A suicide bomber who blew himself up in Baghdad last week has been identified as an Australian teenager known as Abu Bakr a-Australi. But another report identifies a suicide bomber who detonated in Baghdad on Saturday as a German. Were these two different shahids? Or did one Abu Bakr al-Alemani perhaps migrate to Australia at some point, and thus earn himself the new cognomen Abu Bakr al-Australi, before going all to pieces in Iraq? The accounts are unclear.
In other news, a Kazakh friend of the alleged Boston Marathon bombers Dzhokar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev has been sentenced to twenty years in prison for obstructing justice.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, JP, Val Price, Vlad Tepes, 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.
Dave Spigelmyer: Pennsylvania, U.S. Benefit From Gas Drilling Industry
Last, but not least, while Mr. Carpenter refers to Pennsylvania natural gas producers as a “drilling cartel,” please know this: The United States has surpassed Russia and Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil and gas producer, which has weakened OPEC’s stranglehold on our nation’s energy security and eliminated the threat of a natural gas cartel run by unfriendly nations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Friend of Boston Bombing Suspect Found Guilty of Obstructing Police Investigation
Khazakh student Azamat Tazhayakov faces up to 20 years in prison
A US jury found a friend of the accused Boston Marathon bomber guilty of obstructing the investigation into the deadly blasts by removing a backpack containing fireworks shells from the suspect’s dorm room…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
In Violent Weekend, At Least 40 People Shot in Chicago
(Reuters) — An 11-year-girl was shot and killed during a slumber party as violence struck Chicago over the weekend, local media outlets reported on Sunday. At least 40 people were shot, and four killed, in weekend violence in the third-largest U.S. city, the NBC affiliate in Chicago reported.
City officials condemned as unacceptable a spree of gunfire over the Fourth of July holiday weekend that left 17 dead, with 53 people shot, including five by police.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hate Graffiti Scrawled Outside Mosque North of Toronto
TORONTO — Police are investigating after hateful messages were spray-painted outside a mosque north of Toronto late Sunday.
Graffiti, including the words “Arab go home” and “F*** Gaza,” was scrawled outside the Jaffari Community Centre in Thornhill while worshippers attended Ramadan events inside, police said. The call came in to police around 9 p.m…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Akademikerball Trial Continues
The trial of a German student who has been in custody since his participation in demonstrations against the Akademikerball (Academic’s Ball) in January this year, continues.
Josef S., 23, is thought to be a member of the extreme left-wing Black Bloc (Schwarzen Block) and is accused of breaching the peace, causing serious damage to property and of grievous bodily harm during protests against the FPÖ’s student fraternity ball.
Identified by the police as a ringleader, the young man is alleged to have smashed windows and thrown stones and other objects at officers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Burgenland’s ‘Stonehenge’ Discovery
In a sensational find for Austrian archaeologists, aerial photographs taken two years ago on the southern outskirts of the Burgenland town of Rechnitz have revealed the existence of circular trenches dating back to the Neolithic Period.
It appears that circa 5,000 BC there was a large circular area in a field on the southern outskirts of Rechnitz, surrounded by wooden poles. It was only after aerial photographs were taken of the district that remnants of an ancient trench system became visible.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Most Copenhagen Thefts Go Uninvestigated
A rule of thumb says that only thefts with a value of more than 100,000 kroner get investigated by Copenhagen Police. In 2013, 95 percent of all reported thefts were merely noted down in a journal.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Foreign Minister Lobbies UN for Help to Get Crash Bodies Home
Dutch foreign minister Frans Timmermans is in New York on Monday to gather UN support for a united international approach to bringing the bodies of those killed in the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash back from Ukraine. ‘This is my first and most important task,’ Timmermans said on his Facebook page.
The Netherlands will take the lead in identifying victims of flight MH17, brought down over Ukraine with the loss of 298 lives, prime minister Mark Rutte told a news conference on Sunday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Families of British Jihadis Appeal for Muslims Not to Join Fighting in Syria and Iraq
Families of three British jihadis who left to fight in Syria have appeared in a video appealing to other young Muslims not to put their own families through the “pain” and “anguish” they have experienced
The families of three Britons who left to fight with jihadis in Syria have appeared in a government-backed video aimed at dissuading young Muslims from travelling to the Middle East…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Fears Grow in France as Anti-Israel Protests Turn Violent
Fears are growing that the Gaza conflict could transfer to the streets of France after Jewish-owned shops were burned and pillaged last night during a second violent pro-Palestinian demo in the space of two days.
Riot police held back a mob of youths who tried to attacks two synagogues in the town of Sarcelles in the northern Paris suburbs.
A pro-Gaza demonstration in a town with a large Jewish population began peacefully but degenerated into attacks on Jewish and Chaldean businesses and four hours of running battles between youths and police.
Several cars were burned. Three shops, including a Kosher grocery, were burned and pillaged. A railway station was severely damaged…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
France: Rioters Target Jews in Paris Suburb
Pro-Palestinians set fire to cars, synagogue, pharmacy, Jewish school and supermarket.
