EU authorities are grappling with the thorny problem of how to determine if someone is gay. The issue arose because three asylum seekers who claimed they were gay — and might be persecuted if they were returned to their country of origin — were denied entry into the Netherlands.
In other news, the new government of Ukraine has issued an arrest warrant for deposed President Viktor Yanukovych, who is wanted for murder after the death of dozens of protesters during the recent violent demonstrations in Kiev.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, KP, 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.
10 Stories From the Cold, Hard Streets of America That Will Break Your Heart
If the economy is really “getting better”, then why have millions upon millions of formerly middle class Americans been pushed to the point of utter despair? The stories that you are about to read are absolutely heartbreaking. I don’t know how anyone can read them without getting chills.
In America today, if you lose a good job, there is a good chance that you will get back on your feet before too long. But there is also a good chance that you won’t be able to find a decent job and will plunge into the abyss of depression and desperation that so many millions of other Americans have fallen into. As I wrote about earlier this month, the U.S. economy is definitely not getting any better. For example, if you assume that the percentage of Americans that want to work is about at the long term average, then the official unemployment rate in the United States would be above 11 percent.
And compared to six years ago, 1,154,000 fewer Americans are working today even though our population has gotten significantly larger since then. Behind all of these numbers are real flesh and blood people, and you are about to hear from some of them. The following are 10 stories from the cold, hard streets of America that will break your heart…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi Govt Has First Furore Over State Bonds
New premier’s right-hand man causes outcry with suggestion
(ANSA) — Rome, February 24 — Premier Matteo Renzi’s new government was faced with its first major furore on Monday after the Democratic Party (PD) leader’s right-hand man suggested an increase in taxes on State bonds could be on the cards.
Cabinet Undersecretary Graziano Delrio caused the storm on Sunday when he said that “if an elderly lady has 100,000 euros put aside in (short-term) BOT (bonds), I don’t think she’ll have any health problems if you take 25 or 30 euros off her”.
The suggestion was condemned by opposition parties and members of the junior partner in Renzi’s government, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano’s New Centre Right (NCD).
“Let’s not start off on the wrong foot,” Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi, one of three NCD ministers, told Monday’s Corriere della Sera.
“Announcing that we may tax BOTs is an error both of style and content. And we are not willing to accept tax increases”.
The premier’s office put out a statement after Delrio spoke, but this did not rule out higher taxes on bonds, saying Renzi would illustrate how the government intends to “reduce the tax burden by reshaping (the tax system)” during a speech in the Senate Monday before a confidence vote. Renzi was highly critical of communication breakdowns and other mistakes made by the administration of his predecessor and PD colleague Enrico Letta, which he pulled the plug on 11 days ago.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Shut Up With the Martial Law Hysteria
Yes, it’s true the Department of Fatherland Security (DHS) has been buying billions of rounds of ammo for the past several years as well as other alphabet soup agencies. The question is why? My personal belief is the shadow government who own and run the criminal syndicate, the Outlaw Congress, know full well there is no economic recovery underway. Just the opposite is true. The banking cartels and global elite have looted the wealth of this nation since the unconstitutional “Federal” Reserve was birthed in 1913. Due to the nature of fiat currency and the massive, never ending spending and borrowing ($2 BILLION dollars a day with the interest slapped on our backs) by the thieves in the U.S. Congress, the power brokers know a financial catastrophe is rolling across this country. Americans are growing more enraged by the day as their lives and livelihood are being destroyed…
The money and power brokers responsible for the 2008 meltdown know what tens of millions of Americans don’t know: The problem wasn’t fixed after the unconstitutional bail outs for banks and the auto industry. The unconstitutional stealing from you me our children and grand children under TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program) was more borrowed debt. Since the treasury was overdrawn $10.3 TRILLION dollars at the time, all the “money” for TARP had to be borrowed slapping even more debt on we the people. A very expensive Band Aid. Because the wrong road was taken, the big hurt being unleashed on the American people will make 2008 look like prosperity…
There is a build up underway for another massive financial bubble because the disabilities of our monetary system has not been ‘fixed’…
The dragoons in DHS are preparing for civil unrest while people are constantly distracted by Hillary the Hun possibly running for president, the ignorant running around shouting martial law will be declared tomorrow and other noise on the Internet.
So how do you checkmate government tyranny? By becoming organized. Not to over throw the U.S. government, but because it is your duty under the Second Amendment. Yes, I’m talking about the constitutional militia…
There are 3,144 counties in these united States of America. If there were a constitutional militia group in every county in this country or even just half the counties, I guarantee you the thugs in Washington, DC., would go nuts. Just imagine tens of millions (remember there are more than 90 million gun owners in this country) of men (and women if they choose) who, ideally under the direction of their local sheriff or someone else highly trained, who have been given comprehensive classes on the founding of this republic, what the Declaration of Independence really means and the U.S. Constitution. Those militia chapters or units, whatever you want to call them, are organized and fully educated on what freedom and liberty really means vs tyrannical government. THAT would be a game changer.
True v False Militia & Why the Difference Matters:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Federal Reserve is Not “Independent” Or “Apolitical”
The Federal Reserve likes to pretend that it is “independent” and “apolitical”.
- The Fed offered to bail out Mexico, if it would agree to join the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Free trade deals have nothing to do with the Fed’s mandate.
- The Fed has been bailing out foreign banks … more than Main Street or the American people. The foreign banks bailed out by the Fed include Gaddafi’s Libyan bank, the Arab Banking Corp. of Bahrain, and the Banks of Bavaria, Korea and Mexico.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
American Studies Association President-Elect Hosting Anti-Israel at NYU
The American Studies Program at New York University (NYU), with the support of American Studies Association (ASA) President-Elect Professor Lisa Duggan, is set to hold a two-day anti-Israel conference…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Brutish Ignorance at ATF and DEA
Reporters John Diedrich and Raquel Rutledge of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently published a series of articles exposing six ATF operations that have involved highly suspect tactics. In a Newsmax article, award winning Washington Times journalist Cheryl K. Chumley also reported upon these abuses.
In the operations, ATF agents go undercover and pose as owners and employees of illicit drug and gun buying operations. They find mentally disabled people and vulnerable others to be stooges for the agents, to join the disguised agents in consummating illicit drug and gun transactions, and to funnel people, including teens, to sham storefronts where they are encouraged to commit criminal acts. The ATF agents then make arrests, including the arrest of those who have done their bidding as stooges.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dashboard Footage Cops Tried to Hide Gets Jersey Man Acquitted, Cops Indicted
Vivid example of why it’s good for citizens when cops’ actions are recorded, in a nice happy-ending story out of New Jersey, summed up by Raw Story over the weekend:
Evidence from a dashboard camera on a police cruiser ended a nightmare for a New Jersey man facing false charges of eluding police, resisting arrest and assault.
Prosecutors dismissed all the criminal charges against Marcus Jeter, 30, of Bloomfield, N.J. and instead indicted two Bloomfield police officers for falsifying reports and one of them for assault after the recording surfaced showing police officers beating Jeter during a traffic stop, according to WABC of New York. A third has pleaded guilty to tampering.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The hypocrisy of white liberals over integration and the wonderful enrichment that mass immigration is supposed to bring is the gift that never stops giving. If there is one thing you can be absolutely sure of whenever you hear a white liberal espousing the vital importance of diversity, it is that the same person lives in a safe, lily-white community.
What was termed “white flight” in the 1950s and 1960s is a demographic fact of life and everyone knows it. No less an unwilling witness than the U.S. government has reported what everyone knows: when the non-white population of a community reaches between 10 and 20 percent, whites simply leave. Whites will not live in non-white neighborhoods in any meaningful percentage.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Labor Union Leaders Supporting Arrested Liberals, Indicted for Racketeering
Federal law enforcement officials on Tuesday arrested and charged 10 members of a major labor organization, that supported — and contributed millions to — — President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party, in a large-scale RICO case, according to a report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The members of the Ironworkers Union’s Local 401 in Pennsylvania are charged with alleged criminal acts, including arson, extortion, assault, and the destruction of private property, in order to force construction contractors to hire union ironworkers, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Local 401 business manager, 72-year-old Joe Dougherty, as well as union representatives Ed Sweeney, Sean O’Donnell, Christopher Prophet, and William O’Donnell, and five other officials are facing serious prison time if convicted of the charges.
