In the space of a few hours today, the Italian navy rescued 1,500 migrants off the coast of Sicily. About 2,000 refugees are expected to land on Italian shores tonight and over the weekend. More than 20,000 illegal migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Italy since the beginning of this year, almost ten times the total for the same period last year.
In other news, an NGO in Nigeria is appealing to the United Nations to help obtain the release of 230 schoolgirls who were abducted by the Islamic terror group Boko Haram.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Diana West, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, 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.
Croatia’s Public Debt Surges to 67% of GDP
Deficit expected to fall in 2014
(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, APRIL 22 — Croatian deficit was at 4.9 % of GDP in 2013 (2.13 billion euros), while its public debt surged to 67.1% of GDP (29 billion). The figures were released on Tuesday by Croatia’s national statistics institute DZS and were for the first time calculated in line with European methodologies. The DSZ calculations will serve as a benchmark for European Commission assessments after it opened an excessive deficit procedure for the country in February. Soaring debt levels over the course of the economic crisis are of the most concern. Public debt rose from 45% of GDP in 2010 to 56% at the end of 2012 and 67% in December 2013. Debt rose as a result of new tranches of state bonds used to cover losses in public healthcare that were issued on international markets at much higher interest rates than in the past, due to the close to ‘junk’ rating given to Croatia by international agencies. In 2013 revenue rose to 17.7 billion euros and spending was at 19.8 billion, resulting in a 0.7% reduction in deficit from the previous year. Public debt is expected to rise in 2014 but thanks to measures to be presented in Brussels in the coming days, deficit will instead continue to decrease.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Downgraded by S&P, Russia Proposes “Scorched Earth” Retaliation Against NATO Countries
First, in retaliation to the downgrade, Russian economy minister Alexei Ulyukaev said S&P’s downgrade of Russia’s rating was expected by investors, won’t significantly change their behavior, adding the obvious that the decision to cut Russia’s rating was partly political, partly based on economic situation. In other words, entirely symbolic — it is not as if Russia has access to bond markets anyway, plus as we wrote earlier this week in “Why Putin Is Smiling At The Bond Market’s Blockade Of Russia”, it is not as if it needs them.
But far more importantly, and ahead of yet another round of western sanctions which appears imminent unless Obama is to look even more powerless than he currently is (granted, a difficult achievement), Russian presidential adviser Sergei Glazyev proposed plan of 15 measures to protect country’s economy if sanctions applied, Vedomosti newspaper reports, citing Glazyev’s letter to Finance Ministry. According to Vedomosti as Bloomberg reported, Glazyev proposed:
- Russia should withdraw all assets, accounts in dollars, euros from NATO countries to neutral ones
- Russia should start selling NATO member sovereign bonds before Russia’s foreign-currency accounts are frozen
- Central bank should reduce dollar assets, sell sovereign bonds of countries that support sanctions
- Russia should limit commercial banks’ FX assets to prevent speculation on ruble, capital outflows
- Central bank should increase money supply so that state cos., banks may refinance foreign loans
- Russia should use national currencies in trade with customs Union members, other non-dollar, non-euro partners
In other words, a full-blown scorched earth campaign by Russia.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
12 Numbers Which Prove That Americans Are Sick and Tired of Politics as Usual
Ultimately, like millions of other Americans, I have come to see that there is not really much of a difference between Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi on one side, and John Boehner, John McCain, Mitch McConnell and Jeb Bush on the other side.
Sure, if you listen to their campaign speeches you might be tempted to think that they were polar opposites, but when you watch what they actually do there is not that much that really separates them.
Fortunately, large numbers of Americans are starting to see through this disgusting charade. Most of our politicians are con men that tell us what we want to hear during their campaigns, and then after they are elected they forget all about us. Dissatisfaction with these politicians has risen to unprecedented levels in recent years, and that could be a good thing. The following are 12 numbers which prove that Americans are sick and tired of politics as usual…
#1 A national Rasmussen Reports survey has found that an all-time high 53 percent of all Americans believe that neither major political party “represents the American people”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
After Bundy Ranch Fiasco, Reid and Co. Exposed as Real Extremists
In the wake of the now-infamous federal abuse unleashed on the Bundy ranching family and its supporters in Nevada, defenders of the heavy-handed terror tactics employed by the Obama administration’s Bureau of Land Management are finding themselves increasingly marginalized as potentially violent extremists. That is especially true for U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (shown, D-Nev.), who after launching a series of bizarre tirades against the ranchers and their friends, is being widely criticized and ridiculed — especially for his dangerous attempt to equate American citizens who protest government with “domestic terrorists.”
As The New American and much of the national media have been reporting for weeks, the Obama administration, led by a former Reid staffer who took over the BLM, descended on the Bundy ranch with heavily armed agents. Making matters worse, officials even tried to corral protesters into an unconstitutional “Free Speech zone,” sparking nationwide outrage. The David vs. Goliath-style violence and abuse by the feds, much of it videotaped and posted online, shocked the conscience of ordinary Americans.
Incredibly, amid the operation to remove so-called “trespass cattle” from supposed “federal” land, BLM agents even tasered and assaulted some members of the family and its supporters, hundreds of whom came from across America to stand with the beleaguered ranchers whose family has been there since the 1800s. The feds also came under severe criticism for unleashing a dog on a pregnant woman, assaulting a cancer victim, tasering a rancher, and aiming sniper rifles at peaceful protesters. Outrage is still growing.
The supposed reason for the federal intimidation and violence against the family surrounds alleged unpaid grazing “fees” and a desert tortoise that the federal government claims to be trying to protect. However, as The New American and many other publications have documented, there is almost certainly more to the story. Sen. Reid and his family, for example, are being accused of corruption yet again for having multiple financial conflicts of interest, perhaps explaining their fanatical reaction to the standoff. Many lawmakers, though, say it is part of a much deeper problem.
“This is not an isolated incident and is part of a broader war on rural America,” Washington State Rep. Matthew Shea, who is working with other Western officials to evict the feds, told The New American. Another lawmaker seeking to wrest control over the almost 50 percent of land in the West claimed by the U.S. government, Utah House Speaker Becky Lockhart, said: “What’s happened in Nevada is really just a symptom of a much larger problem.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
All New England Could Fit on BLM Land in Nevada; BLM Owns 0 Acres in New England
The acreage the federal Bureau of Land Management currently owns in the state of Nevada is more than all the land in all of the states of New England combined, according to data published by the Congressional Research Service.
By contrast, the BLM does not own a single acre of land in any New England state.
New England, according to the Census Bureau, consists of six states: Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Together, these states encompass 40,400,640 acres.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
American Conservatism Must Choose Between Relevance and Ridicule
Yesterday I posted about the hypocrisy of how smart, Harvard-degree holding people — like Ted Cruz — pander mercilessly to the know-nothing culture in America for their own selfish political advancement.
Today, The New York Times carries a story that perfectly demonstrates the dangers for the American conservative moment of pursuing what is a fundamentally nihilist strategy.
The story involves Cliven Bundy, a Nevada cattle rancher who was adopted as a hero by parts of the conservative moment last week for refusing to pay the Federal government a million dollars in unpaid grazing fees…
[Reader comment by The Level on 24 April 2014.]
It is disappointing, but not surprising, to see you engage in name calling and terms of abuse like “racist” and “Neanderthal” rather than engage the substance of what was said. Asking whether the majority of American blacks enjoyed healthier, happier and more fulfilling lives when they had the meaning and purpose of honest labour, Christian values and loving nuclear families than they do in their current prevailing culture of welfare dependency, workessness, drug abuse, criminality, fatherless households and general social collapse seems like a perfectly valid question to me.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Andrew P. Napolitano: A Legal Way to Kill?
