Gates of Vienna News Feed 8/18/2014

As mentioned in last night’s news feed, a combination of U.S. air strikes and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters forced the mujahideen of ISIS to relinquish control of the Mosul Dam. However, when they departed, the jihadis left behind booby traps and mines, so that the Kurds were unable to gain access to the dam’s water pumps. Nevertheless, President Obama announced tonight that Iraqi forces now control the dam.

In other news, without consulting the White House, Governor Jay Nixon of Missouri ordered the National Guard deployed to restore order to the riot-torn city of Ferguson.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Fjordman, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, JP, RR, 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.

USA
» Metropolitan Opera in Tentative Deal With 2 Unions
» Missouri Governor to Deploy National Guard to Ferguson
» U.N. Experts Grill U.S. On Racial Discrimination
 
Europe and the EU
» Belgium: Sabotage to Power Supplies?
» British Government Denies Report Into Muslim Brotherhood Delayed
» France: Saudi Prince’s Convoy in Paris Attacked by Gunmen
» Italy: Zaia to Ask High Court to Halt Renzi’s 80-Euro Tax Bonus
» Italy Tax Burden Has Grown 12.6% Since 1980 Says CGIA Mestre
» NATO Spying Controversy Continues as Germany Spies on U.S. Sec of State
» Scotland: Panda Partnership Strengthened at Edinburgh Zoo
» Targeting Turkey: How Germany Spies on Its Friends
» UK: Birmingham Tesco Free Gaza Demonstrator Denies Five Assault Charges
» UK: Ministers Consider Brotherhood File
» UK: Sainsbury’s Apologizes for Kosher Food Removal
» UK: The Kosher Controversy at Sainsbury’s Speaks to a Profound Problem: Acquiescence to Anti-Semitism
» UK: The Tories Don’t ‘Appear to’ Have a Race Problem. They Have a Race Problem
» UK: Why Can’t Our Government Spot the Difference Between ISIS and the Muslim Brotherhood?
 
North Africa
» Algerian Police Take Action Against Gang Warfare
» Egypt’s Population to Reach 87 Million on Tuesday: Census
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Israel, Palestinians Again Extend Gaza Cease-Fire
» Middle East to Obama: Hit the Road, And Don’t Come Back No More
» UK Consul General Wears Arab Keffiyeh Branding Israel as ‘Free Palestine’, MP Calls for Heads to Roll
» UN Should Investigate Hamas Deaths of Children and Adult Tunnel Excavators
 
Middle East
» Does Cameron Have an Iraq Policy? Or is He Just Making it Up?
» Iraq: ‘It is Time to Take Up Arms’: Yazidi Volunteers Fight Back Against Islamic State
» Iraq: The Science Behind ISIS Savagery: 5 Ways Humans Become Hardwired for Violence
» Iraq: In Failing to Stop the Islamic State, U.S. Ignores the Lessons of Auschwitz
» Islamic State Message to America: “We Will Drown All of You in Blood”
» Islamic State Booby Traps Massive Iraqi Dam Which Could Kill Thousands if Breached
» Kuwait: Man Argues With Airport Officer Over Passports Photos
» Obama Says Iraqi Dam Has Been Retaken From Militants
» The Drama of Sinjar: Escaping the Islamic State in Iraq
» Why is Turkey Supporting Islamic State Fighters in Iraq?
 
Russia
» Putin Rouses Europe Tankmakers’ Dormant Growth Ambitions
» Ukraine: ‘Dozens Dead’ In Strike on Fleeing Refugees
 
South Asia
» Clashes Kill 16 in Northern Afghan Province, Hundreds Displaced
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Blood of Ebola Survivors Holds Therapy Potential for Sick
» Infected Ebola Patients Flee After Attack on Liberia Clinic
» Poaching Slaughter: Study Estimates 100,000 Elephants Killed Across Africa From 2010-2012
» With Aid Doctors Gone, Ebola Fight Grows Harder
 
Immigration
» More Immigrants Than Ever Coming to Denmark
 

Metropolitan Opera in Tentative Deal With 2 Unions

The Metropolitan Opera reached tentative agreements early Monday morning with the unions representing its orchestra and chorus after an all-night bargaining session, and called off its threat to lock out its workers a little more than a month before its new season is set to open.

