Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/7/2014

The Reverend Al Sharpton — the one-time champion of the Tawana Brawley hoax and later a TV news personality and adviser to President Obama — has been exposed for his actions as an FBI informant in the mid 1980s, according to the website “The Smoking Gun”. Rev. Sharpton denies that he was ever a stool pigeon for the feds.

In other news, a maker of organic wine in the Burgundy region of France has been fined for refusing to obey a government order to use pesticides in his vineyard.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Egghead, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, KP, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Financial Crisis
» 1% of Spaniards Positive About Economy: Survey
» Government Confiscation and Lifting the Veil on “The 401(k) Scheme”
» How the Fed Bought the Economics Profession
» Italians Spent 12% Less on Food in 2013 Than in 2007
» Italy: Indictment Sought in Antonio Amato Pasta Bankruptcy
» Italy: Over 40% of Retirees Struggle With Low Pensions
» This is What Employment in America Really Looks Like…
» Trend Analyst: “Yes, There Will be Riots in Major Cities”
 
USA
» A Bridge Too Far in the Heartland of America
» Al Sharpton’s Secret Work as FBI Informant
» Al Sharpton: I Wasn’t FBI Informant
» Armed Feds Prepare for Showdown With Nevada Cattle Rancher
» Article V Convention: A Titanic Irrelevance
» Banning the American Flag
» Boston Transit Police Conducts Warrantless Searches on All Bus, Subway Riders
» Breitbart California: Rand Paul to California Republicans: Evolve, Adapt or Die
» Chicago Man Who Defeated City’s Handgun Ban Dies
» Entire City Goes With Online-Only Voting
» Federal Snipers Train Guns on Family for Filming Cattle
» Government Power and Evil
» High School Student Arrested After Notifying Principal ‘We’re Disappointed in You’
» Holder: We Want to Explore Gun Tracking Bracelets
» Indiana Jones? FBI Finds Thousands of Artifacts in 91-Year-Old’s Home
» Islamic Youth Club Event Offers Cultural Education, Organizational Skills
» Jeb Bush Says Decision on 2016 Run Coming Before Year’s End, Says Illegal Immigration Can be ‘Act of Love’
» Mainstream Media Warns: Fort Hood Shooter Was “Stockpiling Weapons and Ammunition”
» Mickey Rooney: Master of Putting on a Show, Dies at 93
» Muslim Day Celebrated at Iowa Capitol With Pastries, Proclamation
» NASA Mulls Ethics of Sending Astronauts on Long Space Voyages
» Navy to Unveil Railgun in San Diego
» ObamaCare Cancels Insurance Plans of 1,800 Children in N.J.
» Oil Imports Seen Falling to Zero as Soon as 2037 by U.S.
» Scientists Discover Most Powerful Force on Earth (Satire)
» Secret of Military Suicides Exposed (Video)
» Spider Invasion Prompts Mazda Software Fix
» University of Wyoming to Celebrate 2014 Islam Awareness Week
 
Europe and the EU
» Bilderberg Trying to Disguise Location of 2014 Meeting?
» Breitbart London: UK Muslim Parents: Hardliners Are Brainwashing Our Children at School
» Bulgaria: Young People Battle Corruption
» Credit Suisse ‘Faces New US Tax Evasion Probe’
» Czech Kids to Learn More About Islam
» Denmark: Maersk Dethroned as King of the Seas
» EC Warns Italy to be ‘Vigilant’ Over Etihad-Alitalia Deal
» EU Demand for Fish Exceeds Sustainable Supply
» EU Executive Investigates Foreign Shares in Bloc’s Airlines
» Firing at Norwich Leaves English Soccer With a Decided Lack of Diversity: No Black Managers
» France: No Halal Meat in Town Canteens: Far-Right Mayor
» French Organic Winemaker Fined for Refusing to Use Pesticides
» French Winegrower Fined Over Pesticide Refusal
» German Pledges to Return Nazi-Looted Art
» Germany: Train Staff Face Record Level of Violence
» Greece: Pretrial Detention of Golden Dawn MPs Extended for Six Months
» Greece: Athens Mayor Candidates Split on Mosque Referendum Proposal
» Greek PM Adviser Linked to Golden Dawn
» Gurlitt Reaches Deal With German Authorities Over Vast Trove of Art
» Half of Young Germans Binge Drink Regularly
» Italy: Grillo, Berlusconi Gear Up for Assault on Renzi
» Italy: State Earned 2 Mn Euros From Tax Sweep in Cortina
» Italy: Venetian Separatists Asks Recognition for ‘Prisoner of War’
» Italy: Businessman Killed for Not Paying Mafia’s ‘Pizzo’
» Job Ad: ‘No Foreigners or Southern Italians’
» Muppets Sent to Austria by Mistake
» Negotiations With Iran Begin Once Again in Vienna
» Netherlands: Killer of Pim Fortuyn to be Released Under Strict Conditions on May 2
» Netherlands: Discussions Over the Future Face of Zwarte Piet ‘Could Run for Years’
» Obama Issues Threats to Russia and NATO
» OSCE: Hungary’s Ruling Fidesz Victory Because of ‘Undue Advantage’
» Searching for Deterrence: Ukraine Crisis Exposes Gaps Between Berlin and NATO
» Spanish Police Bust Iran Weapons Material Gang
» Spanish City Becomes World Albino Capital
» Sweden: Hospital Staff Act on Anti-Åkesson Death Threats
» Sweden: Säpo Report Singles Out Russia, Iran and China
» Sweden Dems ‘Delighted’ At Country Tour Protests
» Sweden: Gun Seizures Fail to Quell Gothenburg Shootings
» Sweden: Swastika Vandals Target Foreign-Born Car Owners
» Sweden: Rioting Youth Barricade Street to Keep Out Police
» Sweden: Gothenburg Shootings Continue Despite Weapons Seizures
» The European Union and the Demise of a Free State
» The Surveillance State in Socialist Romania
» Turkey Losing Faith in the European Dream
» Two British Doctors Swept to Their Death by Waves as They Try to Rescue Their Children From the Water at Holiday Beach Off Tenerife
» UK: ‘Extremist’ Working as Psychiatrist for NHS
» UK: Arsenal Coach Nii-Azu Kojo-Smith Jailed for 18 Years After Stabbing Man to Death at Westfield
» UK: Ban on Muslim Brotherhood ‘Will Increase Terrorism Risk’
» UK: Benefits Cheat Who Claimed She Was Agoraphobic But Travelled the World From India to New York Enjoying Enjoying a ‘Champagne Lifestyle’ Faces Jail
» UK: Charity Watchdog Launches Investigation Into Dissolved Charity Behind Controversial Fulmer Mosque
» UK: Hammer Attack in Women’s Marble Arch Hotel Room
» UK: Hammer Attack at London’s Cumberland Hotel Leaves Female Tourist Fighting for Life
» UK: Infatuated Woman Drama Teacher, 26, Who Took 16-Year-Old Pupil on Hotel Break for Sex During School Training Weekend Walks Free
» UK: Marble Arch Hotel Hammer Attack: Woman Fighting for Her Life and Two Others Seriously Injured
» UK: Muslims Attack Helpline for Victims of Anti-Muslim Hatred
» Why Italy Might Not Exist in Five Years
 
Balkans
» Bosnia: Srebrenica Relatives Sue Dutch Government
» Europe Dams Its Last Wild Rivers
» Kosovo PM Expresses Satisfaction With NATO Observer Status
 
Mediterranean Union
» IOM and Egypt’s Ministry of Manpower and Emigration Sign Agreement to Facilitate Support to Migrants Under EU-Funded Project
 
North Africa
» ‘Al-Qaeda Seduces the Pro-Morsi Element’ Says Egyptian Prof
» Ancient Egyptian Mummy Found With Brain, No Heart
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Rather Face Elections Than Release Israeli-Arab Prisoners: Israeli FM
» Susan Abulhawa: ‘People in My Jenin Have Not Changed’
 
Middle East
» 10 Killed in Insurgent Attacks in Iraq
» 20 Rebels Killed in Syria Army Ambush Near Damascus
» 7 Killed in Palestinian Refugee Camp Clashes in Lebanon
» Dutch Jesuit Priest in Syria, Who Appealed for Aid, Shot Dead
» Dutch Priest Murdered in His Church in the Besieged Syrian City of Homs
» Geert Wilders on Arabic Television Channel
» King of Jordan to Meet Pope in Vatican Next Week
» Mortar Attack Kills 11 in Syria’s Aleppo
» Oman: Focus on Human Rights in Islam
» Syria: Dutch Jesuit Priest Killed in Besieged Homs
» The Choices for Syria’s Christians
» Turkey: Liquor Sector Concerned Over Decline in Consumption
» Turkey Behind Sarin Attack in Syria
» UAE: Chinese Tourists Visit Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization
 
Russia
» Cold War in Space? What NASA’s Russia Boycott Means
» Eastern Ukraine Moves to Join Russia
» Estonian Minister: ‘No Party Here Would Call for Secession’
» Pro-Russian Separatists Declare ‘Independence’ For Donetsk
» Pro-Russian Demonstrators Storm Government Buildings Across Eastern Ukraine
» Separatist Leader Says His Pro-Russian Region Wants Independence and Then to Join Russia
» U.S. Threatens More Sanctions as Pro-Russian Activists Seize Buildings in Eastern Ukraine
» US Warns Russia Over ‘Escalatory Moves’ In Ukraine
 
South Asia
» 13 Civilians Killed in S. Afghan Roadside Bombing
» Afghanistan: Hamid Karzai’s Mixed Legacy
» Alleged Members of Banned Islamic Group Arrested in Kyrgyzstan
» Australian Naval Ship Detects Signals in Southern Indian Ocean
» India: ‘Odds of Congress Party Maintaining Power Are Slim’
» Malaysia Missing Plane MH370 Search Has ‘Best Lead So Far’
» Malaysian Official Won’t Rule Out Survivor ‘Miracle’ As Missing-Jet Search May be Nearing Black Box
» Pakistan: State Sponsor of Terrorism?
 
Far East
» China Drills 7km Borehole in ‘Roof of World’ In Oil and Gas Hunt
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Army, Boko Haram Working Together in Parts of Nigeria?
» Body Count in Latest Nigerian Massacre Rises to 105
» Frenchman, Brit Gunned Down at Somali Airport
» Rwandan President Accuses France of Role in 1994 Genocide
» Rwanda Begins Week of Mourning, Commemorates 20th Anniversary of Genocide
» Rwanda Lashes Out at France Over Genocide
» South Africa: Hard Line Taken on ‘White’ Sport
» Sub-Saharan Africa on Solid Growth Course, Survey Claims
 
Latin America
» Cuba Slashes 109,000 Health Service Jobs
» Salvadoran Govt: Gang Truce Hasn’t Worked, With Attacks on Police, Killings Up
» Venezuela Slams Spain Over Police Gear Ban
» Venezuelan Students Attacked by Pro-Maduro Vigilantes
 
Immigration
» Danish Men Shying Away From Immigrant Women
» Denmark: Non-Western Immigrants Live Longer
» Denmark: State Could Open Its Gates to Foreign Entrepreneurs
» EU Ignoring Migrant Suffering, Says NGO
» Morocco Asks Spain for Funds to Help With on-the-Spot Deportations of Migrants
» Obama ‘Champion of Change’ Amnesty Advocate Indicted for Immigration Fraud
» Protest March by Asylum Seekers Blocks Traffic in Sicily
» Syrian Boy Smuggled Into Spain Under Car Seat
» ‘We Are Prisoners Here’, Say Migrants at Israel’s Desert Detention Camp
 
Culture Wars
» If CEO Had to Resign for Views on Gay Marriage He Held in 2008, Shouldn’t Obama Do the Same?
» Mozilla Feels Stinging Backlash Over CEO Boot
» The Left Isn’t Pro-Gay; It’s Pro-Power
» UK: Gay ‘Therapy’ Has No Place in the NHS, Says Norman Lamb
» UK: Gay Teacher Resigns After Parents Complained They Did Not Want Him to Teach Their Children
 
General
» Fossil Galaxy May be One of First Ever Formed
» In Blind Test, Soloists Like New Violins Over Old
» Pro Violinists Fail to Spot Stradivarius in Blind Test
 

1% of Spaniards Positive About Economy: Survey

Despite the government’s recent announcements that the worst of the crisis is over, a measly one percent of the Spanish population thinks the economic situation is “good”, a new survey reveals.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Government Confiscation and Lifting the Veil on “The 401(k) Scheme”

From Presidential edicts of ‘MyRA’ being for your own good and “will never go down in value” to Poland’s ‘precedent-setting’ confiscation of public pensions funds for the good of the nation’s debt load; and from the IMF’s “one-off” wealth tax ‘idea’ to Europe’s recent consideration of ‘wholesale savings confiscations and enforced redistribution’, it appears Marc Faber’s warning that “from now onwards, the bailouts will also be at the expense of the asset holders, the well-to-do people.

