Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/21/2014

About twelve hundred additional illegal migrants were rescued by the Italian navy off Sicily over the weekend. The acceleration of the immigration emergency caused the Lega Nord to demand that Italy suspend its policy of rescuing migrants at sea, which it says the country cannot afford. Meanwhile, seven illegal Moroccan migrants who had landed on a tiny Spanish island off the coast of Morocco were repatriated by Spanish soldiers.

In other news, landslides in the Alps brought on by higher temperatures threatened highways and forced the closing of the Mont Blanc tunnel.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, JP, 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
» ISTAT: One Mln Italian Families Without Employment Income
» Italians Cut Down This Easter
» Italian Bank Backs €5bn Capital Boost Plan
» Italy Banks Set to Slash Cash Desks
» Japan’s Trade Deficit Widens as Export Growth Weakens: Economy
 
USA
» As Detroit Rape Kits Sit Untested, Justice for Victims is Denied
» Boston Marathon Sees Huge Turnout a Year After the Attack
» Boston Marathon Runners Honor Victims of Last Year’s Bombing
» Experts Warn Civilian World Not Ready for Massive EMP-Caused Blackout
» Judges Recuse Themselves From Islamic Center Lawsuit
» Meb Keflezighi is First American Man to Win Boston Marathon Since 1983
» More Latino Than White Students Admitted to UC
» Obama Praises Muslims in Easter Message
» Report: More Than 100,000 Gang Members in Texas
» Six Children Amongst 45 People Shot in Chicago During Bloody Easter Weekend
» Small Western Towns to Lose Amtrak Service if States Can’t Pay Up
» The Myth of Islamophobia: The Vienna — Phoenix Connections
» US Marshal Shoots Defendant in Federal Court
» Would Halevi Have Banished Spinoza? Turned Rushdie Over?
 
Europe and the EU
» Amsterdam is Most Unsafe Dutch City
» British Teenager Posts Facebook Photo of Brother’s Body After Syria Battle Death
» Czech Communist Architecture May be Protected
» Does Valls’ Upcoming Vatican Trip Violate French Secularism?
» EU: The European Parliament is No Longer in Session. Angels and Ministers of Grace Defend US!
» Germans Smuggle Cash Out of Switzerland
» Germany Should Make Use of Shale Gas: EU
» Germany: Rise in Racist Activity Seen on Social Networks
» How Modernity ‘Radicalizes’ Western Muslims
» Italy: Beppe Grillo Wants to Abolish the Fiscal Compact
» Italy: The Dictator’s Grand-Daughter Vying for MEP
» Italy: Veneto Activists Released From Jail
» Landslides in Alps Threaten Highways, Mont Blanc Tunnel
» Nationalism, Not NATO, Is Our Great Ally
» Neanderthals Had Shallow Gene Pool, Study Says
» Netherlands: Student Fought Bureaucrats for Holocaust Justice
» Norway: How to Remember a Massacre?
» Saving Wild Horses From Going Extinct
» Sweden: Ikea to Introduce ‘Green’ Vegetarian Meatballs
» Switzerland: Mega Diamond to be Auctioned in Geneva
» The Greek Brain Drain
» Thieves Destroy Ancient Rock Painting in Spain
» Threat Letter to French Mosque Praises Far Right
» UK: “Halal Version” of “Happy Muslims” Video Gets Rid of All the Women
» UK: Family and Friends Say Farewell to Peaches Geldof
» UK: Man Who Sent Threats to Barking MP Margaret Hodge Walks Free
» UK: Police Name Man Being Hunted Over Rape of Woman in Bradford
» UK: Skin Cancer Rates ‘Surge Since 1970s’
» UK: Where Would You Rather Live — Great Britain or Little England?
» UKIP’s European Election Billboards Cause Twitter Storm
» Who Judges Spain’s Political Class?
 
Balkans
» A “Wadjda” For Kosovo
» Rude Awakening for Croatia After EU Accession
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Israel Launches Airstrikes on Gaza
» Israeli Arabs March Against Hate Attacks
» Palestinian Rebels Launch at Least Five Rockets at Israel
» Palestinian Factions to Hold Reconciliation Talks
» Samaritan Ritual Slaughter Keeps Tradition Alive
 
Middle East
» 33 Killed in Insurgent Attacks Across Iraq
» Airstrike Kills 55 Al Qaeda Militants in South Yemen
» Daughters of Saudi King Abdullah Say He is Holding Them Hostage
» Decades Later, Hostage Crisis Still Haunts US-Iranian Relations
» Fatal MERS Virus Carried to Greece From Saudi Arabia
» Greeks in Qatar Contributing to the Great Boom
» Homes of Christians Fleeing Iraq Seized by Gangs
» Is Al Qaeda’s Ability to Strike Growing in the Middle East?
» Negotiations Ongoing for Italian Jesuit’s Release in Syria
» New Drone Strike in Yemen Kills 55 Al Qaeda Militants
» Suspected Al-Qaida Gunmen Kill 3 Yemeni Intelligence Officers in Yemen
» Syria Conflict: Four French Journalists Freed After Spending Almost a Year as Hostages
» Syria: ‘I Suffered Mock Executions, ‘ Says Freed French Journalist
» Syria: Freed Journalists Back on French Soil
» The Ultimate Source of Islamic Hate for Infidels
» Turkey, Russia Agree to Increase Gas Shipments
» Yemen, US Mount ‘Unprecedented’ Air Attacks on Qaeda
 
Russia
» Can Ukraine Assert Control Over Its Eastern Regions?
» Confronting Both Russia and China ‘Strategic Mistake’ For US — Russian Lawmaker
» Putin Signs Decree Rehabilitating Crimean Tatars
» Ukraine: A Warzone Without Frontlines
 
South Asia
» Commercial Project Threatens Pakistan’s Historic Temple
» DW Correspondent Target of Possible Attack in Pakistan
» IED Attack Kills One Afghan Army Soldier
» Malaysia MH370: No Trace Yet After Two-Thirds of Sub’s Scan
» Nepal Sherpas Demand Compensation Following Deadly Everest Avalanche
» Pakistan: How the Blasphemy Law Really Works
 
Far East
» China Shoe Factory Strike Hits Nike and Adidas
» Fears Grow Over Safety of North Korean Reactor
» North Korea Diversifies Drug Smuggling, Counterfeiting, Study Says
» North Korea: Pyongyang Experts to Study Cheese-Making in France
» Oliver Stone Slams China for Glorifying Mao
» Philippines: Dane Has Himself Crucified
» Police in China Nearly Beaten to Death in Citizen Backlash
» South Korean Leader Condemns Ferry Crew as Death Toll Rises
» Vietnam Uses Ecological Engineering to Save Rice
 
Australia — Pacific
» Australians Gather in Turkey Ahead of ANZAC Day
» Chinese Spies at Sydney University
» Tensions Between Australian Defence League and Muslim Community Reach Violent New Heights
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Humans May Have Dispersed out of Africa Earlier Than Thought
» Nigeria: Police and Boko Haram Massacre Over 150 Dead
» Nigeria: Floating School for Slum Children
» Somalia: Bomb Blast in Mogadishu Kills Federal MP
» South Sudan Rebels Slaughter ‘Hundreds’ In Ethnic Massacres
» Unprecedented Wave of Terror Divides Nigerians
 
Latin America
» Brazil: Residents of Rio’s ‘Favelas’ Rail Against Violence Caused by Police Occupation
» Easter Shooting Sparks Protests in Brazil
» Girl Kept as Slave for Nine Years in Argentina by Followers of Pagan Cult
» Mexico: Birthplace of Chili Pepper Farming Revealed
» Origins of Domesticated Chili Pepper Found in Mexico
» Venezuela: Violent Clashes Between Protesters and Police in Caracas
 
Immigration
» Chavez: ‘Migrant Workers in the US Deserve New Laws’
» Emergency as Wave of Migrants Lands in Sicily
» Ex-Honor Student Gets 5 Years in Terrorism Case
» Italian Navy Rescues Hundreds More Migrants
» Italy: Northern League Says Suspend Sea Rescue of Migrants
» Italy: Kazakh Tycoon’s Family Granted Refugee Status
» Italy: More Migrants Rescued. League Demands Mission’s End
» Just One in Five Dutch Supports Completely Open EU Borders
» Spain Evicts 7 Illegal Migrants From Tiny Island to Morocco
» UK: ‘There Are 26m People in Europe Looking for Your Jobs’
 
Culture Wars
» ‘Britain Isn’t a Christian Country’ Claim the Usual, Intolerant, Lefty, Gaia-Worshipping, Guardianista Suspects
» Calif. Moves to Ban Judges Affiliated With Boy Scouts
» David Cameron Accused of Fostering Division in ‘Christian’ UK
» David Cameron ‘Fuelling Sectarian Division by Bringing God Into Politics’
» Germany: Berlin Man Must Call Himself a Mother
» See What They’ll be Teaching in the Chicago Public Schools
 
General
» 25 Years of Digital Gaming
» Missing Xenon Gas Found in Earth’s Core
 

ISTAT: One Mln Italian Families Without Employment Income

Half of households not earning regular wages include children

(ANSA) — Rome, April 21 — More than one million Italian households were without income earned from employment, according to 2013 labour market data collected by national statistical agency Istat.

It found that about half of that number were households with children.

The more precise figures showed that 1,000,130 families had no employment income last year, including 491,000 households with children.

As well, the number of households where at least one member was looking for a job rose by 18.3% last year compared with 2012 — about 175,000 people.

Compared with two years earlier, the rise was more than 50%, said the agency.

