According to some sources, Islamic State forces launched a mortar attack that hit the US embassy in Baghdad. But other sources say the mortar rounds fell short, and did no damage to the embassy. Meanwhile, American arms intended for the besieged Kurds in Kobani were dropped behind ISIS’ lines by mistake, and are now in the hands of the Islamic State.
In other news, a spokesman for the Taliban in Afghanistan was fired from his job for pledging allegiance to the Caliph of the Islamic State.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Diana West, Fjordman, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, Papa Whiskey, Phyllis Chesler, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
China’s Economy Slows Down, The Lowest Rate in the Last Five Years
The GDP in the third quarter grew by 7.3%. More stimulus packages needed to maintain growth at 7.5. The Bank of China programs injections of loans of up to 200 billion and 500 billion yuan.
Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) — According to the latest data from the Statistics Bureau, the growth rate of the Chinese economy is lower than expected. This suggests that Beijing may introduce new stimulus measures.
In the third quarter, the gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 7.3% compared to last year; in the previous quarter it grew 7.5. The figure is higher than analysts’ forecasts — 7.2% — but remains the lowest in the last five years.
In general, data reveals that the Chinese giant is struggling causing concern over its ability to tow the global economy.
Last March, the government had forecast for an increase of 7.5%, but there are fears that it will not be achieved. This opens the possibility to more stimulus measures by the central authorities.
The property sector is particularly sluggish. China has already loosened the brake on the number of affordable homes, to give breath to the sector.
The Bank of China is planning a cash injection of 200 billion yuan (about 25.5 billion euro) in loans through 20 large banks. Previously the Bank of China had provided a loan of 500 billion yuan (about 63.7 billion euro) to five lending institutions.
In September, industrial production grew by 8%; in August it grew by 6.9%. Retail sales grew by 11.6%. In August, growths were at 11.9%.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
ECB Buying Targeted Bonds From Italian Bank, Say Reports
Purchases part of unconventional measures by central bank
(ANSA) — Rome, October 21 — On the second day of a major purchase of covered bonds through a program aimed at boosting the economy, the European Central Bank turned to Italian paper, according to published reports on Tuesday.
The ECB purchase of Italian bonds included debt issued by leading bank Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, according to a report by Bloomberg, citing two sources familiar with the matter. The bond purchase plan began Monday when the ECB bought up covered bonds from France and Spain as part of its program of unconventional measures designed to stimulate growth in the lacklustre European economy.
The central bank has said it hopes that by purchasing covered bonds along with its targeted lending program, it can encourage retail banks to increase their lending to the consumer and business sector.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU Court Rejects Italy Employment Aid Appeal
Rome must recover funds, pay 16.5 mln fine
(ANSA) — Brussels, October 21 — The Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) on Tuesday rejected an appeal by Italy against an order from the European Commission to recover state aid for employment and pay a 16.5 million euro fine.
The commission considers state aid for employment provided under the form of exemptions from social security payments for the transformation of training contracts into contracts of unlimited duration to be “illegitimate and incompatible with the common market” according to the original order, dating to 1999. A second appeal by Italy against the commission is pending at the European court in relation to additional penalties for the same offence.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Govt ‘Relaxed’ About EU Reaction to Budget Law
Gozi says bill respects commitments, including those to growth
(ANSA) — Luxembourg, October 21 — Premier Matteo Renzi’s government is not worried about how the European Commission will react to its 2015 budget bill, European Affairs Undersecretary Sandro Gozi told ANSA on the sidelines of an EU meeting in Luxembourg on Tuesday. There is speculation the EC may ask for Rome to make “corrections” to the budget. “We are relaxed,” Gozi said. “There is continual contact (between Rome and Brussels), but this is natural dialogue. “The budget is already compatible with EU rules and coherent with the commitments made, which also ensure growth”.
The budget features 18 billion euros in tax cuts as part of a drive to boost growth in the recession-battered Italian economy and create jobs, with unemployment over 12%.
Around 11 billion euros of financial coverage for the cuts will come from allowing Italy’s deficit-to-GDP ratio to drift up towards the 3% threshold allowed by the EU.