The agreements were announced shortly after 6:15 a.m. by Allison Beck, the deputy director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, after talks lasted long past the deadline of midnight Sunday that the Met had set for reaching a deal or locking out its workers.

“These were difficult and highly complex negotiations, and I wish to commend the parties for their resolve in addressing multiple and complex issues,” Ms. Beck said in a statement. “We are grateful for their commitment to the collective bargaining process and grateful most of all that the Metropolitan Opera, one of the world’s premier cultural institutions, will continue providing outstanding operas for all to enjoy.”

The terms of the agreement were not immediately disclosed.

[Return to headlines]
 

Missouri Governor to Deploy National Guard to Ferguson

FERGUSON, Mo. — Gov. Jay Nixon announced early Monday that he would deploy the Missouri National Guard to this St. Louis suburb as part of a fresh attempt by the authorities to quell the unrest that has paralyzed the town since an unarmed black teenager was killed by a white police officer.

Mr. Nixon said in a statement that he chose to activate the National Guard because of “deliberate, coordinated and intensifying violent acts.”

“Tonight, a day of hope, prayers and peaceful protests was marred by the violent criminal acts of an organized and growing number of individuals, many from outside the community and state, whose actions are putting the residents and businesses of Ferguson at risk,” Mr. Nixon said.

The governor’s decision came after the worst night of violence since the unrest began.

[Return to headlines]
 

U.N. Experts Grill U.S. On Racial Discrimination

GENEVA (Reuters) — United Nations experts grilled U.S. officials on Wednesday about what they said was persistent racial discrimination against African-Americans and other minorities in jobs, housing, education and the criminal justice system.

“Stand Your Ground” laws, a controversial self-defense law in some 22 U.S. states, use of force by police against migrants, and FBI racial profiling were also raised by the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

The first review of the U.S. record since 2008, which continues on Thursday, happened to follow the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager in Missouri on Saturday and subsequent violent protests.

High levels of gun violence in the United States have a disparate impact on minorities, Noureddine Amir, committee vice chairman, told the talks.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Belgium: Sabotage to Power Supplies?

Belgian federal public prosecutors are investigating whether anybody is behind the explosion in a major power transformer in Hainault Province. The incident happened last March but is being revisited following indications that sabotage also occurred at the Doel power plant outside Antwerp.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

British Government Denies Report Into Muslim Brotherhood Delayed

(Reuters) — The British government denied on Monday a media report that it had delayed publication of an investigation into Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood because of disagreements among ministers over its findings.

In April Prime Minister David Cameron asked Britain’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia to conduct an investigation into the Muslim Brotherhood, including allegations of links to extremism and its impact on British national security…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

France: Saudi Prince’s Convoy in Paris Attacked by Gunmen

Heavily armed men have attacked a convoy of cars belonging to a Saudi prince, stealing 250,000 euros (£200,000; $330,000), police say.

The convoy was heading through northern Paris on its way to Le Bourget airport late on Sunday evening when it was raided, reports say. The gunmen seized a vehicle carrying the money and documents, later releasing the driver and two others.

The convoy was said to have come from the Saudi embassy. No-one was hurt.

The gunmen, reportedly armed with Kalashnikov rifles, targeted a Mercedes mini-van at 21:15 (19:15 GMT) on the northern ring road, or peripherique, at Porte de la Chapelle, on the edge of Paris…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Zaia to Ask High Court to Halt Renzi’s 80-Euro Tax Bonus

Veneto governor says regional governments need the money more

(ANSA) — Venice, August 12 — The Veneto regional government will ask Italy’s Constitutional Court to force the national government to use money now funding a tax bonus for low-income earners to instead shift those resources to regional and local authorities, Governor Luca Zaia said Tuesday.

The money which Premier Matteo Renzi is using to fund his program to give low-income earners a monthly tax bonus of 80 euros should be granted instead to underfunded governments at lower levels, said Zaia, whose council passed a motion authorizing the court application.

