A terrorist bomb attack at a marketplace in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Province in China, left 31 people dead and upwards of 100 wounded. Witnesses say the attackers threw bombs from the windows of a car at elderly people gathered outside a restaurant for breakfast. Meanwhile, the Islamic Party of Turkestan claimed responsibility for an earlier bomb attack in Urumqi that killed three people.
In other news, another “Danish” mujahid has been killed in Iraq, reportedly blowing himself up in a suicide bombing.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, Papa Whiskey, Srdja Trifkovic, 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.
Dollar Decline: Russia, China to Expand Payments in National Currencies
Russia and China are planning to increase the volume of direct payments in mutual trade in their national currencies, according to a joint statement on a new stage of comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation signed during high-level talks in Shanghai on Tuesday.
“The sides intend to take new steps to increase the level and expansion of spheres of Russian-Chinese practical cooperation, in particular to establish close cooperation in the financial sphere, including an increase in direct payments in the Russian and Chinese national currencies in trade, investments and loan services,” the statement said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Eurozone Business Activity Slips, France Struggles for Growth
(BRUSSELS) — Eurozone business activity slipped slightly in May but held near a three-year high, suggesting a modest economic recovery remains on track, a closely watched survey showed on Thursday.
However the report also highlighted continuing problems for France, lagging further behind powerhouse Germany which goes from strength to strength, analysts said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Banks to Recover Somewhat by 2016, Says Prometeia
(AGI) Milan, May 21 — Italian banks will have cumulative earnings of about 23 billion euros between 2014 and 2016, regaining a little more than half of the funds lost in the previous three years. Regaining these funds will not be part of the three-year report. Loans to families and businesses will further drop in 2014 by 0.6 percent to then increase between 2015 and 2016, increasing by 2.2 percent. These figures were presented by Prometeia on the occasion of Banking Day 2014.
After a rough 2013, this year will be one of transition that will be positive, even if contained, in the balance sheets of Italian banks and will close with earnings of 2.8 billion euros.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Industry Demand for Electricity Plunges 23% in 7 Yrs
Assoelettrica president says clearly ‘deindustrialization’
(ANSA) — Rome, May 14 — Italian industry demand for electricity has fallen dramatically since 2006, said the president of Italian electricity association Assoelettrica in a statement released Wednesday.
Industrial demand has gone from 156 billion kWh in 2006 to roughly 120 billion kWh in 2013, a level “on par with those of the early 1990s, that unambiguously signal the ongoing process of deindustrialization of our country,” said Chicco Testa in an Assoelettrica annual report.
At the same time, residential and service demand for electricity did not fall over the same period, which included Italy’s long economic recession since World War II. On the contrary, they continued to grow.
Total electricity consumption in 2013 was 297 billion kWh, in line with 2003 levels.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sicily Unions Urge ‘General Mobilisation’ on Unpaid Workers
Some 30,000 Sicilian workers unpaid for months, unions say
(ANSA)- Palermo, May 19 — Trade union leaders in Sicily threatened Monday to call a general strike if as many as 30,000 workers on the regional government payroll do not receive months of unpaid back wages.
“The situation in Sicily is dramatic and we are very worried about the grave social, economic and administrative crisis in which Sicily has plunged and over the future of the 30,000 workers who depend on the regional budget, who for months have been without salaries,” the secretaries of the Sicilian branches of the CGIL, CISL and UIL labour union federations said in a joint statement. “The political world is indifferent to the needs of citizens. For this reason we say ‘enough’ to power games that make these workers effectively hostages,” the union leaders said in a statement.
“The time has come to say ‘enough’. We are proclaiming a state of agitation and, in the absence of any response by the regional government, we will announce a general mobilisation,” the unions’ statement said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
16 Puerto Rico Police Officers Indicted on Corruption Charges
Sixteen former and current police officers in Puerto Rico have been charged with running a criminal ring to generate money through bribes, robberies and drug sales, authorities said Thursday.
The officers are accused of planting evidence to make false arrests and then extorting victims, demanding money in exchange for their release, said U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez.
They also are accused of entering homes used by suspected criminals to steal money, drugs and other items. The police officers also are accused of providing false testimonies, manipulating court records and not appearing in court to force the dismissal of cases in exchange for bribes, officials said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Anti-Islam’ 9/11 Memorial Film: More Anguish for NY Muslims
The opening of New York’s 9/11 Memorial this week was marred by claims that a film shown at the centre portrayed Islam unfairly: a concern which, for some, is emblematic of a societal suspicion that continues to see Muslims stigmatised in the US.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Credit Suisse Faces Yet Another Probe in US
Credit Suisse is under investigation in the United States to determine if it allowed traders use its network for improper transactions, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
The probe is the latest headache for Switzerland’s second-largest bank. On Monday it pleaded guilty to helping Americans dodge taxes and agreed to pay a fine of $2.6 billion.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Enemies on the Left, False Friends on the Right
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.” -MARCUS TILLIUS CICERO
We all know what the left represents, outright communism and collectivism. However, the purpose of this series of articles is to help others understand what has happened to our nation as well as the old right Constitutional conservatives who no longer exist. First a true story, and then I’ll get at it.
In 1995, Charlotte Iserbyt, author of The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America, and former Senior Policy Advisor in the Reagan education department met with her good friend, Rosalind Kress Haley, who was a member of the secretive Council for National Policy (CNP). Charlotte and Rosalind decided to try to get the US out of the United Nations. So they printed up postcards containing information regarding same, and put them in their bills, on car windshields at the grocery store, in store windows, etc.
Then, Rosalind had an idea. She thought that if they sent a letter to all 435 members of the Council for National Policy, who she thought were her friends, that they would help in the effort. The gals decided Rosalind should write the letter since many of the people in the CNP were not very pleased that Charlotte Iserbyt had blown the whistle on Reagan’s US/Soviet education agreements of 1985 and 1988, which brought to American schools, the Skinner/Pavlov dog training rather than academic teaching.
To see the US/Soviet agreement, click on this PDF file.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Exclusive: Whistleblower Reveals New VA Scandal (Video)
A Veterans Affairs whistleblower has exclusively revealed to Infowars that the facility at which he works has engaged in a of cover-up in response to the VA hospital scandal, while also relating the story of how one supervisor expressed his desire to see older veterans “taken outside and shot in the head.”
The whistleblower, who wishes to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, works at a large 250 acre VA hospital. He lifted the lid on a number of shocking details during an interview with Sgt. Joe Biggs.
“Recently there’s been a very rapid race to move records, boxes, change labels, whatever it may be, they’re putting them in rooms that nobody would look in…and there’s multiple times that I have seen in the past week or so them moving boxes…so apparently they’re hiding their tracks somewhere,” stated the VA employee, adding that the activity preceded an inspection of the facility, suggesting it was part of an effort to conceal evidence in the aftermath of the secret waiting list scandal.
Even more chilling was a warning sent out to VA employees at the facility which, according to the whistleblower, was meant to get across the message, “Do you see what happens to the people that try to get things straight around here, they’re not here anymore,” a tone the whistleblower described as “pretty telling.”
The employee also revealed the shocking attitude of one supervisor at the hospital towards older veterans, who asserted that older vets “should be taken outside and shot in the head because they’re worthless.” The individual still works at the hospital and was not disciplined for his comments.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
J. Russell George’s Lone Voice in the Wilderness
Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration J. Russell George is a lone voice in the wildness, whose plaintiff cries for an end to government waste fall on largely deaf Obama Administration ears. George is to be commended for repeatedly exposing just how lavish the IRS has been in spending tax dollars on itself and how selectively derelict it has been in failing to account for tax program abuses.
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) was supposed to provide assistance to low income working families. Like most government programs, it too is a victim of abuse, and like most, vested interests are robbing the nation blind while those in positions to end the theft do nothing.
According to Treasury Inspector General George, more than $13 billion last year alone went directly from the U.S. Treasury to individuals who were not qualified to receive the EITC.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Administration Choking Off Bank Lending to Gun Dealers
For seven years Theodore Roosevelt Liberti — known to his friends as “T.R.” — ran a retail gun shop in New Jersey and then moved it to Florida. T.R.’s bank had always been BankUnited (BU), which handled his accounts and cleared his customers’ credit card purchases. But when he decided to open an online store called Discount Ammo-N-Guns, BankUnited closed his accounts on March 12 “pursuant to the terms and conditions listed in our Depositor’s Agreement.”
When T.R. demanded a further explanation, the bank remained silent. T.R.’s wife and business partner, Elizabeth, said:
I was very angry. They were very inconsiderate. We had all our credit cards going through that bank.
All of a sudden we had to run and find another bank to keep our business going. We [had to] shut down for two weeks.
[BU] wouldn’t even tell us why.
When the bank finally responded, its explanation was unsatisfactory:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ObamaCare Will Kill Far More Than the VA Scandal
The news that some forty veterans died while waiting to receive care from a Phoenix Veterans Affairs hospital — care that was denied because of bureaucratic chicanery — will seem small in comparison to the numbers of Americans who will die from the implications of ObamaCare.
At this point, some nineteen VA hospitals are under suspicion of engaging in similar practices, but as large as the VA bureaucracy is, it will be small in comparison to what ObamaCare requires. The original legislation that combined the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act represented nearly 2,700 pages.
The regulations that are being created to implement it will run to several volumes. By late 2013, the Obama administration had published 11,588,500 words of final ObamaCare regulations. If looks can kill, that many words will surely kill. Too many people will be unble to get the care they need because there will be a regulation to prevent it.
What is making headlines now has long been known in other nations with national healthcare systems. It is about rationing, not dispensing care; if for no other reason that is why healthcare should remain in the private sector.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Police Killings of Hispanics Spark Protests in Salinas, California
(CNN) — The central California city of Salinas is being rocked with unrest and violence after protesters accused police of racism and brutality in the fatal shootings of three Latino men since March, including one captured on grainy video this week. Demonstrations peaked Wednesday night when a man was shot to death outside his home near an anti-police protest. The circumstances of that shooting, a homicide and not a police shooting, are being investigated, police said. When authorities responded to that homicide, demonstrators went to the scene and threw bricks, bottles, sticks and rocks at police and EMS personnel as they worked on the shooting victim, police said. One bottle struck the head of an officer who was giving CPR to the victim, stopping him from giving aid, police said.
[Let’s see — of the three who cops shot, one was wielding a hedge trimmer, one a knife, and one a look-alike handgun. What do these morons expect? — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Prez Run: Rubio, Jindal & Cruz All Constitutionally Ineligible
Here we go again.
Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Bobby Jindal all want to be the next U.S. president. The only problem is, just like the impostor in the White House, Barack Obama (known aliases used: Barry Soetoro, Barry Obama, Barack Dunham and aka Barry Dunham), all three are constitutionally ineligible, contrary to declarations from their campaign managers, ignorant journalists and partisan mouth pieces.
Jonathan Tilove, The Times-Picayune: “They (Jindal’s parents) arrived Feb 1, 1971, and a bit over four months later, on June 10, 1971, Piyush Jindal was born at Woman’s Hospital in Baton Rouge, a natural-born U.S. citizen, who like every other child born in America, could, constitutionally, grow up to be president.”
His parents were not U.S. citizens at the time of his birth; they were here on green cards. His mother became a citizen in 1976, his father in 1986. Jindal is a U.S. citizen at birth, but not a natural born citizen…
There was a reason the Founding Fathers grand fathered in the ‘natural born citizen’ clause in the Constitution. They wanted to make absolutely sure as possible there would be no dual loyalties for a U.S. president. While I have no doubt Rubio, Jindal and Cruz are loyal Americans, one need only look at the usurper in the White House regarding loyalty to these united States of America and the U.S. Constitution. Soetoro was groomed by a high profile communist in Hawaii and then went on to Chicago to resume his communist connections. He is a die hard Marxist: Obama’s proven communist connections in Hawaii and Chicago.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Secrets, Lies and Snowden’s Email: Why I Was Forced to Shut Down Lavabit
For the first time, the founder of an encrypted email startup that was supposed to insure privacy for all reveals how the FBI and the US legal system made sure we don’t have the right to much privacy in the first place
My legal saga started last summer with a knock at the door, behind which stood two federal agents ready to to serve me with a court order requiring the installation of surveillance equipment on my company’s network.
My company, Lavabit, provided email services to 410,000 people — including Edward Snowden, according to news reports — and thrived by offering features specifically designed to protect the privacy and security of its customers. I had no choice but to consent to the installation of their device, which would hand the US government access to all of the messages — to and from all of my customers — as they travelled between their email accounts other providers on the Internet.
But that wasn’t enough. The federal agents then claimed that their court order required me to surrender my company’s private encryption keys, and I balked. What they said they needed were customer passwords — which were sent securely — so that they could access the plain-text versions of messages from customers using my company’s encrypted storage feature. (The government would later claim they only made this demand because of my “noncompliance”.)
Bothered by what the agents were saying, I informed them that I would first need to read the order they had just delivered — and then consult with an attorney. The feds seemed surprised by my hesitation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Shock FedGov Court Ruling: Police Can Kick in Your Door and Seize Guns Without Warrant or Charges
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals may have just dealt a serious blow to the U.S. Constitution.
In a unanimous decision earlier this month the Court determined that law enforcement officers are not required to present a warrant or charges before forcibly entering a person’s home, searching it, and confiscating their firearms if they believe it is in the individual’s best interests.
The landmark suit was brought before the court by Krysta Sutterfield of Milwaukee, who had recently visited a psychiatrist for outpatient therapy resulting from some bad news that she had received. According to court records Sutterfield had expressed a suicidal thought during the visit, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, when she said “I guess I’ll go home and blow my brains out.” This prompted her doctor to contact police.
For several hours the police searched for Sutterfield, speaking with neighbors and awaiting her return home. They received an update from her psychiatrist who said that Sutterfield had contacted her and advised that she was not in need of assistance and to “call off” the search, which the doctor did not agree to. Police eventually left and Sutterfield returned home, only to be visited later that evening by the lead detective on the case:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Stream of Al Qaeda Threats Has U.S. Intelligence Concerned
(CNN) — A series of al Qaeda-based threats to attack American and Western targets in Europe, as well as threats to launch attacks inside the United States, has caused significant concern inside the U.S. intelligence community, CNN has learned.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Era of Chimeras: Scientists Fearlessly Create Bizarre Human/Animal Hybrids
Did you know that scientists are creating cow/human hybrids, pig/human hybrids and even mouse/human hybrids? This is happening every single day in labs all over the western world, but most people have never even heard about it.