So if you have money I am sure the governments will one day take away 20-30% of my wealth,” is becoming more likely every day. As the following mini-documentary explains, confirming Ron Paul’s warning that “there is more chaos to come,” Jim Rogers’ fear that “they won’t take our bank accounts…they will take our retirement accounts,” is coming true.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

How the Fed Bought the Economics Profession

The Federal Reserve, through its extensive network of consultants, visiting scholars, alumni and staff economists, so thoroughly dominates the field of economics that real criticism of the central bank has become a career liability for members of the profession, an investigation by the Huffington Post has found.

This dominance helps explain how, even after the FED failed to foresee the greatest economic collapse since the Great Depression, the central bank has largely escaped criticism from academic economists.

In the Fed’s thrall, the economists missed it, too.

“The FED has a lock on the economics world,” says Joshua Rosner, a Wall Street analyst who correctly called the meltdown. “There is no room for other views, which I guess is why economists got it so wrong.”

One critical way the FED exerts control on academic economists is through its relationships with the field’s gatekeepers.

For instance, at the Journal of Monetary Economics, a must-publish venue for rising economists, more than half of the editorial board members are currently on the FED payroll — and the rest have been in the past.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italians Spent 12% Less on Food in 2013 Than in 2007

Supermarket sales down, discount store sales up

(ANSA) — Rome, April 7 — The average Italian spent 12% less on food in 2013 than they did before the economic downturn began in 2007, new data from the Italian Farmers’ Confederation (CIA) showed Monday.

Total food spending dropped from 129 billion euros in 2007 to 114 billion euros in 2013, the data showed. Currently, one in two Italians buys only essential food products, with supermarkets sales dropping by 1.3% and hypermarket sales down by 1.9% overall.

Discount store sales increased by 1.6% as some 6.5 million families said they shop regularly in discount stores.

While just 23% still choose more expensive brand products, 85% of supermarket shoppers said they have cut out all the extras and 42% said they regularly look for convenience or family formats. In addition, 59% said they have given up eating in restaurants, while 21% have gone back to DIY methods in the kitchen rather than opting for store-bought cakes, bread, and hand-made pasta.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Indictment Sought in Antonio Amato Pasta Bankruptcy

Former bank president, ex-committee chairman probed

(ANSA) — Salerno, April 1 — Prosecutors in the southern city of Salerno on Tuesday sought the indictment of the former president of Monte dei Paschi di Siena bank, Giuseppe Mussari; ex-Siena mayor Franco Ceccuzzi; the former chairman of the Lower House finance committee Paolo Del Mese; and 11 board members of Banca della Campania bank in connection with the bankruptcy of Antonio Amato pasta makers.

They must answer allegations of colluding in bankruptcy fraud in the February 2010 default of the family-owned pasta-maker. Founded in 1958, it employed 140 people at the time it went under.

The company has since been auctioned off to Di Martino pasta makers for an estimated 13 million euros, saving employee jobs.

Preliminary hearings begin May 15, court sources said.

The 14 defendants are liable for fraudulent bankruptcy as part of the investigation of the crash of pasta Amato. The suspects will appear before the preliminary hearing judge of the Court of Salerno, Vincenzo Di Florio, on 15 May.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Over 40% of Retirees Struggle With Low Pensions

Padoan says talks, not cuts, planned for retirement funding

(ANSA) — Rome, April 2 — More than 42% of Italian retirees, over seven million individuals, were receiving pensions of less than 1,000 euros monthly in 2012, according to a report Wednesday that raised concerns for a national consumer association.

At the opposite end of the scale, about 210,000 people, or 1.3% of the total, received a pension income of more than 5,000 euros per month, reported national statistics agency Istat.

And at the very top were the 0.1% of Italian pensioners, 11,683 individuals, who were receiving so-called golden State pensions of more than 10,000 euros a month, Istat added.

The report triggered concerns for consumer group Codacons, which warned that with so many pensioners living on low incomes, the government should consider boosting taxes on high-income earners — rather than pension cuts — to ensure greater income equity. Codacons said that the figures show pensioners are often living at poverty levels, unable to make ends meet, and must not be put at risk of possible cuts.

“It is the elderly who live in hardship and sacrifice,” said Codacons.

Cuts to public pensions has been a significant concern in Italy since Spending Review Commissioner Carlo Cottarelli said last month that if spending on upper-income pensions, “which are very high” were cut, billions of euros could be freed up for spending on other budget items, including job creation.

Politicians have choices as to where they might cut, “or, you may also decide that you must not touch,” retirement incomes at all, Cottarelli told a Senate committee.

Premier Matteo Renzi has said that he has no intention of cutting pensions, despite Cottarelli’s suggestion.

That was repeated Wednesday by Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan, who said discussions are planned on the pension program but cuts are not on the table.

“As Premier Renzi has clearly stated, pensions will not be touched, but details will still be discussed,” Padoan said at the end of meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Athens.

The pension report comes as Italy continues to struggle with high unemployment and a sluggish economy that is coming off a double-dip recession that has led to a steady decline in average incomes and available resources for social programs. Last week, Padoan’s department found that in 2012, half of taxpayers during this period declared annual income of less than 15,654 euros, while the average annual income reached 19,750 euros.

That suggests a strong divide between the rich and poor in Italy, with about 5% of taxpayers reporting 22.7% of total income, said the ministry.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

This is What Employment in America Really Looks Like…

The level of employment in the United States has been declining since the year 2000. There have been moments when things have appeared to have been getting better for a short period of time, and then the decline has resumed.

Thanks to the offshoring of millions of jobs, the replacement of millions of workerswith technology and the overall weakness of the U.S. economy, the percentage of Americans that are actually working is significantly lower than it was when this century began. And even though things have stabilized at a reduced level over the past few years, it is only a matter of time until the next major wave of the economic collapse strikes and the employment level goes even lower. And the truth is that more good jobs are being lost every single day in America. For example, as you will read about below, Warren Buffett is shutting down a Fruit of the Loom factory in Kentucky and moving it to Honduras just so that he can make a little bit more money. We see this kind of betrayal over and over again, and it is absolutely ripping the middle class of America to shreds.

Below I have posted a chart that you never hear any of our politicians talk about. It is a chart that shows how the percentage of working age Americans with a job has steadily declined since the turn of the century. Just before the last recession, we were sitting at about 63 percent, but now we have been below 59 percent since the end of 2009…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Trend Analyst: “Yes, There Will be Riots in Major Cities”

If you’ve watched a documentary about America’s economic situation in recent years there is a strong chance it was produced by Daniel Ameduri of Future Money Trends. He’s covered topics that include everything from the massive college debt bubble and the future of real estate, to water wars and what it will look like on the day the U.S. dollar finally crashes.

In the following interview Daniel shares a wealth of knowledge and takes a practical approach for how to thrive personally and financially during an economic collapse.

This is a must-watch guide from an extremely well informed source and delves into a wide range of scenarios such as what happens with our currency and our systems of commerce within two weeks of a collapse, as well as the months that follow.

As highlighted in the video, preparing for a worst-case scenario isn’t just about putting food in your pantry, but involves a dynamic strategy depending on your specific circumstances, capabilities and needs.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

A Bridge Too Far in the Heartland of America

The banner headline for the American Trucking Association’ s web site reads: “ The trucking industry is the lifeblood of the U.S. economy. Nearly 70% of all the freight tonnage moved in the U.S. goes on trucks. Without the industry and our truck drivers, the economy would come to a standstill. To move 9.2 billion tons of freight annually requires nearly 3 million heavy-duty Class 8 trucks and over 3 million truck drivers. It also takes over 37 billion gallons of diesel fuel to move all of that freight. Simply — without trucks, America stops.” With such an important job you would think the government would maintain the highways and bridges these trucks depend on.

The Interstate 75 (I-75) corridor is a major six to eight lane north-south Interstate Highway that runs from Florida through Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and up into Michigan to the Canadian border. The report from the Office of Highway Policy Information from August 2013 says upwards of 45,000 trucks pass through Kentucky and Ohio every day, all across one single 50-year old bridge. The Brent Spence Bridge opened in November 1963 between Covington, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio and carries in excess of 200,000 vehicles every day. In spite of the huge volume of goods hauled by trucks across this vital north-south highway, nothing has been done to replace the overloaded bridge. The debate over replacing this bridge has been going on for many years with the states of Ohio and Kentucky unable to find the resources to pay for a billion-dollar replacement. The federal government has shown no interest in the project other then allocating 30-million dollars for various studies.

To put things in perspective, the Barack Hussein Obama pro-Muslim Democrats in Washington have been spending trillions (trillions with a T) on rebuilding the entire infrastructures in Iraq and Afghanistan, that include new bridges, highways, and $545 million alone for 3 water treatment facilities plus new hospitals and electrical systems as well as constructing the new U.S. Embassies there that also included a billion-dollar fortress in Pakistan. That’ s enough to pay for a thousand new bridges in America. If that wasn’t extravagant enough then the new decoration being installed in front of the embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan should get everyone’ s attention, both for its misdirection, its cost and for its uselessness.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Al Sharpton’s Secret Work as FBI Informant

When friends and family members gathered recently at the White House for a private celebration of Michelle Obama’s 50th birthday, one of the invited partygoers was a former paid FBI Mafia informant.

That same man attended February’s state dinner in honor of French President Francois Hollande. He was seated with his girlfriend at a table adjacent to President Barack Obama, who is likely unaware that, according to federal agents, his guest once interacted with members of four of New York City’s five organized crime families. He even secretly taped some of those wiseguys using a briefcase that FBI technicians outfitted with a recording device.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Al Sharpton: I Wasn’t FBI Informant

Rev. Al Sharpton dismissed a report published Monday that said he was an FBI informant, saying he was a “victim” and was never told he was an informant.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Armed Feds Prepare for Showdown With Nevada Cattle Rancher

Ruby Ridge-style standoff brewing as Bundy says he is prepared to be killed

A Ruby Ridge-style standoff is brewing in Nevada, where dozens of armed federal agents are closing in on cattle rancher Cliven Bundy over claims that Bundy has allowed his cows to graze illegally on government land, endangering a protected species of tortoise.

Vowing to take a stand for, “your liberty and freedom,” Bundy says he is prepared to be killed as authorities surround a 600,000 acre section of public land as a result of Bundy violating a 1993 Bureau of Land Management ruling which changed grazing rights in order to protect the endangered desert tortoise.

“With all these rangers and all this force that is out here, they are only after one man right now. They are after Cliven Bundy. Whether they want to incarcerate me or whether they want to shoot me in the back, they are after me. But that is not all that is at stake here. Your liberty and freedom is at stake,” Bundy said.

Bundy’s refusal to recognize federal authority over the land under dispute and his failure to pay tens of thousands of dollars in grazing fees stems from his assertion that his family’s history trumps bureaucracy.

“My forefathers have been up and down the Virgin Valley ever since 1877. All these rights I claim have been created through pre-emptive rights and beneficial use of the forage and water. I have been here longer. My rights are before the BLM even existed,” Bundy said.

Accusing feds of seizing Nevada’s sovereignty, Bundy says he has fought the battle legally, through the media, and is now gearing up to fight it physically.

“Armed agents are forming a a military-like staging area to prevent anyone from approaching the area,” writes Mike Paczesny.

Bundy asserts that his case is emblematic of how America has been transformed into a “police state,” labeling the government’s actions “pathetic”.

Hundreds of federal officials, aided by helicopters, low flying aircraft and hired cowboys, began rounding up Bundy’s cattle on Saturday as Bundy accused them of “trespassing,” adding that the impact will only serve to raise beef prices for residents of Las Vegas 80 miles away.

[Comment: Hundreds of armed feds vs an old couple.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Article V Convention: A Titanic Irrelevance

The more I inflict upon myself the details of the on-going, extensive, and increasingly acrimonious debate about the supposed merits or demerits of what is called an “Article V Convention of the States”, the more my mind returns to the scene I have imagined taking place on Titanic. Having struck the iceberg, the great liner is down fifteen degrees by the head, and sinking fast, while in the Grand Salon her designer Mr. Andrews, Captain Smith, and a gaggle of marine engineers are discussing a new ship, to be built according to a new design which supposedly will obviate the flaw in Titanic that contributed to her demise. While in theory this discussion might have been very illuminating to the participants, it obviously would otherwise have been an irrelevance which could have saved neither Titanic nor a single soul who went down with her.

