Jozias van Aartsen, the mayor of The Hague, has for the time being banned all political demonstrations in Schilderswijk, the district where a Muslim mob confronted and blocked an anti-ISIS demonstration last weekend. The mayor is concerned at the possibility of further violence if the Muslims of Schilderswijk are provoked again.
In other news, ISIS fighters in Iraq blew up a Shiite mosque in the town of Jalawla and publicly executed its muezzin.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Caroline Glick, Egghead, Fjordman, Jerry Gordon, 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.
Spain’s Public Debt Passes €1 Trillion
GDP-to-debt ratio soon set to reach 100% — a figure not seen in more than a century
Spanish public debt has passed a record €1 trillion, the Bank of Spain said on Thursday, ballooning to €1.007 trillion in June, up from €996 billion in May.
The landmark figure, representing 98.4% of last year’s GDP, comes after more than two-and-a-half years of austerity measures, tax hikes and wage freezes by the conservative Popular Party government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. When he took office in late 2011, the debt was €737.4 billion, or 70.4% of GDP.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘The Whole Eurozone is Sick, Not Just France’
François Hollande and co came under fire on Thursday after new figures showed the French economy has ground to a halt. But an economist tells The Local that the stagnation is not just France’s problem.
“This is not just a French problem. We need to remind ourselves that in 2012/13 the Eurozone was the only economic region in the whole world that was in recession. “Italy is in recession and Germany has contracted by 0.2percent. With France, these are the three biggest economies in the Eurozone.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A New Mosque Rises — In Alaska
Construction Is Part of a Building Boom Nationwide as Muslim Population
ANCHORAGE—On the edge of this northern outpost an unfamiliar sight is emerging: twin minarets. Alaska’s small but growing Muslim community is building the state’s first newly constructed mosque.
“This is our future,” said Osama Obeidi, one of the Muslim-Americans leading the building effort for the Islamic Community Center of Anchorage. “We have second-generation Alaskans now, and new people coming all the time. We need a place to call home.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Police Identify Officer Who Killed Teenager in Ferguson
The authorities on Friday identified the Ferguson police officer who fatally shot an unarmed African-American teenager as Darren Wilson, a six-year veteran of the department.
The Ferguson police chief, Thomas Jackson, released the name during a news conference in Ferguson.
The death of Michael Brown, 18, who was walking home from a convenience store on Saturday when he was shot, has ignited several days of protests that have been quashed by police officers shooting rubber bullets and tear gas at groups of demonstrators.
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Texas Gov. Rick Perry Indicted on Charge of Abuse of Power
Gov. Rick Perry of Texas was indicted on two felony counts on Friday by a state grand jury examining his handling of a local district attorney’s drunken driving arrest and the state financing for a public corruption unit under the lawyer’s control.
The indictment was returned late Friday in Austin.
The investigation centered on Mr. Perry’s veto power as governor. His critics asserted that he used that power as leverage to try to get an elected official and influential Democrat and elected official — Rosemary Lehmberg, the district attorney in Travis County — to step down after her arrest for drunken driving last year. Ms. Lehmberg is Austin’s top prosecutor and oversees a powerful public corruption unit that investigates state, local and federal officials; its work led to the 2005 indictment of a former Republican congressman, Tom DeLay on charges of violating campaign finance laws.
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US Jewish Leaders’ Deafening Silence
by Isi Leibler
Over the past few months, the Jewish state has been increasingly castigated by U.S. President Barack Obama and his spokesmen as part of botched efforts to bring about a settlement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The tense relationship deteriorated further in recent weeks when the U.S. ritual endorsement of Israel’s right to self-defense was linked to criticisms of its behavior…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
What’s Behind the Kerfuffle in the Administration on Israel’s Munitions Requests?
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal had a front page article below the fold with the headline, “Gaza Crisis: Israel Outflanks the White House on Strategy”. The theme of the WSJ piece was somehow that Netanyahu had outfoxed the Obama West Wing in obtaining ammunition for Operation Protective Edge through contacts in the Pentagon in an existing munitions supply agreement. The WSJ article stoked the controversy with these comments:…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Your Vote Doesn’t Count as Hollywood Pours Money Into Democrat Campaigns
The following study from professors from Princeton and Northwestern Universities on “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens” is getting some attention. It asks, “Who governs? Who really rules? To what extent is the broad body of U.S. citizens sovereign, semi-sovereign, or largely powerless?”
