The crisis in the Crimea intensified today, with Ukraine reporting that the Russian navy had threatened its warships, demanding that they surrender. The Russian stock market and the ruble took a tumble because of fears of the turmoil in Ukraine, but President Vladimir Putin shows no sign of backing down.
In other news, terrorist gunmen opened fire outside a Pakistani courtroom, killing at least eleven people.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Egghead, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, KP, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Bloomberg Reports London Gold Fix is Manipulated Although Evidence Exists for Many Years
It was only a week ago when we wrote that the Financial Times removed the article “Gold Price Rigging Fears Put Investors On Alert” from their website, a couple of hours after being published. We were able to dig up the original article in Google’s caching memory and took screenshots of the removed article.
Less than a week later, Bloomberg releases the article “Gold Fix Study Shows Signs of Decade of Bank Manipulation.”
— From Bloomberg (source):…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Central Banker PM Says Ukraine Ready for IMF Auction Block
Arseniy Yatseniuk, the central bankster PM of post-coup Ukraine, has signaled IMF-inspired fire sales are on schedule.
On Monday Yats, as the U.S. State Department fondly calls him, said Naftogaz Ukrainy, the national oil and gas company of Ukraine, will be put on the auction block.
Ukrtransgaz, a Naftogaz Ukrainy subsidiary, operates the natural gas pipelines in Ukraine. The pipelines are used to transit Russian natural gas to eighteen European countries, including France and Italy. Naftogaz is the sole importer of Russian natural gas provided by Gazprom, the largest extractor of natural gas and one of the largest companies in the world.
Yats is also ready to impose IMF austerity on Ukraine, already one of the poorest nations in Europe. “Yatsenyuk is the kind of technocrat you want if you want austerity, with the veneer of professionalism,” Vladimir Signorelli, president of boutique investment research firm Bretton Woods Research LLC in New Jersey, told Forbes last month. “He’s the type of guy who can hobnob with the European elite. A Mario Monti type: unelected and willing to do the IMFs bidding.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
China Banks Showing Too-Connected-to-Fail Link With Shadow Loans
The drama highlighted the risks of shadow banking, which over the past three years has evolved from underground lending among individuals and small companies into a complex and interconnected web, estimated by JPMorgan Chase & Co. to be valued at $7.7 trillion, involving the nation’s biggest banks, state-owned firms, local governments and millions of households.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: At Least 20 Years to Recover 1 Million Jobs Lost
Employment prospects stay gloomy according to the unions
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MARCH 3 — The 1 million jobs lost during Greece’s financial crisis will take at least 20 years to be recovered, daily Kathimerini reports quoting data published by the Labor Institute of the General Confederation of Greek Labor (Ine-Gsee) in its monthly report on Friday. The institute underlined that it will be very hard to bring unemployment below 17% before 2026, compared to a current rate of 28%, even with the most optimistic scenario for an annual expansion of the economy by 3.5-4%. The reason for that, it said, is that the 17% rate is attributed to the structural problems of the Greek economy. In order for the economy to recreate the jobs lost since 2009, when the unemployed numbered just 450,000, it will need at least 20 years with an annual job creation rate of 50,000, Ine-Gsee explained, basing its estimate on recent forecasts by the European Commission. It added that this year the number of employed will come to 3.53 million, lagging the total of unemployed and financially inactive people by 1.1 million.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Economy Shrinks, Debt Soars, Spending Drops, Says ISTAT
Weak Italian finances slide to lows not seen in 22 years
(By Sandra Cordon) (ANSA) — Rome, March 3 — Italy’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 1.9% in 2013 while debt soared to new records and consumers cinched their belts tighter, national statistical agency Istat said Monday, providing further evidence of the severe weakness of the country’s economy.
The final results of the economic losses last year were even worse than the 1.7% drop that had been expected and follows a loss in GDP of 2.4% in 2012, according to revised data from Istat.
Household spending on food as well as public debt levels have reached low points not seen in at least 22 years, the agency warned.
Consumer and business groups alike described the statistics as worrisome and called on the new government of Premier Matteo Renzi to find measures to boost consumption growth.
“The fall in gross domestic product by close to 2% is an extremely alarming signal about the condition of our economic system,” Italy’s consumer associations Federconsumatori and Adusbef said in a joint statement. “At this rate, 2014 will be much worse,” they added.
In the face of such weakness, “government cannot remain inert…it is essential to take urgent measures for recovery and growth”.
The effects of the weak economy were dramatically illustrated by numbers showing that household spending on food and non-alcoholic beverages plunged to a record low in 2013, Istat said.
Not since Istat began recording spending data in 1990 have household budgets hit such a low level, the agency said.
Spending totaled about 114 billion euro last year on food and beverages, down by 3.6 billion euro from 2012, the agency said.
Families cut their spending on clothing by 5.2% and on health products and services by 5.7%.
The pinch could be seen in a rise in Italy’s public debt, which reached 132.6% of GDP last year — the highest level since Istat began using its current calculation method in 1990 and a significant increase from 127% of GDP in 2012.
If there was one positive note to the latest economic statistics, Istat said that the average Italian tax burden slipped by 0.2 percentage points last year, to 43.8% from 44% in 2012.
More must be done to lower taxes further to try to increase GDP and in that way, reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio, said Italian consumer group Codacons.
“The only immediate possibility for the government to bring the country out of recession is to change the composition of revenue,” and rely less on taxes, which it said must be lowered dramatically.
Istat also noted that employment in large firms of at least 500 employees was hit hard last year, shedding 1.3% of staff after shrinking by 0.8% in 2012.
Rising joblessness in general has been one of the most painful aspects of Italy’s recession that took the country to lows not seen since the Second World War.
Last week, Istat reported that Italian unemployment in January hit a record 12.9%, with some 478,000 jobs lost in 2013.
That made it the worst year since the global financial crisis of 2008-2009, with an average annual jobless rate of 12.2% last year.
Between 2008 and 2013, a total of 984,000 jobs in Italy were lost to the economic crisis.
Also last week, the European Commission forecast growth in the Italian economy will be weaker this year than previously forecast and the country’s debt as a percentage of gross domestic product will rise in 2014.
The EC revised down Italy’s 2014 growth forecast to 0.6% but said 2015 looks brighter, as stronger consumer confidence and external demand boost the economy.
Still, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said Monday that the worst was likely over for the European economy as a whole. “We can safely say that the worst has been averted,” Draghi said at a European Parliament hearing in Brussels. “The glass is at least half-full,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Debt-to-GDP Ratio Stable at 3% in 2013
Same level as 2012
(see related) (ANSA) — Rome, March 3 — Italy’s debt-to-GDP ratio in 2013, an important parameter in its European Union budget obligations, remained stable at 3%, exactly the limit set by the EU’s Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), Istat said Friday.
It was the same ratio recorded in 2012.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Public Debt Hits Record 132.6 Percent
Italy’s economy shrank by 1.9 percent in 2013, hitting a new record of 132.6 percent of GDP but staying within the European Union’s limit in mixed news for the country’s new government, official figures showed on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ruble Plunges to Record as Bank Rossii Seen Selling $10 Billion
Bank Rossii poured dollars into the currency market, with traders estimating sales of about $10 billion, and raised interest rates after the threat of Western sanctions against Russia sent the ruble to a record low.
Policy makers are stepping up efforts to shore up the ruble as investor demand for Russian assets dries up after President Vladimir Putin’s military forces took over parts of neighboring Ukraine. The ruble sank 1.8 percent against the dollar today.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Markets Plunge as Putin Tightens Crimea Grip
(Reuters) — Russia paid a financial price on Monday for its military intervention in neighbouring Ukraine, with stocks, bonds and the rouble plunging as President Vladimir Putin’s forces tightened their grip on the Russian-speaking Crimea region.
The Moscow stock market fell by 11.3 percent, wiping nearly $60 billion (35 billion pounds) off the value of Russian companies in a day, and the central bank spent $10 billion of its reserves to prop up the rouble as investors took fright at escalating tensions with the West over the former Soviet republic.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Seeks $15 Billion Rescue From IMF
Ukraine’s interim government said Monday it wants a $15 billion rescue from the International Monetary Fund as officials from the emergency lender kicked off a 10-day visit to shape a bailout of the struggling economy.
Ukraine’s newly appointed economy minister, Pavlo Sheremeta, said the government is aiming for a two-year IMF loan modeled on Ukraine’s previous bailout program. The interim government in Kiev, established after the ouster of the former pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych by protesters late last month, last week requested international financial assistance to help stabilize its struggling economy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘12 Years a Slave’ Wins Best Picture
‘12 Years A Slave’ won the best picture honor at the 86th Academy Awards ceremony. Matthew McConaughey and Cate Blanchett took home the best acting Oscars. The film ‘Gravity’ earned seven awards, including the best director honor for Alfonso Cuarón.
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A Call for Help: What the Kitty Genovese Story Really Means
By Nicholas Lemann
Excerpt: If crimes don’t involve anyone powerful or well known, they generally aren’t considered news. But a few such crimes do become news, big news, and hold the public’s imagination in a tight, enduring grip. An excellent example is the murder of Kitty Genovese, a twenty-eight-year-old bar manager, by Winston Moseley, a twenty-nine-year-old computer punch-card operator, just after three in the morning on Friday, March 13, 1964, in Kew Gardens, Queens. The fact that this crime, one of six hundred and thirty-six murders in New York City that year, became an American obsession—condemned by mayors and Presidents, puzzled over by academics and theologians, studied in freshman psychology courses, re-created in dozens of research experiments, even used four decades later to justify the Iraq war—can be attributed to the influence of one man, A. M. Rosenthal, of the New York Times.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
A class action lawsuit that claims New York City’s property tax system discriminates against blacks and Hispanics poses a major challenge to Mayor de Blasio. The city’s Law Department said only that it will review the lawsuit.
