Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/14/2014

A powerful bomb exploded outside a bus station in the Nigerian capital Abuja during the morning rush hour, killing at least 71 people and wounding more than a hundred. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion has fallen on the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram.

In other news, Italy’s public debt has risen to a record €2.1072 trillion.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, MC, Srdja Trifkovic, Vlad Tepes, 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.

Financial Crisis
» Greece; Railworkers’ Strike to Disrupt Easter Travel
» Inflation Continues to Slow in Italy
» Italy’s Public Debt Hits Record 2.1072 Trillion Euros
 
USA
» 4 Dead Among at Least 36 Shot in Chicago in 36 Hours
» American Revolution 2.0 Has Begun: Battle of Bunkerville Won by the People Without Firing a Single Shot
» Antisemite Max Blumenthal Incites Murder of Three
» Asian American Group Tries to Reconnect With GOP, Citing Shared Core Values
» Blind Hate Cuts Down Three Lives at Kansas City Jewish Complex
» Blueprint for Revolution Realized in Nevada at Bundy Ranch
» Cliven Bundy to Sheriffs: ‘Disarm’ The Bureau of Land Management
» Coverage of Snowden and Boston Attack Win Pulitzer Prizes
» Democratic Lawmaker: GOP Base ‘Animated by Racism’
» FBI Abruptly Walks Out on Senate Briefing After Being Asked How ‘Insider Threat’ Program Avoids Whistleblowers
» Flashback: Sen. Reid Breaks Ground for Nevada Solar Farm Near Bundy Ranch (Photo)
» ‘Frame’ BLM’s Neil Kornze in a Poster Before BLM Returns to Bundy Ranch
» Judge Napolitano: Ranch Rebellion Was Americans’ “Line in the Sand”
» Safe Act Gun Showdown: Will New Yorkers Register Assault Weapons?
» Sen. Harry Reid: Bundy Dispute ‘Not Over’
» Sharyl Attkisson Says Book Will Focus on Obama’s ‘Aggressive’ Use of ‘Obstruction, Intimidation, And Harassment’
» Study: Children Exposed to Violent Video Games Retain Aggressive Behavior, Thoughts
» Take Back the West
» Teen Violates Probation 13 Times; His Officer Resigns
» The End of Ideology — And the Rebirth of Nationalism
» The Late Wayne Bunker — My Mentor on the Las Vegas City Council
» The Regime Doesn’t Handle Defeat Gracefully
» US Airways Tweeted an Extreme Pornographic Image and Left it up for a Long Time
» Washington is Humanity’s Worst Enemy
» What if the House Sergeant at Arms Paul D. Irving Arrested Lois Lerner?
 
Canada
» Canada Taxpayer Data Stolen in ‘Heartbleed’ Breach
 
Europe and the EU
» A New Autoimmunity Syndrome Linked to Aluminum in Vaccines
» Britain’s Aid Spending the Highest in Europe
» Denmark: Slaughter Ban Criticism Continues
» Denmark: Boys With Breasts
» Europe Needs to Diversify Energy Supply, Say U. S. Experts
» French Police Begin Mass DNA Test in Hunt for School Rapist
» Germany Warns of War in Europe
» Germany: 330,000 Sign up Against TV Licence Fee
» Germany: Coalition Argues Over Saudi Arabia Tank Deal
» German Jobs Scheme Shuts Door on Spaniards
» Germany: Refugee Lives in a Tree After Camp Torn Down
» Italy: Silvio Berlusconi’s 2012 Taxable Income 4.5 Mn Euros
» Italy: BPM Bank Shareholders Reject Governance Changes, Stock Falls
» Italy: Govt Demands Answers Over New La Scala Chief’s Shows
» Italy: Napolitano Unfazed by Euroskeptics
» Italy: M5S Leader Play on Levi Title Outrages Jewish Community
» Merkel Has Spa Treatment, Massage on Ischia
» Norway: Fjord Life
» Norway: Utøya Survivor Fights for Payout
» Swedes Replace Credit Cards With Hand Swipe
» Sweden: Desperation Post — It Saves Wife From Abusive Man
» ‘The Mafia Has Infiltrated Every Sector in Germany’
» Thyssenkrupp to Say Good-Bye to Shipbuilding in Sweden
» UK: ‘Muslim Plot’ To Take Over Schools Investigated
» UK: ‘Rats the Size of Cats Are Invading Our Cities’
» UK: A Planning Inspector Will Chair a Hearing Tomorrow Over the Future of the Historic Waltham Oak Pub in Walthamstow
» UK: City Boss Dodged £42,000 in Train Fares on Commute
» UK: Dental Nurse Accused of Poisoning Her Boss’s Coffee With Mercury Won’t Face Third Trial After Two Juries Failed to Reach Verdicts
» UK: Did Muslim Hardliners Try to Infiltrate and Takeover Twenty Five Birmingham Schools?
» UK: Gove is Right to Fail Schools for Religious Bias
» UK: Giant Crane Lifts Burnley Mosque’s £100,000 Minaret Into Place
» UK: Islamists Take Over 15 Schools in Birmingham, Probe Ordered
» UK: Inquiry Into Muslim Infiltration Claims Extends to 25 Schools
» UK: Nick Clegg Backs Probe Into School Extremism Claims
» UK: Prince Charles Refused to Back Salman Rushdie Over the Satanic Verses, Says Martin Amis
» UK: Sajid Javid: The Millionaire Bus Conductor’s Son With a Portrait of Margaret Thatcher on His Wall
» UK: Sex Ring at Cyril’s School: He Wasn’t a Lone Wolf
» UK: Top Banana Created in Derbyshire is at Risk From Deadly Disease
» UK: Tony Blair’s Advisers and Their ‘Ties to Extremist Group’
» UK: The Boy Handed Into Cyril Smith’s Clutches by His Parents to be Disciplined
» US Government Promoting Islam in Czech Republic
 
Balkans
» Turkey’s Free Trade Agreement With Bosnia to Expand
 
Mediterranean Union
» COPEAM Renewed, Call on Governments for New EuroMed Deal
» EU: Youth Mission to Build a Better Mediterranean
» EuroMed: UFM Approves Projects on Water, Equal Opportunity
 
North Africa
» Egypt: Sisi Officially to Run for President
» Ex-Gaddafi Officials Appear at Trial in Libya, Sons Absent
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Pesach Shame: Hamas Conquers Temple Mount
 
Middle East
» Juan Carlos in Abu Dhabi With Entrepreneurs
» Syria: Killing of Priest Was ‘Rebel Punishment’
» Turkey ‘Aided Islamist Fighters’ In Attack on Syrian Town
» Turkey: Erdogan Does Nothing But Make Mistakes
 
Russia
» ‘A Partner for Russia’: Europe’s Far Right Flirts With Moscow
» EU Responds to Ukraine Events With Expanded Travel-Ban, Asset-Freeze List
» ‘Not Time for Third Set’ of Russia Sanctions Says Mogherini
» Obama Admin. Says it May Send Arms to Ukrainian Junta
» Putin’s Salary to be Raised by Factor of 2.65
» Send in the UN Peacekeepers, Pleads Ukraine as Pro-Russian Militias in Ukraine Openly Defy Deadline to Lay Down Guns
» Srdja Trifkovic: Eastern Approaches
» Srdja Trifkovic: Report From Moscow
» Tensions High in Eastern Ukraine as Pro-Russia Separatists Gain Ground
» Ukraine’s Ousted President Puts Blame on CIA
 
South Asia
» Boy’s Head Found in Home of Convicted Pakistani Cannibals 35
» One Afghan Army Soldier Killed in Blast
 
Far East
» 42% of Drug Reactions Are Vaccine Related
» ‘Cherry Tree From Space’ Mystery Baffles Japan
» China: Minmetals Group Buys Glencore Peru Mine for $5.85 Billion
» Norway Sends Lost 1927 Film Back to China
 
Australia — Pacific
» Nanoparticles Make Turkey Eggs Tough to Crack
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Blast Hits Bus Station Outside Nigeria’s Capital Abuja
» Nigeria Bus Station Blast Kills at Least 71
» Nigeria Violence: More Than 70 Killed in Abuja Bus Blast
 
Latin America
» Argentinean Society’s Values Questioned After Series of Lynchings
 
Immigration
» Are Millions of Africans About to Swarm Into a More Open Europe?
» Germany: From Burger Flipper to Bürgermeister? Immigrant Could Become Next Berlin Mayor
» Italy: Police Arrest 3 Alleged Smugglers on Boat Carrying 199
» Netherlands: Sharp Rise in Asylum Requests in 2013
 
Culture Wars
» Gender Activists Want Law Change in Italy
» Italy: Gay Marriage Formally Recorded in Grosseto Civil Registry
» Sweden’s Feminist Party Fêtes Dramatic Poll Climb
 
General
» Ancient Mars Probably Too Cold for Liquid Water
» ‘Big Bird’ Space Neutrino Has Highest Energy Yet Seen
» Did Neanderthals Make Music?
» Disease Threatens World’s Bananas, Warns UN
» Do Adults Owe Their Parents Anything?
» Overall Global Military Spending Falls, With Increases Seen in Russia, Asia and Africa
» WTO Expects Modest Increase in Global Trade in the Years Ahead
 

Greece; Railworkers’ Strike to Disrupt Easter Travel

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, APRIL 14 — Major travel disruption is expected in Greece over Easter, when rail workers will proceed with a series of strikes as GreekReporter website writes. The Panhellenic Federation of Railway Workers (Pos) has announced three-hour work stoppages for Holy Tuesday and Holy Wednesday and 24-hour strikes for Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. Meanwhile a freight workers’ strike is expected to last throughout Holy Week. Railway employees are demanding the signing of a collective labor agreement as well as further recruitment, and are protesting against redundancies and privatization.

The new labour reforms demanded by the country’s Eu-Imf creditors have stirred intense reactions and continuing strikes by Greek unions.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Inflation Continues to Slow in Italy

Annual rate 0.4%, Istat says

(ANSA) — Rome, April 14 — Inflation continues to slow in Italy, Istat reported Monday. The national statistics office said the annual inflation rate in March was 0.4%, half the rate from five months earlier, and the lowest since 2009. On a monthly basis the index rose by 0.1%.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy’s Public Debt Hits Record 2.1072 Trillion Euros

(ANSAmed) — ROME, APRIL 14 — Italy’s massive public debt hit a record 2.1072 trillion euros in February, the central bank reported Monday. The amount was up 17.5 billion euros since January, the Bank of Italy said.

The European Commission has criticized Italy’s 2014 budget for not doing enough to bring down debt, around 132% of gross domestic product (GDP). As a result it has put Italy under “specific monitoring” over its “excessive macroeconomic imbalances”, which include high debt and poor competitiveness, as part of an in-depth review.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

4 Dead Among at Least 36 Shot in Chicago in 36 Hours

At least 36 people were shot in Chicago, four of them fatally, in as many hours over the weekend, with more than half of the shootings occurring over a half-day period stretching into early Sunday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

American Revolution 2.0 Has Begun: Battle of Bunkerville Won by the People Without Firing a Single Shot

(NaturalNews) “We were among 500 militiamen at the gates [of the BLM cattle compound]. The militia went muzzle to muzzle with BLM. Fingers on triggers, safeties off. We told them we’re not backing down and we are prepared to lay our lives on the lines for these principles.” — actual quote relayed to Natural News from an American Citizen who took part in the raid on the BLM cattle compounds to free Bundy’s cattle. The BLM later surrendered and evacuated the area, fearing for their lives.

