A recent surge of muggings of Chinese tourists in Paris has prompted the French government to invite China to send police to help patrol the streets of the capital. Ten Chinese officers will reportedly arrive to assist the gendarmes in keeping tourist areas safe, and to act as interpreters for Chinese visitors.
In other news, a thousand more illegal migrants landed in Sicily today.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Italy: Berlusconi Wants Euro Exit Unless EU Policy Changes
Italy, France, Ireland, Portugal may be forced out, says ex-PM
(see related) (ANSA) — Rome, May 6 — Ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, the leader of the opposition centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party, said Tuesday that Italy and other countries may be forced to drop the euro unless the policies of the European Union and the European Central Bank (ECB) change. “The idea of leaving the euro seems adventurous to me, but if we don’t manage to change the policy of the ECB and the EU, reality will impose this on us, on France, on Ireland and Portugal,” Silvio Berlusconi said on Italian radio.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
OECD Says Italy’s Debt Won’t Come Down Till 2016
Country ‘still vulnerable’ to market jolts
(ANSA) — Paris, May 6 — The OECD said in a report Tuesday that it forecasts that Italy’s “ratio between debt and GDP will not start to come down before 2016”. The organisation forecast a debt-to-GDP ratio of 134.3% for Italy this year and said it expects this to rise to 134.5% in 2015. It added that Italy’s massive public debt of over two trillion euros made it “still vulnerable to potential jolts” on the market, saying this meant it is “essential to continue with caution with the public finances, basing policy on spending cuts”. Italy risked a Greek-style financial meltdown in 2011 when it got dragged into the eurozone debt crisis because of its high debt levels.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The “Economic Recovery” Continues: Businesses Are Being Destroyed Faster Than They Are Being Created
What would you say about an economy where businesses are shutting down faster than they are opening? Well, a shocking new study released by the Brookings Institution indicates that this is exactly what is happening in the United States.
We are absolutely killing small businesses and the entrepreneurial spirit in this country, and as you will see below, the number of self-employed Americans has been on a downward trend for a decade even though our population has been steadily growing. Traditionally, small businesses have been the primary engine of job growth in this nation, so the fact that study after study has found that small business creation is being crippled in the United States is a really bad sign for our economic future.
Personally, I write about our long-term economic decline nearly every day, but even I had no idea that businesses were being destroyed faster than they were being created. According to the Brookings Institution, this first started happening in 2009…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Are Obama-Linked Operatives Covering up EPA Abuses?
A “rogue” group within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that is run out of the White House is operating outside the law and for years has “blocked independent investigations by the EPA’s inspector general,” according to an Associated Press account of an EPA investigator’s prepared congressional testimony.
In testimony at a hearing of a House oversight committee scheduled for Wednesday, May 7, Patrick Sullivan, an assistant EPA inspector general for investigations, is expected to provide compelling evidence of an extraordinary abuse of power — even for Barack Obama — by the all but unknown EPA Office of Homeland Security.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bill Bryson: A Champion of Science and Science Communication
It is over a decade since popular US author Bill Bryson embarked on his eye-opening journey of research for the acclaimed science book ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything’. At that time, he could never have envisaged the popularity and esteem his book would be held in today.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Genetically Modified Organisms: Frankensteinization of Fish
Genetically Modified Food scientists and corporations do not care what they thrust upon the Natural World. They lack moral or ethical compunction of any kind. They change DNA structure of plants to create “Frankenstein” equivalents in the foods we eat.
Not happy with the plant world, they entered the animal world hell bent for changing the structure of the living, breathing visceral world.
In a journal of www.FoodandWaterWatch.org, integral scientists presented readers with: “Genetically Engineered Salmon Deficient, Deformed, and Dangerous to You and the Environment.”
The report said, “Beyond GE salmon’s uninspiring growth rates, the fish demonstrates serious risks to consumer health, animal welfare, fishing economies and the environment. That’s all on top of potentially diminishing the nutrition and taste of salmon, one of the most popular and important fish in the American diet. Unfortunately, the FDA’s flimsy regulatory approach has failed to examine both the false promises and clear risks of leaving consumers unprotected.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hillary Clinton: Gun Culture ‘Way Out of Balance’
Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday the nation’s gun culture has gotten “way out of balance” and the U.S. needs to rein in the notion that “anybody can have a gun, anywhere, anytime.”
The former Secretary of State and potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidate said the idea that anyone can have a gun is not in the “best interest of the vast majority of people.” But she said that approach does not conflict with the rights of people to own firearms.
[Comment: So, people have the right — but only if the state allows it. Sounds communist.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
House Holds Former I.R.S. Official in Contempt
The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to hold in contempt Lois Lerner, a former Internal Revenue Service official who is the focus of multiple investigations into whether the agency targeted President Obama’s opponents. The vote gives a politically charged issue new prominence in an election year.
In a hotly contentious debate before the vote, Republicans made allegations of a Watergate-style inside job to cover up high crimes that helped steal a presidential election.
Parallel investigations on Capitol Hill have tried to show that the president and his aides used the I.R.S. to persecute Tea Party groups in the hopes of muting their political effectiveness during the 2012 elections.
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Judicial Watch: Obama Administration Still Withholding Documents About Benghazi Attack
Judicial Watch today released a 17-page draft Vaughn Index document obtained from the U.S. Department of State on May 1, revealing that the Obama administration is still refusing to provide the full details of how top officials arrived at the now-discredited talking points released to the public following the deadly assault on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi, Libya. The new documents, containing more than 50 paragraphs of justifications to withhold information, were obtained in response to a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Action (FOIA) lawsuit (Judicial Watch, Inc., v. U.S. Department of State, (Civil Action No. 13-cv-00951 (EGS)) filed on June 21, 2013.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Krauthammer’s Take: New Benghazi E-Mail Akin to Discovery of Nixon Tapes
The discovery, over a year after the September 11, 2012 terror attack in Benghazi, of an e-mail from a White House political operative that shows him suggesting that former United Nations ambassador Susan Rice underscore that the attack was a reaction to an Internet video is, according to Charles Krauthammer, like the discovery of the Nixon tapes that blew open the Watergate scandal in 1973.
“It’s to me the equivalent of what was discovered with the Nixon tapes,” Krauthammer said Thursday. “The point is that Republicans have done a terrible job in building the case. Even today I have to say, the questioning was disjointed, it was not organized. If they had appointed a special committee [a] long time ago the way it was done in Watergate, you would have had answers on this and the country wouldn’ be tired.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
The next time liberals get indignant when we say they care more about criminals than the victims of crime, remember their hysterical weeping over Clayton Lockett. I refer, of course, to the vile rapist-murderer, whose execution last week is getting more press than Chris Christie’s bridge scandal.
