A well-planned terrorist attack targeted the home of Tunisian Interior Minister Lofti Ben Jeddou, in the town of Kesserine in central Tunisia. The gunmen fought a pitched battle with security guards, killing four of them, but the minister was not at home at the time, and was unharmed. Meanwhile, in neighboring Libya the State Department strongly urged all American citizens to leave the country, due to pervasive violence and instability.
In other news, a report by the European Commission has determined that if Russia were to cut off the supply of natural gas through the Ukraine pipeline, all parts of Europe will be hit by gas shortages except Portugal, Spain, and parts of southern France.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, JLH, JP, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
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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.
Italy’s Debt to Resume Its Fall in 2015, Says Minister
(AGI) Rome, May 28 — Italy’s public finances are improving and the debt will resume its decline next year, said Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan on Wednesday. “Public finances are continuing to improve. We have one of the most sustainable public finance systems in the eurozone,” he said while attending a public administration forum. “We know the debt increased recently but for contingent causes: the payment of the public administration debts and the very important contribution of our country to the international bailout fund,” he said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Some 1.4 Million Italians Have Stopped Pension Contributions
Up from 1.2 million at end of 2012
(ANSA) — Rome, May 28 — Around 1.4 people in Italy have stopped paying into their pension funds, the COVIP pensions watchdog said Wednesday in a report.
The report said the number of people to have suspended contributions by March 31 2014 was up from 1.2 million at the end of 2012.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Three Million Italian Families Face Serious Hardship
Million of households with no breadwinner
(ANSA) — Rome, May 28 — Around three million Italian households are in situations of serious hardship because none of the family members are in work, Istat said Wednesday. The national statistics agency said two million families did not have anyone bringing home a salary or a works pension. It said the total facing mayor economic hardship went up to three million when families supported by just one works pension were included.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Maya Angelou: Lyrical Witness of the Jim Crow South, Dies at 86
Maya Angelou, the memoirist and poet whose landmark book of 1969, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” — which describes in lyrical, unsparing prose the author’s girlhood in the Jim Crow South — was among the first autobiographies by a 20th-century black woman to reach a wide general readership, died on Wednesday in her home. She was 86 and lived in Winston-Salem, N.C.
As well known as she was for her memoirs, which eventually filled six volumes, Ms. Angelou (pronounced AHN-zhe-lo) very likely received her widest exposure on a chilly January day in 1993, when she delivered the inaugural poem, “On the Pulse of Morning,” at the swearing-in of Bill Clinton, the nation’s 42nd president, who, like Ms. Angelou, had grown up poor in rural Arkansas.
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Obama: US Must Show Restraint Abroad
President Barack Obama has promised a new US foreign policy based on “collective action” with allies abroad.
The US would still lead, he told graduates at the US Military Academy at West Point, New York, but would avoid the “costly mistakes” of the past. He announced a $5bn (£3bn) fund to fight global terror and promised the US “must not create more enemies than we take off the battlefield”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Unveils $5-Bn Fund for Global Terror Fight
For Mideast, Africa and East Asia
(ANSA) — Rome, May 28 — US President Barack Obama on Wednesday unveiled a $5-billion global anti-terrorism fund to help countries in the Middle East, Africa and East Asia curb militants.
Laying out foreign-policy goals at West Point, Obama said the late-2014 end of the Afghan combat mission would free up resources.