The lawsuit says that the system inherently imbalanced, with those in apartments paying 37% of the property taxes while accounting for 23% of total market value and those in homes paying only 15.5% while making up 48% of total value.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cofounder of Mosque ‘Chuck’ Khalil Alawan Hailed as Icon
Between helping found what would become one of the nation’s largest mosques to championing interfaith efforts, Chuck Alawan strived to strengthen the Islamic community in Metro Detroit as well as foster greater understanding through bridging divides. “He was an icon in our community — one of the great Michiganians,” said Victor Ghalib Begg, a senior adviser with the Michigan Muslim Community Council…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Confirmed: The United States is the Chief Facilitator of Christian Persecution
Prominent indicators confirm that the U.S. is the chief facilitator of the persecution of Christians around the world today.
According to the recently released 2014 World Watch List, which ranks the 50 nations where Christians are most persecuted, Syria is the third worst nation in the world in which to be Christian, Iraq is fourth, Afghanistan fifth, and Libya 13th. All four countries receive the strongest designation, “extreme persecution” (other designations are “severe,” “moderate,” and “sparse” persecution).
Aside from being so closely and harshly ranked, these four nations have something else in common: heavy U.S. involvement. Three-Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya-were “liberated” thanks to U.S. forces, while in the fourth, Syria, the U.S. is actively sponsoring “freedom fighters” against the regime, many of whom would be better labeled “terrorists.”
In other words, at this point, whenever the U.S. intervenes in an Islamic nation, Islamists come to power. This is well demonstrated by the other three nations to which the U.S. brought “democracy” and where Christian minorities suffer “extreme persecution”:
Afghanistan: The supposedly “moderate” Karzai government installed by the U.S. upholds many of the draconian laws enforced by the Taliban-including the apostasy law, fiercely persecuting those who seek to convert to Christianity-and, in 2011, under U.S. auspices, it destroyed Afghanistan’s last Christian church.
Iraq: After the U.S. toppled Saddam Hussein, Christian minorities were savagely attacked and slaughtered, and dozens of their churches were bombed (see here for graphic images). Christians have been terrorized into near-extinction, with well over half of them fleeing Iraq.
Libya: Ever since U.S.-backed, al-Qaeda-linked terrorists overthrew Qaddafi, Christians-including Americans-have indeed suffered extreme persecution. Churches have been bombed; Christians have been tortured and killed (including for refusing to convert); and nuns have been threatened.
Incidentally, those who care little for the fate of Christians or other minorities in the Islamic world would do well to remember a simple truism: Wherever anti-Christian elements come to power, anti-American forces come to power. The two are synonymous.
| — Hat tip: Egghead | [Return to headlines] |
Court Skeptical of IQ Scores in Deciding Execution
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court indicated Monday that states should look beyond an intelligence test score in borderline cases of mental disability to determine whether a death row inmate is eligible to be executed.
Twelve years after the Supreme Court barred execution of the mentally disabled, the justices heard arguments about how states evaluate claims of mental disability that, if substantiated, protect inmates from being put to death.
Five justices, enough to form a majority, pointed repeatedly to the margin of error inherent in IQ and other standardized tests. They voiced skepticism about the practice in Florida and certain other states of barring an inmate from claiming mental disability when his IQ score is just above 70.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Detroit Muslims Launch Campaign to Stop Calling Black People Slaves
by Daniel Greenfield
How enlightened. And it’s a real issue because the word for black people in Muslim countries is Abd or slave. Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia only abolished slavery in the 60s and still maintain Apartheid for their black population.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Foreign Policy Scholar: Obama Gets ‘Played at the Diplomatic Table’
A scholar at the American Enterprise Institute said that President Barack Obama and the State Department get “played” at the diplomatic table by their adversaries because the Obama administration does not understand that foreign policy is a zero-sum game…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Forget the NSA, The LAPD Spies on Millions of Innocent Folks
Edward Snowden ripped the blinds off the surveillance state last summer with his leak of top-secret National Security Agency documents, forcing a national conversation about spying in the post-9/11 era. However, there’s still no concrete proof that America’s elite intelligence units are analyzing most Americans’ computer and telephone activity — even though they can.
Los Angeles and Southern California police, by contrast, are expanding their use of surveillance technology such as intelligent video analytics, digital biometric identification and military-pedigree software for analyzing and predicting crime. Information on the identity and movements of millions of Southern California residents is being collected and tracked.
In fact, Los Angeles is emerging as a major laboratory for testing and scaling up new police surveillance technologies. The use of military-grade surveillance tools is migrating from places like Fallujah to neighborhoods including Watts and even low-crime areas of the San Fernando Valley, where surveillance cameras are proliferating like California poppies in spring.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
German Home-Schooling Family Faces Deportation After Supreme Court Denies Hearing
A German home-schooling family seeking asylum in the United States faces deportation after the U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it would not hear their case.
The justices rejected an appeal from Uwe and Hannelore Romeike, who claim the German government is persecuting them because they want to raise their children in accordance with their Christian beliefs.
The family moved to Morristown, Tenn., in 2008 after facing fines and threats for refusing to send their kids to a state-approved school in Germany, which is required by law in that country. If the Romeikes had stayed in Germany, they risked losing custody of their children…
The family argues that German laws violate international human rights standards. But the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that claim and ruled that U.S. law does not grant asylum to every victim of unfair treatment.
According to Germany’s highest court, the country’s ban on home-schools was created to make sure that religious home-schoolers do not become a “parallel society.”
| — Hat tip: Egghead | [Return to headlines] |
‘Give ‘Em Your Bullets First!’: Texas Activists Show Solidarity With Connecticut Gun Owners
Gun shop owners, Texas Firearms Freedom and Come and Take It Texas show solidarity with their Connecticut brothers in arms, whose state has moved to violate its citizens’ rights by imposing overreaching, anti-Second Amendment legislation.
Hundreds of thousands of Connecticut gun owners have refused to comply with unconstitutional mandates that would have them turn in newly banned so-called “assault riles” and magazines capable of carrying more than 10 rounds.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Muslims Seek Zoning Exemption in Washington Town
SPRINGDALE, Wash. (AP) — From the cluttered back stoop of Raqeebah Amatallah’s one-story farmhouse in rural Stevens County, it’s hard to see how the snow-covered wooden structure about 50 yards away could prompt years of legal battles…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Ninth Circuit Upholds Biased School Censorship
On February 27, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a district court ruling that denied a civil rights suit by high school students against the Morgan Hill Unified School District. Parents and students from the school objected when school administrators demanded that students remove clothing bearing images of the American flag during a school-sanctioned Cinco de Mayo celebration. The school allowed students to wear apparel containing images of the Mexican flag but not of the American flag. In a decision that defies logic and the First Amendment, the Ninth Circuit upheld the censorship and the school’s discriminatory actions against the American flag bearing students.
Live Oak High School, a part of the Morgan Hill Unified School District, in Northern California is a very rough place, suffering from a long history of racial violence. In the Dariano v. Morgan Hill case record, Principal Nick Boden revealed that on no fewer than thirty occasions Caucasian and Hispanic students had violent run-ins at the school. The record reveals that certain Hispanic students objected to apparel containing images of the American flag and confronted the students who wore that apparel, stating, in one instance, “Why are you wearing that? Do you not like Mexicans[?]” School officials asked the students wearing American flag attire to either turn their shirts inside out or go home with excused absences. While students wearing the American flag were given those instructions, those wearing the Mexican flag were not asked to remove those flag images or go home.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Sees the Enemy, And it is Us
While President Obama is busy sending his Secretary of State to announce the weakening the position of the U.S. in relation to the world, and his Secretary of Defense is busy dismantling our nation’s military apparatus, he is busy with pen in hand making sure he increases his control over us domestically. Apparently, he sees the enemy, and it is us!
David Davenport described the presidential overreach this way at forbes.com on February 24, 2014: “Executive orders, as their name implies, are for the executive branch to carry out, literally to ‘execute,’ a bill passed into law. They follow on and implement laws passed by Congress. But Obama has changed all of that, instead using executive orders on offense, to trigger a set of policy changes he wants but fears Congress won’t enact. He is not ‘executing’ laws, he is making them.“
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Two men have been charged with robbing a pregnant woman in labor as she made her way to the hospital, before fleeing in a stolen vehicle. Devery Kelley, 24, and Cornell Robinson, 44, have been accused of holding an unidentified woman and her partner up at gunpoint on the 1800 block of Copeland Street, Maryland.
The woman was on the brink of giving birth when she was accosted about 4.30am Sunday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Police Dept. Covers Up Its NSA-Style, Warrantless Cell Phone Tracking
Device captures private cell data from innocent third-parties not involved in investigation
Florida police used a cell phone tracking device at least 200 times without a warrant because they conspired with the device manufacturer to keep its use a secret, according to the ACLU.
Through a recent motion for public access, the ACLU determined that at least one Florida police department never told judges about its use of the cell phone tracking device, known as a “stingray,” because the department signed a non-disclosure agreement with the stingray’s manufacturer to keep its use from being publicly known.
The manufacturer, which the ACLU said was likely a Florida-based company, also retained ownership of its stingrays and only let the department borrow them, further aiding in its secrecy.
The stingray, also called a “cell tower simulator,” determines the location of a targeted cell phone by impersonating a cell tower, which tricks the targeted phone — and non-targeted cell phones in the same range — into transmitting its precise location and phone records to the stingray.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Robert Samuelson: America’s Demographic Denial
“There is no parallel in history to the (American) experiment of free government on this scale. The scale accounts for a great deal, including … pessimism about the present or the future of America.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Robot Journalism and the Virtual Reality News Game
The most disturbing thing about this virtual world of television news is not the subjects, questions and topics that it covers; it is the subjects, questions and topics that it deliberately ignores. By creating a subconscious “out of bounds” series of important topics and questions, the message is communicated to the viewer that these types of questions and topics are not that important. But the secondary message that is communicated is that there is something wrong with you if you have interest in these “out of bounds” topics and questions…you are not “normal” and even worse, maybe you are a “conspiracy theorist.”
