Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel will use any means necessary to recover the three teenagers, two Israelis and one American, abducted by terrorists in the West Bank. Both Mr. Netanyahu and US Secretary of State John Kerry assert that Hamas was responsible for the abductions. PA leader Mahmoud Abbas is assisting Israel’s efforts to recover the hostages. About 80 West Bank Palestinians have reportedly been arrested in connection with the case.
In other news, the United States is planning to evacuate most of its personnel this week from the US embassy in Baghdad.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JP, Srdja Trifkovic, Steen, 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.
Italian Consumption to Take Decade or More to Recover
Gap between north and south widened, says Confcommercio
(ANSA) — Bari, June 13 — It will take rich, industrialized northwestern Italy a decade to return to its 2007 pre-crisis rate of consumption, the business trade association Confcommercio said Friday.
Southern Italy, which has been hit even harder, will take 14 years to recover to pre-crisis consumption levels, meaning full recovery is unlikely before 2029, Confcommercio announced at a young entrepreneurs conference in the southern Italian coastal city of Bari.
Hard economic times have widened the gap between consumption in Italy’s north and south. In 1995, southern Italians consumed at 70% the per capita rate found in the north.
In 2013, the figure was 65%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Casey Kasem: Pop Radio’s Wholesome Voice, Is Dead
Casey Kasem, a disc jockey who never claimed to love rock ‘n’ roll but who built a long and lucrative career from it, creating and hosting one of radio’s most popular syndicated pop music shows, “American Top 40,” died on Sunday in a hospital in Gig Harbor, Wash. He was 82.
His death was confirmed by his daughter Kerri Kasem in a Facebook post.
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NASA Scientists Recreate Complex Chemistry of Titan’s Atmosphere
The chemistry of the smoggy atmosphere of the Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, has been successfully simulated by NASA researchers in lab experiments.
Titan’s dirty orange color comes from a mixture of hydrocarbons (molecules that contain hydrogen and carbon) and nitrogen-carrying chemicals called nitriles. The family of hydrocarbons already has hundreds of thousands of members, identified from plants and fossil fuels on Earth, and more could exist.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US President Says Climate Change Deniers Ignoring Science
President Barack Obama slammed pundits and members of Congress who refuse to confront climate change in drought-stricken California on Saturday, calling them a “fairly serious threat to everybody’s future.”
Speaking to University of California, Irvine graduates in Anaheim, Obama said lawmakers were failing to uphold the responsibilities of their office by not taking bold action to curb the harmful effects of carbon emissions.
“Today’s Congress, though, is full of folks who stubbornly and automatically reject the scientific evidence about climate change,” he said. “They’ll tell you it’s a hoax, or a fad.”
He criticized those who ducked the issue by claiming they weren’t qualified enough to speak on the matter, like House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R).
“Let me translate,” he said. “What that means is, ‘I accept that manmade climate change is real, but if I admit it, I’ll be run out of town by a radical fringe that thinks climate science is a liberal plot.’“
“I’m not a scientist either, but we’ve got some good ones at NASA,” he added.
The president also took the media to task for not providing sufficient coverage of climate change, such as the impact of a new EPA proposal that would cut carbon power plant emissions 30 percent by 2030. The media should spend less time speculating about how it would affect November’s midterm election, and more time on the potential impact to the environment, he said.
Obama on Saturday also announced a new $1 billion fund for towns and cities recovering from disasters like Superstorm Sandy. The Huffington Post
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Belgium: Jewish Museum Files Third-Party Complaint
The Brussels Jewish Museum has filed a third-party complaint after the 24 May shooting. A man entered the museum on Saturday 24 May, killing 4 people in a brutal attack. Taking legal action allows the museum to get insight into the investigation.
Mehdi Nemmouche, the suspect in the case, was apprehended in Marseille, in southern France. A French court will make a decision about a possible extradition to Belgium on 26 June.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bulgaria’s BWC: Germany’s AfD Join EP Conservatives
Bulgaria without Censorship (BWC), the party of ex-journalist Nikolay Barekov, and euroskeptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) have joined the European conservatives.
A message from BWC to the media reported Nikolay Barekov and Angel Dzhambazki, the two MEPs sent into the European Parliament by a coalition around the party, officially became members of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group during a session in Brussels.
BWC leader Barekov reported earlier this month he and his fellow MEP would become part of the ECR.
However, just hours on he announced his party was to decide “within 24 hours” whether to enter the Conservatives or the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe (ALDE), thus giving grounds to long-standing claims that BWC had no political identity.
Barekov’s coalition, which is new to the political scene, came fourth at the May 25 European elections with more than 10% of the ballots cast in its favour.
The ECR group also incorporated AfD, the anti-EU party that sent a total of 7 MEPs to Brussels.
After Thursday’s decision AfD falls into the same group with the British Conservatives, a move which according to the Financial Times could hurt relations between UK Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as the anti-establishment party is considered to be CDU’s opponent to the right.
Even though Cameron could not thwart the German party’s accession (his Conservatives number just 19 in the ECR), AfD’s bid was unanymously approved, which means Tory members also voted in favour.
With the two parties having joined ECR, it has now 62 seats and has become the third-largest group within the European Parliament after the European People’s Party (EPP) and the Socialists and Democrats (S%D).
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
EU Needs European Army That Excludes UK Claims Former Defence Minister
THE EU should adopt a single foreign policy and back it up with a pan-European army that excludes the UK, France’s former defence minister said last night.
Charles Millon, who served under Prime Minster Alain Juppe, urged Brussels to abandon Nato and appease Russian premier Vladimir Putin instead.
In a scathing attack on the transatlantic alliance, Mr.Millon poured scorn on Washington’s influence over Europe, claiming that abandoning Nato would prevent the EU from “bowing to US policy” which does not necessarily line up with its interests…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
EU to Hold Fresh Talks With Turkey on Membership Bid
(BRUSSELS) — EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule is to hold fresh talks in Turkey on its efforts to join the 28-nation bloc, a statement said Sunday, amid continued concerns over Ankara’s rights record.
Fule will meet senior officials Monday and Tuesday, including the president and foreign minister, as well as the justice minister and head of Turkey’s constitutional court, the European Commission said.
Fule will also take part in a meeting of the working group on Chapter 23 of Turkey’s EU membership bid, which covers the judiciary and fundamental rights.