Istat suggested that those families without employment income may be living on savings, retirement income, unemployment benefits, and possibly earnings from renting a home or other property.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italians Cut Down This Easter

Spending on food, travel lower than last year

(ANSA) — Rome, April 21 — With the effects of the economic crisis still being felt, Italians reduced their spending on food and travel this Easter, according to data released Monday.

Consumer associations Federconsumatori and Adusbef said that overall spending was 13.8% down on last year, while expenditure on traditional ‘colomba’ Easter cakes and chocolate eggs dropped 21.5%.

The associations said the data showed “that the economic situation is having a great effect and families are suffering”. Farm organization Coldiretti said most Italians enjoyed the Easter long weekend with family, eating at home rather than spending on restaurants and travel. Almost eight in 10 people chose to dine at home on Sunday, with the traditional Easter lamb presiding over the table at about 40% of households, although a rising number are opting for vegetarian dishes, according to a survey by Ixe research, conducted for the farm organization. “With the vast majority opting for the homemade lunch at home with relatives and friends, but without leaving their city, the result is that this year the total expenditure of Italian families for the Easter menu has dropped,” said the organization. Consumers have been hit hard by the deepest recession in Italy since the Second World War, and although the economy has since emerged from recession, unemployment remains at a record high 13% and Italians have been reluctant to spend.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italian Bank Backs €5bn Capital Boost Plan

Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena gave the go-ahead on Friday to a €5.0 billion equity raising that will boost its capital and allow it to repay a government bailout this year.

The bank said in a statement the share sale would give it a strong enough “capital buffer” to withstand EU bank stress tests in the current climate of “high uncertainty and limited visibility”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Banks Set to Slash Cash Desks

Change driven by need to reduce costs, customer demands

(ANSA) — Rome, April 21 — Italy’s banks are set to slash the number of cash desks where customers can carry out their financial operations over the coming years, analysis of industrial plans in the sector suggest.

The analysis suggests that around 1,500 cash desks are set for the chop, which in many cases will lead to whole branches being shut down.

Experts say the change is driven by the need to reduce personnel costs, as Italy’s banks have been badly hit by the economic crisis, and by customers’ increasing use of online banking rather than using their branches.

Bank of Italy data shows that 800 cash desks have already been closed at 600 lenders since 2007, taking the number down from 32,800 to 31,900.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Japan’s Trade Deficit Widens as Export Growth Weakens: Economy

Japan’s weakest export growth in a year spurred a wider-than-forecast trade deficit in March, adding to challenges for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in steering the economy through the aftermath of an April 1 sales-tax rise.

At the same time, the Japanese currency’s 19 percent drop since Abe came to power in December 2012 has boosted import values, contributing to 21 straight monthly deficits — the longest slide in comparable data back to 1979. The yen was down 0.2 percent at 102.63 as of 11:48 a.m. in Tokyo today.

The Bank of Japan is forecast to add to already unprecedented easing to cushion the economy from the sales-tax increase and keep inflation on track to its 2 percent target.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

As Detroit Rape Kits Sit Untested, Justice for Victims is Denied

Nearly five years after the discovery of 11,000 abandoned rape evidence kits in a Detroit police warehouse sparked outrage, only about 2,000 of the kits have undergone DNA testing, allowing serial rapists to remain free and in some cases commit more attacks.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Boston Marathon Sees Huge Turnout a Year After the Attack

(AGI) Boston, April 21 — Boston defies terrorism, with an almost record turnout of 35,660 marathon participants just a year after the nightmarish terrorist attack in which three people died and 264 were injured. The world’s oldest marathon is in its 118th edition, and this year stringent security measures were taken, with 3,500 police officers (twice as many as last year) and some 60 other law enforcement agents, including secret agents, local security, state and federal officers, and sniffer dogs.

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

Boston Marathon Runners Honor Victims of Last Year’s Bombing

Boston has held its annual marathon with strong memories of last year’s deadly bombings. The day was also noteworthy for the men’s race, where an American won for the first time in 31 years.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Experts Warn Civilian World Not Ready for Massive EMP-Caused Blackout

The catastrophic effects of an electromagnetic pulse-caused blackout could be preventable, but experts warn the civilian world is still not ready.

Peter Vincent Pry, executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security and director of the U.S. Nuclear Strategy Forum, both congressional advisory boards, said the technology to avoid disaster from electromagnetic pulses exists, and upgrading the nation’s electrical grid is financially viable.

“The problem is not the technology,” Pry said. “We know how to protect against it. It’s not the money, it doesn’t cost that much. The problem is the politics. It always seems to be the politics that gets in the way.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Judges Recuse Themselves From Islamic Center Lawsuit

MURFREESBORO — All of Rutherford County’s Circuit Court judges recused themselves from hearing a lawsuit challenging Islamic Center of Murfreesboro’s plan to expand its cemetery. The cemetery is on 15 acres behind the Islamic Center on Veals Road. The case cannot go forward until a judge is assigned.

“My guess is that a senior judge might be appointed by the Administrative Office of the Courts,’’ said John Green, a Murfreesboro attorney representing the center…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Meb Keflezighi is First American Man to Win Boston Marathon Since 1983

Meb Keflezighi, a 38-year-old immigrant from Eritrea, became the first American man to win the Boston Marathon in more than 30 years, finishing Monday’s race in an unofficial time of 2 hours 8 minutes 37 seconds.

The last men’s winner from the United States was Greg Meyer in 1983. The last women’s winner from the United States was Lisa Larsen Weidenbach in 1985.

Rita Jeptoo of Kenya won Monday’s women’s race in 2:18:57, a course record.

[Return to headlines]
 

More Latino Than White Students Admitted to UC

LOS ANGELES (KABC) — For the first time, more Latino than white students in California have been offered admission to UC schools this fall, officials said Friday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Praises Muslims in Easter Message

by Daniel Greenfield

It just wouldn’t be Easter… without Muslims.

Obama said this time of year is a good time to remember the “common thread of humanity that connects us all — not just Christians and Jews, but Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs — is our shared commitment to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Report: More Than 100,000 Gang Members in Texas

Current gang membership in the state of Texas may exceed 100,000 individuals, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS).

In a lengthy examination of gang activity in the state DPS officials revealed that they believe the number of gang members may exceed 100,000 people, participating in more than 4,600 identified gangs in the state.

“This estimate is consistent with available information on gang membership nationally and within Texas. The National Gang Intelligence Center, for example, estimated in 2011 that there are 1.4 million gang members nationwide — a 40-percent increase from 2009,” the report, released Thursday, reads.

According to authorities, many of the gangs work with Mexican cartels to smuggle contraband like drugs, weapons, people and money across the border.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Six Children Amongst 45 People Shot in Chicago During Bloody Easter Weekend

Nine people are dead and at least 36 were wounded — including six children — in an especially bloody 48 hours in the gang-and-violence-plagued city of Chicago over the weekend.

Five of the six children wounded — who range in age from 11 to 15 — were shot during a drive-by shooting on Sunday night after a person in the vehicle reportedly asked if the children were members of a particular street gang.

The sixth, a 15-year-old girl, was shot while riding in a vehicle in what appears to be a separate — but also gang-related — incident.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Small Western Towns to Lose Amtrak Service if States Can’t Pay Up

For more than 40 years, Amtrak’s Southwest Chief train has run from Chicago to Los Angeles and back again, through some of the most scenic vistas in America. But Amtrak says customers along a 600-mile stretch of the famous line will lose service in 2016 unless the states they live in cough up enough cash to upgrade aging track.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Myth of Islamophobia: The Vienna — Phoenix Connections

This was the 20th anniversary of the film Forrest Gump and it was featured all week on the AMC cable TV channel. There is the fabled line repeated at various touching moments in this now classic movie uttered by the fictional character’s mother portrayed by the Hollywood actress Sally Fields, dying of cancer. Forrest portrayed by Academy award winner actor Tom Hanks: later said in the film, “Momma always said: life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get”. Watch a You Tube segment, here.

That could be the tag line for the Easter Sunday production of The Lisa Benson Radio Show on the Salem Radio Network broadcast from Phoenix on KKNT 960 AM that aired today. There was also a subtext, the program connected Austrian human rights activist Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolf in Vienna with Rabbi Jonathan Hausman who had sponsored a talk by her at his synagogue in Stoughton, Massachusetts in 2013. Her appearance was part of the Irwin and H. Ethel Hausman Memorial Speakers Series. It was all about the leverage of networking in the counter-Jihad international community.

Earlier in Holy Week of both Passover and Easter, Lisa Benson had called me to tell me of her experience of being the captive passenger in a cab she got into at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor airport. It was driven by an Islamist Sudanese who spying her Jewish star on a necklace and locked her in for a wild journey to her home at high speed trying to convert her. This occurred after a week and a half away on the east Coast in Washington, DC. That was scary enough. Now she asked me on a phone call for advice on a suggested topic for today’s Easter Sunday broadcast. I advised her that she might consider addressing CAIR’s relentless Islamophobia attacks against the film Honor Diaries about the issue of misogyny in Muslim Majority countries. We discussed the attack against the film’s executive producer, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Somali apostate, author of the acclaimed biographies, Infidel and Nomad. Ali is a vigorous defender of women’s and girl’s rights in these Muslim honor shame societies. Benson might consider addressing the topic of CAIR’s assault on free speech under the First Amendment of our Constitution. This was buttressed by an interview I had just concluded last weekend with Brooke Goldstein of The Lawfare Project who had confronted a CAIR spokesperson on a Fox News program with host Megyn Kelly of The Kelly File. The program on Fox News Cable TV illustrated CAIR’s Islamophobia charges against Ms. Ali and the film’s Jewish producers at the Clarion project. Watch this You Tube video of the Fox News Kelly Files segment, here. Then there was Brandeis University’s President Frederick Lawrence cowardly succumbing to a lynch mob composed of 86 signers of a letter from the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies faculty and the leaders of the Muslim Student Association chapter. He withdrew an honorary doctorate for Ms. Ali and as commencement speaker. As to who might join me in a discussion of this topic, I suggested Rabbi Hausman. He has been called an Islamophobe and worse in hearings before the Florida legislature on the pending American Law for American Courts (ALAC) legislation. Moreover, Sen. Alan Hays, the Florida Senate sponsor of ALAC, had been accused of being an Islamophobe by representatives of CAIR- Florida and CAIR National for proposing that legislation as “bullying Muslims and other minorities”. Then Arab American standup comic Dean Obeidallah also accused Hays of being an Islamophobe for sponsoring textbook review legislation as equivalent of “censorship”. The Florida legislation was spurred by citizen activist criticism of the treatment of Islam and Muslim culture in world history texts approved by the Florida Department of Education. I reached out to Rabbi Hausman who consented to join me on the radio panel.