“The statistical research looked at public attitudes on nearly 1,800 policy issues and determined that government almost always ignores the opinions of average citizens and adopts the policy preferences of monied business interests when shaping the contours of U.S. laws.”
“The study’s findings align with recent trends, where corporate elites have aggressively pursued pro-amnesty policies despite the fact that, according to the most recent Reuters poll, 70% of Americans believe illegal immigrants ‘threaten traditional U.S. beliefs and customs,’ and 63% believe ‘immigrants place a burden on the economy.’“
| — Hat tip: Egghead | [Return to headlines] |
Britain’s “Murky Anti-Semitic Subculture”
by Samuel Westrop
Recent anti-Israel protests have been attended by thousands across Europe. These protests come in opposition to attempts by Israeli forces to quell the rocket fire aimed at Israeli citizens by the Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
In Britain, the protests in support of Hamas have been chiefly organized by a mixture of Sunni Islamist groups and groups aligned with the Socialist Workers Party. The attending protestors, though, seem to come from across the political and religious spectrums…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Cyprus: Remand After Mosque Threat
A 30-YEAR-OLD man from Congo, arrested for allegedly threatening to blow up mosques, and his 27-year-old flatmate from Senegal, were remanded for eight days pn Wednesday by the Limassol court.
According to Sigmalive, the 30-year-old who has a French passport, was reported to the police by the mufti of the mosque in the Ayios Antonios area in Limassol on Tuesday when he reportedly threatened to blow up all the mosques in Cyprus.
The suspect allegedly issued the threat when the mufti asked him what he was doing wandering around his mosque. The suspect was later located by police at his house and he and his roommate were arrested…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Mayor Bans Pro-Israel Anti-ISIS Rally as ‘Too Provocative’
by Abigail R. Esman
While Islamic State (IS) jihadists battle their way across Syria and Iraq — beheading soldiers and civilians, training children for jihad — their supporters across Europe demand “death to Jews” and call for the blood of infidels.
Now, it seems, some European leaders are refusing to fight back…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Every Fifth Swedish Girl Suffers Sex Harassment
Every fifth girl attending Swedish high school has reported being subjected to sexual harassment, according to a new report from an anti-bullying charity.
Some 12,766 children took part in the report compiled by Friends.
“This is a major societal problem that is not given the priority that it should. There is instead an acceptance, but we can’t accept that sexual harassment is part of a child’s everyday life,” said Friends General Secretary Lars Arrhenius.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Demonstrations Banned in the Hague Schilderswijk District
The Hague mayor Jozias van Aartsen is to ban marches through the city’s Schilderswijk district for the time being and is supported in his decision by the public prosecution office, Dutch media report.
He was speaking at an emergency meeting of the city council on Thursday evening, called after riots in the district last weekend.
‘I am more sorry than I can say that I have had to take this decision,’ said Van Aartsen, who broke off his holiday to attend the meeting.
Last weekend’s riot broke out when around 150 Muslim youngsters began an illegal protest, blocking the route of a legal march against Muslim radicals and the Islamic State (Isis).
The fact that Van Aartsen was on holiday and there was no statement on the incident from the city council caused an outcry.
The mayor was already under fire for not taking tough action during an anti-Jewish rally on July 24, when demonstrators were heard chanting ‘death to Jews’ and protesters carried pro-Isis flags.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Woman Caught Trying to Smuggle Cocaine in Her Breast Implants at Madrid Airport
A 43-year-old Venezuelan woman has been arrested at Madrid’s Barajas Airport after she was caught trying to smuggle 1.7 kilos of cocaine in two breast implants that had been inserted into her.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: “Racist” Posters Blocked From Busses
The public transport service in Skåne will not allow election campaign posters from the Sweden Democrats on their buses.
Shortly after the Sweden Democrats presented their election campaign posters, Skånetrafiken is pulling the breaks on three of them. The reason is that the transport service does not allow advertisements that could be interpreted as “offensive, discriminating or racist,” the company told newspaper Dagens ETC.
Stockholm counterpart SL, however, has no problem with the party’s campaign posters. SL told newspaper Expressen that they do not think that the advertisements are crossing any lines.