“It is too easy to create the (budgetary) cover by removing money meant for the regions and municipalities,” Zaia said of Renzi. Besides, the Renzi bonus excludes “the most needy, the unemployed and pensioners,” who are not part of the tax system said Zaia.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Tax Burden Has Grown 12.6% Since 1980 Says CGIA Mestre

Italian businesses second only to German ones in taxes paid

(ANSA) — Venice, August 18 — The tax burden in Italy has grown by 12.6% since 1980, CGIA Mestre small-business association said Monday.

Currently, Italian companies pay the taxman a total of 110.4 billion euros a year, second within the European Union only to their German counterparts.

These pay taxes of 121 billion euros a year, but Germany also has 20 million more inhabitants than Italy does, the association pointed out.

The economic blueprint unveiled by the Renzi government last spring calls for the tax burden to increase by 0.2% over last year to reach a record 44% in 2014, CGIA Mestre said. “It’s difficult to do business and restart the economy with a tax load this heavy,” commented CGIA Secretary Giuseppe Bortolussi.

CGIA Mestre also examined another parameter, or business taxes as a percentage of overall tax take: while the European Union average is 11.3%, Luxembourg leads with 17%, followed by Italy at 16%, Ireland with 12.3%, Germany (11.6%), the UK (11.2%), and France (10.3%).

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

NATO Spying Controversy Continues as Germany Spies on U.S. Sec of State

Trust in the NATO alliance has been further eroded after the Der Spiegel newspaper revealed that Germany has intercepted telephone calls made by US Secretary of State John Kerry, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and NATO ally Turkey.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Scotland: Panda Partnership Strengthened at Edinburgh Zoo

EDINBURGH, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) — The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) and the University of Edinburgh on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding to encourage further collaboration on a range of research projects and RZSS activities…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Targeting Turkey: How Germany Spies on Its Friends

For more than a year now, German officials have criticized the US for the NSA’s mass spying on Europeans and even Chancellor Angela Merkel. Now, embarrassing revelations show that Germany has inadvertently spied on Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, and has also deliberately targeted Turkey.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Birmingham Tesco Free Gaza Demonstrator Denies Five Assault Charges

Naveed Zafar appeared at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court charged following the disorder on Saturday

A protestor who took part in a Free Gaza demonstration at a Tesco supermarket in Birmingham has appeared before magistrates to deny five assault charges.

Naveed Zafar, 35, of Naseby Road, Alum Rock, was charged following the disorder on Saturday.

Appearing at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court, Mr Zafar denied three charges of assaulting a police officer in execution of their duty. He also pleaded not guilty over two assault charges against members of the public and a charge of obstructing an officer…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Ministers Consider Brotherhood File

Ministers and officials are “considering the implications” of a report commissioned by the Prime Minister into the Muslim Brotherhood, Downing Street said following reports its publication had been delayed.

The review was led by Sir John Jenkins, the UK’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, a country which has declared the Egyptian group a terrorist organisation…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Sainsbury’s Apologizes for Kosher Food Removal

‘We would like to apologize for any inconvenience or offense caused,’ says store. A staff member has been ‘suitably chastised.’

The Sainsbury’s supermarket chain issued a statement Monday morning apologizing for removing kosher products from one of its branches. It said: “We would like to apologize for any inconvenience or offencs caused. The decision was taken in one store only to move these chilled products to cold storage elsewhere in that store for a short period on Saturday as a precautionary measure during a demonstration close by.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: The Kosher Controversy at Sainsbury’s Speaks to a Profound Problem: Acquiescence to Anti-Semitism

by Brendan O’Neill

Were you outraged by a Sainsbury’s store’s decision over the weekend to hide away its kosher foods in an attempt to placate anti-Israel protesters? You should have been. For this incident, though seemingly a one-off, speaks to a profound problem in Europe today — the respectable classes’ acquiescence to anti-Semitism; their willingness to accept anti-Semitic sentiment as a fact of life and to shrug it off or, worse, kowtow to it…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: The Tories Don’t ‘Appear to’ Have a Race Problem. They Have a Race Problem

by Stephen Bush

The past is another country; the future’s just a city. In the United Kingdom, one city in particular: London. Britain today has a demographic profile remarkably like that of London in the 1980s; so the London of 2014 tells us a lot about the Britain of 2044 will look like. The bad news for the Tories is, if London’s the future, it’s a pretty bleak one for the Conservative Party…

[Reader comment by John Archer on 18 August 2014.]

