A homeless illegal immigrant attacked a Tunisian man with a meat cleaver yesterday in Milan’s central railway station. The victim, who was also an illegal immigrant, required fifty stitches to close up a facial wound. The attacker was arrested and will be charged, while the victim was issued a caution for being an illegal immigrant.
Meanwhile, the Italian navy rescued more than 1,100 illegal immigrants from eight different boats in the Mediterranean near Lampedusa. Most of the new arrivals were from sub-Saharan Africa.
In other news, the price of potatoes in Turkey has more than tripled in the past year. Standing as a symbol of the country’s economic crisis, the potato has become a political issue in this year’s elections.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JP, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
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ECB Holds Off Policy Action Until Staff Forecasts in March
At its latest council meeting, the European Central Bank has refrained from lowering its main interest rate further despite increasing deflation worries. The ECB said it first wanted to wait for new in-house projections.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Number of Pensioners Dips to 2.64 Million, Ministry
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, FEBRUARY 4 — The number of pensioners in Greece dipped in January to 2.64 million from 2.66 million in December, Kathimerini onlinre reports quoting data published by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security. The data also revealed that 1,343 pensions were still being paid to individuals who are deceased. Their files will be sent to local pension authorities for further investigation, Labor Minister Yiannis Vroutsis said. The ministry’s most recent review of the pension system showed that more than 1.32 million people receive a single pension, 921,841 individuals receive two pensions and 316,905 beneficiaries receive three separate pensions. The total number of pensions paid out in January reached 4.43 million, of which 10,077 went to foreign nationals. The total cost of pensions is January came to 2.3 billion euros, ministry data showed, while the average monthly pension came to 941.59 euros.
The data also showed that Greek state paid out a total of 173,045 benefits in January, at a cost of 55.44 million euros.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Economy Minister Says Rating Agencies Overrated
Audit court mulling 234-bn-euro suit
(see related) (ANSA) — Naples, February 5 — Italian Economy Minister Fabrizio Saccomanni on Wednesday said he would not comment directly on the report of a potential State lawsuit against ratings agencies for downgrading Italy’s credit in 2011, but endorsed the notion that rating agencies should not be taken too seriously.
“I don’t make direct comments. But I always found that the role of rating agencies as risk assessors for a country was excessive, and I believe that our action, both at the government and as the Bank of Italy, is to clarify that the judgment of the ratings agencies is not the only one,” Saccomanni said. “I believe that today we measure the valuation that investors give Italy more on Treasury-bond interest rates which are falling to very low levels, and by the interest they have in our privatization and market-opening activities”.
Italy’s State auditor, the Audit Court, is considering suing the world’s three leading rating agencies for damages over downgrades of the country’s credit rating in 2011, the Financial Times has reported.
The Audit Court may be about to sue Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch for 234 billion euros over the downgrades, which increased concern about Italy’s financial position and contributed to a rise in borrowing costs at the height of the eurozone debt crisis.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Napolitano Calls for End to Austerity in EP Address
President met with Northern League protest in Strasbourg
(By Paul Virgo) (ANSA) — Rome, February 4 — Italian President Giorgio Napolitano called for the end of austerity in the EU in a keynote address at the European Parliament on Tuesday, while stressing that there was no turning back on the process of European integration.
The head of State was greeted in Strasbourg with a protest by Italy’s anti-immigrant and anti-EU Northern League party, which slammed Napolitano for defending the European single currency, the euro, saying it had “destroyed” jobs and wages.
“The policy of austerity at all costs, which was the prevalent response to the eurozone crises, no longer stands up,” Napolitano told MEPs.
Napolitano’s message is in line with a call from Premier Enrico Letta for the European Union to control “austerity ayatollahs”, after EU-mandated fiscal consolidation in many countries hit by the eurozone debt crisis caused a great deal of economic pain.
In Italy, for example, unemployment has reached record levels of over 12%, with over four in 10 under-25s jobless, after moves to put the country’s financial house in order deepened its longest postwar recession.
Letta has said Italy, which is now emerging from the downturn, will use its duty presidency of the EU in the second half of this year to get the union to focus more on promoting growth and job creation.
Napolitano said May’s European Parliament elections, when Euroskeptic parties are expected to do well, would be a key test for the EU.
“What we are experiencing today is a moment of truth for the future of European integration,” he said. “EU citizens are moving away from the EU integration process and unemployment has played a role, but I believe that it is the democratic deficit of EU decisions that has played a major role”.
Napolitano said the EU still has a future despite showing many limitations in its handling of the eurozone crisis and the related global economic crisis.
“The new mission of the EU is to show that we live together in the flow of globalisation as a unified nation,” he said.
“We have to fight against national egoism and anachronistic conservatism.
“How can people talk about the end of the European experience? “Despite the difficult last years, we have to defend the euro and looking to the mistakes of the past should be the first step”.
The Northern League did not agree.
“Napolitano is without shame,” said party leader Matteo Salvini. “Anyone who still defends this euro that has destroyed jobs, wages and pensions is in bad faith”. The League leader said the EP elections would “sweep away these euro follies”.
EP Speaker Martin Schulz said the Northern League’s protest was “deplorable”. “These MEPs used the plenary assembly…for purely electoral ends and that is an abuse,” the German Social Democrat said. But he said the anti-euro regionalist party was “totally isolated” in the EP.
Napolitano also dismissed the protest as “marginal and modest”.
Back in Italy Napolitano has been facing relentless pressure from Beppe Grillo, the leader of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), and his followers who have accused the president of being part of a “coup d’état”.
The M5S has staged a series of high-voltage protests in parliament over measures they are opposed to over the last week, including a new election law, and has demanded that Napolitano be impeached, saying he favours the established parties and is no longer a fair arbiter. The 88-year-old statesman is serving an unprecedented second term as president after reluctantly agreeing to be re-elected last spring to help overcome the political deadlock resulting from inconclusive parliamentary elections in February.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Senate Fails to Extend Benefits for Long-Term Unemployed
The Senate failed to move forward on a three-month extension of assistance for the long-term unemployed on Thursday, leaving it unlikely that Congress would approve the measure soon and dealing a setback to President Obama’s economic agenda.
The cloture vote was 58-to-40, falling short of the 60-vote threshold to break a Republican filibuster effort.
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The World’s 200 Biggest Fortunes Rebound With Market Rise
The fortunes of the world’s 200 richest people rose $6.4 billion yesterday as world markets calmed, and stocks in Europe and Asia showed gains. After the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index had its third loss in four days, U.S. stocks futures advanced in trading this morning. More than half of the billionaires on the Bloomberg index were in neutral or positive territory for the day, and they control more than $2.9 trillion, almost double the annual gross domestic product of Australia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Two SME Businessmen Commit Suicide Every Day in France
7% of national total, reports study
(ANSAmed) — PARIS — Roughly two company directors of small and medium-sized enterprises commit suicide every day in France, accounting for 7% of the national total.
