A second nurse has been infected by Ebola at the same Dallas hospital where the Liberian victim died. Latest reports indicate that the CDC gave her the go ahead to fly from Cleveland to Dallas a few days ago, even though she had a low-grade fever at the time.
In other Ebola news, a controversy has arisen in Germany over the cremation of a Sudanese patient who died of Ebola. Islam forbids cremation, and critics say that cremating the body violated the deceased’s human rights. Public health officials, however, say that the risk of further contagion overrides any concern about the late victim’s rights.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, JLH, Kitman, Phyllis Chesler, RL, 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.
ISTAT Says Q1 Flat in Italy, Technically No Recession
Stats agency reports no economic growth since mid-2011
(ANSA) — Rome, October 15 — The Italian economy was flat in the first quarter of the year, rather than falling by 0.1% as previously thought, according to new measurements, national statistical agency Istat said Wednesday. That suggests the country is technically not in recession, which is defined by two consecutive quarters of negative growth.
Instead, gross domestic product (GDP) between January and March of this year was unchanged from the -0.1 decline recorded in the final quarter of 2013, it5 said.
Istat has been revising its measurements of the economy to take account of the impacts of illegal activities such as prostitution and drugs, in line with European standards.
The agency also noted that the economy has shown no growth since the second quarter of 2011, revealing an extended period of stagnation.
Istat also announced that revisions show GDP fell in the second quarter of 2014 by 0.3% compared with the same time last year, and fell by 0.2% compared with the previous quarter.
The statistics come as Premier Matteo Renzi announces his 2015 budget which is expected to include some 30 billion euros in adjustments aimed at boosting the sluggish economy, despite pressure from the European Union to focus on reducing debt.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Deflation Grows to -0.2%
September rate worse than Istat’s forecast of -0.1%
(ANSA) — Rome, October 14 — Deflation in recession-hit Italy worsened in September, when the annual inflation rate was -0.2%, Istat said Tuesday. The rate was lower than the -0.1% the national statistics agency had forecast in its preliminary estimate. Prices fell 0.4% in September with respect to August, Istat added. Deflation hit the Italian economy for the first time since September 1959 in August, when the annual inflation rate was -0.1%.
Italy has slipped into its third recession since the start of the global economic crisis in 2008 and many experts say there is a danger deflation could gain a strong hold over the economy and make recovery more difficult.
The fall in inflation in September was again led by a drop in energy prices as was the case in August, Istat said.
After energy prices fell by 1.2% in August, the drop accelerated in September to a fall of 2.8%.
That also contributed to a reduction in food prices because of lower transportation costs for fresh items.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Household Spending Up Despite Purchasing Power Fall
Spending up 0.8% in the second quarter on same period in 2013
(ANSA) — Rome, October 15 — Italian household spending rose in the second quarter of this year despite a drop in purchasing power, Istat said Wednesday. The national statistics agency said families spent 0.2% more in the second quarter with respect to the first three months of 2014 and 0.8% more than in the same period last year. Households’ purchasing power, on the other hand, fell 1.4% in the second quarter with respect to the first and 1.5% in comparison with the April-June period in 2013, Istat said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Public Debt Drops 20 Bn to 2.148 Trillion
Bank of Italy says tax revenues grew in August
(ANSA) — Rome, October 14 — Italy’s massive public debt fell by 20.5 billion euros in August to 2.1484 trillion, the Bank of Italy said on Tuesday. The central bank added that Italian tax revenues increased by 400 million euros, 1.3%, in August compared to the same month in 2013, taking them up to 32.6 billion euros. But the picture for the first eight months of this year was less positive.
The bank said Italy’s public debt had grown by 78.6 billion euros in the January-August period.
Tax revenues were down 600 million euros, 0.2%, in the first eight months of the year compared with the same period in 2013.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi Tweets 18 Bn Euro Tax-Cut Pledge Just Before Budget
Cabinet set to approve 30 billion euros in adjustment measures
(ANSA) — Rome, October 15 — Premier Matteo Renzi repeated his pledge Wednesday to cut taxes by 18 billion euros in a post on his Twitter account hours before the 2015 budget comes down.
“The difference between the 2014 budget and 2015 is that there are 18 billion in lower taxes. That’s it. Restart Italy,” Renzi tweeted.
Meanwhile, the economic pointman for Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD) said Wednesday that officials are still considering whether to include in the budget bill a controversial measure giving workers an advance on their severance pay.
Filippo Taddei told RAI News 24 that “we are considering whether the measure” should be included.
The government has said giving workers the extra cash might boost consumption and economic growth while business says it needs to keep that money for other purposes.
On Tuesday, Italy’s employers on Tuesday hailed Renzi’s 2015 budget bill as a dream come true while Italy’s largest CGIL labor federation slammed it failing workers.
The 30-billion-euro budget adjustments, headed for cabinet approval Wednesday, features the 18 billion euros in tax cuts aims to kick-start the Italian economy, which has become stagnant. The government has said it will raise some 16 billion euros by slashing bloated public administration spending, including items such as chauffered cars for ministry staffers, and by going after tax evaders.
Not enough, says labour leaders.
“I think that the mix of spending cuts and tax reductions for some will keep the country in the recessionary state it’s in at the moment,” said CGIL chief Susanna Camusso.
“The budget does not stimulate investments or create jobs”.
Camusso on Monday threatened to call a general strike against the government, which she said “takes its platform from Confindustria,” which represents Italy’s largest industrial employers. She added that Renzi “has no idea where to take the country” and called for tax increases on the wealthy including higher inheritance taxes.