When President Obama decided sometime during his first term that he wanted to be able to use unmanned aerial drones in foreign lands to kill people — including Americans — he instructed Attorney General Eric Holder to find a way to make it legal, despite the absolute prohibition on governmental extra-judicial killing in federal and state laws and in the Constitution itself.
“Judicial killing” connotes a lawful execution after an indictment, a jury trial, an appeal and all of the due process protections that the Constitution guarantees defendants. “Extra-judicial killing” is a targeted killing of a victim by someone in the executive branch without due process. The president wanted the latter, and he wanted it in secret.
He must have hoped his killing would never come to light, because the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution could not be more direct: “No person shall be … deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.”
Due process has a few prongs. The first is substantive, meaning the outcome must be fair. In a capital murder case, for example, the defendant must not only be found guilty by a jury, but he also must truly be guilty.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bryan Singer Pulls Out of ‘X-Men’ Promos, Calls Sex Abuse Allegations ‘False, Vicious’
Bryan Singer is pulling out of future press events for X-Men: Days of Future Past so as not to distract from the “extraordinary contributions from the incredibly talented actors and crew involved,” the embattled director said Thursday in a statement. In it, he also called sexual abuse allegations against him “outrageous, vicious and completely false.”
It was the first in-his-own-words reaction from Singer since Michael Egan, now 31, filed a lawsuit in a Hawaii federal court alleging that the director drugged and raped him as a teen at parties in Los Angeles and Hawaii.
Watch our special report on the Bryan Singer controversy below:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
California Shoots Down ‘Kill Switch’ Legislation for Smartphones
After a long debate on the Senate floor, California legislators narrowly rejected a bill on Thursday that would have required antitheft software to come preloaded and automatically enabled on all smartphones sold in the state.
The law, spearheaded by California State Sen. Mark Leno and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon, would have mandated so-called kill switch technology, requiring smartphone makers like Apple to include software that lets users wipe clean, or remove all their data from the phone remotely. That basically renders the phone inoperable if stolen.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cher Says Tea Party “Plague on Mankind, “ Ends Tweet With Bomb
Washed up pop music icon Cher is espousing hatred and violence again. Earlier today she loaded up her twitter account with venom directed at conservatives and libertarians opposed to an insane federal debt, government spending and confiscatory taxation:
NOW 4 THE ATROCIOUS #Tbag CESSPOOL! EVEN TETRAPODS WOULDN’T HAVE CRAWLED OUT OF U,THEIR STANDARDS WERE 2 HIGH! U R A PLAGUE ON MANKIND
— Cher (@cher) April 24, 2014
For liberals like Cher (real name Cherilyn Sarkisian), hate crimes are designed to persecute people who say unkind things about the government and officially designated and protected minority groups. The hate crime orthodoxy is not intended to be used against liberals who advocate throwing bombs at their ideological enemies.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Did US Choose War Over Qaddafi’s Abdication?
by Diana West
More than Benghazi skeletons should haunt Hillary Clinton’s expected 2016 presidential bid. It now seems that the entire war in Libya — where thousands died in a civil war in which no U.S. interest was at stake — might well have been averted on her watch and, of course, that of President Obama’s. How? In March 2011, immediately after NATO’s punishing bombing campaign began, Muammar Qaddafi was “ready to step aside,” says retired Rear Admiral Charles R. Kubic, U.S. Navy. “He was willing to go into exile and was willing to end the hostilities.”
What happened? According to Kubic, the Obama administration chose to continue the war without permitting a peace parley to go forward.
Kubic made these extremely incendiary charges against the Obama administration while outlining his role as the leading, if informal, facilitator of peace feelers from the Libyan military to the U.S. military. He was speaking this week at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., where the Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi was presenting its interim report. Kubic maintains that to understand Benghazi, the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks in which four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were killed, “you have to understand what happened at the beginning of the Libyan revolt, and how that civil war that created the chaos in Libya could have been prevented.”
Particularly in light of his senior military experience, Kubic’s eyewitness story demands careful consideration. Like everything else about Benghazi, it also demands the official focus of a select committee investigation in Congress.
A short chronology sets the stage:…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Goodbye, Net Neutrality: FCC’s New Internet Rules ‘Create Incentives for Discrimination’
Internet fast lanes that seemingly run counter to the concept of “net neutrality” would be allowed under rules proposed by US regulators eager to keep broadband service providers from abusing their power.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday laid out a proposal to make sure Internet service providers don’t discriminate when it comes to data coursing through online pipes.
The rules wouldn’t prevent Internet service providers (ISPs) from letting technology titans such as Netflix or Google pay for faster data speeds but would require that competing traffic move at “reasonable” speeds.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Holder Cancels Speech, Appearance in OKC Amid Angry Protests
Attorney General Eric Holder canceled his appearance before the Oklahoma City Police Department’s graduating cadet class Thursday amid angry protests over his scheduled visit.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Jihad-Plotting Imam Had “Encyclopedia of Jihad” That Had Instructions on Bombing and Hostage-Taking
Robert Spencer
Apparently some greasy Islamophobe wrote this “Encyclopedia of Jihad.” Islamic luminaries such as Sheikh Mostafa Elazabawy, the imam of Masjid Manhattan, and Ahmed Rehab of Hamas-linked CAIR would have filled an Encyclopedia of Jihad with instructions on getting the kids to school on time, the proper height for a badminton net, etc., since, as everyone knows, jihad is an interior struggle to better oneself, and is entirely benign and even positive concept. But instead, this particular “Encyclopedia of Jihad” contained “instructions on bombing railroads, recruiting teens for holy war and taking hostages.”
What racist, bigoted Islamophobe is responsible for planting this vicious Manual for Misunderstanding Islam among poor, uneducated, unsuspecting Muslims?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Implicitly Compares Himself to Pope and Jesus in Tribute Message
President Obama added his voice to Time’s list of “The 100 Most Influential People” by penning a tribute to Pope Francis. By implication, Obama associated himself with the pontiff and ultimately to Jesus.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Police Recruitment Video Shows Cops in Military-Style Ghillie Suits
A recruitment video for the Springdale Police Department in Arkansas shows cops dressed in military-style ghillie suits armed with sniper rifles emerging out of the ground.
This suit is only usually worn by hunters and soldiers in order to evade detection when targeting prey or a dangerous enemy.
Just who is the Springdale Police Department planning on hunting? This is yet another disturbing sign of the increasing militarization of domestic law enforcement.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Racist Cliven Bundy Does Not Speak for US Conservatives. They’re Smarter and Better Than That
by Tim Stanley
Yikes, that Bundy guy’s a fruitloop. Cliven Bundy (the name evokes a serial killer stalking the neighbourhood in his mother’s wig) is the man who won the hearts of many radical conservatives by refusing to pay the Federal government a million dollars in grazing fees — leading to a standoff straight out of a Western. Now the liberal media is happy to report that he is in fact a Neolithic racist who thinks black people are nature’s criminal class. My colleague Peter Foster makes a good point: many conservatives were too quick to back Bundy simply because he was anti-government. Peter has argued in two posts that this is the problem with the Right all round. It sometimes thinks with its heart rather than its brains — to the point of being stubbornly anti-intellectual and making a fool of itself…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Study: Antarctica Was Once as Warm as California
A stroll along the coast of Antarctica was once as pleasant as a walk on a California beach, reports Yale News.