The federal indictment reveals several incidents in which the union officials behaved as if they were organized crime figures rather than labor activists. According to the FBI, they threatened or assaulted contractors and their employees, damaged construction equipment and vandalized job sites in order to force contractors to hire Local 401 workers, even when those workers did no work.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Leftist Luddites Would Have Civilization Deindustrialize
Named Counselor to the President in December, John Podesta’s think tank, the Center for American Progress, also released a report that month entitled “The Green Industrial Revolution and the United States.” This report gives a glowing account of how the development of “clean technology” is key to launching us into a new era of societal development.
They describe how spending massive amounts of taxpayer money on new technology for things such as electric cars, wind farms and solar energy is “the source of expanding global markets and of millions of new jobs in a hugely diverse set of industries and occupations, from cutting-edge research to installation of technologies such as rooftop solar panels and utility-scale wind farms.”
They fail to mention that their “green revolution” requires the abandonment of the energy sources required to fuel us into this Brave New World of the future.
What a crazy ideological system that rules over us. Instead of putting our efforts into developing cleaner and more efficient use of fossil fuels which are still in abundance in the earth, the federal government tries to force the abandonment of coal energy and oil-based power sources and turn wholly to solar and wind energy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Michigan Democrat Threatens to Shut Down TV Stations Airing Anti-ObamaCare Ad
Anti-Obamacare ad draws ire of Democrat anxious to violate the First Amendment
Rep. Gary Peters of Dexter, Michigan is threatening to bring the FCC down on the operator of a television station playing an anti-Obamacare advertisement.
In a letter sent to the stations threatening to use his political authority to have their licenses pulled, Peters accused the broadcasters of commandeering broadcast facilities. He warns they are responsible for content aired.
Peters claims the ad violates federal law under License Responsibility With Respect to the Broadcast of False, Misleading or Deceptive Advertising.
Read the letter sent to television stations by the Perkins Coi law firm in Washington, DC:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mysterious Polio-Like Illness Hits 25 Kids With No Hope of Recovery
A mysterious illness doctors are comparing to polio has struck down up to 25 children in California, leaving them with paralyzed limbs and a bad prognosis.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Operatives Infiltrate Canadian Liberals
Canada-The ‘North American Union’ (NAU) is here. The same people who ran Senator Barack Obama’s campaign for president are running Canadian Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s campaign for Canadian Prime Minister.
The dreaded NAU has finally come full circle.
Members of the same team that got Senator Barack Obama elected and left the mighty USA in a gutter of despair are running Canada’s Liberal contender for prime minister — poised to win the 2015 federal election.
Obama’s former economic czar Larry Summers, media described as “now the intellectual guiding light for Mr. Trudeau and his key advisors” was the top speaker at Thursday’s opening night at the Canadian Liberal convention.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Seizes Control of Late Night TV
Establishment moves into securing entertainment industry as primary conduit for political agenda.
The recent replacement of Jay Leno with Obama cheerleader Jimmy Fallon is part of a White House coup d’état to take control of late night television.
With more and more young Americans deserting news networks and getting their information and opinions from late night comedy/discussion shows, the establishment is moving into using the entertainment industry as its primary conduit for state propaganda.
Distrust in the institution of television news is hovering at all time lows, which is why one of the few places left that the White House can elicit a sympathetic response to its agenda and talking points is the cosy, make believe world of late night TV.
While Barack Obama is pursuing a chillingly dictatorial political agenda based around executive tyranny, Jimmy Fallon is helping to massage Obama’s image as a down to earth, fun loving guy that you can trust.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pentagon Proposes Cutting US Army to Pre-WWII Levels
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has proposed shrinking the US Army’s size to its lowest level since before the start of World War II. The reduction comes as Washington winds down more than 13 years of war in Afghanistan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Piers Morgan Admits Gun Control Advocacy Led to Show Being Axed
Decision sends clear message that Americans are rejecting networks acting as state media mouthpieces.
After his show was axed by CNN, television host Piers Morgan admitted that his relentless advocacy for gun control was the primary factor behind plunging ratings that led to the decision to shelve the broadcast, proving that Americans will not tolerate the establishment media undermining constitutional freedoms in concert with White House talking points…
However, Morgan’s treatment is not a special case. He is the victim of the general malaise that mainstream media finds itself mired in thanks to Americans’ growing distrust of television news.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Puerto Rico Police, US Agents Seize Haul of Cocaine From Van During Routine Stop
Puerto Rican police and federal U.S. law enforcement agents have seized 600 kilograms (1,322 pounds) of cocaine in a central town on the Caribbean island. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency says in a Monday statement that the cocaine haul was detected during a routine operation in Caguas.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rep. John D. Dingell Jr., Democrat of Michigan and Longest Serving Member of Congress, To Retire
Representative John D. Dingell Jr., Democrat of Michigan, the longest serving member of Congress in history, was expected to announce on Monday that he will not seek re-election in 2014, and will leave Congress in 2015.
Mr. Dingell, 87, has served in the House for more than 58 years.
He made his first appearance on the House floor at the age of 6, when his father was elected in 1933; he went on to become a Congressional page; and after his father died in 1955 he successfully ran for his seat at the age of 29.
| [Return to headlines] |
Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Second Amendment Cases
Three cases involving Second Amendment issues were turned away from the Supreme Court on Monday. The cases concerned the right of Americans to carry firearms outside their homes for self-defense.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Susan Rice: ‘Not 100 Percent Correct’ On Benghazi, But No Regrets
National Security Adviser Susan Rice insisted Sunday she used “the best information we had at the time” when she described the deadly Benghazi attack as a spontaneous protest in 2012 — but Sen. John McCain wasn’t buying it.
The Arizona Republican said he was “almost speechless” after learning of Ms. Rice’s comments on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” which marked her first interview on a Sunday talk show since her disastrous September 2012 appearances to discuss Benghazi.
“I’m almost speechless, because it’s patently obvious, first of all, that Susan Rice had no reason to be on the program, she had no involvement in it [Benghazi],” said Mr. McCain on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Ms. Rice was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations when she told several news outlets in September 2012 that the attack was a “spontaneous reaction” to an anti-Muslim video on YouTube, an account that has since been widely discredited.
“Second of all, she read talking points that we are now beginning to believe came from the White House which were absolutely false,” Mr. McCain said. “We now know that the CIA station chief on the ground sent a message immediately saying, ‘Not-slash-not spontaneous demonstration,’ and of course the information was totally misleading, totally false.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tea Party Leader Says Group Seeks to Marginalize Him as ‘Sovereign Citizen Guru’
A New York Tea Party activist says he’s being unfairly lumped in with cop killers and domestic terrorists just because he advocates admittedly radical reforms to the legal system.
John Darash, a 61-year-old retired carpenter from Poughkeepsie, N.Y., said he was “shocked” to learn the Anti-Defamation League in a news release last week branded him a “guru” of the sovereign citizen movement, a loosely organized and ill-defined group that has been linked to police killings and extreme hate speech. Darash told FoxNews.com he does not consider himself a sovereign citizen and that he’s never advocated violence to further his goals.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
12 Reasons Why Everyone Hates Piers Morgan
By James Delingpole
Excerpt: Today blogger Guido Fawkes tweeted his excitement about the news of Piers Morgan’s demise from his primetime slot on CNN. Lots of people are evidently elated about this, and Guido took to his MediaGuido Twitter account to recall a personal memory about his last conversation with the late founder of this very parish, Andrew Breitbart. Here are twelve reasons why the shade of Andrew Breitbart isn’t the only one on cloud nine on this, the happiest of days.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
by Anne Marie Waters
In 2008, Britain repealed its blasphemy laws. In 2014, they’re back. Blasphemy has not been reintroduced by legislation, or democratic will; instead, it has returned via a distinctly sinister route. It applies overwhelmingly to one particular religion, and its penalty is severe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Secret Diamond Club, which started in Demark and has spread across Europe and America has just launched here in the UK to a rather mixed response.
Gus has a rather controversial reason for his decision to launch in the UK, claiming rich British men can’t find love as the women here are unattractive. He told MailOnline: ‘Coming from a Scandinavian country we know Britain as a country of ugly women.’
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
CAR: French Checkpoint in Bangui to Separate Muslims and Christians
In the PK-12 district in the north of Bangui, a unit of French soldiers is positioned day and night to avoid confrontation between traumatized Muslims and Christians who want to “oust” them out of CAR…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
France: Burgundy Winemaker Faces Jail for Refusing to Use Pesticides
An organic winemaker from France’s Burgundy region is due in court Monday for refusing to use pesticides on his vines despite a local government order.
Emmanuel Giboulot, who farms a 10-hectare estate in the region’s Côte d’Or wine-growing area, is accused of ignoring a local directive to spray his vines with pesticides to kill a leaf-hopping insect that spreads the “flavescence Dorée” bacterial disease.
