Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/28/2014

Dozens of people were killed when a car bomb exploded near the Syrian capital Damascus, and 25 Iraqi security personnel were killed fighting extremists near Baghdad. Meanwhile, 50,000 Iraqi Christians are said to be fleeing the Nineveh valley, headed towards Kurdistan.

In other news, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Bosnian Serbs unveiled a statue of Gavrilo Princip, whom they consider a hero.

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.

Financial Crisis
» Spain to Create Tax on Bank Deposits
 
USA
» Abu Khattala Arrives in U.S. For Trial
» Law Enforcement Firm: Nobody Will Complain About Militarized Police When ISIS Attacks
» Mississippi Tea Party Leader Dead in Apparent Suicide
» NYT Investigation Finds Pattern of Mistakes Overlooked at Military Hospitals
» Ramadan Starts This Weekend for Chicago-Area Muslims
» Sacrifice, Reflection for Chicago-Area Muslims as Ramadan Begins
» Supporting Evidence for Aspartame-Alzheimer’s Link Emerges
» Suspect Pleads Not Guilty in Deadly Benghazi Attack
» The VA Scandal Gets Deadlier
» Video: Google Conference Interrupted by ‘Killer Robots’ Protest
» ‘Virtually Crime Free’ County in Florida Gets Mrap Armored Vehicle
» What Americans Need to Know About the History of Spying
» Xanax, Anti-Depressants Linked to Mass Shootings — Again
 
Europe and the EU
» 15-Year-Old Dutch Girl Recruited for Jihad: Newspaper
» Armed Forces Day Celebrations Take Place Across UK
» British Muslims’ Right to Fight in Syria Backed by Adviser on Radicalisation
» Cameron Suffered Serious Defeat, Writes German Press
» Contraband Cigarettes in Italy Fall by 50%
» EU Environmental Plan Offers 239 Mn Euros for 2014 Projects
» Italy Olive Oil Leader Despite Falling Sales
» Italy: Grillo Wants Journalists Banned From Using Anonymous Sources
» Italy: Internet Sites to be Obliged to Cancel Defamatory Material
» Italy: Navy Needs to Modernize, Price of 5.8 Billion Euros
» Italy 20th in ‘Good Country’ Rankings
» Italy: Judge Rejects Former Venice Mayor Plea Bargain
» Italy: Fincantieri Limits IPO to 450 Million Shares
» Rights Court Rules Against Italy for Changing Laws Mid-Trial
» Skeptical of Institutions, Greeks Place Their Trust in Family and Acquaintances
» Spain: Tax Hike for Star Soccer Players as of 2015
» UK ‘Isolated’ And Near ‘EU Exit’ After Vote, Says Press
» UK: A Diabetic Muslim is Using Ramadan to Educate Others in Milton Keynes
» UK: Ministers Ban Suspected Aliases of Banned Extremist Group
» UK: Man Arrested After Huge Police Search for Elvis Impersonator
» UK: NHS Worker Who ‘Bullied’ Muslim by Praying for Her
» UK: Ramadan Starts Today — A Spiritual Time But Hard Work for Women
» UK: Women Targeted in Rising Tide of Attacks on Muslims
» Wales: ‘Muslim Extremists Are a Thorn in Our Community’
» Wales: Ramadan 2014: What is it? When is it? And What Do Muslims Do During the Islamic Holy Month?
 
Balkans
» Bosnian Serbs Unveil Statue to ‘Hero’ Gavrilo Princip
 
North Africa
» 4 Egyptian Soldiers Killed in Sinai Ambush
» Egypt Blast Kills Girl Near Cairo
» USAID Says $30 Bn Invested in Egypt Since 1975
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Massive Blaze as Gaza Rocket Strikes Sderot Factory
» The Names of the Victims: The Tragic Price of Exchanging Hostages for Terrorists
 
Middle East
» 7 Killed in Al-Qaida Attack on Military Hospital in Yemen
» Amman on High Alert Fearing ISIS Attacks
» Car Bomb Kills Dozens Near Damascus
» Combat Troops Being Sent Back to Iraq?
» Iraq Army ‘Routs ISIS Rebels’ In Offensive on Tikrit
» Iraq: 50 Thousand Christians Flee Nineveh Valley, Head to Kurdistan Region
» Iraq: 25 Security Members Killed in Clashes Near Baghdad
» ISIS in Iraq: A CIA-NATO “Dirty War” Op?
» Qatar: UK Media Investigation Into World Cup Bribery Allegations is “Racist” And “Islamophobic”
» Syrian Moderate Rebels Could Help in Iraq, Says Kerry
» UAE Hotels Pin Hopes on Iftar and Suhour Meals as Occupancy Falls in Ramadan
» UAE: Muslims to Flock to Abu Dhabi Grand Mosque for Ramadan Worship
» What Does ISIS Really Stand for?
 
South Asia
» Pakistan: Faisalabad: After Rape Victim Commits Suicide When Her Abusers Are Released, Activists Demand Justice
» Pakistani Forces Arrest Senior Al-Qaeda Leader, Kill 19 Militants
» Young Pakistani Couple Tied Up and Have Their Throats Slit With a Scythe by Girl’s Father for Marrying Without Permission
 
Far East
» China: The Paradise for Corrupt Officials
» Chinese President: Flexing Military Muscles Does Not Reflect Strength
» Japan: Tokyo Assemblyman Admits to Sexist Taunting, Bows in Apology
 
Australia — Pacific
» Mosque Lands Support From University
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Nigeria Violence: Several Dead in Bauchi Blast
» Ramadan: Jonathan Urges Nigerian Muslims to Pray for Peace, Security
 
Latin America
» Argentine Vice-President Charged in Corruption Case
» Video Report: Mexican Military Helicopter Fires on U.S. Border Agents
 
Immigration
» All Employment Growth Since 2000 Went to Immigrants
» Border Patrol: Cartels Using De Facto Amnesty to Smuggle “Whatever They Want” Into U.S.
» Border Patrol Agent: ‘If the Administration Says This Isn’t Amnesty, Don’t Believe Them’
» Dump the Rhetoric and Take Them Home, If You Really Care, Nancy
» Illegals Bankrupting Small Towns in Border States
» Italy: Mob Exploitation of Undocumented Laborers Rife in Sicily
» Obama’s End of the USA via Fomenting Foreign Invasion
» Stand Down: U.S. Border Gate Left Wide Open, Unguarded
 
Culture Wars
» UK: Poor White Pupils Put Off School by Multicultural Timetable
 
General
» New Twitter Icons Help Muslims Celebrate Ramadan
» Now Hiring! U.N. Gun Grabbers
» Science Media Center Exposed for Incredible GMO Deceit
 

Spain to Create Tax on Bank Deposits

It was a little over a year ago, just as the Cyprus deposit confiscation aka “bail in” was taking place, when we asked, rhetorically, if “Spain is preparing for its own deposit levy” when an announcement by Spain’s Finance Minister, Montoro, hinted at the imminent arrival of just that.

Specifically we said:

While Spain’s economy minister Luis De Guindos proclaimed in the Senate today that bank deposits under EUR100,000 are “sacred”and that “Spanish savers should stay calm,” Spain, it would appear, has changed constitutional rules to enable a so-called ‘moderate’ levy on deposits — as under previous Spanish law this was prohibited. For now, they claim the ‘levy’ will be “not much higher than 0%” and is mainly aimed at regions in Spain that have “made no effort to collect taxes” based on new revenue expectations.

As El Pais reports, the minister of finance and public administration, Cristobal Montoro, defends the need for such a ‘levy’ in their constitution on the basis of standardizing taxes across regions (and is preparing a proposal on the amounts to be paid) and although it would appear that while the European Commission could previously argue that such a ‘tax’ would violate the free movement of capital in Europe, it now leaves the door open to eventually effectively taxing the deposits.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Abu Khattala Arrives in U.S. For Trial

(AGI) Washington, June 28 — Ahmed Abu Khattala, the Libyan militia leader suspected of involvement in the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, arrived in Washington on Saturday morning, a U.S. Justice spokesman said. Khattala was captured by U.S. special forces on June 15 in Libya and has been detained on a naval ship. He will be tried for the deaths of four Americans in the attack, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.

