Bosnian protesters set fire to government buildings in downtown Sarajevo and prevented the fire brigade from reaching the burning structures. The demonstrators were said to be protesting unemployment, which is over 40% in Bosnia, and a high level of government corruption.
In other news, a German government advertising campaign highlights the successful integration of migrants in Berlin. The authorities were unable to find any successful migrants to photograph for the ads, so they were forced to use actors instead.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Diana West, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, Takuan Seiyo, 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.
German Constitutional Court Refers ECB Bond-Buying to Europe’s Top Court
Germany’s Constitutional Court has dodged a decision on the European Central Bank’s bond-buying program used to shore up debt-laden EU economies. The judges passed the ruling on to the European Court of Justice.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Inps Returns Negative Year-End Results
Future of state pensions agency uncertain
(ANSA) — Rome, February 4 — Italy’s social security agency Inps on Tuesday reported a negative financial result of 14.4 billion euros for 2013 amid uncertainty over its future management.
The negative result translated into net assets of nearly 7.5 billion euros.
Inps also forecast a further loss of nearly 12 billion euros in 2014, leading to negative assets of over 4.5 billion euros.
The negative figures came as speculation mounted over the future running of the state pension and welfare fund following the resignation of President Antonio Mastrapasqua on February 1.
The government is due to put the agency under compulsory administration pending the appointment of a new head to oversee social-security provisions for the majority of Italy’s public- and private-sector employees and self-employed workers. One of the names being touted for the role of commissioner is ex-labour minister Tiziano Treu.
Mastrapasqua resigned on Saturday after Rome prosecutors announced that they were investigating the private Israelitic Hospital, where he is also director general, for alleged billing irregularities and some 40 million euros in pension back payments owed to Inps for its employees.
His resignation came as the government presented legislation to prevent public-sector managers holding multiple positions potentially involving conflicts of interest.
The bill represents “a radical change that will prevent double-office holding,” said Labour Minister Enrico Giovannini on Tuesday. “Conflicts of interest will no longer be acceptable.
However, the rules do not just concern Inps but the entire public administration,” he said. The government is also expected to make changes to the way Inps is governed.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Puerto Rico: The Next Detroit?
On Tuesday, credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded Puerto Rico’s general-obligation bonds to BB+, a level that is considered junk status.
Similar action by rating agencies Moody’s and Fitch appears virtually certain, as the island territory copes with a staggering $70 billion of debt, all of which needs to be repaid with interest. Unfortunately, Puerto Rico has been in what amounts to a continuous recession since 2006, and its economy is currently shrinking at a 6 percent pace. The official unemployment rate is 14.7 percent, and its debt-to-GDP ratio is 93 percent.
Furthermore, the island is experiencing the largest population outflow since the 1950s, when 500,000 residents left for better job prospects on the U.S. mainland. Between, 2010 and 2012 the commonwealth lost 54,000 residents, and another 36,000 from July 1, 2012, to July 1, 2013. The percentage of decline is more than seven times the decline of second-ranked West Virginia.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sowing Fear: World War I and the Seeds of Hyperinflation
The current debt crisis in Europe evokes painful memories of the German hyperinflation. Price increases began with the start of World War I in 1914 and ended in disaster in 1923. The event still influences sentiment about monetary policy in the country today.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Euro Area Has Just Shot Itself in the Foot Again — Financial Turmoil and Deflation Loom
By Jeremy Warner
More noise from the German Constitional Court, which this morning referred a complaint against the European Central Bank’s bond buying programme to the European Court of Justice. But also really quite loud noise which may end up, even though this is plainly not its intention, tipping the eurozone back into financial turmoil and significantly increasing the risks of deflation…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The World’s Economy at a Turning Point, One of Collapse Perhaps
Cuts in the Fed’s aid to the US economy have followed the rescue of financial markets, but in so doing they have generated monetary shockwaves that have hit countries like Argentina, Turkey, Venezuela, Thailand, Ukraine, South Africa, Chile, Indonesia, India, Brazil, Taiwan, Malaysia, and many more. This marks the failure of the state as an engine of the economy, as well as the failure of political distortions of the economy by China, the US, and others.
Milan (AsiaNews) — The dawn of New Era might just be upon us but as Quantitative Easing (QE) tapers off, new mechanisms might be emerging that could lead to a new, even greater crisis.
The period 2007-2009, which began with the housing market crisis and continued with the financial collapse of non-primary mortgages and derivatives, forcing central banks to bail out the banks, reached its high point when Lehman Brothers went under in September 2008.
Although mass media, especially mainstream press and television, have tried to show that the world has turned the corner, the opposite is true. We are still in a crisis. Of course, the magic touch of world’s central banks providing unlimited monetary supplies has certainly had its effect. Shares, bonds and securities have miraculously rebounded. Still, for others, all this is more of an illusion, if not an outright form of deception and fraud, as evinced by the manipulation of gold prices and the Libor interest-rate market. Indeed, this is worse than an illusion; it is a poisoned chalice, all shiny on the outside but, oh so deadly on the inside.
Printing money to save financial markets
Things are changing everywhere as can be seen by what is happening to the currencies of many emerging nations: Argentina, Turkey, Venezuela, Thailand, Ukraine, but also South Africa, Chile, Indonesia, India, Brazil, Taiwan, Malaysia and others. Even Mexico, whose economy has so far been one of the strongest among emerging nations, has seen its peso come under pressure. It appears that hot money is moving, fast.
Before going into the a litany of complaints about speculation and the rapacious greed of many financiers, smaller ones included, it is better to think this through to avoid blaming the wrong culprit, as low-brow moralists are wont to do. Speculation in fact does not always involve fraud or plots. Often enough, it is almost an automatic reaction and reflection of real underlying problems. Let us then, separate the wheat from the chaff. Witch-hunts so often lead to hate rather than solutions, and cast a shadow that makes things that more difficult to understand.
When the US central bank — a constitutional absurdity if there ever was one since the US Constitution formally bans such an institution — gradually began reducing money supply, buying fewer US Treasury securities, the first symptoms of “weakness” appeared immediately in emerging countries. Although based on nothing, the enormous financial liquidity released by central banks in the past few years did boost financial markets, bringing them to pre-Lehman levels. This is what Bernanke had in mind when he launched his QE. This is the mandate his associates, the big banks and financial groups who put him at the helm of the Fed, had in mind as well.
After riding the wave created by Alan Greenspan, Bernanke’s predecessor, which included loans to those who could not pay them back, the banking fraternity successfully sought its own rescue at taxpayers’ expense, and in so doing pushed up national debts and the dubious value of assets generated by money-printing central banks. Yet, despite ideological claims by the Obama administration that it was left leaning, ballooning public spending has led to a sharp increase in economic inequality. This is less of a paradox if we consider that only a small percentage of the population holds assets in securities listed on financial markets.
Outside of the financial sector, things are different. Five years after the Lehman debacle, the real economy is still sputtering, not only in Europe but in the United States as well, where economic recovery has been slow or stalled.
The same goes for Japan, where Prime Minister Abe has tried to jolt the economy through massive government spending and large deficits of almost 12 per cent of GDP, this in a country whose national debt has already reached the stratospheric level of 240 per cent of GDP.
And China is not too far behind. Like the US, Beijing in 2009 implemented its own huge Keynesian stimulus package through increased government spending. Obviously, China is different case because it continues to benefit from the same “help” it has enjoyed for more than two decades, namely record exports generated by a favourable exchange rate based on a currency artificially undervalued by 45 per cent in terms of purchasing power parity. Yet, in China, things appear shaky too. Its “shadow financial system” is a time bomb that is ticking away. Its economy is burdened by excess production capacity and a real estate bubble of overpriced ghost towns literally and figuratively built in the desert, all of which might foreshadow China’s own “Lehman moment”.
The end of the neo-Keynesian dream
Given the poor performance of the real economy, would it not have been more “courageous” (or more recklessly criminal) to have used more Keynesian fiscal stimulus and government spending? This is exactly what the two fearless, albeit blissful Keynesian Nobel laureates Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz had initially proposed. Still, unprecedented financial resources have already been poured into the economy over the previous five years. Someone, it seems, is out of touch with reality. No one, not even valiant diehard Keynesians is hurling anathemas against austerity. Except perhaps for Ireland, it is hard to see where anyone actually implemented this mysterious austerity in recent years. At most, some common sense has been applied in public spending reviews. This is different from the kind of financial rigour that could have been implemented decades ago rather than make ordinary people believe that money grows on trees like in Pinocchio’s Land of Toys.
The “tight” monetary policy the Fed just begun is just a break in an otherwise unstoppable race to print money. It is also an indirect admission that once it has achieved the goal of restoring share prices and, more generally, Western financial markets, it did not really know now what to do to jump-start the real economy. One lesson can be drawn from the past five years. However massive, Keynesian stimuli are ineffective if they are applied when levels of public expenditure and indebtedness are already high. Few have realised this and even fewer have publicly talked about it. This is a major ideological fiasco for it represents the utter failure of solutions based on high public spending. Leftist, albeit modern non-Marxist Keynesian economics, a radical form of state interventionism by any definition, has thus suffered a humiliating defeat.