Perhaps my spelling wasn’t quite right? I’ll try again.

“We invited people from across the Commonwealth to live and work here in the 60’s and 70’s. They are now part of our society. We can’t just turn around BNP style and tell them to ‘go home’.” — earlofbrigand

No, no and no, respectively.

No “we” didn’t invite them — “we” had no say in the matter. Had we a say, then none of THEM would have been allowed in. And it started in 1948 with the docking of the Windrush, not in the 1960s and 70s.

There has been nothing democratic about ANY of this hideous mass third-world immigration. None of it is, or was, ever wanted. It has been FOISTED on us by a political class that is completely out of DEMOCRATIC control.

As for assimilation, I and millions like me DON’T want to be assimilated in any way with such complete aliens and I DO NOT CONSENT to them having any say in how I am governed.

Many Scots don’t want Englishmen having any say in how Scots are governed. Well, if it’s fine and ‘legitimate’ for Jock to take that view you can be damned sure it’s fine and truly legitimate for us to do similar where the case is FAR, FAR STRONGER.

As far as I’m concerned the ONLY thing up for discussion is when and how all these aliens and their progeny are repatriated or deported and all race-related legislation is rescinded. Meanwhile they should all be immediately disenfranchised.

Their presence here is an absolute abomination. They undermine the very demos on which OUR democracy is built. They are not OUR fellow countrymen and never will be.

[JP note: John Archer’s comment was subsequently deleted — it was not a problem with ‘spelling’.]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Why Can’t Our Government Spot the Difference Between ISIS and the Muslim Brotherhood?

By Memphis Barker

It isn’t exactly hard…

Let’s play a round of “spot the terrorist”.

Exhibit 1) A democratically elected president who vowed, in 2012, to rule for all his citizens — whether they had voted for him or not.

Exhibit 2) A recalcitrant warlord whose force of jihadist berserkers has recently butchered its way to power — crucifying anybody who gets in their way.

Perhaps that’s a little easy. It ought to be…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Algerian Police Take Action Against Gang Warfare

Over 100 killed in 2014, bodies burnt to avoid identification

(ANSAmed) — ROME — One hundred people have been killed since the beginning of the year in ongoing gang warfare in Algeria, and the numerous police deployed to curb the violence seem unable to do so. Though affecting the entire country, roughly 60% of the crimes are concentrated in ten of the administrative ‘wilayas’, including those of Algiers, Blida and Oran.

Reformist daily El Watan sounded the alarm on Wednesday, attentive as it is to Algeria’s social trends and often criticial of the central authorities’ anti-crime policies.

Crime levels continue to rise every year, and Algerian gangs have become more dangerous as they have started to follow the example of other organized crime groups, including French ones, whose techniques and strategies they openly imitate. Murders are every more heinous and frequently end with the burning of the victims’ corpses to make identification either impossible or at least more time-consuming.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt’s Population to Reach 87 Million on Tuesday: Census

Egypt — the most populous Arab country — has seen its population rise by 2 million in a year and 1 million over the last six months

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Israel, Palestinians Again Extend Gaza Cease-Fire

Israel and the Palestinians have agreed to extend a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip for another 24 hours, as they meet in Cairo to try to agree on a lasting truce.

The announcement of the extension Monday came just before the current cease-fire was set to expire at midnight local time. There was no indication that negotiators are close to reaching a deal to stop more than a month of fighting between the Jewish state and Hamas, which runs the coastal enclave along the Mediterranean…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Middle East to Obama: Hit the Road, And Don’t Come Back No More

by Y.K. Cherson

Just hours before the expiration of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, US President Barack Hussein Obama II, speaking before the leaders of African and American countries, called on the “international community” to ensure the “end of the Gaza blockade.” This is nothing more than an effort to stop Israeli control over the never-ending Hamas attempts to enter more lethal arms to Gaza in order to be able to murder more Jews…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK Consul General Wears Arab Keffiyeh Branding Israel as ‘Free Palestine’, MP Calls for Heads to Roll