Researchers at Yale University and the California Institute of Technology looked at temperature data from the time after the extinction of the dinosaurs: the Eocene Era, about 40-50 million years ago.
By measuring the amount of rare isotopes found in fossils, they found parts of Antarctica averaged 57 degrees, and could get as warm as 63 degrees. That’s similar to the average annual temperature off the coast of California today.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Supreme Court: State Can Immunize Children in Its Custody
The Department of Human Services can order children in its custody to be immunized, even if the child is in temporary custody and even if the parents object to the immunizations on principle, according to an Oregon Supreme Court ruling issued Thursday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Mark: Scientist Claims Human Microchip Implants Will Become “Not Optional”
And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name… Revelations 13:16-17
Technologies designed specifically to track and monitor human beings have been in development for at least two decades.
In the virtual realm, software programs are now capable of watching us in real time, going so far as to make predictions about our future behaviors and sending alerts to the appropriate monitoring station depending on how a computer algorithm flags your activities. That is in and of itself a scary proposition.
What may be even scarier, however, is what’s happening in the physical realm. According to researches working on human-embedded microchips it’s only a matter of time before these systems achieve widespread acceptance.
Chances are you’re carrying a couple of RFID microchips now. And if you are, they’re sending out a 15-digit number that identifies you. That number can be picked up by what’s called an ISO compliant scanner. And they’re everywhere, too.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Click here to read the report.
“Advances in Smart Grid technology could significantly increase the amount of potentially available information about personal energy consumption,” reads a statement from the report, titled “Data Access and Privacy Issues Related to Smart Grid Technologies.”
The report states, “Such information could reveal personal details about the lives of consumers, such as their daily schedules (including times when they are at or away from home or asleep), whether their homes are equipped with alarm systems, whether they own expensive electronic equipment such as plasma TVs, and whether they use certain types of medical equipment.”…
California’s electric utilities last year disclosed the energy-use records and other personal information of thousands of customers, according to reports the companies filed with state regulators.
The vast majority of those disclosures — 4,062 — were made by one utility, San Diego Gas and Electric Co. In 4,000 of those cases, the information was subpoenaed by government agencies.
New digital smart meters being installed throughout the state can measure a home’s energy use hour by hour, showing when residents leave for work, go to sleep or travel on vacation. Older analog meters, which measured cumulative energy use over the course of a month, couldn’t do that.
“Before smart meters, what happened inside houses couldn’t be revealed unless there was a police officer inside with a warrant,” Ozer said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Trans-Pacific Partnership Talks Begin for Global Internet Censorship Plan
TPP will create international “internet police” that will have the power to censor content and remove websites
President Obama has begun a week long campaign in Asia to promote the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The TPP, sold as a “free trade agreement” has been criticized as allowing another wave of outsourcing similar to the 1994 NAFTA agreement. The TPP will also create an international “internet police” that will have the power to censor content and remove whole websites. Mega corporations will gain more power to wage war against competition and censor speech online. To demonstrate the influence these entities have, over 600 corporate advisers have helped create the TPP.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
It has been said that fiction persuades people more effectively than nonfiction, because it does a better job of touching emotions. Perhaps nothing has advanced evolution’s cause so effectively as a play and movie — Inherit the Wind.
Inherit depicts what was perhaps the most famous court case of the twentieth century — the “monkey trial” of 1925. The defendant was John Scopes, a schoolteacher from Dayton, Tennessee. He was charged with violating the Butler Act, a state law that forbade teaching that man descended from lower life forms (it did not prohibit teaching other aspects of evolution). The Butler Act had been uncontroversial in the Tennessee legislature, passing 71-5 in the house, and 24-6 in the senate.
Leading Scopes’s defense was Clarence Darrow, the most famous criminal lawyer of his day; assisting the prosecution was William Jennings Bryan, former Secretary of State and three times the Democratic Party’s Presidential candidate. The most common impression about this trial is probably that Darrow humiliated Bryan in cross-examination, scoring a powerful blow for evolution against religious fundamentalism.
Public beliefs regarding the trial are based mostly on Inherit the Wind. The play enjoyed a record three-year run on Broadway. It then became a film starring Spencer Tracy and Frederic March and was nominated for several Academy Awards. The movie, as well as a 1988 televised remake, have been shown countless times to students as “educational” material. The play has been frequently revived. Few people, however, have ever read the actual trial transcript. For most, Inherit the Wind IS the trial, and for many, even defines their perception of the creation-evolution debate.
It might be said, “Ah, come on, lighten up, nobody expects literal interpretations from Hollywood. Everyone knows that screenwriters sometimes change facts to make a story more interesting.” That’s right. I have signed away options on an unproduced screenplay of my own, and I know that when a writer fictionalizes a true event, he may have to create conflict where none existed, to put zip into the story, or invent new characters to generate dialogue.
That’s not what I’m talking about. Inherit the Wind did not alter facts merely to stimulate the audience. It grossly perverted the Scopes trial to advance a specific agenda. It is true that the original playwrights, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, acknowledged that their work “is not history,” and changed the principals’ names. John Scopes became Bert Cates; Clarence Darrow became Henry Drummond; William Jennings Bryan became Matthew Harrison Brady; Dayton, Tennessee became Hillsboro, Tennessee. Of course, everyone knew who they were talking about, but by making this disclaimer and changing the names, Lawrence and Lee padded their license to slander.
This chapter will contrast Inherit the Wind with the actual Scopes trial, by comparing the Spencer Tracy movie (the most familiar and accessible version) to the original courtroom transcript and other records…
IN THE MOVIE, when the locals learn Henry Drummond (Clarence Darrow) is coming to be Bert Cates’s defense attorney, they yell: “We’ll send him back to hell!” “Ride him out on a rail!” “Don’t let him into town! Keep him out!”
When he arrives, he is greeted by only one person — newspaperman E. K. Hornbeck (based on the cynical journalist H. L. Mencken). (Drummond was played by Spencer Tracy and Hornbeck by Gene Kelly.) Drummond gets a rough reception. A big, gruff farmer rebukes him. A senile-looking Bible salesman asks Hornbeck: “Are you an evolutionist? An infidel? A sinner?” The only hospitable folks are Bert Cates’s enlightened students. When Drummond approaches the courthouse the next morning, he is loudly booed. At night, a mob of fundamentalists outside his hotel threaten to lynch him.
IN REAL LIFE, a friendly crowd greeted Clarence Darrow at the train station. The town held a banquet in his honor. Here is what Darrow himself said of his experience there:
“Yet I came here a perfect stranger and I can say what I have said before that I have not found upon anybody’s part — any citizen here in this town or outside, the slightest discourtesy. I have been better treated, kindlier and more hospitably than I fancied would have been the case in the north, and that is due largely to the ideas that southern people have and they are, perhaps, more hospitable than we are up north.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Unedited Video Shows Bundy Making Pro-Black, Pro-Mexican Comments
Media censors footage to spin remarks as racist
The controversy over Cliven Bundy’s “racist” remarks has taken a new turn after longer unedited footage emerged showing the Nevada cattle rancher making pro-black and pro-Mexican comments that were excised out of media reports.
The full clip illustrates how the original New York Times report edited out statements made by Bundy both before and after his supposedly “racist” remarks, which when taken in their full context actually constitute a pro-minority position. Media Matters also cut out these crucial comments from their YouTube upload of Bundy’s remarks.
Bundy’s full comments are reprinted below, with the parts not printed by the New York Times and other media outlets highlighted in bold.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
What Really Happened to Sharyl Attkisson at CBS?
