A culturally enriched “Dutch” rapper made a rap video entitled “Geertje” in which a man in a blond wig representing Geert Wilders is kidnapped and threatened with death by two gunman. Mr. Wilders has demanded that legal action be taken against the rapper, and the Dutch government has condemned the video.
In other news, the Chechen terrorist leader Doku Umarov has died (some reports say he was “killed”). The Russian government has yet to confirm his death officially.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JLH, JP, KP, MC, 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.
85,000 Public-Sector Jobs Involved in Spending Review
‘A rough estimate, should be refined during 2014’
(see previous) (ANSA) — Rome, March 18 — Spending Review Commissioner Carlo Cottarelli said an estimated 85,000 public-sector workers will be subject to the review. “It’s a rough estimate that should be refined once reforms are put in place during 2014,” he said following a Senate hearing Tuesday. The government is trying to save as much as five billion euros in spending cuts.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
America Spirals Down the Socialist Sinkhole
The danger of what Obama is doing is becoming obvious to a growing body of Americans
Clearly Americans have taken notice of an economy that has not emerged from the 2008 financial crisis. They have seen how horrid Obamacare is, losing health care insurance plans they liked and being denied their patient relationship with physicians of their choosing, all while driving up their costs.
“Obama and the folks around him are trying to create a new economy that looks a lot like the ones liberals in the 1960s and 1970s imagined: lots of central planning, income redistribution, the illusion of world peace, and windmills.”
“Achieving this transformation requires destroying existing institutions in finance, health care, energy, and education.” That’s what Communism/Socialism does.
The danger of what Obama is doing is becoming obvious to a growing body of Americans, though not yet enough to curb and reverse it; those who prefer the welfare programs and those whose liberal indoctrination and addiction prevents them from seeing what so many others do.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germany’s Top Court Upholds Legality of ESM Rescue Fund
Germany’s Constitutional Court has ruled that the European Union’s permanent bailout fund does not run afoul of Germany’s Basic Law. The judges found parliament had sufficient powers to control national liabilities.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Pensions Will be Cut by 1% Says Spending-Review Chief
Political costs to be slashed by 10%
(ANSA) — Rome, March 18 — Italian pensions will be cut by 1% under the government’s sweeping spending review, the head of a panel tasked with picking the savings said Tuesday.
Previously, Premier Matteo Renzi had said pensions would not be touched by the spending review.
But Carlo Cottarelli told parliament “it would have been difficult to ignore a sector that’s worth 270 billion euros”.
Pension cuts “will be in the order of 1%, much less than potential savings in other sectors,” he said.
The cost of Italy’s bloated political system will be cut by 10%, Cottarelli said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Spending Review Can Free Billions if Wins Full Backing
OECD warns Italy needs targeted spending to fix recession damage
(By Sandra Cordon) (ANSA) — Rome, March 18 — Spending Review Commissioner Carlo Cottarelli said Tuesday that as much as five billion euros in savings could be found in the final eight months of 2014, depending on the choices made by Italian politicians.
Even using the most conservative estimates, savings of three billion euros could be found and ultimately, as much as seven billion euros could be saved on an annual basis, he told a Senate hearing.
“There is a degree of uncertainty,” he said. “It all depends on the political decisions that are taken”.
Similarly on pensions, politicians have choices as to where they might cut, “or, you may also decide that you must not touch,” retirement incomes at all, said Cottarelli.
Last week, he noted that if spending on upper-income pensions “which are very high” were cut, billions of euros could be freed up for spending on other budget items, including job creation.
Cottarelli also told the Senate finance committee last week that budget savings from his spending review could eventually rise to as much as 18 billion euros in 2015 and reach a total of 34 billion euros by 2016.
On Tuesday, he noted that he had been asked about the sustainability of Italy’s national health care and said that this, too, depends on political choices — including a decision on leaving health spending exactly as is.
Or, he said, small changes, including some at the regional level to improve efficiencies, rather than wholesale revisions, could be made. Cottarelli, a former International Monetary Fund head of fiscal affairs, last November began his job of finding inefficiency in Italian public administration to free up cash for programs to stimulate economic growth.
Cottarelli also said that an estimated 85,000 public-sector workers will be subject to the spending review. “It’s a rough estimate that should be refined once reforms are put in place during 2014,” he added.
As well, certain expenses including the purchase of government goods and services, could be streamlined and better coordinated to cut costs. He added that can be a particular problem among police forces but concerns with overlap would need to be handled very carefully for security reasons. “There is scope for savings…better coordination of plans, including the purchase of goods and services,” said Cottarelli. “It’s a very sensitive issue….we are talking about synergies, spending less,” without risking security.
His comments to the Senate Tuesday came at the same time as a report by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) warned that the average Italian family saw its income drop by 2,400 euros between 2007 and 2012 — more than double the eurozone average of 1,100 euros.
It blamed a “deteriorating labour market, especially for youth” as well as a “weak level of protection” for workers as other factors contributing to the country’s income weakness.
The agency warned that even though an economic recovery appears to have begun in Italy, that still won’t be enough to lift the country out of what Premier Matteo Renzi has called the “quagmire” into which the economy has sunk.
Rather, the right investments are needed to create a more resilient and efficient social protection system, said the OECD in its annual report on social indicators. “Economic recovery, even once firmly established, should not be expected to quickly put an end to the social and labour-market crisis,” said the OECD which last week predicted economic growth this year will average about 0.6%.
“To prevent economic difficulties from becoming entrenched, Italy now needs to invest in better and more cost-effective social support measures”.
Those comments appear to dovetail with targeted spending and labour market reforms introduced last week by Renzi, who has suggested it is time to shift focus from concerns about cutting costs and reducing debt to instead consider policies aimed at encouraging growth and recovery.
Last week, Renzi announced plans to cut income taxes by 10 billion euros, invest 1.74 billion euros in social housing programs, spend 3.5 billion euros on schools, and repay 68 billion euros in outstanding bills for government services by July.
But he has insisted that his program would not cause Italy to breach the 3%-deficit-to-threshold allowed by the EU.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Obama to Stab Backs of Military Again by Reducing Pensions 10%
Not content with reducing military levels to dangerous and even suicidal plateaus of pre -WWII strengths but with cutting personal pay for military personnel who will put their lives on the line ad infinitum; Obama now plans as well on cutting the military retirement pension plans to involve personal contributions from their newly lowered rates of pay for their service.
I believe that little gambit of our Fuhrer is not going to be totally legal as it has always been my understanding that when military pay rates are being computed, there is an imputed deduction before applying the new levels. I hope someone of knowledge in these matters checks that out before a double dip deduction is damnably decreed by ‘der dictator’.
According to Investors Business Daily (IBD) online posting of March 14, 2014, “Obama Cuts Military Pensions, Exempts ObamaCare Subsidies” that is what will happen; i.e., “cut by 10 percent the military pensions of those who served their country while giving public employees a break by exempting their ObamaCare subsidies from sequestration.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Schaeuble OKs Renzi Growth Plans With Fiscal Caveats
Reforms to boost productivity, employment ‘greeted favourably’
(ANSA) — Berlin, March 17 — German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on Monday hailed Italian Premier Matteo Renzi’s plans to boost growth and productivity but said Italy should continue with fiscal consolidation. Schaeuble met with Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan, whose office reported that the talks were held in a “constructive atmosphere”, while Renzi met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The note said that Schaeuble ‘greeted favourably’ the Italian government’s goals of speeding reforms to increase productivity and economic growth while reducing youth unemployment.
But it added that the German government hopes that fiscal consolidation will not be postponed in Italy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Economic Problems Behind Increasing Homelessness
In the past, this was the most common group found among the homeless. But today an increasing number of people are without their own accommodation for other reasons. It could be because of unemployment, a low income — or just sheer lack of housing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Anaheim’s Little Arabia Pushing for a Higher Profile
Two miles from Disneyland, a stretch of strip malls in Anaheim has transformed into an enclave catering to California’s Arab American community.
Yet Little Arabia is largely unknown to the millions of tourists who flood into Anaheim every year — and it remains below the radar even to longtime residents in the city’s west side.
A group of ambitious activists and business owners is trying to change that by getting city and tourism officials to recognize the commercial district as a destination.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) A Virginia Beach police officer who decided to go on a religious rampage with his taxpayer-issued firearm and badge, as well as a knife, is suing drug giant Abbott Laboratories over its antibiotic drug Biaxin, the generic version of which the cop claims caused him to shoot at and stab multiple firefighters whom he insanely believed at the time of his delusion to be demons trying to harm his friend.
The bizarre story comes from a legal filing picked up by Courthouse News Service, which details a case of alleged antibiotic-induced psychosis unlike anything you have probably ever heard of. Officer Bradley Colas, 24, from the Virginia Beach Police Department essentially went out of his mind after taking a generic version of Biaxin that was prescribed to him for a case of acute bronchitis.
According to the filing, Colas, who had no prior history of psychosis or any mental disorder, suddenly began to believe himself to possess special religious powers after taking his fourth dose of generic Biaxin. By the time he finished the full course of the drug, Colas reportedly set out on an imaginary religious mission that he believed at the time required him to battle demons to protect a friend who lives in Philadelphia.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Artist Creates Faces From DNA Left in Public
(CNN) — We leave genetic traces of ourselves wherever we go — in a strand of hair left on the subway or in saliva on the side of a glass at a cafe. So you may want to think twice the next time you spit out your gum or drop a cigarette butt in public.
New York artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg might pick it up, extract the DNA and create a 3-D face that could look like you. Her project, “Stranger Visions,” fashions portrait sculptures from bits of genetic material collected in public places.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ATF Agent: Raiding Gun Store Was “Fun”
Armed goons took pleasure in forcibly seizing list of gun part owners.
