Gates of Vienna News Feed 5/1/2014

A group of terrorists staged a terror attack outside a railway station in Umrumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province in China. The assailants first attacked bystanders with knives, and then set off a bomb. One bystander was killed and at least 79 people were wounded. Two of the attackers were shot and killed by police.

In other news, the unemployment rate among Italians between the ages of 15 and 24 dropped to 42.7% in March.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, Kitman, KP, LS, 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
» Finance Experts Warn That Swiss Banks Will Face Problems
» Italian Inflation Rises for First Time in 10 Months
» Italy’s Youth Jobless Rate Dips to 42.7% in March
» US Economy is a House of Cards
 
USA
» 80 Percent of Non-Organic U.S. Apples Contain Harmful Chemical That is Banned in Europe
» Abu Hamza Trial: American Follower Tells Terror Trial About US Jihad Training Camp
» Can Police Search Your Cell Phone Without a Warrant? The Supreme Court is About to Decide
» De Blasio Announces Contract Deal With Teachers’ Union
» Democrat Senator Markey’s “Hate Speech” Bot
» Denial is a River in Sudan
» Edward Snowden: NSA Spies More on Americans Than Russians
» EMS Worker Tells Mom “We’re Agents of the State” During Home Inspection
» Florida Passes Two Landmark Bills in the 2014 Legislative Session
» House Democrat: Basically All Criticism of Obama is Straight-Up Racism (Video)
» It is Time to Choose Our Side
» Leftist Hate Crime Hysteria
» Linking Vets to Hate Groups
» Lives Destroyed by Identity Theft and Data Breaches
» Mesquite Lands Act of 1986 — The Rest of the Story
» NYC School Plan to Honor Anti-War Activist/Pedophile [Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary] Leads to Student Uprising.
» Race Barkers
» Sheriff Ed Brown: The Delusional Dictator of Onslow County, N.C.
» Sterling, Media and the Race Card — A Confederacy of Dunces
» Supreme Court Refuses to Uphold the Constitution: Allows Indefinite Detention
» The Curious Survival of the US Communist Party
» The Road We’re Kicking the Can Down
» Video: Black Teens Assault White Student on School Bus
» Watch: This is What Happens When the Good Guy Has a Gun
 
Canada
» Rob Ford Takes Leave as Recent Drug Video Emerges
 
Europe and the EU
» Adams’ Arrest: London, Dublin Deny Interference
» Britain Has Just Witnessed a Political Arrest. Where is the Liberal Outrage?
» Denmark: Adoptions From Nigeria Suspended
» Establishment in Shock as Two Greek Generals Announce They Will Run for MEP on the Golden Dawn Ticket
» France Deports Algerian Suspected of Recruiting for Syria Jihad
» France: Behind the Façade: Muslims in Marseilles
» France: Femen Activists Crash Far-Right Rally in Paris
» France: Napoléon III Imperial Theatre Renamed as “Theatre Sheikh Sultan Bin Tannoun Al Nahyan”
» French Economist Takes Inequality Message to UK
» Italy: Berlusconi Compares Grillo to Hitler
» Italy: Ex-Premier Says He ‘Owes No Apology’ To Shoah Survivors
» Italy: Rome’s Chief Rabbi Seeks Info on Missing War Children
» Italy: Priest Indicted for Rape of Minor
» Italy: Court Says No Proof Tarantini Extorted Money From Berlusconi
» Italy: Health Inspectors Arrested in Rome for Bribery
» Italy: Berlusconi Starting to Boost Fi Poll Figures
» Italy: Michelangelo’s David ‘Risks Toppling’, Researchers Warn
» May Day Scuffles in Germany
» Neanderthals May Have Been Our Intellectual Equals
» Netherlands Holds Greenpeace Activists
» No Mosques or EU Flags: France’s Far-Right Mayors Get Down to Business
» Prehistoric North Sea ‘Atlantis’ Hit by 5m Tsunami
» Sharia UK: Two Women in Court for Tearing Up Qur’an at Soccer Match
» Spain Arrests French ‘Al-Qaeda’ Terror Suspect
» UK: Farage Hit by Egg on Campaign Trail as UKIP Candidates Accused Over Postings
» UK: New ‘Landmark’ Mosque Plan for Farnworth
» UK: The Secret Recordings That Led Police to Gerry Adams’ Door
» UK: We Need to Know the Truth About Gerry Adams’s Alleged Involvement in the ‘Disappearance’ Of Jean McConville
 
North Africa
» Benghazi Smoking Gun Exposed
» France Slams Egypt Mass ‘Slaughter’ Sentences
» Qaradawi Leading Brotherhood Members to Tunisia
» Scientists Discovered the Egyptian Secret to Moving Huge Pyramid Stones
» Tunisia Turns to Star Wars to Boost Tourism
» Wall to Segregate Male and Female Students in Libya
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Kerry: All Sides Must ‘Pause’ To Reassess Middle East Peace Talks
» The Peace Process is the Process of Blaming Israel
» What Happens When a Palestinian Doesn’t Hate Israel Enough?
 
Middle East
» 6 Al-Qaida Militants, 2 Soldiers Killed in SE Yemen Clashes
» Al-Qaida Affiliates Surge, Terrorism Spikes
» Has the ‘Occupation’ Caused Syrian Men to Beat Wives?
» Istanbul Police Use Tear Gas on Demonstrators
» Strong Case Against Denmark in Killing of Al-Qaeda Leader
» Syria: Bombs Dropped on Aleppo Marketplace
» Turkey: Erdogan Prepares to Pray in Hagia Sophia?
» Turkey: Protesters Defy May Day Demonstration Ban in Istanbul
 
Russia
» Merkel Asks for Putin’s Help in Getting OSCE Hostages Freed
» Ukraine Crisis: Kiev Reinstates Conscription
 
South Asia
» 6 Afghan Police Killed in Panjshir Suicide Bombing
» Missing Flight MH370: Relatives Told to Return Home
» Pakistan Mosque Built to Honour Politician’s Killer to Double in Size
» Pakistan’s Cyber Double Standards: YouTube Banned, Islamist Sites Proliferate
» Sharia Law Comes to First East Asian Nation; Brunei Blasted for ‘Horrific and Sickening’ Move
» The Age of Apostasy
» Twin Bomb Blasts Hit Indian Train
 
Far East
» China’s Leader Warns of Long-Term Terror Fight After Blast
» China Could Become the World’s Top Economic Power in Late 2014
» Chinese Government Admits One-Fifth of Farm Lands Heavily Contaminated With Toxic Heavy Metals Like Cadmium, Arsenic and Lead
» Deadly Attack at Chinese Railway Station in Xinjiang
» UN’s ‘Fundamental Transformation of America’ Puts China in Driver’s Seat
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Explosion Rocks Nigeria’s Capital Abuja
» Nigeria Violence: Explosion Hits Abuja Near Motor Park Blast
» Nigerian Schoolgirls: Jihadis ‘Willing to Consider’ Release
 
Immigration
» 150 Migrants Cross Into Melilla in Latest Mass Border Jump
» 700 Migrants Rush at Spain’s Border, 140 Breach It
 
Culture Wars
» Millennials See Themselves as ‘Post-Racial.’ What Does That Mean?
 
General
» Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs Now a Global Epidemic
» Pluto May be Wearing a Dark Belt of Moon Dust
» SSRIs Taken During Pregnancy May Cause Autism
 

Finance Experts Warn That Swiss Banks Will Face Problems

Experts are urging the government to start or continue bilateral talks with the European Union, as well as individual countries within and outside the EU, to make sure that Swiss banks will keep access to important financial markets abroad.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italian Inflation Rises for First Time in 10 Months

Low price rises seen as sign that recovery is weak

(ANSA) — Rome, April 30 — Italy’s annual inflation rate increased from 0.4% in March to 0.6% in April, the first rise in 10 months, according to preliminary estimates released by Istat Wednesday. Istat said this marked a “slight acceleration”. Low price rises have been interpreted as sign Italy’s economy recovery is weak after the country emerged from its longest postwar recession in the second half of last year. The national statistics agency added that inflation was up 0.2% this month with respect to March, according to preliminary data.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy’s Youth Jobless Rate Dips to 42.7% in March

Second straight 0.1% monthly drop but 3.1% higher over year

(ANSA) — Rome, April 30 — Youth unemployment in Italy dipped to an annual 42.7% in March, 3.1% higher than March 2013 but down 0.1% on February 2014, national statistics agency Istat said Wednesday. The rate has fallen 0.1% for the second straight month, from 42.9% in January, Istat said in provisional estimates. The number of 15-to-24 year-olds in work rose 1.4% from February to March, to 915,000, but was 6.0% down on March 2013. The youth employment rate of 15.3% was 0.2% up on February and 0.9% down over the year.

Premier Matteo Renzi has vowed to tackle youth unemployment by freeing up the labour market but has faced criticism that new flexibility moves raise already widespread job insecurity.

Italy’s youngest premier has also launched a wave of pump-priming and red-tape-slashing measures to stoke growth and create jobs for what has been called a ‘lost generation’.

The overall jobless rate was steady for the third month running at 12.7% in March. Among other things, Renzi has pledged to get people back to work and cut the ranks of the ‘new poor’ by retraining them for the jobs he hopes to create.

