Political tensions in Ukraine continued to escalate as pro-Russian demonstrators faced off against pro-EU demonstrators in the Crimea. Russian troop convoys were spotted moving into the region as President Vladimir Putin reportedly prepares for war.
In other news, the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram continued its rampage into Yobe State, massacring 43 students at a secondary school.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Egghead, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, Steen, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Germany Displays Highest Wealth Inequality in Eurozone
A study by a leading economic think tank has shown worsening financial inequality in Germany in recent years. In no other eurozone nation are there such big differences between the rich and many poor.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Austerity Tragedy Shows Where Not to Make Cuts
Austerity can be bad for your health. Greece has seen drastic increases in infant mortality, suicide and depression since the government made deep cuts to healthcare and social support services between 2009 and 2012. These fallouts may soon be reprised in other countries that have embarked on tough austerity measures, such as Spain and Portugal.
Following the country’s financial crash, Greece cut its hospital budget by 25 per cent cut and slashed funding for mental health problems by 55 per cent. An analysis of health statistics shows that as a result, suicides increased 45 per cent between 2007 and 2011 and, over roughly the same period, cases of depression more than doubled and infant mortality rose by 43 per cent.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“Surrender Your Firearms, “ Connecticut Tells Unregistered Gun Owners
The State of Connecticut is now demanding that gun owners across the state turn in all newly-banned, unregistered firearms and magazines or face felony arrest.
Connecticut is sending out this letter demanding that gun owners surrender their arms. Click to enlarge.
The State Police Special Licensing & Firearms Unit began mailing out notices to gun owners who attempted to register their firearms and accessories with the state but did not do so in time for the Jan. 1 deadline of Connecticut’s newly enacted gun control law.
The law bans the sale of magazines holding over 10 rounds and “assault rifles” manufactured after 1994 and requires that residents who possessed either before the ban to register them with the state.
“We are returning your application for [an] assault rifle certificate and/or [a] large capacity magazine declaration because it was not received or postmarked prior to January 1, 2014 as required by law,” the notice states.
The letter breaks down the gun owner’s “options,” including surrendering their firearms and magazines to the police, selling them to a gun dealer, removing them from the state or rendering them inoperable.
Because these owners attempted to register their guns and accessories, the state can now prosecute them at will because they know exactly who they are.
But when it comes to the vast majority of gun owners who did not register at all, Connecticut lacks clout.
Last month it was revealed that out of the over 2.4 million high-capacity magazines in Connecticut, only 38,000 have been registered.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Acetaminophen in Pregnancy Linked to ‘ADHD-Like Behaviors’
Doctors frequently recommend acetaminophen, commonly found in over-the-counter pain relievers including Tylenol, to pregnant women for treating mild pain.
But a new study out of Denmark suggests the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy could be associated with ADHD-like behavioral problems in children.
“(Pregnant women) shouldn’t worry at this point,” says study author Dr. Beate Ritz, professor and chair of the epidemiology department at the University of California, Los Angeles Fielding School of Public Health. “But if I were a woman who was pregnant … I would try to avoid taking painkillers as much as I can until we know more about this.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
There are certain criminal politicians that know they cannot get through the front door, so they attempt to come through in another way — namely, through their own interpretation. They say that it is only for the “militia” to bear arms. We are also told (through the state-run media, of course) that our modern-day military is the “militia.”
But are they really? Who are the militia? Aren’t they we the people?
Congress has no power to disarm the militia.
“Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American. … [T]he unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people.” — TencheCoxe, Delegate for Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.
Instead of highlighting dictators and their deceptive methods in disarming their people right before a mass genocide, let’s take look at what some of our Founding Fathers said about guns, the average citizen’s right to own them and who the militia really was and is.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Big Brother Blues: Jimmie Vaughan Takes on Surveillance State (Video)
A few years ago it was crazy to talk about the government surveilling the American people. Today they are right out in the open with it.
– From Youtube: “Jimmie Vaughan’s protest song Shackles On Me deals with RFID technology and how it is being forced upon us against our will. This powerful song was first played on the Alex Jones Radio show on February 28th 2007.”
Below are the lyrics:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Look at this face above. Is he crying, smiling, screaming, spraying spittle on the camera, or threatening the American public voters? If you answered, “All of the above”, you would probably be correct. He might even be stomping his feet tantrum-like as well.
That face belongs to the most powerful organized labor movement official. He is AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and he is hopping mad at me for writing a column in Canada Free Press on February 22, 2014, about the faults (and yes, the stupidity) of Minimum Wage Increases…
How in the name of Trumka can all these millions of Americans work their way OUT of poverty when the Congressional Budget Office estimates the 500,000 jobs will find themselves on the jobs lost list while the workers will find themselves on the unemployment rolls if minimum wage passes?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bridgewater Mosque President Asks for Equal Treatment
BRIDGEWATER — Yassir Abdelkader, president of the Al Falah Center, has a simple message: “We want to be treated like any other church or synagogue.”…
He also assured residents that there will be no services outside the building and no call to prayer from the mosque’s proposed minaret…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
California College Student Teaches School $50,000 Lesson on Constitution
A California college student who was blocked last year from handing out copies of the Constitution gave his school a lesson in civics and the law, winning a $50,000 settlement and an agreement to revise its speech codes.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Construction of Giant Telescope in Hawaii Could Begin This Summer
Construction of a massive telescope triple the size of the world’s largest current optical telescopes is set to begin on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea volcano this year.
The Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT), which will consist of interlocking, segmented mirrors with a diameter totaling 30 meters (98 feet), has raised 83 percent of its funding, and builders could break ground by this summer, the project’s leaders say.
If construction goes ahead on schedule, the telescope will have its “first light” in 2022.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cops Continued Beating Dead, Unarmed Suspect
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Family releases raw cellphone footage of man dying in police custody
The lawyer for a family whose patriarch died after a one-sided confrontation with police says officers may have continued beating the man even after he was already dead.
The attorney’s remarks come as outrageous new raw footage documenting the last moments of the man’s life is released.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Court Orders YouTube to Take Down Anti-Muslim Film
A federal appeals court ordered YouTube on Wednesday to take down an anti-Muslim film that sparked violence in many parts of the Middle East.
The decision by a divided three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reinstated a lawsuit filed against YouTube by an actress who appeared in the video. The 9th Circuit said the YouTube posting infringed actress Cindy Lee Garcia’s copyright to her role, and she, not just the filmmaker, could demand its removal.
The court’s ruling addressed control of the clip, not its contents, which YouTube determined didn’t violate its standards.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Despite Rifts: G.O.P. Has Election Edge, Poll Finds
Republicans are in a stronger position for this year’s midterm elections, benefiting from the support of self-described independents, even though the party itself is deeply divided and most Americans agree more with Democratic policy positions, the latest New York Times/CBS News poll shows.
The independents in the poll — a majority of whom were white men under age 45 — continued to sour on President Obama’s job performance. Republicans hold their edge despite the fissures within their party over whether it is too conservative, and many are discouraged about the party’s future.
| [Return to headlines] |
Farrakhan: African Americans Deserve Their Own Courts
DETROIT — In a fiery speech Sunday delivered to 18,000 at Joe Louis Arena, Minister Louis Farrakhan blasted the judicial systems in the U.S. as being biased against African Americans, calling upon the community to set up their own courts.
“We want equal justice under the law,” Farrakhan said on the last day of the Nation of Islam’s annual convention, held in Detroit this year. “Our people can’t take much more. We have to have our own courts.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Google Robots, Kurzweil’s AI, And Why Self-Aware Machines Will Inevitably Seek to Destroy Humanity
“By 2029, computers will be able to do all the things that humans do. Only better,” reports The Guardian in an interview with Kurzweil.
Kurzweil is a top executive at Google, the very same company which has been on a robotics buying spree, purchasing top military-level robotics companies for billions of dollars.