In 1991, when the Soviet Union went under, so did Communism as an economic model. In 2008, the “Lehman moment” did not bring about the failure of liberalism (as some Communist troglodyte suggested), but that of “marketism,” the ideology of the Chicago School, and “Quantitative Economics,” the idolatry of rational expectations, the exaltation of the hyper-rationalist market, especially in financial and regulated markets, understood as the expression of a supreme and perfect synthesis of human behaviour as described by complicated mechanistic algorithms.
The year 2013 marked instead the failure of neo-Keynesian financial socialism. Today, as money supplies start to taper off, the Fed realises the failure of Keynesian economics in all its existing variations: the Obama-Krugman model, Japan’s Abenomics, Germany’s Soziale Marktwirtschaft (liked by Mario Monti, Mario Draghi and the Eurocrats) and last but not least China’s own capitalist-style Communism. Given the situation, the Fed has decided to put a “gradual” break on money supply because Bernanke and his associates are anything but stupid. They know that if the presses continue churning out money, Weimar-style hyperinflation is just around the corner.
Countries that consume vs countries that produce
As we initially said, the Fed’s pause for reflection (and lack of ideas) has brought to the fore problems inherent in emerging countries. So far, somehow, these countries benefitted from the unbalanced globalisation of the past 20 years. For the most part, the exports of minerals and farm products, and in some cases, consumer goods, were their driving force. The mechanism was roughly as follows: “Developed Nations”, i.e. the older industrialised countries underwent de-industrialisation via so-called de-localisation, resulting in employment losses, especially among blue-collar workers. Case in point: manufacturing in the US fell to 12 per cent of GDP compared to just under 30 per cent in the 1950s. Many white-collar jobs, and not only those in the manufacturing sector, also left for emerging nations. Services that could be easily de-localised — software design, information technology (IT), as well as research and development, industrial design, and hosted PBX services — followed suit. Only locally based services, such as food services, personal services and more broadly services closely linked to consumers stayed in “Developed Nations”.
This led to an incongruous situation that cannot be sustained in the long term. Indeed, one region of the world has built up structural trade deficits by consuming more than it produces, whilst output is concentrated in another part of the world. For example, in the United States about 70 per cent of GDP goes to consumption. By contrast, half if not more of world production in many key industrial sectors is concentrated in China.
The important thing to remember is that this situation is not the result of a gap in relative efficiency, but is rather the by-product of two powerful factors of distortion. On the one hand, there is a monopoly on the issuing of payment instruments, the US dollar, which is the sovereign US currency but also as the main currency for world trade. On the other hand, as we have said, the existing exchange rate undervalues China’s currency. Hence, an artificial balance, which is actually an imbalance, defines the current state of affairs, one that is not based on its own intrinsic strength, but rather on political agreements in support of the current system of exchange.
Political and technological efficiencies
A second effect of this distortion is that production and economic growth are determined by political factors, not by greater efficiency in technology and allocation of resources like raw materials and labour.
For some, de-localisation has led to higher profits and greater profits for shareholders but not necessarily to greater efficiency. Whilst production efficiency is a technical benchmark, output is no more efficient just because it has been de-localised. Indeed, at a macro level the opposite is true. China is a case in point. A 1 per cent growth in GDP translates into a 3 or 4 per cent rise in energy consumption. As long as China — one of the two major distorting factors — relied on its own resources like labour and coal, the economic expansion that turned it into the world’s factory could be pursued without concern not only for the environment but also for its repercussions on world markets. The same is not the case if resources, especially raw materials, come from abroad.
The decline in manufacturing in Developed Nations has been more than compensated by higher demand in newly industrialised nations, especially China. Indeed, China has become a major if not the major player in Africa, Australia and other resource-rich exporting nations. Likewise, the emerging nations currently in crisis are still growing despite prevailing trends.
Yet, despite the Fed flooding the markets with liquidity after the Lehman debacle, i.e. between the 1st quarter of 2009 and now, Western economies have never recovered even though financial markets bounced back, gaining 60 per cent more than they were before the crisis. However, after hitting new heights, the risks associated with shares also got very high, especially in view of the lessons of 2008.
With yields low because of low interests, hot money set its sights on securities issued by emerging nations, with investors choosing not to see the political and structural risks with economies heavily reliant on natural resources.
As Fed tapering gets underway, interest rates for primary securities, those “without risks”, are bound to rise. Thus, it is no longer convenient for hot money to buy high-risk securities. The net result is a run on the currencies of emerging nations whose economies are based on the export of natural resources.
The first crisis of 2014 is thus primarily another ideological failure, that of “involuntary Keynesianism”. Known under various labels, the former is embodied by expensive public spending policies that generate debt: Venezuela’s social-indigenismo under Chavez/Maduro, Argentina’s social-Peronism under Kirchener/Fernandez, South Africa’s Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) under Nelson Mandela and so on. In these countries, demand is distorted involuntarily, as in a command economy, but by high-minded redistributive domestic policies that favour protected domestic sectors at the expense of those that are internationally competitive. Certain political factions or interest groups benefit from these politically driven policies, creating a de facto parasitical relationship with the economy. Hence, today’s currency and market crises are not due to Fed tapering but are rooted instead in domestic factors.
A crisis in emerging economies could however trigger a chain reaction because for the past 50 years, i.e. since the Kennedy administration in the early 1960s, the world has lived according to the Keynesian illusion, believing that government spending can produce real economic growth, convinced that states can do what families and businesses cannot do, namely live above their means and take on debt that they can never repay. Since the last time a US administration had a balanced budget in 1959, the rest of the world has done the same.
Since then, things have accelerated. In the past two decades, especially the last five years, printing money to cover budget shortfalls has increased exponentially. We are now approaching a crash point, like in 1914 on the eve of the attempt on Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s life in Sarajevo. However, it is hard to know where the firing shot will come from, whether it will be the collapse of the currencies of emerging countries, the subsequent difficulty of large US and European banks, the latest crisis in Japan, the implosion of China’s banks and financial system, the meltdown of the euro or the of fall of Wall Street.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Troubled Times: Developing Economies Hit a BRICS Wall
Until recently, investors viewed China, Brazil and India as a sure thing. Lately, though, their economies have shown signs of weakness and money has begun flowing back to the West. Worries are mounting the BRICS dream is fading.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Economy Adds 113,000 Jobs; Unemployment Rate at 6.6%
The American economy added 113,000 jobs in January, a disappointing showing that is likely to spur fears that the labor market is poised for yet another slowdown.
Before the report from the Labor Department on Friday morning, economists had been looking for the economy to gain 180,000 positions last month. But after an extraordinarily weak showing for hiring in December, some experts had been concerned that weakness would carry into 2014 and signal a broader loss of momentum in the economy.
The unemployment rate in January was 6.6 percent, compared with 6.7 percent in December.
| [Return to headlines] |
The suspension of the US debt limit — achieved after a monumental standoff between Republicans and Democrats last October and a government shutdown — ends on Friday. The fear of default raises its ugly head again.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Why the Next Global Crisis Will be Unlike Any in the Last 200 Years
Sometime soon, we’ll take a shot at summing up our long-term economic future with just a handful of charts and research results. In the meantime, we’ve created a new chart that may be the most important piece. There are two ideas behind it:
1. Wars and political systems are the two most basic determinants of an economy’s long-term path. America’s unique pattern of economic performance differs from Russia’s, which differs from Germany’s, and so on, largely because of the outcomes of two types of battles: military and political.
2. The next attribute that most obviously separates winning from losing economies is fiscal responsibility. Governments of winning economies normally meet their debt obligations; losing economies are synonymous with fiscal crises and sovereign defaults. You can argue causation in either direction, but we’re not playing that game here. We’re simply noting that a lack of fiscal responsibility is a sure sign of economic distress (think banana republic).
Our latest chart isolates the fiscal piece by removing war effects and considering only large, developed countries. In particular, we look at government budget balances without military spending components…
Not only has the global, non-defense budget balance dropped to never-before-seen levels, but it’s falling along a trend line that shows no sign of flattening. The trend line spells fiscal disaster. It suggests that we’ve never been in a predicament comparable to today. Essentially, the world’s developed countries are following the same path that’s failed, time and again, in chronically insolvent nations of the developing world.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
American Betrayal Update: Reviews: Debates, Discussion
by Diana West
I am happy to say that American Betrayal continues to be reviewed, debated and discussed widely. I couldn’t have been more pleasantly surprised than when I noticed this charming Twitter pic and profile above — a soulmate, clearly, but no relation!
Recently, along with unprecedentedly lavish coverage in The New Criterion’s December and January issues, a lengthy essay on American Betrayal by economics professor Steven Kates in Quadrant’s (Aus.) January issue, and brand new, related research in Breitbart News by the eminent M. Stanton Evans (expanded upon in Human Events here) titled “McCarthyism by the Numbers.” I now find a positive review of my book in the Winter 2013 issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons by John Dale Dunn, M.D., J.D.