“I am calling on Congress to support a new counter-terrorism partnerships fund of up to $5 billion, which will allow us to train, build capacity, and facilitate partner countries on the front lines,” the president said. Targets include training security forces in Yemen, supporting a multinational force to keep the peace in Somalia, working with European allies to train a functioning security force in Libya, and helping French operations in Mali, he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
State Department Apologizes for Its Tweet Promoting MB Sheik Bin Bayyah
Adam Kredo of the Washington Free Beacon (WFB) scored a hit with his Memorial Day weekend report on the State Department tweet of a news release issued by Muslim Brotherhood (MB) Sheik Abdullah bin Bayyah. Someone in the striped pants and skirts brigade in the Department’s Counter Terrorism (CT) Bureau had benightedly tweeted an International Union of Muslim Scholars news release by Sheik bin Bayyah condemning the abduction of those largely Christian 276 Nigerian girls by Jihadist group Boko Haram. Kredo of the WFB in today’s edition revealed in an updated article how his using the ‘disinfectant’ of public exposure sent State scampered to ‘apologize’ , “State Department Apologizes for Promoting Sheik who Backed Killing of U.S. Soldiers”. Kredo wrote:The State Department’s Counter Terrorism (CT) Bureau apologized on Tuesday for promoting a controversial Muslim scholar whose organization has reportedly backed Hamas and endorsed a fatwa authorizing the murder of U.S. soldiers in Iraq.The apology came on the heels of a Friday Washington Free Beacon report detailing the CT Bureau’s promotion of Sheik Abdallah Bin Bayyah, the vice president of a radical Muslim scholars group that was founded by a Muslim Brotherhood leader who has called “for the death of Jews and Americans.”…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
V.A. Watchdog Finds Failures in Care at Phoenix Hospital
The inspector general for the Department of Veterans Affairs reported on Wednesday that at least 1,700 veterans at the agency’s medical center in Phoenix were not registered on the proper waiting list to see doctors, creating a serious condition that means veterans “continue to be at risk of being forgotten or lost” in the convoluted scheduling process.
All the while, the hospital falsely reported waiting times that suggested delays were minimal, the report said.
“While our work is not complete, we have substantiated that significant delays in access to care negatively impacted the quality of care at this medical facility,” Richard J. Griffin, the acting inspector general for the department, said in an interim report on his investigation into the Phoenix medical center.
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Almost Whole EU Hit if Russian Gas Exports Stop
Italy relies on imported energy
(ANSA) — Brussels, May 28 — If Russian gas exports were stopped, “almost the whole of the EU, except the Iberian peninsula and the south of France, would probably be directly affected,” a European Commission report on energy security said Wednesday. There have been concerns that friction between the EU and Russia over Ukraine could hit gas supplies. Italy is heavily dependent on imported energy, including Russian gas, which at the moment reaches Europe via pipelines through Ukraine.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Births in Italy Drop to Record Low
Just under 515,000 babies born in 2013
(ANSA) — Rome, May 28 — The number of babies born in Italy dropped to a record low of 515,000 in 2013, Istat said on Wednesday in its annual report. The national statistics agency said this was 12,000 down on the previous lowest level on record from 1995. Italy has registered low birth rates for many years, with experts saying the high levels of unemployment and job instability that young people face is causing couples to have children later and later in life.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Charlemagne Youth Prize Announced
The Danish travel project Our Europe has won the first prize at the Charlemagne Youth Prize in Aachen where out of the 28 finalists the three final European winners were announced. The second prize went to the Dutch project JouwDelft & Co youth congress and the third to Employment4U, a training project from Cyprus…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
EU Leaders Assess Damage After Seismic Elections
Agreement sought on top appointments after huge eurosceptic vote for European Parliament
European Union leaders, stunned by a big Eurosceptic protest vote in European Parliament elections, agreed on Tuesday to seek a package deal of appointments to top EU jobs with an economic agenda to win back public confidence.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the union’s most powerful leader, acknowledged that her centre-right party’s candidate, former Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker, may not end up heading the European Commission…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Would be Victim of EU Break-Up, Says Politician
(AGI) Trieste, May 28 — Germany would be the first victim if the European Union broke up, said Italy’s Democratic Party Vice-secretary Debora Serracchiani. “If Europe were to break up under the attack of eurosceptics, one of the first high-profile victims would be Germany, because of its strength in the EU single market and the strength of its own currency,” she told the Radio Anch’io radio show. “Therefore, I think Germany needs Europe,” she added.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
German Archbishop Says the EU Ignores Discrimination Against Christians
Politically Incorrect translated by Frau Katze:
German Archbishop: The EU Frets over Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism, but Ignores Discrimination Against Christians
Just now, before the EU elections (20 May 2014), the German Archbishop Georg Gänswein criticized the “militant secularism” that is spreading in the EU, and the lack of commitment of European politicians in opposing discrimination against Christians…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
German Greens Deny Alliance With Five-Star Movement
(AGI) Brussels, May 28 — The German environmentalist Euro MP, Jan Philipp Albrecht, told AGI in a phone interview he “categorically excluded an alliance with the Five-Star Movement.” Albrecht has been re-elected to the European Parliament and said he had heard rumours about possible interest in an alliance with the German Greens, but denied this as the differences with Grillo are too great.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Population Among Oldest in World, Says Stats Agency
Istat reports that average age in Italy second highest in EU
(See related) (ANSA) — Rome, May 28 — Italy has one of the oldest populations in the world, and is second only to Germany in the 28 nations of the European Union, national statistical agency Istat said Wednesday.
