A BBC DJ named David Lowe was forced to resign after he played a ’30s song that contained the N-word on his radio show. Mr. Lowe had not been aware that the word was in the song, and after a listener complained he offered to apologize on-air or resign. At first the BBC insisted he resign, and then changed its mind. But by then the stress created by the controversy had made him so ill that he was unable to resume his career.
In other news, at least 40 would-be immigrants to Italy died when their ship sank off the coast of Libya. Meanwhile, 35 Tunisian migrants landed on the island of Favignana, off the coast of Sicily, and 400 Syrian migrants landed at Taranto on the south coast of the mainland.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Diana West, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
30K Young Italians Enroll in EU Jobs Program in First Week
Aims to hone skills of jobless 20-somethings
(ANSA) — Rome, May 9 — Some 30,000 people have signed up for a new European Union youth jobs program that kicked off in Italy and Europe on May 1, the labor ministry said Friday.
EU countries endorsed the program, called Youth Guarantee, in April 2013. The idea is make sure that every young person in Europe is offered a good-quality job, further education or work-focused training within four months after leaving education or after becoming unemployed.
In Italy, where unemployment for under-25s is over 40%, unemployed people under 30 can sign up on the labor ministry website www.garanziagiovani.gov.it or with regional authorities, and they will be contacted with a job offer or a training alternative within four months.
So far, 21,189 have signed up on the national website and 8,747 on regional ones, the ministry said.
The Youth Guarantee program has a two-year budget of 1.513 billion euros, with 1.134 billion euros in EU funding and the rest financed by Rome.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Padoan Says 12% Unemployment May be Here to Stay in Italy
Italian economy minister says EU parliament elections will tell
Rome — Italy’s 12% unemployment rate is in danger of becoming an economic fixture, the Italian economy minister said Thursday.
Italy’s high unemployment “is at risk of becoming structural, very difficult to eradicate,” said Pier Carlo Padoan, who was chief economist for the OECD before becoming a member of Premier Matteo Renzi’s cabinet.
Padoan added that the prospects for the future of jobs in Italy is at stake in the European Parliament elections on May 25.
“It will be for better or for worse in view of the political choices of citizens” in Italy and in Europe, Padoan concluded.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The Real State of the Economy — Not Obama’s Lies
Obama has driven the economy into the toilet. He has foisted trillions of debt on future generations.
Peter Ferrara, a Senior Fellow at The Heartland Institute specializing on entitlement and budget policy and a contributor to Forbes magazine, is one of the people to whom I go to understand the economy.
In a May 2 edition, in an article titled “What Obama’s Growth Recession Is Stealing From Your Wallet”, Ferrara wrote “Restoring that booming economic growth and prosperity (of past decades) is the core of solving all of our nation’s problems, not income or wealth redistribution, or addressing ‘inequality.’ But President Obama is not on the path of restoration. The latest report on real GDP growth estimates this year’s first quarter at a pitiful 0.01%. This is in the 6th year of Obama’s Presidency.”
The Heritage Foundation’s chief economist, Stephen Moore, writing on May 1st in the National Review, asked, “What happens to an economy when you do just about everything wrong?” Here’s his list:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
$474m for 4 Failed ObamaCare Exchanges
Nearly half a billion dollars in federal money has been spent developing four state Obamacare exchanges that are now in shambles — and the final price tag for salvaging them may go sharply higher.
Each of the states — Massachusetts, Oregon, Nevada and Maryland — embraced Obamacare, and each underperformed. All have come under scathing criticism and now face months of uncertainty as they rush to rebuild their systems or transition to the federal exchange.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Black Americans, A Little-Known Tradition of Arms
Black community have traditionally armed themselves to resist the unacceptable actions of malevolent authorities
Television tells us little about the real America. Black Americans, like other Americans, have long used guns to defend their homes and families against violence. They did so even while enslaved in the 18th and 19th centuries. After the end of slavery, blacks found guns vital in protecting themselves against white marauders and other criminals. Recently, black plaintiffs have taken decisive steps to advance Second Amendment rights for all Americans. Otis McDonald, for example, a black Chicago resident, driven by a desire to protect his family from criminal violence, launched a legal challenge to the Chicago gun ban that resulted in the Supreme Court forcing Chicago to allow residents to carry concealed handguns.
The history of armed blacks in the US illustrates why many Americans do not trust their government. There is widespread agreement among American black leaders, men such as Frederick Douglas, WEB DuBois, Robert Williams and Martin Luther King, Jr., in support of black people using firearms to protect themselves and their families from attack. This is largely unknown because the mainstream media ignore any story that contradicts their progressive vision. According to progressives the only role for black people is to serve as defenseless victims of white oppressors — and to wait passively to be rescued by the Democrat Party. The truth is much more interesting.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Boehner: House Won’t Arrest Lerner
The House has held Lois Lerner in contempt, but it won’t use its power to place the former IRS official under arrest, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said on Sunday.
Under a precedent affirmed by the Supreme Court, each chamber of Congress can authorize its sergeant-at-arms to detain individuals it holds in contempt. But Boehner said on “Fox News Sunday” that he has no interest in doing that with Lerner, whom the House last week voted to hold in contempt over her refusal to testify about her role in the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups.
“I’m not sure we want to go down that path,” Boehner said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Brain Zaps Can Trigger Lucid Dreams
Lucid dreams, in which people are aware of and can control their dreams, are rare. But now scientists have found they can induce this weird state of mind in people by zapping their brains with a specific frequency of electricity.
“I never thought this would work,” said study researcher Dr. John Allan Hobson, a psychiatrist and longtime sleep researcher at Harvard University. “But it looks like it does.”
The results showed that when the inexperienced dreamers were zapped with a current of 40 Hertz, 77 percent of the time these participants reported having what were described as lucid dreams.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Decapitated Birds Found on Streets in Vegas Neighborhood
LAS VEGAS (CBS Las Vegas) — Residents in the valley’s east side are disgusted by what they’ve been finding in the streets. Piles of beheaded birds are being dumped in seemingly random locations throughout the area, reports KLAS-TV.
A West African priest tells the station that may not be the case. He says people practicing the religion of Santeria or Ifa use animal sacrifices like chickens, pigeons or goats as a means of protection or as a way to cleanse the body.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Democrats’ Immoral Approach to Minimum Wage
Thank God Obama and the Democrats’ attempt to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour stalled in the Senate.
Raising the minimum wage destroys jobs. Democrats pushing for a higher minimum wage has nothing to do with improving peoples’ lives and everything to do with playing two cards, class envy and fairness, from their deck of hate inspiring cards to win votes.
How much can Mr Joe American grocery store owner afford to pay an unskilled worker just entering the work force? When government pulls an amount out of the air that it believes is a fair hourly wage and forces it on business owners, business owners are forced to make real world economic decisions.
So, rather than Mr Joe American grocery store owner hiring 5 kids for the summer to stack boxes and gather shopping carts in the parking lot, he only hires two kids or none and gathers the carts himself. Traditionally, as one’s knowledge, skills and value to a business increases, so does their pay.
Liberals argue that a family can not survive on minimum wage. News flash, a family is not suppose to survive on minimum wage.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Education? No, It’s About Data-Mining
‘Opt out’ movement surges in response to Common Core
This type of student data mining by private contractors was made possible only after the Obama administration moved unilaterally to dilute privacy restrictions in the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. The new rules took effect in January 2012 without congressional approval.…
“As evil as Common Core is, it’s a diversion,” said Iserbyt, author of several books including “The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America“ and “Back to Basics Reform.”
The real genie in the bottle, she says, is the takeover of education by corporations pushing “school choice,” a very seductive concept to conservatives who have soured on traditional public education. But the schools would still be funded by tax dollars. The main difference, she said, would be that locally elected school boards would be shut down or stripped of any meaningful authority.
Iserbyt believes the burgeoning charter-school movement is being readied to create a pipeline of “school-to-work” graduates that fulfills the needs of corporations but does little to encourage real education.
It was called “mastery learning” in the 1960s and 70s and that morphed into “outcome-based education” in the 1980s and 90s with assessments to measure the outcomes.
Now the final building block has been introduced — Common Core. Unlike previous standards, teachers cannot ignore Common Core. They must comply because their evaluations are being tied directly to their students’ performance on the Common Core tests. If they weren’t teaching to the test before, they are now, Iserbyt said.
The Soviet and Chinese systems use the same model, Iserbyt said. The vast majority of children get “trained” for specific “outcomes” while traditional education is reserved for the top 10 percent of elite students. The global drive toward school-to-work, outcome-based training comes packaged with the full backing of the United Nations Educational and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and tax-exempt foundations funded by the Carnegie, Gates and Rockefeller families.
