Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi got himself in hot water by remarking that the Germans denied the existence of concentration camps. Mr. Berlusconi waved away the controversy, saying that his comment was taken out of context, and that he had been referring to EU-imposed austerity.
In other news, Secretary of State John Kerry observed Holocaust Remembrance Day by warning Israel that it is in danger of becoming an “apartheid state”.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Andy Bostom, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, LS, MC, Steen, 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.
America’s Consumers Are Dropping, Not Shopping
McDonald’s latest results confirm that something is very much amiss on the consumer side. Total global revenue grew only 1% Y/Y, including new store launches and acquisitions.
However, as has been the pattern since 2012, US comparable store sales lagged markedly. The rate of contraction in Q1 was actually the worst in more than a decade.
Even if you believe that the cold and snow of January and February played a role, it could not have explained that comparison. There is simply no way that anything other than consumer exhaustion can create the chart above.
One need only glance at the revenue history of companies in the S&P 500 to see that in full effect.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Sells 7 Billion Euros of Six-Month Bonds at Auction
Interest rates rise to 0.594%, demand dips
(ANSA) — Rome, April 28 — The Italian treasury on Monday sold all seven billion euros’ worth of six-month bonds at auction, prompting interest rates to rise and demand fall compared to March.
Interest rates came in at 0.594% on Monday compared to 0.504% last month. The oversubscription rate was 1.61 versus 1.66.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The Biggest Secret About Banking Has Just Gone Mainstream
We’ve pointed out for 4 1/2 years that banks create money out of thin air.
Specifically, it has now been conclusively proven that loans come first … and then deposits FOLLOW.
This is the most important secret about modern banking … because it debunks one of the biggest myths preventing a strong economy, challenges one of the main pork barrel profit centers for big banks … and opens up incredible opportunities for a prosperous economy.
This odd and counter-intuitive — but crucially important — truth has now gone mainstream …
Specifically, the Financial Times’ Martin Wolf — one of the world’s most influential mainstream financial writers — says that, since banks create money out of thin air, they should be stripped of this power, and limited to normal depository functions. Wolf indicates the centrality and importance of the issue with his subtitle:
The giant hole at the heart of our market economies needs to be plugged.
And Business Insider — the world’s most popular financial news blog — is currently running this as its top two front page stories:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
5 Killed, More Than 40 Wounded in Violent Chicago Weekend
Woman killed while heading home from an anti-violence event among the victims.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
53% Think Neither Political Party Represents the American People
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 53% of Likely U.S. Voters think it is fair to say that neither party in Congress is the party of the American people.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bulletproof Subways a Sign of Violent Times?
CHICAGO (CBS) — While out on an unrelated assignment, CBS 2 investigative reporter Dave Savini decided to stop by a South Side Subway sandwich shop for a meal. Savini was struck by the fact that the counter of the store at 116th Street and South Halsted was encased in bullet-proof glass.
Such a sight would be common at crime magnets like gas stations or currency exchanges, but a Subway?
An internet search also found a few bulletproof Subways in Oakland and Detroit.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Firearms Applications Surge, Swamp Registration System
Between 2005 and 2013, firearms act-related applications “skyrocketed by more than 380%” to nearly 200,000, according to the April 16 memo issued by ATF Deputy Assistant Director Marvin Richardson. The surge has contributed to a backlog of more than 70,000 applications.
Richardson’s memo states that the ATF is “immediately” hiring 15 people to assist with the application processing and deploying 15 current employees to the task.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Holder Urges Young People to Consider Careers at Justice Department
(CNSNews.com) — Students from a Catholic school in San Francisco were in the audience Wednesday when Attorney General Eric Holder gave a speech on diversity and inclusion, and urged young people to “consider careers…here at the United States Department of Justice.”
Holder also urged young people of diverse backgrounds, including “new immigrants,” to consider working at the Justice Department.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Homeland Security a ‘Runaway Train’
“The primary mission of the department is to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States; reduce the vulnerability of the United States to terrorism; minimize the damage, and assist in the recovery from terrorist attacks that do occur within the United States,” the new law said.
The statute also specified that the Department of Homeland Security would respond to natural or human-caused disasters and monitor connections between drug traffickers and terrorists while coordinating efforts to “sever” such ties.
More than 11 years later, the department’s mission has expanded — greatly.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
House Republican Leader: ObamaCare Here to Stay
With the news this week that more than 600,000 Washington residents have acquired new health care plans through the state exchange, U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers said it’s unlikely the Affordable Care Act will be repealed.
“We need to look at reforming the exchanges,” the Eastern Washington Republican said Thursday.
The five-term congresswoman and chair of the House Republican Conference kicked off her re-election campaign this week with visits to Walla Walla, Colville and Spokane. She faces Democratic challenger Joe Pakootas.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Media Matters Boss Admit Soros Funded Group Works to Destroy Alternative Media
Obama and Hillary Clinton operative David Brock told CNN his organization, Media Matters for America (MMFA), uses George Soros money to influence the corporate media and work directly with establishment journalists.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) The future of prescription drugging and birth control lies in a microchip.
Right now, chips with drug reservoirs can be implanted directly under the skin, delivering doses of pharmaceuticals or birth control hormones at the same time each day. The implanted chip is designed to be remote-controlled and governed by “medical professionals.”
Essentially, chipped individuals won’t be able to wean themselves off of side-effect-ridden drugs. The chip can be programmed to release drugs, day after day, year after year, at a “professional’s” directive.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New Probe Confirms Harry Reid’s Long History of Corruption
The seemingly Teflon senior senator from Nevada, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, has been forced to respond to charges made in a two-part investigation into his dealings published last week at RealClearPolitics. The initial investigation looked into multiple claims of corruption, and responses from Reid’s PR people failed to deflect them.
According to the Daily Caller, MMFA works as a de facto propaganda arm for the Obama White House. “Media Matters held weekly strategy calls with former White House deputy communications director Jen Psaki and other groups like the Center for American Progress,” Fox News reported in February 2012.
“Media Matters has habitually attempted to denigrate and smear Alex Jones and his message of liberty, by dismissing Jones as a crazed ‘conspiracy theorist’ and then connecting him to other targets of their attacks, people like Ron Paul, Glenn Beck, Judge Andrew Napolitano, Lou Dobbs and the Fox News network,” Paul Joseph Watson reported for Infowars on February 13, 2012.
“Media Matters has now been completely exposed as little more than an attack dog for the Obama administration. The fact that Alex Jones is regularly smeared by this organization proves that Infowars is hitting the establishment where it hurts and taking flak from the very top of the power structure.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pentagon to Destroy $1b in Ammunition
The Pentagon plans to destroy more than $1 billion worth of ammunition although some of those bullets and missiles could still be used by troops, according to the Pentagon and congressional sources.
