On a state visit to Saudi Arabia, Prince Charles participated in the traditional sword dance with members of the Saudi royal family. The Prince of Wales — jocularly known by certain irreverent wags as “Barmy Prince Charlie” — donned a long flowing robe and carried a sword for the dance, as did the British ambassador and other males in the prince’s entourage.
In other news, according to official inspection certificates, a dead mechanic in the Italian city of Naples has certified 1,600 vehicles as safe to drive. An estimated 40% of the cars on the road in Naples are uninsured.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, 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.
Does the Trail of Dead Bankers Lead Somewhere?
What are we to make of this sudden rash of banker suicides? Does this trail of dead bankers lead somewhere? Or could it be just a coincidence that so many bankers have died in such close proximity? I will be perfectly honest and admit that I do not know what is going on. But there are some common themes that seem to link at least some of these deaths together. First of all, most of these men were in good health and in their prime working years.
Secondly, most of these “suicides” seem to have come out of nowhere and were a total surprise to their families. Thirdly, three of the dead bankers worked for JP Morgan. Fourthly, several of these individuals were either involved in foreign exchange trading or the trading of derivatives in some way. So when “a foreign exchange trader” jumped to his death from the top of JP Morgan’s Hong Kong headquarters this morning, that definitely raised my eyebrows. These dead bankers are starting to pile up, and something definitely stinks about this whole thing.
What would cause a young man that is making really good money to jump off of a 30 story building? The following is how the South China Morning Post described the dramatic suicide of 33-year-old Li Jie…
But this is now the 7th suspicious banker death that we have witnessed in just the past few weeks:…
So did all of those men actually kill themselves?
Well, there is reason to believe that at least some of those deaths may not have been suicides after all.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EU Eyes Confiscation of Personal Savings, Pension Plans
As we have warned, governments and central banks all over the world are getting ready to plunder savings accounts and pensions to fund ongoing spending binges and mounting debts.
Reuters news service reported an ominous story on February 12 indicating that authorities in the European Union may soon be resorting to the “Polish option” of nationalizing pension funds to pay for national debt obligations, as well as to fund continued out-of-control government spending.
According to the Reuters report:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Europe May be in the Calm Before the Storm
Austrian business cycle theory explains that the “bust” phase of that cycle is created by extension of the cheap and plentiful credit by a fractional reserve banking (FRB) system. A FRB system is inherently fragile during the bust phase as its leverage (lending as a percentage of its own capital) exposes the banks to the emerging tsunami of non-performing loans and impaired collateral that are the manifestations of malinvestment. Greece, which has been practically destroyed economically, has seen numerous protests over the past several years. Credit: Ggia via Wiki
Greece, which has been practically destroyed economically, has seen numerous protests over the past several years. Credit: Ggia via Wiki
Yet, in today’s protected and regulated banking industry, the “bust” phase of the cycle is delayed and distorted by the wide-ranging interventionism of regulators, central banks, and governments. The ongoing crisis in the European banking sector is evidence of this. Its problems of insolvency are unresolved. The ECB is at the center of interventionist efforts to stall and mitigate a European banking sector collapse that looks increasingly likely within the next 18 months.[1]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Recovery Slow, Growth Stalling, Say Industrialists
Urgent need to address competitiveness, demand and bank credit
(ANSA) — Rome, February 19 — Italy’s economic recovery is extremely slow and recent data shows that industrial production in the eurozone’s third-largest economy is close to stalling, according to a new report released on Wednesday by Italian employers’ association Confindustria.
“(The recovery is) moving ahead very slowly, almost at a standstill”, Confindustria’s economists said. “These are the harsh facts of the Italian economy”, with employment and industrial production data “confirming that the pick up from the extremely deep hole that has been dug by the recession is extremely slow”.
Fourth-quarter gross domestic product data, which showed the economy expanded 0.1% in the last three months of 2013, was “lower that expected” and “confirms the extreme weakness of the recovery”, according to the report drawn up by Confindustria’s economic research unit which is headed by economist Luca Paolazzi.
Industrial production is weighed down by bank credit limitations, weak domestic demand and the accumulated loss of competitiveness, according to the monthly snapshot that Confindustria releases on the Italian economy. Urgent measures need to be taken to address these three issues “to avoid further damage to Italy’s economic system”, it said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
What Lies Beneath the Bodies of Dead Bankers? (Video)
Doug Hagmann on Exposing what lies beneath the bodies of dead bankers and what lies ahead for us.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A New Shell Game: California’s Nut Industry Brings Crooks Out of Woodwork
California’s nut industry brought in more than $8 billion last year, and while you may not have noticed, criminals did. Increasingly brazen thieves are stealing the crop from farmers, field workers and truck drivers, sometimes at gunpoint.
Farmers like Barrett Blain say some growers have had their lives threatened.
The thieves aren’t just taking a handful of nuts here and there. Last year, in the Central Valley, thieves drove off with more than $500,000 in almonds, walnuts and pistachios.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Amerikan Stasi Police State Staring US in the Face
American taxpayers have built an entire city in Virginia so that the Pentagon, can practice occupying American cities and putting down protests by US citizens: http://www.prisonplanet.com/u-s-army-builds-fake-city-in-virginia-to-practice-military-occupation.html
This fake city is the training ground for the doctrine outlined in a leaked US Army document: info.publicintelligence.net/USAMPS-CivilDisturbanceOps.pdf that describes how soldiers are to be trained to put down domestic disturbances and process prisoners through detainment camps where prisoners will be re-educated to appreciate US policies.
In situations of “extreme necessity” the training embraces deadly force: “Warning shot will not be fired. When a firearm is discharged it will be fired with the intent of rendering the person(s) at whom it is discharged incapable of continuing that activity or course of behavior.” Lecturers in the training courses describe constitutionalists as “domestic extremists.”
Does this make the President of the United States, whose oath of office is to defend the US Constitution against enemies domestic and foreign, a domestic extremist? Is the fear of arrest by Homeland Security as a domestic extremist the reason Obama refuses to defend the Constitution of the United States?
The Army is being trained for domestic police duties that are in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act that prevents the use of the military for domestic law enforcement, another indication that Washington has no respect for the country’s laws and that Obama and his “Justice” Department have no intention of enforcing the laws of the land or abiding by the Constitution.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Arizona Toddler With 160 IQ Admitted to Mensa
(Reuters) — She’s not even in kindergarten yet, but a 3-year-old Arizona girl has been accepted into an exclusive global society known for its brain power. With an IQ above 160, Alexis Martin, of suburban Queen Creek, is now the youngest member in the Arizona chapter of Mensa, a Phoenix television station reported.
Alexis, who reads at a fifth-grade level and taught herself Spanish using her parents’ iPad, qualified by scoring among the top 2 percent of the general population on a standardized intelligence test, her father said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
AT&T Received Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Orders for 35,000 Accounts in 6 Months
Weeks after the U.S. Attorney General issued guidance allowing tech and telecom companies to provide slightly more information about federal law enforcement requests, AT&T has issued its first accounting of these queries. And according to the data, the Death Star received national security letters dealing with up to 5,000 accounts in all of 2013, while court orders issued under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act during the first half of 2013 were tied to more than 35,000 accounts.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bloomberg Group Flips Over Gun Confiscation Leak
Three members from billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s gun control coalition issued a retort defending their anti-Second Amendment efforts and countering Poughkeepsie Mayor John Tkazyik’s remarks that the group’s ultimate goal is firearm confiscation from law-abiding gun owners…
It did not take long to realize that MAIG’s agenda was much more than ridding felons of illegal guns,” Tkazyik stated. “Under the guise of helping mayors facing a crime and drug epidemic, MAIG intended to promote confiscation of guns from law-abiding citizens,” Tkazyik bravely revealed, adding, “Nearly 50 pro-Second Amendment mayors have left the organization. They left for the same reason I did.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking New Video: Battleground Texas Illegally Copying Voter Data
SAN ANTONIO, TX—Today Project Veritas released a new undercover video exposing Battleground Texas’ illegal data collection methods being used to elect Wendy Davis.
Battleground Texas Field Organizer Jennifer Longoria was caught on camera multiple times making statements such as, “So every time we register someone to vote we keep their name and number.”
Doing so, however, is illegal. According to the Secretary of State, it is unlawful to transcribe, copy, or otherwise record a telephone number furnished on a voter registration application.
“If Battleground Texas is willing to unlawfully transcribe and use people’s private data what other laws are they currently or willing to break to elect Wendy Davis and turn Texas blue?” asked James O’Keefe, President of Project Veritas.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
British Socialite Arrested in New York Bar Brawl
Friends of Prince William arrested in high-society New York bar brawl which saw reveller “bottled” by St Andrews graduate
A British socialite has been arrested in New York after she allegedly hit a clubgoer with a bottle of beer during a brawl. Julia Kadioglu, 32, who has attended a number of society events in Manhattan, is said to have retaliated after her boyfriend Till Bechtolsheimer, 31, was allegedly shoved by another man while dancing in the Electric Room nightclub…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Brooklyn Mall in Black Mob Bull’s-Eye
‘They need to shut down this crime magnet ASAP’
This week, they returned: Hundreds of black people running, fighting, creating mayhem at the Kings Plaza Mall.
The CBS local news headlines promised the story: “Hundreds Of Teenagers Run Wild.” But the reporter dutifully downplayed the violence and ignored the central organizing feature of the perpetrators. They were black.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chuck Norris: Riders on the Storm
I have so few words to express the depth of my disgust with the unconstitutional path and passing of Obamacare and the corruption in Congress. So let me just tell you about the storm coming to Washington.
The majority of Americans have voiced ad nauseam their grave concerns with and rejection of Washington’s health care bills. Like a host of other commentators, I have written at least a dozen syndicated articles this past year addressing sound objections. And like you, I’ve joined rallies, signed petitions and passed along a plethora of reasonable nonpartisan negative critiques of Obamacare. But at every turn, Washington has ignored us and demonized our opposition.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cops Taser Deaf Man Having Diabetic Attack
Yet another case of police tasering a deaf person who did not respond to verbal communication has emerged this week. However, this time the man in question was also in the midst of a diabetic episode.
Robert Kim is suing two police officers in federal court after an incident in St. Louis, when he was caught in need of assistance at the road side, after getting a flat tire.
Kim has type one diabetes, and during the wait he slipped into a severe hypoglycemic state.