A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent who was involved in the armed raid on a California gun parts and accessories store this past weekend described the raid as “fun,” according to Ares Armor CEO Dimitrios Karras.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Chemotherapy Myth Shattered: Toxic Drugs Cause More Cancer Than They Prevent
(NaturalNews) New research funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has shattered the prevailing myth that chemotherapy drugs actually fight cancer. To the contrary, researchers from Harvard University and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, (UMA) found that these clinical poisons, though sometimes initially effective at stemming the growth and spread of existing tumor cells, eventually induce major stem cell damage that causes even more cancer.
Publishing their findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the team that worked on the project investigated how chemotherapeutics affect the body systematically by testing them out on fruit flies. According to an announcement about the study, scientists administered human-equivalent doses of chemotherapy drugs to Drosophila, a type of fruit fly, that had been spawned with a human cancer-causing gene, which activated in the flies’ intestinal stem cells.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
In the Fight for Life and Liberty, the Federal Government is the Enemy
The Texas Governor reports that on Feb. 24, in a private meeting with governors, Obama revealed that he does not trust the governors to make decisions in their state about education and transportation. The law, of course, puts the jurisdiction for those issues squarely in the statehouses, but for “the greater good,” Obama wants control.
The increasing centralization of government in Washington is the gravest threat to the future of liberty. Those who don’t learn from history are bound to repeat it. Recall that most of the mass murders in the 20th century were perpetuated by socialist and communist governments imposing their rule on their people by force, justifying their usurpations in the name of fighting terrorism and protecting the people from emergencies, frequently legalizing their tyrannical actions in advance. But not everything that is legalized is lawful. When justice finally prevails against tyranny, nooses are hung up outside of courtrooms holding “Nuremberg trials.”
Our forefathers strongly warned againstconsolidating power in D.C. That’s why they limited the federal government to specifically enumerated powers, and any power not specifically granted to the federal government in the Constitution does not belong to it, but belongs to “the states, or the people” (Articles IX and X of the Bill of Rights). Vague descriptions of government obligations are not specifically enumerated powers, and do not give the federal government unlimited power to do whatever it wants in the name of what it considers the “general welfare” of the people.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kane Shut Down Sting That Snared Phila. Officials
The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office ran an undercover sting operation over three years that captured leading Philadelphia Democrats, including four members of the city’s state House delegation, on tape accepting money, The Inquirer has learned. Yet no one was charged with a crime.
In a statement to The Inquirer on Friday, Kane called the investigation poorly conceived, badly managed, and tainted by racism, saying it had targeted African Americans.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
by Diana West
The entry on freedom, or hurriyya, in the “Encyclopedia of Islam” describes a state of divine enthrallment that bears no resemblance to any Western understanding of freedom as predicated on the workings of the individual conscience. According to the encyclopedia, Islamic freedom is “the recognition of the essential relationship between God the master and His human slaves who are completely dependent on Him.” Ibn Arabi, a Sufi scholar of note, is cited for having defined freedom as “being perfect slavery” to Allah. To put it another way, Islamic-style “freedom” is freedom from unbelief.
Bringing Western-style “freedom” to the Islamic world at gunpoint & government contract probably resembled a global extension of the civil rights crusade to President Bush and Co., but after the armed utopians have gone, the Islamic dust settles.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New York Residents Set Fire to Gun Registration Forms
Second Amendment supporters in Saratoga Springs, New York burned nearly one thousand gun registration forms this Sunday in protest to the NY SAFE Act.
As the April 15 “assault weapons” registration deadline draws near, members of the NY2A Grassroots Coalition are encouraging non-compliance at educational forums across the state.
“Our goal is to keep the registration numbers as low as possible,” NY2A co-founder Lisa Donovan told Storyleak. “The message yesterday was focused on those options including the mods that can be made to avoid registration.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Newsweek’s Bitcoin Cover Was Iffy Journalism. But it Was Great Marketing.
Newsweek, you might have heard, is back in print. In the first issue of its resurrected dead-tree edition, the cover story purported to unmask bitcoin’s anonymous founder, Satoshi Nakamoto. At best, the story made an intriguing—though far from conclusive—case that the cryptocurrency was the brainchild of an introverted 64-year-old engineer in California with a deep love for model trains. At worst, it fingered the wrong man and shattered his deeply cherished privacy.
So as a piece of journalism, Newsweek’s splashy investigation wasn’t entirely a success. But as marketing, it’s something of a triumph for a brand that’s been repeatedly left for dead.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Settlement Reached in FDNY Discrimination Suit
New York City has agreed to settle a civil-rights lawsuit accusing its fire department of intentionally discriminating in hiring minorities.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and the U.S. Justice Department, in announcing the agreement Tuesday, said the city will pay about $98 million to resolve allegations the FDNY engaged in a pattern or practice of employment discrimination against African-American and Hispanic applicants for the entry-level firefighter position by using two discriminatory written tests in 1999 and 2002.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Stunning Revelation Bill Gates Has Spent $2.3 Billion on Common Core
The new curriculum driven into law by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the Common Core Standards, is a product of massive spending on an unprecedented historical level by Bill Gates.
Research by Jack Hassard, Professor Emeritus at Georgia State, shows compelling evidence that Gates has spent $2.3 billion pushing the Common Core. More than 1800 grants to organizations running from teachers unions to state departments of education to political groups like the National Governor’s Association have pushed the Common Core into 45 states, with little transparency and next to no public review.
The Common Core now represents a de facto and de jure national school curriculum, something theoretically prohibited by federal law. But the Common Core comes with common high-stakes tests and common textbooks, making the standards are more than standards.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The First News Report on the L.A. Earthquake Was Written by a Robot
Ken Schwencke, a journalist and programmer for the Los Angeles Times, was jolted awake at 6:25 a.m. on Monday by an earthquake. He rolled out of bed and went straight to his computer, where he found a brief story about the quake already written and waiting in the system. He glanced over the text and hit “publish.” And that’s how the LAT became the first media outlet to report on this morning’s temblor. “I think we had it up within three minutes,” Schwencke told me.
If that sounds faster than humanly possible, it probably is. While the post appeared under Schwencke’s byline, the real author was an algorithm called Quakebot that he developed a little over two years ago.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The U.S. Gives Up Its Control of the Free-Speech Internet
Type the domain name Businessweek.com into a browser, and you reach servers run by Bloomberg Businessweek. This happens whether you’re sitting in Chennai, India, or Kittery, Maine—your computer has consulted a nearby copy of a single, universal list of which names get you to which servers. This largely invisible process is called the Internet’s domain name system, or DNS. It is so important that the guy who first controlled it, Jon Postel of the University of California at Los Angeles, earned the nickname “God.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Two Fatalities in Seattle Helicopter Crash
Two people have been killed and one injured in a helicopter crash in the US city of Seattle. The helicopter, owned by news channel KOMO-TV, fell to the ground meters from the city’s landmark Space Needle.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
What Will Happen When the ‘Big One’ Hits California?
On Monday, a 4.4 magnitude earthquake threw the city of Los Angeles into a bit of a tizzy. The ground shook, people screamed and news anchors ducked under their desks. But it was just a 4.4 magnitude earthquake. So what would happen if the “Big One” hit California? What would happen if an earthquake hundreds of times more powerful than the one that we saw on Monday hit Los Angeles or San Francisco? We don’t really know what would happen, because nothing like that has happened in modern times. Fortunately for us, we have been living during a time of extremely low seismic activity in California. But scientists assure us that will change at some point, and some of them are now warning that when the “Big One” does strike that the devastation could be far worse than people have been imagining.
Fortunately, this earthquake pretty much turned out to be a non-event. But according to the Los Angeles Times, there is the possibility that this earthquake could actually have been a “foreshock” of an even larger earthquake that will happen later…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Alarmed by Anti-Semitism, French Jews Consider Flight
More French Jews immigrated to Israel last year than US Jews, and Israel expects ever more of the French to make the move in coming years. One of their prime motivations to settle in the Jewish state: anti-Semitism.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Berlusconi’s European Elections Hope Dashed
Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s former prime minister and convicted criminal, has had his hopes of competing in the upcoming European Parliament elections dashed by European Justice Minister Viviane Reding, who said his election bid “won’t be happening”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
British Based Charity Oxfam Engages in Political Research, Attacks the Wealthy
Get Oxfam out of the lobbying business and back to raising money for famine relief
British based charity Oxfam engages in political research, attacks the wealthy
A study by the UK based charity Oxfam has showed that the five wealthiest Britons have more money than the least affluent 12.6 million in the nation, approximately 20% of all residents. These kinds of statistics are hardly new so it raises the question — why find out?
Every time figures like this are published there is this shock-horror effect. Everyone is supposed to gasp and exclaim how wrong it is and of course it is a pre-cursor to the government fixing the injustice in order to make the world a fair place once again.
Oxfam’s name is an abbreviation of its fuller original name. Founded in the city of Oxford it was to provide famine relief. Its first mission, during World War II, was to persuade the British government to allow food relief through the Allied blockade for the starving citizens of Greece.
Most people think this kind of humanitarian outreach is what Oxfam is about. People can donate to Oxfam as with other charities and also purchase items at their shops, about 60% of which are in the UK. The profits go to some legitimate relief functions but a significant amount goes to left wing causes.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch State Owes Millions to Dutch Indonesians, Book Claims
The Netherlands owes millions of euros to the 380,000 Dutch forced to flee the former Dutch East Indies between 1950 and 1970 and banks and insurance companies also owe them a considerable debt, writes the Volkskrant on Tuesday.
The claim is made by journalist Griselda Molemans whose book ‘Opgevangen in andijvielucht’ (Welcomed by the smell of endive) chronicles the repatriation of thousands of Dutch Indonesians to the Netherlands.