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

Law Enforcement Firm: Nobody Will Complain About Militarized Police When ISIS Attacks

A company that provides video training programs for law enforcement has caused controversy by suggesting that nobody will complain about militarized police in America or examples of police brutality when the ISIS insurgent group “comes a calling.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Mississippi Tea Party Leader Dead in Apparent Suicide

Mark Mayfield, a Mississippi tea party leader and lawyer facing charges in connection with taking photos of Sen. Thad Cochran’s wife at her nursing home apparently committed suicide Friday morning.

Police said that Mayfield’s wife, Robin, called 911 just after 9 a.m. to say her husband had shot himself. Officers arrived to find the 57-year-old lying on the floor of a storage room in his garage with a single gunshot wound to the head and a “large caliber revolver” with the body.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

NYT Investigation Finds Pattern of Mistakes Overlooked at Military Hospitals

An examination by The New York Times of the sprawling United States military hospital system — entirely separate from the scandal-plagued veterans system — has found persistent lapses in patient care that have led to severe injuries and deaths.

Internal documents obtained by The Times also depict a system in which such avoidable errors are chronic but scrutiny is at best sporadic.

The country’s military hospitals care for 1.6 million active-duty service members and their families.

[Return to headlines]
 

Ramadan Starts This Weekend for Chicago-Area Muslims

More than 400,000 Muslims in the Chicago area will be recognizing the holy month of Ramadan beginning this weekend, according to the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Sacrifice, Reflection for Chicago-Area Muslims as Ramadan Begins

Over the next month for Noor Khan and her family, mornings will start about 3 a.m., the days will include no food from sunrise to sunset and spiritual development will take center stage.

Khan is among Chicago-area Muslims observing Ramadan, the annual holy month of fasting, which is one of the greatest religious observances in Islam and began with the sighting of the new moon this weekend…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Supporting Evidence for Aspartame-Alzheimer’s Link Emerges

The artificial sweetener industry (and makers of artificially sweetened products) has fervently claimed that aspartame is harmless, and that there’s “no biological explanation” for the health problems reported by so many after consuming aspartame.

But as explained by Dr. Monte, there is indeed a biological and scientific explanation for aspartame’s pathway of harm, and as the latest research suggests, it’s related to the effects of methanol and formaldehyde, both of which are extremely toxic.

Aspartame is primarily made up of aspartic acid and phenylalanine — the latter of which has been synthetically modified to carry a methyl group. This is what provides the majority of the sweetness. That phenylalanine methyl bond, called a methyl ester, is very weak, allowing the methyl group on the phenylalanine to easily break off and form methanol.

You may have heard the claim that aspartame is harmless because methanol is also found in fruits and vegetables. However, in these whole foods the methanol is firmly bonded to pectin, which allows it to be safely passed through your digestive tract. This is not the case for the methanol created by aspartame. There, it’s not bonded to anything that can help eliminate it from your body. That’s problem number one…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Suspect Pleads Not Guilty in Deadly Benghazi Attack

A lawyer for the Libyan militia leader suspected of playing a central role in the 2012 attacks in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including the United States ambassador, entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of his client Saturday.

The suspect, Ahmed Abu Khattala, was flown to Washington by helicopter shortly after sunrise from a Navy warship where he had been held since his capture two weeks ago in Libya by American Special Operations forces. Mr. Abu Khattala appeared for arraignment before a magistrate in the federal courthouse in Washington.

The Justice Department has charged Mr. Abu Khattala with three counts in connection with the attacks on the United States Mission in Benghazi and a nearby C.I.A. facility on Sept. 11, 2012. The attacks resulted in the death of the United States ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens.

[Return to headlines]
 

The VA Scandal Gets Deadlier

A devastating oversight report from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) reveals that the combination of malpractice and bureaucratic ineptitude infesting the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is far deadlier than previously acknowledged. “Over the past decade, more than 1,000 veterans may have died as a result of VA malfeasance, and the VA has paid out nearly $1 billion to veterans and their families for its medical malpractice,” the report states.

The death total dwarfs the 23 fatalities for which the VA has taken responsibility. Coburn, a physician and three-time cancer survivor, notes the problems at VA facilities go “far deeper” than the phony scheduling schemes that brought this scandal to the national stage. “The waiting list cover-ups and uneven care are reflective of a much larger culture within the VA, where administrators manipulate both data and employees to give an appearance that all is well,” the report reveals.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Video: Google Conference Interrupted by ‘Killer Robots’ Protest

Google’s biggest event of the year was interrupted yesterday by a protester who wished to raise concern over the development of autonomous robots, a movement Google is now deeply engaged with.

The protester, seen in the photograph below and heard in the video above, stood up at the I/O 2014 developers conference in San Francisco and shouted toward the stage “You all work for a totalitarian company that builds machines that kill people!”

At the time, Google’s senior VP of technical infrastructure Urs Hölze was delivering a keynote speech on the latest version of the Android software.

“You know that’s true,” the protester added, before being dragged out of the Moscone Center venue by security…

Numerous robotic experts are on record with their concerns that the Pentagon’s fleet of cyborgs is being developed with one primary goal in mind — to pursue “suspects” and kill large numbers of people.

Noel Sharkey, professor of artificial intelligence and robotics at the University of Sheffield, has repeatedly warned that the robots currently being developed under the auspices of DARPA will eventually be used to kill.

“Of course if it’s used for combat, it would be killing civilians as well as it’s not going to be able to discriminate between civilians and soldiers,” said Sharkey.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Virtually Crime Free’ County in Florida Gets Mrap Armored Vehicle

Residents of a virtually crime free county in Florida are expressing outrage over a decision by the Walton County Sheriff’s Office to purchase an MRAP armored vehicle normally used to hunt insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“The Walton County Sheriff’s Office got the mine-resistant, ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicle for the cost of transporting it. The vehicle, for which the department paid $2,500, was a surplus military vehicle that was demilitarized for law enforcement use,” reports NWF Daily News.

Walton County Sheriff’s Officer Mike Adkinson denied that the purchase of the vehicle was an attempt to militarize the police department, adding that he wouldn’t let public opinion get in the way of the “safety” of his colleagues.

“This is not the federal government intruding on your civil liberties,” wrote Adkinson in a Facebook post. “Would you really want them sent into harm’s way without the best protection available, simply because the military originally purchased this vehicle?”

This didn’t stop residents expressing their anger at the decision to buy the vehicle, with one commenting that the purchase represented “an offensive intimidation method used to controll [sic] and strike fear.”

Another respondent agreed, remarking, “This doesn’t make the officers safer. All studies show that the more militarized a department becomes, the more often officers get hurt. This is Walton County, Florida, not Iraq, not Afghanistan.”…

Former Marine Corps Colonel Peter Martino, who was stationed in Fallujah and trained Iraqi soldiers, warned last year that the Department of Homeland Security is working with law enforcement to build a “domestic army,” because the federal government is afraid of its own citizens.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

What Americans Need to Know About the History of Spying

Americans are told that we live in a “post-9/11 reality” that requires mass surveillance.

But the NSA was already conducting mass surveillance prior to 9/11 … including surveillance on the 9/11 hijackers.

And top security experts — including the highest-level government officials and the top university experts — say that mass surveillance actually increases terrorism and hurts security. And they say that our government failed to stop the Boston bombing because they were too busy spying on millions of innocent Americans instead of focusing on actual bad guys.

So why is the government conducting mass surveillance on the American people?

5,000 Years of History Shows that Mass Spying Is Always Aimed at Crushing Dissent

For thousands of years, tyrants have spied on their own people in order to crush dissent.

Keith Laidler — a PhD anthropologist, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a past member of the Scientific Exploration Society — explains:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Xanax, Anti-Depressants Linked to Mass Shootings — Again

One of Pfizer’s biggest selling meds, Xanax is usually prescribed for those who suffer from anxiety and depression, but it seems the drug causes the very thing it is supposed to treat — if you count losing your mind and shooting dozens of people a bit ‘anxious’.

The crazy “shooter” at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who shot six students in a rampage was likely addicted to benzodiazepines, a class of pharmaceuticals that can lead to extreme hysteria and outbursts of violence. Elliot Roger, the 22-year-old man blamed for a shooting spree in Isla Vista, California, was on Xanax.

