The Islamic terror group Boko Haram attacked a school in northeastern Nigeria, killing 29 pupils and wounding an unknown number of others. Many of the dead children burned to death when the terrorists set fire to the school.
In other news, Norwegian police have rejected Anders Behring Breivik’s complaints that he was being tortured in prison. The police do not think that being forced to use an old Playstation constitutes torture.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Caroline Glick, Egghead, Fjordman, heroyalwhyness, 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.
Another “Successful Banker” Found Dead
The dismal trail of dead bankers continues. As The Journal Star reports, a successful Lincoln businessman and member of a prominent local family died last week. Former National Bank of Commerce CEO James Stuart Jr. was found dead in Scottsdale, Ariz., the morning of Feb. 19. A family spokesman did not say what caused the death. This brings the total of banker deaths in recent weeks to 9 as Stuart is sadly survived by three sons and four daughters:
Which brings the total number of recent banker deaths to 9 (via Intellihub):
1 — William Broeksmit, 58-year-old former senior executive at Deutsche Bank AG, was found dead in his home after an apparent suicide in South Kensington in central London, on January 26th.
2- Karl Slym, 51 year old Tata Motors managing director Karl Slym, was found dead on the fourth floor of the Shangri-La hotel in Bangkok on January 27th.
3 — Gabriel Magee, a 39-year-old JP Morgan employee, died after falling from the roof of the JP Morgan European headquarters in London on January 27th.
4 — Mike Dueker, 50-year-old chief economist of a US investment bank was found dead close to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State.
5 — Richard Talley, the 57 year old founder of American Title Services in Centennial, Colorado, was found dead earlier this month after apparently shooting himself with a nail gun.
6 -Tim Dickenson, a U.K.-based communications director at Swiss Re AG, also died last month, however the circumstances surrounding his death are still unknown.
7 — Ryan Henry Crane, a 37 year old executive at JP Morgan died in an alleged suicide just a few weeks ago. No details have been released about his death aside from this small obituary announcement at the Stamford Daily Voice.
8 — Li Junjie, 33-year-old banker in Hong Kong jumped from the JP Morgan HQ in Hong Kong this week.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: Youth Unemployment Tops 50% in Brussels Neighbourhoods
Youth unemployment figures released on Monday show that in some neighbourhoods of the Brussels Region over half of all youngsters are without a job. Those in charge of local social services across Brussels are sounding the alarm.
Jean-Luc Vanraes believes that the main reason for the sky-high youth unemployment rates is the fact that many youngsters in Brussels speak a different language at home and in school. He told the daily De Morgen: “If we don’t get them on board when they are young, it’s hard to get them in work when they are 18.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Growth in Italian Economy to be Weaker in 2014 Than Expected
Debt to peak at 133.7% of GDP this year, then slowly drop
(ANSA) — Strasbourg, February 25 — Growth in the Italian economy will be weaker this year than previously forecast and its debt as a percentage of gross domestic product will rise, the European Commission said Tuesday.
The EC revised down Italy’s 2014 growth forecast to 0.6% from previous estimates of 0.7% and warned that when final figures for last year are settled, those results will likely also be weaker than previously thought.
“After contracting 1.9% in 2013, Italy’s economy is expected to stage a slow recovery in 2014, driven by stronger external demand,” the EC said in its report on the Italian economy. “As credit conditions ease, growth is expected to rise further in 2015,” along with consumer confidence and external demand from trading partners regaining their own strength following recession in many parts of Europe, the report said. Debt as a percentage of GDP will increase this year, due to new expenses in 2014, including payments owed to private business, and will reach 133.7% — still lower than the 134% previously forecast by the EC, it said.
Next year, the debt-to-GDP ratio will begin to drop, thanks to a better economy, the report added. The EC said it had revised downwards its economic growth forecast for Italy this year and last, but was keeping steady its expectations for growth of 1.2% in 2015.
The EC had previously expected the economy would lose 1.8% in 2013 and in this report, it worsened its 2013 forecast to a loss of 1.9%.
That is gloomier than the Italian government’s predictions late last year for a 1.7% loss in 2013, growth of 1% this year and of 1.7% in 2015.
Unemployment in Italy will likely be worse than previously predicted, the EC said as it lowered its forecast to a 12.6% jobless rate for 2014 and 12.4% for 2015.
In November, the EC had predicted a jobless rate at 12.4% and 12.1% for 2014 and 2015, respectively. The statement faulted bad labor-market conditions and weak consumer demand for economic weakness.
The EC noted that unemployment is set to remain high throughout the eurozone and the European Union, with only a “modest” reduction expected.
Across the eurozone, the average unemployment rate is forecast to drop from 12.1% in 2013 to 12.0% in 2014 and 11.7% in 2015. In all of the European Union, unemployment is expected to slide from 10.9% in 2013 to 10.7% in 2014 and 10.4% in 2015.
Italy’s new Premier Matteo Renzi, who faced his second of two confidence votes on Tuesday, has said that the country has been mired in a “swamp” of economic weakness and loss.
However, he has maintained his new, slimmed-down cabinet has the plan to help Italy as the economy struggles out of its worst recession since the Second World War.
In Italy, that “severe recession…came to a halt with economic activity posting a moderate increase in the last quarter of 2013,” the EC forecast said.
It blamed weak consumer demand due in part to tight financing conditions “and high uncertainty holding back consumption and investments”.
Last week, the former economy minister Fabrizio Saccomanni said that Italy’s return to positive growth would be “homegrown” as the country struggles to avoid breaching the EU’s 3% deficit-to-GDP threshold.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Retail Sales Suffered Biggest Drop on Record in 2013
Dropped 2.1% with respect to 2012
(ANSA) — Rome, February 25 — Retail sales in Italy suffered their biggest drop on record in 2013, national statistics agency Istat said Tuesday.
The agency said retail sales were 2.1% down last year with respect to 2012, the largest fall since it started using its current calculation method in 1990.
Food sales were down 1.1% last year, Istat said.
Italy emerged from its longest postwar recession in the second half of 2013, but economists are warning that the recovery is weak.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Padoan ‘Knows What to Do to Relaunch Growth’ Says Rehn
‘Anxious to work on jobs, unleashing potential’
(ANSA) — Strasbourg, February 25 — New Italian Economy Minister and former Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development chief economist Pier Carlo Padoan “knows what to do to relaunch growth in Italy”, European Economic and Monetary Commissioner Olli Rehn said Tuesday.
Rehn noted that Padoan was the author of “many reports on growth and structural reforms”.
The commissioner said he was “anxious” to work with Matteo Renzi’s government “to create jobs and unleash the country’s potential”. Padoan, 64, is by far the oldest and most experienced cabinet member in Italy’s youngest government led by its youngest premier.
A former economics professor in Rome, he has also worked as consultant for the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Commission.
Padoan will be expected to use his international credibility to reassure markets and Italy’s partners while mixing tax cuts with fiscal discipline to help lift fully out of its deepest postwar recession.
Rehn, a watchdog of the 3% budget-to-GDP limit imposed by EU treaties, had already hailed Padoan’s appointment.
Padoan, a past critic of inflicting austerity policies on struggling countries, has often stressed that “the taxes that hurt growth the least are those on property”.
Another well-known quote is “Italy is like a car accelerating at great speed with the hand-brake on.” Many are looking to him to release that brake by enacting Renzi’s pledges to cut red tape and labour costs, lower taxes on the middle and lower classes and help speed justice reforms to attract foreign investment.
He is also expected to work closely with spending-cut czar Carlo Cottarelli to decide where to employ the cash from government savings, as well as the proceeds from a raft of privatisations.
In addition to the chief economist post, Padoan has been deputy secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) since June 2007 and previously served as an economics advisor to Italian premiers Massimo D’Alema and Giuliano Amato, in charge of international economic policies.