[Comment: A must read article.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FDA Warns Against Excessive Aspirin Use
(NaturalNews) The FDA is now reporting that aspirin use raises serious health risks like bleeding in the brain and internal bleeding of the stomach. The agency stated that aspirin may benefit those who have already had a stroke but said they did not support the drug’s use for preventing a heart attack or stroke.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Influence and the Experts, Part 2
by Diana West
In the following two quotations, we see encapsulated the Influence vs. Spying divide, the main topic under consideration in “Influence and the Experts, Part 1” here.
The power to influence policy has always been the ultimate purpose of the Communist Party’s infiltration. It was much more dangerous, and, as events have proved, much more difficult to detect, than espionage, which beside it is trivial, though the two go hand in hand.
—Whittaker Chambers
In our more than twenty years of archivally based research on Soviet espionage in America, we have uncovered ample documentation of Soviet intelligence obtaining American technical, military, and diplomatic information, but very little indicated successful policy manipulation.
—Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes
The Chambers quotation comes from Witness, and is also included in a clarifying essay on this same divide in Stalin’s Secret Agents by M. Stanton Evans and the late Herbert Romerstein. The Evans and Romerstein book focuses specifically on the subversion and manipulation of US policy by agents of Stalin’s influence inside the Roosevelt administration, particularly during World War II. This, of course, is a subject of complementary study in American Betrayal. The Klehr and Haynes quotation above comes from their entry (letter to the editor) in a symposium of sorts on American Betrayal at The New Criterion, and is analyzed in “ Influence and the Experts, Part 1.”
The Haynes and Klehr letter continues:…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Just Believe: The Closing of the American Progressive Mind on Matters of the Economy and Energy
Have you noticed that the cries of the cultural and political “left” in the U.S. are becoming more venomous and shrill? As President Barack Obama flails on the international stage and approval for his domestic agenda and his party in Congress slips away, so-called “progressive” Americans are also watching something else slip away: the chances of politicians and government bureaucrats getting a strangle-hold on the petroleum energy industry.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Space Tourists on Zero-G’s ‘Vomit Comet’: Incredible Flight to Weightless World of Space Travel
It was, Dave Mackay assured me, one of the most stunning experiences of his life.
And from the man who recently ignited the rockets on a spaceship as chief test pilot for Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic project, that was an impressive recommendation.
And so taking his advice, here I was on the tarmac at Newark airport in New Jersey, USA, kitted out in my blue flight suit with another 25 passengers, about to embark on a zero gravity journey aboard a Boeing 727 plunging and soaring in 12,000ft arcs over the North Atlantic.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
We know the old saw: the one thing we learn from history is that no one ever learns anything from history. If true, this would be unfortunate, because history offers gold mines of learning opportunities for those willing to study it.
Most people probably haven’t heard of Sir John Bagot Glubb (1897 — 1986). He was a British soldier who rose in the ranks until he was able to create and, as General, command the Arab Legion military force in Jordan from 1939 to 1956 (it was Transjordan until 1949). He had largely assimilated into Arab culture where he was known as Glubb Pasha. His fortunes dropped along with those of his native Great Britain in 1956. Back home and knighted that year, and with two books about Arab history and culture already behind him, he turned to full-time historical research and writing, producing several more volumes on the Arab world, a world he’d found extremely interesting — and which he’d passionately cared about. He’d noticed some curious parallels between past phases of the Arab world and present phases of his native Great Britain. More study of other cultures and their trajectories led him towards original work on the nature of civilization — in particular, observing the rise and decline of empires. Among these was a Spenglerian essay, “The Fate of Empires” (1976).
It is this essay we are concerned with here. It provides very good reasons for thinking the fate of Anglo-European civilization, including the U.S., is already decided.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How is it possible that a nation founded upon Christian principles and values, one which had become the greatest and most successful experiment in government this world has ever known, could become such a willing participant in forsaking everything that made it great? What made it possible for that nation to deny, not only the American way of life, but to deny Christianity and Jesus Christ Himself? Although this did not happen overnight, there was only one way the forces of evil could have gained the foothold necessary to convert America into a Satanic State. As suggested in the book of The Revelation, there would have to be a catalyst in the form of some “authority figure” to bring all of the pieces together. That catalyst was found and put into place as a result of the election of 2008, in the person of Barack Hussein Obama.
Obama immediately went to work persuading his mesmerized flock of weak-minded individuals that there was more to life than what they had been taught. For those who loosely held onto the basic truth of Christianity, that one’s salvation and eternity in heaven could only be achieved by repenting of their sins and receiving Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, Obama quickly put them at ease by declaring that now there were several ways to make it into heaven, and these obedient and robotic minions were not about to question an official proclamation of their self-anointed “Messiah”!
Obama convinced them that there would be no need for them to die to make it into heaven, because he would create their heaven right here on Earth! If they didn’t want to work, all they had to do was sign up for perpetual unemployment benefits. And if that wasn’t enough, Obama would give them “free” health care, free cell phones, free education, free mortgages (which they couldn’t afford), food stamps, rent subsidies and even jobs for those who had not yet figured out that there was no longer any need to work for a living.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Taxpayer Cost to Maintain Obama’s Golf Handicap: Over $3 Million
As the nation shivered through February and March and saw it’s gross domestic product collapse as humans hibernated, President Obama sought sunnier climes to ensure US supremacy on the world-leader’s golf handicap rankings. As The Washington Times reports, however, Obama’s trips this year to the golfing playgrounds of Palm Springs and Key Largo cost taxpayers nearly $3 million for flight expenses alone on Air Force One.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Voters, Again, Choose Their Own Destruction
Here in Texas, millions of voters who’ve “had enough” stayed home and didn’t vote on March 4th. A paltry 13.3% of all registered voters in this state bothered to get to the ballot box. ‘Don’t Mess With Texas’ is a meaningless motto. Our state legislature is also just as corrupt as others. They continue to ignore the only real solutions as the clock ticks. Tragically for Texans, rotten GOP state incumbents also won their primaries.
Americans all across this country are in a state of rage and anger according to polls; the top two issues being Obamacare and the economy. Their target: the Outlaw Congress. Last week there were three more primaries: North Carolina, Ohio and Indiana. In Ohio, 16.6% of all registered voters bothered to vote. Of the 16.5 million registered voters in North Carolina, less than 16% of them statewide bothered to vote, the lowest in four years. Indiana: Less than 8% of registered voters in Indianapolis bothered to vote, similar around the state; highest 12% in one county. This says it all:
All Nine Indiana U.S. House Members Win Primaries: “Although voters said they were unhappy with the job Congress was doing, three of the nine incumbents — Reps. Pete Visclosky, Jackie Walorski and Luke Messer — didn’t face primary challenges, and none of the remaining six faced serious threats Tuesday.”
So, voters are unhappy with the job they hired their incumbent to do, but they voted for them anyway instead of a qualified challenger…
Ohio has 16 U.S. House members. Every single incumbent from both parties won their primary. Nine from both parties had no challenger. One of the worst traitors in the U.S. House, John Boehner, allegedly won with a whopping 71% of the vote in his district. A U.S. House representative who voted to kill more than 8 million full time, good paying jobs (NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT/WTO). Who has given the impostor in the WH everything he’s wanted on “free” trade treaties killing this country. Boehner who stalled for a year and half before caving from massive pressure to appoint a special committee to investigate Benghazi.
Boehner who refuses to impeach Eric Holder. A resolution was introduced by a group of GOP congress critters to impeach Holder. Instead of rallying his party to do what should have been done years ago, Johnny has done nothing. That seems to be a winner with the voters in his district…
Voter Fraud: An Existential Threat to America: “As a result, nationwide, voter rolls are a shambles. According to a Pew report, approximately 24 million voter registrations nationally are either invalid or inaccurate, including about 1.8 million deceased individuals and 2.75 million multi-state duplicates.” I have been pounding on vote fraud since 1993 and still, with two years to get the job done, the states of the Union continue to use machines that are easily rigged and allow non-eligible individuals to vote. Sadly, very few Americans have lifted a finger to return our elections to paper ballots hand counted in front of the public. The majority of Americans don’t seem to give a damn about our elections being stolen; it will only get worse as technology advances.
[Comment: Recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Working Moms Up 800 Percent … Since 1860
The number of stay-at-home mothers recently rose in the United States after decades of more and more moms working outside the home. But a new analysis of deeper history highlights how much motherhood has changed.
The proportion of working moms in the United States has gone up a whopping 800 percent since 1860, according to a new analysis by Ancestry.com, the genealogy website. In that year, 7.5 percent of mothers were in the workforce, according to the examination of U.S. Census records, compared with 67 percent in the 2010 Census.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hamilton Downtown Mosque Throws Fun Fair, Previews New Home
Membership raising money to renovate recently acquired York Blvd. digs
The Hamilton Downtown Mosque is on the cusp of a big milestone. The 22-year-old congregation is moving into its new home on York Boulevard this summer, but still has a lot of renovation work to do to ready the building, a former fitness club, for regular worship.