To put it simply, this is a form of social engineering that uses the dynamics of high school peer pressure to force people to think and behave in certain ways in order to be accepted by their peers. If they deviate from the artificially created “norm” then they will be perceived on a subconscious level as “losers.” As simple as this form of social control is, it is very powerful because it works!
The viewer who enters this virtual reality of television news is programmed into conformity. He is bathed in a steady stream of Alpha brainwaves that are being emitted from the digital television screen, putting him in a relaxed, compliant, and receptive state of mind.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Science in Court: Smart Enough to Die?
The US Supreme Court years ago ruled against applying the death penalty to people unable to understand the legal process. Now it must grapple with the science of how intellectual disability is measured.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Video: The Bigger the Government, The Smaller the Citizen
By Dennis Prager
Excerpt: Prager University is an online resource for knowledge and clarity. There are no fees, books, homework assignments, or grueling midterms here — just clear, life changing ideas from world-renowned thinkers. With short videos on political science, economics, history, religion and life, Prager University offers big ideas on big topics. Five minutes is all the time we need to communicate these important ideas. Just as a shot of espresso boosts your energy, a shot of Prager University boosts your brain. Because not only will you have more knowledge — you will have more clarity. If you’re ready to grow intellectually, we’re ready for you.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
WaPo: Obama’s Foreign Policy is Based on ‘Fantasy’
By Bryan Preston
Excerpt: In an editorial today, the Washington Post catches up to Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney. Both Republicans warned that Russia would become a major foreign policy difficulty for the United States. Obama dismissed both. The media for the most part joined in and mocked them too. Oops
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Arab Men Beat French Jew in Paris Train
Four unidentified Arab men savagely beat a French Jew in a Paris Metro train, a watchdog organization reported.
His attackers shouted the Arab word for “Jews” before attacking Levy, who is a religious Jew belonging to the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, the report said. One of them also told him: “Jew, we are going to lay into you, you have no country,” according to the report.
They stopped assaulting Levy after one of the passengers said loudly that the police were coming, according to BNVCA.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Cuts Could Pull Plug on Human Brain Project
The Human Brain Project, a mammoth research project directed by the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), is in danger of dying because of last month’s vote by Swiss citizens to curb immigration in Switzerland.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ezra Levant Receives Danish Sappho Award
by Katrine Winkel Holm
Your struggle for the freedom of expression has set an example for all freedom-loving Westerners, said Danish free speech advocate when motivating the award on March 1.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Paris Police ‘Wiped 16,000 Crimes Off Books’
Paris’s police authorities cooked their crime statistics as part of a decade-long effort to make the capital seem safer than it was, according to new government data released on Monday. In one year 16,000 criminal acts were wiped from the books.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: The Harpist or the Heiress? Image is All in the Race to be First Woman Mayor of Paris
Personalised campaign is mired in ridicule after a series of gaffes by leading candidates Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet and Anne Hidalgo
The homeless, unemployed guys kicking their heels around the exit of the former Saint Martin metro near Paris’s symbolic Place de la République, do not need a swimming pool, a nightclub or a restaurant. The men, of various origins and uncertain ages, their faces and gaits ravaged from life on the street, need what the phantom station gives them: coffee, breakfast, a shower, advice, even books to borrow…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Grillo Found Guilty of Illegal High-Speed Rail Protest
Sentenced to four months for lack of ‘No TAV’ permits
(ANSA) — Turin, March 3 — The head of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, Beppe Grillo, was sentenced to four months in prison on Monday for a protest without permits at an illegally built large mountain hut in 2010 that became a centerpiece for demonstrations against a high-speed rail line from France to Italy. Prosecutors had requested nine months imprisonment for the comic-turned-politician who backs the ‘No-Tav’ campaign in the Susa Valley north of Turin, which contests the line’s economic value and says it will despoil pristine landscape.
The Italian and French governments have insisted the line go ahead to speed passenger and freight traffic and boost both countries’ economies.
Grillo, who heads Italy’s second-biggest party, is also under investigation by prosecutors in several Italian cities for allegedly inciting police to stop protecting politicians.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Pompeii Crumbles After Heavy Rain
The Temple of Venus and walls of a tomb and shop in the long-neglected ruins of Pompeii near Naples have been damaged, possibly due to heavy rain, officials said on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Like Communists in Eastern Europe, Labour in Wales Cares About the System
By Charlotte Leslie, a member of the Health Select Committee and MP for Bristol North West.
You can often tell the cause of a problem, when the issue is revealed, by the reaction of those who created it. Seldom has this been seen more clearly than in the revelations about the state of the Welsh NHS. Last week, it was revealed through a FOI Request that the Chief Medical Officer for England, Sir Bruce Keogh, had written to his counterpart in Wales, advising that mortality rates and diagnostic waiting times were sufficiently concerning to warrant a Keogh-style inquiry…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Renzi Denies Report Italy Breaking G7 Line on Ukraine
Premier says Rome will stop preparations for Sochi summit
(ANSA) — Rome, March 3 — Premier Matteo Renzi on Monday denied reports Italy was opposed to a G7 move to suspend preparations for a G8 summit scheduled in Sochi in protest at Russia’s actions in Ukraine. “Don’t you follow the government’s press releases?,” Renzi said via Twitter when asked about the reports.
“That is Italy’s position,” he added referring to a government statement that said Rome was suspending summit preparations along with its G7 partners. The premier’s office subsequently released a fresh statement stressing that “Italy is totally in line with the other western countries on the situation in Ukraine”.
Earlier in the day, diplomatic sources were cited as saying Rome was not backing the G7 move, even though the aforementioned statement had said it was.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Socialists Push Schulz for EU Top Job
European Socialists on Saturday anointed Germany’s Martin Schulz as their candidate for European Commission president, launching their campaign for elections in May with calls to fight unemployment and rising populism.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Sorry I Joined Sweden Democrats’: Indo-Swede
When he realized he was a foreign-born cover for a party interested not in integration but in assimilation, the Indian-born local politician Mrutyuanjai Mishra decided to quit the Sweden Democrats, whom he calls intolerant.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Spain Could be a World Leader in Solar Power’
If this charismatic German is successful, giant marbles could soon be powering our planet. Now he hopes to go into production. Meet Barcelona-based architect and inventor Andre Broessel.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Terror Group Vows to Put Arsenal ‘Out of Use’
The Basque group Eta announced Saturday it would put its arsenal of weapons “out of operational use” in a first step by the considerably weakened separatist group towards an historic disarmament.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: London Mayor Calls for State to Take Children Based on Parents’ Political Beliefs
UKIP members already being targeted by social services
Parents with radical political beliefs should have their children taken by the state, according to London Mayor Boris Johnson, a chilling prospect given that parents who support major political parties like UKIP are already being targeted by social services.
Writing in his weekly column, Johnson said that, “The law should obviously treat radicalisation as a form of child abuse.”
While the idea is being promoted under the ostensibly reasonable justification that it will stop children being turned into “potential killers or suicide bombers,” Johnson said it could also be applied under more vague circumstances, such as if the child is taught to be “full of hate.”
The Mayor said that children whose parents are supporters of the British National Party, a right-wing organization that vehemently opposes immigration, may be taken into care in “extreme” circumstances.
However, children are already being seized from their parents under much less extreme circumstances.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: New Mosque Opens in Richmond Road, Gillingham
The Muslim community across Medway came together on Saturday for the opening of the first purpose-built mosque in Kent. It has been fully funded by donations from members of the community, including one little boy who was given mention for donating £500 after saving his pocket money for two years…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: PC Keith Blakelock Attacked ‘Without Mercy’ During Broadwater Farm Riots, Court Hears
Police officer killed during the 1985 Broadwater Farm riots sustained more than 40 stab wounds during “ferocious” murder, trial told
A man accused of taking part in the “ferocious” murder of Pc Keith Blakelock during the Broadwater Farm riots more than 28 years ago has gone on trial. Nicky Jacobs, 45, denies killing the father-of-three during the disturbance in Tottenham, north London, in October 1985…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Police Refuse to Treat Armed Robber as Suspect in Case it Breaches His Human Rights
Police say law prevents them from regarding knife-wielding robber as a suspect — instead, man in picture is merely “man they would like to speak with”
Police asking for the public to identify an armed robber whose face was completely concealed aren’t treating him as a suspect in case it breaches his human rights…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Radicalisation of Young Muslims is Child Abuse, Says Boris
Where children risk being turned into suicide bombers, the law must intervene, says mayor
BORIS JOHNSON, the Conservative Mayor of London, has tossed a political hand-grenade into the national debate about how Britain should stop jihadi terrorism at home by saying the radicalisation of Muslim children should be treated as child abuse…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Racial Mobs Blamed for Collapse of London Night Clubs
Owner: ‘The absolute majority of people who have disrupted these venues are black men’
Black mob violence is ruining their business, say the owners of a popular nightclub. Just like it ruined the businesses of 15 other nearby night spots which recently closed.
Except this is not in America. These hot spots are in London.