The energetic 39-year-old Renzi, who has been compared to a young Tony Blair, faces the last of two confidence votes in the Lower House Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Rise of Robot Journalists and the World Brain: Beware of the Media Industrial Complex
The most important thing in understanding the covert nature of the Orwellian mass media is not the news that they cover; it’s understanding the news they do not cover. In America today the concern about “Freedom of the Press” is quickly becoming irrelevant. While public concern is focused on the Constitutional right of “Freedom of the Press” the greater danger comes from how the media has been covertly controlled through managing the free flow of information. Certainly, “Freedom of the Press” is a key concern, but the real threat to that freedom is about who controls the content and decides what is newsworthy and what is not.
The very fact that major news organizations and media personalities choose to ignore or downplay serious news stories creates the greatest form of censorship. Perhaps the most important case in point would be the elephant in the living room, the complete media blackout of reporting regarding the Federal Reserve System. The Federal Reserve Act, signed by President Woodrow Wilson in 1913, essentially turned our entire monetary system over to an independent cartel of international banking families. Yet you will never hear, see, or read an in-depth and detailed news media coverage of the most important financial institution in our nation. It is impossible to understand anything that has to do with our economy, debt, budgets, inflation, recession, global finance, jobs, outsourcing, and the U.S. dollar without a thorough understanding of the Federal Reserve System.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Unemployment in Italy to Climb Higher Than Forecast, Says EC
12.6% in 2014 instead of 12.4, above eurozone average
(see previous) (ANSA) — Strasbourg, February 25 — Unemployment in Italy will likely be worse than predicted after the European Commission revised its forecast to 12.6% for 2014 and 12.4% for 2015 on Tuesday.
In November the EC had forecast joblessness over the next two years at 12.4% and 12.1%, respectively. A statement faulted bad labor-market conditions and weak consumer demand.
Unemployment is set to remain high throughout the eurozone and the European Union, with only a “modest” reduction, the EC said.
In the eurozone, joblessness is set to drop from 12.1% in 2013 to 12.0% in 2014 and 11.7% in 2015. Across the entire EU, joblessness is set to drop from 10.9% in 2013 to 10.7% in 2014 and 10.4% in 2015.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
At a national gathering of governors this morning where everyone was trying to be cordial and bipartisan, even playing down their differences, Bobby Jindal called out Obama for waiving the white flag of surrender on the economy by refusing to approve the Keystone Pipeline and wanting to raise the minimum wage. He even referred to the economy as “Obama’s minimum wage economy”, asserting that we can do a lot better by actually growing the economy.
Some Democratic governors didn’t like that at all and one had to chime in blaming Jindal for taking them down a partisan road that they shouldn’t have gone. But Jindal came back to the mic and doubled down.
It was actually pretty awesome. Watch:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Couple Uncovers Coins Worth $10m While Walking Dog
A Northern California couple out walking their dog on their property stumbled across a modern-day bonanza: $10 million in rare, mint-condition gold coins buried in the shadow of an old tree.
Nearly all of the 1,427 coins, dating from 1847 to 1894, are in uncirculated, mint condition, said David Hall, co-founder of Professional Coin Grading Service of Santa Ana, which recently authenticated them. Although the face value of the gold pieces only adds up to about $27,000, some of them are so rare that coin experts say they could fetch nearly $1 million apiece.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cyber-Security Experts Ask if Apple “Flaw” Was Really NSA Backdoor
Following an admission by Apple that a “bug” in its operating system had left devices open to potential hacking, experts are questioning whether the security hole was intentional, in order to allow the NSA backdoor access as part of its mass spying program.
On Friday Apple acknowledged that a “goto fail” command in the company’s SecureTansport protocol had left iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks vulnerable to data intercept on networks and wireless connections. Anyone who had knowledge of the security flaw, could have accessed secure data, Apple noted, declaring that “ a software fix will be released very soon.”
Johns Hopkins University cryptography professor Matthew Green told Reuters that the flaw (see below) was “as bad as you could imagine.”
Several coding experts are now raising their eyebrows over the matter, noting that the timeline of the inception of the security flaw matches up with leaked NSA slides that document how the spy agency had managed to gain access to Apple’s severs.
According to coder and App developer Jeffrey Grossman, who has studied the code in question, the flaw only appeared in iOS 6.0 and was not present in iOS 5.11.
Immediately, tech experts began to note that iOS 6.0 was released in September 2012, just one month before Apple was added to the NSA’s list of penetrated servers, according to slides leaked by Edward Snowden.
[Comment: Check out the source code screenshot.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Farewell to a Great Comedian: Harold Ramis
69-year-old actor, writer and acclaimed director Harold Ramis passed away Monday after a drawn out battle with autoimmune disease.
Most notable for scripting cult classics like Caddyshack and Groundhog’s Day, and appearances in such films as Ghostbusters, Ramis leaves behind an incredible legacy of spreading happiness through film, helping make the world a better place with humor.
Infowars honors Ramis’ memory with one of our all-time favorite scenes from the movie Ghostbusters.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Investigating Hate Messages at Bothell Mosque
Bothell, Wash. — The FBI is investigating hateful messages found scrawled inside Islamic books left outside a Bothell mosque. Members of the Islamic Center of Bothell said someone arriving at the center on Saturday for early-morning prayers found 10 books placed around the parking lot. Written on the inside covers were messages insulting Islam and Allah. One message called Islam “a pagan cult of satanic origin.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Gates Foundation Launches Giant Database on School Children ‘Inbloom’
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave $100 million to fund a giant database to collect private information of American school children starting in early education and extending all the way through high school.
Promoted as a technological tool to help teachers tailor education to the individual needs of students, inBloom is a database that stores student’s scores, attendance, special needs, disabilities, etc. The intent is to exploit the technology that is available today to replace antiquated paper records.
[Comment: Perhaps to verify commie core indoctrination is being absorbed by the students.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Harvard Research Links Fluoridated Water to ADHD, Mental Disorders
(NaturalNews) A leading cause of ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder) and autism in children could be the hidden chemicals lurking in the foods we eat, the water we drink and the products we consume, says a new study recently published in The Lancet. Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) found that, among other things, the fluoride chemicals added to many public water systems in North America directly contribute to both mental and behavioral disorders in children.
Building upon earlier research published in 2006 that dubbed fluoride as a “developmental neurotoxicant,” the new review included a meta-analysis of 27 additional studies on fluoride, most of which were from China, that linked the chemical to lowered IQ in children. After thorough analysis, it was determined that fluoride obstructs proper brain development and can lead to autism spectrum disorders, dyslexia, ADHD and other health conditions, a “silent epidemic” that many mainstream health authorities continue to ignore.
According to the two main researchers involved in the study, Philippe Grandjean from HSPH and Philip Landrigan from ISMMS, incidences of chemical-related neurodevelopmental disorders have doubled over the past seven years from six to 12. The reason for this is that an increasing number of mostly untested chemicals are being approved for use without the public being told where and in what quantities such chemicals are being used.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kansas Lawmakers Mull Anti-Fluoride Bill
Kansas legislators are mulling a bill that would require city governments to inform residents if the chemical fluoride has been added to municipal water supplies.
drfluorHouse Bill 2372, introduced by the House Standing Committee on Federal and State Affairs last year in response to activist pressure, would require cities which practice water fluoridation to point out the additive’s reported detrimental effects on children’s IQs.
“All Kansas cities and other local governmental units providing water service that artificially fluoridate their community drinking water must notify the consumers of that treated water, that the latest science confirms that ingested fluoride lowers the I.Q. in children,” the bill, in its current form, states.
The bill focuses on results from a study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health, in which researchers found that “fluoride may adversely affect cognitive development in children.”
“Based on the findings, the authors say that this risk should not be ignored, and that more research on fluoride’s impact on the developing brain is warranted,” the study warned.
Advocates in favor of adding the industrial waste chemical to municipal drinking water, typically in the form of hydrofluorosilicic acid, argue that mass-fluoridation helps people maintain dental health.