This week we will review some facts about the case that the New York Times edited out of its capacious articles on Lockett. This is the information that was not fit to print. Next week, we’ll discuss the death penalty, with particular reference to Clayton Lockett.
The main category of facts you won’t read about Lockett in the Times, or elsewhere in the NFM (Non-Fox Media), is what he did to his victims — which is to say, his last four victims. It may surprise you to learn that Locket had a long felony record…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Medical Drug-Pumping Microchip Plan to be Carried Out by 2017
Implanted medical microchips that can be expected to be mainstream by 2017 will be able to deliver drugs, including routine birth control — all through wireless communications. Currently, drug reservoir chips can be implanted right under the skin, delivering pharmaceuticals of all kinds, but here is the troubling part of this — they won’t be controlled by you — but rather by ‘medical professionals’. Imagine someone with the same level of morality as a Monsanto CEO, or a stock owner in Pfizer, or Bill Gates, deciding who gets which meds and how much. Scary, huh?
What’s more — these implanted drug-reservoir chips will be controlled remotely. You’ll be dosed day after day, perpetually, until a ‘professional’ decided to stop doping you up. Talk about a dream come true for the pharmaceutical industry!…
This is not a new idea — Dr. Jose M.R. Delgado, Director of Neuropsychiatry Yale University Medical School Congressional Record, No. 26, Vol. 118 February 24, 1974 discusses it extensively in a paper in which he states, “Man does not have the right to develop his own mind.This kind of liberal orientation has great appeal. We must electrically control the brain. Some day armies and generals will be controlled by electric stimulation of the brain.”
CEO Bradley Paddock believes, “The MicroCHIPS implantable drug delivery device is the greatest advancement in delivering medicine since the first tablet pill was developed in 1876.” Try reading the UN’s Agenda 21, and see if you agree.
[Comment: Looks like the end goal is BORGification of the serfs. In the short term such devices are a security risk since it would be a boon for assassins. Just hack into the device and overdose the target. Alternatively, the device is ripe for abuse by tyrants — mass drugging used to keep the population docile and subservient.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The continuing drama of a President willing to lie about the climate continues with the release of a report, the National Climate Assessment. It is a repeat of all the lies that have been generated by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
“The climate report,” said Dan Kish, a Senior Vice President of the Institute for Energy Research, “bears a strong resemblance to the IPCC report, only with less science and more rhetoric.” It is “just another attempt to justify more government intervention in American’s lives and more attacks on affordable energy and economic growth.”
Like Obamacare, the new report is, said Kish, “intentionally confusing and misleading.”
“Throughout his entire presidency,” said Kish, “Obama has promoted policies that have discouraged the use of our vast energy resources, including blocking the Keystone XL pipeline, slowing energy development on government lands and water, and forcing new restrictions on all forms of energy that Americans have used to become the number one economy in the world. Under this administration, even cows are not spared as emission sources that must be controlled in Washington.”
Marlo Lewis, a Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, writing on Fox News, identified the political agenda of the climate report “designed to scare people and build political support for unpopular policies such as carbon taxes, cap-and-trade, and EPA regulatory mandates.” Item by item, he noted the lies put forth by the report.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New York Public Library Scraps Plan to Revamp Flagship
In a striking about-face, the New York Public Library has abandoned its plan to turn part of its research flagship on 42d Street into a circulating library and instead will renovate the Mid-Manhattan library on Fifth Avenue, several library trustees said.
“When the facts change, the only right thing to do as a public-serving institution is to take a look with fresh eyes and see if there is a way to improve the plans and to stay on budget,” Tony Marx, the library’s president, said Wednesday in an interview.
The renovation, formerly known as the Central Library Plan, would have required eliminating the book stacks under the building’s main reading room and was to have been paid for with $150 million from New York City and the proceeds from the sale of the Mid-Manhattan, at 40th Street, and the Science, Industry and Business Library in the former B. Altman building, on Fifth Avenue at 34th Street.
| [Return to headlines] |
Redmond Neighbors Oppose Mosque Due to Traffic
REDMOND, Wash. (AP) — Neighbors of a proposed mosque in Redmond are trying to block construction because they say traffic is already too heavy in the area near Microsoft and Nintendo offices…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
We have been witnessing a growing assault on free speech in America by the Left and too often it is succeeding.
The demand by members of the Rutgers University faculty that former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice be disinvited to be the commencement speaker is the latest example and her decision to withdraw, while graceful, was a victory for the Left, the liberals for whom free speech exists only if it agrees with their posturing about equality, diversity, and all forms of “justice” as defined only by them.
Our universities are showing ugly signs of censoring the speech of those they invited to give a speech! Brandeis University recently withdrew its invitation to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a human rights campaigner, because of her criticisms of Islam. In response, she said of the slur on her reputation that, “More deplorable is that an institution set up on the basis of religious freedom should today so deeply betray its own founding principles.”
The forced resignation of the co-founder and CEO of Mozilla, Brendan Eich, because, years before, he had made a donation to the California campaign to support traditional marriage is another example. The Left has led the effort to redefine this ancient institution of the union between a man and a woman while supporting the demands of the nation’s gay and lesbian community.
Tearing down the foundations of our society has long been a major goal of the Left.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Unlawful Acts of Congress Are Not Binding on Your Country
Now, as part of this foolishness, the Anne Arundel County Council has decided to tax the rain.
Mr. Dick Ladd, the District 5 Councilman, says that this new tax is necessary so that the latest requirements that (pardon the pun) “flow” from this 40-year-old federal act can be met by our county.
When Mr. Ladd voted for what is known as the “Rain Tax,” he said he did so “with pleasure.” I take this to mean that Mr. Ladd was “pleased” to add a multi-billion dollar burden on the people of my county by voting for a measure that our Council Chairman called the “greatest single tax increase in county charter government history.”
Here’s why this is a national story and why you, wherever you live, need to pay attention. The original federal act which started this chain reaction — this “flow” of taxes and fines — is not law. In fact it is null and void and of no effect. To prove this, please search your copy of the Constitution of the United States. Look under Section Eight of Article One and see if you discover some authority for Congress to enact laws regarding the environment or regarding water or regarding the rain. You won’t discover such authority because it is not there.
So, what is known as the “Clean Water Act of 1972” has no Constitutional underpinning — no support — and is, therefore, not THE LAW. There is no reason, therefore, for the State of Maryland or for the County of Anne Arundel to comply with any standards or requirements published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or any other federal agency or department. The EPA and its grand edicts likewise create no obligation on the part of my county or your county or any county in America.
Way back in 1776, the Founders of America knew this truth and spoke this truth. They called these kinds of actions on the part of Parliament “pretended legislation.”