The number of SME chiefs deciding to end their lives is steadily increasing, according to a French observatory for SME owners quoted by Le Parisien on Wednesday. To mark Suicide Prevention Day, the newspaper published the following figures: every day 28 people kill themselves in France and 700 others try to. Some 75% of them are men, and suicide ranks as the highest cause of death for those between the ages of 25 and 35 and the third highest for farmers. The number fell by 8% in France between 1990 and 2010. In 2011, 10,359 people killed themselves. Following a rash of suicides by those employed at such large French companies as Renault between 2006 and 2007 and France Telecom between 2008 and 2010, “there is the general awareness that working conditions can be a motive” for the act, Le Parisien was told by Olivier Torres, founder of AMAROK, a French scientific non-profit body which surveys the links between the health of the entrepreneur and the performance of his firm. Nevertheless, discussing business owners’ suicides remains a taboo. “While the suicide of an employee is reported on by newspapers as a case for society, that of a director is considered simply news,” said the researcher. Torres said that the level of suicides among company directors is difficult to quantify but is comparable to that among artisans and shop owners.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Ayers ‘Explains’ How He Wrote Obama’s ‘Dreams’
Then calls interviewer ‘knucklehead’ for asking question
Bill Ayers, the unrepentant former leader of the radical 1960s Weather Underground group, has often toyed with reporters who ask him whether claims that he wrote Barack Obama’s autobiographical “Dreams from My Father” are true.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Berkeley Students Must Tweet on Islamophobia
by Tarek Fatah
In 2002, when Prof. Daniel Pipes launched his “Campus Watch” initiative to monitor “the mixing of politics with scholarship” on American universities with regard to the Mideast, he was condemned as engaging in “McCarthyesque” intimidation.
His initiative was derided as a “war on academic freedom.” One Islamist group labelled Pipes the “grandfather of Islamophobes”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
College Students Being Bribed With Credits to Embrace the Radical ‘White Privilege’ Theory
The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs is offering academic credit for students planning to attend the conference and promises the credit is “widely transferable.”
Another 30 percent of a student’s grade is comprised of creating an “action plan” to implement what they learn at the White Privilege Conference into their personal and school life.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NASA’s Troubled US$8-Billion Hubble Successor is Back on Track
After setbacks, delays and cost overruns that almost led to its cancellation, the telescope should be able to meet its 2018 launch date
The Hubble Space Telescope is still operating, but its successor is already waiting in the wings. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be the largest observatory ever sent to space, and one of the most complex instruments ever built. After running seriously over budget and behind schedule until 2011, the project is now on track and heading into an eventful year of assembly and tests in preparation for its 2018 launch.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
SAC’s Martoma Found Guilty in Insider Trading Case
A federal jury in Manhattan on Thursday convicted Mathew Martoma on insider trading charges in what may be the last criminal case to emerge from a decade-long investigation of Steven A. Cohen and his SAC Capital Advisors hedge fund.
The jury of seven women and five men found Mr. Martoma, a former SAC portfolio manager, guilty of seeking out confidential information related to a clinical trial for an experimental Alzheimer’s drug. The inside information — provided mainly by a doctor familiar with the results of the clinical trial who was the government’s main witness — helped SAC avoid losses and generate profits totaling $275 million in July 2008.
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Cleric Behind Mosque’s Proposed Condo Project Probed for Hate Crimes in 2012
The cleric of a Muslim community group behind a proposed condo and townhouse complex in a predominantly Jewish area was one of the key figures in an Islamic school that used teaching materials that disparaged Jews and encouraged boys to keep fit for jihad.
Imam Syed Mohammed Rizvi and the East End Madrassah were the targets of a hate-crimes investigation in 2012, and although charges were not laid, a York Region police report said a review of 30 school syllabus books found portions that “challenged some of Canada’s core values” and “suggested intolerance,” even if they were not criminal…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Condo Complex in Thornhill Sparks Heated Debate
Religious tensions and density concerns have been stoked by a proposal to place two 17-storey residential towers, retail space and 61 townhouses in the low-density neighbourhood.
A proposed Muslim condo complex is sparking heated debate in Thornhill Woods, with hundreds of residents cramming a raucous community meeting Tuesday night to speak out about the development. Both religious tensions and concerns about density have been stoked by the proposal, which would place two 17-storey residential towers, retail space and 61 townhouses in the low-density neighbourhood…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
CERN Eyes More Powerful Particle Collider
Europe’s Geneva-based physics lab CERN said on Thursday that it was eyeing plans for a circular particle collider that would be seven times more powerful than the facility which discovered the famous “God particle.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Czech Police: Arms Found at Palestinian Embassy After Blast Killed Ambassador Date to Cold War
Czech police say the weapons and explosives discovered at the Palestinian Embassy in Prague where a possibly booby-trapped safe killed the ambassador were decades old. In a Thursday statement, they say that ballistic and other tests showed that 12 illegal weapons and explosives found following the explosion that killed Ambassador Jamal al-Jamal on Jan. 1 date back to the 1970s and 80s.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Research Gives New Details on Ice Age Extinction
Researcher’s groundbreaking theory may have solved a more than 10,000 year old mystery
Woolly mammoths died out with the invasion of grasslands more than 10,000 years ago according to Eske Willerslev, the head researcher at centre of geogenetics at the University of Copenhagen.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Eurosceptic EP Win Wouldn’t Hit Italian Politics, Says Pres.
Napolitano discredits Northern League’s ‘marginal’ protests
(see related) (ANSA) — Strasbourg, February 4 — The Italian president on Tuesday said if Italian eurosceptic parties win big at European Parliament elections in May, the fallout would not effect politics at home. “(It wouldn’t have) any impact on the national balance of power,” said Giorgio Napolitano after his keynote address to the European Parliament Tuesday.
Eurosceptic parties from across Europe are expected to win record numbers at elections. Some nationalist movements have taken the step of reaching out to like-minded groups in other countries in an effort to reduce the power and scope of the European Union.
One such party is Italy’s anti-immigrant Northern League, which has forged ties with France’s far-right National Front. On Tuesday Northern League MEPs contested Napolitano during his keynote address, waving banners saying “no euro” and “euro kills”.
Napolitano discredited their impact. “They’re absolutely marginal and modest, traditional protests from the League,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: President Hollande Hits Record-Low Popularity
TNS-Sofres poll shows only 19% support him
(ANSAmed) — PARIS — Following a slight improvement in recent times, the population’s support for French President Francois Hollande has now once again dropped and is at a record low. The TNS Sofres poll by the weekly Figaro magazine reports that only 19% support the head of state, the lowest level for a president of the Fifth Republic after 21 months in office.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: Disneyland Paris to Recruit 8,000 New Staff
Ever fancied the chance to work with Mickey and Minnie in France’s most famous theme park? Disneyland Paris is holding a giant recruitment fair over the next two days in which it hopes to find thousands of new staff, many in permanent roles. Read on for details.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French President Wants to Push to Up Internet Giants’ Taxes on US Trip Next Week
French President Francois Hollande says during his U.S. trip next week he’ll broach the thorny issue of getting Internet companies to pay the tax man like smaller companies do.
Hollande said Thursday that “everyone must be on a level playing field, including on the fiscal level.” He spoke during a visit to the suburban Paris headquarters of an Internet-based sales company paying taxes in France, unlike, for instance, Google whose European tax home is Ireland, where corporate rates are lower.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Prosecutors Charge Man With Engaging in Internet Propaganda for Islamic Extremist Group
BERLIN — Prosecutors say they have charged a German man with trying to recruit members and supporters for an Islamic extremist group by posting videos and messages on the Internet…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Parents Fined for Letting Daughter Have Sex
A teenager’s parents have been fined €3,000 by a court in Bavaria for not stopping their 13-year-old daughter having sex with her boyfriend.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Aiming to Become More Muslim Friendly
by Soeren Kern
Muslims attending the gathering were offended by the insinuation that Islam could be radical or violent, and demanded instead that the German government take steps to make “Islam equal to Christianity” in Germany. They were equally unwilling to discuss the main item on the official conference agenda: “Gender Equality as a Common Value,” and refused even to acknowledge that there might be any connection between Islam and forced marriage.