Labour Minister Giuliano Poletti said the budget bill is “expansive” and “mobilizes resources to restart the Italian economy”.
The president of the Confindustria industrialists waxed enthusiastic over Renzi’s measures.
“We cannot but declare our utmost satisfaction,” Giorgio Squinzi said. “(The measures) go exactly in the direction we have been calling for over many years”.
Squinzi added that “when I heard the premier announcing the budget measures I honestly felt almost as though a dream of ours had come true”. Renzi’s measures include omitting labour taxes from the IRAP regional business tax and a three-year tax exemption for employers hiring permanent staff.
“This budget has a radically new approach,”Cabinet Undersecretary Graziano Delrio has said. “We want to put money in the pockets of Italians on a regular basis, and now everyone, including entrepreneurs, will know they can count on structural measures”.
Also on Tuesday, Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan cautioned that it was “too early” to say exactly what measures the premier would include in his budget due Wednesday. Renzi has presented “some components” that have yet to be approved by cabinet, said Padoan, who was asked about corrective measures to meet EU guidelines.
The bill contains a resolution delaying balancing the budget in structural terms until 2017 and not 2016 as previously pledged to the European Union.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Katainen Says Expectations of Italian Efforts to be Amended
Fall financial estimates will be taken into account
(ANSA) — Brussels, October 15 — European Economic Affairs Commissioner Jyrki Katainen on Wednesday said that structural budgetary efforts expected of Italy by 2015 will be amended according to fall financial estimates that will take into account much lower growth than expected.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
CDC: U.S. Health Worker With Ebola Should Not Have Flown on Commercial Jet
The second Dallas health care worker who was found to have the Ebola virus should not have boarded a commercial jet Monday, health officials say.
Because she had helped care for Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, and because another health worker who cared for Duncan had been diagnosed with Ebola, the worker was not allowed to travel on a commercial plane with other people, said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ebola Test is Positive in Second Texas Health Worker
The authorities in Texas reported on Wednesday that a second health care worker involved in the treatment of a patient who died of the Ebola virus had tested positive for the disease after developing a fever.
The worker, who was not identified by name, had been “among those who took care of Thomas Eric Duncan after he was diagnosed with Ebola,” a statement from the Texas Department of State Health Services said.
Mr. Duncan died a week ago.
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Ebola Hits U.S. Amid Charges of Racism
Thomas Eric Duncan died on Oct. 8 at a Dallas hospital from the Ebola virus. He had traveled to Dallas from his home country of Liberia to see friends and family members.
Duncan’s family is asking why he did not receive optimal care from the first day he sought treatment at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, and are charging bias. They are posing troubling questions about his treatment.
Additionally, the Liberian community in Texas is inquiring if Duncan was treated differently “because he was African and not only that, he was Liberian,” said Stanley Gaye, president of the Liberian Community Association of Dallas/Fort Worth. (ABC News, Oct. 9)
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Inside the Ring: Chinese Tried to Hack NSA Using U.S. Defense Contractor
Chinese telecommunications equipment giant Huawei Technologies sought to gain access to National Security Agency computer networks this year in a failed cyberespionage attack, U.S. officials said.
The company, which the U.S. government has linked to China’s military, sought to penetrate NSA networks through a U.S. defense contractor, officials familiar with intelligence reports said of the attempted cyberattack.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New York Artists’ Niqab Hashtag Campaign Ignores Garment’s Long History of Oppression
by Phyllis Chesler
Two Upper West side artists think New York women should try wearing face masks, also known as “niqab.” Their names are Saks Afridi and Quinza Najm. They are calling upon women to don black face masks and take a “selfie.”
The political art project began as a private experiment when Najm began wearing niqab (erroneously referred to as “hijab,” which is just a headscarf) in her neighborhood; she encountered some hostile responses. “Go home!”
At that point, Najm decided that concealing her facial identity was an act of assertive liberation and a challenge to a presumably “tolerant” America. She launched a hashtag #DamniLookGood and asked other women, both Muslim and non-Muslim—men too—to don niqab as “an exercise in tolerance.”
Some women who tried on the black niqab and close black head covering found it “sexy” to be concealed. Najm also points out that you can wear “crappy clothes” underneath and be very “comfortable.” (Here she must be talking about a full body covering as well).
The two artists claim, on their website, that a woman can “choose” to wear niqab and when she does she is “in complete control of her sexuality, and ultimately that’s what makes her so beautiful.”…
| — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler | [Return to headlines] |
Nurse Infected With Ebola Traveled by Jetliner Before Diagnosis
“ A second Texas nurse who has tested positive for Ebola violated infection control guidelines by flying on a commercial jetliner from Cleveland to Dallas the night before she arrived at the hospital with a fever, officials said today.
The nurse, who has been identified as Amber Vinson, 29, was part of the team at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who took care of Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man who died of Ebola on Oct. 8. She is the second member of the hospital staff to contract the virus and a Dallas official warned today that additional cases among the hospital’s health care workers are a “very real possibility.”
“Because at that point she was in a group of individuals known to have exposure to Ebola, she should not have traveled on a commercial airline,”
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Cancels Campaign Trip to Meet With Cabinet on Ebola
President Obama on Wednesday canceled his travel to a fund-raiser and a campaign rally so he could convene a meeting of several top cabinet members to coordinate the government’s response to the Ebola outbreak, officials announced.