After several turns of a flier for today’s broadcast I went to sleep late Saturday night and awoke in the middle of the night, found the final version and posted it. Within minutes of doing that I received an email from Elisabeth Sabaditsch Wolf in Vienna offering to call in and tell of her group’s victory in the annual conference by the Office of Democratic Institutions of Human Rights (ODIHR) of the Organization of Cooperation and Security of Europe (OSCE). Ms. Sabaditsch Wolf is the leader of the Bürgerbewegung Pax Europa or Citizens’ Movement Pax Europa (CMPE) a registered NGO. In the late summer of 2013, CMPE, together with representatives of the International Civil Liberties Alliance (ICLA), Washington, DC-based Center for Security Policy and ACT! had journeyed to Warsaw for another ODIHR conference on the legal definition of Islamophobia in response to one stated by the Turkish representative. I wrote her back suggesting that this might be worthy of an interview about what had occurred there and had been covered in a Gates of Vienna (GoV) series of articles last fall. We agreed to talk about this on a Skype call that occurred this morning.

When I reconvened with Ms. Sabaditsch Wolff, we discussed a range of topics that included the ODIHR episode. There was also the recent dilemma that faced Heinz-Christian Strachey, leader of FPÖ Austrian Freedom Party, following the national outrage over the former European Parliamentary candidate’s “N-word” description of the EU. Then she discussed the forthcoming May 17th March against persecution of Christians in Orlando, Florida modeled on an annual one that occurs each December in Vienna. She will be coming to the US to join Florida March organizers Rev. Bruce Lieske and Alan Kornman of The United West. Lieske had witnessed the last March against Christian Persecution in Vienna and was moved to sponsor one in Florida, next month. Among the European contingent attending the Orlando March will be Sister Hatune Dogan, a Syrian Orthodox Christian Nun of Turkish origins. Read her speech in an Austrian Cathedral delivered on December 28, 2013, here.

The ODIHR episode involved Sabaditsch-Wolff, Stephen Coughlin of the CSP and Ned May of GoV who confronted a Representative of the Runnymede Trust based in the UK. The confrontation was over whether the group had a legal definition of Islamophobia had a legal definition of Islamophobia. The Runnymede representative under close questioning by Coughlin and May relented and indicated that they could find no legal definition of the term. May reminded the Runnymede representative that Islamophobia had been used more than 57 times in a pamphlet issued by the UK group. In response I told her that Hatem Bazian, senior lecturer in the UC Berkeley’s department of Near Eastern studies, directs the Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project (IRDP). That is a program of the University of California at Berkeley’s Center for Race & Gender. He sits on the editorial board for the Islamophobia Studies Journal and has said, “Islamophobia is a greater threat than Islamic terrorism”.

The Lisa Benson Show was being aired after the close of the Fifth International Conference on Islamophobia that ran from April 17 to 19th, 2014. I pointed out that the theme this year was on latent versus manifest forms keyed off the late Columbia Professor, Edward Said’s Orientalism. Having watched a few speakers on a continuous webcast, I suggested to her that the conference was a snoozer. That was also the opinion of Rabbi Hausman who had also watched a few presentations. Later in the Lisa Benson broadcast, I noted what Salman Rushdie had said about Islamophobia, the neologism without a meaning “was an addition to the vocabulary of Humpty Dumpty Newspeak. It took the language of analysis, reason and dispute, and stood it on its head”. Douglas Murray in a June 2013 Standpoint article said, “ the term ‘Islamophobia’ is so inexact that — in so far as there is a definition — it includes insult of and even inquiry into any aspect of Islam, including Muslim scripture”.

You can listen to my interview with Ms. Sabaditsch Wolff, here…

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

US Marshal Shoots Defendant in Federal Court

A U.S. marshal shot and critically wounded a defendant on Monday in a new federal courthouse after the man rushed the witness stand with a pen at his trial in Salt Lake City, authorities said.

Defendant Siale Angilau was hospitalized with at least one chest wound, FBI spokesman Mark Dressen said. The witness wasn’t hurt. Angilau was one of 17 people named in a 29-count racketeering indictment filed in 2008 accusing gang members of conspiracy, assault, robbery and weapons offenses.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Would Halevi Have Banished Spinoza? Turned Rushdie Over?

by Phyllis Chesler

My esteemed colleague, Yossi Klein Halevi, together with the Muslim chaplain at Duke University, Abdullah Antepli, have penned a defense of Brandeis University’s decision to disinvite Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

They write that Brandeis President Lawrence has provided an “essential teaching moment,” one that they hope will “prevent our descent into a holy war which would desecrate our faith and devour us all.”

In service to this messianic dream, Halevi and Antepli support the dishonoring of Hirsi Ali as a “renegade;” they do not see her as a “dissident” whose rights they might otherwise respect.

I wonder whether Halevi would have argued for the excommunication of Spinoza on these same grounds. Perhaps, “renegades” are radicals and dissidents are “reformers.” We certainly need both points of view.

My colleague Yossi is truly a dreamer…

[Return to headlines]
 

Amsterdam is Most Unsafe Dutch City

Amsterdam remains the most unsafe city in the Netherlands, with a 10 percent rise in burglaries and increased armed robberies over the past year, according to the Dutch crime monitor.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

British Teenager Posts Facebook Photo of Brother’s Body After Syria Battle Death

Jaffar Deghayes’ Facebook profile photograph was replaced by a photograph of his dead brother, Abdullah. It has now attracted 50 “likes”

The 16-year-old brother of a British teenager who died fighting in Syria has posted a picture of the dead youth on Facebook alongside the curse: “May the eyes of the cowards never sleep.”

Jaffar Deghayes was the youngest of three brothers fighting with rebels to overthrow President Assad’s forces. Over the weekend, Jaffar’s Facebook profile photograph was replaced by a photograph of his dead brother, Abdullah. It has now attracted 50 “likes”.

The Telegraph has taken the decision not to publish the photograph.

The brothers, from Brighton, went to Syria in January. Their uncle had previously been detained at Guantánamo Bay for five years. Their father Abubaker Deghayes said his sons had left without the family’s blessing, but the teenager had died a martyr for a just cause. He learnt of the death on Facebook…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Czech Communist Architecture May be Protected

Prague, April 20 (CTK) — The new commission for cultural heritage protection, an adviser to the Czech National Heritage Institute (NPÚ) director, has recommended that the state start protecting relatively young works of architecture from the second half of the 20th century, Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD) has written.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Does Valls’ Upcoming Vatican Trip Violate French Secularism?

New French Prime Minister Manuel Valls will attend the canonisation of former popes John XXIII and John Paul II on April 27 in Rome. But in strictly secular France, the unexpected news of his plan to attend has not gone over well with everyone.

Has France’s newly appointed Prime Minister Manuel Valls violated the country’s long-cherished principle of secularism? That is the criticism that has been levelled against the Socialist in the wake of the news that he will attend the joint canonisation ceremony.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

EU: The European Parliament is No Longer in Session. Angels and Ministers of Grace Defend US!

By Daniel Hannan

Brace yourselves, my friends. For the next eight weeks, there will be no sessions of the European Parliament. EU citizens will somehow have to muddle along without anyone passing pan-continental laws on honey or marine equipment or the compilation of employment statistics (to pluck three examples from last week).

I and my fellow MEPs will spend the next month pestering constituents for their votes and, if re-elected, the month following bickering over which of us will be in which political groups. The rest of you will just have to get by as best you can…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Germans Smuggle Cash Out of Switzerland

The number of Germans smuggling money out of Switzerland rose dramatically last year. Customs officers on the German-Swiss border said on Thursday they made a find in almost every third car they checked.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany Should Make Use of Shale Gas: EU

EU energy commissioner Günther Oettinger has urged Germany to make use of shale gas options and added that the he saw no danger of Europe’s access to Russian gas falling victim to possible economic sanctions in the standoff over Ukraine.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: Rise in Racist Activity Seen on Social Networks

In key respects, the advent of social networking sites has aided right-wing extremists. Platforms like Facebook can be used to spread racist propaganda, and such activity appears to be increasing in Germany and beyond.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

How Modernity ‘Radicalizes’ Western Muslims

A new Danish statistical study finds that “Muslims (are) 218 percent more criminal in second generation than first.” While some of these crimes are clearly related to Islam—such as attacks on Muslim apostates to Christianity—others, such as rampant theft of non-Muslims, would appear banal, until one realizes that even robbery and plunder is justified by Islamic doctrine—as one UK Muslim cleric once clearly said.