Pretended legislation…
Please remember that Acts of Congress are not necessarily binding on the states.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Vocal Few in Congress Keep Benghazi Issue Alive
The 2012 Benghazi attack has become a rallying point for many conservative figures in the news media, but only a handful of Republicans in Congress have continued to call public attention to it. Just six members of the House and Senate mention it regularly in official statements.
All are Republican, and two lead the way. Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia has issued 27 news releases on the subject in the past year, and Martha Roby of Alabama has sent out 21.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Albino Snakes Invade Spain’s Canary Islands
Albino California king snakes, originally brought to the island as pets decades ago, could take over 70 percent of the Spanish island of Gran Canaria, experts are warning.
Although not dangerous to humans, the snakes pose a serious threat to the native bird and lizard population of the popular holiday island.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cocaine-Filled Pineapples Seized by Spain
Police at the southern Spanish port city of Algeciras have discovered a ship container with pineapples stuffed full of 2,500 kilos of cocaine.
Drug traffickers from the world’s biggest pineapple producer, Costa Rica, sent a ‘special’ batch of their prized fruit to Spain last Wednesday.
The pineapples, as Spanish border police at Algeciras port would soon find out, were packed full of vitamins and a not-so-healthy 2.515 kilos of cocaine.
Spain’s Civil Guard had been previously tipped off by international security agencies about the imminent arrival of copious amounts of the illicit substance from South America.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Credit Suisse to Set up US ‘Bad Bank’: Reports
Credit Suisse, facing potential criminal charges for helping Americans dodge taxes, has created a “bad bank” unit for US clients, Swiss media reported on Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Members of Islamist Group Controlling Local Football Club
Last year at an extraordinary general meeting of the Brøndby Strand football club (BSI), Hizb ut-Tahrir members Zahid Mansoor and Ibrahim Atrach were given places on the club’s board. Today, they are respectively the chairman and treasurer of the club, a fact that has made some nervous.
One of the leading researchers in Hizb ut-Tahrir, Kirstine Sinclair from the University of Southern Denmark, fears that the new board members will use the club to advance their religious agenda.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: City Hospital Sucked Into Gossip Rag Scandal
The Se og Hør scandal continues to widen. In the latest turn, Rigshospitalet is investigating whether an employee was paid by the gossip magazine to leak information about celebrity patients hospital visits.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU’s Rompuy Welcomes Abe With Traditional ‘Haiku’
(BRUSSELS) — EU president Herman Van Rompuy, a devotee of all things Japanese, welcomed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Wednesday with a traditional “haiku” mini-poem.
“Once come May spring ushers in life everywhere; Laughing blossoms,” Van Rompuy told Abe, who is wrapping up a six-country, nine-day Europe visit with a European Union summit…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
France: China to Send Police ‘To Help Patrol Paris Streets’
Police in Paris will draft in reinforcements from Beijing to help protect Chinese visitors to the city this summer, according to reports this week. Chinese tourists have been the target of some recent high profile muggings and attacks.
Chinese police will help patrol tourist destinations in Paris this summer after a rise in muggings and attacks on Chinese tourists, a source in France’s interior ministry told AFP this week.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: DSK Affair: Welcome to New York Trailer Released
The trailer of the new film Welcome to New York, that’s inspired by IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s epic downfall has been released on the website of a French magazine. Watch it for yourself here.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Chinese Police to Help Patrol Paris After Rise in Chinese Muggings
Chinese police will help patrol tourist destinations in Paris this summer after a rise in muggings and attacks on Chinese tourists, a source in France’s interior ministry said on Tuesday.
The China.org site, reported that French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve had said that the government invited the Chinese police officers who will patrol tourist spots and serve as interpreters for Chinese tourists.
The site quoted Nouvelles d’Europe, another Chinese-run news group, as saying that at least 10 Chinese officers would be coming to Paris, adding that France’s interior ministry declined to confirm that figure.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Frenchman Kills Cat for Breaking Buddha Statue
A Frenchman was due in court this week for killing his cat by throwing it into the washing machine in a fit of rage after the feline knocked over his statue of Buddha.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Genetically Modified Organisms: ADM and Dow Chemical CEOs Ruthless
The deeper you dig into GMO foods, the uglier and meaner it gets. Monsanto, Dow Chemical and ADM (world’s largest chemical company of herbicides, insecticides and other poisons) executives employ their enormous financial war chests to block detrimental reports and facts about GMO foods. They reach beyond the immoral into the amoral.
One Ph.D. researcher in Europe, Dr. Pusztai, when he expressed his concerns, Monsanto mandated his firing and threatened him with a lawsuit if he discussed his research. His 20-member research team experienced disbandment. Monsanto forced testing protocols to be dropped and funded a campaign to discredit the study.
“Then an invitation to testify before Parliament allowed Pusztai to tell his story, and all hell broke loose,” said a spokesperson for Natural Revolution. “By April 1999, the protests of informed consumers had convinced manufacturers that GMOs would not sell in the EU, and all agreed to keep GMOs out of their European products, in spite of official approvals by a pro-GM European Commission.”
In the United States, the Pusztai story received little press. The U.S. mainstream media, greased by greenback dollars, failed to discuss other data suggesting GM foods may pose enormous health risks, including:
- The estimated 10,000 sheep that died in India within 5-7 days of grazing on GM cotton plants engineered to produce their own Bt-toxin pesticide.
- The only human GM feeding study ever published, which shows that the foreign genes inserted into GM food crops can transfer into the DNA of our gut bacteria. This study gives new meaning to the adage, “You are what you eat.” Long after those GM corn chips you munched are history, your intestinal flora may still be churning out the “Bt” pesticide GM corn plants have been engineered to produce.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Berlin Skyscraper Too Heavy for Alexanderplatz
A bid to build Germany’s tallest apartment block in central Berlin is in jeopardy amid fears the skyscraper will be so heavy it will crush the U-Bahn tunnel beneath it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Give China Nobel Prize’: Norway’s Richest Man
Norway’s richest man has called for China to get the Nobel Peace Prize, fuelling the controversy over the Norwegian government’s refusal to meet the Dalai Lama.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Doctors Reported for Not Paying Tax on Extra Work
(AGI) Rome, May 7 — Italian tax police reported 83 doctors working in public health facilities to the Court of Auditors for violating invoicing rules on after-hours medical visits.
The taxes on the extra work were estimated at 5.9 million euros. Police also reported 48 of the doctors to the judiciary on charges of aggravated fraud and embezzlement for illegally withholding fees due to the National Health Care Service.