This, it seems to me, presents a perfect parallel to the present “Article V Convention” debate — a debate so completely out of touch with the actual situation now confronting this country, that one wonders how anyone could take it seriously as an observer, let alone participate in it. Consider the following:

* First, the “Article V Convention” debate does not address the immediate issue of the looming national economic crisis about which every informed observer is warning this country in no uncertain terms. The General Government is buried under some 200+ trillion “dollars” worth of unfunded long-term liabilities. This is an unpayable sum by anyone’s calculus. The failure to pay it will have catastrophic economic, social, and political consequences. The problem will not be solved by Congress. In fact, Congress is making the situation worse. The debt is the great rent in America’s ship of state through which economic dissolution is pouring in. Congress proposes to fix this problem by borrowing more money which can never be repaid. This is equivalent to the lunatic notion that blowing off the rear quarter of Titanic would have saved the ship by allowing the water surging in at the bow to flow out through the new hole at the stern!

If this were not enough, almost all Americans are utterly unprepared to deal with the consequences of the depression, hyperinflation, or combination of the two which collapse of the national economy will cause. Nothing anyone has written in favor of an “Article V Convention” has suggested how any new amendment to the Constitution would deal with this virtual Marianas’ Trench of unpreparedness. And especially how it would deal with this danger right now, not at some distant point in the future after the crisis has broken out and hurled the entire country into chaos.

And if that were not more than enough, the top noises in the Disgrace of Columbia are even now feverishly preparing to impose so-called “martial law” throughout America when the economic catastrophe strikes — in which event, of course, the Constitution will effectively (if illegally) be set aside, and all talk of an “Article V Convention” (or of the ratification of amendments proposed at such a shindig) will become blather even more worthless than it is now.

[Comment: Read it all.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Banning the American Flag

Rather than cancel the Cinco de Mayo celebration, however, school administrators invoked a special dress code. They said American flag t-shirts were “incendiary” and disrespectful to students celebrating Cinco de Mayo. Administrators said only the Mexican flag could be shown that day. So they told the students wearing American flag t-shirts to either turn their t-shirts inside out or change them, or they would be sent home.

Last month, a three judge panel for the Ninth Circuit upheld the lower court’s decision, affirming the school officials’ decision to ban the American flag t-shirts.

In a choice between free speech and poor conduct, the court sided with poor conduct. They empowered a heckler’s veto, which is to say that they silenced peaceful demonstration of one group of individuals because a more vocal opposing group threatened violence. This sends a terrible message to young people: if you don’t agree with a particular type of speech, you can simply harass others or threaten violence and win.

Most concerning, however, is that the decision threatens Americans’ basic understanding of our right to free speech. To many Americans there simply is no question in this case. The peaceful display of the American flag on a t-shirt is, unquestionably, a right protected by the First Amendment of our Constitution, and a belief I supported in an amicus brief in the case, asking the full Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to hear the case.

To say that American students cannot wear a symbol that, itself, represents our Constitutional rights is not just ironic — it is egregious. If we can’t display the American flag as a purpose of expression, what can we say?

           — Hat tip: Egghead [Return to headlines]
 

Boston Transit Police Conducts Warrantless Searches on All Bus, Subway Riders

Those who refuse will be arrested for “trespassing” in a public area

In accordance with the Department of Homeland Security, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is now requiring that all Boston bus and subway riders submit to a warrantless search prior to boarding.

The MBTA transit police announced that everyone will be stopped and searched at “Transit Watch” checkpoints and that anyone declining a search will be ordered to leave the station, even though the area is public property.

“All persons choosing to use the MBTA transit system will be subject to security inspections of their handbags, briefcases and/or other carry-on items,” a Transit Watch pamphlet reads. “Any person refusing to allow a security inspection will be either denied entry or requested to leave MBTA property.”

The pamphlet also warns that anyone refusing to leave the station when requested will be subject to arrest “for trespass pursuant to M.G.L. 266, Section 120.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Breitbart California: Rand Paul to California Republicans: Evolve, Adapt or Die

Excerpt: “I was pleased, but not surprised, by my reception at UC-Berkeley. They, like me, think we’ve been too lax in giving up our privacy. Our government is interested in what books we read. They’re interested in what we say in our phone calls. They’re interested in what we write in our emails.”

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

Chicago Man Who Defeated City’s Handgun Ban Dies

Excerpt: After the court decision, McDonald remained active in the gun rights movement in Illinois, speaking out in favor, for example, of the state allowing people to carry concealed weapons in public before such a law was passed last year after a federal court ruling forced the state to enact concealed carry legislation. Illinois was the last of the 50 states to allow concealed carry.

“We could not have gotten the kind of (state) carry law we got without McDonald versus Chicago,” said Valinda Rowe, a spokeswoman for IllinoisCarry, which favors concealed carry. “That case was pivotal.”

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

Entire City Goes With Online-Only Voting

Critic: ‘Putting an election online is fraud waiting to happen’

It’s finally happening. An entire municipality will utilize online-only voting in the next election with all balloting to be run via Scytl, the tech company based in Barcelona, Spain.

The controversial rollout is being deployed not in the U.S., where Scytl two years ago acquired 100 percent of SOE Software, the leading software provider of election management solutions in the United States. The online-only vote will take place Oct. 27 in Canada, when Leamington, Ontario, will become the first Canadian municipality to cast all ballots via an Internet-only voting process.

Every registered voter in Leamington, with a population of about 17,000, must cast ballots through mobile devices or computer.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Federal Snipers Train Guns on Family for Filming Cattle

Federal snipers with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) trained guns on members of a family yesterday after they dared to stop and take video footage of cattle outside the bounds of a designated “First Amendment Area,” before arresting one of the men for non-compliance.

The cattle were being rounded up by BLM officers as part of a crackdown on Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who has refused to pay “grazing fees” demanded by the feds as a result of a re-classification of 600,000 acres of federal land in northeastern Clark County which Bundy claims has been in his family for generations.

Some fear the dispute could turn into a Ruby Ridge-style violent standoff because Bundy has said he is prepared to become a martyr for what he perceives as a constitutional stance against tyranny.

As we reported earlier, the feds have now started rounding up Bundy’s cattle in the name of protecting a supposedly endangered species, the desert tortoise, forbidding Bundy from interfering or even entering the vast area. The case is quickly turning into another iconic battle between big government and a besieged family.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Government Power and Evil

By Daniel Greenfield

Excerpt: Anyone who really hankers after a world without guns would do well to try the 12th Century which was not a nicer place for lack of guns. The same firepower that makes it possible for one homicidal maniac to kill a dozen unarmed people also makes it that much harder to recreate a world where a single family can rule over millions and one man in armor can terrify hundreds of peasants. Putting miniature cannons in the hands of every peasant made the American Revolution possible. The ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution would have meant very little without an army of ordinary men armed with weapons that made them a match for the superior organization and numbers of a world power. Would Thomas Jefferson, the abiding figurehead of the Democratic Party, who famously wrote, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants”, really have shuddered at the idea of peasants with assault rifles, or would he have grinned at the playing field being leveled?

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

High School Student Arrested After Notifying Principal ‘We’re Disappointed in You’

200 students staged a sit-in last Wednesday around noon at the Lake Central High School in St. John, Ind., protesting their school’s apparent lack of concern for one of their peers, who recently committed suicide.

The students were upset the school had not made an intercom announcement calling for a moment of silence in honor of their well-liked peer.

“One moment of silence for my son over the intercom, that is all we are asking for from the school,” the mother of the deceased pleaded to principal Robin Tobias, who in turn responded, “Thank you can you please sit down now? You’re not in charge here, I am.”

In footage shot discreetly by one of the student protesters, Principal Tobias is witnessed attempting to lecture students about how staging a sit-in is not the appropriate way to resolve their conflict.

“I am disappointed in every one of you,” Tobias began telling the students after he managed to get them to quiet down.

“We’re disappointed in you,” Hunter Ernst, 18, of Schererville, replied, to which students cheered and applauded in support.

At that point, as if in some future dystopian world, Principal Tobias signaled a school officer to take the boy away. “I’d like him removed please,” Tobias is heard telling the officer.

Ernst was arrested and taken to the Lake County Jail where he was released on bond the same day. He was charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and possession of a pocket knife on school property, the St. John police chief told the NWI Times…

One of the primary functions public schools serve is to indoctrinate students to accept a culture in which dissent and free thought are neither encouraged, nor tolerated. For the most part they have managed to do this, however, when certain brave students take it upon their own initiative to stand up for what they believe to be right, it is imperative those students be made an example of, lest the contagious glimmer of hope be noted, received and emulated by other students.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Holder: We Want to Explore Gun Tracking Bracelets

Attorney General Eric Holder said on Friday that gun tracking bracelets are something the Justice Department (DOJ) wants to “explore” as part of its gun control efforts.

When discussing gun violence prevention programs within the DOJ, Holder told a House appropriations subcommittee that his agency is looking into technological innovations.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Indiana Jones? FBI Finds Thousands of Artifacts in 91-Year-Old’s Home

The FBI set up shop at the home of a 91-year-old man near Indianapolis, saying he has thousands of artifacts and cultural items originating from at least a dozen different countries and Native American tribes — some of them acquired improperly.

“I have never seen a collection like this in my life except at some of the largest museums,” said Larry Zimmerman, an anthropology and museum studies professor at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, who is helping the FBI figure out what’s what in the private collection.

Speaking at a televised news conference Wednesday, Special Agent in Charge Robert Jones declined to describe the artifacts found at Miller’s home. But Jones said they had been acquired during the span of eight decades from various nations, including Australia, China, Haiti, Italy, New Guinea, New Zealand, Peru and Russia.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Islamic Youth Club Event Offers Cultural Education, Organizational Skills

The Islamic Society of Frederick’s youth club members born in the United States or who came to America at a young age don’t know a lot about their native countries. An event held Sunday by the recently organized group seemed to make a lot of progress in filling the education void…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Jeb Bush Says Decision on 2016 Run Coming Before Year’s End, Says Illegal Immigration Can be ‘Act of Love’

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush has said that he would make a decision on whether to run for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination before the end of this year and said that some immigrants who enter the United States illegally do so as an “act of love”for their families.

Bush made the remarks in an interview broadcast on “Fox News Sunday” while attending a celebration of the 25th anniversary of his father’s inauguration at George H.W. Bush’s presidential library in College Station, Texas.

Without ever officially entering the race, Bush has emerged as a tantalizing Republican candidate.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Mainstream Media Warns: Fort Hood Shooter Was “Stockpiling Weapons and Ammunition”

The fact that CNN chose to run a headline indicating that the stockpiling of ammunition also included a weapons cache is indicative of a new narrative being formed, likely to be followed up by more ‘extremist’ behavior that may include visiting ‘radical’ web sites or forums.

In December of 2011 Senator Rand Paul gave a speech on the House floor in which he warned Americans of activities that were now considered terrorism by the U.S. government. Paul specifically cited the storage of ammunition and guns as red flags for law enforcement and national security officials:

Know good and well that some day there could be a government in power that is shipping its citizens off for disagreements. There are laws on the books now that characterize who might be a terrorist.

Someone missing fingers on their hands is a suspect according to the Department of Justice. Someone who has guns, someone who has ammunition that is weatherproofed, someone who has more than seven days of food in their house can be considered a potential terrorist.

If you are suspected by these activities do you want the government to have the ability to send you to Guantanamo Bay for indefinite detention?

This latest “investigation” by CNN seems like an obvious attempt to engage in a strategy of predictive programming, whereby they are hinting to the American public that those who store, collect or stockpile ammunition and guns are a danger to society and should be reported as such to officials.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Mickey Rooney: Master of Putting on a Show, Dies at 93

Mickey Rooney, the exuberant entertainer who led a roller-coaster life — the world’s top box-office star at 19 as the irrepressible Andy Hardy, a bankrupt has-been in his 40s, a comeback kid on Broadway as he neared 60 — died on Sunday. He was 93 and lived in Westlake Village, Calif.

His death was confirmed by his son Michael Joseph Rooney.

[Return to headlines]
 

Muslim Day Celebrated at Iowa Capitol With Pastries, Proclamation

It was Iowa Muslim day at the Iowa Capitol on Monday with Muslims sharing pastries and other ethnic foods in the Rotunda while providing information about their faith and work in Iowa.