To raise money for the expensive undertaking, the mosque’s membership organized a fun fair. The Saturday festival boasted face-painting and inflatable playgrounds for the kids, as well as a clothing sale, a henna station and of course, lots of food…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
1150 Informants, 5909 Receive Protection in Italy
Deputy interior minister says the protected live in ‘conflict’
Rome — Italy has 1,150 informants and 82 witnesses currently under interior ministry protection, Deputy Interior Minister Filippo Bubbico told the anti-mafia parliament commission on Thursday.
The total receiving special security services rises to 5,909 when close relatives of the informants and witnesses are counted. “We are in a paradoxical situation. On the one hand, the State commits resources for the benefit of collaborators. On the other, the beneficiaries of the protection are unsatisfied with the services and live in a situation of conflict.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
400 US Mercenaries ‘Deployed on Ground’ In Ukraine Military Op
About 400 elite mercenaries from the notorious US private security firm Academi (formerly Blackwater) are taking part in the Ukrainian military operation against anti-government protesters in southeastern regions of the country, German media reports.
The Bild am Sonntag newspaper, citing a source in intelligence circles, wrote Sunday that Academi employees are involved in the Kiev military crackdown on pro-autonomy activists in near the town of Slavyansk, in the Donetsk region.
On April 29, German Intelligence Service (BND) informed Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government about the mercenaries’ participation in the operation, the paper said, RIA Novosti reported. It is not clear who commands the private military contractors and pays for their services, however.
In March, media reports appeared suggesting that the coup-imposed government in Kiev could have employed up to 300 mercenaries.That was before the new government launched a military operation against anti-Maidan activists, or “terrorists” as Kiev put it, in southeast Ukraine…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
British Millionaire Held in Spain Over ‘Harem’ Claims
A British millionaire has been arrested in Spain on suspicion of holding a harem of women against their will and fathering at least seven children with them.
Shoja Shojai, 56, is alleged to have met most of the women who were wannabe models in London, persuading them to move to his mansion near Marbella.
Mr Shojai, who was born in Iran, but has a British passport, is believed to have boasted to the women he was an oil tycoon who was friends with Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin.
Police were called to the sprawling Arabic style mansion when one of the women made an allegation of domestic violence against him.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Detergent Pulled in Germany Over Neo-Nazi Code
Procter & Gamble has apologized for “any false connotations” after stirring anger in Germany for unintentionally placing a neo-Nazi code on promotional packages for its Ariel laundry detergent.
Outraged shoppers had posted pictures online of Ariel powder boxes featuring a white soccer jersey with a large number “88.” The number is sensitive because far-right extremists in Germany often use it as a code to skirt a ban on the use of Nazi slogans in public: since “H’’ is the eighth letter of the alphabet, “88” represents the phrase “Heil Hitler.” Similarly, “18” is used to stand for “A.H.” or Adolf Hitler.
Procter & Gamble acknowledged Friday that the number was “unintentionally ambiguous.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU: Jose Manuel Barroso Tells David Cameron, Ever So Politely, He’s Lost the Game
by Christopher Booker
The outgoing EU president has slammed the door on David Cameron’s hopes of 2017 referendum on Europe
One of the greatest assets of the “European project”, I have more than once observed, is that it is so stupendously boring that few people bother to understand how it really works. This was exemplified by the almost Soviet-length speech on “the future of the European Union” given in Berlin last week by José Manuel Barroso, before he steps down from eight years as president of the European Commission. One cannot imagine that all his audience were still awake as he neared the end of his 9,000 words. But, in fact, he gave fascinating answers to two of the questions pursued in this column through much of the past 18 months…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
European Minorities Troubled by Events in Crimea
A congress being held along the German-Danish border is focusing on how Europe’s many smaller ethnic groups can preserve their rights. The current fate of Crimea’s Tatars in the Ukraine crisis is a key subject.
In total, over 300 ethnic groups exist in Europe. Every seventh resident on the continent speaks a regional or minority language or belongs to one such population.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Eurovision Winner Seen as Political Message
Conchita Wurst, the bearded drag queen from Austria, on Saturday (10 May) won the Eurovision song contest with “Rise like a Phoenix” that scooped 290 points.
Facial hair styles aside, this year’s contest was political from two points of view: attitude towards Russia — booed for being an aggressor in Ukraine and for banning gay rights — and attitudes towards transvestites.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Far Right Activists Britain First Hand Out Bibles Outside Mosques in Bradford
Far right activists have targeted mosques in Bradford attempting to hand out Bibles and distribute leaflets accusing community elders of failing to stop grooming gangs.
It is believed members of Britain First, some wearing uniforms, staged the protests at 10 places of worship in the city centre. The group posted images of themselves on Facebook confronting members of the Asian community.
They also visited the office of Labour councillor Nazam Azam. Mr Azam said: “They have come to Bradford to cause residents to fear for their safety. As far as I understand they have tried to access mosques. They tried to hand out leaflets but I don’t know anyone who took anything.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Investment in Italy on the Rise
Trade relations ‘excellent and stable’ between nations
(ANSA) — Rome, May 8 — German investment in Italy rose by almost 11%, from 30.2 billion euros in 2009 to 33.1 billion euros in 2012, the Italian chamber of commerce for Germany said Thursday. The number of Italian companies with German stakeholders grew by almost 100 to reach 1,345 over the same period, which coincided with the economic crisis in Italy. “Trade relations between the two countries are excellent and stable,” president of the Italian chamber of commerce for Germany, Emanuele Gatti, told ANSA. “Trade activities currently amount to over 100 billion euros with further predicted growth,” Gatti said.
Italian goods worth 43.7 billion euros were exported to Germany from January to November last year.
The chemical and metallurgy sectors each accounted for 13% of exports, followed by transport at 11%, food and agriculture at 7%, and textiles at 5%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italians Say They’ve Discovered Nerve Gas Antibody
‘Has implications in Syria, war zones’
(ANSA) — Pisa, May 6 — Researchers in Italy said Tuesday they have discovered an antibody that can fight nerve gas. The antibody also blocks strong pesticides that often harm animals, said scientists at the University of Pisa, who published their study in the international magazine Mabs.
“(Nerve gas) blocks synaptic acetylcholinesterase, which is an enzyme that regulates the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the human body and of many animals,” said pharmacologist Paola Nieri. “The effect has serious consequences on cardiac and respiratory failure, and can be fatal”. Other antidotes work as scavengers, said Nieri, cleaning up toxic agents without restoring the acetylcholinesterase activity when the enzymatic block becomes irreversible.
The researchers say their study has potential implications in war zones such as Syria, where chemical weapons like sarin gas may be at play.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Top Financiers Arrested
Magnoni brothers accused of fraud, embezzlement
Milan — A family of top Italian financiers was arrested Friday on suspicion of embezzlement.
Brothers Ruggero, Aldo and Giorgio Magnoni, and the latter’s son Luca, were detained by tax police on suspicion of conspiracy to commit fraudulent bankruptcy, fraud, embezzlement and tax fraud.
Tax police said they had discovered the family siphoned off 100 million euros from a company they controlled, Sopaf.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ex-Minister Scajola Probed for Alleged Mafia Association
Centre-right exponent arrested early Thursday
Rome — Former minister Claudio Scajola is under investigation for alleged criminal conspiracy and mafia association, prosecutors in the southern city of Reggio Calabria said Thursday.
Scajola, a 66-year-old member of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party and former industry and interior minister under separate Berlusconi governments, was arrested early Thursday on suspicions that he helped former MP and businessman Amedeo Matacena flee Italian justice after a definitive five-year conviction for mafia links.
Investigators claim he tried to help Matacena, who is said to be close to the Rosmini clan of Calabria’s notorious ‘Ndrangheta crime syndicate, reach the Libanese capital Beirut from Dubai, where he is currently on the run. Now prosecutors claim Scajola and the seven other people against whom arrest warrants were served Thursday in connection with the case — including Matacena, his wife and his mother — were “the terminus of a complex and largely secret criminal system that also operated on foreign territory”.
“Together with other subjects whose role is in the process of being established, they belong to a secret criminal organisation linked by mutual relationship to the ‘Ndrangheta in order to extend the operating potential of the mafia association nationally and internationally,” a search warrant read. They are all being probed for alleged criminal conspiracy and mafia association, prosecutors said.
Thursday’s was not Scajola’s first encounter with the judicial authorities. In January a judge acquitted him and his co-defendant, businessman Diego Anemone, on charges related to a shady real-estate deal involving an expensive home with a view on Rome’s iconic Colosseum.
The judge cleared Scajola, saying his assertion that Anemone had paid for most of the flat for him without his knowledge was credible. Prosecutors, who had demanded Scajola be given a three-year prison term, are appealing against the acquittal.
Scajola was forced to resign as industry minister in Berlusoni’s third government in 2010 as a result of the scandal.
He was also forced to resign as interior minister in July 2002 after sparking controversy by making derogatory remarks about slain labor ministry aide Marco Biagi.