No matter for officers from Bridgeton, who arrived on the scene and broke out their tasers, according to the lawsuit.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Facebook to Buy Messaging Start-Up WhatsApp for $16 Billion
Facebook said on Wednesday that it would acquire WhatsApp, a messaging start-up, for $16 billion in cash and stock.
The eye-popping price is Facebook’s largest acquisition by far, and marks a new height in the frenzy to acquire popular technology start-ups.
Facebook will pay $4 billion in cash and $12 billion worth of Facebook shares for WhatsApp. An additional $3 billion in restricted stock units will be granted to WhatsApp employees and founders. These units will vest over the next four years.
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Free Speech for Mann, But Not for Thee
Feature Article by Robert Tracinski, February 19, 2014
Every side in the political debate has a natural tendency to appeal to freedom of speech when they feel threatened—but to ignore (or initiate) threats to the free speech of the other side. My favorite example is from the early 1990s, when the Yeltsin government dispossessed Russia’s Communist Party of the vast holdings it had amassed in the decades when it controlled the state. The Communist Party screamed in protest, denouncing the supposed attack on its “property rights and freedom of speech.” Which was pretty rich, considering that the Communists had just spent 70 years ruthlessly stamping out everyone else’s property rights and freedom of speech.
This tendency is captured in an old expression popularized by Nat Hentoff: free speech for me, but not for thee.
I was reminded of this in coming across a little sidelight to Mann vs. Steyn, the defamation lawsuit filed by scientist-turned-activist Michael Mann in an attempt to suppress the speech of global warming skeptics, starting with conservative writer Mark Steyn.
As I have explained elsewhere Mann is attempting to legally punish any attempt to “question his intellect and reasoning”—that’s from the DC Superior Court, which preposterously backed his argument—on the grounds that Mann’s scientific claims have been investigated by multiple government panels, which have exonerated him.
This claim, by the way, is already falling apart. As Steven McIntyre explains, one of the examples Mann cites is a British panel that did not actually investigate Mann—its focus was on the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit, the epicenter of “Climategate”—and in its announcement of its results criticized Mann’s methods as “inappropriate” and his results as “exaggerated.” At the time, Mann felt so exonerated that he sent harassing e-mails to the scientist who made that remark, demanding a retraction and an apology. Mann then went on to tell the BBC that such a retraction was forthcoming. It wasn’t. All of which tells you a great deal about Professor Mann’s credibility.
[…]
…Mann’s recent New York Times op-ed begins with a blanket defamation of anyone who has ever questioned his global warming orthodoxy, people he describes as a “a fringe minority” which “clings to an irrational rejection of well-established science,” promoting a “virulent strain of anti-science.”
So basically, Mann wants a legal guarantee that he can dish it out, but he doesn’t have to take it. What a jerk.
[NOTE: Ah yes. Mann is indeed a jerk. But a jerk on the order of magnitude of the New York Times. As in “JerK²
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Transitioning from a “gutless Marxist” to a “gutsy Marxist” is one we do not want to experience
It is looking more and more as if the Democratic candidate for President in 2016 will, indeed, be Hillary Clinton. Surprise, surprise!
The only thing I can see that MIGHT stop Hillary from running would be issues with her health.
Never mind Benghazi, the mainstream Media is already running interference for her on that and can be expected to smother any other scandal that may arise. Hillary will be, as was Obama, THEIR candidate and they will pull out all the stops to get her elected to the office of President.
Hillary is, like Obama, a Marxist. She loves and craves power as much as, or more than, Obama. She is relentless and ruthless. Make no mistake, Hillary’s political philosophy is slightly to the left of the late Ho Chi Min. She will make the perfect female dictator.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Homeland Security Alerts Airlines to Possible Shoe-Bomb Threat
The Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin Wednesday warning airlines of possible attempts to attack passenger jets using explosives packed in shoes, Fox News has confirmed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iranian Hackers Entered ‘Bloodstream’ of Navy Network
An Iranian attack on the Navy’s largest unclassified computer network that was first reported on in September managed to get into the “bloodstream” of the system — a much more serious breach of security than previous thought — officials now admit, the Wall Street Journal said.
“It was a real big deal,” a senior U.S. official told the Journal of the attack, which affected the Navy and Marine Corps. “It was a significant penetration that showed a weakness in the system.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Justice Group Warns of Obama Plan to Put Government Monitors in Newsrooms
FCC researchers would pressure the press on what to cover
According to Pai, the program is about “pressuring media organizations into covering certain stories.” In other words — the fairness doctrine on steroids.
“That’s right, the Obama Administration has developed a formula of what it believes the free press should cover, and it is going to send government monitors into newsrooms across America to stand over the shoulders of the press as they make editorial decisions,” writes the ACLJ’s Matthew Clark, noting that the plan would also extend to newspapers, which the FCC doesn’t even have any business being involved with.
Distrust in mainstream media has been on a steady decline for years, with a recent Gallup poll confirming that just 23 per cent of Americans trust the institution of television news. This lack of confidence has driven ratings down, with MSNBC losing almost half of its viewers over the course of just 12 months, shedding 45 per cent of its audience. CNN also lost 48 per cent of its viewers over the same time period.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Last Moments of Man Killed by Police at Red Rock Captured on Video
Two men observing a police stop Friday watched in growing disbelief and then horror as the seemingly routine incident turned deadly when a federal ranger shot a man inside a state trooper’s patrol car.
One of the men recorded video with his cellphone as a Bureau of Land Management ranger shot and killed D’Andre Berghardt Jr., 20, near the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.
“Oh my God, they just shot him,” the man filming said after realizing what had happened.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Man Pleads Guilty in NYC Pipe Bomb Terrorism Plot
A man accused of building homemade bombs to wage holy war in New York City pleaded guilty Wednesday to a terrorism charge less than a week before his scheduled trial in a rare state-level terrorism case.
Pimentel, also known as Muhammad Yusuf, is a Dominican immigrant who was raised in the U.S. and converted to Islam around 2004. He maintained a website with articles praising Osama bin Laden, describing Sept. 11 victims as legitimate targets and listing reasons to “nuke the USA,” prosecutors said in court papers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Money for Nothing: Feds in D.C. Closed 25% of the Time
Fiscal year 2014 off to slow start
Between snow days, official holidays and the government shutdown, federal employees have worked a normal business day less than 75 percent of the time since Oct. 1, marking a startlingly chaotic beginning to the fiscal year.
Offices have been closed in whole or in part for 27 of the 105 weekdays so far in the fiscal year, according to a Washington Times analysis of announcements from the federal Office of Personnel Management that found the government was closed for 21 days because of the shutdown, snow days or holidays. Delayed openings or unscheduled leave and telework policies were in effect for six more days.
[…]
NOTE: Worst Offenders? Members of Congress. Definitely a top-down problem.
Golf, anyone?
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New Jersey Police Chief Speaks Out Against Town Council Over Corruption — Gets Relieved of Duties
“No one owns the Chief position. It’s not for sale,” said acting Bloomfield Police Chief James Behre. The 27-year New Jersey police veteran was speaking at a Town Council meeting, discussing the political corruption he was urged to take part in. Less than 48 hours later, he received a letter from Township Administrator Ted Ehrenburg, relieving him of his duties.
In his statement to the Council, Behre explained that he had experienced a lot of harassment in his job, causing significant stress. He said, however, that Councilman Carlos Bernard had made repeated offers for the harassment to stop and the position to be made permanent in exchange for favors to Latino policemen. These favors included pushing Latinos forward in line for Sergeants’ Exams, promoting Latinos to detective, and even fixing a parking ticket. He also asked Behre’s men to write tickets in his ward.
Bernard would follow his requests by saying “This will solidify your position as Chief, and your problems will go away,” said Behre, who emphasized that these requests interfered — in a political way — with the day-to-day operations of the police force. “I am working in a hostile and harassing work environment, daily…because I’m fighting for the citizens of this township, and I’m fighting for the 144 members of this police department.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New Obama Promise: If You Like Your Life, You Can Keep it
Liberals are winning wild praise for their candor in admitting problems with Obamacare. It shows you the level of honesty people have come to expect of our liberal friends. Now, liberals are applauded for not lying through their teeth about something.
What are they supposed to say? This Obamacare website is fantastic! And really, haven’t you already read all the magazines in your current doctor’s office anyway?
The New York Times has described Obama’s repeated claim that you could keep your insurance plan and keep your doctor under Obamacare as a mere slip of the tongue: “Mr. Obama clearly misspoke when he said that.”
Misspoke? How exactly does one misspeak, word for word, dozens of times, over and over again?
That wasn’t misspeaking — it was a deliberate, necessary lie. Even Democrats couldn’t have voted for Obamacare if Americans had known the truth. It was absolutely vital for Obama to lie about people being able to keep their insurance and their doctors.
Of course, it was difficult for voters to know the truth because every time Republicans would try to tell them, the White House and the media would rush in and call the critics liars.
The White House posted a specific refutation of the “disinformation” about not being able to keep your doctor or insurance plan. That claim, the website said, was being disseminated by Republicans “to scare people.”
Their proof consisted of a video of Obama clearly stating, “If you have insurance that you like, then you will be able to keep that insurance. If you’ve got a doctor that you like, you will be able to keep your doctor.”
A video of someone asserting the very fact in dispute does not rise to the level of “evidence,” but it was more than enough for MSNBC.
Even when pretending to be critical of Obamacare, liberals lie about the real problems. They tell us they’re worried about the percentage of young people signing up for Obamacare. The mix of young and old people in Obamacare is completely irrelevant. It won’t help if a lot of young people sign up because their premiums are negligible.
[…]
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Obama Lied About Bin Laden Raid
For a short time, America basked in the news that Osama Bin Laden was dead—at least until we found out Obama would exploit it to the hilt for his reelection campaign. At least until he took full credit for it, minimizing the work of the CIA agents, communications specialists, Black Hawk pilots, and even the SEALs themselves who took Bin Laden out.
Within days, Team Obama began to leak top secret information about the raid to the press. Within days, Kathryn Bigelow, the director of The Hurt Locker, was briefed by the CIA and given access to top secret information, even being allowed access to what is called “The Vault”, where the operation was planned.
Obama had a new operation to plan. One more important than taking out Osama Bin Laden: A blockbuster movie produced by election time that extolled his ability as Commander-in-Chief. That state secrets were being revealed to people who couldn’t pass a urine test, let alone a security clearance, didn’t seem to matter to him.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Wants to Waste a Billion on “Climate Change”
Obama was out in California to show his concern for the drought-stricken farmers and the administration is speeding delivery of $100 million of aid to livestock farmers, $15 million for areas hit hardest, and $60 million for California food banks to help the poor. Rep. Kevin McCarthy(R-CA) pointed out that the drought has been “exacerbated by federal and state regulations” including an environmental rule that placed “the well-being of fish…ahead of the well-being” of communities.