The Kansas bill acknowledges fluoride’s potential dental benefits, but counters that in 1999 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found it primarily benefited teeth only when used as a topical agent, not through ingestion.
“Fluoride is not a nutrient used by the human body,” the bill’s text states. “Without regard to dental concerns, the optimal amount of fluoride in the human body is none.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
When small amounts of mercury were recently found in Maine lobster, health authorities shut down the harvesting and the media reports on the “Mercury contamination from decades-old industrial pollution.” (SOURCE)
Mercury is toxic, after all, and you shouldn’t be eating it. Nearly everyone agrees on that point.
Yet, magically, when far higher concentrations of mercury are injected into children in the form of flu shots, suddenly all that mercury is completely safe and harmless, according to the mainstream media. Heck, the mercury even enhances the health of children, the media claims! Just watch this media clip which claims that mercury causes “improved behavior and mental performance” in children.
Yeah, seriously. I wasn’t joking when I used the phrase “insanely stupid” in the title of this article.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Obama Assassination’ Cartoon Prompts Secret Service Visit
While the premise of the episode is indeed macabre, the fact that the series is an animation and clearly issuing a satirical statement on the current state of affairs, in addition to the fact that the cartoon far from advocates violence, places its content well within the jurisdiction of the First Amendment.
This is just the federal government’s latest attempt to intimidate filmmakers who demonstrate a lack of reverence for the state and who refuse to produce content that falls directly in line with the establishment’s agenda.
The 2006 film Death of a President, a dramatization which realistically depicted Secret Service members regretting mistakes made during the fictional assassination of the 43rd president George W. Bush, barely raised the national security states’ eyebrows, let alone required a personal visit. The difference is that film did not challenge the status quo.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama, Israel and the Return of Robert Malley
By Ben Cohen
That there is widespread anxiety over the Obama administration’s Middle East policies is hardly a secret. If we have learned anything over the past six years, it is that, contrary to the conspiratorial theory that the so-called “Israel Lobby” is the ultimate authority when it comes to Washington’s stance in the region, the opposite is true…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
ObamaCare: The Terrifying Consequences to Healthcare
As the Obamacare debate rages, we hear much about insurance companies, costs and people’s ability to pay. We hear the policy defended as proponents tell us it will provide healthcare to those who never had it. Of course, these proponents never seem to explain how those who couldn’t afford healthcare when it was a choice can now afford an even more expensive cost now that government mandates it.
However, these debates about the pros and cons of Obamacare basically focus on money. What about the real issue — healthcare? What will Obamacare do to our medical system? How will it affect the quality of our care? How will it affect doctor’s decisions as they attempt to take care of our health needs? And, ultimately, in a system controlled by government bureaucrats and government-written manuals — who will really be making the decisions that determine our quality of life? These are the real questions that need to be the center of the debate. And the answers are terrifying.
I recently received a report from an Oncologist, Dr John Conroy, who is fighting the desperate battle to treat cancer. All of those concerned Americans who wear their pink ribbons and dash for miles in their stop-cancer marathons should take a long hard look at what Dr. Conroy reports to be the future of all American medicine…
Over the past several years, a growing number of bureaucrats from insurance companies have been armed with manuals, guidebooks and calculators to step in to the decision making process to decide what treatment procedures are allowed. And it’s going to get far worse under Obamacare, as a new layer of government bureaucrats is added to affect what doctors can do to save your life…
The most important detail to expose here is that, while the doctor has had years of training and experience in the field — the medical director does not have to be qualified.
…Death panels? Perhaps not in name — but in practice. The panels do not report to Congress, but to higher bureaucratic panels As Dr. Conroy describes it, “more like a central committee in the Soviet System.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obesity Rate for Young Children Plummets 43% Over Past Decade, Federal Survey Finds
Federal health authorities on Tuesday reported a stunning 43 percent drop in the obesity rate among 2- to 5-year-old children over the past decade, the first broad decline in an epidemic that often leads to lifelong struggles with weight and higher risks for cancer, heart disease and stroke.
The drop emerged from a major federal health survey that experts say is the gold standard for evidence on what Americans weigh. The trend came as a welcome surprise to researchers. New evidence has shown that obesity takes hold young: Children who are overweight or obese between age 3 and 5 are five times as likely to be overweight or obese as adults.
| [Return to headlines] |
South Carolina City Implements Law Requiring $120 Permit to Feed the Homeless
Gandhi famously noted that:
The greatness of a society and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
I would agree with that, as well as the obvious observation that a society’s greatness can also be judged by how it treats its most vulnerable members. This isn’t to romanticize homelessness or to condemn it. It is merely to note that the homeless are fellow human beings going through their own struggles and difficulties. You may not want to provide them food, but some people do, and there should never be an infringement upon such a basic human right as sharing food with someone who needs it.
Civil rights are often lost in societies by politicians scapegoating unpopular minorities. This happened with jews, gypsies, etc in Nazi Germany and we must be very careful the same does not happen here. One human being should be able to voluntarily give food to another in all cases, without exception. The concept of a permit needed that costs $120 per week is fascist, anti-human and downright evil.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Future of the (Scared, White) GOP
When President Obama defeated Mitt Romney in 2012, handily winning a second term, he did so with only 39 percent of white voters. White men made up only a quarter of his votes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Real Agenda Behind the Push for “Islamophobia”
by Raheel Raza
Islamophobia has almost become a fad for a certain group of academics and Muslims across North America. 2013 was a bumper year for Islamophobia conferences in America and abroad…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Virginia Counter-Terror Training by Anti-Muslim Activist Sparks Outcry
A former FBI agent who believes that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the US government and that John Brennan, the director of the CIA, is a secret follower of Islam is poised to begin three days of counter-terrorism training with law enforcers in northern Virginia.
Starting on Tuesday, John Guandolo will deliver what is billed as “advanced counter-terrorism” training under the title of “Jihadi Networks in America”. About 50 law enforcers from Culpeper County, Virginia, and elsewhere will attend.
The event, advertised at $225 per trainee and being held at Germanna community college in Culpeper, has prompted an outcry from local and national Islamic groups, which warn that he is a notorious Muslim-basher and conspiracy theorist.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: More Detained in Operation Against Recruitment of Syria Fighters
Federal public prosecutors on Tuesday continued their series of raids in search of people involved in the recruitment of fighters for the civil war in Syria. A further 14 premises were raided and 14 more suspects were detained.
Belgian police on Monday launched a massive operation targeting people involved in the recruitment of fighters for the Syrian civil war. Across Belgium twenty premises were raided. A score of people were lifted from their beds and detained.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Children Are Being Trafficked Between Towns in the UK
National Crime Agency figures released this month show that 56 UK-born children were trafficked for sexual exploitation in the past year, but there are many more victims the agencies haven’t identified.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Czech Muslims Call for Ban on Book by Apostate
The book says Muslims abuse the ideology of multiculturalism to infiltrate Czech schools, and they do not only deliver innocent lectures there but recruit converts and perhaps new jihad fighters. After spending 12 years among Muslims in Brno, Lhotan abandoned Islam, Tyden writes. Now he has published the documents from the Brno mosque both in his book and on his webpage, it adds.
This is not quite legal, as he had stolen some of the documents, Tyden writes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Arabic Media Claims Slaughter Law Could Cause Boycott
Legislation requiring animals to be stunned before they are slaughtered is being described by Arabic media as a ban on halal meat, even though halal products can still be purchased in Denmark.
In traditional Islamic halal and Jewish kosher practices, the animal must be conscious at the point of slaughter, but the agriculture and food minister, Dan Jørgensen (S), officially brought an end to the practice on February 17.