Flavescence Dorée first appeared in the Armanac region of south-west France in 1949, and has steadily spread throughout the country.
It can kill young vines and seriously reduce the productivity of mature vineyards. And while there is no cure for the infection, use of pesticides has been found to stop the spread.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Thessaloniki Bus Driver Gets Suspended Sentence for Racist Behavior
A bus driver in Thessaloniki has been given a 10-month jail sentence, suspended for three years, after being found guilty of forcing two black passengers off his vehicle because of their race rather than due to them not having valid tickets, as he had claimed.
The court deemed the driver guilty denying passengers service due to racist behaviour and rejected his denial of witness statements. Witnesses said the driver swore at the two men, reported to be from Africa, and told theme he was a Golden Dawn member.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Olives Face Squeeze in Efficiency Drive
In the olive groves around Ancient Olympia, sanctuary of the Greek gods, the trees were once considered sacred, and in many ways they still are. Carefully pruned and pampered, they are described by farmers with a reverence that could match the language used by makers of champagne or single malt whisky.
So plans to extend a brutal efficiency drive to olive oil production have been met with anger and disbelief.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Spy Agency Officials Acquitted in CIA Snatch
State secrecy invoked in extraordinary rendition case
(updates previous) (ANSA) — Rome, February 24 — Italy’s supreme court on Monday acquitted the former head and the No.2 of the Italian secret service agency, Nicolo’ Pollari and Marco Mancini, as well as three agents, for involvement in the CIA’s extraordinary rendition of Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Omar Nasr from Milan in 2003. The Cassation Court said sentences could not be upheld due to State secrecy. Pollari and Mancini were respectively appealing a 10-year and a nine-year sentence at a lower court for allowing the CIA to commit “a grave violation of national sovereignty” when they snatched Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, an Islamist suspected of recruiting jihadi fighters. Nasr, whose case led to the world’s first judicial examination of the controversial practice in the so-called war on terror, got a jail term of six years for international terrorism in December. In September 2012, Italy’s top court of appeals upheld the convictions of 22 CIA agents and a former US air force officer, Joseph L. Romano, for the abduction.
The Court of Cassation confirmed the seven-year sentences for 22 of them and a nine-year term for former Milan station chief Robert Seldon Lady.
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano later pardoned Romano.
The CIA officers were formally facing extradition and Lady was arrested in Panama in July but freed a day later when the US government stepped in. He asked Italy for a pardon in September.
None of the CIA operatives has appeared in court.
Nasr was snatched by a team of CIA operatives with the help of SISMI — later renamed as AISE — and taken to a NATO base in Ramstein, Germany, en route to Cairo.
He emerged from an Egyptian prison four years later claiming he had been tortured.
Italian courts have awarded him one million euros in damages.
The case caused friction between Italy and the United States.
Extraordinary rendition was first authorised by former American president Bill Clinton in the 1990s and stepped up when his successor George W. Bush declared war on terror after the September 11, 2001 attacks by Al-Qaeda.
Successive Italian governments denied all knowledge of the case and consistently ruled out the possibility of extradition.
The trial of Nasr claimed headlines worldwide and stoked discussion of rendition, which was extended by President Barack Obama in 2008 under the proviso that detainees’ rights should be respected.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Soccer: Two Congo Players Disappear in Rome
Flee team while at under-20 tournament
(ANSA) — Rome, February 24 — The search continued Monday for two teenagers from the Republic of the Congo who disappeared while on a trip to Rome for a soccer tournament.
The youths, aged 16 and 17 years, are believed to be seeking refuge in Italy from the poverty in their African state, which borders the much larger Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The pair were playing in an international event, designed to showcase up-and-coming under 20 soccer talents, and representing their capital of Brazzaville.
The two teens had been staying in a hotel in the EUR region on the southern edge of Rome, and were expected to return home with the rest of their team.
Police say the pair disappeared Saturday after heading into Rome’s historic centre, and authorities are now tracing mobile phone records and social networks including Facebook to try to track the teens.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Two Mn Chinese-Made Carnival Items Seized
‘Very dangerous’ for kids, police say
(ANSA) — Rome, February 24 — Italian police on Monday seized more than two million Chinese-made Carnival items including costumes, toys and make-up they said were “very dangerous” for kids because of the toxic substances they were made of.
Four Chinese-born businessmen were cautioned after raids on four warehouses on the outskirts of Rome.
Police said the entrepreneurs were planning to flood the Rome market for children’s festive gear during the annual nationwide Carnival which ends on ‘Martedì Grasso’ (Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday) on March 4, the day before Ash Wednesday. The Catholic feast is the first day of Lent, the six-week period of self-denial and repentance preparing for the resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Generali’s Ex-CEO and Ex-General Manager Under Investigation
Giovanni Perissinotto, Raffaele Agrusti in obstruction probe
(ANSA) — Trieste, February 24 — Formal notice on Monday was issued to two former top executives at the Italian insurance giant Generali Group that they have been placed under investigation for obstructing scrutiny by regulators.
Prosecutors in the northeastern Italian city of Trieste, where the multi-billion-euro insurance multinational is based, are probing ex-chief executive Giovanni Perissinotto and ex-managing director Raffaele Agrusti.
Prosecutors were alerted to the case by Italian insurance and bourse watchdogs Ivass and Consob, respectively.
The regulators had flagged suspicion of irregularities concerning internal governance for a number of private-equity and alternative-fund investments, which they believed were decided or managed by Perissinotto and Agrusti without necessary powers of authority, appraisals, or instruments for protection or monitoring.
Generali Group reported 234 million euros in losses from the investments on the balance sheet, but an internal audit by KPMG found the transactions in question were worth 660 million euros. The Generali board ousted Perissinotto in a surprise boardroom coup that took place in June 2012, and appointed Mario Greco in his place. Greco was chief executive at Zurich Insurance prior to Generali. (photo: Raffaele Agrusti)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi Holds Meeting on Marines Case After Another Delay
Premier meets Pinotti, Mogherini, de Mistura
(see related stories) (ANSA) — Rome, February 24 — New Premier Matteo Renzi held a meeting with Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini and Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti on Monday over the case of two Italian marines accused of killing two Indian fishermen during an anti-piracy mission in 2012.
Staffan de Mistura, Italy’s special envoy assigned to the case, also attended the meeting.
Indian prosecutors on Monday told the supreme court that they were in favour of dropping a request for the marines, Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, to be prosecuted under an anti-terrorism, anti-piracy law.
But they said that the NIA anti-terrorism police should conduct the prosecution.
The Italian pair’s defence team objected to this, prompting the supreme court to order the latest in a long series of delays in proceedings — this time for two weeks.
The possible application of the anti-terrorism law in this case caused major diplomatic tension between the two nations, with Rome saying it equated Italy with the being a terrorist State.
The anti-terrorism law calls for the death penalty in the case of a guilty verdict, but the Indian authorities had already excluded the possibility of capital punishment being used, albeit after lengthy delays and many mixed signals.
Mogherini said the marines were “in my heart” after being named in Renzi’s new cabinet on Friday and has pledged that bringing them back to Italy after over two years in India was her primary concern.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Police Operation in Corruption Probe at Scandal-Hit MPS
Damages to bank estimated at 47 million euros
(ANSA) — Rome, February 47 — Italian finance police on Monday made dozens of searches as part of a probe into alleged corruption at the scandal-plagued Monte Dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) bank.
The searches reportedly related to alleged members of the so-called “5% gang” — a name given to ex-bank managers suspected of taking 5% payoffs on banking operations under a previous management.
Investigators believe MPS was fleeced of 47 million euros. Prosecutors are pursuing charges of aggravated criminal conspiracy aimed at defrauding the Sienese bank.
The case involves funds transferred to offshore accounts, trusts and companies.
The Siena prosecutor’s office has placed 11 former MPS managers and financial brokers under investigation in the case, including Gianluca Baldassarre, former chief of finance for MPS, Baldassarre’s former deputy, Alessandro Toccafondi, the former head head of the MPS London office Matteo Pontone, and former MPS manager Antonio Pantalena.
Also under investigation is probe is Fabrizio Cerasani, a founding partner and director of the London-based company Enigma Securities, who also served as Enigma’s representative in Italy.
Three Enigma brokers are under scrutiny as well — Maurizio Fabris, David Ionni and Luca Borrone — in addition to three other people.
Roughly 40 million euros were seized last summer from a number of suspects in the case.
The names of some of the brokers now under investigation emerged with reference to tax shields carried out in 2009-2010 through MPS, that placed funds into accounts and investments with Allianz Bank Advisor SpA.