A pro-Palestinian protest that took place on Sunday in Sarcelles, despite local government restriction, degenerated when hundreds of participants set fire to public property and Jewish business and buildings, witnesses reported…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
France: In Images: Paris Anti-Israel Demos Turn Ugly
Two banned pro-Palestinian protests held in and around Paris at the weekend descended into violence as riot police clashed with youths, who looted shops, burned cars and bins and shouted anti-Israel slogans. This gallery of images captures some of the carnage on the streets.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Rugby Stars Attacked With Machetes and Swords
Three French rugby internationals who all play for Clermont were attacked by a gang with machetes and swords in southern France, police said on Sunday.
They had been to a nightclub and were walking back to their hotel when they were set upon by the gang for no apparent reason, police said, adding that no-one was detained at the scene of the attack.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Online Forums Overflow With Hate Over Israel Offensive
The deadly Israeli offensive in Gaza has let loose an unprecedented wave of hate on media websites and social networks in France that moderators say they are struggling to contain.
The bombardment by land, sea and air that has killed at least 425 Palestinians has enflamed tensions far afield from the Middle East, especially in France with its large Muslim and Jewish communities.
Paris protests in support of Gaza residents have degenerated into violence on several occasions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gaza Assault Unleashes Online Hate in France
The deadly Israeli offensive in Gaza has let loose an unprecedented wave of hate on media websites and social networks in France that moderators say they are struggling to contain.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Berlin Imam Prays for the Annihilation of Jews
Imam in Berlin calls in a sermon for “the annihilation of Jews” who he says are “slayers of prophets.”
An imam in the German capital, Berlin, recently gave a sermon in which he expressed support for Gaza and called for “the annihilation of Jews”.
The sermon by Sheikh Abu Bilal Ismail, which was given last Friday at the Al-Nur Mosque was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
“Gaza is the land of glory, the land of jihad, the land of honor, which is facing the strongest war machine, the Zionist Jews, these criminals, these slayers of prophets,” he said. “Oh Allah, destroy the Zionist Jews. They are no challenge for you,” he continued.
“Count them and kill them to the very last one. Don’t spare a single one of them. Shake the ground beneath their feet. Make them suffer terribly. Deflect their bullets. Disperse them. They behave tyranically all over the world and spread corruption.”
MEMRI has documented several incidents of Muslim extremism in Europe, including one in which Islamists in Britain threatened during a protest that Islam will dominate France and England, and called to implement Islamic Sharia law in all of Europe.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
German Jews Condemn ‘Explosion of Hate’
The American Jewish Committee in Berlin has filed a complaint with the city’s police about anti-Semitic slogans being chanted at pro-Palestine rallies, while Germany’s Jewish community on Monday condemned an “explosion of evil and violent hatred of Jews”.
In a pro-Palestine rally that took place last Thursday in Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm anti-Jewish slogans were reportedly chanted by a crowd of primarily young protesters…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
German Jewish Community Condemns Virulent Anti-Semitism
Multiple incidents in Germany and throughout Europe lead to outcry over ‘explosion of hate.’
Germany’s Jewish community on Monday condemned an “explosion of evil and violent hatred of Jews” at a recent string of pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the country, AFP reports.
Protesters waving Palestinian flags and signs of late leader Yasser Arafat have in recent days openly shouted angry anti-Semitic slogans at rallies against Israel’s Gaza offensive, according to German media. Exclaiming “Allahu Akbar” (God is great), crowds in Berlin have reportedly yelled “Death to Israel” and chanted “Zionists are fascists, killing children and civilians”.
To top that, a Berlin imam has openly prayed for the annihilation of Zionist Jews, asking Allah to “kill them to the very last one.”
The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dieter Graumann, said: “We are currently experiencing in this country an explosion of evil and violent hatred of Jews, which shocks and dismays all of us. We would never in our lives have thought it possible anymore that anti-Semitic views of the nastiest and most primitive kind can be chanted on German streets,” he said in a statement.
He demanded “clear and loud condemnations from politicians, the media and civil society” against the hatred in the country that perpetrated the Holocaust. “Jews are once again openly threatened in Germany and sometimes attacked, synagogues are being defaced and declared as targets,” he said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Archaeologists in Norway have unearthed what they believe to be a skull 8,000 years old that could contain the oldest remnants of a human brain.
The discovery was made at a dig site in Stokke, southwest of Oslo.
Initial findings suggest the skull belonged to a child no older than ten years old, while an adult was also buried in a fetal-like position in the grave.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Reform Minister Rejects Criticism
(AGI) Rome, July 21 — Reform Minister Maria Elena Boschi, speaking in the Seneate, has rejected what she described as “flaky portrayals” of reforms. Boschi emphasised the urgent need for constitutional reform that also “derives from the need to prove to Europe that reforms are continuing to be implemented. There is also a need to comply with the demand for change expressed by citizens also in the recent European elections.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
A Dutch man who lost his only child on MH17 has written a letter to “Monster Mr Putin” and outlined the life that his 17-year-old daughter planned to lead.
Hans de Borst, whose daughter Elsemiek de Borst was killed along with her mother, said the 17-year-old planned to finish high school and become an engineer.
In a grief-stricken open letter that went viral after being posted on social media sites, he signed off as “Hans de Borst — whose life is ruined”.