The decision may result in an Arabic boycott of Danish beef and poultry products, according to Arab News, an English-language newspaper in Saudi Arabia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: The Mosque Project in Athens Reached Its Final Phase
Athens is currently the only European capital that has no mosque open for prayings but this seems to change in the upcoming months after overcoming a set of challanges. Muslim in Greece who have to rent apartments to use as mosques for Friday prayers are now excited to have a regular mosque in an ancient city which is considered as the backbone of western civilization.…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Inmates Leak Photos of ‘Hellish’ Prison Hospital
Inmates at a Greek prison hospital have gone on hunger strike in protest at the overcrowding that they say is leading to the spread of infectious diseases. Some are also refusing medication. Using a smuggled mobile phone, they are posting photos of their living conditions to Facebook and Twitter.
Bunk beds, beds in the hallways, mattresses on the floor: the photographs shared by the inmates show how cramped Korydallos, Greece’s only prison hospital, has become. The facility is meant to house 60 men, but currently holds more than 200, according to inmates and staff.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Police in Norway have rejected a complaint by mass murderer Anders Breivik that his treatment in jail amounted to ‘serious torture’.
The far-right terrorist who killed 77 people in a bombing and mass shooting on July 22, 2011, filed a formal complaint against the Norwegian Minister of Justice and a prison director, in which he said his daily body searches and outdated video games were equal to ‘aggravated torture’.
The complaint filed in January last year was examined by police but a preliminary investigation was closed on Monday according to police commissioner Ingrid Wirum…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Legendary Fashion Group Krizia Sold to Chinese Firm
Latest of Italian companies to be snapped up by foreign buyers
(ANSA) — Rome, February 24 — Italian brand Krizia has been sold to the Chinese group Shenzen Marisfrolg Fashion. Over the next five years, the Chinese company plans to open new Krizia outlets in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzen and Chengdu and to gradually reopen retail outlets in major cities in Europe, Japan and the US. Italy’s luxury labels have been increasingly attracting foreign buyers, particularly in fashion, a sign of resilience of its brand names as the country is struggling to emerge from the longest and deepest recession since the Second World War.
Three bidders reportedly have their sights on a minority stake in fashion house Versace.
And the list of Italian clothing and accessories brands now controlled by foreign luxury groups, especially from across the Alps, is lengthy.
A statement notes that the contract between Krizia and Shenzen Marisfrolg Fashion will be finalized by April but that no other details of the transaction will be released for the time being.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi Calls Marine Crisis ‘Absurd and Shocking’
Premier tells Senate his new government working on the case
(See related) (ANSA) — Rome, February 24 — The case of two Italian marines held in India for two years in two shooting deaths is “absurd and shocking,” Premier Matteo Renzi said Monday. Renzi said the pair have been stuck “for too long” in New Delhi and has given them his personal guarantee to see them returned to Italy.
In remarks to the Senate before a confidence vote, Renzi described meetings and phone calls he is making over the case.
Earlier in the day, Indian prosecutors told the supreme court in New Delhi that they were in favour of dropping a request that the Italian marines, Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, be prosecuted under an anti-terrorism, anti-piracy law.
But they said that India’s NIA anti-terrorism police should conduct the prosecution. 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, albeit after lengthy delays and many mixed signals.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: No More Jobs for Life for Public-Sector Bosses — Renzi
Managers should have fixed-term contracts, says premier
(ANSA) — Rome, February 24 — Premier Matteo Renzi told the Senate Monday that the system in which senior public-sector managers have jobs for life must stop. “The time has come to say vehemently that the political world should entrust management roles for set periods,” he said. “No more open-ended jobs, with managers doing as they please, while governments change”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Police Seize 2.5 Mn Euros in Fonsai Fraud Probe
Funds destined for Swiss account linked to fallen Ligresti
(ANSA) — Turin, February 25 — Italian finance police on Tuesday seized 2.5 million euros destined for Paolo Ligresti, son of a fallen patriarch of an Italian insurance and real estate dynasty, as part of a probe into alleged fraud. Investigators said the transfer order had been made by a company linked to Paolo and his father Salvatore Ligresti and that the money was destined for a Swiss bank account held by a Luxembourg company also connected to the family.
The Ligresti family is at the centre of a major fraud investigation involving the troubled Fonsai insurance group.
Salvatore, the family patriarch and former honorary chairman of Fonsai, Paolo and his sisters Giulia and Jonella are accused of corruption in the probe into alleged accounting fraud and market manipulation that enabled Ligresti to acquire illegal dividends of 200 million euros.
The Ligresti family are the former majority owners of the Fonsai and Milano Assicurazioni insurance companies.
They came under additional scrutiny last year because of allegations that former Justice Minister Anna Maria Cancelleri used her influence to see Giulia Ligresti released from jail into house arrest.
The then minister denied any wrongdoing, saying she had acted on humanitarian grounds as the woman suffered from anorexia and depression.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Life Sentence for Killer-Rapist of Teen
Body hidden in Tuscan olive grove
(ANSA) — Castagneto Carducci, February 25 — A 35-year-old man convicted of raping and killing a 19-year-old in a Tuscan olive grove has been sentenced to life in prison.
Ablaye Ndoye, a Senegalese national who was also found guilty of multiple counts of sale of drugs, raped and killed Ilaria Leone in the countryside near the Italian port city of Livorno. Incriminating evidence included traces of the victim’s blood on Ndoye’s trousers and his semen on the body. Investigators say that the man murdered the young woman while attempting to rape her. According to the reconstruction of the crime, Ndoye grabbed Leone by the neck and beat her so badly she choked to death on her own blood. Ndoye then dragged the body for a few meters and covered it with branches before leaving the scene.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Monza Restaurant Owner Sets Fire to Self Over Tunnel
Sound barriers would prevent client access, he said
(ANSA) — Monza, February 25 — A man was receiving treatment for burns on Tuesday after setting fire to himself late Monday in protest over the construction of sound barriers outside his bar-cafeteria in the northern city of Monza.
A police chief and a police officer were also injured in the incident after trying unsuccessfully to prevent the man from setting himself alight.
He was angry about the negative impact on his business of long-running work to build a tunnel in Via Lombardia and the planned erection of sound barriers which he said would prevent client access to his restaurant. The man and one of the police officers received extensive burns but their condition was said to be stable.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Bureaucracy ‘Worse’ Than the Mafia, Confindustria Says
Sicily chapter denounces invisible, multifaceted red tape
(ANSA) — Palermo, February 25 — Bureaucracy is more to be feared than organised crime, a representative of the influential industrial employers’ association Confindustria said Tuesday.
Red tape is worse than the mafia because it is invisible and has many different facets, said Antonello Montante, leader of the Sicily chapter of Confindustria.
“Entrepreneurs cannot plan for the costs incurred by bureaucracy and the bottlenecks created ad hoc that allow the mafia to worm its way in,” said the Confindustria representative for legality. “Paradoxically those who decide to invest in Sicily are more afraid of bureaucracy than of the mafia because the latter can be fought with support from the judiciary, police and associations”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Leaked GCHQ Document Admits Spy Agency Conducts Internet “False Flag Operations”
The alternative media has documented for 5 years that the government uses disinformation and disruption (and here) on the web to discredit activists and manipulate public opinion, just like it smears traditional television and print reporters who question the government too acutely.
We’ve long reported that the government censors and manipulates social media. More proof here.
New Edward Snowden documents confirm that Britain’s spy agency is doing so.
As Glenn Greenwald writes today:
“One of the many pressing stories that remains to be told from the Snowden archive is how western intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction.
“These agencies are attempting to control, infiltrate, manipulate, and warp online discourse, and in doing so, are compromising the integrity of the internet itself. Among the core self-identified purposes of JTRIG are two tactics: (1) to inject all sorts of false material onto the internet in order to destroy the reputation of its targets; and (2) to use social sciences and other techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirable.”
[Comment: Check out the slides. Note the slide titled “Identifying and Exploiting Fracture Points”.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Marines Must be Tried in Italy’ Repeats Envoy
‘Must come back to Italy’
(ANSA) — Rome, February 25 — Two Italian anti-piracy marines accused of killing two Indian fishermen two years ago must be tried in Italy, the Italian government’s envoy on the case repeated Tuesday.