Italy’s third-largest bank was thrown into crisis in January 2013 when it emerged that a shady series of derivative and structured-finance deals produced losses of 720 million euros.
Siena prosecutors are pursuing charges of alleged bribery, corruption, tax evasion and other illicit operations at MPS, which were either related to the bank’s nine-billion-euro acquisition of rival Antonveneta in 2008 or the period following the takeover.
After five months behind bars, Baldassare was released from jail last July and placed under house arrest in his Milan residence.
The ex-MPS finance chief is accused of market manipulation, fraud, obstructing banking watchdogs, issuing false statements and possible collusion in the obstruction of proper oversight together with MPS’s former chairman Giuseppe Mussari.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Must Sort Itself ‘Not for Merkel But Our Kids’
Renzi urges Senate to vote confidence in new government
(see previous) (ANSA) — Rome, February 24 — Premier Matteo Renzi on Monday said Italy needed to “get its house in order, not for the European Union or (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel but for the respect of our children and those who come after us”. Renzi was speaking before the Senate, urging it to vote confidence in his new government.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Della Valle Threatens Action Against RCS Chief Executive
‘Two or three things, but not Corriere headquarters sale’
(ANSA) — Milan, February 24 — Tod’s shoe magnate Diego Della Valle, a minority shareholder of the troubled Italian publisher RCS Mediagroup, threatened on Monday to take action against RCS Chief Executive Pietro Scott Jovane over undisclosed matters.
RCS is one of Italy’s largest and most influential publishing groups with influential journals including the best-selling national newspaper Il Corriere della Sera.
Della Valle, who holds a 9% stake in RCS, told Radio 24 that he is assessing “two or three things”, but not the controversial sale of historic newspaper headquarters in Milan. “We are assessing (action), I can’t respond to you now (as to what), even if I have an extremely precise idea about it,” said Della Valle.
Earlier this month Della Valle sent a letter threatening directors of RCS Mediagroup with legal action over certain transactions including a capital-increase plan approved by the board of the publishing group.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Latest Anti-Israel Boycott Attempt in Irish Academia
A campaign for the National University of Ireland (Galway) students union is holding a vote, seeking to boycott Israel, at the behest of a little-known group called “Academics for Palestine”. Irish4Israel noted that the debate leading up to the vote will likely side-line any defense of the Jewish state, since the organisers have thus far failed to engage with the pro-Israel community in Ireland…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Terror Threat to Rise in 2014
The terror threat against Norway will rise this year as militant Islamists born-and-bred in the country return battle-hardened from the civil war in Syria, the Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS) said on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Scandal of Europe’s 11m Empty Homes
More than 11m homes lie empty across Europe — enough to house all of the continent’s homeless twice over — according to figures collated by the Guardian from across the EU. In Spain more than 3.4m homes lie vacant, in excess of 2m homes are empty in each of France and Italy, 1.8m in Germany and more than 700,000 in the UK.
There are also a large numbers of vacant homes in Ireland, Greece, Portugal and several other countries, according to information collated by the Guardian. Many of the homes are in vast holiday resorts built in the feverish housing boom in the run up to the 2007-08 financial crisis — and have never been occupied.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: SMS Not a Valid Last Will and Testament: Court
A Swedish appeals court has crushed a suicidal man’s last wishes by ruling that his text messages to would-be inheritors were not legally valid.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK Soldiers Warned Not to Wear Uniforms in Public: Alert Over Copycat Lee Rigby-Style Jihad Murders
Police have reportedly stepped up patrols around Hounslow Cavalry Barracks amid concerns extremists are plotting a copycat Lee Rigby-style killing. Counter-terror officers have warned soldiers at the military base in Beavers Lane, Hounslow, to be alert as the British soldier’s murderers await sentencing this week.
Members of the Welsh Guards were told to avoid drawing attention to their army status by wearing their uniform in nearby pubs or Hounslow High Street.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
An ‘outstanding’ inner-city academy is to be investigated over claims non-Muslim staff are being treated unfairly and staff are attempting to introduce Islamic studies to the curriculum. Non faith-based Park View Academy in the Alum Rock area of Birmingham was the first academy in Britain to be rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted.
It will now be investigated by Department of Education (DfE) officials following a complaint by an employee. The complaint is believed to include claims non-Muslim staff are being treated unfairly at the state school — which also manages two other schools in the city…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Obituary: Alice Sommer-Herz
Born Prague, November 26, 1903. Died London, February 23, 2014, Aged 110
She has been called the supercentenarian, the oldest known Holocaust survivor, but it was music that helped sustain Alice Sommer-Herz throughout the Nazi years and beyond. A renowned concert pianist, her epiphany was not a religious one — she called herself Jewish without religion -but the music of Brahms, Beethoven, Bach, Schubert and Schumann…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Rival Bangladeshi Groups Clash as Whitechapel Memorial Sparks Violence
EXCLUSIVE: A pitched battle broke out last night between Bangladeshi groups in a Whitechapel park, with women and children caught in the middle. Metal barricades were used as makeshift weapons in Altab Ali Park in the latest spillover of Bangladeshi politics onto the streets of the East End.
Police broke up the fighting and cleared everyone from the park, but it is not believed any arrests were made. Hundreds had gathered in the park at midnight to place flowers at the Shaheed Minar (Martyr Monument) for the annual Bangladeshi Martyrs Day ceremony…
[JP note: Towards the end of the brief, accompanying youtube clip, a shout of Allahu Akbar can be heard.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Racist Muslim Jailed for Threatening to Cut Off Policeman’s Penis
A racist Muslim who threatened to blow up police officers and cut off one’s penis has been jailed for almost three years. Haroon Rashid was chased by police officers after he punched a man in the face with a homemade kuckle duster.
Officers took off in pursuit of the 31-year-old following the road rage incident in July last year. When they caught up with Rashid he launched into a tirade, saying: “I am going to cut off your dick, you f***ing white infidels,” Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.
He also threatened to “blow them up”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UKIP Unveils Scottish European “Shock Troops”
The UK Independence Party has unveiled its candidates for the European Parliament elections with warnings against Scottish independence, the European Union and “politically correct” multiculturalism.
David Coburn, who leads Ukip’s Scottish list for the election on May 22, welcomed around 40 party members to Glasgow’s Grand Central Hotel…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Weighing a Schengen Zone for Europe’s Internet Data
Germany and France are considering a so-called Schengen routing system in which as much online data would be kept in Europe as possible. But would it really limit surveillance — or just line the pockets of EU companies?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
14 Militants Killed in Egypt Army Raid in North Sinai
CAIRO, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) — Fourteen militants were killed and 23 others were arrested during a three-day raid staged by the Egyptian army on terrorist hideouts in North Sinai, a military statement said Monday.
“Fourteen terrorist elements were killed during the last three days in Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah cities,” army spokesman Colonel Ahmed Mohamed Ali said in a statement posted on Facebook…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Court Suspends Morsi’s Jailbreak Trial
CAIRO, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) — Egypt’s Cairo Criminal Court decided on Monday to suspend the trial of ousted president Mohamed Morsi and some 130 others over charges of 2011 jailbreak, for studying requests to change the judges panel, official news agency MENA reported. The defending team asked for the judges panel to recuse itself, deeming it as biased…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Hazem el-Beblawi gave no clear reason for the decision as he made the announcement. “Today the cabinet took a decision to offer its resignation to the president of the republic,” he said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Full Face Veil Sparks Heated Debate in Tunisia
The issue of the niqab (the full face veil) is suddenly being raised in Tunisia, as the country faces security threats. The ban on wearing the niqab in public spaces has been thrust into a national debate between those who justify this measure by security challenges, and others keen on preserving individual freedoms…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Seven Egyptian Christians Found Dead on Beach
(Reuters) — Libyan police have found seven Egyptian Christians shot dead on a beach in eastern Libya, security officials and local residents said on Monday, in the second such execution-style killing since the start of the year.
A police officer told Reuters the bodies were found with gunshots to the head outside Benghazi in the east, where assassinations, kidnappings and car bombs are common and Islamist militants are active. “They were killed by headshots in execution style,” a police officer said. “We don’t know who killed them.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Seven Christians Executed in Libya
By Raymond Ibrahim
Libyan authorities came across the slain bodies of seven Christian Copts in the region of Garutha, less than 20 miles west of Benghazi, on Monday afternoon. According to Libyan authorities, “The slain were killed by gunshots all over their bodies.”
Since the ouster of the decades-long dictator of Libya, Gaddafi, Christians in general, Copts from neighboring Egypt in particular, have been suffering abuses at the hands of the empowered Islamists — from evicted nuns, to Christians arrested, tortured and killed for “proselytizing,” to the bombing of the few churches in Libya.