But he certainly didn’t start this trend.

  • Aaron Ybarra, a 26-year-old who opened fire with a shotgun at Seattle Pacific University, killing one student and wounding two others had been prescribed the antidepressant Prozac and antipsychotic Risperda.
  • 16-year-old Chris Plaskon stabbed Maren Sanchez, also 16, to death in a stairwell at Jonathan Law High School after she turned down his prom invitation, but he was taking drugs for ADHD.
  • James Holmes was hooked on a cocktail of Big Pharma drugs that have been found to be deadlier than cocaine and heroin combined (even at ‘safe’ levels). But the trend continues much farther.
  • Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, as well as 15-year-old Kip Kinkel, were all on psychotropic drugs.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

15-Year-Old Dutch Girl Recruited for Jihad: Newspaper

THE HAGUE, June 28 (Xinhua) — A 15-year-old Dutch girl from Hilversum was recruited for Jihad, Dutch local newspaper De Gooi- en Eemlander reported on Saturday.

The girl disappeared last Saturday. She left home leaving a note which read “I will go to Syria.” The police managed to intercept her at German airport Dusseldorf on Sunday.

The girl did not return at her school in Hilversum yet, because she is still questioned by the police. The National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism is monitoring the case closely, according to the newspaper…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Armed Forces Day Celebrations Take Place Across UK

Armed Forces Day has been marked with celebrations across the UK.

Hundreds of veterans, serving personnel and cadets joined the Princess Royal and the prime minister for a day of military demonstrations in Stirling, which led the events…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

British Muslims’ Right to Fight in Syria Backed by Adviser on Radicalisation

Ex-Prevent adviser Farooq Siddiqui says young jihadis who ‘walk the walk’ against Assad should not face arrest on return

A former senior government adviser on tackling radicalisation and extremism has defended the right of British Muslims to travel to Syria and fight.

Farooq Siddiqui, a former regional manager for the government’s controversial Prevent strategy, said it was acceptable for Britons to “walk the walk” and travel to Syria to fight the forces of President Bashar al-Assad.

As part of a Facebook conversation Siddiqui, 45, defended the right of an individual to be called a martyr if he took up arms against Assad, and questioned whether those who fought against the Syrian president should face arrest upon return to the UK…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Cameron Suffered Serious Defeat, Writes German Press

(AGI) Berlin, June 28 — British Prime Minister David Cameron has suffered a serious defeat in failing to stop the former Luxembourgian Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker from becoming the next European Commission president, German newspaper Der Spiegel wrote. Cameron has left Britain isolated, with only the support of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. It was the first time a great state like the Britain had been left alone on such an important issue, the newspaper pointed out.

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

Contraband Cigarettes in Italy Fall by 50%

Policing, low prices and balanced tax policies behind drop

(ANSA) — Rome, June 24 — The number of contraband cigarettes sold in Italy fell by just over 50% between 2012 and 2013, according to a study commissioned by major international tobacco companies and published Tuesday. Some 3.68 billion cigarettes were sold illegally in Italy in 2013 compared to 7.29 billion the year before, the study conducted by international research institute Kpmg said. The drop was partly due to increased law enforcement activities especially in the southern city of Naples, the Italian ‘capital’ for contraband goods.

However “low prices” for legal tobacco products and “balanced fiscal policies” also made a difference, the study said.

In absolute terms, “illegal consumption fell by 3.8% from 8.5% to 4.7% of total cigarette consumption,” according to the study. One in ten cigarettes smoked in the European Union last year came from an illegal source, the study said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

EU Environmental Plan Offers 239 Mn Euros for 2014 Projects

Funding for nature, biodiversity, information programs

(ANSA) — Brussels, June 25 — The European Commission on Wednesday said it would offer almost 239 million euros in funding this year for projects designed to respond to serious environmental challenges to Europe.

Eligible projects under the LIFE program would deal with conservation of nature and biodiversity, resource efficiency, governance and environmental information.

EU Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik said the program “will help to achieve sustainable growth through investment in a resource-efficient economy and allow member States and local authorities to implement plans and strategies in key areas such as the nature, waste, air and water”. Over its seven-year life span, the program is designed to provide more than 2.5 billion euros.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Olive Oil Leader Despite Falling Sales

Outlook for 2014 positive, Assitol says

(ANSA) — Rome, June 24 — Italy retained its place as global olive oil leader in 2013 even as domestic and international sales dropped, sector association Assitol said Tuesday.

Italian producers sold 94,329 tonnes of bottled olive oil and residues on the domestic market, down 3.5% over the previous year.

Extra virgin oilve oil accounted for 73.5% of total sales in Italy, followed by olive oil with 22.5% and residues with 2.3%. International sales fell by 14.7% in 2013 over the previous year, with 117,898 tonnes of bottled oil and residues placed on foreign markets.

However, data from the period November 2013-April 2014 showed a reverse trend particularly with respect to the sale of extravirgin olive oil, Assitol said. Exports also showed signs of picking up at the start of this year, the association added. However, Assitol said the national economic system put producers at a disadvantage with respect to foreign competitors while divisions within the production chain made effective promotion of olive oil as a single product difficult. “It is not good to run alone,” said Assitol President Giovanni Zucchi.

“Our competitors can count on country systems that see the oil sector in its entirety, defending it in the event of external attack and specious debate. This is a competitive disadvantage that we must try to overcome, by all taking a step towards each other,” he added.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Grillo Wants Journalists Banned From Using Anonymous Sources

M5S leader says reports must say where news comes from

(ANSA) — Rome, June 24 — Beppe Grillo, the leader of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), said Tuesday that Italian journalists should be banned from citing anonymous sources.

The call is part of a long campaign by comedian-turned-politician Grillo against Italian journalists, who he says are biased in favour of the traditional parties.

Grillo described the use of anonymous sources as a “congenital malformation” of Italian journalism on his popular blog, which gave life to the Internet-based M5S in 2009.

He called for a law that obliged journalists to name all sources in their stories.

“If this is not the case, the crime of defamation should automatically kick in,” said Grillo, whose movement captured a quarter of the vote in last year’s inconclusive general election.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Internet Sites to be Obliged to Cancel Defamatory Material

Measure in amendment to bill approved by Senate committee

(ANSA) — Rome, June 24 — An amendment tabled Tuesday to a bill on defamation would oblige Internet sites and search engines to cancel “defamatory content” or personal data of people whose reputations have been blackened.

Should they refuse to cancel the defamatory material a magistrate will be able to order them to do so, under the amendment tabled by Silvio Berlusconi’s opposition centre-right Forza Italia party in the bill approved in the justice committee of the Senate.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Navy Needs to Modernize, Price of 5.8 Billion Euros

Pinotti tells Senate that Italy needs an ‘operational’ force

(ANSA) — Rome, June 24 — Italy’s naval “operating line” is now “largely obsolete” and must be modernized through a program that will cost 5.8 billion euros, Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti told the Senate Tuesday.

The minister outlined a 19-year spending program, continuing until 2032, which she said is necessary because Italy needs a navy force that is “fully operational”.

The program, to be funded through the ministry of economic development, will involve the purchase of new ships, she said.

The defence ministry’s budget has been under scrutiny as the government has been reviewing its entire budget and reallocating money from lower priority areas to high priorities.

In May, the Lower House defence committee recommended a controversial 50% cut to the government’s budget for F-35 fighter jets as part of its review of the overall defence budget.

The issue is still before the government.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy 20th in ‘Good Country’ Rankings

But at 102nd place for peace, international security

(ANSA) — London, June 24 — Italy ranks 20 out of 125 countries for its contribution to humanity and the planet according to a new index published Tuesday.

The Good Country Index ranks countries on the basis of data from the United Nations, World Bank and other international organisations. Ireland came in first place followed by Finland, Switzerland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Britain, Norway, Denmark and Belgium. Italy came ahead of the United States in 21st place.

War-torn Iraq, Libya and Vietnam came bottom of the index.