Gov. Terry Branstad signed a proclamation for Muslim Recognition Day in Iowa, something the Republican chief executive first did in 1992 during his previous tenure as governor. About 50 Iowa Muslims joined him in the governor’s formal office and applauded during a signing ceremony…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

NASA Mulls Ethics of Sending Astronauts on Long Space Voyages

NASA should set up a clear set of ethical rules regarding the health of astronauts on long-duration spaceflights — such as a trip to Mars — in the near future, according to a panel of health and ethics experts.

As it stands now, astronauts on a roundtrip mission to Mars would experience a level of radiation exposure that violate at least one of NASA’s existing health limits, according to previous Mars mission studies. Such a trip to the Red Planet would expose astronauts to enough radiation to increase their lifetime risk of developing fatal cancer by more than 3 percent, a health limitation imposed by NASA.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Navy to Unveil Railgun in San Diego

This summer, San Diego will host the public unveiling of a military weapon that the Navy’s chief scientist calls a Star Wars-like technology that is nevertheless now viable.

In July, the Navy will hold a static display of its $500 million electromagnetic railgun prototype program at San Diego Naval Base, aboard the Joint High Speed Vessel Millinocket. It’s the same ship on which the Navy will perform the first maritime firing test of the weapon in 2016.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

ObamaCare Cancels Insurance Plans of 1,800 Children in N.J.

Roughly 1,800 New Jersey children had their insurance plans cancelled last week due to Obamacare.

With the flurry of cancellation notices hitting mailboxes across the Garden State, one parent, Bob Miotla, told the NJ.com news of his son’s cancellation made him “extremely angry.”

“Without having that safety net, if an illness arises, we will probably take him to the ER,” said Miotla, who is on Medicare and disabled.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Oil Imports Seen Falling to Zero as Soon as 2037 by U.S.

Net oil imports to the U.S. could fall to zero by 2037 because of robust production in areas including North Dakota’s Bakken field and Texas’s Eagle Ford formation, according to a government projection released today.

The Energy Information Administration, the branch of the Energy Department that collects and analyzes energy data, said the once-chimerical goal of U.S. energy independence could be within reach in 23 years under a “high-production” estimate contained in an update of its periodic energy forecast.

“This is the first time that a case in the Annual Energy Outlook has projected that net imports’ share of liquid fuels consumption could reach zero,” said John Krohn, a spokesman for the EIA, in an e-mail.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Scientists Discover Most Powerful Force on Earth (Satire)

“We are calling it The Sharpton Effect,” the doctor told Hugh in an exclusive interview granted to the CFP’s crack reporter.

“Please explain,’ Hugh asked.

“Well, we discovered this phenomenon quite by accident. One of our scientists happened to examine some footage taken at various political gatherings around the country and noticed a trend. Whenever there was a protest or rally involving an issue remotely relating to race relations, The Reverend Al Sharpton magically popped up as mysteriously as morel mushrooms after a spring rain. He just was there — every time. But, more ominous still, was that, whether invited or not, Sharpton would rush the microphone whenever there was a television camera present and launch some unintelligible racist tirade against some real or imagined injustice.”

“The Sharpton Effect?” Hugh inquired.

“Well, we measured the phenomenon scientifically and concluded that the most powerful man-made force on earth is the attraction between Al Sharpton and the nearest TV camera — hence, The Sharpton Effect. Three times more powerful than gravity and far more dangerous.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Secret of Military Suicides Exposed (Video)

Alex presents a special report on the tragedy at Fort Hood and the connection between SSRI drugs and mass shootings.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Spider Invasion Prompts Mazda Software Fix

Petrol-sniffing spiders have forced Mazda to issue a voluntary recall notice so it can apply a software fix to its cars. The yellow sac spider is attracted to the smell of petrol, and will weave its web in engines, causing a blockage and build-up of pressure.

The problem increased the risk of fire, Mazda said. A software update will be applied to recalled cars to monitor the pressure level and warn drivers of any danger.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

University of Wyoming to Celebrate 2014 Islam Awareness Week

Laramie, Wyoming- The Muslim Students Association (MSA) at the University of Wyoming (U.S.A.) is organizing the Annual Islam Awareness Week on 7-13 April, 2014. The main goal of this event is to provide the Wyoming community educational and cultural opportunities for a better understanding of Islam and Muslims.

Activities scheduled for this year’s Islam Awareness Week include a cultural display, henna tattoos, a panel discussion, and attending the weekly Jumu’a (Friday) Prayer. Non-Muslims are kindly invited to attend the rituals of Muslims’ Jumu’a Prayer. All these activities also aim at promoting diversity and religious tolerance on- and off-campus in the state of Wyoming…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Bilderberg Trying to Disguise Location of 2014 Meeting?

Hunt still on for site of 2014 conference of global powerbrokers

At least three other luxury hotels are fully booked for the weekend of the 2014 Bilderberg Group conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, suggesting the secretive cabal is attempting to throw reporters off the scent in an effort to hide the location of the meeting, although the Marriott Hotel is still the prime candidate.

Another possibility is that the confab will not take place in Copenhagen at all and will instead be held at a secluded location in a nearby area.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Breitbart London: UK Muslim Parents: Hardliners Are Brainwashing Our Children at School

By Nick Hallett

Excerpt: “Two weeks ago I asked my daughter about what was happening with [the head teacher at school], and she recited, ‘Miss Kondal is off sick at the moment. Her sicknote ends at the end of March and then we will wait and see what happens.’ Those were my daughter’s exact words. It’s not how a child would speak — it’s as if she’d been drilled in exactly what to say. I don’t send her to school to have the teacher brainwash or programme my child.”

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

Bulgaria: Young People Battle Corruption

For the past year, many Bulgarians have been calling upon their government to resign, and urging an end to nepotism and corruption.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Credit Suisse ‘Faces New US Tax Evasion Probe’

Credit Suisse faces a new probe over its role in enabling US tax evasion, this time from a New York state regulator, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Czech Kids to Learn More About Islam

LN: New project will explain the Quran, burkas and jihad to students

Prague, April 7 (ÈTK) — A new project launched by the Muslims In Czech Schoolchildren’s Eyes group and approved by the Education Ministry, offers free seminars and lectures that would acquaint pupils with Islam and the life and habits of Muslims, daily Lidové noviny (LN) writes today.

The lecturers want to explain to Czech children what a burka is and why some Muslim women wear it, and also what the Quran says about jihad, LN writes, citing the Muslimove.cz web page. The seminars, including games, are to provide information to Czech kids and dismiss certain prejudices and stereotypes linked to Islam, the paper writes…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Denmark: Maersk Dethroned as King of the Seas

Swiss container shipper MSC has replaced Maersk Line as the world’s largest container shipping line in terms of fleet size and the number of containers shipped, according to a new report.

The report, published by the container shipping industry market intelligence provider SeaIntel Maritime Analysis, noted that Maersk Line could easily have maintained its position at the zenith of container shipping, but the Danish shipping giant has reduced the number of ships in its fleet by giving its niche companies more autonomy.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

EC Warns Italy to be ‘Vigilant’ Over Etihad-Alitalia Deal

Tells Rome to safeguard rules as Etihad offer believed imminent

(ANSA) — Brussels, April 4 — The European Commission (EC) on Friday warned Italian authorities to be “vigilant” over the imminent tie-up between the struggling Italian flagship carrier Alitalia and UAE’s Etihad Airways, European sources told ANSA.

The EC told Italian authorities to safeguard EU rules on ownership and control of European companies, and investments involving third country carriers.

The warning comes on the day the Abu Dhabi-based carrier was expected to make a formal offer to buy as much as a 40% stake in its Italian counterpart, the equivalent of a much-needed capital injection of 350 million euros.

The Gulf carrier is vying to broaden its network in Europe.

Etihad has been expanding aggressively into Europe and Alitalia would give it a further foothold in a lucrative market.

After buying 29% of Air Berlin, Germany’s second-largest airline, in 2011, Etihad has taken stakes in carriers across the world, including Air Serbia, Aer Lingus, Darwin Airlines, Virgin Australia, Jet Airways and Air Seychelles.

EU sources told ANSA Friday that the EC was opening a probe into Etihad’s investments in Europe. On Thursday, Alitalia CEO Gabriele Del Torchio said the due diligence phase with Etihad was almost complete.

A deal between the two carriers should go through this week, Italian Transport minister Maurizio Lupi told the Lower House on Wednesday.

But the arrangement, as well as other plans to bring Alitalia back to profitability, have been controversial.

In early February, German airline giant Lufthansa called on the EC to halt Etihad’s planned investment in Alitalia, alleging the use of State aid in disguise to break competition rules.

In October, Alitalia’s board approved a 500-million-euro budget package engineered by the previous Italian government that included the 300-million-euro capital increase and 200 million euros in new lines of credit.

This also included a controversial 74-million euro investment by Italy’s state-owned post office Poste Italiane.

International Airlines Group, which owns Spanish carrier Iberia as well as British Airways, also has urged the EC to intervene to suspend what it has said was “flagrant State aid”.

Italy denied the allegations but the EC asked for more information about the rescue package — in particular, the controversial cash injection from Italy’s post office.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

EU Demand for Fish Exceeds Sustainable Supply

The European Union is the world’s largest fish import market and to a high degree responsible for global overfishing. New regulations are aiming to change this, but it’s not clear how they will be implemented.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

EU Executive Investigates Foreign Shares in Bloc’s Airlines

The European Commission has confirmed it’s investigating whether four EU airlines have shareholder structures running afoul of the bloc’s rules. Etihad’s investment in Germany’s AirBerlin was in the focus of the probe.

Etihad currently only own a 29.2-percent stake in AirBerlin, but competitors have claimed the flagship airline of the United Arab Emirates is already calling the shots.

Since 2011, the Arab airline has invested about half a billion euros ($685 million) in AirBerlin, with rumors buzzing it was about to obtain a larger stake while also delisting the German carrier.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Firing at Norwich Leaves English Soccer With a Decided Lack of Diversity: No Black Managers

Norwich didn’t fire Chris Hughton because he’s black. The English soccer club fired him because it is petrified of dropping out of the Premier League and losing millions in revenue. With that dismissal, every soccer manager next weekend will be white. Not just in the Premier League, but across England’s top five divisions.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

France: No Halal Meat in Town Canteens: Far-Right Mayor

A newly elected far-right mayor in a town in southern France has vowed that no municipally-run cafeterias will serve halal meals, adding fuel to a growing controversy in the wake of the National Front’s success in last month’s local elections.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

French Organic Winemaker Fined for Refusing to Use Pesticides

A French court on Monday fined a Burgundy winemaker 500 euros for disobeying a government order to use pesticides in his organic vineyard to prevent a bacterial disease caused by a leaf-hopping insect.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

French Winegrower Fined Over Pesticide Refusal

A court in France has fined a Burgundy winemaker €500 after he refused to use pesticides on his vines in a controversial case in which the wine grower was backed by environmental groups like Greenpeace.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

German Pledges to Return Nazi-Looted Art

Investigators searching for art looted by the Nazis have discovered a hoard of more than 200 artworks stashed away at a house in Austria belonging to Cornelius Gurlitt, the son of German looted-art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt.

The find, which was revealed on March 26, comes in addition to the sensational trove of nearly 1,400 works of art previously discovered at Gurlitt’s apartment in Germany in 2012.

But in a press release dated March 26, Gurlitt now says he wants to return any pieces that were stolen or extorted from Jewish families. “If the works in Salzburg or Schwabing should be justifiably suspected of being Nazi-looted art, please give them back to their Jewish owners,” he says.

But confusion reigns over who actually has the legal right to negotiate the return these or any other items in Gurlitt’s collection. While German authorities say they—not Gurlitt—are the ultimate arbiters of the artworks, Gurlitt argues the government had no legal right to seize the collection in the first place.

           — Hat tip: Egghead [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: Train Staff Face Record Level of Violence

From being spat on to punched in the face, train staff in Germany faced more violence than ever before in 2013, figures released on Monday revealed.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Greece: Pretrial Detention of Golden Dawn MPs Extended for Six Months

A council of appeals court judges decided on Friday to extend the pretrial detention of Golden Dawn’s deputy leader Christos Pappas (photo) and MP Yiannis Lagos. The two men have been in Korydallos Prison since September.

The were arrested in the wake of the murder of rapper Pavlos Fyssas by a Golden Dawn member.

Six Golden Dawn MPs, including party leader Nikos Michaloliakos, are currently in pretrial custody.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Greece: Athens Mayor Candidates Split on Mosque Referendum Proposal

ATHENS, Greece — Athens’ center-left mayor Giorgos Kamanis says Greece has an “international obligation” to build a mosque in the capital, criticizing a proposal by his main opponent in municipal elections next month to hold a city referendum on the project.