This latest atrocity is simply following an increasingly familiar pattern.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Three Algerian Opposition Parties Call for Boycott of Presidential Election
Three Algerian opposition parties are calling for a boycott of April’s presidential election, claiming they will not be free and fair. Leaders of the liberal Rally for Culture and Democracy, the Islamist Ennahda Party, and the Movement of Society for Peace said Monday that the April 17 election should be boycotted because of the danger it represents to the country.
On Saturday, Algeria’s ailing president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, made a statement he would run for a fourth term. Bouteflika has not spoken publicly in three years and only rarely appeared on television since he suffered a stroke.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan Won’t be Palestine, King Says
Abdullah II warns domestic opponents that calling for the Hashemite Kingdom to be the Palestinian state is ‘sedition’
Jordan’s King Abdullah II lashed out on Sunday against domestic opponents arguing for Jordan to become the “alternative homeland” for the Palestinians. “Jordan is Jordan and Palestine is Palestine, and nothing else, not in the past or the future,” Abdullah reportedly said, according to the official Jordanian news agency Petra.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Muslims Capture 9 Year Old Christian Girl, And Brutally Rape Her for 19 Days
By Theodore Shoebat
A nine year old Christian girl in Jordan was captured by Muslims who brutally raped her for 19 days. She was from Iraq and lived in Jordan as a refugee. After 19 days of sexual torture, she was rescued by Sister Hatune Dogan, an Eastern Orthodox nun, who payed 33,000 US dollars to ransom the tormented girl.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Security Forces Storm Awamiyah
(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) — Saudi Security Forces Storm Awamiyah in the Eastern province, as they shot randomly on the houses. “Awamiyah on Web” website reported that security forces “shot heavily and randomly from the police headquarter in the town”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Staff Dismissal Due to Bulgarian-Turkish Border Fence Scams
A number of Bulgaria’s Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry administrative employees are up for dismissal due to Bulgarian-Turkish border fence cost miscalculations. A dispute between Interior Minister Tsvetlin Yovchev and Minister of Defense Angel Naydenov occurred at the latest Cabinet meeting regarding the end price of the border facility, Bulgarian Standard News reports…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
State Department Pressing Iraq for Answers After Report of Arms Deal With Iran
The State Department raised “serious” concerns Monday following a report that claimed Iraq has struck a $195 million arms and ammunition deal with Iran, in possible violation of a U.N. embargo.
Reuters reported Monday afternoon that documents reviewed by the news service show the two countries reached the agreement in November, shortly after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pressed the Obama administration for more weapons during a visit to Washington.
Iraqi lawmakers reportedly claimed Maliki ended up striking the deal with Iran because he did not want to keep waiting for U.S. arms deliveries.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey’s Erdogan Says Incriminating Corruption Tapes Leaked Onto Internet Are Fake
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office says recordings of alleged wiretapped conversations between the Turkish leader and his son — leaked onto the Internet and suggesting corruption — are fabricated. In recent weeks, several voice recordings of conversations allegedly involving Erdogan, his aides or businessmen have been circulating on the Internet.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Democracy Murdered by Protest — Ukraine Falls to Intrigue and Violence
Who’s in charge? Certainly not the bought-and-paid-for-moderates that Washington and the EU hoped to install as the new government of Ukraine. The agreement that the Washington and EU supported opposition concluded with President Yanukovich to end the crisis did not last an hour.
Even the former boxing champion, Vitaly Klitschko, who was riding high as an opposition leader until a few hours ago has been booed by the rioters and shoved aside. The newly appointed president by what is perhaps an irrelevant parliament, Oleksandr Turchynov, has no support base among those who overthrew the government. As the BBC reports, “like all of the mainstream opposition politicians, Mr. Turchynov is not entirely trusted or respected by the protesters in Kiev’s Independence Square.”
In western Ukraine the only organized and armed force is the ultra-nationalist Right Sector. From the way this group’s leaders speak, they assume that they are in charge. One of the group’s leaders, Aleksandr Muzychko, has pledged to fight against “Jews and Russians until I die.” Asserting the Right Sector’s authority over the situation, Muzychko declared that now that the democratically elected government has been overthrown, “there will be order and discipline” or “Right Sector squads will shoot the bastards on the spot.”…
The Right Sector’s roots go back to the Ukrainians who fought for Adolf Hitler against the Soviet Union during World War 2. It was the Right Sector that introduced armed fighters and turned the tide of the protests in Kiev from peaceful protests in favor of joining the EU to violent attacks on police with the view of overthrowing the democratically elected government, which the Right Sector succeeded in doing.
The Right Sector did not overthrow the Ukraine government in order to deliver it into the hands of the Washington and EU paid “opposition.”
There is a tendency to discount the Right Sector as a small fringe group, but the Right Sector not only took control of the protests away from the Western supported moderates, as moderate leaders themselves admitted, but also the Right Sector has enough public support to destroy the national monument to the Red Army soldiers who died liberating Ukraine from Nazi Germany…
Ukraine is far more important to Russia than it is to the US or EU. If the situation in Ukraine spirals out of control and right-wing extremists seize control, Russian intervention is certain. The arrogant and stupid Obama regime has carelessly and recklessly created a direct strategic threat to the existence of Russia.
According to the Moscow Times, this is what a senior Russian official has to say: “If Ukraine breaks apart, it will trigger a war.” Ukraine “will lose Crimera first,” because Russia “will go in just as we did in Georgia.” Another Russian official said: “ We will not allow Europe and the US to take Ukraine from us. The states of the former Soviet Union, we are one family. They think Russia is still as weak as in the early 1990s but we are not.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Domino Effect: Ukraine Neighbor Belarus May be Next
Fossilized Soviet-era policies make Belarus a prime candidate for the next crisis.
Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko Sunday made a point of stating that the Maidan revolution that has transformed Ukraine will not be a factor in Belarus.
“There will be no Maidan in Belarus,” Lukashenko said. He admitted that likewise tensions exist in his country and said it is the “sacred mission” of the Belarusian state to “preserve peace and stability in our land.”
Lukashenko vowed his government will “prevent even smallest indications of instability in our country. The neighboring Ukraine, which has become an arena for a clash between powerful internal and external forces, should be a lesson for us.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EU Offers Conditional “Aid” For Ukraine’s “Catastrophic, Pre-Default” Economic State
“There is no money in Ukraine’s Treasury account,” exclaimed ‘Interim President’ Oleksandr Turchynov to the Ukrainian parliament; adding that the Ukraine economy is in a “catastrophic state.”
Hardly surprising given the months of protest; but with Russia ‘conditionally’ postponing its EUR2bn ‘loan’, the Europeans are riding to the nation’s aid with promises of EUR20bn (if Ukrainian authorities meet certain conditions). But, as the map below shows, a great deal of the nation’s wealth lies in the eastern (pro-Russia) region.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Forget Kiev. The Real Fight Will be for Crimea
By Andrei Malgin
Amid the numerous reports of events in Ukraine in recent days, observers have largely overlooked the situation in Crimea. But I am convinced that the Black Sea peninsula could become the center of major events in the near future.
There is little doubt that Putin will aggressively play the Crimean card now and that Moscow will encourage and provide ample funding to all Ukrainian separatist movements. Crimea has always been a source of anxiety for Kiev, and it is unclear just how far Putin will go this time in his efforts to intensify those difficulties.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Monument to Corruption: Ukraine’s Most-Wanted Man Built $75m Home on a $25g Salary
The Ukraine’s most-wanted man, ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, remains on the run as his stunned countrymen tour his dream home, the impoverished nation’s answer to Versailles and what some are calling a “monument to corruption.”
Yanukovych, who OpenDemocracy.net reported earned less than $25,000 per year for most of his political career, is believed to have owned several homes around the economically-strapped nation, but none symbolized his greed and corruption more than the $75 million mansion he completed in Mezhyhirya in 2012.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ron Paul: Leave Ukraine Alone!
Last week Ukraine saw its worst violence since the break-up of the Soviet Union over 20 years ago. Protesters occupying the main square in the capitol city, Kiev, clashed with police leaving many protesters and police dead and many more wounded. It is an ongoing tragedy and it looks like there is no end in sight.
The current conflict stems from a divide between western Ukraine, which seeks a closer association with the European Union, and the eastern part of the country, which has closer historic ties to Russia.
The usual interventionists in the US have long meddled in the internal affairs of Ukraine. In 2004 it was US government money that helped finance the Orange Revolution, as US-funded NGOs favoring one political group over the other were able to change the regime. These same people have not given up on Ukraine. They keep pushing their own agenda for Ukraine behind the scenes, even as they ridicule anyone who claims US involvement.