The decision comes as a second health care worker in Dallas tested positive for Ebola, raising new concerns about the protocols for containing the spread of the deadly virus and heightening fears among the public.
In a statement, the White House said that Mr. Obama would make remarks about the government’s response at the conclusion of the meeting.
| [Return to headlines] |
Op-Ed: Forgive Me for Voting for Our Current President
Is the man in the White House against the Jewish people?
by Lisa Surany-Cyrulnik
Mankind has lost grip with humanity. The people who call themselves humanists are now siding with murderers and barbarians.
It is the Ten Days of Repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, a time for the Jewish people to repent for their sins and ask others for forgiveness for any wrongdoing.
In that spirit, please accept my open apology to my fellow Jews. I have truly put you all in danger.
On November 6, 2012 I took part in a historic event in of which I am very ashamed. In fact, I am quite embarrassed. I helped put into the White House an imposter and a fervent enemy of the Jewish people. Barack Hussein Obama.
Maybe my wrongdoing is more forgivable because I am not alone, I am part of the 70 percent of Jews who put an enemy of the Jewish people into the highest office in the world. Was I just a follower? Was I misled?
It seems that Jews on a whole tend to vote for people who don’t like them, to side with their enemy. Maybe it’s some weird Stockholm syndrome…
| — Hat tip: RL | [Return to headlines] |
Second Ebola Worker’s Flight Adds to Safety Questions
A second Texas health worker who tested positive for Ebola after caring for a man killed by the virus in Dallas flew to Cleveland and back before reporting she had symptoms of the deadly disease.
U.S. officials are now tracking 132 others who were on the the Frontier Airlines flight use by the woman. The flight and the back-to-back caregiver infections, the second of which was reported this morning, open new questions about oversight lapses by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and bring new emphasis to criticisms by a nurses’ group about the safety precautions in use.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Health Official Allowed New Ebola Patient on Plane With Slight Fever
(Reuters) — A second Texas nurse who has contracted Ebola told a U.S. health official she had a slight fever and was allowed to board a plane from Ohio to Texas, a federal source said on Wednesday, intensifying concerns about the U.S. response to the deadly virus.
Amber Vinson, 29, flew from Cleveland, Ohio, to Dallas, Texas, on Monday, the day before she was diagnosed with Ebola, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Vinson told the CDC her temperature was 99.5 Fahrenheit (37.5 Celsius). Since that was below the CDC’s temperature threshold of 100.4F, “she was not told not to fly,” the source said. The news was first reported by CNN.
Chances that other passengers were infected were very low, but the nurse should not have been on the flight, CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden told reporters.
Vinson was isolated immediately after reporting a fever on Tuesday, Texas Department of State Health Services officials said. She had treated Liberian patient Thomas Eric Duncan, who died of Ebola on Oct. 8 and was the first patient diagnosed with the virus in the United States…
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Denmark: Turks Remain Mum on Hedegaard Case
The Turkish ambassador, Mehmet Dönmez, has failed to shed any further light on how and why the Turkish government released the prime suspect in the failed assassination attempt on anti-Islam author Lars Hedegaard last year.
Dönmez, who was summoned to the Foreign Ministry yesterday to explain the apparent release from prison of the 27-year-old, referred to as ‘BH’, said that no further information had been received but that he would intensify his requests for information from the Turkish authorities.
“I will send a request to the Justice Ministry in Ankara as quickly as possible to get more information,” Dönmez told TV2 News.
“Now the Justice Ministry and the Internal Affairs Ministry will look into the case. But we are still waiting on information about where the man is currently located.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Police to Investigate Imam’s Controversial Anti-Jew Speech
The police in Funen have declared that they will launch an investigation into the controversial sermon by the Danish imam Muhammed Khaled Samhas that was posted on the internet on September 19.
Samhas reportedly said in his speech that Jews were the offspring of “apes and pigs” and that Palestine was the land in which the Muslims will fight the Jews and the “trees and stones will say: Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him”.
“We are looking into whether there is anything punishable in the speech,” Ebbe Krogaard, the deputy police inspector at Funen Police, told Politiken newspaper. “It hasn’t been reported to us, so we are doing it on our own initiative.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Is it Acceptable to Cremate the Ebola Dead if it Goes Against Their Human Rights?
An Ebola patient who died at a Leipzig hospital has been cremated, although his religion forbids it. German officials say it was necessary for public safety and in such cases human rights can be ignored.
A 56-year-old United Nations employee, who contracted Ebola in Liberia and was treated at the St. Georg hospital in Leipzig, died on Monday night.
The following night, his body was cremated.
The Sudanese citizen was a Muslim. Islam forbids cremation. But soon after the patient’s death, officials had made it clear that a burial would be impossible.
“No other alternative can be justified”, Matthias Hasberg, spokesperson for the city of Leipzig, told a German news agency.
In emergencies, he said, safety comes first. And the dead body was still infectious.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Holy War Erupts in Hamburg
by Soeren Kern
Parts of downtown Hamburg, the second-largest city in Germany, resembled a war zone after hundreds of supporters of the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) engaged in bloody street clashes with ethnic Kurds.
The violence—which police say was as ferocious as anything seen in Germany in recent memory—is fuelling a sense of foreboding about the spillover effects of the fighting in Syria and Iraq.
Some analysts believe that rival Muslim groups in Germany are deliberately exploiting the ethnic and religious tensions in the Middle East to stir up trouble on the streets of Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hitler and Eva Braun ‘had sex without touching each other or taking their clothes off’ because he was so fanatical about hygiene, says author Martin Amis.
