More than a thousand people took to the streets in the Mexican state of Sinaloa to protest the arrest of Joaquin Guzman, the leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel. The demonstrators were angered by Mr. Guzman’s arrest because they feel that the drug business has created jobs and is good for the local economy in Sinaloa.
In other news, according to recent surveys, 10% of Norwegian women have been raped at least once. Only 11% of those rape victims reported the crime. Half the victims were raped when they were under the age of 18.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, DS, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, KP, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
(NaturalNews) In April of 2013, I warned Natural News readers about investing in Bitcoin, saying on the record:
The bitcoin infrastructure is subject to the whims of just one person running MTGox who can arbitrarily decide to shut it down whenever he thinks the market needs a “cooling period.” This is nearly equivalent to a financial dictatorship where one person calls the shots.
Just two days ago, the largest bitcoin exchange MTGox suddenly and without warning shuttered its doors, blocking all customers from accessing their accounts which are collectively worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The entire MTGox website now reads:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
IMF Vultures Swoop to Asset-Strip Ukraine
Globalists demand “policy reforms” in return for making Ukraine their latest debt slave
Following a western-backed coup, the IMF is wasting little time in sending its vultures to asset strip Ukraine, with the announcement that the International Monetary Fund will offer financial assistance in return for “policy reforms”.
Issuing the IMF’s first official response to the crisis, managing director Christine Lagarde said IMF officials would be dispatched to Ukraine to, “start discussing with the Ukrainian authorities which policy reforms would be required in exchange for an emergency loan program,” reports the Associated Press.
In other words, just as it did in Greece, the IMF is about to turn Ukraine into its latest debt slave, helping western banks in looting the country of its prized assets and natural resources while imposing draconian austerity measures on the population in order to fill a $35 billion dollar hole and stop the country going into default.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Interest Rates on Bonds Hit Pre-Economic Crisis Lows
Italian paper selling sharply as confidence grows
(ANSA) — Rome, February 27 — Interest rates on the 10-year Italian BTP bond fell to below the 3.5% mark on the secondary market Thursday, the lowest level since January 2006 and a signal of financial markets’ confidence in the country’s new government.
The drop in yields came shortly before of a big Treasury auction of medium- and long-term bonds.
The interest rate on the five-year BTP Italian State bond dropped to an all-time low at auction as the Treasury sold three billion euros’ worth at an average rate of just 2.14%. It also sold four billion euros’ worth of 10-year bonds at an average interest rate of 3.42%, the lowest since 2005. As well, the interest rate on the six-month Italian State BOT bond dropped to a new low at auction on Wednesday.
The Treasury sold all 8.5 billion euros’ worth of the BOTs it put on the market at an average rate of 0.455%, the first time since the introduction of the euro common currency that it has gone below the 0.5% mark.
The rate at the last equivalent sale in January was 0.59%.
The high demand and low yields come within days of the confirmation of Premier Matteo Renzi’s government, through confidence motions on Tuesday.
That same day, the Treasury sold 2.5 billion euros’ worth of CTZs set to mature in December 2015 at an all-time low of 0.822%, down from 1.031% at the last equivalent sale.
It also sold one billion euros worth of BTP bonds linked to the eurozone’s inflation index, at an average interest rate of 1.2%, down from 1.39% at the previous sale.
Italy risked a complete financial meltdown in late 2011, when the rate on the 10-year-bond peaked at over 7%, with the spread between it and the German benchmark above 500 points.
That crisis led to the collapse in November 2011 of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s third government.
On Thursday, the spread reached 191 basis points.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
California Forcing Guns Off the Market
California has long been on a sickening, spiral path toward flushing all individual rights down the toilet. Few states have such a powerful and overreaching state government and nowhere is that overreach more apparent than in the state’s gun laws.
Back in 2000, California legislators instituted a system supposedly intended to protect the state’s citizens from cheap, poorly made, unreliable handguns — you know, the kind poor people can afford and that you would prefer criminals to have as opposed to accurate and reliable ones.
They called them “junk guns” and said they should be banned because they were disproportionately being used in crime. Instead of trying to make a list of “evil features” like they’ve done with “assault weapons,” the legislature went the opposite route, creating a roster of approved, “safe” handguns, and banning as “unsafe” any handgun that is not listed on the roster.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Exclusive: FBI Had Human Source in Contact With Bin Laden as Far Back as 1993
U.S. learned of plans to finance terror attacks
In a revelation missing from the official investigations of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the FBI placed a human source in direct contact with Osama bin Laden in 1993 and ascertained that the al Qaeda leader was looking to finance terrorist attacks in the United States, according to court testimony in a little-noticed employment dispute case.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The hit video game “Grand Theft Auto V” is illegally imitating life, according to a former “Mob Wives” star.
Karen Gravano, the daughter Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano, filed a $40 million lawsuit against the makers of the massively popular game, claiming her image and life story have been incorporated into the mafia-themed game without permission.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Government Spies on Innocent People Via Webcams, Laptops, Xbox
The latest revelation concerning mass government spying confirms an issue that Infowars has been covering for close to a decade. British and American governments are spying on people in their own homes via web cams, laptop microphones and devices such as the X-box.
The London Guardian has the details in a report based on information leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The British surveillance agency GCHQ, with help from the NSA, actively spied on nearly 2 million Yahoo users via webcams built into their computers. The documents show that the agency intercepted millions of images as part of a secret program codenamed OPTIC NERVE.
The documents show that images were collected from webcams at regular intervals, one image every five minutes, and were used by the spy agency to trial automated facial recognition programs.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Horny’ And Drunk Florida Woman Arrested for Calling 911, Begging Cop for Sex: Report
Maria Montenez-Colon, of Punta Gorda, Fla., was arrested Friday night for misuse of 911 after she allegedly asked a responding officer for sex because she had not been ‘penetrated in years.’
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How the Associated Press Burned Muslims
by Seth Lipsky
Maybe the Muslim community in New Jersey should sue the Associated Press. The wire service won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage exposing the surveillance of the Muslim community that was done by the NYPD after 9/11 — but a federal judge seems to think there were some unintended consequences…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Law Prof: Obama Power Grab Threatens to Make President ‘Government Unto Himself’
Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley issued a dire warning Thursday about the growth of executive power under President Obama, saying if left unchecked the U.S. president could “effectively become a government unto himself.” “It didn’t begin with President Obama, but it certainly accelerated under President Obama …and we are at a point that I consider quite dangerous,” Turley told Fox News.
The George Washington University Law School professor spoke with Fox News a day after testifying before the House Judiciary Committee on the same topic. During the hearing, he warned that the nation is at a “constitutional tipping point” as the White House concentrates more and more power.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Massachusetts Judge Orders Sick Girl Abused by Medical System to be Taken From Family
(NaturalNews) The medical mafia in Massachusetts has successfully removed a teenage girl from the guardianship of her parents and placed her into the cold arms of the government after first kidnapping and holding the child hostage for more than a year. CBS Boston and others report that 15-year-old Justina Pelletier, who for months has been wasting away in a mental facility upon orders from Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH), will now be placed into foster care rather than go home with her parents following an outrageous ruling by a Boston judge.
In case you missed it, young Justina was admitted to BCH back in early 2013 for complications arising from her mitochondrial disease, a rare condition that had previously been diagnosed by doctors at nearby Tufts Medical Center. But when doctors at BCH disagreed with this diagnosis, as well as with Justina’s parents’ choice of care, the hospital proceeded to illegally assume custody over the child, which has ever since resulted in a nightmarish battle for the Pelletiers to get their daughter back.
Apparently not convinced that Justina has an actual medical condition, even though she was previously in good health under the care of her parents, BCH forcibly withheld Justina on the grounds that she needed psychiatric care rather than medical care. And as she subsequently bounced from the hospital to the mental ward to foster care, Justina’s health deteriorated to the point that her father says she had almost died on numerous instances.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Michael E Mann: “Sloppy and Unethical”
By Mark Steyn
Excerpt: You don’t have to be sued by Michael E Mann to have a certain antipathy toward him. It’s been fascinating to discover how many people there are who believe in “anthropogenic global warming” and believe in climate science but really, strongly dislike Mann, his methods, and his promotion of himself as sole proprietor of Global Warming, Inc. I quoted a few of them the other day, but you have to be both secure in your career and have a certain toughness to come out against him in public. Here’s a small case study.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Monsanto’s Roundup May be Linked to Fatal Kidney Disease, New Study Suggests
A heretofore inexplicable fatal, chronic kidney disease that has affected poor farming regions around the globe may be linked to the use of biochemical giant Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide in areas with hard water, a new study has found.
The new study was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
Researchers suggest that Roundup, or glyphosate, becomes highly toxic to the kidney once mixed with “hard” water or metals like arsenic and cadmium that often exist naturally in the soil or are added via fertilizer. Hard water contains metals like calcium, magnesium, strontium, and iron, among others. On its own, glyphosate is toxic, but not detrimental enough to eradicate kidney tissue.
The glyphosate molecule was patented as a herbicide by Monsanto in the early 1970s. The company soon brought glyphosate to market under the name “Roundup,” which is now the most commonly used herbicide in the world.
The hypothesis helps explain a global rash of the mysterious, fatal Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown etiology (CKDu) that has been found in rice paddy regions of northern Sri Lanka, for example, or in El Salvador, where CKDu is the second leading cause of death among males.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Nation of Random Enforcement’: Is America’s Chief Executive Too Powerful?