A recent leaked telephone conversation between two senior government officials made it clear that not only was the US involved in the Ukrainian unrest, the US was actually seeking to determine who should make up the next Ukrainian government!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Best Imam of Tatarstan to be Chosen by SMS-Voting
(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) — “Imam of the year” contest will be held in Tatarstan for the first time, said the Mufti of the republic Kamil Samigullin to Interfax news agency.
Each district will nominate their candidate, and then by SMS-voting, which will conduct within the year, will be determined the winner. Best imam of the republic will be sent to Saudi Arabia to perform hajj…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine’s New Leaders Order Arrest of Former President Yanukovych
Ukraine’s acting government issued an arrest warrant Monday for President Viktor Yanukovych, accusing him of mass crimes against the protesters who stood up for months against his rule. Russia sharply questioned its authority, calling it an “armed mutiny.”
Yanukovych has reportedly fled to the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, a pro-Russian area in Ukraine. His exact whereabouts are unknown.
Calls are mounting in Ukraine to put Yanukovych on trial, after a tumultuous presidency in which he amassed powers, enriched his allies and family and cracked down on protesters. Anger boiled over last week after government snipers killed scores of protesters in the bloodiest violence in Ukraine’s post-Soviet history.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Puts Arrest Warrant Out for Viktor Yanukovych
Late Friday, Urainian President Viktor Yanukovych fled Kiev.
He claimed that Ukraine was subject to a ‘coup’ and that he was not resigning his office.
However, it’s clear that he’s completely lost power in Kiev, as the opposition took control of public offices, the Parliament swung heavily against him, and people were allowed to freely enter and exit his opulent compound.
Now, according to a message posted on Facebook by Ukraine’s interior minister, Yanukovych is wanted for mass murder of protesters
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
What’s Next for Sochi’s $50 Billion in Facilities?
For the Winter Olympics, Russia spent $50 billion on an international airport, new docks for cruise ships, a railroad and highway from the sea to the mountains, four world-class ski areas and almost 50,000 hotel rooms — all for 17 days of sports competition.
Now the crowds are going home, jamming the new airport terminal, and residents left behind worry that the resort was overbuilt.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan Reclaims Its Heritage With Some British Help
A project inspired by a visit to east London by President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan has become one of the country’s few successful global enterprises
The Turquoise Mountain Foundation, which employs hundreds of artisans in the last old city neighbourhood of Kabul, was founded by Rory Stewart, the adventurer turned MP, after he received a call from the Prince of Wales following Mr Karzai’s visit to Shoreditch in 2005…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh: Three Islamic Terrorists Escape Following Attack Against Police Van
An outlawed Islamist group, the Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, attacked a police van carrying some of their jailed leaders. A police constable and an escaped prisoner died in the subsequent gunfight. The other two are still at large. The country is now under high alert.
Mymensingh (AsiaNews) — Members of an Islamist group, the Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), attacked a police van carrying three members of the outlawed organisation, two of whom are on death row.
The incident, which occurred yesterday in Trishal (Mymensingh), a city on the Brahmaputra River, was worthy of a movie with gunfire, escape and a police chase. A police constable and one of the three prisoners died in the clash.
Guards were taking the prisoners from Kashimpur Central Jail (Gazipur) to a courthouse in Mymensingh for a hearing.
The detainees are all JMB leaders: Salauddin Salehin, AKA Sunny, 38; Raqibul Hasan, AKA Mahmoud Hafez, 35; and Jahidul Islam, AKA Bomaru Mizan, 35.
The first two are on death row, whilst the third is serving a life sentence.
Mahmud was found and killed in a gunfight with police five hours after the escape in which Constable Atiqul Islam, 30, was killed.
Police and the Interior Ministry set up two task forces in order to find the fugitives.
Meanwhile, two police officers in Gazipur were punished for negligence.
All of the country’s 68 prisons have increased security.
Despite criticism from some analysts who accuse the government of failing to guarantee public order, Inspector General of Police Hassan Mahmood Khandker said, “the situation is under control.”
Founded in 1998, the JMB carried out a series of attacks in 2005 in 63 districts across the country.
That year, the government banned the group. More than 2,500 JMB members are currently in Bangladeshi prisons.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India Should Respect International Law Says Schulz
‘Especially Convention on the Law of the Sea’, Speaker tells EP
(ANSA) — Strasbourg, February 24 — India should respect international law in the case of two Italian anti-piracy marines accused of killing two Indian fishermen they allegedly mistook for pirates, European Parliament Speaker Martin Schulz said Monday. Opening an EP session, Schulz said India should “fully and promptly” uphold laws and “especially” the UN Law of the Sea Convention.
“I share Italy’s concerns on the longueurs and delays in the case,” Schulz told EMPs, launching “an appeal to India to fully and promptly respect international law, especially the (1982) Convention on the Law of the Sea”.
Italy says the marines should be tried in Italy because the February 2012 incident took place in international waters. India said Monday it would not try Salvatore Girone and Massimiliano Latorre under a harsh anti-piracy, anti-terrorism law but the case would remain in the hands of anti-terrorism police.
The supreme court adjourned proceedings for two weeks, the latest in a string of delays which have irked Italy.
The EU and NATO have said the case could have implications on the global fight against piracy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
China: With the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, Beijing Liberalizes Financial Markets in Yuan
Firms located in the free zone will be able to borrow up to 150% on their capital. Shanghai is once again China’s financial hub with the task of dragging the economy towards greater liberalization. But China is inventing nothing new: it is only copying the United States.
Milan ( AsiaNews) — China’s Central Bank has eased controls allowing firms in Shanghai’s Free Trade Zone in (FTZ) to borrow Yuan held by oversea partners. It is a highly visible trial run towards more drastic liberalization measures destined to open China’s economy up to greater reforms.
In a February 21 press conference the bank outlined in detail how firms located in the Zone’s approximately 30 square kilometers will be able to borrow from overseas counterparts in Chinese currency. To date the use of the Yuan by overseas accounts was limited to commercial trade. In short foreign companies could only bill and settle trade bills in Yuan.
Under the new guidelines the estimated 10 thousand enterprises in the FTZ will be allowed to borrow overseas in Yuan for an amount up to 150% of their share capital. In addition, the ZFS banks have been invited to simplify their procedures in order to facilitate the use of the Yuan from overseas accounts for their business customers.
The new norms were greeted with satisfaction by both banks and companies in so far as they clarify uncertainties and allow lenders greater opportunities for financial transactions which are already in demand and have strong potential.
The FTZ was launched as an integrated area in September 2013. The Chinese governments’ main goal is to restore Shanghai as the main financial center of mainland China. Historically the city was the nations’ economic until the late ‘40s , before the establishment of the Communist regime. Beijing is aiming for Shanghai to drag mainland China’s economy towards further liberalization.
The FTZ , officially CSPFTZ — China ( Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone — was born from the union of several previous specialized zones of which the first, the Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone, dates back to June 1990, less than a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall Berlin. The aggregation of the different zones reveals the desire — by now explicit — to gradually evolve the Chinese economy from a being a command economy, as it is under communism, to one that is regulated by financial markets.
It is also quite easy to understand why — through the Shanghai hub — it is in China’s interest to accelerate the liberalization of financial transactions denominated in overseas Yuan. This is in fact the only way to obtain a fully convertible Yuan. The ultimate goal is to make the Chinese currency a reserve currency as is the dollar, the euro and — to a lesser extent — the yen and the pound. The importance for a country to be able to issue its own currency to act as a reserve currency has long been clear to the United States, at least since the Bretton Woods agreements of 1943. America ran to the aid of Britain, which without U.S. intervention was doomed to failure, in exchange for a gradual dilution of their monetary sovereignty: it accepted a dollar at full value on par with gold as the primary value for all monetary reserves. As of August 15, 1971, with the abolition of the gold convertibility of the dollar, the process of currency substitution for countries linked to NATO had already been completed, but not for many other areas of the world. The advantages of having full monetary sovereignty has been made clear on several occasions in recent years: For decades, the U.S. has been able to maintain a budget deficit as well as a foreign trade and financial trade deficit, without having to undergo a currency crisis such as those which hit South East Asian nations in 1997-1998, followed soon after by Russia and Argentina or, more recently, many other emerging countries.
Today China needs the same advantage enjoyed by the U.S. with the dollar because the path Beijing has chosen to pursue since the 2008 global crisis, following the Lehman collapse, has lead it to an imminent precipice. China’s “stimulus” for domestic spending, the chosen path since 2009, has not produce economic growth, but only greater holes: uninhabited cities because they are too expensive and therefore there is no demand, unused over-production, “whitewashed” inflation and a “shadow” financial system close to collapse.