Sharyl Attkisson, CBS’s top investigative reporter: gone, resigned, floating free, unchained, now viewed by the news establishment as an outsider, a defector, a weirdo with an axe to grind.
Among the controversial stories she covered at CBS: Benghazi. Just as she was digging below the surface of the Obama coverup, she was cut off and shut down by her network bosses.
Here’s the crux. The Rhodes brothers.
Ben Rhodes, David Rhodes.
Ben is a deputy national security advisor to Obama and writes speeches for him. In September 2012, Ben was “instrumental,” according to ABC News, in changing the White House talking points (the story) on what happened in Benghazi.
Ben’s brother, David, is president of CBS News. Attkisson was working for David. She was investigating all the changes (12) in the Benghazi talking points. She was shut down.
Nothing to see there, move along, eyes straight ahead, go back to sleep, zombie-zombie, it’s all good don’t worry, be happy, hope and change, the audacity of whatever.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Anne Tingle of Calgary, Canada was sent the letter in 1969 from her then nine-year-old sister Esther but has only just received it now despite it being posted just 125 miles away.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
French Police Suspected of Raping Canadian
Four French police officers are being held in custody on suspicion of raping a 34-year-old Canadian woman at their Paris headquarters.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve confirmed the detentions on Friday and vowed to take “all the necessary measures” if the accusation against the four officers is proven.
“I want the justice system and the police inspectorate to complete their investigations so that the truth can be established,” Cazeneuve said in a speech to police in Marseille on Friday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
There are more than 80 mosques in the German capital. Ranging in style from classical to modern, these Islamic places of worship have become an integral part of Berlin’s history and cultural fabric.
Indian inspiration
The Berlin Mosque, surrounded by residential homes in Berlin’s Wilmersdorf district, is the oldest surviving mosque in Germany. The building was designed by German architect Karl August Herrmann and was officially opened in 1928. It is modeled on the Taj Mahal in India…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Says Renzi Turning Into Taxman
‘Started off as demolition man, becoming something else’
(see related) (ANSA) — Rome, April, 24 — Three-time premier Silvio Berlusconi on Thursday said sitting Premier Matteo Renzi was turning into a taxman. “He started off as a nice demolition man,” Berlusconi told Italian talk show Porta a Porta, referring to Renzi’s nickname as a fast-moving reformer. “Now, little by little, he’s transforming into a nice taxman”. Berlusconi, whose center-right Forza Italia party is in opposition to Renzi’s center-left Democratic Party, was aiming to discredit the premier’s reputation after passing 10 billion euros in tax cuts for low-income earners.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Govt Will Save Alitalia Jobs if Etihad Steps In’
‘Strategic industrial prospects’ if deal goes through — Lupi
(ANSA) — Rome, April 24 — The government will save Alitalia jobs if Etihad Airlines steps in to revive the struggling Italian carrier, Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi said Thursday.
If, as many hope, talks reach a deal, he said, the government will provide “strategic industrial prospects and employment safeguards”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Top Court Asked to Uphold Lower Sentences for ThyssenKrupp
CEO initially convicted of homicide in seven deaths in plant
(ANSA) — Rome, April 24 — Italy’s Supreme Court of Cassation was asked Friday to uphold the reduced sentences for senior officials with steelmaker ThyssenKrupp who were convicted in the deaths of seven works at a plant fire in 2007.
Prosecutors asked the Cassation Court to uphold earlier decisions by an appeal court reducing the original sentences.
In early 2013, an appeal court had reduced the first-degree homicide sentence for Harald Espenhahn, the former chief executive officer (CEO) of the Italian division of Germany’s ThyssenKrupp steelmaker.
It reduced Espenhahn’s sentence to 10 years from 16 and a half years, prompting outraged families of the victims to stage a sit-in.
The initial sentences stemmed from a fatal fire in December 2007 at ThyssenKrupp steelworks, marking one of the first times at a workplace death trial in Italy that a senior official was convicted of homicide.
Sentences were also reduced last year for four other ThyssenKrupp managers who were convicted of manslaughter, and initially received jail sentences ranging from 10 years in to prison to 13 and a half years.
A fifth employee saw his sentence increased.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Tension at Parade for Jewish Resistance Fighters
Friction over flag with Star of David
(see related story) (ANSA) — Rome, April 25 — A Liberation Day parade was married Friday by tension between a group of supporters of the Palestinian cause and representatives of Jewish fighters who were part of the Italian Resistance during World War II.
Fabio Perugia, the spokesman of Rome’s Jewish Community, said the friction was caused by the presence of the flag of the Jewish Brigade of the Resistance, which features the Star of David.
“We had a meeting at 9:15 to march with the flag of the Jewish Brigade, which is similar to the Israeli flag, but not the same,” said Perugia.
“Suddenly around 50 people with Palestinian flags came out of the Colosseo metro station and started to attack us verbally.
“If the police had not been there, they would have attacked us physically”. Perugia said that the police removed the Palestinian flags.
Loretta Mussi, a member of a pro-Palestian organisation, said her group had authorization to carry Palestinian flags and said that it was attacked by the Jewish group.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Venetian Separatists Defy Police Ban, March in St Mark’s
Members accused of planning ‘violent insurrection’ against State
(ANSA) — Venice, April 25 — An estimated 1,000 separatists from the Veneto region around Venice defied a police ban on Friday and gathered in Saint Mark’s Square to celebrate the feast day of the city’s patron Saint Mark. The self-proclaimed “Veneto Government”, members of which were arrested and released earlier this month for allegedly mounting an armed insurrection against the Italian State, is led by Albert Gardin. In addition to the arrests, Police have seized a bulldozer from the group, one that was unsuccessfully customized into a sort of armored tank, complete with a cannon.
The separatists insist it was only intended for demonstrations, not for violence.
The economic crisis has increased support for independence in the northeastern region, where many allege the central government is bleeding local businesses dry with high taxation.
Last month, separatists organized an unofficial referendum in which an overwhelming majority of participants voted in favour of leaving Italy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Mob Extends Reach in Europe
The crackdown in Rome exposed just a small corner of what officials describe as a mob economy that has rapidly expanded across Europe. In an era of austerity, with Italy awash in debt and struggling to recover, organized crime groups are sitting on mountains of cash. They have taken advantage of the economic crisis to accelerate their infiltration of legitimate businesses outside their southern Italian strongholds and now control commercial interests in Rome and Milan, as well as in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland, Spain and beyond.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jewish Convert Fears Sweden Democrat Surge
“My mother asked why I’d join a community that is so persecuted,” Jewish convert Eva tells The Local in our final article on religious choice in Sweden.
Eva has hopes for a multicultural Sweden. She credits Muslims in Sweden for reawakening the debate about religion. And she hopes that one day they will be considered as much a part of Swedish history as the Swedish Jewish community, which traces its roots back to the late 18th century.
But she is worried that the Sweden Democrats may gain ground in the next elections.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Key Breivik Document Stolen From Police HQ
An ultra-sensitive document containing a transcript of a police questioning of Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik was stolen just weeks after he mounted his attacks, Norway’s Dagsavisen newspaper has reported.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A heartbroken family has been ordered to demolish their dream £500,000 Glasgow home — after bungling builders made it 6ft too high and 4ft too wide.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Stone Age DNA Shows Hunter-Gatherers Shunned Farming
by Catherine Brahic
How did farming take over the world? One theory is that farming was such an evidently good idea that it spread on its own. As hunter-gatherers encountered farmers, they were converted to an agricultural way of living. But a large-scale genetic analysis of Stone Age remains in Sweden suggests that this wasn’t the case.