Italy came 19th on the list under the specific health and wellbeing ranking, but dropped to 22nd for culture, to 38th for science and technology and to 102nd for its contribution to peace and international security.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Judge Rejects Former Venice Mayor Plea Bargain

(AGI) Venice, June 28 — The preliminary hearing judge of Venice has rejected a plea agreement between the prosecutor and the city’s former mayor, Giorgio Orsoni, who has been charged with illegal financing in the Moses flood barrier inquiry. Orsoni had agreed to a sentence of 4 months and a 15,000 euro fine, but according to the judge the sentence is too low for the seriousness of the case.

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

Italy: Fincantieri Limits IPO to 450 Million Shares

(AGI) Rome, June 28 — Italian state-owned shipmaker Fincantieri has closed its initial public offering at 450 million shares, against a planned total of almost 704 million. Fintecna, which wholly controls Fincantieri, said it will not sell any shares in the offering. The concession of an over-allotment option for 50 million shares will be made available by Fintecna.

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

Rights Court Rules Against Italy for Changing Laws Mid-Trial

Must pay 872,000 euros to 32 parties

(ANSA) — Strasbourg, June 24 — The European Court of Human Rights ruled against Italy on Tuesday for once again introducing laws that are will affect the outcome of pending litigation. The court ruled Italy must pay 872,000 euros to 32 offended parties deemed to have been denied their right to a fair trial.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Skeptical of Institutions, Greeks Place Their Trust in Family and Acquaintances

A woman who wanted to work as a hairdresser applied for a license at an Athens municipality in September 2011. The license was not issued until 2013 and only after the intervention of the Ombudsman, who had to appeal to the municipality and two ministries to get the job done. The reasons why something so simple became so complicated are well known to Greeks: foot-dragging, indifference, red tape and poor management.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Spain: Tax Hike for Star Soccer Players as of 2015

47% for those earning more than 600,000. Not 24% anymore

(ANSAmed) — MADRID — Spain will not be a fiscal paradise for star soccer players anymore. Starting on 2015, foreign players will have to pay more taxes while up until now their fiscal duties were lighter in spite of huge revenues.

The fiscal reform announced by the government provides for a change in the so-called Beckham law which since 2005 enabled foreign soccer players and athletes to pay a minimum 24% on income taxes. Under the reform, which will become effective in 2015, this percentage will apply only to salaries under 600,000 euros a year, while foreign soccer players in Spain earning more than that will have to pay 47% on their income. The new rule equals the position of non-residents to that of residents and will be applied to new contracts.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

UK ‘Isolated’ And Near ‘EU Exit’ After Vote, Says Press

Prime Minister David Cameron’s flagrant failure to stop the appointment of Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission threatens Britain’s future within the EU, newspapers across the UK have said.

The UK prime minister said the reforms he wants for the bloc will now be harder to achieve with Juncker at the helm, but he vowed, “I am not going to back down” and that this was not his “last stand” in Europe.

After the key vote, newspaper across the UK said that Britain was moving dangerously close to an exit from the 28-nation bloc after Cameron’s crushing “defeat” in stopping Junckers’s nomination.

Junker, Luxembourg’s Prime Minister from 1995 to 2013 and the Eurogroup chief from 2005 to 2013, was named President of the European Commission on Friday by EU leaders despite Britain’s objections.

“One step closer to quitting Europe,” the conservative Daily Telegraph splashed on its front page, after the 26-2 vote in favour of Junker at an EU summit in Brussels.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: A Diabetic Muslim is Using Ramadan to Educate Others in Milton Keynes

A DIABETIC Muslim is trying to spread the word about the condition during Ramadan after suffering with type two diabetes for more than 15 years…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Ministers Ban Suspected Aliases of Banned Extremist Group

The government has banned three groups it suspects of being aliases for the extremist organisation al-Muhajiroun.

The group was first banned in 2010, when it also used the name Islam4UK. It had planned to protest in the Wiltshire town of Wootton Bassett, then known for ceremonies honouring military personnel killed in Afghanistan.

The security minister said: “Terrorist organisations should not be allowed to escape proscription simply by acting under a different name.”

James Brokenshire continued: “That is why we have today laid an order which will, from tomorrow, recognise the Need4Khilafah, the Shariah Project and the Islamic Dawah Association as aliases of the group already proscribed as both al-Ghurabaa and The Saved Sect.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Man Arrested After Huge Police Search for Elvis Impersonator

Devon & Cornwall Police have detained a 60-year-old man following a huge police search. The man was located on land in South East Cornwall by police officers shortly before 9.30pm last night. Two firearms were seized nearby.

He was arrested on suspicion of firearms offences and will be taken into custody at Launceston police station. He has first been taken to a local hospital for a medical assessment as a precaution…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: NHS Worker Who ‘Bullied’ Muslim by Praying for Her

Christian health worker Victoria Wasteney is taking legal action against the NHS after she was accused of bullying a Muslim colleague

A Christian health worker has begun a legal challenge after being disciplined by the NHS for praying with a Muslim colleague.

Victoria Wasteney, a senior occupational therapist in one of the country’s most racially diverse areas, was also accused of bullying the colleague after giving her a book about a Muslim woman who converts to Christianity…

[Reader comment by orangepekoe on 28 June 2014.]

Maybe if Ms Wasteney had worn a burqa and prayed 5 times a day during office hours and separated herself from others and in effect converted to Islam she would have become a Diversity Queen and won the NHS prize for promoting the Diversity of Britain.

It seems it is now a crime in Britain to be a democratic Christian and evil and criminal to invite someone to a social gathering at a church and committing the new ultimate Diversity Sin of Christian prayer. Is it I wonder a crime in Diversity Britain for a Muslim to invite a Christian or anyone else to an Islamic social gathering?

Will those who have no faith be next on the list? Offer to join them for coffee, a drink in a licenced cafe, or mix with both sexes at any social event will be the new Diversity Sin. Christians are such easy targets I suppose that’s a very good place to start.

Should have gone to Islam… In the Diversity Plan it is fine to pray 5 times a day and she’d even get a special Diversity Prayer room complete with mats.

Isn’t it a pity that this managed effort to find fault is not put into sorting the failure to clean hospitals properly and the protect nurses from daily attacks? No these things are not a priority in Diversity Britain.

It is shameful that this woman is having to depend on a Christian charity to defend her and not the law of the land never mind a sane NHS because it has gone completely insane and needs to see its own psychiatrists.

[Reader comment by soysauce1 on 28 June 2014.]

Classic example of muslim tactics, befriend someone at work in authority, play along until they relax their guard then report the’infidel’ claiming inappropriate behavior (Their word against yours) to the authorities, who are so [redacted] weak that they side with the muslim for fear of having their hospital burnt down.

[JP note: Don’t mess with JIM.]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Ramadan Starts Today — A Spiritual Time But Hard Work for Women

It is a month for prayer, charitable deeds and reflection. But, says Rana Asfour, perhaps we should also think about the unrealistic expectations placed on women in the next 30 days.

Today, Muslims all around the world mark the first day of Ramadan; a month-long abstinence from food and liquids that starts at the crack of dawn and ends at sunset. Those who are ill, diabetic, or travelling, as well as women who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or menstruating will not be fasting…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Women Targeted in Rising Tide of Attacks on Muslims

Hotline figures reveal an average of two Islamophobic incidents every day since the murder of Lee Rigby

More than half of Islamophobic attacks in Britain are committed against women, who are typically targeted because they are wearing clothing associated with Islam, new data reveals…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Wales: ‘Muslim Extremists Are a Thorn in Our Community’

Growing numbers of young Muslims from Cardiff are joining Syrian terrorist groups — and they’re still recruiting. Andrew Gilligan reports from the hotbed of home-grown jihadis

In Tiger Bay, Cardiff’s famous old port area, they’ve taken away the port. They’ve taken away most of the Victorian buildings. They’ve taken away the name (it’s “Cardiff Bay” now). They’ve even taken away the sea, shut out by a barrage to create a new freshwater lake, lined with concept dining outlets.

But they haven’t taken away the people. The descendants of Yemeni and Somali sailors make up one of Western Europe’s oldest and most settled Muslim communities, here at least a century before the mass migration of the Sixties. There are only 21,000 Muslims in Cardiff, less than 1 per cent of the UK total. Yet in the last two and a half years, seven of the community’s young people have been convicted of acts of terror…

[Reader comment by Nedster548 on 28 June 2014.]