A picture has emerged of the British Consul General to Jerusalem wearing an Arab Keffiyeh (scarf) with the Palestinian flag draped over the entirety of the State of Israel and the Palestinian territories. The image depicted on the scarf is the one used by protesters and belligerents in the region who wish to see the State of Israel wiped off the map…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UN Should Investigate Hamas Deaths of Children and Adult Tunnel Excavators

This past weekend, former New Jersey Congressional candidate Rabbi Schmuley Boteach and head of This World: The Values Network published an ad in the Weekend Edition of the Wall Street Journal directed at exposing the calumnies of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) investigating alleged IDF War Crimes in Gaza against civilians, especially women and children. Maybe it’s time for the UN to investigate the use of Gaza civilians, especially children as human shields. Perhaps that suggested investigation should be broadened to investigate Gazan children and adult men killed as expendable slaves excavating those terror tunnels used to attack and kill IDF forces threatening kidnapping and death of Israeli children. What does that remind you of? The Nazi use of Jews and other slave laborers during WWII, thousands of whom lost their lives in hollowing out tunnels for the assembly of V-2 revenge rockets that rained death on unoccupied Europe and Britain. Different tyranny, same result. The letter concludes: “We heard about the tunnels that Hamas dug and I understood that I helped them,” read the letter. “We pray that the world will help to free us from the fearful and cruel Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip. I pray for death to all Hamas members and that we will get freedom and a chance to live a normal life for our children in Gaza. Inshalla.”We are within a few hours of the end of the ninth cease fire in Operation Protective Edge. Given these revelations, the war cry should be: “free Gaza from Hamas”.

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

Does Cameron Have an Iraq Policy? Or is He Just Making it Up?

The Prime Minister has returned from his holidays, and yesterday wrote an intriguing piece in the Sunday Telegraph about the ongoing struggles in Iraq and Syria…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Iraq: ‘It is Time to Take Up Arms’: Yazidi Volunteers Fight Back Against Islamic State

Hundreds of Yazidi volunteers are being trained to handle weapons and fight to drive the Islamic State from their homes.

Refugees who fled to Syria to escape the jihadists’ onslaught in neighbouring Iraq are joining military training camps run by Kurdish armed factions and forming a volunteer army against the jihadists.

“Until now the Yazidis have always relied on someone else to protect them,” said Rostan, 33, the Kurdish commander at the training camp, who refused to give his full name. “Now they are learning to protect themselves.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Iraq: The Science Behind ISIS Savagery: 5 Ways Humans Become Hardwired for Violence

Carrying out beheadings and other extreme acts is unthinkable for most people, but the right cocktail of factors can make anyone an extremist, says neuroscientist Prof Ian Robertson

As Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria butcher thousands of “infidels” and carry off their women and children into slavery, many in the West are inclined to see this as an unique outcrop of Islamic fundamentalism…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Iraq: In Failing to Stop the Islamic State, U.S. Ignores the Lessons of Auschwitz

By Marc A. Thiessen

OSWIECIM, Poland

Walking among the starvation cells and gas chambers where more than a million souls perished, it is hard to explain to my 12-year-old son how the free world allowed this happen. Why did the world’s democracies not stop the Nazi movement in its infancy — before it indoctrinated millions with its hateful ideology, took control of a great power, built its military might, invaded foreign lands and constructed death camps like the one here at Auschwitz?

The depressing answer is: for the same reason that the world’s democracies have done almost nothing to stop the rise of the Islamic State…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Islamic State Message to America: “We Will Drown All of You in Blood”

BAGHDAD: The Islamic State militant group that has seized large parts of Iraq and drawn the first American air strikes since the end of the occupation in 2011 has warned the United States it will attack Americans “in any place” if the raids hit its militants.

The video, which shows a photograph of an American who was beheaded during the U.S. occupation of Iraq and victims of snipers, featured a statement which said in English “we will drown all of you in blood”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Islamic State Booby Traps Massive Iraqi Dam Which Could Kill Thousands if Breached

The bid to seize back Mosul dam from extremists falters as US backed forces are hampered by explosive devices

The American backed offensive to recapture Iraq’s biggest dam slowed on Monday, as fighters from the Islamic State rigged part of the area with booby traps and remotely triggered bombs.