While focusing his energy on expanding the rights if Muslims in German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière has been largely silent about the responsibility of Muslim immigrants to take measures to integrate better into German society.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Doctors, Nurses and Dentists Again on Strike
To protest bill streamlining primary healthcare sector
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, FEBRUARY 6 — Greek state hospital doctors, nurses, dentists and employees of the country’s main healthcare provider EOPYY are to walk off the job on Thursday to protest a troika-imposed plan to streamline the primary healthcare sector as the blueprint goes to a vote in Parliament, as daily Kathimerini reports. Unionists representing the healthcare workers argue that the reforms will “destroy” the Greek healthcare sector and lead to “indescribable difficulties for patients.” Protesters are to stage a rally outside the Health Ministry in central Athens at 11 a.m. The bill itself is expected to pass into law as coalition deputies have indicated that they will support it despite some reservations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Space Agency Chief in Kickbacks Probe
Saggese could face corruption and bribery charges
(ANSA) — Rome, February 6 — Rome prosecutors on Thursday placed seven people under investigation in connection with alleged kickbacks in contracts involving the Italian Space Agency (ASI).
One of the suspects was ASI President Enrico Saggese.
Police also carried out searches in ASI offices and in those of suppliers, as well as in suspects’ homes. Investigations began after an ASI manager reported being the object of an attempted bribe.
The suspects, who include two employees of Italian aerospace and defence giant Finmeccanica, could face charges of bribery and corruption.
Other organisations implicated in the probe besides ASI include Sistina Travel, which organises foreign travel on behalf of ASI employees, the Italian Aerospace Research Centre (CIRA), Get-It, Eurofiere, Art Work and Space Engineering, which have offices across the peninsula.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Issues Ultimatum in Marines Death-Penalty Row
Indian interior ministry calls for anti-terrorism prosecution
(By Stefania Fumo) (ANSA) — Rome, February 5 — Italian Defence Minister Mario Mauro told lawmakers Wednesday that India should acquit two Italian marines accused of murder while in the line of duty off the coast there, or Italy’s future in fighting piracy will be on the line. Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone are accused of killing two Indian fishermen after allegedly mistaking them for pirates and opening fire on their fishing trawler while guarding the privately owned Italian-flagged oil-tanker MT Enrica Lexie in international waters off the coast of Kerala on February 15, 2012.
“Italian participation in future NATO or EU anti-piracy missions is tied to the positive resolution of the legal case of the two marines, which should conclude with their honourable return home,” Mauro told the joint parliamentary commission for foreign affairs and defence.
An Indian supreme court ruling on Italy’s January 13 petition, which is expected February 10, “will have an impact on future scenarios,” he added.
Italy has petitioned India’s top court to rule out use of a harsh anti-terrorism law that calls for capital punishment in the event of a guilty verdict, and return the marines to Italy. Rome argued that prosecuting them under an anti-terrorism law de facto equates the incident with a terrorist act.
The Indian interior ministry has requested the marines be prosecuted under a severe anti-terrorism law but also told the attorney general’s office not to press for the death penalty, according to press reports Wednesday.
Now the diplomatic and political hot potato has been passed to Indian prosecutor G.E. Vahanvati, who must quickly find a way to settle the interior ministry’s seemingly conflicting requests.
Using the anti-terrorism law while not requesting capital punishment may be a way for the Indian authorities to keep jurisdiction of the case. Some legal experts have suggested India would lose its claim to jurisdiction over the killings, which took place outside its territorial waters, unless it used the anti-terrorism law.
But India says it has the right to try the Italians because the victims were Indians on board an Indian fishing boat, The Times of India newspaper reported.
There are also doubts about whether the anti-terrorism law can be applied without the death penalty being put on the table if the marines are found guilty. Italy’s Lower House Speaker Laura Boldrini chimed in Wednesday, saying in a letter to her European Parliament counterpart that India’s case against the marines threatens the rule of international law.
“While not wishing in any way to express myself on the merits of the court case, I believe that Italy — and, with it, Europe and the international community — must demand respect for international law and a rapid resolution of the case,” Boldrini wrote to EP Speaker Martin Schulz.
She also reminded Schulz of comments by other EU officials, including warnings just one day earlier that India’s attempts to prosecute the Italian marines may hurt efforts to fight piracy in future.
“The case is likely to have a negative impact on the EU’s efforts and those around the world in the fight against piracy,” EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton said in a letter Tuesday to European Parliament Deputy Speakers Gianni Pittella and Roberta Angelilli.
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano also weighed in on the issue Wednesday.
“I am doing everything I can to promote an approach that is in the common interest of Europe as a whole. And this is because the two marines were not in India on an fishing trip, but on an international mission,” Napolitano said in Strasbourg, where he spoke before the European Parliament Tuesday.
Ashton and German Ambassador to New Delhi Michael Steiner both expressed support for Rome in the case that has caused nearly two years of tensions between India and Italy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Govt Sets Aside 250 Mn Euros for Graduate Hires
Incentive for small-medium sized firms to take on young people
(ANSA) — Rome, February 6 — Premier Enrico Letta announced after a cabinet meeting Thursday that the Italian government has “set aside 250 million euros in incentives (for small and medium-sized firms) for the employment of graduates and researchers in 2014”. “It’s an incentive for every small and medium-sized enterprise to hire graduates,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Archaeologists Unearth What May be Oldest Roman Temple
Archaeologists excavating a site in central Rome say they’ve uncovered what may be oldest known temple from Roman antiquity.
Today, the Tiber River is about a hundred yards away. But when the city was being created, around the 7th century B.C., it flowed close to where the church now stands, where a bend in the river provided a natural harbor for merchant ships. “And here they decide to create a temple,” says Nic Terrenato, who teaches classical archaeology at the University of Michigan and is co-director of the Sant’Omobono excavation project.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ivory: France Destroys Three Tonnes of Tusks
Around three tonnes of elephant tusks were turned to dust near the Eiffel Tower on Thursday in a symbolic gesture to show France’s committment to fighting the illegal trade in ivory. Campaigners are urging European countries to follow suit.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Leaving the EU Would Boost Dutch Economy, Report for PVV Says
Leaving the European Union would boost the Dutch economy, Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right PVV, said on Thursday, quoting a study drawn up by a UK agency. The Capital Economics report says leaving the EU would allow the Netherlands to increase its prosperity in a way only possible in the distant past. Economic growth figures would be higher than if the Netherlands remains in the EU, the report states.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
by Iain Channing
Kebabland — Part 2
The Englishman Iain Channing returns to Sweden, the country he lived in during the 1980s. What has happened to the safe and well ordered country that was so admired throughout the world? Do people really appreciate the politicians’ radical experiment in social engineering? And what about Malmö — Sweden’s preeminent test tube? Here is Channing’s report — the second of three.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mysterious Code in Viking Runes is Cracked
A runic code called jötunvillur has finally been decrypted. It just might help solve the mystery of the Vikings’ secret codes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Plan to Give British Expats Their Own MPs
The French have them so why can’t we? This has been the argument put forward by frustrated British expats in France who have been demanding their own MPs in the UK parliament for years. Now at least one political party appears to have heard their call.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pope’s Harley Fetches €241k at Paris Auction
A Harley-Davidson motorcycle that was once given to Pope Francis by the manufacturer pulled in an impressive pile of Euros in Paris from an unnamed European buyer at auction on Thursday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Volvo Axes 4,400 Jobs as Profits Slide
Volvo AB will cut 4,400 white-collar jobs in 2014, the company announced on Thursday, as fourth quarter results failed to meet expectations. But the news wasn’t all bad for the Swedish truck maker.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Far-Right Group Filmed on ‘Patrol’ At East End Mosque
Police have held an emergency meeting following claims supporters of the far-Right are inflaming racial tensions in the East End in the wake of so-called Muslim Patrols. Former British National Party councillor Paul Golding was filmed apparently confronting Muslims in Whitechapel as part of a vigilante campaign…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Islam Centre Planned for Former Stourbridge Pub Site
An Islamic education centre, which would play host to classes teaching the Qur’an and work with nearby schools , will open at the site of an empty pub, under proposals revealed today.