It’s impossible to know what portion of the arsenal slated for destruction — valued at $1.2 billion by the Pentagon — remains viable because the Defense Department’s inventory systems can’t share data effectively, according to a Government Accountability Office report obtained by USA TODAY.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ron Paul Rewind: A Warning Against Arming the BLM … in 1997!
Speaking on the House of Representatives floor on September 17, 1997, then-Rep. Ron Paul warned of the “massive buildup of a virtual army of armed regulators.” Paul, the chairman and founder of RPI, proceeded to comment in his speech that, with the number of armed federal employees approaching 60,000, the Secretary of the Interior was pushing for even the Bureau of Land Management to be armed.
With the continuing rise of SWAT over the following 16 years, the number of armed US government employees continued to grow. According to the bulletin Federal Law Enforcement Officers, 2008 of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, by September of 2008 “federal agencies employed approximately 120,000 full-time law enforcement officers who were authorized to make arrests and carry firearms in the United States,” with 255 of them working for BLM.
We saw the United States government’s armed agents in action recently at the Bundy ranch in Nevada. We also saw them back off, at least for now, when confronted by armed protestors. Paul’s concluding sentences of his 1997 speech seem apropos:
The gun in the hands of law-abiding citizens serves to hold in check arrogant and aggressive government. Guns in the hands of the bureaucrats do the opposite. The founders of this country fully understood this fact.
Read here, from the Congressional Record, Paul’s complete speech:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Should California Dictate US Energy Policies?
Can the rest of America afford its Alice in Wonderland energy policies for? (Can California afford them?)
California loves to be seen as the trendsetter on energy and environmental policies. But can we really afford to adopt their laws and regulations in the rest of America? Heck, can the once Golden State afford them itself? The path to hell is paved with good intentions, counter-productive policies — and hypocrisy.
The official national unemployment rate is stuck at 6.7% — but with much higher rates for blacks and Hispanics and a labor p labor participation rate that remains the lowest in 35 years. Measured by gross national product, our economy is growing at an abysmal 1.5% or even 1.0% annual rate.
Meanwhile, California’s jobless rate is higher than in all but three other states: 8.1% — and with far worse rates as high as 15% for blacks, Hispanics and inland communities. First the good news, then the insanity.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Southern Whites’ Loyalty to G.O.P. Nearing That of Blacks to Democrats
From the high plains of West Texas to the Atlantic Coast of Georgia, white voters opposed Mr. Obama’s re-election in overwhelming numbers. In many counties 90 percent of white voters chose Mitt Romney, nearly the reversal of the margin by which black voters supported Mr. Obama.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Still Use Internet Explorer? Don’t
A security flaw in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser revealed this weekend “could lead to the complete compromise of an affected system,” the Department of Homeland Security says. Officials recommend that users use alternative browsers until Microsoft fixes the issue and releases software updates.
The vulnerable Internet Explorer versions make up more than 56% of the browser market, according to NetMarketShare.com. And those who use the estimated 300 million machines running Windows XP won’t even be getting a fix: Microsoft stopped supporting XP on April 8, meaning there won’t be software updates. (Microsoft does offer a separate “ toolkit “ to help shield computers from hackers and says that software can mitigate attacks in this scenario.)
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Controversy has erupted just weeks before the May 21, 2014 formal opening of the 9/11 Museum beneath the World Trade Center Plaza. The source of this imbrogliois a brief documentary film, “The Rise of Al Qaeda,” which apparently confirms that the mass murderous September 11, 2001 attacks were motivated by the ideology of jihad. As the New York Times’ Sharon Offerman observed on 4/23/14:…
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
This Black Does Not Think Bundy is Racist
Any decent fair-minded human being would understand that Bundy was condemning the slavery of government dependency in his comments regarding Negros. The elderly gentleman is a rancher who is not media savvy, nor is he schooled in the nuances of political correctness. bit.ly/PABbJF
The Left are not decent human beings. Their bully minions went on high alert viciously in pursuit of a “gotcha” comment to squelch Bundy’s proven leadership and ability to inspire millions to push back against the Obama regime.
Prominent conservatives running for the tall grass to get away from or running to microphones to denounce Bundy is testimony to their fear of the Left’s high tech lynching machine. It truly sickens me.
I hate allowing jive turkey Leftist bullies to push us around. Rather than conservatives fighting back, far too many cower in fear and allow the Left to proclaim what is considered racist.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Two Suns Could Boost Odds of Habitable ‘Exomoons’
Moons in close binary solar systems have a better chance of hosting life than those in single-star systems, new research has shown.
Binary stars dampen each other’s solar radiation and stellar winds, thereby creating a more hospitable environment for life and increasing the habitable zone around such solar systems, according to research presented at the 223rd American Astronomical Society meeting in January.
“The two stars calm each other down in terms of activity,” said Paul Mason, an astrophysicist at the University of Texas at El Paso in an interview with Astrobiology Magazine.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Justice Department to Collect, Study Arrest Data for Racial Bias
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The U.S. Justice Department on Monday said it will begin collecting data on stops, searches and arrests made in five U.S. cities to weed out possible racial biases within the criminal justice system.
Later this year, a $4.75 million federal grant will be awarded to recipients who compete for the funds to work with their local law enforcement to analyze arrest data and find ways to reduce any biases they find, particularly toward young minority men.
Black men were six times more likely, and Latino men were 2.5 times more likely, to be imprisoned than white men in 2012, according to Justice Department data.
Attorney General Eric Holder said the data collection effort is in response to President Barack Obama’s call for better relations between law enforcement and young men of color following the “not guilty” verdict in the shooting death of black Florida teen Trayvon Martin.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
White House to Issue Guidelines on Fighting Campus Sexual Assault
Reacting to a series of highly-publicized rapes on college campuses, the White House is increasing the pressure on universities across the country to more aggressively combat sexual assaults on campus.
Administration officials are expected to release guidelines on Tuesday that colleges should follow, including recommendations that administrators conduct an anonymous survey of sexual assault cases every three years.
The report will also urge universities to better ensure that sexual assault reports remain confidential. Sometimes fears that reports will not remain confidential can discourage victims from coming forward.
| [Return to headlines] |
CTF Renews Call for 2015 Referendum on Abolishing the Senate
OTTAWA, ON: Following this morning’s judgment from the Supreme Court of Canada indicating that unanimous consent of the provinces and the Parliament of Canada are required to abolish the Senate, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) renewed its call for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to put the question to the people of Canada in a national referendum, to coincide with the 2015 federal election.