When President Obama chooses to enforce select portions of federal law, is he playing the part of chief executive or skirting around Congress and, by extension, the U.S. Constitution?
That’s the question House Republicans put forth in a House Judiciary Committee meeting Wednesday, stacking the witness panel with four fellow House GOP members and three law professors all too ready to deliver their thoughts on prosecutorial discretion, the notion that the chief executive can selectively enforce federal laws.
“President Obama’s decision to ignore the constitutional limits on his authority subverts the rule of law and threatens the individual liberty that our system of separated powers is designed to protect,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, a Republican congressman from Virginia, in his opening speech.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Our Death Toll Would be Staggering’: Judge Jeanine on Power Grid Threats
The following is the transcript of Judge Jeanine Pirro’s opening statement regarding threats to our nation’s power grid.
Welcome to a special edition of Justice — I’m Judge Jeanine Pirro. Tonight — an hour long investigation into the dangers facing the U.S. power grid. What would it take to bring it down? And if our system did break down — how would you survive? And what would it be like in the dark?
Last month — i went to a meeting in Manhattan in the freezing cold. But when I came out of that meeting, I was frozen — not from the bitter temperatures — but from fear…
Fact: Ten months ago, unknown attackers attempted to blow up a San Jose transformer substation in a military style raid.
No one has been apprehended. The FBI and local police call it vandalism. As if Billy Bob and Bubba — after a few beers — get their hands on AK-47s and surgically knock out 17 transformers and 16 circuit breakers *after* cutting underground fiber optic cables and outsmarting security cameras and motion sensors.
These terrorists are still out there.
Less than a week later — in a shockingly similar attack in Tennessee — a suspect on a boat fired shots at a nuclear power plant, then engaged police. A trespasser? Someone armed from the water willing to engage in a shootout with law enforcement is *certainly* not Bubba with a few beers in him.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The horror of National Socialism is so profound and universally acknowledged that comparing our current political and social climate with the rise of the Nazis is sometimes too often and too easily done. The radical left four decades ago observed that Hitler called for “Law and Order,” just as conservatives were doing then. Conservatives have noted that the rise of paganism in American culture and the deconstruction of moral values pushed by the left hearken back to another grim legacy of Nazism…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
For a long time now I have been trying to determine whether the Obama administration is stupid, evil or both. In addition to its long list of scandals, its governance of America increasingly looks like and acts as if the power granted to it by two elections exists to intimidate and harass Americans, inflict endless new taxes, and granted it the right to destroy one of the best healthcare systems and military in the world.
Listening to President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry constantly talk about the non-existent threat of global warming/climate change is both stupid and evil. There is no global warming. The Earth has been in a cooling cycle for some seventeen years at this point and the supposed “science” they cite — that carbon dioxide emissions will heat the Earth — is utterly bogus, based entirely on computer models that have been wrong from the day the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were first used.
In a recent article in Forbes magazine, James Taylor, editor of The Heartland Institute’s Environment and Climate News, noted that “More than 30,000 scientists have signed a summary of the science explaining why humans are not creating a global warming crisis.” He cites several other surveys that confirm that neither scientists nor the public regard global warming/climate change to be a concern.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Surge in Concealed Weapon Permits Follows California Court Second Amendment Decision
Gun owners are flooding the sheriff’s offices in two California counties with applications for concealed weapon permits following a bombshell ruling two weeks ago by a federal appeals court that citizens need not justify their requests.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Democrats in the Famous ObamaCare Signing Photo Are Rapidly Retiring
Seven of the Democratic lawmakers surrounding President Obama when he signed the Affordable Care Act in 2010 are either now out of Congress or on their way out.
As depicted in this Daily Caller graphic, seven smiling Democrats have gone down or out in the last four years.
Among the retirees:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Secret Playbook of Social Media Censors
Glenn Greenwald’s piece on manipulation of the Internet by intelligence agencies gives examples — based upon documents leaked by Edward Snowden — of how governments disrupt social media websites.
Other whistleblowers have provided very specific information about how agents disrupt social media news sites.
This essay will focus one specific technique: the “Counter Reset”.
To explain the Counter Reset technique, we have to understand the concepts of “momentum” and “social proof”…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Government Moves to Control News
First, allow me to offer this warning: Do not, for one moment, believe the FCC has backed off its CIN (Critical Information Needs) initiative. It WILL be back, in another guise, most likely as a study to determine if minority ownership of broadcast stations is at a satisfactory level. Of course, it is not — at least not in the eyes of the Democratic Party.
It has been a while in coming but, as an old retired broadcaster, I have been expecting this move by the government for a very long time. Once “The Dictator,” Obama, moved into the White House it was but a matter of time.
Ajit Pai, a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission, was so upset about this move by the government to filter the news we get daily from the broadcast — AND — print media that he wrote an article about if for the Wall Street Journal Online. Here are HIS words:…
Before we go on, allow me to explain for those of you who have never been involved in the broadcast business — the FCC is basically the same to broadcasters as the IRS is to all taxpayers. Only worse. The FCC holds the life of a broadcast station in it’s hands. They can revoke the station’s license when they choose and that station, that business, is kaput!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Marco Rubio Destroys Tom Harkin’s Fawning Love of Cuban, Venezuelan Communists
I know a lot of you are mad at Marco Rubio over immigration. Do yourself a favor. Leave that aside for a moment — actually for about 14 minutes — and watch this.
Leftist Sen. Tom Harkin recently returned from Havana with the usual fawning praise liberals offer because everyone has health care, blah blah blah. Rubio, who grew up in Miami surrounded by Cuban exiles, wasn’t about to stand for it. Taking to the floor, Rubio laid the smack to Harkin and every other liberal who waxes happily over the utopian wonder of the worker’s paradise — as well as the connection to the oppressive violence happening in Venezuela right now.
Pop popcorn and enjoy:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Whistleblower Exposes Secret Fusion Center Operations
Using the September 11 attacks as justification for the implementation of ongoing domestic surveillance, the U.S. government has spent billions of dollars building what they call “fusion centers,” or “information sharing centers.”
Until recently, information regarding these fusion centers has been kept secret allowing them to operate with no privacy guidelines or restrictions, and the eerie silence has led the public to question their motives and legality.
Recently released audio provided exclusively to the Liberty Beat from inside a board meeting at an Austin, Texas fusion center offers a unique and rare glance inside the program’s operations. The audio provides details on the Fusion Center’s Privacy Policy, how many information requests they receive and produce, a police tactic called “wall-off,” and the effect a newly drafted piece of state legislation could have on operations that were once kept secret from even judges and prosecutors.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
White House Panelist on NSA Says NSA May Enable a “Police State”
Richard Clarke is one of the four White House panelists on NSA spying, and the former top counter-terror czar in the Clinton and Bush administrations.
Clarke has previously said that mass surveillance isn’t needed to keep us safe. And see this.
As Tech Target reports:
Revelations about NSA monitoring activities over the last year show the potential for a police state mechanism, according to the former U.S. cybersecurity czar, but there is still time to avoid the dire consequences…
“[T]hey have created, with the growth of technologies, the potential for a police state.”…
“Once you give up your rights, you can never get them back. Once you turn on that police state, you can never turn it off.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: Antwerp: Entire Streets Closed in Search of Drug Dealing Illegals
The city of Antwerp is clamping down on illegals and in particular those who earn a living as drug dealers. Antwerp police are planning operations that involve cordoning off entire streets to check everybody’s identity.
The city authorities have also reached an agreement with Morocco that will allow the immediate expulsion of Moroccan illegals who are drug dealers. Some 25 drug dealers have been removed as a result.
A number of police operations involving the cordoning off of entire streets have already been held. Centred on northern Antwerp a thousand illegals have already been identified during such operations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Britain to Extradite ILVA’s Fabio Riva, ANSA Sources Say
Order to return Italian accused of fraud likely to be appealed
(ANSA) — Rome, February 26 — British authorities have agreed to extradite to Italy Fabio Riva, whose family owns the controversial ILVA steel plant blamed in an environmental disaster in southern Italy, sources told ANSA Wednesday. It is expected that Riva will appeal the extradition order called for by Italian authorities who allege fraud.
One month ago, a European arrest order was issued against Riva, son of the owner of the troubled steel manufacturer ILVA, and resident of London.
The former ILVA executive and ex-deputy chairman of ILVA’s parent company Riva is accused of defrauding the Italian State of hundreds of millions of euros by illegally taking public subsidies for exports through the holding company Riva Fire.
Milan prosecutors say that Fabio Riva, another Riva Fire executive and an outside professional are under investigation.
Those charges represent the third of a series of probes into the financial, business and tax dealings of ILVA’s parent company Riva Group.
In July, Milan prosecutors asked the courts to indict Riva’s father and ILVA’s former head, Emilio Riva, on charges of massive tax fraud.
Fabio Riva was previously arrested in London in January 2013 after two months on the run, as part of a criminal probe into the environmental scandal at ILVA’s Taranto steel plant.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
British Marines ‘Not Happy’ at Too Cold Claim
British Marines training in Arctic Norway are “not happy” at accusations that Norway’s Arctic training camp is too cold for them to train, sources in the Norwegian military have told The Local.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germans and Brits Back EU Vetoes for National Parliaments
Most British and German voters believe that national parliaments should be able to block new EU laws, according to a survey published on Wednesday (26 February).