So would you drink milk from a cow/human hybrid that produces milk that is almost identical to human breast milk? And how would you interact with a mouse that has a brain that is almost entirely human? These are the kinds of questions that we will have to start to address as a society as scientists create increasingly bizarre human/animal hybrids. Thanks to dramatic advances in genetic technology, we have gotten to the point where it is literally possible for college students to create new hybrid lifeforms in their basements. Of course our laws have not kept pace with these advances, and now that Pandora’s Box has been opened, it is going to be nearly impossible to shut it.
[Comment: “The Island of Dr. Moreau” comes to mind.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The New, Improved First Amendment
Harry Reid, the Democrat panjandrum in the Senate, who likes to call his own constituents “domestic terrorists,” wants to rewrite the First Amendment. That’s no surprise. But first let’s review the text of the current First Amendment.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition Government for a redress of grievances.”
Those few words are a thorn in the progressives’ flesh. Specifically, Sen. Reid wishes to rewrite the First Amendment to exclude the Koch brothers from the political process. The Koch brothers contribute to conservative candidates and causes, and Reid thinks that shouldn’t be allowed. Of course, he has no problem with George Sauron bankrolling ultra-left candidates and causes: just the Koch brothers, and anyone else who’d want to do the same. Sen. Reid has a bee in his bonnet. He was recently awarded three Pinocchios by the Washington Post Fact-Checker for accusing the Koch brothers of being “one of the main causes of Climate Change” The Post believes in Man-Made Climate Change, but sees no point in trying to sell it with lies a four-year-old could penetrate. They understand it’ll take cleverer lies than Harry’s.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Plan to Kill the Internet Uncovered
The Internet has emerged as the most empowering tool of individual freedom since the Gutenberg’s press, affording billions of people worldwide not only the tool of instant communication, but access to a wealth of liberating information, freedom from the chains of received consensus, and the opportunity to become their own media platform.
This represents an ever increasing threat to the status quo of the elite, which is why the establishment is working feverishly to dismantle the freedom granted by the world wide web in its current form.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Single Most Dangerous Question to Obama About Benghazi
Although numerous unanswered questions continue to plague the Obama White House about the criminal and murderous events of the Benghazi attacks on September 11, 2012, there is one single question that needs to be asked with absolute precision and answered with authenticated specificity.
It is the question that Obama and a very small contingent of his innermost circle fear the most, for it is my professional investigative assessment, based on insider information, that the answer to this question alone will cause the immediate demands for the impeachment and removal from office of Barack Hussein Obama. It is this precise question:
Where exactly within the White House was Barack Hussein Obama, from the time he left the Oval Office at approximately 7:30 p.m. ET, until the following day when he boarded Air Force One destined for Las Vegas, who was he with, and what were the exact nature of his activities during this period? Unfortunately, I have significant doubts that specific answers to this multi-part question, subject to verification by Secret Service logs, will be forthcoming or cross-referenced with other internal White House logs and other records that are known to be kept and maintained. I also have serious doubts that the Select Committee will press the issue beyond any vague, superficial and peripheral testimony offered by those called before the investigative body.
It is this one particular question — and a complete, truthful and verifiable answer — that has the ability to completely change the perception of events that have been carefully crafted like a cheap paint-by-numbers picture set suitable for children 8-12 years of age.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Time for the States to Take Back Their Land From the Feds
Oversee its use for the development of the economy, the security of the nation, and the protection of private property, the keystone of capitalism.
According to a 2012 report by the Federal Research Service, “The federal government owns roughly 635-640 million acres, 28% of the 2.27 billion acres of land in the United States, Bureau of Land Management, Bundy, EPA, Pebble Mine
Four agencies administer 609 million acres of this land: the Forest Service (USFS) in the Department of Agriculture, and the National Park Service (NPS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), all in the Department of the Interior (DOI). Most of these lands are in the West and Alaska. In addition, the Department of Defense administers 19 million acres in military bases, training ranges, and more. Numerous other agencies administer the remaining federal acreage.”
I suspect it may come as a surprise to many people that the federal government owns just over a quarter of the nation’s landmass and, other than land set aside for military bases and naval ports that may seem excessive. It is.
[Comment: Recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Top Obama Aide: ‘Many More Executive Actions to Come’
The White House will be “picking up the pace on executive actions,” as Congress focuses its efforts on the newly formed select committee investigating Benghazi, senior Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer declared Tuesday.
In an op-ed for The Huffington Post, Pfeiffer argued that congressional Republicans are not interested in engaging on the economy, instead spending time “obsessively trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act” and “ginning up politically motivated investigations.”
“Given this dynamic, President Obama has only one option — use every ounce of his authority to unilaterally improve economic security,” Pfeiffer said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Citizens on Track to Lose Medical Privacy With ObamaCare
This week’s news of the Obama Administration’s handling of healthcare for American war heroes and veterans begs the question from reporters: If there is fraud, abuse and alleged death of patients being investigated in a small healthcare bureaucracy as the VA hospitals, what can we expected from a huge power-grab that allowed the federal government to totally control the entire medical industry?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) The horrific Veterans Administration scandal, in which scores of patients on a “secret list” reportedly died after spending as long as a year without treatment, has widened. CNN correspondent Jake Tapper recently grilled White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough over President Obama’s usual scandal posture: indifference, holding no one accountable and calculated outrage without any real action being taken.
As noted by Breitbart News, Obama is currently standing by his secretary of Veterans Affairs, former Army Gen. Eric Shinseki. This is in spite of the fact that, in 2013, Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, sent the president a letter that, Tapper reported, warned “of dramatic problems at the VA, ‘a perfect illustration of the management failures, deception, lack of accountability permeating VA’s health care system [and] an alarming pattern of serious and significant patient care issues.’“
‘But you are not. This letter was sent a year ago.’
Breitbart News described the exchange:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video: College Students Are Experts on Pharrell, Have No Idea What Benghazi is
If any more proof was needed that America’s youth is completely disconnected from politics and utterly consumed with meaningless pop culture, here it is.
Reporter Dan Joseph of MRCTV interviewed scores of students taking their final exams at George Mason University, just minutes away from the epicenter of the US government in Washington DC. What he found was disturbing.
Not one single student could explain why Benghazi is in the news currently. Indeed, not one student even knew what or where Benghazi is.
When Joseph offered up patently ridiculous explanations of what Benghazi is, such as a popular creamy sauce, or a Japanese robot designed to help with gardening, the students simply accepted them as fact without question.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) Some of the best arguments are those that are thorough enough to be persuasive, but simple enough to be widely understood. And a new infographic by NurseDegree.net seems to accomplish both of these with regards to genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), spelling out how pervasive transgenic crops have become in the modern food supply and what these deadly organisms are doing to the health of our environment.
Entitled GMOs: The Walking Dead of the Food Industry, the infographic explains how GMOs are now being planted on a collective land area measuring the size of the entire state of Alaska. An astounding 170.1 million hectares, or about 420 million acres, of land around the world are growing things like Monsanto’s Roundup Ready soy and Syngenta’s Bt corn. And primarily in North America, these and other GM crops have bombarded the food supply without proper labeling.
As we previously pointed out, the position that GMOs are no different from natural crops is dubious, at best, seeing as GMOs are substantially different, hence their ability to be patented. For nearly two decades, Big AgriBio has gotten away with playing both sides, claiming on the one hand that GMOs are unique in order to reap huge profits, while at the same time claiming that they are the same as all other crops in order to gain regulatory approval.
But as the public has progressively awakened to this sham, an overwhelming percentage of people now say they want GMOs to be properly labeled, which should have been the case all along. According to data reiterated in the new infographic, an overwhelming 87 percent of consumers say they want GMO labeling, and more than half of all Americans would refuse to buy GMOs if given the choice via labels.
The chemical companies have also gotten away with lying to the public about how much herbicide and pesticide is needed to grow GMOs. Multinational chemical corporations like Monsanto have long claimed that GMOs would reduce farmers’ reliance on chemicals to grow cash crops. But nothing could be further from the truth, as herbicide production has increased by 1500 percent since GMOs were first introduced in the mid-1990s.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
White House Says Obama Only Learned of VA Wait-List Scandal on TV
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney wound up with egg on his face Monday as he told reporters that President Barack Obama first learned from a TV news report that his Veterans Administration was denying medical care to vets with secret off-the-books-waiting lists.
But new evidence emerged this morning that his transition team was notified five years ago about how VA medical centers’ official wait-list times bore little resemblance to reality and risked denying military heroes critical health care.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
White Vacationers Attacked by Black Mob
[WARNING: *Disturbing Content*]
In an apparent racially motivated attack, a white family was assaulted, pummeled, and robbed by a black mob while enjoying Mother’s Day weekend in Savannah, Georgia.
On Saturday, May 10, Rob Gray and his brother-in-law Jim Thomas, both of Atlanta, and their families were in a tourist-oriented part of Savannah when the trouble started. Writes WND.com:
Family members said they had finished eating dinner in a Savannah restaurant and were walking along River Street.
… “All of a sudden,” the police report said, “a black male and a black female forcefully walked through his [Mr. Thomas’] family bumping into him and the small children in his family.”
“Thomas then advised that he then said something to the black male about his actions. He then explained that the black male then stopped and turned around and charged at him and assaulted him. Mr. Thomas then advised that several more unknown black individual[s] came from behind and attacked his family including the children.”
Thomas provides details about the attack’s brutality in a Facebook post:
“My 6 yr old daughter was punched in the stomach. Both of my sons [ages 9 and 11] were thrown around. My niece [age 13] was viciously attacked by one of the older women in this crowd, Roberta [Gray’s girlfriend] was scratched up mercilessly as she tried to save the children, and my wife was yanked around by her hair by a man 3 times her size. All EIGHT of us were assaulted!
“… Rob had been hit so hard, that it has probably fractured his orbital and damaged his left eye. I have multiple scratches, bruises and a scratched lens in my right eye. We both have severe head & neck trauma.”
Video evidence attests to this, with both men visibly injured; Gray’s left eye is apparently swollen shut in one photograph. Family members also suffered bruises and lacerations, and the goods they purchased that evening were stolen.
After the attack, Thomas says they sought refuge in a nearby candy store as the black mob waited outside, prompting the store’s proprietor to complain that the bleeding family’s presence was costing him business. Perhaps due to this uncharitable attitude (this wasn’t specified) the family left their “safe haven” to return to their hotel, only to be stalked by their attackers, who followed not far behind.
Thomas also complained of the lack of police presence and response, writing, “We finally did see 2 patrol officers (almost 25 mins after the incident). They took a statement and called for an ambulance. We explained that the people responsible for this attack were STILL there. We never saw any more police patrol or backup.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why John Boehner Hates the Tea Party
Republican leaders such as John Boehner, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Peter King, etc., have made one of their missions in life to defeat Republican Tea Party candidates — even if those candidates are incumbents. This is for good reason: the establishment Republican Party is diametrically opposed to the goals and principles of the Tea Party.
Based on the positions of most Tea Party candidates (which is all we have to go on as the Tea Party is not a real political party but only a grassroots activist effort being conducted mainly within the Republican Party), the goals and objectives of the Tea Party can be summarized generally as follows:
* They support a non-interventionist foreign policy. * They support the Constitution and recognize the current attacks against the Constitution, especially against the Second, Fourth, and Tenth Amendments. * They oppose the NSA spying on the American citizenry (including the use of drones for such purposes). * They oppose the Patriot Act and the militarization of the Department of Homeland Security as well as local and State law enforcement agencies. * They oppose the Import-Export Bank. * They oppose the Federal Reserve Bank. * They oppose CISPA. * They oppose the indefinite detention provision of the NDAA. * They support ending the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF). * They support limited government spending — especially at the federal level.
One can easily see that many, if not most, of these goals and objectives are diametrically opposite the goals and objectives of the establishment Republican machine. And more than anything else, the Republican leadership in Washington, D.C., wants GOP congressmen and senators to be “team players.” Of course, by “team players” they mean good little Republican robots that will not buck party leadership.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Wisconsin Police Reassure Residents They Won’t be Shot at From Military Truck
Police in the Wisconsin town of Neenah have reassured residents that military trucks obtained from the U.S. Army now being deployed for domestic law enforcement duties won’t be used to fire on the locals.
The fact that authorities even need to make such a statement underscores increasing concern over the militarization of domestic policing as police departments across the country obtain vehicles and equipment once used to occupy Afghanistan and Iraq under the Department of Defense’s excess property program…
During a Concord City Council meeting last year concerning the city’s purchase of a Bearcat armored vehicle, former Marine Corps Colonel Peter Martino, who was stationed in Fallujah and trained Iraqi soldiers, warned that that the Department of Homeland Security is working with law enforcement to build a “domestic army,” because the federal government is afraid of its own citizens.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Académie Française Welcomes First British ‘Immortal’
The Académie française, one of France’s oldest and most prestigious institutions, on Thursday formally invested a British citizen as one of its own.
Clad in their signature black coats with bright green and gold embroidered lapels, members of the Académie française formally welcomed Sir Michael Edwards into the fold during a solemn ceremony at the Institut de France in central Paris.
Known in France as “the Immortals”, the 40 members of the Académie are elected for life and tasked with safeguarding the French language.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Polar Bear Enclosure Opens
The long-awaited polar bear enclosure officially opens today in Vienna’s Schoenbrunn Zoo. The new residents of the Franz Josef Land enclosure, which measures at 1700-square-feet, are polar bears Ranzo and Lynn, a male and a female who have come from zoos in Finland and Netherlands.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Vienna Wins Kudos for Ease of Getting Around
The popular TripAdvisor website polled 54,000 of its readers, to find the best of the best destinations. Vienna was voted first place for ease of getting around in the city, and did well in several other categories. According to a new poll from TripAdvisor.com Vienna beats Singapore and Berlin for its convenience for city explorers.
Only Singapore and Tokyo were deemed to be better (out of the dozens of cities under consideration) for solo travellers. Tokyo was ranked highest across the 14 categories on which the cities were rated, including helpful locals, friendly taxi drivers and the best overall experience.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Helpful Robot Keeps an Eye on the Elderly
Vienna’s Technical University has developed a mobile robot with the ability to detect significant changes in its surroundings, and report them. It’s trialling the technology in a hospital for the elderly.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: NSA ‘Spying on OSCE and IAEA’ In Vienna
The US National Security Agency (NSA) has reportedly bugged the Vienna-based OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe), according to Germany’s Spiegel magazine.