“Mr. Putin, Many thanks to the Separatist leaders of Ukrainian government for the murder of my dear and only child, Elsemiek,” he wrote.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland: Mosque Site Linked to Homes Development
PLANS for a new mosque in a Glasgow suburb could pave the way for hundreds of houses to be built on greenbelt landThe Evening Times has learned that a group known as Muslims of East Renfrewshire is to be handed a £2million plot in Newton Mearns free of charge.
It is hoped the deal will smooth the way for a housing development at Patterton Farm, a greenbelt site near the station.
The area’s 3000 Muslims have long fought for a mosque in Newton Mearns, but a campaign against proposals to build near Eastwood High School was hijacked by far-right extremists the Scottish Defence League.
The planning application was blocked by East Renfrewshire Council earlier this year. But a corner of 40-acre Patterton Farm has now emerged as a site…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Burka Bans Spread Across Europe as Catalan Town Becomes Latest to Ban Full Face Veil
The town of Reus in the Catalan province of Tarragona has become the first in Spain to ban the wearing of full-face veils in public, a move which follows a judgment on July 1 by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) which found that a French law banning the wearing of the veil did not breach the Convention on Human Rights…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Bricks Delay’ Stalls Work on £4.5 Million Normacot Mosque
WORK to build a new mosque in a community is set to resume next month.
The Noor Gilani Mosque, in Chaplin Road, Normacot, plans to move to a new premises on the other side of the road.
The first stage of the £4.5 million development was completed in November, but since then work on the project has come to a standstill.
Now residents who raised questions about the future of the scheme have been reassured work will restart soon…
[Reader reply to scooby by THETROJON on 21 July 2014.]
Don’t worry about the parking scooby they take a look at the yellow lines and just park police and traffic wardens will not be giving any parking tickets to them . just like the place in Tunstall
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Halesowen Mosque Minaret Application Refused by Dudley Council
HUNDREDS of objections have scuppered plans to build two 29 foot minarets and a dome on a Halesowen mosque.
Dudley Council planning officers refused the application from The Baitul Ghafoor Mosque, Long Lane, before the development control committee stage.
A 225 name petition calling for the application to be refused was handed into Dudley Council and local councillors also registered their objections…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Israel Supporters Attacked by Pro-Palestinian Gang, One Man Injured
Supporters of Israel were attacked by a pro-Palestinian gang as they peacefully protested yesterday, one man had to be treated at the scene and others complained of intimidation. The protest was organised to counter the enormous rally in London over the weekend by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC)…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Nicky Morgan Clears Out Michael Gove’s Reforming Policy Advisers
The news will fuel fears among some Conservatives that Mrs Morgan wants to slow the pace of Mr Gove’s educational reforms.
Nicky Morgan has moved on three of Michael Gove’s key policy advisers despite telling MPs she was committed to her predecessor’s controversial reforms. Mrs Morgan’s promotion to education secretary last week was the most surprising move in a wide ranging reshuffle ordered by David Cameron, the Prime Minister…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Pupils at Suffolk Primary School Speak 58 Languages
Primary school in Ipswich has 470 pupils that speak more than 58 different languages
Pupils at a primary school in Suffolk speak 58 different languages, it has emerged as the head teacher spoke of the challenges his school faces.
Hillside Community Primary School in Ipswich has just 471 pupils aged between three years old and eleven but many do not speak English as their first language and it has had to employ multilingual teachers.
There were 58 different languages spoken by pupils at the school, with the most common being Portuguese, Polish, and Lithuanian…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Stop Pretending Trojan Horse Plot is Fake, Urges Birmingham MP
Perry Barr MP Khalid Mahmood says council investigation had proved a takeover conspiracy did exist.
It’s time for politicians, parents and campaigners to stop “burying their heads in the sand” and accept that there was a conspiracy to take over Birmingham schools, a city MP has warned.
Speaking as the Government prepares to publish the findings on Tuesday of its own inquiry into the Trojan Horse affair, MP Khalid Mahmood (Lab Perry Barr) said a council investigation had proved a conspiracy existed…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Trojan Horse Plot Teachers Keep Jobs
by Andrew Gilligan
Senior staff at Birmingham schools implicated in the so-called Trojan Horse plot are allowed to keep their jobs in a deal struck hours after Michael Gove was removed as Education Secretary
Senior teachers heavily implicated in the so-called Trojan Horse plot to Islamise Birmingham state schools will keep their jobs, despite damning criticism from four official inquiries.
Only hours after Michael Gove was removed as Education Secretary last week, Department for Education officials made a “five-point agreement” with the management of the academy schools at the centre of the plot — Park View, Golden Hillock and Nansen — according to the trust that runs all three.
In a copy of the agreement sent to parents, one of the points states “the senior leaders of the academies are recognised as having strong track records in raising achievement and will have a big contribution to the future leadership of the academies”.
Although the governors of the three schools have all resigned, including Tahir Alam, the plot’s alleged ringleader, the agreement suggests that the head teachers and senior staff implicated in the plot can stay. Park View Educational Trust, which runs the schools, said this was a “condition” of Mr Alam’s resignation.