In its annual report, the agency said that on average, there are 151.4 people over 65 years for every 100 youngsters under 15.
Only Germany has more older people, with an average 158 senior citizens for every 100 young people.
Both are significantly higher than the EU average of 116.6 people over 65 for every 100 under 15.
Part of that is due to Italy’s falling birth rate, which Istat noted has fallen to a record low.
It said that last year, just 515,000 babies were born in the entire country, and lower than the previous low in 1995.
Italy has registered low birth rates for many years, with experts saying the high levels of unemployment and job instability that young people face is causing couples to have children later and later in life.
Istat noted that average life expectancy in Italy is 79.6 years for men and 84.4 years for women.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
M5S Chief Grillo to Meet UKIP’s Farage in Brussels
Eurosceptic leaders’ encounter arranged in Belgian restaurant
(ANSA) — Brussels, May 28 — Opposition 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Beppe Grillo arranged to have a meeting with UKIP firebrand Nigel Farage in the Belgian capital Wednesday, European parliamentary sources said.
The meeting between the two flamboyant Eurosceptics was expected to be held in a restaurant in the centre of Brussels, sources in the Italian comedian’s party added. On Sunday Farage’s party won the most votes in Britain, while Grillo’s came in second in Italy, failing to outdo the ruling PD as he had predicted.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Northern Ireland: Peter Robinson Under Fire for Backing Pastor James McConnell’s Islamic Remarks
Northern Ireland’s first minister Peter Robinson has come under fire for defending a pastor who made controversial comments about Muslims.
James McConnell of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in north Belfast, described Islam as “heathen” and “satanic”, and said he did not trust Muslims. Mr Robinson said he would not trust Muslims involved in violence or those devoted to Sharia law. But he said he would “trust them to go to the shops” for him…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Northern Ireland’s first minister, Peter Robinson, has come under intense scrutiny for defending a pastor who described Islam as “satanic” and “heathen”
Pastor James McConnell, an evangelical Protestant preacher, delivered an incendiary sermon earlier this month where he claimed “Islam is a doctrine spawned in hell” and compared Muslims to the IRA.
Asked about the sermon, Mr Robinson, who has attended the same church in the past, insisted the pastor does not have “an ounce of hatred in his bones” and claimed it is the “duty of any Christian preacher to denounce a false doctrine”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: 9/11 Terror Attacks Fuelled Decade-Long Rise in Racism in the UK
Experts say national survey data showing increased the levels of self-reported ‘racial prejudice’ across Britain are caused by fears over immigration and the fall out from the New York terror attacks
Racial prejudice in Britain has risen steadily in the decade since the 9/11 terror attacks, an authoritative survey of British attitudes has shown.
Nearly a third of Britons described themselves as either “very” or “a little” prejudiced against people of other races in the NatCen British Social Attitudes survey for 2013. From an all-time low of 25 per cent in 2001, levels of prejudice have risen steadily through the last decade reaching a high of 38 per cent in 2011…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: A 1914 Novel’s Prescient Vision of Londonistan
by Daniel Pipes
Exactly one century ago, the renowned British writer G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), called by his admirers the greatest writer and thinker of the twentieth century, published a curious novel titled The Flying Inn. On the cusp of World War I, he imagined the Ottoman Empire conquering Great Britain and imposing Shari’a law…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: David Cameron Faces Backlash After the UK Hands Out £30million in Benefits to EU Families
BRITISH taxpayers are forking out £30million a year on child benefit for families who live abroad.
Brits fund 20,400 families with 34,628 children across Poland, Ireland, Lithuania and the wider EU.
And Prime Minister David Cameron has admitted it is “impossible” to stop the cash drain which is exported each year by migrant workers. But in the wake of the Ukip triumph in the European and local elections, the Tory leader faces calls to enforce a ban on claiming welfare for up to five years after arriving in Britain…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Muslims in Tower Hamlets Offered Help to Quit Smoking for Ramadan
Muslims in Tower Hamlets are being offered help to quit smoking before Ramadan to avoid nicotine cravings while they fast.