Many had lost the paper work relating to bank accounts and life insurances in the confusion surrounding the Japanese occupation and the Indonesian revolution and so were unable to claim what was theirs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
European Olives Feed Biofuel Innovation
European olives are treasured for their oil, and as a zesty snack in their own right. Now researchers are also using them to make biofuel. They’re hoping to reduce CO2 output while making olive growing more profitable.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fiat-Chrysler Sales Up 5.8% in Europe
But market share down slightly
(ANSA) — Turin, March 18 — Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) recorded 59,000 car registrations in Europe in February, up 5.8% compared to the same month last year, the combined Italian-American group announced Tuesday. In the first two months of 2014, FCA recorded 119,000 new-car registrations, up 1.7% compared to the same period in 2013. However the market share was down slightly. In Febuary 2014, Fiat-Chysler accounted for 6.6% of new cars on Europe’s roads, down from 6.8% in 2013. In both January and February, FCA cars accounted for 6.4% of new cars on the road, down from 6.7% a year earlier.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Is Paris Europe’s Smog Capital?
Beijing has topped the list of cities with the most polluted air. But this week the smog in Paris has gotten so thick that the French capital has called for a driving ban for the first time since 1997.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Court Upholds Public Office Ban for Silvio Berlusconi
Italy’s highest appeals court has upheld a two-year ban from public office imposed on former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi after he was found guilty of tax fraud. The ban means Berlusconi will be unable to stand in elections for the European Parliament in May.
After last year’s verdict, he was also stripped of his senate seat and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment. The jail term is likely to be commuted to one year’s community service.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Northern Cities Clamp Down on Organised Begging
Venice, Treviso and Padua call them anti-racket measures
(ANSA) — Venice, March 18 — The centre-left mayors of the northern cities of Venice, Treviso and Padua are making common cause against organised begging in their municipalities, media reported Tuesday.
Giovanni Manildo, mayor of Treviso; Giorgio Orsoni, mayor of Venezia; and Ivo Rossi, acting mayor of Padua, are scheduled to meet on Wednesday to discuss measures dubbed “Metropolitan security”.
The aim is to coordinate actions to fight organised begging across the three municipalities and pursue tougher legal instruments against perpetrators. “The fight is not against people in need…but against the racket that manages a particular system of begging,” said Gianfranco Bettin, a member of the Venice city government. Expulsion orders are not enough against the racketeers, he added, calling for police charges of criminal association to be applied.
“I believe it is necessary to…consider a form of criminal offence that makes a distinction between those who exploit begging and those who are the victims,” echoed Treviso mayor Manildo. The city representatives shook off comparisons to the former mayor of Treviso, Gianfranco Gentilini of the regionalist Northern League, who earned the epithet of “sheriff” for his actions against immigrants and ethnic minorities. “I have been pursuing these issues for years and I am not a sheriff,” said Bettin, a sociologist and long-time leader of the Greens in Veneto. “The (political) right fires (widely)…it takes issue with all beggars, immigrants, drug addicts,” he explained. “The left must take aim: we must hit illegal behaviour, the racket and the people that run it”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Won’t Buy More Than 90 F-35 Jets Says Defense Minister
Gov’t looking to slash defense budget to save money
(ANSA) — Rome, March 18 — Italy will not purchase any more F-35 fighter jets above those it has already committed to buy, Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti told the Senate and Lower House defense committees on Tuesday.
“The commitment not to acquire ulterior F35s has been kept”, Pinotti told parliamentarians.
Premier Matteo Renzi on Sunday stated that Italy is reviewing its defense spending in order to free up cash for higher priority social items.
This could include three billion euros in potential savings if the government decides to trim its Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets’ budget of about 11.8 billion euros over 45 years beginning in 2015.
The F-35 fighter jet program has been cut before.
Italy in 2012 announced plans to cut its order to 90 from the 131 originally agreed in 2002, saving the country some five billion euros.
But last July, the Italian government rejected another call to cancel the purchase altogether of the 90 F-35 fighter jets which, at an estimated $200 million per unit, are among the costliest fighter jets in the world.
Pinotti has also said that as many as 385 military barracks could be sold to cut costs. Also on Tuesday, Transportation Minister Maurizio Lupi declined to comment on a possible sale of Italy’s 30-year-old Garibaldi aircraft carrier.
“It hasn’t been mentioned and we’ve never discussed it. I have nothing to say”, the minister told RTL 102.5 radio station.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: International Arbitration May be Next for Marines, FM Says
Anti-piracy duo held in India without charges for two years
(ANSA) — Rome, March 18 — Italy’s foreign minister on Tuesday said “international arbitration could be the next step” in the country’s efforts to bring home two anti-piracy marines held in India for two years without charges for allegedly killing two fishermen. “We’ll discuss it with them and their lawyers,” Federica Mogherini told a joint session of the parliamentary foreign-affairs committees. Lately Italy has been trying to rally international support among the EU, the US, NATO and the UN to bring home Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, who have been held in New Delhi since February 2012, after they allegedly opened fire on a fishing trawler they mistook for a pirate vessel. The ongoing case has seriously strained Indian-Italian relations, especially before prosecutors ruled out the death penalty as a possible sentence earlier this year.
They now face up to 10 years in prison, prosecutors say. Italy argues that the case sets dangerous and wide-ranging precedents for any country involved in anti-piracy missions overseas. The incident occurred while the marines were guarding the privately owned Italian-flagged oil-tanker MT Enrica Lexie off the coast of the southern Indian state of Kerala in February 2012. The pair have been living and working at the Italian embassy in India amid a long series of delays in the case.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ex-Sports Minister Idem Investigated for Fraud, Media Report
Olympic gold medallist resigned in 2013 amid tax allegations
(ANSA) — Ravenna, March 18 — Josefa Idem, the former equal opportunity and sports minister and retired international athlete, has been probed for alleged fraud in connection with social security contributions paid by Ravenna city council on her behalf while she headed the sports department from 2006 to 2007, La Voce di Romagna newspaper reported Tuesday. Idem, a senator in the ruling centre-left Democratic Party (PD), was investigated together with her coach-husband Guglielmo Guerrini, the newspaper said.
Idem began working for Guerrini in 2006, shortly before beginning a second term as head of the city sports department, and was consequently able to take a leave of absence with responsibility for social service payments being borne by the local authorities. The 2000 Olympic gold medallist for sprint canoeing resigned as sports minister in the government of ex-premier Enrico Letta last year amid allegations of tax evasion in connection with a residence in Ravenna outfitted as a commercial gym.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Canadian Tourist Steals Brick From Colosseum
A Canadian teenager got into hot water with police on Monday after she was caught trying to steal a brick from Rome’s Colosseum, stashed away in her backpack, Italian media reported.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Thieves Steal Part of Pompeii Fresco
Thieves have stolen part of an ancient fresco from Pompeii, breaking in to a closed area of the UNESCO World Heritage landmark and chipping off a portrait of a Greek deity.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Toddler Gunned Down in Mafia Assassination
The killing of a three-year-old toddler along with two adults in an apparent fight for territory in a violent drug war has sparked reactions of horror in Italy.
The victims — a convicted murderer on day release from prison, his partner and her young son — were killed in southern Italy late on Monday after the car they were travelling in was forced off the road by gunmen in a second car, who then fired more than 15 bullets through the windscreen.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Maize Lunch ‘Makes Cow Burps Better for Climate’
German scientists tackling one of the less appetising problems in modern agriculture reckon that cow burps and farts could become less damaging for the ozone layer if their dinner is more maize than grass.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel Praises Italian Premier for ‘Courage’ With Reforms
German chancellor says Renzi’s Jobs Act goes in right direction
(see related) (ANSA) — Berlin, March 17 — German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday praised Italian premier Matteo Renzi’s “courage” in making significant structural changes in Italy’s economy. During the first bilateral meeting between the two since Renzi was made premier last month, Merkel said she looked at “all aspects” of Italy’s reforms, adding she was impressed and wished Renzi “a lot of luck”.
“It is was clear to me that Italy is paying attention to (fiscal) stability as well as to growth and employment”. Last week unveiled reforms aimed to boost growth and productivity after emerging from recession, Italy’s worst since World War II. Speaking after meeting with Merkel, Renzi said those reforms were made with Italy’s best interests in mind, not Europe’s. “Italy must stop thinking reforms have to be done because Brussels or Berlin or other capitals ask us. We’ll do them because they’re right for us,” Renzi said.
He went on to call them “irreversible”. “They won’t be one-off but irreversible measures for change,” Renzi said.
He also assured his German counterpart that such measures would not counteract the country’s commitments to Europe, and insisted that Italy did not wish to breach the 3%-deficit-to-GDP threshold allowed by the EU. “Italy intends to respect all limits,” said Renzi.
Merkel as well said that she was “certain” Italy will respect the European Union’s Growth and Stability Pact including the 3% limit on Italy’s deficit-to-GDP ratio. Turning to the labor market, Renzi called Germany’s policies a “reference point” for Italy’s plans to free up the labour market and create jobs. Despite Italy slowly coming out of recession since the second half of last year, unemployment continues to rise, nearing 13% across all demographics, and topping 40% for youth. Renzi on Monday said past efforts to create jobs through “precise and restrictive legislation have failed”. “Now we need to change the rules of the game,” added Renzi, as he went on to call the unemployment rate, especially among youth, “unacceptable”.
Merkel then hailed Renzi’s labour-market reform plans, saying the measures contained in his Jobs Act “go in the right direction”. Renzi ended his reflection on the economy by pointing to a lack of growth as Italy’s biggest problem. “Our problem is the lack of growth,” especially when compared with the size of the debt, now just over 132% of gross domestic product (GDP), he said.
Finally, Renzi turned to foreign policy, where the crisis in Ukraine is the most pressing issue facing European leaders. Renzi said Italy, Germany and other European countries are working to keep open “strong channels of dialogue” with Ukraine.
He added that Sunday’s referendum in Crimea on independence “was illegitimate”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Rapper Releases Sick Anti-Wilders Song
Today, Islamic rapper Hozny released a new song called “Geertje”.
The video clip shows how a man representing Dutch politician Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom, is abducted by armed men and brought to Hozny, who makes him kneel in front of an Islamic flag. The clip ends with a shot of Wilders being executed.
Hozny’s lyrics include sentences such as “You are only alive because Allah allows it,” and “You should share a cell with Volkert van der G. and Mohammed B.”
Volkert van der G. is the assassin of Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn, Mohammed B. is the assassin of Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh. Both were murdered because they were critical of Islam.