The agreement, by Whitehall officials, is an early challenge for Nicky Morgan, the new Education Secretary…
[Reader comment by Bradleybear on 20 July 2014.]
Appeasement again, these muslims must be laughing their heads off.
[Reader comment by jph on 20 July 2014.]
You only need to be a dinner lady who accidentally serves non-halal meat to a muslim girl to be sacked by Birmingham Council (who also apologised to her furious parents).
http://www.parentdish.co.uk/2013/02/21/dinner-lady-sacked-for-serving-muslim-children-non-halal-meat/
[…]
[Reader comment by KlingonOffTheStarboardBow on 20 July 2014.]
Nauseating. These people do not belong in Britain. Not only should they have lost their jobs, they should also have been deported.
What a craven, useless political establishment we have. Councillors allowed this to happen for fear of “Islamophobia”.
A) They are elected and paid to DO THEIR JOBS PROPERLY, even if this takes courage and more than just turning up to meetings, voting on-message and putting in their claims forms.
B) Given what has happened, “Islamophobia” is a TOTALLY JUSTIFIED ATTITUDE, even if the word is stupid.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Warning Over ‘Terrorist’ Label for UK Rebels
Muslim leaders tell Sky News that the Government’s legal stance on Britons fighting abroad could “increase the risk” to the UK.
By Jason Farrell, Sky News Correspondent
Muslim leaders in the UK have warned against laws that automatically brand British fighters in Syria as terrorists.
It comes as Home Secretary Theresa May launches a campaign today to discourage young men from going to fight in Syria and Iraq. A short film will focus on the distress it can cause their families…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia: Serbian Entity Leader: Our Aim is Independence
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, JULY 21 — The president of the mainly Serb entity of Bosnia Herzegovina, Milorad Dodik, said on Monday his political program ‘‘is strengthening the autonomy of the Republika Srpska until independence is reached, and I think events in Crimea, with the referendum, set a good example which could be followed’’. He stressed the Balkan country could not survive the way it is.
Since the 1995 Dayton Agreement, which ended war, Bosnia-Herzegovina has included three populations — Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats and Bosnian Muslims — and two entities — the Republika Srpska (RS) and the Muslim-Croat Federation, each with its own institutional structure and government institutions.
There are also mainly tripartite central institutions, something which creates major difficulties in decision-making with vetoes by different ethnic groups, who are constantly at odds.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cairo — The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) deprecated the decision issued by the Tunisian government on July 19 to close some satellite channels and social networking pages.
“Mahdi Gomaa”, head of the Tunisian government, issued a set of decisions to close some satellite channels. He also ordered the minister of Higher education, Scientific Research and Communication Technologies (MESRST) to fight against some social networking pages; claiming that those means turned to be platforms of apostasy, incitement to violence and jihad. It is worth mentioning that the decisions were part of a campaign launched by the government, in which it arrested about 60 individuals “who are called Islamists”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Manila Orders Total Evacuation After Filipino Worker Decapitated in Benghazi
A Filipino construction worker has been found decapitated in Benghazi six days after he was kidnapped in the city’s Gwarsha district.
The Filipino Embassy has now ordered a nationwide, mandatory evacuation of its citizens over the deteriorating security situation, Filipino community leader Dora Bathai told the Libya Herald. She said Fillipino nationals in Benghazi had been left stunned by the gruesome attack which she described as “inhuman”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ongoing Violence at Libya’s Main Airport Leaves 47 Dead
Clashes between rival militias in Libya’s capital have killed 47 people in the past 24 hours, Associated Press reports. The battle for control of Tripoli’s international airport resumed Sunday after ceasefire efforts failed. The fighting has left 120 people wounded…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Kills Militants Entering From Gaza, Death Toll Tops 500
(Reuters) — Israeli forces killed at least 10 Palestinian militants on Monday after they crossed the border from Gaza through two tunnels, the military said, as the death toll from the two-week conflict passed 500…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Two Americans Among the 13 IDF Fallen in Gaza
This weekend the IDF released the names of 13 members of the elite Golani Brigade who fell while engaged in heavy fighting in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge. While supporters of Israel grieve for all of the IDF fallen and those that were downed in mortal combat against the Jihadis of Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza, two were dual Israeli-American citizens.Max Steinberg, 24, of Woodlands Hills, California was killed when the APC that he and several others were riding in was hit by an IED. The second was Sean Carmeli 21, who was born of Israeli parents and raised in South Padre Island, Texas before returning to spend his high school years in Ra’anana Israeli. Carmeli was killed like Steinberg during the intense fighting in Shejaiya, what Israel PM Netanyahu called a “terrorist bastion” laden with rocket launching sites.
We learned yesterday of the injuries sustained by another dual Israeli American Golani Brigade member Jordan Low of Pikesville, Maryland who was injured in a fire while clearing buildings in Gaza. Like Steinberg and Carmeli, this young American -Israeli left for Israel after high school to enter military training with the IDF. He has been removed for treatment at a hospital in Tel Aviv and his family will be flying to Israel to visit him.
These young Israeli American Jews are indicative of the commitment of many young diaspora Jews who make aliyah to Israel to undergo training in elite and regular IDF combat units.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Rockets found in UN school are reportedly handed over to terrorist group.