The interesting question here is why are second generation Muslims, who are presumably more Westernized than their Muslim parents, also more “radical”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Beppe Grillo Wants to Abolish the Fiscal Compact

(AGI) Rome, April 21 — Writing on his blog on Monday, Beppe Grillo, the leader of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), summarised his party’s manifesto for the European elections: “The M5S will abolish the Fiscal Compact, the constitutional provision for a balanced budget, and wants to renegotiate all the treaties that bind us to Europe. The parties that agreed these rules are the same that now sit in Parliament. The (centre-left) Democratic Party has no intention of revising these absurd constraints.” .

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

Italy: The Dictator’s Grand-Daughter Vying for MEP

Alessandra Mussolini, the granddaughter of Italy’s fascist dictator, will compete in the upcoming European elections. Staunchly defensive of her heritage, The Local takes a look at the personality behind the woman who could be elected MEP for a second time.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Veneto Activists Released From Jail

A court in Brescia, northern Italy, has ordered the release from jail of seven activists who allegedly plotted to ‘liberate’ Venice with a homemade ‘tank’ earlier this month.

The alleged plan came after more than two million residents of Venice and its surrounding region in March voted overwhelmingly in favour of breaking away from the rest of the country and forming their own state.

The online poll, although not legally binding and open to manipulation, showed the strenth of separatist feeling in Italy’s northern regions. The call for independence has sparked similar movements in other regions in Italy.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Landslides in Alps Threaten Highways, Mont Blanc Tunnel

Civil defence meetings in northern Italy over rockslide threats

(ANSA) — Aosta, April 21 — Temperature changes were blamed Monday for an ongoing series of landslides that have disrupted traffic in the Mont Blanc tunnel through the Alps that links France and Italy.

The landslides closed the tunnel, a major transport route from Chamonix in France with Courmayeur in Italy’s Aosta Valley, for short periods on Sunday. Authorities feared that rising temperatures Monday could add to the instability and Franco Gabrielli, head of Italy’s civil defence agency, was expected to meet with officials in the area to discuss the situation.

About 80 residents in the small village of La Palud were evacuated earlier due to instability in the mountains around their homes, including Monte di La Saxe above Courmayeur.

The mayor of Courmayeur was worried about warmer temperatures on Monday raising the risk of further rock and mud slides that began last week.

“Today, the landslide has again accelerated, temperatures have risen and with that, the speed (of slides),” Fabrizia Derriard told local media.

Meanwhile, volunteers and civil defence staff worked through the Easter holiday weekend, clearing roads and shoring up protective barriers against further crashing rocks and sliding earth.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Nationalism, Not NATO, Is Our Great Ally

By Patrick J. Buchanan

Elections for the European Parliament in May are almost certain to see gains for the Ukip in England, Marine Le Pen’s National Front in France, Geert Wilders Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, and other nationalist parties that have lately arisen across Europe.

These parties in a way echo Putin. Where he wants Ukraine to stay out of the EU, they want their countries to get out of the EU.

Secessionism and nationalism are growth stocks today. Centralization and globalization are yesterday.

A new world is coming. And while perhaps unwelcome news for the transnational elites championing such causes as climate change and battling global economic inequality, it is hard to see any great threat in all this to the true interests of the American people.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Neanderthals Had Shallow Gene Pool, Study Says

Neanderthals were remarkably less genetically diverse than modern humans, with Neanderthal populations typically smaller and more isolated, researchers say. Although Neanderthals underwent more genetic changes involving their skeletons, they had fewer such changes in behavior and pigmentation, scientists added.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Netherlands: Student Fought Bureaucrats for Holocaust Justice

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Charlotte van den Berg was a 20-year-old college student working part-time in Amsterdam’s city archives when she and other interns came across a shocking find: letters from Jewish Holocaust survivors complaining that the city was forcing them to pay back taxes and late payment fines on property seized after they were deported to Nazi death camps…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Norway: How to Remember a Massacre?

Some Norwegians object to a planned monument on Utoya island, the site of Breivik’s shooting spree.

Anders Behring Breivik’s attacks nearly three years ago caused both a very public, national trauma and untold stories of personal grief in Norway. Now plans for a national memorial for the 69 who died on the Utoya island are being met with protests from people who say they don’t want a daily reminder of what they witnessed on 22 July 2011.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Saving Wild Horses From Going Extinct

Breeding programs and co-operative efforts by various European zoos have helped increase the population of Przewalski’s horses — a species that had been threatened by extinction for decades.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Ikea to Introduce ‘Green’ Vegetarian Meatballs

Swedish furniture giant Ikea is planning to put vegetarian meatballs on the menu in an attempt to cut down on its carbon footprint, the company has announced.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Switzerland: Mega Diamond to be Auctioned in Geneva

One of the world’s largest yellow diamonds will go under the hammer in Geneva next month, with the Sotheby’s auction house hoping to rake in up to $25 million for the gem.

The Graff Vivid Yellow, the colour of a daffodil and weighing 100.09 carats, figures among a wide range of pieces for sale at Sotheby’s spring Magnificent Jewels and Nobel Jewels auction in the Swiss city on May 13th.

The rock, one of the world’s largest cut diamonds of any colour, is mounted as a ring and sparkles with “extraordinary fire and brilliance,” the auction house said Wednesday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Greek Brain Drain

Euronews has travelled to Sweden to meet Greek expatriates, who quit their homeland in search of a better life. The latest estimates say 1.4 million Greeks have taken that path over the past three years, as the country’s economy struggled under the weight of IMF-backed austerity. They are trying their luck in Germany, England, Belgium, Switzerland and Sweden.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Thieves Destroy Ancient Rock Painting in Spain

A 5,000 year-old rock painting in southern Spain has been destroyed by thieves who tried to steal the Unesco World Heritage-listed artwork by chipping it off the cave wall where it was housed.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Threat Letter to French Mosque Praises Far Right

After pork products turned up in the mailbox of a suburban Paris mosque along with a threatening letter praising the town’s recently elected far-right National Front mayor, muslims are concerned about a “worrying” local shift.

A mosque in the Paris suburbs said on Friday it had filed a complaint with police after slices of pork paté and a threatening letter were stuffed into its mailbox. Authorities at the mosque in Mantes-la-Ville, a town of 19,000 in the western suburbs of Paris, said the incidents reflected a “worrying climate” after the town last month elected a mayor from the far-right National Front.

The head of the association that runs the mosque, Abdelaziz El Jaouhari, said about a dozen mouldy slices of pork paté were discovered in the mailbox on Wednesday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: “Halal Version” of “Happy Muslims” Video Gets Rid of All the Women

Robert Spencer

You can be happy as long as you’re a male. Females need to stay out of sight except for when the men who own them summon them. But not to worry, these are happy “moderates,” and if you think they’re misogynistic, you’re a greasy Islamophobe.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Family and Friends Say Farewell to Peaches Geldof

Mourners including Sarah Ferguson, Nick Grimshaw, Bill Wyman and Kate Moss have paid their last respects to Peaches Geldof, at her funeral in Kent. Her father Bob Geldof was due to give a eulogy during the service, in the church where she was married two years ago.

The 25-year-old television presenter, model and socialite, died suddenly two weeks ago at her home.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Man Who Sent Threats to Barking MP Margaret Hodge Walks Free

A depressed immigrant who sent death threats to Barking MP Margaret Hodge has walked free from court. Maxwell Maundy, 31, sent abusive letters to the MP, as well as a police watchdog and Home Office officials, claiming they had “betrayed” him after he helped secure the conviction of a corrupt border officer…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Police Name Man Being Hunted Over Rape of Woman in Bradford

Detectives have released this picture of a man they are hunting in connection with a “stranger rape” in Bradford. They want to trace Milos Cicak, a Slovakian national, after a 37-year-old woman was subjected to a serious sexual assault…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Skin Cancer Rates ‘Surge Since 1970s’

The incidence of the most serious skin cancer in Great Britain is now five times higher than it was in the 1970s, figures show. Cancer Research UK statistics show more than 13,000 people develop malignant melanoma each year, compared with around 1,800 in the mid-1970s.

It says the rise is partly due to rising popularity of package holidays to Europe from the late 1960s. Sunbed use has also fuelled the increase, the charity has said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Where Would You Rather Live — Great Britain or Little England?

by Nick Clegg

If you agree that Britain is better off in the EU, make yourself heard now. The Lib Dems can’t win this argument alone

This Easter we find ourselves in the middle of a European election campaign in which the question at the heart of the European debate is finally being addressed: should Britain remain a member of the EU, or is it time to leave?…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UKIP’s European Election Billboards Cause Twitter Storm

A series of new advertising billboards from the UK Independence Party (UKIP) have caused a storm on Twitter just hours after going up around the country…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Who Judges Spain’s Political Class?

Around 10,000 politicians, magistrates and other public officials enjoy what is known as aforamiento, giving them special protection before the law that their counterparts in other developed countries would be envious of. For example, if a politician in the United States or most of Europe is accused of breaking the law, they face trial under the same terms and conditions as any other person. But in Spain, an aforado can only be tried by Spain’s Supreme Court or by the highest court in their region.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

A “Wadjda” For Kosovo

by Visar Duriqi

Kosovo shares one social problem with Saudi Arabia. That is the infiltration of radical Islam. The story of victimized moderate Muslim clerics and intellectuals, removed from their congregations, dismissed from their teaching positions, and physically attacked, remains to be told.