The Quit Tobacco Before Ramadan campaign is run by the council in collaboration with stop smoking advisers, local Imams, health professionals and the Bangladeshi Stop Tobacco Project.
Advice centres will be set up at mosques and libraries across Tower Hamlets, which has among the highest levels of smoking and smokeless tobacco use through shisha pipes in London…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Racism in the UK: Can We Really Measure Racial Prejudice?
You may wonder who would admit to racial prejudice. Here is how the BSA arrived at its figures, and what they show
The Guardian has reported new data from the British Social Attitudes survey showing that three in 10 people describe themselves as being very or a little racially prejudiced. As the co-director of this survey, I would like to use this space to explain how we arrived at these numbers, and outline the sorts of issues we consider when interpreting attitudinal data…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Survey Reveals Growing Racism Across UK
The number of British people who admit to being racially prejudiced has risen since the beginning of the millennium, a national survey has revealed.
According to the British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey, the percentage of Britons who say they hold some form of prejudice against people of other races has risen overall from 25 per cent to 30 per cent since 2001.…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Tower Hamlets Finally Announce Election Results With Labour Losing Overall Control
Tower Hamlets Council has finally announced its election results, with Labour losing overall control despite winning the most seats.
The results were announced just after 8pm on Tuesday evening — five full days after voting closed. Counting was suspended at 3am on Monday morning as recounts were taken for the Bromley South ward and resumed this evening…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Tower Hamlets Faces Investigation
Tower Hamlets in East London, one of the UK’s most controversial councils is facing an investigation by the Electoral Commission, after a local vote count was delayed by five days, says the ‘Independent’.
Local Conservative and Labour politicians claimed to have witnessed heavy-handed tactics and intimidation at polling stations in the borough, which only declared its full results on Tuesday evening.
The two final seats in Bromley South were bagged by the Labour party, making it the largest party on the council…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Wilders: Le Pen, Salvini ‘Making History’
Right-wing Euroskeptics aim to forge new EP bloc
(ANSA) — Brussels, May 28 — Geert Wilders said Wednesday his Dutch far-right Freedom Party, Italy’s anti-immigrant Northern League, and other like-minded Euroskeptic parties “are making history” by joining forces. Wilders was speaking at a press conference in Brussels with Northern League leader Matteo Salvini, France’s National Front (FN) chief Marine Le Pen, and leaders of Belgium’s regionalist Vlaams Belang and Austria’s right-wing FPO. The parties — some of whom upset the establishment in their home countries in European elections at the weekend while others fell short — are aiming to get enough MEPs to forge a new political bloc in the European Parliament. “We know we have to have seven countries to form a bloc, but I’m confident we can do it,” said Wilders. In Italy, the Northern League came away with 7% of the vote, which was better than analysts predicted, though far behind the majority Democratic Party (PD) which won a resounding 40%. “I’m proud to sit in this alliance that hopes to oppose everything that’s single,” said Salvini in Brussels, referring to the single currency. “We’re here to oppose the treaties that sell us short. We’re not profit, merchandise, or consumers.
We’re people”. Among the most dramatic right-wing Euroskeptic wins in Europe came in France, where Le Pen’s FN won with 25%. “These elections were a great success. They tried to divide us but they didn’t succeed. Our unity and maturity paid off,” said Le Pen on Wednesday. Some analysts have blamed Wilders’ alliance with Le Pen for “tainting” the Netherlands’ Freedom Party, leading to its election loss. “We’ll try to block any new EU expansion, we’ll block every attempt at increased European integration promoted by our adversaries, and I see there’s discord among them,” added Le Pen.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Four Policemen Die in Attack on Minister’s Home
Attack carried out by 10 gunmen, Ben Jeddou was not at home
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS — Tunisia woke up on Wednesday morning with the specter of terrorism looming large after ten gunmen the previous night carried out an attack on the home of Interior Minister Lofti Ben Jeddou in Kesserine in which four police officers were killed and three others wounded.