Investigations were carried out by the Special Public Spending and Fraud Repression Unit in 18 Italian regions and 65 provinces.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Camusso Attacks Renzi “He Distorts Democracy”
(AGI) Rimini, May 6 — “The self-sufficiency of our politics is distorting democracy”. However the Trade Union Organisation does not feel it is ‘an orphan, but a key player’. This is how Susanna Camusso censures the position of the executive and current Premier, who she never mentioned by name in her opening speech at the 17th National Convention. “We will continue to oppose the Government’s idea of self-sufficiency, which not only cuts off all discourse with the representatives, but also denies them their role to participate and substantiate democracy”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Defence Committee Says Cut F-35 Fighter Jet Program
Decision on cutting jets split between PD and Forza Italia MPs
(ANSA) — Rome, May 7 — The Lower House defence committee on Wednesday okayed a controversial 50% cut to the government’s budget for the F-35 fighter jet. Allies including the United States have urged Italy to maintain its plans to buy 90 of the aircraft which according to some estimates costs $200 million each. Later, aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Martin said in a statement that it estimates the cost of the aircraft at about $108 million each, engine included.
The decision was split, as members of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (FI) party voted against the cuts, members of Premier Matteo Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD) voted in favour, and some committee members abstained. The committee has been reviewing the overall defence budget, as Renzi’s government looks for ways to reallocate its spending from lower-priority to higher-priority areas.
Earlier this week, John R. Phillips, the United States ambassador to Rome, said that because Italy has a strategic role in regional defence, it must go ahead with its F-35 fighter-jet purchase plan In March, the Italian government froze spending on the fighter-jet program and said that as a cost-cutting measure, it was considering reducing the number of F-35s it will purchase.
The aircraft are among the costliest jet fighters in the world and are developed jointly by a number of allied nations including Italy. If the government decides to cut the F-35 program, it would mark the second time Italy has reduced the number of these Lockheed Martin fighter jets, a budget item which is currently worth about 11.8 billion euros over 45 years beginning in 2015.
Italy in 2012 announced plans to cut its order to 90 from the 131 jets originally agreed to in 2002, saving the country some five billion euros.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mein Kampf Sale Pulled by French Auction House
For the second time in a matter of weeks a French auction house has withdrawn from sale items of Nazi memorabilia following a protest from a anti-Semitism watchdog body. Pierre Bergé & Associe’s had been intending to sell a rare first edition of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sharia Compliance on the Rise in Britain as Banking and Fast-Food Outlets Fold
Lloyds TSB, one of the major national bank chains in the UK, has announced it is creating interest and penalty free bank accounts for Muslims that do not charge interest and other fees that other customers are generally subjected to.
The bank recently mailed out a booklet to all customers explaining its new fee structure which included the following statement: “We are removing the monthly overdraft management fee of £6 from our Islamic Account, Islamic Student Account and Islamic Graduate Account. So, if you use an unplanned overdraft on these accounts, there won’t be any charges.”
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph one customer, Anita Milton, a nurse of New Eltham in south London, said: “I can’t believe that they’re thinking of offering one account for Muslims and making everyone else pay for the same service. Do I have to change my religion to get the best deal?”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Shipping: Greek Merchant Fleet One of the World’s Biggest
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MAY 7 — The Greek-owned merchant fleet remains one of the world’s biggest, ranking first in tankers, second in dry bulk carriers, second in LNG tankers and container ships as GreekReporter website writes. The Greek-owned fleet has managed to compete directly with big shipping countries such as China and Japan, continuing its long tradition in shipping and the successful course demonstrated by Greek ship-owners.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Man Poses as Police Officer to Score Free Beer
Armed with a 9mm gun and an army badge, the Valencia man in question stole the six-pack of beers from a local street-seller while posing as a policeman.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: ‘Dirty’ Cops Summoned Over Chinese Mafia Gifts
Two police officers accused of accepting gifts including legs of ham and tickets to bullfights in exchange for doing favours for a high-profile Spain-based Chinese criminal gang have denied any wrongdoing.
A total of nine officers have been called in to court by anti-corruption prosecutors to answer questions about their connections with the mafia ring headed up by kingpin Gao Ping.
The agents are facing possible charges of corruption, bribery and revealing classified information, Spain’s Cadena Ser radio station reported on Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spanish Club Fined €12k in Racist ‘Banana Row’
Spanish football authorities fined league side Villareal €12,000($17,000) for racism by a fan who threw a banana at Barcelona’s Brazilian player Dani Alves, a club source said on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: ‘Honeytrap Failed to Snare Brezhnev’s Son’
Despite Sweden’s pyjama-party heyday and an MI6 lure called “Ann” with a fail-free seduction record, the Swedish security service Säpo failed to honeytrap Leonid Brezhnev’s son during the Cold War thanks to a tattle-tale defector.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: The Future of Fuel May Lie in the Sea
Researchers at universities in Stockholm and Gothenburg have been working on transforming a genetically-modified version of blue-green algae into the alcohol butanol, which can be used to fuel motor vehicles.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Gang Leader Gets Life for Murder
A 31-year-old man from the criminal gang known as the “Original Gangsters” has been sentenced to life in prison for murder and attempted murder, after a gun attack in southern Sweden left a retired man dead.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Woman Informed by Mistake of Her Own Death
STOCKHOLM, May 6 (Xinhua) — Due to doctor’s mistake, a Swedish woman was informed by her insurance company telling her that she had been dead for over a week, local media reported on Tuesday.
“I was shocked. It was not nice at all. I understood nothing about it,” the woman named Suanne Hemphala from eastern Sweden was quoted as saying by a Swedish regional newspaper called Arbetarbladet…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Sign on to OECD Tax Evasion Measure
Switzerland was among 47 countries that signed up on Tuesday to automatically share bank account data, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said, in what has been touted as a major step towards cracking down on global tax evasion.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Nazi-Era Art Collection Donated to Bern Museum
A vast Nazi-era art collection belonging to Cornelius Gurlitt will head to the Bern Museum of Fine Arts (Kunstmuseum) following the death of the German recluse on Tuesday. Gurlitt, 81, hoarded hundreds of masterpieces in his Munich flat for decades, including works plundered by the Nazis from the Jews.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Three Danes Die After Infection by Antibiotic-Resistant Swine Bacteria
Three Danes are now known to have died as a result of being infected with a strain of antibiotic-resistant MRSA bacteria from pigs.