Like Rep. McCarthy, those on the scene point out that the drought is in part the result of the failure to restore the water flow from California’s water-heavy north to farmers in the central and south. House Bill 3964 does that, but only if the Senate will stop holding it up. Rep. McCarthy is joined by Rep. Devin Nunes explaining that California’s system of aqueducts and storage tanks was designed long ago to take advantage of rain and mountain runoff from wet years and store it for use in dry years.
As Investors.com pointed out, “Environmental special interests managed to dismantle the system by diverting water meant for farms to pet projects, such as saving delta smelt, a baitfish. That move forced the flushing of three million acre-feet of water originally slated for the Central Valley into the ocean over the past five years.”
[…]
All this traces back to the founding of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988 by two United Nations organizations, the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environmental Program. The IPCC was given a formal blessing by the UN General Assembly through Resolution 43/53.
And what has the IPCC done? It has championed the utterly false claim that carbon dioxide (CO2) is responsible for warming the Earth and that all the industries and other human activities that create CO2 emissions had to reduce them in order to save the Earth. In 2007 the IPCC and Al Gore would share a Nobel Peace Prize. As an organization and as an individual these two have proved to be the among the greatest liars on planet Earth.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
People Are Undergoing Extreme Body Modifications in Order to Look More Like the Devil?
When does body modification go too far? In recent years, the popularity of tattoos and body piercings has soared, but now there are thousands of people around the globe that are taking body modification to ridiculous extremes.
For example, would you be willing to have your tongue split in two so that you could have a forked tongue? What about getting eyeball tattoos or having titanium horns implanted in your head? To most people, doing such things would be unimaginable, but there is a growing subculture of individuals out there that truly seem to enjoy “pushing the envelope” and seeing what is possible. Some of them want to look like cats, some want to look like vampires, others want to look like aliens and some even want to look like the devil. Yes, you read that correctly. You are about to read about one man that is purposely modifying his body so that he will look as much like the devil as possible. In fact, he even plans to add a tail someday.
If these were just isolated incidents, it probably would not be that big of a deal. But as CNN recently reported, there are now thousands of people that have embraced “extreme body modification” as a lifestyle and the movement is growing rapidly. In fact, CNN says that there is one website alone that has 3 million photos of extreme body modification…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rockefeller Bros, Pepsi Behind Gun Grab Agenda
More evidence the global elite want to whittle down the Second Amendment and eventually kill it
Robert Fargo, writing for The Truth About Guns, points to an Aspen Ideas Festival web page promoting a 2013 talk by former congresswoman Gabby Giffords and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly. In addition to Giffords and her husband, the “Building a Movement to Keep Our Communities Safer” event featured Andrea Mitchell, the wife of former Federal Reserve boss Alan Greenspan.
“Giffords and Kelly will discuss how the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School drove them to commit themselves, personally and professionally, to reducing gun violence in America — by working toward common sense solutions that respect our Second Amendment rights and traditions of gun ownership,” the web page explains.
Following the Sandy Hook shooting in late 2012, Giffords and Kelly formed Americans for Responsible Solutions, a nonprofit dedicated to encouraging “elected officials to stand up for solutions to prevent gun violence and protect responsible gun ownership.”
According to the group and others, including Mayors Against Illegal Guns formed by the billionaire former mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, “responsible” gun ownership entails serious government limitations on the Second Amendment not limited to banning “assault weapons” (virtually all semiautomatic firearms), mandating the size of firearms magazines (ten rounds or less), and outlawing gun shows and private sales of firearms.
The event was underwritten by PepsiCo, the transnational beverage corporation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
School Shooting Expert Threatened Over Sandy Hook Investigation
Was told if he didn’t back off “bad things are going to happen”
The Sandy Hook school shooting was a giant, elaborate hoax and no one really died; that’s the conclusion Wolfgang Halbig, a former educator, US Customs agent and Florida state trooper, has reached after ten months of investigation and multiple disputes with federal, state and school authorities.
Halbig is convinced a deluge of discrepancies prove that the whole scenario was a scripted event.
“I suspect, in my professional opinion as a consultant and doing this a long, long time, I think it’s a scripted event that took place. I think it was in planning for maybe two, two and a half years,” Halbig said recently in an explosive interview with American Free Press.
Halbig is not your average conspiracy theorist. In fact he’s not one at all.
He’s a former educator and law enforcement officer who now contracts out as a national school safety consultant.
His job is to help schools prevent incidents like the one that unfolded in Newtown. In order to do that, he needs to know exactly what happened at Sandy Hook…
For Halbig, there are unanswered questions, lots of them.
For instance, why in the immediate aftermath of the shooting were no medical helicopters summoned?
“Think about it: you have 20 children, 6 staff members who were supposed to have been shot. They’re seriously injured. Where’s the trauma helicopters? Those are the quickest and the best medical services that any child or any school staff member can receive, and no trauma helicopters were ever requested?”
Halbig also called Life Star emergency services, who confirmed they were never summoned that morning. “[T]hey said, ‘Mr. Halbig we were never requested on that morning. We were shocked and surprised, we were ready, we thought we were going to go to Sandy Hook.’ They had helicopters ready to go, but they were never asked. Here’s my premise. there wasn’t anybody there to be treated.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Supersonic Jet Ditches Windows for Massive Live-Streaming Screens
Spike Aerospace is in the midst of building the first supersonic private jet. And when the $80 million S-512 takes off in December 2018, it won’t have something you’d find on every other passenger aircraft: windows.
The Boston-based aerospace firm is taking advantage of recent advances in video recording, live-streaming, and display technology with an interior that replaces the windows with massive, high-def screens.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Suspected ‘Lone Wolf’ Pleads Guilty to Terror Charge in NYC
(Reuters) — An American Muslim convert who admitted he attempted to make a pipe bomb with the intent of influencing U.S. foreign policy pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a New York state terrorism charge in exchange for a 16-year prison sentence.
To build the bomb, he also said he read an article called “How to Build a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom” in Inspire, an online magazine published by al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Terror in USA — 22 Training Camps, Minneapolis Explosion
If you did not already know, it is now obvious, the Obama Administration has ordered all federal agencies to hide any connection, or deny any exist between violent events and anyone or any any entity in the Islamic community in America. Therefore, we do no have any official terror attacks but we all know we definitely have experienced many.
Ft. Hood was a terror event, the attack on the power infrastructure in Northern California was a coordinated terror attack or test run of an even bigger one, but one of the more obvious denials is what happened in Minneapolis last month. A bombing in a known Muslim enclave of ill-repute.
If not for groups like “The Investigative Project” and “The Gates of Vienna” group showing the truth, few would ever know the whole story.
Of even more concern is the “news” that we have Jamaat ul-Fuqra actively running terror training camps in at least 22 locations. Bryan Preston at PJ Media released an article yesterday exposing what many of us have known for years, there are terrorists training here and the FBI has known all along.
[…]
The Al-Shabaab Connection
From the Gates of Vienna Investigation
The day after last month’s explosion and fire at 514 Cedar Avenue South in Minneapolis, an FBI agent named Greg Boosalis reassured Minnesotans that there was no evidence of terrorist activity in connection with the devastating explosion.
how the FBI could be so certain less than forty-eight hours after the blast that no terrorism was involved. The immediate neighborhood of the demolished building is a known hotbed of terrorist activity, and is especially notorious for the recruitment of mujahideen and funds for the jihad being waged by al-Shabaab in Somalia.
As it turns out, the FBI was absolutely derelict in ruling out a terrorist connection with 514 Cedar Avenue South…
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The Doctrine of Academic Freedom
Let’s give up on academic freedom in favor of justice
By Sandra Y.L. Korn
It is tempting to decry frustrating restrictions on academic research as violations of academic freedom. Yet I would encourage student and worker organizers to instead use a framework of justice. After all, if we give up our obsessive reliance on the doctrine of academic freedom, we can consider more thoughtfully what is just.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Obama Cult — Will You Drink the Kool Aid?
There are over 5000 active cults in America but the biggest and most deadly of these is The Obama Cult, headed by Barack Hussein Obama. The Obama-Church/Cult follows classic Cult strategies and steps to draw, trap and keep Cult members inside the fenced work and playground, doing what Obama bids.
Classic Cult strategies The Obama Cult uses:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Navy Ready to Deploy New Laser Gun
The US Navy is all geared up to deploy first ‘Star Wars-like’ laser system on ship later this year.
The navy’s list of futuristic weapons also includes an electromagnetic rail gun prototype aboard a vessel that could debut within two years.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Canadian Government Slams the Door in the Face of Goliath Enviro-Supporting Rockefellers
Just about everyone in the lib-left mainstream media of both Canada and the U.S.A. are shouting rape because of Canada Revenue’s 2013-2014 audit of high-profile environmental groups, including the David Suzuki Foundation, Tides Canada, Environmental Defence, the Pembina Foundation, Eqiuiterre and the Ecology Action Centre, among others.
They’re demanding to know “WHY?”
Though the environmental groups will slice the pie of reasons into thousands of pieces, it’s because the Canadian government finally decided to take a stand for the Canadian Aboriginal people and for Canadian interests.
In doing so, the Canadian Government took on the Goliath of the Environmental money war…
“Only in the past year have Canadian politicians woken up to the hundreds of millions of dollars of foreign money pouring in to create fake anti-oilsands shell organizations,” (Ezra Levant, Toronto Sun, March 25, 2013).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
One sham marriage may be happening in the UK every single hour, shocking figures revealed last night. Official figures show that between January and October last year, a total of 7,606 fake weddings were reported to the Home Office.
Yet despite the huge scale of the problem, just 90 people were deported over the same period for engaging in false marriages to gain entry to the UK. It means that for every 85 sham marriages, just one person is being thrown out of the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Britain Sorely Needs the Tea Party Spirit
by James Delingpole
Some of you may have noticed that Breitbart.com has opened a London branch. Mostly, the response has been favourable, but not unanimously so. Here, for example, is what some our friends at the Guardian’s Komment Macht Frei have had to say on the subject…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Bulgaria Commemorates Death of National Hero Vasil Levski
Bulgaria commemorates on Wednesday the 141st anniversary of the death of its national hero, freedom-fighter and revolutionary Vasil Levski.