Italy has told the EC that the budget will enable it to reduce its “structural” deficit by 0.1% of gross domestic product between 2014 and 2015 in the draft budgetary plan it sent Brussels.
According to some reports, the EC wants a much bigger reduction in the structural deficit, which, unlike the nominal budget deficit figure, is adjusted for the business cycle.
The draft budgetary plan said that the structural deficit will come down by 0.5% of GDP in 2016.
Renzi’s government recently said in the revised version of its three-year economic blueprint, the Economic and Financial Document (DEF), that it will not be able to balance the budget in structural terms until 2017, one year later than its previous target.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Grillo Says Italy Must Exit Euro to Avoid Default
M5S leader says country must ‘take back monetary sovereignty’
(ANSA) — Rome, October 21 — Beppe Grillo, the leader of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), said Tuesday that Italy must exit the euro to avoid a Greek-style financial meltdown. “Let’s take back monetary sovereignty and emerge from the nightmare of bankruptcy via default… to not end up like Greece,” Grillo, who has launched a drive for Italy to hold a referendum on the euro, said on his blog. “Out of the euro or default. There are no alternatives.
The interest on the public debt is killing the country and dismantling the welfare state”.
The commedian-turned-politician returned to his popular blog, which gave life to the Internet-based M5S in 2009, a day after causing a stir on it by calling for undocumented migrants to be expelled from Italy if they are not found to be refugees.
“People who enter Italy on migrant boats are perfect strangers,” said Grillo, whose movement captured a quarter of the vote at last year’s general election.
“They should be identified immediately. The refugees should be accepted, the others, the so-called illegal immigrants, should be sent back to where they come from.
“People who enter Italy should be subject to an obligatory medical upon arrival to protect their health and Italian people’s health”.
Grillo’s hard line on migrants has drawn parallels with the separatist, rightwing Northern League, which is also calling for Italy to drop the euro and to halt the arrival of undocumented migrants.
But Grillo recently knocked back an offer from League leader Matteo Salvini to meet for talks on the issues the two parties agree on.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Mediobanca Study Says Bonds Beat Equity Investments
Study over past decade shows Italian paper a safer bet
(ANSA) — Milan, October 21 — Italian investors who put their money into bonds earned better returns over the past decade than those who played the stock market, according to a study by Mediobanca released Tuesday.
From December 31, 2004 until present, investors in the Milan stock market lost a total of 0.5% while bonds yielded 2.3%, according to the study.
Its figures are gross, before taxes and inflation are deducted.
When inflation is included in calculations, equity markets lost an average of 25% but with dividends an average gain of 19% is recorded, say Mediobanca figures.
And when figures dating from January 1996 are added to the total, shareholders in the equity markets averaged a return of 8.9% including dividends.
According to Mediobanca, equity investors generally assume they should earn an average of at least 3.5% to 5% per year as a reward for the extra risk they bear, yet these results say they may be wrong.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Ben Bradlee, Washington Post Editor Who Directed Watergate Coverage, Dies at 93
Ben Bradlee, who presided over The Washington Post’s exposure of the Watergate scandal that led to the fall of President Richard M. Nixon and that stamped him in American culture as the quintessential newspaper editor of his era — gruff, charming and tenacious — died on Tuesday. He was 93.
With full backing from his publisher, Katharine Graham, Mr. Bradlee led The Post into the first rank of American newspapers, courting controversy and giving it standing as a thorn in the side of Washington officials.
When government officials called to complain, Mr. Bradlee acted as a buffer between them and his staff. “Just get it right,” he would tell his reporters. Most of the time they did, but there were mistakes, one so big that the paper had to return a Pulitzer Prize.
Mr. Bradlee — “this last of the lion-king newspaper editors,” as Phil Bronstein, a former editor of The San Francisco Chronicle, described him — could be classy or profane, an energetic figure with a boxer’s nose who almost invariably dressed in a white-collared, bold-striped Turnbull & Asser shirt, the sleeves rolled up.
| [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Obama the Virtuoso Manager
Since he assumed office nearly six years ago, US President Barack Obama has been dogged by allegations of managerial incompetence. Obama, his critics allege, had no managerial experience before he was elected. His lack of such experience, they claim, is reflected in what they see as his incompetent handling of the challenges of the presidency.