I would like to be a brother or friend to a female president, but to a president that has reached her position as Wadjda got her bicycle — because she deserved it.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Rude Awakening for Croatia After EU Accession

Nine months after joining the European Union, the mood in Croatia is one of crisis. The already low expectations of EU membership have so far not been met. Meanwhile, the political right is playing its own game.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Israel Launches Airstrikes on Gaza

GAZA, April 21 (Xinhua) — Israeli fighter jets on Monday carried out a series of airstrikes across the Palestinian Gaza Strip, injuring two Hamas policemen, witnesses said. Israeli jets targeted a military base used by militants of the Hamas armed wing in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khanyounis, said the witnesses…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Israeli Arabs March Against Hate Attacks

Hundreds of Arab Israelis rallied outside Umm al-Faham on Monday in protest at attacks by Jewish extremists that spread to the almost entirely Arab northern town last week. “Umm al-Faham is a red line,” the demonstrators chanted as they gathered outside the town, a stronghold of the radical wing of Israel’s Islamic Movement.

The protest was triggered by an attack on a mosque in the town on Friday. Jewish ultra-nationalists daubed the words “Arabs out” in Hebrew on a door.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Palestinian Rebels Launch at Least Five Rockets at Israel

(AGI) Jerusalem, April 21 — Palestinian militants launched at least five rockets into Israel’s eastern Negev from the Gaza Strip. One hit Sderot, triggering alarms and damaging several buildings but not causing any injury, Israeli media reported.

However, according to the Israeli army at least three rockets were launched, but failed to cause any damage or injury.

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

Palestinian Factions to Hold Reconciliation Talks

The leaders of the Palestinian Hamas and Fatah factions are expected to meet in Gaza in an attempt to finalize reconciliation efforts and to pave the way for elections.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Samaritan Ritual Slaughter Keeps Tradition Alive

Every year, the Samaritans in the West Bank celebrate Passover by slaughtering sheep. It’s another way to keep traditions alive for a people that’s facing genetic problems in an ever-dwindling population.

The Samaritans believe Mount Gerizim, and not Jerusalem, was the holy place chosen by God. They have their own version of the Torah and holy days similar to Jewish ones. “We are not Jewish, we never want to be Jewish, we are Israel-people and there is a difference between Jewish and Israel,” Yousef Kohen, the Samaritan priest, said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

33 Killed in Insurgent Attacks Across Iraq

BAGHDAD, April 21 (Xinhua) — Thirty-three people were killed and some 50 others wounded in separate attacks across Iraq, including two suicide bombings on Monday, police and medical sources said.

The deadliest attack of the day occurred in Iraq’s eastern province of Wasit when a suicide bomber drove his explosive-laden car into a police checkpoint and blew it up on the main road near the city of Suwairah, some 50 km southeast of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, leaving 10 dead and up to 17 others wounded, a provincial police source told Xinhua…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Airstrike Kills 55 Al Qaeda Militants in South Yemen

Multiple airstrikes have inflicted a heavy toll on al Qaeda, according to Yemen’s interior ministry. The country has been grappling with the terror cell, which has carried out numerous attacks on its military.

Yemen has been battling nationwide instability since the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in December 2011. The country faces a rise in violence, with its military repeatedly coming under attack by fighters linked to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Daughters of Saudi King Abdullah Say He is Holding Them Hostage

For four Saudi princesses, life in their father’s $740 million compound is anything but comfortable.

Four daughters of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz have been confined to dingy rooms infested with rodents and bugs by the king for being too progressive in their advocacy of Saudi women’s rights, according to the New York Post, which spoke with the king’s eldest daughter Sahar Al Saud about their living conditions.

Sahar and her sisters, Maha, Hala and Jawahar Al Saud, have been confined since speaking out against the country’s policy of illegally detaining women in mental wards. Because of this, the king no longer considers them his daughters, and has forbidden men to ask to marry them.

The rooms are stiflingly hot, and the women suffer from heat stroke and nausea. Occasionally they are beaten with sticks by relatives who shout at them and remind them that they will die where they have been confined, according to the Post report.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Decades Later, Hostage Crisis Still Haunts US-Iranian Relations

The White House has refused to grant a visa to Iran’s new UN ambassador due to his involvement in the 1979 hostage crisis. The diplomatic clash comes at a delicate time in negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Fatal MERS Virus Carried to Greece From Saudi Arabia

Authorities found on Monday an Athenian taxi driver who picked up a passenger arriving from Saudi Arabia on Thursday while suffering from a rare respiratory disease that has killed dozens.

The passenger, a 69-year-old Greek man who lives in Saudi Arabia, was diagnosed with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and is being treated in a negative pressure room at an Athens hospital.

MERS is a SARS-like coronavirus that emerged in Saudi Arabia two years ago and has killed 76 people there.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Greeks in Qatar Contributing to the Great Boom

Qatari government officials may make headlines every time they visit Greece, but are you aware of the unsung heroes behind the emirate’s economic boom, many of whom are Greek? Some 3,000 Greeks live in Qatar, making them a sizable community.

Civil engineers, mechanical engineers, chemical engineers, pilots, stewards, hotel workers, sports trainers, physical therapists and sports event planners have descended on Qatar in droves to join in the frenzied preparations for the 2022 World Cup — for which a Greek serves as managing director of the organizing committee.

The massive effort to get the emirate ready to host the world’s biggest soccer event also includes the construction of a metro system in Doha and a railway line linking Qatar to Oman, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Homes of Christians Fleeing Iraq Seized by Gangs

BAGHDAD, IRAQ (Worthy News)— Gangs in Baghdad are seizing homes left vacant by Christian families who have been forced to flee from sectarian violence, according to Barnabas Aid.

“Most of them are afraid of submitting complaints to the government because they do not believe they can protect themselves if they file a lawsuit,” said William Warda, head of the Baghdad-based Hammurabi Human Rights Organization.

Iraq’s Christians are most at risk of having their homes seized as they lack the tribal affiliations that protect their Arab Muslim neighbors.

After the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, there was a surge in anti-Christian threats, kidnappings and murders, prompting thousands of Iraqi Christians to flee. But many who left didn’t sell their properties in the hope of one day returning, but eventually they were forced to sell their homes at rates well below market value because Muslim gangs simply took over their properties.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Is Al Qaeda’s Ability to Strike Growing in the Middle East?

In an interview with Fox News National Security KT McFarland, Michael O’Hanlon explained what is currently known about Al Qaeda’s operational capabilities. O’Hanlon serves as the director of research and foreign policy senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

“(Militants) are resilient — I’m not going to say rebound because Al Qaeda continues to have an ideology that’s despised by not only virtually all Americans, but by all Muslims,” O’Hanlon said. “Unfortunately, Al Qaeda has an ideology that still appeals to certain disaffected groups and individuals in much of the broader Islamic world.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Negotiations Ongoing for Italian Jesuit’s Release in Syria

Father Paolo Dall’Oglio went missing in July

(ANSA) — Beirut, April 21 — Negotiations have been ongoing at various levels in Syria and outside the country for the liberation of Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, an Italian Jesuit priest who went missing in the north of the country in July, for several months, ANSA sources said Monday. The sources close to the negotiations, who asked to remain anonymous, said that “there was comforting news about Dall’Oglio being alive” two weeks ago.

But they also stressed that “there can be no certainty about this, given the difficulty in penetrating the organisation that is keeping him prisoner”. The sources added that Dall’Oglio is being held in northern Syria by a branch of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), an al-Qaeda-linked group led by fighters from Iraq and other countries. The Italian foreign ministry said Monday that it was maintaining “maximum confidentiality” about the case.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

New Drone Strike in Yemen Kills 55 Al Qaeda Militants

A suspected U.S. drone strike in southern Yemen killed 55 militants Monday, in the third deadly attack on an Al Qaeda training camp in the area in several days.

Yemen’s interior ministry says among those killed in an hours-long campaign of strikes on the camp in the rugged mountains of Mahfad between Abyan, Shabwa and al-Bayda provinces were three senior members of Al Qaeda.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Suspected Al-Qaida Gunmen Kill 3 Yemeni Intelligence Officers in Yemen

SANAA, April 21 (Xinhua) — Suspected al-Qaida gunmen killed three intelligence officers in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa in two separate attacks on Monday, a day after four U.S. drone strikes killed at least 34 suspected al-Qaida militants in southern Yemen, officials said.

An interior ministry official told Xinhua that two gunmen on a motorcycle wearing military uniform intercepted a car in a busy street in central Sanaa and killed two intelligence officers aboard. The gunmen fled the scene before police arrived…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Syria Conflict: Four French Journalists Freed After Spending Almost a Year as Hostages

Four French journalists have been released after being held hostage in Syria for 10 months, officials said Saturday.

The four men were found blindfolded and handcuffed after going missing in June 2013.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Syria: ‘I Suffered Mock Executions, ‘ Says Freed French Journalist

Released on Saturday, Didier François returned to France on Monday after ten months of captivity in Syria with three other French journalists. He said his long experience as a foreign correspondent had helped him to cope during his ordeal.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Syria: Freed Journalists Back on French Soil

Four French journalists taken hostage in Syria arrived home on Sunday to an emotional reunion with family and colleagues after spending 10 months in captivity in the world’s most dangerous country for the media.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Ultimate Source of Islamic Hate for Infidels

By Raymond Ibrahim

Who is ultimately responsible for the ongoing attacks on Christians and their churches throughout the Islamic world?

As for hating non-Muslim “infidels,” many Islamic clerics, especially Salafis, believe that the doctrine of “Loyalty and Enmity” (or wala’ wa bara’) commands Muslims never to befriend or be loyal to non-Muslims. Burhami himself appears on video asserting that if a Muslim man marries a Christian or Jewish woman (known in Islamic parlance as “People of the Book”)—even he must still hate his wife, because she is an infidel.

It is true that behind the mindless mob stand Islamic clerics like Burhami, inciting hatred for Christians and other infidels. But that is not the complete picture; for behind all these clerics stand Islam’s scriptures—the Koran and hadith—commanding enmity for the infidel.