According to provisional reports from the ministry and police sources ahead of a press conference to be held by the prosecutor in charge of the case, security officers protecting the minister’s home were killed after a 45-minute-long shoot out with a commando of ten gunmen, whose faces were covered, who arrived onboard a pickup truck and opened fire on security officers. They also exploded firecrackers to create chaos.
The minister was not at home at the time of the attack.
His house is very close to national guard barracks and the prefect’s headquarters, which could mean the plan was carefully prepared by terrorists.
Kasserine is 300 km from Tunis, in central Tunisia, not far from the Algerian border.
On Tuesday, Tunisia and Algerian signed a cooperation agreement to fight terrorism which is again a national priority given the critical situation in neighboring Libya.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Terrorist Arrested in Sbeitla (Interior Ministry)
Tunis — The Ministry of the Interior announced, on Tuesday, the arrest of a terrorist in Sbeitla, Governorate of Kasserine without disclosing his identity. Security units in Kasserine “arrested a wanted individual in Sbeitla for having received fighting training, belonging to a terrorist organisation and incitement to terrorist acts,” the Ministry said in a press release. Investigations continue, the statement added.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. State Department Urges Americans to Leave Libya
(AGI) Washington, May 28 — The U.S. State Department has recommended all Americans leave Libya because it has become unstable. The United States has reduced embassy staff in Tripoli to a minimum, and is only offering very limited emergency services. The State Department believes Americans in Libya may be kidnapped, attacked or even killed.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Tells Citizens to Leave Libya Immediately
The State Department on Tuesday told U.S. citizens in Libya to leave the country immediately, warning that the security situation remained “unpredictable and unstable.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
EU Provides New Support to Palestinians for Basic Services
130 mln to the PNA and 70 mln to UNRWA for the refugees
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MAY 28 — The European Union has made available 200 million euros to ensure support to the Palestinian Authority (PNA) and United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), in order to provide vital basic services to the Palestinian people (such as education, health relief and social services).
This is the first tranche of EU support to the Palestinian people for 2014 and consists of two main actions: a contribution of 130 million euros, through the PEGASE mechanism, to the Palestinian Authority and a contribution of 70 million euros to the General Fund of UNRWA. Via UNRWA, the EU is delivering its support to Palestine refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, enabling refugee families and their children to attend school, to receive medical attention and to survive economically, this way keeping alive the values of humanity, solidarity and dignity of the refugees.
“The EU intends, through its contributions to the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA, to help sustain key Palestinian institutions and to provide a social safety net for refugees” Commissioner for the European Neighbourhood Policy, Stefan Fule, commented. “The PEGASE mechanism — Fule added — is open for contributions to Member States and other donors wishing to deliver their support to the Palestinian Authority through a rapid, well-functioning and transparent system”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
29 People Killed in Attacks Across Iraq
BAGHDAD, May 28 (Xinhua) — A total of 29 people were killed and 72 others wounded in separate shootings and bombings across Iraq on Wednesday, police said.
The deadliest of the attacks struck the Iraqi capital of Baghdad in the afternoon when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a police checkpoint and blew it up in the northern district of Kadhmiyah, leaving at least 12 dead and some 52 others wounded, a police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Arab Arrested for Helping Relatives Join Rebels in Syria
JERUSALEM, May 27 (Xinhua) — An Israeli Arab has been arrested on suspicion of helping relatives travel to Syria and join an al-Qaida-linked rebel group, Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, announced on Tuesday.
The suspect is 23-year-old Idris Taleb Ahmed Abu Alkiaan, a resident of Hura Bedouin township in southern Negev, who was affiliated with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), one of the radical Salafi factions fighting in Syria’s civil war…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Kuwaiti Woman Loses Child Custody After Wearing a Bikini
Proposal to ban two-piece swimsuits after husband wins case
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, MAY 28 — A Kuwaiti mother has lost custody of her children after her ex-husband showed the court a picture of her wearing a bikini in the company of a man lacking blood ties to her. The incident has occurred in an emirate known for being a trailblazer in the Gulf region on the issue of women’s rights. “Their mother could not be trusted with them,” the father’s lawyer, Yousuf Hussein, was quoted by Gulf News as saying. “My client presented pictures to the court that prove her unfit lifestyle.” “The mother cannot be trusted to raise the children properly and the picture as an example indicates a lack of modesty and a deficiency in her morals that erode trust in her and result in public disdain as society assesses her actions morally or religiously,” the lawyer said.