He also aims to introduce a universal job-seeking and unemployment benefit similar to that in other countries, replacing a patchwork of lay-off subsidies that were only available to workers in big firms.

Italy is slowly emerging form its longest postwar recession.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

US Economy is a House of Cards

The US economy is a house of cards. Every aspect of it is fraudulent, and the illusion of recovery is created with fraudulent statistics.

American capitalism itself is an illusion. All financial markets are rigged. Massive liquidity poured into financial markets by the Federal Reserve’s Quantitative Easing inflates stock and bond prices and drives interest rates, which are supposed to be a measure of the cost of capital, to zero or negative, with the implication that capital is so abundant that its cost is zero and can be had for free. Large enterprises, such as mega-banks and auto manufacturers, that go bankrupt are not permitted to fail. Instead, public debt and money creation are used to cover private losses and keep corporations “too big to fail” afloat at the expense not of shareholders but of people who do not own the shares of the corporations.

Profits are no longer a measure that social welfare is being served by capitalism’s efficient use of resources when profits are achieved by substituting cheaper foreign labor for domestic labor, with resultant decline in consumer purchasing power and rise in income and wealth inequality. In the 21st century, the era of jobs offshoring, the US has experienced an unprecedented explosion in income and wealth inequality. I have made reference to this hard evidence of the failure of capitalism to provide for the social welfare in the traditional economic sense in my book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism, and Thomas Piketty’s just published book, Capital in the 21st Century, has brought an alarming picture of reality to insouciant economists, such as Paul Krugman. As worrisome as Piketty’s picture is of inequality, I agree with Michael Hudson that the situation is worse than Piketty describes.http://michael-hudson.com/2014/04/pikettys-wealth-gap-wake-up/

Capitalism has been transformed by powerful private interests whose control over governments, courts, and regulatory agencies has turned capitalism into a looting mechanism

The America in which I grew up was self-sufficient. Foreign trade was a small part of the economy. When I was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, the US still had a trade surplus except for oil. Offshoring of America’s jobs had not begun, and US earnings on its foreign investments exceeded foreign earnings on US investments. Therefore, America’s earnings abroad covered its energy deficit in its balance of trade.

The economic stability achieved during the Reagan administration was shattered by Wall Street greed. Wall Street threatened corporations with takeovers if the corporations did not produce higher profits by relocating their production of goods and services for American markets abroad. The lower labor costs boosted earnings and stock prices and satisfied Wall Street’s cravings for ever more earnings, but brought an end to the rise in US living standards except for the mega-rich. Financial deregulation loaded the economy with the risks of asset bubbles.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

80 Percent of Non-Organic U.S. Apples Contain Harmful Chemical That is Banned in Europe

(NaturalNews) It’s no secret that non-organic apples contain pesticides, but new information demonstrates that upwards of 80 percent of them may also contain diphenylamine (DPA), a chemical banned in Europe. DPA, which is regulated as a pesticide, is said to keep produce from turning dark colors while in storage. Although banned overseas, such apples are still found in the United States. In fact, the most common pesticide on conventionally grown U.S. apples is DPA.

In 2012, the European Food Safety Authority, which is responsible for assessing pesticide risk, determined that manufacturers were unable to prove that DPA did not pose human health risks. Furthermore, carcinogens called “nitrosamines” were discovered on DPA-treated fruits. For these reasons, use of DPA on European apples and pears was banned in June of 2012.

Apples top “Dirty Dozen” produce list due to high pesticide load

But, the apples are still rearing their ugly heads in the United States, where USDA tests on raw apples revealed that more than 80 percent of them were treated with DPA. Raw apples and apple products such as applesauce and apple juices have also been shown to contain DPA residue.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Abu Hamza Trial: American Follower Tells Terror Trial About US Jihad Training Camp

A key American aide of hate preacher Abu Hamza suggested setting up a terrorist training camp in the United States so British Muslims could learn to fire guns and practise warfare tactics

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Can Police Search Your Cell Phone Without a Warrant? The Supreme Court is About to Decide

Two very important cases related to the 4th Amendment protection of cellphone data went before the Supreme Court yesterday.

At issue here is whether or not police can search someone’s cellphone upon arrest. As usual, the Obama administration’s Justice Department is arguing against the citizenry, and in favor of the (police) state. Let’s not forget that the “Justice” Department also argued in favor of the police being able to place GPS tracking devices on people’s cars without a warrant back in 2011. Fortunately, the Supreme Court ruled against it.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

De Blasio Announces Contract Deal With Teachers’ Union

Mayor Bill de Blasio, confronting a key challenge of his first year in office, announced what he called a “landmark” labor deal on Thursday with New York City’s largest teachers’ union that officials said would provide a framework for dozens of other outstanding contracts with the municipal work force.

The deal, hammered out in marathon negotiations this week, will grant $3.4 billion of back pay to the union, the United Federation of Teachers, which has worked for nearly five years without a contract. In exchange, the union agreed to a substantial reduction in health care costs and a revision of classroom rules that have long frustrated city officials.

The agreement, which must be ratified by the union’s 100,000 members, is a milestone moment for Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat with longstanding ties to the city’s labor groups. The mayor entered office in January pledging fiscal stewardship, even as he faced the prospect of negotiating new contracts with 152 municipal bargaining units.

[Return to headlines]
 

Democrat Senator Markey’s “Hate Speech” Bot

Earlier this month, we ran a story on Senator Ed Markey’s The Hate Crime Reporting Act of 2014. The legislation proposes updating a twenty year old report on the role the internet, radio and TV allegedly play “in encouraging hate crimes based on gender, race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.” The report would then be submitted to respective committees in the House and Senate for action.

Mac Slavo, writing for SHTFplan.com, extrapolates how the government might go about collecting “hate speech” on the internet to be included in the report and then submitted to Congress for action.

“As we noted previously, there are already pre-crime systems actively monitoring the internet looking for discussions and behaviors that can be used to identify potential criminals before any crime occurs,” Slavo writes. “Combined with new Web Bot hate speech tools, could the government then preempt detentions and arrests under the Patriot Act or National Defense Authorization Act, both of which allow for action to be taken against those who threaten national security, yet another broadly define term?”

Roundups à la Nazi Germany are, at this stage, probably not part of the agenda, but one can easily imagine zealous Democrats and “progressives,” forever striving to broaden the horizon of unacceptable behavior (on the part of their ideological enemies), and thus using this law, if enacted, to ferret out the likes of Harry Reid’s “domestic terrorists” and shutting down their websites.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Denial is a River in Sudan

By Mark Steyn

Excerpt: Commenting on Conrad Black’s much-read analysis of the upcoming Mann vs Steyn trial of the century, Kathy Shaidle observes: It is in fact very easy to imagine Mann winning. The Supreme Court of today is not the same Supreme Court that ruled on Hustler, for one thing; for another, the West is more comfortable with censorship and less familiar with basic principles of free speech. I touched on the latter en passant in our Sunday Mailbox: In Australia and in Britain and even in America, free peoples are losing the habit of free speech. And, when you lose the habit of free speech, you lose the habit of freedom. [Before I went to live in Britain in 1975, I’d spent the first 29 years of my life in New Jersey and New York. There were two things people used to say all the time back then. One of them was, “Get real.” The other was, “It’s a free country; you can say what you like.” Since I got back to the “USA” in January 2006, I have not heard one person say either of those things. Kate]

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

Edward Snowden: NSA Spies More on Americans Than Russians

“Does the NSA know more about Americans in America than Russians in Russia?” Snowden said, appearing by live video during an awards ceremony in Washington. “We watch our own people more closely than anyone else in the world.”

Snowden also took several shots at the National Security Agency and its top officials, and criticized the agency for wearing two contradictory hats of protecting U.S. data and exploiting security flaws to gather intelligence on foreign threats.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

EMS Worker Tells Mom “We’re Agents of the State” During Home Inspection

After a concerned mother called 911 fearing her son was choking, an EMS worker proceeded to conduct an inspection of her house on the premise that she homeschooled, telling the woman “we’re agents of the state”…

There are two equally chilling facets of this story that need to be underscored. The first is that EMS workers are now apparently being trained to be “agents of the state” who instead of devoting all their attention to helping people in desperate medical need are instead being ordered to take on the role of amateur citizen spies in some kind of unnerving East German Stasi throwback.

The second illustrates something that we have documented on numerous previous occasions — that both state and federal authorities treat homeschoolers as some kind of fringe cult of domestic extremists.

Last year Infowars.com reported on how homeschoolers were being portrayed as violent terrorists in a number of Department of Homeland Security-funded police drills which simulate homeschoolers staging attacks on public schools and school buses.

Krista Bordelon’s experience also illustrates the emerging trend being pushed by the establishment that children do not belong to their parents but are in fact property of the state or the “community,” as outlined in a now infamous clip featuring MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Florida Passes Two Landmark Bills in the 2014 Legislative Session

After four years of trying in the face of misinformed opposition, an amended version of American Law for American Courts (ALAC) SB 386 passed the Florida Legislature this week. The Senate sponsor of SB386, Senator Alan Hays, Republican of Umatilla, said on Monday, April 28th when the Senate voted to pass the measure by 24 Republicans to 14 Democrats:

I am delighted that my colleagues in the Florida Senate passed SB 386 — The Application of Foreign Law in Certain Cases -this morning.