The second American Revolution has begun. You are watching history unfold in real time now, and of course the lamestream media has intentionally decided U.S. history isn’t worth covering because, frankly stated, the media is largely run by anti-American interests who absolutely do not want any victory by the People to be broadcast anywhere.

While the U.S. government claims to be supportive of freedom in Kiev or Iraq, it is absolutely terrified of freedom within U.S. borders.

Among big media, only Fox News has dared cover this story with anything resembling responsible reporting, as you can see in this video. The video text says “Govt backs down due to safety concerns.” In reality, BLM backed down because they were grossly out-gunned and didn’t want to die.

In this video, Fox Radio host Todd Starnes says, “For the past five years, we’ve seen the American people become increasingly frustrated with these government intrusions into their lives. [A tweet characterized this] as the 1st salvo of the American Revolution.”

I couldn’t agree more. This was the 1st salvo of the American Revolution, and the framework of the Revolution has now been cast. The People now realize they can defeat tyranny by merely showing up in huge numbers armed mostly with mobile phones and video cameras (plus lawfully-obtained firearms as needed).

What you are seeing here is precisely the reason why the federal government has been pushing so hard to criminalize private firearms ownership. The government knows that as long as citizens own firearms, there is a balance of power in America. When citizens are denied the right to own those firearms, power shifts to those who own the guns (i.e. the government) who can then engage in unlimited tyranny, confiscation, intimidation and violence against the People who are left utterly defenseless.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Antisemite Max Blumenthal Incites Murder of Three

By Daniel Pipes

Max Blumenthal, like others on the far-Left, jumped on the July 2011 Norwegian massacre of 77 dead and 319 injured to impugn the counter-jihadi right. His screed, “Anders Behring Breivik, a perfect product of the Axis of Islamophobia” included this sentence:

The rhetoric of the characters who inspired Breivik, from Pam Geller to Robert Spencer to Daniel Pipes, was so eliminationist in its nature that it was perhaps only a matter of time before someone put words into action.

In other words, we three were to blame for the massacre. A year later, Blumenthal returned to the same theme, this time focusing on just me:…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Asian American Group Tries to Reconnect With GOP, Citing Shared Core Values

A group of Asian Americans is starting a grassroots effort to garner support for the Republican Party and its candidates, saying the GOP most closely aligns with their core values including family, education and entrepreneurship.

The group, the Asian Republican Coalition, is co-founded by international investment banker John Ying, who during the 2012 presidential election cycle served on the Republican National Finance Committee.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Blind Hate Cuts Down Three Lives at Kansas City Jewish Complex

Yesterday, we received a call alerting us to the shooting at the Jewish Community Center and Village Shalom assisted living center complex in Overland Park, Kansas. I called a member of my small synagogue here in Pensacola, Florida, a native of St. Joseph Missouri, who I knew had a relative who lived at the Overland Park Village Shalom assisted living complex. When he returned my call he said he had spoken to his cousin who said he was secure in a lock down of the assisted living complex. Like millions of Americans my friend’s cousin wanted more details on the innocent victims and the perpetrator of this heinous crime. All we knew at the time was that the perpetrator had been apprehended allegedly shouting “Heil Hitler”.

For some hours news media locally in Kansas City and nationally wouldn’t reveal anything about the identities of the perpetrator and his victims. Tragically, as the facts emerged, we learned that the alleged perpetrator was a known Supremacist and ex-KKK official, who in 2006 and 2010 had run on a white supremacist platform for both the US House Senate, 73 year old Frazier Glenn Miller of Aurora, Missouri.

Two of the victims were a well regarded Johnson County physician and his talented 14 year old grandson, Dr. William Lewis Corporon and Reat Griffen Underwood, a freshman at Blue Valley High School. They were at the JCC for a singing contest. Both Dr. Corporan and his grandson were members of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leewood.. Dr. Corporon had moved to Kansas City from Oklahoma to be closer to his grandchildren.

As reported by the Kansas City Star on April 14th , The third victim was Terri LaManno, 53, of Kansas City a Roman Catholic.. “She was killed at the Village Shalom assisted living facility in Overland Park. She went there every Sunday to visit her mother, a resident of the facility, authorities said”. Ms. La Manno was wemplyed as an occupational therapist at the Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired. The LaManno’s were long term parishioners at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Kansas City. Parish Priest Steve Carter in a statement extolled Ms. LaManno’s virtues saying:…

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

Blueprint for Revolution Realized in Nevada at Bundy Ranch

The release of the Bundy cattle in the standoff with The Bureau Of Land Management at Bunkerville Nevada and the shameful retreat of the disgraced BLM and associated agencies like the Park Service represents the first monumental initial victory that will be won by people who care for the future of our nation and the future of the world.

Showing absolutely no fear a crowd of about a thousand Cliven Bundy supporters stared down dozens of heavily armed federal minions that were cowardly hiding behind vehicles wearing body armor and silly helmets. In what turned out to be a very prudent move the federal “authorities” backed down and fled the area in a convoy of about 85 vehicles.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Cliven Bundy to Sheriffs: ‘Disarm’ The Bureau of Land Management

Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy said Monday that his standoff with the feds isn’t just about cattle: It’s about an “overpowering” bureaucracy in the U.S. that needs to be disarmed.

“I only want to talk to one person in each county across the United States, and here’s what I want to say: County sheriffs, disarm U.S. bureaucracy. County sheriffs, disarm U.S. bureaucrats,” Bundy said on Glenn Beck’s radio show on TheBlaze on Monday.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Coverage of Snowden and Boston Attack Win Pulitzer Prizes

The Washington Post and The Guardian won the Pulitzer Prize for public service, among the most prestigious awards in journalism, for their stories based on National Security Agency documents leaked by the former government contractor Edward J. Snowden.

The Boston Globe won the breaking news prize for its coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing, which killed three people and wounded at least 260. Tuesday is the one-year anniversary of the blast.

The New York Times won two awards, both in photography categories. Tyler Hicks won an award for his coverage of a terrorist attack at an upscale Nairobi mall that left more than 60 people dead. Josh Haner won for his images of the painstaking recovery of a Boston Marathon bombing survivor.

[Return to headlines]
 

Democratic Lawmaker: GOP Base ‘Animated by Racism’

WASHINGTON (AP) — An overhaul to the nation’s broken immigration system remains stalled because “the Republican base does have elements that are animated by racism,” the head of the House committee to elect Democratic lawmakers said Sunday.

Rep. Steve Israel’s comments are in line with those from House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi earlier this week, in which she blamed racial issues for the GOP’s failure to act on comprehensive immigration legislation. Asked about Pelosi’s comments, New York’s Israel said he agreed with her assessment.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

FBI Abruptly Walks Out on Senate Briefing After Being Asked How ‘Insider Threat’ Program Avoids Whistleblowers

While we’ve been disappointed that Senator Chuck Grassley appears to have a bit of a double standard with his staunch support for whistleblowers when it comes to Ed Snowden, it is true that he has fought for real whistleblower protections for quite some time. Lately, he’s been quite concerned that the White House’s “Insider Threat Program” (ITP) is really just a cover to crack down on whistleblowers.

As we’ve noted, despite early promises from the Obama administration to support and protect whistleblowers, the administration has led the largest crackdown against whistleblowers, and the ITP suggests that the attack on whistleblowers is a calculated response. The program documentation argues that any leak can be seen as “aiding the enemy” and encourages government employees to snitch on each other if they appear too concerned about government wrong-doing. Despite all his high minded talk of supporting whistleblowers, President Obama has used the Espionage Act against whistleblowers twice as many times as all other Presidents combined. Also, he has never — not once — praised someone for blowing the whistle in the federal government.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Flashback: Sen. Reid Breaks Ground for Nevada Solar Farm Near Bundy Ranch (Photo)

The senator’s plan for solar farms in Nevada wasn’t just limited to the shelved project near Laughlin

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who was exposed last Friday as the mastermind behind the Bureau of Land Management’s persecution of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, can be seen in this March 2014 photo breaking ground for a new solar farm near the Bundy Ranch, emphasizing that the senator’s plan for solar projects in Nevada wasn’t just limited to the shelved solar farm near Laughlin…

The development of solar farms just like this one is exactly why Sen. Reid was using the BLM, whose director is Reid’s former senior advisor, to push Bundy out of the Gold Butte area his family has worked for over 140 years.

As we revealed last Friday in an article that became the #1 news story in the world for 24 hours, the BLM specifically stated that it wanted Bundy and his cattle out of the area as part of the agency’s “regional mitigation strategy for the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone.”

The BLM attempted a cover-up by deleting documents exposing the plan from its web site, but fortunately contributors at the Free Republic were able to save them for posterity.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Frame’ BLM’s Neil Kornze in a Poster Before BLM Returns to Bundy Ranch

Many protesters who came to the rescue of Cliven Bundy in Bunkerville were spurred to answer the call of justice because they believe it is not the Desert Tortoise BLM used as an excuse to remove Bundy’s cattle but the Harry Reid-sanctioned Western Solar Plan.

“Kornze was a key player in the development of the Western Solar Plan and the agency’s successful authorization of more than 10,000 megawatts of renewable energy, surpassing a congressionally-established goal 3 years ahead of schedule. He has also been active in tribal consultation, especially as it relates to oil and gas and renewable energy development. (Dept. of the Interior)

“In 2012, investigative reporter Marcus Stern blew open a deal Reid and his son had arranged with a Chinese company to build a $5 billion solar farm and panel manufacturing plant in the southern Nevada desert. The BLM helpfully expressed its opinion that trespassing cattle would need to be removed in order to make way for the deal. Although the project ultimately failed, it represents part of a pattern by Reid to seize land to give to special interests in order to benefit himself, his family and campaign contributors. Similarly, in 2010, Reid’s campaign received thousands of dollars in donations from a Texas wind farm’s backers, which Reid rewarded with $450 million in federal stimulus funds. ()

The following description of the Western Solar Plan comes directly from the BLM website:…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Judge Napolitano: Ranch Rebellion Was Americans’ “Line in the Sand”

BLM feds should have been arrested for theft of private property

Judge Andrew Napolitano appeared on Fox News to denounce the federal government’s operation against Nevada cattle rancher Cliven Bundy, asserting that BLM agents should have been arrested for seizing his property and that the case represents a “line in the sand” for Americans who have had enough of big government tyranny.

Napolitano said the feds were forced to back down because they had suffered a public relations nightmare, pointing out that Bundy lost his case in a federal court but that the case should have been tried in a state court.

“The federal judiciary should not be deciding what land the federal government owns,” said Napolitano, adding that the feds should have placed a lien against Bundy’s property to collect grazing fees and not conducted a raid backed up by armed agents to seize his private property.

“The government’s option is to take the amount of money he owes them and docket it, that is file the lien on his property…the federal government could have done that, instead they wanted this show of force,” said Napolitano, adding, “They swooped in…with assault rifles aimed and ready and stole this guy’s property, they stole his cattle, they didn’t have the right to do that, that’s theft and they should have been arrested by state officials”.

Napolitano also chastised the BLM’s ludicrous creation of a ‘First Amendment Area’ outside of which free speech was banned. Protesters completely ignored the zone and it was quickly torn down by BLM officials after being widely derided in the media.