Excerpt:…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
How NASA is Launching 3D Printing Into Space
The newest adopter of 3D printing isn’t some hobbyist in a basement — it’s NASA. The agency is already building some of its customized spacecraft and instrument parts using 3D printing, and someday soon, astronauts might even make tools and replacement by 3D printing them in space.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In 19 Minutes, A Team of Snipers Destroyed 17 Transformers at a Power Station in California
When a real terrorist attack happens, sometimes we don’t hear about it until months afterward (if we ever hear about it at all). For example, did you know that a team of snipers shot up a power station in California?
The terrorists destroyed 17 transformers and did so much damage that the power station was shut down for a month. And it only took them 19 minutes of shooting to do it. Of course most Americans have absolutely no idea that this ever happened, because they get their news from the mainstream media. The chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission at that time says that this was “the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred”, and yet you won’t hear about it on the big news networks. They are too busy covering the latest breaking news on the Justin Bieber scandal.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
IRS to Issue Rules to Silence Conservative Groups
The 90-day period for public input into the IRS’ proposed new rules for Tea Party and other conservative groups to qualify for tax-exempt status is about to end. Carefully crafted to put “tea party groups out of business,” as House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) put it, the announcement was made just before Thanksgiving and then forgotten. The rules are the result of “reverse-engineering” the activities found to be most threatening to the Washington establishment, and under the new guidelines, those activities will be outlawed, come March.
Those activities include
- Voter registration drives to get out the vote
- Distribution of any material prepared by (or on behalf of) a political candidate
- Preparation or distribution of voter guides that refer to candidates
- Holding any event within 60 days of a general election at which a political candidate appears as part of the program
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mosque Hearings Continue in Bernards Township
BERNARDS TWP. — Traffic issues resurfaced at the latest hearing on a proposal for a mosque in Liberty Corner, as letters from two township fire officials warned that further congestion on Church Street could delay emergency response times from the Liberty Corner Firehouse…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Rand Paul: Obama is Transforming US Into a “Socialist Nightmare”
In a recent interview with Newsmax, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul hit out at the President saying that his policies are stifling freedom in America and creating a “socialist nightmare” state.
“It’s hard to imagine exactly what his goal is because when you talk to him one on one, he sounds reasonable and like he’s not trying to transform America into some socialist nightmare,” Paul stated.
The Senator described Obama’s policies as “transformative” adding that he is “changing us from a country that has a marketplace and freedom of choice to a country that is stifled by coercion and mandates.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
State Lawmakers Seek End to Cooperating With Obama ‘Gun Grab’
On the day before President Barack Obama State of the Union address, in which he addressed immigration, gun control, and other issues, a Florida state lawmaker introduced a bill that would prohibit any state agency from cooperating with enforcement of federal gun laws whether they be passed by congress or passed by a stroke of Obama’s pen, according to the Tenth Amendment Center.
State Rep. Dane Eagle (R-Cape Coral) introduced HB733 the Second Amendment Protection Act, which declares that no agent of Florida state or its political subdivisions “may participate with or assist federal agents in the enforcement of federal firearms laws, or provide material support of any kind to federal agents in the enforcement of these laws. The law would stipulate that state agents and/or contractors who knowingly participate in or provide support for the enforcement of federal firearms laws would be subject to dismissal.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Beatles US Invasion 50 Years on
It was February 7, 1964 and four excited, and no doubt nervous, young Liverpool musicians were preparing to board Pan Am flight 101 bound for New York — and for world domination. The Beatles were about to do what no other British group had managed before, break America. And their success would open the door for a host of other UK bands to follow in their wake.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
TSA Agents Interrogate Jewish Author for Reading Conservative Newspaper
As soon as Chesler pulled out a copy of The Jewish Press, a popular English language weekly with a conservative political bent, a TSA agent eyed her with suspicion, approached the author and asked to see the newspaper. After the TSA agent scrutinized the cover of the newspaper and showed it to another security official, Chesler was ordered to open her luggage, which the two agents then proceeded to rifle through.
During the search, Chesler was interrogated by the two TSA workers. As her luggage was being searched, Chesler noticed that a Muslim woman wearing a niqab that covered her entire face apart from her eyes was allowed through security with no questions asked and with no one even bothering to verify her identity.
| — Hat tip: Takuan Seiyo | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Live Free… or in Massachusetts
Comical video describes the numerous outrageous hoops residents of Massachusetts have to jump through just to exercise their God-given right to bear arms.
It’s disgusting the people of Mass. have allowed things to escalate to this point. Here are some inspiring words of encouragement from beyond the grave to facilitate a better understanding of the Second Amendment and its purpose.
“Disarm the people- that is the best and most effective way to enslave them.” — James Madison
“The constitution shall never be construed…to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.” — Alexander Hamilton
“No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms.” — Thomas Jefferson: Draft Virginia Constitution, 1776.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Only Politically Correct Science ‘Relevant’ In Ecology Ottawa Global Warming Event
After statements by the participants about how snow and ice would soon be a thing of the past and the sport of skiing all but dead due to global warming, the question period began. I said:
“I’m Tom Harris with the International Climate Science Coalition [ICSC]. I’ve been a skier for about 55 years so I’d like to hear what the panel thinks about this circumstance. As demonstrated by books like this [1,000 page book held up for the audience to see], the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change [NIPCC], there are literally thousands of scientists who do not think that we’re headed for dangerous warming. So I offered to Ecology Ottawa to bring one of these scientists in, for free, I asked them about a week ago, and they turned that down. So what I’d like to know from the panel is: what do you think of excluding scientists who disagree with political correctness from appearing on the panel?”
Besides the audience’s surprise that someone would dare ask such a question, and one person calling out, “there are not thousands of scientists”, a woman immediately jumped up, obviously prepped to discredit the evil denier they knew would be attending. She launched into the sort of attack — who do you work for, etc. — that groups like ICSC face all the time. Rather than asking her to sit down and allow the panel to answer the question, the EO organizers permitted her to be passed a microphone and gave her the time to make her charge again, this time loud and clear…
“I feel quite confident to trust in what the IPCC does,” Gruber finally concluded. “And I am very happy to look at any other evidence that other scientists present because if we like or don’t like their outcomes, presenting evidence is a good thing in the scientific discourse. But, so far, I really haven’t seen a lot of things presented to me that convince me. And I don’t think that this is the panel where we should get stuck in this discussion.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
297 Scientists, Experts Sign Statement: GMOs Not Proven Safe
The statement was drawn up by the European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility. It was released on October 21, 2013.
Since then, 297 scientists and experts have signed it.
Thus exploding the myth that “the science is settled.”
Exploding the claim that a consensus about GMOs has been reached.
You can read the statement and the signatories at ensser.org.
http://www.ensser.org/media/0713/
Here are two excerpts from the statement:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Connery: Scots Independence Close
Sir Sean Connery has said he believes Scotland will become an independent country within his lifetime. The 77-year-old former James Bond actor, who lives in the Bahamas, says Scotland is “within touching distance” of achieving independence.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Disney’s ‘Frozen’ Triples Norway Tourism Interest
The number of people visiting the US site of Norway’s tourist authority has more than tripled since Frozen, Disney’s new Norway-inspired film, premiered in November, the Aftenposten newspaper has reported.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Earliest Footprints Outside Africa Discovered in Norfolk
Scientists have discovered the earliest evidence of human footprints outside of Africa, on the Norfolk Coast in the East of England. The footprints are more than 800,000 years old and were found on the shores of Happisburgh. They are direct evidence of the earliest known humans in northern Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘F**k the EU’: Tape Reveals US Runs Ukraine Opposition
In the latest debacle for the US State Department and the Obama Administration, US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland was caught on tape micro-managing Ukraine opposition party strategies with US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt. That the Ukraine regime-change operation is to some degree being directed from Washington can no longer be denied.
The tape (listen below) was released today, on the eve of Nuland’s second trip to meet with Ukrainian protestors and opposition leaders in the past two months — last time she passed out cookies to protestors.The taped conversation demonstrates in clear detail that while Secretary of State John Kerry decries any foreign meddling in Ukraine’s internal affairs, his State Department is virtually managing the entire process. The “F**k the EU” part is her expressing anger that the EU is not moving fast enough with regime change in Ukraine and her plan is to get the UN involved in the process.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
French Inmate Freed After Fax Runs Out of Ink
A suspect in the 2011 lynching of a young DJ in a Paris suburb has been released because a fax machine ran out of ink, prosecutors confirmed on Thursday.
The man was reportedly freed because staff at a Paris court of appeal were unable to read a fax containing his appeal before the legal deadline expired. Claudy Elisor, a 33-year-old DJ, was beaten to death in the early hours of January 1, 2011, by a group of people he had refused to let into his New Year’s Eve party.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Blasts Sweary US Diplomat for EU Dig
Chancellor Angela Merkel sees as “absolutely unacceptable” a top US diplomat’s use of an expletive in commenting on the EU’s handling of the Ukraine political crisis, her spokeswoman said on Friday.