“I know of a patient at my hospital who died last year of an MRSA infection found in pigs,” consultant and professor of clinical microbiology at Odense University Hospital, Hans Jørn Kolmos, said during testimony in Aarhus in a case concerning the disclosure of private information.”When I reported the death, I asked Statens Serum Institut if there had been other instances and they said that there had been one in 2012 and another a year later.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islamophobic attacks have been on the rise ever since 9/11, but it is mostly women being attacked, a recent report suggests. Ava Vidal shares stories from British Muslim women who face everyday awful abuse
“It is something I have got used to since 9/11. From being called Osama Bin Laden to Paki-terrorist I have heard it all,” Zab Mustefa, a British Muslim journalist, who specialises in women’s rights and culture, tells me…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Abu Hamza ‘Secretly Worked for MI5’ To ‘Keep Streets of London Safe’
Abu Hamza, the radical Islamic preacher notorious for his hate-filled sermons, was in reality working secretly with British intelligence “to keep the streets of London safe” by “cooling hotheads”, his lawyer claimed in a US court.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Big Brother Checkouts Could Profile Shoppers
Symbol Technologies, the company which helped develop self-scan checkouts for Tesco and Asda, has lodged a patent for a programme which monitors a lot more than the shopping in your basket.
The technology takes into account whether the store is located in a bad area; the time of day; shopping history and queue length before determining if it is likely a shopper has stolen items.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Ed Miliband Visits Brick Lane and Slams ‘Divisive’ Mayor Lutfur Rahman
Labour leader Ed Miliband has thrown his support behind Labour’s John Biggs for mayor of Tower Hamlets, slamming current mayor Lutfur Rahman as “divisive”.
Mr Miliband, who was visiting Brick Lane ahead of the local and mayoral elections on May 22, was joined by Mr Biggs and the borough’s two MPs, Rushanara Ali and Jim Fitzpatrick. He chatted with residents and visited Brick Lane Bookshop, before stopping for a cup of tea in the new cafe Pretty Cuppa…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Lutfur Rahman Attacks Ed Miliband for ‘Outrageous’ BNP Remarks
Mayor Lutfur Rahman has expressed “outrage” at comments made by Ed Miliband in a scathing statement accusing the Labour leader of comparing his administration to the racist British National Party…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: MP David Ward Refutes Claims of Extremism
A Bradford MP has moved to quell fears that extremist doctrine has been filtering into schools in the city. Claims have been made that teachers in Bradford are fighting to prevent a takeover of majority-Muslim state schools by a group linked with the alleged Trojan Horse plotters in Birmingham…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Ofsted Has ‘Serious Concerns’ About Bradford School
Inspectors have raised “serious concerns” about a school in Bradford.
Ofsted said governors’ actions were “increasingly undermining the capacity of senior leaders” at Laisterdyke Business and Enterprise College…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Pizza Express is serving halal chicken to its unwitting customers on the quiet, with staff only telling customers about the meat if asked.
Only meat from birds that have had their throats slit while still alive, in accordance with Islamic traditions, is used in dishes.
The menu makes no mention of the issue and customers can find out only by checking the small print on the Pizza Express website — or by asking staff explicitly.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
by Iain Dale
Just by writing this I know I am falling into the trap of giving Mo Ansar the publicity hit he craves. But I am afraid someone needs to stand up to him and seeing as though he spread blatant lies about me and made a vexatious complaint to Hampshire Police and Tell Mama accusing me of Islamaphobia and much else besides, I can’t just sit back and remain silent on the matter…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Tories and Ethnic Minorities: Lessons From George W Bush
Dan Hannan makes many good points in today’s Telegraph as he considers the Conservatives’ grim failure to attract support from black and ethnic minority voters. This isn’t merely a problem for the Tories, it is a crisis…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The 4 Deeper Truths About Benghazi and Libya
The truth is bigger than either side is admitting …
First, Pulitzer prize winning reporter Seymour Hersh — who broke the story of the Mai Lai massacre in Vietnam under Nixon and the torture scandal under Bush — says that Benghazi was really a CIA outpost for running weapons capture from Libya after Gaddaffi was overthrown into Syria … approved on a bipartisan basis by both Democrats and Republicans.
Second, it has been confirmed that the U.S. backed Al Qaeda terrorists in Libya so that they would overthrow Gaddaffi.
Third, as we noted right after Gaddaffi fell, the Obama administration’s stated reason for going into Libya makes no sense. Now, RAND Corporation political scientists theorize that Obama might have decided to bomb Libya — not for any reason having to do with Libya or Gaddaffi themselves — but rather “to keep the Arab Spring going”.
The U.S. ousted Gaddaffi and then left, and Libya has now descended into chaos.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Denies Allegations of Spying on US
Israel’s foreign minister on Wednesday denied allegations that his country was engaged in spying activities on US soil, following a report published in Newsweek.
In the article, anonymous US officials said Israel had gone too far in its attempts to secure industrial and technical intelligence from its number-one ally, and had “crossed red lines.”
“No other country close to the United States continues to cross the line on espionage like the Israelis do,” said a former congressional staffer who attended a classified briefing in late 2013, according to Newsweek.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
9 Killed in Attacks in Iraq’s Anbar
RAMADI, Iraq, May 7 (Xinhua) — At least nine people were killed and 51 others wounded in overnight shelling and a suicide bomb attack in Iraq’s western province, provincial police and medical sources said on Wednesday…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Boycotts Thwart Lebanon Parliament’s Third Attempt to Elect President
BEIRUT, May 7 (Xinhua) — Boycotts and intense divisions in Lebanon’s parliament on Wednesday prevented members from electing a new president for the third consecutive time, as the political establishment rushes to replace incumbent President Michel Suleiman before the May 25 deadline…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Rebels Evacuate From the Old Syrian City of Homs
(AGI) Homs, May 7 — Rebels started evacuating the Syrian city of Homs on Wednesday, the rebels’ spokesman Abul Hareth al-Khalidi said. Talal al-Barazi, Homs province governor, also confirmed the rebel withdrawal. “Three buses have left,” Abul Hareth al-Khalidi reported. He attended the talks during which three days ago reached a deal between fighters and the government to evacuate the rebel-held city.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Motion in Parliament for Hagia Sophia Mosque
(ANSAmed) — ANNKARA — A lawmaker, Hami Yildrim, who recently left the AKP party of Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has recently presented a motion to turn Istanbul’s famous Hagia Sophia Byzantine basilica into a mosque, Huurriyet online reports. The initiative of the deputy, who is considered close to the Islamic brotherhood of preacher Fetullah Gulen — a former ally who has become a political foe of the Turkish premier — is the latest move in an ongoing campaign to turn the worldwide Christian symbol into a mosque.