Spiegel reporter and NSA expert Holgar Stark said it was highly likely that the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, as well as the Russian, Iranian and North Korean embassies in the Austrian capital, were bugged as well.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: Sentences of 10 Months to 20 Years in Terrorism Trial
All 19 suspects have been found guilty at a big terrorism trial in Brussels. They were handed sentences between 10 months and 20 years. The suspects were accused of joining efforts with jihadist fighters in Somalia, in 2011 and 2012.
The man accused of being the spider in the web, Benomari, left for Somalia in 2011 with 3 others to fight for al-Shabaab, a terrorist organisation that has links with al-Qaeda and that was responsible for a horrible attack in a shopping centre in Nairobi, Kenya, last year.
The leader told his wife at home about decapitations of “non-believers”. He was given a 20-year sentence. The 3 who travelled to Somalia with him, were handed prison sentences between 3 and 5 years. However, as the leader and 2 others were not present in court yesterday, they could get a new trial at a later stage.
15 others got lighter punishments, but they were all convicted. They had given financial and other support.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Radikale Want Arabic Taught in Schools
If it were up to government coalition party Radikale, public school students in Copenhagen would be offered the opportunity to learn Arabic for free during school hours, as they are today with French and German.
Tommy Petersen, a City Council board member and the spokesperson for children and youth issues for Radikale, said that it didn’t make sense that Arabic isn’t among the languages offered in public schools.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU-Disillusioned Portuguese See Little Point in Voting
Lisbon — Abstention looks set to be the most certain winner in Portugal’s European Parliament election, with a majority of voters unlikely to bother voting on Sunday (25 May). The indifference comes after three years of austerity, imposed by international creditors in return for Portugal’s bailout package.
The result is that although the troika of lenders — the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank — has just left the country, most Portuguese have little reason to cheer.
The risk of poverty is rising while wages and pensions are not, the quality of education and health services is deteriorating and the social welfare system has been severely knocked. Unemployment is still above 15 percent and skilled young people are leaving the country in numbers not seen since the 1960s.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nigel Farage shrugged off allegations that Ukip was a racist party as he prepared for an unprecedented triumph in the European elections.
Voting booths opened at 7am for the European Parliament contest to return 73 Euro MPs, with more than 4,000 council seats at 161 English local authorities and those in Northern Ireland are also up for election…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
European Elections: UKIP ‘Third in London Vote But May Pip Labour in the Rest of UK’
Londoners are set to deny Ukip leader Nigel Farage victory in the capital in today’s critical European elections, a new poll reveals. Although the anti-EU party is set to come first in the national voting, it is being squeezed to third place in the more cosmopolitan city, revealed pollsters YouGov…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Flirting With Populism: Is Germany’s AfD a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing?
Bernd Lucke, the founder of the anti-euro Alternative for Germany party is often labelled as a dangerous right-wing populist. Now that the AFD is likely to win seats in the European Parliament on Sunday, he is trying to put on the friendliest face he can.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France’s National Front Winning Over Voters
The far-right Front National could become the strongest party in France in the European elections. The party has changed its image since Marine Le Pen took over. It’s now seen as younger and more middle-class.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Terror Probe Targets Sister of Radical Behind 2012 Killings; Flight to Syria Suspected
French authorities have opened a preliminary terrorism probe targeting the sister of a radical Islamist behind a 2012 killing spree in southwest France on suspicions that she fled to Syria.
A Paris prosecutor’s office spokesman said Thursday that Souad Merah faces a preliminary investigation for suspected association with a terrorist enterprise. Police were raiding her home in Toulouse after she disappeared with her young children in recent days. An Interior Ministry official said she is suspected of traveling to Syria.
Her brother Mohammed killed seven people in 2012 in southwest France before dying in a standoff with police. Authorities say he had traveled to jihadist training camps abroad.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Funds to Prevent Radicalisation of Danes
An increasing number of young Danish Muslims are going to Syria to fight alongside opposition forces.
The City Council is sufficiently worried to have allocated one million kroner to increasing efforts to both prevent radicalisation among young Danish Muslims and improve deradicalisation programs that rehabilitate those who return from Syria.
Naser Khader, a Danish-Syrian former MP for Konservative, has urged the government to make it completely illegal for young people to go to Syria and participate in the Civil War.
Around 100 Danish self-proclaimed jihadists — nicknamed the ‘al-Denmarki’ in some quarters — are estimated to have joined the conflict.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Cabinet Adopts New Africa Strategy
BERLIN, May 21 (Xinhua) — The German cabinet has adopted a new Africa strategy, showing willingness for a greater German involvement in Africa, German media N-TV reported on Wednesday.
In the new Africa policy, Germany’s ruling coalition government expressed willingness to help prevent armed conflicts on the continent at an early stage in the future…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Plans to Ban EU Benefit Fraudsters
EU immigrants found abusing the German benefits system could be banned from re-entering the country for up to five years under a planned draft law. It comes as figures on Thursday showed migration to Germany has reached a 20-year high.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Astronaut Takes Part of Cathedral to Space
Astronaut Alexander Gerst will become the first German for six years to travel to space when he joins the team on the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday. That makes him The Local’s German of the Week.
He will take with him into space a small piece of Cologne Cathedral and a German flag.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Open Access is Revolutionizing Science, And it’s a Growing Research Market Online
More and more scientists are publishing their results online. And as a result, it’s becoming easier to link to new knowledge. A Berlin-based platform called ScienceOpen wants to tap into that.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Keeping Good Science From Becoming Bioterror
A German advisory board wants the country to clamp down on science that could go viral in the worst way — and hopes the world will follow suit quickly, please.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Parties Scrimmage for Neo-Nazi Votes
New Democracy and PASOK against SYRIZA
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MAY 22 — A few days before the second round of local and regional elections in Greece, the tension between government parties New Democracy (center-right) and PASOK (socialist) and the far-left opposition party SYRIZA is extremely high, as they vie for the votes of the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn in constituencies in which none of its candidates made it into the second round.
The elections will be held alongside European ones on Sunday.
The two government parties have said SYRIZA is ‘flirting’ with voters who last Sunday voted for Golden Dawn, after some of its leaders stated that some of those voting for the party are not fascists and that every vote taken away from it is “a victory for democracy”. In an interview with the privately owned television station SKAI, SYRIZA chief Alexis Tsipras said that not all those voting for the party should be considered neo-Nazis and that democratic parties had the duty to “bring home” these citizens. Giorgos Kaminis, Athens mayor and independent candidate for the upcoming elections, accused SYRIZA and its local candidate, Gavriil Sakellaridis, of “winking” at both Golden Dawn and migrants. Christos Goudis, candidate on the list of Ilias Kassidiaris (Golden Dawn), has meanwhile written a letter of support for SYRIZA’s candidate for Athens mayor. SYRIZA denies the accusations and has in turn criticized the government and its spokesperson Simos Kedikoglou, likening him to Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels and saying that he is “the only one able to engage in politics with people like Christos Goudis”.
Political observers say that the game being played out may prove damaging to democracy, but the votes raked in by Golden Dawn candidates in the Attica region and the Athens municipality (108,908 for regional governor candidate Ilias Panayotaros and 35,949 for Ilias Kassidiaris) would be a boon to any party.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Hedegaard Shooter Wants Extradition to Denmark
After spending about a month in a Turkish prison, the 26-year-old man suspected of carrying out the attempted assassination of anti-Islam author Lars Hedegaard has revealed his identity and said he wants to be extradited to Denmark, according to his Danish lawyer, Thorkild Høyer.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How the NSA May Have Tapped Merkel’s Phone
German security services have come up with five different ways the US National Security Agency (NSA) succeeded in spying on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone, a leaked report revealed.
The seven-page secret report by the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), seen by Bild newspaper, discusses five possible ways the NSA could have gained access to Merkel’s phone, which came to light in October last year.
The ones considered most likely were that US agents either used “passive receiving antenna” planted in central Berlin or else intercepted Merkel’s communications as they were transmitted through undersea cables.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary: No Strengthening Military NATO’s Borders
In Ukraine self-government is OK, but no autonomy
(ANSA) — BUDAPEST — There is no need to strengthen a military presence along Nato’s Eastern borders, despite the escalation of the crisis in Ukraine “and deep changes in the security situation”. This is what Hungarian Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi said at the Globsec 2014 conference. A press release issued by the Ministry says that Budapest in this regard “will make the correct decisions at the right time”. According to the press release, this three-day conference will be attended, among others, by political leaders and dozens of ministers of the Visegrad Group countries — the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia — and by the NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. On the sidelines, Martonyi commented on the inaugural speech of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who said that the Hungarians who live outside the country have the right to dual citizenship, and deserve all the protections that belong to minorities and autonomy. These issues are “fundamental”, Martonyi reiterated, “for 200,000 Hungarians who live in neighbouring Ukraine” and anyway Orban did not claim “territorial autonomy”, but only self-government for the Hungarian minority.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Prosecutors Examine Vatican-Lux Vide Operations
Cardinal Bertone not probed, says Vatican
(ANSA) — Rome, May 21 — Financial operations allegedly involving the Vatican’s former secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone have fallen under the lens of Roman prosecutors and Italian finance police after the Vatican on Tuesday denied a news report that the cardinal was under investigation by Vatican prosecutors for alleged embezzlement.
Rome investigators have “monitored” a number of operations involving the Italian production company Lux Vide, owned by former head of RAI State TV Ettore Bernabei, 93, a veteran producer friend of the 79-year-old cardinal. Those controls fell under a larger probe into the Vatican bank, known as the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), regarding suspected violations of anti-money laundering norms. There is no specific criminal probe aimed at IOR loans to Lux Vide, however, and Lux Vide said Thursday that it has not been notified of any formal investigation into it or its administrators.
The Vatican on Tuesday denied German daily Bild’s report that Cardinal Bertone was under investigation for alleged embezzlement.
“There is no probe of a penal nature against Cardinal Bertone,” said spokesman Father Federico Lombardi, hours after the German tabloid sparked an international storm.
Bild, citing “unofficial” Holy See sources, said the once-powerful official embezzled 15 million euros from Vatican coffers at the end of 2012.
Bertone maintained the report was an “invention”, adding that the transaction was conducted in a “normal” manner and that former pope Benedict XVI “had been informed of the financial transaction at Lux Vide”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: MPS Bank Shareholders Approve 5-Bn-Euro Capital Hike
Money raised to be used to pay off part of govt bailout
(ANSA) — Siena, May 21 — Shareholders in troubled Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) bank on Wednesday approved a five-billion-euro capital hike to help pay back a 4.1-billion-euro government bailout from 2012 and regain profitability. The bank said that 96.68% of shareholders present, representing almost 35% of the bank’s current capital, voted in favour of the capital boost.
MPS “is no longer a problem for the Italian banking system and for this country,” said bank President Alessandro Profumo. Much of the capital increase will be used to pay down the government debt in order to avoid nationalization, starting in June, bank officials told the meeting.
Antonella Mansi, who is stepping down as president of the powerful MPS Foundation, said she was confident that the bank’s restructuring is paying off and the new capital will help it to stabilize. The foundation has been the largest single shareholder in the bank, but under Mansi’s leadership, has cut its investment to pay off debts. “The results so far achieved represent the first step in the process of relaunching the (MPS) group,” said Mansi, who has been credited with being a significant force in helping the bank turn itself around financially.
Earlier this month, MPS announced that it lost 174.1 million euros in the first quarter of this year, a significant increase compared with the loss of 101 million euros during the same period last year.
The bank attributed the larger loss to non-recurring factors.
Italy’s third-largest bank by assets was thrown into crisis in January 2013 when it emerged that a shady series of derivative and structured-finance deals had produced losses of 720 million euros.
Since then, MPS has come under the spotlight on several occasions in relation to investigations for suspected insider trading and fraud.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Defence Minister Says Marines Can’t be Judged in India
Roberta Pinotti warns recourse to arbitration if govt talks fail
(ANSA) — Brindisi, May 21 — The Italian defence minister on Wednesday said two Italian marines held in India in the deaths of two fishermen two years ago should not be judged in that country.
“This government says emphatically that our two marines can not be judged in India, because they are soldiers who were on a mission on behalf of our country,” Roberta Pinotti said near the southern Italian coastal city of Brindisi, where she is visiting the San Marco navy brigade headquarters.
“We will continue to look for mediation with the new Indian government, and we will not even wait for one day to pass to go to arbitration,” added Pinotti.
“We forcefully call for the internationalization of the affair which means the involvement of our allies, because anti-pirate missions also regard other countries,” Pinotti said.
“I never forget on any day that there are two San Marco riflemen who in this moment are not with their companions in arms, but in India, imprisoned for two years without charges,” she said.
Pinotti’s statements come the day after she said Italy was in talks with India’s new centre-right government led by Narendra Modi which emerged victorious from India’s marathon elections that ended in mid-May.
Pinotti said Tuesday that if the Indian government does not take a favorable stance toward Italy’s position, Italy will proceed immediately to arbitration.
Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone have been held in India under mobility restrictions for over two years pending trial after allegedly shooting dead fishermen Valentine (aka Gelastine) and Ajesh Binki aboard their trawler during an anti-piracy mission in February 2012.
Last month, the Italian government announced it was opening a “new phase” in the saga, replacing its special envoy on the case and sending its ambassador back to New Delhi to help steer the case towards arbitration by an international organisation such as the UN.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Milan Prosecutor Asks Indictment of Former Fiat Executives
Ex-managers accused of manslaughter in alleged asbestos deaths
(ANSA) — Milan, May 14 — A Milan prosecutor on Wednesday asked the indictment of a number of former top Fiat executives active in the 1990s on multiple manslaughter charges. The case regards 21 workers at the Alfa Romeo plant in Arese, located in the northwestern periphery of Milan, whose deaths were caused by a form of cancer associated with asbestos exposure. Prosecutor Maurizio Ascione asked a judge for the indictment of former Fiat chief executive Paolo Cantarella, the ex-chairman of Fiat Auto Giorgio Garuzzo and five former managers of Alfa Romeo, including its ex-chief executive Vincenzo Moro.