The Sweden Democrats are not happy with the move and accuses Skånetrafiken of acting like a political player.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Sexual Harassment Common in Schools
One in five girls aged 13 to 16 has suffered sexual harassment in school, according to a new study.
Girls are generally more vulnerable to abuse and feel more unsafe in school than boys, accoring to a new report by the anti-bullying organisation Friends. One in ten boys have experienced sexual harassment compared to one in five girls.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Celebrates 200 Years of Peace
Sweden has not actively taken part in a war since 1814 — breaking even Switzerland’s record for peace. One peace and conflict expert has told The Local that Swedes learned the hard way to take the non-confrontational stance.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Netherlands: ‘Zionist Plot’ Civil Servant Will Not Get Her Job Back
Friday 15 August 2014
The civil servant who said terrorist Islamic State (Isis) is a zionist plot will not return to her job and may be sacked all together, justice minister Ivo Opstelten said on Friday. Yasmina Haifi, on detachment at the National Cyber Security Centre, sent a tweet on Wednesday saying the Islamic State does not exist and is a zionist plot to discredit Muslims…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Hundreds Protest Outside HSBC in Anger at Finsbury Park Mosque Account Closure
Around 300 worshippers from Finsbury Park Mosque staged a protest outside HSBC this afternoon in anger at the bank’s decision to close their account.
The demonstrators chanted “HSBC shame on you” and held placards outside the Seven Sisters Road branch at around 2.30pm.
The action came after the St Thomas’s Road mosque received a letter in July telling them their account would be shut — they say without any reason…
Inspector Paul Standing, who was in charge of policing the demonstration, said: “They were very compliant and good natured. We’d like to thank them for the way they organised and stewarded everything, it was peaceful and without incident. It was perfect from our point of view.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Kurds Clash With ISIS Supporters in Sheffield
Members of Britain’s Kurdish Community have clashed with ISIS supporters in the northern English city of Sheffield, according to the Times. The Kurds were said to be outraged when they saw Gaza protesters waving the black Islamic flag that is often linked with ISIS.
Many Kurds in the UK are refugees from Iraq, and they often have family members still living in the country. This means they get reports about what is happening with the ISIS advance and are, as a result, deeply concerned. When they saw the black flag, they were not willing to leave it unchallenged.
Sarwat Jaf, who witness the clash between the two groups, said: “They said they were helping the Palestinians and they waved a Palestinian flag, but after that they brought the Isis flag as well… The Kurdish people did not want that. They said that Isis are terrorists and are killing our people in Kurdistan.”
The incident was sufficiently serious to warrant the attention of five police officers and a helicopter. Two arrests were made for public order offences.
South Yorkshire Police broke up the incident, and claimed that the Kurds had mistook the black flag of Islam for the ISIS flag. There are a number of black flags used by various Muslim groups, most of which are also used by ISIS…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Labour and Conservatives Join Forces to Condemn BNP’s Campaign Against Mosque in New Addington
Political rivals have joined forces to condemn a British National Party-led campaign opposing a mosque in New Addington.
Croydon Central MP Gavin Barwell, New Addington and Fieldway councillors and Greater London Authority member Steve O’Connell issued a joint statement ahead of a meeting, hosted by the far right party, which it said “sought to whip up fear and Islamophobia”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Major Anti-ISIS Rally Planned for London, Concerns Over EDL, Islamist Attendance
In the shadow of major Gaza protests in London, campaigners will tomorrow stage what they hope will be a large scale anti-ISIS demonstration in the UK capital.
Following this week’s action outside Number 10 Downing Street, Britain’s Kurdish community alongside counter-extremism campaigners will march from BBC Broadcasting House towards the US embassy before moving towards Marble Arch…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Mums have rallied behind a nursery accused of “starving” a 5-year-old girl because the meat in her sandwich was non-halal…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: New Gillingham Mosque to be Built on Car Park Next to Town Railway Station
Plans for a large mosque were approved by Medway council this evening as police waited outside after a ‘day of action’ by right wing activists.
Right wing pressure group Britain First carried out a ‘day of action’ in the Medway towns today in protest at the mosque plans.
Activists handed out leaflets and protested with a banner stating “No more mosques!”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Nigel Farage Confirms South Thanet Candidacy
UKIP leader Nigel Farage has confirmed he wants to stand in the South Thanet seat in next year’s general election.