This group deals “with the necessary reforms in these two areas crucial for the accession process of Turkey,” it added.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EULEX Head: ‘Keep Supporting Kosovo’
The European Union has extended its rule of law and justice mission in Kosovo to June 2016. EULEX chief Bernd Borchardt told DW what that means for the youngest state in Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Babysitting Vouchers, Telework and Flexible Hours in Bill
Civil-service reforms aimed at improving ‘work-life balance’
(ANSA) — Rome, June 12 — Vouchers for babysitters for civil servants, working from home, and more flexible office hours are among proposals in a draft bill to reform Italy’s public administration.
The proposals, which Civil Service Minister Marianna Madia presented to unions on Thursday, are designed to improve “work-life balance”.
Madia urged unions to accept change and not resist the reforms, which will be launched Friday by cabinet ministers.
In April, Premier Matteo Renzi rolled out the reform package, promising “radical change” that will streamline agencies and create jobs for as many as 10,000 young people.
He said at the time that no layoffs were being considered. But holding older workers to the term limits of their contracts is something his government is willing to enforce, Renzi said.
Under the package, protections that allow workers above the retirement age to stay on will be repealed, he said.
That alone will “make room to bring in 10,000 young people”, Renzi said in April.
The reforms “represent a clear staff project” Madia said.
Rossana Dettori, of the public administration arm of the trade union CGIL, Italy’s largest union, said after the meeting that members were told there would be “no redundancies” and no early retirements.
Michele Gentile, also with the public administration arm of the CGIL, said the union would wait to see the full text of the reform plans before considering whether strike action would be needed.
Gentile added that unions “expected something more” from the meeting with Madia.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s M5S Party Says it Holds the Balance of Power
(AGI) Rome, June 15 — Luigi Di Maio, vice-chairman of the anti-stablishment Five Star Movement (M5S) group in the Chamber of Deputies, said his party holds the balance of power. In an interview with Sky Tg24 Mr. Di Maio said M5S would be able to fill in the role previously played by Berlusconi and his center-right Forza Italia party.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: No Student Loans for Dutch Jihadists in Syria
Dutch students who travel to Syria to join rebel forces will lose their student financing, education minister Jet Bussemaker said in answer to MPs’ questions.
Earlier, the Dutch counter-terrorism unit NCTV said that some Dutch fighters were in receipt of student loans.
Bussemaker did not go into details about individual cases but said the financing will be stopped if it transpires students have joined groups allied to Al-Qaeda. This has already happened in some cases, the minister said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
PM Urges UK to Stand Up for ‘British Values’
British values are “as British as the Union Flag, as fish and chips” and not living by them is “not an option”, insists the PM
David Cameron has said a “worrying” failure to support British values has led to increasing division and extremism in the UK.
He said Britain should become “more muscular” in promoting national values and urged people to stop being “squeamish” about doing so. His comments come as the head of Ofsted has agreed to meet a group of parents caught up in the so-called “Trojan Horse” inquiry into Muslim schools in Birmingham…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Suspected French Jihadist Arrested in Germany
(AGI) Berlin, June 15 — German police have arrested a 32-year-old Frenchman, Tewffik Bouallag, suspected of fighting in Syria for the Sunni militant group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), the same insurgent group currently advancing on Baghdad. The man was taken into custody in Berlin on Saturday night as soon as he got off a flight from Istanbul.
An international arrest warrant had been issued by France on Friday.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden’s First Female Archbishop Sworn In
Outspoken bishop Antje Jackelén has made history after becoming Sweden’s first ever female archbishop at a ceremony in Uppsala.
The mother of two made the headlines again last November after being on the receiving end of “spiteful” online abuse from anti-Islamists.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: David Cameron Against Muslim Clerics
LONDON- Prime Minister David Cameron spoke up against Muslim clerics who have been denouncing free speech, equality and democracy in the UK. Prime Minister stressed upon the importance of showing resilience against such firebrands and argued against those who refuse to accept the British way of life…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: First Fake Voters, Now Police Look Into ‘Bogus’ Councillors in Tower Hamlets
by Andrew Gilligan
Police to investigate fake canditates in Tower Hamlets by-election
A police investigation into fake voters in Tower Hamlets has been widened to include fake candidates after at least two fielded by the borough’s extremist-linked mayor, Lutfur Rahman, in last month’s elections appear to have given false addresses…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Trojan Horse Plot Driven by Same ‘Warped’ Islamic Extremism as Boko Haram, Says Tony Blair
Birmingham schools ‘plot’ is part of extremist movement stretching from Pakistan to Africa to Britain, former prime minister Tony Blair claims
The alleged Islamic extremism seen in the ‘Trojan Horse’ scandal in schools in Birmingham is the same as that practised by Boko Haram, the Nigerian terrorist network, Tony Blair has said…
[Reader comment by Odyssey on 15 June 2014.]
Tony. No one cares about your opinions on anything. You are a proven liar and possibly a war criminal. You screwed this country for your own personal gain until you saw an even bigger opportunity for yourself and then you abandoned the country, leaving us in the hands of idiot Brown.
You multicultural society has ruined the country.
Please just shut up and go away
[Reader comment by iranu on 15 June 2014.]
And which ********* let them all into the country? Is there a more despised man in Britain today? There should be a mutually agreed press and media ban regarding Blair. He’s a toxic sociopath.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK’s Cameron Signals Tougher Line on Home-Grown Islamist Radicalism
(Reuters) — Prime Minister David Cameron said on Sunday Britain had been too tolerant of Islamist radicalism in the past and allowed violent rhetoric to flourish, pledging a “muscular” approach to combat the problem…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Four Killed: 14 Wounded in Fresh Clashes in Benghazi
A renegade Libyan general Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive on Sunday against Islamist militants in the eastern city of Benghazi, that left four people killed and 14 wounded, medical officials said on Sunday, according to Reuters. Dozens of families had to flee the port city in the latest bout of turmoil to hit the North African oil-producing nation.
Power went off in the port city after rockets hit the Benina electricity plant which supplies Benghazi and neighboring towns, residents and state news agency LANA said.
Residents said they could hear war planes circling Libya’s second-largest city.
Libyan authorities are struggling to restore order across the vast desert nation ahead of a June 25 parliamentary election. The situation remains especially chaotic in Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city and cradle of the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi three years ago.
Retired general Khalifa Haftar has declared war against militants in Benghazi and several army units have joined him, though the Tripoli government says he has no authority to act.
“There are now heavy clashes in Sidi Faraj and al-Hawari (in western Benghazi). Our forces are attacking with tanks and rocket launchers,” Haftar’s spokesman Mohamed El Hejazi said.