US official Victoria Nuland was recorded saying “F*** the EU” while discussing the crisis in Ukraine with the US ambassador to the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Trade Surplus Hits Record Level
Germany’s trade surplus soared to a new record high in 2013, although export momentum tailed off at the end of the year, official data showed on Friday. Europe’s biggest economy notched up a trade surplus of €198.9 billion in 2013, the highest since foreign trade data have been compiled.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Government Calls Nuland’s EU Slur ‘Absolutely Unacceptable’
The government in Berlin has called critical comments by US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland on the EU “absolutely unacceptable,” also praising the EU’s Catherine Ashton for her mediation efforts in Ukraine.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Get Your Fill of Norse Myths, Before Hel Freezes Over
by Jemima Lewis
I only discovered the Norse myths six months ago. What a waste of 42 years!
The end of the world is nigh — February 22, to be precise — and I, for one, can’t wait. For this will be no common-or-garden apocalypse, no random asteroid strike or disappointingly impersonal implosion of the universe. This is the coming of Ragnarok…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Farmers and Doctors Biggest Tax-Evaders for 2013
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, FEBRUARY 6 — Greece’s Financial and Crime Unit (SDOE) had quite a big job on their hands last year. After numerous thorough controls, SDOE discovered that there are an abundance of Greek citizens from different groups that are not paying their taxes as they should, as GreekReporter website informs. Greek farmers are on the top of the list of the biggest tax-evaders in Greece. In second come the contractors and in third, large enterprises. Fourth on the list of biggest tax-evaders in Greece stand the traders of agricultural products who are then followed by doctors. SDOE also uncovered that a political figure is on the list of biggest tax evaders in Greece. According to SDOE’s official announcement, Pavlos Xaikalis, MP of Independent Greeks, is not paying his taxes properly. Later in the day, Xaikalis gave a brief interview to the Greek TV channel SKAI, where he confessed. Additionally, Greece’s Financial and Crime Unit also found many State-owned organizations that are tax evading.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
How UK Spies Committed Illegal DoS Attacks Against Anonymous
A new Snowden leak, reported by NBC, documents the UK spy agency GCHQ’s attacks on Anonymous, which included Denial-of-Service attacks, which are strictly forbidden under UK law. As the Slashdot story notes, “Regular citizens would face 10 years in prison and enormous fines for committing a DoS / DDoS attack. The same applies if they encouraged or assisted in one. But if you work in the government, it seems like you’re an exception to the rule.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Northern League MP Expelled From House
PD are ‘mafia accomplices’, Buonanno says on ‘empty out jails’
(ANSA) — Rome, February 5 — Northern League MP Gianluca Buonanno was expelled from the House Wednesday after accusing the ruling Democratic Party (PD) of being in league with the mafia because of a planned amnesty that would ease prison overcrowding by letting out thousands of non-serious offenders.
“(The PD are) accomplices of the mafia,” read a placard waved by the member of the anti-immigrant and anti-euro party against the so-called ‘empty out jails’ decree.
On Tuesday Buonanno waved handcuffs against the PD, who rule with the centre-right New Centre Right. The League member recently blacked up to deliver an anti-immigrant rant to the House.
The populist regionalist party has a history of similar stunts.
The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), ledd by firebrand comic-turned-politician Beppe Grillo, has lately taken a leaf out of the League’s book.
It sparked a brawl in the House last week, blocking lawmakers’ work, and aimed a string of sexist insults including rape threats at Speaker Laura Boldrini.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s President Rebuts Attacks From Northern League MEPs
‘I did not invent this government on a whim’
(see related) (ANSA) — Strasbourg, February 5 — Italy’s President Giorgio Napolitano on Wednesday told Italian MEPs he did not invent the current or the previous government on a whim, but that both were formed by agreement from all political sides as called for by the law of the land.
The president’s comments came after MEPs from the anti-euro, anti-immigrant Northern League tried to interrupt his speech to the European Parliament on Tuesday by shouting and holding up signs that said “The Euro Kills” and “He’s Not My President”.
Napolitano presided over the birth of Premier Enrico Letta’s left-right coalition government as well as the previous technocrat administration of Mario Monti.
Letta is staunchly pro-EU, and Monti implemented highly unpopular austerity measures which brought Italy back from the brink of a Greek-style financial meltdown.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Jail Overcrowding Law Keeps Tension High in Parliament
Eurosceptics cause ruckus at home and abroad
(By Christopher Livesay) (ANSA) — Rome, February 5 — Tensions were high in parliament Wednesday after Northern League MP Gianluca Buonanno was expelled from the House when he accused the ruling Democratic Party (PD) of being in league with the mafia because of a planned amnesty that would ease prison overcrowding by letting out thousands of non-serious offenders.
“(The PD are) accomplices of the mafia,” read a placard waved by the member of the anti-immigrant and anti-euro party against the so-called ‘empty out jails’ decree. On Tuesday Buonanno waved handcuffs against the center-left PD, who rule with the New Centre Right. The League member recently blacked up to deliver an anti-immigrant rant to the House. The populist regionalist party has a history of similar stunts. Its head, Matteo Salvini, on Wednesday confirmed his party’s call for Italian President Giorgio Napolitano to resign, despite shaking hands with the head of State moments earlier. “From a personal point of view, no hard feelings. But from a political point of view we are on different planets,” Salvini said. But “whoever continues to defend the indefensible — this Europe and this euro — cannot represent Italian citizens,” Salvini declared. “The problem is whoever continues to defend a Europe that is massacring us, and a euro that is a criminal coin. Courtesy and politeness are one thing. The fact that this Europe is killing our future is another,” Salvini added. 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, rankling Salvini.
The head of State was greeted in Strasbourg with a protest by League MEPs, who slammed Napolitano for defending the European single currency, saying it had “destroyed” jobs and wages. The League, led by Salvini, waved banners saying “no euro” and “euro kills” during Napolitano’s address.
Their opposition to the president has grown amid the current and previous administration, both of which were heavily influenced by Napolitano during their formation amid economic and political instability, at the expense of the traditional democratic process. Napolitano on Wednesday told Italian MEPs he did not invent the current or the previous government on a whim, but that both were formed by agreement from all political sides as called for by the law of the land. Amid government gridlock following inconclusive elections, the 88-year-old statesman assumed an unprecedented second term in office in order to preside over the birth of Premier Enrico Letta’s left-right coalition government in April, much as he did for the previous technocrat administration of Mario Monti. Letta is staunchly pro-EU, and Monti implemented highly unpopular austerity measures which brought Italy back from the brink of a Greek-style financial meltdown.
The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), led by firebrand comic-turned-politician Beppe Grillo, has lately taken a leaf out of the League’s book. It sparked a brawl in the House last week, blocking lawmakers’ work, and aimed a string of sexist insults including rape threats at Speaker Laura Boldrini.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Public-Tenders Cartel’ Busted in Calabria
Police arrest 11 with ties to ‘Ndrangheta
(ANSA) — Locri, February 4 — Police in the southern Calabria region on Tuesday arrested 11 suspects, including several businessmen, for links to the ‘Ndrangheta mafia and for operating an alleged public-tenders cartel. One suspect evaded arrest, police said. Charges include violent threats to rival businesses, defrauding public entities, and theft. The operation was part of a larger investigation that led to the arrest in December of two ‘Ndrangheta bosses, a former town councilor, and the former mayor of San Luca, where the local was dissolved last summer for mafia infiltration. The notorious San Luca clan sprang to international attention with the 2007 murder of six mafiosi in the German city of Duisburg.
With its stranglehold of the European cocaine trade, the ‘Ndrangheta is thought to be Italy’s richest and most powerful mafia.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Centre-Left Edges Out Centre-Right in Poll
35.7% v. 35.4%
(ANSA) — Rome, February 7 — Italy’s centre-left coalition edged out the centre-right by a mere 0.3% in a voter survey, polling group Ixe’ said on Friday. The approval rating for the centre-left coalition led by the Democratic Party (PD) came in at 35.7% compared to 35.4% for its centre-right rival, led by ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (FI) party, the study conducted for the television programme Agora’ found.
The PD was by far the most popular single political party, though, with 30.7% approval among voters, Ixe’ said. Italy’s second most popular political group was the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) with 22.8%, while Forza Italia came in at 21.8%. (photo: Matteo Renzi)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Prosecutors Request Jail Term for M5S Leader Grillo
Comic told police not to protect MPs, built illegal protest hut
(By Christopher Livesay) (ANSA) — Genoa, February 7 — The firebrand leader of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), Beppe Grillo, may face jail time after prosecutors on Friday unleashed a barrage of legal opposition against some of his headline-grabbing acts of defiance to civil authority. Prosecutors in Genoa said Grillo is under investigation for urging police not to protect elected officials in an open letter to law-enforcement agencies during heated, sometimes violent anti-austerity street protests in December. “I ask you not to protect these politicians any more,” said the populist leader, whose Internet-based movement stormed to third place in February’s general election in a huge protest vote. Genoa prosecutors said “numerous prosecutors’ offices” from around Italy had opened cases after the remarks made during demonstrations by the so-called ‘Pitchfork’ movement, which snarled traffic and tied up commerce nationwide over several weeks.