Mr Farage said he had “thrown my hat in the ring”, ending months of speculation that he was lining up the Kent constituency as his target for the 2015 contest…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Who’s Responsible for These Anti-Semitic Attacks? Give Me One Guess…
by Rod Liddle
Just pretend for a moment that of, say, 200 anti-Semitic attacks in the UK, a study discovered that 198 of them had been committed by Methodists…
I was attacked by a swan the other day, as I walked along the bank of the River Stour in Kent. The creature climbed out of the water and lunged towards me, wings puffed up, making this guttural and hate-filled coughing noise…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
How Israel’s Military Bureaucracy Bungled the Terror Tunnel Threat
by Jerry Gordon and Ilana Freedman
Missteps occurred during the October War of 1973 and the 34 day Second War with Lebanon in 2006. The Agranat and Winograd Commissions were convened by Israel’s Knesset to investigate intelligence failures and military operational problems resulting in recommendations for corrective actions. What is apparent during the current Operation Protective Edge in Gaza is that bureaucratic bungling in Israel’s intelligence and planning echelons may have contributed to the IDF casualty toll in Gaza from attacks by Hamas commandos using the terror tunnels.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Jihad: Truce Deal With Israel Next Monday
Terror group says an agreement will be signed at the end of the current ceasefire, confirms Israeli concessions.
An Islamic Jihad spokesperson on Friday claimed that a truce deal with Israel will be signed as soon the current five-day ceasefire ends next Monday at midnight.
“We expect a complete truce agreement to be signed right as the five-day ceasefire ends. The delegation has made much progress in ending the siege and the offensive on Palestinians,” Yousef al-Hasayneh told the Palestinian Arab Ma’an News Agency…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Arab Press Blasts Islamic State Militants for Tarnishing Muslims Worldwide
A growing chorus of top Muslim leaders and Arab pundits around the world are strongly condemning the “cancerous” actions of extremist Islamic State militants, saying the ruthless group’s horrific campaign of murder in Iraq does serious harm to all Islam.
In the past, Muslim leaders have faced criticism from inside and outside the religion for being slow to condemn terrorism in the name of Islam. An editorial in the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi last month called on moderate Muslims to denounce the actions of the group formerly known as ISIS, which has killed thousands and left an estimated 1.5 million people displaced in northern Iraq.
“All we have to do to understand the high price that Muslims pay on all levels (for such actions) is to see how Westerners snatch up (such reports on) ISIS’s conquests, invasions and despicable actions, and share them on social media in order to tarnish the image of Islam,” the July 24 editorial read.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Car Bomb in Syria’s Deraa Province Kills 14
BEIRUT: At least 14 people were killed Friday when a car bomb exploded in front of a mosque in Deraa province of southern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Britain-based activist group said the death toll for the bombing in the rebel-controlled town of Namar was likely to rise because of the high number of serious injuries…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
EU Ministers Seek Unity on Arming Iraqi Kurds
(BRUSSELS) — EU ministers convene in Brussels on Friday in a rare summertime meeting to seek unanimous approval for the shipment of arms to Iraqi Kurds fighting Islamic State jihadists.
The unscheduled gathering comes after days of forceful demands by France, whose Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius criticised EU colleagues for remaining on holiday while besieged civilians were being killed in Iraq.
“When there are people dying… you have to come back from your holidays,” Fabius said earlier this week, after writing a letter to EU foreign affairs supremo Catherine Ashton demanding an extraordinary meeting of ministers.
Italy, which currently holds the EU’s rotating leadership and whose foreign minister Federica Mogherini is on the short-list to replace Ashton this year, also called for talks.
“We’re not talking about military intervention but providing support, even of a military sort, to the Kurdish government,” she said.
Defence matters are strictly the purview of member states and France and Britain have already announced they will ship weapons to Iraqi Kurds struggling to push back Islamic State fighters.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In Iraq — Children Drinking Parents Blood to Survive
“There is still a big humanitarian crisis going on — what I saw was heartbreaking,” British Kurd Taban Shoresh told Sky News.
“We need to do something to rescue those people — 30,000 people trapped on a mountain by IS in fear of extermination. There is no way out — the only way to get to them is by helicopter.
They’ve got absolutely nothing, and I can’t stress this enough. No food, no water. They’re dehydrated. They’ve got no clothes, their shoes have been worn off. It is extremely hot and exposed to the sun.