Speaking at the Cheltenham Festival of Literature, the novelist claimed he believes the German dictator kept Eva at arm’s length and would achieve orgasm just by watching her lift her skirt.
He also claimed that Hitler was an asexual and may have had a similar kind of sexual relationship with his half niece, Angela ‘Geli’ Raubal.
‘In Hitler studies there are three schools of thought about Hitler’s sexuality.
‘One is normality but I think you can boot out that consideration immediately. Can you see Eva Braun relishing a post coital cigarette? Can you consider Hitler’s tender foreplay, a considerate and energetic lover? No you can’t begin to imagine that.
‘So I’d say normality is out. Asexuality is the other one — and the third one is perversion.
‘Historians and psycho-historians who adduce perversion all come up with the filthiest stuff you could possible imagine — coprophilia, coprophagia, all things to do with excretion.”
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Gavi DOCG Vineyards Suffer Rain Damage
Situation compounded by lack of electricity, Coldiretti says
(ANSA) — Alessandria, October 14 — Recent torrential rainfall and flooding in southern Piedmont has caused millions of euros of damage to vineyards producing the prestigious DOCG appellation Gavi white wine, farmers’ association Coldiretti said on Tuesday.
Over 10% of vineyards in the Gavi wine-growing area have been affected by the bad weather, the association added.
“This extremely difficult situation is compounded by the lack of electricity which is causing serious problems for the conservation of grapes that have been harvested recently and stored in the wine cellars for the next stages in production,” the Alessandria chapter of Coldiretti said.
Fruit orchards and warehouses storing local products have also been damaged by water and mud, the association said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Boastful Tax Dodger Fined One Million Euros
Convicted grafter said on TV ‘evasion not such a serious crime’
(ANSA) — Vicenza, October 14 — A businessman who boasted on television that “tax evasion is not a crime” was slapped with a one-million-euro fine Tuesday for damaging the image of the internal revenue service.
Former leather entrepreneur Andrea Ghiotto, 43, was sentenced to ten years in prison for graft, bankruptcy fraud and tax evasion in a separate case.
“I haven’t killed or raped,” Ghiotto said on RAI public television in 2010.
“I did a little bit of tax dodging but I don’t see it as such a serious offense.” Ghiotto was subsequently found to have evaded as much as 13 million euros in taxes by laundering money through a local football team.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Gains for Anti-Islam PVV in Latest Poll of Polls
An opinion poll compiled from four separate polls shows increased support for Geert Wilders anti-Islam PVV, which would take 23 seats if there were a general election tomorrow.
That is an increase of three over the past month, the poll of polls shows, and returns the party to the same level as in April this year, before its disappointing European election results.One poll, by Maurice de Hond, puts the increase in support for the PVV down to fears of a terrorist attack in the Netherlands…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland to Get First Female Leader
Nicola Sturgeon to succeed Salmond after referendum No
(ANSA) — Rome, October 15 — Scotland is to get its first female leader as Nicola Sturgeon succeeds Alex Salmond as leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and first minister. Salmond stood down as SNP leader and first minister after the vote against independence in September’s referendum, paving the way for his deputy Sturgeon to replace him.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Vattenfall Wants 4.7bn Euros for German Nuclear Phase-Out
Swedish energy group Vattenfall is demanding 4.7 billion euros ($6.0 billion) in damages from Germany following Berlin’s decision to shut some nuclear reactors, German government sources said on Wednesday.
The sources said that Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel had named the figure at a meeting of the parliamentary economics committee on Wednesday. Swedish media reports last December had put the figure at 3.5 billion euros in damages.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Call of Jihad: Families Struggle as German Kurds Join Islamists in Syria
Islamic State has no qualms about killing Kurds in Syria. Yet the organization has still managed to attract Kurdish supporters in Europe. In Hamburg, a number of families are struggling to cope with their sons’ decisions to answer the call of jihad.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Top Italian EU Health and Safety Official Steps Down
Paola Testori Coggi steps down after internal investigation
(ANSA) — Brussels, October 15 — The European Commission on Wednesday accepted the resignation of Italian food and consumer safety official Paola Testori Coggi following an internal investigation into alleged irregularities in the commissioning of a food study.
Coggi stepped down as chief of the Directorate General for Health and Consumers (SANCO), a post she had held since April 2010. The internal disciplinary inquiry found she alerted an NGO as to the timing of an EU tender notice. “There was no evidence of corruption or criminal behavior,” said EU spokesman Antonio Gravili.
Coggi derived no personal gain from her actions, the Commission said.
A trained biologist and ecotoxicologist, Coggi joined the European Commission in 1983.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Vladimir Putin’s Secret ‘Swedish’ Beach Plot
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin owns a seaside plot in the Swedish-speaking Åland Islands, it has been revealed.
The news emerged in a speech to Finnish war veterans, by the former Director General of Finland’s National Land Survey (NLS) Jarmo Ratia.
He told an audience on Monday that the Russian President had access to a 17,800-square-metre plot in the picturesque Åland Islands, in an area known as Saltvik.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Attack in Benghazi: Alleged Mastermind Risks Death Penalty
Khattala faces new US grand jury 17-count indictement
Handout image released by the FBI of the damaged US Special Mission after it was attacked in Benghazi, Libya, 11 September 2012
(ANSAmed) — WASHINGTON — Libya’s Abu Ahmed Khattala, 43, who allegedly masterminded the September 11, 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi in which four Americans died, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, has been indicted on new charges.