At the end of April, the daily Radikal wrote that Erdogan himself intended to pray with other Islamic leaders in Hagia Sophia ahead of presidential elections in August, perhaps already on May 29 on the anniversary of the conquest of then-Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453. After the fall of the Byzantine empire’s capital, sultan Mehmet II ordered to turn the basilica into a mosque. The basilica was turned into a museum in 1934 by the founder of modern secular Turkey Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Europe Ignoring Fascist Surge in Ukraine, Says Russia
(AGI) Moscow, May 7 — European countries backing Ukraine’s government were ignoring a surge of fascism, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. He called for an investigation into an incident on May 2 in Odessa. At least 42 people, mostly separatist militia, died when a trade union office was set on fire after clashes between unionists and pro-Russians.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Kiev Forces Retake Town Hall in Strategic City
(AGI) Kiev, May 7 — Government forces have taken control of the town hall in Mariupol, a city in a strategic position on the Donetsk region coast, south east Ukraine. Fighting resumed on Tuesday night when pro-Russian militia recoccupied the building, which they lost 11 days ago to Kiev troops, said TV network 5 Kanal. National Guard units raided the compound on Wednesday forcing the separatists out.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Kiev Legalizes Maidan Far-Right Fighters Creating National Guard
The so-called council of Kiev Maidan activists has approved an order whereby volunteers will be operating within National Guard battalions, territorial army battalions and other units designed to provide law and order and territorial integrity in Ukraine, according to a document posted on Facebook on Tuesday by the Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council and former Maidan commandant Andriy Parubiy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Pulls Its Troops From Ukraine Border, Putin Says
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said Wednesday that Russian troops had pulled back from Ukraine border, and he urged separatists in eastern Ukraine to postpone their May 11 referendum.
“We were told constantly about concerns over our troops near the Ukrainian border,” Mr. Putin said after meeting with the Didier Burkhalter, the president of Switzerland and current head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. “We have pulled them back. Today they are not at the Ukrainian border but in places of regular exercises, at training grounds.”
Russia positioned 40,000 troops on the Ukrainian border soon after protesters in Kiev pushed President Viktor F. Yanukovych from power on Feb. 28. His willingness to send Russian forces under cover into Crimea and his subsequent annexation of the peninsula raised fears that he might do the same in southeastern Ukraine.
| [Return to headlines] |
Russian Strategic Bombers on West Coast: Did They Take Down Los Angeles Air Traffic Control Systems?
With the situation in the Ukraine escalating and the US continuing to call for sanctions against Russia’s financial and political elite, Vladimir Putin is now not only mobilizing tens of thousands of troops on his Western front, but sending intercontinental strategic bombers across the Pacific Ocean. According to the US military, it’s the first time since the cold war that Russia’s incursions have come this close to America.
What’s even more alarming is that Russia is making it clear that any attack on the Motherland would likely lead to widespread bombardment of western interests. Nuclear capable Russian bombers have been spotted all over the world as of late including in Guam, Japan, South Korea and Europe.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Crisis Speeding Finnish-Estonian LNG Project
According to Finland’s Environment Minister Ville Niinistö, a decision will be upcoming soon on a joint Finnish-Estonian proposed liquid natural gas (LNG) terminal project. One key purpose of the venture is to reduce dependence on gas imports from Russia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: West Sumatra: Altar Destroyed in Arson Attack on Catholic Church
The bishop of Padang confirms to AsiaNews that part of the church of St. Mary of the Ascension has been damaged. The attacker is still unknown, but the police are on his trail. The place of worship is in a rural area of the province of West Sumatra , the second worst for “Islamic fundamentalism” after Aceh.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — An arson attack almost destroyed the Catholic church of St. Mary of the Ascension, located in a rural area of Kinali district (West Pasaman) in Indonesia’s West Sumatra province. The incident occurred on May 4 , just before the Sunday mass. Bishop Martinus D. Situmorang OFM , of the local Diocese of Padang , confirmed what happened to AsiaNews, and said that the police are investigating. There is allegedly one author of the attack of unknown identity.
Local sources say they saw a man on a motorcycle near the church the day before the fire. Not recognizing him, some people approached him to ask him what he wanted. The man said he was looking for an area to organize a “cock fight”. People have explained that this was not a local tradition, and the individual left.
The following day, other people say they saw another man in the vicinity of the church, and believing him to be part of the staff, did not disturb him . A few minutes later some of the faithful saw the smoke coming from the place of worship. Initial reports say the assailant has soaked the altar in kerosene and set it on fire. Once extinguished, the altar bore the brunt of the damage , but the crucifix remained intact.
The church of Santa Maria Ascension is about 160 km from the Diocese of Padang . 99% of the local Catholic faithful is made up of migrants from Java , who work in the palm tree plantations.
The Diocese of Padang covers the entire territory of the province of West Sumatra and some tiny islands of Mentawai. Unlike these atolls, where the population is mostly Catholic, Christian or animist, West Sumatra is predominantly Muslim and is considered the second most “fundamentalist” area of Indonesia after Aceh province.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysian Opposition Divided Over Islamic Law
A rift is forming in Malaysia’s opposition coalition over plans to introduce strict Islamic law to Kelantan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Aims to Boost Military Relations With Iran
China wants deeper defense ties with Iran, Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan told his Iranian counterpart on Monday, according to Chinese state media, as Beijing moves to cement already close ties with a major oil supplier.
Chang told Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehqan the development of bilateral relations has “remained positive and steady, featuring frequent high-level exchanges and deepened political mutual trust”, the official Xinhua news agency said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nuclear Fuel Fragment From Fukushima Found in Europe
The Nuclear Core Has Finally Been Found … Scattered All Over the World
Fukushima did not just suffer meltdowns, or even melt-throughs …
It suffered melt-OUTS … where the nuclear core of at least one reactor was spread all over Japan.
In addition, the Environmental Research Department, SRI Center for Physical Sciences and Technology in Vilnius, Lithuania reported in the Journal of Environmental Radioactivity:
Analyses of (131)I, (137)Cs and (134)Cs in airborne aerosols were carried out in daily samples in Vilnius, Lithuania after the Fukushima accident during the period of March-April, 2011.
The activity ratio of (238)Pu/(239,240)Pu in the aerosol sample was 1.2, indicating a presence of the spent fuel of different origin than that of the Chernobyl accident.
(“Pu” is short for plutonium.) Fukushima is 4,988 miles from Vilnius, Lithuania. So the plutonium traveled quite a distance.
Today, EneNews reports that a fuel fragment from Fukushima has been found in Norway:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Vietnam Says China Fired Water Cannon, Rammed Ships Near Oil Rig
Hanoi said Wednesday that Chinese ships protecting a deep-water drilling rig in disputed waters in the South China Sea had used water cannon to attack Vietnamese patrol vessels and repeatedly rammed them, injuring six people.
Tensions between the communist neighbours have risen sharply since Beijing unilaterally announced last week it would move the deep-water drilling rig into disputed waters — a move the United States has described as “provocative”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Vietnam Marks Historic Victory Against French Colonialism
Amid numerous ceremonies in France this year marking the centenary of WWI and the 70th anniversary of D-day, another war milestone is being conveniently overlooked: the Viet Minh’s defeat of French troops in Dien Bien Phu 60 years ago.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds Killed at Cameroon, Nigeria Border
Abuja — SUSPECTED members of the Boko Haram sect have killed over 300 people in Gamboru Ngala a border town between Nigerian and Cameroon. The well-armed insurgents were alleged to have driven into the town in armoured vehicles.