I do wish you would investigate the gradual takeover of meat supplies into schools. Schools are adopting Halal meat supplies due to calls from a vocal minority of parents, but are not informing or asking any other parent.

With the introduction of more free meals (due to start this September), schools are now under more pressure to switch to Halal sources so that they can cater for everybody — note that schools cannot afford to provide non-Halal at the same time, due to the requirement for separate cooking areas, utensils, and staff.

How is it right that a minority can take over food supplies in this way?

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Wales: Ramadan 2014: What is it? When is it? And What Do Muslims Do During the Islamic Holy Month?

As Muslims across the country prepare to celebrate Ramadan, here’s a guide to the Islamic holy month

Friday marks the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which is the most religious time of the year for Muslims.

Dr Mansur Ali, Jameel lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK at Cardiff University, and Abdul-Azim Ahmed, a student of religion and theology at Cardiff University, talk us through what it is and what Muslims do at this time of year…

What happens at the end of Ramadan?

At the end of Ramadan, Muslims celebrate with Eid al-Fitr — one of the two major holidays of Islam. Muslims will all gather together at the mosque for a prayer, before spending the day with family or friends.

“In Cardiff, when it’s available, Muslims book out City Hall for the Eid prayers — as no mosque in Cardiff is big enough for the sheer number of Muslims who come to pray,” said Abdul-Aziz. “It’s great when that happens, as you get to see many friends and acquaintances at the start of the day.”

A very local tradition in Cardiff is an Eid parade in the Docks. It was started back in the 1930s, by Abdullah al-Hakimi, a Muslim scholar who was Imam at the first mosque in Cardiff on Peel Street.

“It used to bring together Muslims, Christians and those with no particular faith, to observe Eid celebrations,” explained Abdul-Aziz. “The tradition died out sometime in the ‘70s, but has been re-started in recent years by Shaykh Zane Abdo, the Imam of the South Islamic Centre.”

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Bosnian Serbs Unveil Statue to ‘Hero’ Gavrilo Princip

Snubbing the official ceremonies for centenary of the First World War, Bosnian Serbs in eastern Sarajevo held their own, erecting a statue to Gavrilo Princip. Painted by some as a terrorist who triggered the conflict in Europe, Bosnian Serbs consider him a hero emancipating them from occupation.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

4 Egyptian Soldiers Killed in Sinai Ambush

ARISH, Egypt, June 28 (Xinhua) — Four Egyptian recruits were killed on Saturday in an ambush set by anti-government extremists in Rafah city in North Sinai, a security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

“The four recruits were coming back to the peninsula after a holiday and were not in security uniform,” said the source. “ The extremist militants stopped them in an ambush, checked their identities, forced them out of the vehicle, and shot them dead.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt Blast Kills Girl Near Cairo

CAIRO, June 28 (Xinhua) — A blast outside Egypt’s capital Cairo killed a girl and wounded her mother on Saturday, the official news agency MENA reported.

MENA said that the blast hit an unfinished telecommunications building of state-owned Telecom Egypt, the country’s fixed-line monopoly operator, in the 6th of October city outside Cairo…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

USAID Says $30 Bn Invested in Egypt Since 1975

The USAID announced it has invested about US$30 billion in Egypt since 1975, adding that its activities during the past two years have provided new job opportunities for more than 40,000 people on a permanent basis, and 20,000 temporary jobs.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Massive Blaze as Gaza Rocket Strikes Sderot Factory

Crews succeed in keeping large blaze from spreading to other factories; ‘Sderot ready to take blows for the kidnapped.’

Gaza terrorists fired two rockets on Israel on Saturday evening, hitting communities in the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council area to the immediate east of the Hamas-enclave.

One rocket directly hit the “Denber” plastic factory in Sderot’s industrial area, causing a large fire to break out. The factory is attached to a paint factory, and both caught fire.

Ten firefighting units from Sderot, Be’er Sheva, Ashkelon and Netivot succeeded in controlling the fire and prevent it from spreading to other factories after an hour-long struggle with the massive blaze. However, the factory apparently was completely burned to the ground…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

The Names of the Victims: The Tragic Price of Exchanging Hostages for Terrorists

Three families in Israel are in agony. On June 12, when their sons Naftali Fraenkel, Eyal Yifrah and Gil-Ad Shaer were kidnapped by Islamic savages, the Fraenkels, Yifrahs and Shaers entered a new world where every breath they take is filled with devastating guilt — that they breathe free while their sons suffer unknown miseries.

Every moment that passes is filled with crushed hope that they will get word that their sons are free, and then the word doesn’t come. And it doesn’t come the next moment, or the next.

And so they will live, in agony, until this ordeal has ended.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

7 Killed in Al-Qaida Attack on Military Hospital in Yemen

ADEN, Yemen, June 28 (Xinhua) — About four army soldiers and three al-Qaida militants were killed during an armed attack on a military hospital in Yemen’s southeastern province of Hadramout on Saturday, a government official said…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Amman on High Alert Fearing ISIS Attacks

(AGI) Maan, June 28 — Amman is on maximum alert over a possible attack by jihadists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). There are fears that ISIS will manage to penetrate Jordan after an Iraq-Jordan checkpoint was seized. Two demonstrations were held this week in Maan, 250 kilometres from Jordan, where ISIS black flags were seen flying for the first time.

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

Car Bomb Kills Dozens Near Damascus

(AGI) Damascus, June 28 — A car bomb has killed dozens of people in a Damascus suburb, the news channel Al-Arabiya reported, citing local sources. The attack took place at Douma, 10 kilometres from the Syrian capital and an anti-Assad rebel stronghold.

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

Combat Troops Being Sent Back to Iraq?

A veteran has contacted Infowars to inform us that his son’s combat unit was told they are being deployed to Iraq in February 2015, contradicting President Obama’s vow not to send U.S. troops back into the stricken country.

The veteran, who served in the U.S. Navy with honor in the 1990€²s, was shocked when his son relayed what his Virginia-based unit had been told by superiors.

“We are being lied to about Iraq,” he writes. “My son is being trained right now and will be deployed to Iraq in February 2015. He has been told by the U.S. Army that his unit will be sent for combat.”

“I thought we only had advisors? How can they now — just now know that they need combat troops in February 2015? Please expose this — so many more American sons will face danger — some will come home in body bags. There is a bigger agenda here — the more I know I will provide information.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Iraq Army ‘Routs ISIS Rebels’ In Offensive on Tikrit

Iraq’s army has routed Sunni militants in a major offensive on the northern city of Tikrit, state media say.

State television said the governor’s HQ had been recaptured and 60 fighters from the Isis militant group killed. A spokesman for the rebels confirmed heavy fighting but implied the attack had failed, saying they were pursuing what was left of the army offensive.

The rebels control large swathes of the north and west after lightning raids that captured the second city, Mosul…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Iraq: 50 Thousand Christians Flee Nineveh Valley, Head to Kurdistan Region

Due to recent attacks, shelling and threats from Islamic State in Iraq and Sham (ISIS) militants, thousands of Christians have been fleeing from their homes in Mosul and other cities in the Nineveh Valley of northern Iraq.

A source from Qaraqush, a Christian town near Mosul numbering about 50,000 people, told BasNews that residents from the town have fled to the Kurdistan Region seeking refuge from ISIS.

The source also said that ISIS has begun shelling Qaraqush and threatened the locals, frightening them into leaving their homes and heading towards Kurdish-controlled towns.

“There is no electricity or clean water. The lack of basic services in the town is another factor pushing the new wave of Christian refugees to come to Kurdistan,” the source added.

Since the beginning of the month, ISIS militants have controlled Mosul and surrounding towns and villages, most of them populated by Christians. The extremist group has also attacked a number of churches in the area.

Ninety percent of Qaraqush residents are Christian, which is located 35km far from the Kurdish region’s borders.

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

Iraq: 25 Security Members Killed in Clashes Near Baghdad

BAGHDAD, June 28 (Xinhua) — A total of 25 security members were killed and some 22 others wounded in clashes between Iraqi forces and militants in south of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Saturday, a police source said.