In short, it’s not just a few “radical clerics”—a few “rotten apples”—that incite mobs to attack Christians, but rather the core texts of Islam itself.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey, Russia Agree to Increase Gas Shipments

Turkey has agreed “in principle” to increase shipments of natural gas from Russia via the Blue Stream pipeline, its energy minister said on Monday. The two countries will increase capacity through the pipeline, which crosses the Black Sea, from 16 billion cubic metres annually to 19 billion cubic metres, said Energy Minister Taner Yildiz.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Yemen, US Mount ‘Unprecedented’ Air Attacks on Qaeda

An “unprecedented” US and Yemeni aerial campaign has killed more than 40 Al-Qaeda militants in recent days in a bid to thwart attacks by the network’s local affiliate, officials said.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has been linked to a number of failed terror plots against the United States, and its leader recently appeared in a rare video in which he vowed to attack Western “crusaders” wherever they are.

A top Yemeni official told AFP the “unprecedented operation” in recent days came after “information that Al-Qaeda was plotting attacks on vital installations, military and security, as well as foreign interests in Yemen.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Can Ukraine Assert Control Over Its Eastern Regions?

Violence over the weekend in Ukraine has Kiev and Moscow blaming each other for breaking an agreement seen as possible road map to ending the impasse in the eastern part of the country. Fox News National Security KT McFarland spoke to Ambassador William B. Taylor about the standoff. Taylor served as U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine during the Bush Administration.

“Let’s be clear — these are Russian troops and Russian-led forces in eastern Ukraine who are not abiding by the agreement … to turn over occupied buildings and disarm illegal militias,” Taylor said. “The Russians are directing, guiding and provoking things in eastern Ukraine — that violates the agreement.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Confronting Both Russia and China ‘Strategic Mistake’ For US — Russian Lawmaker

MOSCOW, April 21 (RIA Novosti) — The United States runs the risk of making a huge foreign policy blunder by simultaneously antagonizing two major world powers, Russia and China, a senior Russian lawmaker wrote on Twitter Monday.

“For the United States, Russia is an enemy and China is a potential enemy. But the confrontation course with both major powers is a strategic mistake,” Alexei Pushkov, who chairs the foreign affairs committee in Russia’s lower house, wrote…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Putin Signs Decree Rehabilitating Crimean Tatars

(AGI) Moscow, April 21 — Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Monday that he has signed a decree rehabilitating the Crimean Tatars and other minorities from the peninsula, such as Germans, Armenians and Greeks, deported by Stalin at the end of the Second World War. The Tatar minority of about 300,000 people, who represent 15 percent of the Crimean population, had opposed the annexation of the peninsula to Russia in the referendum on March 15.

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

Ukraine: A Warzone Without Frontlines

The trip from Donetsk to Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine is like a journey into a different country. The further one travels, the more apparent this becomes. DW’s Roman Goncharenko describes a warzone without frontlines.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Commercial Project Threatens Pakistan’s Historic Temple

A Hindu temple in Pakistan is under threat by the construction of a skyscraper. While the builders say the project is beneficial for Karachi’s denizens, the minority Hindus see it as another assault on their faith.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

DW Correspondent Target of Possible Attack in Pakistan

DW correspondent Abdul Ghani Kakar has reportedly been attacked in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta. Observers say that Pakistani journalists are being increasingly targeted by both state and non-state actors.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

IED Attack Kills One Afghan Army Soldier

KABUL, April 21 (Xinhua) — One Afghan soldier was killed in a bomb attack, said the country’s Defense Ministry on Monday. “An Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier was martyred following an improvised explosive device (IED) attack,” the ministry said in a statement…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Malaysia MH370: No Trace Yet After Two-Thirds of Sub’s Scan

A submarine scanning the ocean floor for signs of a missing Malaysian airliner is two-thirds of the way through its search but has yet to find the plane, officials say. The Bluefin-21 submarine was to embark on its ninth search mission on Monday.

Up to 10 military aircraft and 11 ships were to take part in Monday’s search for MH370, Australia’s Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) said in a statement.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Nepal Sherpas Demand Compensation Following Deadly Everest Avalanche

Nepal’s Sherpas have demanded more compensation for the families of local guides killed in Friday’s avalanche on Mount Everest. It was the deadliest accident ever on the world’s highest peak.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pakistan: How the Blasphemy Law Really Works

by Mohshin Habib

Sawan Masih has been sentenced to death, but what about those found guilty of inciting and committing violence and arson?

It (is) a travesty of justice that more than 3,000 people who burned the Christian neighbourhood in Lahore were free, while one man who was tried for a disputed charge was sentenced to death.

He said Pakistan’s administration, police, military and courts want to contribute to their religion by somehow punishing the non-Muslims.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China Shoe Factory Strike Hits Nike and Adidas

(AGI) Shanghai, April 21 — Workers at the world’s largest branded shoemaker, supplier to companies that include Adidas, Nike and Timberland, disrupted output for a sixth day in a strike over contributions to government-mandated social security and housing benefits. More than 30,000 workers at the company’s plant in Dongguan, Canton, are involved in the action. The protest has spread to another of the group’s factories in Jiangxi province, which employs more than 2,000 people. Local authorities have initiated an attempt at mediation, but so far unsuccessfully.

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

Fears Grow Over Safety of North Korean Reactor

Shut-down of the reactor at Yongbyon indicates that Pyongyang is having trouble cooling the plutonium production plant and that a failure in the cooling system could trigger ‘the release of radioactivity.’

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

North Korea Diversifies Drug Smuggling, Counterfeiting, Study Says

The ruling family despots of North Korea, always desperate for hard currency to finance their lifestyle and loyalties, are now funneling increasing amounts of drugs, counterfeit goods and currency, as well as legitimate trade, through China, according to a study released last week that is sponsored by a committee that monitors the country’s boggling human rights abuses.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

North Korea: Pyongyang Experts to Study Cheese-Making in France

North Korea is to send a team of food production experts to France to learn the art of cheese making and improve the quality of dairy products back home, it has been reported. The National Dairy Industry College (ENIL) in the eastern French city of Besancon is getting ready to host three North Korean experts, the La Lettre A.fr website reports.

Their several months of training, however, will concentrate on the production of only one type of cheese — Emmental. The website says the “cheese diplomacy” project was prompted by the North Korean leader’s fondness for Emmental. This was apparently the favourite school snack of Kim Jong-un, who is reported to have studied in Switzerland.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Oliver Stone Slams China for Glorifying Mao

The Academy Award winning director Oliver Stone blasted China’s film industry for glorifying Mao Zedong and failing to address controversial issues during the Beijing International Film Festival.

“Mao Zedong has been lionized in dozens and dozens of Chinese films, but never criticized. It’s about time. You got to make a movie about Mao, about the Cultural Revolution. You do that, you open up, you stir the waters and you allow true creativity to emerge in this country. That would be the basis of real co-production,” Stone said during a panel on co-production, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Philippines: Dane Has Himself Crucified

Easter traditions can be quirky. Greeks throw vases out of windows, Poles use little plastic eggs to squirt water on each other and Finns turn Easter into Halloween.

But the Dane Lasse Spang Olsen skipped Easter eggs and semi-anonymous letters altogether and went right back to the root of it all.

On Good Friday, the 48-year-old filmmaker participated in a re-enactment of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in the northern Filipino village Santa Lucia. Along with 8 Filipino devotees he had himself nailed to a wooden cross by men dressed as Roman soldiers.

The Roman Catholic Church may denounce the ritual that started about 60 years ago, but in a country where about 80 percent of the population is Catholic, some people consider the re-enactment an extreme display of devotion.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Police in China Nearly Beaten to Death in Citizen Backlash

Several Chinese law enforcement officials were nearly beaten to death in the city of Cangnan after a brutal backlash by local residents. Riots broke out when five officers — known as ‘Chengguan’ — violently assaulted a man who refused to stop taking photos of them.

The Chengguan are notorious in China. According to a report by Human Rights Watch, branches have been set up in more than 650 cities in China. Yet no overarching framework exists to regulate and supervise these parallel police units. As a result, Chengguan have earned a reputation for “brutality and impunity.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

South Korean Leader Condemns Ferry Crew as Death Toll Rises

South Korea’s president has accused the captain and some crew on board the capsized ferry of “unforgivable and murderous” behavior. Her own government has also come under fire for its handling of the disaster.

President Park Guen-hye said the captain and crew members acted in a way that was “tantamount to murder.” She said those found responsible for the disaster would be held criminally accountable.

The confirmed death toll now stands at 86, with divers still searching for 215 people who remain unaccounted for. Most were students on a class trip.

The vessel’s captain, Lee Joon-seok, and four other crew members were arrested. Two others have since been detained. Lee faces five charges including negligence of duty and violation of maritime law.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Vietnam Uses Ecological Engineering to Save Rice

Inside 30 years Vietnam has gone from importing rice to becoming the world’s second largest rice exporter. Over-use of pesticides is damaging the environment, but farmers in the Mekong Delta say they’ve found a solution.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Australians Gather in Turkey Ahead of ANZAC Day

It was a simple matter to find Michael Kenneady and Yvonne Simpson among the crowds of wanderers from a dozen countries: you simply listened out for their accents. Australian and New Zealand voices are beginning to invade the busy late-night avenue known to young travellers across the world as Backpacker Street, Istanbul.