The prosecution claims the workers’ deaths, which took place from the year 2000 onward, were due to asbestos they inhaled due to inadequate protection in the 1980s and early 1990s.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Arrests: Asset Seizures Over Alleged Carige Fraud
Police move to confiscate 22 million euros in assets
(ANSA) — Rome, May 22 — Finance police on Thursday acted on arrest warrants issued against seven people for alleged involvement in a fraud at Italian bank Carige. Police were also conducting searches in the cities of Genoa, Milan and La Spezia on Thursday and proceeding with an order to seize around 22 million euros in assets in relation to the probe. The people under investigation are suspected of offences including criminal association, aggravated fraud, money laundering and fake registration of assets.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: UnipolSai CEO Cimbri ‘Probed for Market-Rigging’
Investigation linked to merger
(ANSA) — Bologna, May 22 — Carlo Cimbri, the CEO of Italian financial-services company UnipolSai, has been put under investigation by Milan prosecutors on suspicion of alleged market rigging, ANSA sources said Thursday. The probe relates to alleged irregularities in the merger between insurance firms Unipol, Milano Assicurazioni, Premafin and Fondiaria-Sai, which was completed in January this year, the sources said. Finance police seized documents at UnipolSai’s offices on Thursday in Bologna to obtain evidence for the probe. Three other managers are also under investigation.
They are Roberto Giay, the former CEO of Premafin Finanziaria; Fabio Cerchiai, the former chairman of Milano Assicurazioni; and Vanes Galanti, an ex-president of Unipol.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Prosecutors Seek Jail Term for Berlusconi’s Son
Prosecutors in Milan have asked for Silvio Berlusconi’s elder son, Pier Silvio, to be sentenced to three years and two months in jail for alleged tax fraud at the family’s Mediaset empire.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Neurogastronomy: Bologna’s Smell Festival Teaches Visitors the Science of Flavor
Neurogastronomy is a relatively new idea around neurology with gastronomy. It’s how the brain creates flavour and triggers our perception of it, using biological, emotional and cultural factors.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Locusts Are the Tastiest Insects’
Insects could be an important food source in the future, according to scientists who met this week in the Netherlands. DW spoke with Dutch researcher Arnold van Huis about his favorite edible insects.
Why are insects an important source of food for the future?
Over 70 percent of the farming land worldwide is used for cattle. When the demand for meat doubles, we will need new sources of protein. And insects are, from a dietary point of view, quite similar. They are even better actually.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
More English Words Slip Into French Language
France’s two main dictionaries are to release new editions containing scores of new words including plenty of Anglo ones too — notably Hashtag, which was previously outlawed. It comes as the first Briton is to be inducted into the prestigious Académie Française.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Anti-EU Membership Still Strong, Celebrations Continue
70 per cent of the Scandinavian country’s inhabitants are against joining the EU 20 years after the last ‘no’ vote, and in this 200th year of the Norwegian Constitution.
April’s joint Klassekampen-Nationen poll also shows 19.5 per cent are in favour. The ‘don’t knows’ comprise 9.8 per cent.
Heming Olaussen, leader of NGO ‘Nei til EU’ (‘No to the EU’) thinks a new national referendum ‘is a long way off”, and doubts whether there will be one at all.
“There’s been a stable, high majority against [joining] for the last few years, and this appears to have become entrenched,” he tells Klassekampen, Monday.
Moreover, ‘Nei til EU’ is linking the 20-200 occasions this year, according to their press spokesperson.
“We’ll be driving around the country in a couple of vans with activists between June and October, holding meetings and showing our presence,” Sindre Humberset says to The Foreigner.
“We see both celebrations as being part of the same struggle for democracy in Norway. Our national events this year will culminate in a party on the evening of 28th November marking the day Norway last said no to EU membership.”
Mr Humberset adds they also have several foreigners as members, “mostly from EU/European Countries. Our previous secretary general was Danish.”
‘Nei til EU’ say nationwide membership levels were 27,000 in 2012. They have regional offices in 19 Norwegian counties.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Norway to ‘Work Harder’ To Sell Whale to Japan
Norway’s fishing minister has pledged to work harder to restart exports of whale meat to Japan, after one of the country’s leading chroniclers of the whaling industry warned that it could die out within ten years.
“We have Japan as a potential export country,” Elisabeth Aspaker told Norway’s NRK channel. “We must see if we can work harder to promote it.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Director to Make ‘Truly Successful’ Viking Film
The Norwegian film director Hans Petter Moland has pledged to make the first “truly successful” Viking movie, based on The Long Ships, the classic 1940s novel by Frans G Bengtsson.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Scientists Took Brains of 700 Babies
Norwegian forensic scientists surgically removed the hearts and brains of around 700 dead babies for research purposes without informing the parents, the country’s VG newspaper has discovered.
According to the newspaper, the practice, part of a research programme into Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, began in 1984 and still continues today.
The scientists remove the brain and heart from the dead babies, replacing the missing material with silicone, and then return the body to the parents for burial.
At no point have the scientists informed the parents of what has been done or sought their consent, believing that to do so would expose them to unnecessary distress.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Sinks Chinese Tycoon’s Ambitions on Arctic Island of Svalbard, Says Land Not Available
Norway says it will buy a vast tranche of private land on its Arctic island of Svalbard a week after a Chinese property tycoon said he wanted the land to build a resort for wealthy travelers.
Trade Minister Monica Maeland said Thursday the “common good” on the island is best served if the 216 square kilometers (83 square miles) was in public hands.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Orban Speeds Up Gazprom’s South Stream
Pipeline crucial to ensure that gas supplies can reach Europe
(ANSA) — TRIESTE — Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban and CEO of Gazprom Alexey Miller, called for “an acceleration in the construction of the South Stream pipeline” after a meeting held last Wednesday between the pemier and the head of the Russian energy giant, according to a press release issued by Hungarian government. The press release says that Orban and Miller met in Budapest and have addressed the problem of “the current situation in Ukraine”. This crisis shows that the pipeline would be crucial, “to ensure that gas supplies can reach Europe”. For this reason, the statement continues, “its implementation needs to be accelerated”.
This press release, moreover, points out that South Stream aims “to guarantee Russian gas supplies supply to Europe via Black Sea, bypassing Ukraine” and underlines that the supplies via Kiev “were disrupted several times over the last few years”, due to disputes with Moscow. Orban and Miller have also discussed about new developments, originating from Austria’s re-entry into the project.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Over 1/3 of British Voters Unaware of EU Elections
Nearly 38 percent, or more than a third of British voters know neither of neither the upcoming European elections (May 22 in the UK) nor of the local polls on the same day.
A survey conducted by the Daily Mirror also shows that Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration UKIP is set to win most MEP seats in the vote on Thursday.
UKIP will count on 32% of the ballots according to the poll, with the Labor Party trailing behind with 27%, the ruling Conservatives coming third (23%) and their partners from the Liberal Democrats fourth (9%).
The Labor Party is tipped for the first place in the councillor vote with a predicted result of 34%, double the output of the UKIP, which is expected to be third with 17.7 percent, while Tories will get 23.9% and the Lib Dems 12.9 of the ballots.
Basing its claims on the survey, the Daily Mirror argues the success that the anti-establishment UKIP will enjoy at the European elections is related to the fact that more of their supporters are aware that polls will be held and are likely to vote.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Slovakia to Supply Gas to Ukraine in September
A pipeline to transport gas to Ukraine via Slovakia should be ready for pumping at full capacity starting in September, the head of Slovakia’s pipeline operator said.
“With 90 to 95% probability, we should be able to ship 8 to 10 B cubic metres per year already as of 1 September, depending that certain technical preconditions are met on both the Slovak and Ukrainian side,” TomáÅ¡ Marecek, chairman of Eustream, the Slovak pipeline operator, said on Monday, quoted by Euractiv.
EU member Slovakia, and Ukraine, signed a deal at the end of April that allows the European Union to send a limited amount of gas to Ukraine — but less than Kyiv had hoped for, in order to cushion the blow, should Russia turn off the gas.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
by Imran Firasat
Friends of known Islamic terrorists are treated with respect and the Spanish judicial system does their bidding. Those who criticize the terrorists and their Islamic ideology are prosecuted.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Politicians Attacked on Euro Campaign Trail
Around 50 people attacked a car transporting Spain’s Minister of Finance and the leader of the Popular Party in Catalonia while they were on the European elections campaign trail near Barcelona on Wednesday.
The protestors were reported to have been carrying anarchist and pro-Catalan independence flags plus symbols in support of Basque political prisoners.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spanish Bulls in Symbolic Knockout Victory
MADRID (AP) — Spanish bulls have scored a symbolic victory at Madrid’s prestigious Las Ventas ring by injuring three matadors and forcing organizers to call off the bullfight.
The fight, the 12th of the famed San Isidro festival, was stopped late Tuesday after bulls gored two matadors and tossed a third into the air.
[I wonder what Hemingway would’ve made of this? — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden’s Far-Right: Active, But Not Effective
Sweden’s far-right scene hasn’t been this active since the end of World War II, with attacks on mosques on the rise. But, on the whole, Sweden is becoming more open to other cultures.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Democrats Are Allowed to Advertise at Bus Stops
Stockholm’s public transport company, SL, announced Thursday that it would allow the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats to continue advertising at bus stops.
The decision is a reversal of an earlier announcement on Thursday, in which SL said it would ban advertisements by the xenophobic party in the Stockholm metro and bus systems ahead of Sunday’s European election.
The Sweden Democrats are promising to “ban organised begging from abroad.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tribute to Karol Wojtyla, Pope John Paul II, Greatest Man of Our Era
Karol Wojtyla, born in humble circumstances in Poland on May 18, 1920, survived the occupations of his native land first by the National Socialists of Adolph Hitler’s National Socialist Workers Party (NAZI), immediately followed by the International Socialists of Joseph Stalin’s Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
He secretly became an ordained Catholic priest in clandestine seminary training forbidden under the iron totalitarianism imposed on Poland by its socialist occupiers. He went on to become Pope John II in 1978, His first words to the people of the world as Pope were: “Be Not Afraid.”
He helped bring down soviet socialism in Poland and Europe working in unpublicized combination with America’s President Ronald Reagan and England’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, to support the Christians of the Polish Solidarity Movement who opposed the tyranny of Marxist secular socialism.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Ex-Radio 1 DJ Chris Denning Charged With 41 Sex Offences
Former BBC Radio 1 DJ Chris Denning has been charged with 41 sexual offences, the Metropolitan Police has said. The alleged offences, dating from 1967 to 1985, are related to 22 boys aged nine to 16.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Numerous Breaches of Election Rules at Polling Stations Across Tower Hamlets
TOWER HAMLETS, EAST LONDON — Tower Hamlets Council in East London has been accused of breaking its pre-election pledge to stop “enthusiastic campaigners” from standing outside polling stations, something the Returning Officer John Williams, who is in charge of electoral integrity, described as “intimidating for people”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Police Patrol ‘High-Risk’ Polling Stations in Crackdown on Voter Intimidation
Police have been stationed at more than 100 polling stations today as part of a crackdown on voter intimidation and fraud at the local and European elections. Sixteen areas have been identified as being “high risk” for vote-rigging and bullying by the Electoral Commission.
This includes the east London borough of Tower Hamlets, which has pledged to put officers outside every one of its 125 polling stations in what is believed to be its biggest ever election day police presence.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Rigby’s Mother Will Never Forgive
The mother of murdered soldier Lee Rigby has said she will never forgive the two Islamist fanatics who killed him.
Fusilier Rigby’s murder sparked shock across the country after he was run over with a car and then hacked to death by British Muslim converts Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale in Woolwich, south-east London, on May 22 last year.
Speaking a year after her 25-year-old son’s death, Lyn Rigby told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “I will never forgive them for what they did to Lee. Never.”
She sent a touching message, called “Once a Fusilier, Always a Fusilier” to be read at a memorial event for her son, held today outside Woolwich Barracks where he was stationed. His family are expected to hold their own private remembrance…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Right and Left of the Political Class Have United Against a Common Enemy: Us
By James Delingpole
“Try as I might, I cannot remember a time when Britain’s various elites were as united in fury as they are now over UKIP leader Nigel Farage.”
Brendan O’Neill is right. I can’t either. Outside Breitbart London you can count on the fingers of one hand the journalists who have remained sufficiently independent-minded not to fall in with the prevailing narrative that UKIP is dangerous, unBritish, racist, extremist, utterly unsuited for any kind of political office, angry and unpleasant…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Tearful Lee Rigby’s Widow Marks First Anniversary of His Death by Laying Wreath at Murder Scene
The widow of murdered soldier Lee Rigby broke down in tears as she lay a wreath near the spot he was killed one year ago today. Rebecca Rigby was among hundreds of people who turned out to pay their respects outside the barracks where Fusilier Rigby was based.
The savage murder of the 25-year-old caused revulsion across the country after he was run over with a car and then hacked to death with knives and a meat cleaver.
In February, Michael Adebolajo, 29, and Michael Adebowale, 23, were jailed for life for the murder on May 22, 2013.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The £1 Billion Royal Navy Nuclear-Powered Submarine
The £1billion Artful edged out of the vast hangar where it was built and was lowered slowly into the BAE Systems dock in Barrow, Cumbria. It will undergo testing ahead of sea trials next year.
Despite weighing 7,400 tons and being more than 300ft long, it will be almost impossible for the enemy to detect thanks to thousands of tiny tiles which baffle sonar.
Artful has twice the firepower of the Trafalgar class submarines which attacked Libya three years ago and can unleash Tomahawk cruise missiles on targets up to 1,200 miles inland.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: We Must Expose UKIP as the Racist Party it Really is
Matthew d’Ancona
Senior politicians have fought shy of challenging Nigel Farage. But the capital’s voters can tell him where to go
On the eve of Ukip’s potential triumph in the European elections, it is remarkable to recall just how humble its origins truly were. The Anti-Federalist League was founded in 1991 by the historian Alan Sked to mobilise opposition to the Maastricht Treaty. The group was almost cheerfully marginal, a single-issue anti-EU campaign which occasionally dipped its toe in electoral waters…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
US Donates 2 Drones to Bulgaria
The smal unmanned planes can be used for tracking down the enemy. Photo by ABCnews.go.com
The United States government has donated two unmanned aerial vehicles “RQ-11 Raven” to the Bulgarian Army.
The total price of the drones amounts to USD 3 M, the daily Trud reported. Their primary purpose is for surveillance, but a weapon can also be mounted on them.
Similar vehicles were used by the US Army to track down high-profile terrorists, including Osama bin Laden.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Voting Begins in the UK for European Elections
(AGI) London, May 22 — Polling stations opened their doors on Thursday in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands for the European elections. The two nations are the first among the 28 EU member countries to vote. In the UK about 35 percent of those entitled to vote will go to the polls. Usually Britons are not interested in European elections, but this time seems to be different. Surveys showed support for euro sceptics.