In everything from dealing with the Congress, to reining in radical ideologues at the IRS, to handling the chaos at the Mexican border, to putting together coordinated strategies for dealing with everything from Ebola to Islamic State (IS), Obama’s critics claim that he is out of his league. That he is incompetent.
But if Israel’s experience with him is any guide, then his critics are the ones who are out to sea. Because at least in his handling of US relations with the Jewish state, Obama has exhibited a mastery of the tools of the executive branch unmatched by most of his predecessors.
Consider two stories reported in last Friday’s papers…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Israel-Hatred ‘Has Scaled the Wall of High Culture’
by Phyllis Chesler
There was such a large police presence and so many police barricades that anyone passing by would think that terrorists were at large.
There were no terrorists on Broadway—although terrorists would soon be mounting the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. The police were protecting the right of the Opera House to present the Palestine Liberation Organization and their cause as mythically majestic and eternally just.
Here’s what was also extraordinary: “The Suits”—men and women in positions of power, both politically, legally, and financially, felt compelled to take to the streets to be heard. Governors, Congressional Representatives, Mayors, Borough Presidents, financial advisors, were not presiding over a press conference in their grand offices. They were on the streets. I suspect this may have been the first time they have ever done so.
Peter Gelb had called the police to make sure that opera lover and former mayor—”America’s mayor” during 9/11—Rudy Guiliani, did no harm to the opera house. That convener extraordinaire, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, a partner in a major financial house, would not destroy the set. That Congressman Peter King and Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney would not engage in any acts of petty vandalism. That attorney Ben Brafman, Borough President Melinda Katz, and Attorney General Michael Mukasy would not harass the opera board or the cast.
| — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler | [Return to headlines] |
Stark Media Divergence for US Conservatives, Liberals
American conservatives are far less trusting of media and more reliant on a single news source than their liberal counterparts, according to a study released Tuesday highlighting increased US political polarization.
Liberals engage in more discussions with people who have broader outlooks on the subject, while conservatives are more likely to have like-minded friends on social media, the Pew Research Center said in its poll, one of several recent studies reinforcing the notion that an ideological divide is cleaving voters in the United States.
“The differences between the media habits of liberals and conservatives — and between those in the ideological ends and the middle — is striking,” said Amy Mitchell, Pew’s director of journalism research.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Problem Isn’t “McCarthyism,” It’s McCarthymania
by Diana West
A recent post in the Australian blog Law of Markets begins:
There is, for some reason, a desire on the right to continuously play into the hands of the left on Joe McCarthy…
Yes, you can say that again. This perverse desire is hardwired into the American reflex to a point of scuttling rational appraisals of the man and, to my way of thinking, his exceptionally brave and patriotic efforts to penetrate the federal jungle and expose some of the many hundreds of Soviet agents and ideological Communists who covertly infiltrated the government during the Roosevelt/Truman administrations. McCarthy was quite successful it turns out, once you starting counting up the agents and Communists his committee investigated — as the nation’s pre-eminent McCarthy expert M. Stanton Evans recently did here. America, however, has been relentlessly conditioned to see McCarthy as evil incarnate — far worse than any Hiss or White, two of the most prominent federal employees (and Soviet agents) whose perfidy led to the deaths of millions of people, including tens of thousands of Americans.
This is the reckoning America avoids like a political plague, regularly employing intense political ju-ju to ward it off — McCarthymania. From Right to Left, there is this will to trash Joseph McCarthy for anything, regardless of the facts, and regardless of how, as Law of Markets points out, it plays into the hands of the Left. It also has the effect of rendering the very concept of exposing covert influence agents making war on the Constitution politically radioactive, as Rep.Michele Bachmann, for one, can attest.
Law of Markets was picking up on a US commentary on the case of Hunter Biden, the veep’s son who entered the Navy at the overripe age of 43, only to be booted one month later after testing positive for cocaine.