Instead, it seems like early farmers and hunter-gatherers had deep-rooted genetic differences. This suggests that European farmers were so successful that they displaced hunter-gatherers as they spread across the continent.
Pontus Skoglund of Uppsala University in Sweden and his colleagues sequenced the DNA from 11 early hunter-gatherers and farmers dating back to between 5000 and 7000 years ago. Four were associated with late Stone Age farming settlements; seven were identified as coastal hunter-gatherers.
DNA analysis showed that the farmers and hunter-gatherers descended from distinct genetic lineages. “It is quite clear that the two groups are very different,” says Skoglund. Comparisons with the genes of modern populations revealed them to be more distinct that the genomes of modern Scandinavians and Italians.
Previous analyses of the isotopes in the bones of the 11 Stone Age individuals also showed the hugely different diet the two groups had. The hunter-gatherers relied primarily on seals and fish, while the farmers ate mostly land protein — presumably from the animals that they took care of.
Assimilation
“More interesting, here we find much lower genomic variation among the hunter-gatherers than among the farmers,” says Anders Götherström of Stockholm University, one of the authors of the paper.
That means the hunter-gatherers were all very closely related to each other, which generally indicates a small population living in small groups.
Götherström thinks there are a few possible explanations. One is that after humans left Africa, some flourished by becoming farmers and exploiting the fertile lands they found in the Near East. Others ventured further north, where they continued to rely on the wild animals they killed and the plants and berries they collected from the landscape. These groups were split into small populations that survived in isolation between the ice sheets.
The Swedish data shows some mixing between the two groups, suggesting that as the farmers later swept north they interbred with the hunter-gatherers they encountered and assimilated them into their cultures. The exchange seems to have been unidirectional: there is very little if any evidence that farmers were assimilated into the hunter-gatherers.
The findings support previous studies of other early farmer and hunter-gatherer populations in Germany and elsewhere, says Joachim Burger of Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in Germany.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorism in the UK: ‘Britain Has Ended Up as a Finishing School for Jihadis’’
Unable to control online radicalism, police have little option but to plead with Muslim women to dissuade their menfolk from enlisting.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Gunman Mehmet Ali Agca Expresses No Remorse Over Attempt to Assassinate Late Pope
As the Vatican prepares to canonize Pope John Paul II as a saint, the Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca who attempted to assassinate the late Pope in 1981 has expressed no remorse over his act.
In an interview with the Italian ANSA agency, Agca explained that he felt “no regret” over his failed assassination attempt in 1981 because he is convinced it was all part of a “divine” plan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Threat to Elections’ As Mail Firm TNT Post Sends Poll Cards to Wrong Voters
A mail delivery firm was accused today of “endangering” local and European elections after polling cards were dumped or delivered to the wrong London addresses. TNT Post has sent residents in Barnet the wrong cards notifying them of next month’s polls. Other mail has been discovered discarded on top of bins.
Residents say they have spotted postal staff leaving sacks of mail, including polling cards, unlocked on bikes unattended for up to an hour. Candidates fear it could influence the outcome of the borough election, with Barnet said to be “on a knife-edge” as Labour bids to seize control from the Tories. Dutch company TNT Post has contracts with 11 London councils…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Faith Leaders Converge for Funeral of Humanitarian Dr Mohammad Naseem
Birmingham’s diverse family of faiths came together today to pay their final respects to a man who devoted his life to uniting them all. Dr Mohammad Naseem, chairman of the Birmingham Central Mosque, died last week following an illness. He was aged 90.
Dr Naseem was a figurehead for the mosque, the first to keep a book of condolence for people of all religions, and the Birmingham Faith Leaders’ Group which he helped establish…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Adam Lawson, 32, from Swindon, Wiltshire, wore the cap, pictured left, to celebrate England’s national day but was told it wasn’t work uniform.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A patient was threatened with arrest while sitting in a hospital waiting room after security guards claimed charging her phone was tantamount to theft.
Tracey Murfitt, 47, plugged her Samsung Galaxy S4 in to charge at Southend Hospital’s A&E department, so she could call a friend to warn them she had been admitted.
But security staff who witnessed Ms Murfitt connecting up her charger threatened to call the police about the matter.
Ms Murfitt, from Leigh in Essex, was left stunned by the heavy-handed threats used by hospital staff.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Luton Appeal to Stop Young Men Going to Fight in Syria
An unprecedented appeal has been launched in Luton trying to stop youngsters travelling to Syria to fight in the conflict there. Bedfordshire Police, Luton Borough Council and community leaders have all joined forces after a number of British men were killed in the fighting. The appeal is particularly calling on muslim women who are worried about relatives going to Syria to come forward.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Carl Ashby, 48, from north London, fears he may lose his foot if an infection sets in. He said: ‘Every step I take is like walking on hot coals.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Operation Mum Won’t Stop British Muslims Going to Syria. But Peace Will
by Saleyha Ahsan
We can’t ask Muslim mothers to stop the killing in Syria. That’s the job of the international community — and it is failing
British counter-terrorism chiefs are really bringing out the big guns with their latest campaign to tackle the growing number of Muslims heading out to Syria. They’ve come up with Operation Mum, asking Muslim women to inform on family members thinking of going to Syria to fight. The number of Britons involved in the conflict has been estimated to be as high as 700, with 20 known to have died and many more in detention, but no one really knows the exact figures…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Stop Hiding From it: UKIP is a Racist Party. Time to Challenge Its Ugly Message
by Dan Hodges
This morning Ukip’s racism is once again on display. As many papers report, Andre Lampitt, the owner of a construction firm who appeared in Wednesday’s Ukip party political broadcast, was exposed for holding what, even by Ukip standards, are repugnant views.
Statements taken from his various social media sites included “Most Nigerians are generally bad people I grew up in Africa and dare anyone to prove me wrong” and “Miliband is not a real Brit I hope he never gets to be PM! He was only born here”.
Though Lampitt’s comments were extreme, they are not in themselves markedly out of kilter with the ugly, anti-foreigner, anti-immigration narrative that is at the heart of Ukip’s Euro election campaign…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Sniper Kills Old Man in Albania
TIRANA, April 24 (Xinhua) — Kole Drini, 61, was killed by a sniper Wednesday in Shkoder, north of Albania, local media reported on Thursday. According to preliminary investigation, it was a revenge killing based on blood feud…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
2 Killed in Pro-Morsi Protests in Egypt
CAIRO, April 25 (Xinhua) — At least two Egyptians were killed on Friday during clashes between security forces and supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in Egypt’s Fayoum province, state-run Ahram news website reported.
One of the victims, 38, was hit by cartouche shots while the other, a 62-year-old teacher, died of tear gas suffocation, the report said, noting some residents sided with the police in confronting the pro-Morsi march…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Time for Consequences
It’s hard not to admire Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s brazenness.
Two weeks ago, Abbas signed on to 15 international agreements that among other things require the PA to respect human rights and punish war criminals.
And this week, he signed a unity deal with two genocidal terror groups all of whose leaders are war criminals. Every leader of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the two parties that signed the deal with the PLO, are war criminals. Under the Geneva Conventions, which Abbas signed onto just a couple of weeks ago, he is required to put them on trial, for their war crimes.
Here it is worth noting that under the Geneva Conventions, every single rocket launch from Gaza into Israeli territory is a separate war crime.