Biagi was gunned down the previous March by the Red Brigades after being denied a police escort by Scajola.
In off-the-cuff remarks, Scajola said Biagi had been a “pain in the a**” and that had Biagi been given an escort “three people would have been killed instead of one”.
Scajola also served as government-program minister under Berlusconi from 2003 to 2005.
Berlusconi said Thursday that he was “pained” by the arrest.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Top Officials Arrested in Milan Expo Corruption Probe
Primo Greganti, others accused of graft on tenders
Milan — Top officials including the man credited with keeping the now-defunct Italian Communist Party (PCI) out of the epochal Milan-based Bribesville corruption scandals of the early 1990s were arrested Thursday in connection with suspected graft on tenders for the Lombardy capital’s much-awaited Expo 2015.
Primo Greganti, the former treasurer who confounded investigators by taking all raps and refusing to say he had passed money on to any PCI higher-up, was among seven people arrested on as part of a probe into alleged bid rigging and corruption linked to next year’s Universal Exhibition in Milan. As well as Greganti, the suspects included Expo 2015 procurement planning manager Angelo Paris and Antonio Rognoni, former manager of the regional infrastructure company Infrastrutture Lombarde. This was the second arrest warrant served against Rognoni in less than two months after the ex-manager was arrested in late March on charges of criminal association, bid rigging, fraud against the regional authorities and forgery in connection with the outsourcing of legal consulting and contract-control services.
The names of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi and his former right-hand men Cesare Previti, serving time for bribing judges, and Gianni Letta also reportedly appeared in the case documents, ANSA sources said, although the three are not under investigation.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Total Tax Receipts Increase by 1.8% in First Quarter
Crackdown on tax evasion and increased VAT boost receipts
(ANSA) — Rome, May 5 — Tax receipts rose by 1.8% in the first quarter of 2014 compared with the same time last year, due to a crackdown on fiscal evasion, Italy’s economy ministry said Monday.
Receipts totalled 88.9 billion euros in the first three months of the year, the ministry said.
Tax income from inspections and investigations of potential tax dodgers was up by as much as 9.1% and was worth some 141 million euros, the MEF said.
Income from the value-added tax, which the government raised to 22% from 21% last year, also rose by 4.4% in Q1, or 894 million euros, compared to the first quarter of 2013, the ministry said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Intesa Sanpaolo Makes All 65,000 Employees Shareholders
Italy’s second-biggest bank holds ‘constructive union meetings’
(ANSA) — Turin, May 6 — Italy’s second-biggest bank Intesa Sanpaolo reached a deal with labor unions on Tuesday that will make all of its 65,000 employees shareholders.
On average, shares are worth the equivalent of 920 euros. Mauro Bossolo, adjunct secretary general of Intesa, said he was satisfied with the deal after a “constructive meeting” with labor leaders. Intesa is No.2 to Unicredit in terms of market capital.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ENI Outgoing CEO Says Kashagan Still Biggest Problem
Paolo Scaroni hands baton to Claudio Descalzi
Rome — The main problem facing Italian oil giant ENI SpA is the Kashagan oil field in the Caspian Sea, said outgoing chief executive of the Italian oil giant ENI, Paolo Scaroni, at his last shareholder assembly on Thursday, in which the baton was formally passed to his successor, Claudio Descalzi.
“When I arrived in 2005, the outgoing (CEO) Vittorio Mincato gave me a piece of paper on which was written ‘problem no. 1, Kashagan’. If I should do the same thing for Descalzi, I would also write Kashagan,” said Scaroni, making reference to the world’s largest — and deeply problematic — oil discovery in the last 30 years, which has been beset by years of delays, billions of dollars in budget overruns, and most recently by news that roughly 80 km of gas and oil pipelines must be replaced due to leaks.
ENI has already sunk 8.2 billion of the roughly 50 billion USD invested by consortium partners in the project over the last 17 years.
Thursday’s shareholder assembly confirmed the promotion of Descalzi — until now ENI’s chief of access and exploration operations — after ENI’s largest shareholder, the Italian government, selected him late last month as Scaroni’s third mandate was coming to a close.
Scaroni held the CEO post for the longest period in ENI’s history save that of its legendary founder, Enrico Mattei, whose life was cut short by a plane crash in 1962.
The assembly also confirmed the government pick for a new chairman of the board, steel heiress and ex-leader of Italian industrialists Emma Marcegaglia, who replaces Giuseppe Recchi.
Scaroni and Recchi told the assembly in a letter that they are handing over a strengthened company whose debts have been halved in the last three years.
“We deliver to our shareholders a company that is increasingly focused on the upstream, with excellent prospects for profitability and cash generation,” the letter said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Tax Funding Dispute Breaks Out Between Renzi, Grasso
Renzi appears on ‘verge of nervous breakdown’ says Brunetta
(ANSA) — Rome, May 9 — Debate raged Friday between Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso and Premier Matteo Renzi over whether the cost of tax reductions, including a 10-billion-euro income-tax cut, has actually be properly accounted for in the national budget.
Grasso said that a study by Senate’s economic research office, which he defended as independent, has raised questions about the tax plan contained in a decree which Renzi recently pushed through parliament.
Renzi retorted that the decree has been properly “covered” by cash freed from changes to spending, millions of euros recovered from tracking down tax evaders, a new levy on commercial banks, and sale of some State assets.
The Senate concerns were “technically false” and based on flawed information, added Renzi. In response, Grasso said that he was “guarantor of the autonomy and independence” of the Senate research office and its assessment of the affordability of the tax decree.
The Senate “is an institution that deserves respect,” added Grasso.
Renzi was going too far by showing disrespect for the Senate and its budget review process, said Renato Brunetta, House whip for the opposition Forza Italia (FI).
He added the Renzi appeared to be “on the verge of a nervous breakdown, he does not know what he says, he insults (and) provokes”.
Defence of the Senate research office also came from junior economy minister Stefano Fassina, a member of Renzi’s own Democratic Party (PD).
“The Senate Budget service, like the corresponding service of the House, is an institution of excellence, with a high level of professionalism and independence,” said Fassina. “This is serious, the continuous attacks of the premier on an institution crucial to the independence of Parliament,” Fassina added. Renzi’s budget decree included a 10-billion euro annual income-tax cut for lower-income earners, worth an average savings of about 80 euros per person per month, and will begin part-way through this year so the total price tag for 2014 will be about seven billion euros.
The cabinet decree also confirmed a 10% reduction to the Irap regional business tax and released an eight-billion euro payment on the 68 billion euros in outstanding government debts to businesses.
On the revenue side of the ledger to cover the tax cuts, Renzi announced that shifts and reductions in government spending will total 6.9 billion euros for 2014, rising 14 billion euros next year, through such measures as reducing government office space, increasing efficiency at the local, regional, and national level, plus a deep reduction in the number of government cars in use.
As well, about 400 million euros will be saved from trimming the defence ministry, including 150 million euros from a review of the F-35 fighter-jet program, Renzi has said.
Other sources will include a new levy on private-sector banks that are parking money inside the central bank, worth an estimated 1.4 billion euros, as well as savings found for this year in a major spending-review exercise led by Commissioner Carlo Cottarelli.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Man Convicted of Leaking Fiat Salaries
Ex-consultant gave rivals Marchionne’s pay details
(ANSA) — Turin, May 7 — A former Fiat consultant was convicted Wednesday of leaking to rival firms the salaries paid to top managers including CEO Sergio Marchionne. Michele Consiglio, 42, got a suspended sentence of 14 months in what the Italian press dubbed the “Fiat-Wikileaks” case.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Bringing Home Marines From India ‘Neither Simple Nor Quick’
Italy presses for international arbitration in murder case
(ANSA) — Rome, May 7 — Bringing home two Italian marines held in India for murder will be “neither simple nor quick,” Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini told the Lower House during question time. Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone have been kept in India under mobility restrictions while awaiting trial for over two years, after allegedly shooting dead fishermen Valentine (aka Gelastine) and Ajesh Binki aboard their trawler.
Last month the Italian government announced it was opening a “new phase” in the saga, replacing its special envoy on the case and sending its ambassador back to New Delhi to help steer the case towards arbitration by an international like the UN.
Italy is currently appealing to India’s top court against NIA anti-terrorism prosectors taking the case. Rome has also requested the pair be allowed to return home and the whole case be dropped after countless delays in Indian proceedings, which Mogherini says the government “does not recognize”. Speaking to the House, she said that she and Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti had both spoken to the pair “a half hour ago, to outline all the steps involved in the new phase we’re in”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Priceless Paintings Threatened by Italian Gallery’s Broken Air Con
Cuts to Italy’s culture budget are threatening to destroy a series of Renaissance paintings, after the Borghese Gallery’s air conditioning system broke two months ago
Priceless masterpieces by Renaissance masters including Raphael, Titian and Caravaggio could be seriously damaged by excessive heat and humidity following the collapse of the air conditioning system at the Borghese Gallery in Rome.