Residents were seen packing belongings into cars and heading out of the area to escape the fighting.
Hejazi said Haftar had warned the Islamists against shipping in arms via the commercial port of Derna, east of Benghazi.
Derna is a hotspot for Ansar al-Sharia and other militant groups amid Libya’s persistent power vacuum. The United States designates Ansar al-Sharia a terrorist organisation.
Haftar was once close to Gaddafi but fell out with him and then played a role in the 2011 uprising. In February, he stirred rumors of a coup by appearing in military uniform to call for a presidential committee to be formed to govern till an election.
Libya’s government and parliament are paralyzed by divisions between Islamists and more moderate forces as well as competing tribes and regions.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya’s Second City Benghazi Hit by New Fighting, Families Flee
A renegade Libyan general launched an offensive on Sunday against Islamist militants in the eastern city of Benghazi, prompting dozens of families to flee the port in the latest bout of turmoil to hit the North African oil-producing nation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libya’s Renegade General Launches New Offensive in Benghazi
BENGHAZI, Libya, June 15 (Xinhua) — The forces loyal to the renegade General Khalifa Haftar on Sunday launched a new offensive against Islamist military bases in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi, leaving at least four people killed and nine injured, medical sources said.
The clashes continue on the western outskirts of Benghazi, mainly in Sidi Faraj and al-Hawari district. “There are now heavy clashes. Our forces are attacking terrorists with tanks and rocket launchers,” Haftar’s spokesman said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli PM Netanyahu Says Hamas Abducted 3 Teenagers
Jerusalem (CNN) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday blamed Hamas for abducting three teenagers who went missing in Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
“This morning I can say what I was unable to say yesterday before the extensive wave of arrests of Hamas members in Judea and Samaria,” he said at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting.
“Those who perpetrated the abduction of our youths were members of Hamas — the same Hamas that Abu Mazen made a unity government with; this has severe repercussions.”
Abu Mazen is another name for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Arrests 80 Palestinians in Response to Teens’ Kidnapping
JERUSALEM, June 15 (Xinhua) — Israeli army arrested about 80 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Sunday morning as part of its efforts to find three abducted Israeli teenagers, the military said in a statement…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Kerry Accuses Hamas of Abducting Three Israelis
(AGI) Washington, June 15 — The U.S. pointed the finger at Hamas for the abduction of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank. “We are still seeking details of the parties responsible for this despicable terrorist act, although many indications point to Hamas involvement”, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said. “We reiterate our position that Hamas is a terrorist organization”, he added. However, Kerry also welcomed the birth of Palestine’s unity government, saying that it is composed of technocrats rather than being the expression of Hamas’s policies.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Mahmoud Abbas’s Wife Undergoes Surgery in Israel
(AGI) Tel Aviv, June 15 — Mahmoud Abbas’s wife, Amina Abbas, has undergone surgery in a private clinic in Tel Aviv, reported the Israeli press, revealing that she had an operation on her leg. The news came at a delicate moment in the relations between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), as they are both engaged in the search for three Israeli teenagers who were recently kidnapped by terrorists.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netanyahu Vows to Act “In All Ways” To Bring Back Kidnapped Teens
JERUSALEM, June 15 (Xinhua) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday vowed to take any steps necessary to bring back the three Israeli teens that were allegedly abducted in the Palestinian West Bank on Thursday…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
2003 Iraq Invasion Not to Blame for Crisis
The UK’s former Prime Minister Tony Blair lashed out at critics who linked the U.S.-led 2003 invasion of Iraq with current violence taking place in the country, and instead criticized the country’s sectarian government, and the West’s failed actions towards Syria’s crisis…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Baghdad Blast as Iraq ‘Massacre’ Images Emerge
At least nine are killed in the Iraqi capital as images posted online appear to show a massacre of soldiers by Islamic militants.
A bombing in central Baghdad has killed at least nine people and injured 23, as militant Islamists battle government forces north of the Iraqi capital.
The Baghdad attack was a roadside bomb followed by a suicide bombing, officials said. Police said the suicide blast was carried out by an attacker wearing an explosive vest outside a shop selling military fatigues near Tahrir Square in the centre of the Iraqi capital…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
BasNews Gives Detail About Iranian Forces in Iraq
Shaho Karim, BasNews, Erbil
The Iranian forces deployed to Kurdistan’s disputed areas and Nineveh province in response to the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) are made up of Kurds, Lors and Turks.
Security sources from Kurdish cities in Iran state that some Iranian soldiers have entered Iraq’s disputed areas and settled there under the excuse of fighting against ISIS. But on Wednesday a number of Iranian soldiers came close to Khanaqin, and they are high military advisors who previously trained Assad’s soldiers in Syria.
A security source from Uremia Province asking to remain anonymous told BasNews: “more than 300 Kurds and Turks from Uremia and near cities have been sent and settled in the west of Diyala.”
He pointed out that soon, a group of one thousand soldiers from Elam and Qasri Shiri of Kermanshah province will settle close to the Kurdistan Region and Iraq border and that they have been prepared to stand against any attack by ISIS.
One of the Lor soldiers from Loristan told BasNews: “under the order of one of the commander from Kermanshah a number of troops have been sent from Loristan to Iraq, another troop from Uremia has settled in Diyala province in Iraq”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Gunmen Attack Army Bus in Yemen’s Aden, 9 Killed
ADEN, Yemen, June 15 (Xinhua) — A total of nine people were killed, and ten others were wounded when a group of unidentified gunmen fired at an army bus on Sunday in Yemen’s southern port city of Aden, according to a government official…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iran MPs Demand Rouhani Strictly Enforce Veil Law
Two thirds of Iran’s MPs have written to the president urging him to take measures to ensure women correctly observe Islamic dress, denouncing Western cultural influence against the veil. The 195 members of the 290-strong parliament who signed the letter in part blamed satellite television for feeding the trend, ISNA news agency reported on Sunday, according to AFP.
A defining feature of Iran’s interpretation of Islamic law since the 1979 revolution, hijab obliges women to cover their hair and much of their body in loose clothing when outside, regardless of their religion.
A dedicated “morality police” has long handed out fines, verbal notices or even arrested women it considers are not properly observing the rules, but lawmakers have in recent months criticized law enforcement.
In the letter, the MPs wrote: “One of the main areas of cultural invasion is in trying to change the way of life of Iranians regarding the veil. We ask that you give the necessary orders to enforce the law.”
