is sold to companies that make fish oil supplements.

The factory is also reportedly killing and processing other species under international protection, including basking sharks and great white sharks.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Threatwatch: Mother Virus of China’s Deadly Bird Flu

Threatwatch is your early warning system for global dangers, from nuclear peril to deadly viral outbreaks. Debora MacKenzie highlights the threats to civilisation — and suggests solutions

Exactly 10 years after H5N1 bird flu exploded across south-east Asia, the virus is still widespread, and has been joined by new killer types of bird flu. Human cases of H7N9 flu are surging in south-east China, and a new type of bird flu, H10N8, has claimed its second human victim, in the same region.

Now it seems that all of these viruses stem from a single, mother virus. Targeting it might stop it from spawning new, deadly viruses in the future. Few people have heard of H9N2, but this virus was crucial in giving rise to the three dangerous bird flu viruses that have emerged so far in China — H5N1, H7N9 and H10N8.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Al-Qaeda Terrorist Threat to Australia

Al-Qaeda-linked groups that are enticing dozens of Australians to join the bloody conflict in Syria have begun setting up camps to train foreign fighters to launch terrorist attacks when they return home.

The alarming change in tactics, revealed by US intelligence chief James Clapper, comes as Australia’s counter-terrorism ambassador Bill Fisher told Fairfax Media the threat of an attack on a bar, mall or another ‘‘soft’’ target frequented by Westerners had ‘‘worsened’’ in recent times…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Australians Try Muslims’ Hijab

SYDNEY — As thousands of Muslim women around the world plan to don hijab on Saturday, February 1, Australian Muslims are holding a celebration in Sydney, encouraging all women to try on a hijab for a day…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Bunbury Man Arrested After Alleged Priest Assault

A 34-year-old man has been charged and refused bail after an attack on a Catholic priest in Bunbury last year. The man broke into a residence at the rear of St Patrick’s Cathedral on Brend Tor Street about 9.45pm on November 15, said police spokeswoman Susan Usher. A 43-year-old priest was at the property at the time when he was allegedly attacked.

After an extensive investigation, police arrested the alleged attacker on Thursday night and was charged with a string of offences, including aggravated burglary, aggravated assault and stealing…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Could There be a One Punch Law Re-Think in Wa?

As New South Wales begins the process of introducing similar legislation, some in Western Australia are questioning the effectiveness of “one punch” laws. On Thursday, the NSW Parliament introduced legislation targeting one punch attacks. WA introduced laws dealing with the matter in 2008, creating a new offence known as unlawful assault causing death…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Furor Over Great Barrier Reef Port Expansion

Environmentalists and tourism operators in Australia have vowed legal action to block a supervisory agency’s approval of a plan to deepen a coal export port and dump waste near the Great Barrier Reef.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Radicalised Muslims Bring the Jihad Back Home

A reinvigorated radical Islam is flourishing as people — including Australians — travel to Syria to fight against the al-Assad regime.

It was barely a year ago that cinema-goers around the world were flocking to see Zero Dark Thirty, the Oscar-winning dramatisation of the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and his death at the hands of a team of US Navy SEALS. As the movie pulled in the plaudits, US President Barack Obama proclaimed that al-Qaeda was on the ‘‘path to defeat’’, while Australia’s leader Julia Gillard declared the ‘‘9/11 decade is ending’’…

[JP note: Al-Qaeda concentrations appear like angry plague outbreaks on the map which accompanies this article.]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Virtual Cash Moves Into the Real World

A NSW anaesthetist is offering private patients the option of paying their medical accounts in the virtual currencies bitcoin and litecoin, in what is believed to be a national first.

Macarthur area specialist Michael Ayling tells The Australian that being able to transact in online currencies is a matter of “freedom of choice” and others should take his lead.

“It’s time that more traditional service-based sectors started offering digital currencies as a payment option,” Ayling says.

“It’s an extension of freedom of choice and offers maximum flexibility to conduct commerce unobstructed by high bank and other middleman fees.