Click on the link above to see the videoclip.
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Netherlands: Geert Wilders to Take Legal Action Against Rapper Over Video
Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-Islam PVV, said on Tuesday he will take legal action against a rapper for a video clip featuring a man in a bad blonde wig being kidnapped and possibly shot. ‘If this is no threat, then what is?’ Wilders said in a reaction to the video, from Frisian rapper Hozny.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Wilders Calls Rap Video “Disgusting”
PVV party leader, Geert Wilders, is disgusted by the YouTube video clip that surfaced today, where someone posing as him is held with two guns pointed at his head, while rapper Hozny from Sneek raps about Wilders needing to be punished for his actions.
Wilders will file charges against Hozny. Rutte also condemns the video. The Minister of Justice and Security, Ivo Opstelten, had not seen the clip yet and stated the Public Prosecution would have to review the clip to assess whether the law was violated.
A few weeks ago Wilders had already received information from the Dutch Counter Terror Agency about an increased threat to him.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New Genetic Analysis Identifies Ancestry, Reduces False Positives in Pinpointing Disease
Ancestral background has much to do with our likelihood of developing or staving off disease. But separating the associations between who we are and where we come from, and genetic variations that cause disease, can be difficult and often result in false genetic study leads.
“You can use our method to describe the ancestry of an individual very precisely, even separating individuals from different parts of Finland,” said Goncalo Abecasis, the Felix E. Moore Collegiate Professor of Biostatistics at U-M. “In studies of genetic diseases, this information helps separate changes that cause disease from more numerous changes that specify ancestry.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rare Horses Reintroduced to the Wild in Spain
Wild horses are again roaming free in western Iberia, near the border between Spain and Portugal — millenia after the Romans settled there and domesticated them. It’s part of one group’s larger vision to ‘rewild’ Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland’s Independence Referendum Could be a Dry Run for a Euro in/Out Vote in 2017
[In] six months, Scotland will vote on whether to leave the United Kingdom and go it alone. From now until September 18, David Cameron and his Tory colleagues will throw everything they have at preserving the Union. He will champion the cause of our “family of nations” — his words — and the value of a greater, stronger whole in a troubled world. Labour and the Lib Dems will join in, putting aside party differences on this specific issue to project a common front against the separatists. Business leaders will be enticed to add their voices to the campaign. A blend of fear and love will be used to coax Scotland into seeing the advantage of belonging to a Union that brings obvious frustrations but also under-appreciated advantages. Crucially, sweeteners will be offered in the form of greater fiscal autonomy — the “devo max” Scotland can have if it decides to stay. “It’s about being part of a bigger team,” the Prime Minister says.
His foremost objective, plainly, is to save the Union with a victory convincing enough to end the debate for at least a generation…
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Spain: Kebab Shops Financing Global Jihad
by Soeren Kern
At least 2,000 European jihadists — many from Spain — have now travelled to Syria in the hopes of replacing the Assad regime with an Islamic state governed by Sharia law.
“Clearly Spain forms part of the strategic objectives of global jihad. We are not the only ones, but we are in their sights.” — Jorge Fernández Díaz, Minister of the Interior, Spain.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
A Sudanese paedophile jailed for four years for raping and sexually abusing teenage girls is suing Justice Secretary Chris Grayling after his parole hearing was delayed.
Adil Aboulkadir, 38, was one of five refugees from Darfur who attacked girls aged 14 and 13 — before costing UK taxpayers £125,000 in legally-aided lawyer and interpreter fees during their trial.
Aboulkadir, then of Dartford, Kent, was handed an open-ended jail term — with at least four years behind bars — after he was convicted of rape and three counts of sexual activity with a child at Maidstone Crown Court in May, 2008.
He has now convinced a judge at London’s High Court that his human rights were ‘arguably’ violated by the Parole Board’s failure to consider his release as soon as his minimum prison term expired.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Scania Board Rejects Volkswagen Takeover Bid
The board of Swedish truck giant Scania has turned down a $9.2 billion takeover bid from Volkswagen telling members that their shares are worth more and not to sell up to the German manufacturer.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Truck Maker Scania Reluctant to Become 100 Percent VW
As Europe’s biggest carmaker; Volkswagen of Germany continues its expansion course, a complete takeover of its subsidiary Scania has only seemed a matter of time. But the Swedes said they might not play along.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Al-Qaeda Urges Followers to Bomb the Savoy
Latest issue of Inspire magazine includes instructions for building a car bomb like that used in the bungled Times Square attack and lists targets in the UK, US and France
Al-Qaeda has published a list of car-bomb targets for its followers in Britain, including FA cup matches and the Savoy hotel. The twelfth issue of Inspire, published by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, urges supporters to maximise casualties by targeting people — rather than buildings — in heavily populated areas.
It offers instructions on how to build a car bomb using materials that will not arouse suspicion and frequently cites the example of Faisal Shahzad, the failed Times Square bomber. But its most chilling passages are reserved for a country-by-country list of targets. In the UK, it suggests events with live TV coverage, including Premier League and FA Cup football matches as well as the Cheltenham festival…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Cambridge Mosque Bids to Run Madrasa at Weekends
Muslims at Cambridge’s main mosque have applied for permission to run a madrasa at weekends.
Temporary permission for use of the assembly room at the rear of the Mawson Road mosque was granted retrospectively last year, with a condition that educational use was confined to Fridays and during Ramadan. Now the mosque has applied for permission to run the madrasa on Saturdays and Sundays too, between 10am and 1.30pm…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
A bank worker strangled his wife with a vacuum cleaner extension pipe and burnt her body in a garden incinerator months after he married her to disguise the fact he was gay, a court has heard.
Jasvir Ram Ginday, 30, is accused of killing wife Varkha Rani, 24, on September 12 last year following a lavish wedding ceremony in India just six months earlier.
Her charred remains were found by police at the couple’s home in Walsall, West Midlands — the day after Ginday reported his wife missing.
Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday heard Ginday allegedly carried out the brutal attack on his wife because he was unable to pretend to be straight.
The court heard he strangled his wife with a metal vacuum cleaner extension pipe before forcing her body into the 22-inch deep incinerator and setting it alight.
He also burnt his wife’s wedding ring and bracelet which was engraved with their initials, the court heard.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
An Islamic teacher who sexually abused a young girl as he taught her the Koran has been spared prison after a court was told he is on benefits and his wife speaks ‘very little English’.
Suleman Maknojioa, 40, repeatedly rubbed the 11-year-old’s leg and even reached underneath the long folds of her prayer headscarf to squeeze her chest whilst giving her and her two brothers private tuition in Arabic…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Internet rumours that the former Woolworths store in Ilkeston is to be transformed into a mosque have been quashed by the council and the building’s owners.
The Bath Street property, which has fallen into a state of disrepair since the high street giant closed down in 2004, is currently owned by the international Muslim organisation, The World Federation of Khoja Shia Ithna-Asheri Muslim Communities…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Maths Teacher Hid Thousands of Her Drug Dealer Husband’s Dirty Money
A maths teacher has avoided jail for hiding £7,000 of her husband’s drug money in her bank account.
Fatimah Ahmed, 30, was arrested after police found cocaine and cannabis worth up to £6,000 in a raid on the home she shared with Mohazzam Ali in Stockport, Greater Manchester.
The scandal cost her her job at Poynton High School, Cheshire.
Police raided the house in November 2011 after they learned Ali — who has admitted five drugs offences — was dealing Class A drugs while running a car wash.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Muslim convert who refused to remove her niqab in court was jailed for six months today after she terrorised a mosque security guard because he allowed non-Muslim women inside without veils.
Last week Rebekah Dawson, 22, was sentenced to 20 months at the Old Bailey for making three videos glorifying the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby while her husband Royal Barnes, 23, was jailed for five years and four months.
However, today she was sentenced to a further six months after admitting to threatening and intimidating Daudi Yusuf at Finsbury Park Mosque in north London.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Undeclared Italian Earnings Equaled 56 Bln Euros in 2012
‘Extend statute of limitations on tax crime’ says Capolupo
(ANSA) — Rome, March 18 — Italy’s public coffers in 2012 missed out on 56 billion euros’ worth of undeclared earnings and 4.7 billion euros’ worth of unpaid VAT tax, the commander of the finance police told a Senate finance committee on Tuesday.
“Italy has high taxes, but also a high rate of tax evasion, which is a major obstacle to a competitive market”, General Saverio Capolupo told MPs.
“The phenomenon has reached such proportions that countermeasures can no longer be put off”.
Of the total undeclared revenue, more than 17 billion euros were earned in international operations and 22.7 billion euros were domestic earnings, Capolupo explained.
The general urged lawmakers to extend the statute of limitations on tax evasion, which currently expires after eight years, and to make false accounting a crime. “Accounting fraud is not a purely civil issue, because it has tax implications”, Capolupo said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia Catches Swedish Woman With Grenades
A Swedish woman has been arrested after she was caught trying to smuggle guns, grenades, and drugs across the Serbian border and into Hungary. She was believed to be heading home to southern Sweden.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Court Convicts Four Police Officers Over Prisoner Deaths
An Egyptian court has convicted four policemen over the deaths of 37 Islamists while in police custody. The incident occurred during a crackdown on supporters of toppled President Mohammed Morsi in 2013.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco’s Tourism Industry Sees 2013 Boost With 10 Million Visitors
Morocco’s tourism minister says a record-breaking 10 million people visited the North African country in 2013, indicating the industry is recovering from the setbacks of the Arab Spring revolutions.
Morocco, whose beaches, exotic cities and pristine mountains are popular among Europeans, relies on tourism for 10 percent of its GDP, the second-largest contributor after agriculture.