Moments later on Friday, prosecutors in Turin requested a nine-month jail term for Grillo illegally building a hut in 2010 that became a symbol for protests against a high-speed rail line from France to Italy. The comic-turned-politician backs the ‘No-Tav’ campaign in the Susa Valley north of Turin, which contests the line’s economic value and says it will despoil pristine landscape.
The Italian and French governments have insisted the line go ahead to speed passenger and freight traffic and boost both countries’ economies. His M5S has been the focus of recent anti-government chaos in parliament, where it is the second biggest single party after the center-left Democratic Party (PD). The PD, together with the center right, has recently forged a new election law that aims to streamline government and prevent the type of gridlock that brought parliament to a grinding halt for two months last year after inconclusive elections. The law favors the two coalitions who come away from an election with the most votes, leading to a runoff. Despite its big numbers, the M5S would struggle to come in second since it refuses to ally with other parties in a bloc. It has accused the established parties of crafting the law to force the movement out of parliament. Last week it was largely responsible for pushing and shoving that broke out on the House floor, sparked in part by House Speaker Laura Boldrini using her powers to shut down an M5S filibuster. Long a target of M5S attacks, Boldrini was subjected to vulgar abuse on Grillo’s Facebook page by M5S members over the weekend, some of which imagined her being raped. The M5S has also filed to impeach Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, whom it accuses of failing in his role as impartial arbiter of Italian politics and the Constitution in favor of traditional parties.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland: Edinburgh Students Vote Against Motion Opposing Gender Segregation
Students at the University of Edinburgh last night voted against a motion submitted to the Student Association calling for the university to: “Commit to disallowing imposed or directed segregation, based on any characteristic, in EUSA buildings or at EUSA events”.
The motion, available here, proposed to ask the National Union of Students and Universities UK to clarify their positions on the issue…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Swedes ‘Clueless’ About Rise in Welfare Spending
Sweden is spending more money than ever on the public sector according to a new study. But the typical Swede still believes things were better in the eighties.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Thirty Years’ War: How Peace Kept WWI Alive
On two separate occasions, in 1918 and 1945, the world had to decide what to do with Germany. The second time around, world leaders almost made the same mistakes that failed to keep the Germans down after World War I.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Two Finnish Divers Killed in Norway’s Plura Caves
Two Finnish divers have been killed and three injured in an cave-diving accident in northern Norway. A spokesman for the Finnish Foreign ministry spokeswoman confirmed on Friday that two Finnish citizens had died in the Plura cave system, Norway’s largest water-filled cave.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK Floods — Farmland Wrecked, Lives Severely Disrupted All Because of Political Incompetence
Gross incompetence of officials who would prioritise birds and wildlife over farmers and agriculture
London, England-Farmer Hayley Matthews and her family are eating off paper plates because there is no fresh water to wash the dishes or flush the toilet due to the floods. They travel fifteen miles every couple of days to shower themselves.
They live in Somerset, England, and have been doing this since Christmas and are just one example of hundreds who are angry at the gross incompetence of officials who would prioritise birds and wildlife over farmers and agriculture.
People on the Somerset Levels, a vast area of fertile reclaimed farmland, have been successfully managing floods since the 13th century. But once the last socialist government got it hands on the Environmental Agency, they stopped dredging the rivers, choosing instead to spend £20 million on a coastal nature sanctuary and running programmes to encourage farmers to flood their land in order to promote birdlife. As a result of these policies, the tidal Rivers Tone and Parrett are so clogged up with silt they are wholly incapable of handling the level of rainfall experienced over the last few weeks, so now locals have to be ferried over flooded land to get their basic supplies. More rain last night has meant villages have to evacuate altogether , leaving their properties at risk to thieves, who are helping themselves to farmer’s fuel, tools and whatever else they can get their hands on.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Do Muslims Need Advice From UKIP? Unfortunately, Gerard Batten Thinks So
by Remona Aly
The Ukip MEP missed a few key areas in his delusional charter — how about boxes to tick for ‘moderate’ and ‘sharia’?
As Ukip’s spokesman for immigration, Gerard Batten MEP, a former candidate for mayor of London, has decried the “explosion of mosques” across Europe and claimed he would “refuse applications for new mosques until there’s a non-Muslim place of worship in Mecca and Medina”. Batten, who represents London in the European parliament, doesn’t seem to have noticed that he might be missing a vote here and there in the May European elections, given that one in seven Londoners is Muslim…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Nottingham’s Old Angel Inn Cancels ‘Bag a Slag’ Event
A pub has been forced to cancel its alternative speed dating event this Valentine’s Day after its poster was branded inappropriate. The Old Angel Inn in Nottingham used a poster with the slogan “bag a slag, grab a hag” to promote its event.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Pupils Learn How to Recite Prayers in Arabic on Visit to Crawley Mosque
PUPILS from a Copthorne school were taken on a cultural visit to learn about Islam at a mosque. Year 1 and 2 pupils at Copthorne Pre-prep School learned how to recite prayers in Arabic when they took a tour of Broadfield Mosque last month…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Spy Agency Engaged in Internet “False Flag” Attacks
We’ve warned since 2009 (and see this) that the government could be launching cyber “false flag attacks” in order to justify a crackdown on the Internet and discredit web activists.
A new report from NBC News — based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden — appear to confirm our fears, documenting that Britain’s GCHQ spy agency has carried out cyber false flag attacks:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Top 100 British Bangladeshis List Unveiled by Cllr Abdal Ullah
A list of the top 100 Bangladeshis in Britain was unveiled by Cllr Abdal Ullah at an event in the Houses of Parliament. The publication of the list follows three months of nominations that saw residents nominate their most inspirational British Bangladeshis…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The East London Mosque and Sulaiman Ghani
Sulaiman Ghani is an imam of the Tooting Islamic Centre in south London. He will be one of the speakers at the “Global Aid Trust” event at the East London Mosque this Sunday. One of Ghani’s favourite causes is the championing of suspected and convicted terrorists. For example, here he is at a rally for Aafia Siddiqui outside the US embassy in London…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Former Child Soldier With a Very Unpalatable Message About Gangs
A child soldier from South Sudan visited a London gang forum and told the group of vulnerable teenagers: “I also used to be in a gang. The only difference is that mine was massive — it was called the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. My mother died when I was seven, I carried a gun at eight, by nine I was a full-blown child soldier.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UN Defends Report on Vatican Child Sex Abuse
‘Holy See treated objectively, like other states’
(see related) (ANSA) — Geneva, February 7 — The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child on Friday defended its report on the Vatican’s child-abuse track record after the Holy See said it was biased. The Committee made its recommendations after “objectively examining all relevant information…as it (does) with all state parties,” said Committee head Kirsten Sandberg.
“As stated in its concluding observations, the Committee welcomed the open and constructive dialogue it had with the delegation of the Holy See, which made positive commitments in numerous areas. “In particular, the Committee regards as positive the willingness expressed by the delegation to change attitudes and practices, and looks forward to the adoption of prompt and firm measures for the concrete implementation of its commitments”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Victoria Nuland Gaffe: Angela Merkel Condemns EU Insult
Germany’s Angela Merkel has said a US official’s apparent insult of the EU’s efforts to mediate in the Ukraine crisis is “totally unacceptable”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Video: France’s Newest Sport — Flood Water Surfing
Storms and subsequent flooding may have caused havoc in parts of western France but some were only too happy to take advantage of the deluge. Take a look at “flood water surfing” — France’s latest sport.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnian Protesters Storm Govt Buildings as Unrest Spreads
Bosnian protesters set ablaze local government buildings in three Bosnian cities on Friday as fury over unemployment and rampant corruption spread across the country in a third day of unrest.
Anti-government protests that began earlier in the week in the northern city of Tuzla continued to spread, with anger over corruption and an unemployment rate near 40 percent sending demonstrators out into the streets of a dozen cities.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia-Hercegovina Protests Break Out in Violence
Demonstrators in Bosnia-Hercegovina have set fire to government buildings as violent protests continue across the country for a third day. Police have used rubber bullets and tear gas against protesters in the capital Sarajevo and the northern town of Tuzla. Black smoke could be seen gushing from the presidency building in Sarajevo.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnian Protestors Storm Government House
Bosnians have taken to the streets, setting buildings alight as they protest the government’s failure to fix the economic situation.
Hercegovina, Feb 7 AFP — Protesters have stormed government buildings in Bosnia, setting them alight and smashing up furniture, as anger over the dire state of the economy boiled over. With unemployment at 44 per cent and one in five people living below the poverty line, Bosnians have taken to the streets to protest the authorities’ failure to address the economic situation…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Ferrero Chocolate Makers to Invest in Serbia
Sign agreement to buy 1,000 ha from Serbian government
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, FEBRUARY 6 — Leading Italian chocolate makers Ferrero on Thursday agreed to buy 1,000 hectares of land from the Serbian government to grow hazelnut plantations for an undisclosed amount.