“They established something utterly repellant in America, a First Amendment Zone…the square was three miles away from where these events were going — this is the federal government emasculating the First Amendment rights of the protesters,” said the judge.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Safe Act Gun Showdown: Will New Yorkers Register Assault Weapons?

Come Tuesday, owners of assault weapons in New York will be faced with a choice: Register those firearms with the state or potentially face a felony charge.

Some gun owners have long threatened to ignore a requirement to register assault weapons under the SAFE Act, a set of strict gun laws approved by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers last year.

With the registration deadline set for Tuesday, they’ll soon have their chance.

“We are not asking our members what they are going to do, nor are we advising them what to do,” said Tom King, president of the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association. “When someone asks me, I say it’s a personal choice and I don’t want to know.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Sen. Harry Reid: Bundy Dispute ‘Not Over’

“We can’t have an American people that violate the law and then just walk away from it. So it’s not over”

After remaining silent for days, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid made comments regarding the ongoing dispute between the Bureau of Land Management and rancher Cliven Bundy today, accusing the Bundy family of violating the law.

“Well, it’s not over. We can’t have an American people that violate the law and then just walk away from it. So it’s not over,” Reid told News 4.

Despite telling the Bundy family that a deal had been reached Saturday after federal agents were forced to retreat, the BLM reversed its promise Monday and told reporters that they planned to go after Bundy “administratively and judicially.”

“The door isn’t closed. We’ll figure out how to move forward with this,” BLM spokesman Craig Leff said. “The BLM and National Park Service did not cut any deal and negotiate anything, there was no deal we made.”

Unsurprisingly, reporters made no attempt to question Reid regarding his involvement after an Infowars report linked Reid to the attempted Bundy land grab.

The most read news story in the world Friday, Infowars reporter Kit Daniels revealed documents linking Reid and the BLM’s director, Reid’s former senior adviser, to a Chinese energy firm that has been working to remove Bundy from his home in order to install solar panel power stations.

“Non-Governmental Organizations have expressed concern that the regional mitigation strategy for the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone utilizes Gold Butte as the location for offsite mitigation for impacts from solar development, and that those restoration activities are not durable with the presence of trespass cattle,” one document states about Bundy’s cattle.

Harry Reid’s son, Rory Reid, has been the chief representative to the Chinese firm, which announced its plan to build a $5 billion solar plant on public Nevada land in 2012.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Sharyl Attkisson Says Book Will Focus on Obama’s ‘Aggressive’ Use of ‘Obstruction, Intimidation, And Harassment’

Recently departed CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson appeared with Howard Kurtz on Fox’s Media Buzz on Sunday. Kurtz said her forthcoming book is titled “Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama’s Washington.” Kurtz asked her to define those forces.

“I think any journalist who has been covering Washington for a few years would agree… that there is pressure coming to bear on journalists for just doing their job in ways that have never come to bear before.” (Video below)

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Study: Children Exposed to Violent Video Games Retain Aggressive Behavior, Thoughts

A recent study by researchers at Iowa State University suggests kids who play violent video games will have more aggressive behavior and keep aggressive thoughts regardless of age, gender or parental involvement.

Pediatrician Dr. Kim Guiliano at the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Medical Center says parents are still the first line of defense:

“It helps if parents talk to their children and explain fantasy versus reality but young brains don’t often grasp the difference in the concepts , but really removing these things from a child’s exposure is the best thing to do,” said Guiliano.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Take Back the West

The events in Nevada this week have made a number of things crystal clear:

1.   Our government, at least at the upper management/executive service level, is incredibly corrupt.
2.   Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), Senate Majority Misleader, is incredibly corrupt.
3.   Obama’s Executive Branch that allowed this situation to take place in the way that it did is incredibly corrupt.
4.   The judicial branch that has consistently allowed “environmentalists” to dictate public land policy is incredibly corrupt.
5.   The “environmentalists” and their co-conspirators in Congress who foisted the so-called “Endangered Species Act” and numerous other extreme laws on us, and turned a blind eye to the above mentioned corruption are incredibly corrupt.
6.   The massive amount of “public land” controlled by the federal government in the West is anything but public.
7.   If the United States of America is to survive as a single, sovereign nation, the states, and particularly the Western states, need to take back the land unconstitutionally ruled over by the federal government.
 

There is a movement among a handful of state legislators in the West to get the federal government to turn back the land they have taken over the years, and “managed” with agencies like the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the USDA-Forest Service, the Corps of Engineers, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), none of which appear to be authorized by the Constitution.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Teen Violates Probation 13 Times; His Officer Resigns

A probation officer who could have asked the court to lock up a 16-year-old now charged with killing a father to be has resigned, a Marion County judge said Friday.

Court documents show that Simeon Adams of Indianapolis was free to roam the streets for a month while awaiting a hearing on 13 probation violations. For nine of them, Adams was not home when the officer, Tracy McDonald, visited to check on his house arrest.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The End of Ideology — And the Rebirth of Nationalism

If a single sentence could express the seeming indifference of the silent majority of Americans to what is going on abroad, it might be the simple question: “Why is this our problem?”

The American imperium, the last of the great Western empires, may be about to come down with the suddenness of the other empires of the 20th century.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Late Wayne Bunker — My Mentor on the Las Vegas City Council

The tiny hamlet of Bunkerville is located fifty miles east of Las Vegas in the southeast corner of Nevada along the Virgin River near the Arizona and Utah borders. The town was named after one of the pioneer Mormon families that first settled Southern Nevada in the late 1800’s.

Most of the current residents of Bunkerville, nearby Overton, Glendale, and Logandale, are the descendents of some of the toughest settlers of the Old West.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Regime Doesn’t Handle Defeat Gracefully

When the ATF attacked the Branch Davidians outside Waco in February 1993, the expectation was a quick and painless victory over an eccentric religious sect and a public relations boost for the scandal-plagued agency. This is why the assault was code-named “Showtime.”

The Davidians, however, refused to follow the script. When the ATF stormtroopers arrived at the sect’s sanctuary at Mt. Carmel, David Koresh — who had known of the impending assault, and released an ATF informant rather than holding him as a hostage — attempted to de-escalate the confrontation, only to be answered by a murderous volley of gunfire. Rather than allowing themselves to be shackled or slaughtered, the Davidians stood their ground, killing four of the assailants in a morally unassailable exercise of self-defense and forcing the ATF to retreat.

Because the Regime cannot countenance resistance, the FBI laid siege to the Davidians for 51 days before the final assault that left of scores of Davidians dead from fire, asphyxiation, and gunfire…

Like any bully, the Regime in Washington chooses its battles carefully, generally avoiding fights with opponents capable of fighting back. But it will not accept defeat when clearly in the wrong. This is something Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his supporters should remember.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

US Airways Tweeted an Extreme Pornographic Image and Left it up for a Long Time

We blurred out the photo because it’s not appropriate for work — or anywhere else. Here is the original VERY NSFW image. Click at your own risk.

The photo shows a completely nude woman on her back with a plane inserted into her vagina. The tweet was in the US Airways Twitter feed for about an hour.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Washington is Humanity’s Worst Enemy

How does Washington get away with the claim that the country it rules is a democracy and has freedom? This absurd claim ranks as one of the most unsubstantiated claims in history.

There is no democracy whatsoever. Voting is a mask for rule by a few powerful interest groups. In two 21st century rulings (Citizens United and McCutcheon), the US Supreme Court has ruled that the purchase of the US government by private interest groups is merely the exercise of free speech. These rulings allow powerful corporate and financial interests to use their money-power to elect a government that serves their interests at the expense of the general welfare.

The control private interests exercise over the government is so complete that private interests have immunity to prosecution for crimes. At his retirement party on March 27, Securities and Exchange Commission prosecutor James Kidney stated that his prosecutions of Goldman Sachs and other “banks too big to fail” were blocked by superiors who “were focused on getting high-paying jobs after their government service.” The SEC’s top brass, Kidney said, did not “believe in afflicting the comfortable and powerful.” In his report on Kidney’s retirement speech, Eric Zuesse points out that the Obama regime released false statistics in order to claim prosecutions that did not take place in order to convince a gullible public that Wall Street crooks were being punished.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

What if the House Sergeant at Arms Paul D. Irving Arrested Lois Lerner?

It is likely that the full House will also vote by a majority to confirm the Committee decision holding Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress. After that happens, what comes next?

Under House precedent, if Lerner is held in contempt by the full House, the Sergeant at Arms for the House can be dispatched by the Speaker of the House to arrest her and bring her to the floor of the House. She can then be asked by the Speaker to answer the charges brought against her by the House and, thereafter, be subject to punishment that the House may dictate (usually imprisonment to coerce her into testifying).

Under the Contempt resolution adopted by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the Committee is asking for a likely ineffectual means to address Lerner’s contempt. The Committee has resolved to refer Lerner’s case to the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, but that attorney, Ronald C. Machen, Jr., is an Obama appointee and will likely refuse to prosecute Lerner.

Could the full House follow a different enforcement approach that is not toothless? Yes, it could, and it should.

Congress could sue Lerner in a civil action, seeking an order compelling her to testify before the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. That option is unattractive because civil suits of this kind take years to come to full fruition.

The best option, one not used for 75 years, but supported by no fewer than four Supreme Court decisions, is for Congress to act directly, relying on its inherent contempt power to arrest and incarcerate Lerner. That is the most expeditious way to impose a sanction for her contumacious refusal to testify. How would that work?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Canada Taxpayer Data Stolen in ‘Heartbleed’ Breach

Canada’s tax-collection agency reported on Monday that the private information of some 900 people had been stolen from its computer systems as a result of vulnerabilities caused by the ‘Heartbleed’ bug.

The breach allowed someone to extract social insurance numbers, which are used for employment and gaining access to government benefits, and possibly some other data, the Canada Revenue Agency said.

“Regrettably, the CRA has been notified by the government of Canada’s lead security agencies of a malicious breach of taxpayer data that occurred over a six-hour period,” the CRA said in a statement.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

A New Autoimmunity Syndrome Linked to Aluminum in Vaccines

While “anti-vaxxers” are being smeared in public campaigns as backward and unscientific fear-mongers, a growing body of cutting edge research is emerging from the top echelons of medical immunology to confirm what the cranks have been saying for years about the devastating effects of vaccine ingredients. The biggest names in the field of study of the human immune system are attached to current papers in the most prestigious immunology literature that link widely used vaccine ingredients such as aluminum to terrifying modern epidemics of immune-mediated diseases including autism and Alzheimer’s. As well, they’ve identified an entirely new post-vaccine syndrome: Autoimmune Inflammatory Syndrome Induced by Adjuvants (ASIA). And while the study of ASIA is shining light on the underlying mechanisms through which vaccine ingredients trigger disease, it is also exposing cracks in the foundation of a century of vaccine orthodoxy .

Nearly 3,000 doctors and scientists from around the world gathered last week at the 9th International Congress on Autoimmunity (ICA) in the Nice Acropolis Convention Center on the French Riviera. Dozens of seminars and panel discussions of causes and treatments for scores of autoimmune diseases were scheduled. But an entire day of the four day event held every two years was devoted to the 3rd International Vaccine Symposium held under the umbrella of the ICA.

Ignasi Rodriguez-Pinto, an autoimmunologist at the Barcelona Hospital Clinic and former fellow of the pre-eminent Zabludowicz Center for Autoimmune Diseases at Tel Aviv University’s Sheba Medical Center was at the symposium to announce the creation of a world registry for ASIA.