It is my fervent desire to make sure everyone in a Florida courtroom is protected from the imposition of any foreign law that may diminish the rights of that person which are afforded by our US and Florida Constitutions. This bill codifies case law to offer those protections and is a welcome addition to the statutes of our state.

I sincerely appreciate the efforts of many others who assisted in the passage of this landmark legislation…

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

House Democrat: Basically All Criticism of Obama is Straight-Up Racism (Video)

Congressman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, has his finger on the pulse of America. And the heartbeat he detects is unremittingly racist (viaBuzzfeed):

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

It is Time to Choose Our Side

It’s time to choose our side not just for this battle, this war against our freedoms and the future of our country, but for the sake of the future generations.

Today in America, there are an increasing number of men and women who see the ominous parallels between the pre-Revolutionary War days and the present day. Instead of an overt foreign enemy, we are facing a more insidious threat spoken of by not only some of the heroes of the Revolutionary War, but warned of by Communist insiders and defectors: the threat from within.

Only those buried deep in denial or their own normalcy bias refuse to see the increasing oppression against the citizens of America by their own government. Only those who are completely clueless or complicit cannot see or vociferously deny that the clouds on the horizon are not storm clouds, but the dust clouds of an approaching enemy selected and elected to retake our freedoms. Only those who have been effectively brainwashed believe that those currently in power reflect the true will of the people. History, it appears, is about to repeat itself as the overreach and aggression of an out-of-control government is ramping up their attacks against our God given freedoms and rights as enumerated in our Constitution.

Today, we are in the midst of a propaganda war where the contemporaries of our pre-Revolutionary history, the true American patriots who hold the principles upon which this nation was founded near and dear, have been openly identified as enemies of the leaders of our nation. There is no ambiguity in the statements or intent of those leading our country. There is only their resolve, where they are unified in their objectives to subjugate us to their royal ambitions at the expense of our rights and freedoms.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Leftist Hate Crime Hysteria

Two Democratic Congressman and Attorney General Eric Holder are spearheading equally disturbing efforts to monitor and control the behavior of Americans — even if the Constitution and the truth get trashed in the process.

Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) have introduced a bill known as the The Hate Crime Reporting Act of 2014. It would require a relatively obscure government agency, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), to “update a report on the use of telecommunications, including the Internet in the commission of hate crimes.”…

As it is with so many leftist agendas, it remains up to the bureaucrats at the NTIA to determine what constitutes unacceptable speech that falls outside the purview of First Amendment protections. The bill leaves such interpretations up to the Justice Department (DOJ) and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, who will “analyze information on the use of telecommunications, including the Internet, broadcast television and radio, cable television, public access television, commercial mobile services, and other electronic media, to advocate and encourage violent acts and the commission of crimes of hate.”

Civil liberties lawyer Harvey A. Silverglate clarifies the agenda here. “This proposed legislation is worse than merely silly. It is dangerous,” he explained. “It is not up to Sen. Markey, nor to the federal government, to define for a free people what speech is, and is not, acceptable.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Linking Vets to Hate Groups

An op-ed column published in The New York Times that linked American troops coming home from war and the growth in white supremacist groups drew sharp criticism from veterans groups.

Although writer Kathleen Belew stated in the piece that the “vast majority of veterans are neither violent nor mentally ill” and that those who turn violent are more likely to harm themselves than anyone else, veterans groups read the op-ed as an attack on military veterans.

American Legion National Commander Daniel Dellinger described the op-ed as a “poorly researched and agenda-driven piece,” and that “the New York Times should be above the slanderous stereotyping of the men and women that have defended us against the racist ideology that Ms. Belew and the NY Times no doubt oppose.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Lives Destroyed by Identity Theft and Data Breaches

Identity thieves have victimized 12.6 million Americans in 2012 to the tune of nearly $21 billion. Eighteen percent of all Federal Trade Commission complaints received that year involved identity theft.

More complaints were lodged in 2012 when compared to 11.6 million in 2011 and 10.2 million in 2010. (Javelin Strategy and Research, 2013 Identity Fraud Report: Data Breaches Becoming a Treasure Trove for Fraudsters, February 2013)

Globalization and the world wide use of the Internet have allowed thieves with actual, stolen, or cyber identities to engage in highly sophisticated crimes involving credit card fraud, bank fraud, immigration fraud, medical use fraud, and employment fraud.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Mesquite Lands Act of 1986 — The Rest of the Story

As more information becomes available, it is becoming clear to me as a former Las Vegas and Clark County land planner, that the Bundy story is not about cows,tortoises, grazing rights, childish name calling, or alleged threats.

It’s about prime real estate, and Bundy’s cows were grazing on land that the City of Mesquite has had its eye on for years for annexation to be used to “meet future demands for its citizens and a rapidly growing tourism industry.”

The City of Mesquite’s “Purchased, Unpurchased and Acquirable Lands” map (CLICK HERE) shows areas within yellow lined blocks on the southern most part of the map called “Proposed Amendment to the Mesquite Lands Act of 1986.”

The area within the yellow lined blocks include much of the land used by Cliven Bundy to graze his cattle. They may also include the Bundy Ranch.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

NYC School Plan to Honor Anti-War Activist/Pedophile [Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary] Leads to Student Uprising.

By Daniel Greenfield

Excerpt: “As reported at the time, the 14-year-old girl and her 17-year-old sister went to Yarrow’s hotel room seeking an autograph. “Yarrow answered the door naked and made sexual advances that stopped short of intercourse”. [COMMENT from KP: I hadn’t heard that he’d raped a 14 old-girl, but when I lived in New York (1970-1975) I had a friend who said he tried to attack her. She was a young student at Brooklyn College when this happened. It must have been the late sixties. She said that Peter Yarrow was in hospital and she went to get an interview with him for the school newspaper & that he got her into a corner, but that she had got him off. I always felt that she’d been telling the truth, but this sort of confirms that she was. I wrote this to Daniel Greenfield and he said I’m not the first person to write to him to say this sort of thing.]

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

Race Barkers

I am not going to fall into the trap. I refuse to apologize for LA Clipper owner Donald Sterling. I refuse to wear the yolk of “racist” that the media is trying to throw over the neck of white Americans. His beliefs have nothing to do with me. Permit me to skip the “I am not a racist” confession normally required for a white man to speak to the issue of blackness and race in America. The constant bellowing of “racist” has worn thin with me. I think it is time to bark back.

Our media have become race-barkers, as obnoxious as the carnival-barkers who drove customers to the bearded lady…or the Siamese twins…or the sword swallower for a fee on the midway. Today they are race-barkers who see racism behind every action…every thought…it is now “thought” that destroys people.

FEP…facts-evidence-proof…trumps emotional reactions every time. Charges of racism can destroy a reputation. Ask Paula Deen, George Zimmerman, Phil Robertson, The Tea Party, or Cliven Bundy. Do racist words justify government tyranny? Ask Glenn Beck.

So here we go. I am going to give you some observations based on FEP…questions really…for you to ponder. You are free to draw your own conclusions. At least for now. Make sure your phone is off.

1. Do you wake up in the morning and think about your skin color or gender? I wake up ME, just like you do. Our precious granddaughter does as well. She doesn’t know people are different. Her playmates are black. She doesn’t know that. She thinks they are people.

2. Obama has done more to fan the flames of racism than any man in history. Millions of white faces voted for him hoping to prove Americans weren’t racist. He has made racism worse. He uses it to escape responsibility. He blames all criticism on his skin color. Others bark for him as well. Especially the media. He is nothing that he told us he was. Obama has done more to fuel racism than George Wallace could have ever done. If you criticise him you are (all together now) RACIST!

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Sheriff Ed Brown: The Delusional Dictator of Onslow County, N.C.

Sheriff Ed Brown considers himself to be the owner of every human being residing in North Carolina’s Onslow County — but he counsels his subjects not to worry, for his is a benevolent dictatorship administered by quasi-divine people endowed with transcendent wisdom.

“The vast majority of our Duties and Functions are performed with only our conscience Watching and Directing us,” Brown explained in a full-page advertisement for his re-election campaign. “Those in the law enforcement profession have complete power over you, your life, your family, your loved ones, your rights, your freedom, your future and everything precious to life. — – From the very word of a Law Enforcement Office [sic], all those Precious Things of Life hang.”…

In addition to exercising plenary authority over his subjects, Brown apparently can command the very elements themselves to surrender valuable secrets that remain inaccessible to lesser men. While investigating the murder of pregnant Marine Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach, the Sheriff didn’t bother to collect shoeprints, choosing instead to conduct a forensic investigation using a divining rod made from a coat hanger.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Sterling, Media and the Race Card — A Confederacy of Dunces

by Larry Elder

A secretly taped conversation between long-time L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling and his then-girlfriend was released. The NBA has now banned Sterling from the league. The commissioner recommends that Sterling sell his team.

Goodness, what happened?

