A CSX train pulling tanker cars of crude oil derailed today in downtown Lynchburg, Virginia. At least three tankers were breached and caught fire, and burning oil flowed into the nearby James River. The city of Richmond, which lies downstream from Lynchburg and draws its drinking water from the James, is on alert over the incident. The Richmond area may be temporarily forced to use water from other sources.
In other news, Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, was arrested today for his alleged part in the murder of a woman who was executed as a spy in 1972 by the IRA.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Egghead, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, 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.
17 Facts to Show to Anyone That Believes That the U.S. Economy is Just Fine
No, the economy is most definitely not “recovering”. Despite what you may hear from the politicians and from the mainstream media, the truth is that the U.S. economy is in far worse shape than it was prior to the last recession. In fact, we are still pretty much where we were at when the last recession finally ended. When the financial crisis of 2008 struck, it took us down to a much lower level economically. Thankfully, things have at least stabilized at this much lower level. For example, the percentage of working age Americans that are employed has stayed remarkably flat for the past four years. We should be grateful that things have not continued to get even worse. It is almost as if someone has hit the “pause button” on the U.S. economy. But things are definitely not getting better, and there are a whole host of signs that this bubble of false stability will soon come to an end and that our economic decline will accelerate once again. The following are 17 facts to show to anyone that believes that the U.S. economy is just fine…
| #1 | The home ownership rate in the United States has dropped to the lowest level in 19 years. | |
| #2 | Consumer spending for durable goods has dropped by 3.23 percent since November. This is a clear sign that an economic slowdown is ahead. | |
| #3 | Major retailers are closing stores at the fastest pace that we have seen since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. |
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
IMF Approves $17 Billion Bailout Package for Ukraine
The IMF has approved a $17 billion (12 billion euro) bailout package for Ukraine to help the country’s ailing economy. Russia, meanwhile, has said it “will not rush to anything stupid” in response to Western pressure.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Economy Barely Grew in First Quarter
The American economy slowed drastically in the first quarter of 2014, as wintry weather depressed corporate spending and housing sector activity, while smaller additions to inventories by farmers and businesses also held back growth.
At an annualized rate of 0.1 percent, the pace of expansion in January, February and March was the weakest since the fourth quarter of 2012, when output barely grew at all. It also represented a sharp deceleration from the level of growth recorded in the second half of 2013, when the economy expanded at a 3.4 percent rate.
The first-quarter pace also fell well short of the 1.2 percent rate of growth expected by Wall Street economists before the Commerce Department announcement Wednesday morning.
| [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Government Says it Lost $11.2 Billion on GM Bailout
The U.S. government lost $11.2 billion on its bailout of General Motors Co (GM.N), more than the $10.3 billion the Treasury Department estimated when it sold its remaining GM shares in December, according to a government report released on Wednesday.
The $11.2 billion loss includes a write-off in March of the government’s remaining $826 million investment in “old” GM, the quarterly report by a Treasury watchdog said.
The U.S. government spent about $50 billion to bail out GM. As a result of the company’s 2009 bankruptcy, the government’s investment was converted to a 61 percent equity stake in the Detroit-based automaker, plus preferred shares and a loan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“Global Warming: “ Walls of Ice From Minn. Lake Creep Onto Land, Block Highway
Head north of the Twin Cities along the shores of Lake Mille Lacs and you’ll find some residents dealing with large piles of ice being blown onto shore — and creeping towards their homes.
With the month of May just two days away, trees should be showing some signs of spring, but trees along Lake Mille Lacs are showing signs of distress. They’re split and shoved by creeping ice.
“[The ice] will take them right out by the root. They’ll tear the roots out, and (move) rocks, tear up the whole shore line really — wherever it comes in,” William Anderson of Onamia said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
To read the story of the Roman Republic turned Empire, is to read the general history of mankind in a kaleidoscope of greed, ambition and the lust for power, wealth and political influence at the expense of the masses. All of Roman history was well known to the Founding Fathers and they were determined to set up a system of government containing several checks and balances to preclude the repeat of the sordid Roman tragedy. Within the Declaration of Independence and the U. S. Constitution, the framers thought they had found that delicate balance between self-government and the weaknesses and avarice of man.
Unfortunately, in their attempts to find that perfect balance, they were tripped up by three things they could not control within those two documents. The first was the ability of a clever and devious mind to get around any obstacle. Why would men of power, wealth and political influence care about the limits of a little blueprint for freedom? The rise of the industrialist titans and money brokers of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries proved that. It is rumored that a cabal of those titans had President McKinley assassinated. It is not a rumor that J. P. Morgan II, loaned $100 million to the federal government because it had run out of money. (Imagine a government running out of money. How can that be?) You can buy a lot of political influence with $100 million. What is $100 million in the early 20th Century worth today … $100 Billion maybe?
The second thing the Founding Fathers didn’t count on was the industrial revolution that pulled people from the rural areas of America into big cities. Rural people are generally self-reliant, self-sufficient and quite independent. If they can’t buy their food, they at least can grow it. But people who live in big cities, without employment, have no choice but to rely on government for their subsistence. In point of fact, people in big cities, where most Progressives live (100% Democrats), become hopelessly dependent on government, especially when large industries go broke and the jobs dry up. Unfortunately, poor, dependent, unemployed people are easily manipulated by government and will enthusiastically vote for their manipulators.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Graphic Content.]
** NOTE: Some quoted language below may offend readers.**
I had listened to roughly eight hours of commentary on Donald Sterling and the ugly remarks he made in conversations secretly tape-recorded by his girlfriend, before I heard anyone mention a wife.
HE HAS A WIFE?
At first, I thought the topic must have changed when I left the room, but no — the TV talking heads were still discussing Sterling advising his girlfriend to stay away from blacks.
Not only does Sterling have a wife of 50 years, but earlier this year, she sued his girlfriend, demanding the return of two Bentleys, a Ferrari, a Range Rover, and a $1.8 million apartment, claiming it was bought with community property without the wife’s consent.
The fact that this 80-year-old human-manatee, married with three children, has been openly consorting with prostitutes for decades does not account for 1 percent of the media’s outrage against Sterling.
Wow. Cultural mores certainly do change.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dash Cam Footage Shows Nevada Deputy Extorting $50,000 From Innocent Motorist
Driver told to give up cash or have car towed after illegal search
Newly released dash cam footage shows the tactics used by one Nevada sheriff’s deputy to extort large amounts of cash from innocent motorists.
In video obtained by KLAS-TV this week, Humboldt County Sheriff’s Deputy Lee Dove, who just pulled over a driver for going 3 miles over the speed limit, can be seen searching a vehicle without probable cause.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Director Says New Agents Must Visit MLK Memorial
(CNSNews.com) — FBI Director James Comey told the Anti-Defamation League on Monday that he will require new FBI agents to visit the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, just as they must tour the Holocaust Museum as part of their training.
“Like you,” Comey told the ADL, the FBI “must always, always side with the good.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Playing golf is about to get a whole lot easier — as courses across the U.S. introduce a 15-inch hole on the putting green.
The hole will be boosted from 4 inches to 15 inches in a pilot scheme — which is to be trialled at 100 courses across the country.
It is hoped the move will improve player’s scores, increase game speed and encourage more beginners to take up the sport — which has lost around five million players in the U.S. alone over the past 10 years.