This is the first time in history where 30,000 people have been trapped on a mountain in fear of being killed — all the leaders need to come together and figure out the best way to rescue these people.. We can’t watch 30,000 people die.”
Why would these people risk starvation, dehydration or death by exposure? Because the only other alternative is death at the hands of ISIS.
[Egghead: The Democrat-controlled USA trained ISIS — and ISIS possesses many American-made weapons and supplies ‘captured’ from the Iraqi military.]
| — Hat tip: Egghead | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS militants may be in a position to pummel other cities in Iraqi army control after capturing American-made weapons the group seized from the Iraqi military, Mitchell Prothero reports for McClatchy DC.
During ISIS’s blitz across northern and central Iraq last month [June 2014], the group captured upwards of 52 155mm M198 howitzers.
Aside from the 52 howitzers, ISIS also took 1,500 U.S.-made Humvees and 4,000 PKC machine guns that can fire upwards of 800 rounds per minute.
[Egghead: ISIS ‘moderates’ could ship the howitzers to the USA via Central America and simply walk over our border (or under via tunnels) with the howitzers and shell our cities with our own weapons. Then, our dear leader would have a fitting pretext to declare martial law and eliminate all elections that hamper his ‘flexibility’ as our ruler.]
| — Hat tip: Egghead | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq’s New Premier Al-Abadi Reaches Out to Alienated Sunnis
Iraq’s new prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, has his work cut out for him. In a country of deep division, he has to find a way to restore trust and bring the alienated Sunni population back into the fold.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: At Least 300 People, Mostly Children, Died on Mount Sinjar, Say Doctors
Exclusive: Doctors of Nawrouz refugee camp have listed 300 names of people — mostly children — who died on Mount Sinjar
At least 300 people, most of them children, died whilst trapped on Mount Sinjar, doctors have told The Telegraph.
As the last few hundred refugees finally received aid or reached the relative safety of camps in Syria and Iraq, families have begun to take stock of their terrifying ordeal…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
In a surprising development, it appears that the group known as ISIS (The Islamic State of Syria and Iraq) may have actually been trained by the United States government. According to a report published in Reuters, the Syrian rebel group was trained in Jordan over the last two years by US government officials and military experts. If this is true, it would shed a very interesting light on what is the actual agenda of the United States government in a country where they profess to be seeking stability.
The plan appears to have been designed to train 10,000 “moderates” of Islam in the hope that they would follow American interests in the region. Arizona Senator John McCain even paid a visit to the group during training to show his support for the group, and to demonstrate the support of the US government for their cause.
| — Hat tip: Egghead | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Destroys Iraqi Shiite Mosque, Execute Muezzin
BAQUBA, Iraq: Jihadist fighters blew up a Shiite prayer hall in the Iraqi town of Jalawla Friday and publicly executed the muezzin, witnesses and a regional police chief said.
Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) fighters detained the muezzin, who calls for Muslim prayers, and blew up the Jalawla husseiniyah, a term used for a Shiite place of worship.
“Then they shot him dead in front of his mosque,” said the police official for Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State: Young British Muslims Debate Caliphate
When the extremist group widely known as Isis (now renamed Islamic State) declared a Caliphate taking in parts of Syria and Iraq, they reignited a debate over the issue.
The Ottoman Empire was the last widely recognised Caliphate and most of those in the West have only the faintest, if any, idea of what the word means.
But for some Muslims it is what they are waiting for, whether they back Islamic State or not — a state to restore a sense of dignity that many feel has been lost…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Vice News and ISIS Have Formed a Bizarre Symbiotic Relationship
By Lara Prendergast
If you haven’t watched Vice News’s five-part documentary about Isis yet, I’d highly recommend it. They’ve gone where no other media company has managed: into the heart of the Islamic State. As a result, Isis and Vice have formed a bizarre symbiotic relationship. Both are youth-focused, both have global ambitions and both have a pioneering spirit. Even their black-and-white branding is similar…
[Reader comment by English Majority on 15 August 2014.]
That’s because there’s a large number of Islamists, Black cultural terrorists and extreme-Left Whites in the Vice staff.