The new 17-count grand jury indictment includes multiple charges punishable by the death penalty.
In particular, Khattala faces four new charges in connection with the murder of a person during the attack on a federal structure.
Khattala was captured last June 15 in Libya in an operation carried out by special US forces.
On the 26th, he was formally indicted by a court in Washington for the attack on the Benghazi consulate.
US Attorney General Eric Holder said the administration would continue to pursue those committing atrocious acts of terrorism targeting the United States. Those who want to harm US citizens — no matter how far — should understand that “our nation’s memory is long and our reach is far”, he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Attack in Cairo, 12 Wounded Including Child
Car bomb explodes in very crowded area
Egyptian security officials inspect a damaged car targeted by an explosion at the site of a bomb blast in central Cairo
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO — At least 12 people, including a child, were wounded on Tuesday night in a car bomb attack in a very crowded area of downtown Cairo, close to the Ramses station and just 30 meters from the Supreme Court.
Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim has confirmed the attack.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
General Haftar’s Troops Try to Take Back Benghazi
Using airstrikes and tanks; at least 15 jihadists killed
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO/ROME — Libyan forces under General Khalifa Haftar on Wednesday launched an offensive to retake the city of Benghazi, which fell into the hands of the jihadist Ansar Al-Sharia in July. An army spokesman said that about fifteen fighters had been killed in the clashes. Tanks from the 204th Brigade are taking part in the fighting, and the battle is reportedly advancing into areas considered Ansar Al-Sharia strongholds. Several armed civilians are taking part in the pro-government offensive. General Haftar made a televised announcement on Tuesday evening stating that his forces were prepared to “liberate” Benghazi from “terrorists”. “The population is shut in their homes while fighting is underway in the outlying areas of the city,” Monsignor Sylvester Carmel Magro, Apostolic Vicar of Benghazi, told the Vatican news agency Fides. “The bombing began early this morning,” said Monsignor Magro, underscoring that fighting between different factions in Benghazi was a regular occurrence. “The clashes are mostly in the outlying areas right now and are not in the center of the city for the time being,” he said. “But we do not know how the situation will develop, and so we are all staying in our homes.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Group Dismantled, Dozens of Arrests
Alleged terrorists linked to Ansar Al Chaaria, Obka Ibn Nafaa
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, OCTOBER 15 — Another terror group has been dismantled in an operation by Tunisian security forces less than two weeks before elections scheduled on October 26, interior ministry spokesman Ali Laroui announced on Wednesday.
Dozens of alleged terrorists who are members of a group linked to Ansar Al Chaaria and Okba Bin Nafaa have been arrested. In particular, the spokesman said, the communications, funding and logistic units of the group have been destroyed. Its members were reportedly in close contact with non-Tunisian terrorists like Anas Atari, head of the terror cell operating near Kef, and Algerian Lokam Abou Sakher whose stronghold is Mount Chaambi neat Kasserine. Fatma Zouabi, spokeswoman for Ansar Al Chaaria, is among those arrested. Laroui said security forces foiled an attack “against an important figure” in the country that would have been carried out with a car bomb in the urban area of “Grand Tunis”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Hamdallah Calls for International Safeguard Al Aqsa
Incidents on Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif, 4 arrested,3 wounded
(ANSAmed) — RAMALLAH — Palestinian Premier Rami Hamdallah has called on the international community to protect Palestinian holy sites, in particular the Al Aqsa mosque on the Jerusalem location known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif. He said the area is “subjected to daily attacks and racist practices” and “thousands of pilgrims are prevented from entering”. Hamdallah was quoted by local media as making the statements during a visit Tuesday to Akraba, a village near Nablus where one of the local mosques was set on fire by a group suspected of ties with Jewish extremists.
The attack was condemned by Israeli President Reuven Rivlin as “terrorism”. Hamdallah then called on the Palestinian population to “form popular committees to defend sites of prayer and farmers during the harvest of olives in coordination with the presidency and government”.
For Hamdallah, “the occupation government hasn’t done anything to prevent these acts and allows settlers to burn harvests, mosques and churches”.
On Wednesday morning, incidents were reported at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif where Arab youths threw stones at security forces, according to Israeli media reports. Three Israeli policemen were slightly wounded. Four Palestinians were arrested.
The violence was reported after Israeli police on Wednesday morning allowed access to the site considered holy both by Muslims and Jews only to Palestinian males over 50 years of age and women. Jewish pilgrims and visitors were not allowed in.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Journalist Lars Hedegaard’s Attempted Assassin Released by Turkey
Danish and International Free Press Society President Lars Hedegaard is once again in the news following disclosure that the assailant “BH” involved with his attempted assassination in February 2013 has apparently been released by Turkey in a captive exchange with ISIS. We have posted on the attempted assassination that occurred on February 5, 2013 and arrest of his assailant, a 27 year old Danish citizen of Middle East origins, “BH”.. What is consternating is how “BH” was released by Danish authorities and made his way to Turkey . Was he included in the exchange of 180 Jihadists for 49 Turkish diplomats and families held captive by ISIS after the fall of Mosul, Iraq in June 2014? We have forwarded Hedegaard an interview agenda for his response to these and other questions about the current circumstances and predicament he continues to face as an outspoken defender of free speech and critic of Islam.