The miner from the Andean highlands or one of many southern African countries is only too happy to be paid in crisp dollars for his daily fatigue. By liberalizing overseas Yuan used in financial transactions, the Beijing government wants that miner to be just as happy in the future to be paid in crisp Chinese banknotes. China is not an alternative to a bankrupt modernity in decline, it is no different from America; it is just copying it with the aim of replacing it all together or, at least, part of it.
CINA
Con la zona franca di Shanghai, Pechino liberalizza il mercato finanziario in yuan
di Maurizio d’Orlando
Le imprese con sede nella zona franca potranno indebitarsi fino al 150% del loro capitale sociale. Shanghai ritorna ad essere il polo finanziario della Cina, per trainarne l’economia a maggiori liberalizzazioni. Ma la Cina non costruisce nulla di nuovo: sta solo copiando gli Stati Uniti.
Milano (AsiaNews) — La Banca centrale cinese ha emanato nuove disposizioni attuative che permettono alle imprese insediate nella Zona Franca di Shanghai (ZFS), di indebitarsi in yuan detenuti da controparti estere. E’ un primo passo, per una prova dal vivo e in un contesto di alta visibilità , verso drastiche liberalizzazioni finanziarie destinate ad aprire la strada ad ulteriori riforme economiche nel resto della Cina.
In una conferenza stampa lo scorso 21 febbraio, la banca ha illustrato in dettaglio come le imprese insediate nei circa 30 chilometri quadrati della zona franca potranno indebitarsi con controparti estere in valuta cinese. Finora, invece, l’impiego di yuan di conto estero era limitato alle partite correnti cioè, nei rapporti con entità estere, era possibile, in yuan, solo fatturare e saldare fatture commerciali.
In base alle nuove direttive le circa 10mila imprese della ZFS saranno autorizzate ad indebitarsi con l’estero in yuan per un ammontare fino al 150 % del proprio capitale sociale. Inoltre le banche della ZFS sono state incoraggiate a semplificare le proprie procedure per rendere più agevole l’impiego di yuan di conto estero per le imprese loro clienti.
Le nuove norme sono state accolte con soddisfazione sia dalle banche che dalle imprese perché rendono chiaro quanto finora era rimasto incerto e consente agli istituti di credito molte nuove opportunità di transazioni finanziarie per le quali vi è già una forte richiesta potenziale.
La ZFS, come area integrata, era stata lanciata nel 2013, lo scorso settembre, e l’obiettivo, che il governo cinese da tempo persegue, è che Shanghai torni ad essere il principale polo finanziario della Cina continentale, come lo era storicamente fino alla fine degli anni ‘40, prima dell’insediamento del regime comunista in Cina. Negli intenti del governo, compito del polo finanziario di Shanghai è trainare l’economia cinese lungo la strada di ulteriori liberalizzazioni.
La ZFS, ufficialmente CSPFTZ — China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone — nasce dall’unione di diverse precedenti zone franche specializzate di cui la prima, la Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone, risale al giugno 1990, a meno di un anno dalla caduta del Muro di Berlino. L’aggregazione delle diverse zone franche rende oggi chiaro il disegno, esplicito ora anche nel nome, che è di pilotare l’evoluzione graduale dell’economia cinese da un’economia di comando, come quella comunista, ad una regolata dai mercati finanziari.
E’ anche abbastanza facile comprendere perché, mediante l’esperimento pilota di Shanghai, il governo cinese abbia in questo momento interesse ad accelerare la liberalizzazione delle transazioni finanziarie denominate in yuan di conto estero. Questa è infatti l’unica strada per arrivare alla piena convertibilità valutaria dello yuan. L’obiettivo finale è rendere la moneta cinese una valuta di riserva, come ad esempio il dollaro, l’euro e, in misura minore, lo yen e la sterlina. L’importanza per un Paese di poter emettere una propria moneta con funzioni di valuta di riserva era stato chiaro agli Usa almeno sin dagli accordi di Bretton Woods del 1943. L’America correva in soccorso della Gran Bretagna, che senza l’intervento statunitense era destinata alla sconfitta, in cambio di una graduale diluizione della propria sovranità monetaria: accettava che il dollaro fosse a pieno valore equiparato all’oro come strumento principale di riserva monetaria. A partire dal 15 agosto 1971, con la soppressione della convertibilità in oro del dollaro, si era già completato il processo di sostituzione valutaria per i paesi legati alla Nato, ma non per varie altre aree del mondo. Il vantaggio del possesso della piena sovranità monetaria è stato reso chiaro in questi anni in varie occasioni: gli Usa hanno potuto mantenere, per molti decenni ormai, un deficit di bilancio ed un deficit del commercio estero e di conto corrente finanziario, senza dover subire una crisi valutaria come quelle cui sono andati incontro i Paesi del Sud Est asiatico nel 1997-1998, o la Russia subito dopo, o l’Argentina e molti altri Paesi emergenti più di recente.
La Cina ha oggi bisogno dello stesso vantaggio goduto dagli Usa con il dollaro perché la strada intrapresa a partire dalla crisi mondiale del 2008, seguita al fallimento della Lehman, ha condotto sul ciglio di un precipizio ormai davvero prossimo. Lo “stimolo” di spesa pubblica interna cinese, la strada seguita a partire dal 2009, non ha prodotto crescita economica autonoma ma solo buchi: città disabitate perché troppo care e perciò prive di domanda, sovraccapacità produttiva inutilizzata, inflazione “sbianchettata” ed un sistema finanziario “ombra” prossimo al crac.
Il minatore degli altipiani andini o quello di molti Paesi dell’Africa australe oggi è contento quando, a fronte della sua fatica, può ricevere cartamoneta sotto forma di dollari. Il governo di Pechino, liberalizzando le transazioni finanziarie in yuan di conto estero, desidera che quel minatore sia in futuro altrettanto felice di detenere banconote cinesi. La Cina non è un’alternativa alla modernità declinante e fallimentare, non è diversa dall’America, la sta copiando e vuole solo sostituirsi in tutto o in parte ad essa.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Smog Makes Beijing Barely Suitable for Living
As smog levels rise in Chinese cities, the central government is coming under increasing pressure to act.
Air pollution has reached alarming proportions in China. Last year, the average concentration of fine particles was 89.5 micrograms per cubic meter in Beijing. The particles, which are so small that they can enter the lungs and the bloodstream, are extremely harmful to human health. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends maximum levels of 10 micrograms per cubic meter.
Early this month, a report released by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences found that the Chinese capital was “barely suitable” for living. This provoked thousands of sarcastic comments in China’s cyberspace, especially on the microblogging platform Sina Weibo, before the censors deleted them.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Stalkers Taking Toll on Japanese Society
Despite new laws designed to deter individuals — primarily men — from targeting former lovers who have spurned them, stalking cases are continuing to rise in Japan. And the incidents are becoming increasingly violent.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Antarctic Rescue Mission Cost $1.8 Million
The federal government is trying to recoup the nearly $2 million it spent helping rescue passengers aboard a ship that became stuck in sea ice in Antarctica over the summer.
A distress call was sent from a Russian research ship on Christmas Day after it became trapped in heavy sea ice near Commonwealth Bay with a group of scientists, explorers and tourists aboard including two men from the Illawarra…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
18 African Countries in Niger for Joint Military Exercise Against Terrorism
Niamey — Up to 1,000 soldiers and army officials from 18 African countries began a joint military training exercise in Niger against terrorism in the Sahel region. The joint military exercise dubbed “Flintlock” is being conducted in Niger’s Agadez, Diffa and Tahoua regions between Feb. 20 and March 9…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of Terrified Muslims Seek Refuge at Catholic Church in Central African Republic
The Christian militiamen know hundreds of Muslims are hiding here on the grounds of the Catholic church and now they’re giving them a final ultimatum: Leave Central African Republic within a week or face death at the hands of machete-wielding youths.
On Monday, some of the 30 Cameroonian peacekeepers fired into the air to disperse angry militia fighters congregated outside the concrete walls of the church compound. The gunfire sent traumatized children running for cover and set off a chorus of wails throughout the courtyard.