Vasil Ivanov Kunchev (better known as Vasil Levski), was sentenced to death by an Ottoman court and hanged in Sofia on February 18 (February 6 old style), 1873.
Bulgaria honors the national hero on February 19th, despite him being hung on the 18th. The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences explains that this discrepancy is due to an old technical error that has not been corrected in history books.
Memorial services for Levski are taking place around the country, as people pay tribute to the hero at his numerous monuments, including the Levski Memorial in downtown Sofia.
A memorial will be held at 6 pm before the monument of Vasil Levski in downtown Sofia, at the spot where he was hung. The service will be attended by the President Rosen Plevneliev.
Levski was born in 1837 in Karlovo. He went on to become the leader of Bulgaria’s revolutionary movement for liberation from the Ottoman Empire.
Initially preparing to become an Orthodox monk, Kunchev gave this up in order to dedicate his life to fighting for Bulgaria’s freedom.
With relentless and self-sacrificing dedication, Levski created and headed a network of several hundred secret revolutionary committees preparing a national rebellion.
During his participation in the First Bulgarian Legion in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1862, he received the nickname “Levski” (Lionlike).
After organizing the revolutionary movement all across Bulgaria for several years, Levski was captured by the Ottoman Turkish police in late 1872, and was sentenced to death by hanging for his revolutionary activity.
His progressive political ideas envisaged a Bulgarian republic based on the fundamental rights of everyone, abiding by democratic principles and based on religious and ethnic equality.
For his self-sacrifice and sublime ideas, Levski has been dubbed “the Apostle of Freedom” by Bulgarians.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Bulgaria: Football Fan Clubs in Plovdiv Offer to Pay for Damage to Dzhumaya Mosque
Representatives of the two major football team supporters’ clubs in Plovdiv have offered to pay for the costs of the damage to the historic Dzhumaya Mosque in the city, which was targeted during an anti-Islamic march on February 14. In this way, the fan clubs want to distance themselves from the vandalisation of the mosque, which they say was the work of “provocateurs”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Bulgaria’s University Lecturers Head for Monument to Vasil Levski
Sofia. Bulgarian university lecturers carrying a poster, which reads: “University lecturers call [on you]: Wake up!” have headed for the Monument to revolutionary Vasil Levski, whose death anniversary the country marks today, FOCUS News Agency reported.
The lecturers, who had gathered in front of Sofia University’s main entrance, said they had gathered today to express their disagreement that various political forces used days such as today in a populist way. A number of them also expressed their concern over events in Ukraine as well as solidarity to Ukrainian citizens.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Bulgaria’s Karlovo to Mark 141th Anniversary of Vasil Levski’s Death
Karlovo. Residents of the town of Karlovo, where Bulgaria’s most famous revolutionary Vasil Levski was born, gathered at the Church of the Holy Mother of God, where a mass was served to honour his memory, Radio FOCUS — Plovdiv reported…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Can Volcanic Magma Power the Future?
Scientists in Iceland have figured out how to create geothermal energy from super-hot molten rock
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Calls for End to Violence in Ukraine
BRUSSELS, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) — European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Wednesday called for an immediate end to the violence and condemned the use of force to solve the political crisis in Ukraine…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Family Ties: Why Nepotism is Bad for Italy
For many Italians, family comes first. But it is the common practice of nepotism — giving jobs to family members — that is driving young talent away.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Castles Become Luxury Hotels
Versailles, Chambord and Fontainebleau looking for funding
(ANSAmed) — PARIS — Spending the night of your dreams in Versailles, walking through the rooms of the Sun King and the gardens designed by Le Notre could soon come true: in order to save its historic heritage, France is thinking of turning a number of its royal palaces into luxury hotels.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Amateur Treasure Hunter Finds Roman Gold Hoard
German archaeologists have recovered a find of over a million euros worth of Roman gold and silver jewellery from an amateur treasure hunter who dug it up illegally in a forest.
The trove includes a number of leaf-shaped solid gold brooches which are thought to have formed part of the decorations from a coat of high office which once belonged a very important Roman ruler. They date from the late antiquity period — around the time of the fall of the Roman Empire. Experts say the find could be the largest and most magnificent collection of late antiquity pieces ever found in Germany.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Deputy Mayor and Councillor Allegedly Took Bribes Near Milan
Acccused in award of 28-million-euro contract
(ANSA) — Cologno Monzese, February 18 — The deputy mayor and a city council member in a town near Milan were arrested on Tuesday on allegations of taking bribes in exchange for waste management contracts. Monza financial police investigators alleged that Raffaele Cantalupo, deputy mayor and environment councilor of the Cologno Monzese municipality, and the town’s building councilor Maurizio Diaco had taken a 300,000-euro bribe to award Sangalli and Company a 28-million euro contract.
Police said the firm is under investigation for corruption in the Lazio, Lombardy and Puglia regions.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Soccer: Roma Punishment for Anti-Neapolitan Chants Increased
Corner sections to be closed as well as end stands
(ANSA) — Milan, February 18 — AS Roma’s punishment for anti-Neapolitan chants was increased by Serie A’s sporting judge on Tuesday after more offensive songs by fans during Sunday’s 3-0 win over Sampdoria.
The end stands of Rome’s Stadio Olimpico were closed for the Sampdoria match and are set to be off-limits again for Roma’s next home game against Inter Milan on March 2 due to offensive chants during a recent Italian Cup tie against Napoli.
But the Distinti Sud corner section of the ground will now also be closed against Inter after fans in that area showed defiance against the punishment by singing chants that included calls for Mt Vesuvius to erupt to “clean” Naples.
The punishment is part of Italian soccer’s new regime of tough measures to stamp out racism, which has dogged the game here for many years, and so-called regional discrimination.
Followers of many clubs, including Napoli, have rebelled against the punishment of regional discrimination, saying it targets the leg-pulling that is a traditional part of Italian soccer.
The loss of support in many sections of the ground against Inter will not help Roma’s bid for the Serie A title.
Second-placed Roma trail leaders Juventus by nine points, but they have a game in hand.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Dead Mechanic’ Certifies 1,600 Cars Safe to Drive in Naples
Police uncover city-wide fraud among drivers and garages
(ANSA) — Naples, February 18 — Police in Naples on Tuesday cited a vehicle-registration garage for allegedly forging the signature 1,600 times of an authorized mechanic who had died nine months ago. The bust came in a month-long, province-wide dragnet targeting unsafe cars on the road. The dead mechanic had reportedly been the only person at the center certified to clear vehicles for biennial road-worthiness reports required by the government. Police said the vehicles were not being properly checked, and cited several other garages for using software to automatically generate a clean bill of health for cars that had not been brought into the shop. In total, police said roughly half of cars on the road in and around Naples have not been properly checked since before 2001. Some 2,561 cars of the 6,800 checked were uninsured.
A total of three million euros in fines were issued.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy to Launch Fresh Attack on UK’s Food Traffic Light Plan
Supermarkets may rank foods red, green, yellow
(ANSA) — Brussels, February 19 — Italy is gearing up to launch a new offensive at Thursday’s meeting of EU competition ministers in Brussels over Britain’s proposal for UK supermarkets to use a ‘traffic light’ system, which would see food items ranked with red, green or red according to their fat, salt and sugar contents.
Italy is concerned about the repercussions this labelling system could have on its exports, such as its olive oils, salamis and cheeses.
Italy will request the European Union carefully evaluate the effects the proposed U.K. labelling system could have on the “EU market, on industrial competitiveness, on the correct information for consumers, and of the safeguarding of quality brands”. The U.K. has always defended its plans, saying they relate to consumers’ health and not, as has been indicated, to an attempt to manipulate consumer choices. Thursday’s intervention by Italy will mark the third such similar action by the nation, which to date has the backing of some 16 EU member states, including Greece, France, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia and Ireland.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Militants Threaten ‘Armed Struggle’ On Rail Link
‘Revolutionary court’ has issued death sentences, they say
(ANSA) — Turin, February 19 — A little-known militant group on Wednesday threatened “armed struggle” against those guarding a high-speed rail line between Italy and France in a chilling reminder of leftist and rightist terrorist campaigns that left scores dead in the 1970s and ‘80s.
The Nuclei Operativi Armati (Armed Operational Nuclei, NOA) said its “revolutionary court” had condemned to death” officials and police who were allegedly “repressing” protests against the work on the Treni Alta Velocità (TAV) line north of Turin.
The citizens’ movement trying to stop the link disassociated itself from the NOA.
The ‘No TAV’ movement, which has clashed with police and been blamed for acts of sabotage, condemned the NOA and reiterated it was engaged in a programme of civil disobedience that refused “violence against persons”.
It said the militants had “no right” to try to piggyback its protest against the line between Turin and Lyon.
“The No TAV movement has a special, popular, mass DNA, ready to openly practise civil disobedience without (giving) any space to violence,” a statement from the group said.
“No one has any right to use the No TAV movement, and still less to try to replace the struggle the movement has decided and built up, collectively (and) openly,” said the protesters, who have been demonstrating for years against the line, arguing that claims about its economic value are wrong and its impact on a pristine landscape will be devastating.
Italian Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi condemned what he called the “terrorist” threat, saying the NOA were besmirching the memory of northern Italian WWII Resistance fighters.
“The so-called NOA (Nuclei Armati Operativi) should stop dragging the memory of the partisans through the mud with their criminal ravings, and disfiguring words like freedom and liberation,” Lupi said in a statement.
Lupi said the NOA’s threat to carry out executions, like the partisans did against Nazis and collaborators, showed that the No TAV movement had now been backed by extremist militants. “Behind the opposition to the TAV a terrorist design is now manifesting itself, as Turin prosecutors have denounced for some time, which speaks without historical memory about ‘proletarian and revolutionary consciences’, ‘revolutionary courts’ and ‘death sentences’,” Lupi said.
The NOA letter, sent to ANSA’s offices in Turin and Bologna as well as the news agency’s Rome HQ, came a day after a Carabiniere police officer was indicted in connection with clashes in the Susa Valley in July 2011.
Prosecutors, who have opened a probe, said NOA was “already known to us”.
No-TAV protests, which have sometimes turned violent, have built up steam in recent years and been taken up by leftist and anti-capitalist groups despite government efforts to persuade opponents that it is an essential piece of infrastructure, especially when Italy’s economy has been suffering its longest postwar recession.
The Italian and French governments have insisted that the link will not only speed passenger and freight traffic but also boost both countries’ economies.