Whilst a series of air strikes by American F-18 fighter jets reportedly sent most of the jihadists fleeing from the central parts of Mosul dam, a network of landmines and planted explosives they left behind impeded Kurdish ground forces from recapturing the strategically vital terrain.

“The jihadists have escaped from their positions beside the water pumps — the most important levers for the dam,” said General Kawa Kawani, spokesman for the Kurdish special forces. “But we cannot enter the area because of the explosives.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Kuwait: Man Argues With Airport Officer Over Passports Photos

A citizen arriving at Kuwait International Airport had an argument with the passport officer because he had put stickers hiding the photos of his female family members. The officer insisted on removing the stickers to verify the passport holders’ identities and match the photos with the women arriving with him.

           — Hat tip: RR [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Says Iraqi Dam Has Been Retaken From Militants

President Obama said Monday that Iraqi special forces, backed by American war planes, had retaken a strategically critical dam at Mosul, the latest in what he described as a string of positive steps in halting the march of Islamic extremists across the country.

“This operation demonstrates that Iraqi and Kurdish force are capable of working together to take the fight to ISIL,” Mr. Obama said in remarks in the White House briefing room, using the acronym for the extremist group, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. “If that dam was breached, it could have proven catastrophic.”

Still, Mr. Obama said, “This is going to take time; there are going to be many challenges ahead.” He said that the American military campaign would continue for the foreseeable future.

[Return to headlines]
 

The Drama of Sinjar: Escaping the Islamic State in Iraq

Last week, thousands of Yazidis were evacuated from the Sinjar Mountains in Iraq, where they had fled due to marauding fighters from the Islamic State. Kurdish fighters from the PKK helped them escape, but it remains unclear if anyone can stop the IS jihadists.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Why is Turkey Supporting Islamic State Fighters in Iraq?

by David L. Phillips

Now that U.S. forces are engaged in combat operations against Islamic State fighters in Iraq, the Obama administration must press ISIS on all fronts, targeting its financing, logistics, and weapons providers. Turkey — America’s ally and NATO member — is allegedly involved. Clarifying Turkey’s role would serve U.S.-Turkey relations.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Putin Rouses Europe Tankmakers’ Dormant Growth Ambitions

The Ukraine crisis is pushing European governments to review the role of the weapon that dominated Cold War defenses as the strength of Russian ground forces stirs political concerns: the battle tank.

The cost and war-fighting benefits of developing common armored vehicles for the region could also spur consolidation beyond the pending merger of Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH and France’s Nexter Systems SA, said Frank Haun, chief executive officer at KMW, maker of the 62-ton Leopard 2.

Vladimir Putin’s massing of Russian troops on the Ukraine border has left frontline nations pondering the strength of armored brigades that have shrunk since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Haun said in an interview at KMW’s Munich base. Nordic countries including Finland and former communist states such as Poland are among those reviewing capabilities.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ukraine: ‘Dozens Dead’ In Strike on Fleeing Refugees

Dozens of civilians reportedly burned alive in missile attack on a convoy fleeing war-torn eastern Ukraine, top Ukrainian official says

Ukraine accused pro-Russian rebels of killing dozens of fleeing refugees in a missile strike in the east of the country on Monday, a claim that was strongly denied by the separatists.

Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council (SNBO) called the attack a “bloody crime” and said that dozens of civilians “including women and children” had died…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Clashes Kill 16 in Northern Afghan Province, Hundreds Displaced

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) — A total of 16 Taliban militants including two local commanders have been killed since Sunday night in the northern Kunduz province as clashes going on between security forces and insurgents in parts of the province, officials said Monday.

“Security forces launched cleanup operations in Gultapa area outside provincial capital Kunduz city and Gumbaz area in Imam Sahib district last night and so 10 rebels have been killed there,” provincial police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini told Xinhua…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Blood of Ebola Survivors Holds Therapy Potential for Sick

The best chance for an immediate treatment for Ebola patients in the worst outbreak ever may be readily available, in the blood of survivors.