Staffan de Mistura said that Salvatore Girone and Massimiliano Latorre, “if one day were to be tried, they must be tried in Italy”.
“They must come home,” he said.
Italy has contested India’s jurisdiction over the incident, which took place in international waters. Rome has also protested over a long series of delays, the latest of which came on Monday when the Indian supreme court adjourned hearings for two weeks after prosecutors dropped a tough anti-piracy and anti-terrorism law that could have mandated the death penalty.
The Italian government claimed credit for the decision to waive the law, saying its firmness and enlistment of support from the EU and NATO had forced New Delhi to give in.
De Mistura said Matteo Renzi’s new government “will never give up, like the previous ones”.
Although the anti-terrorism law has been dropped the case, the case is currently still in the hands of India’s anti-terrorism police pending a ruling.
Indian prosecutors say the pair might face up to 10 years in jail.
Italian media have speculated that international support for Italy could wane now India has dropped the anti-terror law — which had serious implications for the global anti-piracy fight.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Police Reject Breivik Torture Complaint
Police in Norway said on Monday that they had closed a preliminary investigation into a complaint by mass murderer Anders Breivik that his prison conditions amounted to “serious torture”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Racism: UN Raps Belgium Over the Knuckles
25/2/14 — A United Nations report claims that Belgium isn’t doing enough to combat racism. There are also too many incidents involving Jews and Muslims and concerns about the ban on the headscarf in Flemish schools. The Council of Europe too has examined the issue but is less critical.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: David Cameron’s Election Gamble Could Electrify British Politics
By Benedict Brogan
It was David Cameron’s idea. Remember that. He was the one who stood up on the morning after election day in 2010 and made a “big, open and comprehensive offer” to the Liberal Democrats. The result was the Coalition that has governed us with unexpected success since then, and is expected to do so until the end of the parliament next year…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: David Cameron: No More Coalitions After Next General Election
Prime Minister wants to make a commitment in Conservative Party election manifesto he will not form second coalition government even if he falls short of Commons majority
David Cameron is preparing to fight the next general election on a clear promise to the British people not to form a second coalition government even if he falls short of a Commons majority, The Telegraph has learnt.
The Prime Minister wants to make a commitment in the Conservative Party election manifesto not to sign a second power-sharing deal with a smaller party in the event of a hung parliament next May, it is understood.
Instead, a Conservative party that won the most seats but lacked a Commons majority would attempt to rule as a minority government, a course that would almost certainly lead to its early collapse and a quick second election.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Ex-Guantanamo Detainee Moazzam Begg Arrested by Terror Police
Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg is among four people who have been arrested on suspicion of Syria-related terrorism offences, police have said.
Mr Begg, 45, who was held by the US authorities for almost three years, was arrested earlier with two other men and a woman in the West Midlands. He was detained on suspicion of attending a terrorist training camp and facilitating terrorism overseas…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Ex-Guantánamo Detainee Moazzam Begg Held in Birmingham Terror Raids
Begg, released from Guantánamo without charge, arrested with two men and a woman on suspicion of Syria-related offences
A man arrested in terrorism raids in Birmingham on Tuesday morning is Moazzam Begg, the former Guantánamo detainee, the Guardian has learned. West Midlands police said those arrested were connected to alleged Syria-related terrorism offences. Begg, 45, was arrested in Hall Green, Birmingham, and is suspected of attending a terrorist training camp and facilitating terrorism overseas.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Former Guantanamo Detainee Moazzam Begg One of Four Arrested on Suspicion of Terrorism
Three men and a woman are arrested in the West Midlands on suspicion of Syria-related terrorism offences
Former Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg was one of the four people arrested on suspicion of Syria-related terrorism offences, police have confirmed. Three men and a woman from the West Midlands were taken into custody this morning, police said.
Begg, from Hall Green, Birmingham, is being held on suspicion of attending a terrorist training camp and facilitating terrorism overseas. The others, a man aged 36 from Shirley, Solihull, and a 44-year-old woman and her son aged 20 from Sparkhill, Birmingham, were detained on suspicion of assisting terrorism overseas.
All four are being held at a police station in the West Midlands area…
[JP note: See here for more on one of the liberal left’s favourite Muslim Lego Boys http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/apr/25/gita-sahgal-amnesty-international and http://hurryupharry.org/2010/11/14/moazzam-begg-of-cageprisoners-on-murder/ ]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Legoland Cancel Event After Threats
Legoland in Windsor has cancelled the Muslim Research and Development Foundation (MRDF) family fun day due to take place on Sunday, March 9
The decision came after discussions with police following a number of threatening phone calls, emails and social media posts to the resort, which is in Winkfield Road. Groups including the EDL planned to demonstrate on the day….
[JP note: See also from earlier today: http://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/News/Areas/Maidenhead/Three-demonstrations-planned-for-Legoland-protest-25022014.htm]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Young Muslim Entrepreneur Who is Hungry for Success
Shazia Saleem jokes that she started her food company simply because she was hungry.
The bigger story is that she spotted both a gap in the market and a way to celebrate the two parts of her cultural identity — being British and a Muslim.
The 29-year-old from Luton is the founder of newly launched ready-meals business Ieat Foods (as in “I eat”), which makes a range of traditional British and Italian dishes — such as shepherd’s pie and lasagne — prepared in the halal manner — according to Islamic dietary law…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Who is to Blame for “Islamophobia” In the UK?
by Mudar Zuhran
After the murder of British soldier Lee Rigby by Islamic extremists in London last May, The Guardian reported a surge in the number of anti-Muslim offenses.
Also, last May, a poll by the British research firm, YouGov, showed that nearly two-thirds of Britons believe there will be a “clash of civilizations” between British Muslims and white Britons, and 34% believe that Muslims pose a serious threat to democracy…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria Commits to Mosque Neutrality
The Algerian religious affairs minister issued strict instructions to imams last week to protect houses of worship during the upcoming presidential election.
Bouabdallah Ghlamallah stressed on Thursday (February 20th) that his ministry was focused on the upcoming election. His comments came after a number of imams were criticised for their sermons, which took on a political character with the approach of the presidential election.
With the approach of the April 17th poll, the ministry has sought to keep mosques from being used to the benefit of any political candidates or agenda…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco: Imam Hassen Chalghoumi Spreads Message of Moderation
Hassen Chalghoumi, the imam of Al-Nour mosque north of Paris, is fighting a declared war on fundamentalist Islam.
Dressed in plain white cap, and showing a shaved face except for a light beard on the chin, the renowned, Tunisia-born cheikh travels the world to defend his convictions and call for a dialogue between religions, especially between Islam and Judaism.
Magharebia met with the imam in Morocco to learn more about his moderate views and his effort to stem extremist ideology.
Magharebia: What brings you to Marrakech?
Hassen Chalghoumi: Marrakech has special religious standing, since it is considered one of the oldest cities to which Islam arrived. Anyone interested in Islamic affairs has to learn from its glorious history in terms of civilisation. This was the motivation that brought me to this blessed place and I had the honour of meeting King Mohammed VI, the emir of the faithful…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Foreign inister Avigdor Lieberman believes education in the diaspora is “the most pressing issue on the global Jewish agenda, more pressing than any other issue, including the Palestinian negotiations or the Iranian nuclear threat.
He also said assimilation by American Jews is the biggest threat to global Jewry and has called for the Israeli government to pledge $365 million annually for programs in the diaspora that provide Jewish education and enhance the Jewish connection to Israel.
He added: “It is my strongest belief that the antidote to this rising assimilation, intermarriage and disengagement is education.”
“In order to prevent this tragedy, all Jewish children should have the capacity and capability to attend a school where they will receive an education that will teach them about Jewish history, values and traditions, to treasure their Jewish identity and to have a strong attachment to Israel and Zionism. We need to ensure that Jewish schools will be among the best in the world.”