The renowned gallery is one of Italy’s most popular tourist attractions with more than 500,000 visitors a year, but appears to be the latest casualty from dramatic cuts in arts funding…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Schulz Blasts Berlusconi’s ‘Shameful Attacks’
EP Speaker says Socialist victory may repair dented public faith
(ANSA) — Brussels, May 7 — European Parliament Speaker Martin Schulz, the Socialist candidate to be the next European Commission president, said he hoped his bloc wins the upcoming EP elections to help regain public confidence dented by Silvio Berlusconi’s “shameful” attacks on Germany. Schulz led the criticism after three-time Italian premier Berlusconi recently said that German people denied the existence of Nazi death camps. “With a Socialist victory we’ll regain the public faith that we need, including to avoid shameful attacks from someone like Berlusconi,” Schulz said.
“Sometimes I’m surprised that I’m the one who defends (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel from this man more than her own party does”.
Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party is in the European People’s Party (EPP) along with Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU). But that has not stopped Berlusconi criticising Merkel and the austerity policies she championed during the eurozone debt crisis.
Euroskeptic parties and far-right groups are expected to do well in this month’s European elections and Schulz warned that there is “a real risk that German Nazis can occupy seats in the European parliament”.
But he added that “a high turnout in Germany may avoid this disgrace”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Broadcaster Forced to Quit by BBC After Accidentally Playing a Song With the N-Word
A veteran BBC broadcaster’s career has come to an end after he unwittingly played a record containing the racist N-word
The BBC was facing criticsm last night after it forced a radio presenter to resign after he unwittingly played a song containing a deeply offensive racist slur. David Lowe, a veteran radio broadcaster, played a song on his show which, unbeknown to him, contained a phrase using the N-word.
When a listener complained Mr Lowe offered either to apologise on air or resign. His BBC managers initially said he would have to resign, but after the affair threatened to become public the corporation underwent a sudden about turn and has now stated he can have his job back.
However the broadcaster said he had been left so stressed by the BBC’s attitude that he no longer feels well enough to continue working…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: BBC DJ David Lowe Quits in Latest Racism Row
Veteran local radio DJ resigns after broadcasting N-word days after Jeremy Clarkson given final warning by corporation
Veteran BBC local radio DJ David Lowe has resigned after broadcasting a 1932 version of The Sun Has Got His Hat On that contained the N-word.
Lowe said he had no idea the word was in the song recorded by the dance band Ambrose and his Orchestra when he played it during his Sunday night Singers and Swingers show on Radio Devon. He resigned after 32 years with the BBC after a listener complained and his offer of an on-air apology was rejected…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Doreen Lawrence Denies Link to Group Accused of Farage Threats
Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon played down her involvement with Unite Against Fascism (UAF), whose members are accused of trying to silence the Ukip leader.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Doncaster Mosque Gets Go-Ahead to Build Car Park
A Doncaster mosque has been given the go-ahead to extend and build a car park on land near the town centre.
Doncaster Council’s planning committee has given the green light to the proposal to build the 35 space car park, purely for the use of worshippers at Hyde Park’s Jamal Mosque, on open land off Bentinck Close…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: EDL Demonstration Takes Place in Rotherham
Rotherham was brought to a standstill when hundreds of English Defence League protesters marched through the town.
Hundreds of people from the EDL marched through the town centre between 1pm and 3pm on Saturday, with another large group from Unite Against Fascism holding a counter-protest at the same time.
A huge police presence of around 1,000 officers from forces around the country outnumbered both groups and ensured the march took place largely peacefully…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Islamic Schools Plot: Radicalism Never Gives Up — it Just Finds a New Route
By Telegraph View
Moderate Muslims need the authorities’ support against fundamentalism
We make no apology for returning today to the question of the organised efforts of an active group of hard-line Muslims to radicalise schools in Birmingham. Although this newspaper has been at the forefront of investigating this issue, it is far from our preoccupation alone: most recently, the National Association of Head Teachers has expressed deep concern over a fundamentalist agenda to drive out secular or moderately religious Birmingham school heads and replace them with those who support policies such as sex segregation and exaggerated adherence to religious edicts that heavily restrict teaching…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Islamism in Birmingham Schools: How the BBC is Selectively Reporting the ‘Trojan Horse’ Plot
By Andrew Gilligan
The Trojan Horse plotters and their allies on Twitter have been getting touchingly excited about a BBC report into a secret meeting on Wednesday between officials of Birmingham City Council and the heads of the 21 schools involved. Alas, their claims that it “proved” the plot was a “hoax” don’t stand up to scrutiny.
It’s true that one of the council officials at the meeting claimed they’d seen “no evidence” of extremism in the schools, a line seized on by the Beeb. That claim, however, is clearly false, the latest of many attempts by Birmingham City Council to ignore or downplay the problems and its own role in creating them. There is, in fact, clear evidence of extremism, both religious and political, in some of these schools…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Sadistic East Lancashire Dad Beat Daughter for Not Reading Holy Book
A ‘SADISTIC’ Burnley dad who beat his terrified 10-year-old daughter ‘up to 40 times’ with a ladle for not reading the Holy Book is facing jail. The 46-year-old told the girl to bend over before ordering her brother to hit her 120 times with the utensil, Burnley magistrates were told.
He then took the spoon off the boy and repeatedly struck the 10-year-old victim as she sobbed and gasped for breath, the court heard. The father, who also kicked the child in the hip, back and stomach, threatened the girl’s mother with violence after she tried to intervene.
He then said he was going to Pakistan and left the house, the court heard…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Cairo’s Italian School Leonardo Da Vinci Opens to Egyptians
‘To foster job creation and integration’, Ambassador Massari
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO — The Italian international school Leonardo da Vinci, part of an educational tradition dating back to 1732, has now opened its doors to all communities. The institute, which has classes for children from early childhood until high school, has thus taken a new direction, placing greater value on diversity, developing the ability to understand and respect cultural differences, human rights and cooperation among different populations. The “new project”, underscored Italy’s ambassador to Cairo, Maurizio Massari, “will foster integration between the two countries — not only through the student community — and will also enable greater job creation.” Teaching children using Italian curricula with Italian, Arabic, and English instruction will lead to economic returns for Italy, he said, since “ it will create a contingent of young Egyptians that from an early age will have a connection with the Italian culture and language, and will feel especially close to our country through the sharing of values and interests”.
This human capital “will be able to get jobs in the Egyptian labor market in sectors linked to cooperation with Italy and — if there is the possibility — even in the Italian labor market.
The “future leaders of Egypt’s public administration that are educated in this school will have a special sensitivity towards our interests,” he said, noting that this will aid Italian companies working in Egypt. The “investment” is thus not only cultural but also economic, and the school is more affordable than other international ones in the city. The Leonardo da Vinci school is in the Boulaq area in Cairo’s historic center, easily accessible from anywhere in the Egyptian capital. The school has large classrooms, a gym, computer lab, library, pottery and carpentry workshops and a playground. The building also houses the offices of the Italian consulate, the Italian recreational center and the Dante Alighieri Institute.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Getting to the “Foggy Bottom” of Benghazi
We are engaged in a proxy war, where the stakes are the future
Since my source first uttered that directive in the days following the attack, I have written over four dozen investigative reports about the events leading up to the attack in Benghazi, the attack itself, and the consequential cover-up. On April 30, 2014, I also conducted a 90-minute interview with CIA source Robert “Tosh” Plumlee on my radio broadcast The Hagmann & Hagmann Report. Mr. Plumlee caught the attention of the Obama White House and the Holder Justice Department for posing 11 questions on a Facebook page he created specifically to “out” the arms operation.
Following that interview, I’ve spoken to Mr. Plumlee on multiple occasions off-air, only to learn that the pressure from above to simply be quiet and go away is intensifying.
Yesterday, whistleblowers were sought and protected, and their information was reported in the court of public opinion. Today, they are ignored or threatened, and ultimately vilified in a ploy for political public opinion. Their vilification is in direct proportion to the threat they pose to the official account of the events surrounding the men and materials related to the rogue elements of the U.S. State Department, the White House, and the CIA…
Reminiscent of the 18 1/2 minute gap of the subpoenaed Watergate tapes, there appears to be an 18 1/2 hour gap of the whereabouts and activities of Barack Obama. So my additional or replacement question is where was Barack Obama during this period, who was he with, and exactly what were the nature of his activities?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: At Least 40 People Die After Migrant Boat Sinks Off Coast
At least 40 people died and 51 others were rescued after a boat carrying mostly sub-Saharan African migrants sank off Libya’s coast east of Tripoli, the Libyan government said on Sunday. The vessel appeared to have got into difficulty around 37 miles (60 km) east of Tripoli, Rami Kaal, a spokesman for the Libyan ministry of interior said.