The Hon Geert Wilders, leader of the Freedom Party (PVV) rose in the Hague parliament today to question the Dutch foreign minister about the scandal of Turkey’s release of Hedegaard’s assailant, pressure that might be brought to bear by the Dutch government on Turkey. Hedegaard added that the release wouldn’t cause him to stop speaking out against Islam. “If the hope is that I will keep my mouth shut, then it is completely futile. On the contrary. I intend to speak my mind until I die,” he told Ritzau…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Déjà Vu: Chemical Attacks Against Kurds, Halabja, Iraq 1988 and Kobani, Syria, 2014
Jonathan Spyer of the GLORIA Center in Herzliya, Israel shocked the world media publishing graphic pictures of Kurdish fighters killed in a chemical weapons (CW) attack by ISIS in the village of Avdiko near Kobani, Syria, “MERIA Special Report: Did ISIS Use Chemical Weapons Against the Kurds in Kobani?”
The world was aroused when we saw pictures of the 1,500 dead Syrians gassed in a suburb of Damascus in 2012 by the Assad regime that led to the UN sponsored program to transfer and destroy his CW stockpiles under the auspices of the Hague-based Office for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Spyer’s Middle East Review of Middle East Review of International Affairs, special report was confirmation, that the rampage of ISIS in Iraq had overrun in June 2014 CW stored in the WMD production facility at Al Muthanna, Iraq left over from the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. A Wall Street Journal report suggested that those stockpiles would not be effective, “Sunni Extremists in Iraq Occupy Hussein’s Chemical Weapons Facility.” The WSJ report cited State Department Jen Psaki saying in a State Department Daily Press Briefing :
“We remain concerned about the seizure of any military site by the ISIL,” Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, said in a written statement. “We do not believe that the complex contains CW materials of military value and it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to safely move the materials.”
The MERIA special report contradicts the observations of Ms. Psaki and other military experts. Clearly, ISIS has former Hussein Ba’athist commanders who knew about Al Muthanna and what it contained. These same commanders may have even been involved in the infamous genocidal CW attack that killed 5,000 Kurds in Halabja, Iraq in March 16, 1988 in the final year of the Iran-Iraq War.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS: Ankara Denies Reaching Agreement on Incirlik With US
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, OCTOBER 15 — Turkish daily Today’s Zaman newspaper reports that Turkish officials have denied that they have reached an agreement with Washington, granting further use of Incirlik Air Base to the US for military operations against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).
The Turkish Prime Ministry made a statement that negotiations between the US and Turkey on the use of Incirlik Air Base in Adana province are continuing and that there is no new agreement between the parties. “There is no new agreement on the Incirlik issue. Incirlik continues to be used (by the US) under the current agreements. There are requests and expectations and the negotiations continue,” said the Prime Ministry.
It was also stated that Turkey and the US have reached an agreement to train the Syrian opposition but it is still not clear where and how the training will take place.
Incirlik Air Base in Adana province is in close proximity to ISIS targets inside both Syria and Iraq. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also made a statement on Monday saying: “There is no decision reached at this point with regards to Incirlik or any other issue. So far, we have only agreed with the US on certain issues in the context of training and equipping (moderate Syrian opposition) project,” said Cavusoglu according to Turkish press reports.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Nine Days in the Caliphate: A Yazidi Woman’s Ordeal as an Islamic State Captive
When Islamic State fighters conquered the border region between Iraq and Syria, the Yazidi village of Kocho also fell into their hands. Twenty-year-old Nadia was among dozens of young women who were abducted and abused. This is the story of her ordeal.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The New Jihadi Plan to Capture Baghdad
Iraq and Syria no longer exist as sovereign states with international borders. Instead, the vast territory from the gates of Baghdad to the gates of Aleppo is in the hands of the revolutionary actors of the Islamic State.
The remnants of Iraq and Syria are being cut up and claimed by local powers in the ongoing civil war between the Turkish-led and Gulf State-funded Islamists of the Sunni majority and the Iranian-led, militant Shia minority.
The siege of Kobani is a straightforward step by the Islamic State to destroy the Kurdish citadel in northern Syria and secure its perimeter along the Turkish border. The IS means to drive out or destroy all the minorities inside its territory: the Shia, Kurds, Alawites, Christians, Ismailis, Druze, Jews. The Islamic State’s mission statement is to secure the Abode of Islam — the Muslim world — so that the only people inside the state are either takfiri jihadists or slaves.
Baghdad has also ceased to exist as an international capital…
| — Hat tip: JLH | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Opposition Accuses Gov’t of Giving Support to ISIS
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA — Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu has accused the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government of providing logistical, military and medical support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), saying that the government has trained foreign militants in Turkey and sent them to kill other Muslims in Syria. In his speech at the party’s weekly parliamentary group meeting, as daily Today’s Zaman reported, the CHP leader said the weapons in the hands of ISIL militants were sent by the Turkish government. “The Turkish government helped ISIL grow. But, this will boomerang back on Turkey. Look; a lot of people died in Reyhanli. Mr. (Ahmet) Davutoglu keeps saying that they have been sending aid materials to Syria. He also says that those who claim that the government send weapons to ISIL are traitors. But everything is pretty obvious. Why was the Adana chief public prosecutor prevented from searching the trucks going to Syria? Now let me ask you a question: Who is the traitor, Mr. Davutoglu?” Kilicdaroglu said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Under Assault by U.S.-Led Coalition, Islamic State May Shift Tactics
What the United States and its allies should fear, however, is what comes next — after Islamic State gives up on traditional methods of making war. The militants could borrow a page from the proverbial field manuals of countless rebellions, insurgencies and terrorist groups throughout modern history, ditching their heavy weapons and infantry tactics. They could return to blending into the civilian population and striking when and where their enemies least expect them.