On February 7 Turin prosecutors requested a nine-month jail term for anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Beppe Grillo after he visited an illegally built large mountain hut in 2010 that became a centre-piece of the protests. Grillo, who heads Italy’s second-biggest party, is also under investigation by prosecutors in several Italian cities for allegedly inciting soldiers to stop protecting politicians.
M5S MP Laura Castelli distanced herself and her movement from the NOA’s threats.
“As a No TAV and a M5S MP I distance myself from these threatening letters,” she said.
“These threats are part of the media intoxication whipped up before the European Parliament elections (in May),” she claimed, voicing the hope that police would find the culprits.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi Considering ‘New Initiatives’ For Marines
Italian ambassador recalled to Rome after latest delay
(ANSA) — Rome, February 19 — Premier-designate Matteo Renzi is considering “new initiatives” to resolve the case of two Italian marines held in India for allegedly killing two Indian fishermen, Nicola Latorre, chairman of the Senate defence committee, said Wednesday.
The case has dragged on for two years and Italy recalled its ambassador after the latest delay on Tuesday in the Indian supreme court.
The marines 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.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Bonino Asks European Parliament to Help With Marines Case
Outside pressure helps, foreign minister tells partners
(ANSA) — Rome, February 19 — Foreign Minister Emma Bonino on Wednesday told the partners of two Italian marines held in India that she is urging the president of the European Parliament to intervene in the case.
“I wrote to the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, urging his intervention in the case,” Bonino said during a meeting with the partners of the servicemen facing terror charges in India for allegedly killing two Indian fishermen during an anti-piracy mission in 2012.
One day earlier, Vania Ardito, wife of Salvatore Girone, and Paola Moschetti, partner of Massimiliano Latorre, said they had faith in Italian institutions to help with the case.
Bonino said that it was “important to involve colleagues from other countries,” such as Schulz in pressing India to move rapidly on the case.
The marines 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.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ferrari Named World’s Most Powerful Brand
Italy’s famous sports car maker Ferrari has fended off competition from the likes of Google, Rolex and Coca Cola to be named the world’s “most powerful brand”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ex-Governor of Sicily Convicted of Mafia Ties, Gets Jail Term; Another Ex-Gov Already in Jail
A former governor of Sicily has been convicted of links to the Mafia and sentenced to six years, eight months in prison.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel, Hollande Push for Ukraine Sanctions
Paris and Berlin have agreed on possible sanctions after at least 25 people died in violent clashes in Kyiv. The EU is preparing to push through emergency measures following the bloodshed on Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Moroccan Woman is Being Threatened With Death Because She Opened a Wine Bar in Rotterdam
The Moroccan entrepreneur Elou Akhiat (40) is being threatened with death because she opened a wine bar in Rotterdam this weekend. Akhiat is from a strict islamic family. Her father is an Imam. After an arranged marriage with a cousin went wrong, she decided to change course.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Expert ‘Disarms’ Stinky 25-Yr-Old Herring Tin
Wearing a protective helmet and visor, fermented herring expert Ruben Madsen successfully ‘disarmed’ a 25-year-old can of Swedish surströmming in Trysil, Norway, on Tuesday. When the can was opened, all that was left was gas, briny water, and an overpowering stench.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pirates of the Med: Plush Yacht Hijacked Off France
Armed pirates struck in the Mediterranean sea off the coast of Corsica this week, when they stole a luxury French yacht. The boat’s terrified owner, wife and friend were tied up for several hours before being set adrift in a life boat.
The 17-metre-long boat was taken from its owners by a gang of masked and armed pirates as they sailed in the beautiful waters off the idyllic south-western coast of Corsica, which is a popular yachting destination.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Planet-Hunting Plato Will be Our Next Medium-Class Science Mission
A space-based observatory to search for planets orbiting alien stars has been selected today as ESA’s third medium-class science mission. It is planned for launch by 2024. The PLATO — Planetary Transits and Oscillations of stars — mission was selected by ESA’s Science Programme Committee for implementation as part of its Cosmic Vision 2015—25 Programme.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rare Stamp Could Bring $20 Million at Auction
Three times in its long history, the 1-cent postage stamp from a 19th century British colony in South America has broken the auction record for a single stamp. Now, it’s poised to become the world’s most valuable stamp again. Sotheby’s predicts the 1856 British Guiana One-Cent Magenta will sell for between $10 million and $20 million when it’s offered in New York on June 17.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Romania is in the throws of a political crisis after two ministers from the junior party in the ruling coalition resigned.
Finance Minister Daniel Chitoiu and Economy Minister Andrei Gerea, both Liberal Party members, stepped down on Wednesday after Prime Minister Victor Ponta refused to accept the Liberals’ nomination of Klaus Johannis, the popular mayor of Sibiu city, as interior minister. The position, now vacant, was recently held by another Liberal Party official…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Sharia Bank Finances Western Norway Aircraft Facility
Money from the Middle East’s only island state has breathed new life into the aircraft maintenance facility in Sola. Investors from Bahrain who bought the company partnered with a bank that adheres to Islamic principles. The bank is now preparing to launch a Sharia bank in Norway.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Ambulance Shot at in Stockholm Suburb
Less than two hours after the police received an alert that an ambulance in the suburb of Grimsta in western Stockholm had been shot at on Wednesday morning, they found a dead person in an apartment in the same neighborhood. Ambulance staff were on the way to help a patient when a shot hit the vehicle, Swedish Radio P4 Stockholm reported.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
To Avoid Deer Strikes, Finland is Painting Deer Antlers With Reflective Paint
Attempts to keep motorists from hitting animals usually center around making cars and roads safer, but the Finns are heading straight to the source.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A 23-year-old woman with a condition causing excessive hair development has revealed that growing a beard makes her feel more feminine. Harnaam Kaur, of Slough, Berkshire, suffers from polycystic ovary syndrome — and a beard first started to appear on her face aged just 11.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Academia Legitimizes Extremist Speakers
Extreme Islamic preachers do not only appear on university campuses at the request of radicalized students; increasingly, extremists are afforded a university platform, with all the credibility that comes with it, by the academics themselves…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Anger as Preacher Who Supports FGM Speaks at SOAS Campus Debate
A London university has sparked a row by allowing a preacher who has spoken in support of female genital mutilation to give a talk on campus. Haitham al-Haddad spoke at the School of Oriental and African studies on why lending money with interest is forbidden in Islam. Dr al-Haddad, who gained a PhD at SOAS, has described homosexuality as a “criminal act” and said there is a “proper” way of performing FGM…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Blow People Up? What a Surprise!
by Douglas Murray
How could a nice young British boy do a thing like this? That is what people said when a British man cut the head off Daniel Pearl in 2002. It was what they said when our British men boarded the London tube trains and blew up their fellow passengers in 2005. It was what they said when a young British student tried to detonate a bomb over Detroit in 2009. And it is what they asked again earlier this month when Abdul Waheed Majeed, a 41-year-old man from Crawley, West Sussex, turned out to have become a suicide bomber in Syria. The strange thing is that a lot of people seem no closer to any kind of answer…
“Oh my, have you heard, another suicide bomber from West Sussex.” Now why would that be?
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Burnley MP’s Anger at Jesus-Muhammad Cartoon
BURNLEY MP Gordon Birtwistle has called for a fellow Lib Dem parliamentary candidate to be de-selected and his membership cancelled after he posted a controversial cartoon of Jesus and the Muslim prophet Muhammad on Twitter. Maajid Nawaz, who has been selected to fight the London seat of Hampstead and Kilburn at the next General Election, is also the chairman of the Quilliam Foundation, a counter-extremism think tank.
The cartoon has been blasted as blasphemous by the Islamic community and Mr Nawaz has reportedly also received death threats since he posted the image…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Traffic Warden Racially Abused in Nelson
A FATHER-OF-THREE hurled a torrent of racist abuse at a traffic warden after he was booked — then tried to stick his ticket on the victim’s chest, a court heard. Mohammed Nawaz, who had a young child with him, launched into a frightening rant at Liam West in front of a crowd in Nelson town centre, branding him scum, and telling him: “All white people are horrible.”
Burnley Crown Court was told how Nawaz had been alleged to have referred to Lee Rigby, the fusilier killed in Woolwich, and to have threatened death to soldiers in Afghanistan, but denied making those comments. Nawaz, 31, has 17 previous offences on his record and in 2012 was convicted after he threatened to petrol bomb a butcher’s shop…
He was given a community order with 70 hours’ unpaid work and a 12 month restraining order, banning contact with Mr West…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Three Tower Hamlets Free Schools Plan to Open in 2014 — Despite Critics
The new London Enterprise Academy opening in September has secured Whitechapel’s Aneurin Bevan House in Commercial Road as its home, which will take up to 600 secondary pupils. The curriculum focuses on entrepreneurship with mentoring and work experience, backed by 56 east London businesses from accountancy firms to ice cream parlours. “We are in a strong position,” said its Principal Designate, Ashid Ali. “We start with a blank canvass.”…
[JP note: What could go wrong?]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Dacic, Oresharski Unveil Monument to Bulgarian Revolutionary Vasil Levski
DIMITROVGRAD — Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and Bulgarian Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski unveiled a monument to Bulgarian revolutionary Vasil Levski in Dimitrovgrad, southeastern Serbia, on Tuesday.
Addressing a gathering of several hundred people on the town’s main square, Dacic said it is time for building good and tolerant relations as Bulgaria and Serbia are neighbors in the Balkans and should be helping each other.
“We have not always been smart in history, but today, I want your and our children never to go to war against each other again,” the Serbian prime minister said, calling for holding a joint meeting of the two governments to discuss, inter alia, cross-border cooperation between Serbia and Bulgaria…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The Beginnings of a ‘Bosnian Spring’?
Protests in Bosnia and Herzegovina are ongoing after things kicked off in Tuzla and progressed to government buildings being burnt throughout the country. What started as a small protest turned in to a nationwide outburst at the way the country is being run. It’s the biggest uprising in Bosnia since the war and is already being dubbed the start of a ‘Bosnian Spring’.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU-Tunisia Entrepreneurship Council, A Voice for Businesses
Assembly in Brussels, with Tajani and Minister Ben Naceur
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS — The EU-Tunisia Council for Entrepreneurship in its plenary assembly Wednesday said supporting small and medium businesses is key to job creation on both shores of the Mediterranean.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bye Bye Tourism: Terrorist Violence Hits Egypt Efforts to Revive Key Sector
Census agency says number of tourists plunged in December 2013 by almost 31% compared with same month of 2012.