Recently, for example, Google purchased Boston Dynamics, the company whose creepy, Terminator-style robots already have “human stalking” algorithms which are politely described as “follow the leader” games. See the company’s “Petman” humanoid military robot prototype in this video:
These robots are designed to fight our future wars. It’s only a matter of time before they become mobile platforms for weapons delivery systems. The “Terminator” isn’t as far off as you might suspect.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greenpeace Co-Founder: No Scientific Evidence of Man-Made Global Warming
There is no scientific evidence that human activity is causing the planet to warm, according to Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore, who testified in front of a Senate committee on Tuesday…
“There is no scientific proof that human emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) are the dominant cause of the minor warming of the Earth’s atmosphere over the past 100 years,” according to Moore’s prepared testimony. “Today, we live in an unusually cold period in the history of life on earth and there is no reason to believe that a warmer climate would be anything but beneficial for humans and the majority of other species.”
“It is important to recognize, in the face of dire predictions about a [two degrees Celsius] rise in global average temperature, that humans are a tropical species,” Moore said. “We evolved at the equator in a climate where freezing weather did not exist. The only reasons we can survive these cold climates are fire, clothing, and housing.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of New Exoplanets Validated by Kepler Telescope Team
A huge new haul of planets has joined the tally of alien worlds discovered by NASA’s Kepler space telescope, scientists announced today. All of the new planets are members of multiplanet systems—stars with more than one orbiting satellite. Researchers used a new method for weeding out false signals from among the candidate planets found by Kepler, allowing them to add hundreds of “validated” planets to the count of Kepler’s finds.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of Mini Solar Systems Found in the Milky Way
Our galaxy is brimming with small solar system lookalikes. More than 300 planetary systems reminiscent of our own have been found in data collected by NASA’s premiere planet-hunter, the Kepler space telescope. The discoveries add to the unexpected diversity of exoplanets that exist in the Milky Way.
“The planets are small, they have circular orbits, their orbital planes are flat — it starts to look like home very quickly,” says Jason Rowe of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. “They’re like scaled-down versions of the inner solar system.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Katy Perry Music Video Enrages Muslims Over ‘God’ Pendant
An online petition launched on Tuesday by Muslims around the world demands that Katy Perry’s music video for “Dark Horse,” in which a ‘God’ pendant is seen being burned, be removed from Youtube.
At 1:15 into the video, a man is shown wearing two pendants, one of which says God in Arabic. Perry, who plays a queen-like figure in the video, zaps the man with lightening and he disintegrates into sand; his pendant disappearing with him.
Unik Salihu from Sweden said, “I as a Muslim, think this is a disgrace. Does she want to start a war against Muslims? This video is insulting to us and needs to be removed before something happens! (sic).”
[NOTE: Katy Perry used to be married to English comedian Russell Brand who had a truly funny ‘bit’ about Muslims where he intimated that you can make jokes about everyone — except, when you make fun of Muslims, you had better mumble — or they’ll hurt/kill you.]
| — Hat tip: Egghead | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Community Invites Fort Collins to New Mosque and Islamic Center
Islamic Center of Fort Collins will host an open house Saturday to introduce a new building and reintroduce the area’s Muslim community. The 18,000-square-foot Turkish-style mosque and Islamic Center, 925 W. Lake St., opened in late 2013 as a beacon of hope and visibility to the city’s roughly 2,000-strong Muslim community…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Administration’s Warped Priorities — Gutting the Army
On Monday, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel recommended reducing size of the U.S. Army to its lowest level since before the nation’s entry into WWII.
“We must now adapt, innovate, and make difficult decisions to ensure that our military remains ready and capable — maintaining its technological edge over all potential adversaries,” Hagel said during a Pentagon news conference. Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, illuminated the administration’s dubious priorities. President Obama and Hagel are trying to “solve our financial problems on the backs of our military — and that can’t be done,” he explained.
The reductions are stark. The Army had already been tasked with reducing troop numbers from a wartime high of 570,000 to 490,000. Hagel proposes bringing that number down to the either 450,000 or 440,000. He defended those cuts, claiming they will allow more money to be spent on “technological superiority,” “cyber resources,” and Special Operations forces.
Retired Gen. Jack Keane contended the reductions would “cut into the bone and the capabilities of the Army,” even as he ridiculed the thinking behind them. “The assumption that’s being made in the Pentagon, and it’s almost laughable if it wasn’t so serious, is they don’t believe the United States will involve itself in a ground war of any consequence again,” he explained. “The fact of the matter is those assumptions have been made after World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Cold War, and every single time they have been proven wrong. Here we are making that same assumption again. The Army is taking a much more severe cut, and the numbers of the Army are going down to pre-World War II numbers, which, on the surface of it, is irresponsible. Anybody looking at that knows it is far too much.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Population of Known Alien Planets Nearly Doubles as NASA Discovers 715 New Worlds
NASA’s Kepler space telescope has discovered more than 700 new exoplanets, nearly doubling the current number of confirmed alien worlds.
The 715 newfound planets, which scientists announced today (Feb. 26), boost the total alien-world tally to between 1,500 and 1,800, depending on which of the five main extrasolar planet discovery catalogs is used. The Kepler mission is responsible for more than half of these finds, hauling in 961 exoplanets to date, with thousands more candidates awaiting confirmation by follow-up investigations.
“This is the largest windfall of planets — not exoplanet candidates, mind you, but actually validated exoplanets — that’s ever been announced at one time,” Douglas Hudgins, exoplanet exploration program scientist at NASA’s Astrophysics Division in Washington, told reporters today.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Reddit Censors Big Story About Government Manipulation and Disruption of the Internet
The moderators at the giant r/news reddit (with over 2 million subscribed readers) repeatedly killed the Greenwald/Snowden story on government manipulation and disruption of the Internet … widely acknowledged to be one of the most important stories ever leaked by Snowden.
Similarly, the moderators at the even bigger r/worldnews reddit (over 5 million subscribers) repeatedly deleted the story, so that each new post had to start over at zero.
For example, here are a number of posts deleted from r/news (click any image for much larger/clearer version):
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Student Suspended for Fishing Knife in Father’s Car
A high school student in Montgomery County, Tenn. has been suspended after school officials found a knife inside his father’s car.
David Duren-Sanner should be spending his time going through college and scholarship applications this time of year.
Instead, he’s wondering if he’ll even be able to graduate after what hundreds of people are calling an overreaction to a mistake.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Startup Claims to Turn the Dead Into Diamonds
Jewelry often holds sentimental value. But a Swiss startup is taking this notion to a whole new extreme. For a starting price of $5,000, Algordanza will forge a sparkling diamond from the ashes of someone who has passed away.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Arrgh! Adventures of 17th-Century Pirate Alliance Uncovered in Ireland
An alliance of pirates preyed on ships laden with treasure, outmatched Britain’s Royal Navy, elected their own admiral and, ultimately, were destroyed in a cataclysmic battle against a Dutch fleet in 1614.
They were a pirate alliance which operated on the southwest coast of Munster, Ireland, in the early 17th century, and now new archaeological and historical research reveals new details about their adventures.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Catalan Referendum Plan ‘Illegal’, Says Spain’s PM
Spain’s Prime Minister maintained that a referendum on independence for Catalonia would be “illegal” on Tuesday (25 February) as he delivered his annual state of the nation speech. Mariano Rajoy vowed to block the vote, which the Catalan authorities intend to hold on 9 November. “This referendum can’t take place, it is not legal,” he said, adding that “it is the entire Spanish people who have the capacity to decide what Spain is.”
The Catalan referendum, if it happens, is to take place less than two months after voters in Scotland decide on whether they want to leave the UK. As with Scotland, legal opinion is divided on whether an independent Catalonia would be required to re-apply for EU membership.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Child Pornography: Victims of Exploitation Struggle to Forget
The roots of the scandal leading to the resignation of German parliamentarian Sebastian Edathy lie in Romania. In the village of Racsa, boys were filmed naked and the footage sold onward. The shame still haunts them.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
European Roma Integration Plan Launched
Europe’s human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe, along with EU commissioner for social affairs Laszlo Andor, announced a plan on Tuesday to help overcome inequalities between Roma and non-Roma citizens in Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia and Romania.The plan aims to reinforce local authorities’ efforts to break down Roma barriers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Flamenco Guitar Legend Paco De Lucia Dead at 66
World-renowned Spanish guitarist Paco de Lucia has died aged 66, the mayor of his native Andalusian town has said. The musician was known for his distinct style incorporating jazz and classical elements into flamenco.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
For NATO, A First: 5 Defense Ministers Are Women
NATO has registered a first in its long history, with five women among the defense ministers who turned up Wednesday to attend a policy-making meeting at the alliance’s headquarters. The latest woman to join the ministerial ranks was Italy’s Roberta Pinotti, who was sworn in Saturday as her country’s first female defense minister.