“There’s no question that unanimous consent is a high bar for abolition, but do not underestimate how sick Canadians are of this unelected group of landowners pilfering the public purse,” said CTF Federal Director Gregory Thomas.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
More of an Inconvenience Rather Than Truth
The last vestiges; of a long, harsh winter; with record breaking cold temperatures; has only just passed; and already the Climate Change Commissars; are ratcheting up the hysterical, fear mongering rhetoric; for you to be fleeced of more of your dwindling wealth; and the imposition of more government control over your life; all in the name of the Chimera; referred to as Climate Change. On the CTV News website; Canadian author Tom Rand has added his vehement voice to the cacophony.
With statements like; “the planet is heating up; and we need to wake up before the climate gets worse “. “In a market economy; unless you price something; it isn’t worth anything”. Now; that last statement is very telling; and it should signal the alert reader to the mindset it is really speaking from. I have felt increasingly alienated from the environmental movement; mainly due to the escalating shrillness of their appeals; and the closed minded; singular dogma; the only solution is; more punitive taxation, (already on a broke back economy; because the pundits of Globalism; can’t fathom the concepts of Economics 101); and more laws. Despotism camouflaged in a cloak of Green.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Berlusconi’s Death Camp Remark ‘Absurd’ Says Merkel
‘Doesn’t merit comment’
(see related) (ANSA) — Berlin, April 28 — Italian ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s claim that Germans denied the existence of concentration camps “was so absurd that the German government won’t comment,” said Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Feibert on Monday.
Over the weekend the media magnate and centre-right leader said “for the Germans the concentration camps never existed,” in a fresh attack on his old foe, European Parliament Speaker Martin Schulz, whom he described as a death-camp trusty in a widely criticised jab after taking over the EU’s rotating presidency in 2003. Berlusconi’s supporters say his remarks were being manipulated out of context for political gain.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
This homeless man has been labelled Europe’s dirtiest person — because he sleeps buried in a pile of hot ash. Ludvik Dolezal, 58, burns whatever he finds to create his ‘bed’ before crawling into it to sleep. He has even burnt his mattress and duvet in order to achieve the perfect mound of fiery remains.
Mr Dolezal, who lives in an abandoned old farmhouse, is said to suffer from a psychological disorder which makes him want to share his life with fire and ash.
Despite the freezing cold winters of his home town, Novy Bydzov, in the Czech Republic, he wears just a fleece, which is dyed black from the smoke.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Researcher: European Jews Have No Future
Anti-Semitism continues to rise in Europe amid a surge in popularity of extremist parties in the region, according to a new study by the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University.
“According to that survey, almost half of the Jewish population is afraid of being verbally or physically attacked in a public place because they are Jewish, and 25 percent of Jews will not wear anything that identifies them as Jewish or go near a Jewish institution for fear of an attack,” Kantor said.
The report warns about the increasing popularity of far-right parties, especially in France, Hungary and Greece, where they’re expected to make big gains in European parliamentary elections next month.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Juncker Slams Berlusconi Holocaust Comments
(AGI) Rome, April 28 — Former Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Jean Claude Juncker, asked Silvio Berlusconi on Monday to apologise to Holocaust survivors and the German people after the former Italian prime minister’s remark that “according to the Germans, there never were concentration camps.” Juncker, who is a candidate for the European People’s Party (EPP), the umbrella group to which Berlusconi’s Forza Italia belongs, said: “Italy is a great nation, but so is Germany. All 28 EU members are great nations. No one has the right to insult EU friends and partners.” ..
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Cardinal Bertone Denies Reports of ‘Opulent’ 700 Sq M Flat
Ex-Secretary of State says Pope Francis called in solidarity
(ANSA) — Rome, April 28 — Former Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone strongly denied Monday Italian media reports claiming that the prelate will move into an “opulent” flat measuring as much as 700 square meters in the Vatican while Pope Francis makes do with humbler lodgings.
“In recent days some media outlets have spoken malevolently about the apartment where I will live in the Vatican and, to worsen the public humiliation, their ‘informant’ has doubled the square meters,” Bertone said in a letter to two diocesan newspapers. “It has been said, among other things, that the pope was furious with me for so much opulence. The size of ‘my’ apartment has even been compared to the presumed restricted nature of the residence of the pope,” he added in the letter to the diocesan weeklies of Genoa and Vercelli.
Since his election last year, in a move criticised by some conservative Catholics, Francis has decided not to move into the vast papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace used by his predecessors, choosing instead to remain in a suite in the Santa Marta guesthouse used by cardinals during the papal Conclave. “Above all let us thank God and the concern of many for the fact that the pope is lodged and assisted in a dignified fashion at Santa Marta where he can easily carry out his institutional business,” said the prelate.
“Personally I am grateful for the affectionate telephone call I received from Pope Francis April 23 to express his solidarity and disappointment over the attacks levelled at me over the apartment, which he was informed about as soon as they happened”.
Many people had telephoned the prelate from his old dioceses to express their solidarity over the affair, he added. “The spacious apartment, as was normal in the residences of the old Vatican palaces, restructured as necessary at my own expense, has been made available for my use temporarily and after me will be used by someone else,” he added. “As Saint Pope John XXIII used to say ‘I will not stop to pick up the stones that are thrown at me”.
http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2014/04/28/cardinal-bertone-denies-reports-of-opulent-700-sq-m-flat_8d6ff81d-1e9e-4d5b-901f-f79189748da8.html
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Says Death Camp Remark ‘Out of Context’
Center-right leader affirms ‘friendship with Jews’
(see related) (ANSA) — Rome, April 28 — Three-time premier Silvio Berlusconi on Monday said his claim that Germans denied the existence of concentration camps “was extrapolated out of context” by “the European left”, and affirmed his “historic friendship with the Jewish people and the State of Israel”. He added that he was the victim of a “campaign trap” ahead of European elections on May 25. Over the weekend the media magnate and centre-right leader said “for the Germans, the concentration camps never existed,” in a fresh attack on his old foe, European Parliament Speaker Martin Schulz, whom he described as a death-camp trusty in a widely criticised jab after taking over the EU’s rotating presidency in 2003. Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Feibert on Monday said the claim “was so absurd that the German government won’t comment”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Juncker Says Berlusconi’s Holocaust Remarks ‘Nauseating’
Demands EPP partner apologize to survivors and Germans
(ANSA) — Brussels, April 28 — Jean-Claude Juncker, the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) presidential candidate, demanded three-time Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi apologize for claiming Germans denied the existence of concentration camps. “Berlusconi’s statements nauseated me. I call on him to take them back immediately and apologize to Holocaust survivors and German citizens,” said former Luxembourg Prime Minister Juncker, who is running in May 25 European elections.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Calls Germans His Friends After Death Camp Remark
‘I’m hostile to austerity, not them’
(see related) (ANSA) — Rome, April 28 — Ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi said it was “surreal to call me hostile to the German people, my friends,” after his claim that they denied the existence of concentration camps. “If I’m hostile to something it’s counterproductive austerity, and rules and regulations that in my opinion are seriously flawed, which are burdening all of Europe with long-term economic stagnation,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Grillo Calls for President’s Resignation if M5S Wins EU Vote
‘Next, new national elections’
(see previous) (ANSA) — Rome, April 28 — Italian comedian-turned-politician Beppe Grillo, who leads the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), on Monday said that if his political group wins European Parliament elections, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano should resign and early national elections should be called. “If the M5S is voted in as the leading political group at European elections, two things should happen immediately. The first is that Napolitano should resign. For some time, he no longer represents the sentiment of the country, nor the will of the voters,” wrote Grillo on his blog.