The Old Bell at Lye pub, in Lye, Stourbridge, would be transformed in plans unveiled by a charitable trust known as the Islamic Community and Education Centre.
Centre officials have purchased the boarded-up pub, in Chapel Street, to create a community venue to host a range of ‘lifestyle studies and personal development programmes’. Rashid Aziz has submitted the proposals to Dudley Council’s planning development on behalf of the Islamic Community and Education Centre organisation. The application is for a change for use to allow the conversion from a pub to community centre…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: London Tube Strike Enters Second Day
A strike on London’s Underground has entered its second day. Millions of commuters trying to get to work have been affected by the travel chaos.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Michael Gove and Ofsted: The Education Secretary is Right to Take on Teacher ‘Blobbledegook’
by Allison Pearson
Michael Gove, bless his tartan longjohns, takes the outdated view that teaching and learning is the job description of schools. He deserves all our support
What is The Blob? It sounds like a B-movie horror title, with wobbly scenery and stars wrestling half-naked with aliens in lime jelly. Actually, it’s more sinister than that.
The Blob is the name given by Michael Gove to the forces in education that oppose his reforms. Like John Carpenter’s The Fog, The Blob is lethal, gets everywhere and is full of zombies who believe that children should be drivers of their own education. According to The Blob, a teacher standing at the front of a class imparting knowledge is guilty of inducing “passivity” in kids, who should always be active learners…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Scunthorpe Mosque Announces Plans to Expand
A Scunthorpe mosque is planning to expand. An application to extend the building in Sheffield Street West has been submitted to North Lincolnshire Council. Planning permission is being sought to erect a single storey flat roof extension to the existing mosque and remove a store. The application has been submitted by Yousuf Khan, of Scunthorpe…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Six Protesters, 12 Police Injured in Bih Demonstration
SARAJEVO, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) — Six protesters and 12 police officers were injured during clashes in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), local police said on Wednesday. Several thousand people, mainly unemployed workers and retirees, marched to the government building of Tuzla Canton, demanding better treatment…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia Protests Spread to Other Cities as Widespread Discontent Rages in Election Year
Violent protests by thousands of unpaid workers in a northern Bosnian city spread to other parts of the country Thursday and have morphed into widespread discontent in an election year about unemployment and rampant corruption. Police used tear gas to temporarily disperse the protesters in Tuzla who threw stones at a local government building.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnian Anti-Corruption Protests Spread to Sarajevo
Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets across Bosnia. They are demonstrating in support of laid off workers in the northern town of Tuzla.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Brotherhood Leaders Plotted the Raiding of State Institutions — Investigations
Egypt’s prosecutor-general has accused the Muslim Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and 50 of the group’s senior members of plotting the forcible raid of state institutions and the capture of interim President Adli Mansour and Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi following the ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Exposed: Muslim Brotherhood-Al-Qaeda Connection
by Raymond Ibrahim
As former Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi’s trials continue, it’s enlightening to consider what is likely to be one of the centerpieces of the trial: longstanding accusations that Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood party worked with foreign terrorist organizations, including al-Qaeda, against the national security of Egypt. Based on these accusations of high treason, Morsi and others could face the death penalty…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Bloody Tribal Fighting at the Gates of Tripoli
Rebels and supporters of the old regime of Moammar Gadhafi are engaged in some fierce fighting near the Libyan capital of Tripoli. The brewing conflict shows how inseparable tribal feuds are from politics.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mubarak Says Egyptians ‘Want Sisi’
Former leader to go to Gulf after ‘acquittal’
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, FEBRUARY 6 — Ousted president Hosni Mubarak has said that Egyptians support Field Marshall Abdel Fattah Sisi.
“The people want him, and the will of the people will surely be respected,” said the former leader in an interview with Kuwaiti journalist Fajr Al-Said. Mubarak said that once he has been “acquitted” of the crimes he stands charged with, he plans to travel to Kuwait and Gulf countries to “say hello to his friends”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia Takes Out Top Terrorists
Tunis — Tunisia killed the main suspect in the assassination of Chokri Belaid, Interior Minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou said Tuesday (February 4th). Kamel Gadhgadhi, a senior Ansar al-Sharia member, was killed along with six other terrorists during a police raid in the Raoued area outside Tunis. At least one member of the National Guard was killed in the ensuing firefight.
“Gadhgadhi is the one who carried out the political assassination of Chokri Belaid,” Interior Minister Ben Jeddou told a news conference, adding that five of the seven militants had been identified. “It’s the best present that we could give Tunisians,” Ben Jeddou added…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Yeshiva Students Clash With Cops Over Army Draft
Extremist rabbi leads followers into streets in five cities
Ultra-Orthodox Jews dance as police fire a water canon at them during a protest over army conscription at the entrance to Jerusalem
(by Aldo Baquis) (ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV — Thousands of students from Orthodox Jewish schools, or yeshivas, clashed with police in five Israeli cities Thursday while parliament debated a law allowing for their enlistment after decades of exoneration on religious grounds.
The protests were against the arrest Tuesday of a yeshiva student for dodging the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) draft and the State’s decision to cut funding to yeshivas who harbor draft dodgers.
Hard-line Orthodox Rabbi Shalom Auerbach interrupted classes and his followers invaded key intersections in Jerusalem, Ashdod, Bnei Braq, Beit Shemesh, and in the ultra-Orthodox West Bank settlement of Moddin Illit. Police used water cannon after clashing with protesters underneath the Bridge of Strings at the entrance to Jerusalem.
The drenched students improvised a mass hasidic dance, calling on police to join them.
In the port city of Ashdod, police arrested dozens of protesters after they set a police car on fire.
At one rally, Rabbi David Zicherman accused the Israeli government of perpetrating a “spiritual Holocaust”. Drafted yeshiva students will lose their spiritual identity, he said.
“We would rather be imprisoned by the thousands than join the military”, the rabbi promised.
But not all Orthodox Jews, who make up 10% of the country’s population, share this attitude.
Moderate Rabbi Aaron Leib Steinman has called for compromise with secular forces in the government of Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, who have been calling for the Orthodox community to start pulling its weight in Israel. The government is putting in place the gradual entry of yeshiva students into the IDF. The program includes subsidies and benefits for those who are married with children, as yeshiva students often are by the age of 20.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
48 Killed, 119 Wounded in Iraq Violence
BAGHDAD, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) — A total of 48 people were killed and 119 others wounded in violent attacks across Iraq on Wednesday, mostly in the capital city of Baghdad, officials and police said.
A series of bomb explosions rocked the Iraqi capital from morning to evening on Wednesday, killing at least 37 people and wounding 91 others…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Al Qaeda Infighting Complicates Convoluted Syrian Crisis
The brutal violence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has apparently become so bad that even al Qaeda has cut ties with the group. So what does the move mean for the Syrian conflict?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Terrorism Police Officer Killed in Yemen’s Aden
ADEN, Yemen, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) — A high-ranking police officer was killed by unknown militants in Yemen’s southern port city of Aden on Wednesday evening, a security source told Xinhua.