The peacekeepers are all that stand between nearly 800 Muslims and the armed gangs who want them dead.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Arrest of Top Mexican Capo ‘El Chapo’ Guzman Unlikely to Slow World’s Most Powerful Cartel
Like a Fortune 500 company losing an executive, the powerful Sinaloa cartel is likely to stay in business at least in the short term selling billions of dollars of illegal drugs, despite the arrest of its legendary leader, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
But the longer term fate of a criminal ring likened to an international “corporation” is anything but clear, as authorities pursue other top leaders and weaker rivals dream of moving in.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In Venezuela, Desperate Socialists Reluctantly Open Talks With Opposition
The socialiast government of Venezuela is having no success using violence to put down the demonstrations against it, so President Nicolas Maduro has now concluded he has no choice but to open talks with the opposition. That’s going to be a little tricky with opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez still in jail on trumped up charges that he incited the violence, but the process gets underway today regardless at the presidential palace. Indeed, Maduro isn’t just inviting the opposition. He insists. Bloomberg reports:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rousseff Backs EU-Brazil Cable Project
Brazil and the EU plan to establish a communications network complete with undersea cable to circumvent the US National Security Agency. It’s the outcome of a visit to Brussels by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Venezuela: Where Have All the Flower (Children) Gone?
Venezuelan storm-troopers are “practiced at the art of repression” thanks to hands-on training by the best in the business: Castro’s police.
That silence you hear issues from the media/celebrity axis regarding the massive protests in Venezuela where hip college kids are being beaten, tear-gassed and shot down in a manner to shame anything done by Mayor Daley’s police in 1968 or the Ohio National Guard in 1970. Six Venezuelan youths are confirmed dead and hundreds have been injured and/or arrested.
Forget looking in the mainstream media for the nitty-gritty of this communist repression. The Venezuelan regime — under the (literal!) and expert tutelage of their Cuban colonial overlords — is easily censoring the sheeplike mainstream media. The truth, however, is seeping out through social media. Please don’t miss these dramatic videos:
But these are Communist police and National Guardsmen doing the beating, gassing and shooting, you see. Hence the silence. Worse still, these Venezuelan storm-troopers are “practiced at the art of repression” thanks to hands-on training by the best in the business: Castro’s police.
There is no place in the media-celebrity narrative on Latin American police repression for this sort of thing. Pinochet? Somoza? Batista? — sure! These Latin American dictators thrived on repressing young hipsters. But they were all “right-wingers.” So it was only natural. A good word regarding any of those regimes by a rocker celebrity would have lead to instant and permanent blacklisting.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
100 Immigrants Force Their Way Into Melilla, Says Civil Guard
About 500 sub-Saharans in “violent” attempt to scale fence separating exclave from Morocco
About 100 sub-Saharan immigrants have managed to jump the fence complex separating the Spanish exclave of Melilla from Moroccan territory, Civil Guard sources said Monday.
The sources described the latest incident on the border as “very violent.” They said about 500 people had attempted to force their way across the border in the early hours of Monday morning. The immigrants used sticks and stones to storm their way to and across the barrier with members of the Moroccan security forces apparently taking refuge in the area between the two wire fences.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Australia: $13.3 Million Hotel Bill for Manus Island Staff
Taxpayers are footing a more-than $73,400 nightly bill for detention centre staff to stay in a floating hotel moored off Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island, Fairfax can reveal. Government contracts show the department of immigration will spend more than $13.3 million to temporarily accommodate staff aboard the Bibby Progress, for seven months to May 30…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Hundreds Migrants Storm Again the Border of Melilla
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, FEBRUARY 24 — Some 100 migrants from sub-Sahara were able to get inside the Spanish enclave of Melilla after storming the border with Morocco at dawn on Monday. An estimated 500 migrants attempted to get in.
According to sources with authorities in Melilla, the assault on the double protection barrier at the border was “very violent” with many of the immigrants throwing stones and using batons against Moroccan security forces who had to seek the help of the Spanish civil guards. It is still unknown how many were injured.
The area concerned was in the border zone between La Vaguarda Linares and the river Nano.
Last Monday, 150 other migrants were able to get inside the Spanish enclave after storming the barrier.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
How Do You Verify if a Person is Gay?
How should national asylum authorities verify a person’s claim that they are homosexual? The EU’s top court assesses the case of three asylum seekers whose application was rejected by the Netherlands.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Francis and the Emerging One World Religion
Is Pope Francis taking steps that are laying the groundwork for the emergence of a one world religion? If that question sounds quite bizarre to you, I urge you to read the rest of this article. We live at a time when globalization is advancing rapidly.
The global economy is more integrated than it has ever been before, and with each passing year new economic treaties tie us even more closely together. And “global governance” (as the elite like to call it) is also steadily gaining ground. Through a whole host of global institutions such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the IMF and the Bank for International Settlements, global governments are working together to a degree that is unprecedented. Well, what about religion? Is there evidence that we are also witnessing the globalization of religion? Well, yes there is. In fact, it appears that Pope Francis intends to lead the way.
Since he has been Pope, Francis has expressed a desire for unity with the Eastern Orthodox, the Anglicans, and many other major Protestant denominations. But more than a few eyebrows were raised when he recently sent a video message to Kenneth Copeland and his congregation. At the time that the video message was played to the congregation, one speaker declared that “Luther’s protest is over”…
[…]
During the Council of Trent, the Catholics condemned to hell anyone that believes in salvation through faith in Jesus alone. This is a direct quote from the Council of Trent…
“If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema”
The Catholics have never renounced that stand. Instead, it has been reaffirmed many times over the years.
If Pope Francis really did want to reach out to Protestants, he should start by reversing the Council of Trent on this. As it stands, it is official Catholic doctrine that all Protestants are anathema.
But apparently that is not going to stop many Protestants from reuniting with Rome and declaring Francis to be “their Pope”…
Meanwhile, Pope Francis has also been aggressively courting Muslims. The following quote from Pope Francis comes from remarks that he made during his very first ecumenical meeting…
“I then greet and cordially thank you all, dear friends belonging to other religious traditions; first of all the Muslims, who worship the one God, living and merciful, and call upon Him in prayer, and all of you. I really appreciate your presence: in it I see a tangible sign of the will to grow in mutual esteem and cooperation for the common good of humanity.
“The Catholic Church is aware of the importance of promoting friendship and respect between men and women of different religious traditions — I wish to repeat this: promoting friendship and respect between men and women of different religious traditions — it also attests the valuable work that the Pontifical Council for interreligious dialogue performs.”
Did you catch that?
Apparently Pope Francis believes that Catholics and Muslims worship the same God.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The new Ms. Marvel superhero is a teenage Muslim who grew up in Jersey City, in the US. The comic’s creator, G. Willow Wilson, a convert to Islam, hopes her character, Kamala Khan, will flip stereotypes on their head.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
2014 Quality of Living Worldwide City Rankings — Mercer Survey
Vienna is the city with the world’s best quality of living, according to the Mercer 2014 Quality of Living rankings, in which European cities dominate. Zurich and Auckland follow in second and third place, respectively. Munich is in fourth place, followed by Vancouver, which is also the highest-ranking city in North America. Ranking 25 globally, Singapore is the highest-ranking Asian city, whereas Dubai (73) ranks first across Middle East and Africa.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
World Needs Pilots! Record Growth Leads to Record Need
(CNN) — A 35% increase in demand for air travel. A tripling of the region’s airplane fleet. Up to nearly 13,000 new planes needed. Predictions for growth in the Asia Pacific aviation industry over the next two decades are impressive.
But one question keeps recurring in the region and, indeed, around the globe. Will there be enough pilots to fly the new planes and enough technicians to maintain them?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
So, Pope Francis believes that Christians and Muslims worship the same god. As far as I am concerned, islam is another form of satanism and the contents of the koran tend to confirm this.
Spot on!
This is a doctrine, not a dogma.
Therefore it is not above argument, nor is it to be accepted without question.
As far as I’m concerned, Islam is profane.
Look at the experiences of Christians under Islam and the truth is obvious.
They dishonor the Son of God.
We do not honor their false prophet.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26321329
Stoking up the embers in the Ukraine. Curious to know the meaning of the EU inspired logo in the photo.
the one held by an elderly gentleman in a papakha? It’s taraq tamga, national symbol of Crimean Tatars.
Islam and EU together…
That flag did not just happen by accident. Planned and paid by??? (fill in the gaps).
lol
Thanks
http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2014/02/25/97001-20140225FILWWW00235-usa-sauve-de-la-mort-par-une-bible.php
Shooting of a bus driver in the US.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/shot-ohio-bus-driver-rickey-3182347
And in the English version, no mention of “joining the polar bear” club. Sounds like another version of the “knockout game”.
The EU wish to know how to verify homosexuals? How do police verify a criminal unless there is criminality involved? Maybe they should be asking those who say their sexual persuasion is different how they believe they will identified as such if returned home. The inanity of the EU policies on illegal immigrants is finally coming home to roost.