Pinotti joined Albania’s Mimi Kodheli, Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen, Norway’s Ine Marie Eriksen Soreide and Jeanine Hennis-Plasshaert of the Netherlands. A NATO official said the five constituted the largest number of women defense ministers to serve at one time since the 28-nation alliance was founded in 1949.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Teenage Jihadists, Car Burnings and Muslim-Only Cemeteries
by Soeren Kern
During a press conference on January 14, French President François Hollande revealed that French intelligence services believe more than 700 French nationals and residents have travelled to fight in Syria. This figure is more than double the previous estimates.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“Summoned by an anti-terrorism judge last week, so I have had confirmation of threats to me. According to two witnesses, Mohammed Achamlane (creator and spokesman Forsane Alizza) thus asked one of its activists to contact me to try to assassinate me . Some looked quite determined to stand and say available to the self-proclaimed emir to act. I also learned that they were trying to get some personal addresses, including that of the host site Fdesouche . A threat to be taken seriously when it was discovered that members of Forsane Alizza working with telephone operators.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greek PM Sees ‘Strong Indications’ Fuel Deposits Could Raise Half National Debt in Revenues
Greece’s prime minister says the cash-strapped country could earn up to 150 billion euros ($206 billion) in three decades from offshore oil and gas deposits.
Antonis Samaras said Wednesday the rough estimate, which is worth nearly half of Greece’s 320 billion-euro debt mountain, was “neither optimistic nor pessimistic,” and could increase depending on further exploration results.
He said surveys have provided “very strong indications of significant” reserves off Greece’s western coast, and work is ongoing in waters off the island of Crete in the south.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi Meets Wives of Marines Held in India
Pair accused of killing two Indian fishermen in 2012
(ANSA) — Rome, February 25 — Premier Matteo Renzi on Tuesday met the wives of two Italian marines facing trial in India for allegedly killing two Indian fishermen during an anti-piracy mission in 2012. Renzi has said bringing the marines back home is a priority for his new government, arguing they have been in India “for too long” and describing the affair as “absurd”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s New Defense Minister to Raise Marines Case at NATO
Pinotti to broach anti-piracy row with India at two-day summit
(ANSA) — Brussels, February 25 — Newly appointed Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti will raise the issue of two Italian marines facing charges in India at a meeting of NATO defense ministers Wednesday and Thursday, the ministry made known Tuesday.
Massimiliano Girone and Salvatore Latorre are facing trial in India for allegedly killing two Indian fishermen during an anti-piracy mission in 2012.
Premier Matteo Renzi has said bringing the marines home is a priority for his new government, arguing they have been in India “too long” and describing the affair as “absurd”.
Prosecutors in New Delhi on Monday told the supreme court that they were in favor of dropping a request for the marines to be prosecuted under an anti-terrorism and anti-piracy law.
The possible application of the anti-terrorism law in this case caused major diplomatic tensions between the two nations, with Rome saying it equated Italy to a terrorist State.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Space Agency Chief Arrested on Graft Charges
Saggese ‘threatened whistle-blower’
(ANSA) — Rome, February 25 — Rome prosecutors on Tuesday placed Italian Space Agency (ASI) chief Enrico Saggese under house arrest on graft charges after a fellow official blew the whistle on what he said were fake invoices issued to agency suppliers.
Saggese allegedly threatened whistle-blower Roberto Borsa with shutting down his section and “compromising his professional future” if he went to authorities, according to court documents.
The allegedly dodgy invoices were issued to Rome-based Sistina Travel, which organized ASI employees’ trips abroad, and Turin-based Get-It Communication, a PR company. Including Saggese, seven ASI officials are currently under investigation in the graft probe. These include ASI spokespersons Francesca and Mario Giacomo Sette, who are employees of Italian aerospace and industrial giant Finmeccanica. Operating under the education and research ministry, ASI reportedly had a yearly budget of 700 million euros as of 2010.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Former Rome Municipal Police Chief Arrested for Corruption
(AGI) Rome, Feb 26 — Former Rome municipal police chief, Angelo Giuliani, was placed under house arrest on corruption charges.
He was arrested with three executives of the Sicurezza e Ambiente, a company which repairs roads after accidents. The charges relate to corruption in the process that Mr Giuliani used to adjudicate contracts to the company. The arrests were carried out by the Investigation Unit of the Carabinieri of Rome under the command of Colonel Lorenzo Sabatino.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: M5S MPs Vote to Eject ‘Dissents’ Who Criticised Grillo
Comedian-politician launches online poll to ratify expulsions
(ANSA) — Rome, February 26 — Lawmakers from the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) voted in the early hours of Wednesday to eject four ‘dissident’ Senators who criticised leader Beppe Grillo.
Comedian-turned-political Grillo subsequently launched an online vote of M5S supporters on whether to ratify the expulsions of the four for speaking against Grillo’s volcanic conduct during talks with Premier Matteo Renzi last week.
“Now the Web will decide,” Grillo wrote on his popular blog, which gave life to the Internet-based M5S in 2009.
“I hope it decides to confirm the verdict of the assembly (of M5S lawmakers). That way there’ll be a fewer of us, but we’ll be much more cohesive and stronger”. He added that Senators Lorenzo Battista, Fabrizio Bocchino, Francesco Campanella and Luis Alberto Orellana were “no longer in sync with the Movement”. The four were critical after Grillo erupted with an angry barrage and would not allow any else to speak without interrupting during government-formation “consultations” a week ago.
Grillo then went on a rant at a press conference following the meeting, saying he wanted to destroy the current political system and blasting the journalists present for helping uphold it.
The M5S leader reluctantly went to the talks, after a poll of M5S members narrowly voted for the movement to take part.
The dissidents refused to quit the movement, arguing it should tolerate internal debate.
The M5S ejected two parliamentarians last year for expressing dissent.
Senator Adele Gambaro was thrown out in June after blaming Grillo for the party’s poor showing at a round of local elections.
Another Senator, Marino Mastrangeli, was voted out in April for breaking a ban on appearing on television chat shows, which Grillo says are rigged to favour the established parties along much of the rest of the Italian media.
The M5S won around a quarter of the vote at last year’s inconclusive general election.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Alitalia Chief Says Etihad Due Diligence to End in 4 Weeks
Airline to continue Air France link even after investment deal
(ANSA) — Milan, February 26 — Etihad Airways should be finished conducting its due diligence on Alitalia within the next month as it considers a possible investment, the chief executive of the troubled Italian carrier said Wednesday.
Gabriele Del Torchio said he could not comment on how the process is going, but he expected the Abu Dhabi-based Etihad should finish its investigations of Alitalia’s books in about four weeks.
Meanwhile, Del Torchio said that Alitalia will continue its relationship with minority investor and code-share partner Air France-KLM, which previously refused a further investment in the cash-starved Italian carrier.
“We want to continue to be loyal partners of Air France with whom we have an agreement until 2017,” Del Torchio said as Alitalia unveiled its new in-flight magazine Ulisse. “What’s going to happen later on, we will see,” he added.
As well, Alitalia has made its first contacts with the new Italian government led by Premier Matteo Renzi and Del Torchio said he felt “satisfaction” that the minister for transportation and infrastructure will remain Maurizio Lupi, “who has taken to heart this affair” and understands the challenges facing Alitalia.
Del Torchio also confirmed labour plans to avoid permanent job cuts by rotating temporary layoffs beginning in early March, which the airline says will save 80 million euros each year.