Colonel Vadi al-Jably, commander of the counter-terrorism police unit in Aden, was found shot dead near the 22nd May Sports Stadium in Sheikh Othman district, the local security source said on condition of anonymity…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Bahrain Toughens Penalties for Insulting King
(Reuters) — The king of Bahrain has approved a law imposing a jail sentence of up to seven years and a fine of up to 10,000 dinars ($26,500) for anyone who publicly insults him. King Hamad’s measure highlights the sensitivity of Bahrain and other Gulf Arab states to criticism of senior officials and ruling family members as well as to political dissent. Courts in Kuwait and Qatar have imposed jail terms on several nationals for insulting their rulers in past years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A group of Britons waging jihad in Syria have threatened to carry out terror attacks in the UK. The extremists warned of atrocities on London’s public transport, at financial centres and also at the White House in the US.
They are believed to be the first direct threats of terrorist strikes in the West to emerge from Syria, where hundreds of Britons are among thousands of foreign fighters who have joined jihadist rebel groups.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Women Pay to Guarantee ‘Front Row’ In Mosques
Many women are profiting from reserving places in the Grand Mosque for other worshippers. These women use their handbags, personal belongings, or chairs to reserve places for worshippers who pay for the service because they come late for prayer and cannot find suitable places to pray…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Religious Police Hunt Down Twitter ‘Witchcraft’ Accounts
Saudi Arabia, which has the largest number of Twitter users relative to internet users in the world, has formed a special task force to track users of the popular social media who are accused of spreading vice and witchcraft.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia 4th Largest Military Spender in the World
IISS report shows country trailing only US, China and Russia
(ANSAmed) — Saudi Arabia has entered the top four countries with the highest military spending in the world, surpassing the UK and France. The annual report published by London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) shows that Riayadh allocated almost 60 billion dollars for its defense budget in 2013. Spending more were only the US (600.4 billion), China (112.2 billion) and Russia (68.2 billion). Western countries and especially Europe (-2.5% since 2010) are cutting defense budgets, while Middle Eastern and Asian countries are investing ever more in the sector. This trend, in Saudi Arabia as well as Oman and other Gulf countries, is seen as a result of concern over Iran’s growing power.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: Female Student’s Death on Campus Spurs Saudi Debate on Segregated Universities
A Saudi newspaper says university staff in Riyadh would not allow paramedics who arrived at the scene to immediately enter a female-only area of the campus to assist a student who suffered a heart attack and later died. Okaz newspaper reported on Thursday that administrators impeded efforts by the male paramedics to save the student’s life at the King Saud University. The paper says staff took an hour before allowing the paramedics in on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Over 20,000 Foreign Jihadists Fighting Against Assad
40,000 foreign Shia militants on government’s side
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT — Over 60,000 foreign jihadists are fighting in Syria, both on the side of anti-government militias and on that of the Bashar-Al-Assad government, but the majority are with the government forces.
Some 40,000 foreign Shia militants are fighting with Syrian government troops, says Riad Qahwaji, an expert on military and strategic issues. Qahwaji, in an article in the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat, quoted authoritative sources at the International Security Forum held in the Moroccan city of Marrakech on January 25-26. According to information presented at the forum, about 40,000 Shia militants have arrived in Syria to support the repression of the popular uprising that began in 2011. The loyalist mujaheddin come for the most part from Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Pakistan. Many of them — continued the experts quoted by Al-Hayat — have been trained by the Al-Quds Brigade of the Iranian Pasdaran, the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution. On the opposite side, there are about 8,000 Sunni militants from Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, with the lion’s share from Libya; at least 5,000 from several European countries and thousands more from other Muslim countries, totaling over 20,000.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Gezi Park: 6-Year Jail Term Sought for Taksim Members
Doctors,architects among those charged with criminal activities
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, FEBRUARY — Prosecutors in Istanbul will indict members of the Taksim platform who took part in sweeping demonstrations in Istanbul’s Gezi Parkin May and June, and seek jail terms of up to six years for their alleged participation in a ‘criminal ring’, Haberturk newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Representatives of the platform, which was pacifist and apolitical , met with Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Deputy Premier Bulent Arinc during the demonstrations.
According to Haberturk, among those to be indicted are representatives of Istanbul’s Chamber of architects Mucela Yapici, of the Association of Turkish doctors Ali Cerkezoglu and of the Chamber of electronic engineers Beyza Metin.
The state attorney’s office will seek jail terms of up to nine years against 21 other protesters over their alleged violation of association laws.
Some three million people participated in May and June in sweeping anti-government protests across the country. In a brutal crackdown, six demonstrators were killed and 8,000 people injured while thousands were arrested. Hundreds of demonstrators will go on trial in the coming months, many of them on terrorism charges.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Surge in Potato Price Adds Political Pressure
(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, FEBRUARY 6 — The humble potato has become a factor in Turkey’s political and economic turmoil as prices of the staple soar, hurting the living standards of poorer Turks just before the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) toughest election test in a decade. At a market in the lower-income Istanbul suburb of Kucukcekmece — as daily Hurriyet reports -, potatoes sell for between 3 and 4 lira (0.99 and and 1.32 euro) a kilogram, up from slightly more than 1 lira (0.33 euro) at about this time last year. That could be a political headache for the government at the best of times, but it comes just before March 30 local elections in which Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP will try to keep its dominance after a high-level corruption scandal erupted in December. Growing inflation pressures, along with weakness of the lira, led the Central Bank to hike interest rates last week despite public opposition from Erdogan, and may make further hikes necessary. These will raise companies’ financing costs, threatening to slow economic growth. The soaring price of potatoes is to a large extent due to inefficiencies in Turkey’s food production sector, analysts say — a reminder that the AKP, although it presided over a decade of rising incomes, has not solved some of the country’s main economic problems. “The issue is not the tomatoes or potatoes, but the structural problems in the Turkish food sector,” Burak Kanli, an economist at Finans Invest, said. “Food price volatility in Turkey is seven times higher than the EU-27 average and the volatility is consistently increasing,” he said, making a comparison with the European Union.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Corruption is a Major Problem, Says Survey
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, FEBRUARY 6 — Corruption was ranked the third most-important problem in Turkey, with 14.2% of respondents believing that this is the most important problem in Turkey, daily Today’s Zaman reports quoting the Social-Political Tendencies survey released yesterday. This is the first time corruption has been included as an option for the most important problem in Turkey. The majority of respondents (29.3%) still think unemployment is the most important problem in Turkey.