ASIA was first identified in the Journal of Autoimmunology in 2011 by Dr. Yehuda Schoenfeld, founder of the Zabludowicz Center. It includes a broad spectrum of neurological and immune-mediated phenomena seen following vaccine injections which result from exposure to their ingredients, including aluminum. Among ASIA’s diagnostic criteria: weakness, anxiety, rashes, chronic fatigue, sleep disorders and the onset of a range of autoimmune diseases from Systemic Lupus Erythematosis to Rheumatoid Arthritis — sometimes years after an initial reaction.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Britain’s Aid Spending the Highest in Europe

UK increased foreign aid spending by almost a third — more than any country in Europe and is now second only to US in generous aid budgets

Britain hiked its aid spending by more than any other country in Europe last year, figures show. Foreign aid soared by 28 per cent last year, meaning the UK hit its target of spending 0.7 per cent of GDP on overseas development. It left Britain with the second most generous aid budget in the world, outstripped only by the United States, and it came as a series of developed nations cut back on their aid spending…

Department for Culture Media and Sport

Program to make PE lessons more “meaningful and exciting” in 20 countries including Malaysia, South Africa, Brazil and Turkey, following London 2012 Olympics.

Cost: £8.35m over four years

Department of Energy and Climate Change

Program to reduce “greenhouse gas emissions from cattle ranching” in Colombia.

Cost: £15m over four years…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Denmark: Slaughter Ban Criticism Continues

The law banning the slaughter of animals that haven’t been stunned continues to attract international criticism.

The Jerusalem Post reported recently that a number of religious groups have accused Denmark of hypocrisy and anti-Semitism.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Denmark: Boys With Breasts

More than half of Danish boys are showing signs of developing breasts — a condition called gynecomastia — as they enter puberty.

Dr Mikkel Grunnet Mieritz is one of the doctors behind a study of the condition. “When we look at adolescent boys, up to 60 percent show signs of breast development,” he told Videnskaben.dk. Mieritz said that mammary glands on boys are harmless, but can be embarrassing for the boys who develop them.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Europe Needs to Diversify Energy Supply, Say U. S. Experts

(AGI) Washington, April 13 — Europe needs to increase coordination within its borders and diversify its energy supply, if it wants to stand up to Russia. World leading energy experts Edward L. Morse, Gary Hart and Ian Bremmer commented to this effect in response to an article by Eni CEO Paolo Scaroni in The Financial Times. Europe has lost its ambition to play a role in energy geopolitics at either regional or global level, said Morse, who is the Global Head of Commodities Research at Citigroup, chairman of the New York Energy Forum and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Energy Policy. He agreed with Mr Scaroni’s fragmentation theory, stressing that Europe was the main cause of its own energy dilemma. In response to Scaroni’s proposal to diversify energy supply, developing domestic shale gas, increasing alternative imports and improving links between the European nations, Morse said that if Europe had other energy options, its relationship with Moscow would change. Former U.S. Democratic Senator Gary Hart said that greater energy policy coordination was needed in the light of the dispute between Russia and Ukraine and that the UN was trying to improve cooperation on issues such as environment and health, but that energy was just as important a focus.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

French Police Begin Mass DNA Test in Hunt for School Rapist

French police began collecting DNA samples from hundreds of students and staff at a school in western France on Monday in an attempt to identify the assailant who raped a teenage girl last year.

Police in La Rochelle began testing more than 500 male pupils and staff in their hunt for the perpetrator of the assault on a 16-year-old girl in the toilets of Fenelon-Notre-Dame high school last September.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany Warns of War in Europe

Germany warned of war in Europe on Monday, with vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel stating the continent was being “dragged” into a “smouldering conflict” with Russia over Ukraine.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: 330,000 Sign up Against TV Licence Fee

An online petition to Germany’s Constitutional Court demanding the “flat rate” TV licence fee be scrapped has collected almost 330,000 signatures.

The petition is hosted on campaigning website Avaaz.com and claims the fee, introduced in January 2013, is not just unfair but also illegal. Under the system, every home must pay a flat monthly rate of €17.98 regardless of whether it has a TV or radio.

“This amounts to a tax which is banned by the constitution for good reasons,” the petition said. “Every person has the natural right not to be forced to finance companies.”

It argues the state broadcasters should instead be funded by “Pay-TV” or adverts rather than a compulsory levy on all households. The petition, uploaded to the site at the beginning of December 2013, has a target of 1,000,000 signatures.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: Coalition Argues Over Saudi Arabia Tank Deal

An €18-billion deal to sell Saudi Arabia 800 tanks is causing tension within Germany’s coalition government.

The country’s economy minister Sigmar Gabriel, from the centre left Social Democrats (SPD), wants to block the deal with Germany’s biggest arms market, Bild newspaper reported on Sunday.

But on Monday politicians from the Conservative bloc of the coalition attacked the move. Florian Hahn, defence spokesman for the Christian Social Union (CSU), said it was “astounding” that the economy minister, who is also Germany’s vice chancellor, would not look out for the German arms industry. “The vice chancellor is burying the German arms industry,” Hahn told the Passauer Neue Presse.

Michael Fuchs, from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Conservative bloc, the CDU/CSU, also warned against torpedoing the sale of the Leopard 2 tanks to the autocratic country.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

German Jobs Scheme Shuts Door on Spaniards

Germany said on Monday it was no longer accepting applications for a programme to attract young Europeans to its job market due to overwhelming demand from crisis-ravaged countries.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: Refugee Lives in a Tree After Camp Torn Down

Protests are continuing in Berlin after the demolition of a refugee camp last Tuesday. Five refugees have gone on hunger strike and one woman lived in a tree for more than 100 hours.

The hunger strikers on Kreuzberg’s Oranienplatz, who come from Iran, Ghana, Uganda and Turkey, are staying on a tarpaulin on the north side of the square and are now in their sixth day without solid food. They told The Local they were undeterred by rain, cold or the heavy police presence around them.

Some claimed they will face death or long prison sentences in their home and are demanding the right to stay and work in Germany.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Silvio Berlusconi’s 2012 Taxable Income 4.5 Mn Euros

Down from nearly 40 million euros in 2010

(updates previous) (ANSA) — Rome, April 14 — Ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s taxable income collapsed by 30 million euros in 2012 compared to the previous year, and marks the second annual income decline in a row, according to the Senator asset registry of Italy’s current legislature, made public on Monday. The registry showed the leader of the centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party’s income at 4,515,298 euros in 2012.

Berlusconi declared an income of 35,439,988 euros in 2011, and of nearly 40 million euros in 2010.

The tallies reflect the period when Berlusconi was still in parliament. Last year the Senate voted to oust the three-time premier after the supreme Court of Cassation found him guilty of tax fraud at his Mediaset media empire in a binding conviction, the billionaire’s first in 20 years of legal entanglements. He is now banned from holding public office and is awaiting sentencing for the remaining 10 months of his fraud conviction, either to be spent under house arrest or performing community service.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: BPM Bank Shareholders Reject Governance Changes, Stock Falls

Major share issue triggers demand for wider voice for investors

(ANSA) — Milan, April 14 — Shareholders in Banca Popolare di Milano (BPM) rejected governance changes proposed by management Monday, triggering a sell-off in shares of the Italian bank.

Market regulator Consob moved quickly to ban short-selling in the bank stock through Tuesday as financial markets digested the decision coming from an extraordinary shareholders meeting.

Chief Executive Officer Giuseppe Castagna had proposed giving institutional investors an increased say after the annual general meeting on Saturday failed to approve his proposed changes by the required two-thirds majority.

The governance changes would reduce the say of employee and union shareholders by giving an equal voice to institutional investors in the cooperative bank.

Proposed changes in governance at the bank had been strongly promoted by the Bank of Italy, after BPM announced it would launch a 500-million-euro share sale expected to begin on May 5 to boost its capital and attract new investors ahead of an asset review by the European Central Bank.

The ECB is reviewing the books of banks in numerous countries including 15 institutions in Italy to ascertain their soundness.

Shares in BPM bank fell by as much as 9.5% during Monday’s trading.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Govt Demands Answers Over New La Scala Chief’s Shows

Pereira bought operas from himself at Salzburg Festival

(ANSA) — Milan, April 14 — The Italian government on Monday demanded answers from the famed La Scala opera house in Milan after suspicions of conflict of interest surrounding its incoming superintendent, Alexander Pereira. Culture Minister Dario Franceschini called on the foundation behind La Scala to provide a report on allegations that Pereira, the Salzburg Festival’s current director, was selling seven of its productions to La Scala, where Pereira is set to take over in October. Word of the government’s involvement came from Milan Mayor Giuliano Pisapia, who is also chairman on the board of directors at La Scala, after leaving a board meeting. Pereira has denied any wrongdoing, and says it was in La Scala’s best interest to run productions taken from “the best of the Festival”.

In an interview with Italian daily La Repubblica, he said the seven shows were to be spread out over the next several years, and not performed in the same season as some outlets had reported. “The four titles from Salzburg that will be divided over the 2015 and 2016 seasons cost Salzburg 4,450,000 euros, and the Milanese theatre will get them at €690,000 each — a very good price. “I could sell my productions to other theatres for more money. La Scala has got a bargain”. Pisapia said Pereira has been asked back up his statements with documentation for the culture ministry.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Napolitano Unfazed by Euroskeptics

‘EU economies, cultures too interconnected to turn back clock’

(ANSA) — Rome, April 14 — Italian President Giorgio Napolitano says he is not fazed by an apparent rise in Euroskepticism ahead of European elections. In an interview for Sunday chat show Che tempo che fa, the head of State said the roots of the European Union were too strong and deep to be seriously threatened by anti-European sentiment. “There’s disappointment, because amid the unprecedented global economic crisis the EU was late to respond…and it failed to develop a direct rapport with citizens,” he said. Now, as Euroskeptic parties such as the 5-Star Movement of comic-turned-politician Beppe Grillo are expected to do well at May 25 European elections, Napolitano said “the fear is that the European Parliament would become difficult to govern”. “But I don’t believe in a Europe moving backwards,” he added. “By now what’s been built between (European) societies, economies, cultures, and even judicial systems cannot be destroyed, not even by those who doggedly want it”. Napolitano went on to say that stronger leadership was needed at the European level, perhaps through direct elections for an EU president.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: M5S Leader Play on Levi Title Outrages Jewish Community

Grillo headlines blog post ‘If this is a country’

(ANSA) — Rome, April 14 — The anti-establishment M5S leader, Beppe Grillo, outraged Italy’s Jewish community Monday with a blog poem entitled “if this is a country” — a play on Holocaust survivor Primo Levis’s classic If This Is A Man — in which he called President Giorgio Napolitano “a frightened old buffer” who “ignores the Constitution”. Former comedian Grillo, whose movement captured a fourth of the vote at last year’s general electiion, decried Italy as a country in the hands of the mafia and the now-disbanded subversive P2 masonic lodge, which he said had chosen a leader who was “a vulgar liar,” and a “provincial buffoon,” referring to Premier Matteo Renzi, the Democratic Party (PD) leader and former mayor of Florence. The ditty’s title, inspired by Jewish-Italian writer Primo Levi’s masterpiece memoir about the Auschwitz Nazi death camp, was surmounted by a copy of the famous photo of the gates of Auschwitz with the phrase “P2 Macht Frei” superimposed instead of the original Nazi slogan “Arbeit Macht Frei,” (Work makes you free).