The strip of bars, restaurants and hostels in the old city of Sultanahmet is the annual gathering point for young antipodean travellers heading to the Anzac Day ceremonies six hours south of Istanbul on the Gallipoli Peninsula, and scores of them began arriving during the weekend — the vanguard of thousands who will arrive this week…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Chinese Spies at Sydney University

China is building large covert informant networks inside Australia’s leading universities, prompting Australia to strengthen its counter-intelligence capabilities.

Chinese intelligence officials have confirmed to Fairfax Media that they are building networks to monitor the ethnic Chinese community to protect Beijing’s “core interests”.

Much of the monitoring work takes place in higher education institutions, including Sydney University and Melbourne University, where more than 90,000 students from mainland China are potentially exposed to ideas and activities not readily available at home.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Tensions Between Australian Defence League and Muslim Community Reach Violent New Heights

Police and ASIO are scrambling to defuse serious tensions between Australian far-right groups and Islamist extremists, which have reached unprecedented heights in recent weeks with death threats and an apparent attempted murder.

In the most serious case, up to eight gunshots were fired into the Sydney home of a former leader of an anti-Islamic hate group earlier this month…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Humans May Have Dispersed out of Africa Earlier Than Thought

Modern humans may have dispersed in more than one wave of migration out of Africa, and they may have done so earlier than scientists had long thought, researchers now say.

Scientists have suggested the exodus from Africa started between 40,000 and 70,000 years ago. However, stone artifacts dating to at least 100,000 years ago that were recently uncovered in the Arabian Desert suggested that modern humans might have begun their march across the globe earlier than once suspected.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Nigeria: Police and Boko Haram Massacre Over 150 Dead

Information reaching 247ureports.com indicates that another Boko Haram offensive have taken place again — only days after the massacre that took over 200 lives in Nyanya, Abuja federal capital territory.

According to the information, unknown gunmen launched attack at select communities of Wukari local government area in Taraba State. The attack began at about 1:30am on Sunday Easter morning and continued till 3pm Sunday Easter afternoon. The police image maker confirmed to 247ureports.com that the attacks began in the middle of the night in a manner resembling that of Kaura community [Kaduna] attacks by Fulani herdsmen. According to the police, the attacks initially was thought to be Fulani herdsmen but as the attacks progressed, it became obvious that the attackers were most likely Boko Haram jihadists.

It was confirmed that a church was burnt down during the attack — Christian Church of Nigeria — along with many homes belonging to non-Muslims. Eyewitness account indicates that fifteen corpse were seen littered on the streets — within the line of fire.

In response, the youths of the Wukari communities — were said to have organized themselves — and had reacted to attack a Mosque and burn it down. The youths were reported to join the attack against the Boko Haram jihadists.

The information remains sketchy but police sources told our reporter that the “carnage of this attack” may end up worse than the Nyanya attack. The police source declined to give the number of dead. The source points to two personalities as responsible for the violent attacks — as Danladi Shehu and Tanimu. He also points to the acting governor as a Boko Haram sympathizer.

Stay tuned.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Nigeria: Floating School for Slum Children

Home to over 15 million people, Lagos has become a major business hub. Investors from all over the world are flocking there to exploit its large oil reserves. Authorities want to use the opportunity to improve the city’s image. Top of their list is dealing with the floating Makoko slum.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Somalia: Bomb Blast in Mogadishu Kills Federal MP

Mogadishu — Federal Member of Parliament has been killed after bomb detonated inside his car in Mogadishu’s Hamar Weyne district according to witnesses on Monday, Garowe Online reports.

MP Isaaq Mohamed Riino succumbed to injuries to his body at Madina hospital, with security officials saying the bomb would have been attached beneath his seat…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

South Sudan Rebels Slaughter ‘Hundreds’ In Ethnic Massacres

Two hundred civilians killed in Bentui mosque in one of the worst atrocities since the conflict began

Hundreds of civilians, including women and children, have been massacred because of their ethnicity after rebels seized a oil-rich town in South Sudan, in the single worst atrocity since the conflict began.

Armed men, believed to be troops local to the former vice-president Riek Machar, swept into Bentiu and began systematically searching for people from enemy tribes and foreigners, who were then shot dead while others from supportive groups were led to safety.

The exact number of people who died was not clear, but at least 200 were killed in Kali-Ballee mosque in the capital of Unity state, and 400 wounded, the UN Mission in South Sudan (Unmiss) said in a statement…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Unprecedented Wave of Terror Divides Nigerians

In Nigeria violence has reached a new dimension with four attacks in three days. Instead of uniting against the terror, government and opposition politicians are trading accusations as the country drifts into chaos.

Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan lost no time after the Monday bombing in accusing Islamist sect Boko Haram, which has been terrorizing northeastern Nigeria for the last five years.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Brazil: Residents of Rio’s ‘Favelas’ Rail Against Violence Caused by Police Occupation

For the past few months, the residents of Rio de Janeiro’s notorious favelas have taken to the streets to protest the wave of violence that has erupted since police squads began occupying their neighborhoods.

As part of a security plan, the Rio state government has called out police and other security forces to take over the favelas in an effort to break up drug-trafficking networks and stem the tide of crime that reaches to other areas. But the residents of these communities have said they are fed up with the effects and results of these occupations.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Easter Shooting Sparks Protests in Brazil

Demonstrators in Brazil have torched vehicles in the southeastern city of Niteroi to protest the death of a young man. He was hit by crossfire in a gun battle between police and suspected drug traffickers on Good Friday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Girl Kept as Slave for Nine Years in Argentina by Followers of Pagan Cult

Two followers of a secret cult are in custody in Argentina after they allegedly kept a girl locked up with a monkey and dog for nine years at a home in Buenos Aires, the local DyN news agency reported on Wednesday.

The girl, now 15, weighed less than 20 kilos and was managing to survive by eating the pet monkey’s leftovers, according to the report. She was found when her biological sister began searching for her.

The husband and wife, who were given the child in 2001 for safekeeping, were followers of San La Muerte (Saint Death), a pagan cult that originated in Argentina and has extended to Paraguay, Brazil and Mexico. Followers believe praying to a skeletal-like figure will give them longevity.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Mexico: Birthplace of Chili Pepper Farming Revealed

By drawing on genetic, archaeological, linguistic and ecological evidence, the researchers found that chili farming was born in central-east Mexico.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Origins of Domesticated Chili Pepper Found in Mexico

Central-east Mexico gave birth to the domesticated chili pepper — now the world’s most widely grown spice crop — reports an international team of researchers, led by a plant scientist at the University of California, Davis.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Venezuela: Violent Clashes Between Protesters and Police in Caracas

(AGI) Caracas, April 21 — There was a new wave of violent clashes between anti-government protesters and police in Caracas on Sunday. Protesters threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at the police, who retaliated with rubber bullets. The police also used water cannons and tear gas to force the crowd to disperse. The clashes took place in the capital’s Chacao neighbourhood, an opposition stronghold. At least four people were injured. A total of 41 people have died in protests over the last two months.

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

Chavez: ‘Migrant Workers in the US Deserve New Laws’

A new film depicting the life of American migrant rights campaigner Cesar Chavez recently opened in US cinemas. DW spoke to Chavez’s son, Paul, who says the rights of migrant workers are often still forgotten today.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Emergency as Wave of Migrants Lands in Sicily

(AGI) Palermo, April 21 — A wave of migrants landed in Sicily over the last 24 hours, numbering 1,219 in total. On Sunday 828 arrived in Pozzallo, in Ragusa province, with the help of the Italian navy. Another 321 people were rescued by the navy in the Strait of Sicily, as part of operation Mare Nostrum.

Reception centres in Ragusa province are in full emergency mode.

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

Ex-Honor Student Gets 5 Years in Terrorism Case

An immigrant teen who had earned a scholarship to an elite U.S. college but helped solicit support for Jihadists he met online was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison.

Mohammad Hassan Khalid had earned a full scholarship to Johns Hopkins University after just a few years in the United States, where his family was building a new life after leaving Pakistan.

As his parents and siblings worked to achieve the American dream, he retreated to his bedroom in the family’s cramped apartment near Baltimore, and joined radical Islamist chat rooms by the time he was 15. He was soon conversing with Coleen LaRose, a troubled Pennsylvania woman who called herself “Jihad Jane,” and other extremists.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italian Navy Rescues Hundreds More Migrants

More than 1,100 migrants saved over Easter long weekend

(ANSA) — Ragusa, April 21 — More than 320 migrants were rescued by Italian Navy vessels Monday from the seas south of the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, raising the total number saved over the Easter long weekend to more than 1,100 people.

The latest arrivals, including about 70 women and children, were spotted by a Navy helicopter patrolling the Channel of Sicily and were taken to the port of Augusta in the province of Siracusa, located on the eastern coast of Sicily.

Earlier on the weekend, more than 800 migrants, many fleeing north Africa, were rescued from two boats south of Lampedusa. All were saved by Italian ships through the Mare Nostrum surveillance and rescue program established after the deaths of some 400 people in two migrant-boat disasters near Lampedusa in October 2013.

Last week, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said that to date this year, more than 20,500 migrants had already landed on Italy’s coasts — an enormous increase over the 2,500 reported during the same period in 2013.

Speaking before a committee on the country’s borders, Alfano stressed that the number of incoming migrants was on pace “to reach the record levels of 2011, when more than 62,000 people entered”.

Meanwhile on Monday, authorities said that more than 300 migrants fled from an emergency holding centre for migrants near Ragusa which, like other centres on Sicily, have been overcrowded by a steady stream of illegal arrivals to Europe by sea.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Northern League Says Suspend Sea Rescue of Migrants

Salvini claims it’s too expensive to continue saving immigrants

(ANSA) — Rome, April 21 — Italy must suspend its rescue operations for the thousands of migrants who arrive by boat on the country’s southern-most shores, Northern League secretary Matteo Salvini said Monday. In an interview with ANSA, Salvini said the operations are too expensive and represent an “invasion” of Italian shores.