Seventy three percent of Britons and 58 percent of Germans think that either each country’s national parliament or a group of national parliaments should be able to block proposed new EU laws. Under the current system, legislative proposals can be sent back to the European Commission to be re-considered if one third of national parliaments agree.
Meanwhile, a majority of those surveyed in both countries said issues such as EU migrants’ access to welfare benefits, EU employment and criminal justice laws, and regional subsidies should be decided at national rather than EU level.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gladiator School Discovered in Austria
A colossal Roman gladiator school that once stood on the banks of the River Danube has been virtually reconstructed by archaeologists in Vienna.
The remains were discovered at Carnuntum, once the capital of the key Roman province of Pannonia, using innovative non-invasive archaeological techniques such as aerial mapping and ground penetrating lasers.
The area just south of the Danube has been excavated since the 19th Century and over the years archaeologists have found a civilian town, Roman baths and an amphitheater but the gladiator school, thought to rival Rome’s Ludus Magnus in size, was only discovered in 2011.
The findings of the 1800-year-old site include a training arena and individual cells for the gladiators.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Glenn Beck Exposes Cass Sunstein Fantasy Turned Reality
Bloggers Beware of Internet Trolls
More antiseptic sunshine than Man on the Moon, Glenn Beck shone the sun in when he opened the door to reality over his popular Internet television show on The Blaze TV tonight.
The last thing the not-too-pretty reality needed was this blaze of sunshine.
It’s a reality showing that the British government has bought into Cass Sunstein’s Harvard Public Law working paper, entitled “Conspiracy Theories” that shockingly includes a step-by-step set of instructions which pays government operatives to lie about people to utterly destroy their credibility.
Incredibly, the Sunstein working paper has been adopted by JTrig, a UK intelligence unit of the GCHQ, the British counterpart of America’s NSA. Unbeknownst to British citizens, the mission is deliberately set up to “deny, disrupt, degrade and deceive” by any means possible.
Not since Pogo stated “We have met the enemy and he is us” in 1970 has anyone so widely opened the door to show John Q. Public what enemy is now lurking behind it.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Good Video: Bottle Tower Gardens
By Willem Van Cotthem
Excerpt: This video shows the efficiency and sustainability of a bottle tower garden. They can be installed against the wall of a house or along a hedge or a fence. The number of bottle towers has to be adapted for providing food security for the family all year long and year after year. It is a method applicable anywhere on earth, both in rural and in urban areas, e;g. on a balcony. It can be applied at the lowest cost to alleviate malnutrition and hunger.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Italians Allowed to Adopt From Belarus Again
Procedures had been stalled for years
(ANSA) — Rome, February 26 — Italy’s new foreign minister, Federica Mogherini, announced on Wednesday that Italians would once again be able to adopt children from Belarus after a suspension on procedures was lifted. All adoptions from the country had been blocked for several years.
The issue had been brought to the attention of President Giorgio Napolitano by families affected and successfully resolved through confidential talks over a period of several months between former foreign minister Marta Dassù and her Belarusian counterpart Alena Kupchnya.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Marines ‘Must Not be Tried in India’
Pinotti says participation in anti-piracy missions should go on
(ANSA) — Rome, February 27 — Two Italian marines being held in India, so far without charge, for allegedly killing two fishermen during an anti-piracy mission in 2012 “must not be tried” there, Italy’s Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti told parliament on Thursday.
“The country must be united as this gives us force,” said Pinotti. “The most important and serious matter” concerned the fact that Salvatore Girone and Massimiliano Latorre should not be tried in India as they were operating in international waters, she added. “This is Italy’s position,” she said. Pinotti also told the Senate that the country must continue to participate in international anti-piracy missions because the international community “is supporting us” in the marines’ case by putting pressure on New Delhi.
“Suspending participation would be seen as a threat to our allies and not to India,” said the defence minister after calls from some quarters for Italy to stop its involvement in anti-piracy operations.
Meanwhile India’s Interior Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde justified the government’s decision to drop terrorism charges against the marines under a severe 2002 anti-piracy law, the so-called SUA Act, saying this was usually applied in cases of militant attacks.
“SUA (Suppression of Unlawful Act) is usually applied for terrorists and if you see the reports, as well the opinion of jurists and top civil servants, the Italian marines case doesn’t come under SUA,” Shinde told media on Wednesday.
On Monday India’s prosecutor general G. E. Vahanvati told the supreme court that he was in favour of dropping use of SUA in the case but requested that the NIA anti-terrorism police unit still conduct the prosecution.
The defence team objected to this on grounds that NIA could only be involved in the event of prosecution under SUA.
The judge consequently adjourned proceedings and set a new hearing for two weeks’ time.
Latorre and Girone are accused of allegedly killing fishermen Valentine (aka Gelastine) and Ajesh Binki after reputedly opening fire on their fishing trawler while guarding the privately owned Italian-flagged oil-tanker MT Enrica Lexie off the coast of Kerala in February 2012.
The two marines have been living and working at the Italian embassy in India pending charges.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: M5S Risks Split Over Dissident Ejections
Four Senators considering quitting parliament
(see related story) (ANSA) — Rome, February 26 — The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) is in danger of splitting after a majority of its lawmakers voted to eject four Senators who criticised leader Beppe Grillo.
The four will be definitively expelled if an online vote on comedian-turned-polician Grillo’s blog ratifies the decision.
The outcome of the poll is expected at 19:00 Italian time.
Grillo called on M5S supporters to oust Senators Lorenzo Battista, Fabrizio Bocchino, Francesco Campanella and Luis Alberto Orellana, saying they 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” with Premier Matteo Renzi a week ago.
The dissidents refused to quit the movement, arguing it should tolerate internal debate. Several other M5S lawmakers have defended their right to criticise even if they do not agree with what the dissidents said.
Six M5S Senators reportedly left their resignations from the movement in protest over the case on a table after storming out of a party meeting on the issue Wednesday.
There are rumours of a breakaway group of rebels against Grillo’s line being formed in the Lower House. “Maximum solidarity for the Senators,” posted M5S MP Alessio Tacconi on his Twitter account. “Consider me the fifth (dissident)”. The four lawmakers on the verge of being expelled released a video Wednesday defending themselves.
“So what if we spoke nonsense?,” said Battista. “Is it normal to expel us for nonsense?”.
Campanella objected too.
“We are the movement of direct democracy and we cannot even say that something could have been done better. Are we joking?,” he said. The M5S, which selects its candidates and policies via online polls of supporters, 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.
Some M5S members are hoping a split can be averted.
“I still hope there is a chance of patching things up,” said Senator Maurizio Buccarella.
“We are discussing things. The resignations (of the four Senators threatening to quit in protest) have not yet been handed in”. The M5S won around a quarter of the vote at last year’s inconclusive general election after railing against the existing party system it claims has generated corruption, debt, unemployment and economic decline.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Clock Ticking on Deal Between Airlines Etihad, Alitalia
Del Torchio said to be optimistic about capital injection
(ANSA) — Milan, February 27 — Negotiations continued Thursday towards a final deal between Alitalia and the United Arab Emirates’ Etihad, which has been scrutinizing the Italian carrier’s books. Alitalia Chief Executive Officer Gabriele Del Torchio is said to be “optimistic” about the outlook for the deal because it will be “convenient for both (parties)”. Del Torchio said he was pleased with business leader Luca di Montezemolo acting as a facilitator in contacts between the governments of Italy and the United Arab Emirates. “I believe that he is having a positive role and from this point of view, he is surely welcome: everything that can help us to carry out a complex negotiation like this is very useful,” said Del Torchio.
Montezemolo, ex-chairman of Fiat and ex-president of industrial employers’ group Confindustria, is rumoured to be interested in the job of chairman of Alitalia. Speaking after the presentation of Alitalia’s new onboard magazine Ulisse, Del Torchio added that he wants to continue the carrier’s partnership through 2017 with Air France-KLM. Eventually, a three-way deal involving Etihad, Alitalia, and Air France-KLM could be possible as something that could benefit all the partners, he added.
For now, completing the deal with Etihad is his top priority, which includes meeting conditions set by the UAE carrier in terms of cleaning up finances and reducing labour costs.
It is expected that nearly 80 million euros can be saved annually with rotating layoffs and another 40 million euros saved through wage cuts.
Other interested parties say there is a good reason why Etihad is conducting its due diligence on Alitalia’s books very carefully.
Intesa SanPaolo bank is a primary stakeholder in Alitalia with a 20.5% share.
Chief executive Carlo Messina explained, “Whoever is evaluating acquisitions in general is thinking about restructuring the debt and working on the productive capacity of the company: these elements are part of the negotiations”.
Delays that may push the deal’s closing to April are not considered a problem.
But just to be safe, Alitalia is also looking at another development plan to woo customers who have left the carrier. “If there is an important area in which we have lost a few passengers in the last decade, it is Northern Italy: we want to do everything to win her back,” said Del Torchio. “We are also thinking about Expo 2015, we are assessing new intercontinental routes to Malpensa (airport in Milan),” said Del Torchio, who added that Alitalia is “an Italian, not a Roman business”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Versace Sells 20% Stake to U.S. Equity Firm at 150 Mln Euro
Deal values Italian fashion label at one billion euros
(ANSA) — Milan, February 27 — Italian fashion label Versace said Thursday it has reached a deal that will see United States private equity firm Blackstone take a 20% stake, injecting about 150-million euros in the Milan-based company.