The old guy had a quarrel with his girlfriend, which she apparently — surreptitiously — recorded. The most eye-raising parts have to do with Sterling, 80, telling his less-than-half-his-age girlfriend that he doesn’t want her attending games with black people, specifically with Magic Johnson. She can “f — k” anybody, he said, just don’t bring “them” to the games…

Despite his obvious anger, Sterling never says the “n” word, let alone calls her a “c” word. He expresses admiration for Johnson. He says to the girlfriend, almost in disbelief, “You think I’m a racist!” The now ex-girlfriend is currently being sued by the Sterling family for allegedly embezzling almost $2 million.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Supreme Court Refuses to Uphold the Constitution: Allows Indefinite Detention

Pulitzer prize winning reporter Chris Hedges — along with journalist Naomi Wolf, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, activist Tangerine Bolen and others — sued the government to join the NDAA’s allowance of the indefinite detention of Americans.

The trial judge in the case asked the government attorneys 5 times whether journalists like Hedges could be indefinitely detained simply for interviewing and then writing about bad guys.

The government refused to promise that journalists like Hedges won’t be thrown in a dungeon for the rest of their lives without any right to talk to a judge…

The court of appeal ignored the fact that the co-sponsors of the indefinite detention law said it does apply to American citizens, and that top legal scholars agree.

Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the case, thus blessing and letting stand the indefinite detention law stand unchanged.

The court of appeal’s Orwellian reasoning may sound — at first blush — like it might be a good thing. After all, the court said there’s no indication that the indefinite detention provision will be applied against U.S. citizens.

However, by refusing to strike down the law and insist that any future laws explicitly exempt U.S. citizens, it leaves discretion in the hands of the executive branch.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Curious Survival of the US Communist Party

Like fellow movements around the world, the US Communist Party suffered a crippling blow with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. But a small group of die-hard members persevered.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Road We’re Kicking the Can Down

By Mark Steyn

Excerpt: On the day that US economic growth was reported to have slowed to “a barely discernible 0.1 per cent”, here are three signs that the nation’s problems are more severe than (in the feeble excuse offered by the court eunuchs of the Obama media) just a bit of inclement weather:

1) AMERICAN DYNAMISM IS A MUSEUM ITEM

The factory where the inspiration for Rosie the Riveter once worked is about to be torn down:…

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

Video: Black Teens Assault White Student on School Bus

This week near Dover, Delaware, a viral video appears to show another instance of black-on-white violence among high school students.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Watch: This is What Happens When the Good Guy Has a Gun

A Houston, Texas woman was recently leaving a retail store with her children when she was jumped by two individuals who intended to snatch her purse. They dragged her with their vehicle and were just about to get away.

But before they had a chance to flee the Concealed/Carry version of a Good Samaritan stepped in to save the day.

This is what happens when the good guy has a gun and takes a stand against crime.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Rob Ford Takes Leave as Recent Drug Video Emerges

A second video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking what has been described as crack cocaine by a self-professed drug dealer was secretly filmed in his sister’s basement early Saturday morning.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Adams’ Arrest: London, Dublin Deny Interference

The British and Irish governments have denied that political interference led to the arrest of republican leader Gerry Adams. Northern Ireland police continue to question him over the 1972 murder of a mother of ten.

British Prime Minister David Cameron and Irish Republic Prime Minister Enda Kenny said on Thursday the arrest in Northern Ireland of Adams resulted from police investigations and did not stem from ipolitical interference.

Adams in a statement released shortly after his arrest late Wednesday denied “any part” in the Irish Republic Army’s (IRA) 1972 abduction and murder of Jean McConville, a mother of 10 children. Police continued to question Adams on Thursday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Britain Has Just Witnessed a Political Arrest. Where is the Liberal Outrage?

by Daniel Hannan

Over the weekend, a candidate was arrested for addressing his potential voters. Clear aside the incidental details, scrape away the mitigating circumstances, and ponder that elemental fact. Paul Weston, standing for election to the European Parliament (against me, as it happens, in the South East) was arrested in the middle of a speech on the steps of the Winchester Guildhall…

[Reader comments]

DJ Painless

We haven’t had free speech in this country for a long time, especially if the topic is Islam.

James Lovelace

I wish these “journalists” would try to keep up with some rather significant historical events

2002 — Pim Fortuyn, assassinated by a socialist (first political assassination in Holland in 350 years), over his criticism of islam

2004 — Theo van Gogh, assassinated by a devout muslim for making a film about islam

2005 — Labour Party try to make any criticism of islam illegal (on the back of the 7/7 bombing, no less).

2007 — 90 year old socialist man-handled at Labour Party conference, for protesting about Iraq war

2010 — assassination attempt on Stephen Timms MP, by a female student of The Religion of Peace (expected to get 1st class honours from London University)

2010 — muslims riot in Tower Hamlets (total media blackout)

2011 — EDL demo banned from entering Tower Hamlets

2012 — devout muslims (using guns, bombs, machetes) attempt to kill protesters at a lawful EDL demonstration

2013 — Lee Rigby beheaded in broad daylight by 2 devout muslims, who left behind the koranic commands which they believed justified the murder. Deputy PM lies to the nation about what the Koran says.

2013 — EDL demo banned from entering Tower Hamlets

2014 — Tommy Robinson imprisoned on trumped-up charges (lending money to his mother for a mortgage)

Paul Weston is simply the latest step in a long line. Events are shaping up to be a re-run of the 1920s and 1930s.

Austin Barry

Plaudits are due to this paper’s columnist Andrew Gilligan who is one of the few journalists to bravely address, without hackneyed deferential modifiers and hesitancies, the malignities of Islam.

You do get the impression though that his freedom to write about the topic will gradually be extinguished by our ruling elites who cannot handle, because of bowel-loosening fear, the truth

gentlemenabedinengland

Dan describes Paul Westons behaviour as “narcisisistic”, how would he describe the behavior of the mob that chanted “death to Rusdie” thereby inciting murder, not one of them was arrested, or the gang that burnt poppies on rememberance day, i seem to remember the police arrested someone for complaining about it.

Dan, the spineless British State, the BBC and all the great and the good have got it badly wrong where muslims are concerned, the “religion of peace” it most certainly is not and we can either confront it now or be destroyed by it.

Velok

Daniel, the man you are calling an ‘‘oaf’’ is 100 times the man you are, after all, you and other ‘‘conservatives’’ have done absolutely nothing to stop the Cultural Marxist onslaught, you scampered about like scared chickens every time they hissed one of their little buzzwords at you. You ask where the Liberal outrage is when it is the Liberals themselves who are doing the arresting (!) just how out of touch can you get?.

What Weston represents is a breed of Englishman who is being forced to take action to protect England and the English from both the Cultural Marxists and cowards like you who have done nothing to stem the tide, the tide of both far left ideology and the physical tide that is going to reduce our children to minorities in their own land…

[JP note: There are over three thousand comments at this article — worth spend time following some of the discussions.]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Denmark: Adoptions From Nigeria Suspended

The social affairs minister, Manu Sareen, decided on Tuesday to ban all adoptions from Nigeria, a country where pregnant women have been caught selling their kids for adoption on the black market.

The decision came after the national appeals board Ankestyrelsen found that increased corruption, document fraud and the Nigerian authorities’ control of the adoption process made it no longer justifiable to adopt children from the country.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Establishment in Shock as Two Greek Generals Announce They Will Run for MEP on the Golden Dawn Ticket

“Unlike the slacker politicos, TV and football figures running for the kleptocratic parties, the finest Greeks of our day are participating in Golden Dawn’s national struggle.” — Official Statement from Golden Dawn concerning their 42 member candidate list.

Now, Golden Dawn’s has announced it’s list of 42 candidates for the May 22-25th EU elections. The list has hit the establishment like a bomb! Two of the candidates are retired Lt. Generals.

Georgios Epitideios is a retired Lt. General who has served as member of senior staff at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), the central command of NATO military forces. He has also served on NATO’s International Military Staff (IMS), and as director of the department of crisis response and current operations of the European Union Military Staff (EUMS).

Eleftherios Synadinos is a retired Lt. General and once commanded the Greek Special Forces.

The Greek General Epitideios has made the following declaration:

“Our country is facing the greatest risk to its existence since it became an independent state. The elements that make up the concept of nation and state are being attacked by enemies, using all available means.

Sovereignty has been surrendered; religion, history, education, health, economy, justice, national defence and security, and our cultural heritage are being destroyed; the constitution and individual liberties are being flagrantly violated, the leader, MPs and officers of a legally elected political party have been arrested and are being detained illegally; the population is being impoverished financially; much of our youth has emigrated; and thousands of desperate compatriots have been driven to suicide.”

           — Hat tip: Kitman [Return to headlines]
 

France Deports Algerian Suspected of Recruiting for Syria Jihad

PARIS (Reuters) — France said it had deported on Thursday an Algerian national suspected of recruiting young French Muslims to join the Syrian civil war, the first such case since Paris unveiled a raft of policies to stop its citizens from becoming radicalised…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

France: Behind the Façade: Muslims in Marseilles

The city may have a glossier image, but there is still much discontent, especially among Muslims

AT THE entrance to the old harbour, the walls of the medieval Fort Saint-Jean are freshly scrubbed. Across a high-level walkway, the sun casts lattice-shaped shadows on a modernist new museum of European and Mediterranean civilisations…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

France: Femen Activists Crash Far-Right Rally in Paris

Two topless Femen activists on Thursday temporarily disrupted the far-right National Front’s (FN) annual May 1 march in Paris as the party tries to drum up support ahead of the European parliamentary elections.