Indeed, there’s already evidence Islamic State is shifting toward those methods, hastening its evolution from a regular fighting force to an irregular one. Or rather, evolving back into an irregular force — just as the current Islamic State is an outgrowth of a hybrid terrorist and insurgent group that formed in Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mogherini Says Russia Giving ‘Encouraging Signals’
Italy’s foreign minister says EU open to revising sanctions
(ANSA) — Rome, October 15 — Russia is giving encouraging signals on resolving the Ukrainian crisis and as a result, the European Union may be open to revising sanctions against Moscow, Italian Foreign Minster Federica Mogherini said on Wednesday.
“Pressure by Moscow on separatist leaders in Ukraine, which led to the ceasefire agreed upon in Minsk on September 5, is an example of the constructive approach that is being asked of Russia,” Mogherini said.
“These types of encouraging signals have prompted Europe’s opening in recent weeks to revising sanctions,” Mogherini said.
Mogherini is expected to be confirmed as EU high representative for foreign and security policy in an EU parliamentary vote later this month.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
With a Small Fine, Polygamy Makes a Comeback in Indonesia
A district in West Nusa Tenggara Province opens the door to “multiple families”. Paying a US$ 80 fine will suffice to get another wife. For the district’s top official, this will reduce graft among public officials charged with fighting the practice. However, the local bylaw violates a national law and the fine’s amount is pitiful.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — The authorities in East Lombok District, West Nusa Tenggara Province (NTB), adopted a bylaw that allows polygamy upon payment of a million rupees (just over 80 dollars) to the local treasury department.
This has sparked controversy and an animated discussion among Indonesians. Although morally accepted under Islam — which allows up to four wives — polygamy in modern Indonesia “is not considered a common practice.” In fact, most Indonesian men have only one wife, including Muslims.
Under the Suharto regime (1967-1998), polygamy was prohibited and severely punished. President Suharto had only one wife, Tien Suharto, to whom he remained faithful throughout his life. And she was the one influenced him in terms of morality and family practices, promoting a strongly monogamous model.
The rule was applied with such firmness that civil servants at the time would not dare take another wife for fear of dismissal.
In the past ten years though, a radical change has occurred under the presidency of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Although he has remained a one-wife man, he has been unwilling or unable to stop polygamy from making a comeback in the country, especially in the government itself.
Indeed, some of his government ministers, from pro-Islamic parties, are polygamous, and the president has done nothing to prevent it.
However, what happened in East Lombok has aspects and peculiarities that make it “different” from what normally happens.
In fact, not only is polygamy “approved from a moral and legal point of view” but also it is seen a source of revenue.
The District Bylaw 26/2014 promulgated by District Chief Dahlan bin Ali (pictured) will allow for polygamy at a cost of a million rupees per marriage. And this will replenish district coffers.
For local authorities, polygamy fines are intended as a way to counter graft. Oftentimes, local officials pocket bribe money when they become aware of families with more than one wife. Instead of filing a case against them, they are paid off to turn a blind eye.
Polygamy is regulated by a national law (No. 10/1983), which requires that, to marry other women, a man must obtain the consent of the first wife and a written letter that certifies his ability to meet her financial needs and those of the second wife as well as his ability to split “nights” between them.
What is more, a man can take a second wife if his first wife is unable or unwilling to perform her duties as wife and mother.
These exceptional reasons are therefore quite different from the requirements imposed by East Lombok district authorities.
In Jakarta, the central government has already raised question about the bylaw’s legality and constitutionality, because a local rule cannot override a national law.
Even a fine is meaningless if — as in this case — the sum is ridiculously low, a Home Affairs Ministry official said.
They should have to pay “at least a billion rupees,” said Home Ministry’s Legal Desk Sigit Widodo Pudjianto.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Hong Kong: Occupy Central: Churches, A Refuge for Those Who Want Democracy
The Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Wanchai — the nearest to the great mass of people gathered at Admiralty — has been open day and night since 28 September to offer shelter and comfort to those who protest against Beijing’s oppression. In the churches of the Territory, people are praying every day, asking for protection of pro-democracy activists and for their intentions. Some members of the local Filipino community remember, “they had been in Manila during People Power in 1986 and understand the importance of the fight that Hong Kong is engaged in.”
Hong Kong (AsiaNews/SE) — Churches showed that they are still a place of sanctuary as the parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Wanchai, the church closest to the mass of people gathered in Admiralty for the Umbrella Movement, kept its doors open throughout the night of September 28 and following days as a place of respite and refuge for weary protesters.
The parish priest, Father John Cuff, announced during the day that the church doors would remain open into the night as a comfort centre for people in need of a rest or assistance.
He said that he had received a call from the vicar general of the diocese, Father Dominic Chan Chi-ming, asking that Wanchai act as a place of comfort and respite for anyone in need.
However, up to 9.00pm no one had come, but as the night wore on and word spread through Catholic Youth communication channels people began to file in.
At a prayer service held in the church earlier in the evening, six graduates from St. Francis’ Canossian College, replete with their survival kits, came to pray for a while before joining the gathering on the streets.
The young people at the parish agreed to act as hosts for the overnight centre. During the evening around 70 people came to the church and an early morning visitor saw a few exhausted bodies sleeping in the pews and some volunteers watching over them.