A suicide bombing that killed three South Korean tourists in south Sinai has sent shockwaves through the resorts dotting its pristine coastline, with Egypt’s vital tourism industry in the crosshairs of militants…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Conscript Injured in Attack on Police Patrol at Egypt-Israel Border
Cairo — An Egyptian conscript was injured on Tuesday when unknown gunmen attacked a police vehicle during a patrol on the Egyptian-Israeli border…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Population Explosion Worsens Social Unrest
560,000 extra births in 2012, compared with 2010, in country already struggling with depleted resources and too few jobs
Egypt is struggling to contain a population explosion that has surged in the past three years, exacerbating many of the social tensions that indirectly led to the 2011 uprising.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Dreads Sinai Bus Bomb Impact on Tourism
A suicide bombing that killed three South Korean tourists in south Sinai has sent shockwaves through the resorts dotting its pristine coastline, with Egypt’s vital tourism industry in the crosshairs of militants.
The bombing of the tour bus on Sunday was claimed by an Al-Qaeda-inspired group that had previously focused its attacks on security forces since the military’s ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Boosts Police Salaries as Forces Join Mounting Strikes by Doctors, Textile Workers
Egypt’s interim president ordered a pay raise for police on Wednesday, after some of their forces joined factory workers, doctors and pharmacists increasingly on strike over the past month.
Egyptians have dealt with rising prices and high unemployment for most of the country’s political transition, since Mubarak left power in 2011. Employment is upward of 13 percent, and experts put youth unemployment at more than 25 percent. The annual rate of inflation stood at 11.36 percent as of January, according to the Central Bank.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islamists Backing Egypt’s New Government
Hizb al-Nur is Egypt’s only Islamist party that supports the military-backed government. Doing so may have secured its survival, but internal disputes may derail the party in the months ahead.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libya Still Unstable Three Years After Uprising
Celebrations amid preparations for Constituent Assembly vote
(ANSAmed) — TRIPOLI, FEBRUARY 17 — On the third anniversary of the Libyan revolution that ousted former leader Muammar Gaddafi on February 17, 2011, political and economic instability and violence continue to rack the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libya Government Struggles to Save Face After Ambiguous Compromise With Militias
Zeidan says compromise has been reached with ex-rebel militias who had given interim assembly deadline to hand over power.
A threat by powerful militias to dissolve parliament ramped up pressure on Libya’s weak central government Wednesday on the eve of a vote to elect a constitution-drafting panel…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Media Muzzle: Egypt’s Propaganda Drive
The charges against the 20 journalists are the latest in a series of moves against Al Jazeera that has spread to encompass all foreign media critical of the military-backed regime.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Anti-Zionist Challenge to the Jewish Establishment
by Caroline Glick
[…]
The Israeli leftist establishment’s dilemma is not unique. The American Jewish establishment faces the same brutal choice. The American Jewish establishment followed along after the Israeli leftist establishment when it embraced the PLO in 1993. Ever since, the American Jewish establishment has drawn a distinction between consensus Israel, within the 1949 armistice lines, which they supported, and controversial Israel, outside those lines, which they marginalized, or debased.
And just as the activist Israeli Left has joined the campaign to destroy the Jewish state and so is now forcing the leftist establishment to either side with the public it holds in contempt or with the anti-Zionist Left that rejects Israel completely, so the activist American Jewish Left has become a leading voice in the campaign to criminalize Israel. Today it is forcing the Jewish establishment to make a choice between siding with all Israelis, including the Israeli Right, or siding with the likes of J Street whose aim is to delegitimize the organized American Jewish community’s right to defend Israel.
On Monday, a new documentary about J Street called “The J Street Challenge,” debuted in Miami. The film, produced by the social action group Americans for Peace and Tolerance, shows how J Street, which claims to be pro-peace and pro-Israel, seeks to eliminate American Jewish groups on the Right and weaken overall American Jewish support for Israel by delegitimizing the American Jewish organizational structure.
In July 2010, as the IRS was engaged in delaying and denying the applications for the non-profit status of groups that campaigned for limited government, J Street asked the IRS to cancel the non-profit status of American charities that support Israeli entities located in or operating beyond the 1949 armistice lines.
Since then, a dozen completely legitimate, law-abiding charitable organizations have been embroiled in lawsuits or audits and have been forced to fight for their institutional lives.
“The J Street Challenge” provides footage of speeches by J Street leaders and founders who question Israel’s right to exist and defame the American Jewish community for supporting Israel. In one such speech, J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami used the classical anti-Semitic imagery of a Jewish hydra suffocating the world in his description of the American Jewish establishment.
[…]
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Deadly Explosion Near Iranian Cultural Center in Beirut Shiite Suburb
A blast has occurred near in the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut. The explosion is the latest to hit a predominantly Shiite area.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: 16 Killed in Separate Violent Attacks Across Iraq
BAGHDAD, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) — Sixteen people were killed and 32 others wounded in separate violent attacks, mainly targeting Iraqi security forces across the country, police source said on Wednesday.
In Salahudin province, a car bomb went off in the early hours of the morning at a popular market at a village, just south of the city of Dujail, some 60 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, leaving three people killed and 20 others wounded, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Deadly Suicide Car Bombings in Beirut
Lebanese al Qaeda-linked group claims responsibility
The authenticity of the claim by the Abdallah Azzam Brigade cannot be independently verified.
The group also claimed previous attacks on Iranian targets and Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah in Beirut.
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT — A suicide car bomber — possibly two — on Wednesday morning killed at least five people and wounded dozens in an attack against the Iranian cultural centre in the southern part of Beirut, according to Lebanese security forces quoted by local media.
An al Qaeda-linked group in Lebanon has claimed responsibility for the attack on its alleged Twitter account.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Twin Suicide Car Bombings Kill Eight in Beirut
BEIRUT: Twin suicide car bombings targeting the Iranian Cultural Center in a busy Beirut suburb Wednesday killed at least eight people, including the bombers, and wounded 128 others, a security source said.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades claimed responsibility for the deadly explosions, describing the attacks as a “raid” against the center in retaliation to Hezbollah and Tehran’s role in the Syrian war…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
More Than 500 Indian Workers Have Died in Qatar Since 2012, Figures Show
More than 500 Indian migrant workers have died in Qatar since January 2012, revealing for the first time the shocking scale of death toll among those building the infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup.
Official figures confirmed by the Indian embassy in Doha reveal that 237 Indians working in Qatar died in 2012 and 241 in 2013. A further 24 Indians have died in January 2014.
These come after the Guardian revealed last month that 185 Nepalese workers had died in Qatar in 2013, taking the total from that country to at least 382 over two years.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Prince of Wales Joins Saudi Sword Dancers in Traditional Dress
The Prince joined members of the Saudi royal family taking part in an Ardah or sword dance in a stadium in the capital Riyadh
With a sword in his hand and wearing traditional robes, the Prince of Wales took part in a ceremony celebrating cultural life in Saudi Arabia. Charles joined members of the Saudi royal family taking part in an Ardah or sword dance in a stadium in the capital Riyadh.
The Prince is making a short tour of the Middle East visiting Saudi Arabia and Qatar — a trip which comes just under a year since he last toured the two nations. Not only was Charles wearing the long white flowing outfit know as a “thobe” — traditionally worn by men from the Arab Gulf states but so was the British Ambassador Sir John Jenkins and other male members of the British delegation…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Prince Charles Performs Sword Dance in Saudi Arabia — Video
The Prince of Wales takes part in a traditional sword dance, an Ardha, during his visit to Saudi Arabia. Alongside members of the country’s royal family, and dressed in traditional robes and headdress, Charles is led through the movements. The prince is on a tour of the Middle East which will also include Qatar.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Women Join the Kurdish Fight in Syria
Syrian Kurds are fighting for an autonomous region in the northeast of the country. They have largely managed to drive out Assad’s troops. Now they’re fighting the Islamists. A third of the fighters are women.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
American Ted Ligety Wins Gold in Giant Slalom
Ted Ligety’s dominance of the men’s giant slalom, which began seven winters ago, continued Wednesday as he won the United States’s first gold medal of the Games in Alpine skiing.
Ligety’s combined time of 2:45.29 was 0.48 seconds better than the silver medalist, Steve Missillier of France. Alexis Pinturault of France won the bronze.
Ligety is the world champion in the giant slalom and has won the World Cup season-long giant slalom standings four times.
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Bjoerndalen Becomes Most-Successful Winter Olympian
Norwegian Ole-Einar Bjoerndalen has become the most-successful winter Olympian after winning gold in the biathlon mixed relay. In hockey, it was disappointment for the hosts as the Russian men’s team were eliminated.
Bjoerndalen, 40, passes compatriot Bjoern Daehlie as the most successful Olympian of all time with eight gold medals, four silvers and one bronze. Bjoerndalen, who also has 19 world championship titles, won his first Olympic gold medal at the 1998 Games in Nagano.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Canada Closes Embassy in Ukraine to Ensure Safety of Staff
Canada has closed its embassy in the Ukraine after protesters entered the embassy amid a violent crackdown on opposition demonstrators outside.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Sets a New Red Line — This Time for Ukraine
Similar to his approach with Syria, President Obama announced today that the Ukrainian government would face “consequences” if it crosses “the line” in its response to the mayhem in Kiev.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Men’s Hockey Team Eliminated in Quarterfinals
The Russian men’s hockey players were put forward as the host country’s most important entry in the Sochi Olympics, the only team that really mattered to many here. No one will ever know for sure the pressure they faced, only the humiliating ending they encountered.
Russia was holding its collective breath with this team, and was prepared to keep holding it through the gold medal game on Sunday, the grand finale before the closing ceremony. Instead, all the air was let out in the most dispiriting way on Wednesday, in a 3-1 loss to Finland in the quarterfinals. They did not get close.
Russia also struggled in the preliminary round, losing to the United States in a shootout. The Russians then had to play a qualification game, against Norway, to reach the quarterfinals. None of their games inspired much confidence.