Fierce clashes took place during the day near the towns of Jurf al-Sakhar, some 50 km south of Baghdad, and Mahmoudiyah, 30 km south of Baghdad, as well as the town of al-Rasheed, just south of Baghdad, between the security forces and Sunni militants, including those who are linked to the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL), an al-Qaida offshoot, the source from Babil province, where the areas located, told Xinhua on condition of anonymity…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

ISIS in Iraq: A CIA-NATO “Dirty War” Op?

Details leaking out suggest that ISIS and the major military ‘surge’ in Iraq — and less so in neighboring Syria — is being shaped and controlled out of Langley, Virginia, and other CIA and Pentagon outposts as the next stage in spreading chaos in the world’s second-largest oil state, Iraq, as well as weakening the recent Syrian stabilization efforts.

The very details of the ISIS military success in the key Iraqi oil center, Mosul, are suspect. According to well-informed Iraqi journalists, ISIS overran the strategic Mosul region, site of some of the world’s most prolific oilfields, with barely a shot fired in resistance. According to one report, residents of Tikrit reported remarkable displays of “soldiers handing over their weapons and uniforms peacefully to militants who ordinarily would have been expected to kill government soldiers on the spot.”

We are told that ISIS masked psychopaths captured “arms and ammunition from the fleeing security forces” — arms and ammunition supplied by the American government. The offensive coincides with a successful campaign by ISIS in eastern Syria. According to Iraqi journalists, Sunni tribal chiefs in the region had been convinced to side with ISIS against the Shiite Al-Maliki government in Baghdad. They were promised a better deal under ISIS Sunni Sharia than with Baghdad anti-Sunni rule…

Key members of ISIS it now emerges were trained by US CIA and Special Forces command at a secret camp in Jordan in 2012, according to informed Jordanian officials. The US, Turkish and Jordanian intelligence were running a training base for the Syrian rebels in the Jordanian town of Safawi in the country’s northern desert region, conveniently near the borders to both Syria and Iraq. Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the two Gulf monarchies most involved in funding the war against Syria’s Assad, financed the Jordan ISIS training.

Advertised publicly as training of ‘non-extremist’ Muslim jihadists to wage war against the Syrian Bashar Assad regime, the secret US training camps in Jordan and elsewhere have trained perhaps several thousand Muslim fighters in techniques of irregular warfare, sabotage and general terror. The claims by Washington that they took special care not to train ‘Salafist’ or jihadist extremists, is a joke. How do you test if a recruit is not a jihadist? Is there a special jihad DNA that the CIA doctors have discovered?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Qatar: UK Media Investigation Into World Cup Bribery Allegations is “Racist” And “Islamophobic”

Qatar, a state positioning itself as progressive and close to the West, which previously rejected co-hosting the World Cup with a Gulf neighbor, is now trying to drum up Arab and Muslim support by branding a recent Sunday Times report and wider British society as “racist.”

Using social media to build sympathy, many in the country are now bashing recent coverage by the British newspaper on Qatar’s alleged World Cup 2022 bribery scandal as having “racist” and “biased” overtones.

But just what is “racist” about bribery?

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Syrian Moderate Rebels Could Help in Iraq, Says Kerry

(AGI) Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), June 28 — Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday that the U.S. hopes to enlist moderate Syrian opposition fighters in the battle against militant extremists in neighbouring Iraq. During a meeting with Syrian opposition leader Ahmad al-Jarba in Jeddah, Kerry pointed out that the program would open a second front in the fight against militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

On Thursday, U.S. President Barack Obama sent congress a 500 million dollar request to expand efforts to arm and train rebels fighting both the Sunni extremists and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

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

UAE Hotels Pin Hopes on Iftar and Suhour Meals as Occupancy Falls in Ramadan

Hotels across the country are gearing up for Ramadan, banking heavily on their iftar and suhour meal offerings to make up for a drop in occupancy rates during the month.

Last Ramadan, which continued for the most part of July, occupancy rates at the four and five-star hotels in Dubai dropped to 54.5 per cent with an average room rate of US$196.9. In Abu Dhabi, the figures were 50.1 per cent and $105.8, according to the Dubai-based consultancy HotStats Mena…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UAE: Muslims to Flock to Abu Dhabi Grand Mosque for Ramadan Worship

ABU DHABI // More than 750,000 Muslims from around the Gulf region are expected to worship at the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in the capital during Ramadan.

Dozens of large portable air conditioning systems and large red and gold carpets were being moved into the mosque’s central courtyard on Saturday as organisers worked on putting the finishing touches before welcoming the influx of worshippers for the holy month…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

What Does ISIS Really Stand for?

The Islamic extremists known as ISIS are a great deal more dangerous than most of us realize. The reason for this is hidden in plain sight in the name itself: ISIS. In English, this stands for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, but that’s not what it stands for in Arabic: ad-Dawlat al-Islamiyya fÄ”‘l-’Iraq wa’sh-Sham: The Islamic State in Iraq and Ash-Sham.

The crucial difference is the word Sham, a word that resonates in the Arabic-speaker’s mind on multiple levels. To see why, let’s step into a time machine. All we have to do is start to read any passage of written Arabic, and we find ourselves traveling down that passage, all the way back to a certain day in the Arabian desert circa 630 A.D. It doesn’t matter whether what we are reading is from a novel or from today’s headlines, it is — and always will be — written in exactly the self-same Arabic, letter for letter and dot for dot, that was used almost 1,400 years ago…

So back to Sham, and all the ponderously heavy cultural baggage this word entails. What in God’s name does it mean? Well, one thing it does NOT mean is the truncated Syria that was created by the French in 1922. Rather, it means the “North,” the “Greater Syria” that encompasses, not only Cyprus and part of southern Turkey, but also the artificial states the British and the French carved out of the Ottoman Empire after World War One: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, Palestine — and subsequently Israel.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Pakistan: Faisalabad: After Rape Victim Commits Suicide When Her Abusers Are Released, Activists Demand Justice

Zahra Nasim, 17, took her own life in front of a police station. On 18 June, she was raped by three men. After a few days, a judge had them released. Priest in Lahore slams the authorities for failing to obtain justice and enforce the law. In the past three months, more than a dozen rapes and murders against women have been reported.

Faisalabad (AsiaNews) — Civil society groups in Faisalabad, Punjab, took to the streets today to demand justice for Zahra Nasim, Pakistan’s latest victim of sexual violence and abuse against women.

As in previous cases, rapes are being carried out with complete impunity with the perpetrators released or even not prosecuted, whilst the authorities, the judiciary and police remain inactive.

Just in the past three months, more than a dozen cases of sexual violence and murder have been reported in different parts of the country.

For this reason, Christian and Muslim activists have demonstrated in recent months in a “white ribbon” campaign against violence against women, calling for new laws to protect them.

Zahra Nasim, 17, originally from Faisalabad, was raped by three men on 18 June. After the assault, the Chief Minister of Punjab opened a case against them and had them arrested.

However, a few days later, on 25 June, a judge ordered the release of suspects. Shocked by the news, the young woman took her own life in front of the headquarters of the Commissioner of Police.

Fr John Adil, a priest in Lahore, joined the protest. Calling the whole thing “a sad state of affairs”, he bemoaned the fact that law enforcement failed to uphold the law, and in so doing “failed the victims”.

In Sindh province, he added, Hindu women are victims of frequent kidnappings and forced conversions, but “nobody ever does anything. . . . How long will all this continue?”

Human rights activist Arshed Mirza, from Lahore, explains the reasons for the demonstration. “We are protesting against growing violence against women,” he said, “victims of rapes and murders, without the justice system intervening to punish those responsible.”

“Instead some (Muslim) religious leaders keep on saying that if a woman is raped, she should not complain about it. That is really crazy. “

With a population of more than 180 million people (97 per cent Muslim), Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world, the second largest Muslim nation after Indonesia.

About 80 per cent of Muslims are Sunni, whilst Shias are 20 per cent. Hindus are 1.85 per cent, followed by Christians (1.6 per cent) and Sikhs (0.04 per cent).

Violence against ethnic and religious minorities is commonplace across the country, with Shia Muslims and Christians as the main target, with things getting worse.