Libya’s porous borders with its sub-Saharan neighbours and its proximity to Italy and Malta across the Mediterranean have made the North African country a common transit route for migrants trying to reach Europe.
Many migrants pay more than $1,000 to criminal gangs for the sea journey from Libya, where the government struggles to control a country still full of weapons and brigades of former rebels since the civil war that ousted Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Who is Sabotaging Israeli-US Intelligence Collaboration?
Jeff Stein, the Spy Talk columnist for the resurrected Newsweek let loose with accusations of Israeli intelligence industrial espionage in the US as the cause of the holdup in the visa waiver program for Israeli visitors. That does not square with the facts of the enduring 29 year relations and contributions between the two allies. That was a reference to the pledge made by Israel not to engage in espionage following the conviction of American spy for Israel, Jonathan Pollard. Subsequent there were more bizarre allegations from Stein at Newsweek. This time it was about an episode involving former Vice President Gore during a trip to Israel. Allegedly, a Secret Service agent found a Mossad operative hiding in an air shaft listening to conversations.
That raised statements from former Mossad director, Danny Yatom, in a Times of Israel (TOI) report this weekend suggesting that was ‘delusional.’ He said Israel’s spy agency had less intrusive means of monitoring conversations. Former Israeli military intelligence chief, Maj. Gen Amos Yadlin, commented in another T0I article, “Israel does not spy on the US “, further suggesting the Newsweek reports were “unreliable” and sources “questionable”. Israel’s Strategic Minister, Yuval Steinitz asked the obvious question was “Someone was trying to sabotage relations?” Moreover, he was going to investigate this during discussions with the Administration this coming week in Washington, DC.
Who is Newsweek’s Jeff Stein?…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
13 Soldiers Killed in Suicide Bombing in Yemen
ADEN, Yemen, May 11 (Xinhua) — Up to 13 soldiers were killed while several others wounded in a suicide car bombing that targeted the military police headquarters in Yemen’s southeastern province of Hadramout on Sunday afternoon, a government official told Xinhua…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
20 Soldiers Killed in Gunmen Attack in Northern Iraq
MOSUL, Iraq, May 11 (Xinhua) — A total of 20 soldiers were killed in an attack targeting the Iraqi army in the northern province of Nineveh, a provincial police source told Xinhua.
The attack occurred late Saturday night when dozens of gunmen, believed to be linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant ( ISIL), an al-Qaida breakaway group in Iraq, attacked an army base in Ayn al-Jahash area, some 70 km south of the provincial capital of Mosul, the source said on condition of anonymity…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
7 Killed in Gunmen Attack in Iraq
BAQUBA, Iraq, May 11 (Xinhua) — Seven members of a government- backed Sahwa paramilitary group were killed early Sunday by gunmen attack in Iraq’s eastern province of Diyala, a provincial police source said.
The incident took place when gunmen believed to be linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), an al-Qaida breakaway group in Iraq, carried out a pre-dawn attack on an outpost of a Sahwa group at a village near al-Udhiem area in north of the provincial capital of Baquba, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
A Manifesto of Response to Islam and Its Actions
It is high time for a bold and clear response to Islam from the Infidels of the world as they call us. I am not talking kiss up, hate or islamaphobia but an honest, clear and courageous response. IQ al Rassooli was born in Iraq and raised a Muslim. I am proud to count him as a real friend. His native language is Arabic and he has deeply studied Islam and has thoroughly rejected it. He has written books and numerous articles exposing the real message of Islam and Sharia law which has gotten him many death threats.
IQ al Rassooli calls my national show each week from an undisclosed location out of Europe. Every Tuesday first hour, (listen to the archives at http://www.therothshow.com) IQ and I have taken on the headlines regarding Islam, its teachings and implications to America and the world. He has offered hundreds of thousands of dollars to anyone who could refute even one word he has said about Islam. There have been no takers in the 10 years I have been talking with him.
IQ demonstrates rare courage and integrity and has put together a unique manifesto, identifying the danger, the behaviors and the appropriate responses for us infidels. Islam certainly has its manifestos, plans and Sharia law outlining their evil agenda against us. It is high time for those of ‘difference’ to have their Manifesto also. Below, is the entire Manifesto, unedited, put together by IQ, a courageous and honest former Muslim who loves God, America and freedom more than many of us do. Read it and learn.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Christians Persecuted at Alarming Rate in Iran, Arab World, US Report Says
Christians are under siege in the Middle East, and the Obama administration is not doing enough to stop religious persecution by its allies, according to a new report from a bipartisan federal commission.
The report, from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, faulted usual suspects Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, as well as North Korea. The number of Christians in the Middle East has plunged to just 10 percent of the overall population from more than 25 percent in 2011.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gunmen Abduct and Kill 20 Iraqi Soldiers in Mosul
(AGI) Mosul, May 11- Gunmen attacked a military base in Ain al-Jahash south of Mosul in northern Iraq on Sunday. The militants abducted and later killed 20 soldiers, whose bodies were found nearby, police sources said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon’s Refugee Influx Alarms Christians
Declining proportion of Christians in the country has sparked concerns over potential changes to the political system.
Jezzine, Lebanon — The mayor of Jezzine, a Maronite and Greek Catholic town perched upon the pine-covered hills of southern Lebanon, is voicing an increasingly common fear among the tiny country’s ancient Christian community: that they are under threat. “I’m fighting to keep Christians in Jezzine,” said Khalil Harfouche, gesturing at the rolling green hills that neatly recede into the distance.
Anxiety among Christians over their declining proportion in the country has simmered for decades, but the unprecedented Syrian refugee influx has brought it to a boiling point.
“The number of Muslims is increasing more and more, and by expanding towards Christian regions, they (the Christians) will consider that there’s no room for them any more,” he told Al Jazeera.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Militants Carry Out Deadly Attack on Troops in Northern Iraq
Militants have attacked a remote military barracks in northern Iraq, killing more than a dozen soldiers. The incident underlines the Shiite-led government’s struggle to establish stability in Sunni-dominated regions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Warns of MERS Risk From Camels
Saudi Arabia said people handling camels should wear masks and gloves to prevent spreading Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), issuing such a warning for the first time as cases of the potentially fatal virus neared 500 in the kingdom.
Health experts say camels are the most likely animal source of infection for the disease, which the Saudi Health Ministry said on Sunday three more people had caught and four had died from.
First reported two years ago in Saudi Arabia, MERS is a coronavirus like SARS, which originated in animals and killed around 800 people worldwide after first appearing in China in 2002. There is no vaccine or anti-viral treatment against it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sharia Saudi Arabia: Men Get 32 Years Prison, 4,500 Lashes for Valentine’s Day Party
Five Saudi men have been sentenced to 32 years in prison and 4,500 lashes by a criminal court in Saudi Arabia — for holding a Valentine’s Day party.
The law breaking men were caught at a rented rest house in the Al-Farouq area of Buraidah Qassim province and accused of holding a party with women who were unrelated to them, drinking and dancing.
The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice is the Saudi Arabian government’s agency’s religious police or mutaween (meaning pious) to enforce Sharia Law within the Islamic nation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Contentious Referenda Proceed in Eastern Ukraine
Secessionists have defied Western objections and pressed ahead with self-rule referenda in Ukraine’s eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Kyiv says the voting is a “farce” backed by Russia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
East Ukraine Referendum Raises Fears of Dismemberment
Rebels pressed ahead with a referendum on self-rule in east Ukraine on Sunday and fighting flared anew in a conflict that has raised fears of civil war and pitched Russia and the West into their worst crisis since the Cold War.
Clashes broke out around a television tower on the outskirts of the rebel stronghold of Slaviansk shortly before voters made their way to polling stations through streets blocked by barricades of felled trees, tyres and rusty machinery.
“I wanted to come as early as I could,” said Zhenya Denyesh, a 20-year-old student voting at a three-storey concrete university building. “We all want to live in our own country.”
Asked what he thought would follow the vote, organised in a matter of weeks by rebels, he replied: “It will still be war.”
In nearby Mariupol, scene of fierce fighting last week, officials said there were only eight polling centres for half a million people. Queues grew to hundreds of metres and at one centre voting urns were set out on the pavement against a wall.
Western leaders threatened more sanctions against Russia in the key areas of energy, financial services and engineering if it continued what they regard as efforts to destabilise Ukraine.
Moscow denies any role in the rebellion or any ambitions to absorb the mainly Russian-speaking east, an industrial hub, into the Russian Federation following its annexation of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea after a referendum in March.
For a vote on which so much hangs, the referendum in the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, which has declared itself a “People’s Republic”, seemed a decidedly ad hoc affair. Ballot papers have been printed without security provision, polling stations were limited in many areas and there was confusion on quite what people were asked to endorse.
Engineer Sergei, 33, voting in the industrial centre of Mariupol, said he would answer “Yes” to the question on the ballot paper, printed in Russian and Ukrainian: “Do you support the act of state self-rule of the Donetsk People’s Republic?”