Iran’s parliament is dominated by conservative males.
However, President Hassan Rouhani, a self-declared moderate who was surprisingly elected last June, has expressed a desire to expand social freedoms — to the disapproval of hardliners.
In October, he asked police to be moderate when enforcing the hijab requirements and recently said, “We cannot take people to heaven by using whips,” a remark that was condemned by conservatives.
Rather than wearing a full length traditional “chador” that drapes the head and body, many women wear a thinner head scarf, leggings and shirt.
Police in Tehran earlier this month launched a new drive against non-compliance of the female dress code. Officers were deployed on the capital’s biggest roads, and women — drivers and passengers — checked.
The MPs letter and push for stronger enforcement coincides with an online campaign in which hundreds of Iranian women posted pictures of themselves flouting the dress code inside Iran.
The Facebook page “Stealthy Freedoms of Women in Iran,” was launched by a London-based Iranian woman who said she wanted a debate on having the right to choose to wear the hijab. The campaign did not generate a reaction from the government.
At least two protests to demand enforcement of hijab have taken place in Tehran in the past two months.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq, Syria and the Middle East — an Essay by Tony Blair
The civil war in Syria with its attendant disintegration is having its predictable and malign effect. Iraq is now in mortal danger. The whole of the Middle East is under threat.
We will have to re-think our strategy towards Syria; support the Iraqi Government in beating back the insurgency; whilst making it clear that Iraq’s politics will have to change for any resolution of the current crisis to be sustained. Then we need a comprehensive plan for the Middle East that correctly learns the lessons of the past decade…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: ISIL Execute 12 Clerics in Mosul
The notorious so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants have executed 12 Sunni clerics in northern Iraqi city of Mosul, Al-Alam reported.
The ISIL terrorists executed 12 Sunni clerics in front of Al-Isra Mosque in Mosul for refusing to take an oath of allegiance to the terror gang, state-run broadcaster al-Iraqiya reported on Saturday.
In another incident, ISIL elements executed and dismembered Mosul’s Central Mosque Imam (prayer leader) for turning down militants’ offer of joining them, local clerics said.
The extremist militants from ISIL have captured two provincial capitals this week, namely Tikrit in the Salaheddin Province and Iraq’s second city of Mosul in the northern Nineveh Province.
According to Iraqi media reports, a district in Salaheddin Province has been completely cleared from terrorists. They say dozens of militants were gunned down in an army attack in southern Mosul.
Prime Minister al-Maliki has blamed Saudi Arabia and Qatar for the security crisis and growing terrorism in his country, denouncing Riyadh as a major supporter of global terrorism.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Russia’s Big, Fat ‘I Told You So’ to the U.S.
by Maria Dubovikova
A traditional “we told you so!” was said by Russia following the ISIS’s attack on Iraq, with the regret of a professor to his negligent students. Russia had warned about the dangers of the “democracy exportation” policy, so loved by the U.S…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqi Security Forces Kill Over 279 Militants in 24 Hours: Spokesman
BAGHDAD, June 15 (Xinhua) — Iraqi security forces have killed some 279 insurgents in four provinces across the country in the past 24 hours, a security spokesman said on Sunday.
“The Iraqi forces have launched intensive attacks on terrorist groups in the provinces of Salahudin, Diyala and Nineveh, resulting in the killing of 279 terrorists. More than 14 vehicles loaded with terrorists and weapons were burned,” Lieutenant General Qassim Atta, spokesman of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, told a news conference…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Posts Gruesome Photos of Apparent Mass Killing in Iraq
Al-Qaeda offshoot the Islamic State in Iraq in Syria (ISIS) on Sunday published a series of gruesome photos to one of the group’s Twitter accounts that purported to show the jihadists executing dozens of men in Iraq’s Salahuddin province, north of Baghdad.
The graphic photos showed men in civilian clothes lying face down, shoulder to shoulder, with their hands bound in a ditch surrounded by yellow fields, as a row of masked fighters fired into the ditch. Blood pooled from one man’s head.
It was impossible to verify the authenticity of the photos. By Sunday afternoon, Twitter appeared to have suspended the account.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kurdish Oil Sold to Buyers in Austria, India
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Kurdish oil, whose sale was impeded by Baghdad and Washington, has been sold to buyers in Austria and India, an official Kurdish source told Rudaw.
He gave no other details of the sale.
The demonstrated weakness of the Iraqi state, rattled by militants who have taken Mosul, Tikrit and other cities approaching Baghdad, may have diminished concerns about Baghdad’s famous blacklist for any firms that buy Kurdish oil exports.
Erbil’s bargaining power has risen tremendously, as Baghdad and Washington both look to the Kurdish Peshmerga military as the best hope to stop the dangerous sweep by the mix of Islamic militants and insurgents.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Iraqi federal government have been embroiled in disputes over the region’s oil exports for years now, with the Kurds insisting on going ahead with independent sales, and Baghdad calling them illegal.
The stand-off reached a head when the United Leadership tanker loaded the first million barrels of piped Kurdish oil at Ceyhan on May 22 and set sail for an unannounced destination.
The Iraqi government reacted furiously, bringing an international lawsuit against Turkey and its pipeline operator.
A second tanker, the United Emblem, sailed on June 9, just before an Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meeting in Vienna, where Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi threatened “severe measures.”
Baghdad’s response — and apparent behind-the-scenes opposition by the United States — had been enough to scare off potential buyers.
Many industry insiders in Kurdistan, weary from years of inconclusive talks with Baghdad, struggle to suppress their delight at recent developments that have upped the KRG’s bargaining power.
An oil executive close to the KRG told The Independent newspaper that, “If al-Maliki wants to get the Kurdish army on his side, he knows he has to relent on allowing them oil exports. So people out here are seeing this could draw al-Maliki into the deal they wanted.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Kurdish Forces Hold Iraqi Border Crossing With Syria
BAGHDAD, June 15 (Xinhua) — Kurdish forces took control of a border crossing point with Syria, while Iraqi security forces fought insurgent groups who were trying to seize an ethnically mixed city in the country’s northern province of Nineveh, military sources said on Sunday…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Mortar Attack Kills 3 in Iraq’s Diyala
BAQUBA, Iraq, June 15 (Xinhua) — Three Kurdish security members were killed, and up to 20 others wounded during overnight battles in Iraq’s eastern province of Diyala, a local Kurdish security source told Xinhua on Sunday.