With experimental drugs in short supply or not ready to be used, global health officials are exploring whether the natural immunity survivors gain after they shed the virus can be shared with others. The idea would be to use their plasma, the part of blood that contains immune system warriors called antibodies, to help fight off the infection.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Infected Ebola Patients Flee After Attack on Liberia Clinic

Monrovia (AFP) — Seventeen Ebola patients in Liberia who fled from a guarantine centre after it was attacked by club-wielding youths were missing on Sunday, striking a fresh blow to efforts to contain the deadly virus.

Doctors and nurses are not only fighting the disease, but a deep mistrust in communities often in the thrall of wild rumours that the virus was invented by the West or is a hoax.

“They broke down the door and looted the place. The patients have all gone,” said Rebecca Wesseh, who witnessed the raid in the Liberian capital’s densely populated West Point slum.

The attackers, mostly young men armed with clubs, shouted insults about President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and yelled “there’s no Ebola,” she said, adding that nurses had also fled the centre.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Poaching Slaughter: Study Estimates 100,000 Elephants Killed Across Africa From 2010-2012

NAIROBI, Kenya — A new study by some of the world’s leading elephant experts estimates that poachers killed 100,000 elephants across Africa between 2010 and 2012.

The study released Monday found that the proportion of illegally killed elephants has climbed from 25 percent of all elephant deaths a decade ago to roughly 65 percent of all elephant deaths today. The authors said such figures alarm conservationists because that level of poaching deaths leads to population decline.

The study’s lead author, George Wittemye of Colorado State University, said Africa will continue to lose more elephants in susceptible areas but the numbers will hold steady in countries that invest in wildlife security.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

With Aid Doctors Gone, Ebola Fight Grows Harder

When people started dying of Ebola in Liberia, Clarine Vaughn faced a wrenching choice: Should she send home, for their own health and safety, four American doctors working for Heartt, the aid group she led there? Or should she keep them in the country without proper supplies or training to fight the virulent, contagious disease, which was already spreading panic?

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

More Immigrants Than Ever Coming to Denmark

Never before have so many foreign citizens moved to Denmark as now, according to a new report from the national stats keepers, Danmarks Statistik.

Within the last year, 59,274 foreigners — hailing mostly from Europe — have arrived in Denmark. Romania leads the way with 4,919, followed by Poland (4,376), while the greatest increase comes from war-torn Syria (2,500), figures revealed.

“In particular, they are coming from EU nations,” Bent Greve, a society researcher from Roskilde University, told Metroxpress newspaper.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

5 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 8/18/2014

  1. sorry for the off-topic, but I did not know where to place it:
    Ferguson Missouri.Last night, monday 18 th, 20.00 hours, Tagesschau, the Washington correspondant Tina Hassel,of the ARD,first national channel in Germany, defined the killing of the youth as “ermorded” that is murdered, in the german legal terminology meaning premeditated, or out of revenge, greed, or to conceal a crime from prosecution.The simple homicide would be called ” Totschlag”. This is to show the degree of ignorance that allows you to reach a top-notch job in the media today.
    Maybe the Ferguson authorities might be interested to read that and file suit against that b…,ahem,lady for false allegation. A criminal offense trial would have her expelled, right?

  2. Re: USA (3)- “High levels of gun crime have a disparate effect on minorities”. The name of the person quoted suggests English may not be his first language, which likely accounts
    for the misuse of “disparate”; he probably meant “disproportionate”.

    More to the point, in British and, I suspect, US cities, a good way to avoid being killed with guns, or indeed knives, is not to carry them, at least the illegal kind.

  3. I must respond to the John Archer comment way above. It took years to accommodate the Irish Navvies who came here when needed. They are here, they are us and we are them. Birmingham was once a very Irish city. Then came the Windrush, it took years to assimilate (wrong word, but they were getting on with us and we were getting on with them). Then came the Ugandan Indians, mostly Hindu, they wanted to get on, mix and prosper, they did, fine by me. Then came mass immigration from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and some sub-Saharan Hell-holes. Now we find our careful nurturing of Caribbean citizens is all wasted. Let’s not get carried away when talking repatriation, there must be at least fifty shades of grey.

  4. AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHH!

    “Unarmed teen” my patoot.

    How’s about 300 lb pot smoking five-time criminal carrying stolen merchandise?

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