Tourism dropped across North Africa amid the unrest generated by the Arab Spring revolutions, especially in Tunisia and Egypt.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tourism Plunges in Egypt, 30% Fewer Foreigners in January
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO — The risk of terrorism, attacks and political instability have taken their toll on a sector vital to the Egyptian economy: tourism. Almost 30% fewer foreign tourists visited Egypt in January, and the Italian foreign ministry’s February 28 warning against travel to the country remains in force. On the ‘viaggiaresicuri’ site, the Italian foreign ministry underscores that, ‘‘due to the progressive deterioration of the security in the country, travel is not recommended to all of the Sinai Peninsula, including Sharm El-Sheik, Dahab, Nuweiba and Taba, as well as non-essential travel to non-tourist areas of Upper Egypt, the continental coast of the Red Sea and that of the Mediterranean Sea.’’ The warning was issued after an attack on tourists in Taba and threats to foreigners from the Al-Qaeda affiliate Ansar Beit El-Maqdis in mid-February.
The country is suffering from an economic crisis and the figures from its statistics office show a 28.9% drop in foreigners compared with the previous year (642,000, down from 903,000). Those who did visit the country were mostly from Eastern Europe, Western Europe, or the Middle East, in that order. Since the military ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in mid-2013, the country has seen growing levels of violence.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Are Kerry and Abbas Complicit in Perpetuating the Fiction About Arafat’s Recognition of Israel?
There was an orchestrated tableau in the Oval office on St. Patrick’s Day in a meeting between PA President Abbas and President Obama. It was the quid pro quo of having had another orchestrated meeting on March 3rd with Israeli PM Netanyahu. There was the usual talk of time for tough pragmatic decisions as the deadline on April 29th looms for completion of final status agreement negotiations facilitated by Secretary Kerry. President Obama praised Abbas for renouncing violence, while Abbas suggested that Israel’s release of the remaining 26 Palestinian terrorist prisoners would confirm the seriousness of their intentions. Israel has already released 78 Palestinian prisoners over the objections of Israeli families, a number of whom have lost relatives at the hands of these released terrorists. The so-called framework for the final status agreement may have been discussed with both Netanyahu and Abbas during their respective visits in Washington.
In an Iconoclast post PA negotiator, Saeb Erekat, who was interviewed in an Al Jazeera program HeadtoHead, indicated that should the April 29th deadline pass, the PA would seek accession to become a recognized state before the UN Security Council. Further, he suggested that the PA would be prepared to file a case before the International Criminal Court at The Hague accusing Israel of “crimes against humanity”.
The weekend prior to Netanyahu’s meeting with Netanyahu; Jeffrey Goldberg of Bloomberg interviewed Obama. During Goldberg’s subsequent interview with Charlie Rose on PBS, Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick cited Obama’s veiled warning:…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Soldiers Hurt in Blast on Israel-Syria Border
JERUSALEM, March 18 (Xinhua) — An Israeli military vehicle was hit by an explosive device detonated along Israeli-Syrian border on Tuesday afternoon, injuring several soldiers, the Israeli military said.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Australian Soldier Killed in Syria’s Civil War: Report
An Australian soldier has been reportedly killed overseas while fighting for Syrian rebels. The infantry soldier died two months ago after taking leave from the Australian Defence Force, ABC TV reports. It is not known how long the man had been apparently fighting in Syria’s civil war before his death, or what role he held in the military…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
In Syrian Spillover, Hostilities Swell in Lebanon
BEIRUT (AP) — Gunmen from Lebanon’s terrorist Hezbollah group and local Shiite Muslim residents tightened their blockade of a Sunni town near the Syrian border Tuesday, sparking concerns that thousands of Syrian refugees stranded in the area could be cut off from humanitarian aid.
The standoff outside of Arsal, a Sunni border town in eastern Lebanon that has long been a haven for Syrian rebels, has further stoked sectarian tensions in Lebanon, where Sunnis and Shiites support opposing sides in the Syrian conflict.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In ‘Time Out’ From Civil War, Syria Creates Space Agency
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government, which has been fighting a full fledged civil war with several rebel factions for the last three years, took time to approved a bill on Tuesday to create a “Syrian Space Agency.” The state news agency SANA did not specify what the agency would do, but said it was “of a scientific research nature.”
Some 140,000 people, including 7,000 children, have been killed in Syria in an armed revolt that began after security forces used violence to crush peaceful protests against 40 years of Assad family rule.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iran’s Women See No Progress Under Rouhani
Women’s rights groups were hoping that the status quo of oppression and discrimination against women in Iran would ease under President Hassan Rouhani. But any improvement for women has been minimal.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIL Jihadists Conduct ‘Mass Executions’ In Syria: UN Probe
The jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) carried out “mass executions” in Syria in January, the United Nations said Tuesday, adding that it was investigating allegations of mass graves.
The group “conducted mass executions of detainees, thereby perpetrating war crimes,” the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria said in an update on the human rights situation in the country.
ISIL is a group of radical jihadists who have fought Syria’s regime but who since the beginning of the year have also been battling a coalition of moderate and Islamist rebels angered by their abuses of rival fighters and civilians.
The group is accused of kidnapping scores of people, among them rival rebels, activists, foreign journalists and humanitarian workers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Michael Rubin on the Issues Facing Kurdistan in the Middle East
In the March New English Review we published both an interview with Dr. Michael Rubin and reviewed his recently published book, Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engagement with Rogue Regimes. Michael Rubin, is a former Pentagon expert on Iran and Iraq during the Bush era, and is currently a Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington, DC. At the conclusion of our previous interview we afforded him the opportunity to address issues facing the Kurds in the Middle East. He had recently traveled to the Kurdish autonomous area in the Northeastern province of Hasakah in Syria observing the developments of what the Kurds there call Rojava. In this second interview Rubin addresses with Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran. Rubin’s acute observations round out a piece of the puzzle in the Middle East, the emergence of Kurdistan.
Again this background we bring this interview with Dr. Rubin…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Oman: Muscat Opera House: Platform for Artistic and Cultural Creativity
The highlight of upcoming programmes at the Royal Opera House Muscat (Rohm) for the remaining two months of the current season will be two different productions of Romeo and Juliet…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Open Letter to the Presbyterian Church USA From an Iraqi Jew
Some of your members, under the banner of human rights, have demonized one country. According to them, the one country that destabilizes the Middle East and creates much pain and suffering to the Arab world, is not Iran, Syria, or Lebanon. It is Israel.[…]
They believe the root of the problem is Zionism and the return of the Jews to Israel.
Your group has just published a booklet entitled “Zionism Unsettled”. The booklet claims that if it weren’t for the Zionist movement that established Israel, the Jews from Arab lands would still be living in peace and harmony among the Arab nations. […]
My Arabic name is Yusuf. I was born in the Jewish quarter of the old city of Baghdad known as “Taht El Takia” in December of 1930. I am now 83 years old. My mother tongue is Arabic and I am one those Jews who was integrated in the Arabic Islamic culture of Iraq.
Here are some examples of how us Arab Jews lived in harmony with our hosts: I survived the Farhud of 1941 — a violent “pogrom” when Iraqi Muslims, incited by Nazi Germany, took to the streets, destroyed the Jewish quarter and killed 180 Jewish men, women and children. I was 11 years old. Google Farhud or read Edwin Black’s book “The Farhud”. The cause of the Farhud, wasn’t Zionism. The Farhud was purely an anti-Jewish act. At 14, I was chased by two Muslim youths with a knife for stopping them from molesting my neighbor’s teenage daughter in broad daylight. At 18, after graduation from Al A’Adadiah High School, I was refused an exit visa to leave Iraq to study in America because I was Jewish. My story is not unique. I am one of 150,000 Iraqi Jews who was discriminated against, oppressed, and forced to escape religious persecution because of my faith.[…]
[This guy takes on the Islamofetishism of mainstream churchianity — MC]
| — Hat tip: MC | [Return to headlines] |
Qatar World Cup 2022 Investigation: Former FIFA Vice-President Jack Warner and Family Paid Millions
A senior Fifa official and his family were paid almost $2 million (£1.2m) from a Qatari firm linked to the country’s successful bid for the 2022 World Cup, The Telegraph can disclose.
Jack Warner, the former vice-president of Fifa, appears to have been personally paid $1.2 million (£720,000) from a company controlled by a former Qatari football official shortly after the decision to award the country the tournament.
Payments totalling almost $750,000 (£450,000) were made to Mr Warner’s sons, documents show. A further $400,000 (£240,000) was paid to one of his employees. It is understood that the FBI is now investigating Trinidad-based Mr Warner and his alleged links to the Qatari bid.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Qatar Willing to Provide Tunisia Financial Support
Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Abdallah Ben Naceur Ben Khalifa Al Thani asserted his country’s will to provide financial and trade support to Tunisia. During his meeting, Monday in Doha, with Interim Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa, he assured that his country will examine trade and financial files to conceive new bilateral co-operation mechanisms for the two countries’ benefit and in service of Tunisia in this period of its history…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Society: Survey; 84.9% of Turks “Don’t Drink Alcohol”
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MARCH 18 — Some 84.9% of Turks say they do not consume alcohol, according to a Health Ministry study titled ‘Health and Nutrition in Turkey’ conducted among 44,607 participants, as daily Hurriyet reports. According to the study, women between the ages of 19 and 30 consume an average of 4.79 milliliters of alcohol per year, while women between the ages of 31 and 50 consume an average of 1.5 milliliters of alcohol per year.
Surprisingly, men of younger ages consume less alcohol than their older cohorts. Men between the ages of 19 and 30 consume an average of 25.35 milliliters of alcohol per year, while their cohorts in the 31-50 range imbibe an average of 39.62 milliliters per annum. The figure drops slightly for the 51-64 range, but only to 35.37 milliliters per year, according to the ministry’s data. The report also revealed that Turks living in rural areas consume alcohol more than those living in urban areas.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Rebels and Hezbollah Exchange Rocket Fire in Lebanon
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, MARCH 17 — Tension is rising along Lebanon’s border with Syria after the fall of the Syrian city of Yabroud, a key rebel supply town, to regime forces on Sunday.