The agreement was signed by Ferrero representatives Arduino Borgogno and William Fulci and by Serbian Agriculture Minister Dragan Glamocic in the presence of Italian Foreign Affairs Secretary General Michele Valensise, who is in Belgrade for talks with Serbian lawmakers, and Italian Ambassador Giuseppe Manzo.
The accord also includes cooperation by Ferrero with individual agricultural producers in central and southern Serbia.
“This agreement memorandum will help Serbia become a European center of hazelnut production, create new agriculture jobs, and bring new technology to Serbia”, said Glamocic, adding plantations could expand to 10,000 hectares in the next decade. “Italy’s government and institutions as well as Italian companies believe in Serbia”, said Valensise.
“The economic fabric of Italy is made up of dynamic companies who are looking abroad. I am glad to see this dynamism in the Ferrero group, which has shown intelligence and foresight by investing in Serbia. Our hope is that other Italian companies will follow this example, and that this will be accompanied by an improved business environment in Serbia”, the foreign affairs secretary general said.
Italy “has been very committed to bringing Serbia closer to the EU and we intend to continue following this line, since EU accession negotiations began on January 21”, Valensise went on.
“We will continue supporting those negotiations, especially during our duty EU presidency beginning on July 1. We are very happy to be Serbia’s best advocates in Brussels, even though Serbia does not need advocates”, Valensise concluded.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Presidency Building Under Fire as Bosnia Protests Continue
Protests have escalated in Bosnia, as demonstrators set fire to the country’s presidency building in Sarajevo. Crowds of demonstrators are swelling as the protests continue in other cities.
The protests began in Tuzla when workers from several factories took to the streets demanding back pay, and an end to job losses and corruption. When the demonstrations turned violent, around 130 were injured, mainly from tear gas. An industrial city in the country’s north, Tuzla has had four privatized formerly state-owned companies collapse, with one in four people in the city unemployed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Clash Kills 1; Bombs on Cairo Bridge Wound 6
CAIRO — Clashes between Egyptian security forces and Islamist protesters left one person dead in a province southwest of Cairo on Friday while two home-made bombs targeting policemen wounded six people in a bridge in the capital, officials said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Kidnapped Italians Due in Rome After Libya Rescue
Two Italian construction workers kidnapped in Libya last month have been released, Italy said on Friday, with Foreign Minister Emma Bonino thanking Italian officials operating in “a difficult environment”.
Since the fall of Moamer Kadhafi’s regime in 2011, the government has struggled to restore order and security in a country ravaged by anarchy and deadly violence. The situation is particularly critical in eastern Libya, particularly Derna and Benghazi, which have become bastions for Islamist radicals.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia Proof Islam Compatible With Democracy, Hollande Tells Constitution Ceremony
Tunisia embodies the hope of the Arab world, François Hollande told a ceremony to adopt the country’s new constitution three years after its revolution set off the Arab Spring. The new basic law shows that Islam is compatible with democracy, the French president said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
A brouhaha erupted recently in Israel over a completely theoretical question: could Israelis now living in the West Bank be allowed to live under Palestinian rule? This debate usefully focused attention on one of the trickiest and deepest issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and so it bears pondering.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sodastream CEO Birnbaum Wins BBC Debate With Oxfam Executive Phillips
Elders of Ziyon blog (EoZ) has a post with the You Tube video of Tuesday’s debate on BBC’s Newsnight between SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum and Oxfam’s Ben Phillips, Director of Oxfam’s Campaigns and Policy Division, “SodaStream CEO Destroys Oxfam Official on BBC.” Birnbaum was on from Tel Aviv, while Phillips and BBC Newsnight moderator Jeremy Paxton were in the London studio. We had posted on the original kerfuffle over Hollywood film star Scarlett Johansson’s leaving Oxfam to endorse SodaStream. The world poverty NGO nattered endlessly about SodaStream factory’s being located in Ma’ale Adumin industrial park which Phillips argued was “occupied territory.” He viewed this as “punishing Palestinians” in the disputed territories. See our post, BDS Crowd, Scarlett Johansson is on the case. SodaStream’s 30 second ad on Super Bowl Sunday, featuring Ms. Johansson, garnered over 11.4 million views of the “uncensored” version on You Tube coming in Fourth behind the leading Budweiser ads. Perhaps this was more of a testimony to Johansson’s star qualities and good sense displayed during the contretemps over her leaving Oxfam as its roving Ambassador for eight years. EoZ’s commented:…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
The Jewish Fear of Intermarriage
Intermarriage — when Jews wed non-Jews — has been called a threat to the future survival of the Jewish nation. So what happened when there were reports that the Israeli prime minister’s son was dating a Norwegian non-Jew?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
20,000 Work Permits for Palestinians From Qatar
Employment relations between PNA and Doha reopened
(by Michele Monni) (ANSAmed) — RAMALLAH — Qatar has decided to issue 20,000 work permits for Palestinian citizens, re-opening employment relations between the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and the Gulf emirate after an eight-year hiatus. ‘It is a very important initiative’, PNA spokesman Ihab Bazeeso told ANSA. ‘Each year thousands of engineers, doctors and computer scientists graduate from Palestinian universities but lack of work (youth unemployment in the West Bank touches 40%, according to recent data) forces them to accept anything’, he said.
Palestinian ambassador to Qatar Munir Ghannam told Doha News that permits ‘are a direct response to a request made by Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah’ during a visit to Qatar at the end of last year.
The first permits, according to Ghannam, should be issued this week and would allow those in possession of Palestinian identity papers — including those without a passport — of working in Qatar, where thousands of Palestinians have already been living for years. Many Gulf States have quotas to limit the number of foreign workers and in Qatar the quota for Palestinian workers so far was zero, Shannan said.
In order to help the hiring process, respective ministries are creating a database on which Palestinians can post their CVs so firms in Qatar can select their candidates. All citizens in the West Bank and Gaza are eligible for a work permit, said Ghannam, although it is still unclear if permits include workers’ family members.
Relations between Qatar and PNA have sensibly improved over the past two years: last November the emirate donated some 150 million dollars to support action of the government of President Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) and was one of the main investors in the Rawabi project, the new Palestinian city conceived by Bashar al-Masri, who is related to Munib, the Palestinian billionaire from Nablus. The emirate in the past two years has been an active sponsor of the reunification of the two Palestinian factions al-Fatah and Hamas with a declaration of intent signed in 2012 by Abbas and Khaled Meshal in the Qatari capital.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
8 Killed, 32 Wounded in Violent Attacks Across Iraq
BAGHDAD, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) — At least eight people were killed and 32 others wounded in violent attacks across Iraq on Friday, police said. Five people were killed and 22 others wounded in a car bomb attack in Tuz Khurmatu, some 170 km north of Baghdad, a police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity, adding that about 15 houses and seven cars were also damaged in the blast…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Iran’s Bomb in the Basement
It is happening in slow motion, to be sure.
But we are witnessing how a nuclear armed Iran is changing the face of the Middle East.
For years, US leaders, including President Barack Obama, warned that a nuclear armed Iran would spark a regional arms race.
And this is happening…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Family Blames Saudi Gender Segregation Rules for Student’s Death
Female student died after university stopped male paramedics from treating her
The family of a Saudi woman student who died of heart problems has said her university prevented medics from getting to her in time because of rules barring men from the women-only part of the campus.
The King Saud University in Riyadh denied the accusation and said Amena Bawazir, who had a history of heart disease, received quick medical attention after suffering a stroke last Sunday, causing her heart and lungs to stop functioning…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Cologne Central Mosque Attacked a Third Time
The Central Mosque in Cologne has been attacked for the third consecutive time since Sunday. In a written statement, the Religious Affairs Turkish Islamic Association said the assailant slammed a car into the door of the central mosque and tried to torch it throwing combustible material at the door of the conference hall of the mosque. The statement said that mosques in Hurth and Wesseling were also attacked on Sunday…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
A British man fighting in Syria has died after blowing himself up in a suicide attack on a prison, it is claimed. The jihadist, known as Abu Suleiman al-Britani, drove a truck packed with explosives into Aleppo’s central jail yesterday, according to British fighters in Syria.
Hundreds of rebels stormed in behind him — freeing up to 300 inmates from the regime-controlled compound and prompting airstrikes by government forces.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
London Suicide Bomber Believed to be First Briton to Carry Out Syria Attack
A London man fighting for al-Qaeda has carried out the first suicide bombing by a Briton in Syria, it was claimed today. Reports said the man, known as “Abu Suleiman al-Britani”, was at the wheel of a huge explosive-laden truck that blew up after being driven into the gates of a prison in Aleppo…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia 4th Largest Military Spender in the World
IISS report shows country trailing only US, China and Russia
(ANSAmed) ROME — 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. The BBC noted that Iran’s nuclear program and missile capacity were the most worrisome for the countries in question.