One of the attacks occurred in the town of Saadiyah, 120 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, when militant groups launched mortar attack on a military post manned by Kurdish security force, also known as Peshmerga, leaving three killed and 17 others wounded, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
New Links Found Between ISIS Fighters and Preacher Anjem Choudary
WE can today reveal new links between young Muslims fighting for the Isis group and preacher Anjem Choudary.Former followers of the terror sympathiser have been recruited to join the rebels fighting in Syria and Iraq.
Choudary boasted that young men he has taught have joined Isis, an outfit notorious for beheadings, crucifixions and amputations. And the Kent-raised radical says it is “no shame” that extremists based in France, Belgium and even Australia and Indonesia share his dream of a global Islamic state
We can reveal former members of Choudary-backed groups on the continent, including Sharia4Belgium and Sharia4France, are signing up for jihad after meeting the London cleric.
Last night an unrepentant Choudary, 47, told us: “Although we don’t recruit people to send abroad we are not surprised if they want to go abroad and stand with their Muslim brothers and sisters who are being killed and whose land is being occupied.
“Surely it is a noble thing to want to liberate Muslim land? I have no shame whatsoever in saying these people were at times in some way or other affiliated with us.
“I believe our call is a very pure call. We don’t target anyone innocent. We believe in liberating our land. In Britain and Europe I think we have the highest profile of any Islamic movement in the last couple of decades. I don’t think it is a surprise. Thousands of people like us have studied with us or been through organisations or bodies that we have been affiliated with over the last couple of decades.”
Sharia4Belgium and Sharia4France sprang up after Choudary established Islam4UK, now banned under anti-terrorism laws.. A week ago it was claimed Belgium is one of the greatest terror threats to Britain — because of fanatics returning from Syria.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Reports of Iranian Army Entering Kurdistan Region
Hemin Salih, BasNews, Khanaqen
Iranian forces have entered the Kurdistan Region and are based in Naft Khana, a border town near the city of Khanaqin in Diyala Province, which is under control of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
A reliable source in Khanaqin that asked to remain anonymous has told BasNews that the Iranians were deployed a few days ago after the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) took control of most areas of mid and northern Iraq.
“The Iranian forces came from Naft Khana border point and are ready to fight,” said the source. The soldiers are currently based in the former Iraqi army base Kubra Army Base.
The Iranian army has small and medium weapons and their number is about 500 soldiers.
A Kurdish Iranian opposition official in Kurdistan confirmed the Iranian army deployment.
“The Iranian army will help those Iraqi political functions that protect Iranian interest in the country, they are not coming for the sake of Iraqi’s interests,” said Muhammad Nazifi Qadiri senior member of Iranian-Kurdistan Democratic Party to BasNews.
According to him the forces come from Kermanshah, a Kurdish city in western Iran.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Islamist militants in Iraq have boasted of slaughtering dozens of Iraqi soldiers captured in the fighting which has consumed the country in recent days. Pictures posted on a militant website appear to show masked fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) forcing captives to lie down in a shallow ditch. Further photos appear to show the bodies of the men soaked in blood after being shot…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Ten Die as Iraqi City of Tal Afar Bombarded
(AGI) Kirkuk, June 15 — Tal Afar, the Turkmen Shia city in Iraq’s Nineveh province, has been repeatedly bombarded with cannon fire. At least 10 people were killed and 40 injured. Tal Afar is close to the Syrian border and is one of the few cities in the province that still has not fallen into the hands of the Jihadist rebels of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The Ever More Complex Levantine Puzzle
By Srdja Trifkovic
“Both Mr. Assad and the jihadists represent a challenge to the United States’ core interests,” former U.S. Ambassador in Damascus Robert S. Ford wrote in The New York Times on June 10. He advocated a strategy that would supposedly deal with both Bashar al-Assad and the jihadists: “with partner countries from the Friends of Syria group like France, Britain, Germany, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, we must ramp up sharply the training and material aid provided to the moderates in the armed opposition.”
Decrying Washington’s “hesitation and unwillingness to commit to enabling the moderate opposition fighters to fight more effectively both the jihadists and the regime,” Ambassador Ford advocated providing his unnamed Syrian “moderates” with advanced military hardware, including “mortars and rockets to pound airfields to impede regime air supply operations and, subject to reasonable safeguards, surface-to-air missiles.”
Ford’s article is irresponsible and ill-informed at best. It was published on the very day the insurgents belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (also known as “ISIS” to include Syria) started its spectacular advance on Mosul, Tikrit, and points further south. Even more surreally dangerous were the BloombergView editors, who urged (also on June 10) an outright, American-led anti-Assad intervention: “the U.S. and its European and regional allies should take the initiative to circumvent the UN Security Council and put the needed military muscle on the ground. Yes, Russia and China will be furious. So be it.” Now that would be a bold strategy, with many exciting ramifications in Ukraine, along the shores of the South China Sea, and elsewhere. With their gas supplies in balance, “the European allies” can hardly wait.
Ambassador Ford has wisely stayed out of the news over the past couple of days, but it would be interesting to find out if he still stands by the assessment he made four days ago. Does he still advocate arming the Free Syrian Army (FSA) “moderates,” who have been comprehensively routed by the Syrian security forces and who no longer exist as a fighting force? That same FSA, whose units invariably melt away — Iraqi-army-style — whenever confronted with the warriors of jihad, and who have observed a truce with ISIS since late September 2013? To claim that its pathetic remnant can be trained, armed and equipped to the point where it would be able take on Bashar’s army and ISIS simultaneously is insane. Or does Ford have the murderous Al Nusra Front in mind, jihadist to boot, which is a battlefield rival to ISIS and hence perhaps worthy of being treated as a “moderate” force? That same Al Nusra which is currently spreading its reign of terror into Lebanon?
And how exactly would be those surface-to-air missiles subjected to Ford’s “reasonable safeguards”? Perhaps like 400 such missiles were safeguarded in Libya in September 2012, only to end up “in the hands of some very ugly people”? Not to mention thousands of others, which remain unaccounted for; and not to speculate on the vast, yet unknown quantities of U.S.-supplied weapons and ordnance — probably including anti-aircraft missiles — which have fallen into the hands of ISIS fighters in Mosul and Tikrit…
Does Ambassador Ford still advocate working with “our partners” which are funding ISIS, the group which “was built and grown for years with the help of elite donors from American supposed allies in the Persian Gulf region”? The same ones whom al-Maliki has been publicly accusing for months of supporting ISIS? In particular, does Ford still advocate cooperating with that same desert kingdom which, in addition to ISIS, has given us endless other woes around the globe? As Robert Fisk, one of the best informed Middle East analysts in existence, commented in The Independent on June 12, “after the grotesquerie of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 suicide killers of 9/11, meet Saudi Arabia’s latest monstrous contribution to world history: the Islamist Sunni caliphate of Iraq and the Levant, conquerors of Mosul and Tikrit — and Raqqa in Syria — and possibly Baghdad, and the ultimate humiliators of Bush and Obama”:
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
Tony Blair: ‘We Didn’t Cause Iraq Crisis’
The 2003 invasion of Iraq is not to blame for the violent insurgency now gripping the country, former UK prime minister Tony Blair has said.
Speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Marr, he said there would still be a “major problem” in the country even without the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Bars in Tourist Resort Handed Over to Nation’s Top Islamic Body
Some 22 establishments in Alaçati, including restaurants and bars, have been handed over to the Diyanet.
Some 22 establishments, including restaurants and bars in Alaçati, previously owned by Izmir Governor’s Office, have been handed over to the Diyanet by an internal commission.
The move has caused outcry, with local officials denouncing an alleged attempt to “impose a certain lifestyle” and warning the move threatened tourism in the town.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Foreign Ministry Warns for Spread of ‘Sectarian Clashes’ In Iraq
The violence in broad regions of Iraq continues and the crisis has gained a dimension of “sectarian clashes,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry stated June 15, stressing clashes spread from one region to another at short notice.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Orders Evacuation of Many Embassy Workers From Baghdad
The American Embassy in Baghdad plans to evacuate a substantial number of its personnel this week in the face of a militant advance that rapidly swept from the north toward the capital, the State Department announced on Sunday.
The embassy, a beige fortress on the banks of the Tigris River within the heavily-secured Green Zone, where Iraqi government buildings are also located, has the largest staff of any United States Embassy.
The exact number of people being evacuated was not clear Sunday. The embassy would remain open, a person familiar with the planning said, and much of its staff of about 5,500 would stay in Baghdad. The American government is expected to call the move a relocation, suggesting that it is a temporary precaution, the person said.
| [Return to headlines] |
Yemen Troops Encircle Ex-President Mosque Amid Coup Fears
SANAA: Yemeni troops Sunday were surrounding a Sanaa mosque controlled by former president Ali Abdullah Saleh amid concerns he is plotting a coup, a source close to the presidency said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UNSC: Russia’s Statement Condemning Attack on Embassy in Kiev Blocked
Western countries at the UN Security Council have blocked statement proposed by Russia which condemned the attack on the Russian Embassy in Kiev, said to RIA Novosti a diplomatic source in the organization.
“Western delegations in the Security Council blocked the Russian draft of a statement which condemned the attack on the Russian Embassy in Kiev,” said the source.
The UK, the US and France were among those who voted ‘contra,’ the source said.
Russia has proposed to UN Security Council a draft of a statement with condemnation of the attack on the Russian Embassy in Kiev, said in a draft received at the disposal of journalists.
“The members of the UN Security Council strongly condemned the mob attack on June 14, 2014 on the Russian Embassy in Kiev, Ukraine, causing damage of construction and property of the Embassy, jeopardizing the lives of its staff,” — draft document said.
On Saturday, in the Ukrainian capital a few dozen people came to the Embassy of the Russian Federation. They brought tires and blocked exit from the embassy building. Later, the activists threw eggs filled with green paint, at front of the building, smeared with green paint embassy’s cars and punctured tires.
The building was pelted with smoke bombs and firecrackers, almost all the windows were broken. Meanwhile Kiev police reported that “there were no global disturbances,” law enforcers urged protesters to order, recording all their actions and promising to give a legal assessment.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov addressed the OSCE Chairman Didier Burkhalter asking employ the capacity of the organization to prevent provocations against Russian Embassy in Kiev, said Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement.
“On June 14, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov addressed the OSCE Chairman Didier Burkhalter urging them to use all available opportunities of the organization in order to prevent further provocations against Russian Embassy in Ukraine,” — said in a statement.
Burkhalter in his turn assured Lavrov that he will immediately take up the matter, Foreign Ministry added.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
10 Election Workers, Child Killed in N. Afghan Blast
AYBAK, Afghanistan, June 15 (Xinhua) — About 11 people, including 10 election workers, were killed overnight when a mini- bus struck a roadside bomb in northern Afghan province of Samangan, police said Sunday morning.
“Ten election workers, including four women, and a child died following a roadside bombing in outskirts of provincial capital Aybak city late Saturday night,” the provincial police chief Akram Bigzad told Xinhua…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Army General to Investigate Bergdahl Departure From Base
The U.S. Army has appointed a two-star general to investigate the circumstances surrounding Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s departure from his base in Afghanistan and his capture by the Taliban in 2009, a defense official confirmed to Fox News Saturday.
Bergdahl arrived back in the United States late Friday after beginning the process of reintegration at a U.S. military hospital in Germany. The Idaho native was released May 31 after nearly five years in captivity as part of a controversial exchange in which the U.S. released five detainees from Guantanamo Bay.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladeshi Children’s Author Arrested for Paedophilia
(AGI) Dacca, June 15 — Police in Bangladesh have arrested a best-selling children’s author on child prostitution charges.
He was one of the organisers of a ring accused of offering street children to customers including foreigners. AYM Fakhruzzaman, whose pen name is Tipu Kibria, was arrested a few days ago along with three accomplices on a tip-off from Interpol.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan’s Army Begins Offensive Against Militants
After years of pressure from the US, troops move into North Waziristan as part of an operation to clear al-Qaeda-linked outfits from along the border with Afghanistan
Pakistan’s military said it had ordered thousands of ground troops into its most restive region on Sunday evening, launching its long-awaited ground offensive to clear North Waziristan of terrorist bases.
The operation is named Zarb-e-Azb after one of the Prophet Mohammed’s swords…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Kills 100 Extremists Including Karachi Airport Attack ‘Mastermind’
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani military jets pounded militant hideouts in the northwestern tribal region bordering Afghanistan on early Sunday morning, officials said, killing as many as 100 militants in the second strike on the region since a deadly attack on the Karachi airport a week ago…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Southeast Asia is a World Hub for Piracy
Last year there were 150 attacks in the Malacca Strait. Decreased episodes in the Indian Ocean and off the coast of Somalia. Piracy accounts for 18 billion U.S. dollars per year.