Gamboru is the administrative Headquarter of Ngala local government area of Borno state. It is about 200km from Maiduguri, the capital city…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: ‘Boko Haram Killed 300 Monday’
In attack on city near Nigeria’s border with Cameroon
(ANSA) — Rome, May 7 — Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram killed “about 300” people in Monday’s attack on a city near the border with Cameroon, regional Senator Ahmed Zanna said Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: ‘Many’ Killed in Attack by Islamic Militants
A large number of people were killed by Islamic militants who attacked a north-eastern border town in Nigeria, a state government official has said.
Information commissioner Mohammed Bulama, of north-eastern Borno state, said “many, many” people were killed and a number of shops and homes were set ablaze and destroyed in the Monday night attack on Gamboru Ngala, on the border with Cameroon.
No further details were available…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Boko Haram Does Not Represent Islam
By Ahmed Sahi
The group responsible for the kidnapping rampage in Nigeria has hijacked a whole faith, steering the public discourse on Islam.
How should I condemn thee? Let me count the ways.
Boko Haram’s rampage of indiscriminate violence and tyranny has been going on for over three years now in Nigeria, but the organization has never grabbed international headlines quite like this before. They’ve bombed churches, killed innocents and done just about everything else in their mad pursuit to establish “Sharia Law,” but the recent kidnapping and potential sale and enslavement of around 200 to 300 schoolgirls has really reverberated across the world…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Twenty U.S. Senate Women Zero Help to Kidnapped School Girls
Feeble effort on helping Nigeria save kidnapped girls shows how low the long held, world-admired U.S.- to-the-rescue spirit has slipped under Obama regime.
Full shame on Senators Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Susan Collins (R-Me) “leading” all 20 women in the U.S. Senate on their “bipartisan” letter to Obama denouncing the kidnappings of more than 200 Christian school girls in Nigeria — nearly a month after they happened.
“The international community must impose further sanctions on this terrorist organization,” the group wrote.
Did the 20 Senate women wait out the three weeks only springing into action when they saw political opportunities were waiting in the wings for a Benghazi-beleaguered Obama?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EU Agrees to Resume Talks With Swiss
The European Union agreed Tuesday to resume talks with Switzerland on setting an overall framework for their relationship, frozen since a controversial Swiss vote calling for curbs on immigration.
The 28 member states signed off on an agenda for talks with Switzerland aimed at bringing together more than 120 agreements on different aspects of the relationship, a European Council statement said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Finnish Roma Want Smoother Coexistence With Majority Population
A Roma task force has been operating in Kajaani with the aim of cutting through prejudices on both sides of the cultural divide. According to the working group, the Roma population want to study and work and the majority population is overly shy. In Kajaani many Roma, particularly the youthful members of the community, are affirming that meeting half way is the best route forward.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Raft Refugee Vows to Get to Britain ‘By Any Means’
An Afghan migrant rescued by French coastguards after a failed attempt to cross the Channel on a makeshift raft says he has twice tried to swim across and will not give up until he finally makes it to Britain.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Immigrant Row Erupts as 1,000 Land in Sicily
‘Stop the invasion,’ League leader says
(ANSA) — Rome, May 7 — A row between the anti-immigrant Northern League and the interior ministry erupted Wednesday as 1,000 migrants landed in Sicily, the largest recent ripple in a wave of arrivals that has surged since the deaths of 400 asylum seekers spurred a take-all-comers rescue operation last year.
“Resign, you’re inept,” Northern League leader Matteo Salvini told Interior Minister Angelino Alfano.
“Italy is suffering an unprecedented invasion and you’re not doing your job; resign for the sake of Italians,” Salvini said after visiting an overflowing migrant centre in Rome.
The League leader said Italy needed a referendum to make entering Italy illegally a criminal offense again, as it was until a League-led law was repealed last year.
Salvini also said the migrants were “getting food and accommodation that Italians don’t get”.
Alfano, who has been subjected to repeated criticism by the League, did not reply.
One migrant was found dead aboard one of the several rickety boats saved by the Navy overnight.
According to figures released by Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti Wednesday, almost 30,000 migrants have been rescued since the start of the Mare Nostrum (Our Sea) operation, launched last autumn.
Most of them are from sub-Saharan Africa including war-torn countries like South Sudan, while an increasing number are from Syria and the Palestinian Territories. The interior ministry said last week that 800,000 asylum seekers were “poised” to set off for Europe from North Africa.
People traffickers have been getting ever richer pickings from people who scrimp in slave or sex labour to pay their passage to a better life, observers say.
The departures increased sharply after Libya collapsed into lawlessness following the fall of strongman Muammar Gheddafi. Italy reduced arrivals to a trickle under a controversial ‘push-back’ deal with Gheddafi, similar to Australia’s policy of turning back boat people.
Pinotti Defends Mare Nostrum
Pinotti on Wednesday defended Mare Nostrum from the Legaue’s criticism, saying it was not too expensive and had a time limit.
The migrant surveillance and rescue operation has saved 27,790 lives since it was set up in October last year, Pinotti told parliament.
“Of those rescued, 3,034 were minors, and 93% left from Libya, a country that is still unstable. Some 207 human traffickers have also been arrested or reported”, the minister told MPs.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Navy Rescues 468 Immigrants Off Sicily
(AGI) Palermo, May 7 — Italian navy ship Libra rescued 468 immigrants off Porto Empedocle, near Agrigento, Sicily, as part of the Mare Nostrum operation. The group includes 104 women and 25 children. The refugees were ferried to the shore by coast guard patrol boats.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Survey: Swedes Split on Immigration
A survey suggests that 44 percent think too many immigrants have come to Sweden.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Gothenburg Mulls Free Campsites for Migrants
Gothenburg is proposing to set aside free campsites for poor EU migrants.
Local officials with the Social Democrats on the city’s executive board said they wanted to avoid the sort of forced evictions seen in nearby Mölndal and in Stockholm. “We don’t want to do that. We want to do something,” said Johan Buser, who is the assistant to the deputy mayor. He said the city is hoping charity organizations and local churches will help with the proposal.
He added that the public has reacted strongly to seeing EU migrants begging on the streets of Gothenburg. He said the city must take some sort of humanitarian measures to help them.
“We have so many people in the streets now so we must do something,” Buser said, estimating there are about 100 to 150 Roma individuals living on the streets.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
If some evil schemers got together to discuss how they might bring down a culture, and especially destroy an entire generation of young people, I think I might have an idea for them. Actually the plan is not new to me — it seems to have been in place for some time now.