In early February, Etihad and Alitalia issued a joint statement saying they were in the “final phase” of negotiations for a deal that would see the Abu Dhabi carrier buy as much as a 40% stake in its Italian counterpart, the equivalent of a much-needed capital injection of 350 million euros.
The main issue in talks has been Etihad’s condition that Alitalia renegotiate some of its the debt, as well as cut payroll costs by potentially as much as 128 million euros.
German airline Lufthansa has complained of disguised State aid in the deal, in contravention of European Union competition rules.
That followed similar complaints that came as Alitalia was poised to sign a 200-million-euros financing deal with banks as part of a 500-million-euros bailout package engineered by the previous Italian government last autumn.
This also included a controversial 74-million euro investment by Italy’s state-owned post office Poste Italiane, which prompted other European carriers to called on the EU to intervene.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
MEPs Vote to Criminalise Buying Sex
The European parliament has voted in favour of a resolution to criminalise the purchase of sex.
On Wednesday, 343 MEPs backed a report proposed by the London MEP and Labour spokeswoman for women in Europe, Mary Honeyball, which recommends the adoption of the “Nordic model” of prostitution that legalises selling sex but criminalises buying it. Some 139 MEPs voted against;105 abstained.
The yes vote formally establishes the EU’s stance on prostitution and puts pressure on member states to re-evaluate their policies on sex work.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Terror Threat Remains ‘Substantial’, Syria Returnees Are Cause for Concern
The terrorist threat in the Netherlands remains ‘substantial’, the Dutch counter terrorism body NCTV says on Monday, in its latest security report. The threat level remains high because of continuing concerns about the likely action of people returning from fighting on behalf of rebel forces in Syria, the NCTV says.
Around 100 Dutch nationals have so far gone to Syria, of whom about 70 remain in the country, the NCTV says. Some 20 have since returned to the Netherlands and 10 have been killed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Northern Ireland Unity Leader Threatens to Resign Over Secret British Deal With IRA Fugitives
BELFAST, Northern Ireland — The leader of Northern Ireland’s unity government has threatened to resign because of revelations the British government has supplied so-called get out of jail free letters to Irish Republican Army fugitives from justice.
First Minister Peter Robinson said Wednesday his British Protestant party would never have formed a coalition with Sinn Fein, the IRA-linked party, in 2007 had Britain revealed it was giving written guarantees to IRA veterans who fled to the Republic of Ireland.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Over Half of Italy’s 30-Somethings Still Get Allowance
Almost 80% of under-34s get pocket money from mom and dad
(ANSA) — Rome, February 25 — More than half of Italy’s 30-somethings get an allowance from their parents, while another 3% get financial help from their grandparents or other relatives, a study by farmers’ group Coldiretti revealed Tuesday.
The report, unveiled at a conference in Rome devoted to young entrepreneurs, said the percentage skyrockets to 79% when considering only those under the age of 34. The study said the numbers made sense when considering high youth unemployment in Italy — over 40% for under-25s — forcing 75% of young people to live with their parents. Coldiretti said youths living with their parents tend to make themselves useful, with 76% shopping for groceries, 73% cooking, and 60% doing other household chores. Still, some 16% of young Italians living at home don’t make their own beds.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Renzi Govt ‘Doesn’t Want Europe Giving Italy Orders’
Premier tells House there’s ‘no EU without Italy’
(ANSA) — Rome, February 25 — Premier Matteo Renzi told the House Tuesday that his government did not want a Europe that tells Italy what to do, but a Europe to which Italy “gives a fundamental contribution, because without Italy there is no Europe”. The premier was speaking ahead of a House confidence vote in his new government.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Scholars Map Gladiator School in Austria
An international team of archaeologists has used noninvasive technologies to map the second-century gladiatorial school near the site of Carnuntum, where at least 80 gladiator-slaves lived in a two-story building. The facility, which had a practice arena, heated floors for winter training, baths, infirmaries, plumbing, and a graveyard, was more like a fortress where the men were kept as prisoners, according to Wolfgang Neubauer of the University of Vienna, whose team recently published its findings.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spanish Flamenco Guitarist Paco De Lucia Dies at 66
World-renowned Spanish guitarist Paco de Lucia has died aged 66 in Mexico, reportedly of a heart attack while playing with his children on a beach. The death of one of the most celebrated flamenco guitarists was announced by the mayor’s office in Algeciras, southern Spain, where he was born. He is said to have died in the Mexican resort of Cancun. Famous for a series of flamenco albums in the 1970s, he also crossed over into classical and jazz guitar.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Blow for Cameron as Half of UKIP Voters Say They Would Never Back the Tories
Almost half of Ukip supporters would never vote Tory, a poll reveals today. It found Liberal Democrat voters were more likely to switch to the Conservatives. The Ipsos MORI survey casts serious doubt on David Cameron’s attempts to win over Ukip supporters, with 48 per cent of them saying they would not back the Tories, compared with 43 per cent of Lib Dems…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Campaign Group Defends Arrested Moazzam Begg
Campaign group CAGE, which is against Western action in the Middle East, has spoken out about today’s counter-terrorism arrests — saying it is “outraged”.
Four people — including CAGE’s outreach director Moazzan Begg — were arrested from the West Midlands today on suspicion of attending a terrorist training camp and facilitating terrorism overseas…
[JP note: Gita Saghal here http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/nov/15/international-criminal-justice-yemen and Nick Cohen http://www.standpointmag.co.uk/node/4003/full ]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Far Right Groups Protest Ahead of Rigby Killers’ Sentencing
Protesters from far-right groups gather outside the Old Bailey in London, holding banners calling for capital punishment to be restored, ahead of the sentencing of the two men who murdered Lee Rigby
More than two months have passed since Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale were convicted of murdering soldier Lee Rigby.
Sentencing was delayed by Mr Justice Sweeney to allow time for a specially-constituted court to decide if “whole-life” tariffs can still be handed to criminals who have committed the very worst of crimes…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Joy as Notts’ First Minaret Installed at Sneinton Mosque
GENERATIONS of Muslims gathered in Sneinton to witness the first minaret in Notts raised and a £1.2 million “landmark” created in the city’s skyline. The 500-strong congregation at the Jamia Masjid Sultania mosque, in Sneinton Dale, received the final touch to its place of worship on Tuesday…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Lee Rigby Murder: Adebolajo and Adebowale Jailed
Michael Adebolajo has been given a whole-life term and Michael Adebowale has been jailed for a minimum of 45 years for murdering Fusilier Lee Rigby.
Adebolajo, 29, and Adebowale, 22, drove into Fusilier Rigby with a car before hacking him to death in Woolwich, south-east London, in May last year. The judge, Mr Justice Sweeney, said Adebolajo’s was one of those “rare cases” warranting a whole-life term.
The pair were absent during sentencing after a scuffle in the dock. As Mr Justice Sweeney began to sentence the men they started shouting and scuffling with court security guards. They had to be forced to the ground and were removed from court.
Fusilier Rigby’s family sobbed as Adebolajo shouted “allahu akbar”, and Adebowale called out “that’s a lie” as the judge told them their extremist views were “a betrayal of Islam”. One relative needed medical treatment after the outbursts. The judge later apologised the family “had to witness what happened in the dock”.
Sentencing the killers in their absence, the judge said they had been convicted on “overwhelming” evidence of the “barbaric” murder of Fusilier Rigby. The British Muslim converts had “butchered” the 25-year-old soldier, he said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Legoland — The Real Impacts of the Hate Generated by Fear About Muslims
The recent Legoland incident has led to a series of on-line debates and discussions and shrill pieces like the Daily Mail’s Littlejohn article. The Daily Mail was followed by a letter from the Muslim Council of Britain which 27 other organisations signed showing their disgust at the ‘Jolly Jihadi Boys Outing’ article in the Daily Mail. The Legoland incident had two colliding factors that raised the shrill levels…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Richard III DNA Test Sparks Controversy
King Richard III has been dead for more than 500 years, but his bones continue to ignite fresh controversy. The medieval king, unearthed from a Leicester parking lot in 2012, has been the center of debate over where and how his body should be reburied. Now, a plan to sequence the full genome of Richard III has brought new strife.