Geneva (AsiaNews / Agencies) — The Southeast Asia and its trade routes have become the most fiery point for piracy, so as to remove the primacy of Somalia and the Horn of Africa.
According to a UN report (United Nations Institute for Training and Research, UNITAR), last year there were 150 pirate attacks in the Strait of Malacca between Malaysia and Indonesia, with a steady growth since 2010.
For its part, the International Maritime Bureau reports that this year, between January and March there have already been 23 attacks, particularly off the coast of Indonesia.
According to the UNITAR, the situation will only worsen as the area is becoming the center of gravity of global maritime traffic.
There is also a rise in attacks in the Gulf of Guinea (West Africa), where last year 50 incidents were registered.
UNITAR also informs that there is a drop in piracy in the western Indian Ocean: last year, 28 ships have been attacked but none was seized.
The attacks also fell in the area off the Somali coast. This is due to the international military escorts patrolling the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. Many merchant ships, also, have started to have armed men on board.
According to the World Bank, the attacks of piracy accounts for 18 billion U.S. dollars per year on the global economy and on transportation costs.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
More Than 1 in 5 Homes in Chinese Cities Are Empty, Survey Says
SHANGHAI—More than one in five homes in China’s urban areas is vacant, and a current housing-price correction is putting additional pressure on the owners of such empty properties, according to a nationwide survey by researchers from China’s Southwestern University of Finance and Economics.
The vacancy rate of sold residential homes in urban areas reached 22.4% in 2013, or 49 million homes, up from 20.6% in 2011, according to the Survey and Research Center for China Household Finance, which conducted the analysis.
The researchers surveyed households in 262 counties in 29 provinces, an expanded sample compared with 2011’s survey of households in 80 counties.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The New “Silk Road”, a Chinese Dream That Could Turn Into a Western Nightmare
The Beijing project for two new trade routes (by land and by sea) which can unite three continents is becoming a reality. The agreements between Xi Jinping, Putin and all Central Asian leaders represent the realization of an economic vision and policy increasingly “Sino-centric.” To pay the charges will be the so-called “Eurasia” and the old American trade routes in the region.
Hong Kong (AsiaNews) — China’s vision for a new “Silk Road economic belt,” as recently announced by Xinhua, is establishing regional integration around China as an attractive economic direction for Central Asian countries. With a series of strategic agreements between Chinese President Xi Jinping and leaders of central Asian countries inked over the last month, the vision for the land- and sea-based Silk Roads is fast becoming reality.
As a key component of China’s diplomacy, Beijing is careful to ensure that its bilateral agreements with Central Asian leaders have multilateral implications. Not only are Central Asian states drawing closer to one another, but Beijing’s Silk Road strategy will ultimately link three continents, generating geopolitical reverberations around the world.
Little detail is known about China’s plans for two Silk Roads. Official maps highlight Beijing’s aspirations of an east-west trade route that will reinvigorate Chinese historical and cultural legacies while spreading awareness of China’s friendly policies towards its neighbors (Xinhua, May 8). According a map published by Xinhua, the land-based Silk Road Economic Belt will begin in Xi’an, stretching west through Lanzhou, Urumqi, and Khorgas before running southwest across Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe where it will meet up with the maritime Silk Road in Venice (Sohu, May 2014).
The sea-based Maritime Silk Road, hitting Quanzhou, Guangzhou, Beihai, and Haikou en route to the Malacca Strait and Indian Ocean, will traverse the Horn of Africa before entering the Red Sea and Mediterranean. Once complete, the Silk Roads will bring “new opportunities and a new future to China and every country along the road that it is seeking to develop.”
China’s recent shift in focus toward countries along the new Silk Road route offer clues to better understanding what exactly the Silk Roads entail. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s trip to China last week was the capstone of weeks of strategic agreements for Beijing. The successes of Putin’s meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Shanghai-most notably a $400 billion gas deal to transport thirty-eight billion cubic meters of gas yearly into China beginning in 2018-were preceded by equally significant meetings between Chinese leadership and their counterparts from Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. These bilateral meetings point to Beijing’s commitment to the development of the Silk Road economic belt; taken in sum, they are a major step toward making China’s Silk Road economic belt more than just talk.
In the lead up to the Shanghai Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) the first central Asian leader to signal the strategic depth of central Asia’s ties with China was Turkmenistan’s President, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. One week before Berdymukhamedov’s mid-May visit to China, China opened a new $600 million processing plant at Bagtyarlyk gas field, the location of a 4,375 mile China-bound pipeline (Reuters, May 7).
Turkmenistan’s gas exports to China have increased in recent years, with officials aiming to reach 40 billion cubic meters by 2016 thanks to China’s financial backing of Bagtyarlyk. Upon arriving in China, Mr. Berdymukhamedov signed a gamut of deals with Beijing, formalizing Turkmenistan’s ascension as the last central Asian nation to sign onto a “strategic partnership” with Beijing (EurasiaNet, May 13). The two countries agreed to strengthen cooperation in areas ranging from natural gas extraction to cross-border infrastructure development and cultural exchanges (Xinhua, May 13).
Next to have a strategic tête-à-tête with President Xi was Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Like his Turkmen counterpart, Nazarbayev signed a series of energy agreements and agreed to further strengthen bilateral security cooperation, with particular attention to the situation in Afghanistan (Xinhua, May 19). In addition to mutual support for the peace, stability, and development of both Afghanistan and the region, Nazarbayev expressed Kazakhstan’s enthusiasm for providing energy support to China’s economic development, welcoming any resulting Chinese investment in his country (PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs, May 19). Memorandums of understanding were signed between China’s ExIm Bank, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), and state-owned investment company CITIC Group for development loans and pipeline construction (Azernews, May 20). China even reiterated an interest in helping Kazakhstan acquire warships (EurasiaNet, May 24).
A day before China signed nearly fifty agreements with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Xi met with Azerbaijan’s President Llham Aliyev to ink deals on energy, infrastructure, technology and banking (Azernews, May 22). Azerbaijan, like the other central Asian nations, is a key transit country linking Asia to Europe. Azerbaijan is currently building the largest port on the Caspian Sea, the International Trade Seaport, in Alat near Baku. Once complete, this port will increase the volume of cargo ultimately to 20 million tons per year, no small number for Chinese eying markets in Europe and elsewhere.