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Halts Middle East Peace Talks Over Hamas Deal
Israel said on Thursday it was suspending Middle-East peace talks in response to a unity deal struck between the Palestinian leadership and the Islamist group Hamas, which does not recognise the right of Israel to exist.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
31 Killed at Election Rally in Iraq
BAGHDAD, April 25 (Xinhua) — At least 31 people were killed and 56 others wounded in two car bomb attacks at a parliamentary election rally in Iraq’s capital city of Baghdad on Friday, an Interior Ministry source said.
The two back-to-back bombings struck as supporters of the Sadiqun bloc, the political wing of Iraqi Shiite group Asaeb Ahel al-Haq, were holding a parliamentary election rally near a sports club in east Baghdad, the source said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Armenian President Attacks Turkish Denial of 1915 Genocide
(AGI) Yerevan, April 24 — Condolences to the descendants of the victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide from Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan have made no impression with Armenia. Speaking at the 99th anniversary of the start of the deportations, the Armenian president, Serzh Sarkisian, said the Turkish government continues with its policy of “absolute denial” of the genocide. Sarkisian said that only recognition and condemnation can prevent a repetition of these crimes in the future.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt’s Addameer National Front Refutes Claims Al-Qaradawi Will be Deported From Qatar
Egypt’s Addameer National Front spokesperson Amr Abdel Hadi refuted media claims that the head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi has been banned from speaking in Qatar and will be deported. Abdel Hadi said Al-Qaradwi will give the Friday sermons in a mosque in the Qatari capital Doha.
He noted that Al-Qaradawi’s age and health conditions were the only reason he has been unable to attend sermons recently.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Double Blast at Shiite Election Rally Kills 31
(AGI) Baghdad, April 25 — Two car bombs at an election rally for a Shiite political party in Baghdad killed at least 31 people on Friday, five days before parliamentary elections, police officials said. The blasts targeted a rally of the Saadiqun faction, the political wing of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Qaeda Chief Urges Kidnappings of Americans: Site
(AFP) — Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has called in an interview for militants to kidnap Westerners, especially Americans, to exchange them for jihadist captives.
In the second part of an interview with Al-Qaeda media arm As-Sahab, which the US-based SITE monitoring service said a jihadist posted on Twitter, Zawahiri was asked what Muslims should do to free militant prisoners.
“I advise them to capture Westerners and especially the Americans as much as they can, to exchange them for their captives,” he replied.
Zawahiri succeeded the late Osama bin Laden as leader of the global terror network in 2011.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Soldiers Inside Syria Abducted by Islamist Rebels, News Reports Say
ISTANBUL — Turkish troops conducting a resupply mission to a small Turkish military post inside Syrian territory were ambushed and detained Wednesday by Islamic extremists affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, according to Turkish media reports.
The troops were later returned to Turkey, news outlets in the Turkish city of Sanliurfa said. But it wasn’t clear what happened to the four armored personnel carriers they’d been traveling in. One report said ISIS had kept the vehicles, which had been seen flying ISIS flags.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday confirmed that a convoy had been sent to the tomb of Suleyman Shah, the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire. The tomb lies about 15 miles inside Syria, but Turkey claims sovereignty over the area under a 1921 territory. Erdogan said the convoy had been sent to deliver supplies to the Turkish military contingent assigned to guard the tomb.
He did not, however, mention the ISIS ambush or the abduction of the Turkish troops, an incident that could put Turkey’s military, widely regarded as the region’s best equipped, on a collision course with ISIS, whose militants are fighting both Syrian government forces and other anti-government rebel groups for control of eastern Syria.
“Right now, the issue is not about ISIS,” he told reporters in Ankara. “The job of our convoy is to transfer aid to the Suleyman Shah tomb.”
The Turkish military said the dispatch of the convoy was a planned activity, and nothing out of the ordinary.
Local news reports said the vehicles crossed into Syria from the Sursitpinar border gate and were ambushed near the town of Manbij. The troops — the exact number was not reported — were then taken to Manbij and later repatriated to Turkey, Sanliurfa.com reported, citing local Syrian sources and another unnamed source.
The news portal, without naming its source, said that the vehicles, after their capture, were being driven about with ISIS flags on them.
In mid-March, ISIS demanded that Turkey abandon its military outpost at the tomb and threatened to attack and destroy it. This apparently gave rise to a secret conversation among top Turkish officials about whether Turkey should seize the opportunity to take on ISIS, an Iraq-based offshoot of al Qaida that is also fighting the Iraqi government for control of western Iraq and is considered a serious menace to regional stability. Al Qaida leaders denounced the group earlier this year for disobeying orders to withdraw from Syria, where another rebel group, the Nusra Front, is al Qaida’s recognized affiliate.
A recording of the secret conversation about a possible incursion into Syria was posted on YouTube and proved deeply embarrassing to the Erdogan government, which launched a major investigation to find the source of the security breach. The government also blocked access to YouTube and Twitter in an effort to halt dissemination of the recording.
According to news accounts, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu can be heard on the recording saying that “without a strong pretext,” Turkey would not receive support for an intervention into Syria from the United States or other allies. The chief of Turkish intelligence, Hakan Fidan, reportedly responded that “if needed, I would dispatch four men to Syria” and “have them fire eight mortar shells at the Turkish side and create an excuse for war.” He added: “We can also have them attack the tomb of Suleyman Shah as well.”
If the government was seriously considering doing anything at the time, it was put on hold following the publication of the discussion.
Based on the scanty details available Wednesday, it wasn’t possible to determine whether the resupply convoy was a genuinely routine operation or a probe to test ISIS’s intentions.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Fighting Breaks Out in Kramatorsk, Eastern Ukraine — Update
Helicopter shot down, tank reportedly on fire
(ANSA) — Kiev, April 25 — Fighting has broken out in the Eastern Ukraine city of Kramatorsk, local media reported Friday.
A Ukraine Mi-8 helicopter was reportedly shot down in the city, although the pilot managed to eject before the aircraft exploded, the Unian agency said. Russia’s Ria Novosti said gunfire could be heard in the city and a tank was on fire. Kiev has launched raids against pro-Russian separatists who are occupying key buildings in many eastern Ukrainian towns. Moscow, which has thousands of troops on its side of the border, has called on the US to make Kiev stop raids.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lenin’s Popularity Highest in Years on Revolutionary’s 144th Birthday
Support for the legacy of Bolshevik revolutionary Vladimir Lenin is on the rise, a poll published on the eve of the 144th anniversary of his birth showed.
Asked what they thought about Lenin’s contribution to Russian history, 38 percent of Russians said his influence had been “mostly positive.”
The survey, conducted by the independent Levada Center pollster and published Monday, showed a steady increase in Lenin’s popularity since 2006, when only 29 percent rated his influence as mostly positive.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Putin Condemns Kiev’s Use of Force Against Civilians
MOSCOW, April 25 (RIA Novosti) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has condemned the Kiev authorities’ attempts to use their army against civilians in a phone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Kremlin said Friday.