The secret Propaganda Due (P2) Masonic lodge was banned as a threat to an open society after a membership list was discovered by magistrates in 1982 containing names of nearly 1000 Italian politicians, generals, police officers, journalists, judges and businessmen.

Italian Jewish Communities President Renzo Gattegna slammed Grillo’s outburst as an “infamous provocation” and “an obscenity about which one cannot be silent”.

The long blog poem was intended to “arouse the lowest anti-semitic feelings to take advantage of popular discontent intensifying at this time of economic crisis,” said Gattegna. “This is a criminal profanation of the value of the Memory of millions of innocent victims that offends all Italy”.

Grillo has repeatedly and vainly tried to have Napolitano impeached for allegedly overstepping the limited scope of his Constitutionally mandated powers. He has slammed Renzi for allegedly promising sweeping changes without delivering, despite the PD leader’s only being in office two months, and has likened him in this to former centre-right premier Silvio Berlusconi.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Merkel Has Spa Treatment, Massage on Ischia

German chancellor habituee’ of Naples bay island

(ANSA) — Ischia, April 14 — German Chancellor Angela Merkel had spa treatment and a massage during her annual Easter visit to the Naples bay island of Ischia Monday. Merkel and her husband, who got to Ischia on a tourist ferry Sunday, spent several hours in the Aphrodite spa before strolling a short way in warm spring sunshine to have a massage in a wellness centre. The chancellor has been spending her Easter break for years in the picturesque ‘borgo’ (hamlet) of Sant’Angelo in the centre of the famed isle, which is especially popular with German tourists.

She paid a surprise visit to Pompeii on Sunday.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Norway: Fjord Life

In Norwegian, Våryr means “spring dizzy”; the word is used to describe what people experience when, after the long, dark winter, the days begin to lengthen. Some of Hans Kristian’s photographs of people on the west coast of Norway exemplify Våryr. Riise told me, “I got this feeling, like I could just go anywhere, drive up to the sea, swim in the river and find a café. People seem to have time for you, they’re like tourists, taking a bus and then walking without any destination in mind.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Norway: Utøya Survivor Fights for Payout

A young man who was badly injured during the 2011 Utøya terror attack has been awarded less than a fifth of the compensation he asked from the government, a decision his lawyer claims has deprived him of his right to live a full life.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Swedes Replace Credit Cards With Hand Swipe

More than a thousand Swedish shoppers have signed up to make payments with a swipe of their hand, paying at machines in Lund that scan the unique pattern of their veins.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Desperation Post — It Saves Wife From Abusive Man

A man has been sentenced to two years in prison after he was found guilty of locking in his wife in their own home. The woman was saved after she managed to throw a message out the window to the street below.

On Monday, the Malmö District Court found the 58-year-old man guilty of aggravated violation of the woman’s integrity (grov kvinnofridskränkning) and unlawful detention (olaga frihetsberövande). The court noted that there was a clear desperation apparent in the woman’s note.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

‘The Mafia Has Infiltrated Every Sector in Germany’

Italian mobsters have infiltrated “every sector in Germany”, according to investigators, with the Sicilian mafia particularly active in the Rhineland.

Last Friday, a Cologne court began the trial of Gabriele S. — a Sicilian immigrant accused of tax fraud. The case is part of the larger investigation called the Scavo Commission into mafia outreach in the Rhineland that has uncovered far more than shell companies and tax evasion.

“The mafia has infiltrated every sector in Germany from construction to alternative energy, from waste management to shareholding of large companies or banks.

“They buy votes and influence elections through bribery, corruption”, said Roberto Scarpinato, attorney general of Palermo’s court of appeals and anti-mafia pool, in an article published in Wired Italia.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Thyssenkrupp to Say Good-Bye to Shipbuilding in Sweden

German heavy industry giant ThyssenKrupp has said it’s negotiating a withdrawal from shipbuilding in Sweden. The Scandinavian nation said it wanted to concentrate the naval vessel business in national hands.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: ‘Muslim Plot’ To Take Over Schools Investigated

Over 200 complaints — including claims of segregation and bullying of non-Muslim staff — are made after a letter alleges a plot.

By Lisa Dowd, Midlands Correspondent

Twenty-five schools are being investigated in connection with an alleged plot by conservative Muslims to force out headteachers and governors.

A new chief advisor is now being appointed by Birmingham City Council to handle the at least 200 complaints received in relation to Operation Trojan Horse after an unsigned, undated document was sent to the council and teaching unions last year…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: ‘Rats the Size of Cats Are Invading Our Cities’

Two-foot long giant rodents which are immune to poison are discovered feeding from bins in Britain

It is the size of a small cat and enough to strike fear into anyone who sees it — but it could become a common sight in cities around the country.

This giant rat was caught and photographed in Liverpool and measured two feet long from its nose to its tail.

The menacing super rat was caught on an industrial estate by a brave pest controller from Whelan Services, one of the country’s largest independent pest prevention companies.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: A Planning Inspector Will Chair a Hearing Tomorrow Over the Future of the Historic Waltham Oak Pub in Walthamstow

An appeal hearing is expected to be attended by dozens of residents tomorrow who are fighting plans to convert a historic pub into a mosque.

The future of the Waltham Oak pub in Lea Bridge Road will be discussed tomorrow as new owner, organisation Faizan-e-Islam, appeals the decision taken by Waltham Forest Council to refuse permission to change the use of the premises.

Despite the pub being shut for more than a year, the council’s planning committee refused the application due to predicted parking congestion and disturbance to residents in October 2013…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: City Boss Dodged £42,000 in Train Fares on Commute

Train bosses have come under fire for not prosecuting a wealthy hedge fund manager who was described as the “biggest fare dodger in railway history”, evading more than £42,000 in train tickets.

The City executive is believed to have dodged the fare for the 82-minute commute between the Sussex village of Stonegate and central London for five years. He exploited a flaw that allowed him to go through barriers at Cannon Street station in London by “tapping out” with an Oyster travelcard.

After finally being caught by a ticket inspector, the executive was able to pay £42,550 in dodged fares and £450 in legal costs within three days of being asked to pay up as part of an out-of-court settlement.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Dental Nurse Accused of Poisoning Her Boss’s Coffee With Mercury Won’t Face Third Trial After Two Juries Failed to Reach Verdicts

A dental nurse accused of poisoning her boss with mercury after she had been fired days before walked free from court today.

Ravinder Kaur’s case was dropped by the CPS when two separate juries failed to reach verdicts.

Kaur, 35, was said to have laced practice manager Laura Knowles’ coffee with the toxic metal after being handed her final written warning three days previously.

Ms Knowles, 37, had to be rushed to hospital with stomach cramps, nausea, and dizziness after drinking the noxious drink which was ‘slimy like an oyster’.

Ms Knowles initially thought her colleague had spat in the coffee, she said in court.

But when her stomach was x-rayed, doctors found small pieces of Mercury inside.

Fortunately, she suffered no permanent effects from the poisonous chemical.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Did Muslim Hardliners Try to Infiltrate and Takeover Twenty Five Birmingham Schools?

Probe into ‘Trojan horse’ plot expands

Thousands of schoolchildren’s education could have been threatened by a hardline Muslim plot to force out moderate school governors and heads and replace them with extremists.

It emerged today that 25 Birmingham schools are now being investigated for links to the alleged radicalisation plot, and while Birmingham City Council has refused to name the schools, some of which have upwards of 600 students, it means that vast numbers of pupils could have been at risk.

The number of schools allegedly involved rose today from 15 to 25 as Education Secretary Michael Gove is said to have told Ofsted inspectors to fail any school ‘where religious conservatism is getting in the way of learning and a balanced curriculum’.

This afternoon Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg backed the investigations, saying schools should not be allowed to become ‘silos of segregation’.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Gove is Right to Fail Schools for Religious Bias

by Andrew Gilligan

Here are five words that liberals should say more often: thank God for Michael Gove. The Education Secretary has sent dozens of inspectors to 15 state schools in Birmingham targeted by Islamic radicals — and now, reportedly, plans to extend the idea nationwide, with new powers for Ofsted to fail schools where religious conservatism prevents balanced learning. He has acted because he knows what others have too long ignored: that schools are the key battleground against Islamism in Britain…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Giant Crane Lifts Burnley Mosque’s £100,000 Minaret Into Place

Burnley’s skyline has an impressive new landmark after a £100,000 minaret was hoisted on to a Burnley mosque.

The one-tonne white dome was lifted into place by a huge crane at the centre in Burleigh Street — 10 years after work first began. The imam and community elders came to watch the milestone moment for the Shah Jalal Masjid Mosque and Burnley Islamic Cultural Centre which has cost £2m so far…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Islamists Take Over 15 Schools in Birmingham, Probe Ordered

LONDON The government has ordered inspections of 15 schools in Britain’s second biggest city after allegations that they are being taken over by Islamic hardliners, officials said on Sunday. A row has been brewing in Birmingham for weeks since the local council received an anonymous letter alleging a plot to force a change of leadership at four state-run schools.

The aim was apparently to impose a conservative religious agenda, turning parents against head teachers by telling that the school is corrupting their children. Unnamed school staff have since made accusations about gender segregation and the bullying of non-Muslim staff.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Inquiry Into Muslim Infiltration Claims Extends to 25 Schools

Council extends inquiry to 25 schools despite doubts over ‘Trojan Horse’ letter and warnings of a ‘witch-hunt’ against Muslims

The full scale of fears about an alleged plan by strict Muslims to extend their reach in the education system has been exposed as it emerged that 25 schools are now being investigated. More than 200 complaints including claims of harassment or attempts to force governors and head teachers out are being examined as part of the so-called “Trojan Horse” inquiry in Birmingham…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Nick Clegg Backs Probe Into School Extremism Claims

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg says faith schools should not be allowed to become “silos of segregation” but should use their religious identity as “engines of integration”

The number of schools to be investigated over fears children are being “radicalised” by extremist Muslims attempting to seize control of institutions has increased to 25. Teams of inspectors are to be sent into schools and will be able to penalise those where religious conservatism is believed to be getting in the way of teaching…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Prince Charles Refused to Back Salman Rushdie Over the Satanic Verses, Says Martin Amis

In an article for Vanity Fair magazine, Martin Amis claimed that the Prince’s views caused a row at a dinner party after Rushdie was issued with the death sentence by Islamic clerics in 1989.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Sajid Javid: The Millionaire Bus Conductor’s Son With a Portrait of Margaret Thatcher on His Wall

Sajid Javid has became the first Asian man to be given a Cabinet post after Maria Miller was forced to resign following the furore over her expenses claims. Mr Javid, 44, the son of a Pakistani bus driver, was promoted by David Cameron after Mrs Miller resigned following days of intense pressure from Conservative MPs.

The MP for Bromsgrove, a former managing director in the City, has long been tipped as a rising star in the Conservative Party and had served as Financial Secretary to the Treasury since last October.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Sex Ring at Cyril’s School: He Wasn’t a Lone Wolf

[WARNING: *Disturbing Content*]

Part 3 of series on predator politician

In our latest devastating extract from the book shaking Westminster, we reveal how Cyril Smith led a ring of abusers who launched night-time raids on a school for vulnerable boys

Today Knowl View is the site of penthouse apartments, with juliet balconies looking out onto the Pennines. But before the developers moved in, this was Cyril Smith’s vile playground, where the lives of vulnerable young men were scarred and, in some cases, destroyed.