The court’s verdict led to an initiative by Kuwaiti lawmaker Hamdan Al-Azemi, head of the anti-social behavior committee, to submit a proposal to ban “nudity” in public areas and hotels.
The concept of nudity — he told the daily Al-Rai, quoted by Gulf News — does not require any additional explanation, as it would be for any other “negative phenomena” running counter to local culture or “the precepts of Islam”. Al-Azemi said that that women’s bathing suits were “alien to the Kuwaiti culture and could not be accepted or tolerated”.
The issue of bikinis has thus become the center of debate raised by conservative politicians, who say that “wearing a bikini is not a personal choice or a matter of personal freedom,” but rather “an assault on local values and sense of decency and modesty.” The decision by the committee will have to be approved by the parliament before it is referred to the government. If it is accepted by the ministers, it will be enacted as a binding legal text.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Norwegian Islamic Radical Reportedly Killed in Syria
OSLO, May 28 (Xinhua) — At least one Muslim radical from Norway was killed in Syria over the past few days, the Norwegian-language newspaper Dagbladet reported on Wednesday. The man, whose identity was not disclosed, was a Norwegian citizen of Somali origin, according to the report…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Sultans’ Monograms Replace Secular Republic Symbols
On ancient buildings over ‘historic coherence’, Erdogan says
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MAY 28 — Turkey is getting ready to replace on facades of historic palaces the symbols of the Turkish secular republic founded in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk with the monograms of sultans, at the initiative of the Islamic AKP party of Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan, local media reported on Wednesday.
The measure, already approved by a commission with the Turkish Great assembly, will soon receive a green light from a plenary session of the assembly, where AKP has the absolute majority, in spite of opposition protests.
The official reason behind the move is to restore “historic coherence” to buildings which embody the country’s glorious past.
The new law will scrap 1927 legislation passed under Ataturk ordering to take away the symbols of sultans to affirm the secularist nature of a new state built over the ruins of the Ottoman and Islamic empire.
The opposition accuses Erdogan, who greatly admires sultans, of seeking to re-Islamize the country.
Although the law has not become effective yet, the monogram of Mohamed II, who conquered Constantinople, has reappeared on the building of the University of Istanbul. It replaces the initials T.C of Turkiye Cumhuriyeti (Turkish Republic) which appears on all public buildings in the country.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysian Muslims have called for a holy war against the confectionery giant Cadbury — after pork DNA was found in some of its products.
A group of more than 20 Malay-Muslim organisations say they want to declare jihad against the chocolate maker after two batches of chocolate products were recalled.
The company has said that it was informed that samples of its Cadbury Dairy Milk Hazelnut and Cadbury Dairy Milk Roast Almond had ‘tested positive for traces of porcine DNA’…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
by Phyllis Chesler
I just appeared for a rather intense hour on the BBC on the World Have Your Say program to talk about three separate cases in the news: the Pakistani woman who was just stoned to death for daring to marry the man she loved; the massacre in Isla Vista, California, fueled by a violently misogynistic manifesto; and the German tabloid exposure of Kate Middleton’s bottom.
I appeared with some very wonderful speakers in Pakistan, the United States, and the UK on this issue.
As to the first story: Early today, a 25-year-old woman was stoned to death by twelve—yes, twelve—male relatives, beginning with her father and including her brothers and possibly cousins. They did so right outside the High Court in Lahore. This is a brazen statement about refusing to abide by any secular Pakistani law.
This victim’s blessed name was Farzana Iqbal and bravely, tragically, she refused to marry her cousin and instead married the man she loved. One of the Pakistani women on the BBC program pointed out that none of the many bystanders rescued her or stopped these men from killing her.
A crowd gathered. No one dared intervene. The bystander phenomenon coupled with cultural approval for this act of barbarism, coupled with some vicarious enjoyment involved in seeing an “uppity” woman punished, coupled with the fear that if one intervened they, too, would be stoned, stayed the hand of one and all…
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China: Crowd Witnesses Rare Mass Sentencing Rally in Xinjiang
Fifty-five suspects declared guilty of crimes including terrorism at a stadium in Yining, after string of attacks linked to region
Seven thousand people watched as 55 suspects were pronounced guilty of crimes including terrorism at a highly unusual mass sentencing rally in China’s north-western region of Xinjiang, state media said on Wednesday.