Plans to build a mosque in the Greek capital have been delayed for more than a decade, with Muslim immigrants instead using makeshift prayer sites around the city. But the government has agreed to fund a project worth nearly 1 million euros ($1.37 million) at a former industrial site where a major redevelopment is planned.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Greek PM Adviser Linked to Golden Dawn

A close associate of the Greek prime minister has stepped down because of his ties with far-right extremists. The disgraced politician claims his boss knew nothing of this, but the opposition is not convinced.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Gurlitt Reaches Deal With German Authorities Over Vast Trove of Art

German authorities have reached an agreement with reclusive art collector Cornelius Gurlitt on how to deal with his trove of more than 1,400 works of art found in his Munich apartment.

The huge collection of art was seized by authorities in 2012 who were investigating a tax case, but the incident only became public last November. The trove included works by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Franz Marc, Paul Klee and Max Beckmann.

Many of the paintings are thought to have been acquired by Gurlitt’s father, Hildebrand, who was a prominent Nazi-era art dealer.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Half of Young Germans Binge Drink Regularly

The proportion of young people who regularly drink heavily is steadily increasing, with almost half now consuming alcohol to excess at least once a month.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Grillo, Berlusconi Gear Up for Assault on Renzi

But improving markets give premier reasons for optimism

(ANSA) — Rome, April 2 — While Premier Matteo Renzi was in Brussels Wednesday ahead of volatile European Parliament elections next month, opposition leaders at home were gearing up for an attack on his center-left majority. “It’s easy for people to vote for Renzi. If you are not intelligent, honest and democratic, vote for him,” said comic Beppe Grillo.

The leader of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) was launching a campaign tour ahead of May 25’s EP elections in which Euroskeptic parties such as his are expected to do well. The first stop was in the southern city of Catania Wednesday, one day after he published a list of the party’s first 20 candidates on his popular blog. Second only to Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD) in terms of popular support, the M5S is a force to be reckoned with. Meanwhile, the opposition Forza Italia party of three-time premier Silvio Berlusconi was moving chess pieces of its own.

On Wednesday it rolled out its logo for May’s European elections featuring the name “Berlusconi”, even though the ex-premier will not be able to stand as a candidate. The 77-year-old billionaire is ineligible as he was banned from public office after the Supreme Court upheld a tax-fraud sentence against him last year, his first definitive conviction in two decades of legal battles. The media magnate, who was also ejected from parliament following the conviction, said the ruling was part of a campaign by left-wing elements in the judiciary who want to sweep him out of Italy’s public life. But the Berlusconi trademark remains strong, at least among the party faithful. FI presented the Berlusconi logo along with its slogan for the May 25 EP election: “Più Italia in Europa. Meno Europa in Italia” (More Italy in Europe. Less Europe in Italy). The media magnate has been highly critical of austerity the European Union imposed on countries as its main response to the eurozone debt crisis. But Grillo is not to be outdone. On Wednesday he upped his call for Italy to have a referendum on whether the country should continue to have the euro as its currency and stay in the European Union.

Writing on his blog, the comic-turned-politician said Italians must be given the final word on whether the euro is still “feasible and legitimate”. “Italy lost its monetary sovereignty without consulting its citizens,” he added. But after a day of EU summits in the European capital, Renzi appeared to have reasons for optimism. As the markets closed, the 39-year-old premier reveled in the spread narrowing “to its lowest point since 2011,” signalling improved investor faith in Italy. The spread between the Italian BTP State bond and its ultra-safe German equivalent was below the 170-basis-points mark, 169, for the first time since the start of June 2011.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: State Earned 2 Mn Euros From Tax Sweep in Cortina

130 billion euros evaded annually in Italy

(ANSA) — Rome, April 2 — Italy recovered two million euros in dodged taxes in a high-profile sweep in the mountain resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo in 2012 aimed at countering rampant tax evasion, tax agency head Attilio Befera told the Senate on Wednesday.

Befera said 1.2 million came from unpaid income corporate tax IRES and regional production tax IRAP, 224,000 euros from unpaid VAT and 675,000 euros in sanctions.

Italy’s fight against tax evasion reaped 13.1 billion euros last year, up from 3.8 billion in 2001, Befera said.

An estimated 130 billion euros are evaded annually in Italy.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Venetian Separatists Asks Recognition for ‘Prisoner of War’

Writes to Renzi for release of arrested separatist Luigi Faccia

(ANSA) — Venice, April 7 — The self-proclaimed “Veneto Government” headed by Venetian separatist Albert Gardin on Monday sent a letter to the Italian Premier Matteo Renzi demanding immediate “delivery” of a “prisoner of war” into the hands of “Veneto authorities”.

Arrested Veneto separatist Luigi Faccia on Friday declared himself a “prisoner of war” and later announced his citizenship as “Venetian” when he appeared before a preliminary hearing judge in a Vicenza prison.

Faccia is one of 24 Veneto separatists arrested last Wednesday and suspected of crimes that include criminal association for terrorism and subversion of the democratic order.

Gardin wrote that “the Veneto Government feels directly called into question”.

“In fact, the resistance activity expressed…clearly expresses a patriotic Veneto commitment to tackle the ‘Italian’ occupation of the Venetian Republic. It is the duty of the Veneto Government to take on the defence of patriots that act honourably in the defence of the Venetian Republic,” Gardin said.

“Luigi Faccia, calling himself ‘prisoner of war’, declares himself citizen of the Venetian Republic and not an Italian citizen. A distinction that must be received, understood and respected by Italian authorities,” the letter continued.

According to defense lawyers Andrea Arman and Alessandro Zagonel, Faccia read a statement to the judge saying: “As head of the Venetian Liberation, servant of the Most Serene Republic of Venice, I declare myself a prisoner of war”.

Also included in last week’s round up of Veneto secessionists was former MP Franco Rocchetta, the founder of the Liga Veneta (Veneto League) separatist party.

The Liga Veneta was a founding member of Northern League, a federation of regionalist parties which has recently upped its drive for greater autonomy for wealthy northern regions and started calling for outright independence again, the original demand of its early years.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Businessman Killed for Not Paying Mafia’s ‘Pizzo’

Police in Sicily have issued arrest warrants for 12 people over the 1989 murder of a businessman, who was killed for refusing to pay mafia protection money.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Job Ad: ‘No Foreigners or Southern Italians’

A bar in the centre of Florence has sparked controversy after posting a job advertisement for three baristas that comes with a strict requirement: “No foreigners or southern Italians”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Muppets Sent to Austria by Mistake

Bungling cargo transporters caused trouble for a stage show featuring the Jim Henson muppet characters after sending them to Austria in Europe instead of Australia. The puppets were due to go on stage at the Princess Theatre as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Negotiations With Iran Begin Once Again in Vienna

Negotiations have once again begun in Vienna between Western countries and Iran over the Islamic state’s nuclear programme and the trade sanctions placed by the United States and Europe against the country.

The recent talks are some of the most significant steps forward that have been taken by the two sides who have historically had a very tense and unfriendly relationship. Tensions have been around the fact that the West believe Iran’s nuclear programme is actually a cover for a nuclear weaponry programme, an accusation Iran has vehemently denied.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Netherlands: Killer of Pim Fortuyn to be Released Under Strict Conditions on May 2

The man who shot dead politician Pim Fortuyn dead in a car park 12 years ago is to be released a few days before the anniversary of the killing.

Volkert van der Graaf’s freedom will be subject to strict conditions, including a ban on contacting Fortuyn’s relatives, talking to the media or visiting the scene of the crime. The last restriction will be enforced by satellite tracking.

The 44-year-old is eligible for early release after serving two-thirds of an 18-year sentence for murdering Fortuyn on May 6, 2002, at the media centre in Hilversum.

Junior justice minister Fred Teeven confirmed his release date of May 2 as well as the special conditions in a letter to Parliament on Wednesday.

Van der Graaf will be electronically monitored using GPS technology to ensure he does not visit Fortuyn’s home city of Rotterdam, The Hague or Hilversum. He is also banned from the residences of Fortuyn and his family.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Netherlands: Discussions Over the Future Face of Zwarte Piet ‘Could Run for Years’

It may be almost nine months until Sinterklaas, but talks are already under way for months on how to deal with the increasingly polarising figure of Zwarte Piet (Black Pete).

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Issues Threats to Russia and NATO

The Obama regime has issued simultaneous threats to the enemy it is making out of Russia and to its European NATO allies on which Washington is relying to support sanctions on Russia. This cannot end well.

As even Americans living in a controlled media environment are aware, Europeans, South Americans, and Chinese are infuriated that the National Stasi Agency is spying on their communications. NSA’s affront to legality, the US Constitution, and international diplomatic norms is unprecedented. Yet, the spying continues, while Congress sits sucking its thumb and betraying its oath to defend the Constitution of the United States.

In Washington mumbo-jumbo from the executive branch about “national security” suffices to negate statutory law and Constitutional requirements. Western Europe, seeing that the White House, Congress and the Federal Courts are impotent and unable to rein-in the Stasi Police State, has decided to create a European communication system that excludes US companies in order to protect the privacy of European citizens and government communications from the Washington Stasi.

The Obama regime, desperate that no individual and no country escape its spy net, denounced Western Europe’s intention to protect the privacy of its communications as “a violation of trade laws.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

OSCE: Hungary’s Ruling Fidesz Victory Because of ‘Undue Advantage’

With 99 percent of votes counted, Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party has held on to its two-thirds majority in parliament. The OSCE has pointed to laws passed by the incumbent premier as the reason behind the win.

While final results in Hungary’s elections weren’t to be announced until next weekend, the consensus on Monday was that incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his right-wing Fidesz party had secured themselves another term in power. Based on 99 percent of votes counted, Fidesz had garnered 44.5 percent of the vote and 133 of 199 seats in parliament, meaning it had retained its two-thirds majority rule.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Searching for Deterrence: Ukraine Crisis Exposes Gaps Between Berlin and NATO

Once the Cold War ended, Western militaries reduced their focus on military deterrence in Europe. As a consequence, the Ukraine crisis has caught NATO flat-footed as it rushes to find an adequate response to Russia. Germany has been reluctant to go along.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Spanish Police Bust Iran Weapons Material Gang

Spain’s Civil Guard police force said on Monday they had dismantled a criminal gang which was planning to ship weapons producing materials to Iran.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Spanish City Becomes World Albino Capital

Albinos from as far afield as Japan and Australia met in the Spanish city of Valencia on Saturday to take part in a convention looking to shed some light on the social and genetic issues surrounding this rare condition.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Hospital Staff Act on Anti-Åkesson Death Threats

Staff at Malmö’s main hospital who said they did not want Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson to visit have received death threats, prompting calls for the union to investigate if they are at risk.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Säpo Report Singles Out Russia, Iran and China

Political, economic and scientific espionage in Sweden is being dominated by Russia, China and Iran, according to the Swedish national intelligence service, SÄPO’s, annual intelligence assessment for 2013.

SÄPO’s chief, Anders Thornberg, also said that Swedish citizens are still going to Syria to fight with al-Qaeda, although the numbers have fallen slightly.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden Dems ‘Delighted’ At Country Tour Protests

A string of protests trailing Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson’s country tour may do nothing but play into the hands of a party that thrives on its martyr image, a political expert told The Local on Monday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Gun Seizures Fail to Quell Gothenburg Shootings

Gothenburg police efforts to clean up the gun market in the western city have not seen a direct effect on the number of gang-related shootings.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Swastika Vandals Target Foreign-Born Car Owners

An attack on cars belonging to Finspång residents with foreign-sounding names has left some residents questioning whether they are welcome in the small town.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Rioting Youth Barricade Street to Keep Out Police

One Linköping police officer was left injured after an attempt to stop a fight between youngsters, who went on the defensive with stones and fire crackers, as well as setting a car alight and trying to build barricades.

“These are gangs that we’ve had problems with for three years,” Dahlqvist said. “More or less every single one that we have identified is someone we’ve been in contact with before.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Gothenburg Shootings Continue Despite Weapons Seizures

Police are investigating the shooting of a man outside of a nightclub in Gothenburg Sunday. This was the eighth shooting in the western port city this year.

Last year, there were almost 60 shootings in Gothenburg and eight people were killed.

In 2013, Sweden has seen an up-swing in gun related attacks with more than 40 shootings across the country.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The European Union and the Demise of a Free State

The debate showed that what’s at stake is far more than our future prosperity. It’s our ability to uphold our distinctive contribution to Western civilisation.