Cyril was at the official ceremony when the 50-bed residential school for children with learning difficulties was opened in 1969. It was closed by Rochdale Council in 1994 — and, when the bulldozers levelled it, every last trace of what had happened there was carefully erased.

But memories are not so easily obliterated, and one brave man in particular has fought to make sure that the horrors of Knowl View are not forgotten.

Martin Digan started there as a social worker in the late Seventies. He did his job without any concerns for years. It was only when he was promoted to head of care that he realised dreadful things were going on unchecked.

Smith, who was a governor, had his own set of keys and would saunter around eyeing up young boys. Frequently, he was joined by the chairman of the governors, a Conservative councillor named Harry Wild, who also had keys.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Top Banana Created in Derbyshire is at Risk From Deadly Disease

A VARIETY of banana created in Derbyshire and eaten around the world is in danger of becoming extinct because of a deadly disease. The Cavendish banana was first grown at Chatsworth House by gardener Joseph Paxton in 1835.

It is now thought to be the most popular variety in the western world, accounting for 95% of the bananas shipped to export markets, including the United Kingdom.

It is a trade worth £5.4 billion. But scientists have warned that it is under threat from Tropical Race 4 (TR4), a fungus which has already destroyed Cavendish crops in Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Tony Blair’s Advisers and Their ‘Ties to Extremist Group’

Watchdog claims that two advisers to Tony Blair’s faith charity have links to Muslim Brotherhood

Tony Blair is facing accusations that his multifaith charity has links to an Islamic extremist group being investigated by MI5 and MI6. The Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which was established in 2008 to help combat extremism, is being advised by a Muslim leader who is alleged to be a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organisation that could be banned in Britain…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: The Boy Handed Into Cyril Smith’s Clutches by His Parents to be Disciplined

[WARNING: *Disturbing Content*]

Part 2 of series on predator politician

‘My dad said: “I want you to meet Cyril Smith. He’s the Mayor of Rochdale and is very important. We’ve told him about the problems we’re having and he’s going to have a little chat with you.”

‘My mum and dad left and Smith and I sat staring at each other. “I don’t like your attitude,” he snarled. “Things are going to have to change.”

‘Then he lunged at me, lifted me off my feet, and threw me over his knee. He pulled my trousers and pants down and hammered my flesh with his bare hands like a man possessed.

When he’d finished, he dropped me to the floor and stood above me while I lay with my face down trying to forget about the pain. I never made a noise. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d hurt me.

[Photo] Cyril Smith at Buckingham Palace in November 1988. Parents on estates in Rochdale would use his name to scare badly behaved children

‘My skin was on fire and I could feel the welts forming, but I pulled my trousers up, sat up and stared insolently back at him. “Is that it?” I said.

‘He was still panting but a nasty little smile formed on his face as he knelt next to me and pushed his face close to mine. “Your bad behaviour is going to stop,’ he hissed, “or I’ll kill you.” I thought he was a psycho.’

The teenager hoped he’d seen the last of Smith. He was wrong.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

US Government Promoting Islam in Czech Republic

By Soeren Kern

The Czech government has approved a new project aimed at promoting Islam in public elementary and secondary schools across the country.

The project—Muslims in the Eyes of Czech Schoolchildren—is being spearheaded by a Muslim advocacy group and is being financed by American taxpayers through a grant from the US Embassy in Prague. (The US State Department is also promoting Islam in other European countries.)…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey’s Free Trade Agreement With Bosnia to Expand

(ANSAmed) — SARAJEVO, APRIL 11 — Turkey and Bosnia and Herzegovina have been working to expand their bilateral free trade agreement, Turkey’s Economy Minister said on Thursday as reported by Anadolu Agency. Nihat Zeybekci was on a visit to Bosnia to boost the two countries’ economic ties. Speaking at a business forum in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, Zeybeci said, “Bosnia and Herzegovina relations with Turkey throughout history have always been good. We want to expand this relationships with strong business alliances.”

A Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina was signed on July 3, 2002 in Ankara and came into force on 1 July 2003. According to Turkish Statistical Institute data, Turkish exports to Bosnia and Herzegovina were worth USD 251 million in 2012, while imports from the country were worth USD 111.64 million.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

COPEAM Renewed, Call on Governments for New EuroMed Deal

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS — The 21st annual gathering of the Permanent Conference of the Mediterranean Audiovisual Operators (COPEAM) which has closed in Tunis had a tight agenda of events enabling participants to exchange information, create new projects and make final statements. This edition was dedicated to ‘‘The Mediterranean: reshaping cooperation’’ and saw the participation of 260 delegates from 27 countries.

The Tunisian event was very much like a refounding of the cooperation among Mediterranean state broadcasters — in a practical and operational sense more than in a formal way.

Indeed the Mediterranean needs dialogue and sharing now more than ever to overcome its economic and political problems. And once again it sees the media as protagonists with great potential and significant responsibilities.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

EU: Youth Mission to Build a Better Mediterranean

(ANSAmed) — ROME — The European Union is counting on youths to build a better Mediterranean, and is doing so with renewed vigor through its program ‘Power2Youth’, presented today in Rome, at the La Sapienza University in collaboration with IAI, the International Affairs Institute.

At the center of this effort is the desire and need to improve the dynamics of youth exclusion on economic, political and cultural levels on the southern and Middle Eastern shores, and thus be able to act to reverse the situation. To do so, the European Union put on the agenda a three-year program and a budget of more than 3.4 billion euros.

“Power2Youth is a consortium of research and member state university centres in addition to Norway and Switzerland, as well as countries of the southeastern Mediterranean,” it was explained during the presentation. The programme’s ultimate aim is to supply “innovative policies and practical guidelines” to facilitate a transfer of economic and social importance in favor of new generations. The first step will be “to extend knowledge of complex processes that regulate exclusion and inclusion of youth”. Specifically, there will be five countries in the southeast to be examined: Morocco, Lebanon, Tunisia, Egypt and Turkey, as well as the Palestinian territories.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

EuroMed: UFM Approves Projects on Water, Equal Opportunity

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, APRIL 10 — A wind power farm in Jordan, the creation of a Mediterranean platform for promoting the culture of water, programmes directed at reinforcing civic education in schools and stimulating the creation of green industries and entrepreneurship. These are some of the projects approved in a high level meeting of the 43 countries belonging to the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), which took place last April 7-8 at its headquarters in the Pedralbes building in Barcelona.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt: Sisi Officially to Run for President

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, APRIL 14 — Former Egyptian military chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he will run in the country’s presidential elections on May 26-27, his legal advisor Mohamed Bahaa Abu Shoka made known Monday.

The former general put himself forward to the High Electoral Commission after gathering more than the 25,000 signatures required by the Constitution, with State TV saying he gathered some 200,000 signatures and sources close to his campaign putting them at 464,000.

Leftist politician Hamdin Sabbahi and controversial lawyer Mortada Mansour are struggling to reach the necessary quorum, some Egyptian media reported.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ex-Gaddafi Officials Appear at Trial in Libya, Sons Absent

In Libya, a trial against the sons of former leader Moammar Gaddafi and more than 30 of his ex-officials has been adjourned. The group faces charges relating to crimes allegedly committed during Libya’s uprising.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pesach Shame: Hamas Conquers Temple Mount

Police have “lost control of the Temple Mount,” Temple activists charged Monday morning, on the eve of Pesach.

Dozens of Hamas men have taken over the Mount, waving Hamas flags, and are “not allowing Jews and tourists into the Mount,” said the activists.

“Hundreds of Jews who came to the Temple Mount for Pesach were astonished to find a police representative standing at the entrance gate and announcing that the Mount had been closed off to Jews after Hamas had taken over the Mount and threatened violence against any Jews who enter,” the Temple organizations reported in a news communique.

The Temple organizations called for the police commissioner to resign, following his failures on the Temple Mount…

[These same people expect all of us to bend over backwards to respect Ramadan/Eid(s) etc. Where is “do as you would be done by? — MC]

           — Hat tip: MC [Return to headlines]
 

Juan Carlos in Abu Dhabi With Entrepreneurs

Monarch visits Emirates, tomorrow in Kuwait

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, APRIL 14 — With the aim of promoting investments and helping Spanish businesses, King Juan Carlos travelled to Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, on Sunday as part of a four-day trip to the Gulf which will take him to Kuwait on Tuesday. The king is travelling with four ministers and a delegation of 15 businessmen. According to official sources quoted by the media, this visit is the first in a number of trips which will take the Spanish king to visit over the next three months Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) including Oman and Bahrain at the end of April and Saudi Arabia and Qatar in May.

The king will act as the main ambassador of Spanish companies bidding for contracts worth millions in Persian Gulf countries which are investing in ambitious infrastructure projects.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Syria: Killing of Priest Was ‘Rebel Punishment’

A JESUIT priest who was killed last week by a masked assassin at his monastery in the besieged old city of Homs had survived more than the hardship of starvation and Syrian government shelling.

During the city’s darkest days the Dutch-born Father Francis Van der Lugt continued to offer prayers for his dwindling flock, gave refuge to Muslim and Christian alike and insisted upon sharing their suffering.

A week before he was shot dead, Van der Lugt, 75, was badly beaten by rebels who are losing ground in this battered city in the face of a Syrian army onslaught.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey ‘Aided Islamist Fighters’ In Attack on Syrian Town

Rebels and eye-witnesses claim that Turkish authorities allowed fighters to enter Syria through a strategic border post to carry out assault on Armenian town of Kasab

Turkey facilitated an attack carried out by Islamist fighters against the Armenian town of Kasab inside Syria, eyewitnesses have told the Telegraph.

In an operation that was months in the planning, Turkish authorities gave rebel groups the mandate they needed to attack, allowing them access through a heavily militarised Turkish border post, whose location was strategically vital to the success of the assault…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey: Erdogan Does Nothing But Make Mistakes

N.B. The following is not a strict translation from the Turkish original but is edited and draws on Mr. Pipes’ notes from the interview.

Daniel Pipes is one of the prominent conservative names in the United States. He is the founder of the Middle East Forum . … He is also one of the key individuals forwarding idea of the moderate Islam. We had a chance to evaluate recent developments in Turkey by phone with Mr. Pipes as he was in Paris on March 12.

– — How do you interpret the conflict between the Gülen movement and the AKP?

Let me start with an historical example: during the Byzantine Empire times, two factions called the Blues and Greens competed against each other in the Istanbul hippodrome to the point that their rivalry became mingled with political and religious issues, sometimes causing riots. The situation now reminds me somewhat of the fighting back then. Islamists were united as long as the mutual enemy was the army. However, the army was removed from politics in July 2011 and since then the Islamists turned inward and fight each other.

What surprised me is that from 2001, the year the AKP was established, until last year, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan showed extraordinary political skills. But since then, he’s done nothing but make mistakes. He is deep in Syria, in corruption scandals and he is autocratic and angry. More: each time he takes a misstep he doubles down on it, then triples down on it. However the municipal elections turn out, he has lost much ground, presumably for good.