“The second thing that should happen is early political elections. The Parliament is unconstitutional and no longer has any electoral legitimacy. The lumbering machinery of power will seek to perpetuate itself in every way, we know, but it will be the end for them. Us or them!”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Marxist Publisher Sues Over Property Rights
Call the irony police! A Marxist publishing company in Britain that used to be affiliated with the British Communist Party is protecting its property and denying access to Marx’s writings to the public for free. David Kravets of Ars Technica reports:
A radical publishing house, called Lawrence & Wishart, who at one time was connected to Great Britain’s Communist Party, is demanding the removal from the Marxists Internet Archive of the “Marx-Engels Collected Works” — hardcover books that sell for up to $50 a pop.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria Refuses to Add Muslim Brotherhood to Terror List
(AGI) Algiers, April 28 — The Algerian government has rejected a request from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to classify the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation.
Citing government sources, the Algerian newspaper Echourouk reports that Foreign Minister Ramattan Lamamra has rejected the Saudi and UAE request during his visit to Riyadh in April.
Lamamra is also said to have refused to investigate businessmen in Algeria considered to be close to the Muslim Brotherhood.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Sentences Another 683 People to Death
An Egyptian judge has sentenced to death the Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual leader and 682 other people in the latest in a series of high-stakes mass trials that have been unprecedented in scope.
Suggesting there might be room for reversal, the same judge also reduced the sentences against 529 defendants indicted in a similar case in March, upholding the death penalty for only 37 and commuting the rest to life imprisonment.
Still, the three dozen death sentences that were upheld was an extraordinarily high number for Egypt, compared to the dramatic trial in the wake of the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat, when only five people were sentenced to death and executed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Court Seeks Death Sentence for Brotherhood Leader, 682 Supporters
An Egyptian court sentenced the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and 682 supporters to death on Monday, intensifying a crackdown on the movement that could trigger protests and political violence ahead of an election next month.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Former Egyptian Jihad Leader: Morsi Gave $25m to Al Qaeda
Nabil Na’im, formerly a close confidante of Al Qaeda’s leader, said the money was to help organize support for the Brotherhood.
Speaking on Haya TV, Nabil Na’im, a former Islamist who was the leader of Egypt’s Islamic Jihad and who was previously a close confidante of current Al Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri, asserted that during the reign of former Egyptian president Mohammad Morsi, Zawahiri was given $25 million from Muslim Brotherhood leader Khairat al-Shatter to organize, fund and assemble the jihadi groups “in order to support the Brotherhood.”
| — Hat tip: LS | [Return to headlines] |
The Political “Schizophrenia” of Barack Obama
Cairo, Egypt — The Egyptian weekly Elmogaz revealed some of the backroom dealings during a meeting between the Arab Gulf states — which resulted in forcing Qatar to stop supporting Muslim Brotherhood and the extremists, who fled from their original countries escaping terrorism-related charges.
Elmogaz stated that the Arab States put several conditions in a document signed by all parties, who witnessed the meeting, in order to isolate Qatar and to stop financial and political relations. The most important condition was to stop the Qatar’s:
- Unlimited support for the Brotherhood
- Expel its leaders
- Stop granting Qatari citizenship to extremists
- Withdraw citizenship from those who have been previously granted it.
This actually happened with the Brotherhood leaders going to Tunisia, led by the “godfather” of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, and 28 other leaders. The second important term of the agreement was to stop the Qatari media campaigns waged by Al-Jazeera against other Arab countries, specifically Saudi Arabia and Egypt, as well as stop the support of Yemeni rebels on the border of Saudi Arabia.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
West Hangs Syrian-Style War Over Egypt’s Future
Al-Akhbar English in an article titled, “Egypt: Free Egyptian Army being formed in Libya,” reported that:
Egyptian security forces continue to chase armed groups active in the country. The confrontation does not seem it will come to end soon, with the information unfolding daily to security agencies about plans by those group to destabilize Egypt.
Security sources revealed to Al-Akhbar that “intelligence and security agencies succeeded in monitoring the movements of terrorist groups and arrested some of them inside the towns and villages of northern Egypt, as well as the eastern, western, and southern borders of Egypt.”
The report would also claim that a “Free Egyptian Army” was being prepared in neighboring Libya along the Libyan-Egyptian border, where the epicenter of heavily armed sectarian extremists from Al Qaeda’s Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) began NATO-backed operations against the Libyan government in 2011. While the Al-Akhbar article only cites unnamed “sources,” recent and escalating violence lends credibility to concern regarding a Syrian-style conflict fueled by foreign interests to destabilize and overthrow the current Egyptian sociopolitical order.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bethlehem Christian Slams PA’s Use of Children as Human Shields
Christy, an Arab resident of Bethlehem who was forced to flee to the UK following persecution over her sympathy to Israel, has gone public with her criticism of the Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership.
Following an Al Jazeera interview with PA Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat, in which Christy asked him from the audience whether he could impartially negotiate and was promised freedom of speech, transparency and women’s rights in “Palestine,” Christy decided to express her views of the situation at a Swedish university.[…]
[The Video is interesting. —MC]
| — Hat tip: MC | [Return to headlines] |
Cyprus and Israel Sign Hydrocarbons Agreement
(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, APRIL 28 — An Agreement on the exchange and protection of confidential information with respect to hydrocarbons discovered in Block 12 in Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and in its adjacent Block Ishai in Israel’s EEZ was signed today in Nicosia by the Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Cypriot Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Tasos Tzionis and the Ambassador of Israel in Cyprus Michael Harari.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Exclusive: Kerry Warns Israel Could Become ‘An Apartheid State’
The secretary of state said that if Israel doesn’t make peace soon, it could become ‘an apartheid state,’ like the old South Africa. Jewish leaders are fuming over the comparison.