The deal will also see Blackstone buy 60 million shares in the holding company GIVI Holding, which is controlled by the Versace family.
That includes Donatella Versace, whose brother Gianni founded the firm, their brother Santo and niece Allegra.
Blackstone will have a seat on the board of directors. Fashion icon Gianni Versace was murdered outside his Miami villa in 1997.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Cash-Strapped Rome Gives Renzi First Big Headache
Premier vows provisions, chides mayor for speaking out
(By Christopher Livesay) (ANSA) — Rome, February 27 — In one of Matteo Renzi’s first big tests as premier on Thursday, sparks flew between him and Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino, who warned the city risked coming to a grinding halt over a budget shortfall he blamed on the national government after it dropped measures to help the capital’s cash-strapped council. Marino upped the stakes by noting that the ceremony for the canonisation of popes John Paul II and John XXII on April 27 was at risk. “I’ll halt the city from Sunday,” Marino told the Mix24 radio station. “The politicians are lucky because they have chauffeur-driven cars, but the Romans won’t be able to move around. People will have to fend for themselves”. The government announced Wednesday that it was dropping the so-called Save Rome decree, which was passed by the administration of Renzi’s predecessor Enrico Letta. This was because it had been hit by obstructionism from opposition parties and was not on course to be passed within the two-month time limit from its approval by the cabinet. Late in the day, Renzi, whose government was sworn in Saturday and passed confidence votes in parliament Tuesday, vowed his cabinet would approve a decree Friday granting provisions to Rome and cash-strapped local bodies such as Milan Expo 2015 and for Sardinia after recent floods.
In the same breath he chided the capital’s mayor for his outspoken concerns. “I invite everyone to use different language. Marino’s motives were understandable, his tone wasn’t,” Renzi, Italy’s youngest premier at 39, told a meeting of his center-left Democratic Party (PD).
Throughout the day Marino, a member of the PD, urged the government to move fast in a media blitz that was at times critical of the nascent government.
“It has to clearly say whether it is giving us the legislative tools to solve the problem once and for all. “Rome must be able to spend the money it has and only that.
It’s no longer time for chatting, its time for deeds”.
“In March there won’t be money to pay 25,000 city employees, to pay for fuel for the buses, to keep the nurseries open, to collect rubbish or to organise the canonization of the two popes, an event of a planetary scale,” he said. Marino, who has said he would quit rather than oversee the capital move towards a default, also argued that he was not asking for charity from central government, but for the city’s rights to be respected. “The money for what you journalists call the Save Rome decree is the money of Romans’ taxes,” he said. “The Italian government must give it back to us. It belongs to Rome”. A previous version of the Save Rome decree was abandoned by Letta’s executive after President Giorgio Napolitano expressed doubts about its Constitutionality, as many measures unrelated to the main thrust of the legislation had been tacked on.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Moroccan Youths Terrorize Local Dutch Businesses
In the town of Helmond, Moroccan children of 10 and 11 years old are acting provocatively and intimidating the public. They terrorize local businesses. The Aldi supermarket is now considered a free haven for theft. The manager of the supermarket said that aid organizations have to give help to his employees.
They are afraid of revenge when they call the police. He also told the municipal council that the criminality is on the increase. The mayor said that he found the story shocking. More policemen will be brought in and security cameras will be installed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mother of British Soldier Hacked to Death Collapses During Killers’ Sentencing
The mother of a British soldier hacked to death by Muslim extremists in 2013 collapsed and needed medical treatment after a sentencing hearing Wednesday. According to Sky News, Lyn Rigby said her legs went out from underneath her and “she couldn’t breathe properly” as Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale were being sentenced for the murder of her son, Lee, in a London courtroom.
Adebolajo and Adebowale — self-proclaimed “soldiers of Allah” — reportedly became angry and started screaming after a judge said they betrayed Islam when they hacked Rigby to death last year. The brutal murder, which drew international attention, was captured in TV footage.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Brazil Beans and Japan Barley Come to Svalbard
Over 20,000 crops originating from over 100 countries arrived in Svalbard on Wednesday to be put into the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (SGSV) in time for the its sixth anniversary.
The samples included a university collection of barley from earthquake-rattled Japan; an untamed assortment of wild relatives of rice, maize and wheat; exotic red okra from Tennessee; and, from Brazil, a humble bean that launched a national cuisine.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Now Grows Less Than 40% of Its Food
Less than 40 percent of the food eaten in Norway is now grown in the country, new figures from Norway’s Directorate of Health and Social Affairs have revealed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Rape Statistics Surprised Researchers
Researchers were as surprised as Norwegian government ministers, when new statistics released on Wednesday showed that 10 percent of all Norwegian women have been raped and only 11 percent of rape victims reported the crime. Men also are surprisingly frequent victims of domestic violence, according to the study.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
One in Ten Norwegian Women Raped: Survey
Nearly one in ten women in Norway have been raped, half of them when they were below the age of 18, according to a new survey.
Only eleven percent of those who had been raped reported it or underwent any medical examination, with a third of victims never telling anyone what happened. “One of the reasons why so few choose to report is that victims say that it is no use,” Ole Kristian Hjemdal from NKVTS told VG. “It’s a hidden problem.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Renzi Phones Ban Ki-Moon Over Italian Marines in India
UN secretary-general assures ‘utmost effort’ to resolve row
(ANSA) — Rome, February 26 — Premier Matteo Renzi phoned United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Wednesday to “confirm (Italy’s) expectation that the UN will contribute to a solution” to the case of two Italian marines facing murder charges in India two years after the alleged crime at sea while on an anti-piracy mission.
According to a statement from the premier’s office, Ban assured the UN’s “utmost effort”, adding he was aware of the global implications of the affair regarding anti-piracy missions in the future. Marines Massimiliano Girone and Salvatore Latorre are facing trial in India for allegedly killing two Indian fishermen during an anti-piracy mission in 2012.
The pair have not been allowed to leave the country, working at the Italian embassy while the courts decide how the two should be tried. A series of drawn-out delays have angered Italy, especially deliberations surrounding whether the pair should face the death penalty for charges of terrorism, which was eventually ruled out. Renzi, whose new government passed confidence votes this week, has vowed to work to bring the pair back to Italy “with honor”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Rich Ukrainians Head to Vienna
The head of the National Bank of Ukraine, Serge Kluijev has been in Austria for a week, staying in his family villa near the Vienna Woods following the overthrow of the government in Ukraine. He is thought to be one of many people associated with the now ousted Prime Minister Yanukovych, who has built connections in Austria.
According to Krone Zeitung, the motto of the Ukrainian elite is “Rich in Austria” and refers to the fact that many allies of Yanukovych and Yanukovych himself have built property in Lower Austria and generally through the Federal Capital.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Battle for the Mosque of Córdoba
Andalusian government disputes bishopric’s ownership, control and management of the building, a symbol of coexistence between civilizations
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
SS: More Mohammeds Than Jaris Born in Modern Finland
The changing face of Finland is becoming more visible, as names popular among ethnic minorities become more common than traditional Finnish staples. According to Savon Sanomat, Finnish maternity wards now see more ‘Mohammeds’ born than children christened ‘Jari’ or ‘Seppo’.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Older Dads Linked to Kids With Mental Health Woes
A study of over 2 million Swedes has found that those with older fathers face higher risks of psychiatric problems and attention disorders, announced researchers on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Man Ruled Legal Father of Unwanted Twins
A Malmö court has ruled that a man is the legal father of twins, conceived “against his wishes” when his wife lied to the fertility clinic abroad.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria Extremism is Unlike Any Threat UK Has Seen Since 9/11, Security Chief Warns
The terrorist threat caused by the war in Syria is unlike any Britain has faced since the 9/11 attacks, Whitehall’s top security official warned today.
Charles Farr, head of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism, said the size of extremist groups in Syria and the number of Britons joining them had become “the biggest challenge” facing the police and intelligence agencies. Ministers are now considering whether new laws might be needed to combat the problem…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Attorney General to Review Manslaughter Sentence of One-Punch Killer Lewis Gill
THE Attorney General is to review the sentence given to one-punch killer Lewis Gill, after dozens of people complained it was too lenient. More than 40 complaints were made to the Attorney General’s office in just a few hours, asking him to examine the four-year sentence given to 20-year-old Gill…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Baroness Charged Over Racist Tirade in Posh London Hotel Bar
A member of European aristocracy was sentenced to six weeks in jail, suspended for one year, and fined £165 after launching into a racist tirade at a posh London hotel. Baroness Marie-Claire Von Alvensleben, 60, reportedly slapped Canadian businessman Adam Sumel at the bar of the plush Belgraves Hotel before screaming “You brown people are ruining Britain”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Christianity is the Foundation of Our Freedoms
How did we get here? Larry Siedentop’s Inventing the Individual shows how our religious tradition brought us individualism, equality — and charity
By Douglas Murray
Inventing the Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism Larry Siedentop
Allen Lane, pp.433, £20, ISBN: 9780713996449
If there is one underlying source from which all our other societal problems stem, it is surely this: we no longer know who we are or how we got here. Worse, we mistakenly believe our situation to be inevitable, presuming that we have arrived in this modern liberal state through something like gravity.