The UN agency for Palestinian Arab “refugees,” UNRWA, has caused outrage by apparently giving rockets to Hamas. On Thursday, UNRWA confirmed that 20 rockets had been found in one of its vacant schools in Gaza.
UNRWA staff said last week that they had “informed the relevant parties and successfully took all necessary measures for the removal of the objects.” However, Channel 2 reports Sunday that — rather than destroying the rockets — UNRWA workers called Hamas to come remove them…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
As Christians Are Massacred in Iraq, Laid-Back Obama Maintains His Shameful Silence
By Damian Thompson
Christians in Mosul have been offered three choices by ISIS:
1. Convert to Islam.
2. Pay the ‘jizya’ tax that renders them dhimmis — i.e., second-class citizens granted limited protection if they hand over half an ounce of pure gold.
3. Death by the sword.
They had until noon today to make up their minds.
Bit of a no-brainer, really. Mosul’s Christians — Catholics and Orthodox who until this month had celebrated Mass in the city every Sunday for 1,600 years — are fleeing for safety…
[Reader comment by Adam Carter on 19 July 2014.]
ISIS are doing what mohamedanism instructs them to do. We must face facts: this is what will come to us if we do not confront and subdue this vile and vicious belief system. When mohammedanism is in power then all pretence of peace and tolerance are put aside. We must stop the advance of mohammedanism
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Forty Years After the Invasion of Cyprus
by Daniel Pipes
Today marks the gloomy 40th anniversary of the day that Turkish troops overpowered the tiny, almost undefended island of Cyprus in a brutal exercise of military might whose immorality only intensifies with the passing decades.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Australian Teenager Confirmed as Baghdad Suicide Bomber
SYDNEY, July 21 (Xinhua) — A suicide bomber who killed himself and several others in an attack in Iraq last week was an 18-year- old Australian, authorities revealed on Monday.
The attack happened in the center of Baghdad on Thursday, near the Shiite mosque of Abdullah bin Rawah in the main wholesale market of Shorja. The Islamic State named the man as Abu Bakr al-Australi on a Twitter feed after the attack.
Australian Attorney-General George Brandis said the Melbourne teenager is the second Australian suicide bomber in the Iraq and Syria conflicts…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Baghdad Suicide Bomber ‘Was German’
A suicide bomber who below himself up in Baghdad on Saturday was a German, according to report. A series of attacks by Islamist extremist group ISIS shook the Iraqi capital, killing at least 24 people.
German security services believe around 300 Germans have gone to fight in Syria, many of them for Islamic extremist groups, but this is the first report of a German dying while fighting in Iraq.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqi Christians Are Raped, Murdered and Driven From Their Homes — And the West is Silent
By Tim Stanley
For the first time in 1,600 years, Mass is not being said in Mosul: an ancient culture has been wiped out in a matter of weeks. It’s a war crime that, strangely, no one seems to want to talk about…
[Reader comment by therealpm on 21 July 2014.]
Tim Stanley is right in his assertion that the West’s response to the horrors being perpetrated in Mosul is utterly contemptuous. Our so called political leaders are displaying the obsequious dhimmitude with which they have become infected in its full measure. They won’t need to be asked to pay the jizya because they are already paying it, and the price that has been demanded is the sacrifice of their own countries and people. Neither have the media covered themselves with glory. While they obsessed over Israel and Russia, these far worse atrocities have slipped beneath the radar. They failed to see what they had no wish to see, so fearful are they of any criticism of Muslims.
I have little doubt that the well known islamic scholar David Cameron will shortly be telling us that the ethnic cleansing of the Christians in Mosul has nothing to do with Islam, which is a benignly peaceful and tolerant religion which fully respects the rights of minorities and is a paragon of virtue. No doubt the Christians will be blamed for their own demise, perhaps being blamed because they supported Saddam Hussein, the Mongols or the Crusaders. It doesn’t matter as any old excuse will do as long as responsibility can be deflected from the perpetrators, who are Muslims and therefore above criticism from our ultra-dhimmified leaders.
It is of course all too likely that the butchers of Mosul include several of those who have gone from Britain to fight for ISIS; people who are just as British as we are ourselves as we are always being told. David Cameron thinks we have much to learn from the Muslims in Britain. Well we can certainly learn how to ethnically cleanse an unwanted population.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Jihadists Seize Ancient Iraqi Monastery and Expel Monks
Islamic State fighters order monks to leave fourth-century monastery after issuing ultimatum to Christians to leave, convert, die or pay protection money, local residents say
Jihadist militants have taken over a monastery in northern Iraq, one of the country’s best-known Christian landmarks, and expelled its resident monks, a cleric and residents said Monday.
Islamic State (IS) fighters stormed Mar (Saint) Behnam, a fourth-century monastery run by the Syriac Catholic church near the predominantly Christian town of Qaraqosh, on Sunday, the sources said.
“You have no place here anymore, you have to leave immediately,” a member of the Syriac clergy quoted the Sunni militants as telling the monastery’s residents. He said the monks pleaded to be allowed to save some of the monastery’s relics but the fighters refused and ordered them to leave on foot with nothing but their clothes.