If there’s no two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict soon, Israel risks becoming “an apartheid state,” Secretary of State John Kerry told a room of influential world leaders in a closed-door meeting Friday. Senior American officials have rarely, if ever, used the term “apartheid” in reference to Israel, and President Obama has previously rejected the idea that the word should apply to the Jewish state. Kerry’s use of the loaded term is already rankling Jewish leaders in America—and it could attract unwanted attention in Israel, as well.[…]
[of course judenrein Palestine isn’t an apartheid state is it? — MC]
| — Hat tip: MC | [Return to headlines] |
A Tour and Census of Palestine Year 1695: No Sign of Arabian Names or Palestinians
PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein said this in 1977:
“The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct “Palestinian people” to oppose Zionism.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Blood Money’ Has Saved 358 Iranians From the Death Penalty
THE PAYMENT OF “blood money” spared 358 Iranians from execution last year, the country’s prosecutor general says. The practice, made possible under the Islamic sharia law of diya (restitution), allows a convict to be pardoned by a victim’s family if they receive financial recompense.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hunters to Herders: Ancient Civilization Made Rapid Switch
Bones unearthed from an ancient mound in Turkey suggest that humans there shifted their diet from hunting to herding over just a few centuries, findings that shed light on the dawn of agriculture, scientists say.Agriculture began in the Neolithic, or New Stone Age, about 11,500 years ago. Once- nomadic groups of people settled down and began farming and herding, fundamentally changing human society and how people related to nature.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Sako: “In 10 Years There Will Only be a Few Thousand Christians Left in Iraq”
The Christian community in Baghdad had 600 thousand faithful, now there are only 400 thousand in the whole country. The Chaldean Patriarch, Sako I: “Christians are those who suffer most from the upsurge in violence across Iraq”.
Baghdad (AsiaNew / Agencies) — The Iraqi Chaldean Patriarch, Louis Raphael Sako I, says he is seriously concerned over the continuing decline of Christian presence in the country: “If measures are not taken soon, in 10 years’ time there will only be a few thousand Christians left in Iraq”.
The Iraqi Christian community had more than a million followers, 600 thousand in Baghdad alone, now they have less than 400 thousand in the whole country. The main causes of this massive migration are poor security, increased death threats against Christians from Islamists and the seizure of their property by armed groups.
The Patriarch describes the scale of the phenomenon of migration as “frightening” and says it is worsened by the encouragement of Western powers.
After visiting communities throughout the country, Sako said: “Christians are those who suffer most from the upsurge in violence across Iraq. This is due to the fact that Christians do not maintain tribal affiliations, as do Arab Muslims. The only way they have to resolve disputes is through the Iraqi legal system, which is often criticized for its corruption, and which is subject to political manipulation”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
MERS Outbreak Hits 30% Death Rate as Pandemic Spreads in Saudi Arabia
(NaturalNews) The MERS outbreak sweeping through Saudi Arabia and Egypt has accelerated yet again with 26 new confirmed cases today. Infections have exploded by 73 percent in just one month, reports Reuters.
What really has virologists alarmed, however, is the 30% death rate currently being observed. As Reuters reports (1) :
Saudi Arabia, where MERS was discovered around two years ago and which remains the country most affected, has now had 339 confirmed cases of MERS, of which 102 have been fatal.
MERS stands for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome and it has no known treatments or cures in the entire world of western medicine. There are no antibiotics, no vaccines, no medications and no medical interventions practiced by conventional medicine which have any ability to reverse a MERS infection.
A 30% fatality rate is considered extremely alarming in the world of infectious disease. Influenza typically kills fewer than 1 in 1000 people infected, but MERS is so far killing 3 out of 10.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Letter to the American People on Ukraine
In this difficult hour of serious trouble on our Western borders, I would like to address the American people in order to help you understand better the positions of our Russian patriots which are shared by the majority of our society.
Difference Between the two Meanings of Being American (In the Russian View)
1. We distinguish between two different things: the American people and the American political elite. We sincerely love the first and we profoundly hate the second.
2. The American people has its own traditions, habits, values, ideals, options and beliefs that are their own. These grant to everybody the right to be different, to choose freely, to be what one wants to be and can be or become. It is wonderful feature. It gives strength and pride, self-esteem and assurance. We Russians admire that.
3. But the American political elite, above all on an international level, are and act quite contrary to these values…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mayor of Kharkov, Ukraine Shot in Back, Hospitalized — Press Service
The mayor of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkov, Gennady Kernes, has been shot in the back by unidentified gunmen, the city council’s press service reports.
At about 11:30 am (8:30 GMT) local time Kernes was taken to the local hospital. The City Hall’s website says that doctors are fighting to save his life.
“They shot him in the back from the forest,” Kernes’s friend Yury Sapronov told Vesti Ukrainy news outlet. “The injury is serious. His lung is pierced and his liver pierced all the way through.”
Kernes was shot while cycling, according to conflicting media reports, Yury Sidorenko from the mayor’s press service told RT. The doctors are currently operating, he added.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Obama regime, wallowing in hubris and arrogance, has recklessly escalated the Ukrainian crisis into a crisis with Russia. Whether intentionally or stupidly, Washington’s propagandistic lies are driving the crisis to war. Unwilling to listen to any more of Washington’s senseless threats, Moscow no longer accepts telephone calls from Obama and US top officials.
The crisis in Ukraine originated with Washington’s overthrow of the elected democratic government and its replacement with Washington’s hand-chosen stooges. The stooges proceeded to act in word and deed against the populations in the former Russian territories that Soviet Communist Party leaders had attached to Ukraine. The consequence of this foolish policy is agitation on the part of the Russian speaking populations to return to Russia. Crimea has already rejoined Russia, and eastern Ukraine and other parts of southern Ukraine are likely to follow.
Instead of realizing its mistake, the Obama regime has encouraged the stooges Washington installed in Kiev to use violence against those in the Russian-speaking areas who are agitating for referendums so that they can vote their return to Russia. The Obama regime has encouraged violence despite President Putin’s clear statement that the Russian military will not occupy Ukraine unless violence is used against the protesters.
We can safely conclude that Washington either does not listen when spoken to or Washington desires violence…
It is clear that Washington has no intention of working anything out with the Russian government. Washington’s demands make this conclusion unavoidable. Washington is demanding that the Russian government pull the rug out from under the protesting populations in eastern and southern Ukraine and force the Russian populations in Ukraine to submit to Washington’s stooges in Kiev. Washington also demands that Russia renege on the reunification with Crimea and hand Crimea over to Washington so that the original plan of evicting Russia from its Black Sea naval base can go forward.