“Why is the University of Leicester doing this, and why is it doing it without any consultation?” said John Ashdown-Hill, an independent historian involved with the search for the bones.
“We’re talking about a member of the royal family and a former head of state,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Why Does the Vatican Drink So Much Wine?
Vatican City consumes more wine per head than any other country, says the California-based Wine Institute. Is life really so tough within those walls?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: 26 Sentenced to Death Over Suez ‘Terror Plot’
An Egyptian court has sentenced 26 people to death for founding a “terror group” with the aim of attacking ships using the Suez Canal. Judges said the men were also accused of manufacturing missiles and explosives, local media report. The defendants were tried in absentia, Reuters news agency says.
The sentencing comes a day after the new Prime Minister designate, Ibrahim Mahlab, vowed he would “crush terrorism in all the corners of the country”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Court Sentences 26 to Death in Suez Canal Terror Plot
An Egyptian court has sentenced 26 people to death for founding a “terror group” and targeting the Suez Canal. The country has seen a series of attacks since the ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Renzi’s First Foreign Visit to Tunis
‘Not Brussels, but the middle of the Mediterranean’
(ANSA) — Rome, February 25 — Matteo Renzi on Tuesday said his first foreign visit as Italian premier will “not be to Brussels…but to Tunis” next week. “The heart of that mare nostrum (the Mediterranean) that we hope will once again be central,” said Renzi in a speech before the House ahead of a confidence vote in his new government.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sultan of Schwing: How Moroccan Ruler Could Sire 1,000 Kids Revealed
Sultan Moulay Ismaïl of Morocco, “The Bloodthirsty,” reputedly sired hundreds of children and perhaps more than a 1,000. Now computer simulations suggest this could have been possible if the ruler had sex about once a day for 32 years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Egyptian Muslim Tears up the Qur’an
A YouTube post of a young Egyptian man doing the unthinkable on camera: tearing up the Qur’an and putting it in the trash.
This is the summary translation of what he said:
“There it is, Allah’s book, this is the basic catastrophe. I don’t know what day it is of this disgusting month of Ramadan! And I don’t want to know! You are making the tearing of the Qur’an such a big and dangerous thing.. it is instinctive to tear this book, those sons of b——- think they can threaten me and challenge me to tear the Qur’an, but I want to prove to them that they are nothing. What is the big deal in tearing this book? There it is (he starts tearing up the Qur’an) in the trash. Are you feeling better now? You cannot touch one hair of my head! We keep blaming Hamas and Gaza, but it is not them, it is this son of a b—— book that I am stepping on right now. This book is the source of all evil and the real catastrophe. There is nothing new here, it is not Omar Abdel Rahman, Abbud or all the others, it is this rotten book that is causing us to run in a demonic circle that will never end.”
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Demand Sparks ‘Jewish State’ Debate
Is Israel “the Jewish state”?
The answer may seem as obvious as the Star of David on the Israeli flag. Yet the question is starting to complicate the ambitious U.S. effort to ram through a peace deal between the Palestinians and Israel.
A broad-based group of Israelis plans to lobby the Knesset to declare the country, for the first time, a Jewish state by law. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded that the Palestinians recognize Israel’s Jewish status explicitly as part of any agreement.
“This is the Jewish land. This is the Jewish state,” he said in a speech this week to assembled U.S. Jewish leaders. “When we make an agreement it is an agreement between the nation state of the Jewish people and a nation state of the Palestinian people.”
“The Jewish people is not just a religion. It is also a national group that has a right to self-actualization,” he said.
In fact, the question of what it means to be a Jew is a matter of debate — abroad and in Israel itself, where Orthodox rabbis fight to retain a monopoly over religious conversions that have the unusual corollary outcome of constituting a membership ticket to a “people” as well.
“It’s hard to compare the matter to other countries because of the unique aspect of Judaism,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
“It is not just a religion or a nationality or an identity — it is all in one,” said Hoenlein, who organized the conference that Netanyahu addressed.
| — Hat tip: Egghead | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennett on Tuesday turned the tables in an interview on BBC’s Hard Talk when he asked host Stephen Sackur, “Would you hand over half of Britain to someone who keeps on killing you?”
In the combative interview, Bennett countered Sackur at every turn. Asked about his resistance to the internationally acclaimed “two-state solution,” Bennett said the history of Arab violence and two decades of diplomatic failures mean “fresh thinking” is required…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Number of Palestinian Women Killed by Relatives Has Doubled in a Year, Official Figures Show
RAMALLAH, West Bank — A Gaza teen stabbed to death by her brother while she prayed in her room has become the latest addition to a grim statistic: Palestinian women killed by relatives, often for allegedly shaming the family.
Twenty-six women were slain by relatives in the West Bank and Gaza in 2013, twice as many as the year before, according to official figures. The rise stems from mounting economic difficulties in the Palestinian territories, compounded by ongoing leniency for those killing in the name of “family honor” and social acceptance of violence against women, women’s rights activists said Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bahrain Government Forces Attack Mosque in Saar Village
(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) — Bahrain continues to crack down on its majority Shia Muslim population as the regime forces attacked a mosque in Saar village near the capital, Manama.
According to reports, the incident took place during a funeral procession on Tuesday after Bahraini security forces fired tear gas and deliberately targeted people inside a mosque…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Camels Likely Source of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome
(AGI) — Washington, Feb 25 — The coronavirus responsible for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is widespread among camels that have freely circulated in Saudi Arabia for the past 20 years according to a study published by the American Society for Microbiology. W. Ian Lipkin from Columbia University, New York, said that studies indicate that the MERS (MERS-CoV) coronavirus is widespread and that adult camels are more likely to have antibodies for this virus while younger ones are at a greater risk of carrying the active virus.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: Translation of Quran in 8 Languages Underway
(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) — Mohammad Naghdi delivered a report on the institute’s annual performance, saying that it has so far offered numerous translations of the holy Quran into various languages and is still engaged with doing so.
As he said, 8 translations are being pursued by the institute at the moment of which the Japanese rendition of the book is being prepared for publication and will most probably be released by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20)…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Balloons Fly Into Saudi Arabia
Wind carried several Israeli balloons into Saudi Arabia, where a resident said he found them while on a picnic in the Gulf Kingdom.
The Saudi said he was having a ride by his car with his family in an area close to the northern Saudi town of Rafha when he saw the balloons…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
New MERS Virus Widespread in Camels
The majority of camels in Saudi Arabia have been infected with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus, and the virus has been circulating among the animals there for at least 20 years, a new study suggests.
Researchers tested blood, nasal and rectal samples from dromedary (one hump) camels throughout Saudi Arabia, as well as archived blood samples from camels in the region that were collected as far back as 1992. MERS first appeared in people in September 2012, and since then, 182 people have been infected, most in Saudi Arabia. Seventy-nine people have died from the infection.
The first person known to have MERS was a Saudi Arabian man who owned four pet camels.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Qatar’s Foreign Domestic Workers Subjected to Slave-Like Conditions
Foreign maids, cleaners and other domestic workers are being subjected to slave-like labour conditions in Qatar, with many complaining they have been deprived of passports, wages, days off, holidays and freedom to move jobs, a Guardian investigation can reveal.
Hundreds of Filipino maids have fled to their embassy in recent months because conditions are so harsh. Many complain of physical and sexual abuse, harassment, long periods without pay and the confiscation of mobile phones.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria to Cooperate With Iran ‘Against Terrorism’ Says Assad
Jihadi militia clashes leave 3,300 dead since beginning of 2014
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, FEBRUARY 26 — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad reiterated the need to maintain close “cooperation” with Iran in order to “fight extremism and terrorism” in the region, official news agency SANA reported Wednesday.
Assad made the statement in a Damascus meeting with the Iranian Parliament’s Foreign Policy and National Security Committee Chairman Alaeddin Boroujerdi, SANA said.