Christian residents from the area told AFP the monks walked several miles along a deserted road and were eventually picked up by Kurdish peshmerga fighters who drove them to Qaraqosh…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
3 Killed in Heavy Fighting in Ukraine’s Donetsk
DONETSK, Ukraine, July 21 (Xinhua) — At least three people were killed as heavy fighting erupted in the east Ukrainian city of Donetsk on Monday between insurgents and the government troops.
Intensive gunfire and blasts were heard near the airport and railway station in the northwest of the insurgent-controlled city, where local residents were fleeing the battle zone.
At least three people were killed and another one wounded in the latest fighting, the Interfax news agency quoted health authorities in Donetsk as saying…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Dozens of Civilians Killed in Attack on Donetsk
(AGI) Moscow, July 21 — Dozens of civilians have died in a Ukrainian Army offensive on Donetsk, the heart of the separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine. The news was announced by the deputy premier of the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk, Andrei Prugin, who also spoke of air strikes, and was reported by Moscow’s Eco radio. Other witnesses have reported “a few” dead among pro-Russia militias and government troops.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Edward Snowden to Work With Russia on Anti-Spy Technology
Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden announced plans to work with Russia, where he’s now residing, to develop anti-surveillance technology aimed at shuttering government spy operations around the globe.
Mr. Snowden called for attendees of the Hackers on Planet Earth conference in Moscow to support the endeavor, ZDNET.com reported.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Under Pressure to Broaden Russia Sanctions
BRUSSELS — The US and the UK are putting pressure on the EU to impose tougher sanctions on Russia in the wake of the Malaysia Airlines disaster.
The calls come ahead of an EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Tuesday (22 July) — the first opportunity for the bloc to discuss a joint reaction to the incident in which hundreds of Europeans, mostly Dutch people, lost their lives.
Both the US and the UK have said pro-Russia rebels shot down the plane using a Russian-supplied missile.
US secretary of state John Kerry added on Sunday on Fox News that “we are trying to encourage our European friends to realise this is a wake-up call, and hopefully they will also join us in these tougher sanctions”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Billionaires in ‘Horror’ As Putin Risks Isolation
Russia’s richest businessmen are increasingly frantic that President Vladimir Putin’s policies in Ukraine will lead to crippling sanctions and are too scared of reprisal to say so publicly, billionaires and analysts said.
If Putin doesn’t move to end the war in Ukraine in the wake of last week’s downing of a Malaysia Air jet in rebel-held territory, he risks becoming an international outcast like Belarus’s Aleksandr Lukashenko, whom the U.S. famously labeled Europe’s last dictator, one Russian billionaire said on condition of anonymity. What’s happening is bad for business and bad for Russia, he said.
“The economic and business elite is just in horror,” said Igor Bunin, who heads the Center for Political Technology in Moscow.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Rebels to Hand Over Downed Plane’s Data Recorders to Malaysia, Its Prime Minister Says
After days of obstruction, Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine permitted Dutch forensics experts on Monday to search the wreckage of the downed Malaysia Airlines jetliner destroyed by a surface-to-air missile, allowed bodies of the victims to be evacuated by train and agreed to give the plane’s flight recorder boxes to the Malaysia government.
Prime Minister Najib Razak of Malaysia, in a live broadcast early Tuesday in Kuala Lumpur, said his government had reached an agreement with the Ukrainian separatists to gain control of the bodies, which were to be sent to the Netherlands, and the so-called black boxes recovered from the crash site.
Mr. Razak said the boxes were to be handed over to Malaysian representatives in Donetsk.
| [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Crash: Dutch Media Call for Sanctions Against Russia
Five days have passed since Malaysian airline flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine, killing 193 Dutch nationals. Here is a round-up of the latest media comment.
Elsevier’s political commentator Eric Vrijsen focuses on prime minister Mark Rutte’s rejection of a Dutch military presence in Ukraine. ‘Mark Rutte, why else do we have elite troops?’ the news magazine asks in its editorial headline.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Can Malaysia Airlines Salvage Its Brand in Wake of MH370 and MH17 Disasters?
Some analysts say state-owned airline won’t survive a year without substantial cash injection from Malaysian government
Malaysia Airlines is in uncharted territory after the disappearance of flight 370 in March with 239 people aboard was followed this week by the downing of another of its jets, carrying 298 people, over Ukraine.
Before the disasters the carrier had among the worst financial performance of any airline. An even bigger question mark now hangs over the future of Malaysia Airlines, with its brand tied to two almost unfathomable tragedies.
Some analysts say the state-owned airline won’t survive a year without a substantial cash injection from the Malaysian government.
A bailout would address the airline’s immediate financial problems but without far-reaching changes it could remain a burden on taxpayers and shrivel into regional obscurity.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Family Considers Killing 10-Year-Old Daughter After Mullah Rapes Her in Afghanistan Mosque
It was bad enough that the alleged rape took place in the sanctity of a mosque and that the accused man was a mullah who invoked the familiar defence that it had been consensual sex.
But the victim was only 10 years old. And there was more: The authorities said her family members openly planned to carry out an honour killing in the case — against the young girl. The mullah offered to marry his victim instead.