[Comment: Idiot. In hard economic times people reduce expenses such as golf’s green fees and/or club fees — that is the reason golf has lost players. Imagine if FIFA increased the soccer goal to three times the size so the match scores would be higher.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Holder’s Latest Scandal: DOJ Now Pressuring Banks to Refuse Service to Gun Stores
Comment from Alex Jones: This is a classic example of criminal racketeering. Holder is shutting down businesses just like the Nazis targeted the assets and later the companies of Jews in the 1930s. The DoJ has been caught shipping guns to drug dealers, terrorists and gang members in Mexico under Fast and Furious, yet Holder is targeting legitimate, lawful gun shops. This is completely outside of the law and resembles the behavior of a dictatorship. Impeachment proceedings must begin immediately.
For the past several months, the U.S. Department of Justice has been pressuring banks to refuse service to businesses the DOJ is targeting politically, such as gun stores, in a program entitled Operation Choke Point.
Under the program, the DOJ, headed by Attorney General Eric Holder, is attempting to shut down various legal businesses, including firearm dealers, dating services, purveyors of drug paraphernalia and pornography distributors, by coercing financial institutions to close the bank and merchant accounts associated with these businesses.
Back in March, a Florida couple who own a gun store received a letter from BankUnited informing them that the bank was closing their business account, which they opened seven years prior, and gave them three days to transfer their money elsewhere.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A new video from NASA’s science division highlights the fact that earth is one X-Class solar flare away from a situation that would completely alter life on earth as we know it today.
Such events have played out at various times in our history, with the most notable recent examples occurring in 1859 and 1989.
The 1859 ‘Carrington Event’ was so powerful that newspapers of the time reported communication lines showed visible surges and telegraph offices literally went up in flames.
The Great Geomagnetic Storm of 1989 was responsible for taking down Hydro-Québec’s electricity transmission system and reached as far down as Salem, Massachusetts. Pictured below is what one of the transformers looked like after the storm hit. What’s scary about the following image is that it was taken at the Salem Nuclear Powerplant and shows just how susceptible even our most protected facilities are to solar storms.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New York Said to be on Verge of Deal With Teachers’ Union
Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York’s main teachers’ union are on the verge of announcing a deal to settle a nearly five-year-long labor dispute in which the teachers’ union has sought more than $3 billion in back pay from the city.
Two officials said a deal could be announced at City Hall on Thursday, with one official involved in the talks saying the two sides would announce a nine-year contract.
Mayor de Blasio has cleared his schedule for Thursday, these officials said, postponing a long-planned major announcement about his ambitious affordable housing plan.
| [Return to headlines] |
Obama-Biden Vacation Tab Reaches $40 Million — $2.9 Million Alone for Two Obama 2014 Golf Outings
The travel costs for vacations taken by the first family and the Bidens have reached over $40 million with the Air Force’s revelation that two golf outings by President Obama this year cost $2.9 million, according to the taxpayer watchdog group Judicial Watch.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Open Source Seed Initiative Aims to Keep Seeds Free From Patents
(NaturalNews) In a public ceremony on April 16, a coalition of farmers, scientists and sustainable food advocates launched the Open Source Seed Pledge, a parallel licensing system designed to keep seeds in the hands of the public and prevent them from being patented by private interests.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Republican-Led Filibuster Blocks Minimum Wage Bill in Senate
A proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10, an underpinning of President Obama’s economic agenda and an issue that Democrats hope to leverage against Republicans in the midterm elections, failed in the Senate on Wednesday.
The vote was 54 to 42.
Most Republicans voted to sustain a filibuster against the measure, saying that the increase would damage the fragile economy and force businesses to cut hundreds of thousands of jobs.
| [Return to headlines] |
Shock Video: Long Beach Cops Execute Unarmed, Fleeing Suspect, Claim They Felt Threatened
In footage that appeared Monday on Youtube, 36-year-old Jason Conoscenti can be seen exiting his vehicle carrying a large wooden stick, while the officers who chased him stay back.
Conoscenti suddenly takes off on foot towards the beach, running down a flight of stairs with a police K9 in pursuit.
Seconds later, he is shot in the back and a barrage of other shots ring out before he collapses lifeless at the bottom of the stairs.
People watching the events unfold can be overheard exclaiming, “Wow, are you kidding me?” and several people ask if anyone is going to help him.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Socialism Feeds on an Endless Supply of Traitors and Officially Denounced Political Criminals
On Monday, former FBI informant Al Sharpton was interviewed by TMZ. He said if Donald Sterling was not punished for making politically incorrect comments in a wiretapped telephone conversation with a duplicitous girlfriend, Sharpton would call for an advertising boycott of the NBA…
Donald Sterling is a drive-by. He is a target of opportunity. His takedown is exemplary, not specifically political. If race, sex or gender is at minimum peripherally involved in politics, it will be used as a bludgeon. This became obvious when the establishment media twisted comments by Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and, with the theatrical magic of MSNBC and CNN, turned him into a troglodyte racist.
Be forewarned. The so-called “culture war”is in fact a war of elimination. The political class taking orders from the elite are serious about eradicating all opposition. History is replete with examples — from Robespierre’s Reign of Terror during the French Revolution to the viciousness of the Bolshevik Cheka and GRU following the Russian Revolution and Civil War. Mao’s political purges, disguised as cultural revolutions, killed tens of millions who posed a political threat.
Socialism, beginning in Russia, is a documented operation designed by Wall Street. It is likely the most effective political consolidation and repression tool in modern history. It meshes perfectly with gulags, slave labor, death camps, and police state terror to enforce political and social conformity.
Al Sharpton and his minions are useful tools in the current context. Tomorrow they will be dispensable. Socialism feeds on an endless supply of traitors and officially denounced political criminals.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Long History of BLM’s Aggressive Cattle Seizures
Every month, Raymond Yowell, the 84-year-old former chief of the Shoshone Indian Tribe in northeastern Nevada, has almost $200 garnished from his $1,150 Social Security check, and it all dates back to a 5:00am phone call on a Friday morning in 2002.
That morning, a government official from the Bureau of Land Management told him to come down to a seizure site where the 132 cattle he owned were about to be impounded.
When he arrived, men brandishing handguns told him he couldn’t get any closer than 250 yards from his cattle. He watched from a distance as the government loaded the livestock onto stock trailers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Train Carrying Crude Oil Derails in Downtown Lynchburg
Lynchburg has declared a state of emergency and Richmond has begun to switch to an alternate water supply after a train carrying crude oil derailed today, spilling oil into the James River upstream from Richmond’s primary water supply.
The incident is an example of what some critics call “bomb trains” — trains that carry flammable or toxic cargo.
A spokesman for Gov. Terry McAuliffe said Adam Thiel, the deputy secretary of public safety and homeland security, is heading to Lynchburg, as is the acting director of the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.
| — Hat tip: Egghead | [Return to headlines] |
VA’s Secret List is a Death Panel
Death panels await many of our returning veterans. Is America really ready for Government run Health Care? 40 dead Veterans would disagree.
From Associated Press:
President Barack Obama says the U.S. will get to the bottom of whether veterans were denied help they needed at a VA hospital in Arizona.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Washington Governor Imposes Cap-and-Trade Through Executive Order
Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee is not waiting for the state legislature to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, but instead has issued an executive order to implement a cap-and-trade program, eliminate coal power and fund green energy projects.
[Comment: The Democrat/Communist (Demonist?) party is going to ruin America.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
White House Wants to Turn Interstates Into Toll Roads
The White House sent a transportation plan to Congress yesterday encouraging states to turn existing interstates into toll roads, which would allow the government to easily track motorists while damaging the economy even more.