A nation is not just a group of people with a system of government, any more than it is just “an economy”, it is a whole way of living — a civilisation.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Surveillance State in Socialist Romania

The BBC is running a tragic but fascinating article about political oppression under the Ceausescu regime in socialist Romania. The article tells the story of Carmen Bugan, whose father, Ion Bugan, was repeatedly spied on, arrested, and tortured for political dissent. Since 1999, the files of the Romanian secret police, the Securitate, have been available to those who were investigated during the socialist period, and Carmen has uncovered the files kept on her family. In the process, she has revealed publicly the true extent of the surveillance and suffering her family (and many other Romanians) endured.

Like every socialist country, Romania under Ceausescu failed economically. As Carmen Bugan describes it, “This was a Romania of food shortages, frequent power cuts, and ferocious reprisals for any form of dissent… Evening bread queues often ended in fist fights.” In order to quell any calls for reform, his government brutally suppressed any opposition, including that of Ion Bugan. Bugan agitated for political reform and attempted to flee the country, but more than once was arrested and sentenced to hard labor.

Part of the sentence was a five-month period of torture by solitary confinement and starvation while wearing 45kg of chains day and night, in the “special” wing of the prison at Alba Iulia… My father’s own account of this period is hair-raising: he was fed once every two days, and allowed to wash three times in the entire period he was held there.

Even after being released from prison, the Securitate constantly spied on the Bugan family using microphones placed throughout their home. The family’s activities were recorded in great detail, showing how complete the surveillance was:

There are records of dreams we recounted to each other in the mornings. The transcriber knew us so well, he or she was able to read and duly note our moods. Some even took sides in family arguments, noting on the margins of the transcripts who they thought was right. It’s like having had a one-sided relationship with these invisible broadcasters of our tormented souls.

One theme that emerges from the Bugan family story is that in addition to all the economic problems and human rights abuses, socialism also breaks down some of the most fundamental social bonds between individuals. For instance, family units are destroyed, as when Bugan was forced to divorce his wife in 1985, for fear that his political views might “corrupt” his spouse and children.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey Losing Faith in the European Dream

Caught up in mounting internal conflicts, Turkey is gradually losing interest in its EU accession candidacy. Many Turks feel disillusioned, including the secular, pro-European elite.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Two British Doctors Swept to Their Death by Waves as They Try to Rescue Their Children From the Water at Holiday Beach Off Tenerife

[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]

Two British doctors who drowned in the sea off Tenerife were trying to rescue their children after they were swept away by a wave.

Dr Barathi Ravikumar, 40, a GP from Bracebridge Heath in Lincoln, and 42-year-old Uma Ramalingam, a consultant obstetrician from Altrincham in Cheshire, were pronounced dead at the scene after getting into difficulty at the Playa Paraiso resort in the south west of the island.

A third woman, 38, survived along with two children, aged 10 and 14, after being pulled out of the water by a group thought to include tourists, hotel workers and local fishermen…

The group of five are understood to have been washed out to sea after a large wave knocked them from a rock at about 6pm yesterday.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: ‘Extremist’ Working as Psychiatrist for NHS

Doctor treating vulnerable patients is a senior leader of radical Islamic party that seeks to ban same-sex relationships and oppress women

A British doctor responsible for the care of some of the country’s most vulnerable people can today be exposed as a senior leader of a radical Islamist party banned in several countries. Dr Imran Waheed is a consultant psychiatrist at Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Trust (BSMHT), one of the largest of its kind in the country…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Arsenal Coach Nii-Azu Kojo-Smith Jailed for 18 Years After Stabbing Man to Death at Westfield

Nii-Azu Kojo-Smith, 19, (right) lunged forward and stabbed Liam Woodards (left) at Westfield Stratford shopping centre in London while he was celebrating his 24th birthday.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Ban on Muslim Brotherhood ‘Will Increase Terrorism Risk’

Banning the Muslim Brotherhood will leave Britain at greater risk of terrorist attacks, the group’s most senior leader in the UK said yesterday.

Speaking for the first time since David Cameron announced an investigation into the organisation’s alleged links to violent extremism, Ibrahim Mounir said that it risked alienating moderate Muslims. “If this (ban) happened, this would make a lot of people in Muslim communities think that (peaceful) Muslim Brotherhood values . . . didn’t work and now they are designated a terrorist group, which would make the doors open for all options,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Benefits Cheat Who Claimed She Was Agoraphobic But Travelled the World From India to New York Enjoying Enjoying a ‘Champagne Lifestyle’ Faces Jail

Tracy Johnson claimed to be so unwell that she could not leave her own house or walk more than five metres without help.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Charity Watchdog Launches Investigation Into Dissolved Charity Behind Controversial Fulmer Mosque

AN INVESTIGATION has been launched into a dissolved charity behind a controversial mosque amid concerns it used fundraising money to buy a property.

Charities watchdog, the Charity Commission, has opened a statutory inquiry into dissolved charity the Khodam Al Mahdi Organisation and charitable funds supposedly raised in its name.

The group is behind the Al Muhassin Mosque, in Windmill Lane, Fulmer, home to controversial Shia Muslim Sheikh Yasser al-Habib. The mosque plays host to hundreds of his followers every week and is home to Islamic satellite television station Fadak TV which airs his broadcasts, said to stir up conflict between the Shia and Sunni Muslims…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Hammer Attack in Women’s Marble Arch Hotel Room

Three women have been attacked by a man armed with a hammer in a room at a central London hotel.

The man entered a room on the seventh floor of the Cumberland Hotel in Marble Arch where three women and three children were sleeping, police said.

It is believed the suspect was disturbed and the women were then hit about the face and head with a hammer.

The Met said the condition of one woman was “critical” and it was treating the attack as attempted murder.

‘Unusually violent attack’

Scotland Yard added the suspect struck shortly before 02:00 BST on Sunday and a hammer had been recovered from the scene.

Det Ch Insp Andy Chalmers said: “This was an unusually violent attack on three women and I am very keen to speak with anyone who was in or around the hotel between 01:00 and 02:00 on Sunday morning.”

All three victims were from the United Arab Emirates and in their 30s, police said.

A spokesman for Guoman Hotels, which runs the Cumberland, said: “All of our thoughts are with the families of the injured women.

“We are doing everything we can to support the police with their enquiry, but it is too early to comment any further.”

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Hammer Attack at London’s Cumberland Hotel Leaves Female Tourist Fighting for Life

[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]

The women, understood to be sisters from the United Arab Emirates, were staying at the Cumberland Hotel in London with children as young as seven-years-old in adjoining rooms when they were attacked.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Infatuated Woman Drama Teacher, 26, Who Took 16-Year-Old Pupil on Hotel Break for Sex During School Training Weekend Walks Free

[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]

A drama teacher who had a fling with a pupil had sex with him at a hotel paid for by their school as part of a training weekend, a court heard.

Infatuated Kelly Burgess, 26, exchanged more than 12,000 texts with the 16-year-old boy in just seven months, including ‘explicit’ naked pictures.

Their relationship was only uncovered when the pupil visited a sexual health clinic and let slip who his lover was.

Yesterday Burgess sobbed hysterically as she was sentenced to ten months in prison, suspended for two years.

She had previously admitted four charges of abuse of trust — sexual activity with a boy aged 13 to 17.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Marble Arch Hotel Hammer Attack: Woman Fighting for Her Life and Two Others Seriously Injured

Three women tourists were attacked and seriously injured in a hammer attack as they slept in their room in a busy London hotel yards from Oxford Street. One of the women is fighting for life after being left with critical head injuries in the early morning assault at the 4 star Cumberland Hotel. Two other women also suffered head and facial injuries…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Muslims Attack Helpline for Victims of Anti-Muslim Hatred

THE boss of a campaign which helps victims of anti-Muslim hatred is himself being targeted by hardline members of his own faith for taking a progressive stance on gay rights.

Fiyaz Mughal, who runs the Tell Mama reporting hotline, is being warned his group will be shunned by fellow Muslims after he invited gay rights champion Peter Tatchell to become a patron. They say he is being deliberately provocative, while he is also being targeted by far right fascists in the BNP and English Defence League.

He expects further hostility next week when he is expected to make another startling announcement. The Sunday Express can reveal that Richard Benson, a former chief executive of the Community Security Trust (CST), a Jewish organisation that battles anti-Semitism, is to become Tell Mama’s joint chairman…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Why Italy Might Not Exist in Five Years

With Europe’s eyes on independence referendums in Scotland and Catalonia, Italy’s own potential breakaway states have failed to gain much attention. But separatists in Venice — and other parts of Italy — have the wind in their sails, as Angela Giuffrida reports.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Bosnia: Srebrenica Relatives Sue Dutch Government

Relatives of victims from the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia have sued the Netherlands. They say the Dutch government should have done more to prevent the 1995 killings, which left more than 8,000 people dead.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Europe Dams Its Last Wild Rivers

Europe intends to slice through its last wild rivers with a series of dams. The new hydropower stations will deliver much-needed power to the region, but may also change the face of the Balkans forever.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Kosovo PM Expresses Satisfaction With NATO Observer Status

Prime Minister Hashim Thaci has expressed satisfaction over the NATO Parliamentary Assembly to grant Kosovo’s parliament Observer State status. Thaci noted on Facebook that the decision had been made on April 5 and would go into effect in May.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

IOM and Egypt’s Ministry of Manpower and Emigration Sign Agreement to Facilitate Support to Migrants Under EU-Funded Project

The Egyptian Minister of Manpower and Emigration, Dr. Nahed Hassan Ashry and the International Organization for Migration’s MENA Regional Director, Mr. Pasquale Lupoli have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to implement IOM’s on-going EU-funded project on “Stabilizing at-risk communities and enhancing migration management to enable smooth transitions in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya” (START).

Within this cooperation, IOM and the Ministry will facilitate the delivery of activities aimed at alleviating economic pressures on at-risk-communities throughout Egypt, Libya and Tunisia by strengthening migration management, providing support services to irregular migrants and by enhancing the capacities of relevant government bodies to further enable them to anticipate and address emerging migration challenges.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

‘Al-Qaeda Seduces the Pro-Morsi Element’ Says Egyptian Prof

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, APRIL 4 — ‘‘Al-Qaeda has many branches in Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood takes advantage of their terrorist actions, without admitting it openly’’, Cairo University political science Professor Hassan Nafaa told ANSAmed.

Nafaa is certain that a variegated galaxy of movements and grouplets exists in Egypt, and they are inspired by the jihadist terror network. But ‘‘as yet, little is known about them’’, he said.

‘‘All the signs of a strong al-Qaeda presence in Egypt are there. For example just days ago, some people at Cairo University raised an al-Qaeda flag’’, the analyst continued. ‘‘However we still do not have sufficient data to understand the real extent of its power and capability for action’’.

The jihadist network’s ‘‘experience, skills, degree of preparation and action means not even law enforcement’’ has this kind of information, the professor explained.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ancient Egyptian Mummy Found With Brain, No Heart

An ancient Egyptian mummy found with an intact brain, but no heart, has a plaque on her abdomen that may have been intended to ritually heal her, say a team of researchers who examined the female body with CT scans.

The woman probably lived around 1,700 years ago, at a time when Egypt was under Roman rule and Christianity was spreading, according to radiocarbon dating.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Rather Face Elections Than Release Israeli-Arab Prisoners: Israeli FM

JERUSALEM, April 6 (Xinhua) — Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Sunday that he prefers to face another round of elections rather than release Israeli Arab prisoners amid Kerry’s outline.

“If the choice is between releasing Israeli-Arab prisoners and going to elections, I’d rather go to new elections,” the hawkish minister said…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Susan Abulhawa: ‘People in My Jenin Have Not Changed’

(by Virginia Di Marco) (ANSAmed) — ROME, APRIL 7 — Palestinian author Susan Abulhawa has not been back to Jenin for the past 12 years. She lives in the United States and has received a number of awards for “Mornings in Jenin” (published in Italy by Feltrinelli in 2011). Yet she is sure that “Jenin has not changed”.

“People there have remained strong and beautiful as always”.

Such an opinion is in stark contrast with stories reported by the Israeli and international press which have described the transformation of the West Bank city, formerly known as the “capital of suicide attackers” at the centre 12 years ago of a bloody clash with the Israeli army known as the “battle of Jenin”.

Today Jenin is considered relatively safe.

“The only people who considered it ‘dangerous’ were the Israelis”, said the writer. “I never considered it dangerous.

It is not my role to explain why Israel sees it differently today. For me, Jenin has not changed. The spirit of its residents is the same. Perhaps they have decided to change strategy, but these are choices involving the Palestinian people as a whole. In general, Palestinian resistance has taken many forms: with time, we adapt and change”.