“We need to create a global network of Jewish schools that are superior in standard to the American and international school network. Only through this effort can we ensure our endurance as a people,” he said.
[Note from Egghead: Why Common Core? Why here? Why now?]
| — Hat tip: Egghead | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: The Israeli Solution
In its annual survey of American Jewry published last October, the American Jewish Committee found that 75 percent of American Jews agree with the statement, “The goal of the Arabs is not a peaceful two-state agreement with Israel, but rather the destruction of Israel.”
And yet, American Jews supported the establishment of a Palestinian state 50% to 47%.
Next week over 10,000 predominantly Jewish American supporters of Israel will gather in Washington at AIPAC’s annual policy conference. Given their high commitment to Israel, probably most of those gathered belong to the 47% of American Jews who opposed Palestinian statehood.
Yet at the conference they will embrace the two-state formula. And on March 4 they will go up to Capitol Hill and tell their representatives that they support it.
They will do so not because they are addled. They will do so because for the past 20 years all they have heard is that Israel has no alternative to the two-state plan.
Israel’s fervent and committed supporters at AIPAC have been told that Israel needs a Palestinian state more than the PLO does. Only by bringing such a state into existence in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem can Israel get the Palestinian demographic albatross off its neck.
These committed supporters of the Jewish state have been sternly lectured that Israel is doomed if it doesn’t give the Palestinians an outlet for their political impulses outside of Israel, because within a year or two there will be more Palestinians than Israelis west of the Jordan.
The same day AIPAC’s delegates meet with members of both houses of Congress, my new book, The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East will be released by Crown Forum, a division of Random House.
In my book, I show that the demographic time bomb is a dud, and a malicious one at that…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Calls for Erdogan to Resign After Wiretaps Posted on YouTube
Conversation between PM and son on how to conceal funds
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, FEBRUARY 25 — The Turkish opposition has once again demanded that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan resign after a tape was uploaded onto Youtube Monday evening allegedly containing wiretaps of four phone calls between the premier and his son Bilal, in which they discuss concealing large amounts of money. The prime minister’s office has said that tape is fake, while Erdogan himself called it a “vile attack”. Zaman Online reports that in the recording — the authenticity of which was impossible to independently verify — Erdogan and his son seem to be discussing how to conceal large sums of money located in the homes of several people linked to their family.
Turkish media say that the telephone calls were made on December 17, the day when a graft scandal broke and 52 people near the government were arrested, including children of three ministers.
The vice president of the main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Haluk Koc, called for the immediate resignation of the prime minister after the recordings were posted on YouTube, saying that the government has “lost all legitimacy”. The CHP held a summit last night, after which party leader Gursel Tekin told Hurriyet that he believed the recordings were authentic. In a speech before his Islamic ruling Justice and Development Party(AKP) party’s MPs, Erdogan said on Tuesday that the tape was “a play that they have montaged and dubbed themselves. What has been done is a vile attack against the prime minister of Turkey,” warning that whoever was behind it would be held accountable. The leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP, Turkey’s second-largest opposition party), Devlet Bahceli, also called on anti-corruption magistrates to immediately put the prime minister under investigation. According to Hurriyet Online, in a speech before his party’s MPs Bahceli said that “if those conversations are true and nothing has been added, then it will be impossible to speak about the credibility, the humanity and, worse, the morality of the person in the position of prime minister”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Bombs Hezbollah Target on Lebanon-Syria Border
It is not known if the strikes hit inside Lebanese or Syrian territory but residents of Nabi Chit, on the Lebanese side of the border, said they saw flare bombs light up the sky
Israel has bombarded a Hezbollah position on the Lebanon-Syria border, according to a Lebanese security source and a Syrian NGO.
“Two Israeli raids hit a Hezbollah target on the border of Lebanon and Syria,” the source said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the target was a Hezbollah “missile base” but it was not known if the strikes hit inside Lebanese or Syrian territory…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UN: Syria is World’s Biggest ‘Exporter of Refugees’
The United Nations said Tuesday that Syria has become the world’s largest exporter of refugees, as it urged the world to ramp up its support to neighboring states affected by the exodus of Syrians from their war-torn home country.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres commented on instability in the Middle East region as he continued urging for global aid to pour in for Syrian refugees.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A Stunning Map Shows All the Lenin Statues That’ve Been Toppled in Ukraine
The violence in Ukraine appears to be ending, but the same cannot be said of anti-Russian sentiment. Popular protestso pposing President Viktor Yanukovych’s attempts to re-align the country’s economy with Russia’s have led to increased ill will toward Ukraine’s Soviet past — and its former leaders.
Of the nearly 1,500 Lenin memorials across Ukraine, protesters have reportedly destroyed around 100. Protesters have also created a website to map out all the locations where Lenin statues have been destroyed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russian official said his country will go to war over Crimea
The Russian Navy confirmed it has deployed Marines to Sevastopol in Crimea. Troops deployments began over the weekend.
It also confirmed that a large landing ship, the Nikolay Filchenkov, from the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation, sent Marines based in Temryuk, Russia. The Filchenkov also delivered ten BTR-80 armored personnel carriers, according to the naval website.
The weekend airlifts using four Ilyushin Il-76 strategic aircraft out an airbase in near Moscow delivered personnel from the 45th Airborne Special Forces to Anapa on the Black Sea, according to the report. Six Soviet-designed medium twin-turbine MI-8 transport helicopters were also sent.
The Black Sea Fleet stationed at Sevastopol includes various infantry, assault, artillery, reconnaissance and air defense battalions.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Crisis: ‘Dangerous Signs of Separatism’
Ukraine’s interim President Olexander Turchynov has warned of the dangers of separatism following the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych.
Many in Ukraine’s Russian-speaking regions oppose his overthrow and the installation of a more European-leaning interim administration. Russia is also angry at the changes, but Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said Moscow will not intervene. The formation of a unity government has been delayed until Thursday…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
US and EU Waging “New Type of War” Against Russia
Russian general urges his government to wise up to the threat on its borders
Gen. Leonid Ivashov: US and EU threatening Russia with “a new type of war” that begins as informational and psychological operations.
Ivashov said the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria represent “a new type of war” that begin as informational and psychological operations. EU officials and Secretary of State John Kerry, Ivashov said, “very conscientiously and scrupulously studied and continue to study the doctrine of Dr. Goebbels,” the Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany. “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it,” Goebbels said, expanding on Hitler’s definition of the Big Lie.
“I think our Foreign Ministry does not understand that there is a war, and the war has its own laws,” Ivashov explained. The new war has an “anti-Russian orientation,” but this is not fully understood by the Russian Foreign Ministry. If it was, Russia would present the facts “as they are” and the real agenda of the United States and the European Union would be exposed.
The Syrian and Ukraine interventions, Ivashov said, are controlled from Brussels, the headquarters of the EU. “They make plans, carry out a coordinating function, provide installation and finance. This is true for Syria, and with regard to Ukraine.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
What is Happening in Ukraine is Far More Important Than Most People Realize
What the people of Ukraine are being put through is absolutely horrible. They are caught in the middle of a massive tug of war between the East and the West, and they are paying a great price for it. Ultimately, Ukraine will end up either being dominated by Russia (a bad outcome) or by the EU and the United States (another bad outcome).
Most Ukrainians just want to be free and want to be able to build a better future for themselves and their families, but it is extremely unlikely that they will be able to escape the specter of foreign domination. Meanwhile, the violence in Ukraine is planting the seeds for a potentially much larger conflict down the road. The days of “friendly relations” between the United States and Russia are now gone. Russia is absolutely furious that the U.S. has fueled a violent revolution on its own border, and it is something that Russian officials will not forget for a very long time. In return, U.S. officials are taking an increasingly harsh stance toward Russia. In the end, the seeds that are being planted right now could ultimately blossom into a full-blown conflict between the superpowers in the years to come.