States are currently barred from tolling federal interstates except if the tolls are used to pay for the construction of additional lanes, which rarely happens, or for specific turnpikes which existed prior to the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956.
But if Congress enacts the White House plan into law, states could implement tolls on interstates throughout America, a nightmare scenario that’s already raising concerns.
“Tolling has proven to be an inefficient mechanism for collecting transportation revenue, consuming up to 20 percent of revenue generated, and those paying the toll may not even see that road improved because the president’s plan would allow toll revenue to go to other projects in the state,” the spokesman for the Alliance for Toll-Free Interstates, Miles Morin, said. “The option for states to place tolls on existing interstate capacity has existed for 23 years and not a single state has used tolls in this way — not just because the idea is unpopular, but because it’s bad policy.”
“Tolling existing interstates is inefficient, causes traffic diversion and increases supply chain costs that hurt businesses and consumers.”
And it would also allow the government to easily track motorists by connecting to their toll tags, which is already happening in New York.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Mama, I Don’t Like Chinese People’: Primal Fear and the Vancouver Signage Debate
What is it about Chinese-language signage that annoys some Vancouverites so much?
The Hongcouver blog last week looked at the campaign to have such signage removed from Vancouver’s international airport. At the same time, a mini-row flared up over a Chinese-only bus shelter ad for toothpaste; a couple of weeks before that, it was an ad for an anti-gambling programme.
Vancouver blogger Melissa Carr this week told a story about how she encountered a Chinese group at a local community swimming pool, prompting her five-year-old son to tell her, sotto voce: “Mama, I don’t like Chinese people.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Air France Suspends Black Steward ‘For Dreads’
An Air France flight attendant took his employer to court this week for discrimination after he was forbidden from flying because of his shoulder-length braided hair.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Business as Usual’ Between Italy’s ENI and Russia’s Gazprom
Further EU sanctions imposed against Russians over Ukraine
(ANSA) — April 29 — An executive from Italian energy company Eni told analysts during a conference call Tuesday that it’s “business as usual” with Russian oil and gas giant Gazprom.
Eni and Gazprom are working on a number of deals together, including construction of the South Stream gas pipeline across several countries.
The comments by Eni senior executive Vice-President Marco Alvera’ came after the European Union widened sanctions against Russia for its actions in Ukraine, following steps taken Monday by the United States.
The EU added Russian Deputy Premier Dmitri Kozak to its list of people facing travel bans and asset freezes, while the US targeted seven people, including the head of oil giant OAO Rosneft as well as 17 companies linked to allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Bloomberg news reported.
Also on Tuesday, Gazprom said it delivered 25.3 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Italy in 2013, a 67% increase over the previous year when it delivered 15 billion cubic meters of gas.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
China Gets Chance to Buy First Foothold in Arctic as Norwegian Land Plot Goes on Sale
A massive piece of privately-owned land in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago has gone on sale, leading to speculation that Chinese buyers could compete for the rare Arctic property.
“China has expressed an interest in the resources and shipping lanes of the Arctic,” said Willy Østreng, president of the Norwegian Scientific Academy for Polar Research. “This land would provide a permanent foothold.”
Østreng stressed that bidders could also come from other countries, adding that he expected widespread interest in the large plot. “It is extremely rare that land goes on sale in Svalbard,” he said. “This is much more than an economic transaction — it also affects regional security.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Export of Energy Technology Booming
The Danish export of energy technology rose by almost 11 percent to 67.6 billion kroner in 2013, while the export of green energy technology increased by 17.6 percent, according to figures from an export report that the industry advocates DI and the Climate, Energy and Building Ministry revealed today.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Researchers: Not Worth Outsourcing to China
Danish companies are going about their business wrongly when they outsource their production to cheap and low-wage markets like the ones found in China and India. There are bigger gains to be made by outsourcing to higher-wage nations like Germany, Sweden and the UK, Danish research has found.
“My research shows that companies generally improve by outsourcing,” Roger Bandick, a lecturer at the Institute of Economics at Aarhus University, told Videskab.dk. “But if you look at which countries are being outsourced to, companies don’t see that positive effect if they outsource to low and middle-wage nations outside the OECD.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Etihad Reply to Alitalia Rekindles Air France Interest
Future involvement possible if Abu Dhabi invests
(ANSAmed) — PARIS/ROME, APRIL 30 — Air France’s managing director has told Les Echos in an interview that it may re-invest in Italian carrier Alitalia, depending on the outcome of talks between the Italian flagship carrier and Etihad. Alitalia is negotiating with Abu Dhabi’s Etihad after Air France-KLM refused to take part in a capital increase last year, and the negotiations will continue after a letter received from Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. “I am looking forward to seeing what comes of it,” he said, noting that Air France-KLM had set conditions similar to Etihad’s.
Italy’s minister of transport Maurizio Lupi said that “any alliance will be assessed on the basis of an industrial plan, which cannot be a relaunch and development plan” for Alitalia, an airline “which must regain its rightful place as a large international company” and not a “regional one”.
Etihad’s plan “will be assessed from this standpoint”. Lupi said that “any potential Etihad-Alitalia alliance will be one that the government holds to be complementary and strategic for possible expansion”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Football: Villareal Fan Charged in Racist Banana-Incident
(AGI) Madrid, April 30 — A Villareal fan, David Campayo Lleo, 26, could be sent to prison for up to three years for throwing a banana on the pitch at Dani Alves during Sunday’s game against Barcelona. The act was judged racist in spite of the fact that Alves picked up the offending fruit and ate it. Lleo was arrested on Tuesday and charged with violating rights and civil liberties before being released, said Spanish police.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
France: DSK to Sue Over New Brothel Named ‘DSK’
Notorious French philanderer Dominique Strauss-Kahn, or DSK as he is better known, is not very happy about a new sex club that opens this week. While that may sound surprising, the reason for his anger is because the new brothel is called ‘DSK’.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France’s New Far-Right Mayors Stir Controversy
In their first month in power France’s historic crop of new far-right mayors have not been afraid to court controversy by introducing a range of measures that have provoked anger among their critics, as well as approval among their voters. Here are the ‘highlights’.
Mosque opposition: Muslims in two National Front-led towns are incensed by their local mayor’s efforts to quash two religious projects. Mayor Cyril Nauth in Parisian suburb Mantes-La-Ville has declared himself “hostile” to a planned Islamic prayer room, which was approved by his Socialist party predecessor. The mayor in the Riviera town of Fréjus, David Rachline ran on his opposition to a mosque there which is already under construction. He’s called for a referendum on the matter.
European flag disappears: The anti-EU sentiments of the National Front have also popped up in symbolic ways. On orders of Fréjus, Mayor David Rachline the gold star-adorned European flag was removed from the front of Town Hall.
No halal lunches: Anger (and support) ricocheted on Twitter after National Front-backed Mayor of Béziers, Robert Ménard announced “there would be no halal meals in municipal cafeterias,” echoing a statement from party head Marine Le Pen. But it later emerged schools in Béziers don’t offer halal meals, rather it has non-pork options for Jewish and Muslim pupils.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French MPs Give Green Light to €50 Billion Cuts
There was relief for France’s Socialist government and the Prime Minister on Wednesday when MPs in the lower house voted through a controversial package of economic reforms aimed at cutting state spending by €50 billion.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gothenburg Cinemas Pull Sweden Democrat Ad
The Sweden Democrats may sue Swedish cinema chain SF Bio after it withdrew an ad for the party, saying it made staff members feel unsafe.