Terrorism, which was perceived to be the second most-important problem in 2012, dropped to seventh in this survey, with 4.7% of the vote. The survey also reveals that the percentage of Turkish people who believe that PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s policies are not successful has increased to 46.8%, compared with last year’s figure of 35.9%. According to 46.4% of those surveyed, the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) policies are not successful either. The majority of respondents (54.9%) said the influence of the military on politics has decreased. The most radical changes in the survey were in the section concerning the terrorism problem in Turkey. When asked what is the most effective method to fight terrorism, 40.1% of respondents said political methods. Only 26.1% of people asked said political methods last year. Accordingly, the percentage of people who believe that the most effective method against terrorism is military measures dropped from 50.1% last year to 35.9%. In one section of the survey, the government’s economic policies were also assessed by respondents. Of those questioned, 33.5% consider the government’s economic policies to be successful, while 48.1% believe they are unsuccessful.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Approves Plans to Shutter Websites
Critics Say Move Threatens Free Speech
ISTANBUL—Turkey’s parliament passed legislation that enables authorities to shutter websites without a court ruling in a move critics slammed as an effort by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to silence dissent and expand his media control.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Passes Law Upping Internet Control
Accusations of ‘dictatorship’, EU and US express concerns
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, FEBRUARY 6 — The Turkish parliament has approved a bill submitted by Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government tightening internet control. The opposition considers the added restrictions as an assault on freedom of expression. Opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said that the new regulations recall the dark years of the 1980 military dictatorship, while during parliamentary debate Social Democrat MP Hasan Oren compared Mr Erdogan to Adolf Hitler, saying that ‘‘when you came to power you talked of enhancing democracy in Turkey — now you are trying to implement fascism. Remember that Adolf Hitler used the same methods when he rose to power’’.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NBC News’ Richard Engel: My Computers, Cellphone Were Hacked ‘Almost Immediately’ In Sochi
Being a reporter at the Sochi Olympic Games just got even worse. NBC News’ Richard Engel said that upon arriving in Russia to cover the upcoming event, he was hacked “almost immediately” — and privacy is not something visitors should expect to have. “It doesn’t take long here for someone to try to tap into your laptop, cellphone or tablet,” he said Tuesday night.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Olympic Threat: US Warns Airlines About Toothpaste Tube Bomb
The Department of Homeland Security has issued a warning to U.S. and some foreign airlines traveling to Russia for the Olympic Games to be on the lookout for toothpaste containers, which some intelligence indicates may actually hold ingredients that could be used to construct a bomb aboard a plane, a senior U.S. official told ABC News.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sochi 2014: US Issues Warning Over Toothpaste Bomb Plots
The alert is the most specific yet by Western intelligence but comes after weeks of warnings that the games could be targeted by al-Qaeda or Islamist separatists
Terrorists may be plotting to bring down airliners heading for the Sochi Olympics using explosives hidden inside toothpaste tubes, US intelligence has warned. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued the caution to airlines less than 48 hours before Friday’s opening ceremony in the troubled region of southern Russia. The alert is the most specific yet by Western intelligence but comes after weeks of warnings that the games could be targeted by al-Qaeda or Islamist separatists seeking independence from Russia…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
1.2 Billion Indians, One Olympic Medal Hopeful
Shiva Keshavan is a luge athlete in a country without a single luge track. Inspired by the film “Cool Runnings,” the Indian Olympian dodges livestock and rickshaws on the road to the Winter Games.
India is a country of 1.2 billion people, three-quarters of whom live on less than $2 a day. It has few public sporting facilities, none up to Olympic standards.
Despite its massive population, India has won only 26 Olympic medals since 1900.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan Taliban Capture British Military Dog
ISAF officials in Afghanistan have confirmed a military dog went missing during a mission in December last year. US military sources say the dog belonged to a coalition partner and the BBC understands it was working for British forces. The Taliban earlier released footage of what they claimed was a dog they captured from US troops. They said the dog, apparently called Colonel, was wearing a GPS tracking device, a torch and small camera.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hindus Feel Increasingly Insecure in Bangladesh
Bangladesh’s Hindu community was targeted by Islamists in the January 5 parliamentary elections, making the religious minority feel more insecure than ever in their own country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In Islamabad, Pakistan and Taliban Call for Verbal Ceasefire
Talks between Pakistan’s government and the Taliban have yielded a joint ceasefire call. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif hopes to reach peace with the Taliban, which regularly attacks civilians and Pakistani security forces.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Aceh Mulls Sharia for Non-Muslims
The Aceh Legislative Council is deliberating a special bylaw that will force non-Muslims in the province to follow sharia. Locally called Qanun Jinayat (a bylaw governing behavior), the measure would require all residents to follow Islamic code of dress and conduct…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Kabul Excludes Washington in New Taliban Talks
Reports claim that Afghan President Karzai has been engaged in secret peace talks with the Taliban without taking the US on board. Experts say the move can jeopardize the country’s already strained ties with Washington.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kazakhstan: “We’re Liquidating the [Mosque] Community”
Kazakhstan’s Din-Muhammad Tatar-Bashkir Mosque, built in 1852, is being forcibly closed. Yesterday evening (4 February), three officials of a Liquidation Commission appointed by a court to dissolve the community arrived at the Mosque in Petropavl to prepare an inventory of all its possessions. “The mosque is to be handed over to another religious organisation”, Marat Zhamaliyev, deputy head of the regional Finance Department, told Forum 18 News Service. He refused to say which religious community the mosque will be given to. Told by Forum 18 that the mosque community still exists, regularly holds the namaz (prayers) in the mosque (including this morning, 5 February) and intends to continue to exist, Zhamaliyev responded: “We’re not liquidating the mosque, we’re liquidating the community.” He insisted that that the juridical community had been liquidated by a court and therefore did not exist. The Din-Muhammad Mosque may possibly be the last remaining publicly-accessible mosque independent of the state-backed Muslim Board…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Christian Girl Abducted, Converted and Forced to Marry a Muslim in Lahore
The family of Samariya Nadeem staged a protest this morning in front of the city’s press club. For the past three weeks, their 16-year-old daughter has been in the hands of a wealthy landowner. As police and the authorities fail to free her, the Catholic Church calls for justice on the family’s behalf. But for Muslim cleric, it is “not illegal to abduct and convert non-Muslims”.
Lahore (AsiaNews) — After a Pakistani Christian girl from Lahore (Punjab) was abducted by a Muslim landowner, she was forced to marry him after conversion to Islam. Her family reacted in a public protest, demanding justice from civil authorities.
Police and the courts have failed so far to act and return the girl to her parents. The local Catholic Church has instead backed the family, condemning the “widespread practice” of kidnapping young Christian and Hindu women to marry them forcibly to Muslims and reduce them to a “state of slavery”.
The latest episode involves a 16-year-old girl, Samariya Nadeem (Masih), who was abducted and forcibly married to a rich landowner.
The abduction took place 22 days ago in Lahore’s 270-TDA Layyah District when the young woman was on her way to school.
The family filed a complaint (First Information Report 14/14, under Section 365 B of the Penal Code) with the police for the abduction reporting that Samariya was taken against her will and forced to marry the man.
So far, police have failed to pursue any legal action against the local wealthy Muslim landowner who abducted the girl because of the influence he wields. Police investigators were also unable to talk to the bruised and terrified victim.
Anonymous police sources confirmed that the girl was “abducted” and forced to marry. However, an Islamic cleric involved in the affair said that it was “not illegal to abduct and convert non-Muslims”.
This morning, the family organised a protest rally in front of the Lahore Press Club. Under Pakistani law, no one underage can be married without parental consent.
Civil society groups and human rights activists have appealed to Punjab’s chief minister to take action and return Samariya to her parents and bring her abductor to justice.
Kidnapping and forced marriage have become a major issue in Pakistan, especially in southern Punjab and in the interior of Sindh province.
This is “very common in the region,” said Fr Haroon James, a priest and activist in Lahore. Young women and girls “are forcefully converted and married to influential landlords who keep them as slaves.”
Unfortunately, people seem to be increasingly “hopeless”. For this reason, the Church has spoken out in the case, “demanding justice for her and the family.” Yet, “Despite the fact that a FIR has been registered, the authorities have failed to act and protect the vulnerable,” the priest added.
With a population of more than 180 million people (97 per cent Muslim), Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world, the second largest Muslim nation after Indonesia.
About 80 per cent of Muslims are Sunni, whilst Shias are 20 per cent. Hindus are 1.85 per cent, followed by Christians (1.6 per cent) and Sikhs (0.04 per cent).