Polling stations are open in the UK from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
WTO Backs EU Ban on Norway Seal Imports
The WTO on Thursday rejecting Norway and Canada’s appeal against a European Union ban on importing seal products, in a landmark ruling that said animal welfare can trump free trade.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
27 Arrested: 6 Injured in 2nd Day of Riots in Skopje
At least 6 people were injured and 27 arrested in Skopje in a second night of unrest sparked by after the murder of a teenager in a western suburb of the Macedonian capital.
Local police blocked access to the Albanian-populated Saraj area in a bid to prevent serious clashes.
The protests broke out Monday after the arrest of a 19-year-old suspect, reportedly a member of the country’s Albanian minority, for the murder of a 18-year-old high-school graduate in the Gjorce Petrov suburb while he was trying to prevent a thief from stealing a bicycle.
The angry citizens torched dustbins and broke shop windows on Monday.
During Tuesday’s protest, stones and metal objects were hurled at police officers. The clashes left a number of police officers injured, police cars were broken, and the crowd attacked shops, cafes and restaurants believed to be owned by ethnic Albanians
Local and central authorities called for an alleviation of tension after the accident in order to preserve the fragile ethnic peace.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Balkan-Swedes Rally to Help Flood Victims
Members of Sweden’s sizable community of first and second-generation Balkan immigrants have rallied to get Swedes to donate money to relief efforts for the victims of flooding in Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“The Italian Presidency will be a unique opportunity to put cultural dialogue in the Mediterranean at the heart of the agenda of EU external relations,” the Italian Under Secretary of State for Culture Francesca Barracciu has told an international conference on Mediterranean cooperation organised by the Italian news agency ANSA as part of the Universal Forum of Cultures in Naples, in view of the forthcoming Italian Presidency of the European Council. In this context, one of the key events announced for the Italian Presidency will be the 10th anniversary of the Anna Lindh Mediterranean Foundation, to be marked at an event in Naples from 27 to 30 October, with representatives from 42 countries.
The event, set to mark a decade since the Member States of the Euro-Med Partnership took the joint decision to create the Foundation, will focus on the theme of the next chapter of intercultural dialogue in the Mediterranean.
The Anna Lindh Foundation for Inter-Cultural Dialogue promotes knowledge, mutual respect and inter-cultural dialogue between the people of the Euro-Mediterranean region, working through a network of more than 3,000 civil society organisations in 43 countries.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: EU Funds Pilot Project to Reduce Poor Driving Behaviour and Improve Safety
A pilot project has been launched in Beirut, aimed at improving traffic safety and signalling, and reducing the number of deaths and injuries caused by speed and driving under the influence of alcohol. It is part of the EU-funded EuroMed Transport project on Support to the MENA Road Safety Programme.
The pilot project “We got together so that no road separates you” is the first of its kind in Lebanon. It will last three years and will cover the area extending from Antelias to Jbeil (Byblos).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Italian FM Warns Situation ‘May Slip Out of Control’
Minister in Lisbon for ‘5+5 Dialogue’
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MAY 22 — Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini was in Lisbon on Thursday to take part in a Euro-Mediterranean ministerial meeting of the ‘5+5 Dialogue’ that will focus on the situation in Libya. The minister will be discussing this issue in two bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit: one with her Libya counterpart, Mohamed Abdelaziz, and the other with her French counterpart, Laurent Fabius. The meeting’s agenda also includes stability, migration, and development in the Mediterranean.
“We are concerned that the situation may become entirely uncontrollable,” Mogherini told Radio24. “In Lisbon I will be meeting with the Libyan foreign minister and I will relay what we and other European countries and the western part of North Africa agree on: that the most important thing is that all sectors of Libyan society work together to create a democratic future, and that national dialogue for public order and security is needed.” The minister added that they would be trying to get the UN to be tasked with coordinating international support, and that “we must concentrate political action and aid. We must not make mistakes in Libya that could worsen the situation. Military action is not only ill-advised, it is entirely out of the question.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
N. Africa and Europe Debate at ‘5+5 Dialogue’ Economic Forum
(ANSAmed) — ROME — The Economic Forum of the Western Mediterranean held in Lisbon on Wednesday centered on a vision shared with North African nations and close cooperation between businesses of ‘5+5 Dialogue’ nations, with special focus on SMEs.
The 5+5 Initiative includes Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, and Malta on one side and Morocco, Mauritania, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya on the other. Opening remarks were made by Portuguese deputy prime minister Paulo Portas on the subject of ‘‘Sustainable Development: the environment, transport, and infrastructure.
Challenges, cooperation, and business’. The forum follows the first edition held in Barcelona on October 23, 2013. Part of the integration of the area that the foreign ministers are pushing forward on, the forum was organized by Portugal and Mauritania, the current co-presidents of the 5+5 Initiative, in collaboration with the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Twenty young aspiring female politicians from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Belgium accompanied the campaigns of candidates in the European and Belgian elections from 10-11 May. The visit was part of a larger initiative, co-funded by the European Endowment for Democracy (EED) and led by the NGO Action in Mediterranean.
“The idea is to give them the tools to engage in politics,” explained Simone Susskind, Belgian political figure and Human Rights activist in the Middle East and North Africa and President of Action in Mediterranean.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria to Re-Open Border With Libya When Calm Restored: Official
ALGIERS, May 21 (Xinhua) — Algeria said on Wednesday that it will re-open its border with Libya and its embassy there as soon as the security crisis in the neighboring country is over. “Closing the border with Libya is a temporary decision under the worsening security situation there,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abdelaziz Benali was quoted as saying by local radio.
Algeria temporarily closed its border with Libya on Monday. Its embassy and consulate general in Libya were closed last week amid worsening security.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Hero Al Sisi: A Game-Changer or Mirage?
Retired Field Marshal, Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi — favored by pro-democracy freedom-fighters because of his split from the former Morsi regime to carry out the will of the people and end its reign of terror — has garnered more than one million endorsements, 50 times the amount needed to run for president. Overrun by emotion and gratitude for what Al-Sisi has done for Egypt in the past 10 months, Egyptians speculate about the kind of president the former General will make.
Al-Sisi supporters see him as their hero, and yet not all see him as their ideal president. Former President Mohammed Morsi appointed Al-Sisi as his Defense Minister upon firing Mohammed Hussein Tantawy who was the former SCAF head instrumental in getting Morsi elected — a fatal miscalculation for the Morsi regime. The former President installed a man who would understand the moment and seize it for the people. Today, Egyptians have no choice but to settle for a man to whom they are indebted and to place their faith in him to handle Islamist insiders, a fundamental imperative to real change.
Al-Sisi is their only option. Besides, the success of the freedom movement’s overthrow of the dreaded Brotherhood-backed regime proves that mass uprisings do work and could succeed again if necessary — despite the fact that Morsi’s fall is widely viewed as a “miracle.” Nonetheless, it has inspired confidence in a nation now willful and hopeful for the first time in modern history so that Egyptians wait to see who Al-Sis will be for them.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
In Campaign With Mubarak Era Tones, Egypt’s El-Sissi Supporters Embrace Return of a Strongman
Posters of former army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi hang everywhere on the streets of Egypt. In Cairo, his face lines highways and bridges and towers over city squares. In Alexandria, loudspeakers blast down the Mediterranean seaside road with songs praising him as the next president and a gift to Egypt after years of turmoil.
El-Sissi enjoys a massive mobilization of media and business interests supporting the man who last summer ousted Egypt’s first democratically elected leader, Islamist Mohammed Morsi. Almost universally, newspapers and TV stations hail el-Sissi as the only one capable of guiding the country through a crippling economic crisis and violence by Islamic militants. His only opponent in the race, leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi, has had little such enthusiasm.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Lawyer for Al-Jazeera Reporter on Trial in Egypt Complains to Judge Over No-Sense Proceedings
A defense lawyer for one of three Al-Jazeera journalists on trial in Egypt on terrorism charges has told the judge that some of the proceedings against his client “make no sense.” Khaled Abu Bakr complained during six hours in court Thursday that the prosecution added new evidence without informing the defense.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Summoned by Gnc, Misrata Militia Reach Tripoli
Tasked with defending parliament from Haftar supporters
(ANSAmed) — TRIPOLI, MAY 22 — Militias from the city of Misrata reached the Libyan capital this morning following a summons from the General National Congress (GNC), which was stormed on Sunday by gunmen loyal to a former army general who has vowed to rid the country of Islamic extremists, eyewitnesses said Thursday.
Deadly unrest has exploded since Libyan ex-general Khalifa Haftar’s May 16 offensive against Islamist militias in the eastern city of Benghazi, a bastion of the uprising that toppled Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
The unrest has left 79 dead and 140 wounded in Benghazi and four dead and 80 wounded in Tripoli. The Misrata militias have positioned themselves in a neighborhood in south Tripoli and are reportedly tasked with defending parliament from another possible offensive by Haftar supporters, the eyewitnesses said.
They were driven from Tripoli after a November 15 incident in which they opened fire on peaceful protesters, sparking clashes that left 47 people dead and more than 460 wounded in the neighborhood of Ghargur, where they had a base. Also on Thursday, the interim government of outgoing Premier Abdullah al-Thani has urged all militias to leave Tripoli, including those called in by the GNC, for the safety of the city and its inhabitants.
This is not the first time the GNC, which is calling Haftar’s offensive a coup, has summoned the Islamist Libya Shield militia, which includes forces from various cities including Misrata and officially depends from the ministry of defense.
The Libya Shield is made up of former rebels from the 2011 revolution that refused to lay down arms after Gaddafi was ousted, and are now paid by the central government, which however has little control over them, to act as semi-official security forces. Meanwhile Haftar is gathering consensus, reportedly winning the loyalty of portions of the military as well as militias in cities including Zintan in the west.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: International Community Agrees to Support Dialogue
(ANSAmed) — LISBON — Foreign ministers from a 5+5 Dialogue summit on Libya agreed to help the civil-war-torn North African country begin a national dialogue for reconciliation involving all parties in the field, Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini said Thursday. The 5+5 Dialogue, also known as the Western Mediterranean Forum, is made up of Algeria, France, Italy, Libya, Malta, Mauritania, Morocco, Portugal, Spain and Tunisia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Stopping the Flood of Female Genital Mutilation: Egypt Brings Historic Case
by Phyllis Chesler
For the first time in Egyptian history, an Egyptian physician, Dr. Raslan Fadl, will stand trial for the female genital mutilation of a thirteen-year-old girl—not only because he broke the 2008 Mubarak-era law against such practices but because the girl died.
Dr. Fadl claims she had an allergic reaction to the penicillin used for the procedure.
Her family will probably settle for compensation for her death, as they cannot accuse the physician of undertaking a procedure that they themselves asked him to perform.
Doctors have been seen as the solution to an intractable problem. African and Muslim feminist activists decided that since the practice had such widespread support, that a physician (ideally in a hospital, ideally using anesthesia, and ideally performing a minimal mutilation, not the more common maximal versions) would be safer than an illiterate peasant woman with her rusty razor blades and knives…
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/05/22/Stopping-the-Flood-of-Female-Genital-Mutilation-Egypt-Brings-Historic-Case
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Terrorists Arrested in Tunisia After Crossing Libya Border
(AGI) Tunis, May 22 — Eight terrorists accused of planning bomb attacks against security forces have been arrested, said the Tunisian Interior Ministry. The eight had crossed the border from Libya, where they had received explosives training, said Tunisian intelligence sources. Heightened tensions in Libya have led to concern that fundamentalists there may cross into Tunisia.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Welcomes Tech-Hungry Chinese Investors
(Reuters) — China’s purchase of a controlling stake in Israel’s largest food maker reflects a broader surge in Chinese investment in an economy largely tethered to Western markets.
The deal, announced on Thursday, gives China access to Israel’s high tech expertise, cachet among consumers made wary by domestic food production scandals and an alternative place to put their money amid trade obstacles from a wary United States.
In return, China offers a large market and source of funding at a time of growing calls, especially in Europe, for a boycott of Israel over its failure to make peace with the Palestinians.
Not everyone in Israel is delighted by the growing Chinese presence. “What normal country puts its food security and its entire milk industry in the hands of China?” opposition member of parliament Shelly Yachimovich said on Thursday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pope to Visit a Land of Disappearing Christians
(Reuters) — When Pope Francis visits the birthplace of Jesus next week, he will address a dwindling population of faithful whose exodus from the Holy Land could turn the shrines of Christendom into museum pieces.
While ever growing numbers of Christian tourists pour into Bethlehem and the adjacent Jerusalem to visit the plethora of sites associated with Jesus, many Palestinian Christians hope to join a legion of relatives who have already moved out.
Christian communities have been in relative decline across the Middle East for generations, with the recent Arab revolts and the rise of radical Islam only accelerating the process.
In the last year of British rule over the region in 1947, some 85 percent of Bethlehem’s population was Christian, while in Jerusalem, the figure was around 19 percent. Today, those numbers are put at some 20 percent and 1.8 percent respectively.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican Defends Palestinian Sovereignty Ahead of Papal Visit
The Vatican’s Secretary of State on Thursday defended the Palestinians’ right to a “sovereign and independent” homeland and said he hoped Pope Francis’s upcoming visit would lead to “courageous decisions” for peace.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
17 People Killed in Separate Attacks in Iraq
BAGHDAD, May 21 (Xinhua) — A total of 17 people were killed and 14 others wounded in separate attacks across Iraq on Wednesday, police and medical sources said.
In Salahudin province, two people were killed and two others wounded when two roadside bombs went off in quick succession in the northern part of the provincial capital city of Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Another Danish Jihadist Reported Dead
Yet another jihadist hailing from Denmark has been killed during a suicide bombing in the Middle East, according to the Long War Journal website.
The man, who went by the name Abu Sa’ad al Denmarki, died after he allegedly drove a car packed with explosives into a military convoy near the city of Mosul in northern Iraq.
The man was part of the Ninewa Division of the Islamist terror group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which took credit for the bombing in a press release, stating that the Dane was among six fallen fighters. The other five came from Saudi Arabia, France and Morocco.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Baghdad Bombings Target Iraq Shia Pilgrims
At least 16 Shia Muslim pilgrims have been killed in three bombings in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, officials say. Suicide bombers targeted pilgrims walking along main roads in the western area of Mansour and in Bab al-Sharji, in the city centre, while a car bomb exploded in Urr, a northern district.
The violence comes only days after the preliminary results of April’s parliamentary elections showed Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s Shia-dominated State of Law alliance had won the largest number of seats. The margin of victory was greater than most analysts and politicians had forecast, and Mr Maliki is now in a strong position to secure a third term.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Send Top Diplomat to Avert Saudi Sanctions
“The Netherlands cannot be held responsible for the adolescent behavior of a single parliamentarian,” Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said on Dutch broadcaster RTL.