The Syrian regime qualifies all armed rebels in the country as “terrorists”. Assad said Syria must coordinate with Iran to “unify our positions against the Wahhabi school of thought, which poses the biggest threat to the peoples of our countries and the world”, SANA reported.
The Wahhabi doctrine, a conservative branch of Sunni Islam, is espoused by the Saudi Arabian monarchy, which is Shiite-led Iran’s biggest rival in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia sides with Syrian rebels against Assad, who belongs to the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
At least 3,300 people have been killed since the beginning of the year in ongoing clashes in northern Syria between the different jihadi militias that have joined the fray against Assad, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
The clashes are mainly between the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an al-Qaeda affiliate operative in neighboring Iraq, and other Islamic formations such as the al-Nusra Front, which al-Qaeda has recognized as its Syria branch. Of those killed as a result of combat, car bombs and summary executions, 281 were civilians, 924 were ISIL combatants and 1,395 were fighters from other rebel groups, including non-extremist ones, according to SOHR.
It is impossible to ascertain which group the remaining 700 dead belonged to, because the different formations try to hide the real number of their casualties.
Loyalist forces killed over 100 mostly Syrian rebels in an ambush Wednesday near the city of Utayba in the East Ghouta region south-east of Damascus, sources on the ground told ANSAmed via Skype.
The sources denied SANA reports that most of those killed in the ambush were foreign militias. At least 60 of the rebels, which initially numbered 200, managed to flee, while 140 are unaccounted for. Initial reports are that 132 were killed. The different versions of the incident cannot be independently verified.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria Army Inches Closer to Aleppo, Foreign Terrorists Killed
(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) — Syrian government troops have made advances against militant positions near the northern city of Aleppo…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Forces ‘Kill Many Rebels’ In Eastern Ghouta
Syrian government forces have ambushed and killed a large number of Islamist rebel fighters in the eastern outskirts of the capital Damascus, reports say. Syrian state media says 175 died. But the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says it has received reports that about 70 died in the fighting in the Eastern Ghouta region.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria Crisis: Thousands Waiting for Food in Yarmouk
The BBC’s Lyse Doucet has travelled to Yarmouk, the Palestinian refugee camp in southern Damascus, Syria, where people are desperate for food. More than 20,000 have been living under a punishing siege there for nearly a year. They have been unable to move because of endless fighting and their plight is increasingly desperate. Residents gather daily, hoping to collect food parcels being given out by aid workers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish President Gul Signs Controversial Judiciary Bill
Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul has signed a controversial bill boosting the government’s control over the judiciary. The move follows a parliament decision to approve restrictions to the Internet.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
It’s on: Putin Deploys Troop Battalion
John Little at OmegaShock.com penned a brief analysis of the situation in the Ukraine. His insights were eerily prescient. Well before the world was aware of Russian troop movements Little noted that Putin would more than likely be forced to engage in military operations. You see, the Russians simply cannot let the Ukraine fall to the west.
Why?
Because of the Carpathian Mountains.
…since Ukraine is on the Russian side of the Carpathians… those mountains would no longer be a barrier to invasion and would double Russia’s vulnerability. Russia would need twice the army to guard that border. And, Russia cannot afford to support an army of that size.
That is why Russia CANNOT allow Ukraine to fall into the hands of the European Union. So, expect Russia to quietly and firmly up the pressure. If Putin can take back Ukraine by covert means, he’ll do that. If the US and EU block covert action, Putin will send in troops.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Militias Hunt Kiev Looters From Central Bank to Bling Palace
It’s after midnight and a former Ukrainian special forces officer going by the name of Jean is racing into central Kiev to round up reinforcements.
There’s chaos at the palace of deposed President Viktor Yanukovych. Jean and his team of eight volunteers, who include a middle-aged owner of a textile business and an unemployed boxer, need to keep order in a city largely abandoned by official law enforcement since Yanukovych’s overthrow on Feb. 22.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
President Vladimir Putin has reportedly ordered an immediate test of combat readiness of troops in central and western Russia.
Violence has also broken out in Ukraine’s eastern Crimea region as Muslim supporters of the new government clash with pro-Russian demonstrators.
Over 10,000 Muslim Crimean Tatars rallied in support of Ukraine’s interim leaders, waving Ukrainian flags and chanting ‘Ukraine is not Russia’ and ‘Allahu Akbar’.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Putin’s Difficult Decision: Ukraine Remains a Danger for Russia
The situation in Ukraine remains volatile — and presents Russian President Vladimir Putin with a difficult conundrum. Should Ukrainian nationalists continue to gain power, pressure will grow on the Kremlin to take action.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Putin Orders ‘Combat Readiness’ Tests for Western, Central Russian Troops
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered an urgent military drill to test the combat readiness of the armed forces across western and central Russia. The drill included troops dealing with mock security and terrorist threats.
The surprise drill tested ground troops, Air Force, airborne troops and aerospace defense, according to Russia’s Defense Minister, Sergey Shoigu.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Revolt Against Western Banker Takeover of Ukraine Grows
Russian Mayor installed in Sevastopol as backlash intensifies
Russian-speaking Ukrainians in Crimea are resisting the western banker takeover of their country by installing a Russian Mayor in the town of Sevastopol as part of an emerging revolt against the US-backed coup d’état that saw the overthrow of democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovych.
Russian Navy armored vehicle in the main square of #Sevastopol #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/kpkfSNZAjj
— Pedrodon (@stopnarcotics) February 25, 2014
“Sevastopol’s city council handed power to Aleksei Chaliy, a Russian citizen, during an extraordinary session on Monday evening while more than a thousand protesters gathered around city hall chanting “Russia, Russia, Russia,” and “A Russian mayor for a Russian city,” reports the Guardian. Former incumbent Vladimir Yatsuba resigned in order to allow Chaliy to take power.
The Russian military has also moved to secure the city against opposition militants by positioning armored personnel carriers in the town’s main square. Yesterday, it was reported that the Russian landing ship Nikolai Filchenko was on its way to Sevastopol with a contingent of 200 armed Russian soldiers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
In 2004 Hungary joined the EU, expecting streets of gold. Instead, four years later in 2008 Hungary became indebted to the IMF. The rock video by the Hungarian group, Mouksa Underground sums up the result in Hungary today of falling into the hands of the EU and IMF…
Perhaps if the Kiev students had listened to the Hungarian rock group instead of to Washington’s NGOs, they would understand what it means to be looted by the West, and Ukraine would not be in turmoil and headed toward destruction.
As Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland made clear in her speech last December and in the leaked recording of her telephone conversation with the US ambassador in Kiev, Washington spent $5 billion of US taxpayer dollars engineering a coup in Ukraine that overthrew the elected democratic government.
That it was a coup is also underlined by the obvious public lies that Obama has told about the situation, blaming, of course, the overthrown government, and by the total misrepresentation of Ukrainian developments by the US and European presstitute media. The only reason to misrepresent the events is to support the coup and to cover up Washington’s hand.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ukrainian Currency Hits 10-Year Low
Ukraine’s currency, the hryvnia, has fallen to a new low of 10 to the US dollar. The currency’s decline reflects political upheavals and longer-term persistent economic weakness. But it is also likely to aggravate those underlying problems and adds to Ukraine’s need for international financial assistance. The pressure is on the West and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help, as Russia seems unlikely to.
Even before the recent political upheavals, Ukraine’s economic performance was dismal. The economy is still smaller than it was in 1992, in the early days of post-Soviet independence.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine’s Crimea: A Hotbed of Russia-Bound Separatism
In the region of Crimea, most people are pro-Russian, and in the city of Kerch there were clear calls to clarify allegiance. A demonstrator on a public stage said over a hand-held loudspeaker: “We should consider the secession of Crimea from Ukraine.” And the crowd chanted: “Russia!” Jobs and language keep Crimea-Russia ties strong.
Kyiv is concerned about the calls to separate. The parliamentary vice president, Ruslan Koshulinskiy, in the nationalist Svoboda party, warned of the risks of partitioning Ukraine.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Crimea: Rival Rallies Confront One Another
Pro-Kiev and pro-Moscow protesters have scuffled in Ukraine’s Crimea region, as tensions increase following last week’s ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych. One person was crushed to death during the face-off outside parliament in Simferopol, the BBC confirms.