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Russia’s Covert Role in the Ukrainian Crisis
Russia has accused the West of political meddling in Ukraine. Moscow has been keeping a low profile as far as its neighbor is concerned — but it is clearly still pulling strings in the background.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Crisis: EU Sanctions Push Over Kiev Bloodshed
Europe’s leaders are to consider urgent sanctions against Ukraine after the worst violence in months of unrest claimed at least 26 lives. Violence that began on Tuesday continued through the night as police tried to uproot the protest stronghold in the capital Kiev. President Viktor Yanukovych blamed opposition leaders and Russia spoke of an attempted coup. But the EU said it expected measures to target those behind the “repression”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine President ‘Agrees Truce’ With Opposition
Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych says he has agreed a truce with opposition leaders, after at least 26 people died in protests this week.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Risks ‘Civil War’: Italian Foreign Minister
Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino on Wednesday warned that Ukraine risked descending into “civil war”, after at least 25 people were killed in overnight clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces in the country’s capital Kiev.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukrainian President Announces He and Protesters Have Agreed to Truce
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said late Wednesday he and protest leaders had agreed to a “truce” following several days of violent clashes that left at least 26 dead. A statement from Yanukovych’s office also said both sides had agreed to begin negotiations “aimed at cessation of bloodshed and stabilization of the situation.”
The announcement, which gave no details of how a truce would be implemented, followed a second night of deadly clashes between Ukraine dissidents and police.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Anti-Muslim’ Indian Leader Modi ‘Hated’ In Pakistan
Narendra Modi may become India’s next prime minister. But how is the Hindu nationalist leader viewed in neighboring Pakistan? DW examines how his rise to power could impact the already volatile Indo-Pakistani relations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
As Afghanistan War Wanes, Ungoverned Spaces Remain
President Barack Obama’s major foreign policy message in his State of the Union address on Tuesday is expected to be that 2014 will mark the end of the U.S. war in Afghanistan.
But the president’s pronouncement will come with a bitter irony: Even after a dozen years, more than $1 trillion and the loss of thousands of American lives, the basic danger that prompted President George W. Bush to invade not only remains but, many national security watchers argue, is more alarming than ever.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India Has ‘Hit Limit’ Over Italian Marines, Says Minister
‘Ambiguous, unreliable behaviour’ by authorities in New Delhi
(ANSA) — Rome, February 18 — The Indian authorities have hit “the limit” with the umpteenth delay by the supreme court in New Delhi of a ruling on the case of two Italian marines accused of killing two Indian fishermen during an anti-piracy mission in 2012, Italian Defence Minister Mario Mauro said Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Emma Bonino recalled Italy’s ambassador to New Delhi to Rome for “consultations” and to show Rome’s bitterness at the handling of the marines, who have still not been charged two years after the incident took place “This measure is the limit and what’s even bigger is the indignation that has hit the whole nation and cannot fail to spread to the entire international community,” said Mauro. “There is no justice in this case. We are faced with ambiguous, unreliable behaviour on the part of the Indian authorities”. Marines Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone 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 marines have been living and working at the Italian embassy in India pending charges in the case that has stressed relations between India and Italy.
Tuesday’s supreme court hearing was set to rule on whether to prosecute the marines on the basis of a harsh anti-terrorism, anti-piracy law.
The request for the marines to be prosecuted with this law caused outrage here, with Rome saying it equates Italy to being a terrorist state. The European Union is backing Italy and has said the case threatens the future of anti-piracy operations.
As a result, there was speculation India’s justice ministry would bow to the pressure and choose to proceed under the country’s penal code rather than the SUA law, the country’s tough interpretation of an international treaty against terrorism and piracy framed after the infamous 1985 Achille Lauro hijacking.
The supreme court said Tuesday, however, that it was adjourning proceedings until February 24 to give the government time to give a written response about whether to apply the SUA law.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Indian State Rules Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Plotters Should be Freed
Tamil Nadu state decree over seven men who have served more than 20 years for 1991 killing of ex-PM awaits federal approval
An Indian state has ruled that seven men serving life sentences for the 1991 assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi should be freed because they have served more than 20 years in prison. Critics immediately condemned the decision by Tamil Nadu state, where the men are serving their sentences, saying it was a clear attempt to win over Tamil voters in this year’s national elections…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Islam Really Under Siege in Malaysia, Says Dr M
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 18 — The constant fear Malaysian Muslims have of Islam being attacked in the country where they are the majority is a legitimate fear, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.
The still influential former prime minister also accused the Malaysian Christian community of deliberately testing the tolerance of their Muslim countrymen by insisting on using “Allah” to call their God.
“It is a legitimate fear; if we lose our influence on the country, obviously lots of things which are offensive to Muslims will be found here,” he told reporters after officiating the Global Peace Foundation Chair for Global Peace at the International Islamic University Malaysia here.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Taliban Say They Held Indirect Talks With US About Possible Prisoner Exchange
Washington has held indirect talks with the Taliban over the possible transfer of five senior Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for a U.S. soldier captured nearly five years ago, a senior Taliban official told The Associated Press.
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, 27, of Hailey, Idaho, was last seen in a video released in December, footage seen as “proof of life” demanded by the United States. Bergdahl is believed to be held in the border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan. He is the only U.S. soldier to be captured in America’s longest war.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India’s population will (probably) overtake China’s in 2028. According to UN estimates, India will become the most populous country in the world in just 14 years’ time, when it will have about 1.45 billion inhabitants.
For many in India, becoming the most populous country will be an achievement, marking the country’s progress in its rivalry with China.
For others, particularly from the older generations, it represents a failure of the country’s decades-old attempts to bring its population under control.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thai Court Orders Government Not to Use Force Against Peaceful Protesters
A court has ordered Thailand’s government not to use force on peaceful protesters. After five died in Bangkok gun battles on Tuesday, protesters seeking to oust Yingluck Shinawatra have rallied at her temporary office.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Australian Missionary Reportedly Detained in North Korea
(CNN) — A 75-year-old Australian missionary who traveled to North Korea as part of a tour group has been detained there, his wife said. John Short had with him some Gospel tracts in Korean “which seem to be at the core of the detention,” his wife said in a statement Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Rich Beat a Path to Foreign Shores
Legal uncertainty and appalling pollution at home are prompting wealthy Chinese to move themselves and their money abroad. They are encouraged by other countries prepared to grant residency in return for investment.
Now, a poll of 400 of the Chinese millionaires has revealed that 65 percent want to leave the country where they made their money, or are at least trying to get a residence permit to live elsewhere. Often, they send their families on ahead. According to the poll by the Shanghai company Hurun, 30 percent already have a permit to live abroad.
So what is it that’s driving the millionaires to flee? In an interview with DW, Kristin Kupfer from the Mercator Institute of China Studies in Berlin cited three main motives. “Legal uncertainty is one reason,” she said. “Then they are looking for a better educational environment for their children, and a third reason is the very bad environmental situation in China.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama to Tour Asia Amid Rising Regional Tensions
Six months after scrapping a trip to the region, US President Obama has announced a four-nation tour of Asia aimed at quelling doubts about his commitment to a part of the world increasingly marked by security tensions.
Barack Obama is set to travel to Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines in late April “as part of his ongoing commitment to increase American diplomatic, economic and security engagement with countries in the Asia-Pacific region,” according to a White House statement.
The trip is viewed by analysts as an opportunity for the US administration to mitigate the diplomatic damage caused by Obama’s cancellation of three trips to the region during his presidency, which has led some to raise doubts about Washington’s declared foreign policy pivot to Asia and its expected role as a balancing power to an increasingly assertive China.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Army Chief Says ‘Cool Heads’ Would Prevail in Any Indonesian Conflict
Australia’s army chief has dismissed the prospect that tensions between Indonesia and Australia could erupt into military conflict in the future, saying ‘‘cool heads on both sides’’ would always prevail.
Lieutenant-General David Morrison acknowledged there were ‘‘concerns on the part of the Indonesian government at the moment, in terms of their relationships with Australia’’…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
2 Former Navy Seals Found Dead Aboard Ship at Center of ‘Captain Phillips’ Saga
Two former Navy SEALs working as security contractors aboard the Maersk Alabama were found dead Tuesday aboard the container ship, a day after it was docked near an island northeast of Madagascar, according to the Trident Group, the security firm that employed the men.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
2 US Security Officers Found Dead in Seychelles on ‘Captain Phillips’ Ship
Seychelles police say two American security officers have been found dead on a ship made famous after a Somali pirate hijacking.
The two men worked for U.S.-based Trident Security. Former military personnel frequently provide security on board ships sailing through the waters off Somalia to provide security against pirate attacks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Can Tech Help Solve Some of Africa’s Education Problems?
As UNESCO holds its second Mobile Learning Week, DW takes a look at how technology is being used in African countries and what can be done to take advantage of Africa’s mobile connectivity.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Centenary Celebration: Nigerians Founded Modern Nigeria, Not Britain — Unionist
…says Nigeria existed before amalgamation
The planned centenary celebration of Nigeria’s “nationhood” has continued to elicit mixed reactions from Nigerians and groups. Proponents of the celebration hinge their argument on the 1914 amalgamation of the Southern and Northern Protectorates by the Lord Lugard led-colonial administration in Nigeria, while some of the opponents argue that Nigeria existed before the amalgamation. Still, others insist Nigeria’s nationhood truly began in 1960…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
France, Germany to Send Joint Troops to Mali
The first troops from a joint Franco-German military brigade are to be deployed to Mali.The soldiers are to operate in a support and training role for forces already in the West African state.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gunfire Erupts as Muslims Flee C.A.R. Capital
Violence broke out after Christian fighters tried to halt the evacuation of Muslims from a camp near the airport.
Heavy gunfire has erupted near the airport in the Central African Republic’s capital Bangui as a Christian militia tried to block the evacuation of Muslims from the area, witnesses said.
Wednesday’s clashes began after Chadian troops tried to escort a convoy of Muslims out of the city, Songokoua Yetinzapa, a Bangui resident living in a camp for displaced civilians near the airport told Reuters news agency…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Mali: Timbuktu Waits for Peace Dividend
A year after French and African forces forced out Islamist militants from the historic city of Timbuktu, local residents are still waiting to reap the peace dividend, reports the BBC’s Alex Duval Smith.
‘‘If we want peace, the authorities must address the root causes of the war: People are hungry and thirsty. If the economy stays bad, men will go back to the armed groups, who pay you 300,000 CFA francs ($600; £400) to join up.’’
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Boko Haram Invades JTF Commander’s Home as Scores Die in Fresh Borno Attacks
MAIDUGURI — Gunmen suspected to be members of deadly Boko Haram terrorists, yesterday, evening invaded the residence of the Commander, Joint Task Force (JTF), Niger Delta, Major General Tukur Buratai at his country home, Buratai District in Biu Local Government Area of Borno State, killing two persons including a security personnel on guard suspected to be a soldier, and injured others…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
When we think of surfing in Africa, it’s usually images of South Africa and its high waves that come to mind. In West Africa surfing is not so common but the tiny country of Sierra Leone could be the next hot spot.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mexico Feels Energy Buzz With North America Summit
The North American Free Trade Agreement has been good for Eugenio Madero’s company. Now he’s hoping that a deeper plunge into economic integration, focused on Mexican energy, will be even better.