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

Pakistani Forces Arrest Senior Al-Qaeda Leader, Kill 19 Militants

ISLAMABAD, June 28 (Xinhua) — Pakistani security forces who are engaged in a major offensive in the North Waziristan tribal region have arrested a senior Al-Qaeda leader and killed 19 militants including a Taliban commander, the army said Saturday…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Young Pakistani Couple Tied Up and Have Their Throats Slit With a Scythe by Girl’s Father for Marrying Without Permission

A young couple in Pakistan were tied up and had their throats slit with scythes by the bride’s father after they married for love.

The 17-year-old girl and 31-year-old man married without the consent of their families in eastern Pakistan’s Punjabi village of Satrah, police said.

The girl’s mother and father lured the couple home with the promise that their marriage would receive a family blessing.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China: The Paradise for Corrupt Officials

The 18th Party Congress’ anti corruption campaign will come to nothing, if not weakening the rule of law even more. China and its government needs democracy and balances of power, not extraordinary measures. The analysis of Bao Tong, a former aid of Zhao Ziyang, for years in prison and under house arrest for having sided against the Tiananmen massacre.

Beijing (AsiaNews/RFA) — The central commission for discipline inspection of the [ruling] Chinese Communist Party has announced: “We will focus our investigations on those who have refused to desist even since the 18th Party Congress. There has been a strong response from the masses, and tip-offs have been coming in thick and fast. We are now promoting talented party officials to important posts.”

In today’s China, such a decision is of more use than any law. But I believe that it is wrong. If a single meeting by a political party is taken as the benchmark for a national fight against corruption, then it will only serve to reveal the fusion of party and state for what it really is. It is out of keeping with a republican system.

How long has it been now since the 18th Party Congress [in November 2012]? The darkest and stinkiest corruption case, the notorious Three Gorges case, the Luneng case, all manner of land-related cases, including the Shanghai land dispute case that has been continually appealed for 10 or more years by lawyer Zheng Enchong; all of these took place in that time before the 18th Party Congress. Major cases like these don’t need more important positions filled by party cadres to come in and do some more lawbreaking on their own account. They just need to be cleanly handled by relatives or their representatives.

So, what does “We will focus our investigations on those who have refused to desist even since the 18th Party Congress” actually mean? As you know, it means that if you play ball with the 18th Party Congress, if you show it some respect, then it will do right by you.

These old “tigers” [high-ranking corrupt officials] are a source of joy, aren’t they? Those [low-ranking] flies are going to wish they’d dared to clean up at the time, if the 18th Party Congress is going to be so generous about it! And the vast majority of new tigers and flies have been given fresh confidence.

They can see that after a year of resolutely fighting tigers, all that has happened is that dozens of deputy provincial level “tigers” have been hit.

Even if the total haul had been hundreds of tigers over a 10-year period, would our government have even received a basic clean-up? The rate at which they are slipping through the net, or sheltering under some protective umbrella, is news that we’d love to get hold of but can’t. Nor should this massive amnesty be limited to the 18th Party Congress.

Every plenary session of a party congress should have the power to approve an amnesty for corrupt officials. Once this is set in stone to last for millennia, China is sure to become a veritable paradise for corrupt officials.

‘At one stroke’

I don’t know the provenance of this decision, and I don’t know who designed it from the highest level, but it is without doubt in line with the interests of the Chinese Communist Party central government.

At one stroke, with the changing of the guard, all of those corruption cases piled high as mountains are no longer deemed important.

Meanwhile, lawyer Pu Zhiqiang who reported [former security chief] Zhou Yongkang for corruption through legal channels, and all those activists who called on officials to reveal details of their assets have been had up by the authorities for “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble.”

Behind the visible anti-corruption campaign, how much hidden weight is given to fighting corruption and how much to maintaining stability?

The demands of those patriotic students back in 1989 for democracy, for an end to dictatorship and for an anti-corruption campaign, were all of a piece. Corruption in China is clearly one of the negative side-effects of a one-party dictatorship.

If the one-party dictatorship isn’t changed, and if corruption is deemed to be the internal and secret affair of the party, in which citizens are forbidden to participate, and if those who try to supervise the government are persecuted and suppressed, and if all checks and balances on power are refused and laws flouted: how can such a struggle solve the systemic problem of corruption in China?

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

Chinese President: Flexing Military Muscles Does Not Reflect Strength

BEIJING, June 28 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday called on countries to uphold common security, saying flexing military muscles only reveals the lack of moral ground or vision rather than reflecting one’s strength.

Xi made the remarks in a keynote speech at a commemoration marking the 60th anniversary of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence at the Great Hall of the People in downtown Beijing…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Japan: Tokyo Assemblyman Admits to Sexist Taunting, Bows in Apology

Akihiro Suzuki has admitted telling a female colleague to “hurry up and get married”, in an incident that outraged many Japanese. But some high-profile members of Japanese society, including politicians, diplomats and academics, have said publicly that she deserved such remarks because she is 35 and still single.

Tokyo (AsiaNews/Agencies) — A male member of Tokyo’s city council has admitted telling a female colleague to “hurry up and get married”, in an incident that outraged many Japanese. Mr Akihiro Suzuki shouted his remark at Ms Ayaka Shiomura at a meeting of the assembly last Wednesday. Ms Shiomura was asking about measures to help mothers when the heckling took place. Witnesses also heard the remark “Can’t you have babies?”. Mr Suzuki has denied saying that.

The heckling reportedly drew laughter from other members of the assembly. Ms Shiomura, who is 35 and not married, continued with her questioning and was seen wiping away tears after she finished. Mr Suzuki, a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), said he has personally apologised to Ms Shiomura and has offered to quit the party.

The 51-year-old bowed in apology to Ms Shiomura in front of reporters at Tokyo’s city hall on Monday. He also told reporters: “I did not make these remarks out of any intention to insult lawmaker Shiomura. “I recognise that there are women who want to get married and can’t, and those who want to have children and can’t. My comments were lacking in concern towards people like that. “I deeply apologise for and regret that a comment I made set off such a huge fuss,” he added.

Ms Shiomura, from the rival Your Party, said Mr Suzuki’s apology “marks progress” but added that he was “a bit too late” in coming forward, according to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. The incident made headlines in Japan and sparked controversy. An online petition collected 70,000 signatures demanding the identification and punishment of those who heckled Ms Shiomura.

But some high-profile members of Japanese society, including politicians, diplomats and academics, have said publicly that she deserved such remarks because she is still single. The government is set to unveil plans later this year to boost the number of working women. Japan has one of the lowest rates of female workforce participation among developed countries.

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

Mosque Lands Support From University

LA TROBE University has come out in support of the establishment of a mosque in Bendigo.

In a letter to the Bendigo Advertiser, head of the Bendigo campus Rob Stephenson congratulated the Muslim community for raising money to develop their own “house of worship”. “Since its establishment in 1998, the Muslim Prayer Room at the university’s Flora Hill campus has been the only one in Bendigo,” the letter read…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Nigeria Violence: Several Dead in Bauchi Blast

At least 10 people have been killed and 14 injured in an explosion in the northern Nigerian city of Bauchi, police say.

Police spokesman Mohammed Haruna told AFP news agency the blast, which took place on Friday evening, occurred in a building widely known as a brothel. The cause of the blast is not clear, although Islamist militant group Boko Haram have repeatedly attacked Bauchi…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Ramadan: Jonathan Urges Nigerian Muslims to Pray for Peace, Security

President Goodluck Jonathan has urged all Nigerian Muslims to offer special prayers during the period for greater peace and security in the nation. In his Ramadan message, the president also saluted all Muslims in Nigeria as they begin this year’s fast…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Argentine Vice-President Charged in Corruption Case

(AGI) Buenos Aires, June 28 — Argentine Vice-President Amado Boudou has been charged in a corruption case. Mr Boudou is suspected of using his influence when he was economy minister in 2010 to ensure that a contract to print Argentina’s currency was awarded to a company he allegedly controlled. The possible successor to President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is currently in Cuba, and is expected to return to Argentina next week.