Wilders, in reaction to possible trade measures by Saudi Arabia, said in a statement on Saturday that the Netherlands “should have boycotted that country a long time ago.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
For Mosul Archbishop, The West Has Forgotten Iraq’s Tragedy
Mgr Nona talks to AsiaNews about the “general indifference” that surrounds the deaths, violence and attacks in his country. Even though people need “peace and serenity”, the elections “did not bring any major change.” For his small Christian community, “life is getting harder every day. [. . .] We have been waiting for improvements, but we cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel”.
Mosul (AsiaNews) — “We are confident that the Church around the world will pray for Iraq,” but the West and its governments seem to have “forgotten” the tragedy of its people. “It is as deaths, attacks and violence have become routine,” said Mgr Shimoun Emil Nona, Chaldean archbishop of Mosul, northern Iraq.
Speaking to AsiaNews, the prelate described the mood in the country and the city, where bloodshed is a daily occurrence, and where the Christian community is steadily shrinking in size.
“No one is talking about us anymore,” he lamented. “Yet, we hope that” others will feel Iraq’s “plight once more, that they will feel our need for peace and serenity. This is what we want more than anything else.”
In recent years, the Diocese of Mosul has mourned the violent death of its pastors, including a former bishop, Mgr Faraj Rahho (during a kidnapped), and Fr Ragheed Ganni. The city of Mosul itself is a stronghold of Sunni Wahhabi fundamentalism, with close ties with Saudi Arabia.
In recent days, a group of militants launched an attack on a military post in the village of Ayn al-Jahish, not far from the city, another Islamist stronghold in northern Iraq, killing more than 20 soldiers.
Similar incidents have taken place in the recent past with as target the special units of the Iraqi security forces, and the soldiers protecting the pipeline carrying crude oil to international markets.
Indeed, attacks on pipelines are commonplace in the Mosul area, which is located some 360 km north-west of Baghdad, and carried out largely by groups linked to al Qaeda and others jihadist groups that have sown death and destruction for years across the nation.
What is more, minorities have paid a huge price because they are powerless and politically unorganised when it comes to protecting their interests.
“The situation has not changed much in the last few months,” Mgr Nona explained. “The elections represented a big step” because the attacks and “the killings were happening on an almost every day.”
Authorities often impose a “curfew on the city, with the army setting up road blocks. This makes it difficult to go from one point to another” in the city, especially “for ordinary people.”
“We are almost always in an emergency situation,” he noted, “but people seem to have become accustomed to the difficulties of everyday life.” In particular, “our small Christian community is going through what others are going through, experiencing difficulties that are growing every day.”
Since 2003, “we have been waiting for improvements, but we cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel” and the problems remain the same.
Still, there is hope that “something will change with the elections,” that a “strong and united government will emerge, able to address and solve the problems of insecurity, poor services and infrastructures,” as well as unemployment.
“Mosul’s Christian community continues to hope and pray for a more mature Iraqi society, one that is more accepting of different groups,” Mgr Nona said, “because living with and accepting others has become a more urgent and difficult imperative.” Despite the lack of security, “our goal is to build something that is more open and moderate.”
Sadly, Christians have responded and continue to respond to insecurity by leaving. “In the big cities, the Church cannot do much,” the prelate said.
Christian leaders have tried to deal with some of the issues, but ultimately it is up to the Iraqi government to settle the larger ones and solve the main problems.
“For us Christians, it is important to be present in the country and its institutions, but the number of the faithful is increasingly dwindling,” Mgr Nona noted. “The greatest menace lies in the fact that those who leave are, in most cases, the educated and wealthy, whilst the poor and the weak remain; exactly those who do not have any chance to escape.” (DS)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iranian Actress Faces Public Flogging
Iranian court is asked to order the public flogging of award-winning actress Leila Hatami for greeting Cannes festival president with a kiss.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Is Saudi Arabia Boycotting the Netherlands or Not? Media Confusion
Even though reports that Saudi Arabia is considering a trade boycott of the Netherlands are still based on rumour, Dutch diplomats are working flat out to prevent it happening, the Volkskrant reports on Thursday.
‘In Riyad they think the Dutch government should have shut Wilders up,’ Rob de Wijk from the Centre for Strategic Studies in The Hague told the Volkskrant. The issue revolves around ‘a cultural difference with major impact, particularly if the Saudi government comes under pressure from its people’.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Moscow to Build 8 New Iranian Nuclear Reactors
(AGI) St Petersburg, May 22 — Following the maxi-agreement with China on gas supplies, Russia continues to challenge the West and above all the United States, revealing that it may sign an agreement with Iran this year to build 8 new Iranian nuclear reactors. All this is taking place while there are negotiations between Tehran and the 5+1 on Iran’s controversial nuclear programme and July 20 approaches, when the agreement’s 6 month period ends during which sanctions were imposed in exchange for a definitive agreement with Tehran.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Radical Islamists Take Hammer to Syrian Artifacts
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant fighters smash 3,000-year-old Assyrian statue in latest act of cultural genocide
Fighters with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a radical militia that controls a large swath of eastern Syria, confiscated and destroyed illegally excavated antiquities from an ancient Mesopotamian site.
In an act of cultural genocide strikingly similar to the Taliban’s demolition of the Buddhas of Bamiyan in 2001, the ISIL fighters appear — in pictures recently uploaded by a group working to protect Syria’s rich historical heritage — to smash a 3,000-year-old Neo-Assyrian statue illegally removed from a nearby archaeological site. Another image shows a man placing his foot — an act of disrespect in Arab culture — on the face of the Assyrian statue before its destruction.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia, China Veto UN Resolution on Sending Syria Crisis to ICC
Russia and China on Thursday vetoed a French-drafted UN Security Council resolution on referring the Syria crisis to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for investigation of possible war crimes committed during the country’s ongoing civil war.
It was the fourth time Russia and China have wielded their veto power as permanent council members to block UN action on Syria.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia May Adopt Firing Squads as Alternative to Beheadings
After centuries of following strict interpretations of the Koran by using public beheadings for some executions, Saudi Arabia may turn to firing squads.
Saudi Arabia beheaded a citizen on April 16 on charges of killing another man with a machine gun over a financial dispute. The country has carried out 13 death sentences in 2014, but it was not clear how many were beheaded. It beheaded 78 people in 2013, according to AFP.
A special committee in Saudi Arabia proposed in March to replace public beheadings with firing squads due to a shortage of swordsmen. The committee of representatives from the country’s justice, interior and health ministries said if the proposal is adopted it would not violate Islamic law.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudis Sentenced to Prison, Flogging for Celebrating Valentine’s Day
The Saudi religious police prevents the kingdom’s citizens from celebrating Valentine’s Day and bans the sale of red roses and other products associated with the holiday. Enforcing this ban, the Buraidah criminal court on May 2014 issued sentences totaling 32 years’ imprisonment and 4,500 lashes to five citizens caught celebrating Valentine’s Day in the company of six women.
Saudi cleric Sheikh Muhammad Al-’Arifi said on Valentine’s Day Eve that celebrating this holiday constitutes bid’a — a forbidden innovation and deviation from religious law and custom — and mimicry of the West.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Troops Break Aleppo Prison Siege, Reports State TV
Jihadists’ and rebels’ block had been in place for over a year
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, MAY 22 — Syrian government forces on Thursday morning broke a siege imposed by Islamist and jihadist rebels on the central prison of Aleppo, reported state-run TV. The siege on the facilities, located north of the city and partially converted into regime barracks, had been in place for over a year.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Russia and China Veto UN War Crimes Resolution
Security Council resolution to try Syria war criminals at ICC
(ANSAmed) — NEW YORK, MAY 22 — Russia and China on Thursday vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling on the International Criminal Court in The Hague to investigate war crimes in the ongoing Syrian civil war, which has entered its fourth year.
Sixty-four countries including Italy signed on to the French-drafted resolution, which got 13 votes in favor out of the 15-member body. This is the fourth time since October 2011 that Russia and China have vetoed a Security Council resolution on Syria.
The resolution would have made sure perpetrators of atrocities on all sides to face justice in the world’s permanent war crimes tribunal.
“Sadly, because of the decision of the Russian Federation to back the Syrian regime no matter what it does, the Syrian people will not see justice,” said United States Ambassador Samantha Power.
“This veto guarantees impunity not only for (Syrian President Bashar) Assad, but also for terrorist groups. There should be accountability for those members of the council who prevented accountability”, she added. “The UN Security Council has a duty to intervene to make sure the perpetrators of grave crimes in Syria be brought to justice”, said UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson, who spoke for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The council has been unable to find a way to end the conflict for more than three years, but “Syrian citizens have a fundamental right to justice”, he added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Forces End Rebel Siege of Aleppo’s Central Prison
The Syrian army appears to have ended a rebel siege of Aleppo central prison that has lasted more than a year. The victory is only the latest for government troops, who are pushing to rid the city entirely of rebels.
If forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad can maintain clear access to the prison, the government would effectively have gained control of the northeastern approach to Aleppo. The prison is the government’s only major holdout between Aleppo and the Turkish border.
The Syrian army has made several important gains in recent weeks, having also retaken the city of Homs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syrians Refugees Could Make up a Third of Lebanon’s Population by the End of the Year
Beirut (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing war at home continue to stream into Lebanon, putting the small, already overburdened nation under massive pressure. The total number of refugees could reach 1.5 million people by the end of the year, UN officials said. And this, they warned, could cause tensions.
That number represents one third of Lebanon’s estimated population of 4.5 million, and unlike Turkey and Jordan, Lebanon has no refugee camps for fleeing Syrians, who are scattered all over in informal settlements, living with relatives or renting homes.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that over a million Syrian refugees are registered with UN agencies in Lebanon, and 50,000 new arrivals continue to sign up each month.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Destruction of the Idols: Syria’s Patrimony at Risk From Extremists
Islamic fundamentalists in Syria have started to destroy archaeological treasures such as Byzantine mosaics and Greek and Roman statues because their portrayal of human beings is contrary to their religious beliefs. The systematic destruction of antiquities may be the worst disaster to ancient monuments since the Taliban in Afghanistan dynamited the giant statues of Buddha at Bamiyan in 2001 for similar ideological reasons.
In mid-January the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis), an al-Qa’ida-type movement controlling much of north-east Syria, blew up and destroyed a sixth-century Byzantine mosaic near the city of Raqqa on the Euphrates.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands in Yemen Demand Separation From North
ADEN, Yemen, May 21 (Xinhua) — Several thousands of the pro- secession southern movement staged protests in Yemen’s southern port city of Aden on Wednesday to renew calls for separation from the north.
The anti-unity rallies took place in Aden’s neighborhood of Mualla, where several thousands of secessionist protesters marched in a main street near the local government headquarters calling for an end to the country’s 24 years of unification…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Why Are Men Wearing the Hijab in Iran?
In Iran, it’s against the law for women to leave their hair uncovered in many places. Last week, we reported on a Facebook page where Iranian women are defying those restrictions and posting images of their uncovered hair online.
The same day as our report, a backlash began — with a rival Facebook page attacking those women, and other sites making fun of the hijab issue.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
At Least 13 Killed in Eastern Ukraine as Violence Spikes Ahead of Election
At least 13 Ukrainian troops have died in an attack on a military checkpoint in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine as growing violence threatens to disrupt Sunday’s presidential election.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense confirms to Fox News that there was an attack, and acting President Oleksandr Turchynov said 13 troops were killed. Associated Press reporters at the scene saw 11 bodies at the Ukrainian military checkpoint in the village of Blahodatne, 20 miles southeast of Donetsk.
Witnesses told the AP that the checkpoint was attacked by pro-Russian insurgents who wounded 33 more Ukrainian troops.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
International Sanctions Weigh Heavily on Italy-Russia Trade
Russian imports -25.4%, Italy exports -13.9% since Crimea crisis
(ANSA) — Rome, May 16 — Russian imports fell by 25.4% and Italian exports to Russia fell by 13.9% due to international sanctions imposed after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in March, Coldiretti farmers’ association said Friday.
New data from Istat national statistics bureau shows both imports and exports fell in 2014 after steady growth in the three previous years, Coldiretti said.
The data showed a negative trade balance of 1.9 billion euros in the first quarter of 2014, down from 9.3 billion euros in 2013. Trading losses affected imports and exports of minerals, mechanical goods, wine, fruits and vegetables, meat, and pasta, according to Coldiretti.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
No Evidence Linking Victims of Mass Killings in Kiev With Berkut Police
There is no forensic evidence linking the victims of mass killings in Kiev on February 20 with officers from the Berkut police unit, the head of the parliamentary commission investigating the murders told journalists, RT reports.
The killings may have been committed by “members of public organizations, who went out of control,” Gennady Moskal reported, but the so-called ‘sniper case’ may end up with no airtight result, much like the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy.
The MP made the statements at a media conference on Tuesday gathered to announce preliminary results of his commission’s probe. He assured that despite the Ukrainian General Prosecutor’s office having arrested 12 Berkut officers on allegations of committing the mass killings, forensic evidence suggests their innocence.
He said the bullets that killed people in Kiev on the bloodies day of confrontation between protesters seeking to oust President Viktor Yanukovich and riot police didn’t match any of the firearms issued to Berkut’s special unit, which, unlike the majority of riot police, was allowed to carry lethal weapons.
Moskal added that the first shot was fired at police, not the protesters. He alleged that the shooters were agents of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) acting from the ranks of the protesters, but admitted that genuine protesters could have been the culprits.
Earlier Moskal said that the investigation of the high-profile case was being stalled by the SBU and the Interior Ministry because the post-coup heads of the law enforcement don’t want to face the scandal which would ensue if the real perpetrators were exposed.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Prince Charles’s Putin Remarks Outrageous — Russia
Remarks attributed to the Prince of Wales likening Vladimir Putin’s actions to some of those of the Nazis are “outrageous”, the Russian embassy says. Deputy ambassador Alexander Kramarenko has met Foreign Office officials to ask for official clarification.