At least one person was sentenced to death at the event on Tuesday in the northern city of Yining, according to the official Xinhua news agency…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Three Chinese Muslims Executed for Terrorism
Uighur militants blamed for rising wave of attacks
(ANSA) — Rome, May 28 — China on Wednesday executed three members of the Muslim Uighur community in the north-western Xinjiang province for terrorism, separatism and murder.
The three were among 55 found guilty of those offences in a stadium trial watched by 7,000 spectators.
China has blamed Uighur militants for a growing number of violent attacks across the country.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spies Reported on Activities of Four-Year-Old ‘Propagandist’
Decades since they were last known to bother the authorities, some of Australia’s most famous “radicals” are getting together for a knees-up. And though few even look so much as scruffy these days perhaps they have still got it.
Identities such as Philip Adams, Anne Summers and Michael Kirby will attend the launch of Dirty Secrets on Wednesday night at Glebe’s Harold Park Hotel…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Ethiopia: Al-Shabab Raids Village, At Least 39 Dead
Nearly 40 people are dead after al-Shabab militants attacked a village on the border between Ethiopia and Somalia. The governor of Somalia’s Bakool region, Mohamed Abdi Tall, told VOA that the Islamist militant group raided the village of Aato early Tuesday. He said 27 pro-government militiamen and 12 al-Shabab fighters were killed in the ensuing clash…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Wole Soyinka: The Canonisation of Terror
The sheer weight of indignation and revulsion of most of Nigerian humanity at the recent Boko Harma atrocity in Yobe is most likely to have overwhelmed a tiny footnote to that outrage, small indeed, but of an inversely proportionate significance. This was the name of the hospital to which the survivors of the massacre were taken. That minute detail calls into question, in a gruesome but chastening way, the entire ethical landscape into which this nation has been forced by insensate leadership. It is an uncanny coincidence, one that I hope the new culture of ‘religious tourism’, spearheaded by none other than the nation’s president in his own person, may even come to recognize as a message from unseen forces.
For the name of that hospital, it is reported, is none other than that of General Sanni Abacha, a vicious usurper under whose authority the lives of an elected president and his wife were snuffed out. Assassinations — including through bombs cynically ascribed to the opposition — became routine. Under that ruler, torture and other forms of barbarism were enthroned as the norm of governance. To round up, nine Nigerian citizens, including the writer and environmentalist Ken Saro-wiwa, were hanged after a trial that was stomach churning even by the most primitive standards of judicial trial, and in defiance of the intervention of world leadership. We are speaking here of a man who placed this nation under siege during an unrelenting reign of terror that is barely different from the current rampage of Boko Haram. It is this very psychopath that was recently canonized by the government of Goodluck Jonathan in commemoration of one hundred years of Nigerian trauma.
It has been long a-coming. One of the broadest avenues in the nation’s capital, Abuja, bears the name of General Sanni Abacha. Successive governments have lacked the political courage to change this signpost — among several others — of national self degradation and wipe out the memory of the nation’s tormentor from daily encounter. Not even Ministers for the Federal Capital territory within whose portfolios rest such responsibilities, could muster the temerity to initiate the process and leave the rest to public approbation or repudiation. I urged the need of this purge on one such minister, and at least one Head of State. That minister promised, but that boast went the way of Nigerian electoral boast. The Head of State murmured something about the fear of offending ‘sensibilities’. All evasions amounted to moral cowardice and a doubling of victim trauma. When you proudly display certificates of a nation’s admission to the club of global pariahs, it is only a matter of time before you move to beatify them as saints and other paragons of human perfection. What the government of Goodluck Jonathan has done is to scoop up a century’s accumulated degeneracy in one preeminent symbol, then place it on a podium for the nation to admire, emulate and even — worship…
| — Hat tip: JLH | [Return to headlines] |
Calais Police Clear Migrants Heading for UK
African, Mideast, Asians say ‘nowhere else to go’
(ANSA) — Rome, May 28 — Police in Calais on Wednesday cleared African, Mideast and Asian migrants from a camp where they were hoping to get to the UK, in the latest such evacuation in recent years.