This past week, the awful matter became even worse. On Tuesday, local policemen removed the girl from the shelter that had given her refuge and returned her to her family, despite complaints from women’s activists that she was likely to be killed.
The case has broader repercussions. The head of the Women for Afghan Women shelter here where the girl took refuge, Dr. Hassina Sarwari, was at one point driven into hiding by death threats from the girl’s family and other mullahs, who sought to play down the crime by arguing the girl was much older than 10. One militia commander sent Sarwari threatening texts and an ultimatum to return the girl to her family. The doctor said she now wanted to flee Afghanistan.
The head of the women’s affairs office in Kunduz, Nederah Geyah, who actively campaigned to have the young girl protected from her family and the mullah prosecuted, resigned May 21 and moved to another part of the country.
The case itself would just be an aberrant atrocity, except that the resulting support for the mullah, and for the girl’s family and its honour killing plans, have become emblematic of a broader failure to help Afghan women who have been victims of violence…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistani Forces Target Militants Without Discrimination in Waziristan — Security Advisor
ISLAMABAD, July 21 (Xinhua) — A top Pakistani security adviser on Monday told a visiting U.S. regional envoy that the security forces are targeting all armed groups in the North Waziristan tribal region.
The comments came days after the U.S. commander of NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, General Joseph Dunford, said he has reservations about the overall effectiveness of the army operations in North Waziristan…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Bad Meat: KFC and McDonald’s “Duped” By Chinese Supplier
World food giants, including Pizza Hut and Yum Brands, discard the Shanghai Husi Food Company. A TV report shows green, unpleasantly odoriferous meat as it goes through reprocessing to be made “anew”.
Shanghai (AsiaNews) — A report broadcast by Shanghai-based Dragon TV shows meat, already green and odorous, as it is reprocessed, refrozen and repackaged with a new expiry date. Viewers can also see food that had fallen on the floor picked up and thrown into processing machines.
All this was taped at a plant run by Husi, a food processing company that until recently supplied some of the world’s largest fast food companies, giants like McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut and Yum, an Asian food giant power.
In view of the report featuring factory workers mishandling food, the authorities sealed the factory and its computers and opened an investigation.
Buyers, who did not know about the practices at the factory, cancelled orders and apologised to customers, who now might not find some products for a while.
In the documentary, when a group of McDonald’s inspectors visited the factory, the bags containing discarded food disappeared from the production chain. “We can’t add them [back] during the inspection,” a staffer can be heard telling the reporter, who worked there undercover.
Husi is the China-based subsidiary of the OSI Group, an Illinois-based food-processing conglomerate. In China, OSI sells beef, chicken, pork, vegetables and noodles.
The Shanghai-based factory processes 25,000 tonnes of food annually, according to its own figures. Earlier this year, it received a food safety award from Jiading district.
McDonald’s has about 2,000 restaurants in China, employing some 100,000 people.
Yum has 6,200 branches in China, according to its 2013 annual report. The company made almost half its revenue in China.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Philippine Gov’t, Muslim Rebel Group Disagree on Draft Bangsamoro Basic Law
MANILA, July 21 (Xinhua) — The Philippine government said Monday that “significant points of differences” on the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) continue to threaten the roadmap towards the establishment of a Bangasamoro government.
Government of the Philippines peace panel head Miriam Coronel- Ferrer said that the government stands firm that it wants a BBL that can withstand political and legal scrutiny and be acceptable to various stakeholders, and the nation as a whole…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
More Than 3,000 Kenyan Soldiers Have Died in Somalia, Kenya Losing the War
In a shocking report that has yet to be released but which we have seen, we have learnt that more than 3,000 soldiers have died in Somalia and Kenya is fighting a losing war.
Last week Raila demanded that the Uhuru government furnish reports on how many soldiers have died in Somalia but he was quickly shut down by Uhuru’s cronies who questioned why he wanted this valuable information.
Well, the truth is now out. Kenyans refuse to face the fact that “Operation_Linda_Nchi” is costing tax payers over 100 MILLION a day to run this farce of a war…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Boko Haram Kills at Least 150 People in Damboa
(AGI) Abuja, July 21 — Boko Haram Islamist gunmen have killed at least 150 people in the town of Damboa, in Nigeria’s north-eastern Borno state. Damboa is 90 km from the state capital Maiduguri.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa: When Racism, Islamophobia and #BringBackOurGirls Collide
What happens when racism, Islamophobia, and #BringBackOurGirls collide in a single advertisement for charity? More to the point, how does that even happen? RA’EESA PATHER explains.
I tried to ask the gurus at Ogilvy and Mather Durban what exactly they were snorting when they conceptualised an ad for women’s abuse organisation, The Sahara Shelter, but they remained mum — our creative director is out of town, they said. Be that as it may, the ad is still fluttering around as a demonstration of just how backward advertising in this country is…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
3,500 Migrants Get Through Barrier to Melilla in Morocco
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JULY 21 — Out of more than 10,000 who have made the attempt since the beginning of the year, 3,500 migrants have managed to enter Melilla, the Spanish enclave in Morocco, surpassing its double-barrier fence, Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diez said Monday. The number marks a 203% increase over the same period in 2013.