– — How has Erdogan, who was an Islamist model for 11 years, suddenly became so autocratic, corrupt, and angry?…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘A Partner for Russia’: Europe’s Far Right Flirts With Moscow

Right-wing populists stand to gain seats in the approaching European Parliament elections — which is good news for Moscow. Russia and the European right have been courting each other recently as mainstream Brussels has kept Moscow at arm’s length.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

EU Responds to Ukraine Events With Expanded Travel-Ban, Asset-Freeze List

European Union foreign ministers have agreed to expand a list of people subject to sanctions for their roles in the Ukraine crisis. They stopped short, however, of imposing new measures.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

‘Not Time for Third Set’ of Russia Sanctions Says Mogherini

‘But situation worries us very much’ says Italy FM

(updates previous) (ANSA) — Luxembourg, April 14 — It is not yet time to launch a third set of sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis, Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini said Monday. “No, I don’t think so,” Mogherni told reporters when asked about the widely mooted sanctions to help curb alleged Russian ambitions as pro-Moscow activists defy Ukraine authorities in the east of the country. But the escalation of the conflict, with deadly clashes between Ukraine soldiers and pro-Russia activists two weeks after the annexation of Crimea, “is a situation that worries us very much in the evolution of these hours and days,” she said on the sidelines of a European Union foreign ministers’ meeting.

“Italy, along with the EU, will do everything possible so that there is responsible behavior in these hours both inside and outside the Ukraine.

“Italy has insisted on the path of dialogue from the beginning. We will continue to think that it is the only path possible, just as the situation on the ground appears to be degenerating. This is our commitment and our work for today”.

An “anti-terrorist” regime was declared earlier Monday by the Kiev-appointed Donetsk governor Serghiei Taruta when an ultimatum to pro-Russian demonstrators occupying public buildings in eastern Ukraine expired, reported Interfax.

British Premier David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande on Monday called for dialogue and condemned the ongoing violence in eastern Ukraine, while Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders called for new EU sanctions as he arrived at the Foreign Council meeting in Luxembourg.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Admin. Says it May Send Arms to Ukrainian Junta

An adviser to Secretary of State John Kerry stoked the crisis in Ukraine on Monday by saying the United States may send weapons to the junta in Kyiv.

“Obviously we are looking at that as an option,” said Thomas Shannon said in response to a question about providing military aid to the coup government.

Speaking from Berlin, Shannon said the separatist effort in eastern Ukraine is a Russian destabilization effort.

Shannon’s remarks arrive as new tensions ignited following an announcement by the junta to move militarily against separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of the country.

“When it comes to military assistance, we’re looking at it,” Obama’s Deputy national security adviser, Tony Blinken, said in late March.

On Sunday, Republican Senator John McCain called for arming the junta.

[Comment: Arming citizens in other countries while seeking to disarm US citizens.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Putin’s Salary to be Raised by Factor of 2.65

Russian president now earns 75,000 euros, behind other officials

(ANSA) — Moscow, April 14 — Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to nearly triple his salary after news based on his income declaration revealed that he earned less than the Russian premier, other ministers and high officials, taking only 3.7 million rubles per year, the equivalent of 74,000 euros, officials said Monday.

Putin will see his salary raised by a factor of 2.65 to bring his pay in line with other personnel and officials who, over the last two administrations, received pay hikes that passed over both the head of state and the premier, said government spokesman Dmitri Peskov.

Peskov himself earned 9.2 million rubles, equal to about 185,000 euros, in comparison. Premier Dmitri Medvedev earned 4.3 million rubles, or roughly 85,000 euros.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Send in the UN Peacekeepers, Pleads Ukraine as Pro-Russian Militias in Ukraine Openly Defy Deadline to Lay Down Guns

Ukraine’s acting president today urged the United Nations to send peacekeeping troops to eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian gunmen kept up their rampage of storming and occupying local government offices, police stations and a small airport.

The request came from a government that has proved powerless to rein in separatists in its eastern and southern regions, where insurgents have seized or barricaded government buildings in at least nine cities, demanding more autonomy from the new government in Kiev and closer ties with Russia.

The Kiev government and Western officials accuse Russia of instigating the unrest and of deploying armed Russian agents in civilian clothing to carry them out.

In a telephone call with Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, acting President Oleksandr Turchynov suggested that an ‘anti-terrorist operation’ be conducted jointly by Ukrainian security forces and U.N. peacekeepers, according to the presidential website.

Peacekeepers, however, would have to be authorised by the U.N. Security Council, where Russia holds a veto.

The plea comes as defiant pro-Russian militants in east Ukraine ignored an ultimatum to lay down their arms today as they seized yet more official buildings.

Dozens of men stormed a police station in Horlivka, a city not far from border with Russia, while hundreds of onlookers cheered them on.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Srdja Trifkovic: Eastern Approaches

In April 1904, Scottish geographer Halford Mackinder gave a lecture at the Royal Geographical Society. His paper, “The Geographical Pivot of History,” caused a sensation and marked the birth of geopolitics as an autonomous discipline. According to Mackinder, control over the Eurasian “World-Island” is the key to global hegemony. At its core is the “pivot area,” the Heartland, which extends from the Volga to the Yangtze and from the Himalayas to the Arctic. “My concern is with the general physical control, rather than the causes of universal history,” Mackinder declared.

At the end of the Great War, profoundly concerned with what he saw as the need for an effective barrier of nations between Germany and Russia, Mackinder summarized his theory as follows:…

           — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic [Return to headlines]
 

Srdja Trifkovic: Report From Moscow

1.   Russia will not invade. She will support demands for federalization in the east (Kharkov), southeast (the Donbas industrial area) and south (the Black Sea littoral), but there will be no boots on the ground and no annexation.
2.   Russia will insist that Ukraine’s new constitution be based on federal principles, which will entail legal power of the yet-to-be constituted regions to enter into international commercial and security treaties with other countries and entities (e.g. the Donbas region with the Russian-led customs union that also includes Belarus, Kazakhstan and Armenia).
3.   To that end Moscow will support the emerging, self-proclaimed authorities in the southeast and elsewhere with money and logistics. There is no need to send any weapons, apparently, as the police and security personnel in the said regions appear to be pro-Russian anyway, and have willingly handed over their arsenals to the gold—and-black-clad activists.
4.   Belated offers of “greater autonomy for the regions” coming from the putschist regime in Kiev are dismissed with scorn (“way too little, way too late”). The three regions to be constituted as fully self-governing entities — formally within Ukraine, of course — are Izmail-Odessa-Nikolaev-Kherson in the south, Donetsk-Lugansk in the southeast, and Kharkov in the northeast.
5.   Russia will demand money for Ukraine’s unpaid natural gas bills and future deliveries from the European Union, in whatever form.
6.   The “sanctions” are meaningless, and Germany in particular is not committed to them. There will be business as usual, whatever Obama or Kerry say.
7.   Putin is widely perceived as the master strategist, even among the traditionally pro-Western Moscow “intelligentsia” which is dismayed at Washington’s inaptitude in playing the geopolitical game.
 

I am back from Russia’s capital, where I presented a paper at a conference on World War I at Moscow’s Lomonosov State University. Regarding Ukraine, the consensus of my numerous interlocutors of various persuasions and backgrounds is clear:

           — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic [Return to headlines]
 

Tensions High in Eastern Ukraine as Pro-Russia Separatists Gain Ground

A standoff continues in eastern Ukraine following the passing of a deadline set out by Kyiv for pro-Russia militias to vacate government buildings. Rebels have called on Russian president Vladimir Putin to help them.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ukraine’s Ousted President Puts Blame on CIA

Ukraine’s ousted president has accused the CIA of being behind the new Ukrainian government’s decision to deploy armed forces to quash an increasingly brazen pro-Russian insurgency.

Speaking late Sunday on Russian state television, Viktor Yanukovych claimed that CIA director John Brennan had met with Ukraine’s new leadership and “in fact sanctioned the use of weapons and provoked bloodshed.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Boy’s Head Found in Home of Convicted Pakistani Cannibals 35

MULTAN, Pakistan — Pakistani police re-arrested a convicted cannibal on Monday after finding a young boy’s head in his home.

Mohammad Arif, 35, and his brother Mohammad Farman, 30, from the small town of Darya Khan in central Pakistan, served two years in jail for cannibalism and were released last year.

Police said the two had dug up more than 100 corpses from the local graveyard and eaten them.

“Residents informed police after a stench emanated from the house of the two brothers. We raided the house on Monday morning and found the head of a young boy,” a district police chief, Ameer Abdullah, told Reuters.

“We have arrested one of the brothers, Mohammad Arif, and are conducting raids for the arrest of the other brother.”

Police were searching nearby graveyards to see if they had been disturbed, he said.

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

One Afghan Army Soldier Killed in Blast

KABUL, April 14 (Xinhua) — One Afghan soldier was killed in a blast, said the Defense Ministry on Monday. “An Afghan National Army soldier was martyred following an improvised explosive device(IED) attack within the last 24 hours,” the ministry said in a statement. The Taliban home-made IEDs remained a major threat to Afghan security forces. The army specialists had also found and defused 21 IEDs and landmines over the same period of time, the statement noted…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

42% of Drug Reactions Are Vaccine Related

A pioneering new drug study testing the safety of many common pharmaceutical drugs has revealed that almost half of all adverse drug reactions reported in Shanghai, from anaphylaxis to death, were caused by vaccines.

The study is published in an all access journal called PLos, titled, “Adverse Drug Reactions of Spontaneous Reports in Shanghai Pediatric Population,” and within it Chinese pediatric populations were studied via spontaneous reports gathered from physicians (52.03%), pharmacists (24.27%) and other health care practitioners (15.46%), with only 2.52% coming from ‘consumers.’

This is a significant study for those who are anxious to dismiss vaccine dangers as just consumer confusion or merely anecdotal reports from those who are without real facts. Since many are wary to give weight to any reports that are not from a clinical setting, it is difficult to argue with this particular study’s findings.

This is also one of the first-ever studies conducted on the topic of vaccines in China…

Chinese vaccine schedules are similar to American schedules, often subjecting young children, prior to the full development of their immune systems, to a ‘polypharmacy’ approach, exposing their little bodies and minds to a cornucopia of combined toxins. The total affect of these toxins cannot be minimized. Their interactions are at least part of the reason for such high incidence of ADRs as well as death, not just their singular use. There is no way that small, developing bodies are ready for more than 12 different strains of vaccines before they even leave kindergarten.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Cherry Tree From Space’ Mystery Baffles Japan

Tokyo (AFP) — A cosmic mystery is uniting monks and scientists in Japan after a cherry tree grown from a seed that orbited the Earth for eight months bloomed years earlier than expected — and with very surprising flowers.

The four-year-old sapling — grown from a cherry stone that spent time aboard the International Space Station (ISS) — burst into blossom on April 1, possibly a full six years ahead of Mother Nature’s normal schedule.

Its early blooming baffled Buddhist brothers at the ancient temple in central Japan where the tree is growing.

“We are amazed to see how fast it has grown,” Masahiro Kajita, chief priest at the Ganjoji temple in Gifu, told AFP by telephone. “A stone from the original tree had never sprouted before. We are very happy because it will succeed the old tree, which is said to be 1,250 years old.”

The stones were sent to the ISS in November 2008 and came back to Earth in July the following year with Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, after circling the globe 4,100 times.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China: Minmetals Group Buys Glencore Peru Mine for $5.85 Billion

China Minmetals Corp., the state-owned metals trader, led a group that agreed to pay $5.85 billion for Glencore Xstrata Plc (GLEN)’s Las Bambas copper project in Peru as China seeks greater control over material supplies.