The alleged comments were made during a conversation with a former Polish war refugee during a royal tour to Canada.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rebels Carry Out Deadly Attacks on Ukrainian Troops
Separatist rebels have killed at least nine Ukrainian soldiers in clashes in the east of the country. The violence comes just three days before a crucial presidential poll that the government hopes could calm tensions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Wants True Equality With Its Partners, Says Putin
(AGI) St. Petersburg, May 22 — Relations between Russia and its partners abroad can improve, provided they build on “true equality” and an understanding of Moscow’s legitimate national interests, said President Vladimir Putin. He made the call in a letter to trade partners at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The Perils of Doing Business in Russia
As tensions between Moscow and the West over Ukraine run high, other factors, such as a falling ruble, are causing business for German companies in Russia to falter.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Faces LNG Shortage in 18 of 24 Regions
Eighteen out of 24 Ukrainian regions have declared they have insufficient amount of liquefied gas (LNG), with Western town and cities most severely affected, local media report.
The shortage observed over the past weeks is caused by the Kiev government’s decision to scrap a mechanism for the selling of gas at bargaining prices. This means region with scarce or lacking pipeline infrastructure will ether have to meet their energy needs without gas or to pay hefty prices.
Most of the regional gas companies in Ukraine have remained without LNG supplies since the beginning of May, according to Ukrainian website LIGA.net.
One official was quoted as saying that there is “nowhere to buy” the resource and that even though many people in his region use it, there have lately been no “special auctions” through which it can be secured.
Ukraine could now be heading for a gas crisis, as it refuses to pay its debts to Gazprom amid a standoff with Russia.
It is also introducing a number of measures to fight its financial problem. In April it canceled gas subsidies which allowed for the fuel to be bought at considerably lower prices.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Election: The Chocolate King Rises
It would have seemed ludicrous just six months ago, but candy magnate Petro Poroshenko has now become the leading candidate in the Ukrainian election. The question remains: Is he an opportunist or a visionary?
Roshen is the biggest chocolate manufacturer in Ukraine, and its owner is one of the richest people in the country. He gave the fountains to the city as a gift and, this Sunday, he could very well be elected president of Ukraine. His name: Petro Poroshenko.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Blast Rocks Afghanistan’s Ghazni City, Dozen Killed or Injured
GHAZNI, Afghanistan, May 22 (Xinhua) — A bomb blast rocked Afghanistan’s Ghazni city on Thursday, leaving a dozen people dead or injured, local official Shafiq Nang said.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Curfew in Effect in Thailand Following Military Coup
Thailand’s army has seized power, suspended the majority of the country’s constitution, taken most broadcasters off air, banned gatherings of more than five people, and imposed a night-time curfew — now in effect.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia’s Religious Minister Suspected of Mismanaging Funds for Hajj, Anti-Graft Agency Says
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s religious affairs minister is suspected of mismanaging expenses meant to help people make the hajj last year, the country’s anti-graft agency said Thursday.
Suryadharma Ali, who also leads the Islamic-based United Development Party, was suspected to have abused his power by enriching himself or other people, said Johan Budi, spokesman of the Corruption Eradication Commission.
Ali has not made any comment about the allegations. No other suspects have been named.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia: Muslim Leader Says Term “Moderate Muslim” Invented by “Enemies of Islam”
KUALA LUMPUR: The concept of “moderate Muslim” was invented by “enemies of Islam” aiming to undermine and exert control over the Muslim world, a leader of Islamist group Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) claimed today.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
By Srdja Trifkovic
Two important recent events — Narendra Modi’s landslide victory in India last week and the massive energy and trade agreement which Russia and China signed in Beijing on Wednesday — have the potential to alter Asia’s strategic landscape.
Modi is an assertive politician unafraid to take risks, a market-oriented reformer, but also a Hindu nationalist. When asked recently about his approach to foreign affairs, he replied “I believe in Hindutva … And I am confident my Hindutva face will be an asset when dealing with foreign affairs with other nations.” In other words, he will try to increase the country’s international visibility. Already on my visit to India six years ago, several analysts and academics unsympathetic to the Congress government expressed hope that Gujarat’s then-Chief Minister would one day lead the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) instead of its ageing founder Lal Krishna Advani. As they had expected, Advani led the BJP to a defeat at the 2009 general election, but it was not until last September that Modi was finally selected as the party’s prime ministerial candidate.
The most controversial episode in Modi’s political career concerns anti-Muslim violence which swept Gujarat at the end of February 2002, after a fire — allegedly started by Muslim arsonists — destroyed a train packed with Hindu pilgrims, killing 58 of them.. The Modi government imposed a curfew in major cities and issued shoot-at-sight orders, but some human rights groups and sections of the media accused him of taking inadequate action against the riots, or even sympathizing with them.
This episode resulted in the U.S. government denying him a visa in 2005 under a section the Immigration and Nationality Act which makes foreign government officials ineligible if they are responsible for “particularly severe violations of religious freedom.” Even after India’s Supreme Court found no such evidence against Modi, the U.S. did not lift the ban. The campaign “to get Modi” was particularly virulent during Hillary Clinton’s tenure at the State, ostensibly for the 2002 riots, but in reality “for taking stands that may be different from that favored by the U.S. administration.” As an Indian commentator noted on the day of the election, since the Obama Administration still has not expressed regret for its revocation of his visa, “Modi is unlikely to go out of his way to befriend the U.S. by seeking a White House visit. Instead, he is expected to wait for US officials to come calling.”
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan’s Geo TV Faces Military’s Wrath
The row between Pakistan’s largest commercial media group, the Jang Group of Publications, and the country’s ubiquitous military is getting uglier by the day. After the Pakistani army accused the group — particularly its popular TV channel, Geo — of defaming its spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), a blasphemy case has now been filed against the station.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Sindh, Four Christians Arrested for “Distributing Religious Materials”
A man and three women were arrested while handing out Christian pamphlets near the Mirpur Khas station. Reported by a local Muslim leader, they were arrested and transferred to prison amid tight security. Serious risk of attacks by extremists. Priest in Karachi: “They were unwise, but there is a pervading lack of religious freedom.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology Endorses Child Marriage
Islamic apologists in the West routinely claim that Muhammad did not marry a child and that child marriage is not permitted in Islam, but actually, few things are more abundantly attested in Islamic law than the permissibility of child marriage. Islamic tradition records that Muhammad’s favorite wife, Aisha, was six when Muhammad wedded her and nine when he consummated the marriage.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sri Lanka: Torn Between Yesterday and Tomorrow
The civil war in Sri Lanka, which lasted for more than 25 years and claimed over 100,000 lives, ended in 2009. But as things stand today, the country is still bitterly divided and the reconciliation efforts falter.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thai Army Declares Military Coup
The Thai military on Thursday launched a coup, declaring that it was “necessary to seize power.” The head of the Thai Army made the announcement on television flanked by senior military officers.
Thai news media reported that political officers who were attending a meeting called by the military were detained.
The coup came after the introduction of martial law on Tuesday and follows a long history of coups in Thailand.
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Thai Coup ‘Unlikely to Resolve Power Struggle’
After failed talks between rival factions, the Thai military has seized control of the government in a coup. Analyst Ernest Bower says the turmoil in Thailand is likely to continue but doubts a civil war will erupt.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thai Army Seizes Power and Imposes Curfew
Thailand’s army has staged a coup to oust the government and imposed a curfew following months of political unrest. It comes two days after the imposition of martial law. Before the takeover was announced, hundreds of soliders surrounded the location where the leader of the pro-government “red shirt” movement was taking part in peace talks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Abu Sayyaf Bomber Captured in S. Philippines
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines, May 22 (Xinhua) — A bomb expert belonging to terrorist group Abu Sayyaf was captured by the government security forces on Thursday morning in southern Philippines, a security official said.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Asia’s 11 Million “New Slaves” A Boost to Economic Growth
The findings are in a report by the International Labour Organisation. Exploited workers generate US$ 150 billion in profits, two-thirds in the sex industry, followed by domestic work, agriculture and construction.
About 11 million people in Asia are in forced labour, in the continent’s growing sex trade, as domestics in rich households and in farming, this according to a study by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
Overall, some 21 million people worldwide are in forced labour, generating illegal profits of at least US$ 150 billion, far higher than previous estimates. And in view of the situation, the ILO wants governments to tackle the problem.
Over half of all forced labourers work in Asia, with 18 per cent in Africa and almost 10 per cent in Latin America.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China: Turkestan Islamic Extremists Claim Urumqi Attack
A video shows the preparation of one of the bombs used in the attack, which resulted in three deaths and 79 wounded. The authors are members of the Turkistan Islamic Party, which seeks the independence of Xinjiang from China. The government: “They want to destroy us but we will respond”.
Beijing (AsiaNews ) — The Islamic Party of Turkestan (IPT) this morning claimed responsibility for the May 1 terrorist attack on the Urumqi train station, the capital of the western province of Xinjiiang. 3 people were killed in the attack — two attackers and a civilian — and 79 people injured. The claim was announced by SITE — a website that tracks and controls the movements of Islamic extremists in the world — according to which the IPT published a 10 minute video showing how it made one of the bombs used in the attack.
Along the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, IPT declares its organization “unites” all those who want to gain independence from Beijing and full religious freedom “at all costs”. Until now, both extremist movements have kept a very low profile, avoiding claims or public statements in favor of armed confrontation.
The Xinjiang region is one of the most turbulent in all of China. Its Uyghur Muslim minority, who number about nine million, have long sought independence from China. The central government, for its part, has brought in hundreds of thousands of settlers to make Han Chinese the dominant ethnic group. At the same time, it has severely curtailed Muslim religious worship as well as the teaching of the local language and culture.
Since 2009 Chinese police and the military have held the region under a special regime, which Beijing imposed following clashes that left nearly 200 people dead. As a result of various episodes of violence, hundreds of long prison sentences were imposed and dozens of death penalties were carried out. Chinese authorities blame Muslim extremists for the wave of violence. Uyghur exiles claim instead that Beijing is “exaggerating” the threat of Islamic terrorism to justify repression against indigenous Uyghurs.
For Beijing, Uyghurs are responsible for the recent spate of violent attacks, including the 1 March 2014 attack at the Kunming railway station by knives-wielding men that left 29 people dead and more than 150 wounded, and the 28 October 2013 incident when a SUV plunged into a crowd in Tiananmen Square, then burst into flames, killing three people. Finally, May 1, 2014 an attack on the train station in Urumqi — the Capital of Xinjiang — shortly after the departure from the President Xi Jinping caused 3 dead and 79 wounded.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying, this morning said that China “should bolster” its position on separatist groups: “ Some violent extremist terrorist groups have now emerged. They are colluding with foreign groups and are attempting violent activities in Xinjiang and other areas in China intended to destroy China’s national policy and social stability. We hope that everyone can recognize the goal of these violent groups and support the Chinese government’s will to crack down on all violent terrorist activities. “
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China: “Terrorist” Attack in an Urumqi Market: 31 Dead
The bombs were launched from two cars, exploding among stalls and outdoor restaurants . The Islamic separatists in Xinjiang responsible for several attacks in Urumqi, Guangzou , Kunming.
Beijing (AsiaNews ) — At least 31 people have been killed in bomb explosions in an outdoor market in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang province . About 90 people were injured.
According to witnesses, two cars arrived in the middle of the market towards 7.50 this morning, launching five bombs among the people that stood near the stalls and groups of elderly people having breakfast in street restaurants.
A series of photos posted on Weibo show bodies and people bleeding, boxes of fruit, tables and clothes on strewn on the ground.
The Ministry of Public Security has called the incident “a serious and violent terrorist attack”.
For years, Xinjiang, a region inhabited by the Uyghur people of Muslim faith and Turkish origin, has been rocked by riots and tensions. The Uyghurs accuse Beijing of wanting to colonize them and demand greater autonomy. The government — which has transferred millions of ethnic Han Chinese settlers to Xinjiang — and the Army blame Uyghur of separatism and Islamic terrorism. To quell the violence, the government makes liberal use of the death penalty and suppresses the religious freedom of Muslim communities .
This is the latest in a series of attacks in Urumqi. At the end of April there was an attack on the main railway station, in which some terrorists threw grenades and wielded knives, injuring 79 people . Three people died, including two of the attackers. The violence took place just a few hours after the end of President Xi Jinping ‘s visit to the region.
In recent months there have been attacks with bombs and knives in Guangzhou and Kunming, which the government blames on Islamic separatists in Xinjiang.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China: Terrorist Attack Kills 31, Injures 94 at Urumqi Market
URUMQI, May 22 (Xinhua) — A market attack in Urumqi that left at least 31 dead and 94 injured Thursday morning was terrorist violence, according to authorities.
Two vehicles, without license plates, broke through roadside fences and plowed into people at an open air market at Park North Street near Renmin Park at 7:50 a.m. and explosive devices were set off, said a statement issued by the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region’s publicity department.
In response to the attack, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to severely punish terrorists and spare no efforts in maintaining stability…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Even Ulan Bator Has Irish Pubs
Over the past two decades Irish pubs have proliferated around the planet. Now there are warnings their growth is being halted. How did the Gaelic-themed drinking establishment take over the world?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Frustrated China Unable to Abandon North Korea
Beijing’s efforts to cajole and pressure Pyongyang into a more reasonable approach to the rest of the world have come to naught, but China’s own needs suggest it will grit its teeth every time Kim Jong Un misbehaves.
China’s options are limited. Beijing does not want to pressure the regime in Pyongyang to the point that it collapses, causing a potentially volatile power struggle among heavily armed factions, including nuclear weapons. Such a collapse would also trigger a humanitarian disaster as millions of North Koreans would attempt to flee any conflict — with most of them likely to head for the border with China.
China is equally wary of a reunited Korean peninsula, particularly if the new regime is controlled by South Korean interests and is still heavily influenced by US foreign policy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Korean Warships Exchange Fire in Disputed Waters
North and South Korean warships exchanged artillery fire Thursday in disputed waters off the western coast, South Korean military officials said, in the latest sign of rising animosity between the bitter rivals in recent weeks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
North and South Korean Warships Exchange Fire in Disputed Yellow Sea
North and South Korean warships have exchanged artillery fire near the disputed Yellow Sea border. Neither ship was hit but the shelling prompted an evacuation of South Korean residents to shelters on a nearby island.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
South China Sea: Hanoi and Manila Increasingly United Against Beijing
Vietnam and the Philippines strengthen strategic partnership and bilateral cooperation. The objective is to strengthen economic exchanges and enhance cooperation in education, culture, social activities, maritime safety and marine protection. Analysts warn China: illegal claims push nations to “form a coalitions” to “counteract hegemony”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tiny New Zealand Kiwi’s Link to Huge Extinct Bird Spurs Rethink of Flightless Birds’ Evolution
Research linking New Zealand’s diminutive kiwi with a giant extinct bird from Africa is prompting scientists to rethink how flightless birds evolved.