“Putin and Merkel have exchanged opinions on the critical situation in Ukraine, including Kiev’s authorities not wishing to implement Geneva agreement of April 17, and Putin firmly condemned Kiev’s regime attempts to use the army against civilians in Southeastern Ukraine,” the Kremlin press office said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Rebels Accuse OSCE Mission of Including a Spy From Kiev
(AGI) Slavyansk, Apr 25 — The rebels who kidnapped some monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in eastern Ukraine accuse them of having brought along a ‘spy’ from Kiev. Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, chief of the militia and de facto mayor of Slavyansk, said: “There is a spy among those who come as European observers, and that is not right.” .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Top U.S. Diplomat: Russia Has Betrayed the “New World Order”
Top diplomat Christopher R. Hill says that Russia’s response to the Ukraine crisis means that Moscow has betrayed the “new world order” it has been a part of for the last 25 years…
In other words, whether Russia wants one or not, the western elite is digging in for a new Cold War and the world may be entering the most dangerous period of history since the Cuban missile crisis.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Said to Receive IMF Staff Support for $17 Billion Loan
International Monetary Fund staff endorsed a $17 billion loan to Ukraine to help the government pay its debts amid a projected economic contraction of 5 percent this year, according to government officials who have seen the recommendationns.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Unelected Regime Begins Killing Spree in Eastern Ukraine
Deadly clashed broke out as the unelected regime occupying Kiev attempted to restart what it is calling “anti-terror” operations in eastern Ukraine where anti-fascist protesters have begun rising up. Several have been killed during clashes in the eastern Ukrainian town of Slavyansk where Kiev has set armored vehicles and helicopter gunships upon its own population.
The Western media continues to refer to those opposing the unelected regime in Kiev as “pro-Russian,” and continues to insist that the uprising in the east is either backed by Moscow or in fact, being carried out directly by Russians operating in Ukrainian territory. However, the US and EU have failed categorically to prove such claims with evidence, and have since been caught circulating falsified images and news in attempts to bolster their claims.
The current regime in Kiev came to power at the height of the so-called “Euromaidan” protests where admittedly armed Neo-Nazi militants seized power, ransacking the headquarters of their political opponents and driving out the elected government of President Viktor Yanukovych. While the armed, violent seizure of power was initially covered up by the Western media, the BBC itself would later admit in a short video report that indeed armed Neo-Nazi militants spearheaded the coup.
The nature of the regime in Kiev is also being papered over by the Western media, covering up the fact that the two main opposition parties that seized power, Svoboda and “Fatherland,” are in fact led by a collection of Neo-Nazis, bigots, racists, and anti-Semites. In a desperate attempt to cover up this lack of legitimacy, the West has sent many high level officials including a leading US Senator and the US Vice President to Kiev to lend both political and material support.
The latest visit by Vice President Joseph Biden appears to have been timed specifically to help coordinate a renewed push into eastern Ukraine, after Ukrainian troops surrendered en masse last week — refusing to carry out operations against their fellow countrymen. Reports indicate that Kiev has now turned to fanatical ultra-right militant groups in an attempt to put down growing unrest against the unelected regime.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Deadly Mosque Bombing in Pakistan City
At least four killed and 30 wounded in explosion outside mosque in city of Karachi.
A bomb attack in Pakistan’s biggest city, Karachi, has killed at least four people and wounded 30 others, five of them seriously, according to provincial officials. Senior police officer, Abdul Khaliq Sheikh, said Friday’s attack took place outside a mosque in the upscale Clifton neighbourhood in Karachi, the capital of Sindh province, according to the AP news agency…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Fukushima Didn’t Just Suffer 3 Meltdowns … it Also Suffered Melt-Throughs and Melt-Outs
We reported in May 2011 that authorities knew — within days or weeks — that all 3 active Fukushima nuclear reactors had melted down, but covered up that fact for months.
The next month, we reported that Fukushima’s reactors had actually suffered something much worse: nuclear melt-throughs, where the nuclear fuel melted through the containment vessels and into the ground. At the time, this was described as:
The worst possibility in a nuclear accident.
But now, it turns out that some of the Fukushima reactors have suffered even a more extreme type of damage: melt-OUTS.
By way of background, we’ve noted periodically that scientists have no idea where the cores of the nuclear reactors are.
And that highly radioactive black “dirt” has been found all over Japan.
It turns out that the highly radioactive black substances are likely remnants of the core.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Inform on Your Neighbour if He Grows a Big Beard Says China
Authorities in China’s restive Xinjiang region are offering cash to informants who report on neighbours with excessive facial hair, state media has reported.
Officials in Shaya county issued a notice offering rewards ranging from 50 to more than 50,000 yuan ($8 to $8,000) for a wide array of information including tips on those growing beards, the Global Times said on Thursday.
Xinjiang has been hit by periodic deadly clashes between authorities and members of the mainly Muslim Uighur ethnic minority, among whom beards are a religious and cultural tradition.
China has blamed the violence on separatists with ties to foreign terrorist groups, while rights groups say authorities exaggerate the threat to justify religious and cultural restrictions on Uighurs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
North Korea Arrests U. S. Citizen
(AGI) Seoul, April 25 — North Korea has arrested a U.S. citizen, the Korean Central News Agency news agency reported.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Confronts Consequences of Underestimating North Korean Leader
Almost everything American intelligence agencies and North Korea-watchers thought they understood two years ago about Kim Jong-un, the North’s young leader, turns out to have been wrong.
The briefings given to President Obama after Mr. Kim inherited leadership said it was almost certain he would be kept in check by his more experienced uncle, Jang Song-thaek. Instead, Mr. Kim had his uncle and dozens of others executed.
The early betting was also that Mr. Kim, who was briefly educated in Switzerland, would emphasize economic overhaul over expanding the nuclear and missile arsenals that were his father’s and grandfather’s legacy. Instead, the nuclear program has surged forward.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Appeal to UN for Kidnapped Schoolgirls
Lagos — THE Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), the nongovernmental organization, has appealed to the United Nations to urgently intervene to secure the release of 230 students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Yes! We Have No Bananas? It Could Actually Happen
Banana lovers take note: The world’s supply of the fruit is under attack from a fungus strain that could wipe out the popular variety that Americans eat.
“It’s a very serious situation,” said Randy Ploetz, a professor of plant pathology at the University of Florida who in 1989 originally discovered a strain of Panama disease, called TR4, that may be growing into a serious threat to U.S. supplies of the fruit and Latin American producers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Around 2,000 Migrants Arriving in Italy — Update
Navy rescues 1,500 waters near Sicily
(ANSA) — Rome, April 25 — The Italian Navy and Coast Guard has rescued around 1,500 migrants in waters off southern Italy in the last few hours, Navy sources said Friday. The sources added that a total of around 2,000 migrants are set to arrive in Italy on Friday and Saturday.
Italy is on the front line of the waves of migrants fleeing North Africa and the Middle East for Europe and who first arrive on Italy’s most southerly shores. Last week, Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said that to date this year, more than 20,500 migrants have already landed on Italy’s coasts — an enormous increase over the 2,500 reported during the same period in 2013. Since he spoke, thousands more have arrived, heightening the concerns about Italy’s ability to cope and calls for the European Union to do more to help.
The migrants were rescued on Friday as part of the Mare Nostrum programme launched after some 400 people died in two migrant-boat disasters near Lampedusa in October 2013.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Boehner Mocks Colleagues on Congress Over Immigration Reform
House Speaker John Boehner theatrically mocked his fellow Republican Congressmen for being afraid to reform immigration policy when he spoke Thursday before the Middletown Rotary Club in his home district.
“Here’s the attitude. Ohhhh. Don’t make me do this. Ohhhh. This is too hard,” Boehner whined before a luncheon crowd at Brown’s Run County Club in Madison Township.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration Should be Better Shared Across EU, Says Schulz
EP president says parliament must deal with youth joblessness
(ANSA) — La Spezia, April 24 — Member States in the European Union, including Germany, should better share in the distribution of migrants across the continent, Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, said Thursday.
He added that his homeland of Germany must also take a greater share of newcomers to Europe.