The women, one of whom had the slogan “fascist epidemic” painted on her bare chest while another cried “down with the fascist union”, turned up at the head of the rally, captained by National Front leader Marine le Pen and her father Jean-Marie, as it was about to set off from the Palais Royal palace in central Paris.

“We will not allow Europe to become a Fascist union. Stop the epidemic,” the feminist group tweeted from its French account.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

France: Napoléon III Imperial Theatre Renamed as “Theatre Sheikh Sultan Bin Tannoun Al Nahyan”

The Imperial Theatre at Chteau de Fontainebleau, one of the premier examples of Second Empire theatres, has long awaited restoration. His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a great lover and patron of the arts, has generously sponsored the renovation of the theatre and its opening to the public. His Highness has supported a number of artistic projects, including the Louvre Abu Dhabi, and has pledged a renewable annual budget of five million euros to restore the Imperial Theatre at Fontainebleau.

In recognition of this donation the French Minister of Culture and Communication, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, renamed the theatre on April 27th, 2007 in the presence of His Highness Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan after the patron of the arts who saved it from falling into ruin.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

French Economist Takes Inequality Message to UK

French economist Thomas Piketty said on Wednesday that he hoped to create a “more informed fight” about the issue of income inequality as he launched his bestselling and highly controversial book in Britain.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Berlusconi Compares Grillo to Hitler

M5S leader responds that ex-premier is ‘beyond the tomb’

(see related stories on Berlusconi) (ANSA) — Rome, April 29 — Ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi on Tuesday compared comedian-turned-politician Beppe Grillo, the leader of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), to Adolf Hitler and said the Italian people should fear him.

“The Italian people should learn to be afraid of Grillo,” said Berlusconi, who continues to lead his centre-right opposition Forza Italia party from outside parliament after being ejected from the Senate last year following a definitive tax-fraud conviction.

“You can see it in the way he organises his sect, which reminds me of characters like Robespierre or Marx and Lenin,” the 77-year-old billionaire told one of his Mediaset channels.

“Grillo is the prototype of these sort of men, Hitler included”. Berlusconi has started intense campaigning on television with FI trailing in third place in the polls before next month’s European elections, behind Premier Matteo Renzi’s centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and the M5S.

Grillo, who often calls Berlusconi the “psycho-dwarf”, hit back almost immediately.

“Berlusconi is beyond the tomb and you are mediums (for him),” Grillo told Italian reporters, whom he says are biased towards the traditional parties. He also reiterated that the Internet-based M5S, which captured a quarter of the vote at last year’s general election, is committed to destroying a political system that he blames for producing corruption and economic decline.

“This era is over. The era of the parties is over,” Grillo said at the fringes of a general meeting of troubled bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena.

“They should all be sent packing and they know that we will win the (European) elections”. Berlusconi, meanwhile, also attacked German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“Give us back (Helmut) Kohl,” said the ex-premier, who irked Germans at the weekend by saying they denied the existence of Nazi concentration camps.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Ex-Premier Says He ‘Owes No Apology’ To Shoah Survivors

Berlusconi says he is ‘the Italian closest to Israel’

(See related) (ANSA) — Rome, April 28 — Ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi insisted Monday that he owes no apologies to either Shoah survivors or to German citizens for his statement that Germany still denies Nazi concentration camps.

“I don’t see why I should apologise to Holocaust survivors,” the media magnate said in an interview on Piazzapulita programme being aired Monday evening on the La7 television channel. “I am the closest Italian to Israel, I have excellent relations with Israeli citizens and Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East,” he said.

“I have no need to apologise either to Holocaust survivors or to German citizens,” he added.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Rome’s Chief Rabbi Seeks Info on Missing War Children

Fate of Jews in convents during Second World War still unclear

(ANSA) — Rome, April 28 — The fate of Jewish children taken in by Rome convents during the Second World War still remains unknown and their families seek answers, the chief rabbi in the Italian capital said Monday.

Riccardo Di Segni raised the issue during a conference on dialogue between Jews and Christians organized by the community of Sant’Egidio, saying former pope Benedict XVI had initiated a probe but no answers have yet been found.

It is believed that some of the children were converted to Catholicism from Judaism and remained with Catholic families after the war.

They should be found and given their full history, said the rabbi.

“We have to track down these people and restore their identity and then they will decide what to do,” said Di Segni. In similar cases in other countries, Jewish refugee children raised during the Second World War as Catholics often decided to remain in the Church, but at least they were aware of their origins, he added.

He also criticized actions taken in 1946 by then pope Pius XII, who he said did nothing to help Jews find their children sheltered in convents during the war and Holocaust in which six million Jews were exterminated by Nazi Germany. The controversy was raised one day after Pope Francis named former popes John XXIII and John Paul II, who were both young men during the Second World War, as saints.

A decade ago, the Corriere della Sera newspaper published a document from 1946 that ordered Catholics in France to keep orphaned Jewish children, saying the decision had been approved by the pope.

But pope John XXIII, who was at the time nuncio for France, reportedly ignored the directive.

As well, a “charming story” about John Paul II tells of him helping a Jewish mother to find her child sheltered by a convent and if it is true, that pope’s actions would set a good example, said the rabbi.

“It is a beautiful, charming story that is very appreciated by the Jews, but that still has not been verified,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Priest Indicted for Rape of Minor

Father Vito Beatrice, 70, ‘abused boy in Rome and Genoa’

(ANSA) — Rome, April 30 — A priest who allegedly abused a minor for years was sent to trial in Rome October 10.

Father Vito Beatrice, 70, is charged with raping a troubled boy who was placed in his care in Rome from May to October 2000 and in Genoa from May 2002 to October 2004.

The boy, who tried to kill himself before eventually telling of his abuse in 2011, is now 28 and will stand as plaintiff along with his family.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Court Says No Proof Tarantini Extorted Money From Berlusconi

500,000 euros ‘a gift’, not hush money for pimping

(ANSA) — Rome, April 29 — Judges in Rome on Tuesday said there was no proof that Bari businessman Giampaolo Tarantini extorted 500,000 euros from ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi to withhold information on escorts he provided the centre-right leader. The statement was part of a court’s explanation behind dropping charges last October against Tarantini in the case, which refers back to the March-July period in 2011 when police suspected Berlusconi paid Tarantini in exchange for making false statements in a prostitution case in which Berlusconi is a defendant.

According to prosecutors, Berlusconi asked Valter Lavitola, former editor of Avanti! newspaper, to pressure Tarantini into lying about the nature of a group of escorts that Tarantini brought to Berlusconi’s home in the period between 2008 and 2009, when Berlusconi was a sitting premier.

Tarantini had always claimed Berlusconi didn’t know the 26 escorts he brought to the then-premier’s house for so-called ‘bunga bunga’ sex parties were paid prostitutes.

At the same time, Berlusconi always denied the money he paid Tarantini was a gift when he learned the Bari businessman was in financial trouble. In a separate case, Tarantini is among seven defendants currently on trial for allegedly supplying the billionaire media mogul with women for sex parties in exchange for public contracts.

The three-time premier, who is appealing a six-year conviction for paying for sex with an underage prostitute in a separate case, says he has never hired prostitutes.

Meanwhile he is expected to begin community service at a facility for the elderly outside his native Milan after the supreme Court of Cassation found him guilty of dodging 370 million euros in taxes at his media empire Mediaset. The four-year sentence, reduced to a year of community service due to an amnesty, was his first-ever binding conviction in 20 years of legal entanglements he blames on a “witch-hunt” by an allegedly left-wing judiciary. The conviction also led to his expulsion from the Senate and a lifetime ban from holding office.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Health Inspectors Arrested in Rome for Bribery

(AGI) Rome, April 30 — Two health inspectors have been arrested in Rome for bribery, after asking for a kickback from a retailer in exchange for waiving a fine. Rome’s Flying Squad arrested B.L., 52, and D.C., 62, two inspectors of the Rome Veterinary Service’s hygiene and animal products division.

After finding an anomaly during an inspection conducted last week in Rome’s Prati district, the two inspectors had demanded money from a shop owner in exchange for exemption from a fine.

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

Italy: Berlusconi Starting to Boost Fi Poll Figures

0.5% up in week since began EP campaigning

(ANSA) — Rome, May 1 — Silvio Berlusconi appears to be boosting the standings of his Forza Italia (FI) party after starting to campaign for the European Parliament elections despite an office ban from a tax-fraud conviction that will mean him spending half a day a week in a home for Alzheimer’s patients.

FI’s rating was 19.5%, 0.5% up from the previous week, in a poll released by the Piepoli Institute late Wednesday.

Premier Matteo Renzi’s Democratic Party held tight to a 10-point lead over Beppe Grillo’s anti-establishement 5-Star MOvement, both steady on 34% and 24%.

Other polls have seen the unsinkable Berlusconi touching 20% as he seeks to reel Grillo in with a characteristic fusillade of controversial soundbites including a German deathcamp slur and repeated assertions he is the victim of a political coup by leftist magistrates abetted by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.

Analysts have frequently said Berlusconi’s ratings go up when he manages to successfully portray himself as the victim of an alleged witch hunt.

He is expected to milk his four-hours-a week gig at a nursing home near Milan as much as he can, despite the care managers’ insistence he was not be able to get up to any high jinks.