While oil output has been rising in the U.S. and Canada, Mexico’s production has fallen 25 percent since 2004 despite increased investment.
U.S. foreign direct investment in Mexico has increased steadily since NAFTA was signed, to more than 400 percent to a total of $92 billion, and trade between the two countries has more than tripled.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Salvadoran Sea Survivor Warmly Welcomed by Family, Friends Upon Return to Hometown
The Salvadoran fisherman who says he spent 13 months adrift at sea surviving on raw turtles, fish and birds has returned to his coastal hometown, where he was warmly welcomed by friends and family. Jose Salvador Alvarenga said Wednesday, “I feel very happy to be back. I’m home.” Dozens of residents shook his hand.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Violence Derails Brazilian Protest Movement
Smashed shopfronts, burning buses, injured protesters and the death of a cameraman — an ugly escalation of violence threatens to relegate Brazil’s protest movement to a position from which it is unlikely to recover.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Immigrants Behind Boom in Sweden’s Population
The population of Sweden saw the biggest yearly increase in 70 years last year, according to new statistics, thanks largely to the almost 120,000 immigrants who arrived throughout the year.
Sweden’s population on the last day of 2013 was 9,644,864 — a 0.93 percent hike from 2012. The total increase was the largest since 1946, and statisticians at Statistics Sweden (Statistiska centralbyrån — SCB) marked it down to a record-high level of immigration.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
One man was killed and 77 injured after police in Papua New Guinea opened fire on rioting asylum seekers in an Australian-run detention camp last night. Thirteen people suffered serious injuries, two of which has been flown to Australia for treatment, after the the second riot this week at a detention centre on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Racism Watchdog Calls Immigration Vote a ‘Setback’
Switzerland needs national awareness-raising campaigns that reach deep into rural areas to counter negative perceptions of foreigners, says a top anti-racism official in assessing the recent immigration vote and a United Nations review on discrimination.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: ‘Interior Minister Should Resign Over Ceuta Deaths’
A coalition of left-wing parties on Wednesday called for Spain’s Interior Minister to step down after 15 immigrants died while trying to swim to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in early February.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Population Boom Linked to Increased Immigration
Sweden has seen its largest population increase in nearly 70 years, according to fresh figures from Statistics Sweden, which explained that the reason for the growth in 2013 was significant immigration from countries in turmoil, among others Syria and Somalia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: EU-Migrants Face Eviction From Stockholm Camp
EU migrants who have set up a new tent camp in Huddinge, south of Stockholm, will likely soon be forced to leave. Just days ago, police and the Enforcement Office emptied a camp in the Stockholm suburb of Högdalen, where up to 200 homeless EU-migrants — mainly from Romania — had been living in tents, caravans and sheds. About half of them had accepted the offer of free bus tickets back to Romania, but others moved on to another camp in Huddinge. They now face eviction for a second time.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Number of Romanian and Bulgarian Migrant Workers Reaches Record High
Official data shows a 42 per cent surge in numbers from the two former Communist states during 2013, ahead of rule changes at start of January
The number of Romanian and Bulgarian migrant workers in Britain reached a record high at the end of last year, official figures have disclosed. There were 144,000 workers living in Britain who were born in the two eastern European countries according to figures for the final quarter of 2013…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Statistics Reveal Gaping Immigration Loophole as One Sham Marriage Occurs Per Hour in the UK
Home Office figures have revealed the shocking statistic that 7,606 sham marriages happened in the first 10 months of last year — more than one per hour. Despite the high number, only 90 people were deported in the whole of 2013…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Gambia: Jammeh Vows to Fight Homosexuals the Same Way as Mosquitoes
President Yahya Jammeh has once again launched another attack on homosexuals or gays, calling them vermin, and vowing that his government “will fight them the same way we are fighting malaria-causing mosquitoes”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Transsexual Protests Tax Row by Stripping Naked in Milan
Efe Bal demands status as prostitute recognised
(ANSA) — Milan, February 19 — A well-known transsexual stripped naked in front of the headquarters of Italian daily Corriere della Sera in Milan on Wednesday to protest against being chased for almost half a million euros in unpaid taxes by the local inland revenue even though her profession as a prostitute is not recognized by the State.
Efe Bal was forced to put her clothes back on by police who were drawn to the scene of her demonstration in front of the newspaper’s building over a 425,000-euro tax bill from the Equitalia state agency.
She may face charges of obscene acts in public.
The transsexual said that she intends to meet her fiscal obligations, providing her profession is recognized officially so as to be able to benefit from social-security contributions.
“I have never evaded taxes, and I do this for all the transsexuals that work in Italy”, the Brazilian escort said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The War on Men: 10 Ways Masculinity is Under Attack
And why the elite — not women — are to blame
Men are facing a full frontal assault on their rights, health and culture like never before. The war on masculinity has never been so brutal — but it’s not a war being waged by women. The attack is coming directly from the top, as the establishment desperately attempts to emasculate and disempower men in order to force women to be more dependent on the state, thereby enabling more power to be centralized and aiding the growth of big government.
Here are ten ways in which the state has declared war on men and masculinity;
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Wainwright Defends ‘Blasphemous’ Song Ahead of Sanremo
‘Gay Messiah’ a metaphor for equality, says artist
(ANSA) — Sanremo, February 18 — Singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright on Tuesday defended his song ‘Gay Messiah’ against accusations of blasphemy and said controversy surrounding his scheduled appearance at the Sanremo song contest had come as a “huge surprise”. The openly gay American-Canadian artist was set to perform John Lenon’s ‘Across the Universe’ and his own ‘Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk’ — but not the controversial ‘Gay Messiah’ — at the annual national song festival due to get underway later in the day. “His song Gay Messiah … is not meant to be ‘blasphemous’ as it is not a portrayal of Jesus or any religious figure in the canon of the Catholic Church but a metaphor for a world where gay people enjoy the same rights as heterosexual people, which judging by the reactions in Italy is still very far away,” said a spokesperson in response to criticism from the Catholic youth organisation Papaboys of his scheduled performance amid calls for the management of state broadcaster RAI to ‘intervene or resign’. “It is sad that a lot of the members of the Catholic Church seem to trail far behind their leader Pope Francis in his respect and acceptance for women, gay people and other minorities,” continued the statement.
On Monday RAI 1 Director Giancarlo Leone said Wainwright’s appearance was not intended to cause a scandal.
“The difference between commercial television and RAI is exactly in the fact that we have Rufus Wainwright and the others do not,” said the head of the channel that is to broadcast the festival.
“We have no intention of creating controversy using this singer, who was, among other things, defined by Elton John as the greatest songwriter in the world”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Calculated Risks: How Radiation Rules Manned Mars Exploration
Nearly everything we know about the radiation exposure on a trip to Mars we have learned in the past 200 days.
“Radiation is the one environmental characteristic that we don’t have a lot of experience with on Earth because we’re protected by our magnetosphere and relatively thick atmosphere. But it’s a daily fact of life on Mars,” said Don Hassler, the lead author on the paper, “Mars’ Surface Radiation Environment Measured with the Mars Science Laboratory’s Curiosity Rover.”
In just getting to Mars, an explorer would be exposed to more than 15 times an annual radiation limit for a worker in a nuclear power plant.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Eating to Live Not Living to Eat
Everything about communism was unjust — it was oppressive, unequal, and inadequate. And it was not just about the lack of food—it crushed the human spirit.
I don’ t look at food the same way most Americans do. I grew up on my grandparents’ small farm in the village. Everything we ate came from our garden and our livestock—fresh vegetables in season, canned vegetables in winter and spring, goat and cow’ s milk, butter, goat cheese, eggs, smoked meat, lardy bacon, fatty sausages in natural casings, and eggs.
We ate to live; we did not live to eat. Food was for nourishment, not for entertainment, gorging buffets, or for bourgeois socializing. From time to time, adults ate better meals with family and friends at weddings, baptisms, and funerals. Kids were generally not included in such occasions. They stayed home.
When I went to first grade, I moved to the city with my parents, 6 miles away. Our food then came from the benevolent government planners who made us wait every day in endless lines at the grocery store, the butcher store, the dairy store, the bakery, the greengrocer, and the farmer’ s market if we could find food, if the store did not run out, if there was enough for everybody, if we had rationing coupons, and if we could afford it.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Surprised to see Dr Mahathir Mohammed has re-surfaced. I was rather hoping he had gone somewhere quiet and died. I was in Malaysia during some of his time in office and found him to be corrupt, anti-British, Anti-Western, Anti-Christian and anti white. A very nasty piece of work who had no place on the world political stage.
@Prince Charles Performs Sword Dance in Saudi Arabia — Video
Presumably the Royal Family could still be the Royal Family on their conversion to islam? Indeed has it not been claimed for them that somewhere in their murky past they are descendants of Muhammad.
What Royal Family waning in faith and power would not grasp at the tool of subservience that the conversion to islam would gift them.
@The War On Men: 10 Ways Masculinity is Under Attack
The end result male dominant feminised societies, as masculinity is oppressed and the males assume feminine characteristics, the females are pushed out of any meaningful status in the societies, the out of sight out of mind feminism of islamification.
As masculinity is degraded women are degraded four fold.
The path to that end result is nonetheless complicated. IIRC, that article talks about our widely contaminated food supply which causes hormonal degradation. Those slings and arrows are impossible to avoid entirely, very difficult and expensive to side-step them even partially.
Knowing the sources of the contamination and how they work in the human body entails a long-term commitment to understanding the components of physical health and the consequences of careless eating or drinking. IOW, getting up to speed re situational awareness in the field (literally “in the field”) demands a commitment well past any form of normal “due diligence” because the poisons we consume are widespread.
The sad fact is accumulative damage through years of eating pesticides and harmful elements – e.g., the high levels of arsenic now found even in “organic” rice. These assaults eventually turn even healthy food into no-go areas for the walking wounded. When the damages endocrine system can no longer function properly, “safe” foods are mighty few. Ironically, many people are choosing intermittent fasting to give their bodies a rest from the onslaught.
Lowered sperm count is due (at least in part) to plastic compounds in the environment; not so much conspiracy as cock-up (excuse pun), as we say in Britain, but maybe Greens sometimes have a point?