“The absolute majority of people who have disrupted these venues are black men and increasingly some black women,” said the owner and managers in a Facebook posting. “There, I said it. It is true, I have witnessed it and there is both anecdotal and empirical evidence that what I say is true.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
by Dan Hodges
About a year ago I was having a chat with a friend of mine called Nick Lowles. Nick is the director of an organisation called Hope Not Hate, which campaigns against political extremism. I used to provide media advice for HnH, and Nick wanted to sound me out about Ukip…
[JP note: See also http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/blog/nick/article/3469/ukip-is-a-racist-party ]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UKIP Named as a “Major Party” By Ofcom for European Elections
The decision means the party will now be entitled to equal levels of TV coverage as the other main parties.
Ahead of the European elections on 22 May, Ofcom has announced that broadcasters will be required to treat Ukip as a “major party” for the contest. The significance of this decision is that it will now be entitled to an equal amount of Party Election Broadcasts (PEBs) as Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems. The ruling, however, will not apply to Scotland-only programming due to Ukip’s low level of support in the country. Here’s the Ofcom statement in full…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Evil Adrian Meder is just one of a network of gang bosses aiming to supply girls and make millions over the EU scrapping of our border restrictions with Romania and Bulgaria. They aim to flood the UK with thousands of young women sold into a sordid, nightmare life of vice.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU and Tunisia Sign Mobility Partnership
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELLS, MARCH 3 — The EU and Tunisia signed a Mobility Partnership to facilitate the movement of people, to promote joint responsible management of migration, to simplify visa procedures, and to protect refugees and asylum seekers, EU Internal Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom made known Monday.
The agreement was signed by Malmstrom, Tunisian ambassador to Belgium and the EU, Tahar Cherif, and the interior ministers of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the UK, which are the Mobility Partnership member States…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Swiss Warn Against Travel to Sharm El-Sheikh
Switzerland and Belgium warned tourists Friday against going to the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh after what Brussels called a “serious threat.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Engineer Shot Dead in Libya
A French engineer who shot and killed in Libya on Sunday became the latest victim of a spate of deadly violence carried out against foreigners since the country’s 2011 revolution.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Furious Crowd Stormed Congress, Deputies Injured
Anger for mandate extension and kidnapping of opponents
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 3 — Anarchy reigns in Libya, where a furious crowd besieged yesterday the General National Congress (GNC) building in Tripoli, the constituent assembly that is currently the highest institutional organ of the country, attacking and wounding a number of deputies with gunshots. In Bengasi and surrounding areas, the bloody Sunday left at least seven dead, among them a French engineer, assassinated by a militia, and an official of Libyan special forces, lost in one of many ambushes.
Tripoli demonstrators, one learned, demanded the resignation of the Congress, which recently extended its own mandate instead of calling parliamentary elections and protested against what they defined as the “kidnapping” of a number of members of the opposition who yesterday participated in a protest sit-in in the centre of the capital. In a brief statement, the justice minister denounced the seizure of “young people that had come to express their opinion”, thus meaning to exclude government orchestration of the affair. A number of the protesters maintain that the kidnappers — who set fire to the tents of sit-in participants — belong to “Cells of Libyan revolutionary operations”, a group of ex-rebels under Congressional orders. The latter body and the transitional government, strongly criticized by Libyans for failing to deliver security and put an end to anarchy that has reigned in the country since the fall of Muammar Gheddafi in October 2011, have aroused a wave of anger with the decision to extend their mandate to the end of 2014. Hence last night’s furious protest, with dozens of demonstrators who invaded Congress, sacking the premises and attacking various deputies. “Two members of the CNG were hit by bullets as they sought to leave by automobile,” Congress President Nuri Abu Sahmein told Al-Nabaa TV. A spokesperson for the legislative organ, Omar Hmidan, spoke in turn of “various wounded among the deputies”.
In the even more turbulent Cirenaica, in Bengasi, French engineer Patrice Réal, 49, who worked at the extension of a medical centre, was assassinated by gunshot — the French foreign ministry confirmed — while a Libyan special forces official was killed by a bomb planted in his automobile. In addition, the corpses of five men have been found about 40 kilometres from the city, assassinated by gunshot and showing signs of torture.
Their identity has not yet been discovered.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco Beefs Up Security Near Ceuta and Melilla
Morocco has reinforced security near the borders separating its territory from the Spanish exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, on the northern coast of Africa, the Interior Ministry said. The measure is a result of a meeting between Spain’s interior minister, Jorge Fernández Díaz, and his Moroccan counterpart, Mohamed Hassad, on February 20.
The meeting took place soon after the Tarajal tragedy, in which 15 migrants perished as they tried to reach Ceuta on February 6, and a subsequent massive run on the Melilla fence on February 17.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
British PM David Cameron to Address Israeli Knesset on March 12
British Prime Minister David Cameron will address the Israeli Knesset on March 12 as part of an upcoming trip to the region…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
New Texts Found in Caves That Yielded Dead Sea Scrolls
An archaeologist says he discovered nine tiny scrolls with biblical text from the Qumran caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were unearthed, according to news reports.
The newfound scrolls, which date back to about 2,000 years ago, were hidden inside three leather tefillin cases, also known as phylacteries, traditionally carried by observant Jewish men, Italian news agency Ansa Mediterranean reported. These cases were first pulled out of the caves in the 1950s, but their contents apparently were not examined until now.
Starting in the 1940s, the remains of more than 900 manuscripts were found in 11 caves near the site of Qumran in the West Bank. This collection Hebrew Bible texts, which came to be known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, included copies of Genesis, Exodus, Isaiah, Kings and Deuteronomy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Los Angeles Gangbangers Surface in Syria to Join Assad Forces in Fighting
Two members of notorious Los Angeles street gangs have apparently made a global trek — from the crowded streets of LA to the barren battlefields of Syria — to fight alongside forces loyal to President Bashar Assad.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Must See Video: Gang Members From Los Angeles Fighting Al Qaeda in Syria
By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: Our protagonist is a Hezbollah supporter who is currently winning the Syrian Civil War by wandering around, occasionally shooting a few rounds at the “enemigos” and sending his regards to every wannabe thug in LA. About the only thing that has kept him from getting a bullet in the face so far is that the various branches of Al Qaeda are too busy fighting each other to notice him and skin him alive.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Qatar Eyes English Football Club Sheffield Wednesday
Qatari investors are in talks to buy second tier English professional football club Sheffield Wednesday, according to reports. Sky Sports News said that owner Milan Mandaric, who saved the Championship side from administration four years ago, had entered into talks with an unnamed Gulf consortium, whose interest is being fronted by football agent Jonathan Hope…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UAE Security Trial: Three Jailed for Aiding and Abetting Muslim Brotherhood in UAE
Abu Dhabi: The State Security Section at the Federal Supreme Court on Monday, sentenced three Muslim Brotherhood members to prison terms of up to seven years.
Mahmoud Abdul Rahman Al Jidah, 52, Qatari, received a jail term of seven years, to be followed by deportation, while Abdul Wahid Hassan Al Badi, 32, and Saeed Abdullah Al Buraimi, 2, both Emiratis, were handed down five years’ jail each, the court presided over by Chief Justice Falah Al Hajiri, ruled.
The court also ordered confiscating Dh150, 000 seized from the house of Al Buraimi and other equipment, found to have been used to fulfil the goals of the Muslim Brotherhood.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
16,000 Russian Troops Deployed in Crimea Region, Ukraine Claims
Ukraine officials on Monday claimed 16,000 Russian troops have been deployed in the Crimea region, a sign of widening military intervention in the flashpoint peninsula.
“Approximately 16,000 Russian troops have been deployed in Crimea by the military ships, helicopters, cargo airplanes from the neighboring territory of the Russian Federation,” the permanent mission of Ukraine to the United Nations wrote in a letter.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A Bit of Ancient History Regarding Ukraine
Watch the award-winning documentary, The Soviet Story, to learn a bit of ancient history regarding Ukrainians, Russians, and their European brethren.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Belarus Bans Imports of Pigs and Pork From Ukraine
Minsk — Belarus has imposed temporary restrictions on imports of live pigs and pork produce from Ukraine.
The decision was made by the department of veterinary and food control of the Agriculture and Food Ministry of Belarus. Its text has been posted on the Web site of the authority. It also canceled all the previously issued permits for imports of these goods to the territory of Belarus from Ukraine…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Crimea — A Battle of Principalities and Powers
By Archbishop Cranmer
Excerpt: For many millions of ethnic Russians, this isn’t simply a question of gay rights and wrongs, but of good versus evil. It is about the spiritual and moral foundation of civilisation itself. So when we read the Daily Mail or listen to the BBC, we are understanding nothing of this crisis, for it is not a conflict of flesh and blood, but of principalities and powers. It is not about politics and opportunism, but morality and mission. Obama and Cameron can issue their warnings and demands that Putin respect ‘equality’ and ‘democratic values’, but when you believe you are called by God to do His holy work, a pesky liberal president and a devalued prime minister are of very little significance at all.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Crimea Crisis Worsens as Ukraine Says Russia Threatens Navy
Ukraine said Russia threatened to seize its war ships in Crimea amid the worst standoff between the West and Russia since the end of the Cold War.
Russia told the ships to surrender, Ukraine’s acting President Oleksandr Turchynov said today in televised remarks. Russia earlier denied a report it had given the ships, located near the port of Sevastopol, until 5 a.m. to give up weapons and capitulate. Western diplomats are seeking to calm tensions, with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arriving in Kiev tomorrow.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dangerous Times: Putin Slaps Down Euro-American Fantasyland
By James Lewis
Excerpt: When JFK looked weak to Nikita Khrushchev, we got the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. When Jimmy Carter bear-hugged Brezhnev, we got the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. When Bill Clinton failed to stop Bin Laden for seven whole years, we got 9/11/01 in New York City. And when Obama clowned it up for the world, alienating our allies and bowing down to our deadly enemies, we got this week’s Russian invasion of the Ukraine. And that’s only the beginning. Just you watch.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Giant Virus Resurrected From 30,000-Year-Old Ice
In what seems like a plot straight out of a low-budget science-fiction film, scientists have revived a giant virus that was buried in Siberian ice for 30,000 years — and it is still infectious. Its targets, fortunately, are amoebae.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Giant Virus Revived From Deep Freeze in Siberian Tundra
A 30,000-year-old giant virus has been revived from the frozen Siberian tundra, sparking concern that increased mining and oil drilling in rapidly warming northern latitudes could disturb dormant microbial life that could one day prove harmful to man.