Berlusconi is also knowingly inviting a conversion of his community service into house arrest, pundits say, so he can play up his allegedly persecuted status.

Berlusconi’s eldest daughter Marina, a top exec at his media empire, this week reversed a string of denials she might try to fill her father’s political boots, but pundits are skeptical as to whether she will carry the dynastic banner forward on the centre right

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Michelangelo’s David ‘Risks Toppling’, Researchers Warn

(ANSAmed) — FLORENCE, APRIL 30 — Michelangelo’s statue of David risks toppling under its own weight, researchers in Florence warned on Wednesday. The National Research Council (CNR) and the University of Florence sounded the alarm after performing tests on 10cm plaster replicas of the statue inside a centrifuge, exposing them to pressures stronger than the force of gravity. Focus was centered on a series of micro-fractures on the legs, whose ankles are allegedly too thin to support its 5,572 kilograms safely.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

May Day Scuffles in Germany

May 1 — German police use water cannons on left-wing sympathizers after scuffles break out during May Day protests in Hamburg. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

Transcript

ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION). STORY: Scuffles broke out during May Day demonstrations in the German city of Hamburg Thursday May 1 after some among the several thousand protesters started throwing rocks and bottles, according to police. Authorities in Hamburg said at least eight people were arrested, two detained and several injured while in Berlin, “several arrests” were made among the 19,000 participants. According to a Hamburg police spokesman, 2,200 demonstrators marched through the port city’s St.Pauli district and the atmosphere was “aggressive” from the start. Protesters threw rocks and bottles, set off fireworks and used other pyrotechnics, a Hamburg police spokesman said.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Neanderthals May Have Been Our Intellectual Equals

Enough of the cheap jibes: Neanderthals may have been just as clever as modern humans. Anthropologists have already demolished the idea that Neanderthals were dumb brutes, and now a review of the archaeological record suggests they were our equals.

For instance, there is evidence that Homo sapiens could use fire to chemically transform natural materials into glue 70,000 years ago, but Neanderthals were performing similarly complex chemical syntheses at least 200,000 years ago.

And although 70,000-year-old engraved ochre from South Africa is seen as evidence that our species had developed sophisticated symbolism and perhaps even language, similar artefacts have been found at 50,000-year-old Neanderthal sites in Spain.

What’s more, Neanderthals might have been able to talk.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Netherlands Holds Greenpeace Activists

Rainbow Warrior trying to stop Russian ship ‘with Arctic oil’

(ANSA) — Rome, May 1 — Dutch police on Thursday boarded a Greenpeace ship and arrested 30 environmental activists trying to stop a Russian oil tanker docking in Rotterdam.

Greenpeace said the ship had the first oil cargo from a new Arctic offshore platform Among those arrested was Peter Willcox, captain of the militant organisation’s Rainbow Warrior ship.

Willcox was among campaigners detained by Russia last year after protesting against Arctic drilling.

Some 30 activists were held on hooliganism charges in September after Russian authorities boarded their ship, the Arctic Sunrise, during an anti-drilling demonstration against a Gazprom offshore rig.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

No Mosques or EU Flags: France’s Far-Right Mayors Get Down to Business

The 11 far-right National Front mayors elected in France’s recent municipal elections have begun implementing controversial policies, including rejecting projects for new mosques and cancelling commemorations of the abolition of slavery.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Prehistoric North Sea ‘Atlantis’ Hit by 5m Tsunami

A prehistoric “Atlantis” in the North Sea may have been abandoned after being hit by a 5m tsunami 8,200 years ago. The wave was generated by a catastrophic subsea landslide off the coast of Norway. Analysis suggests the tsunami over-ran Doggerland, a low-lying landmass that has since vanished beneath the waves.

“It was abandoned by Mesolithic tribes about 8,000 years ago, which is when the Storegga slide happened,” said Dr Jon Hill from Imperial College London.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sharia UK: Two Women in Court for Tearing Up Qur’an at Soccer Match

Robert Spencer

Just a few months ago another man in Britain, Mark Stephenson, was prosecuted and fined for tearing up a Qur’an at a soccer match. If Mark Stephenson, Julie Phillips and Gemma Parkin had torn and thrown pages of the Bible, would they have been charged? Or have the British authorities simply taken it upon themselves to prosecute violators of Sharia blasphemy laws? Tearing up a Qur’an is a violation of Islamic law, not British law.

David Cameron needs to end this Islamophobic inconsistency, get that cross off the flag, and declare Britain a fully Sharia-compliant state forthwith. It’s long overdue.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Spain Arrests French ‘Al-Qaeda’ Terror Suspect

Police in Spain arrested a French-Algerian man suspected of fighting for Al-Qaeda-linked groups in Syria, the Spanish interior ministry said on Wednesday.

Spanish officers with the help of French police seized Abdelmalek Tanem, 24, in the southern city of Almeria on Wednesday afternoon, the ministry said in a statement.

They said he was thought to have carried out “terrorist activities” in Syria with two jihadist factions: the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and the Al-Nusra Front.

He is suspected of serving as a “combatant” as well as a “facilitator” on the Syria-Turkey border helping other Europeans travel to join the group.

Spain has arrested hundreds of suspected Islamists in the decade since Al-Qaeda inspired bomb attacks killed 191 people on commuter trains in Madrid in March 2004.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Farage Hit by Egg on Campaign Trail as UKIP Candidates Accused Over Postings

Party leader scrambles for cover amid fresh allegations of racism but claims left is whipping up ‘storm of hatred’ against Ukip

Nigel Farage has accused the left of orchestrating a taxpayer-funded “storm of hatred” against Ukip, after he was egged by a protester and the party was hit by new allegations of racist language by its council candidates. Farage went on the campaign trail for the May elections on Thursday amid renewed signs that the party is struggling with its attempts to weed out “embarrassing Walter Mitty characters”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: New ‘Landmark’ Mosque Plan for Farnworth

PLANS to demolish a mosque and build a new “landmark” place of worship in its place will be decided at today’s planning committee meeting. The leaders of Sughra Mosque have applied to Bolton Council for permission to knock down their existing home in Granville Street, Farnworth, and replace it with a three-storey centre.

Included in the plans is a blueprint for a reception, publicity room, men’s hall, women’s hall, IT suite, library, classroom and two ablution areas for washing…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: The Secret Recordings That Led Police to Gerry Adams’ Door

Transcripts of interviews with former IRA members were meant to remain sealed until they died, but police in Northern Ireland forced court to hand them over.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: We Need to Know the Truth About Gerry Adams’s Alleged Involvement in the ‘Disappearance’ Of Jean McConville

Douglas Murray

There are not many examples of justice after such a long period of time. But it would be good if, after all these years, we were to know the truth about Adams’s involvement or otherwise in the murder of Jean McConville and the lifetimes of suffering her ‘disappearance’ left behind.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Benghazi Smoking Gun Exposed

The idea that the Obama administration willfully orchestrated a disinformation campaign with regard to the attacks in Benghazi has now been confirmed.

An email written by then-White House Deputy Strategic Communications Adviser Ben Rhodes and obtained by Judicial Watch contained four bullet-point “Goals” outlined as part of the strategy to contain the political damage engendered by the murder of four Americans on September 11, 2012 at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. One bullet-point in particular revealed the Obama administration’s deliberate crafting of a deceitful narrative following the incident. According to the Judicial Watch emails, the objective of the Obama administration was to “underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy.”

The email was part of a series of 41 new Benghazi-related documents obtained by Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed June 21, 2013. That effort was aimed at gaining access to the documents used by then-UN Ambassador Susan Rice for her September 16 appearance on five different Sunday TV news programs. Rhodes’ email was sent on Friday, September 14, 2012 at 8:09 PM. It contained the following subject line: “RE: PREP CALL with Susan, Saturday at 4:00 pm ET.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

France Slams Egypt Mass ‘Slaughter’ Sentences

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius Wednesday criticised Egypt for imposing death sentences on nearly 700 suspected Islamists.

“These sort of slaughter sentences are absolutely unacceptable,” Fabius told French lawmakers. “One does not build peace through mass executions. One builds peace through reconciliation, and that is true for Egypt and for all nations in the world,” he said.

An Egyptian court on Monday imposed death sentences on 683 people, including Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie, amid a crackdown on supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Qaradawi Leading Brotherhood Members to Tunisia

After Qatar was pressured by fellow Arab kingdoms and sheikhdoms in the Gulf to back down from their support for Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar-based Egyptian Muslim scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi has announced his plan to move to Tunisia.

This has now led many to believe that Tunisia will become the new stronghold for the Muslim Brotherhood, as many members have already moved there. Egypt’s former deputy foreign minister Hasan Heridi warned Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki that liberalists and leftists in Tunisia may be upset with the arrival of Brotherhood members.

Though some members have come to Turkey since the military crackdown on the movement after a coup ousted Egypt’s elected leader Mohamed Morsi on July 3, most seem to prefer to stay in Arab countries where they find it easier to fit in culturally and linguistically.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Scientists Discovered the Egyptian Secret to Moving Huge Pyramid Stones

The question of just how an ancient civilization—without the help of modern technology—moved the 2.5 ton stones that made up their famed pyramids has long plagued Egyptologists and mechanical engineers alike. But now, a team from the University of Amsterdam believes they’ve figured it out, even though the solution was staring them in the face all along.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Tunisia Turns to Star Wars to Boost Tourism

Dozens of Star Wars characters paraded through Tunis on Wednesday to draw attention to the deterioration of Oung Jmel, a rock in the south of Tunisia, which was a set for Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 1990.