At the very opening of Inventing the Individual Larry Siedentop lays this problem out. People who live in the nations once described as Christendom ‘seem to have lost their moral bearings’, he writes…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
A day out for Muslim families had to be cancelled at Legoland after staff and children were threatened by far-right extremists. The theme park in Windsor, Berkshire, had been hired out exclusively to Haitham al-Haddad, who is said to be among the top 25 radical preachers in Britain. More than one thousand Muslim families were expected to attend at a cost of around £100,000. Tickets would have cost around £17 each…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Harrow Mosque is First in London to be Fairtrade
Harrow Central Mosque celebrates after being given a Fairtrade status
A CELEBRATORY evening was held to mark the success of Harrow having the first Fairtrade mosque in the whole of London. Harrow Central Mosque, in Station Road, Harrow, was accredited after pledging to take part in a number of projects, including hosting talks from the Fairtrade Foundation and sessions for children and parents about Fairtrade chocolate and bananas, held by visitors from Ghana and Colombia…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The mother of a thug who killed an autistic man dismissed his crime as ‘no big deal’ last night. In a display of callous indifference, Sherron O’Hagan said she did not know ‘what all the fuss was about’.
Her son Lewis Gill killed Andrew Young with a single punch in an unprovoked attack captured on CCTV. He was given just four years but a public outcry may lead to a longer sentence.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Mosque Plans Lodged for Grafton Street
A new mosque could be built off Fishergate Hill is plans are given approval. The Preston Muslim Cultural Centre have applied for permission to demolish a building on Grafton Street and extend to build a new mosque…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Racism Row Erupts Ahead of Election With Tower Hamlets MPs Slamming ‘Politics of Fear’
A racism row erupted between politicians this week with the borough’s two MPs weighing in to defend the Labour mayoral candidate John Biggs.
Last week, Cllr Alibor Choudhury, a member of Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s cabinet, accused Mr Biggs of racism over remarks he made on the BBC and reported him to a government equality watchdog…
Cllr Choudhury’s accusations were made in a statement from the mayor’s party, Tower Hamlets First, which quoted Mr Biggs as saying: “All of the mayor’s cabinet are Bangladeshi and his primary policy focus has been the concerns of one community, the Bangladeshi community.”…
John Biggs called Mr Choudhury’s allegations “typical ratbag politics from a typical ratbag politician”. He added: “I’m proud of my record of standing up for all communities in Tower Hamlets.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: We Road Test Police and Fire Service’s Unique New Mosque Driving Safety Course
FOLLOWING the launch of a safety campaign to reduce the number of irresponsible motorists on Bolton’s roads, crime reporter Miranda Newey put her own driving skills to the test
A HARD hitting awareness campaign has been launched by the fire service, police, Bolton Council and Bolton Council of Mosques to help turn potentially bad drivers into good ones behind the wheel…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Yahoo Webcam Images From Millions of Users Intercepted by GCHQ
Britain’s surveillance agency GCHQ, with aid from the US National Security Agency, intercepted and stored the webcam images of millions of internet users not suspected of wrongdoing, secret documents reveal.
GCHQ files dating between 2008 and 2010 explicitly state that a surveillance program codenamed Optic Nerve collected still images of Yahoo webcam chats in bulk and saved them to agency databases, regardless of whether individual users were an intelligence target or not.
In one six-month period in 2008 alone, the agency collected webcam imagery — including substantial quantities of sexually explicit communications — from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user accounts globally.
Yahoo reacted furiously to the webcam interception when approached by the Guardian. The company denied any prior knowledge of the program, accusing the agencies of “a whole new level of violation of our users’ privacy”.
GCHQ does not have the technical means to make sure no images of UK or US citizens are collected and stored by the system, and there are no restrictions under UK law to prevent Americans’ images being accessed by British analysts without an individual warrant.
The documents also chronicle GCHQ’s sustained struggle to keep the large store of sexually explicit imagery collected by Optic Nerve away from the eyes of its staff, though there is little discussion about the privacy implications of storing this material in the first place…
| [Return to headlines] |
Why David Cameron’s “Northern Alliance” May Reshape Europe
By Fraser Nelson
Excerpt: If David Cameron were to divide Europe up, he’d make some crude distinctions. There would be the basket cases, like Italy, Spain, Greece, France — examples, by and large, of how countries should not be run. Then there’d be the former Soviet bloc, sceptical about Brussels because they recently escaped a remote, controlling bureaucracy and don’t want to repeat the experience. Then come the good guys, the people with whom he intends to reshape the continent: the Germans, the Dutch and the Scandis. This is the group that the Prime Minister has started referring to as his ‘Northern Alliance’
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Yes, There Are Paid Government Trolls on Social Media, Blogs, Forums and Websites
Do you want solid proof that paid government shills are targeting websites, blogs, forums and social media accounts? For years, many have suspected that government trolls have been systematically causing havoc all over the Internet, but proving it has been difficult.
But now thanks to documents leaked by Edward Snowden and revealed by Glenn Greenwald, we finally have hard evidence that western governments have been doing this. As you will see below, a UK intelligence outfit known as the Government Communications Headquarters, through a previously secret unit known as the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group, has been systematically attempting “to control, infiltrate, manipulate, and warp online discourse”. This should be deeply disturbing to anyone that values free speech on the Internet.
It isn’t just that the British government is trying to influence what people are thinking. The reality is that this is far bigger than a mere propaganda campaign. As Greenwald recently noted on his new website, the “integrity of the Internet itself” is at stake…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: German Tour Firms Bring Holidaymakers Out of Sharm El-Sheikh
German tour operators started bringing clients back from Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh Red Sea resort on Thursday after Germany’s Foreign Office advised against travel to the entire Sinai peninsula.
The recent bombing of a coach carrying Korean holidaymakers across the peninsula has led to renewed concerns for tourism in Egypt, an industry which provides a livelihood for millions and the government with much-needed foreign currency.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Army ‘AIDS Detector’ Comes Under Ridicule
Egypt’s military leaders have come under ridicule after the chief army engineer unveiled what he described as a “miraculous” set of devices that detect and cure AIDS, hepatitis and other viruses.
The claim, dismissed by experts and called “shocking to scientists” by president’s science adviser, strikes a blow to the army’s carefully managed image as the savior of the nation. It also comes as military chief Field Marshal Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who toppled Mohammed Morsi in July after the Islamist leader ignored mass protests calling for him to step down, is expected to announce he’ll run for president.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Moroccan Salafist Imam Receives Light Sentence
A verdict against radical imam Abdelhamid Abounaim spurred some strong reactions in Morocco. A Casablanca court on Wednesday (February 19th) handed down a one month suspended sentence and 500 dirham fine against the salafist imam for defamation and insulting a politician. “I was so surprised with the verdict against Abounaim,” said Salah El-Ouadie, head of activist organisation Damir (“Conscience”)…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Amnesty Shoots Itself in the Foot Over Israel-West Bank Report
Amnesty International’s claims that Israeli forces in the West Bank are “trigger-happy”, shoot Palestinians with impunity and may be guilty of war crimes have been met with outrage and widespread criticism. A report published by the charity on Thursday highlighted what it said was a “harrowing pattern of unlawful killings and unwarranted injuries of Palestinian civilians”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Amnesty Accuses Israel of ‘Callous Disregard for Human Life’
Army says NGO ignores Palestinian violence
(ANSAmed) — ROME — Israel has shown “callous disregard for human life” in its killing of dozens of Palestinian civilians — including children — over the past three years in the West Bank, states an Amnesty International report published on Thursday. The report, entitled ‘Trigger-happy: Israel’s use of excessive force in the West Bank’ describes “mounting bloodshed and human rights abuses in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) as a result of the Israeli forces’ use of unnecessary, arbitrary and brutal force against Palestinians since January 2011”. “The report presents a body of evidence that shows a harrowing pattern of unlawful killings and unwarranted injuries of Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces in the West Bank,” said Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International.
“In all cases examined by Amnesty International, Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers did not appear to be posing a direct and immediate threat to life. In some, there is evidence that they were victims of wilful killings, which would amount to war crimes.” The Israeli military reacted by saying that Amnesty International had failed to take into account “the substantial increase in Palestinian violence initiated over the past year,” which “saw a sharp increase in rock hurling incidents, gravely jeopardizing the lives of civilians and military personnel.” “In 2013,” it continued, “there were 66 further terror attacks which included shootings, the planting of IEDs (improvised explosive devices)… and the abduction and murder of a soldier.” The army said that its operations in the West Bank aim to limit violence initiated by Palestinians and that dispersion systems were used prior to munitions, which it authorizes only to when human life is threatened.
Hours after the report was published, Israeli forces killed a 24-year-old man named Muatazz Washaha during an operation in Bir Zeit, near the West Bank city of Ramallah. The spokesman for the Palestinian Authority (PA) government in the West Bank has said that the killing of a young man by Israeli forces on Thursday stands as an “example of the violence perpetrated on a daily basis against our population”. The spokesman, Ihab Bazzezo, roundly condemned the killing of Muatazz Washaha. Israeli and Palestinian media have reported that a group of plainclothes Israeli policemen had tried to arrest a Palestinian affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) on suspicion of “wanting to plan acts of terrorism” and who was hiding in a house in the town of Bir Zeit, near Ramallah. The police, with backing from army units, then began to use a bulldozer to demolish the house where the young Palestinian had blockaded himself, refusing to give himself up to Israeli police. The media reported that an antitank rocket was employed to force the suspect out of the house. The young man was found dead from injuries to his head. Two other suspects were arrested during the operation and handed over to Shin Bet, the Israeli secret services. The army said it found a gun in the home.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Jihad in Haifa? Radical Salafis Threaten City’s Imam
Sheikh Rashad Abu Alhaija, the imam of Haifa and mufti of Istiqlal mosque, one of the largest and important mosques in the city, has claimed to have recently received threats from Salafi elements, many of whom are residents of the Galilee region in northern Israel…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
21 Killed, 26 Injured in Iraq’s Violence
BAGHDAD, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) — Twenty-one people were killed and 26 others wounded in violent attacks across Iraq on Wednesday, police said.