Violence against ethnic and religious minorities is commonplace across the country, with Shia Muslims and Christians as the main target, with things getting worse.
Dozens incidents of violence have occurred in recent years, against individuals or entire communities, like in Gojra in 2009 or Joseph Colony in Lahore in March 2013, often perpetrated under the pretext of the country’s blasphemy laws.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Southern Thais Vow to Keep Up Anti-Government Fight
Protesters in Thailand have vowed to press on with rallies, setting the stage for the continuation of a dispute mainly pitting dissenters in Bangkok and southern Thailand against Pheu Thai supporters in the north.
Analysts predict the political confrontations in the Southeast Asian nation will dampen domestic consumption and investment this year. Moreover, Thai GDP growth momentum has already slowed sharply from the 6.5 percent growth rate of 2012 to just 2.7 percent by the third quarter of 2013.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Becomes World’s Third-Largest Producer of Research Articles
But quantity is being favored over quality, experts say
The economies of China and other Asian countries together accounted for more than one-third of the world’s total US$1.435-trillion spending on R&D in 2011 — a greater share of global R&D, based on total dollars invested, than that of the United States. And in 2012, China spent slightly more of its gross domestic product on science than the European Union.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Investing in China Up 30%
Exports grow by more than $1.3 billion, report says
(ANSA) — Rome, February 5 — Italian investments in China were up nearly 30% in 2013 after a dip in 2012, according to issued Wednesday by the Italia Cina Foundation. Italian investments equalled $316 million last year, up 28.92%, nearly making up for 36.62% less investment in 2012.
Italian exports to China grew by more than $1.3 billion over the same period, while imports showed a slight increase of $0.1 billion after a decline of about eight billion in 2012.
The interchange between the two countries increased from $41.91 billion to $43.33 billion, an increase of 3.38%, but still far from the $51.3 billion of 2011.
The report was presented in Rome at the forum “Stories of Italian Success in China” coordinated by the Italia Cina Foundation and Intesa Sanpaolo bank.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Japan: Sony Exits PC Business, Warns of Full-Year Loss
Sony on Thursday unveiled major restructuring measures to turn its fortunes around, including exiting its PC business and spinning off its TV operations, but warned that it expects to post a full-year loss as a result of the overhaul.
Meanwhile, Sony’s flagship TV manufacturing business — that has lost $7.5 billion over the last 10 years — will be spun off by July this year, it added.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
South Korean Politician Charged With Treason
Left-wing lawmaker Lee Seok-ki has been accused of plotting an armed uprising to assist a North Korean invasion of the South. If convicted, the politician from the Unified Progressive Party faces up to 20 years in jail.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Art, History, Sweets: Our First Islamic Museum Opens
By Carolyn Webb
A young team of people largely working pro bono have helped to complete the first Islamic Museum of Australia in just four years. Director Moustafa Fahour, 32, is nervous but excited that the $10 million institution, mostly privately funded with less than 20 per cent government input, will open to the public on March 3. A prayer room overlooks a billabong at the former warehouse in Anderson Road, Thornbury.
Visitors can eat Arabic sweets at a cafe near gum trees, and learn the origin of camels in the outback. The museum will explain the tenets of the Islamic faith, and the meaning of misunderstood terms such as jihad and sharia. Patrons can stand in a minaret and listen to the call to prayer…
[JP note: Fair dinkum.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Deliberate Bushfires Are ‘Urban Terrorism’
Fire-starters should be classed as “urban terrorists”, according to WA’s emergency services minister, as authorities investigate whether Perth’s latest bushfire was lit deliberately. A public meeting in the southern suburbs of Banjup, Aubin Grove and Atwell in the City of Cockburn and Forrestdale was told hundreds of properties were saved from the blaze that began on Monday…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Don’t Scrap Charity Regulator: Labor
Scrapping the national body responsible for regulating charities is unneccessary, federal Labor says.
The federal opposition has lashed out at a new report recommending the government proceed with plans to scrap the national body responsible for regulating charities. A Centre for Independent Studies report released on Thursday calls on the government to abolish what is says is the ineffectual Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission (ACNC).
It says despite being in operation for more than a year, the ACNC has failed to fulfill its key mandates — reducing the red-tape burden for charities, increasing public trust in the sector, and policing fraud and wrongdoing. And it’s unlikely to do so in future because of “fundamental flaws” in the regulatory model. “It doesn’t need more time, it needs to be abolished,” the report says…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Central African Republic Soldiers Murder Man in Cold Blood After Presidential Speech
Soldiers lynch and kill suspected rebel in front of several international journalists, moments after CAR’s new president praises their professionalism
Soldiers lynched an innocent bystander in the Central African Republic yesterday, beating the man to death before scores of witnesses only moments after the new president had voiced “pride” in their professionalism. The brazen murder, carried out with the utmost brutality, was another sign of the nightmarish disintegration of this remote country of 4.5 million people…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Kenyan Police Find Trove of Evidence in Mombasa Mosque Raid
Kenyan police have recovered a trove of documents and other evidence from Mombasa’s Masjid Mussa, which they estimate will take two months or more to review, Kenya’s The Standard reported Tuesday (February 4th).
Items recovered include an AK-47 rifle, machetes and other iron implements, jihadist flags, stun guns, hundreds of textbooks, maps, registers, pictures, information on alleged spies and “Muslim traitors”, and terrorist training manuals. One recovered document reportedly lists the names of militants across East Africa, with references as far as Burundi…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Kenya Goes on the Offensive Against Muslims
Kenya’s police have adopted drastic measures in the fight against militant Islam. The arrest of more than 100 Muslims who had gathered at a mosque in the city of Mombasa provoked widespread criticism.
A crowd of furious women surges towards the doors of the court building in the center of Mombasa, Kenya’s second-largest city. “To enter the mosque in a state of drunkenness and kick small children, that is no way to arrest Muslims,” one of them shouts. Another is looking for her son. She has had no news of him for the past 24 hours. “We have a right to know where our children are,” calls out a third. “Have you murdered them?”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Kenya’s Police Force Goes on the Offensive Against Muslims
Kenya’s police have adopted drastic measures in the fight against militant Islam. The arrest of more than 100 Muslims who had gathered at a mosque in the city of Mombasa provoked widespread criticism.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Jonathan Charges Service Chiefs to Crush Boko Haram Insurgents
President Goodluck Jonathan Wednesday decorated the service chiefs with their new ranks and directed them to strive to end the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-east. The service chiefs and their new ranks are Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Sabundu Badeh; Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Kenneth Tobia Minimah; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Usman Jibrin; and Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Nunayon Amosu…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Senior Al-Shabaab Defector Detained by Ethiopian, Somaliland Forces
Ethiopian intelligence forces backed by counter-terrorism forces from the Somaliland region have detained a former senior al-Shabaab commander who defected from the militant group and fled to his home region, Somalia’s RBC Radio reported Wednesday (February 5th).