A report published Friday in the journal Science says DNA testing indicates the chicken-size kiwi’s closest relative is the elephant bird from Madagascar, which grew up to 3 meters (10 feet) high and weighed up to 250 kilograms (550 pounds) before becoming extinct about 1,000 years ago.
It’s likely their chicken-size, flight-capable ancestors enjoyed a window of evolutionary ascendancy about 60 million years ago, after dinosaurs died out and before mammals grew big.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Boko Haram Kills 25 in Nigerian Village
Steps up insurgency to create Islamic state
(ANSA) — Rome, May 22 — The Boko Haram militant Islamist group on Wednesday night killed more than 25 people in an attack on a village in northeastern Nigeria, a day after a double bombing killed 122 in the central city of Jos. Boko Haram is intensifying its insurgency to create an Islamic state in Nigeria. It sparked international indignation by abducting more than 200 school-age girls a week ago, not far from the village attacked late Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria Schools Close to Protest Government Inaction on Kidnapped Girls
Scores of protesters chanting “Bring Back Our Girls” marched Thursday to Nigeria’s presidential villa to demand more action to free nearly 300 schoolgirls abducted by Islamic militants, but President Goodluck Jonathan did not meet with them, leaving a proxy to deliver a lecture that further angered the demonstrators. “Another small window for Jonathan and he refuses to use it!” one protester yelled. “What a stupid move!”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Somali Muslim Leader Vows Jihad Attacks in U.S.
Fuad Shongole also says: “America is waging a war in the Horn of Africa because they are responsive to the Quran verses saying that the Islamic flag will fly in every corner of the world.”
Shongole probably has verses such as this one in mind: “And fight them until there is no fitnah and the religion, all of it, is for Allah.” (Qur’an 8:39)
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chilean Activist Burns $500 Million of Student Loan Documents in Protest Against Debt Serfdom
Beyond my own person connection, I find this to be a very important story in that it further highlights the fact that the current war/civil unrest cycle is an interconnected global phenomenon. Since the parasitic Central Bank driven financial system is more or less entrenched in every country on earth, every country on earth is experiencing increased concentrations of wealth into the pockets of a handful of oligarchs. Meanwhile, those nations which heretofore had a middle class are finding that this entire socio-economic class is disappearing into the dustbin of history via a variety of methods, not the least of which is criminal quantities of student loans. These loans are pushing an entire generation into inescapable serfdom, while many university administrators are enriching themselves at their expense.
So it appears student loan based debt serfdom is also a major issue in Chile, and one activist, known as “Papas Fritas,” decided to take matters into his own hands. During a takeover at Universidad del Mar, he was able to get his hands on $500 million of student debt, which he subsequently torched.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mexico City Residents Battle Police Over Water Rights
A confrontation between 1,500 police and residents of a village on Mexico City’s western outskirts left more than 100 police injured in a battle over a water spring. Three police remained in intensive care Thursday, the city government said, and five people were under arrest.
It was the latest in a series of clashes over increasingly scarce water in the city of 9 million people, which must draw much of its supply from surrounding states.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Immigration Worries Policy Makers
While Vienna celebrates 50 years since it began welcoming migrant workers, the EU faces increasing floods of illegal immigration.
Fifty years ago, on May 15th 1964, Austria signed the first guest worker recruitment agreement with Turkey. Around the same time, similar negotiations began with former Yugoslavia.
Since that time, tens of thousands of migrants from Turkey and the former Yugoslavia countries have settled in Vienna, making it very different from the society of the past.
Historically, Vienna has always been tolerant of migration and something of a melting pot, as the centre of an old empire. A popular Austrian saying suggests that you’re not really a true Viennese unless you have a Czech grandmother.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
British Migration Figures Help Anti-EU Party in Polls
(LONDON) — Britain’s main anti-immigration party had a last-minute boost as voters went to the polls in European elections on Thursday, as figures showed the number of EU immigrants increased last year.
The Office for National Statistics said 201,000 European Union citizens moved to Britain in the year ending December 2013, up from 158,000 a year earlier.
There was also an overall jump in net long-term migration of 212,000, up from 177,000 the previous year. This is the difference between the number of migrants leaving and arriving in Britain.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bulgarian Defense Minister: Border Fence to be Finished in June
The 30km border fence between Bulgaria and Turkey will be completed by June, assured Bulgaria’s Defense Minister Angel Naydenov.
The fence aimed at redirecting refugees only towards the official border checkpoints has sparked much controversy over the past months. In March, it was revealed that the Ministry of Defense had miscalculated the cost of the fence, writing up the sum by BGN 4 M, raising the overall price to BGN 9 M.
A number of international human rights organizations also criticized Bulgaria for its plans to build the border fence, calling it an anti-humanitarian measure to keep refugees away. The Ministry of Interior argued that it is only designed to make the process of receiving asylum seekers official, and to deter potential terrorists from entering the country unchecked.
Minister Naydenov admitted that the construction work on the fence had been slowed down as a result of the financial miscalculations as well as the poor weather conditions, but promised it will be ready in the time envisioned.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
California Adds 1,655 People Net Gain Daily
Right now, California houses 38 million people. Because of legal and illegal immigration, which equals to 1.1 million legally annually and 700,000 illegally annually — California adds 1,655 people every single day of the year. The rest of our states absorb the rest of this enormous population injection brought to us via our US Congress by the late Senator Teddy Kennedy with his 1965 Immigration Reform Act. (Source: www.CapsWeb.org; US Census Bureau.)
A whopping 100 percent of California’s growth stems from legal and illegal immigration. Immigration causes nearly 90 percent of America’s population growth. (Source: www.CapsWeb.org)
In other words, California expects to add 20,000,000 (million) people in three decades. So, if they cannot fill their water parks and swimming pools today, what will they do when another 20 million people roll into town? If they can’t solve their gridlocked traffic today, what in the Billy Blazes will they do when another 20 million hit that state? If they can’t solve the enormous toxic cloud covering Los Angeles today, what will they do when that 20 million hits and LA doubles to over 25 million in the basin area?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Euro Zone Crisis Propels German Immigration to 20-Year High
Net immigration to Germany leapt by over 18 percent to a 20-year high in 2013, fuelled largely by migrants from euro zone debt-crisis states Italy and Spain as well as a continued influx of Poles, data from the Statistics Office showed on Thursday.
With Germany’s population shrinking and ageing, industry has actively called for immigration to help fill the gaps. But abuse of the welfare system has also been a hot topic, especially before European Parliament elections this week.
Net migration — the balance between immigration and emigration — rose to 437,000 people, the highest level since 1993.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nicolas Sarkozy entered the political fray ahead of European elections today, describing current EU immigration policies as “an abject failure” and calling for the bloc’s visa-free Schengen area to be rewritten.
With the far-Right Front National polled to pip Mr Sarkozy’s crisis-wracked UMP to the post in Sunday’s EU elections in France, the ex-president said: “Schengen I must be immediately suspended and be replaced by a Schengen II of which member countries can only be a part if they previously agree to the same immigration policy.”
Europe migration policy has failed and the need to replace Schengen I has become obvious, he added, as the current system allows immigrants who enter it to “choose the (European) country with the most generous welfare system”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Cops to Bulldoze Calais Migrant Camps
Police in northern France plan to dismantle a series of improvised migrant camps, including one dubbed the “Syrian Camp”, after an outbreak of scabies. It’s part of the ongoing tension in the city of Calais where thousands of immigrants have massed with hopes of reaching the UK.
Up to 850 migrants are believed to be living in Calais at present with as many as 650 at the port alone. The port attracts scores of migrants hoping to smuggle themselves across the Channel to the UK, which some see as having a more generous policy toward refugees.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hide-y-holes on Government Land Come in ‘Monument’ Size
Today’s the day when President Barack Obama is to designate about half a million New Mexico acres as the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument.
About half the Monument will free up the land for roaming wild life and drug cartels.
Nothing like government land on which to both prosper and hide.
Janice Kephart of the Center for Immigration Studies got it right back in October of 2010 when she asked: “Will New Mexico become the New Arizona?”
‘Our national parks have been surrendered to the Mexican drug cartels’ (wi/shocking video) Dave Gibson of the Examiner wrote on June 17, 2010:
“According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 3,500 acres in southern Arizona have now been closed to U.S. citizens because of the dangers posed in that area from Mexican drug smugglers. The area includes part of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Holocaust Survivors Demand Help for Syrian Refugees
A Berlin-based artists’ collective is pressuring the German government to take in more Syrian asylum seekers. It is supported by two Berlin Jews who survived the Holocaust thanks to asylum in the UK.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New Figures Show Immigration to Germany is Highest in 20 Years
Figures released by Germany’s statistics office show record immigration in 2013. Most of the new arrivals come from European Union countries. But the chancellor has warned that the EU is not a ‘soft touch’ for welfare.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Permit Scam Let Hundreds Live ‘Legally’ In Italy
Police on Thursday arrested four businessmen in Sicily, accused of running a scam to allow hundreds of foreigners to illegally obtain residency permits in Italy.
The four men in Catania allegedly ran a “real criminal society, composed of professionals and financial consultants,” allowing people to illegally stay in Italy, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Vienna Competition for Gay Couples
In the wake of Conchita Wurst and all things Eurovision, the city of Vienna and gay news website Pink News have joined forces to offer gay couples the chance to win a free trip to the colourful Austrian capital.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Is Our Military a Sexual Experiment and Playground?
Obama has played with our military and national security as if it was his personal toy to break apart and leave in the yard so the dog could pee on it. 2 years ago now we saw Obama reverse ‘Don’t ask don’t tell’ the famous legislation that former President Bill Clinton put in place when he was in leadership. This was working just fine in our military in keeping the military focus and mission in check. All the military folks I have talked with over the years told me it worked just fine. It kept social engineering and controversial sex talk and agendas out of the viewfinder.
If you were gay and in the military you weren’t to bring it up, push it, or make it an issue. You could deal with it on your private time elsewhere. That certainly sounds fair to me given the grave seriousness of a mission and need to focus on priorities at hand not sexual play or controversy.
Now, thanks to Obama we have our military forced into his social and sexual experiment. Straight soldiers now have to deal with outed gays who have rights to push their sexual agenda and get whatever they want, or law suits will fly and pressure will crush the straight soldier. Freedom of speech is rapidly disappearing from straight military folks which means the vast majority are screwed into cloned silence while the gays can have a scream fest of speech freedom.
How can we forget Sgt. Phillip Monk relieved of his position because he didn’t agree with his commander on gay marriage? Dare to say you are for marriage between a man and a woman and ‘boom’ you are gone.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Fans to Pay Bayern Munich for Anti-Gay Banner
(AGI) Berlin, May 14 — Four Italian Bayern Munich fans who displayed a homophobic banner will pay the club 2,000 euros each and do 10 hours of community service, reported Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Bayern were fined 10,000 euros after the fans, from Bayern’s Tirol-based fan club, displayed a “Gay Gunners” banner aimed at Arsenal during the Champions League match on March 11. The club were also ordered to close part of the stadium for the quarter-final match against Manchester United which will cost them 150,000 euros in lost ticket sales.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
No Whites Allowed: Student Booted From Conference Because of Skin Color
According to Progressives Today, when a white student reporter attempted to enter a workshop being held at the conference he was escorted out of the area because his race was too offensive to other participants, the majority of whom were black.
The reason? An organizer told our investigator: “It can feel, for some people of color, unsafe. Not universally — like in your group everybody was fine, but for some people it can feel like, oh, I don’t … “
“Because I was white they would feel unsafe?” our reporter asked as he was led out of the workshop.
“Exactly. Exactly,” the organizer said. “And it’s not because you’ve done anything. You seem like a perfectly fine person, but it’s because of experiences they’ve had with others.”
A promotional video entitled Lessons on Neo-Segregation says that the White Privilege Conference is an annual gathering of thousands of private and public educators, students and administrators from across the country. Their stated goal is to examine and confront what they see as “systemic race-based privilege in America.”
The video depicts numerous Caucasian individuals referred to as “White Allies” who provide some insight into how the organization defines racism and bigotry and how they indoctrinate children in American schools to believe that, if they are white, they were born with an unfair privilege. Moreover, the entire conference, attended by many of America’s public school teachers, stresses that Christianity is not a system of faith:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Satanists Call for Christians’ Blood: Shock Video
Infowars Reporter Dan Bidondi traveled to Harvard University to the site of the ill-fated Satanic Black Mass set to take place on campus. Christians went on the offensive and protested this event which was eventually cancelled. Satanists and Christians then had no choice but to engage in a theological showdown in the streets of Boston. Our cameras captured the action.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Resurrected ERA Must be Defeated
Thanks to Illinois State Senators Heather Steans (D-Chicago), Mattie Hunter (D-Chicago), David Koehler (D-Peoria), Iris Martinez (D-Chicago), and Pat McGuire (D-Joliet), the Equal Rights Amendments (SJRCA 75) is rearing its ugly, genderless head again. These lawmakers, at the urging of Governor Patrick Quinn, have re-introduced a proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution to eradicate sex as a legitimate characteristic on which to base reasonable distinctions. In other words, these “progressive” lawmakers would like it to be impermissible for any organization, policy, or law to take into account the very real and important differences between men and women.
This amendment would add these words to the U.S. Constitution: “Equality of rights under law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex.” Of course, no one wants the rights of men or women to …
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
3-D Printing Takes Off in the Aerospace Industry
Components designed by computer and produced by a 3-D printer are becoming more commonplace. Leading the field is the aviation industry because it’s easy to make lightweight parts that are very durable.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Biosecurity: Is it Time to Destroy the Remaining Live Samples of Smallpox?
The World Health Organization meets next week to decide when the remaining stocks of the smallpox virus will be destroyed. Some scientists argue the samples are still needed for research.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Monaco Heiress Pastor Dies After Nice Shooting
(AGI) Paris, May 21 — Helene Pastor, a wealthy 77-year-old Monaco heiress, died in Nice on Wednesday as a result of injuries sustained earlier this month. On their way out of a Nice hospital, Pastor and her driver were shot at point-blank range by man with a sawn-off shotgun on May 6. The driver was killed on the spot.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The Climate Change Fundamentalists
Climate change fundamentalists are predicting an apocalypse. Human depredation in the form of unbridled materialism is the cause. Any dissent from the fundamentalists’ doomsday prophesies if their radical prescriptions to save humanity and Mother Earth are not followed is regarded as heresy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Free the Uighur homeland/Xinjiang and Tibet! More countries = more peace.
You will get no peace until you free the world from islam.