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

Video Report: Mexican Military Helicopter Fires on U.S. Border Agents

Agents in Arizona were reportedly fired upon by a Mexican military helicopter that traveled across the border.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

All Employment Growth Since 2000 Went to Immigrants

According to a major new report from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), net employment growth in the United States since 2000 has gone entirely to immigrants, legal and illegal. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, CIS scholars Steven A. Camarota and Karen Zeigler found that there were 127,000 fewer working-age natives holding a job in the first quarter of 2014 than in 2000, while the number of immigrants with a job was 5.7 million above the 2000 level.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Border Patrol: Cartels Using De Facto Amnesty to Smuggle “Whatever They Want” Into U.S.

“Who or what is coming in, we don’t know and we won’t know until something bad happens.”

And he emphasized that this invasion only began recently.

“A lot of what we’re hearing in the media and a lot of other places is that the conditions in Central America, such as the economic, are horrible conditions and there’s violence, gang violence, and that’s true,” Harris said. “That’s a terrible way to have to live, but that’s been going on for more than ten years.”

“So for this invasion to start suddenly happening, something else had to change, and what changed is the fact that we were engaging in this ‘catch & release’ program and word spreads fast.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Border Patrol Agent: ‘If the Administration Says This Isn’t Amnesty, Don’t Believe Them’

Albert Spratte, the sergeant-at-arms of the National Border Patrol Council, Local 3307 in the Rio Grande Valley, said the Obama administration is largely to blame for waves of illegal immigrants that have been flooding the Southwest U.S. border since February, saying the government opened the door for the crisis by making it “clear they’re not going to deport people.”

Spratte, who was speaking with CNSNews.com as a representative of the union, further said “we don’t have control of the border,” and if the Obama administration claims it is not in effect giving amnesty to the illegals, then “don’t believe them.”

Also, by allowing so many young illegal aliens to be released into this country, “the U.S. government has become a part of the smuggling business,” he said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Dump the Rhetoric and Take Them Home, If You Really Care, Nancy

Secretly seething from being demoted from House Speaker to House Minority Leader ever since January 3, 2011, Nancy Pelosi has been on the prowl for attention-grabbing ways to preen her peacock wings to the world.

So today Pelosi is taking the opportunity of swooping back into the limelight by traveling to the southern border of the U.S. to be briefed by Customs and Border Protection on the flood of unaccompanied minors entering the country.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Illegals Bankrupting Small Towns in Border States

Small towns and counties in states bordering Mexico are drowning in debt due to the swarm of illegals stealing and destroying property, requiring expensive medical care and needing proper burials, all of which the federal government has largely refused to pay for.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Mob Exploitation of Undocumented Laborers Rife in Sicily

‘Pitting immigrants against Italian labor’ says MP

(ANSA) — Palermo, June 25 — Thousands of immigrant farm laborers are being exploited by crew leaders with links to the mob, the president of the Sicily anti-Mafia commission told the Lower House on Wednesday.

“No one can pretend to ignore this extremely grave situation, which pits foreigners being subjected to unspeakable exploitation and humiliation against Italian laborers being forcibly expelled from the market,” conservative MP Sebastiano (Nello) Musumeci told his colleagues.

Musumeci went on to call for law and order to work with unions to eradicate the phenomenon, which in Italy is called “caporalato”. Caporalato, which was made a crime in 2011, refers to intermediaries with mob connections who round up undocumented day laborers and take them to farms or construction sites, using violence or intimidation to force them to work long hours with low pay, no breaks and no protection.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Obama’s End of the USA via Fomenting Foreign Invasion

It has been a few years since I’ve talked and, subsequently, interviewed former USBP Supervisor David J. Stoddard (Ret). In my opinion — and that of many others — there really is no better information source than Dave for what is currently transpiring at and on our Southern Border.

David J. Stoddard BIO: US Border Patrol Supervisor David J Stoddard (Ret) was with the US Border Patrol for 27 years. David served in Calexico, California, Vermont, Yuma, Tucson Sector Headquarters and Naco, Arizona and worked in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and other locations.

Dave also provided testimony about immigration reform to Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner’s (R-WI) House Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims in 1999 and a Congressional subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources in 2002. The Interview:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Stand Down: U.S. Border Gate Left Wide Open, Unguarded

In El Paso, Texas, investigating the Central American immigrant surge, reporters Joe Biggs and Rob Dew ventured near the Rio Grande river, where they encountered a large border fence on the U.S. side sitting wide open and unguarded for a lengthy period.

“As we’ve documented, the Border patrol has been paying to ship these kids in, bus them in, fly them in to our country, and now the gates are left completely wide open,” Staff Sgt. Biggs reports.

We learned last week the federal government is securing travel accommodations for illegal immigrants and procuring bus tickets for them to go virtually anywhere in the U.S.

We’ve also documented some agents are so frustrated with being forced to break immigration laws, in addition to having to prepare sandwiches, make food and drink runs and perform mass laundry detail, they’re leaving the agency in search of new employment.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Poor White Pupils Put Off School by Multicultural Timetable

A study finds that working-class white children are being turned off school because lessons are too focused on celebrating other cultures while shunning British traditions.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

New Twitter Icons Help Muslims Celebrate Ramadan

Twitter has launched new hashtag icons for Ramadan and Eid to help 1.5 billion Muslims around the world celebrate the ninth month of the Islamic calendar

The social network developed the feature after its success with the World Cup national flags, and after research which showed that there were 74.2m tweets around the world about Ramadan last year…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Now Hiring! U.N. Gun Grabbers

The United Nations is gearing up for gun confiscation in the event of a societal collapse in numerous countries by hiring “disarmament, demobilization and reintegration” officers who will be trained to seize guns “from the civilian population.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Science Media Center Exposed for Incredible GMO Deceit

Real scientific research isn’t supposed to be political. It is, at its best, unbiased and curious, ready to observe an outcome from an experiment no matter what the facts say. Science Media Center has given the world a ‘false’ sense of truth about GMOs based on politicized science, not real science, and PR Watch explains why.

The Science Media Center (SMC) influences governments. It acts as if its coverage of GMOs is unbiased, and their report on genetically modified ingredients was released with great fanfare. Their actions have outcomes that affect us all.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

7 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/28/2014

  1. Yes, you go to school in the UK to be told you’re inferior and the worst culture on earth. Even previous generations have been so ill educated or dis-informed that they do not have a reply to this garbage. If it is illegal to celebrate Anglo-Saxon or even Western European civilization, if it is illegal to pray for someone, let alone witness to them, if the “intelligentsia” sides with the barbarians – then we are The Outlaws and they can expect nothing from us but dogged resistance.

  2. Gavrilo Princip, hero? So, let’s look at actions and results. Princip kills Ferdinand. Mission accomplished? Check. Now, Croatia is on the road to independence! A bright future beckons. For Serbia, too. For all Europe.

    Oops.

    A circular firing squad war ensues. Millions of Europeans die. War-related hunger weakens the immune systems of most of the survivors. Tens of millions die of influenza who might well have lived otherwise. The collective heart of Europe is broken. As to Serbia? She takes extraordinarily heavy casualties in WW1, losing almost all her army KIA. She survives, at that bitter cost, and becomes the centerpiece of a newly minted Yugoslavia. Now, surely, the future will be bright? Wrong again.

    What Princip did was both morally wrong, as murder tends to be, and extremely counterproductive to the interests of the Slavs of the area as well as to Europe as a whole. The history of the 20th century could hardly have worked out worse. Would that he had never done what he did.

  3. @Ministers ban suspected aliases of banned extremist group

    When the Ministers finally get exhausted banning aliases maybe they will ban the root ideology but by that time it will probably be too late.

  4. >> and although it would appear that while the European Commission could previously argue that such a ‘tax’ would violate the free movement of capital in Europe, it now leaves the door open to eventually effectively taxing the deposits. <<

    When the state is hell bent on theft, what is mere law to prevent it?

    • “taxing the deposits. ”
      “When the state is hell bent on theft, what is mere law to prevent it?”.

      Any thing of value will be taxed;- land, property, art, food, air, water, energy ,and even things of non value;-carbon.

      Can be done by inflation, then taxing that by capital gains tax, death duties, or by decree as in carbon taxes/trading.

      Effectively coming to a place near you.

      simpleton

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