The latest find, described online Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, appears to belong to a new family of mega-viruses that infect only amoeba. But its revival in a laboratory stands as “a proof of principle that we could eventually resurrect active infectious viruses from different periods,” said the study’s lead author, microbiologist Jean-Michel Claverie of Aix-Marseille University in France.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Aiming to ‘Keep Dialogue Open’ Between Ukraine, Russia
Foreign minister in Brussels working for ‘diplomatic solution’
(see related) (ANSA) — Brussels, March 3 — Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini on Monday said Italy was “trying to keep the paths to dialogue open” regarding a potential clash between Russia and Ukraine. Arriving at a meeting of Europe’s foreign ministers in Brussels, Mogherini said she hoped “we succeed in securing a political and diplomatic solution to the crisis,” adding she will brief Italy’s parliament on the matter on Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Kerry to Russia: You Can’t Just Invade a Country on False Pretext
Poor John Kerry. He is prone to foot-in-mouth syndrome, but clearly the stress is getting to him. It’s understandable. The Secretary of State and his minions went and provoked a regime change in Ukraine to which they sang the chorus “democracy” and “people power” only to discover that: 1) the new leadership has a bad case of Basil Fawlty syndrome, stiff-arming at every opportunity; and 2) a good chunk of the country (as the rest of us could tell looking at voting maps) had no intention of going along with the US-engineered regime change in Kiev.
First Crimea, with a majority Russian and Russian-speaking population, rejected the self-proclaimed government in Kiev, then one by one eastern Ukrainians began mass demonstrations where the Russian flag was hoisted on public buildings.
In Kiev, the demonstrations are “people power.” In Donetsk and Sebastopol it is “armed gunmen.” That is the view of western governments and their media class. But the authorities in the autonomous province of Crimea — backed by tens of thousands in the streets — did the unthinkable: they asked the Russians to protect them against the new Kiev regime which was en route to crush dissent.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Memo to Obama: This Was Their Red Line!
In 1783 the Crimea was annexed by Catherine the Great, thereby satisfying the longstanding quest of the Russian Czars for a warm-water port. In fact, over the ages Sevastopol emerged as a great naval base at the strategic tip of the Crimean peninsula, where it became home to the mighty Black Sea Fleet of the Czars and then the commissars.
For the next 171 years Crimea was an integral part of Russia — a span that exceeds the 166 years that have elapsed since California was annexed by a similar thrust of “Manifest Destiny” on this continent, thereby providing, incidentally, the United States Navy with its own warm-water port in San Diego. While no foreign forces subsequently invaded the California coasts, it was most definitely not Ukrainian and Polish riffles, artillery and blood which famously annihilated The Charge Of The Light Brigade at the Crimean city of Balaclava in 1854; they were Russians defending the homeland.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
By Steve Sailer
Excerpt: The Russians, lacking all natural defenses to the West, are sensitive to the proximity of hostile alliances. They believe, with much historical justification, that in February 1990 Secretary of State James Baker and West German leader Helmut Kohl promised Mikhail Gorbachev no Eastern expansion of the NATO military bloc in return for allowing the reunification of Germany by withdrawing the 380,000 Soviet troops from East Germany.
The West has repeatedly violated that gentleman’s agreement, in 2008 even putting Ukraine and Georgia on track for NATO membership.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
By Nick Cohen
Excerpt: The only answer is the answer Chomsky provides: the relativist Western left is interested only in the West, and cannot even think about ‘the atrocities of someone else’. The people of the Ukraine may not have much to be grateful for, but they should be glad that they do not have the support of the relativist left. Its principles are pliable. Its morality is parochial. For believers trapped in its ever-shifting ideology, it is not enough that a stranger is a victim of oppression; they must be the victim of the right sort of oppression. If they are the victims of the West, they have played their part well and are the Western left’s object of compassion. If their country should have the misfortune to be invaded by Russia rather than the United States, their sufferings become as remote and distant as — what else? — the 18th century.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: The progressive delusion of a modern world with no room for armies and invasions falls apart the moment that a barbarian rides in on a horse brandishing a rifle with a bayonet and shows that it can be done despite all the free trade agreements and G8 summits in the world. Obama and Kerry find themselves, like time travelers thrown back in time to the 19th century or the 1950s, stuck in a world that plays by Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney and Vladimir Putin rules, where no one knows that invading other countries is passé and that power is achieved at summits and not at the point of a gun.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Faceoffs With Putin and Netanyahu
Washington was the center of contretemps over Putin’s seizure of Crimea and widening public differences with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu
We recently interviewed Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute and reviewed of his new book Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes. (See The Peril of Engaging Rogue States: An Interview with Dr. Michael Rubin and Engagement is Folly}.
Putin, according to Rubin is the consummate zero sum geo -politician. Diplomacy for the Kremlin thugacracy pales in comparison to unleashing military adventurism to recreate the former Soviet empire. Witness Georgia in 2008 with the severance of South Ossetia, Abkhazia and even the Kremlin support for Russian speaking breakaway state of Transnistria between the Ukraine and Moldavia. Remember Putin abhors NATO presence anywhere near the Russian sphere of influence. See the prescient title of a piece I wrote back in August 2008, Georgia: “Moscow Rules” and the West Wimps Out. We had Bush and Condoleezza Rice back then..
The 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (STARTI) witnessed the transfer of nearly 2000 nuclear missiles to Russia followed by 1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances by the UK, US and Russia that guaranteed Ukrainian sovereignty including the rights of Russian citizens who chose to live there. Recently Russia negotiated the extension of the lease on the Black Sea naval base in Sevastopol from 2017 to 2042. The move was heavily criticized by the opposition forces now in power in Kiev. By seizing the Crimea province from Ukraine, the Russian guarantee of Ukrainian sovereignty has been breached. Russian military exercises near Finland and the Ukraine are clear demonstrations of military force to send a message to the EU and the Obama White House West Wing not to dare send NATO forces to the Polish Ukrainian border. Thus, while there will be lots of economic sanctions and isolation rattling by Washington and Brussels, it is up to the G-8 and G-20 groups to consider ejection of Moscow, which will doubtless come up short.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Obama is Teaming Up With Neo-Nazis in Ukraine
In a recent interview on The Savage Nation with Michael Savage, Paul Craig Roberts explains how Washington’s pro-EU politicians are empowering neo-Nazis for the current coup in Ukraine:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama ‘Brandishes Phone at Putin!’ What People Are Saying About This Staged Wh Photo Release
President Obama spoke on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin for 90 minutes on Saturday following the “uncontested arrival” of Russian tanks in Ukraine.
The White House released a photo of that phone call, with Obama decked out in rugged denim.
The Reagan-esque image is an almost comically effort by the White House to portray a tough looking Obama to the American people, a likely reaction to the pointed criticism over his timid response to Putin’s aggression.
Twitter users tweeted the photo and their thoughts of Obama’s theatrics. The commentary is hilarious, despite the seriousness of the matter:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Prime Minister: Russia Has Declared War on Ukraine
Moscow’s move to occupy Crimea with Russian troops is a declaration of war on Ukraine according to interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk.
“This is actually a declaration of war on my country. We urge Putin to pull back his troops from this country and honour bilateral agreements. If he wants to be the president who started a war between two neighboring and friendly countries, he has reached his target within a few inches,” said Yatseniuk, warning, “We are on the brink of disaster.”
Although there has been no violence, Russian troops now occupy key positions throughout the Crimean peninsula, including airports and communication hubs.
Kiev’s post-overthrow government responded by ordering a full military mobilization of Ukrainian forces. BBC News reports that Russian troops are surrounding Ukrainian army bases in addition to, “digging trenches on the border with mainland Ukraine.”
Many Ukrainian armed forces in Crimea resigned their positions and are expected to take military oaths and switch sides, according to reports.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Putin Draws Wrong Lessons From Yanukovych
If the old maxim has it that the only lesson of history is that no one learns from it, dictators must be particularly slow learners. Despite the definitive record of recent history—from Nicolae Ceausescu to Slobodan Milosevic—that attempts to suppress public discontent with brute force only hasten a regime’s collapse, authoritarian leaders still try to repress the opposition away, inevitably with the same results. Ukraine’s hapless president, Viktor Yanukovych, is just the latest example.
It seems that Vladimir Putin wants to be next.
According to a recent Levada Center poll, only 22 percent of Russians want Putin to remain president after the end of his current term—and this with nearly total government control over the national media. Increased repression will only turn public opinion further away from the regime. If Vladimir Putin wants to see a Maidan on the streets of Moscow, he is on the right track.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Putin Hints That He May Not Stop at Crimea
During his 90-minute phone conversation with President Obama on Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin hinted that Russian military intervention in Ukraine could go beyond Crimea, the region now under effectively occupied by Russia.
That’s according to the Kremlin’s brief account of the phone call, initiated by Obama.
“Vladimir Putin stressed that in case of any further spread of violence to Eastern Ukraine and Crimea, Russia retains the right to protect its interests and the Russian-speaking population of those areas,” it said.
[Comment: 90 minutes…what were they talking about for 90 minutes?…]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Right Sector Calls on Russia’s Bin Laden to Fight in Ukraine
Right Sector, the ultra-nationalist street fighting group that targeted police prior to the coup in Ukraine, has called for Doku Umarov to fight in a war against Russia.