An exchange of rockets occurred on Monday in the Sunni-majority Lebanese town of Arsal, where the population has sided with Syrian rebels, and that of Al-Labweh, a stronghold of the Shia movement Hezbollah, which is fighting in Syria alongside the regime troops.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Suspends Diplomatic Relations With Syria
The United States has told Syria to suspend its embassy operations in Washington. All personnel who are not legal US citizens have been told to leave the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Violent Attacks Kill 18 Across Iraq
BAGHDAD, March 18 (Xinhua) — Eighteen people were killed and 24 others wounded in separate attacks across Iraq on Tuesday, police said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Anger and Despair Compete as Ukraine Comes to Grips With Helplessness Over Crimea Takeover
Ukraine’s leadership simmered with a mix of hopelessness and anger at losing Crimea, tempering an influx of eager young men signing up as reservists with the growing certainty that no savior would deliver them from the Russian takeover.
For Ukraine’s government in Kiev, it is a crime — one the inexperienced leaders can do little do address in the face of an overwhelmingly superior military force. But for at least one of the group of people in the new leadership, it is a reality that must be dealt with on practical terms.
“This is theft on an international scale, when under the cover of troops, one country has just come and robbed a part of an independent state,” Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Biden: Russia’s Actions in Crimea ‘Nothing More Than a Land Grab’
The US vice president has condemned Russia’s actions in Ukraine, reaffirming US commitment to NATO. Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Obama agreed the incorporation of Crimea was “unacceptable.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Crimea: Hollande Wants Firm EU Retort to Russia
French president François Hollande reacted angrily on Tuesday to Moscow signing a treaty that makes Crimea part of Russia, demanding a strong response from the EU. The French foreign minister earlier threatened to call off a deal to sell two warships to Russia.
Earlier France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he “could envisage” blocking a contentious deal to sell two Mistral warships to Russia as a result of Vladimir Putin’s stance towards Crimea and the Ukraine crisis.
“If Putin continues what he is doing,” then the sale, said to be worth around €1 billion ($1.4 billion) could be off. But that drew an angry response from Russia. “France is starting to betray the trust we place in it as a reliable supplier,” said Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin
Russian President Vladimir Putin is still invited to D-day commemorations in France on June 6 despite the Ukraine crisis, Fabius said Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Crimean Leaders Sign Treaty to Join Russia, As Putin Rips Ukraine’s Interim Leaders, West
A defiant Russian President Vladimir Putin answered President Obama’s announced sanctions against a handful of officials in Putin’s inner circle — but not Putin, himself — by signing a treaty Tuesday making Crimea a part of Russia.
The signing follows a referendum on Sunday in which residents of Ukraine’s southern region overwhelmingly backed the move. The treaty still must be approved by Russia’s Constitutional Court and ratified by both houses of parliament. Those steps are considered mere formalities.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
As the crisis in Crimea continues, Ukrainian men and women are increasingly signing up for so-called volunteer defense forces. They want to back up their country’s army should there indeed be war with Russia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Media War: The Battle for Crimea
The Western press has been deceiving readers, listeners, and viewers since the beginning of the so-called “Euromaidan” protests — from covering up the ultra-right wing ideology and literal Neo-Nazi flag wavers leading the mobs, to the role the West has played in organizing, funding, and equipping the protesters in the first place.
With their proxies now entrenched in Kiev after violently overthrowing the elected government of Viktor Yanukovych, the truth has begun to trickle out, and with it, Russia has gained ground against the West in its defense of the Ukrainian people from what is essentially and quite obviously a right-wing Nazi regime backed by foreign interests from the West once again occupying Ukrainian territory just as they had in World War II.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Moldova Turns Toward Russian Customs Union
While the world watches Crimea, Putin is still planning for the Republic of Moldova to join Russia’s Customs Union. Pressure from Moscow is high — and might be enough to scrap Moldova’s EU Association Agreement.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Putin Calls Crimea an ‘Integral’ Part of Russia
Moving swiftly in the face of international condemnation, President Vladimir V. Putin declared his intention to make Crimea a part of the Russian Federation, defying the United States and Europe just hours after they imposed their first financial sanctions against Moscow since the crisis in Ukraine began.
“Crimea has always been an integral part of Russia in the hearts and minds of people,” Mr. Putin declared in remarks that reached deep into Russian and Soviet history to justify the move. “That faith has been preserved and passed on from generation to generation.”
Mr. Putin spoke in St. George’s Hall in the Grand Kremlin Palace before Russia’s entire political elite, including members of both houses of Parliament and the governors of the country’s regions. He spoke hours after he submitted the legislation to begin the process of annexation after a vote to secede from Ukraine that was hastily organized and conducted under the watch of thousands of Russian special operations troops.
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Ron Paul in USA Today: ‘Crimea Secedes. So What?’
Critics point to the Russian “occupation” of Crimea as evidence that no fair vote could have taken place. Where were these people when an election held in an Iraq occupied by U.S. troops was called a “triumph of democracy”?
Perhaps the U.S. officials who supported the unconstitutional overthrow of Ukraine’s government should refocus their energies on learning our own Constitution, which does not allow the U.S. government to overthrow governments overseas or send a billion dollars to bail out Ukraine and its international creditors…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Servando Gonzalez: Is Putin a Nazi?
Speaking at a campaign fundraiser in California on March 3, 2014, CFR agent Hitlary Clinton said that Putin’s behavior in the Crimea is reminiscent of the tactics used by Hitler before Word War II. The CFR’s warmongers have quickly metamorphosed Putin from a devout Communist into a fanatic Nazi.[1]
But, is there some truth in Hitlary’s assertion? Lets see.
In the first place, currently there are no doubts whatsoever that Putin is not a Commie. If he were one, the pro-Commies in Obama’s gang would have accepted him with open arms as a brother. But, is he a Nazi as Hitlary claims?…
So, it is obvious that, despite Hitlary’s accusations, Vladimir Putin is not a new Adolf Hitler. Had he been a new Hitler, the pro-Nazi traitors at the Council on Foreign Relations would have been extremely pleased.
The CFR’s Fascist Roots
The Council on Foreign Relations has become in practice the closest thing the U.S. has to a Communo-Fascist Party in power. Like the Communist Party of the Soviet Union or the Nazi Party in Germany used to be, CFR members have secret meetings where policies are discussed, and then they exert pressure on the government to guarantee that these policies are carried out. Like members of a Communist or Fascist party, they follow a strict party discipline: once a policy is approved in their secret councils, it becomes Party line and they push it with all their might. Like members of a Communist or Fascist party, they act in block, and no inner dissidence on key issues is allowed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
Obama’s hypocrisy makes a person want to puke. It is the White House Fool who is interfering in Ukraine. It was Washington that financed and organized the overthrow of the elected Ukraine government, using well organized and well armed neo-nazis to intimidate the unarmed police and ruling party, thus clearing the way for Washington to set up an unelected government of its well-paid stooges.
What the incompetent White House Fool overlooked is that southern and eastern Ukraine are Russian, not Ukrainian, so the fool’s coup has caused Crimea to depart and is causing widespread protests in eastern Ukraine against Washington’s stooge unelected government in Kiev. Washington’s stooge Kiev government has appointed unelected Ukrainian multibillionaire oligarchs, who have their own private security forces, as mayors of the Russian cities to put down the protests. If the oligarchs use violence against the Russian people, the likely result will be that the Russian Army will take control of eastern Ukraine, which in every essential way is Russian.
If eastern Ukraine returns to Russia, Washington will be left with the ultra-nationalists of western Ukraine, people who fought for Hitler during World War 2. The EU doesn’t want ultra-nationalists as the EU is busy stamping out nationalism and the sovereignty of European countries…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine’s Crisis Triggers Security Concerns for African Students
The crisis in Ukraine — set to reach a new climax on Sunday with a referendum in Crimea — is causing upheaval and uncertainty for foreign nationals as well as Ukrainians.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Officer ‘Killed in Attack on Crimea Base’
Ukraine’s military says an officer has been killed in an attack on a base in Crimea, the first such death since pro-Russia forces took control in February. Ukraine has now authorised its troops to fire in self-defence.
The attack came shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leaders of Crimea signed a bill to absorb the peninsula into Russia. Western powers condemned the treaty and a G7 and EU crisis meeting has been called for next week in The Hague.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Vladimir Putin Signs Treaty to Incorporate Crimea Into Russian Federation
President Vladimir Putin has, in the last hour, signed a treaty to incorporate Crimea into Russia. It comes after Sunday’s referendum in Crimea, which saw overwhelming support for a union with Russia.
Putin signed the law after a speech to Russia’s parliament, in which he hit back at his critics. He condemned Ukraine’s “so-called” authorities, saying they had stolen power in a coup and had opened the way for “extremists” who would stop at nothing to determine the future of the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chechen Rebel Leader Doku Umarov ‘Dead’
The leader of the Chechen rebels, Doku Umarov, has died, according to Kavkaz Center, the main website of Russia’s Islamist militants. The website said the Caucasus Emirate leader “became a martyr”, but no further details were given. There has been no official confirmation from the Russian authorities. The militant group has claimed responsibility for a string of deadly attacks in Russia in the last few years…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Chechen Rebel Leader Doku Umuarov ‘Killed’
Russia’s most wanted man, Doku Umarov, has been killed, a pro-insurgency website has reported. The Chechen rebel leader’s group has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly attacks in Russia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Slams Malaysian Probe Into Missing Plane
More than a week after Flight MH370 vanished in midair, China has become increasingly critical of what it considers to be the mishandling of information and the slow pace of the investigation by Malaysian authorities.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Launches New Search for Malaysian Jet as Confusion Mounts Over Timeline
The Chinese ambassador to Malaysia announced Tuesday that China has launched a new search effort in its territory for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight amid growing uncertainty about when a key communications system was disabled on the Boeing 777.
The search for Flight 370, which vanished early March 8 while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, has now been expanded deep into the northern and southern hemispheres.