In other words, Washington’s demand is that Russia put Humpty Dumpty back together again and hand him over to Washington.
This demand is so unrealistic that it surpasses the meaning of arrogance. The White House Fool is telling Putin: “I screwed up my takeover of your backyard. I want you to fix the situation for me and to ensure the success of the strategic threat I intended to bring to your backyard.”
The presstitute Western media and Washington’s European puppet states are supporting this unrealistic demand. Consequently, Russian leaders have lost all confidence in the word and intentions of the West, and this is how wars start.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New US Sanctions Target Russian Officials and Companies
The US has imposed sanctions on seven Russian individuals and 17 companies it says are linked to President Vladimir Putin’s “inner circle”.
The White House said the move was a response to “Russia’s continued illegal intervention in Ukraine”. Those targeted include Igor Sechin, head of oil giant Rosneft, and Sergei Chemezov of the hi-tech firm Rostec.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pro-Russian Mayor of Kharkiv Critical After Shooting
(AGI) Kiev, April 28 — Gennady Kernes, the pro-Russian mayor of Kharkiv, underwent surgery on Monday after having been shot in the back by unknown assailants. “Doctors are fighting for his life,” said hospital spokeswoman, Tatiana Gruzinskaya. Kharkiv is Ukraine’s second biggest city.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sanctions Against Russia Necessary But Costly, Says UK
(AGI) Paris, April 28 — Economic sanctions against Russia because of the Ukrainian crisis will be costly but are the only way Russia will understand that its conduct in unacceptable, said Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, who is attending a meeting with finance ministers of Italy, France and Germany to discuss a common policy. Germany’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble considers sanctions necessary, in spite of preferring “dialogue and cooperation” with Russia.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Satellite Images Reveal Massing of 15,000 Ukraine Troops, Hundreds of Tanks Around Slavyansk
Yesterday, we jokingly noted that with separatists blockading Slavyansk from a Ukraine special-forces invasion, and with the Ukraine army blockading Slavyansk from said separatists (unclear exactly why), that the east Ukraine city of Slavyansk is easily the most blocked city in the world (and in dire need of fiber). However, based on just released satellite imagery showing the build up of Ukraine forces around Slavyansk — a city which as a reminder is located in Ukraine — what is going on around Slavyansk is no laughing matter.
Russian RIA Novosti reports that it has received satellite photos, “which clearly show the accumulation of a large number of Ukrainian military equipment and weapons on the border with the Russian Federation and in the vicinity of Slavyasnk.” RIA cites a source in the Russian Defense Ministry, who commented that the pictures show a military formation designed “to wipe out the city and all its inhabitants from the face of the earth.”
According to source, the group has more than 15,000 troops from the Ukraine army and national guard, about 160 tanks, 230 infantry fighting vehicles and APCs, and as much as 150 mortars, howitzers and multiple launch rocket systems (“Grad” and “Smerch”).
The source concludes that “This concentration of troops in one area is not compatible with the potential of self-defense forces, armed with only a small number of pistols and submachine guns.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Launches New Sanctions Against Russia
Moscow says ‘repugnant move won’t come without response’
(ANSA) — Moscow, April 29 — Russia on Monday said new United States sanctions would not come without a response.
The White House announced “new targeted sanctions” against various Russian people and companies and restrictions against certain US exports to Russia in retaliation for Russia’s involvement in the crisis in Ukraine. Those targeted include seven Russian government functionaries, among them two of President Vladimir Putin’s advisors. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov called the move “repugnant” and accused the US of losing touch with reality.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
As Pakistani Catholics Pray Against Sexual Violence Against Children, More Rapes Reported in Punjab
Torchlight processions and prayers are held for Sara, who is in hospital in critical condition. In the past few days, two more cases have been reported: a six-year-old girl sexually assaulted in Faisalabad, and a nine-year-old girl raped and killed in Jhang District. A recent study confirms the trend, but acknowledges that only a few cases are reported.
Islamabad (AsiaNews) — Sexual violence against girls continues in Punjab province, with perpetrators still free amid government silence and police inaction. In view of the situation, the Catholic Church of Pakistan yesterday organised torchlight processions and prayers in many Pakistani churches to demand justice for the innocent victims of sexual violence.
At the end of Sunday Mass, meditations and prayers were performed for the young victims, especially for the speedy recovery of Sara — a gang rape victim- and the release of Sawan Masih and Asia Bibi, who were sentenced to death for blasphemy.
Originally from a village in Sialkot District, little Sara remains in hospital in critical conditions, whilst her father is held illegally by police to prevent the family from reporting the crime.
Sara is not alone. In the past week, two other underage girls were raped in Punjab: a nine-year-old girl raped and then murdered in Jhang District, and a six-year-old girl raped (and left in critical conditions) in Faisalabad yesterday afternoon.
Human rights activists and clergymen noted that the situation has crossed a critical threshold with the authorities showing no interest in protecting ordinary people.
Citing a recent study by the human rights groups Masihi Foundation and Life for All Pakistan, Fr John Ayub, a priest active in the protection of minors in the Punjab, noted a rise in brutal attacks, which confirms the escalation of violence. Hence, he wants the authorities to take these incidents seriously and better protect citizens.
According to the study, with data from 2013, there were 370 cases of rape, including 185 cases of gang rape; 1,603 honour killings; 2,133 cases of unspecified violence against women; 406 cases of forced marriages, including 176 minors; 220 women killed following accusations of adultery and 887 cases in which women were tortured by police.
Punjab is the province with the highest number of cases (2602), followed by Sindh (1883), Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (1181) and Baluchistan (864).
However, only a few cases of violence (just over 10 per cent) are ever reported so the actual number far exceeds official figures.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Mount Everest Avalanche: ‘We Saw Bodies Brought Down’
Many foreign climbers have left Everest base camp after sherpa guides cancelled ascents following an avalanche that killed 16 colleagues. Paul Valin was getting ready to climb the world’s highest mountain when the avalanche struck on 18 April. The 32-year-old Frenchman, who has since descended, describes what happened.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Medical Association Urges Doctors to Amputate the Hands of Thieves
by Daniel Greenfield
Before all do no harm is not exactly a major Muslim medical principle. Before all follow Sharia law is. And that’s a problem in Malaysia, which Obama compared to the US, but which is going down the dark road of Islamic law.