“We’re all for the independence of the Donetsk republic,” he said. “It means leaving behind that fascist, pro-American government (in Kiev), which brought no one any good.”
Autonomy, independence, annexation
But in the same queue of voters, 54-year-old Irina, saw a “Yes” vote as endorsement of autonomy within Ukraine.
“I want Donetsk to have its own powers, some kind of autonomy, separate from Kiev. I’m not against a united Ukraine, but not under those people we did not choose, who seized power and are going to ruin the country,” she said.
Voting is due to end in the hastily arranged referendum in 53 locations at 10 p.m. (1900 GMT) and the rebels hope to have the ballots counted by Monday afternoon, although its outcome will not be widely recognised internationally or by Kiev.
The rebellion in the east began after President Viktor Yanokovich fled to Russia in February under pressure from mass protests in Kiev by pro-Western activists angered by his decision to discard a cooperation accord with the European Union in favour of closer ties with Moscow.
Some see a “Yes” vote as endorsement of autonomy within Ukraine, some as a move to independence and others as a nod to absorption by Russia.
Annexation is favoured by the more prominent rebels, but the ambiguity may reflect their fears an explicit call for full “independence” might not have garnered the support they seek and could leave them in an exposed position towards Kiev.
Ukrainian leader Oleksander Turchinov has urged eastern political leaders to join a “Round Table” discussion on devolution of powers in Ukraine. But he says he would not negotiate with “terrorists”, a formulation meant to exclude most of the more prominent rebel leaders.
The Ukrainian Defence Ministry said rebels attacked their forces guarding a television tower on the outskirts of Slaviansk. One Ukrainian serviceman was wounded in fighting.
Sergei, a fighter speaking near an outer checkpoint, blamed Ukrainian forces for the clash. “They are probably trying to put people off voting, but it won’t work.”
Presidential administration head Sergei Pashinski said Ukrainian forces had “destroyed” a separatist base and checkpoints in a broad operation around Slaviansk and nearby Kramatorsk in retaliation for attacks on their posts.
“This is not a referendum. This is a desultry attempt by killers and terrorists to cover their activity,” he told a news conference.
Putin’s call ignored
Sunday’s vote went ahead despite a call by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday to postpone it, a move that had raised hopes for an easing of tension. Western leaders have accused Putin of destabilising Ukraine, and Washington criticised as ‘provocative’ a trip he made to Crimea on Friday.
The rebels in the east and the Kremlin say the pro-European Kiev government that replaced Yanukovich lacks legitimacy.
Kiev aims to banish such questions by holding a presidential election on May 25 but the West says Russia wants to disrupt it and threatened economic sanctions on Moscow over the weekend…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Hollande Says Ukraine Referendum is Null
(AGI) Baku, May 11 — The separatist referendum currently being held in the eastern regions of Ukraine is “null”, according to French President Francois Hollande. Speaking during his visit to Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic, he said: “Only elections count”, alluding to Ukraine’s presidential election, scheduled for May, 25.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Our People Massacre Civilians in Odessa, And Politico Blames Putin
Why are Americans puzzled that foreigners consider the U.S. to be the nation that’s the biggest threat to world peace?
Consider how we are being lied to by the propaganda media that pass for “news” media in our country.
Of course, there was the infamous example of how we were lied to about “Saddam’s WMD,” which lies caused us to support invading Iraq and replacing there a local tyrant with something that’s far worse for the Iraqi people. We don’t complain about having been deceived into wasting $3 trillion of our own tax dollars, and thousands of American lives, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives, in a venture that increased misery for Iraqis and that produced nothing of benefit to ourselves (but lots of business for American-owned firms). However, there are lots of recent examples, too, such as today’s civil war in Ukraine, which was caused by Barack Obama, but which our “news” media blame instead on Vladimir Putin.
Here is documentation that the regime that the U.S. put in place in Ukraine in February 2014 is massacring Russian-speaking Ukrainians, and here is more; and following here will be provided documentation that Obama did it:
Max Blumenthal at Alternet, headlined on February 24th, “Is the U.S. Backing Neo-Nazis in Ukraine?” and he provided evidence that the answer is yes.
On 16 March 2014, OpedNews had an exclusive news report from Ukraine, “The Nazis Even Hitler Was Afraid Of,” which documented that Obama was backing Ukraine’s neo-Nazis to take over that country…
Russian-speaking Ukrainians are being terrorized and massacred by people that Obama placed in power, and Americans are deceived to blame the victims, and to blame Russian leader Vladimir Putin, as the source of the problem.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Romania Demands Explanation Over Russian Threat
Romania has demanded that Russia explain remarks by its deputy prime minister. Dmitry Rogozin threatened to make a return visit to Moldova’s breakaway Trans-Dniester region in a strategic TU-160 bomber aircraft.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
U. S. Says Ukraine Referendum Illegal
(AGI) Washington, May 11 — The U.S. Department of State has declared ‘illegal’ the separatist referendum carried out in Ukraine. “We will not acknowledge the outcome,” said spokesperson Jen Psaki. “In addition, we are disappointed that the Russian government has not used its influence to forestall the referendum,” added Psaki.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine: Turnout High in Luhansk Region Referendum
(AGI) Luhansk, May 11 — Turnout in the referendum on self-determination in the Lugansk region was 65 percent at noon local time on Sunday, said head of the region’s central elections commission Oleksandr Malykhin. Around 80 percent of polling stations were open, but attempts to open stations in the northern districts of the region — Svatovo, Melovoye, Belokurakino and Troitsk — failed, he said at a briefing in Lugansk. Voter turnout in the Donetsk region was lower, at 32 percent.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Scrambles Fighter Jets, Intercepts Airplane Carrying Russian Deputy Premier
A few short hours ago, a Russian delegation which contained the deputy premier of Russia Dmitry Rogozin was flying back from Moldova’s capital Chisinau following his visit to Tiraspol as part of May 9 celebrations, when Ukraine scrambled fighter jets to intercept the Yak-42 carrying the Russian vice premier and forced it to promptly land back in Moldova.
The reason why this is surprising is that Rogozin was well aware in advance of taking off that Ukraine had closed its airspace to the Russian delegation.
Text of Ukraine’s refusal to overfly its airspace for the board carrying passenger D.Rogozin https://t.co/QzHIMeUaQChttps://t.co/O68QcSN0uF
— Dmitry Rogozin (@DRogozin) May 10, 2014
But the punchline is that while Rogozin managed to fly into Moldova over Romanian airspace, on his return the EU and NATO member country served him with a surprise — it followed in Ukraine’s footsteps and blocked off its airspace to the Russian Deputy PM as well.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Guardsmen Open Fire on Crowd
DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian national guardsmen have opened fire on a crowd outside a town hall in eastern Ukraine and an official for the region’s insurgents says there are fatalities…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
3 Killed in Blast Inside Mosque in Pakistan
The incident occurred near Pardah Bagh (women park) in the jurisdiction of Faqirabad Police station. The security forces and rescue teams rushed to the area and shifted the injured to Lady Reading Hospital. The death toll could rise as some of the injured were reportedly in critical condition. Eye-witnesses said a suicide bomber blew himself up in the mosque. However, police has not yet confirmed it. According to reports, firing was also reported after the blast at Pardabagh, which is famous for wedding ceremonies.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Lawyer for Pakistan Doctor Who Aided CIA’s Bin Laden Hunt Quits Case After Threats
The lawyer for the Pakistani doctor who helped the U.S. find Osama bin Laden said Sunday he wouldn’t represent him any longer after facing threats from militants, even as America pushes for the man to be freed.
Lawyer Samiullah Khan Afridi said he made the decision after he received what he described as a “final” warning from militants. Afridi said he represented Dr. Shakil Afridi on humanitarian grounds, but said it is now not possible for him to continue. The two Afridis are not related.
“Now they have warned me to either quit the case or be ready to face the dire consequences,” Afridi told The Associated Press. “My family and I are under severe threat.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Sex-Obsessed World of Brunei
By Maureen Callahan
Under Sharia law, the following is considered criminal behavior, punishable by fines, jail, amputation of limbs, public flogging or death by stoning: absence from Friday prayer services; becoming pregnant out of wedlock; wearing indecent clothing, and for women, refusal to wear a hijab; employing a non-Muslim babysitter; the use of the word “Allah” by Christians and the discussion of faith by any non-Muslims; publicly eating or drinking during Ramadan; theft; homosexuality; and adultery.
The Sultan, now 67, has slowly been moving Brunei in this direction for decades, but this recent, drastic declaration has no clear motive. Brunei is so rich with oil it’s fully independent; nor is it a target of Islamic extremists.
Here and abroad, the brothers are infamous for their sex parties and their harems composed mainly of underage girls.