After showing the ad for three days, SF Bio decided to remove it — a decision they motivated by claiming it made staff members feel unsafe at their work place.
“We removed the ad because we had a lot of reactions from the audience. They were bothered by the fact we showed an advertisement for the Sweden Democrats considering what they stand for,” said Thomas Runfors, a spokesman for SF Bio.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Half of All Catalans Want Out of Spain: Poll
Almost half of all Catalans would vote to become independent from Spain, a recent poll by a Catalan government research group shows.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Judges Say Knox and Sollecito ‘Were at Crime Scene’
Bra clasp and knife DNA evidence ‘reliable’ in Kercher murder
(ANSA) — Florence, April 29 — A Florence court said Tuesday that the 2007 murder of British exchange student Meredith Kercher was sparked by an argument with her American flatmate Amanda Knox, possibly over the cleanliness of their apartment, and not by a drug-fueled sex game gone awry.
In their written explanation of their January 30 decision to find Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito guilty of murder, the judges pointed to “reliable” evidence placing both defendants in the Perugia flat where Kercher was killed in “the immediate moments after the murder”. Knox got 28 and a half years and Sollecito 25 years at the retrial, which they are now appealing to Italy’s supreme Court of Cassation. Judges said Kercher was raped and stabbed to death as a result of a “mounting quarrel” with Knox, ruling out the initial prosecution theory that Kercher was killed after a drug-fuelled sex game gone wrong that also involved Sollecito and Ivory Coast national Rudy Guede. Guede’s DNA was found inside and all over Kercher’s body as well as in her bedroom, where she was found naked with her throat cut. He was caught while fleeing the country soon after the killing. He agreed to a fast-track trial and is serving 16 years in prison. In Tuesday’s written explanation, the Florence court also said Sollecito’s DNA was on the clasp of the bra Kercher wore on the night she was murdered, which placed him at the scene of the crime.
The court also said that Kercher was killed by neck wounds from two knives, one wielded by Knox and the other by Sollecito.
“The homicidal intent of the aggressors is clear. Once the assault became sexual, and in the face of the victim’s resistance, the attackers decided to end Meredith’s life in order to silence her and thereby escape punishment,” the judges wrote.
Sollecito’s defense team claimed the Italian man’s DNA was found on Kercher’s severed bra clasp because of crime-scene contamination. The pair were found guilty in 2009 and acquitted in 2011 after defense experts proved DNA evidence presented at the original trial was unsound. Specifically, they argued that reported traces of Knox’s DNA on the handle of a kitchen knife found in Sollecito’s flat, and of Kercher’s on the tip, did not actually exist and blamed crime-scene contamination for Sollecito’s DNA on Kercher’s severed bra clasp.
That bra clasp was recovered from the floor of Kercher’s room six weeks after the murder, after many people had walked through the unsecured crime scene.
Court-appointed forensic experts who looked into the handling of the investigation produced a damning report, counting some 50 errors made by Italian crime-scene investigators as they examined the murder scene.
These included simple breaches of protocol such as gathering evidence using dirty gloves, not covering hair and not changing shoe covers as well as putting items in plastic bags instead of paper ones.
Their report was vital to the acquittal of Knox and Sollecito.
But the supreme Court of Cassation last year quashed the acquittals over aspects of the DNA evidence it argued had not been properly examined and ordered a repetition of the appeals-level trial.
Sollecito and Knox have both already served a total of four years in prison, including pre-trial custody, after their initial conviction in 2009.
Knox is now in America while judges prepare an extradition request that is unlikely to be granted. Sollecito is in Italy ahead of the high-court re-appeal, expected later this year.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Unapologetic as Death-Camp Furore Escalates
Darker image of ex-premier appears in Bari ‘bunga bunga’ case
(ANSA) — Rome, April 28 — Former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi on Monday said his claim that Germans still deny the existence of Nazi 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”. Berlusconi, long known for verbal gaffs, refused to apologize and said that he was a victim of political opponents who set a “campaign trap” to ensnare him ahead of European parliamentary elections on May 25.
Controversy erupted when, over the weekend, the media magnate and centre-right leader said that “for the Germans, the concentration camps never existed,” in a fresh attack on an old foe, Martin Schulz, the German head of the European Parliament and centre-left candidate to become the next European Commission president.
The 77-year-old Berlusconi, who has been smarting after an Italian court upheld his ban on standing for election to the European parliament due to a tax-fraud conviction, had clashed before with Schulz, leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats.
During an angry exchange between the two in June 2003, Berlusconi described Schulz as a guard in a Nazi death camp.
On Monday, Berlusconi refused to back down from his comments about Germans, saying he had “no need to apologize either to Holocaust survivors or to German citizens”.
In an interview for Piazzapulita to be aired Monday evening on the La7 television channel, he said it was “surreal to call me hostile to the German people, my friends”.
Instead, Berlusconi said his frustration was with German-led fiscal austerity. “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. Berlusconi sparked a similar storm late last year when he said his adult children had told him they feel they way Jewish families must have felt under Hitler because of the alleged judicial persecution against the ex-premier.
The ex-premier was quickly lambasted by prominent members of Italy’s Jewish community, who denounced comparisons of his wealthy family with the Jewish people under the persecution of Hitler.
Berlusconi’s list of current legal woes is lengthy: the year of community service from his tax-fraud conviction, which also carries a ban from office; he is appealing a six-year sentence for sex with an underage prostitute and abuse of power to cover it up; and he is on trial for allegedly bribing a centre-left Senator to switch sides.
Throughout more than 20 legal cases since he first swept to victory in 1994, Berlusconi has said he is the victim of left-wing elements in the judiciary.
Meanwhile, a darker image ex-premier was being presented in a courtroom in the southern Italian city of Bari where magistrates said “a disconcerting picture” of a prostitution ring including Berlusconi had been revealed. The statement was made in a Bari court’s explanation of a December 2013 guilty verdict and one-year sentence against lawyer Salvatore Castellaneta for organizing 21 “bunga bunga” sex parties for Berlusconi from September 2008 to May 2009 in which 26 young women were “recruited”.
Berlusconi is not on trial in that case and says he never paid anyone for sex.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Keeps Firing at ‘Deep Red’ Napolitano
Office ban ‘a coup’, centre-right leader insists
(ANSA) — Rome, April 29 — Centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi kept firing on all cylinders as he tried to make up ground in the European Parliament elections Tuesday, aiming a fresh barrage against Italian President Giorgio Napolitano for alleged bias in abetting a “coup” against the ex-premier.
Berlusconi quipped that he saw ‘deep red’ when he was presented with a photo of Napolitano, 87, on one of his TV channels Tuesday. The Forza Italia (FI) leader, 77, said he was reminded of the title of Dario Argento’s cult slasher film Profondo Rosso because of the alleged leftist leanings of Napolitano, an ex-Communist, whom he again slammed for not giving him a pardon on an office ban for tax fraud. The president “had a moral duty to pardon me and his (lack of) impartiality will be judged by history”, he said, reiterating claims the head of State had overstepped his role in helping the centre left against its old foe.
Berlusconi has frequently accused Napolitano, the titular head of the Italian judiciary, along with Italy’s supreme court, of being part of a an alleged leftist plot to drive him from office — although he has stopped short of backing a drive by the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) of comic-turned-political provocateur Beppe Grillo to have the president impeached.