“Digital cash is now where the internet in general was in the early 1990s. Once it truly takes off, people will wonder what all the fuss was about.”

           — Hat tip: Nilk [Return to headlines]
 

Foreign Retailers in Zimbabwe Decry President Mugabe’s Indigenisation Policy

Although the deadline set by Zimbabwe’s government for foreign retailers to close their shops has expired, they remain open for business. But it seems they are not yet off the hook.

Foreign shop-owners, who had been given until January 1 of this year to close their businesses, are still operating in Zimbabwe. But that does not necessarily mean that these retailers, most of whom are Chinese and Nigerian nationals, no longer have anything to fear from the government’s indigenisation policy.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Nigeria: The Meaning and Significance of World Hijab Day

A lot of people have wondered what it means to mark a World Hijab Day(WHiD). What is it for, what do Muslim women hope to achieve by observing it? Well, before I could come up with a convincing defense of it, our brother, Disu Kamor, the indefatigable executive director of Muslim Public Affairs Centre, rose to the occasion with this well-researched piece on the event, which is due on Saturday next week. Please read on…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

South Sudan Rebel Leader Says Government Derailing Peace Talks

South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar accused the government on Friday of ethnic cleansing and trying to sabotage peace talks, in his first face-to-face interview since fighting erupted late last year in Africa’s youngest nation.

Dressed in dark green military fatigues and speaking to Reuters in his bush hideout, Machar branded President Salva Kiir a discredited leader who had lost the people’s trust and should resign.

Thousands have been killed and more than half a million have fled their homes since fighting erupted in the capital Juba in mid-December and spread quickly across the oil-producing nation, often following ethnic lines.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Tanzania: Two French Nationals Found Dead in Isles

Zanzibar — Two French nationals who had been missing in Zanzibar for more than two months may have been found dead and their body parts retrieved from a water reservoir in their house at Matemwe coastal village, north of Unguja Island…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Australia vs. Indonesia Approaches a Flashpoint

It’s not just China and Japan bumping heads over sea borders in Asia, there are signs that a showdown is looming between two countries with a normally friendly relationship: Indonesia and Australia.

For major powers outside the region, such as the U.S., there is nothing to be gained by becoming involved in a situation which has its roots in the cross-border movement of asylum seekers from troubled parts of the Middle East and Africa, or illegal immigrants as they have also been called…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

How the GOP Lost Middle America

Pat Buchanan explains impact of Republican Party ‘selling its soul to the multinationals’

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.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Lifeboat Reportedly Used by Australia to Return Asylum Seekers Found in Java

Tony Abbott refuses to confirm the vessel discovered by Indonesian authorities was one of 11 bought by his government

A lifeboat reportedly being used by Australian authorities to send asylum seekers back to Indonesia has washed up on the coast of Java. The sophisticated orange vessel was discovered by Indonesian authorities on the west coast of Java and was believed to be carrying about 60 asylum seekers, according to a report from News Limited. The report said the asylum seekers dispersed into the Indonesian jungle when the vessel came ashore…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

McCain Happy That House is Pushing Amnesty

Sen. John McCain, one of the leading pro-amnesty legislators in Washington, has offered praise to the Republicans in the House of Representatives. Why? Because, like the Senate, GOP Republicans are now beginning to cave in as well. McCain welcomes the GOP plan to grant legal status to illegal aliens and thanked House Speaker John Boehner for ‘‘getting control’’ of his colleagues.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Says He’s Open to Taking Executive Action on Immigration

President Obama on Friday said he’s open to taking executive action on immigration.

The president said if Congress can’t pass reform legislation, he would explore all “available options” to implement a “smart system” unilaterally.

“I’m going to look at all available options,” Obama said during a virtual “road trip” chat hosted by Google.

Obama said he’s “modestly optimistic” that Congress would pass immigration legislation this year and called the immigration principles unveiled by House Republican leaders this week a step in the right direction.