The joint operation targeted Abdullahi Mohamed Ahmed Arabey who reportedly defected from al-Shabaab amid growing infighting among the group’s leadership. Arabey is believed to have had good relations with al-Shabaab’s top commander Ahmed Abdi Godane, who is also originally from Somaliland, until Godane started assassinating his rivals…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Youths Riot in Kenya for Third Time Over Mosque Raid, One Dead
MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) — Muslim youths fought police in the Kenyan port of Mombasa and one person was killed on Wednesday, witnesses said, in a third day of violence over the killing of a man in a police raid on a mosque used by firebrand preachers…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Administration Eases Restrictions on Asylum Seekers With Loose Terror Ties
The Obama administration has unilaterally eased restrictions on asylum seekers with loose or incidental ties to terror and insurgent groups, in a move one senator called “deeply alarming.” The change, approved by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Secretary of State John Kerry, was announced Wednesday in the Federal Register.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Australia: Asylum Seekers Await Court in Nauru Over Riot Charges After Magistrate Peter Law Deported
Asylum seekers charged with rioting on Nauru are among almost 80 people waiting to appear in court following the deportation of the island nation’s only magistrate. Newly appointed resident magistrate Andrew Jacobsen, a Melbourne lawyer, has stood down 77 criminal cases for mention hearings on March 4, with 16 involving asylum seekers charged over a riot at Nauru’s detention centre, a court list shows…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UAE nationals will no longer require visas to visit most European Union (EU) states, an Emirati official announced Wednesday, according to the Kuwaiti news agency KUNA.
The decision makes way for the EU Parliament to approve removing the UAE from a list of countries that require a visa to enter the Schengen area — an area comprising of 26 of the bloc’s 28 member states.
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Five Boats Carrying 550 Immigrants Spotted Off Lampedusa
(AGI) Palermo, Feb 5 — Five boats carrying 550 immigrants have been spotted south-east of Lampedusa by Italian Navy units deployed in the “Mare Nostrum” sea patrol operation. Four boats carrying a total of 450 refugees were spotted by a EH101 helicopter of the San Marco amphibious transport dock ship, while the fifth boat, carrying roughly 100 people, was intercepted by the Vega patrol boat. The Italian Navy vessel declared an emergency situation after verifying the boat’s scarce seaworthiness and the excessive number of passengers it was carrying and activated the rescue procedure. The San Marco ship is navigating close by in order to contribute to the rescue operation.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Navy Rescues More Than 1,100 Migrants
Migrants rescued from nine inflatable boats off Lampedusa in joint operation with the Italian Coast Guard.
The Italian navy has rescued more than 1,100 migrants after nine large rafts were spotted navigating towards Sicily. In a joint operation with the Italian Coast Guard, a navy helicopter spotted the first boat south of the island of Lampedusa, situated between the Tunisian coast and Italy, the AP news agency reported.
The San Marco ship and the Italian Navy patrol vessel Vega were able to rescue 788 migrants, while the Italian Coast Guard rescued 335 migrants on the ninth rubber dinghy…
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Italy: Algerian in Cleaver Attack on Tunisian in Milan Station
Illegal immigrants ‘drunk’, police say
(ANSA) — Milan, February 6 — A homeless Algerian was arrested for allegedly trying to kill a Tunisian also sleeping rough at Milan’s central station Wednesday night.
Both illegal immigrants were drunk, police said.
Abdel Kader Farth, 31, was caught on surveillance camera striking the unnamed Tunisian, 39, with a cleaver.
Farth was arrested for attempted murder and the Tunisian, who got 50 stitches in a face wound, cautioned for being an illegal immigrant.
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Italy Rescues Over 1,100 Boat Migrants in One Day
The Italian navy rescued 1,123 boat migrants off the coast of Italy within a space of 24 hours, reports the BBC. Eight boats were spotted 222km south-east of Lampedusa island. Among those rescued were 47 women and 50 children. The migrants are said to be from sub-Saharan Africa.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Landings on the Rise in 2013
Syria, Eritrea, Somalia and Egypt main countries of origin
(ANSA) — Rome, February 4 — The number of migrants landing on Italian shores is on the rise, deputy Interior Minister Filippo Bubbico said Tuesday.
Some 2,157 migrants landed in Italy in January 2014 compared to ‘just’ 217 in the same month the previous year. Last year a total of 42,925 migrants reached Italy by sea, up 325% over 2012. Of these, 3,818 were unaccompanied children and 37,886 landed in Sicily, including 14.753 on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa. The vast majority of migrants (27,314) set off from Libya, followed by Egypt (9,215) and then Turkey (2,077).
The main country of origin based on declarations made on arrival was war-torn Syria, which accounted for 11,307 migrants compared to 582 in 2012. It was followed by Eritrea with 9,834 migrants, up more than 400% over the previous year; Somalia with 9,263 migrants and Egypt with 2,618 migrants.
The vast majority — 37,258 — reached Italy after being rescued at sea. The figures do not take into account the countless numbers of migrants who die making the perilous sea crossing to escape poverty and conflict.
In October a boat carrying African migrants to Italy sunk off the cost of Lampedusa leaving nearly 400 dead. The tragedy sparked calls for solidarity towards migrants and promises of support from Europe.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain’s Illegal Migrant Expulsions Exposed
A video showing sub-Saharan immigrants being illegally expelled through Spain’s border with Morocco is leading critics to question Spanish police attitudes at a time when migrants continue to die trying to enter the country’s North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Immigration: ‘Total Chaos’ Seen if Curbs Backed
Switzerland’s ties with the European Union face a crunch test on Sunday as voters decide whether to revive immigration quotas on EU citizens, in a referendum piloted by rightwing populists.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Eases Rules to Admit More Syrian Refugees, After Only 31 Taken in Last Year
US President Barack Obama’s administration announced on Wednesday that it had eased some immigration rules to allow more of the millions of Syrians forced from their homes during the country’s three-year civil war to come to the United States…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Sex Education Reports Upset French Muslims
Parents in France pulled their children out of class this week after receiving anonymous texts warning them that their children may have sex education lessons in which they are taught to choose their own sexual identity. One of the texts, which demanded a “Day of Withdrawal” from schools, received intense reactions from conservative Muslim and Catholic parents, according to Agence France-Presse…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Graphene Conducts Electricity Ten Times Better Than Expected
Carbon layers grown on silicon carbide conduct electricity even better than theory predicted.
Physicists have produced nanoribbons of graphene — the single-atom-thick carbon — that conduct electrons better than theory predicted even for the most idealized form of the material. The finding could help graphene realize its promise in high-end electronics, where researchers have long hoped it could outperform traditional materials such as silicon.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Man Gets First Prosthetic Hand That Can Feel
Nine years ago, Dennis Aabo Sørensen severely wounded his left arm in a fireworks accident, and had to have it amputated. Now, a bionic hand has restored his ability to feel, the first time this has been reported in a scientific journal.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pre-Industrial Farming Sprouted Global Warming
Early farmers boosted Earth’s temperature by 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 degrees Celsius) over a period of 8,000 years, a new study suggests. “This is almost as large as the global warming in the past 150 years,” said Feng He, lead study author and a climate scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “That means early agricultural is as powerful as the whole Industrial Revolution.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Andrea Doria would have obliterated that flotilla of invaders not “rescue” them.
I hope you sleep nights.
Why are the Turcs worried about potatoe-prices?They call us Germans ” potatoe-eaters ” in derogative intention( to wit: Master races do eat more noble stuff, but leave their Country by millions whenever the oppotunity arises) .So, let them eat more bread, would have declared Marie-Antoinette.
Add. To my 9.20 comment: to be historically more accurate, Marie-Antoinette would have said: if potatoes are unaffordable, then make them eat hashed-browns.
http://rt.com/news/bosnia-protest-grenades-torch-053/
The photos are intriguing, where are the masses of protesters. Another Ukraine?
Re: CERN. A priest goes into his church and sees a Higgs Boson. “What are you?” he says. -“Well, some people call me the God Particle”. -“I think that’s blasphemy, and you should leave!” -“OK, but you’ll have no Mass”.