Only a police cordon separated the rallies — one pro-Russian, the other involving Crimean Tatars and people backing Ukraine’s change of government.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukrainian Leadership Names Interim Cabinet
An interim cabinet has been named in Ukraine, which is trying to manoeuvre through turmoil and impending bankruptcy. The appointments came amid fears of confrontation with Russia over Ukraine’s east-west allegiances.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukrainians Demand 2nd Amendment in New Constitution
EU-friendly government unlikely to grant actual freedoms
The question of how much the Ukrainian revolution was a grass roots effort versus being driven by external influences will be put to the test by a demand from some Ukrainian citizens that a right to bear arms be included in the country’s new constitution.
Citing how riot police used force to crush dissent during the recent uprising, the Ukrainian Gun Owner’s Association has announced that it will, “start to work on the preparation of amendments to the Constitution, which will provide an unconditional right for Ukrainian citizens to bear arms.”
“People should have the right to bear arms, which will be put in written into the Constitution. Authorities should not and will not be stronger than its people! Armed people are treated with respect!” states the press release.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine’s Sickness and Europe’s Cure: Neo-Liberalism and Neo-Fascism Join Hands
The situation in Ukraine is evolving by the hour. Right wing ultranationalists and their “liberal” collaborators have taken control of the Rada (Ukrainian parliament) and deposed the democratically elected, though utterly corrupt and incompetent, President Yanukovich.
Former Prime Minister, and convicted criminal, Yulia Tymoshenko has been freed, and is now making common cause with Noe-Nazi Right Sector, Svoboda, and other fascist elements, while the opposition’s nominal leaders such as Arseny Yatsenyuk and Vitali Klitschko begin to fade into the background.
In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin undoubtedly watches with anxiousness. In Washington, Victoria Nuland and the Obama administration rejoice. However, perhaps the most critical development of all is soon to emerge in Europe, as the forces of Western finance capital prepare to welcome Ukraine into the fold. They will come bearing the usual neoliberal gifts: austerity and “economic liberalization.”…
In exchange for European “aid”, Ukraine will be forced to accept the driving down of wages, significant cuts to the public sector and social services, in addition to a rise in taxes on the working class and slashing of pensions. Moreover, the country will be compelled to accede to a liberalization program that will allow Europe to dump goods into the Ukrainian market, deregulation and the further opening up the country’s financial sector to predatory speculation and privatization.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
War in Crimea Unlikely, Experts Say
Russia has put its army on alert. Although experts doubt Russia will intervene militarily in Ukraine, they agree the relations between the two countries are difficult at best.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Yanukovych’s Fall: The Power of Ukraine’s Billionaires
The protesters in Kiev were largely responsible for the fall of the Ukrainian president. But his way out of office was paved by two of the country’s most powerful oligarchs. Made rich by Viktor Yanukovych, the pair made early preparations for his departure.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh: Gap Goes With Upazila Polls
The ongoing upazila elections appear to be a blessing for Jamaat-e-Islami as it has found a scope to repair ties, at least at the grassroots level, with its main ally BNP. Encouraged by the results of the first-phase elections, Jamaat leaders now seek to consolidate their strength in the field through the polls…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Smog is So Bad it’s Like a ‘Nuclear Winter’ That’s Even Stopping Plants’ Photosynthesis
Pollution in Beijing is now so dense that its effects are comparable to that of a nuclear winter, Chinese scientists have said.
It has been predicted that if enough nuclear bombs were detonated, so many particles would be thrown into the air that the sun could be blocked out enough to alter the weather and damage the food supply.
This process is now under way in China’s capital city and six northern provinces, according to He Dongxian from China Agricultural University’s College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Man Sues Local Government Over Smog
Reuters, citing China’s Yanzhao Metropolis Daily, reported that a Chinese man from Hebei province has become the first person to sue the government over air pollution. Li Guixin has filed suit against the Shijiazhuang Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau seeking compensation for the heavy smog enveloping Shijiazhuang, Hebei’s capital city.
“The reason that I’m proposing administrative compensation is to let every citizen see that amid this haze, we’re the real victims,” Li told the Yanzhao Metropolis Daily. Li demanded that the environmental protection bureau “perform its duty to control air pollution according to the law.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
TEPCO Admits Fukushima Radiation “Significantly” Undercounted
– From April to September of 2013, as Bloomberg reports, TEPCO admits that levels of radiation measured from water samples around the destroyed Fukushima nuclear reactor were “significantly undercounted.”
We assume it was mere coincidence that during this very time Shinzo Abe proclaimed the 2020 Olympics would be safe and used many of these readings as evidence. In addition to this debacle, The BBC reports, the likely scale of the radioactive plume of water from Fukushima due to hit the west coast of North America should be known in the next two months; and rather stunningly, The Japan Times reports a new study finds the lifetime risk of developing cancer has risen among 1-year-old girls in an area affected by the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant. But apart from that, everything’s great.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
World’s Oldest Cheese Dates to 1615 B.C.
Vintage Gouda may be aged for five years, some cheddar for a decade. They’re both under-ripe youngsters compared with yellowish clumps — found on the necks and chests of Chinese mummies — now revealed to be the world’s oldest cheese. The Chinese cheese dates back as early as 1615 BC, making it by far the most ancient ever discovered.
The combination of dry desert air and salty soil prevented decay to an extraordinary degree. The remains and grave goods were freeze-dried, preserving the light-brown hair and strangely non-Asian facial features of the dead along with their felt hats, wool capes and leather boots. Analysis of the plant seeds and animal tissues in the tombs showed the burials date to 1450 to 1650 BC.
Some of the bodies had oddly shaped crumbs on their necks and chests. By analyzing the proteins and fats in these clumps, Shevchenko and his colleagues determined that they’re definitely cheese, not butter or milk. It’s not clear why people were buried with bits of cheese on their bodies, Shevchenko says, though perhaps it was food for the afterlife.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
$320 Million Drought Package for Farmers
PRIME Minister Tony Abbott admitted his government couldn’t work miracles, but said his $320 million drought assistance package was the government’s way of recognising a “difficult situation” in regional Australia.
More than a week after his whirlwind tour of drought-affected NSW and Queensland, the Prime Minister, flanked by Minister for Agriculture Barnaby Joyce, announced measures to assist farmers in dire situations…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Subjected to ‘State-Sanctioned Rape’
Girls as young as 18 months who came into contact with the NSW child welfare authorities from the 1930s onwards were routinely tested for venereal disease and evidence of sexual activity.
If they were found, on the basis of a spurious vaginal examination, to have been sexually active, from the age of 10 upwards they could be sent to the Parramatta Girls Home where they were exposed to ‘‘state-sanctioned rape’’ perpetrated by doctors, supervising staff and other inmates…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Ethiopia: The Monastery at Debre Damo
No wonder the monastery at Debre Damo has survived unmolested for some 900 years among the vast Tigrayan Mountains of Northern Ethiopia. Getting to it is arduous — the last stretch is achieved via an 80 foot rope…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Gambia: Pipeline Mosque Inaugurates Africell-Sponsored Minaret
The Pipeline Mosque on Friday inaugurated its new 33.35 meters minaret, reportedly sponsored by Africell GSM Company to the tune of D1 million. The erection of the concrete minaret took three years, and was done without using cement blocks, so as to ensure its solidity, said Imam Alhaji Pa Modou Njie. The minaret serves as a symbol of Muslims’ prayer grounds throughout the Muslim world, added the imam…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Boko Haram in Gruesome Murder of 43 FGC Students
The outlawed Boko Haram sect, whose members have been on the rampage in Borno and Adamawa States for over a month, spread its campaign of terror to neighbouring Yobe State Monday night where it killed 43 secondary school students in a Federal Government College…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Odd Cause of Humans’ Dark Skin Proposed
Skin cancer could have directly driven the evolution of dark skin in humans, a study on people with albinism in modern Africa suggests.