A crowd, including children waving lightsabers, greeted Darth Vader, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Princess Leia and other characters in the centre of Tunis.

They were brought to Tunis on the initiative of “Stars Wars Tunisia”, an association of local fans, with the support of the Tunisian Ministry of Tourism.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Wall to Segregate Male and Female Students in Libya

Under Libya’s monarchy and Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, schools and universities in Libya had always been co-ed. However, in Derna, located in eastern Libya, male and female students are about to be separated for the first time. A local militia is building a wall in the middle of the university campus in order to segregate them.

The wall will be finished in two weeks, and then classes will resume at Omar al-Mokhtar University in Derna. The construction of this wall is the result of an agreement between the university administration and a local Islamist militia known as Buslim, which will provide security inside the school.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Kerry: All Sides Must ‘Pause’ To Reassess Middle East Peace Talks

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have been put on hold, says US Secretary of State John Kerry. Negotiations ground to a halt last week, just days before the final deadline for an outline agreement.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Peace Process is the Process of Blaming Israel

By Daniel Greenfield

Excerpt: But contrary to the Peace Lobby sloganeering, Israel isn’t morally bankrupt, the intellectual premises of Zionism aren’t shattered and it’s not a failed state on the verge of destruction. It’s the Peace Lobby that is frantically struggling to keep its big lie together. Its attacks on Israel are not a show of strength, but a desperate cover-up. From the high chambers where John Kerry suggests Israel is going to be an Apartheid State to the low chambers of failed boycotts against academics and soda companies, the purveyors of the big lie are coming apart at the seams.

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

What Happens When a Palestinian Doesn’t Hate Israel Enough?

A video was uploaded onto YouTube which featured a young Palestinian Christian woman describing what it was like to live under Israel military occupation. If that was all the video was about, it would have simply been added to the thousands of other YouTube videos which describe the same thing. What made Christy Anastas’ video unique was that she bravely revealed how Palestinian Christians have and are being treated by Palestinian Muslims and nationalists.

Breaking through the silence and fear faced by so many Palestinians, Christy described how her uncle, a Palestinian Christian from Bethlehem, had to pay the al-jizyah, protection money that is often levied against non-Muslims. After some time her uncle refused to pay the protection money because he noticed the militants would shoot and launch rockets near the Christian homes so that the retaliation would come on the Christians. Because of his refusal to pay up he was murdered in front of his house.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

6 Al-Qaida Militants, 2 Soldiers Killed in SE Yemen Clashes

ADEN, Yemen, May 1 (Xinhua) — Up to six al-Qaida militants and two soldiers were killed following a five-hour clash in Yemen’s southeastern province of Shabwa early Thursday, a Defense Ministry official told Xinhua.

“Scores of al-Qaida militants attacked army troops after a massive military operation launched near Azzan town in Shabwa province. Six militants and two soldiers were killed,” the defense ministry official said on condition of anonymity…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Al-Qaida Affiliates Surge, Terrorism Spikes

WASHINGTON (AP) — A surge in the number of aggressive al-Qaida affiliates and like-minded groups the Middle East and North Africa poses a serious threat to U.S. interests and allies, the State Department said Wednesday in reporting a more than 40 percent increase in terrorist attacks worldwide between 2012 and 2013.

The department also singled out Iran as a major state sponsor of terrorism that continues to defy demands it prove its atomic ambitions are peaceful even as Washington pursues negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear program.

In its annual global terrorism report, the department said that losses in al-Qaida’s core leadership in Pakistan and Afghanistan “accelerated” the network’s decentralization in 2013. That has resulted in more autonomous and more aggressive affiliates, notably in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, northwest Africa, and Somalia, it said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Has the ‘Occupation’ Caused Syrian Men to Beat Wives?

by Phyllis Chesler

83 per cent of Syrian women reported they are victims of violence inflicted on them by their parents, while 72 per cent cited their husbands and 56 per cent their brothers.

In countless papers, including presumed studies published in the British medical journal, The Lancet, Israel has been accused of causing Arab men to beat Arab women because of the so-called Israeli “occupation.”

Books, speeches, and lectures by Jew-hating anti-Zionists have made similar charges. Arab leaders have trotted out Blood Libels such as Israelis are causing sterility among Arab men and women by infecting their drinking water, etc.

Here is a corrective, just in.

Accordiong to Khetam Malkawai, in today’s Jordan Times, “almost 88.9 per cent of Syrian women refugees who visited (18) counselling centers in Jordan are victims of violence.”…

[Return to headlines]
 

Istanbul Police Use Tear Gas on Demonstrators

Several hurt, five detained at Taksim Square

(ANSA) — Rome, May 1 — Istanbul police on Thursday used tear gas and water cannon to prevent demonstrators defying a ban on protests at the Turkish capital’s central Taksim Square.

The Anatolia news agency said several demonstrators were injured and at least five detained.

Intensive security measures were in place, and roads and streets near Taksim Square closed to traffic from the early morning.

Turkish media said some 40,000 police would be deployed in the city on May 1. Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier warned people they should “give up hopes” of gathering on Taksim Square, a focus of anti-government protests.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Strong Case Against Denmark in Killing of Al-Qaeda Leader

The international human rights organisation Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) wants Denmark to present any evidence that it might have that casts light on the role the intelligence agency PET played when CIA drones in 2011 killed the al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen.

OSJI demanded access to the government’s documents in the case on Wednesday. Its involvement was confirmed by Jyllands-Posten in 2012 when it revealed that a former Islamist and PET agent, Morten Storm, helped track down the terrorist leader.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Syria: Bombs Dropped on Aleppo Marketplace

Opposition activists in Aleppo have accused Syria’s government of bombing a busy market, killing dozens of people. Despite the crisis, Damascus says next month’s election is likely to have 24 presidential candidates.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey: Erdogan Prepares to Pray in Hagia Sophia?

By Manolis Kostidis

The reliable newspaper “Radikal” made a surprising revelation, which says that Recep Tayyip Erdogan is preparing to convert the temple Hagia Sophia into a mosque and pray himself along with some official guests from various Islamic countries, on the anniversary of the fall of Constantinople in May 29th! This provocative news has so far not been disproved.

What is impressive however is that the newspaper “Zaman” publishes an article by Imam Fethullah Gulen, who argues that Hagia Sophia should be used as a mosque. It seems like trying to approach Erdogan through this issue and put an end to the conflict between them.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey: Protesters Defy May Day Demonstration Ban in Istanbul

Turkish police have fired water cannons and tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters defying a ban on May Day rallies in Istanbul’s symbolic Taksim Square. Much of the city’s public transportation has been shutdown.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Merkel Asks for Putin’s Help in Getting OSCE Hostages Freed

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin have spoken by telephone to discuss the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. There was no immediate sign of agreement about how best to resolve the crisis.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ukraine Crisis: Kiev Reinstates Conscription

Ukraine’s acting President Olexander Turchynov has reinstated military conscription to deal with deteriorating security in the east of the country.

The move, announced in a decree, came as pro-Russia militants seized the regional prosecutor’s office in the eastern city of Donetsk.

Ukraine blames Russia for organising the seizures of a number of offices in the east, a claim Moscow denies. Some 40,000 Russian troops are stationed near the Ukrainian border.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

6 Afghan Police Killed in Panjshir Suicide Bombing

KABUL, May 1 (Xinhua) — At least six police were killed while several civilians were wounded Thursday evening in a suicide bombing in eastern Afghan province of Panjshir, the Interior Ministry said…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Missing Flight MH370: Relatives Told to Return Home

Malaysia Airlines has asked relatives of passengers on board flight MH370 to leave the hotel accommodation it is providing and return to their homes. It is closing the family assistance centres set up after the plane vanished on 8 March with 239 people on board.

The airline promised to keep relatives up to date on the search operation.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pakistan Mosque Built to Honour Politician’s Killer to Double in Size

Mosque named after Punjab governor’s murderer Mumtaz Qadri is so popular with worshippers it can’t keep up with demand

A mosque named in honour of the killer of a politician who called for the reform of Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws is proving so popular it is raising funds to double its capacity…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Pakistan’s Cyber Double Standards: YouTube Banned, Islamist Sites Proliferate

Pakistan’s strict online censorship policy has drawn criticism from human rights groups. But while sites like YouTube are banned, Islamist sites proliferate, policed by committed groups of pro-censorship conservatives.

Banned sites include YouTube, which was blocked two years ago, after the release of an anti-Islam film, “The Innocence of Muslims,” which sparked demonstrations across the country.