Umarov, known as the “Bin Laden of Russia,” is a Chechen Islamist who has claimed responsibility for attacks on Russian civilians. According to media reports, his most recent threat was against the Olympics in Sochi, Russia. No terrorist attacks, however, occured during the games.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ruble Dives to Historic Low, Stocks Crash on Ukraine Fears
Major Russian companies saw millions of dollars of value wiped out.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Russia and China ‘In Agreement’ Over Ukraine
Russia is in “operational control” of Crimea as soldiers surround Ukrainian troops and seize a ferry port.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Standoff Between Russian, Ukrainian Soldiers Causes Tense Impasse in Small Crimean Town
The standoff in Novo-Ozerne between Russian and Ukrainian soldiers is a scene playing out across Crimea, days after Moscow effectively seized political power across the strategic Black Sea peninsula, establishing a pro-Russian regional government backed up by hundreds — perhaps thousands — of soldiers. The seizure of power came after months of street demonstrations in the capital, Kiev, which forced out Ukraine’s president, the pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych. The new government has taken a sharp turn away from Moscow, and is eager to form closer ties to the European Union.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Wisdom of a Ukrainian Plumber
By Theodore Dalrymple
Excerpt: Just before the current troubles in Ukraine began, we called a plumber to our rented flat in Paris, which smelled of mold at the time. He was Ukrainian. He told us why he had left his native country a few years before: Everyone there was corrupt, nothing was possible without bribery [Sounds just like LA- KP], the opposition was as bad as the government, and all political demonstrations, which were frequent even then, were entirely bogus. Indeed, political demonstrations had become a form of social security, the political system’s corrupt and vastly rich oligarchs paying a small daily subvention to the otherwise unemployed who agreed to demonstrate in their favor.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Trade War: Gazprom Threatens to Disrupt Gas Supplies to Europe
Deep state agenda behind Ukraine conflict revealed
Russian-controlled natural gas giant Gazprom has threatened to disrupt gas supplies to Europe following warnings by John Kerry and others that harsh economic sanctions could be imposed on Moscow, as the Ukraine crisis threatens to spiral into a trade war.
Although the monopoly said it would attempt to reduce export risks, Gazprom’s chief financial officer Andrei Kruglov cautioned that Ukraine had failed to fulfil its debt obligations. This followed Gazprom spokesperson Sergai Kupriyanov’s warning on Saturday that Ukraine would see its account with Gazprom canceled as a result of an overdue tab of $1.5 billion dollars.
Although the warning of a gas disruption to Europe is not being characterized as political payback, it would be naive to think otherwise. The Financial Times describes Gazprom’s monopoly as a “formidable weapon to deploy against Ukraine,” noting that, “conflict with Russia would imperil one of the transit routes for gas to Europe” and lead to higher prices.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine: Putin’s Crimea Aim is to Make the West Look Weak
If you want to invade a country, it’s important to call it a liberation. Over the coming weeks and months, that’s what we’re going to see in Ukraine. In fact it has started already. Just look at the Crimea.
It is a textbook KGB-led operation: the agent provocateur, followed by a self-organised militia, then Russian military protection to defend ‘their’ people. The tactic was used to good effect throughout the Soviet period in Communist coups. It’s what brought down the government of Afghanistan and caused 30 years of war. And again it is unlikely to be resisted.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UN Ambassador Power Says Russia Intervention ‘Must Stop, ‘ Moscow Defiant
America’s U.N. ambassador blasted Russia on Monday for its “dangerous military intervention” in Ukraine, calling it a violation of international law and saying: “It must stop.” “There is nothing that justifies Russian conduct,” Ambassador Samantha Power said, speaking at a U.N. Security Council meeting just minutes after her Russian counterpart delivered defiant remarks.
Russian Ambassador to the U.N. Vitaly Churkin defended the use of Russia’s military in Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, claiming the “legitimately elected authorities” in that region asked Russia to intervene and saying this was “completely legitimate under Russian law.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Why Are People So Hot for War With Putin?
By James Delingpole
Excerpt: I mean the kind of people who up until last week probably couldn’t have found the Ukraine on a map, let alone pinpointed Kiev, or even heard of Simferopol. What has suddenly possessed them to decide that the integrity of an independent Ukraine is of such paramount importance that the leaders of the free west should be prepared to hazard all to prevent the wicked Putin sending any more of his troops into thingummyjig and sealing off the airport of wotsisname? They’re never specific about how far they want us to go, these armchair warriors.
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Taliban Militants Escape From Kandahar Prison for Fourth Time in a Decade
At least 10 Taliban insurgents leave the prison through the front door, after their names were forged on a prisoner release form
At least 12 Taliban insurgents have escaped from the heavily guarded Sarposa Prison in Kandahar, after a prison employee falsely put their names on a list of detainees who were scheduled for release. The escapees were reported to be among the most prominent insurgents being held at Sarposa, but were allowed to walk out of the front gate in daylight…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Home of Catholic Family Torched in Bangladesh
The perpetrators are unknown, but the local community point to Islamic extremists. However, the attack could be the result of a general climate of insecurity that now exists in the country. Family safe: mother, two children and grandmother.
Dhaka (AsiaNews ) — An arson attack has destroyed the home of a Catholic family in the village of Goualliapara, belonging to the parish of Dharenda ( Diocese of Dhaka) . The incident occurred on the night of March 1 last. The four people present — including two children — were able to escape and get to safety. The police have opened an investigation, but the culprits have not yet been identified. According to residents of the area, they could be Islamic fundamentalists. However, the motive of land issues, the source of conflict in many parts of Bangladesh, has not been excluded.
The house was home to Shipra Palma, her two children and mother-in-law. Her husband, Ben Gomes, emigrated abroad in search of work. Her father died six months ago. “Three days before the fire — the woman tells AsiaNews — we saw some people unknown to us behind our house. They asked around if we were Christians. We feel that this attack was premeditated by them. We have lost in everything, including our Bible and the crucifix. All we have left are the cloths on our backs”.
Nirmol Rozario, general secretary of the Bangladesh Christian Association , belongs to the same parish of the victims and immediately went to the site as soon as he heard the news. He told AsiaNews : “The two rooms of the house were destroyed in less than eight minutes. The attackers may have used gunpowder to light the fire. We demand an exemplary punishment for those involved in this incident. We just want to live in peace”.
Fr. Kamal Corraya , parish priest of St Joseph’s Church in Dharenda , visited the site along with a police officer. “We are very shocked about what happened. This is an attack against the minority, and could be the hands of Islamic extremists. They are very powerful in the area”.
For several months now cases of theft, violence and vandalism of various kinds are a daily occurrence in Bangladesh, which threaten public safety and public order. In this context the arson attack in Goualliapara could be the result of such a climate, rather than a real attack on a religious basis. Further proof of this is another conflict, which broke out in the village of Shindurhata (Dinajpur) yesterday. Here the Christian community is at the center of clashes with the Bengali Muslim community, over land issues, a long-standing problem in the country. Fr. Ujjol Rozario, parish priest of the area, is trying to resolve the situation in a peaceful manner, with the help of the police and local authorities.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: Open Mosque Inside Fort for Public, Protesters Urge Asi
As many as 150 cadre, including 25 women, of the Social Democratic Party of India staged a demonstration on Sunday in front of the head post office, demanding the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to open the centuries-old mosque inside the Vellore Fort for worship. The protestors were arrested by the police for not seeking its permission for the stir…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Yudhoyono Under Fire for Reducing Powers of Anti-Corruption Commission
Parliament has approved new rules that modify the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure. The amendments “reduce” KPK powers and operations. Activists have accused the president of wanting to cover corruption cases that also involve his second son. The issue of corruption will dominate the presidential campaign for the elections in October.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — The new corruption laws approved by the Indonesian Parliament (DPR), which amend the Criminal Code (Kuhp) and the Code of Criminal Procedures (Kuhap) , are likely to weaken the anti- Corruption Commission (KPK) mandate. This concerns activists and civil society in Indonesia who fear that the changes will drastically ‘reduce’ the KPK’s ability to combat bribery, kickbacks and corruption. Moreover, already in the past, the Commission leaders had denounced laws enacted by Parliament to hamper the fight against widespread corruption in the country.
Members of civil society believe that the Ministry of Legal Affairs and Human Rights’ move hides a plan of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s administration to “castrate” KPK powers.
Over the past three years, the Anti-Corruption Commission has carried out a series of successful operations across the country, targeting high ranking personalities and uncovering sensational cases of corruption in various sectors including the justice system, politics and the economy. These include the arrest of a prominent government minister and the President of the Constitutional Court, the oil scandal and the intrigues that led to the re-election of former Governor of the Central Bank . Moreover, the issue of corruption will be one of the key issues in the next general elections in April and presidential elections in October.
KPK investigations have resulted in heavy sentences opening the prison doors to high profile politicians from the Democratic Party and the pro- Islamist movement Prosperous Justice Party, including the leader Hassan Lufthi. Political pressures on the Commission have increased in recent weeks, when a corruption story emerged that threatens to involve one of the president’s sons, his second son Eddhie “ Ibas “ Bhaskoro Yudhoyono (pictured) , former secretary general of the Democrats.
For a long time the leading figures of the party, including the parliamentarian Sutan Bathoegana , chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Mines and Energy, have denied any involvement of the Yudhoyono family in corruption. A position contradicted by the latest revelations that the KPK has opened a procedure for the lobbying activities carried out by Ibas during an auction on concessions in the field of natural gas. The investigation will shed light on the positions of the same Sutan Bathoegana and 12 other deputies.