The lobby of the church had been transformed into an emergency centre, stocked with masks, clean clothes, tissues, water and food. People were slumped against the wall sleeping. The television was on and volunteers welcomed visitors and gave them a willing ear and encouragement.
Others prayed quietly before going back onto the streets and parishioners have drawn up rosters to staff the centre day and night.
Members of the altar serving society, the youth organisation and other parishioners pitched in to offer solace to those in need.
On September 28, prayer services were held in churches in support of people in the streets, praying for their safety and their intentions. On the following evening, a Mass was celebrated in the cathedral, parishes around the territory were open and people were invited to come in and express their solidarity in prayer.
A long-term resident of Wanchai said that when the thunder lit up the skies over the city and the rain began to tumble, she took large plastic bags downstairs for the people in the streets and a young man sheltering under a veranda rushed off into the rain to deliver them for her.
“The quiet of the streets of Wanchai has become sacred to me,” she told the Sunday Examiner. “The light is silent and sacred too. The people in black shirts have become a moving light on the cityscape to enlighten our consciousness.”
On October 1, the parish held a sacred art competition called Umbrella is Light. Volunteers and visitors drew on a roll of white tracing paper and were invited to tell their story in the square. They are displayed in the foyer.
However, volunteers at Wanchai said that they had been under some pressure. Strange telephone calls were coming into the parish office asking if the church was open 24-hours a day.
One said that she had seen members of the Criminal Investigation Division outside the church observing proceedings. Nevertheless, people kept coming, and students and others continued to come for morning Mass after spending the night on the streets.
The Methodist International Church in Wanchai was also open as a refuge centre and at the other end of Central, St. Joseph’s offered a place of rest. Some among the Filipino community said they had been in Manila during People Power in 1986 and understand the importance of the fight that Hong Kong is engaged in.
“We have invaluable insights and ideas to offer-the Filipino people’s collective experience in the democratic struggle has taught us things that only our self can articulate. We have lived through it,” Danilo Reyes said. He explained that in The Philippines the people have a vote, but the Hong Kong people have what the Filipinos do not; democracy in its substance.
In The Philippines, while people do have universal suffrage, public institutions remain undemocratic, as the people’s representatives tend to oppress rather than protect the people.
Reyes added, “We have lived and experienced how democratic institutions function in Hong Kong and know how societies like The Philippines deteriorate because institutions are not democratic.”
He said that he believes that unless democracy is realised in Hong Kong, the core value of the rule of law will be under threat.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Protesters Burn State Building in Southern Mexico
Hundreds of students and teachers smashed windows and set fires inside a state capital building in southern Mexico on Monday, as fury erupted over the disappearance of 43 young people believed abducted by local police linked to a drug cartel.
The protesters called for the 43 students from a rural teachers’ college in Guerrero state, missing since Sept. 26, to be returned alive, even though fears have grown that 10 newly discovered mass graves could contain their bodies.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Should Stump Up Billions to Curb Central America Migration: Perez
The United States should provide billions of dollars to help Central American nations curb the flow of illegal migrants, Guatemalan President Otto Perez said, and his government warns the problem will get worse if Washington fails to help.
Fleeing violence, trying to reach relatives already in the United States or seeking jobs, record numbers of child migrants from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador have been stopped at the southern U.S. border this year, causing widespread alarm.
Last month, the three countries pitched Washington an ambitious development plan to confront the issue.
They want to pump about $10 billion into the region to create jobs and lift living standards, with the bulk of funding coming from the United States, Perez told Reuters.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UN Refugee Chief Urges Europe to Open Its Borders More to Help Refugee Crisis
The head of the United Nations refugee agency is urging countries, particularly in Europe, to open up more to Syrians fleeing their country’s civil war. Antonio Guterres says a refugee crisis across the Middle East is a global security threat.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Re: 1) “Ebola hits US amid charges of racism” (regarding the admittedly incompetent treatment of the Liberian man in Texas). Possibly, but I’d like to see evidence of the alleged racism; otherwise, like many human failings, it’s more likely cock-up than conspiracy.
2) The admittedly belated reaction to the general threat of Ebola. The BBC reported yesterday that Cuba is sending medics to help; all credit to the Cubans, especially as an impoverished nation, for their generosity, as even the US authorities have acknowledged. Yet today I learn from “United for Israel”- not the MSM- that the Israelis are sending three clinics to West Africa to help; just as they provided a field hospital in Haiti after the earthquake, and were among the first into the Philippines after the hurricane. One of their pharmaceutical companies says it’s ready to mass-produce the drug which cures some victims of Ebola, which otherwise would take months to be widely available.
Oh, those evil Zionists; is there no limit to their devious efforts to convince the world of their decency and humanity?
Aaargh! Who the (redacted) is Mark Htion? The above is from me, Mark H.
Mark Tsion? (the properly transliteration of Zion from Hebrew)
Well, I’m not Jewish, but would be proud to be!
Ann Barnhardt has a tantalizing post on Franklin Roosevelt of tangential interest to those following Diana West’s history lessons.
I read this post, anonymous. I’d need to know more about the situation of the American workers to comment, but here in the UK in WW2, there were several strikes, in mines, aircraft factories etc. The strikers seem to have had widespread support among the men in the services, who felt that the right to strike was one of the things they were fighting for.
Unprotected Man Helps Ebola Victim – The ‘clipboard man’ has put a lot of faith in that clipboard hope he is ok.