Buying Las Bambas gives the group, which includes Melbourne-based MMG Ltd. (1208), control of a mine that’s forecast to produce 400,000 metric tons of copper a year from 2015, equivalent to 12.5 percent of 2013 imports of copper metal by China, the world’s biggest buyer.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Norway Sends Lost 1927 Film Back to China

Norway will hand to China a copy of “The Cave of the Silken Web”, a classic Chinese film that had long thought to be lost, the National Library of Norway said on Monday. The delivery of the silent film from 1927 is expected to arrive in Beijing on Tuesday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Nanoparticles Make Turkey Eggs Tough to Crack

Australian brush turkeys incubate their eggs where few might — in moist piles of rotting vegetation. The eggs are kept warm by the heat generated as microbes in the soil and compost decompose organic matter, but those same microbes can also get through eggshells and kill the embryos.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Blast Hits Bus Station Outside Nigeria’s Capital Abuja

An explosion has ripped through a bus station outside Nigeria’s capital Abuja, killing dozens of people. The blast comes one day after suspected Islamist militants attacked several villages in the country’s northeast.

Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan visited the site of the bombing, and blamed Boko Haram Islamists.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Nigeria Bus Station Blast Kills at Least 71

Body parts are strewn across a station near Nigeria’s capital after a powerful blast struck at rush hour, killing at least 71.

An explosion has ripped through a busy commuter bus station on the outskirts of Nigeria’s capital, killing dozens of people as they were travelling to work.

Police said 71 people have been confirmed dead so far, and 124 more were wounded. But the death toll is likely to go up. Body parts and blood were strewn across the station, as rescue workers scrambled to contain the chaos that followed the attack. “I saw bodies taken away in open trucks,” said witness Yakubu Mohammed. “It is difficult to count them because the bodies were burnt and in pieces.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Nigeria Violence: More Than 70 Killed in Abuja Bus Blast

More than 70 people have been killed in a bomb blast at a crowded bus station on the outskirts of Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, officials say.

The explosion happened as commuters were about to board buses and taxis to go to work in central Abuja, the BBC’s Haruna Tangaza reports. Eyewitnesses said there were dead bodies scattered around the area. Suspicion immediately fell on the Boko Haram Islamist militant group, which has staged previous attacks in Abuja. However, most of its attacks have been in the north-east of the country…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Argentinean Society’s Values Questioned After Series of Lynchings

There is something wrong with a society when neighbors, who come to the aid of a crime victim, turn into cold-blooded murderers who beat someone to death in the middle of the street.

An episode like this one took place on March 22 in the Argentinean city of Rosario, after two youths riding on a motorcycle snatched a purse from a 21-year-old woman who was walking with her young daughter.

A group of residents managed to capture 18-year-old David Moreira and beat him so severely that they broke his skull. He died three days later at a local hospital.

His mother, Lorena Torres, a woman with no legal background, offered a quick lesson in civics and criminal law with just one sentence: “If they believed that my son had committed the robbery all they had to do was to take him to police headquarters.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Are Millions of Africans About to Swarm Into a More Open Europe?

By Brenda Walker

The spring sailing season is getting off to a roaring start in the Mediterranean, where 18,000 diverse welfare seekers from Africa and the Middle East have boarded boats headed to soft-touch Europe since the beginning of this year.

On Thursday, the Italian navy reported it had “rescued” 1000 African boaters over 24 hours. Another count last week: 6000 in 40 boats in just four days.

The number of asylum seekers is 10 times what it was at this time last year, according to a UN representative.

Of course, the number of boaters using the Italy doorway have been accumulating including 43,000 in 2013, because it’s geographically easy for the Europe-bound. The land route through Spain’s national outposts Melilla and Ceuta in North Africa is also popular.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: From Burger Flipper to Bürgermeister? Immigrant Could Become Next Berlin Mayor

With Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit facing his political Waterloo, all eyes have turned to Raed Saleh, who could become the first mayor of a major German city with foreign roots. The German capital’s changing demographics could help him.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Police Arrest 3 Alleged Smugglers on Boat Carrying 199

(ANSAmed) — POZZALLO (RAGUSA)- Three alleged immigrant smugglers who were reportedly in charge of a boat carrying 199 migrants rescued by a merchant ship in the Mediterranean and taken to Pozzallo on April 10, were arrested on Monday by Carabinieri and finance police. They are two 19-year-olds from Senegal — Yakjya Sagnang and Sonko Mamdou — and an 18-year-old from Gambia, Bambo Jaiteh.

Some of the migrants said they were in Libya for 15 days before making the crossing and they were kept inside a warehouse with very little food. The smugglers were reportedly ordered by their Libyan chiefs to issue a distress signal to Italian authorities as soon as they reached international waters.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Netherlands: Sharp Rise in Asylum Requests in 2013

The number of people requesting asylum in the Netherlands rose by 4,000 last year to 17,190, the immigration service said on Monday. The increase was largely driven by the civil war in Syria, which led to 2,670 requests for refugee status. Somalia topped the list with just over 3,000 requests, followed by Syria and Iraq (1,090).

ING director Rob van Lint said the increase mirrored growth in other EU countries, news agency Novum reports.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Gender Activists Want Law Change in Italy

Italy’s Movement of Transexxual Identity (MIT) is fighting to allow sex change without surgery in state civil records. With the motto “Another kind is possible”, MIT is launching a national campaign to change the law defining the right to change transgender identity in Italy’s civil registry.

The movement intends to change Constitutional Law 162 from 1982, which allows transgender people to “bureaucratically” change sex only after a surgical operation.

“If a person demonstrates that he or she is fully living their gender even without surgery, why force something that they don’t want?” Cathy La Torre, an activist and legal expert in rights for gender identity, was quoted on Today.it as saying.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Gay Marriage Formally Recorded in Grosseto Civil Registry

Prosecutor says ruling on same-sex union will be challenged

(ANSA) — Grosseto, April 14 — A same-sex marriage contracted overseas was recorded in the civil registry in the Tuscan town of Grosseto Monday, a controversial move that followed a court ruling last week authorizing the move. The marriage of Giuseppe Chigiotti and Stefano Bucci, which occurred in New York on December 6, 2012, was entered by the Grosseto municipal clerk in the civil registries with a note adding that it formalized the marriage as ordered by the courts.

That court ruling sparked a cultural and religious storm over what could be a precedent, changing the definition of marriage in Italy.

Last March, the municipal authorities refused the couple’s request that their marriage be formally registered, triggering the appeal to the Civil Court of Grosseto.

Local judge Paolo Cesare Ottati upheld the couple’s appeal last week, arguing that the Italian civil code “contains no reference to sex in relation to the requisites” for marriage and that there is “no impediment to the registration of a marriage contracted abroad”.

Registration is not by nature “constitutive, but only confirmative (of an act) that is already valid,” he ruled.

The ruling “is a revolutionary event that deserves a positive response from politicians,” Gay Centre spokesperson Fabrizio Marrazzo said last week.

However, the powerful Italian Bishops Conference (CEI) said the ruling “raises serious questions”.

In a statement last week, the bishops defined marriage “as the union between a man and a woman” and said with this decision “one of the fundamental pillars of the institution of marriage is likely to be swept away, one that is rooted in our cultural tradition, and is recognized and guaranteed in our Constitution”.

Gay and civil-rights activists in Italy have long been pushing for a law granting legal recognition to same-sex couples, but efforts have always been thwarted by Catholic and right-wing opposition.

And advocates for gay marriage in Italy still have a tough road ahead.

Last Thursday, Grosseto Chief Prosecutor Francesco Verusio said he will challenge the court ruling.

“Fortunately there’s a previous ruling at the supreme Cassation Court that clearly says you can’t do this. We’re preparing our brief to challenge the ruling in appeal, which will commence as soon as possible,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden’s Feminist Party Fêtes Dramatic Poll Climb

Sweden’s upstart feminist party on Monday welcomed news it had increased its voter support fivefold, but the social media savvy politicians still need a proper bump to get over the parliamentary threshold.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ancient Mars Probably Too Cold for Liquid Water

Mars’ atmosphere was probably never thick enough to keep temperatures on the planet’s surface above freezing for the long term, suggests research published today in Nature Geoscience. Although the planet’s topography indicates that liquid water has flooded Mars in the distant past, evidence increasingly suggests that those episodes reflect occasional warm spells, not a consistently hospitable phase of the planet’s history.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

‘Big Bird’ Space Neutrino Has Highest Energy Yet Seen

Big Bird is the playful nickname given to the highest-energy cosmic neutrino ever detected.

Neutrinos are nearly massless particles that are churned out by the sun and by processes on Earth such as radioactive decay. They are also generated in deep space by objects such as supernovas and the supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies. Only recently have we started systematically detecting these cosmic neutrinos, which tend to hit higher energies than those produced in our solar system.

Astronomers hope to read them as if they were cosmic messages. Many particles get deflected or absorbed as they cross the universe and so don’t hold a faithful record of where they came from. But neutrinos barely interact with anything and so arrive at Earth almost unscathed, which means they could be used to piece together details of the distant events that produced them.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Did Neanderthals Make Music?

Atema’s artistic and scientific passions collided and he ended up exploring the world of prehistoric instruments. He’s made replicas of multiple bone flutes, the oldest of which may be 50,000 years old — made by Neanderthals. And, unlike most, he can play them, to haunting effect.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Disease Threatens World’s Bananas, Warns UN

The United Nations warned on Monday of the potential “massive destruction” of the world’s banana crop if a disease affecting the most popular variety spread from Asia to Africa and the Middle East.

The disease is “posing a serious threat to production and export” of bananas, the fourth most important food crop for the world’s least developed countries, the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in a statement.

“Countries need to act now if we are to avoid the worst-case scenario, which is massive destruction of much of the world’s banana crop,” Fazil Dusunceli, a plant pathologist at the FAO, was quoted as saying.

Gianluca Gondolini, secretary of the World Banana Forum, said it could hurt “employment and government revenues in many tropical countries”.

The TR4 strain of Panama disease is one of the world’s most destructive and affects the Cavendish variety — the most popular in global exports.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Do Adults Owe Their Parents Anything?

The welfare state has set us free, so we no longer have any obligations to our parents after we turn 18. So what can family members expect of one another when the legal obligations stop?

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Overall Global Military Spending Falls, With Increases Seen in Russia, Asia and Africa

A new report has pointed to a sharp increase in military spending by nations including Russia and China. Other top spenders hailed from Africa and the Middle East, where gas and oil are fueling investment.

According to SIPRI’s latest report, the major cause of the 2-percent drop stemmed from changes the United States’ military budget, the top spender in the world. Washington-approved budget cuts led to a 7.8 percent drop year-on-year, down to $640 billion. The withdrawal from Iraq and the winding down of operations in Afghanistan also contributed to the decrease in spending.

Meanwhile, China, Russia and Saudi Arabia sharply increased their spending between 2012 and 2013. Beijing invested 7.4 percent more in its armed forces, bringing its total budget to $188 billion. Saudi Arabia rose from seventh to fourth in the world. In 2013, its military expenditures totaled $67 billion, an increase of 14 percent from the previous year.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

WTO Expects Modest Increase in Global Trade in the Years Ahead

The World Trade Organization has said it expects global trade activities to pick up moderately this year and next, following a two-year slump. But it warned geopolitical risks were not penciled in its latest outlook.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

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