The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) has disrespected Muslims and Muslim doctors by threatening to axe doctors who perform amputations under hudud, according to Muslim medical practitioners’ group i-Medik.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Uzbekistan: Under Pressure From Imams, Christians Cannot be Buried in State-Owned Cemeteries
In recent weeks, three cases have raised the issue of religious freedom in the Asian country. Muslim religious leaders have banned burials because non-Muslims “cannot be buried with Muslims.” The authorities have ignored protests of relatives, who say that Uzbekistan is a secular state.
Tashkent (AsiaNews/Forum18) — With the support of local authorities, some Uzbek imams have denied the families of non-Muslims the right to bury their loved ones in state-owned cemeteries.
Three cases involving Protestants have been reported in recent weeks, raising questions about religious freedom in Uzbekistan, this according to the Forum 18, a news service that documents violations of religious freedom in Central Asia.
The three people involved are all former Muslims who converted to Protestant Christianity. In each case, their families were not allowed to bury them alongside other relatives.
In Central Asian culture, being buried together with family members and with the participation of the local community are important.
Although Forum 18 reported the first case only a few days ago, the latter dates back to 9 April. It concerns Gayrat Buriyev, 68-year-old Christian, originally from a village near the capital Tashkent.
The local imam refused to let his relatives bury him in the state-owned cemetery, repeatedly cursing the deceased’s family. When the latter appealed to local government authorities, they were unsuccessful.
The ban stems from the deceased’s conversion to Christianity. Cemeteries are state-owned, but converts cannot be buried along with Muslims, the imam said.
“The imam cursed the family for becoming Christians and insulted them with unquotable expressions, branding them unclean and defiled infidels,” local sources said, adding that he was “acting based on Islamic Sharia Law”.
Complaints by relatives were to no avail. Although they insisted that Uzbekistan is (or ought to be) a secular state and cemeteries are state-owned, the local imam, claimed that the one in question was “a Muslim cemetery” and Christians are not allowed.
Two similar cases were reported in Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region in north-western Uzbekistan.
Local officials forced the families of two Protestant women who died in February to bury them in a Russian Orthodox cemetery, after the local imam banned them from the state-owned cemetery.
The local Muslim leader, who was instrumental in this case as well, said, “Those who accepted other religions may not be buried in the same cemetery with Muslims.”
In a country where about 88 per cent of the population is Sunni Muslim with 8 per cent Christians, religious freedom is under tight government controls.
Although only the possession of religious literature that is extremist in nature and incites “religious hatred” is deemed illegal, the judiciary often destroys material seized in homes after receiving “opinion” from “experts” for whom any book about religion is extremist.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
A US Soldier Searches for His Vietnamese Son
Thousands of children were fathered by American servicemen during the Vietnam war. Now in their 60s and 70s, some veterans are desperate to find the sons and daughters they have never known.
Jerry Quinn is one of two million American soldiers sent to support the South Vietnamese army in the war against the North. During that conflict, it’s thought about 100,000 children were born from relationships between local women and American soldiers. Those soldiers are now getting old, and some are guilt-ridden, or just curious to find out what happened to their children.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Lego Builds Presence in China Toy Market
Denmark-based toy manufacturer Lego is making a strong play for the mainland’s increasingly affluent middle class with construction of a new factory in Zhejiang province that will pit the company against challenges from locally made knockoff products.
The plant, in the city of Jiaxing, will be the company’s third-largest worldwide, employing 1,500 workers when it is fully operational by 2017.
Lego, known for its namesake interlocking plastic blocks, recorded growth of 50 per cent on the mainland last year, and chief executive Jorgen Vig Knudstorp said the country had become its fastest-growing market.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Cyber-Attack on Australia ‘Wider Than Previously Thought’
A cyber-attack on the Australian parliamentary computer network in 2011 may have given Chinese intelligence agencies access to politicians’ private emails for a year, according to a report in the Australian Financial Review.
The newspaper, citing government and security sources, said new information showed the attack had been more extensive than previously thought and “effectively gave them control of” the entire system.
“It was like an open-cut mine. They had access to everything,” a source told the newspaper.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Smuggler of Immigrants Dies in Prison, But is Praised in Chinatown
To the authorities, Cheng Chui Ping was the “mother of all snakeheads,” a ruthless businesswoman who smuggled thousands of Chinese emigrants into the United States.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Immigration Leaflet Sparks Call for Hate Crime Charges
An anti-immigration leaflet being distributed in the Toronto suburb of Brampton has prompted calls for hate crime charges to be leveled against its creators, raising the prospect that harsh condemnation of immigration policy could now be considered a criminal offense in Canada.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Navy Rescues 762 Immigrants and Heads for Sicily
(AGI) Palermo, April 28 — The Italian Navy rescued 762 migrants in the Strait of Sicily on Monday and then headed for Augusta (Syracuse), in Sicily. The navy ships are due to make port on Tuesday. The “Mare nostrum” rescue operation involved several vessels, navy sources reported: the Libra patrol boat picked up 239 people, including 160 men, 31 women and 48 minors; the Orione 256 people, including 194 men, 28 women and 32 minors; and the Espero frigate 267 people, including 171 men, 40 women and 56 minors.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi to Ask Help From UN and EU on Undocumented Immigration
Over 20,000 migrants land on coast so far this year
(ANSA) — Rome, April 28 — Italian Premier Matteo Renzi on Monday vowed during a government meeting in Rome to appeal for more commitment from the European Union and the United Nations on tackling undocumented immigration. “Italy will return with determination to ask more commitment on the part of the United Nations and the European Union,” in view of Italy’s upcoming six-month presidency of the EU Council, Renzi said during a summit on the Mare Nostrum sea patrol and rescue mission in the Mediterranean.
The administration of Renzi’s predecessor Enrico Letta set up Mare Nostrum to prevent further deaths at sea following two migrant ship disasters in October 2013 in which around 400 people died.
Monday’s high level meeting, which included the ministers of defence, the interior and foreign affairs, as well as the national head of police, was held to assess Mare Nostrum “for its positive action tackling organized crime, which has brought the arrest of 207 human traffickers” and saved human lives, “but also its critical issues, especially the commitment on the part of the United Nations and the European Union”. According to Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, more than 20,500 migrants have already landed on Italy’s coasts to date this year — an enormous increase over the 2,500 reported during the same period in 2013.
Thousands more have arrived since he spoke earlier this month, heightening the concerns about Italy’s ability to cope.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya Arrests 1,000 Sub-Saharan Migrants
Libyan security forces have arrested some 1,000 sub-Saharan migrants as they were trying to board vessels bound for Europe, pan-Arab media reported Monday. Some of the migrants were arrested while already heading out to sea, the sources said.