Public opinion is increasingly doubtful about President Yudhoyono and his government’s real commitment in the fight against corruption, and many believe that the approval of the amendment of the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure is proof that he intends to weaken the KPK . An accusation rejected by his spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha and Vice — Minister for Justice Denny Indrayana, who say the head of state has “always supported” the Commission’s initiatives “even when they were promoted without judicial authorization”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Karzai Slams US Government, Military in Interview Ahead of Elections
Outgoing Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai angrily criticized the U.S. government for its conduct of the war in that country, which he described as being “for the U.S. security and for the Western interests.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia Threatens Time Magazine for Reporting Persecution of Non-Muslims
Time Magazine, which came under scrutiny last week for an article depicting the Malaysian Prime Minister’s Najib Razak apparent failure to deal with race relations and growing religious intolerance, will have to watch its columns.
The international weekly is said to be under ongoing scrutiny, with the matter of the article written by Zoher Abdoolcarim still under investigation by a unit tasked to monitor foreign publications at the Home Ministry.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Muslims, Modi and Divided India
A cross-section of Muslims share their views, as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate woos them for their votes.
Narendra Modi, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate, reached out to Muslims on Sunday by promising them “inclusive” economic development. “We believe in economic development, while you play the politics of votes, letting Muslims languish in poverty,” Modi said at a rally in Uttar Pradesh state, in a jibe at rival political parties.
In a Hindu-dominated country, Muslims account for 13 percent of India’s population and play a critical role in deciding electoral outcomes in at least 100 of the 543 parliamentary seats…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Twin Suicide Attack in Pakistan Kills 11 Including Judge
Militant commando team attacks court complex in first major attack on Pakistani capital in more than five years
Gunmen opened fire outside a Pakistani court complex in Islamabad on Monday morning, killing at least 11 people, according to police. It was the biggest terrorist attack in the capital since the Marriott hotel was bombed in 2008 and comes barely a day the Pakistan Taliban announced a month-long ceasefire in order to kick-start peace talks…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Two-Hundred-Year Drought Doomed Indus Valley Civilization
Monsoon hiatus that began 4,200 years ago parallels dry spell that led civilizations to collapse in other regions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China: Kunming Terrorist Attack Suspects Captured
BEIJING, March 3 (Xinhua) — Chinese police said Monday three suspects involved in the terrorist attack in the southwestern city of Kunming had been captured. The Ministry of Public Security said in a statement that the terrorist gang of eight members led by Abdurehim Kurban was responsible for the attack.
Police shot and killed four of them and captured an injured female at the scene on Saturday night, the statement said. The knife-wielding attackers slashed frantically at crowds at a railway station in Kunming of southwest China’s Yunnan Province on Saturday, killing 29 people and injuring 143.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Police ‘Solve’ Kunming Massacre
Two days after attackers dressed in black slashed 29 people to death at Kunming’s railway station, Chinese police said they had caught the surviving suspects and solved the case. Xinhua, the state news agency, reported that a terrorist gang of six men and two women from the Uighur ethnic minority had been responsible for the atrocity.
At least 29 civilians died and more than 140 were injured on Saturday night when a group of at least 10 extremists stormed the bustling station in southwest China and set upon men, women and children with knives.
“Two men were killed right in front of me, one had his throat cut, the other (was stabbed) in the chest. There was blood everywhere,” recalled shop-keeper Liu Guilin, 28, who said he had armed himself and six or seven other men with metal parasols in a desperate and successful attempt to deter the attackers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Families Reel, Witnesses Haunted After China’s Deadly Kunming Terror Attacks
Dong, a 50-year-old street vendor from the countryside, was trying to buy a train ticket home to visit his sick mother when he was hacked.
“His whole face was covered in blood,” his wife described the sight greeting the family at the hospital, which has received most of the people injured in the attack. “We’re now waiting for him to go through surgery,” said Huixian, the 17-year-old daughter. “But those with even more severe injuries need to be operated on first.” “Those Xinjiang people are just horrible and I hate their guts,” she added.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Misao Okawa, a Japanese woman born in 1898, has told The Telegraph her recipe for longevity: eating lots of sushi and sleeping eight hours a night
In the year in which Misao Okawa was born in Osaka, Queen Victoria was still on the British throne, the Spanish American War was raging and Horatio Kitchener triumphed in the Battle of Omdurman.
Already recognised as the oldest person in the world, Mrs Okawa will on March 5 reach the remarkable milestone of 116 — and attributes her longevity to eating well and sleeping at least eight hours every night, with the occasional nap thrown in for good measure. “Eat and sleep and you will live a long time,” she said in a message to The Telegraph. “You have to learn to relax.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Police Name Kunming Massacre ‘Mastermind’ As Three Suspected Attackers Are Arrested
Ministry says Abdurehim Kurban was among eight who went on deadly knife rampage
Police said last night they had identified the mastermind behind Saturday’s deadly attack at Kunming train station and captured three more suspects.
Citing the Ministry of Public Security, Xinhua said a group of eight people was responsible for the attack, including the alleged leader it named as Abdurehim Kurban, and two women. Four suspects died at the scene and one of the women suspects was wounded and captured.
The brief report did not mention whether Kurban was among those detained or dead.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Red Reign: China’s Horrific Nonconsensual Organ Harvesting and Religious Oppression Unveiled
[WARNING: *Disturbing Content*]
(NaturalNews) Imagine being arrested, imprisoned and tortured simply for holding religious beliefs that run contrary to what the government considers acceptable. And every day having to worry that you might be murdered at a moment’s notice for your vital organs. This is what countless thousands of practitioners of the spiritual discipline Falun Gong have apparently been subjected to in China, a little-known reality covered in the new documentary film Red Reign: The Bloody Harvest of China’s Prisoners.
The film, which is available for instant streaming at Programs.NaturalNews.com, brings to light a horrific practice that, up until now, has been mostly veiled from public view. Religious prisoners throughout China continue to be not only persecuted for their beliefs but also used as profit machines in a massive, and highly illegal, organ trafficking trade that generates as much as $1.2 billion in blood money annually.
“This story had to be told, yet the story seemed almost too horrible to tell,” says Masha Savitz, the first-time filmmaker who created the film.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Report: North Korea Fires Short-Range Missile Warning Shots
North Korea reportedly fired two missiles into the Sea of Japan on Monday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Jihad in China Mischaracterized as “Ethnic Nationalism”
By Hugh Fitzgerald
In the Chinese scheme of things, the Uighurs were treated not badly. They are the only group, in all of China, for example, that were not required to adhere to the one-child policy — thus allowing their relative numbers to increase. That is not a minor concession. But what they could not abide is being part of a non-Muslim polity, in effect being directed by non-Muslim Hand Chinese. They know that it is not just, it is not right, for non-Muslims anywhere to rule over Musliims, anywhere, thoiugh the reverse — rule by Muslims over non-Muslims — is not only acceptable but energetically to be pursued.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Snake Eats Crocodile in Queensland Lake
A snake has eaten a crocodile in an epic duel captured by onlookers at a Queensland lake.
Corlis said it was amazing to witness. “It was just unbelievable,” she said. “We were sort of thinking that the snake had bitten off a little more than it could chew. “But it did. It actually ate the crocodile.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Rising Sex Traffic in Forced Islamic Marriage
by Mark Durie
The forced marriage of a fourteen-year-old girl, as reported in this Australian case, fits the definition of trafficking. The girl was transferred from the custody of parents to that of her “husband” by use of deception, and he then kept her for the purpose of sexual exploitation and servitude, controlling her by violence and threats.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kenya: Westgate Reconstruction to Begin
The reconstruction of the Westgate Mall starts today. The committee on the rapid restoration of the mall is expected to hand over its report to the east African affairs secretary today. The committee was charged with advising the government on the speedy recovery mechanisms for the Mall to avert unnecessary job and related economic losses…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Senegal: The Rise of the Tele Imams
Parting a sea of bystanders and inquiring fans, a man with the air of a rock star strode into the Sen TV studios, in Dakar, Senegal. Inside, he silenced his four cell phones and sat in front of the green screen, a massive Koran displayed prominently before him, and got ready to hold forth for his audience, out there in TV land…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
African Smuggled Into Spain in Suitcase
Spanish police have caught a sub-Saharan immigrant hiding inside a suitcase as his carrier attempted to drag him across on foot into Spain’s African enclave of Melilla.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dog-Killing Afghan Refugee to Swedes: “Throw Me Out and I’ll Kill 10 of You”
Sweden has a major Muslim settler problem and this video capturing the antics of an Afghan refugee threatening Swedish passengers has gone viral.
“Just wait. You have all your soldiers out there. All is out now. In 2014 the Taliban come back, the mujahideen are back. Allahu akbar!” The 23-year-old explains that he has come to Sweden to stay. “If you throw me out, I will take ten lives here.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Asks Clarification From Spain on Ceuta Death
30,000 Sub-Saharans in Morocco wait to enter Spain
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 3 — The European Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmstrom asked Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Dias for clarification regarding the expulsion of Sub-Saharan migrants at the Ceuta and Morocco border during which 15 people died last February 12. The two met in Brussels, before the meeting of the 28 European Union (EU) ministers who will discuss migratory pressure toward the EU member countries.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU: Record Numbers Via Sea in Third Quarter of 2013
Increase in migrants landing in Sicily, Lampedusa, says FRONTEX
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MARCH 3 — Migrants landing in the EU via sea reached record levels in the third quarter of 2013, European Union agency for external border security FRONTEX made known Monday.
The agency said 42,618 people came ashore in the period, four times as many as in the first quarter of 2013. The increase was due to record numbers landing in Sicily (12,000) and the Italian island of Lampedusa (8,000).