In his latest pyrotechnical performance, Berlusconi also levelled his guns at Grillo, who has stolen much of his fellow populist’s thunder in inveighing against the ill effects of career politicians and the euro, widening the gap between the M5S and FI to about eight points in most polls ahead of the May 25 EP vote, both well behind 39-year-old Premier Matteo Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD).
Berlusconi compared Grillo, 65, to Adolf Hitler and said the Italian people should fear him.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Grillo Launches Tirade Against MPS Bank
Ex-comic interrupts shareholders’ meeting to demand transparency
(ANSA) — Siena, April 29 — Firebrand politician Beppe Grillo, leader of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), used a shareholders’ meeting at Monte Paschi di Siena (MPS) on Tuesday to call for greater transparency at the troubled bank.
“We’re causing a bit of chaos in order to create a little transparency,” said Grillo before entering the meeting.
The ex-comedian went on to accuse the world’s oldest functioning bank of ‘mafia capitalism’.
“This is mafia capitalism, not Sicily,” the M5S leader said.
“We are in the heart of the red plague and vote-buying,” continued Grillo, himself a shareholder in MPS. Italy’s third-largest bank by assets was thrown into crisis in January 2013 when it emerged that a shady series of derivative and structured-finance deals had produced losses of 720 million euros.
Since then, MPS has come under the spotlight on several occasions in relation to investigations for suspected insider trading and fraud.
At the same time, the bank is moving to repay part of a 4.1-billion euros aid package from the Italian government as part of a larger plan to turn itself around.
Analysts have said the bank may risk nationalization if it fails to generate enough capital to repay the state bailout.
However, Chief Executive Officer Fabrizio Viola recently denied this possibility.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Agnesi Pasta Shuttering After 190 Years in Business
150 jobs at risk
(ANSA) — Imperia, April 30 — Italian pasta company Agnesi is shuttering after 190 years in business. Parent company Colussi announced Wednesday it was shutting down the Agnesi factory in Imperia, northwestern Italy, later this December.
Some 150 workers are employed at the plant.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Naked Swedish Witches Prepare to Mount
If you see a naked woman travelling backwards later today, it could be a drunk Swede using public transport on Walpurgis Night. It could also simply be one of our Swedes of the Week, the witches setting off for a date with the devil.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Scientists Discover Proof That Humanity is Getting Dumber, Smaller and Weaker
Scientists have found that our bodies and our minds have both deteriorated significantly compared to our ancestors. In fact, just this week a very prominent professor at Cambridge University said that “our most highly trained athletes pale in comparison to these ancestors of ours”. The biggest reason for this, of course, is the degradation of the human genome. Groundbreaking research by Dr. John Sanford of Cornell University and others has shown that our genes contain tens of thousands of mistakes (mutations), and with each passing generation even more errors are added and passed on. So it should be no surprise that our ancestors were bigger, stronger, faster and smarter. The truth is that they had better genes.
This kind of information comes as a shock to many people. It is widely assumed by the general public that humanity is “progressing” and that we are better both physically and mentally than our predecessors were. But that is not the case at all. In fact, research conducted at Cambridge University shows that we are “weaker than we used to be” and that the most highly trained athletes of today “pale in comparison” to those that lived thousands of years ago…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sinn Fein Leader Arrested Over 1972 IRA Killing
Police in Northern Ireland arrested Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams on Wednesday on suspicion of involvement in the Irish Republican Army’s 1972 abduction, killing and secret burial of a Belfast widow.
Adams, 65, confirmed his own arrest in a prepared statement and described it as a voluntary, prearranged interview.
Police long had been expected to question Adams about the 1972 killing of Jean McConville, a 38-year-old mother of 10 whom the IRA executed as an alleged spy. According to all authoritative histories of the Sinn Fein-IRA movement, Adams served as an IRA commander for decades, but he has always denied holding any position in the outlawed group.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The bill has been approved in the Spanish Parliament and if it is passed children under 18 will have to help out with the housework ‘in accordance with their age and regardless of their gender’.
[Comment: Spain’s economy is in the toilet and this is what the politicians are working on? The communists are still creating laws designed to break up families, in this case trying to drive a wedge between parents and children.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Police on High Alert for Neo-Nazi March
Over 400 police officers from ten police districts in Sweden will be out in force in the sourthern town of Jönköping during a May Day political march by neo-Nazis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Have World’s Highest Prices: New Study
Residents who find Switzerland to be a costly place to live now have more proof: the mountain country ranks as the most expensive nation on the planet, according to a new study from the World Bank.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Children as young as four are among hundreds of youngsters being referred to specialist drug and alcohol treatment services in the UK.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Man Arrested for Criticizing Islam (Video)
Chilling: Political leader charged with hate crime for quoting Winston Churchill
Political party leader Paul Weston was arrested by police and faces up to two years in jail for criticizing the religion of Islam during a public speech in the United Kingdom.
Weston’s “racially aggravated” hate crime consisted of him quoting Winston Churchill.
Weston’s arrest reveals the chilling implementation of thought crime in Britain and how political correctness is being used as a weapon with which to destroy the edifice of freedom of speech across the western world.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: NHS Recruiting 50 Doctors From India Over Skype to Plug Desperate A&E Shortages
The NHS is recruiting 50 doctors directly from India in a bid to fill desperate staffing gaps in Britain’s A&E departments.
Around 150 candidates, some of whom have not yet taken final exams in emergency medicine, will be interviewed in New Delhi over Skype next week and begin a four-year spell in Britain this summer.
Health bosses insist the drastic measure, which will cost the NHS £3,120 per doctor in flights, visas, registration and access to training tools, is the only way to keep emergency wards safely staffed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Almost 200 branches of Subway have cut ham and bacon from their menus, serving halal meat in response to calls from their Muslim customers.
The sandwich chain said ‘following a strong demand from our Muslim customers’, 185 outlets in the UK and Ireland have introduced the meat, which is prepared under strict Islamic rules.
In Arabic the word halal means ‘permitted’ or ‘lawful’ and defines anything that is allowed or lawful according to the Qur’an.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
David Cameron has been warned by the country’s top spy chiefs that internet companies including Facebook and Google are undermining national security.
The Prime Minister was told internet giants have ‘withdrawn’ their cooperation and are obstructing MI5 requests for help tracking terrorists and major criminals, including paedophiles.
It follows fugitive Edward Snowden’s claims that the firms are used to snoop on British citizens, which is disputed by spy chiefs.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Abbas Pumps New Life Into Hamas
by Khaled Abu Toameh
Abbas’s “reconciliation” with Hamas is most probably aimed at exerting more pressure on Israel to make far-reaching concessions at the negotiating table. But Abbas’s move will soon prove to be counterproductive. Hamas’s goal is to seize control over the Palestinian Authority and replace Israel with an Islamic empire. Hamas has already made it clear that the deal with Abbas does not mean that it would change its ideology or renounce terrorism.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
285 French Jihadists Fighting in Syria
(AGI) — Paris, April 30 — French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has reported to the National Assembly that there are 285 French ‘jihadists’ currently fighting in Syria, with a further 120 on their way to join them. Cazeneuve emphasised that the number of French jihadists has significantly increased in recent months, with a 78 percent rise. French media have reported that the government is not only concerned about the extent of this phenomenon, but also about the risk of Islamic extremism spreading in France when they return.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Lifts Travel Ban on Swedish-Iranian Actress
Iran has cancelled its travel ban on Maryam Moghaddam and handed back her passport, which means she can return to Sweden after a year-long wait.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Scorpions Drummer James Kottak Jailed in Dubai for ‘Getting Drunk and Insulting Muslims’
A drummer from the heavy metal band Scorpions, the group behind the anthem Rock You Like a Hurricane, has been jailed for a month for getting drunk and flashing his middle finger at Muslims in Dubai.