Tripoli is assessing how to deal with the refugees and migrants flocking to its shores in search of a way out of Africa, impacting on Libya’s economy, society, security, and health care system in the process.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
On Thursday, 22 Republican senators, including even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), denounced President Barack Obama in a scathing letter for threatening America’s “entire constitutional system” with his immigration “enforcement review” that threatens to “nullify” the nation’s immigration laws.
“Your actions demonstrate an astonishing disregard for the Constitution, the rule of law, and the rights of American citizens and legal residents,” the senators wrote in a letter to Obama. “Our entire constitutional system is threatened when the Executive Branch suspends the law at its whim and our nation’s sovereignty is imperiled when the commander-in-chief refuses to defend the integrity of its borders.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Political Reality of Muslim Demographics
Mainstream political debate in Britain today ignores the emerging Muslim demographic reality. But the burying of heads in sand will not rid Britain of the consequences of sixty years of heavy immigration
[…]
If that is officialdom’s response today, what will matters be like in 30 or 40 years when Muslims may constitute a majority in many of Britain’s cities?
With all the problems of immigrant assimilation and cultural differences, it is not what is happening nowthat is important, but what will happen in the future as immigrant numbers increase. This is an issue that mainstream British political culture ignores.
That Muslims will be a majority in certain towns and cities is hardly in dispute. Even on the most conservative of estimates, present demographics, birth rates and continuing high levels of immigration make it highly likely that Oldham, Bradford, Blackburn and very likely Birmingham will, within 30 to 40 years be majority Muslim cities.
What then? When Muslims become a majority in large cities, will they not have the demographic weight to demand a democratic voice in how they run their communities, particularly in the education of their children?
Will they not have a democratic right to teach Arabic, enforce a dress code and impart their deeply held ethical beliefs? By what principle would secular democratic Britain deny them this right?
Liberal Britain never thought it would have to answer these questions. Throughout the decades of heavy immigration, it was always assumed that the liberal Enlightenment project would convert all peoples to Western secular liberalism. Britain’s immigrant future, everyone was assured, would be multicultural, secular and liberal.
It was never clear how multiculturalism fitted in with this universalising project of a uniform secular culture. Critics of the project were simply brushed aside and slandered as racists.
Today, however, it is clear that many British Muslims, perhaps a majority, do not subscribe to Britain’s secular culture. Many Christians do not subscribe, but Muslim resistance is deeper and more resilient.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Why Immigration Reform Isn’t the Answer to Republicans’ Demographic Woes
We reported on Tuesday about the major demographic problem facing Republicans. So, how can the GOP start winning larger shares of non-white voters? Reforming the immigration system might not be the answer.
Blue represents potential Democratic strongholds if amnesty is passed:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Teachers Denounced for Reading Novel With Gay Oral Sex
Parents, pro-life group raises alarm over ‘corruption’ of teens
(ANSA) — Rome, April 28 — Teachers who read teenage students an excerpt from an explicit gay sex novel at one of Rome’s most traditional lycèes have been denounced for allegedly corrupting minors after parents took umbrage, authorities said Monday.
The storm erupted after teachers at the Liceo Giulio Cesare school read pupils excerpts in class from Melania Mazzucco’s novel “Sei come sei” (You are as you are) including a gay sex scene in a changing room. Some parents objected to the reading material and contacted the Association of Lawyers for Life and the Pro-Life Onlus Association, which formally denounced the teachers to the Rome public prosecutor’s office, accusing them of corrupting minors and putting on an obscene show.
“The pupils in question are aged from 14 to 16,” said the denunciation.
“The use of overtly obscene material can only be offensive to the average person, especially if one considers that this was aimed at a public of minors”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Doomed Space Cloud Nears Milky Way’s Black Hole as Scientists Watch
Scientists around the world are tracking a doomed cloud of gas as it makes a daring approach toward the monster black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, a cosmic encounter that might reveal new secrets on how such supermassive black holes evolve.
The G2 space cloud, and its ultimate death by black hole, have been under close scrutiny since the cloud’s fate was first identified in 2011. Now, the cloud is destined to be shredded by a supermassive black hole.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
John Kerry’s remarks and pure wise unmatched , peerless ideas coming from such a big brain must be correct.
The West is not responsible for any conflicts in Egypt, Syria, Palestine, anywhere in the Muslim world.
The people responsible are those who live in those regions.
End of story.
If there ever was a formula to describe some inner difficult sentiment in a succinct way it is this Turkish-German writer who describes in 3 wonderful words the miserable condition the west suffers from: Racists against themselves.
http://www.blu-news.org/2014/04/13/nur-ein-toter-deutscher-ist-ein-guter-deutscher/
to goethechosemercy : It is true. Water shortages. Universities graduate 200,000 in Syria only a few find work. Population explosion because if one man fertilizes 4 women you get 42 kids. Unsustainable. You have water either for drinking or irrigation. Times are getting difficult as predicted. Humans are clever but stupid. We can’t solve our problems. Think of $17.5 trillion debt. Is that democracy or stupidity and betrayal against our future generations. Indication of rulers gone berserk. No faith, no principles no values. Nothing. Horrible.
BUT when the trouble starts in Muslims countries Western stupid powers interfere in the name and pretense of “freedom and democracy”, pretending that they also have values in spite of having no Christian religion, although they defend Islam to the point if sacrificing the interest of their own people for Islam. Then they claim that they go here and there to stop Assad or Qaddaffi from killing their own people. This is throwing sand in their own people to distract them from observing their own similar problems. And the west is mesmerized by our rulers going around the world and being kind to others.
Wherever the western liars have interfered, they interfere in a way detrimental to their own interests, in such a stupid way that you don’t believe it. If someone points out how stupid they are you are not going to believe him because you cannot imagine that such stupidity exists. But just look at Iran 1979, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, . . . the Western stupid all these countries interfered in them helping the Islamists and Al-Qaeda, Salafists, Muslim Brotherhood to rule these countries.
Do you know what’s Al-qaeda. It an Arabic word meaning the base or ranks and file, or potentially can be any Muslim who hates and fights kuffar.
They interfere, that produces immigrants coming to the west. That gives them voters and the west’s ultimate goal of surrendering to Islam. Go figure! You say liars cannot be that cad, look around, see, observe, connect the dots. Stranger than fiction. That’s why people don’t notice. That’s why it’s so dangerous. That’s why it has been said that democracy digs its own mass grave. Liar cads without principles bring disaster.
Quote:
And the west is mesmerized by our rulers going around the world and being kind to others.
end
This Westerner is not mesmerized.
Frankly, I’m sickened by the hypocrisy.
You and me both