In the northern province of Nineveh, a suicide car bomb struck an army checkpoint in the provincial capital of Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad. The attack killed three soldiers and a civilian, and injured another five soldiers…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Baghdad Motorbike Blast, Other Attacks Kill 52 in Iraq
(Reuters) — At least 52 people were killed Wednesday as a motorcycle rigged with explosives detonated in Baghdad’s Sadr City and militants targeted mostly Shi’ite neighborhoods around the country.
The motorcycle was parked in a second-hand bike market in the Shi’ite Muslim neighborhood that was filled with people, mostly young men, when it exploded late Thursday afternoon, killing 31 and wounding 51 others, Iraqi medical and police sources said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Erdogan’s Mad Idea for President: Turning Hagia Sophia Into a Mosque
Made many times but never kept, the promise to reopen the Halki Theological School is another of the prime minister’s mad ideas. So far, his ambitions have been hampered by his own authoritarian streak, allegations of corruption made against him, and the Gezi Park protest movement. Now Erdogan’s aim is to get at least 40 per cent of the vote in next month’s elections.
Istanbul (AsiaNews) — In order to get enough votes to win the race for the Turkish presidency, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has two major cards up his sleeve, namely reopening the Greek Orthodox Halki Theological School and turning the Hagia Sophia Museum into a mosque.
What for Omer Sahin, a journalist with the Radikal daily, is a dual crazy idea comes in the wake of two huge projects: the construction of the third port on the Bosphorus and of Europe’s largest airport.
Yet, nothing seems to have dampened the prime minister’s ambitions: Not the bribery scandal that broke out on 17 December 2013 when three ministers in the AKP-led government were forced to resign because of actions blamed on their sons, forcing the prime minister to reshuffle his cabinet; not the clash with Fethullah Gulen, accused by AKP leaders of instigating the Gezi Park protest against the AKP’s hold on power; not the recordings recently posted on YouTube in which Erdogan and his son Bilal are heard talking about the use of millions of dollars.
All this has not undermined Erdogan’s unlimited desire to move into Çankaya Köskü, Turkey’s presidential palace. This could be done in the elections next August when, for the first time, a Turkish president will be elected by universal suffrage following a referendum Erdogan won by a landslide.
For Erdogan the ‘generalissimo’ [1], all this might not pay off because he might still be humiliated in next month’s local elections. In this poll he will need at least 40 per cent of the vote since he is not likely to get again the 50 per cent support he got in the 2011 elections.
For Turkish journalists, neither a weak opposition nor his penchant for authoritarian rule (as evinced by his outrageous law to censor the Internet that was recently signed by President Abdullah Gul) can guarantee him a 40 per cent threshold.
Hence, in order to become Turkish president, Tayyip Erdogan has come up with his dual crazy idea, that of reopening the Halki Theological School and converting Hagia Sophia into a mosque in May 2014. The latter had been a museum since 1934 on Ataturk’s orders.
The first mad idea, that of reopening the Halki Theological School, has been a never-ending saga. Shut down in 1971 after 150 years, the seminary was supposed to reopen on several occasions.
Putting pressure on the European Union and the United States, Turkish leaders said on several occasions that they might reopen it in the name of some vague notion of reciprocity and mutual favours. Yet, when a senior bureaucrat took a position against Turkish leaders, everything was in doubt.
As some Turkish journalists noted, the stakes are too high that even loyal bureaucrats hold their peace.
Erdogan’s second mad idea is much more complicated. According to some rumours, he wants to turn Hagia Sophia back into a mosque. Indeed, for some people, “the time has come” for that but no one is able to assess domestic and international reactions if that were to pass.
Under a “middle-of-the road solution” being discussed, the authorities would allow Friday prayers in Hagia Sophia, starting from 30 May, the day after the Turks took Constantinople in 1453. For that occasion, Prime Minister Erdogan would invite leaders from Islamic countries to Istanbul.
The conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque is a dream that right-wing nationalist Turks have entertained for the past 70 years. All right-wing Turkish leaders, from Menderes and Ozal to Erbakan have had to deal with the issue at some point.
A year ago, when members of his party asked when Sophia would reopen as a mosque, Erdogan said, “The Sultanahmet (the Blue Mosque across from Hagia Sophia), is almost empty for Friday prayers. We should think first to fill it before thinking about Sophia.”
According to several local journalists, right-wing nationalist voters, the prime minister and AKP officials are just waiting for the right moment to implement this idea.
However, if converting a building into a mosque is not that difficult in itself, Western and world reactions can be.
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[1] This is how Haiko Bagdat, a columnist at the Taraf daily, described Erdogan, when he began a campaign worthy of a second Turkish War of Independence against “powerful forces” and the “international conspiracy” seeking to stop his policy of neo-Ottoman revival.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Angry mourners gathered in Beirut to bury a Sunni man, rumored to be the singer of a tune urging violent death upon Shiites, in the latest manifestation of how the war in neighboring Syria has inflamed hatreds in Lebanon that now extend even to music.
Hundreds of Sunni men from across Lebanon flocked to Wednesday’s funeral after word spread that the dead man, car mechanic Marwan Dimashkiyeh, was the singer of “Dig Your Grave in Yabroud” — a virulently anti-Hezbollah song.
The funeral-turned-protest reflected rising tensions between Lebanese Shiites and Sunnis as they wage war in Syria on opposing sides.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Proxy War Between Iran, Saudi Arabia Playing Out in Syria
Sectarian tensions entangling Middle East a worry for U.S.
Iranian support for embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad is producing a violent backlash against Tehran’s interests in the Middle East and fueling a proxy war with Saudi Arabia that threatens to further destabilize the region.
The situation is a source of growing concern among U.S. intelligence officials and regional analysts who say tension between Saudi Arabia’s Sunni-led monarchy and Iran’s Shiite-controlled theocracy has become a dangerous subtext of Syria’s civil war and poses an existential threat to regional neighbors — particularly Lebanon.
Saudi Arabia and Iran “view their influence in the Middle East region as zero-sum, and the situation in Syria is just another venue in which they are playing out their long-standing power struggle,” said a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive matters.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Jihadist Group Imposes Rules of Submission on Raqqa Christians
Payment of “protection” fee, ban on Christian signs and restoration of churches and monasteries. The group “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” accused by other Damascus opponents of playing into the hands of Assad. An ultimatum of five days.
Beirut ( AsiaNews) — A jihadist group linked to al -Qaeda has released a set of rules of submission for Christians of Raqqa. These include a protection fee, the order to practice their faith in the privacy of their homes and a ban on wearing any obvious sign of Christianity.
The rules (termed “Agreement”) were drawn up and are being imposed by members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a group linked to al- Qaeda in Iraq and which aims to create a single caliphate that spans the Middle East, North Africa, Andalusia and southern Italy, the ancient Arab and Islamic lands.
Raqqa city in northern Syria had 300 thousand inhabitants before the start of the civil war in March 2011. Of these, 1% was Christian. Now many people have fled and the city is in the hands ISIL, which released the text of the Agreement on jihadist websites.
Under the threat of violence, Christians must pay a “jiziya”, the ancient mandatory fee for non-Muslims.
Rich Christians have to pay a sum equal to the value of 13 grams of pure gold (half an ounce), those of the middle class half of the sum, and the poor a quarter.
Christians are banned from displaying crosses or symbols of their faith in areas frequented by Muslims and especially the market; they must not use loudspeakers for the call to prayer; they must perform their rituals behind closed doors in buildings of worship.
The group also demands that Christians comply with the rule for modest dressing that is imposed on all inhabitants.
Christians are forbidden to carry weapons and they are also forbidden to restore any of the churches or monasteries in the area that have been damaged. Those who does not adhere to these rules, will share in the destiny of those “people of war and rebellion”, in short they will be killed .
ISIL is part of the Islamist extremist fringe in opposition to Bashar Assad. Since January last a merciless war between secular and Islamist opposition groups has been ongoing, as well as among moderate and less moderate Islamists. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights , the clashes between the two camps have caused the death of at least 3300 people, of which 924 among the members of SIIL.
Opponents are coalescing against ISIL, accused of “playing into the hands of Assad”. Just yesterday, the Al- Nusra Front (Al Qaeda in Syria) launched a five-day ultimatum against ISIL to put an end to the internal conflict and appear before a religious court.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: We Can Get Rid of Assad or Fight Al-Qaeda, But We Can’t Do Both
by Peter Oborne
To get a proper picture of the Syrian conflict, the West needs to listen to its enemies
For the past three years, when seeking enlightenment about the Syrian crisis, I have often talked to Alastair Crooke, a former MI6 officer. Mr Crooke, who left government service a decade ago after a long career, now runs a think tank called Conflicts Forum, which maintains contact with organisations such as Hizbollah and governments such as Iran, when official contact has been broken off…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: ISIS Renders Christians Subaltern in Raqqa
Jihadists impose tax and discrimination in line with Koran
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, FEBRUARY 27 — Christians in Raqqa will from now on be forced to pay a ‘protection tax’ (‘jizya’) mentioned in the Koran and brought in by the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), which controls this city in northern Syria. The move is ‘‘simply an act of propaganda,’’ ANSA was told by some opposition activists in Raqaa, who underscored that of the hundreds of Christians living in the city until 2011, only a few dozen are left.