James Kottak, 51, allegedly started swearing and took his trousers down after drinking five glasses of wine on a flight from Moscow.
He was on his way to Bahrain, where he was due to a perform at a Formula One Grand Prix concert, when he was arrested and detained.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Death Toll Reaches 100 in Homs Attacks
(AGI) Beirut, April 30 — At least 100 people, 79 civilians and 21 pro-regime militia, were killed in twin car bomb attacks in Syria’s central city of Homs, NGO Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday, updating an earlier toll. The attack on Tuesday, claimed by the jihadist group Al-Nusra, was the deadliest of its kind since the start of Syria’s conflict in March 2011 and came as government forces launched new offensives to take back full control of the area.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey-USA: Erdogan Calls for the U.S. To Extradite the “Traitor” Gulen
The Prime Minister has announced that the process has begun. After his victory in the March elections, Erdogan said he would make traitors “pay” and is convinced that Gulen is behind the scandals that have involved numerous government officials ..
Istanbul (AsiaNews / Agencies ) — The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced his intention to request the US to expel Fethullah Gulen (pictured) and thus compel the him to return to Turkey. Gulen is an Islamic scholar, a one-time ally of Erdogan and now considered the mastermind of the scandals that have involved numerous government officials, including the prime minister himself .
The Islamic Hizmet brotherhood (Offerte) , created by Gulen and highly involved in the control of the police, judiciary and private education, had supported Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the fight against the secular power, when they won the elections in 2002 for the first time. By rising tensions between the two saw Gulen go into self-imposed exile in the U.S. in 1997. Last year the Prime Minister blamed Hizmet of being behind the scandals involving ministers and their families, including that of Erdogan.
In late March, claiming victory in the general elections, Erdogan, who has removed hundreds of judges and police chiefs, announced that he would make traitors “pay”. As a first step he decreed the suspension of all schools — estimated at more than 500 — which refer to Hizmet by 2015.
And yesterday he confirmed to reporters that he has begun the process to obtain the extradition of Gulen, who is accused of plotting with the use of illegal wiretapping and violations of State Secrets.
The day before in an interview with the American PBS network he had argued that “these elements which threaten the national security of Turkey cannot be allowed to exist in other countries because what they do to us here, they might do against their host”.
He added that Turkey has canceled Gulen’s passport, who now resides in the United States on a “Green Card” and that he expects him to be expelled and sent back to Turkey.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey’s PM Erdogan Planning Prayers With Islamic Leaders in Hagia Sophia
Rapidly re-Islamizing Turkey has already converted two churches back into mosques. They were converted to mosques at the time of the jihad conquest of the Byzantine Empire, and then made museums by the secular Turkish government.
The same thing happened to the Hagia Sophia of Constantinople, once the foremost and grandest church in the entire Christian world. Its reconversion to use as a mosque would be the crowning hallmark of Turkey’s re-Islamization and re-Ottomanization.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Espionage Probe Launched at TIB as Gülen Faces Investigation
Hours after the announcement of legal action against U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen on charges of attempting to overthrow the government and the constitutional order, an espionage probe has been launched in Ankara into claims that sensitive data from Turkey’s Telecommunications Directorate (TIB) was leaked to foreign countries through satellite link.
A fierce rivalry between the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government and the Gülen community acquired a new dimension after aninvestigation against Gülen was launched by the Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s Office on charges of “attempting to annul the government of the Republic of Turkey; or attempting to partially or entirely block the government from performing its duties,” according to private broadcaster CNNTürk.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Journalist Jailed for Insulting PM With Tweet ‘Typo’
Onder Aytac was tweeting about prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s plans to shut private schools. But the letter ‘k’ added to the word ‘ustam’ changed the meaning of the tweet.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Border Regions Under Separatist Control, Ukraine Says
(AGI) Kiev, April 30 — Ukraine’s Donetsk and Lugansk provinces are entirely under separatist control, President Oleksander Turchinov admitted on Wednesday. With most local government buildings occupied, the Ukrainian president said army units were instrumental to pro-Russian militants’ success in the regions. “Kiev is powerless, because the vast majority of security forces in the east are incapable of carrying out their duty,” he said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Could Tiny ‘Black Hole Atoms’ Be Elusive Dark Matter?
Dark matter, the invisible and mysterious stuff that makes up most of the material universe, might be hiding itself in microscopic black holes, says a team of Russian astrophysicists.
No one knows what dark matter is. But scientists do know that it must exist, because there is not enough visible matter in the cosmos to account for all the gravity that binds galaxies and other large-scale structures together.
Astronomers have been on the hunt for dark matter for decades now, using detectors both on Earth and in space. The new hypothesis, formulated by astrophysicists Vyacheslav Dokuchaev and Yury Eroshenko at the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, suggests that dark matter could be made of microscopic — or quantum — “black hole atoms.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Hostage Talks With Militia ‘Difficult’
UPDATE: Hopes have been dashed that eight observers, including four Germans, from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) who were captured by pro-Russian militia in Ukraine on Friday will shortly be freed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Vows to Stanch Separatism as Militants Spread
As part of a creeping campaign by pro-Russian militants across Ukraine’s east, armed men seized government buildings in the city of Horlivka today, while news service Unian reported a member of the Donetsk electoral commission was kidnapped by “terrorists.” The U.S. and EU say Putin’s government is helping the separatists to destabilize the country of 45 million people in the run-up to next month’s presidential ballot in their worst standoff with Russia since the Cold War.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukrainian Army ‘On Full Alert’, President Admits East is Beyond Control
The Ukrainian army is on full alert due to the “threat of a Russian invasion,” Ukraine’s acting President Aleksandr Turchinov said after admitting that the government in Kiev cannot control the situation in the east of the country.
“I am going back to the real threat that Russia would unleash a continental war against Ukraine. Our armed forces have been put on full alert,” Turchinov told Wednesday a council of heads of Ukrainian regions in Kiev, as news agencies report.
He called on the audience to speed up the creation of regional militias loyal to Kiev.
“We must have the capability to move those units fast to support other regions against such a threat,” he stressed.
Turchinov admitted that Kiev simply cannot get the situation in the rebellious eastern regions under control and reiterated earlier accusations, saying some people in law enforcement “are cooperating with terrorist organizations,” the name Kiev authorities use to refer to anti-government protesters who are seizing government buildings in eastern Ukraine.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Graphic Content.]
Abdul and Sultana Qahar, from northern Afghanistan’s Baghlan province, lured the mullah to their house with a dinner invitation, tied him up, then set about carving up his face.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rats Cause Chaos in Indian Elections by Chewing Through Cables of Electronic Vote-Counting Machines
Rats have caused chaos in the latest round of voting in elections in India after they destroyed dozens of electronic vote counting machines by eating the cables.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Phobia of Being Called Islamophobic
Ali A. Rizvi
Pakistani-Canadian writer, physician and musician
When you’re unable to introduce Pakistan-style blasphemy laws in a secular, Western society, you have to find alternative ways to silence those who offend you, right?