“On the issue of immigration, we definitely need a European solution,” Schulz said on the sidelines of celebrations ahead of Liberation Day, marked in Italy on Friday. “We will have to share distribution in Europe,” he said.
Germany has taken in refugees, but southern States such as Italy, Spain and Greece, “are in a difficult situation,” he said.
“I will say to my fellow Germans that Germany must make a contribution”.
Immigration is a sensitive issue in Italy, which is on the front lines of waves of illegal migrants fleeing North Africa and the Middle East for Europe and who first arrive on Italy’s most southerly shores. Last week, Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said that to date this year, more than 20,500 migrants have already landed on Italy’s coasts — an enormous increase over the 2,500 reported during the same period in 2013.
Since he spoke, hundreds more have arrived heightening the concerns for Italy about the cost of rescue missions and emergency migrant shelters.
Meanwhile, Schulz also said that next month’s European Parliament elections will be an important gauge of the power of euroskeptic forces, adding that he understands why many voters are feeling frustrated by lingering economic weakness and high joblessness.
In particular, “youth unemployment is dramatic and we need to do something about it immediately,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Over 1,500 Immigrants Rescued Off Sicilian Coast
(AGI) Palermo, April 25 — The ‘Mare Nostrum’ rescue operation continued with over 1,500 immigrants rescued off the Sicilian coast by the Italian Navy and Coast Guard in only a couple of hours, reported Navy sources. The San Giorgio ship rescued a boat carrying approximately 400 immigrants. Another 150 were rescued by the port authority. Another vessel, Cassipea, is heading towards Porto Empedocle with 400 immigrants while the SS Urania rescued 395 people, including 61 women and 90 minors, and disembarked them in Pozzallo on Friday.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Texas County Facing Bankruptcy — Due to Illegal Immigration
The increasing costs of rescuing illegal immigrants in Brooks County, Texas and the costs of picking up the bodies of the immigrants who don’t make it, is coming close to bankrupting the small county.
Brooks County, which is twice the size of Manhattan Island, now has just four deputies to provide protection 24/7, as well as deal with the time consuming job of collecting the remains of immigrants who die in the county’s endless scrub fields. Reports indicate 129 undocumented immigrants were found dead just in Brooks County in 2012, which is 3 times more than last count. Officials expect the carnage to continue. They say any time there is talk of ‘immigration reform’ or ‘amnesty’ in Washington, they see an uptick in illegal immigrants risking their lives to get into the U.S. Today, officials say, as many or more of the immigrants found dead in Brooks County are ‘Other Than Mexicans’ (OTMs)
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Another University Stops Students From Handing Out Constitution
Two students are suing the University of Hawaii for violating their First Amendment rights after administrator prevented them from distributing copies of the U.S. Constitution — demonstrating a frightening lack of knowledge about the very legal document they were attempting to censor.
Students Merritt Burch and Anthony Vizzone, members of the Young Americans for Liberty chapter at UH-Hilo, were prevented from handing out copies of the Constitution at a recruitment event in January. A week later, they were again informed by a censorship-minded administrator that their First Amendment-protected activities were in violation of school policy.
The students were told that they could only distribute literature from within UH-Hilo’s “free speech zone,” a small, muddy, frequently-flooded area on the edge of campus.
Administrators further clarified their level of respect for students’ free speech rights, making comments like, “This isn’t really the ‘60s anymore,” and “people can’t really protest like that anymore,” according to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
For Progressives, “Thoughtcrime” Is Worse Than Mass Murder
As any reasonably well-informed attorney knows, if a police officer follows a driver long enough he will witness a violation that supposedly justifies a traffic stop. Once this happens, the officer will “build the stop” by seeking a pretext to search the vehicle for evidence of violations that can lead to an arrest of the driver, or seizure of the vehicle and its contents.
Cliven Bundy, among others, can testify that Regime-oriented journalism operates in a very similar fashion: Have a reporter from the New York Times shadow a 67-year-old Mormon rancher from southeastern Nevada long enough, and eventually the subject will say something that offends current sensibilities about race. To be specific, Bundy used retrograde racial terminology in musing aloud about the damage done to the black family by the Welfare State — which he suggested might be as evil, in some ways, as the odious institution of chattel slavery.
Mr. Bundy is unusually media-savvy for a rancher, but he doesn’t speak in sound-bites. He wasn’t lamenting the fact that black Americans are no longer required to pick cotton for other people who supposedly “own” them, but that the modern welfare state has cultivated dependency, undermined the family, and helped to bring about both the a stratospherically high incarceration rate for black men and a shockingly high abortion rate for black unborn children (a development he wouldn’t lament if he genuinely hated black people).
That perspective could have been tidily packaged for media consumption in the following phrase: “The welfare state has done to black Americans what slavery could not have done, the harshest Jim Crow laws and racism could not have done, namely break up the black family.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Missouri Governor Faces Impeachment Calls Over Gay Marriage Move
On Wednesday a group of state legislators in Missouri began debate on a proposal to impeach Democratic Governor Jay Nixon for issuing an executive order allowing same-sex couples to file joint state income tax returns.
Although gay marriage is illegal in Missouri, Mr. Nixon’s order would recognize legal marriage certificates issued in other states for tax purposes.
“This is such a blatant and serious violation of Missouri’s constitution and Missouri law that the governor should be removed from office,” Republican state Representative Nick Marshall told the Missouri House Judiciary Committee.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Drops Plan to Let GPs Opt Out of Abortions
Norway’s health minister has dropped plans to allow the country’s GPs to refuse to refer women to have abortions on grounds of conscience, in a humiliating u-turn for the country’s right-wing government.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Algorithm is First to Identify Faces Better Than Humans Can
Let’s face it, from trivia to teaching, computers are doing things we thought were uniquely human — and doing them better. Now, facial recognition, a skill humans once dominated, has a new champion. Computer scientists have developed a facial recognition algorithm that, for the first time, outperforms humans’ own abilities.
The GaussianFace algorithm emerged from the test a champion, beating humans’ 97.35 percent average performance on LFW. The algorithm could someday be used in myriad applications including security, image retrieval, and biometric credentials for our computers and mobile devices.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
So, the anti-UKIP smear campaign is in full swing but is WAYCISM the best they can offer? Dan hodges is a despicable slime ball. He is also a fully paid up lefty and anything he says or writes should be viewed in that light.
” In other news, an NGO in Nigeria is appealing to the United Nations to help. . . ”
What a joke? UN can’t solve any problems? Sometimes it aggravates problems or creates new ones from scratch, although wishfully it was invented to solve human unending wars. Obama urged THe Nigerian gov. not to treat Boko Haram harshly. You see HE thinks of human rights. Noble principles.
Back when Rwanda was in full ethnic cleansing mode a group of Danish police officers acting as peace officers became surrounded and out numbered by a group of rebels, the leader of who demanded that the Danish police drop their weapons.
The officer in charge refused the demand deciding instead to call the then UN secretary, Kofi Anan, and seek his resolution to the stand off.
After some time elapsed a call came through from Anan who demanded to speak to the leader of the rebels. After a short discussion the rebel leader handed the phone back to the Danish leader who was told by Anan to surrender their weapons to the rebels and they would be given safe custody away from the area under UN orders.
The Danish leader spoke with his officers who all decided to lay down their arms. Shortly after that action all the unarmed police officers were shot to death by the rebels!
That is the effectiveness of the UN and the despots and failed politicians that run it from our tax payer money and is just one example out of hundreds, of its systemic failure!