No, sorry. Actually, all of Vice’s staff fall into the above categories.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Says it Partly Destroyed Russian Armoured Column
Ukraine said its forces had attacked and partly destroyed a Russian armoured column that entered Ukrainian territory overnight, a firefight that, if confirmed, would mark a dramatic worsening of the conflict…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Air Force Says Bases Attacked by “Trained Foreign Terrorists”
ISLAMABAD, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) — Pakistan’s Air Force said Friday that highly trained foreign terrorists had carried out the overnight attack on an air force and army aviation base in southwest of the country.
A group of heavily armed militants, some wearing suicide vests, launched attacks on Samnguli air base and an army aviation base in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan, injuring several security personnel. The security forces killed six attackers and cleared the bases…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Mass Faintings Occur at 6 Garment Factories in Cambodia
PHNOM PENH, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) — At least 127 Cambodian garment workers at six different factories got fainted on Friday due to poor health, a local police chief confirmed.
Yim Socheat, police chief of Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district, where the incidents occurred, said the victims had been sent to hospitals soon after the incidents and all of them had recovered after medical treatment. “We preliminarily concluded that workers got fainted because of their poor health,” he said.”Our experts inspected the factories and found no any problems with environment or chemical substances.”
He said after the incidents, the factories allowed other workers to take a day-off…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Seoul Sisters! South Korean Capital to Get Its Own, Littler Mermaid
As part of Copenhagen’s tourism agreement with Seoul, the mayor of the South Korea capital, Park Won-soon, has announced that he wants to erect a copy of The Little Mermaid statue along the banks of the river Han.
Copenhagen City Council is looking into whether ‘The Little Mermaid’s Sister’ project can be realised from a financial perspective and will have to consult with the family of the statue’s creator, Edvard Eriksen.
“You have to be wary of making too many copies and it’s important that there are events that revolve round the statue so that it isn’t passively standing there,” Lise Lyck, the head of the tourism and culture centre at Copenhagen Business School, told Metroxpress newspaper.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bendigo Mosque Permit Condition May be Unconstitutional, Says Judge
A planning permit condition that bans any political discussion on the site earmarked for Bendigo’s controversial first mosque may raise constitutional law issues, a Supreme Court judge has said.
Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal President Justice Greg Garde made the remark as lawyers for the Australian Islamic Mission told the tribunal they would seek changes to the existing permit for a $3 million mosque on the outskirts of Bendigo.
Representing AIM, Chris Townshend, SC, told the tribunal his client would file a new VCAT application seeking to “tidy-up” some conditions of the permit, including altering a requirement of “no political discussion” on the site, by Monday…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
New Legislation Will Strip Welfare Payments From Anyone Assessed as a National Security Risk
Simon Benson National Political Editor
ANY Australian assessed as a national security risk will be immediately stripped of all welfare payments they might be claiming, under new laws to ensure taxpayers aren’t funding terrorism.
But rather than only targeting jihadists and terrorists fighting in the Middle East, the new laws will cover anyone deemed by intelligence agencies to be a security risk, including those at home engaged in extremist activity…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Palestine Protesters Occupy Roof of Port Melbourne Factory
Protesters occupied the roof of a subsidiary of an Israeli arms manufacturer in Port Melbourne on Friday morning, in support of Palestine.
Elbit Systems of Australia is a subsidiary of an Israeli company that manufactures air and land drones and other defence equipment.
Sam Castro, a spokeswoman for the Melbourne Palestine Activist Group, claimed drones used in the Gaza conflict had been built by Elbit…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Three Young Sydney Muslims Talk to Taylor Auerbach About Why They and Other Aussies Convert to Islam
THREE 28-year-olds. All raised in Christian homes. All Australians. Some dark, some fair, some male, some female. They are the faces of Sydney’s new Muslims.
As a little girl with blonde hair and blue eyes growing up on the northern beaches, Sydney mum Jessica was called “a Nazi” by the ignorant young tongues around her.
She remembers the pangs she felt when ridiculed over her crimes — being born fair to a German mother…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Battle Erupts in Somali Capital, 7 Dead
MOGADISHU, Somalia: Combat shook Mogadishu early Friday as government troops launched a dawn attack on a house belonging to a former warlord as part of a disarmament campaign. Seven people died in the violence.