And that’s where the “Islamophobia” smear comes in — the ultimate, lazy substitute for a non-existent counter-argument. Don’t fall for it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China: Xi Jinping Visits Xinjiang, The “Front Line Against Islamic Terrorism”
The Chinese president’s first tour to the northern province, homeland of the Uyghur (Turkic and Muslim) peoples targeted by authorities for separatist and alleged terrorist activities. Soldiers in training asked to “sweat today not to bleed tomorrow on the field” while he stresses to teachers the importance of speaking the local language well “to improve teaching Mandarin to young people”.
Kashgar ( AsiaNews) — Chinese President Xi Jinping has made his first visit to the northern province of Xinjiang, which he called “the front line against terrorism” because of the presence of ethnic Uyghur, a Turkic speaking Muslim faith people, which the government is trying to control as possible. Xi ‘s visit comes only a few weeks after the beginning of a political conference to be held in June in Beijing, convened to decide the new policies to be applied in the region.
Xi visited an anti-terrorism military unit and training barracks: “You must have the most effective means to deal with violent terrorists. The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in wartime”.
The Communist leader also visited a village near Kashi to “experience” the daily life of the Uyghurs. Speaking to primary school teachers he asked them to “speak good Uyghur, in order to help young people to speak better Mandarin Chinese. It’s important to [have] bilingual education for minority children. [They] will be able to find jobs easier in the future by mastering the Chinese language, and more importantly they will contribute more to national unity”.
Xinjiang province is one of the most turbulent in all of China. It is the homeland of ethnic Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking, mostly Muslim people that has always sought independence from Beijing.
The central government has sent hundreds of thousands of Han Chinese to the region to try to make them the dominant ethnic group. It has also imposed serious restrictions on freedom of religion, Muslim practices, the teaching of the indigenous language and the local culture.
Since 2009, a special system of Chinese police and army control has been in place, imposed by Beijing after the riots in which nearly 200 people lost their lives. As a result of the violence, hundreds of people were detained and dozens were sentenced to death.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China to Surpass USA as World’s Largest Economy This Year
Financial Times reports:
The US is on the brink of losing its status as the world’s largest economy, and is likely to slip behind China this year, sooner than widely anticipated, according to the world’s leading statistical agencies.
This is — rightly — front page news (hat tip to Drudge for the headline):
But this is not entirely surprising.
As we reported in April 2012, leading Chinese economic analyst (and American ex-pat) professor Michael Pettis argued in 2011 that China’s GDP might already higher than America’s in terms of purchasing power parity.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Disaster Survivors: How Stress Changes the Brain
How well a person recovers from traumatic events may depend on in part on their self-esteem, according to researchers who examined the effects of a major earthquake on the survivors’ brains.
The researchers had conducted brain scans of university students for a study before the Great East Japan Earthquake struck in 2011. After the earthquake, they repeated the scans on 37 of the same people, and tracked stress-induced changes in their brains in the following months.
“Most importantly, what these findings show, is that the brain is dynamic — that it’s responding to things that are going on in our environment, or things that are part of our personality,” said Rajita Sinha, professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, who wasn’t involved in the study.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa Farm Murders Continue to Dominate the Headlines
by Laura Oneale
The devastating news of triple farm murder continues to dominate the headlines in South Africa. Three members of the Schutte family, a father, mother, and son were brutally killed on March2, 2014 on their farm in Richmond Kwazulu Natal.
The grisly details of this triple murder take the number of farm murders to 50 so far in South Africa, this year alone. The continued farm related murders are a constant problem and an issue the current government has not sufficiently dealt with.
The German Schutte family met with a most horrifying death, and this killing is condemned by the opposition political parties of South Africa. The cruelty, torture and mutilation the family endured prior to their death are described as another violent death of yet another farmer.
According to a neighbor, the mother, Elizabeth, went to the airport to meet her son, Lutz who arrived from Germany for the 77th birthday party of his father, Eckard. Unknown to mother and son, the murders were waiting for their return. When they arrived home, Lutz’s father was presumably dead after his neck and chest were slit open. Both mother and son walked into a frenzy of hell before their bodies were slashed with large knives and torched.
The Schutte family’s other son, Stefan, arrived at the farm for the surprise birthday party and discovered the gruesome corpses of his family.
According to a police spokesperson, he confirmed that all three victims were white and had severe stab wounds on their bodies. Mrs. Schutte’s head was crushed with a heavy object and all three victims were set on fire. He confirmed that the police had no information on the possible suspects. The house was ransacked, and household items, money and firearms together with the family car were stolen. No arrests have been made so far.
It was reported that a large group of black males fled the murder scene in the Schutte’ families vehicle after the horrid attack on Saturday.
Mr. Pieter Groenewald, the parliamentarian of the Freedom Front, a political party in South Africa, slammed this brutal murder and said it is utterly shocking and does not speak of ordinary criminality.
It is a known fact that the majority of farm murders in South Africa are accompanied with cruelty and does create the impression that there is a racial and political motivation behind these insensitive crimes.
The Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) is an organization involved in the analysis of violent crimes such as farm murders. Their intense investigation into the cruelty accompanying farm murders and other violent crimes in 2010 did not reveal any new developments. There was no address of the causes and the general social-economic and socio-political problems of violent crimes.
The public outcry for the government to take drastic action against the violent and sometimes horrific murders among farmers has been ignored. The escalating murders, primarily of white farmers are a serious concern for the country. Farmers are the source of the food production of the country, and with the high statistics of murdered farmers, the food security is at risk. The importance of not producing enough food to feed the nation will have an adverse effect on the economy.
While the government does little to halt the gruesome farm murders in South Africa, this recent triple murder is without doubt a serious matter. This is the type of crime that will cause the ordinary citizens of the country to take up arms and stop the onslaught of farmers. The dominant news of the farm murders remain in the media and have caused a wave of concern around the world.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
South Sudan Fighters ‘Recruited 9,000 Child Soldiers’
Army and rebels, UN’s Pillay says
(ANSA) — Rome, April 30 — The warring sides in South Sudan’s brutal civil war have recruited 9,000 child soldiers, UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said Wednesday. Both the army and rebels recruited the children, she said. Pillay said South Sudan faced the threat of a famine, but there was an “apparent lack of concern” on the part of its leaders. She was speaking at the end of a visit to South Sudan, where the conflict has displaced about a million people.
Fighting broke out in December between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and his sacked deputy, Riek Machar. Kiir accused Mr Machar of plotting a coup.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Another Immigrant Boat Lands in Sicily
(AGI) Ragusa, April 30 — A boat carrying 362 immigrants landed in the Sicilian port of Pozzallo, in the province of Ragusa, on Wednesday. Four men, suspected of being the traffickers, were arrested by the Carabinieri’s Operating Unit based in Modica, in collaboration with other law enforcers, after a long series of interrogrations and checks. They were charged with conspiracy to facilitate the illegal entry of immigrants into national territory, and aiding and abetting illegal immigration into Italy for a profit. The four men are being held in custody in Ragusa prison.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Illegal Migrant Numbers Soaring, Sicilian Mayor Warns
(AGI) Ragusa, April 30 — The port of Pozzallo in Sicily would be hard pressed to take any more migrants, Mayor Luigi Ammatuna said on Wednesday. He addressed the warning to Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, inviting him to visit temporary holding facilities set up in Pozzallo in the wake of recent illegal migrant landings. On Wednesday alone, Italian navy and police patrol boats escorted close to 1,100 migrants to the port of Pozzallo.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Illegal Immigration by Boat: A Dangerous, But Common Way of Entering Europe
Boat migrants comprise less than 10% of the more than 1 million new immigrants entering the European Union from non-EU countries by air, land or sea each year. But among those known to have arrived illegally in 2013, over half came by sea — the highest percentage in recent years, according to Frontex. In some years, including 2009 and 2011, roughly half of migrants illegally entering Europe came by sea.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Surge in Migrant Arrivals in Spanish Territory
The number of undocumented migrants scrambling into Spanish territory bordering Morocco surged by nearly 50 percent in 2013, although the numbers trying to reach Spain by boat decreased, the government said on Tuesday.