Anti-ballistic technology is a top priority for Gulf States, and Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have all either already purchased anti-missile and anti-aircraft systems or are in the process of doing so, the British outlet reported. The Arab uprisings have also had an effect. Libya, for example, is in the process of rebuilding its security forces and accounts for the increase in overall military spending in the Middle East, though its national budget did not make it into the top 15 worldwide.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: ‘British Fighter’ Killed in Suicide Attack
Fighter for al-Qaeda-linked group thought to be first Briton to die in suicide attack in Syria
A jihadist fighter with the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra group is thought to have become the first Briton to carry out a suicide attack in Syria. The man, known only by his nom de guerre, Abu Suleiman al-Britani, was said to have blown himself up during a raid on a prison in Aleppo…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish James Bond Sparks Controversy
No alcohol nor lovers, but able to defeat 200 enemies
(by Francesco Cerri) (ANSAmed) — ANKARA — The latest of the smashingly successful Turkish soap operas gaining recognition across the entire Mediterranean region, Kizil Elma (‘Red Apple’), has given rise to heated debate about its MIT secret services protagonist.
The Turkish James Bond, Murad Altay, proves his heroism from the very first episode, in which he and a comrade attack 200 enemies along the Turkish-Syrian border. He is recruited by a middle-aged, red-haired woman, the Turkish version of ‘M’ in the Bond series, who offers him a red ‘68 Mustang, which detonates after he is given the keys. The soap opera, which made its debut on the state-owned broadcaster TRT, drew heavy criticism for being overly violent and its ultranationalist tones, and the opposition sees it as move to rally more support for PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan. MIT director Hakan Fidan works closely with the Turkish premier and is the main who shaped the strong but much-contested Turkish policy on the conflict in neighboring Syria. The Milli Istihbarat Teskilati (MIT) chief has been called the ‘second-in-command’ by the Wall Street Journal. As the first ‘Red Apple’ episode was released, government and opposition were at loggerheads over a recent incident along the Syrian border. Gendarme stopped three lorries believed to be carrying weapons, but were not allowed to search them on the orders of the governor, who said that they were carrying only humanitarian aid. The judge who had ordered the operation and the gendarme colonel who carried it out were removed from their positions. The opposition drew the conclusion that the lorries must have been transporting weapons for Syrian jihadists. The first criticism of the soap opera, however, came from Alevis, a minority group linked to the Shia religion that has suffered throughout the ages massacres and discrimination at the hands of the Sunni majority. The Alevi Foudnation has accused the TV show of offending the religious sentiments of Alevis and of a “racist and ultranationalist” vision. Criticism has also come from the Islamist newspaper Yenisafak, which believes that the series underscores not the strength but the “vulnerability and ineffectiveness” of Turkish secret services, glorifying violence. The Islamists also feel that the Turkish James Bond is not Islamic enough, even though unlike his British counterpart he does not drink alcohol and does not always end up in bed with beautiful women.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
US Warns France Against Doing Business With Iran
The US has warned French companies not to violate sanctions in place against Iran, after some 100 French firms visited Tehran this week to rekindle business links in the Islamic Republic. Questioned on the fleet of French executives visiting Tehran, Secretary of State John Kerry told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Wednesday that France had been “put on notice.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pundit Jeff Hagar is doing what the Canadian and American governments should be doing by issuing a valid warning for all of those heading to the Sochi Olympics in Russia which celebrate opening ceremonies tomorrow:
“The Government should be telling all of its athletes and friends ‘Don’t bring your personal electronic devices. No phones, no laptops, no anything that might be at risk to hackers because they will hack you in Russia. Not IF, but WILL.”
Sochi attendees also run the risk of bringing the results of Sochi hacking back home with them.
“Once you get home, and the malware sees you paying your bills using a password, it’s bang-bang, identity theft. No sooner than you log into your bank account, your password and pin number have been sent via malware to the Russian mob gangsters preying on Sochi Suckers.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Opening Ceremony for Sochi Winter Olympic Games Underway
The 2014 Winter Olympics have kicked off with the start of the Games’ opening ceremony in Sochi. Over the next fortnight, around 3,000 athletes are to compete for medals in almost 100 events.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Passenger Claiming to Have Bomb Reportedly Tries to Divert Plane to Sochi
A passenger claiming he had a bomb has reportedly attempted to divert a plane to Sochi. The plane landed safely in Istanbul after leaving Ukraine, with Turkey’s transport ministry confirming a bomb threat had been made.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Soviet Hammer and Sickle Symbols Featured at Sochi Olympic Opening Ceremonies in Russia
The Soviet symbols of a hammer and sickle were featured during the Olympic opening ceremonies in Sochi, Russia, during a ceremony that highlighted the country’s history. The ceremony featured performers dressed in red and white, flying airplanes and driving cars while the hammer and sickle hovered over the scene, along with statue busts.P
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bodyguard Confesses to Stealing Sultan of Brunei’s Ex-Wife’s £4.3m Jewels, Court Hears
Fatimah Lim allegedly swapped blue and yellow diamonds belonging to Madam Mariam Aziz for fakes to pay off London casino debts
A badminton star who allegedly stole diamonds belonging to the Sultan of Brunei’s ex-wife and replaced them with worthless replicas made a full confession to local police, a court heard on Friday…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Last Marine Takes Command in Afghanistan
Camp Pendleton brigade replaces southwest force at war’s end
A Marine brigade from Camp Pendleton took command of coalition forces in southwestern Afghanistan as the 13-year campaign enters its critical final phase, the International Security Assistance Force announced Thursday…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Drought-Hit Australian Town Faces Evacuation
Outback town draws up plans to evacuate entire population after two years of drought
The entire population of a town in outback Australia could be forced to evacuate after a drought lasting more than two years dangerously depleted its water supply. The council in Cloncurry, in northern Queensland, has been forced to draw up plans to remove all 3,000 residents from the town due to a lack of water…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Health Scare for Pacific Castaway
Pacific castaway Jose Salvador Alvarenga has been ordered to rest after being hospitalised with a health scare, as a senior diplomat said all evidence so far verified his amazing story. Alvarenga, who says he spent more than a year adrift in the Pacific, was originally due to leave the Marshall Islands for his native El Salvador on Friday, but officials pushed his departure back until early next week after doctors ruled he was too weak to fly.
The 37-year-old’s good health had fuelled scepticism about his claims, but Mendoza said his story about a 12,500 kilometre (8,000-mile) odyssey across the northern Pacific had checked out. “So far, what he has told us has been the truth,” he said. “He gave us his name, Jose Salvador Alvarenga, and that is correct. He put us in touch with his family in El Salvador… and they corroborated his story.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sex Crime Charges Laid Against Man ‘Married’ To 13 Y O Girl
In Sydney’s west, where two suburbs — Lakemba and Auburn — are heavily Islamised, to the point where more than half the population of said suburbs is Muslim. Other suburbs are heading in the same direction. Police sources say the 26 year old man and the girl were married in an Islamic religious ceremony in the Hunter region last month.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kenya: Mombasa Riots Suspects to be Charged in Court
The Shanzu law court has now ordered the prosecution to present the over 100 Muslim youths arrested during riots at Mussa mosque on Sunday failure to which he will order their release.
Judge James Ombura has faulted the delayed presentation of the suspects in court since 9:30am with their lawyer Harun Ndubi accusing the prosecution of breaking the law by delaying their presentation in court.
Security has been beefed outside Shanzu law courts and in Mombasa as tension remains high ahead of their charging in court…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Sudan: Pregnant Gang Rape Victim Remains in Police Custody
Khartoum — An 18-year-old pregnant Ethiopian woman who was the victim of a brutal gang-rape last August in Omdurman has been sleeping on the concrete floor of a police cell since her arrest on 17 January, advocacy group, the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA), said in a public statement on Tuesday.
Women advocates say serious shortcomings in Sudanese laws contribute to the lack of protection for victims of sexual violence in Sudan (UN)…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Brazil: Violent End to Rio Price Hike Protest
A planned bus fare increase in Rio de Janiero has led to clashes between police and protestors, who also complained about Brazil’s World Cup spending. Seven people were hurt, including a cameraman.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fire Destroys Argentine Banking System Archives, Killing 9
While we are sure it is a very sad coincidence, on the day when Argentina decrees limits on the FX positions banks can hold and the Argentine Central Bank’s reserves accounting is questioned publically, a massive fire — killing 9 people — has destroyed a warehouse archiving banking system documents. As The Washington Post reports, the fire at the Iron Mountain warehouse(which purportedly had multiple protections against fire, including advanced systems that can detect and quench flames without damaging important documents) took hours to control and the sprawling building appeared to be ruined. The cause of the fire wasn’t immediately clear — though we suggest smelling Fernandez’ hands…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mexican School to Offer American Citizenship Course for Locals
Its never been done before in south Texas. A well-known Mexican university is offering its first course to become an American citizen. The National Autonomous University of Mexico is hoping to begin as soon as next week. The university’s satellite branch is located at 600 Hemisfair Plaza Way.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain-Panama Row ‘Bad for World Economy’
A $1.6 billion dispute over cost overruns paralyzed the Panama Canal’s expansion for a second day on Thursday, with analysts warning that thousands of jobs and the economy are on the line.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Berlin Struggles to Find Successful Migrants
A photo campaign which was supposed to highlight the success of immigrants in Berlin has been partially shelved after a lack of migrants came forward to tell their stories. Models had to be used instead of real people.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Four More Migrant Bodies Recovered From Moroccan Waters Near Ceuta
Death toll from Thursday’s attempt by sub-Saharans to reach Spanish territory rises to 17
The death toll from Thursday’s tragic attempt by a large group of migrants who tried to reach the Spanish exclave of Ceuta rose to 13 after four bodies were pulled from Moroccan waters near a seawall at the El Tarajal crossing, Civil Guard sources said on Friday.