For this reason, continued Abulhawa, “I don’t like to talk about ‘suicide attackers’: it is not fair. Palestinian resistance manifests itself in many other ways. As a novelist, for example, my role is to portray Palestinians in a realistic and authentic way. My job is a form of resistance. But many prefer to pause on what a minority is doing instead of what a whole population has been up to for decades”.

She also accuses the international media: “It is a journalist’s duty to report facts, but this is often not the case…”.

However, as a Palestinian exile, Abuhawa does not believe she should work to improve the image of Palestinians in the world and foreign press. “I don’t think it is my job. With my book, I hope people will succeed in recognizing a pinch of humanity in others. Sometimes it happens, sometimes not: it depends on the reader”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

10 Killed in Insurgent Attacks in Iraq

BAGHDAD, April 6 (Xinhua) — Ten people were killed and nine other wounded in separate violent attacks in Iraq on Sunday, police said.

In early hours of the day, unknown gunmen broke into the house of a man in the town of Latifiyah, some 30 km south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, and stabbed him, his wife and four of his sons to death with knives, an Interior Ministry source said…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

20 Rebels Killed in Syria Army Ambush Near Damascus

DAMASCUS, April 7 (Xinhua) — At least 20 rebels were killed Monday by Syrian army in northern part of the capital Damascus, the official SANA news agency reported.

In a precise ambush, the Syrian troops eliminated 20 “ terrorists” and captured others in the industrial city of Adra, north of Damascus, while they were attempting to flee toward the Dumair suburb of Damascus, said SANA…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

7 Killed in Palestinian Refugee Camp Clashes in Lebanon

BEIRUT, April 7 (Xinhua) — Seven people were killed and at least ten others wounded during clashes that broke out Monday at the Palestinian refugee camp of MiehMieh in Lebanon’s southern port city of Sidon.

A security source confirmed to Xinhua the death toll, pointing out that the clashes started as an individual dispute ten days ago…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Dutch Jesuit Priest in Syria, Who Appealed for Aid, Shot Dead

A Dutch Jesuit priest who made the headlines earlier this year with an urgent appeal for emergency aid for the people of Syria has been shot dead, according to media reports. Frans van der Lugt, 75, had lived in Syria for 50 years and refused to leave, despite the war.

‘I can confirm he’s been killed,’ Jan Stuyt, secretary of the Dutch Jesuit Order, told news agency AFP by phone. ‘A man came into his house, took him outside and shot him twice in the head. In the street in front of his house.’ Stuyt said he was not aware of any particular threats towards Van der Lugt, AFP reports.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Dutch Priest Murdered in His Church in the Besieged Syrian City of Homs

Father Francis Van der Lugt had insisted on remaining in Homs during more than three years of war as he worked to keep international attention on the plight of starving residents

A Dutch priest who had refused to leave the besieged Syrian city of Homs in solidarity with its residents, was on Monday beaten and then shot dead in his monastery by a masked gunman. During more than three years of war, Father Francis Van der Lugt, 75, had insisted on remaining in the destroyed Old City of Homs, risking starvation and near constant shellfire, until every last civilian could be evacuated from the district…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Geert Wilders on Arabic Television Channel

The Arabic television channel Al Hayat, which airs to viewers in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, America and Australia, has started a regular show with the Dutch politician Geert Wilders, called The Geert Wilders Weekly.

The first episode can be watched here: http://youtu.be/HdDvkPXPf1w

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

King of Jordan to Meet Pope in Vatican Next Week

(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, APRIL 4 — King Abdullah II of Jordan is scheduled to travel to the Vatican next week to hold a meeting with Pope Francis to discuss bilateral ties and means of boosting relations between the two States, the Petra news agency said Friday.

Both parties will also discuss issues related to religious dialogue and regional development, added the state-run agency.

The visit, which starts on Monday, will also be an opportunity to discuss the pope’s upcoming visit to Jordan and the Holy Land — the pontiff’s first visit to the kingdom.

Abdullah will later travel to Austria for meetings with senior officials including president Hans Fischer to discuss regional development, the Syrian crisis and the stalled peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Mortar Attack Kills 11 in Syria’s Aleppo

DAMASCUS, April 7 (Xinhua) — At least 11 people were killed and 50 others wounded on Monday when mortar shells slammed into areas of the northwestern province of Aleppo, according to the official SANA news agency…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Oman: Focus on Human Rights in Islam

MUSCAT — The four-day Symposium on “Development of Jurisprudence (Fiqh) Science in Oman” under the theme “Human Mutualness and Interest” continued yesterday for the second day at the Grand Hyatt Muscat Hotel.

The Symposium discussed a number of themes. The first theme was titled ‘Justice Fiqh in Islam. The second theme was titled ‘Human Rights Fiqh in Islam’…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Syria: Dutch Jesuit Priest Killed in Besieged Homs

The elderly Dutch Jesuit priest Frans van der Lugt was killed on Monday in the Old City of Homs, long besieged by troops under Bashar Al-Assad’s regime. Several non-violent activist sources from the city has reported the news on the internet but it has not yet been independently confirmed. Several sources from Homs say that Father Frans, as he was known in the area, died from bullet wounds.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Choices for Syria’s Christians

by Lawrence A. Franklin

If Assad falls, how can Christians have any future in Syria when radical Sunni groups kill their fellow Muslim Shi’as and even moderate Sunni rebel soldiers as well?

It is a historical irony indeed when it appears the only safe place for a Christian in the Middle East is Israel, a country in large part populated by Jews who themselves were forced to flee Islamic intolerance in the same lands from which Christians now feel impelled to flee.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey: Liquor Sector Concerned Over Decline in Consumption

Beer market shrank by 12% after ban on alcohol advertising

(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, APRIL 7 — A decision by Turkey’s biggest brewer to shut down a production facility due to declining sales has sent shockwaves through the country’s alcoholic beverages sector as daily Hurriyet reported. Players in the sector, especially wine producers, are feeling the pressure of tough regulations as alcohol fights to survive in a tough environment. Anadolu Efes company, which has faced setbacks in its main markets in Turkey and Russia due to legal regulations, announced April 2 that it had decided to shut down its Luleburgaz factory in the northwestern province of Kirklareli, four months after closing two breweries in Russia.

The beer market in the country shrank by 12% in 2013 after Turkey banned alcohol advertising and tightened restrictions on its sale. Price hikes in the market stemming from the rise in Special Consumption Tax (OTV) caused a further retreat in the company’s revenues. Beer makes up 90% of alcoholic beverage consumption in Turkey, which fell to just over 1 billion liters in 2013 from 1.12 billion liters in 2012. According to a report by the Health Ministry, 23% of men in Turkey and 4% of women consume alcohol. The report shows that alcohol consumption per person in Turkey is way behind the world average. According to the report, 14% of men who drink liquor do so once a month or less, while only 5% say they drink two-three times a week.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey Behind Sarin Attack in Syria

Seymour Hersh reveals Turks and Saudis worked together to supply al-Nusra with deadly agent

“In spring 2013 US intelligence learned that the Turkish government — through elements of the MIT, its national intelligence agency, and the Gendarmerie, a militarized law-enforcement organization — was working directly with al-Nusra and its allies to develop a chemical warfare capability,” Hersh writes. MIT and the Gendarmerie “handled military logistics, on-the-scene advice and training — including training in chemical warfare,” a former intelligence official told Hersh. “Erdogan’s hope was to instigate an event that would force the US to cross the red line. But Obama didn’t respond in March and April.”

The Obama administration was aware of the Turkish effort to provide al-Nusra with WMDs and also the attempt to instigate a false flag to force Obama to back up his “red line” rhetoric with military action. U.S. intelligence analysts “sensed that Syria had not done the gas attack. But the 500 pound gorilla was, how did it happen? The immediate suspect was the Turks, because they had all the pieces to make it happen,” the former intelligence official told Hersh.

Seymour Hersh concludes by saying that without “a major change in policy by Obama, Turkey’s meddling in the Syrian civil war is likely to go on.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UAE: Chinese Tourists Visit Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization

Sharjah will focus on Asian countries that currently happen to be one of the fastest growing markets in the world, Khalid Jasim Al-Midfa, director general of Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority, said while receiving hundreds of Chinese visitors on Sunday. Over 16,000 Chinese visitors will explore Sharjah for the next 10 days.

This is the largest incentive group to visit Sharjah and the UAE to date. The visit of the Chinese delegation coincides with the celebrations of Sharjah Capital of Islamic Culture for 2014. “The Asian markets have immense potential to provide the region with a continuous supply of international tourists and contribute to the economy,” added Al-Midfa…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Cold War in Space? What NASA’s Russia Boycott Means

The political rift between the US and Russia over Crimea has spilled into space — sort of. Last week, a leaked memo from NASA revealed that the agency was suspending engagements with Russia, in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea. The most important Russian-US space collaboration — the International Space Station — is not included in the boycott.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Eastern Ukraine Moves to Join Russia

In a move that will be regarded in the West as pretext for a Russian invasion and annexation, members of the regional legislature in Ukraine’s industrial center of Donetsk have proclaimed the city a People’s Republic. The legislature has called for a referendum on joining the Russian Federation and has asked Vladimir Putin to send a temporary peacekeeping contingent into eastern Ukraine.

Civilians have rallied at the Donetsk Regional city administration building and have hoisted the Russian flag. In addition, demonstrators have taken over the Ukrainian Security Service’s Donetsk department building. Activists described as a “people’s militia” are reportedly in the process of examining the building’s “archives, documents and physical infrastructure,” according to social media.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Estonian Minister: ‘No Party Here Would Call for Secession’

Jevgeni Ossinovski, the sole member of the Russian minority serving as a minister in the Estonian government, says he doesn’t fear that Vladimir Putin will seek a repeat of Crimea in the Baltics. The Russian minority, he argues, is firmly anchored in Europe.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pro-Russian Separatists Declare ‘Independence’ For Donetsk

Pro-Russian separatists who seized a regional government building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk over the weekend proclaimed the region independent on Monday, a move that Ukraine’s government called a Russian attempt to sow unrest.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pro-Russian Demonstrators Storm Government Buildings Across Eastern Ukraine

Hundreds of demonstrators swarmed the streets of Donetsk in Ukraine, 50 miles west of the Russian border, waving Russian flags amid numerous calls for referenda across the region.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Separatist Leader Says His Pro-Russian Region Wants Independence and Then to Join Russia

A separatist leader says the Trans-Dniester region of Moldova wants independence — and eventually to join Russia. Evgheny Shevciuk, president of the self-proclaimed republic, said Monday the “Trans-Dniester people” want to be recognized as an independent state.

“Our dream is to have a successful, independent Russia, together with Russia,” he said. The region voted in a 2006 referendum to join Russia but these were the strongest words on secession in recent months.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

U.S. Threatens More Sanctions as Pro-Russian Activists Seize Buildings in Eastern Ukraine

The White House threatened further sanctions against Russia Monday after pro-Russian activists in eastern Ukraine seized government buildings and called for a referendum on seceding from the embattled country.

The activists barricaded themselves inside the provincial administrative building in Donetsk — a city bordering Russia — over the weekend, and announced Monday the formation of the independent Donetsk People’s Republic. The demonstrators called for a referendum to be held no later than May 11, Interfax reported.

Some of the protesters were chanting “Donetsk is a Russian city” as they climbed to the roof, where they waved the Russian flag.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

US Warns Russia Over ‘Escalatory Moves’ In Ukraine

The US has warned Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop “overtly or covertly” trying to destabilize Ukraine. In a bid to ease the crisis, the US and Russia have discussed holding a possible meeting with top diplomats.