Albinism is an inherited disorder that prevents people from making melanin, a black or brown pigment. Albino people in sub-Saharan Africa almost universally die of skin cancer — and at young ages, according to a new paper published today (Feb. 25) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
These modern tragedies point to a potential reason early humans evolved dark skin, said Mel Greaves, a cell biologist at the Institute of Cancer Research in the United Kingdom.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Zanzibar Bombings Raise Questions Over Safety
Fresh concerns about safety in Zanzibar have been raised following separate explosions at a cathedral and a popular tourist restaurant in Stone Town
A police spokesman claimed no-one was hurt in the blasts, which struck on Monday afternoon. However, one tour operator on the island, who asked not to be named, told Reuters that at least one person had been injured.
The explosions are the latest evidence of growing religious tensions on the mostly Muslim island, part of Tanzania, which attracts thousands of Western holidaymakers each year in search of winter sun…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
‘A Perfect Storm’: The Failure of Venezuela’s New President
He was hand-picked by Hugo Chávez, but Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has lost control of the country’s economy. Vast protests have been the result, but the government in Caracas has shown no signs of bending.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chile’s Stunning Fossil Whale Graveyard Explained
It is one of the most astonishing fossil discoveries of recent years — a graveyard of whales found beside the Pan-American Highway in Chile. And now scientists think they can explain how so many of the animals came to be preserved in one location more than five million years ago. It was the result of not one but four separate mass strandings, they report in a Royal Society journal.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of Migrants Plucked From Sea South of Sicily
Navy reports rescuing 690 in 24 hours, new wave of crossings
(ANSA) — Pozzalla (Ragusa), February 26 — A total of 218 immigrants, mostly from sub-Sahara countries, were rescued from the sea Wednesday and brought the total of new migrants in just two days to almost 700 people.
Plucked from the waters between north Africa and Sicily by three Italian navy boats, the new arrivals — including 26 women and dozens of minors — were delivered to the Sicilian coastal town of Pozzallo, near Ragusa.
Over the last 24 hours, the Italian navy reported it rescued 690 migrants from at least six different distressed vessels in the Strait of Sicily.
That included a harbour patrol boat that ferried 200 people stranded on a boat south of Pozzallo, while the frigate Grecale was sent to aid another 100 adrift southeast of Lampedusa.
Italian authorities rescued over 1,000 people at sea in a single weekend, February 15-17, after the end of a period of bad weather led to a resumption of migrant crossings. More than 4,000 migrants have arrived on Italian shores already in 2014.
Tens of thousands of migrants arrive in Italy from North Africa every year and many others die attempting the dangerous sea crossing in often rickety vessels. Boat arrivals in Italy more than tripled in 2013 from the previous year, fuelled by the conflict in Syria and strife in the Horn of Africa.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Bans Rubber Bullets for Border Guards
Spain on Tuesday said it would outlaw rubber bullets for border guards following an incident earlier this month off the Ceuta coast that saw 14 people drown, reports AFP. Guards had fired the bullets to ward off the migrants. Spain’s interior minister said the shots did not cause the drownings.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Students Out of Erasmus Program Starting in 2015
Quotas on foreigners unnerve neighboring Italians
(ANSA) — Brussels, February 26 — Swiss students will no longer be able to take part in the Erasmus university student-exchange program beginning in 2015, a European Commission spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday. A number of agreements between Berne and the EU, including in research and education, have been axed after Switzerland voted to impose an upper limit on immigrants to the country earlier this month. The country will now be excluded from the new programs Horizon 2020 and Erasmus+. The spokesman said that Swiss students would not be able to take part in the program starting from the next academic year. Students currently in the program, however, can complete this year. The vote in Switzerland to impose quotas on newcomers to the country stirred alarm in neighboring Italy in terms of free trade, cross-border labor, and upcoming European Parliament elections. Several hundred thousand EU nationals live and work in Switzerland, mainly from Italy, Germany, Portugal and France.
In early February Swiss citizens voted by a narrow margin to impose caps on immigrants, including people from the European Union, giving eurosceptic and anti-immigrant movements a boost across the continent while complicating the country’s relations with the EU. Some 50.4% of voters supported the referendum pumped by far-right populists, mostly in the German-speaking East.
“This goes against the principle of free movement of people between the EU and Switzerland,” the European Commission had said at the time, adding it would review the impact on overall relations between Switzerland and the EU.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Arizona’s Governor Vetoes Bill on Denying Service to Gays
Republican Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona decided late Wednesday to veto a bill that would have given business owners the right to refuse service to gays, lesbians and other people on religious grounds.
Her action came amid mounting pressure from across the spectrum, including members of the Republican establishment — former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, and others — who sided with the bill’s opponents.
With three Republican state lawmakers who had voted for the measure now saying they oppose it, the bill is not expected to garner enough support to overcome the veto, which would require two-thirds of the votes in the Legislature.
| [Return to headlines] |
Courts Help Gays Pimp Their Sons
Divorced mothers who protect their sons from abuse by a gay father are deemed “crazy” by the courts and denied custody and access. When Caren Ragan, left, tried to take her son away, she was hunted down like a terrorist and jailed. She says 2.2 million mothers have been denied access to their sons.
“The judge told me he was a dictator and didn’t have to follow any of the laws of the USA and that my son needed to get used to a homosexual lifestyle, and he then ordered no contact between me and my son.”
| [Return to headlines] |
U.S. And Canada Join China, North Korea, And Vietnam Allowing Abortions After 20 Weeks
The United States and Canada are among a handful of nations, two of which are the biggest human rights abusers in the world, that allow abortions on babies after 20 weeks. Every other nation on the planet either bans abortions after that time, which is just before viability, or limits them.
A new report authored by Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) associate scholar Angelina Baglini and co-released today by CLI and Life Canada finds that the United States and Canada join China, North Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, and Netherlands in allowing abortion beyond 20 weeks, more than halfway through pregnancy and the point at which research shows the unborn child feels pain.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greenpeace Co-Founder: No Scientific Proof Humans Are Dominant Cause of Warming Climate
A co-founder of Greenpeace told lawmakers there is no evidence man is contributing to climate change, and said he left the group when it became more interested in politics than the environment.
“There is no scientific proof that human emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) are the dominant cause of the minor warming of the Earth’s atmosphere over the past 100 years,” he said. Even if the planet is warming up, Moore claimed it would not be calamitous for men, which he described as a “subtropical species.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Meteorite May Harbor Evidence of Mars Life: Study
Have signs of ancient Martian life been found inside a Red Planet meteorite?
A team of scientists says that microscopic tunnels and carbon-rich spherules that stud the interior of a Martian meteorite known as Yamato 000593 may have been formed by Red Planet organisms long ago, NBC News reported today (Feb. 25).
The new study, which was published in the February issue of the journal Astrobiology, does not claim that Yamato 000593 harbors conclusive evidence of life on Mars. But the rock may indeed contain something truly special, its authors say.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The ‘People’s Map of Mars’: Name a Red Planet Crater for $5
Naming landmarks on Mars isn’t just for scientists and rover drivers anymore.
Starting today (Feb. 26), anybody with an Internet connection and a few dollars to spare can give a moniker to one of the Red Planet’s 500,000 or so unnamed craters, as part of a mapping project run by the space-funding company Uwingu.
“This is the first people’s map of Mars, where anybody can play,” said Uwingu CEO Alan Stern, a former NASA science chief who also heads the space agency’s New Horizons mission to Pluto. “It’s a very social thing.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Re: 1) Farrakhan- Shariah law, anyone?
2) MEPs Vote to Criminalise Buying Sex- I’ve never visited a prostitute, though I’ve been tempted, as I believe sex for money degrades all participants, irrespective of gender. But having reached the ripe-ish age of 65, and being (I’m told) reasonably intelligent and mature, etc, I still don’t believe I’m clever enough to tell other people how to live.
Trafficking and coercion are different matters, but the safest way to prevent these is by legalisation and regulation.
Given its source, I would like to ask whether MERS is a sexually transmitted disease.