Authorities continue to comb the waters off Tarajal beach where dozens of migrants tried to swim from Morocco in a desperate attempt to reach Spanish territory.
The victims either drowned or died after heavy waves slammed them against the six-meter high wall that extends some distance out to the Mediterranean and acts as a barrier that divides Ceuta and Morocco.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Experiencing ‘Massive’ Influx of Refugees
The number of refugees landing in Italy rose tenfold in January, the country’s deputy interior minister has said, complaining of an “incessant and massive influx of migrants”.
Throughout the whole of 2013, a total of 2,925 vessels of various shapes and sizes landed on Italian shores, carrying about 43,000 people, including nearly 4,000 children. This represented a rise of 325 per cent on the previous year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy MP ‘Blacks Up’ For Anti-Migrant Speech
Right-wing MP smears greasepaint on face in parliament, saying Italians need to be “a bit darker” to access state aid.
A right-wing Italian politician smeared his face with black greasepaint in parliament, advising Italians to “become a bit darker” if they wanted to take advantage of the country’s supposed hand-outs to black immigrants…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
New Court Documents Reveal Final Moments of Border Agent Brian Terry’s Life
Three years after the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry — a tragedy which exposed and ultimately ended Operation Fast and Furious — the public is finally getting a glimpse into Terry’s final moments.
Federal court records released Tuesday provide the first official account of the firefight along the Arizona-Mexico border that killed Terry in December 2010. Among other details, they reveal two of four federal agents at the scene that day actually fired bean bags — not bullets — at a violent drug gang carrying assault rifles. Weapons from the botched anti-gun trafficking program were found at Terry’s murder scene.
Such an account was not available until now, with both the FBI and Department of Homeland Security never releasing an incident report and Terry’s fellow agents under a gag order.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Allows Immigrants With ‘Limited’ Terror Contact Into U.S.
The Obama administration has issued new exemptions to a law that bars certain asylum-seekers and refugees who provided “limited material support” to terrorists who are believed to pose no threat from the U.S.
The Department of Homeland Security and the State Department published the new exemptions Wednesday in the Federal Register to narrow a ban in the Immigration and Nationality Act excluding refugees and asylum seekers who had provided limited material support, no matter how minor, to terrorists.
“These exemptions cover five kinds of limited material support that have adversely and unfairly affected refugees and asylum seekers with no tangible connection to terrorism: material support that was insignificant in amount or provided incidentally in the course of everyday social, commercial, family or humanitarian interactions, or under significant pressure,” a DHS official explained to The Daily Caller.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
On Being a Xenophobe and a Bigot
Multiculturalism failed miserably in Europe, but the diversity crowd in America forgets to mention that important fact
Fast forward to the end of the twentieth century. People disliked the regimes in their own countries so much that they moved to a more prosperous country, some legally, to get a job, some fell in love and married a foreign national, some joined the Army, some came to school and never left, and the majority of others crossed the borders illegally.
It would seem logical that, if you are so unhappy with your country of origin and leave indefinitely for better opportunities and a better life for your family, you would embrace the culture and the language of your new home. Why disadvantage and limit yourself economically by rejecting the new language? Keep your own culture and language intact at home, have clubs, festivals, holidays, or organizations to celebrate your culture and ethnicity, but make an effort to be part of the new society you willingly joined and help make it better.
We became a nation of legal immigrants from around the world who built America and made it great by assimilating into its way of life. We learned English and are proud of our Americanism. We respect the laws, the flag, the Constitution, the national anthem, its history, and are proud of its accomplishments as a nation and its exceptionalism.
A lot of immigrants today refuse to learn English (perhaps a few are unable to learn based on their advanced age) and expect everyone to learn their language so that they can function. Hospitals, Social Security offices, welfare offices, schools, DMVs, voting precincts, libraries, stores, cinemas, theaters, courts, legal offices, police stations, and doctors’ offices provide them free of charge with translators and/or documents in more than 150 foreign languages. If we immigrated to France, we could not do that, we would have to learn French or else we would be ostracized.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: ‘We Didn’t Fire Rubber Bullets at Migrants’
Officials in Spain on Friday denied security forces had fired rubber bullets at migrants trying to swim to Spanish soil, after 14 Africans drowned in the attempt.
The 14, including one woman, drowned on Thursday while trying to reach the Spanish territory of Ceuta from a beach in neighbouring Morocco. Other migrants tried to storm through a land checkpoint.
Spanish media cited migrants alleging that police fired into the sea where the Africans were swimming, as Moroccan and Spanish security forces tried to repel them from Ceuta.
Spanish authorities said police in Ceuta used rubber bullets to ward off the migrants but that they fired them in the air and did not target anyone directly.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: 9 Migrants Dead, Interior Minister Asked to Resign
According to survivors, Guardia Civil fired rubber bullets
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, FEBRUARY 7 — The Spanish government has been criticized by the opposition after the death Thursday of nine migrants who were trying to get into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in Morocco. The left-wing coalition Izquierda Unida asked Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz to step down while the PSOE called on the minister to urgently address Parliament on the matter.
The tragedy occurred when a large group of about 250 to 450 migrants from sub-Sahara, according to police sources, tried to cross the border with Ceuta from the beach of Tarajal by storming the 200-meter-long border cliff dividing the two countries.
At least nine migrants — eight men and one woman — drowned.
The official version of the incident provided by the delegation of the Ceuta government is that the Guardia Civil did not intervene while Moroccan police cracked down on the assault.
But various survivors were quoted by the media as saying that Spanish police ‘fired rubber bullets’ and ‘tear gas’ while migrants were in the water, causing panic and ultimately the casualties.
After the reports, the delegate of Ceuta’s government, Francisco Antonio Gonzales, confirmed in statements to the media the use of anti-riot devices to stop the migrants who, according to the official version, threw stones and other objects against security forces.
Gonzales claimed that the rubber bullets and tear gas were aimed at dissuading the migrants and were used before they dived into the sea and not directly aimed at them.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Six in 10 Unhappy With Government on Immigration, Exclusive Poll Reveals
A clear majority of Britons are unhappy with the way the Government is handling immigration and asylum, an exclusive poll reveals today. More than six out of 10 are dissatisfied — some three times as many as say they are satisfied, researchers from Ipsos MORI discovered…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Belgian Lawmakers to Vote on Legalizing Euthanasia for Terminally-Ill Children
Belgian lawmakers will vote on whether to extend the right to euthanasia to terminally-ill children next week, parliament announced Thursday, with the measure expected to be approved.
The bill would allow minors to ask for euthanasia if they are terminally ill, if they are in great pain and if there is no treatment to alleviate their distress.
The request has to be agreed by the patient’s medical team and parents.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Innovative Metal ‘Exosuit’ Takes Divers to New Depths
It looks like something astronauts might wear in space, but this metal suit actually has a more Earth-bound purpose: to enable divers to work deep underwater without needing to spend time in a decompression chamber after they return to the surface. The hard metal dive suit, known as Exosuit, is designed for users to operate underwater safely down to a depth of 1,000 feet (305 meters), reported Wired.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Oversized Rats Could Take Over Earth After Next Mass Extinction
In the event of a future mass extinction, rats may be the animals best suited to repopulate the world, some scientists say. And if rats did “take over” after such a wipeout, they’d likely balloon in size, scientists also say.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pew Study: Christians Are the World’s Most Oppressed Religious Group
Restrictions, harassment, and intimidation towards people who practice their religion increased in every major region of the world in 2012 except the Americas, with Christians the major target, says a new report by the Pew Research Center.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
re: Phyllis Chesler being hassled by the TSA for reading the Jewish Press: as a commenter at infowars points out, the TSA agents had no way to know that the Jewish Press is “conservative.” Most likely, the word “Jewish” was the problem.
The article and comments at the Jewish Press are clear about this. “Conservative” is a red herring. I didn’t know the Jewish Press is conservative, either, so how could the TSA?
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/author-reading-the-jewish-press-stopped-at-jfk/2014/02/06/
Yes, they used actors instead of successful Immigrants in Berlin. And for the warning adds against pickpockets in Berlins subways, they used actors too, with blond hair and blue eyes.lol.