Explosions and gunfire were heard as troops battled militiamen loyal to the former warlord…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Boko Haram ‘Carries Out Mass Abduction’
Suspected Boko Haram Islamists have kidnapped scores of people from remote villages in northeast Nigeria, witnesses say. Several people were also reported to have died in the raids.
Fighters thought to belong to the Islamist militant group Boko Haram have raided fishing communities in Nigeria’s far northeast, abducting some 100 people and killing several others, witnesses who survived the raids said on Friday.
The attacks in the Kukawa Local Government area in Borno state — a Boko Haram stronghold — occurred last Sunday, they said. Many of those abducted are said to have been men and boys aged between 15 and 30.
One witness, Halima Alhaji Adam, said the hostages “were forced into motorboats and taken into Chad.”
A member of the vigilante force that is helping the military to fight Boko Haram, Mohammed Gava, said a number of girls and women were also taken…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: In the Chibok Girls Search, Boko Haram is Winning the Media War
By Liesl Louw-Vaudran
Yesterday, 14 August, marked four months since the kidnapping of over 200 Nigerian schoolgirls from the town of Chibok, Borno state. Very little concrete information is available about their whereabouts, and in the propaganda war over who is in control in northern Nigeria, terror group Boko Haram seems to be one step ahead of Nigerian security forces…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Somalia: Heavy Fighting in Mogadishu Claims Several Lives
Government and AU troops have clashed with a well-armed militia in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. The violence, in which several died, underlines the fragile security situation in the impoverished nation…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Ecuador Turning to Virtual Currency After Oil Loans
After mortgaging most of Ecuador’s oil and gold to finance spending, President Rafael Correa is planning to create a virtual currency that financial professionals say his government could use to pay bills.
Congress last month approved legislation to start a digital currency for use alongside the U.S. dollar, the official tender in Ecuador. Once signed into law, the country will begin using the as-yet-unnamed currency as soon as October.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Dozens of Illegal Migrants Placed in Hands of NGOs as State Centers Reach Limit
A total of 479 illegal sub-Saharan immigrants who arrived in Spain earlier this week in one of the biggest influxes of migrant boats on record remain packed into the indoor padel tennis courts in the municipal sports center in Tarifa, Cádiz province. Nobody — not the police, the Civil Guard and much less the Red Cross — know how much longer they might remain there. They are without shampoo, shower gel or towels. Three portable cabins containing toilets and showers were due to arrive on Thursday. Another 200 or so migrants are packed into the town’s other sports center and face similar problems.
Local police stations do not have the resources to identify the 1,219 undocumented migrants who arrived in the area from across the Strait of Gibraltar in small inflatable boats on Monday and Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Increase in Ukrainian Asylum Seekers
With the conflict in Ukraine escalating, more Ukrainians are seeking asylum in Sweden.
Fresh figures show that the number of Ukrainian asylum seekers has increased from 80 people to some 500 this year.
Carl Bexelius is Assistant Director for Legal Affairs at the Swedish Migration Board. He says it is hard to know what areas the asylum seekers are from. The Migration Board only registers citizenship. But most of them are likely from Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Anti-Semitism and Its Limitations
Outside the US, throughout the Western world, anti-Semitism is becoming a powerful social and political force. And its power is beginning to have a significant impact on Israel’s relations with other democracies.
Consider South Africa. Following a lopsided vote by the University of Cape Town’s Student Union to boycott Israel, Jewish students fear that their own student union will be barred from operating on campus. Carla Frumer from the South African Jewish Student Union told The Times of Israel, “If they prove we are a Zionist organization and support Israel, they can have us banned and seek to de-register us.”
In Sydney, Australia, Jewish families received a triple blow last week when Jewish children on a chartered school bus were assaulted by eight anti-Semitic drunken teenagers.
The first shock was that their children, some as young as five, were terrorized on their school bus.
The second shock was that the bus driver made an unscheduled stop to allow the anti-Semites to board the bus and harass the children.
The third shock was that after catching six of the eight assailants, the police let them out of jail the same evening.
Taken together, the incident revealed an obscene comfort level among Australian authorities with the terrorization of Jewish children. Jewish families cannot assume that their children will be protected by non-Jews, whether they are school bus drivers or the police…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
@Caroline Glick: Anti-Semitism and Its Limitations
European Palestinian sentimentality the last self-loathing gasp of a dying cultural anomaly. Where do they go from here into the jihadist abyss to their own oblivion.