The ideological character of the document, said the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), is evinced by the fact that it was signed by ISIS chief Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, who has proclaimed himself Amir Al-Muminin (‘Commander of the Faithful’), the traditional title of caliphs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Three Iranian Policemen Die Fighting Drug Smugglers
TEHRAN, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) — Three policemen have been killed in operations against drug smugglers in southern and southeastern Iran, local media reported on Thursday.
In the first incident, two policemen were killed in fighting with bandits near the town of Kharameh in the southern province of Fars Tuesday evening, the report said. Three members of a narcotics trafficking gang were also killed…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Arseniy Yatsenyuk Approved as Ukraine’s New Prime Minister
Ukraine’s parliament has approved Arseniy Yatsenyuk as the country’s new prime minister. The vote was held Thursday amid the sharp rise in tensions in the southern Crimea region, where gunmen seized local government buildings and raised a Russian flag. The 39-year-old Yatsenyuk has previously served as the economy minister and foreign minister, and a speaker of parliament. He was approved by 371 votes in the 450-member parliament.
Russia sent fighter jets to patrol the border with Ukraine, reportedly gave shelter to the country’s fugitive president and stood by as pro-Russian gunmen stormed the offices.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Central Banker Appointed as Prime Minister of Ukraine
A reshuffled Ukrainian Parliament installed following a coup last week has voted to appoint Arseniy Yatsenyuk as the new prime minister of the country. Yats, as Victoria Nuland, the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs at the U.S. State Department, called him, is a natural choice. He is a millionaire former banker who served as economy minister, foreign minister and parliamentary speaker before Yanukovych took office in 2010. He is a member of Yulie Tymoshenko’s Fatherland Party. Prior to the revolution cooked up by the State Department and executed by ultra-nationalist street thugs, Tymoshenko was incarcerated for embezzlement and other crimes against the people of Ukraine. Now she will be part of the installed government, same as she was after the last orchestrated coup, the Orange Revolution.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EU Urges Russia to Help Stabilise Ukraine
BRUSSELS — The EU has urged Russia to join efforts to stabilise the Ukrainian economy, as armed men seize local government buildings in Crimea.
Speaking in the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday (26 February), EU neighbourhood commissioner Stefan Fuele said: “Russia has a chance to become part of the efforts to bring stability and prosperity back to Ukraine, including being part of the coordinated international efforts to help Ukraine address its economic challenges.” He added: “Russia can only gain from Ukraine’s success; and it risks losing heavily if Ukraine fails.”
The EU, the US, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are currently working on a Ukrainian bailout.
EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton at a meeting with five EU commissioners in charge of financial instruments in Brussels on Wednesday invited economic affairs chief Olli Rehn “to be the focal point on the EU side, co-ordinating the financial support efforts with the IMF and other international financial institutions, member states and third countries.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Volunteers Cordon Off Sevastopol in Ukraine’s Crimea
Acting president of Ukraine says separatists will be punished
The Globe and Mail is reporting Russians have established checkpoints dozens of miles outside Sevastopol. The southern Crimean city is home to the Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
“The Globe and Mail saw least a dozen men wearing fatigues — supported by an armored personnel carrier — standing under a Russian flag at a checkpoint erected roughly halfway along the 80-kilometer road from Sevastopol to Simferopol, putting it close to the administrative border that separates the Sevastopol municipality from the rest of Crimea and Ukraine,” writes Mark MacKinnon for the Canadian newspaper. The men, wearing balaclavas, identified themselves as “volunteers.”
On Tuesday it was reported residents of the port city had signed up as volunteers in self-defense and pro-Russian groups. Crimeans are said to fear violence from Ukrainian nationalists in the northern part of the country.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Puts Fighter Jets on Combat Alert as Tensions Mount
Moscow announces massive expansion of global military presence
Russian fighter jets along the country’s western border have been put on combat alert as tensions mount over fears that Moscow is preparing to intervene militarily to protect its interests in Ukraine.
“Constant air patrols are being carried out by fighter jets in the border regions,” Interfax quoted a ministry statement as saying. “From the moment they received the signal to be on high alert, the air force in the western military region left for the … air bases.”
The news arrives just a day after the United States warned Russia it would be a “grave mistake” to conduct any kind of military intervention in Ukraine following Moscow’s announcement yesterday that a snap drill involving 150,000 troops would take place in western Russia.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
This is How the New Government in Ukraine Deals With Opponents
The bankers and EU apparatchiks now controlling Ukraine through their fascist proxies have a poster child for the movement — Alexander Muzychko. The thug Muzychko was caught on tape earlier this week exercising his version of discipline: smacking around a man who works for Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office. Not able to terrorize the prosecutor, who wasn’t in the office, the Right Sector knuckle dragger assaulted his staff.
The behavior is identical to that used by Hitler’s brownshirts against their political opposition. One wonders how long it will be before bodies are floating in the Dnieper River and concentration camps are brimming with political enemies.
Muzychko was a mercenary who fought against Russia in Chechnya. He the current leader of Right Sector, the ultra-nationalist and fascist group that helped violently overthrow the government in Ukraine and institute the current regime.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine: Russian Fighter Jets on ‘Combat Alert’ Amid Continuing Unrest in Crimea
Fighter jets along Russia’s western borders have been placed on combat alert, amid continuing unrest in the Crimea region of Ukraine. “Constant air patrols are being carried out by fighter jets in the border regions,” Interfax quoted the Defence Ministry as saying…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Warns Moscow Against Russian Military Movements in Crimea
Ukraine said on Thursday it would regard any movements by Russian military in Crimea outside the Russian Black Sea fleet’s base in Sevastopol as an act of aggression.
Acting President Oleksander Turchinov issued the warning in the national parliament after armed men seized the regional government and parliament buildings in Crimea, where some ethnic Russians want the region to join the Russian Federation.
Turchinov, who is also the head of Ukraine’s armed forces, appealed for Moscow to adhere to the rules of an agreement which allows Russia’s Black Sea fleet to be based in Sevastopol until 2042.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ukrainian Neo-Nazis Declare That Power Comes Out of the Barrels of Their Guns
Reality on the ground in Ukraine contradicts the incompetent and immoral Obama regime’s portrait of Ukrainian democracy on the march.
To the extent that government exists in post-coup Ukraine, it is laws dictated by gun and threat wielding thugs of the neo-Nazi, Russophobic, ultra-nationalist, right-wing parties. Watch the video of the armed thug, Aleksandr Muzychko, who boosts of killing Russian soldiers in Chechnya, dictating to the Rovno regional parliament a grant of apartments to families of protesters. http://rt.com/news/radical-opposition-intimidating-techniques-882/
Read about the neo-nazis intimidating the Central Election Commission in order to secure rule and personnel changes in order to favor the ultra-right in the forthcoming elections. Thug Aleksandr Shevchenko informed the CEC that armed activists will remain in CEC offices in order to make certain that the election is not rigged against the neo-nazis. What he means, of course, is the armed thugs will make sure the neo-nazis win. If the neo-nazis don’t win, the chances are high that they will take power regardless.
Members of President Yanukovich’s ruling party, the Party of Regions, have been shot, had arrest warrants issued for them, have experienced home invasions and physical threats, and are resigning in droves in hopes of saving the lives of themselves and their families. The prosecutor’s office in the Volyn region (western Ukraine) has been ordered by ultra-nationalists to resign en masse .
Jewish synagogs and Eastern Orthodox Christian churches are being attacked.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
India: Kashmir: Jawan Kills 5 Sleeping Colleagues, Himself
An army jawan shot dead five of his colleagues at point blank range while they were sleeping and killed himself on Wednesday night in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district, a spokesperson said on Thursday. “A soldier of a Rashtriya Rifles unit ran amok in the wee hours, killing five soldier before killing himself,” said Lt Col NN Joshi, public relations officer at army’s Srinagar-based 15 corps…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Report Finds No Evidence to Substantiate Claims About Javed Khan
On 26th January 2014, the Mail on Sunday published allegations about an incident involving the Chief Executive of Victim Support, Javed Khan, during a trip he made to Pakistan in a personal capacity. In response, Javed issued a statement describing these allegations as “either false or a gross distortion of the truth”. In particular, he denied threatening anybody during the incident referred to by the Mail on Sunday and he denied that he or any of his associates had been armed…
[JP note: See http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2546033/Head-government-backed-charity-took-armed-gang-settle-long-running-land-row-Pakistan.html ]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Two Soldiers Killed in Afghan Bomb Attacks
KABUL, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) — Two Afghan army soldiers were killed in roadside bombings, said the country’s Defense Ministry on Thursday.
“Two Afghan National Army personnel were martyred in two improvised explosive device (IED) attacks in Panjwai district of Kandahar and Gereshk district of neighboring Helmand province,” the ministry said in a statement…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
10 Years of Failure: New Film Documents Struggle of Farmers Deceived by Biotech Industry
(NaturalNews) It has been 10 years since the Philippine government approved the country’s first genetically modified (GM) crops for commercial cultivation, and its farmers are now far worse off becauseo f it. In the new documentary film 10 Years of Failure, Farmers Deceived by GM Corn, the farmer advocacy group Farmer-Scientist Partnership for Development, or MASIPAG, reveals the plight of GM corn farmers in the Philippines who were hoodwinked by the biotechnology industry and are now suffering from massive debt, poor yields and even starvation as a result.