Authorities, who went ahead after overruling protests by pro-migrant movements, said the evictions were needed to deal with an outbreak of scabies in the camps, where numbers have swelled in recent months.
The migrants say they have nowhere else to go after the camps are destroyed.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Crisis Causing More Italians to Emigrate
Migrant arrivals down 27% in 2012 on 2007
(ANSA) — Rome, May 28 — The number of Italians emigrating from their homeland has increased sharply during the economic crisis, Istat said Wednesday. The national statistics agency said 68,000 people moved abroad in 2012, the highest level in a decade and 36% up on 2011. Facing high levels of unemployment and job insecurity, many young Italians are attracted to the option of emigration.
In 2012, 26,000 Italians aged between 15 and 34 left their homeland, up by 10,000 on 2008.
Over the last five years 94,000 under-35s have emigrated.
The agency added that legal immigration into Italy is decreasing due to the economic crisis, with 321,000 new arrivals reported in 2012, down 27.7% from 2007. The number of foreigners who are choosing to leave the country has gone up 17.9%, Istat said in its annual report.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
French Police to Expel Migrants From Calais Camps
Police in the northern French city of Calais are set to remove about 800 migrants from Asia, the Middle East and Africa occupying camps near the port.
The authorities say the evictions are needed to deal with an outbreak of scabies in the camps, where numbers have swelled in recent months. Police surrounded the site after a deadline for people to leave expired.
The migrants have been trying to get to Britain, and say they have nowhere else to go after the camps are destroyed. An Eritrean migrant told the BBC he tried to cross the English Channel by boarding lorries but was stopped by police several times. “I will try again and again,” he said.
The BBC’s Paul Adams at the site says most there believe that England will be a more welcoming place, if only they can get there.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
A cluster of plastic bags, tents and make-shift gates, this is the soon-to-be-demolished camp that hundreds of illegal migrants call home as they wait to cross from Calais to Britain.
The settlement will be gone within days as public health officials warn it has no clean water — and its residents carry a number of highly infectious and dangerous diseases. Would-be travellers have set up bonfires out of bins and beds made of clothes along the concrete riverside, lined by sewage pipes…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Legal Immigration Down, Emigration Booming Over Crisis
Istat; foreigners leaving up 17.9%, expats up 36% in 2012
Italian and foreign jobless demonstrate in Naples (archive)
(ANSAmed) — ROME — Legal immigration into Italy is decreasing due to the economic crisis with 321,000 new arrivals reported in 2012, down 27.7% from 2007, national statistics institute Istat said Wednesday.
The number of foreigners who are choosing instead to leave the country has gone up 17.9% along with the booming number of Italians looking for a job abroad.
In 2012 émigre’s were 68,000, 36% more than in 2011, “the highest level in ten
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The Sun Issues ‘Final Warning’ To PM Cameron Over UKIP, Immigration
Britain’s Sun newspaper has issued a ‘final warning’ to Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron following four years of Mr Cameron’s premiership, and continuing inability to curb UK immigration figures…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Apple to Buy Beats Electronics, Rising Music Brand, For $3 Billion
Apple, the company that turned digital music into a mainstream phenomenon, said on Wednesday that it was buying Beats Electronics, the rising music brand, for $3 billion, in a move that will help it play catch-up with rivals that offer subscription-based music services.
Apple and Beats executives on Wednesday said that the companies would work together to give consumers worldwide more options to listen to music. The Beats brand will remain separate from Apple’s, and Apple will offer both Beats’s streaming music service and premium headphones.
| [Return to headlines] |
Pastor James McConnell is perfectly entitled to express a negative view of islam as is Peter Robinson to support him. I agree with both of them. Islam is nothing more than an arab blasphemy of Christianity and as Robinson said himself “It is the duty of any Christian preacher to denounce a false doctrine.” I also noticed the exchange between Robinson and ex IRA leader Martin McGuiness, reminding me that the IRA is/was a marxist institution and should have been recognised as such.
UK:A 1914 Novel’s Prescient Vision of Londonistan.
“The Flying Inn”.This novel is available for free down load in various formats.Go to the link and click on `The Flying Inn` in Pipes’ Review.
There is a direct link to The Flying Inn at
https://archive.org/details/flyingin00chesuoft