Migration picked up significantly in the central Mediterranean, and combined with the numbers from the Ionian and Aegean Seas, the data showed that more people reached EU soil than at any time during 2011, the year of the Arab Spring.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: 50,000 Syrians Apply for 5,000 Asylum Places
Around 50,000 Syrians have applied for 5,000 asylum places in Germany, prompting calls for the country to take in more refugees from the war-torn country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Olá Lisboa! Chinese Millionaires Hog Portugal’s Golden Visas
Portugal might have found a cure for its economic woes as an easing of an investor visa scheme has attracted a steady stream of wealthy Chinese. Figures released last week show the extent of how Chinese citizens take most advantage of a recently adapted “golden visa” programme aimed at bringing foreign capital to the cash-strapped country.
Eight out of 10 golden visas were given to Chinese nationals, according to APEMIP, the country’s professional association of real estate agents.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Schulz: Member States and Not EU Responsible
Record numbers via sea, Frontex. Partnership EU-Tunisia signed
(ANSAmed) — BERLIN — The European Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmstrom asked Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Dias for clarification regarding the expulsion of Sub-Saharan migrants at the Ceuta and Morocco border during which 15 people died last February 12. The two met in Brussels, before the meeting of the 28 European Union (EU) ministers about the migratory pressure toward the EU member countries.
Spain told the EU it is not responsible for the 15 drowning deaths of migrants trying to force their way into Ceuta, its enclave on Moroccan soil, on February 6. This came after EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem on Twitter called the Spanish Guardia Civil’s intervention at the border that day “imprudent” and ‘inadequate”. Internal Affairs Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz told Malmstrom that Spain is “disappointed” in her statement and in the fact she chose to make it via Twitter and not through institutional channels. “Our security forces acted only to dissuade, so much so that 23 migrants did manage to cross the border”, Fernandez Diaz told the commissioner. He also called on the EU to allocate 45 million euros in emergency aid for its enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, which are under “strong migratory pressure”, the minister added. “The immigrants are trying to enter our territory, and therefore Europe, for economic reasons only”, Fernandez Diaz said. “Of the thousands we turned back at the border last year, just 41 people requested political asylum”. Spain faces the presence of 30,000 Sub-Saharans that are waiting to enter its territory from Morocco, according to a report circulated by the Spanish interior ministry.
Migrants landing in the EU via sea reached record levels in the third quarter of 2013, European Union agency for external border security FRONTEX made known Monday. The agency said 42,618 people came ashore in the period, four times as many as in the first quarter of 2013. The increase was due to record numbers landing in Sicily (12,000) and the Italian island of Lampedusa (8,000). Migration picked up significantly in the central Mediterranean, and combined with the numbers from the Ionian and Aegean Seas, the data showed that more people reached EU soil than at any time during 2011, the year of the Arab Spring.
The EU and Tunisia signed a Mobility Partnership to facilitate the movement of people, to promote joint responsible management of migration, to simplify visa procedures, and to protect refugees and asylum seekers, EU Internal Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom made known Monday. The agreement was signed by Malmstrom, Tunisian ambassador to Belgium and the EU, Tahar Cherif, and the interior ministers of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the UK, which are the Mobility Partnership member States.
On the illegal immigration front, the two sides agreed to start negotiations on a deal to readmit such immigrants, to jointly fight human and migrant trafficking, to increase security of identity and travel documents, and to improve border management. Tunisia and the EU also pledged to work side by side to identify asylum seekers, examine asylum applications, apply the principle of non-refoulement, which means that people cannot be sent back to their countries of origin if they are likely to face persecution there, and to set up long-term protection of asylum seekers. One of the first consequences of the Partnership will be negotiations towards an agreement to streamline visa granting procedures. The accord also aims to improve information given to qualified Tunisian citizens who could be in demand on the job market, or who are eligible for EU study and training grants, as well as to facilitate mutual recognition of professional qualifications and academic degrees. The EU and Tunisia also committed to facilitating the integration of Tunisians who are legal EU residents and of immigrants who are legal residents of Tunisia, as well as to a series of initiatives to optimize the impact of migration on development.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Accountability Needed for Ceuta Immigrant Tragedy, Says EU Official
The European Union is concerned about the way Spain is treating undocumented migrants attempting to cross its borders from Morocco. In an interview, the Human Rights Commissioner at the Council of Europe, Nils Muiznieks, said that the people responsible for the February 6 incident in Ceuta must be held accountable for their actions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Interior Minister Personally Explains Ceuta Tragedy to EU Commissioner
Interior Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz met early on Monday with the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Cecilia Malmström, to offer explanations over the rubber bullet episode in Ceuta last February 6.
The meeting comes after several public and private exchanges in which reproaches were lobbed at each other over the incident. The Spanish minister is scheduled to offer a press conference following the meeting.
Malmström will be receiving first-hand information regarding the drowning of at least 15 sub-Saharans as they were trying to reach Spain from Moroccan territory. Border police fired rubber bullets at a large group of migrants as they jumped the Ceuta fence.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: ‘Let Migrants in, Like Sweden Did With Nazis’
The controversial editor of Spanish right-wing newspaper La Razón has said “Spain should act like Sweden did during World War II, let the Nazis through into Norway”. La Razón’s editor Fernando Marhuenda made the comments during a heated debate on Spanish TV Channel La Sexta on Saturday.
His words were directed at Swedish EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, who recently criticized how Spain is handling the African immigration issue.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Wants Rest of EU to Share Refugee Burden
Last September, Sweden became the only European Union country to offer permanent residence to Syrians fleeing their devastated homeland. Now, strained by its own generosity, it is losing patience with what is calls a lack of solidarity from its European brethren.
“Nine member states in the EU today receive 90% of all asylum applications annually but those nine states are starting to, well, become fed up,” Tobias Billström, Sweden’s immigration minister, said in an interview. He’s asking the European Commission to punish countries for failing to pull their weight in receiving asylum seekers in accordance with the bloc’s laws.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
An Absolute Right to Refuse Service
Albert Einstein once said, “Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.”
He was right.
In the aftermath of the Arizona religious freedom skirmish, I have a few questions for those who would presume to compel religious business owners, under penalty of law, to “provide goods and services” to homosexuals in a way that violates that business owner’s conscience.
To wit:
Should a homosexual baker be forced to make a “God Hates Fags” cake for Westboro Baptist Church, simply because its members claim to be Christian?
Should a black printer be forced to develop and print thousands of “White Power!” flyers for a skinhead rally just because the potential customer is white?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
11 Charts That Show Everything Wrong With Our Modern Diet
Three decades ago, the food available was mostly fresh and grown locally. Today, the majority of foods served, whether at home, in school or in restaurants, are highly processed foods, filled with sugars, harmful processed fats, and chemical additives.
During that same time, obesity rates have skyrocketed, and one in five American deaths are now associated with obesity. Obesity-related deaths include those from type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, liver disease, cancer, dementia, and depression, as nearly all have metabolic dysfunction as a common underlying factor.
The featured article contains 11 telling charts and graphs, illustrating how the modern diet has led to an avalanche of chronic disease. As its author, Kris Gunnars says:
“The modern diet is the main reason why people all over the world are fatter and sicker than ever before. Everywhere modern processed foods go, chronic diseases like obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease soon follow.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
20,000 Megawatts Under the Sea: Oceanic Steam Engines
Jules Verne imagined this limitless power source in Victorian times — now 21st-century engineers say heat trapped in the oceans could provide electricity for the world
In theory, ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) could provide 4000 times the world’s energy needs in any given year, with neither pollution nor greenhouse gases to show for it. In the real world, however, it has long been written off as impractical.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How Humans Went From Being One Shade to Many
Our primate ancestors that first lost most of their body hair were likely pale skinned, according to a new study that concludes our human forebears probably evolved darker skin later to safeguard against skin cancer and other problems that can result from too much sun exposure.
The study, published in the latest Proceedings of the Royal Society B, helps explain both the historical origins and biological significance of skin coloration in humans.
Author Mel Greaves, a professor at The Institute of Cancer Research in the U.K., told Discovery News that “the likelihood is that the common ancestor of hominins and chimps had pale skin.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Strange Signal From Galactic Center is Looking More and More Like Dark Matter
The more that scientists stare at it, the more a strange signal from the center of the Milky Way galaxy appears to be the result of dark matter annihilation. If confirmed, it would be the first direct evidence for dark matter ever seen.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Origins of Human Skin Colors
Mel Greaves of The Institute of Cancer Research in the United Kingdom thinks that human ancestors had pale skin when they lost their body hair some two to three million years ago. The lack of hair was “almost certainly to facilitate heat loss by sweating in physically very active hunters, especially in the more open, dry and hot Savannah” of East Africa, Greaves told Discovery News. It had been theorized that melanin, the pigment that gives skin color, evolved as an adaptation to limit damage to the skin from sun exposure.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Price of Progress—The Poor Will Always be With Us
By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: “Perhaps, perhaps not. We know how to manipulate the economic situation in each district to achieve the proper distribution. And if everyone goes along, there isn’t a problem,” Pogue said. “Sometimes though we get these persistent fellows trying to climb out of their lot in life.” Pogue pointed to the dolee. “Suppose he were to go chasing job opportunities outside his assigned district, what would happen.” “It’s not technically illegal,” Anson said. “The Community doesn’t make things illegal. It makes them unpleasant. Messages get sent. Inspectors show up to look over his children, hassle him for minor tax reporting matters and give him other things to do with his time. If he persists, we turn to sterner measures to maintain equality.” Anson raised his glass of wheatgrain juice. “To the poor.”
| — Hat tip: KP | [Return to headlines] |
Broadly speaking I’m in favour of keeping Crimea in Russian hands.
Kruschev should never have transferred the peninsular to UKie SSR administration.
I’m uncomfortable with Crimea being in the hands of a weak Ukrainian puppet (US, EU or Chinese aligned). It’s Russia Afiak.