Spain has demanded more EU money to strengthen its borders as thousands of Africans try to enter Ceuta and Melilla, two fenced-off Spanish cities on Morocco’s northern tip which have the European Union’s only land borders with Africa.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby was last night facing mounting pressure to crack down on clergy who marry their gay partners — as the threat of a split in the Anglican Church grew.
A powerful group of conservative African Archbishops said they were ‘deeply troubled’ by liberal Western attitudes towards homosexuality and that Church of England clerics were flouting a ban on same-sex weddings.
The Archbishops said it was ‘very concerning’ that the ban was being ‘openly disregarded’ and added: ‘We look to the Church of England to give clear leadership as moral confusion about the status of marriage [in England] deepens.’
The African Archbishops, from seven countries including Nigeria and Uganda, represent 35 million Anglicans — half of the 70 million-strong worldwide Anglican Church, of which Archbishop Welby is the head — and are threatening to break away if their concerns are ignored.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: DFers Blast the EU for Supporting Gay Rights Organisations
According to Dansk Folkeparti (DF) members Pia Adelsteen and Morten Messerschmidt, EU subsidies should not fund gay rights organisations.
“I don’t believe that the EU should get involved in this issue,” Messerschmidt said, according to DR Nyheder. “Not by financing organisations like ILGA or anyone else.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Making Girls Wear Pink is Wrong: Education Expert Says Colour-Coding Children by Gender is Damaging
Hannah Webster, a spokesman for a private schools’ organisation, says the idea of having blue for a boy and pink for a girl was ‘pernicious’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Top Family Judge Sir James Munby, Says ‘Let Couples Get Quickie Divorce at Register Office’
Sir James Munby also backed fault-free divorce, which would mean neither party would have to take legal blame for the breakdown of a marriage.
[Comment: No-fault divorce has contributed to the breakdown of families wherever it was imposed. Another Communist assault on families.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Antibiotic Crisis Bigger Than AIDS as Common Infections Will Kill, Who Warns
A child’s scratched knee from falling off their bike, common bladder infections among the elderly in care homes and routine surgery to replace broken hips could all become fatal as antibiotics are becoming increasingly useless, the World Health Organisation has said.
The crisis is bigger and more urgent than the Aids epidemic of the 1980s, it was warned.
UK experts said the ‘era of safe medicine is coming to an end’ and government funds must be pumped into the production of new drugs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Antibiotic Resistance is Now Rife Across the Entire Globe
A first-ever World Health Organization assessment of the growing problem calls for rapid changes to avoid the misery and deaths of a potential “post-antibiotic era.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Epic Mars Flooding Triggered by Collapsed Crater Lake
Mars probably had its own colossal flood millions of years ago, when an ice-covered lake cracked open and gushed to the surface. The scenario hints that buried lakes sheltered microbes that may even now lie dormant in subsurface ice.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A gas giant orbiting a relatively nearby star rotates every eight hours, its spectrum reveals.
Astronomers have for the first time managed to detect the rotation of an extrasolar planet, by analysing the way its atmosphere filters light. This technique could also provide clues about planet formation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Infectious Diseases: Smallpox Watch
Frozen mummies and envelopes of scabs could contain remnants of one of history’s most prolific killers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NASA Wants Ideas for Mission to Jupiter’s Icy Moon Europa
NASA is asking the scientific community to help it devise a relatively low-budget mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa, perhaps the solar system’s best bet to host alien life.
The space agency announced Monday (April 28) that it has issued a Request for Information (RFI), officially seeking ideas from outside researchers for a mission to study Europa and its subsurface ocean for less than $1 billion (excluding the launch vehicle).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Neanderthals May Have Been Wiped Out Due to Interbreeding and Not Because of a Lack of Intelligence
They are often depicted as dim-witted evolutionary losers, but Neanderthals were not driven to extinction by their lack of brains, a new study suggests.
Instead, it is more likely that they disappeared 40,000 years ago because of interbreeding and assimilation with our early modern human ancestors, scientists believe.
An analysis of archaeological evidence dating back 200,000 years strips away some of the myths surrounding Neanderthals and reveals they were more advanced and sophisticated than has widely been thought.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Super-Strong Graphene Has an Achilles’ Heel
Graphene is often touted as a miracle material— it easily conducts electricity and it’s hundreds of times stronger than steel. But now tests of real-world samples of graphene show that while the carbon material is possibly the strongest material produced today, it’s also as brittle as ordinary ceramic.
Result? It can crack.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Future of Drones: Sky-High Hopes vs. Regulatory Realities
As advances in technology have made drones smaller and more accessible, their potential applications are extending far beyond their use as warfighters for the military or toys for hobbyists.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Were Neanderthals and Early Modern Humans Intellectual Equals?
Available archaeological evidence does not support cognitive superiority of early modern humans over Neanderthals, says study.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Who Says World Poised for ‘Post-Antibiotic’ Era
Agency recommends global system to monitor resistant microbes’ spread.
The post-antibiotic era is near, according to a report released today by the World Health Organization (WHO). The decreasing effectiveness of antibiotics and other antimicrobial agents is a global problem that requires the establishment of a surveillance system to monitor its worldwide spread, the group says.
There is nothing hopeful in the WHO report, which pulls together research papers estimating antibiotic resistance in 129 member states to show extensive antibacterial resistance in every region of the world. Overuse of antibiotics in hospitals and in agriculture, to promote livestock growth, quickly select for bacteria that resist the drugs, while human movement and poor sanitation practices contribute to the spread of genes that confer resistance.
“A post-antibiotic era — in which common infections and minor injuries can kill — far from being an apocalyptic fantasy, is instead a very real possibility for the 21st century,” the report says.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Re: Donald Sterling. Ignoring the man’s bigotry, am I the only one to reflect that if my partner/lover tried to dictate to me who not to invite, I’d tell them to stick it where the sun don’t shine?
Re: Ineffectiveness of antibiotics. My Serbian ex, when feeling unwell (eg a cold), would call her mother, who’d send her antibiotics bought over the counter in Belgrade- and she’d stop taking them if she felt better. I understand one can buy them over the counter in the US too, and probably elsewhere. Maybe the WHO, as an arm of the UN, should do something useful and campaign to make them available only on prescription.
On Sterling and the lack of societal/media outrage regarding his lifestyle (married, but living with a mistress) as compared to his racist rants. Perceived bigotry now trumps an immoral lifestyle and is now seen as THE mortal sin. What a sad and morally impoverished world we have become.
The man’s private life, like his faith- or lack of one- should not be used to judge his ability to carry out his public duties (as with a politician).
Unless, of course, you want to live in a theocracy; there are plenty of examples to choose from: Iran, say, or Saudi, or indeed the US if some Christian fundamentalists get their way.
And, of course, if you want to live in a dictatorship there are more than enough communists around to facilitate it.