With this series of meetings and strategic agreements in mind, it is hardly surprising that Putin continued his pivot eastward, pushing through the Gazprom-CNPC deal and 49 other agreements with Beijing (China Daily Europe Online, May 21). Were Putin to have declined agreements with the Chinese on trade and economic issues, in particular, he would have effectively been cutting off Russian access to the Silk Road economic belt. Now, Beijing and Moscow are positioned to increase bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2015 (and $200 billion by 2020) as well as expand local currency settlement and cross-border investment and deepen mutually beneficial macroeconomic policies.
Beijing’s agreements with Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia, are exactly what is needed to make the Silk Road economic belt a reality for China. For Beijing, the economic belt leverages regional energy cooperation to ensure energy security, sustainable economic growth and to fight against threats to Chinese domestic stability (Xinhua, May 25; Huanqiu, May 21). Bilateral agreements between Beijing and the Central Asian states require that each country cooperate with its neighbors, particularly in the energy sector. Now, Central Asian capitals will be looking at their neighbors in supporting the development of the new Silk Road, as dictated by Beijing. So while these Central Asian countries have successfully signed on to a spectrum of economically enriching deals with Beijing, they have also become game pieces in China’s overarching Silk Road grand strategy.
Thus, as the new Silk Roads continue to develop, it is probable Russian and Central Asian focus will continue to look east-these countries would face crippling economic losses otherwise. Trade routes linking three continents, once complete, will challenge both the longevity of the Eurasian economic zone as well as preexisting North American trade networks. Clearly, China’s aspirations for a land- and sea-based Silk Road should no longer be thought of as merely another round of orations from Chinese leadership. Bilateral agreements from the past month show that China is making fast progress on its development of the Silk Road vision and offer opportunity for better interpreting what the Silk Roads will ultimately do.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Australia Buys Up, Enters Asian Arms Race
Australia is now the seventh-largest importer of major arms in the world and the biggest customer of the largest weapons producer, the US. Australia buys 10 per cent of all American weapons exports.
Figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) show Australian imports of major arms — large-scale military materiel such as warships, fighter planes and tanks — jumped by 83 per cent in the five years to 2013, a reaction to increasingly volatile Asian relations and fears the region is set on the path of a dangerous arms race…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Kenya: Grand Mullah Hangs Out More of Judiciary’s Dirty Linen
Nairobi — More of the Judiciary’s dirty laundry was hang out to dry on Thursday, when former Judicial Service Commissioner Ahmednasir Abdullahi appeared before the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
Abdullahi tore into the former Chief Registrar of the Judiciary Gladys Boss Shollei, and wondered why the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has not brought up charges against her, given the numerous underhand deals uncovered in a special audit report during her tenure…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Mosque Bombed in Zanzibar; One Dead
Tanzanian police are hunting for suspects after a bomb blast at a mosque on Zanzibar island killed one person and injured several more.
Officials say the homemade device exploded Friday at the mosque in Zanzibar’s Stone Town area. The French news agency reports that a Muslim preacher, Sheikh Mohammed Abdalla Mkombalaguha, was killed. No one has claimed responsibility…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Bolivia: Cuba: Ecuador Urge World to Protect Venezuela Against US
Leaders of Bolivia, Cuba and Ecuador have urged the international community to defend Venezuela against imperialism “seeking to destroy Hugo Chavez’s Bolivarian revolution,” according to news agency ABI.
“They think that it’s time to destroy the Bolivarian revolution and depose the president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, and they use unconventional warfare to achieve this goal,” said Cuban leader Raul Castro, speaking at a meeting of social organizations ahead of the G77 + China summit.
“By defending Venezuela, we will protect Bolivia and entire America,” he carried on. Leader of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, called on all Latin American countries” to defend Venezuela.
In turn, the Bolivian leader Evo Morales said that if US policy toward Caracas does not change, “Venezuela and Latin America will turn into another Vietnam.”
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro thanked the leaders of Cuba, Bolivia and Ecuador, and urged the US to revise its foreign policy aimed at undermining the government in Caracas.
“We are facing a conspiracy aimed to divide our country, fill it with violence, and reiterate the need for international intervention with the sole purpose of obtaining the world’s largest oil field,” he said.
Leaders of developing nations plus China met Saturday to draft a global anti-poverty agenda at a summit in Bolivia.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Migration Wave Overwhelms Italy
Economic migrants from Africa and the Middle East are entering Europe via Italy in record numbers. The country is forced to rely on private aid initiatives to cope with the huge influx.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants Breathe Life Into Ageing Italy Town
Immigrants make up a quarter of Riace’s population after mayor opened town to foreigners 10 years ago. Thousands of migrants embark on the perilous journey from the Middle East and Africa to southern Italy every year. Those who make it can face a tough transition. But there is one 16th-century village in southern Italy where they can expect a warm welcome. Al Jazeera’s Claudio Lavanga reports from Riace in Southern Italy.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Raids Jihadist Cell ‘Led by Ex-Guantanamo Inmate’
http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/spain-raids-jihadist-cell-led-by-ex-guantanamo-inmate-542267
http://online.wsj.com/articles/eight-suspected-jihadists-arrested-by-spanish-police-1402903932?tesla=y&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304292904579627540932039968.html
End Game “migration” methinks….Now or never. The NWO is in trouble so tghey are going for “broke”….
Quote:
Prime Minister David Cameron said on Sunday Britain had been too tolerant of Islamist radicalism in the past and allowed violent rhetoric to flourish, pledging a “muscular” approach to combat the problem…
end
That just doesn’t have the ring of truth. He says that the Muslim violence in Britain has nothing to do with Islam, and then he tries this. Perhaps he thinks he is being clever, but he is only showing inconsistency. And Muslims and their liberal friends will exploit his supposed stand for all it is worth.
What are his stated objectives?
Has he any?
Will he root out mischief in the land?
He helped make the British the new Irish.
What do his words represent?
Does he know that he should have faced a vote of no confidence when Lee Rigby was murdered and he said that Islam had nothing to do with it?
Cameron has his eye on the 2015 general election. When Lee Rigby was murdered, Cameron was appeasing islam while chasing the muslim bloc vote. Now he has woken up to the strength of anti islam feeling amongst the core British electorate. He is playing both ends against the middle and it will blow up in his face. Hopefully, he will take Con/Lab/Lib with him leaving UKIP as the only viable option.
Quote:
The move has caused outcry, with local officials denouncing an alleged attempt to “impose a certain lifestyle” and warning the move threatened tourism in the town.
end
Threatens tourism?
Why, it will eliminate tourism from the West entirely.
No Westerner except the most dhimmified liberal would stand for Sharia in a tourist district.