“It’s a radical double standard,” says Jillian Lauren, who wrote about her life as a member of Jefri’s harem in her memoir “Some Girls.” “They have more money than anyone else. I know that they both have been married and divorced multiple times. It’s really hypocritical.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Relations With Muslim Uighurs Worsen as Tensions Rise After Attacks
After a string of brazen attacks attributed to Islamist extremists, Chinese authorities have ratcheted up surveillance of and restrictions on Muslim Uighurs as their relations with the large minority population continue to deteriorate.
In the past week, Chinese authorities have clashed with residents of the restive western province of Xinjiang, sentenced others to prison and announced new measures that critics say amount to religious and ethnic persecution.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thai Political Crisis, China Territorial Disputes Top ASEAN Summit
Southeast Asian leaders have expressed concerns over mounting tension in several countries in the region, singling out Thailand and China in particular. For the first time, Myanmar is hosting the summit.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Deloitte Warns Nigeria to Concentrate on Social Issues
(AGI) — Lagos, May 8 — Nigeria, hosting this year’s World Economic Forum on Africa, should concentrate on greater social progress in addition to increasing its GDP so as to improve its development. The warning was contained in a report by Deloitte, which emphasises that the Nigerian National Statistics Agency had estimated for 2013 a GDP of USD 509.9 billion. Nigeria has about 170 million inhabitants and this makes the Nigerian economy 60 percent larger than South Africa’s GDP of USD 322.6 billion in 2013.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Islam, The West and Nigeria: Whose Faith, Whose Girls?
By B.C.
ALMOST any dramatic development in the Muslim world can reignite arguments within the West about the “real” nature of Islam and Islamic culture. And the kidnapping of more than 200 girls in Nigeria by an ultra-Islamist militia has been no exception…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigerian Girls Held Near Their School for 11 Days — Yet Were Not Rescued
by Colin Freeman
Boko Haram held the 276 Nigerian schoolgirls for 11 days at a site only 20 miles from their village — and yet the authorities still failed to rescue them
The Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram were held in the same spot near their school for 11 days without the authorities intervening, relatives claimed on Sunday. In the latest attack on the Nigerian authorities’ handling of the crisis, it was alleged that the girls languished in a camp just 20 miles from the north-east town of Chibok where they were abducted last month…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Behind the Rise of Boko Haram — Ecological Disaster, Oil Crisis, Spy Games
by Nafeez Ahmed
Islamist militancy in Nigeria is being strengthened by western and regional fossil fuel interests
The kidnapping of over 200 Nigerian school girls, and the massacre of as many as 300 civilians in the town of Gamboru Ngala, by the militant al-Qaeda affiliated group, Boko Haram, has shocked the world.
But while condemnations have rightly been forthcoming from a whole range of senior figures from celebrities to government officials, less attention has been paid to the roots of the crisis. Instability in Nigeria, however, has been growing steadily over the last decade — and one reason is climate change…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Appeals on Twitter for Kidnapped Nigerian Girls
(AGI) Vatican, May 10 — In a message from his “@Pontifex” account on Twitter, Pope Francis sent out the following appeal: “Let us all join in prayer for the immediate release of the schoolgirls kidnapped in Nigeria.” .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
South Sudan Factions Cite Ceasefire Violations
South Sudan rebels and government forces have accused each other of violating the juvenile nation’s latest ceasefire deal. Massive international pressure led to them agreeing to allow humanitarian access two days ago.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mexicans Create Their Own Second Amendment (Video)
Brave Mexican farmers and ranchers are defeating better equipped drug cartels and corrupt government and restoring order in a collapsed system.
The wicked central government is now being forced to admit that a fledgling Mexican 2 amendment is growing and is the country’s only hope.
Who was it that said,”Evil takes over only when good people do nothing”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Venezuela Refuses to Recognize Kiev Authorities
Venezuela “does not recognize and will not recognize as legal a government that emerged as a result of a state coup,” the Bolivarian Republic’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
“In view of a regrettable development of events in Ukraine, the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela confirms that it rejects violent processes that, with the support of the United States and NATO, led to the overthrow of the government, jeopardizing the peace and unity of the Ukrainian people as well as the stability of the entire Eurasian region,” the statement says.
“Until free elections are held in Ukraine and broad dialogue starts, Venezuela will keep warning the world’s nations of the danger of foreign interference, speaking for the creation of a multipolar world that guarantees the peace and sovereignty of all peoples,” it says.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
At Least 40 Immigrants Die in Shipwreck Off Libyan Coast
(AGI) Tripoli, May 11 — A boat carrying immigrants to Italy sank off the coast of Tripoli. At least 40 people died, the Libyan government reported.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
At Least 24 Libya Migrants Drowned in Mediterranean Capsizing
Bodies found by Libyan officials after boat carrying 130 to Europe capsizes, with fears death toll could rise
At least 24 migrants have died attempting to reach Europe after a boat carrying 130 capsized off the coast of Libya. Libyan officials said the bodies were found yesterday after the bottom of the small boat collapsed, causing it to capsize at al-Qarbouli, 30 miles east of Tripoli. Fifty-two people, mostly Africans, were immediately rescued, but at least 54 remain missing…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Authorities Search Waters Off Libya for Survivors After Deadly Migrant Shipwreck
A makeshift boat carrying over a hundred immigrants has capsized off the coast of Libya, killing dozens. Authorities have begun searching the water for survivors.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Nearly 400 Syrian Migrants Land in Taranto
(AGI) Taranto, May 11 — An Italian Navy frigate docked in the southern city of Taranto, with 380 Syrian migrants, who were rescued a few days ago as part of operation “Mare Nostrum”. The group included 34 women and seven children. Police authorities and Red Cross operators have been deployed in the port area where the frigate is moored.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Some 35 Tunisian Migrants Land at Favignana
(AGI) Trapani, May 10 — Some 35 Tunisian migrants landed at Favignana on Saturday. All male and in good health, they were intercepted on dry land by Carabinieri officers. The coastguard carried out a sea search, identifying and seizing their 10 metre boat off Cala Rotonda. The migrants will be transferred to Trapani on Sunday.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Police Says Migrant Arrivals Increase Terror Risk
Over 20,000 have landed on Italy shores so far this year
Rome — Italian Police Chief Alessandro Pansa warned Thursday that the waves of migrant arrivals to Italy were increasing the threat of terrorist groups setting up bases. “Militants and potential militants of terrorist organisations can arrive in Europe along with the desperate people searching for bread,” said Pansa. “These organisations are involved in the trafficking of migrants”. Italy southern shores are often the first port of call for scores of thousands of refugees and migrants who attempt the hazardous crossing from North Africa, often on unseaworthy boats, each year.
Over 20,000 migrants have arrived in Italy so far this year. According to figures released by Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti Wednesday, almost 30,000 migrants have been rescued since the start of the Mare Nostrum (Our Sea) operation, which was launched last autumn after around 400 people died in two separate migrant-boat disasters.
The government has come under fire from some opposition parties for encouraging more migrants to attempt the crossing.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Up to 200,000 Romanians and Bulgarians Now in UK
At least 30,000 Romanians and Bulgarians have come to Britain to work in the last year, as border controls were lifted to comply with EU law, figures are set to show this week
Tens of thousands of eastern European migrants have moved to Britain for work in the last year at a time when border controls were being relaxed, official figures are forecast to show this week.
In an exclusive analysis prepared for The Telegraph, economists from Oxford University predict that the figures will show at least 30,000 more Romanians and Bulgarians were working in the UK in the first three months of this year than during the same period in 2013…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
US Military May Allow Transgender Individuals to Join
(AGI) Washington DC, May 11 — The U.S. Armed Forces, after officially allowing gays and lesbians to join, may also allow transgender individuals to do so. U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said he is willing to consider the abolition of the rule that currently prevents transgender people from joining the armed forces: “I am open to those assessments, because every qualified American who wants to serve our country should have an opportunity if they fit the qualifications and can do it”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
US Military Transgender Policy Should be Reviewed: Hagel
US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is open to reviewing a Pentagon policy that bars transgender individuals from military service, he said in an interview that aired on Sunday.
“Every qualified American who wants to serve our country should have the opportunity, if they fit the qualifications and can do it,” Hagel said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” program. The policy “continually should be reviewed. I’m open to that,” the Pentagon chief said during the interview taped on Saturday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How do you know you’re being had by a slick politician? Writing in Mein Kampf about how to manipulate people and win power, Adolf Hitler said that since the average person had a very limited memory and a “slowness of understanding,” it was necessary to use only short, catchy slogans and repeat them often. Sound familiar?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
1. I am currently recovering from some sort of Corona Virus – I’ve had it for about 8 months. Suspicions are that I contracted it from the air conditioning system on a flight between Bangkok and London. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone – not even a saudi.
2. More people being sentenced to unfeasibly large numbers of lashes in Saudi Arabia. Can’t they see that corporal punishment is no deterrent to crime or are they just a sadistic bunch of retards?
3. If you are thinking of holidaying in South east Asia this year, I’d be inclined to give Brunei a miss.