“There are still some differences,” Obama said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Hollywood Female Stars Paid Way Less After 34

As female movie stars get older, their compensation dips rapidly on average, unlike their male counterparts, a study says. Female movie stars make the most money per film when they are 34 years old, but their earnings quickly decline after that age, according to a study published Wednesday in the Journal of Management Inquiry.

Male movie stars peak in their earnings per film at age 51, and their compensation steadily increases over time. While in their 20s, female actors’ compensation outpaces their male counterparts.

Researchers examined the compensation of 265 film actors and actresses who have starred in movies from 1968 to 2008.

“This is a microcosm of what happens in society,” said Timothy Judge, a management professor at the University of Notre Dame and one of the study’s lead authors, in an interview with USA TODAY Network. “We are such an appearance-based society,” he said, offering one theory as to why this disparity exists.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Scotland: Same-Sex Row Adoption Agency to Keep Charity Status

A Glasgow-based adoption Agency run by the Catholic Church in Scotland has won an appeal against a decision to strip it of its charitable status. St Margaret’s Children and Family Care Society had been told by the Scottish Charity regulator it was to lose its status over its refusal to place children with same-sex couples…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

The Era of Genetically-Altered Humans Could Begin This Year

By the middle of 2014, the prospect of altering DNA to produce a genetically-modified human could move from science fiction to science reality. At some point between now and July, the UK parliament is likely to vote on whether a new form of in vitro fertilization (IVF)—involving DNA from three parents—becomes legally available to couples. If it passes, the law would be the first to allow pre-birth human-DNA modification, and another door to the future will open.

The procedure involves replacing mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) to avoid destructive cell mutations. Mitochondria are the power plants of human cells that convert energy from food into what our cells need to function, and they carry their own DNA apart from the nuclear DNA in our chromosomes where most of our genetic information is stored. Only the mother passes on mtDNA to the child, and it occasionally contains mutations that can lead to serious problems…

           — Hat tip: MC [Return to headlines]
 

UK: David Silvester Gay Marriage Flood Row Councillor’s Home ‘Egged’

The home of UKIP councillor David Silvester, who blamed recent floods on gay marriage, has been targeted by protesters. Mr Silvester did not wish to comment but Henley Town Council said eggs had been thrown at his house this week. Insp Mark Harling told the Henley Standard police were investigating and condemned the act as “pointless”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Adults Tested for ADHD Symptoms in Huge Study

In the largest ever study of ADHD symptoms in adults, 85,000 blood donors will help scientists figure out if the disorder is hereditary.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

5 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/1/2014

  1. I wasn’t aware that the infestation by non-native North American grey squirrels extended beyond here in the UK, where the indigenous red variety is now confined to the remoter areas.

    I blame US imperialism (which of course is also responsible for this website’s attempts to Americanise- sorry, Americanize- my spelling).

    ALL foreign squirrels should be closely monitored to ensure that they don’t build mosques, temples etc, claim social security benefits, preach against gay, Jewish or apostate squirrels, allow their children to engage in Jihadist warfare, insist on halal acorns for all… ok, I’ll stop now!

  2. Actually, grey squirrels are a problem right here in my neighborhood of the USA. We used to have lots of red squirrels. Then five years ago I noticed a grey squirrel. Now all the red squirrels are gone.

  3. I’ve known a few rural Americans and countrified exurbanites in these United States who affirm that a bunch of grey squirrels skinned and quartered make a very palatable stew. Hence, my advice to Europeans bothered by this invasive species is to get your master chefs working on grey squirrel recipes.

    Now, dear European friends, what can we Americans do about starlings?

    • In my part of the world (i.e. Central Virginia), the grey squirrel is commonly enjoyed as the principal ingredient of Brunswick Stew. Since squirrel-hunting season is in September, the firehouses and Rotary clubs traditionally hold Brunswick Stew suppers late in the month, just before the leaves start turning in earnest.

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