The sexualisation of a culture is a surefire way to demolish it, and is a great way to ruin the lives of our children. The usual protections for our children which a sane society would normally have in place are all but gone today. Indeed, our Western cultures are now deliberately targeting our children, pushing on them all things sexual.
The porn culture has gone mainstream, and hyped-up sexuality is now everywhere to be found. It of course features ubiquitously in popular culture, be it the legion of tarty pop stars or everyday advertising. And graphic sex ed courses being forced upon children at the youngest of ages is also not helping matters much.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
This interview with America’s Survival President Cliff Kincaid aired on AS’s Roku channel April 24, 2014. In discussing homosexuality and pedophilia, Kincaid references a video by homosexual Walter Lee Hampton complaining about seeing so many homosexual men in thir 30s, 40s and even 50s in sexual relationships with minor boys [go HERE to view]. At about 17:45 the discussion shifts to LaBarbera recounting his run-in with Canada’s homosexuality-affirming “hate” politics, culminating in his arrest for protesting peacefully with Bill Whatcott at University of Regina, in Satchatchewan. [Go HERE to watch this on YouTube.] America’s Survival writes:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Surveillance Movement Calls ‘Reset the Net’ Day of Action
The coalition has been organized by “Fight for the Future.” Among its members are Reddit, Imgur, DuckDuckGo, CREDO Mobile, and the Free Software Foundation, who are enforced by the civil liberties groups and others, as Boing Boing and Greenpeace.
The collective is calling on software developers to assimilate anti-NSA features into their products, such as mobile apps, or perhaps adding security features such as SSL (Secure Socket Layer), HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security), and Perfect Forward Secrecy which are data encoding features intended to prevent the government being a go-between for communication interceptions.
“The call is simple — find some territory of the internet you can protect from prying eyes,” the ‘Reset the Net’ video states.
“Government spies have a weakness: they can hack anybody, but they can’t hack everybody,” the organizers behind the Reset the Net movement say in a video released. “Folks like the NSA depend on collecting insecure data from tapped fiber. They depend on our mistakes; mistakes we can fix.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
False East/West Paradigm Hides the Rise of Global Currency
Despite popular belief, very few things in our world are exactly what they seem. That which is painted as righteous is often evil. That which is painted as kind is often malicious. That which is painted as simple is often complex. That which is painted as complex often ends up being disturbingly two dimensional. Regardless, if a person is willing to look only at the immediate surface of a thing, he will never understand the content of the thing.
This fact is nowhere more evident than in the growing “tensions” between the elites of the West and the elites of the East over the crisis in Ukraine.
I am continually astonished at the refusal of many otherwise intelligent people to consider the evidence or even the possibility that there is, in reality, no fundamental political or philosophical conflict between the power brokers of the East and the West. As I outlined in great detail in Russia Is Dominated By Global Banks, Too, the truth is they are both working toward the same goal; and both ultimately benefit from an engineered and theatrical display of international brinksmanship.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
An engineered bacterium is able to copy DNA that contains unnatural genetic letters.
For billions of years, the history of life has been written with just four letters — A, T, C and G, the labels given to the DNA subunits contained in all organisms. That alphabet has just grown longer, researchers announce, with the creation of a living cell that has two ‘foreign’ DNA building blocks in its genome.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NASA Wants to Send Plant Life to Mars in 2020
In less than a decade, there might be life on Mars. No not because the aliens have been hiding all this time, but because NASA might just put it there. The brightest minds at the Ames Research Center recently proposed sending plant life along with the next Mars rover. It’s actually a pretty good idea.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sacrificing Africa for Climate Change
Western policies seem more interested in carbon-dioxide levels than in life expectancy.
Every year environmental groups celebrate a night when institutions in developed countries (including my own university) turn off their lights as a protest against fossil fuels. They say their goal is to get America and Europe to look from space like Africa: dark, because of minimal energy use.
But that is the opposite of what’s desired by Africans I know. They want Africa at night to look like the developed world, with lights in every little village and with healthy people, living longer lives, sitting by those lights. Real years added to real lives should trump the minimal impact that African carbon emissions could have on a theoretical catastrophe…
The left wants to stop industrialization — even if the hypothesis of catastrophic, man-made global warming is false.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Quote:
Abu Hamza, the radical Islamic preacher notorious for his hate-filled sermons, was in reality working secretly with British intelligence “to keep the streets of London safe” by “cooling hotheads”, his lawyer claimed in a US court.
end
Worthy of a laugh out loud.
The East/West divide is real.
It predates recorded history.
Get over it.
Deal with it.
Quote:
Boko Haram’s rampage of indiscriminate violence and tyranny has been going on for over three years now in Nigeria, but the organization has never grabbed international headlines quite like this before.
end
The razzia, or raid, is the heart and soul of Islam, integral to the history and future of Islam.
Absolutely true. Indeed, when one inquires by what means the mad “prophet” Mo “earned” his livelihood, the answer is “by constantly conducting razzias on hapless Kafirs.” The man was a highway robber, plain and simple. Not to mention a rapist, kidnapper, slave trader, and Olympic sexual champion (Hadith mention how he used to have sex with 10 of his “wives” in one night—no mean feat). Basically a seriously messed up deviant posing as a “prophet”.
Had an interesting conversation today with a Nigerian colleague. He’s a Christian from the south, which may affect his perspective.
He says that the mainly Muslim North has never valued education, so after independence many young men seeking to better themselves went into the military. This was a breeding ground for the succession of Northern Muslim generals mounting coups and establishing dictatorships.
Their political successors, disliking the democratically elected Southern Christian president, Goodluck Jonathan (wonderful name, but my informant isn’t impressed with him) and the South’s hegemony, encouraged the establishment of Boko Haram to destabilise the North, so that it could break away (with the South pleased to be rid of the problem) and they would hope to gain power. Of course should this happen, they may find they’ve unleashed something they can’t control.
He also said that the governor of Lagos, which is a province as well as a city in the South, has let Boko Haram know that if they carry out attacks there, Muslim businesses will lose their trading rights- which means his forces have reliable informers.
‘He’s a Christian from the South, which may affect his perspective.’
Mark, how do you believe that being a professed Christian can affect one’s perspective?
I’d really like to know that.
Because it may affect his objectivity, as my being British, atheist, white, male, heterosexual, 66 years old etc. likely affects mine?
Sorry Nemesis, that was (at least partly) tongue in cheek, but there’s a serious point behind it. However nasty Islam can be, and Boko Haram certainly is, believers of any faith are frequently less than objective about followers of other faiths, or none, as I’ve found when commenters here have queried how I, as a non-believer, can even have a moral compass.
My colleague strikes me as a decent man, so far as I know him, but I wanted to put his views fully into perspective.