But it’s easy to access websites that promote Islamist and jihadist activities.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sharia Law Comes to First East Asian Nation; Brunei Blasted for ‘Horrific and Sickening’ Move

Sharia law has come to East Asia for the first time. Human rights groups blasted the oil-rich nation of Brunei for adopting a code of Islamic law that opens the door to “flogging, dismemberment and death by stoning,” as punishment for crimes, CNN reported Thursday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Age of Apostasy

By Mark Steyn

Excerpt: Effective today, the Sultan of Brunei has made his lucky people the first in eastern Asia to live under a national Sharia law: “With faith and gratitude to Allah the almighty, I declare that tomorrow, Thursday 1 May 2014, will see the enforcement of sharia law phase one, to be followed by the other phases,” the absolute monarch said in a royal decree on Wednesday. Plans for the sharia penalties — which will eventually include flogging, severing of limbs and death by stoning — triggered condemnation on social media sites in the tiny sultanate earlier this year….67-year-old Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah — one of the world’s wealthiest men — said in his decree that the move was “a must” under Islam, dismissing “never-ending theories” that sharia punishments were cruel in comments clearly aimed at detractors…

           — Hat tip: KP [Return to headlines]
 

Twin Bomb Blasts Hit Indian Train

A 22-year-old woman was killed when one of the devices which had been placed underneath her seat exploded

Twin bombs planted on a train killed at least one person and wounded nine others in the main southern Indian city of Chennai on Thursday, a railway official said.

The explosion, which comes as India holds mammoth general elections, went off in a carriage of an overnight train from Bangalore as it pulled into Chennai central station shortly after 7:00am (0130 GMT), official Rakesh Misra said…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

China’s Leader Warns of Long-Term Terror Fight After Blast

HONG KONG — President Xi Jinping of China said the government must prepare itself for a long-term fight against what he called separatist forces in the country’s restive Xinjiang region after assailants with knives and a bomb killed one person and injured at least 79 on Wednesday evening at a railway station in Urumqi, the regional capital.

At least two of the assailants, who attacked bystanders with knives before setting off an explosive device outside Urumqi’s South Station, were killed, bringing the death toll to three, the official People’s Daily reported. Photos released by the state news media showed charred baggage and debris outside an exit to the station.

The attack, which took place just after 7 p.m. local time, came at the conclusion of a four-day visit to Xinjiang by Mr. Xi, his first since taking over as the country’s top leader in November 2012. Experts on Xinjiang affairs said that it was no coincidence and that the attack dealt a setback to Mr. Xi, who stressed during his visit the central government’s efforts to quell ethnic tensions in the region, where many in the Uighur minority feel increasingly alienated from wider Chinese society…

           — Hat tip: LS [Return to headlines]
 

China Could Become the World’s Top Economic Power in Late 2014

A study by the International Comparison Program (ICP) carried out on behalf of the World Bank published on April 30, 2014, notes that China could overtake the U.S. and become the leading economic power in the world later this year.

Based on this study, experts concluded that China could become the world’s leading economic power in late 2014. “The United States remains the largest economy in the world, but China is following closely in regard to purchasing power,” says the World Bank’s report.

Among other important findings, while discussing the relative growth of the 12 world’s largest economies, the report indicates that “India went from the 10th largest economy in 2005 to the third largest in 2011. The economies of Japan and the United Kingdom became smaller relative to the United States, while Germany increased slightly and France and Italy remained the same. The relative rankings of the three Asian economies — China, India, and Indonesia — to the United States doubled, while Brazil, Mexico, and Russia increased by one-third or more.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Chinese Government Admits One-Fifth of Farm Lands Heavily Contaminated With Toxic Heavy Metals Like Cadmium, Arsenic and Lead

(NaturalNews) For the past few months, Natural News has been warning the world about toxic heavy metals found in foods, superfoods and dietary supplements grown in China. Our Natural News Forensic Food Lab has produced breakthrough results showing, for example, that rice protein imported from China is significantly contaminated with lead, cadmium and tungsten — all industrial heavy metals.

Some greed-driven promoters of rice protein initially insisted all these heavy metals were “naturally occurring,” but now the Chinese government has gone on the record confirming the truth: China’s farm lands are heavily contaminated with toxic heavy metals, and this has now been scientifically documented and proven by Chinese researchers and publicly released by Chinese authorities.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Deadly Attack at Chinese Railway Station in Xinjiang

An explosion followed by an attack by armed assailants has occurred at a train station in China’s restive Xinjiang region. The incident coincided with a visit to the western province by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Violence has plagued Xinjiang province, home to an ethnically diverse population comprised primarily of Muslim Uighurs.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UN’s ‘Fundamental Transformation of America’ Puts China in Driver’s Seat

The UN’s top gun of the economic takedown of America came right from the country next door. UN Poster Boy Maurice Strong, who last week celebrated his 85th birthday, started his work on the downfall of America in Canada the country of his birth before moving to Beijing in 2006, during the the fallout of the UN Oil-for-Food scandal.

The Oil-for-Food scandal went down in history as the biggest bureaucratic scandal worldwide, but back then who really knew what was coming?

Maurice Strong, Godfather of Agenda 21, when he hooked up with -currency speculator George Soros, even bragged openly about his nefarious intentions for the U.S.

“As recently as 2006, speaking from an air-conditioned boardroom somewhere in Communist China, Maurice Strong — the same man who would deny air conditioning for you to save the environment — was hatching his latest anti-American initiative.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Explosion Rocks Nigeria’s Capital Abuja

An explosion has hit the outskirts of Nigeria’s capital Abuja, just meters away from the site of a bomb blast that left 75 people dead less than a month ago. Witnesses say several people have been killed.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Nigeria Violence: Explosion Hits Abuja Near Motor Park Blast

An explosion has hit the Nigerian capital, Abuja, near the scene of a deadly bomb attack last month.

The blast happened in Nyanya, close to the motor park where at least 70 people died in an attack on 14 April. Initial reports say a number of people have been killed and many more have been injured.

Correspondents say it was caused by a car bomb. The Islamist militant group Boko Haram has previously staged attacks Abuja. One eyewitness told the BBC he saw 20 bodies at the scene. No group has claimed responsibility for the blast…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Nigerian Schoolgirls: Jihadis ‘Willing to Consider’ Release

The jihadis who kidnapped more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls two weeks ago say they are “willing to consider” the release of those who have not already been trafficked abroad and sold into marriage.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

150 Migrants Cross Into Melilla in Latest Mass Border Jump

Around 150 African migrants managed to clear the fence separating Moroccan territory from the Spanish exclave of Melilla early Thursday morning.

Around 400 people, divided into two groups, made a coordinated run on the six-meter-high, chain-link fence, which is topped with concertina wire, at around 6am. Of these, half made it into the narrow space between the two strips of fence that make up the border.

The hugs and cries of “Bosa, bosa” (Victory, victory) of migrants reaching the CETI have become familiar sights in Melilla and Spain’s other north African exclave of Ceuta, which are the targets of thousands of sub-Saharans trying to reach Europe. The number of people attempting to get across from Morocco has grown significantly this year.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

700 Migrants Rush at Spain’s Border, 140 Breach It

MELILLA, Spain (AP) — Around 700 African migrants charged Spain’s barbed-wire border fences Thursday in the country’s North African enclave of Melilla, clashing with Spanish and Moroccan border police.

Spain said 140 of the migrants managed to enter Spanish territory despite the efforts of the border police.

It was the latest surge in the tide of African immigrants trying to cross into Europe. Spain’s two North African enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta are particularly vulnerable and have had repeated attacks by hundreds of immigrants this spring.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Millennials See Themselves as ‘Post-Racial.’ What Does That Mean?

An MTV survey finds that a majority of Millennials believe racism is fading, and that having a black president signals equal opportunity has arrived.

One example of this “cloudy perception” is the belief by half of white Millennials that discrimination against whites has become as big a problem as discrimination against people of color, the network notes.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs Now a Global Epidemic

Bacteria that resist antibiotics are widespread around the planet, concludes the first global review of antibiotic resistance

To make matters worse, the World Health Organization, which produced the report, has revealed that there is no globally standardised way to assess and share information on drug-resistant infections — something the WHO will now make a priority.

“Unless we take significant actions to improve efforts to prevent infections and also change how we produce, prescribe and use antibiotics, the world will lose more and more of these global public health goods and the implications will be devastating,” says Keiji Fukuda, head of health security at the WHO.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pluto May be Wearing a Dark Belt of Moon Dust

On far-flung Pluto, it may be raining moon dust. Models suggest that Pluto’s small moons are even now sprinkling dust on its equator, which could explain why Pluto’s middle is darker than its poles. A NASA spacecraft headed for Pluto’s neighbourhood should be able to check out the claim when it arrives next year.

Pluto and its moons lie in the Kuiper belt, a region beyond the orbit of Neptune filled with mostly small, icy worlds. While Pluto is only about half the size of Mercury, it boasts five known moons. The largest, Charon, is half Pluto’s size. The other four — Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx — are much smaller.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

SSRIs Taken During Pregnancy May Cause Autism

(NaturalNews) A study of nearly 1,000 mother-child pairs by researchers at the Bloomberg School of Public Health has found that prenatal exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, otherwise known as SSRIs — which are frequently prescribed for depression, anxiety and other mental disorders — – — was associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developmental delays in boys.

The study, which was published in the online version of the journal Pediatrics, examined data from large samples of ASD and delayed development diagnoses by trained clinicians using validated standard instruments, Science Daily reported.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

One thought on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 5/1/2014

  1. I would like to see western powers cease to provide foreign aid to the satanic republic of Pakistan.

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