The 25-minute film, which is available for free viewing on YouTube, was released on so-called “World Food Day,” the day that Monsanto and Syngenta were given awards by the World Food Prize Foundation for their abominable transgenic creations. It tells a much different side of the GMO story, one you will probably never hear from the mainstream media or the bought-and-paid-for politicians that go around claiming that genetically engineered foods are the saviors of humanity.
On the contrary, GM crops, and particularly GM corn in the Philippines, has all but destroyed the traditional maize industry in this southeast Asian country. Rather than boost yields, reduce inputs and create crop stabilization as claimed, GM corn in the Philippines has completely ravaged what used to be an industry owned and managed by individual farmers rather than powerful multinational corporations. And the farmers who now realize that they were lied to are having a difficult time escaping the clutches of Big Biotech.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
City’s [Toowoomba] Mosque to Open With International Food Festival
TOOWOOMBA’S first mosque will open its doors to the public with an international food festival on Sunday, March 30. The Islamic Society of Toowoomba has applied the finishing touches to the mosque ahead of the open day, including a new Islamic crescent moon and star attached to the roof of the former church…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Car Bomb Kills 11 in Somali Capital
A car bomb has exploded at a cafe in Somalia’s capital, killing at least 11 people. The blast happened Thursday near the headquarters of the National Security and Intelligence Agency in Mogadishu…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Kenya: Police: 10 Mosque Raid Suspects Fled
Police in Mombasa now claim that 10 terror suspects arrested during the February 2 storming of the controversial Musa Mosque escaped while being transported to Makupa Police Station…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Mexicans in Street Protest Against Arrest of Drug Cartel Boss
More than a thousand people took to the streets in Culiacan, in the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa, on Thursday to call for the release from jail of a powerful drug lord. Joaquin Guzman, known as “El Chapo” was captured at the weekend by US and Mexican authorities at a hotel in a beachside resort after being on the run for 13 years.
Demonstrators said Guzman had helped provide jobs and did more for them than politicians. “The motive of the march is that we don’t want the gentleman to be extradited to the United States” said Culiacan resident Maribel Gomez.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Docks Spy Ship in Havana, Planning Military Bases in Cuba, Venezuela, And Nicaragua
By Alberto de la Cruz
Cuba’s apartheid Castro regime — the very same brutally repressive dictatorship “Cuba Experts” and Castro lobbyists in the U.S. breathlessly declare to be reformed and constantly insist is a friend of the U.S. — just welcomed one of Russia’s spy ships into Havana.
Via AFP in Yahoo News:…
| — Hat tip: DS | [Return to headlines] |
Venezuelan Protesters Take to Streets on First Day of Long Holiday Weekend
The start of a week-long string of holidays leading up to the March 5 anniversary of former President Hugo Chavez’s death did not completely pull protesters from the streets Thursday as the government apparently hoped.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Parliament Passes EU-Turkey Immigration Agreement
‘Now Ankara needs to honour commitments on readmission’
(ANSAmed) — STRASBOURG — The European parliament has given a green light to a readmission agreement between Turkey and the EU. The agreement, signed in December, calls for the Turkish government to receive on its territory any expelled, illegal immigrants — whether Turkish nationals or from other countries — that have illicitly entered the EU-28 from a Turkish border.
‘‘It is now up to Turkey to fulfill the commitments and implement the agreement in full,’’ said German EMP Renate Sommer (EPP), after the ‘‘yes’’ vote by a show of hands in the assembly.
Ankara’s position is also clear: cooperation on illegal immigration to the EU proceeds hand-in-hand with negotiations for the liberalization of visas for Turkish nationals in the Schengen area, beginning from the signing of the agreement.
| — 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
(ANSAmed) — 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.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: Immigrant Sexually Assaults 9-Year-Old Girl After Breaking Into Her Bedroom
An immigrant was arrested, charged and convicted of sexual assault after attempting to rape a little girl, who was asleep in her bedroom, prosecutors in Israel said. Now, the defendant has been sentenced by the Tel Aviv District Court, to eighteen years behind bars.
In addition to the prison sentence, the 22-year-old of Sudan, was sentenced to a two year sentence suspended for three years. He was also ordered to pay 140,000 shekels ($40,000) in compensation to the girl.
As we reported earlier, an Israeli father beat a man unconscious after breaking into his home and trying to rape his daughter, who is just 9-years-old, according to police reports in Tel Aviv, Israel.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Net Migration Soars Over 200,000 Despite David Cameron’s Pledge
Official figures show a net flow of 212,000 migrants to Britain, up nearly 60,000 year-on-year, with a surge in arrivals from Romania and Bulgaria
Net migration has risen to its highest point since 2011 in a blow to the Government’s pledge to cut levels to the “tens of thousands” by the next general election. The surge was partly driven by a huge increase in the number of Romanian and Bulgarian citizens coming to Britain, which jumped 166 per cent from 9,000 to 24,000 year-on-year…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Sham Marriage Suspects Arrested in Dawn Raid
A SUSPECTED sham bride and groom were arrested in a dawn raid by immigration officers.
Home Office immigration enforcement staff swooped on a home in Webster Street, Burnden, yesterday morning and made two arrests. A 27-year-old Bulgarian woman and a 30-year-old Pakistani man were arrested on suspicion of taking part in a sham marriage on December 27 last year at Manchester Register Office…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
How about a little old-fashioned privacy for sexuality of all stripes?
It’s one thing to be tolerant of what once were known as “alternative lifestyles.” It’s another thing to be asked to celebrate them, as the exuberant mythologizers of Michael Sam and Johnny Weir ask us to do. And it is way beyond the pale to hold forth on any sort of sex life — perhaps apart from self-restraint — as if it’s a form of heroism.
Yet the culture of the professional Left, enthusiastically aided by the establishment media, is going bonkers in pushing active homosexuality (or any one of several exotic variants thereof) as an absolute virtue. One can hardly turn around these days without facing, in fiction or in real life, what amounts to homosexual chic. From the amount of primetime air time afforded to gay Americans, one would think they constitute at least a large minority of the population, rather than the 3 to 5 percent they actually do.
“Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” as Seinfeld wisdom had it. Most Americans assuredly don’t much care what other people do as long, as the saying goes, as they “don’t do it in the street and frighten the horses.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
So you still think public school is where your children ought to go — if not to get an education, then at least to get “socialized”?
Consider this little news item, “Teacher Faces Ax Over Naked Kids ‘Having Sex’.”
The “kids” in question were five-year-olds, in kindergarten at Mullica Township elementary school in southern New Jersey. The teacher, who’d been teaching for 15 years, looked into the in-class bathroom and found the boy and girl naked. They told her they were “having sex,” according to the police report. She immediately notified the school principal…
Where do a couple of five-year-olds get the idea of “having sex”? There are only two likely sources — from our debauched popular culture, or from their public school’s “sex education” program.
How many parents know what goes on in their children’s public school? The sex education curriculum is not something school officials like to advertise; more often, they take steps to keep it hidden from the parents. The public is not invited to sex educators’ conventions: security guards will make sure no outsider gets a peek or a whisper.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Wilson High School Discriminates Against Pro-Life Student Group
Asberg’s group selected two posters from the Students for Life of America website to promote its club. In compliance with school procedures, they asked the administration’s permission to hang these posters. The first read “Since Roe v. Wade 1/3 of our generation has been aborted” with a picture of a milk carton and the word “missing” above the photo of a baby. The second poster quotes President Ronald Reagan: “I’ve noticed that everyone who is for abortion is already born.”
The administration refused to give WSFL permission to hang the posters. The administration stated that the school policy only allows posters that “do not offend staff or students, put others down if they have a different belief/opinion, or otherwise cause disruption.” WSFL’s posters, the administration maintained, would violate this policy because they promote a message rather than solely promoting the group’s meetings.
Despite this policy, however, the administration has permitted the Wilson Gay Straight Alliance (“GSA”) to hang flyers, for example, promoting homosexual relationships by showing conjoined male symbols and conjoined female symbols and stating “Love knows no limits.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Leftists Become Incandescent When Reminded of the Socialist Roots of Nazism
On 16 June 1941, as Hitler readied his forces for Operation Barbarossa, Josef Goebbels looked forward to the new order that the Nazis would impose on a conquered Russia. There would be no come-back, he wrote, for capitalists nor priests nor Tsars. Rather, in the place of debased, Jewish Bolshevism, the Wehrmacht would deliver “der echte Sozialismus”: real socialism.
Goebbels never doubted that he was a socialist. He understood Nazism to be a better and more plausible form of socialism than that propagated by Lenin. Instead of spreading itself across different nations, it would operate within the unit of the Volk.
So total is the cultural victory of the modern Left that the merely to recount this fact is jarring. But few at the time would have found it especially contentious. As George Watson put it in The Lost Literature of Socialism:
“It is now clear beyond all reasonable doubt that Hitler and his associates believed they were socialists, and that others, including democratic socialists, thought so too.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Yes, There Are Paid Government Trolls on Social Media, Blogs, Forums and Websites
Great news, I debate online quite often and I rather debate a trained CIA agent then some babyboomer leftist who would fall apart if he sneezes too hard.