Pro-Russian activists who seized a provincial building in Donetsk over the weekend on Monday announced the formation of the independent Donetsk People’s Republic, along the Russian border. They also called for a referendum on the potential succession of the Donetsk region to be held no later than May 11, according to the Interfax news agency.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

13 Civilians Killed in S. Afghan Roadside Bombing

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, April 7 (Xinhua) — Up to 13 civilians were killed while five others wounded on Monday evening when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in southern Afghan province of Kandahar, a police spokesman said…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Afghanistan: Hamid Karzai’s Mixed Legacy

Some 12 years ago, Hamid Karzai was seen as a bearer of hope for Afghanistan. But the politician is now seen as an erratic president who alienated his allies. He is leaving office, however, with a set of achievements.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Alleged Members of Banned Islamic Group Arrested in Kyrgyzstan

JALAL-ABAD, Kyrgyzstan — Six alleged members of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamic group have been arrested in Kyrgyzstan’s southern province of Jalal-Abad…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Australian Naval Ship Detects Signals in Southern Indian Ocean

An Australian ship searching for missing Malaysian flight MH370 has detected signals matching those from a black box transponder. The signals have been described as the “most promising lead so far.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

India: ‘Odds of Congress Party Maintaining Power Are Slim’

India’s ruling Congress Party is expected to take a beating at the polls, as the world’s biggest election gets underway. The opposition BJP is set to do well, despite its polarizing candidate, says expert Milan Vaishnav.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Malaysia Missing Plane MH370 Search Has ‘Best Lead So Far’

An Australian vessel searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane has detected signals consistent with those from “black box” flight recorders.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Malaysian Official Won’t Rule Out Survivor ‘Miracle’ As Missing-Jet Search May be Nearing Black Box

The Malaysian defense minister said Monday that searchers have not ruled out the possibility of survivors among the 239 people missing after a Malaysia Airlines jet mysteriously vanished after taking off from Kuala Lumpur 30 days ago.

There is new hope of finding the plane after Angus Houston, a retired Australian Air Force Chief Marshal coordinating the search mission, said a ship had detected separate pulse signals that were “consistent with transmissions from both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder,” or so-called black boxes.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pakistan: State Sponsor of Terrorism?

by Christine Williams

“The civilian government there (Pakistan) doesn’t control military policy, strategic policy… the army and the intelligence service do.” — Chris Alexander, Canada’s Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China Drills 7km Borehole in ‘Roof of World’ In Oil and Gas Hunt

Chinese exploration teams have drilled their deepest borehole yet in the “roof of the world”. They have punched a seven-kilometre borehole into the Tibetan Plateau in their bid to tap the region’s oil and natural gas resources.

It is the deepest borehole ever drilled at such extreme altitudes, according to mainland scientists who are following the project.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Army, Boko Haram Working Together in Parts of Nigeria?

Washington — A Nigerian soldier says he has witnessed incidents that suggest some Nigerian military commanders are working with Boko Haram, an Islamist militant group blamed for thousands of deaths since 2009.

In an exclusive interview with VOA’s Hausa service, he described how his military unit, based in the northeastern Borno State region, was ambushed by Boko Haram fighters…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Body Count in Latest Nigerian Massacre Rises to 105

(AGI) Gusau, April 7 — The number of dead in the latest massacre in Nigeria has risen to at least 105, according to the magazine Punch citing witness reports. The massacre took place on Saturday night in the Christian village of Yar Galadina, in Nigeria’s northeastern Zamfara state. The story did not rule out the possible discovery of more bodies scattered in the surrounding bush. The attack has been blamed on nomadic Muslims of the Fulani tribe, who attacked a meeting between representatives of various communities in the area.

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

Frenchman, Brit Gunned Down at Somali Airport

A Frenchman and a British national working with the United Nations were shot and killed at a Somali airport on Monday by a man wearing a police uniform, AFP reported.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Rwandan President Accuses France of Role in 1994 Genocide

Bars French ambassador from 20th anniversary memorial

(ANSA) — Rome, April 7 — Tensions between France and Rwanda rose Wednesday after the African country barred French ambassador Michel Flesch from a memorial ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the 1994 genocide.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame accused Paris of having had “a direct role in the preparation” of the mass slaughter, and the French ambassador was declared ‘persona non grata’. French ex-premier Eduoard Balladur, who held his post during the period in question, called the charge a “lie” with an agenda behind it, while Kagame insisted France was involved “before, during and after” the genocide.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon remarked on the UN’s shame for failing to prevent the extermination.

From early April to mid-July, members of the Hutu majority executed an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu, or as much as 20% of the country’s total population.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Rwanda Begins Week of Mourning, Commemorates 20th Anniversary of Genocide

A week of mourning have begun in Rwanda with a ceremony in the capital city, Kigali. The international community has renewed its regrets over its inaction 20 years ago, while Rwandan leaders have vowed to move forward.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Rwanda Lashes Out at France Over Genocide

Rawanda’s president took a swipe at French leaders on Monday during a speech commemorating the 1994 genocide, reigniting the controversy over the France’s role in the killing that claimed 800,000 lives. His words drew an angry response from Paris.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

South Africa: Hard Line Taken on ‘White’ Sport

Failure to field 60% black players will lead to the Proteas, the Springboks and Bafana Bafana being banned from representing South Africa at international events.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sub-Saharan Africa on Solid Growth Course, Survey Claims

More investment in resources and infrastructure will help sub-Saharan Africa stay on a remarkable growth course, the World Bank has said. But, it warns, political uncertainties could destabilize those economies.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Cuba Slashes 109,000 Health Service Jobs

State system and pillar of 1959 communist revolution undergoes painful cuts in economic reform programme.

Cuban authorities say they have eliminated more than 100,000 jobs in the nation’s national health service, considered one of the pillars of the 1959 revolution. The cuts come as the president, Raul Castro, tries to streamline government as part of a broader economic reform package.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Salvadoran Govt: Gang Truce Hasn’t Worked, With Attacks on Police, Killings Up

The government of El Salvador says the truce between the country’s main Mara street gangs hasn’t worked, and that killings and attacks against police have risen again.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Venezuela Slams Spain Over Police Gear Ban

The government of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, after more than two months of street protests, slammed Spain on Sunday for claiming it was not seeking dialogue with political foes.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Venezuelan Students Attacked by Pro-Maduro Vigilantes

Attacks by pro-government vigilantes continue in Venezuela despite President Nicolas Maduro’s offer to engage in mediated peace talks, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Victor Marquez, president of the faculty association at the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas, said men armed with metal pipes and wooden rods attacked about 1,200 students last Thursday. It is the latest in a series of crackdowns:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Danish Men Shying Away From Immigrant Women

Ethnic Danish men who attend institutes of higher learning avoid relationships with immigrant women from non-western backgrounds who go to school with them. According to a poll taken by MetroXpress newspaper, nearly two thirds of the women surveyed said that Danish men avoid them at parties or other social occasions because they “look like immigrants”. The results are in keeping with similar scientific studies of the same phenomenon.

A majority of the women polled said they believed that the men were afraid that the woman’s family would not approve of them seeing a Danish man.

“Many Danish guys believe that they will get in trouble with the brothers, fathers and cousins if they date an immigrant woman,” Helen Ali from Forening for Unge Nydanske Kvinder, a support group for immigrant women, told MetroXpress.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Denmark: Non-Western Immigrants Live Longer

Immigrants to Denmark with a non-western background live longer than ethnic Danish men and women. According to a report to be published tomorrow by the national social appeals board, Ankestyrelsen, 65-year-old immigrants from the Middle East, Africa and the Far East can expect to live about a year longer than ethnic Danes and immigrants with Western backgrounds.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Denmark: State Could Open Its Gates to Foreign Entrepreneurs

The government is considering the idea of providing foreign entrepreneurs with residence permits so they can enter the country and start a business.

“Denmark is an attractive country for entrepreneurs but other countries do a lot more to pull in foreign talent,” Nadeem Farooq, the Radikale spokesperson for entrepreneurial issues, told Ritzau.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

EU Ignoring Migrant Suffering, Says NGO

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Greece has called for the EU and Greece “to stop shirking their responsibility” when it comes to migrants and take into account the human cost of migration policies across the region.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Morocco Asks Spain for Funds to Help With on-the-Spot Deportations of Migrants

Morocco is asking Spain and the European Union for more money to fight illegal immigration along its borders with the Spanish exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.

More than 1,600 sub-Saharans have made it through the border fences and into European territory so far this year, which is more than in the whole of 2013. Since the beginning of 2014, immigrants have increasingly been making organized runs in groups of several hundred people, in the hope that the Spanish and Moroccan police will not be able to intercept them all.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Obama ‘Champion of Change’ Amnesty Advocate Indicted for Immigration Fraud

An amnesty advocate that President Barack Obama’s White House publicly promoted as part of its “Champion of Change” series has been indicted in federal court on charges of fraud.

Bonnie M. Youn, who Obama’s White House touts on its website as “a recognized Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) community leader in Georgia,” was indicted on three criminal charge counts in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia Atlanta Division on April 1, according to publicly filed court documents.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Protest March by Asylum Seekers Blocks Traffic in Sicily

(AGI) Trapani (Sicily), April 7 — A protest march by about 50 asylum seekers hosted in the “Badia Grande” reception centre in the Bonagia district of Valderice (Trapani), blocked the road traffic along the provincial road connecting Trapani to San Vito Lo Capo on Monday morning. The protest march stopped at the gates of Bonagia, where the marchers protested against the delays in processing asylum applications. The refugees also asked for a raise in their daily allowance. The protest was monitored by security forces.

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

Syrian Boy Smuggled Into Spain Under Car Seat

Spanish police have arrested a man after he attempted to smuggle an 11-year-old Syrian boy into Spain by hiding him in a “subhuman” space under one of his car seats.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

‘We Are Prisoners Here’, Say Migrants at Israel’s Desert Detention Camp

The men behind the forbidding barbed-wire topped fence had no doubts about their status. “This is a jail. We are prisoners here,” said Tumizgie Okebamrime, standing with a group of fellow African refugees, all with arms raised and interlocked in symbolic handcuff gestures.

He was speaking from inside the grounds of Holot, a detention centre for illegal migrants in Israel’s Negev desert which the country’s authorities describe as “open”.

But Mr Okerbamrime, an asylum-seeker from Eritrea, described the isolated encampment in different terms. “Inside we have police, security guards and immigration,” he said. “I came to Israel because I thought it was a democratic country. I would never have come here if I had known it was like this. “

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

If CEO Had to Resign for Views on Gay Marriage He Held in 2008, Shouldn’t Obama Do the Same?

The liberal wave of criticism that swept Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich from office this week has conservatives wondering if libs are willing to apply the same standard to the president.

It’s a pretty straightforward question. Until the spring of 2012, President Obama was publicly opposed to gay marriage and even said he thought it was something states should decide.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Mozilla Feels Stinging Backlash Over CEO Boot

The radical faction of the LGBT community is now getting the same outrage it had directed toward former Mozilla chairman Brendan Eich earlier this week over a campaign contribution, which led to his departure.

Now the company is getting flak over Eich’s forced resignation from a company he helped co-found. That decision angered many of Mozilla’s customers, and they didn’t hold back on their criticism, according to The Daily Caller, which reported:

The decision to remove the man who invented the web scripting language JavaScipt did not sit well with many customers — many of them pelted Mozilla’s website with a surge of negative feedback.

On Friday, 94 percent of the sentiments registered on the site were “sad,” while six percent were “happy.”

“Your abject and pathetic condemnation of an individual’s right to hold and support their own view on the world is simply unbelievable,” read one user’s comment on the Mozilla site.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Left Isn’t Pro-Gay; It’s Pro-Power

By Daniel Greenfield

Excerpt: The left’s shift on this issue, as on many issues, was purely tactical. The left’s leading lights were racists who jumped into civil rights. They were sexists who became feminists. They were advocates for the working class who despised the idea of working for a living. The culture war does not emerge from the left’s deeply held beliefs. Its leaders could care less about the things that they pretend to care about. It emerges instead from the need to maintain a constant state of domestic conflict. You can’t have a truce when the other side wants a war.

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Gay ‘Therapy’ Has No Place in the NHS, Says Norman Lamb

Norman Lamb, the care services minister, has written to NHS England to demand assurances that GPs are not making referrals for gay conversion therapy.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Gay Teacher Resigns After Parents Complained They Did Not Want Him to Teach Their Children

The dispute at Birmingham’s Chilwell Croft Academy, which mainly involved Muslim parents, is the latest controversy surrounding a secular state school in the city.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Fossil Galaxy May be One of First Ever Formed

The stars in the nearby Segue 1 dwarf galaxy have fewer metals than any other galaxy known, suggesting the object is a relic from the baby universe.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

In Blind Test, Soloists Like New Violins Over Old

Ten world-class soloists put costly Stradivarius violins and new, cheaper ones to a blind scientific test. The results may seem off-key to musicians and collectors, but the new instruments won handily.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pro Violinists Fail to Spot Stradivarius in Blind Test

Could you tell a new violin from a 300-year-old Italian Stradivarius? If not, you’re in good company: neither can the very best violin soloists.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

2 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/7/2014

  1. Good luck to Cliven Bundy and family in their stance against the American Federal Fascists. They will most certainly need it! Funny how the media is avoiding the reporting of this. And all over the protection of a bloody tortoise!

  2. The ‘reverend’ Al Sharpton strikes again! He would have to be the most divisive ‘reverend’ in the US today.

Comments are closed.