Thailand’s military said Tuesday that its radar detected a plane that may have been Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 just minutes after the jetliner’s communications went down, and that it didn’t share the information with Malaysia earlier because it wasn’t specifically asked for it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Death Toll in Afghan Suicide Attack Rises to 17
KABUL, March 18 (Xinhua) — The death toll of a suicide bombing that shocked Faryab’s provincial capital Maimana city in northwest Afghanistan on Tuesday has risen to 17 and those injured in the violent incident stood at 48, the Public Health Ministry said in a statement. “A suicide attack that targeted Maimana city this morning claimed the lives of 17 and injured 48 others including women and children,” the statement said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 Search Expands Amid Focus on Criminal Act
More than a week later, what happened inside that plane around 1:21 a.m. local time on March 8 remains unknown — but investigators now believe it was not an accident.
“We’ve never had to use satellite handshaking as the best possible source of information,” the U.S. official said. “Thirty-six hours ago we had not even heard of a satellite handshake.”
Military searchers face a daunting task of trying to find evidence of an airplane that could be at the bottom of the sea anywhere in thousands of square miles of open water.
“This is unprecedented,” said Cmdr. William Marks, spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s forward-deployed 7th Fleet, which is leading the operation to the west of Malaysia. He is stationed on the USS Kidd, a destroyer in the Indian Ocean.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New Technology for Uninterrupted Power Supply in India Could End Rolling Blackouts
They call it the Uninterrupted Direct Current and it could be the solution to India’s crippling, rolling power cuts. The UDC guarantees continuous power from the grid even during outages.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thailand Gives Radar Data 10 Days After Plane Lost
BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s military said Tuesday that its radar detected a plane that may have been Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 just minutes after the jetliner’s communications went down, and that it didn’t share the information with Malaysia earlier because it wasn’t specifically asked for it.
A twisting flight path described Tuesday by Thai air force spokesman Air Vice Marshal Montol Suchookorn took the plane to the Strait of Malacca, which is where Malaysian radar tracked Flight 370 early March 8. But Montol said the Thai military doesn’t know whether it detected the same plane.
Thailand’s failure to quickly share possible information regarding the fate of the plane, and the 239 people aboard it, may not substantially change what Malaysian officials know, but it raises questions about the degree to which some countries are sharing their defense information, even in the name of an urgent and mind-bending aviation mystery.
With only its own radar to go on, it took Malaysia a week to confirm that Flight 370 had entered the strait, an important detail that led it to change its search strategy.
When asked why it took so long to release the information, Montol said, “Because we did not pay any attention to it. The Royal Thai Air Force only looks after any threats against our country, so anything that did not look like a threat to us, we simply look at it without taking actions.”
He said the plane never entered Thai airspace and that Malaysia’s initial request for information in the early days of the search was not specific…
| — Hat tip: JLH | [Return to headlines] |
Thailand’s Caretaker Government to Lift State of Emergency on Bangkok
Thailand is set to lift a state of emergency imposed on the capital and surrounding area two months ago amid mass anti-government protests. This came after protesters ended a campaign to “shut down” Bangkok.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
It would be the last time Michael Rockefeller would be seen alive. An extensive sea, air and land search turned up nothing, and the mystery surrounding his disappearance left the Rockefellers—and the world—perplexed. They assumed he drowned.
They were wrong.
He was tortured, beheaded and eaten in a ritualistic cannibal killing by a notoriously violent New Guinea tribe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Finds No Terror Evidence Against Chinese on MH370 Passengers
China has said there is no evidence linking its nationals on board the missing Malaysia Airlines flight to terror or hijacking. Beijing has also begun searching Chinese territory for the missing aircraft.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Espionage Threatens Japan’s Technological Edge
The arrest of a former employee of Toshiba Corp. for allegedly selling cutting-edge technology on flash memory is viewed by experts as merely one of many cases of industrial espionage currently affecting Japanese firms.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Instability in Pyongyang Fuels Reunification Issue
The idea of reunification on the Korean peninsula has been floated by both Seoul and Pyongyang recently. Meanwhile, questions arise about the extent of Kim Jong Un’s power, and whether there has been a de facto coup.
In the past, South Korea has been worried about the concept of reunification, preferring to put the idea on hold because of the enormous wealth gap between the two countries. However, Seoul would now prefer to see reunification take place sooner rather than later, according to Ian Bremmer, founder of the political risk research and consultancy company Eurasia Group.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Reforms Seen as Key to Success of China’s Long-Delayed Urbanisation Blueprint
Beijing’s long-delayed urbanisation blueprint, which aims to move about 100 million people from rural areas to cities by 2020, will require complex reforms, analysts say.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Regional Approach Needed to Tackle Boko Haram — UN Chief
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, NaviPillay, has said that Nigeria requires a concerted regional approach to tackle the terrorist activities of Boko Haram.
Pillay said this while addressing the media last Friday during her mission to Nigeria. Nigeria is still struggling to mobilise her neighbours namely Cameroun, Chad and Nigeria Republic in battling the terrorists. Boko Haram terrorists are known to have bases in Cameroun and Chad but both countries have done little to help Nigeria stop these terrorists from using their borders…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Boko Haram Have Displaced Hundreds of Thousands
Delegates from Nigeria’s many religious, ethnic and linguistic groups are meeting for a conference in Abuja to discuss the country’s future. The plight of the internally displaced is a reminder of unresolved tensions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria in Disarray, Seeking Answers for the Future
500 delegates have three months to debate Nigeria’s future. But the chances that the National Conference will come up with solutions to the many challenges the vast country faces are slight.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Somalian Islamists Publicly Execute Christian Women
Two Christian women were publicly beheaded by Islamist terrorists in southeastern Somalia, as part of a campaign to “wipe out” any Christian presence in the east African country.
The Morning Star reported Friday that the two women — identified as mother-of-two Sadia Ali Omar, 41, and her 35-year-old cousin Osman Mohamoud Moge — were executed by the Al Qaeda-aligned Al Shabaab militia in the port town of Barawa in the Lower Shebelle Region after their Christian identities were discovered.[…]
The women were reportedly “outed” as Christians after repeatedly failing to turn up for Muslim prayers, say locals.
“The two people who were killed on many occasions did not take Friday prayers seriously, especially Omar, who claimed that she was praying in her house,” explained one.[…]
[So beheading is a “betrayal of Islam” is it? — MC]
| — Hat tip: MC | [Return to headlines] |
Suicide Bomber Rams Car of Explosives Into Somalia Hotel
AU troops who captured the small town from Islamists last week were reported to have been staying in the hotel that was attacked.
MOGADISHU — A suicide bomber in Somalia rammed a car packed full of explosives into a hotel in a southern town, days after it was recaptured from the Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab, security officials said Tuesday.
“There was a suicide attack involving terrorists at a hotel in Buulo Burde,” security official Sulieman Adam said, of the attack that took place late on Monday…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UN Says Thousands Brutally Killed and Abused in South Sudan; Government Vilifying Mission
The U.N. peacekeeping chief says politically fueled ethnic violence in South Sudan since mid-December has led to the brutal killing and abuse of thousands of civilians and sparked a government campaign to vilify the United Nations and harass U.N. personnel.
Herve Ladsous told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that despite a Jan. 23 cease-fire agreement, forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and rebel soldiers loyal to former vice president Riek Machar “continue to prioritize the pursuit of military gains over talks towards a comprehensive political settlement.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
[UK] MPs Miss Budget While on £50,000 Tax-Payer Funded Trip to Argentina
Nine MPs are finding out about Welsh speakers in Argentina and will visit Patagonia
Nine MPs will miss the Budget because they are on a £50,000 “fact-finding trip” about Welsh speakers living in Argentina. The MPs on the Commons Welsh Affairs committee are flying business class to Patagonia mark the 150th anniversary of the first Welsh-language colony in South America. The cost of the six-day visit is coming from a fund used for select committee travel…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
‘Slavery — and Its Consequences — Should End’
How can the wrongs of slavery be put right? Fourteen Caribbean states are considering legal action against their former European colonizers. Jamaican Verene Shepherd is fighting with them for reparations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Standing up for Human Rights and Democracy in Venezuela
by Luis Fleischman and Nancy Menges
Many events have occurred since protests broke out in Venezuela several weeks ago, including the killing of 25 people by the government’s paramilitary. In addition, more than 1,000 people were arrested and others simply disappeared.
Contrary to the Venezuelan president’s pronouncements, this protest movement is composed mostly of young people, not of fascists or the old “oligarchy”. They are not rich and they are not spoiled. These are young people who see no future in a Venezuela that is turning more totalitarian and more repressive as time goes by.
These street mobilizations represent a social movement that could not find in the political system any expression. They are not demanding more food, salary increases, or personal advantage. They are fighting for their freedom and for their dignity. The slogan “Give me liberty or give me death” becomes very much a reality as these protestors find the status —quo in Venezuela increasingly unbearable.
Events in Venezuela encouraged Ecuadorians to vote against the regime of Rafael Correa in recent municipal elections. Correa is a Chavez- follower who is attempting to impose on his people a Bolivarian footprint through his “Citizenship Revolution”. Indeed, Ecuador’s opposition won control of the capital Quito and the large industrial city of Cuenca. Likewise, the port city of Guayaquil continues under the control of the opposition. Correa, himself, admitted the results of the election were a setback for the “Citizens Revolution” and pointed out that it will be harder to govern in light of these losses. Correa, unsurprisingly, accused the elected mayor of Quito of being a fascist- right wing conspirator…
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12.5 Million People in Belgium in 2060
According to figures from the Federal Planning Bureau, the population of Belgium will reach 12.5 million in 2060. The Bureau reaches this conclusion on the basis on research it carried out into demographic trends. Although immigration is predicted to fall, it will remain the main motor behind population increase in Belgium.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
250 Immigrants Storm Borders to Enter Spain
Around 250 immigrants successfully crossed border fences to enter Spain’s north African enclave of Melilla on Tuesday morning, Spanish press are reporting.