He said that his party will present a proposal to the Lower House and the Senate to suspend the Mare Nostrum sea operation that Salvini says costs about 300,000 euros daily.

“That will end the financing of (human) smugglers and the invasion of our shores,” said Salvini, who added that he is planning an election campaign visit to Sicily.

Last month, Salvini called on allies across Europe to join in fighting “mass immigration” in the lead-up to May’s European Parliament elections.

Salvini, whose party has taken strong stances against immigration, has said he was confident that such groups would unite in their opposition to the euro and European institutions to sweep elections in May.

Immigration has been a hot-button topic in Italy as thousands of migrants arrive on the country’s southern shores, fleeing violence in the Middle East and North Africa, often by rickety sea vessels.

Many others die attempting the crossing in often unstable vessels.

Boat arrivals in Italy more than tripled last year from the previous year, fuelled by the conflict in Syria and strife in the Horn of Africa.

After some 400 people drowned in two migrant-boat disasters within sight of the southern Italian island of Lampedusa in October 2013, Italy set up a surveillance and rescue operation called Mare Nostrum to prevent further deaths at sea.

In response to the rising levels of dangerous migration, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said that Italy must have more financial help.

The UNHCR has said that the Mediterranean is one of the busiest seas in the world, and urged European Union members to work together on solutions to the migrant situation, which is expected to worsen.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Kazakh Tycoon’s Family Granted Refugee Status

Italy has granted political refugee status to the family of a Kazakh tycoon, who is in prison in France fighting an extradition order from Russia and Ukraine where he is wanted for massive fraud, lawyers said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: More Migrants Rescued. League Demands Mission’s End

(ANSAmed) — ROME — More than 320 migrants were rescued by Italian Navy vessels Monday from the seas south of the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, raising the total number saved over the Easter long weekend to more than 1,100 people.

Earlier on the weekend, more than 800 migrants, many fleeing north Africa, were rescued from two boats south of Lampedusa. The rescues came as Northern League secretary Matteo Salvini said Italy must suspend such operations because they are too expensive and represent an “invasion” of Italian shores. In an interview with ANSA Monday, Salvini said his party will present a proposal to the Lower House and the Senate to suspend the Mare Nostrum sea operation that Salvini says costs about 300,000 euros daily. “That will end the financing of (human) smugglers and the invasion of our shores,” said Salvini.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Just One in Five Dutch Supports Completely Open EU Borders

Fewer than one in five of the Dutch supports the free movement of all people within the EU, according to research by TNS Nipo for the University of Amsterdam.

While 54 percent think EU citizens should be able to work anywhere within the community, that percentage shrinks to just 18 percent when Romanian and Bulgarian nationals are mentioned, the research, quoted by the NRC, shows.

Even supporters of the most pro-EU Dutch parties D66 and GroenLinks show a dramatic slump in support for completely open borders.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Spain Evicts 7 Illegal Migrants From Tiny Island to Morocco

Spain on Wednesday sent back to Morocco seven sub-Saharan African migrants who arrived at an uninhabited Spanish island near the Moroccan coast on an inflatable boat, officials said.

The migrants were spotted by Spanish soldiers on Tuesday shortly after they landed on Congress Island about four kilometres (2.5 miles) off Morocco.

The soldiers gave the migrants food and water and they were returned to Morocco after medical checks determined they were in good health, the Spanish government’s representative in Melilla, which is close to the island, said in a statement.

Spain has two exclaves on Africa’s northern Mediterranean coast, Melilla and Ceuta, and several tiny islands off it.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: ‘There Are 26m People in Europe Looking for Your Jobs’

Farage unveils UKIP posters in £1.5m immigration-led campaign but they’re attacked as ‘racist’ by opponents

Nigel Farage has defended a new immigration-centred Ukip poster campaign as ‘a hard-hitting reflection of reality’ after it was attacked as ‘racist’ by political opponents. The anti-European Union (EU) party is using £1.5 million of funding from millionaire ex-Tory donor Paul Sykes to launch its biggest-ever publicity drive ahead of European Parliament elections on May 22.

To be displayed at hundreds of billboard sites across the country, they carry stark warnings that ‘British workers are hit hard by unlimited foreign labour’ and that 26 million unemployed people across Europe are ‘after’ UK jobs…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

‘Britain Isn’t a Christian Country’ Claim the Usual, Intolerant, Lefty, Gaia-Worshipping, Guardianista Suspects

by James Delingpole

Yesterday in church I prayed for God to smite with his mighty sword of truth and justice all the heathens and grandstanding liberal secularists and surrender-monkey cultural relativists, and verily to dash out their brains and crush their minuscule testicles with His trampling feet of vengeance.

No, not really. But having seen the pompous letter a bunch of these miscreant luvvies have written to today’s Telegraph, I rather wish I had…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Calif. Moves to Ban Judges Affiliated With Boy Scouts

California is proposing to ban members of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) from serving as judges because the Boy Scouts do not allow gay troop leaders, The Daily Caller has learned.

In a move with major legal implications, The California Supreme Court Advisory Committee on The Code of Judicial Ethics has proposed to classify the Boy Scouts as practicing “invidious discrimination” against gays, which would end the group’s exemption to anti-discriminatory ethics rules and would prohibit judges from being affiliated with the group.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

David Cameron Accused of Fostering Division in ‘Christian’ UK

More than 50 prominent public figures including novelist, diplomats, Nobel prize winners and playwrights have accused David Cameron of fostering divisions in the UK by repeatedly referring to Britain as a Christian country.

Signatories to the letter asserting that Britain is not a Christian country include Philip Pullman, Ken Follett, Prof Alice Roberts, Prof Harold Kroto and Sir Terry Pratchett.

The authors say they respect Cameron’s own religious beliefs but say they “object to his repeated mischaracterising of our country as a ‘Christian country’ and the negative consequences for our politics and society that this view engenders”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

David Cameron ‘Fuelling Sectarian Division by Bringing God Into Politics’

David Cameron is sowing sectarianism and division by insisting that Britain is still a “Christian country” an alliance of writers, scientists, philophers and politicians has claimed.

In a letter to The Telegraph, 55 public figures from a range of political backgrounds accuse him of fostering “alienation” and actively harming society by repeatedly emphasising Christianity.

The group, which includes writers such as Philip Pullman and Sir Terry Pratchett, Nobel Prize winning scientists, prominent broadcasters and comedians argue that members of the elected Government have no right to “actively prioritise” religion or any particular faith.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: Berlin Man Must Call Himself a Mother

A transgender person who became the first man in Germany to give birth in March 2013 must be registered as the child’s mother, a court has ruled after his year-long court battle to be named a father.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

See What They’ll be Teaching in the Chicago Public Schools

Chicago public schools are set to introduce a new Afro-centric curriculum, according to a closely-guarded copy obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

The curriculum covers kindergarten through tenth grade and is designed to align with Common Core. It includes a web link to TheAfrican.com, a website whose publisher decries “fake-Jews” and calls the United States a “Zionist-occupied enemy territory.”

The site also claims that the world will end sometime this year and that President Barack Obama is “merely another trick of (the beast of the 4th Kingdom).”

The new Chicago curriculum was announced last December.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

25 Years of Digital Gaming

Nintendo launched its Game Boy on 21 April, 1989, kicking off a revolution in video games. DW takes a look back at 25 years of gaming — from the Atari 2600 to virtual reality.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Missing Xenon Gas Found in Earth’s Core

Mysteriously, most of the gas xenon that scientists expected to find in Earth’s atmosphere is missing. Now, researchers say they might have the answer to this puzzle: This noble gas, which usually does not bond with other atoms, may chemically react with iron and nickel in Earth’s core, where it’s held.

Xenon is a noble gas, so, like other noble gases, such as helium and neon, it is mostly chemically inert.

However, Ma and his colleagues reasoned that, if the structures of iron-xenon compounds are different, they could form a compound. Their calculations now suggest that at the extreme temperatures and pressures found in Earth’s core, xenon can bond with both iron and nickel.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

2 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/21/2014

  1. If you create an incentive(actually being rescued, not sent back, then given asylum), people will keep coming. If you don’t create an incentive, tow the boats or boat back the refugees back to where they came from, they won’t come. How hard is that to understand?

    If you want to help the world’s needy, this is not the way to do it. Again, when the third world/needy make up the majority of the former first world(if the current migration and migrant birthrates continue, that will happen, in 60 years), who will be around to give charity?

    Spain and Bulgaria are the only border(with the sea or another non-European country) countries doing their part to save themselves and the rest of Europe from the on coming hordes of outsiders seeking to take advantage of us, Italy, Greece, France, not so much. I wasn’t aware the Italian, Greek and French policy makers/parliament were elected by Syrians, Moroccans, and Nigerians, I thought that right would go to Italian, Greek, and French people…

    • The whole point of the third world “refugee” scheme is exactly this, to not leave any society able to give any other knowledge or charity. Then, by an unspecified miracle event, will the world bliss of communism descend upon us all (those still left alive) and the world will be at peace. Islam holds the same belief, only their version is about when all countries are dominated by Islam.

      Originally, according to Marx, this was supposed to happen from economic excellence of the proletariat owning the means of production. Since that theory has been shown to be wrong in innumerable ways at innumerable locations, the new strategy of “genius” is: make everyone equal by making them all equally miserable.

      Only nutty “intellectual” westerners believes in such a crazy scheme, so this strategy is only brought about in the western sphere. All others acting like they support the various schemes to that end has their own plan B and C and D.

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