Let there be no mistake — the United States is heavily involved in what is going on in Ukraine. Even the New York Times admits this. And the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine and the Assistant Secretary of State have been caught on tape discussing their next moves in getting a new government installed in Ukraine.
In addition, a number of non-governmental organizations inside the United States have allegedly been assisting and organizing the revolution in Ukraine for a long time. At least a few of these organizations have ties to George Soros. This is something that I discussed in a previous article.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Beijing Steps Up Push to Boost Yuan’s Status
The Communist Party has ordered ministries to present trade and foreign investment data in yuan as well as US dollars in a bid to boost the mainland currency’s status, two sources said. The order, issued by the party’s highest-level body for financial and economic policy, applied to all the trade and investment data starting from last month, the sources said. They asked not to be identified because the directive has not been made public.
The order says the policy change is meant to promote the yuan’s globalisation, the sources said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Radiation Contaminated More Than 20,000 Square Miles and 43 Million People in Japan: EU Report
(NaturalNews) In the three months following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which occurred back in March 2011, a land area larger than 20,000 square miles (mi2) became contaminated with high levels of radionuclides of both cesium and iodine, says a new European Commission report. Using the most realistic estimates in a mathematical model, scientists determined that as many as 43 million Japanese people, and perhaps even more, were exposed during that time to high levels of the two contaminants, which are still being spewed from the shuttered plant to this very day.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
North Korea is almost completely dark compared to neighboring South Korea and China. The darkened land appears as if it were a patch of water joining the Yellow Sea to the Sea of Japan. Its capital city, Pyongyang, appears like a small island, despite a population of 3.26 million (as of 2008). The light emission from Pyongyang is equivalent to the smaller towns in South Korea.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A Fight for Life in Rural Areas
EMISSARIES of the Australasian Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health will converge on the federal Parliament today to fight for the lives of farmers and their neighbours in drought-affected communities such as Bourke, Brewarrina, Walgett and Coonamble…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Secret U.S. Government Watchlist Forces Company to Place Hold on Orders
Australian David Jones told his order had been delayed due to name being flagged by database
A secret U.S. government watchlist is forcing companies to place orders on hold, according to an Australian named David Jones, whose name was flagged up as suspicious when he tried to purchase computer parts.
After Jones processed an “innocuous” order with Element 14, a large distributor of electronic and computer parts in Australia, he arrived at the company’s trade counter to pick up the goods only to be told that his order had been placed “on hold”.
After confirming that the hold was not due to the parts being restricted or suspicious in any way, Jones was told, “that it wasn’t the parts that had been flagged, it was my NAME that was flagged. And they said it was a US government watch list of some description.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
2 Ex-Navy Seals on Maersk Alabama Died of Respiratory Failure, Police Say
NAIROBI, Kenya — Police on the island nation of Seychelles say that two former U.S. Navy SEALs found dead aboard the ship Maersk Alabama died of respiratory failure and were suspected to have had heart attacks, possibly from drug use.
The police said Monday that a syringe and traces of heroin were found in their cabin. Police said samples are being sent to Mauritius for analysis to establish if the men had consumed “a substance” that could have caused the health failures.
The ship the men worked on, the Maersk Alabama, was the focus of a 2009 hijacking dramatized in the movie “Captain Phillips.”
Officials named the two men as Mark Daniel Kennedy, 43, and Jeffrey Keith Reynolds, 44. They worked for the Virginia Beach, Virginia-based maritime security firm The Trident Group.
The U.S. Coast Guard is also investigating the deaths.
The two men worked for U.S.-based Trident Security, according to police. Former military personnel frequently provide security on board ships sailing through the waters off Somalia to provide security against pirate attacks.
Trident Security was founded by former U.S. Navy SEALs in 2000 and employs former special warfare operators to provide security.
The Maersk Line said the cause of death is under investigation but is “not related to vessel operations or their duties as security personnel.”
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Govt Willing to Discuss With Boko Haram — Jonathan
Kaduna — President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday revealed the federal government’s willingness to negotiate with members of the Boko Haram sect, but said they were yet to respond to government’s offer for dialogue…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigerian Islamists Kill 29 Pupils in Boarding School Attack
(Reuters) — Gunmen from Islamist group Boko Haram stormed a boarding school in northeast Nigeria overnight and killed 29 pupils, many of whom died in flames as the school was burned to the ground, police and the military said on Tuesday.
The Islamists, whose struggle for an Islamic state in northern Nigeria has killed thousands and made them the biggest threat to security in Africa’s top oil producer, increasingly are preying on the civilian population.
Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is sinful” in the northern Hausa language, have frequently attacked schools in the past. A similar attack in June in the village of Mamudo left 22 students dead.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa: ‘You Must Respect us or We Will Kill You’
In this extract from his book Dispatcher, Mark Gevisser describes a terrifying attack in his hometown of Johannesburg that left him not angry but wondering who were the true victims
At 9pm on the night of January 11 2012 I went to visit my friends Katie and Bea in their flat at Wildsview, high up on Killarney Ridge. Our plan was to continue watching the Australian mini-series The Slap, based on Christos Tsolkas’s novel…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The Mass Graves of Bor, South Sudan
Bor — A handful of volunteers in almost deserted Bor, capital of South Sudan’s Jonglei State, remove dead bodies from homes, put them in body bags donated by the International Committee of the Red Cross, and place them in mass graves…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Jamaicans Lead Caribbean Calls for Britain to Pay Slavery Reparations
Caribbean slave descendants, some of whose ancestors worked for David Cameron’s distant family, are calling for an apology and billions of pounds in reparations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Defenders of the Venezuelan regime would never allow the White House to arrest opposition leaders and shut down unfriendly media outlets. So why the double standard?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
28 Afghan Migrants Rescued in Aegean Sea
ISTANBUL, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) — Turkish coast guards rescued 28 Afghan migrants whose boat was sinking in the Aegean Sea on Sunday.
The migrants, who sailed from Turkey’s Ayvacik District, were headed for the Greek island Lesbos when their boat began to fill with water after sailing just over a kilometer from the shore, according to a report by the semi-official Anatolia news agency…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
House Dems May Try Long-Shot Tactic to Advance Immigration Reform
Immigration activists probably shouldn’t count on a seldom-used procedural tactic called a discharge petition to jump-start stalled immigration-reform efforts in the U.S. House of Representatives.
U.S. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Friday that House Democrats intend to pursue the strategy, which also recently was endorsed by U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the chief Democratic negotiator on the bipartisan comprehensive immigration-reform bill that passed the Senate last year.
But Hoyer also suggested such a petition would have a tough time attracting the 218 lawmaker signatures required to discharge the legislation from committee and allow Democrats to bring it to the floor in spite of House Republican leaders. The effort likely would need the cooperation of 15 to 19 House Republicans, assuming all 199 House Democrats sign the petition and depending on which party wins four vacant House seats. Only three Republicans have signed on to the Democratic House immigration bill, which basically is the Senate-passed measure with a less-stringent border-security section.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Interior Ministry Orders Patrols Not to Fire Rubber Bullets at Immigrants
The Interior Ministry has issued a verbal command to Civil Guard patrols in Ceuta and Melilla not to fire rubber bullets at immigrants trying to make it across the border into the two Spanish North African exclaves, government sources said Tuesday, confirming an earlier report by newspaper El Mundo.
The order comes after 15 people drowned on February 6 trying to swim to the Ceuta security fence from Morocco. Although the ministry initially denied it, Civil guards on duty at the border at the time fired rubber bullets in the direction of the migrants as they tried to reach the Spanish coast.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Young Immigrants Turn Focus to President in Struggle Over Deportations
More than 500 leaders of a national network of young immigrants, frustrated that House Republicans said they would not move on immigration this year, have decided to turn their protests on President Obama in an effort to pressure him to act unilaterally to stop deportations.