Around 500 African immigrants attempted to climb the border fences at around 8am on Tuesday, Spain’s El Pais newspaper reported. Some 250 managed to enter Melilla, singing “bosa bosa”, or “victory, victory” on arrival, the paper said, citing agency reporters on the ground. The men who said they were from Mali are now being attended at the city’s temporary refugee centre CETI. Some presented with minor injuries and are being treated by the Red Cross…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
4 Syrian Immigrants Drown in Boat Sinking Off Turkey Coast
ANKARA, March 18 (Xinhua) — Four Syrian immigrants were killed Tuesday when a boat carrying eight illegal immigrants sank in the Aegean Sea off the coast of Turkey’s west Mugla province, local media said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Around 500 Migrants Cross Melilla Border in Biggest Fence Jump to Date
Around 500 sub-Saharan immigrants succeeded in jumping the border fence separating the Spanish exclave of Melilla from Moroccan territory early Tuesday morning. The massive run on the fence took place around 8am near Nano river, several sources confirmed. This is the largest jump to date.
A high-ranking official at the Spanish Interior Ministry called the event “very worrisome” and said it underscored “the severe migratory pressure on both autonomous cities,” a reference to Ceuta and Melilla, Spain’s two exclaves in North Africa.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of Immigrants Storm Spanish Enclave on Moroccan Coast
Hundreds of would-be immigrants tried to force their way into Spain’s North African enclave of Melilla during the early hours of Tuesday, the Moroccan government said, in what was one of the largest mass crossing attempts in years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Navy Save 596 Migrants Near Sicily
ROME, March 18 (Xinhua) — Italy’s navy saved 596 migrants in two rescue operations near Sicily, Italian authorities said on Tuesday. The migrants were spotted by helicopters while aboard of two overcrowded boats, and picked up by the navy’s vessels in the waters south of the tiny island of Lampedusa, which lies 113 km to the north of Tunisia. The navy found 323 people on the first boat and 273 people on the second in the rescues carried out on Monday night. Most of them were Syrians, Palestinians, and Eritreans…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Navy Saves Dozens of Boat Migrant Children
The Italian navy said on Tuesday it had rescued nearly 600 Syrian, Palestinian and Eritrean migrants crossing the Mediterranean in two overcrowded boats, including 62 minors.
The Italian frigate Grecale pulled 323 Syrians and Palestinians to safety late on Monday, after helping rescue another 273 migrants from Eritrea, who were taken aboard the gunboat Sfinge, the navy said in a statement.
The migrants, including 103 women, were spotted by a plane patrolling the seas off Italy as part of an operation launched after two October shipwrecks in which hundreds drowned.
Italy began its operation “Mare Nostrum” — (“Our Sea”) a Latin reference to the Mediterranean — after more than 400 migrants from Eritrea and Syria perished in twin tragedies off Italian shores in October 2013.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nearly 600 Migrants Rescued Off Lampedusa
(ANSAmed) — Rome, March 18 — Italian navy vessels on Monday rescued 596 migrants from two stricken boats off the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, the military said in a statement Tuesday. The frigate Grecale intervened on behalf of 323 mostly Syrian and Palestinian migrants including 38 women and 54 minors, while the corvette Sfinge rescued a further 273 people, including 65 women and 8 minors thought to be mostly from Eritrea. The migrants were to be transferred to a single vessel on Tuesday for medical treatment and identification, the statement said.
The rescue took place within the framework of the military and humanitarian operation Mare Nostrum, launched in October 2013 following the sinking of a boat carrying migrants from Libya to Italy in which over 350 people are known to have drowned. The navy has conducted 76 rescue operations since the start of the operation, saving 10,134 migrants including 713 women and 1,019 minors.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Seven Syrian Migrants Detained in Southern Mexico
Mexico: Authorities have detained seven undocumented Syrians in southeastern Mexico before they were able to take a flight to the capital, federal police said Tuesday. The migrants were stopped at the Tapachula airport in Chiapas state, near the border with Guatemala, along with a Mexican man accused of human trafficking.
Officials say some 140,000 foreigners enter Mexico illegally every year, many through Guatemala, on their way to the United States. The majority are from Central America but a number also come from Asia and Africa.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Violent’ Migrant Assault Wreaks Havoc at Morocco-Spain Border Fence
About 1,000 Africans rush triple-layer fence separating Spanish city from Morocco in ‘violent’ assault and half of them make it across.
MADRID — About 500 migrants stormed across the border fence from Morocco into the Spanish territory of Melilla Tuesday in one of the biggest such crossings in years, a government official there said.
About 1,000 Africans rushed the triple-layer fence separating the Spanish city from Morocco in a “violent” assault around 0700 GMT and half of them made it across, said the Spanish governor of Melilla, Abdelmalik El Barkani…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Bullying and Bribes: Pink ‘Poverty’ Forces School Propaganda
Minnesota parents are fighting again to keep homosexual activists from further takeover of the state’s schools. Yet another pro-homosexual “anti-bullying” bill is being debated in the MN state legislature with the innocence of children as the prize.
It’s highly probable the current measure wouldn’t have a chance if not for the Southern Poverty Law Center. A lawsuit filed by SPLC in 2011 on behalf of several students who claimed to be bullied over homosexuality and gender confusion brought the Anoka-Hennepin ( Minneapolis) school district to its political and financial knees.
It’s never enough for schools to simply punish bullies if the topic of homosexuality is at all involved. Re-education camps for everyone would be optimal, but gay activists like “Pink Pov” will make do with demonizing conservatives who create a “hostile climate” by their very existence, and demanding students be subjected to a risk-hiding PR campaign advocating the “pride” lifestyle.
And that includes the outrage of affirming gender confusion in children. Eric Holder’s Department of Justice and the federal Department of Education Office of Civil Rights intervened in Minneapolis as well, shamelessly deploying a Title IX argument. Title IX was enacted to prevent sex discrimination, as in male/female, and was never intended for cross-dressers, thank you very much. But misapplying law is an Obama administration specialty.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Save the Planet, Kill Yourself: The Genocidal Duck Whisperers of the Post Human Left
By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: On Page 930 of the budget that never ends is $575 million for “family planning/reproductive health” worldwide especially in “areas where population growth threatens biodiversity or endangered species.” The idea that the way to protect insects, fish and animals is by preventing human beings from having children is part of an approach known as Population, Health and Environment (PHE) which integrates population control into environmentalist initiatives.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Sexual Assaults in the Military Are at an All-Time High and Most of Them Are Male on Male
There is a raging epidemic of sexual assault in the U.S. military. A report released by the U.S. Department of Defense says that an astounding 12,000 women serving in the U.S. military were sexually assaulted in 2012.
This is a national disgrace, and any U.S. service member that rapes a woman deserves the death penalty in my opinion. It has gotten so bad that a female service member serving in Afghanistan is more likely to be raped by a male service member than she is to be killed by the Taliban. But that is only half the story. Sexual assault against males is at an epidemic level in the U.S. military as well. In fact, according to the same report that I just mentioned, there were 14,000 sexual assaults against men serving in the U.S. military during 2012. That means that most of the sexual assaults in the military are actually male on male. The following is an excerpt from an article in the New York Times…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why the Veto of Arizona’s Religious Freedom Bill is Alarming
As a gay conservative woman, I supported Arizona’s religious freedom bill, which was just vetoed this week by Gov. Jan Brewer.
I supported it because it embodied the values every American civil rights movement stood for: the freedom to live our lives without being punished for who we are.
In this case, it was a bill making sure people of faith would not be forced to violate their religious beliefs in the event someone demanded they do so.
This bill, like others across the country, was thought necessary because of the emergence of business, large and small, being attacked by the gay left for either espousing Christian values or acting on their Christian faith. Ranging from a bakery to a photographer, individuals were being sued for refusing to violate their religious beliefs.
Having been a liberal “community organizer” in my past, I immediately recognized the strategy being employed. This is an effort to condition the public into automatically equating faith with bigotry…
If we are able to coerce someone, via the threat of lawsuit and personal destruction, to provide a service, how is that not slavery? If we insist that you must violate your faith specifically in that slavish action, how is that not abject tyranny?
Of all the people in the world who should understand the scourge of living under constant threat of losing life, liberty or the ability to make a living because of who you are, it’s gays. It has been disgusting to watch supposed gay “leadership” drag young gays and lesbians through an indoctrination that insists that in order to have equality, you must force other people to do your will, make them betray who they are, and punish them if they offend you.
Horribly, the gay civil rights movement has morphed into a Gay Gestapo.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Our Universe May Exist in a Multiverse, Cosmic Inflation Discovery Suggests
The first direct evidence of cosmic inflation — a period of rapid expansion that occurred a fraction of a second after the Big Bang — also supports the idea that our universe is just one of many out there, some researchers say.
“It’s hard to build models of inflation that don’t lead to a multiverse,” Alan Guth, an MIT theoretical physicist unaffiliated with the new study, said during a news conference Monday. “It’s not impossible, so I think there’s still certainly research that needs to be done. But most models of inflation do lead to a multiverse, and evidence for inflation will be pushing us in the direction of taking (the idea of a) multiverse seriously.”
Other researchers agreed on the link between inflation and the multiverse.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Waves’ Detected on Titan Moon’s Lakes
Scientists believe they have detected the first liquid waves on the surface of another world. The signature of isolated ripples was observed in a sea called Punga Mare on the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan.
However, these seas are filled not with water, but with hydrocarbons like methane and ethane. These exist in their liquid state on Titan, where the surface temperature averages about -180C.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“In other news, the Chechen terrorist leader Doku Umarov has died (some reports say he was “killed”). The Russian government has yet to confirm his death officially.”
I hope it is true. With him to hell and misery.
UNBELIEVABLE: Human slaughter houses exposed in Syria with decapitated bodies hanging like meat
On the upsurge of sexual assaults within the US Military. When you trash centuries of traditional Christian moral behaviour and replace it with humanist ethics, then trash the traditional role of the male within the military by equating his function as a soldier with a female who is physically and physiologically different, and in most respects not up the task allotted them as an infantry soldier or marine, then this is what you can expect.
Has the trashing been a deliberate venture in order to weaken the military in every Western nation? You bet it has!