Most are from sub-Saharan Africa, who often make attempts ‘en mass’ to overcome the barriers.
The fence “is demonstrating its effectiveness” according to the minister, who noted that compared to 3,450 migrants who managed to enter Spanish territory before May, only about 20 have succeeded in doing so in June.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Five States Fail to Fulfill Asylum Quota
Five out of nine Austrian states did not take in as many asylum seekers as they were supposed to according to a deal from 2012.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libya’s Porous Borders Lead to Illegal Immigration Boom
One of our Observer spoke to undocumented immigrants, many from Sudan, who had just crossed through Libya and were about to try their luck reaching Europe. They described how illegal immigration in Southern Libya has become big business for local militia groups.
The question of illegal immigration is not a new one for Libya. Back in 2007, the European Union offered assistance to then-president Muammar Gaddafi to help control his country’s desert borders in the east. Gaddafi ended the programme after the outbreak of the uprising against his regime in March 2011.
Since then, the situation has only deteriorated. Libya’s land and sea borders are under little or no surveillance.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Governor Deval Patrick on Wednesday said he wanted to find a way for Massachusetts to help alleviate the crisis of children seeking to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, avoiding the type of feud with the White House into which other governors have been drawn, and invoking powerful imagery as his motivation.
“My inclination is to remember what happened when a ship full of Jewish children tried to come to the United States in 1939 and the United States turned them away, and many of them went to their deaths in Nazi concentration camps,” Patrick said when a reporter asked how he viewed the border crisis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
About Those Dirty Little Sisters of the Poor
Boy, our political debate is getting crasser by the moment.
And so it is that the National Organization for Women has put the Little Sisters of the Poor, an international congregation of Roman Catholic nuns who have devoted their lives to caring for the elderly poor, on its “Dirty 100” list.
NOW is upset that the Little Sisters sued the federal government, arguing that new ObamaCare mandates are inhibiting their constitutional right to freely practice their faith — that their vow to advance the dignity of life for every person, no matter how weak or unwanted, means they can never provide insurance policies that fund contraception, abortive drugs and sterilization, which ObamaCare was forcing them to do.
So NOW is calling the Little Sisters dirty — though the group should have done its research before attempting to tarnish some of the most remarkable women who have ever graced this Earth…
| — Hat tip: Val Price | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: MPs Ask Giannini to Intervene for Sacked Lesbian Teacher
Catholic school teacher says was fired over sexual orientation
(ANSA) — Rome, July 21 — Twenty senators from the ruling Democratic Party (PD) on Monday formally called on Education Minister Stefania Giannini to answer for the sacking of a teacher at a publicly funded Catholic school because she might be gay.
The teacher at Sacro Cuore institute in the northern city of Trento, which is run by nuns and is funded by the State, accused the school of dismissing her solely because she wouldn’t confirm or deny insinuations by the principal, Sister Eugenia, that she might be a lesbian.
“The question was offensive, because it violated my rights as a citizen and a teacher,” Silvia (not her real name) told La Repubblica newspaper in an interview.
“Maybe I’m a lesbian, maybe I’m not. But asking me about my sexual orientation as a condition for renewing my contract is unacceptable”.
Sister Eugenia told her that “in order to safeguard the Catholic institution” she couldn’t renew the contract, but that she was prepared to turn a blind eye if Silvia agreed to “take care of the problem.” “In Italy, professionalism, doing good work, don’t count.
What happened to me is medieval,” Silvia told La Repubblica, adding that she is aged between 30 and 40, has been teaching an “important and mandatory subject” at Sacro Cuore for five years, and lives in Trento with someone she loves.
The MPs called for the education minister to “make the Sacro Cuore school respect the law, given that it receives public funds. We invite the minister to intervene immediately to enforce the law and the rights of the dismissed teacher”.
“The fact that this private school receives public funding makes this regrettable incident even more intolerable,” added Reform Ministry Undersecretary Ivan Scalfarotto.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
From behind a smoking sniper rifle high atop his ivory tower peers the secular-”progressive.” He surveys his many victims, strewn across the American landscape below and mockingly sneers, “War on Christianity? What war on Christianity?”
He then resumes shooting, all the while insisting that those uncooperative Christians who scatter for cover behind the word of God and the U.S. Constitution somehow suffer from a “persecution complex” (the baker, the photographer, the florist, the innkeeper, the Christian school administrator, etc.).
Though there are many, it is plain for all to see that abortion and “sexual liberation” remain the two principal theaters in the ongoing culture war battlefront…
| — Hat tip: Val Price | [Return to headlines] |
Hate grafiti outside a mosque near Totonto? I agree with the sentiments expressed, especially “Arabs go home.”
UK families appeal to would be jihadis: Why? Let them all go. MAKE them all go. Hopefully they will all be killed and solve any further problems they might subsequently have caused.
Shouldn’t sheikh abu bilal ismail be locked up for calling for “annihilation of jews?” People in the UK have been locked up for far less just because the comments made on social media were anti islamic.
And the sooner it happens the better!….
I’m ready- Have been for years-
“Lock and load Chaps! Let’s go hunting “Progressives””
Long overdue….
Disgusting people!