On Saturday afternoon, the group marched through downtown Phoenix and rallied at a Department of Homeland Security detention center. Their chants were mainly directed toward the president. “Obama, Obama, don’t deport my mama!” the crowd members shouted.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
On 2/13/2014 Glenn Beck radio show he was telling about how the highest ranking official who ever defected from the Soviet Union landed in the U.S. It was on July 20, 1978 when the U.S. Military Plane landed at Andrew Air Force Base with this gentleman on board. He fell down on his knees and prayed out loud for the first time in more than a quarter of century and expressed great joy and gave thanks to the good Lord for this country. His book DISINFORMATION, co-authored with Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa tells what it was like to live under Communism. Fearing he’ll be killed, the man is still in hiding.
A short time before this Beck radio program, I’d been sent a transcript from 1948 called “Confessions of Stalin’s Agents” by Kenneth Goff. At the end it noted that Goff was assassinated.
Typographical and other obvious errors suggests the transcript was perhaps taken from an audio tape. However, the information seems credible as he explains how the Soviets have planned its revolution against Christianity and Capitalism and constant class warfare. On page 21 he explains how for years the Communist Party had concentrated their propaganda on the Negro population of the U.S. and robbing them of their religion. This helps to explain the Civil Rights Movement and how Martin Luther King was used. The homosexual movement has since hijacked the Civil Rights movement.
Federal Communications
In fact, the Trojan Horse chapter says every Communist rides the Trojan Horse and the Kremlin expects to eventually gain control of the world by infiltrating, intimidating and taking over important organizations in every country to assist in WORLDWIDE GLOBAL unrest. Now we learn the FCC will be sending contractors into all communication outlets to check to see if journalists are reporting only the government propaganda.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
You are going to have a hard time believing some of the stuff that you are about to read. Children in America are being sexualized at younger and younger ages these days, and our public schools play a major role in that. As you will see below, even kindergarten students are getting naked and trying to have sex with each other in our schools.
So where in the world are these kids learning to do this? Well, it certainly does not help that there is more sex on television and in our movies than ever before. And it certainly does not help that some of the biggest pop stars on the planet such as Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry are blatantly using sex to sell records to their young fans. But we can’t place all of the blame on entertainment. Without a doubt, our schools are playing a major role in sexualizing our children, and most parents have very little understanding about what is actually happening.
[…]
When our kids get a little older, there seems to be very little that is off-limits in their sex education classes. One father in Kansas recently discovered this the hard way…
If parents only knew what was really going on out there, many more of them would be pulling their children out of the public schools.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Harriet Harman Says She ‘Regrets’ Any Link to Paedophile Campaign Group
In an apparent u-turn deputy Labour leader issues an updated statement saying she “regrets” any link between her civil liberties organisation and a paedophile group
Harriet Harman has expressed “regret” that a civil liberties organisation she helped run had links with a prominent child sex group. The deputy leader of the Labour party was forced to deny supporting paedophilia after she admitted that a prominent child sex group was allowed to join the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL) for which she was the legal officer…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
“…a number of non-governmental organizations inside the United States have allegedly been assisting and organizing the revolution in Ukraine for a long time. At least a few of these organizations have ties to George Soros.”
Do you suppose that Soros might be upset that Putin in Russia has been defending a distinctly Christian worldview?
This needs to go round the french speaking parts of counter jihad
(In French) from Syria
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1csu4w_mgr-hindo-archeveque-de-hassake-nisibi-syrie_news
In a nutshell, from 2m 50s mins onwards. He’s talking about the position of Christians since the start of the war and the arrival of foreign fighters. He is saying that Kerry and Al don’t want to find themselves in the position that he is in
Here is a rough translation
02:50 When I compare to what I awaits me in with these people (Islamists) to what I have today, I am treated fairly. I wouldn’t like to put Fabius( the French foreign minister) in my position when “these people” will come and take over the country.
I would not like to see Fabius or Kerry nor the others. But they are not ‘supposed’ to understand that they are never there and they don’t give a [expletive] (a bit). Sorry for my language but they don’t give a [expletive] about the others, about Syrians.
An angry cardinal… Have you ever heard a cardinal say this in public?
Ils se foutent! (talking about the foreign powers meddling in the region).
Re: 1) “Assimilation by American Jews Biggest Threat to Global Jewry”. Back in the less PC 1960s, anthropologist Desmond Morris (“The Naked Ape”, “The Human Zoo”) suggested that the best way to avoid discrimination is to integrate. Here in Britain, where Afro-Caribbeans are largely well integrated, and mixed-race children common, he may have a point, but I’m aware it’s not that simple. Much of the original culture and family structure of enslaved Africans was damaged by their subjugation (though even as a big fan of Western Classical music, I feel “popular” music has been greatly enriched, if you’ll excuse the expression, by what survived of that culture).
Jews have been amazingly successful in preserving their identity through millenia of persecution (though not sufficiently to prevent the appearance of traits such as red or blonde hair or light-coloured eyes!), and particularly on a site concerned about the importance of cultural homogeneity, I hope readers will sympathise with their heroic struggle. Yet at the same time, we rightly criticise Muslims for failing to assimilate.
The 1950s musical “West Side Story” transposed “Romeo and Juliet” to New York, and the tragic results of bigotry and tribalism when a “Polack” and a Puerto Rican fall for one another. It was originally to have been “East Side Story”, with Jews in place of Latinos. Is the preservation of a culture and way of life more important than the happiness of individuals, and breaking down of barriers to the point where they cease to matter? I don’t have the answer (though having had black and Jewish girlfriends, you may guess where my sympathies lie), but I’d be interested in others’ opinions across the spectrum, from Egghead who posted this, to MC.
2) “Jamaica Leads Caribbean Calls for Britain to Pay Slavery Reparations”. I’ve no truck with this, but would like to see someone call them out on why they aren’t including the original slavers in their demands, ie. in some cases, other black Africans, but mainly Muslim Arabs and their descendants- and wish them good luck in appealing to any sense of guilt!
3) “Sex and the Public Schools”. Do parents who enter their pre-pubescent daughters in beauty contests bear no responsibility? If I see a ten-year-old girl in makeup and it makes me feel like a paedophile, which I’m not, and that girl is predated by someone who is one, are her parents not guilty of contributory negligence?
Ps I posted this before reading the replies from MC & others to the Baron’s “Explanatory Afterword”- that’ll teach me to start at the end! Though there’s likely more to be said about integration, and lack of it, among Jews and others?
In the 1980s I worked with a Hungarian Jew who’d served as a paratrooper with the Brits in WW2. Later he was in the menswear trade in London, and when addressed in Yiddish was thought to be snobbish as he didn’t reply; actually he didn’t speak it, as Hungarian Jews spoke Hungarian, and presumably still do. A sign of integration, perhaps; didn’t save them then, and they’re in danger again. Sometimes you just want to weep.
I don’t want to toy with artificial problems like whether preservation of a culture is more important than happiness of individuals (as if happiness wasn’t defined by culture), but I would like to make a tiny little note with regard to Jews and issue of marriage freedom in Israel one commenter (not you) seemed to be disturbed by …
Most of talents and superior IQ, Jews owe to inbreeding; if it wasn’t for endogamy – we may assume that in the long (!) run – it would all go to waste. Once their sole advantage – intelligence – is gone, Israel awaits the same sad fate. There is no easier way of screwing things up than sssc … you know what. Encouraging Israelis to abandon this tradition is not the best idea. At least, at the present time.
The Ashkenazi Jews have that intelligence quirk. The Sephardic Jews? Not so much.
IQs are vastly over-rated as a measure of character or achievement.Thus the old joke that God invented whiskey to keep the Irish from taking over the world. Give me a hard worker who takes his one and only life seriously…he’ll do well.
Indeed, I should have specified I kept in mind Ashkenazim, although I wouldn’t say it is so overrated … anyway, hope you’re right for so many reasons (both geopolitic and personal :/).
“had in mind”, fool!