Law of Markets:…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
US Slaps Entry Ban on Hungarian Officials
The US on Monday announced it has banned six top Hungarian officials close to prime minister Victor Orban’s government from entering the country, reports Reuters. The Americans say the ban is a warning for the Hungarian government to stop undermining democratic values.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Martin Couture-Rouleau Met With Police Days Before Attack
RCMP spokeswoman says hit-and-run driver’s family worried about him, tipped off police
Martin (Ahmad) Couture-Rouleau met with police and his imam several times, including days before he crashed his car into two soldiers, an RCMP officer says.
Couture-Rouleau’s parents were worried about their son and reported his suspected radicalization to police, allowing for several interventions since last June, Supt. Martine Fontaine said at a press conference in Montreal.
Couture-Rouleau was identified as a high-risk traveller and his passport was seized by authorities who feared he wanted to go overseas to take part in terrorism.
He was arrested while on his way out of the country, she said, but there wasn’t enough evidence to charge him and detain him.
Seizing his passport and blocking him from leaving Canada highlights a dilemma facing security officials dealing with the threat of militants on home soil.
Couture-Rouleau, 25, was fatally shot after hitting two soldiers in a parking lot of a commercial plaza in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, a city about 40 kilometres southeast of Montreal.
‘Working him’
One of the soldiers, Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, 53, died of his injuries Monday evening. Police said the other soldier doesn’t have life-threatening injuries.
Officials who stop citizens from leaving Canada because of terrorism fears then face another problem: those persons remain in Canada, perhaps with the intention of causing harm to others.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Civil Law vs. Sharia Law
by Soeren Kern
Austria has emerged as a major base for radical Islam and as a central hub for European jihadists to fight in Syria.
The proposed revisions would, among other changes, regulate the training and hiring of Muslim clerics, prohibit the foreign funding of mosques, and establish an official German-language version of the Koran to prevent its “misinterpretation” by Islamic extremists. Muslims would be prohibited from citing Islamic sharia law as legal justification for ignoring or disobeying Austrian civil laws.
Leaders of Austria’s Muslim community counter that the contemplated new law amounts to “institutionalized Islamophobia.”
Official statistics show that nearly 60% of the inhabitants of Vienna are immigrants or foreigners. The massive demographic and religious shift underway in Austria, traditionally a Roman Catholic country, appears irreversible.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Nationalbanken to Stop Printing Banknotes
From 2016, the Danish central bank, Nationalbanken, will stop printing banknotes. Other payment methods have taken over to such an extent that producing notes has become a loss-leader.
However, the production of banknotes and coins won’t cease altogether. In the future, outside contractors will perform the function.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark’s Central Bank to Stop Producing Money
With more and more people paying with credit cards and their smartphones, Denmark’s central bank Nationalbanken says it no longer pays to print banknotes or mint coins.
By the end of 2016, Nationalbanken plans to outsource all of its printing and minting services to an external supplier.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Kit to Know if Food is Halal
Display sounds alarm if it does not follow Islamic rules
(ANSAmed) — RABAT — Two ex-students at a trade school in France have created a testing kit enabling Muslims to determine whether foods are halal, permissible for Muslims. One line means negative, two lines indicate a positive response — just like a pregnancy test.
The two friends, a 25-year-old Algerian, Abderrahmane Chaoui, and a 27-year-old French national, Vital Julines, studied this simple system enabling someone to discover in 10 minutes whether a dish contains traces of alcohol or pork, which are banned for Muslims.
The stick, similar to the one used in pregnancy tests, will be key for practicing Muslims. It has to be dipped into a small tube containing a sample of the food to be tested and lukewarm water. The first line appears in just a few minutes. If the second line subsequently shows, it means the dish is not halal.
Packaged in boxes similar to the ones used for medicines, the kit is sold online by the firm Capital Biotech to “discover products banned by Islam”. The test costs 6,90 euros.
One of the test’s creators, Abderrahmane Chaoui, warned however that a margin of uncertainly remains because “there is no system to determine for sure how an animal we are eating was killed”.
Meat qualifies as halal if the animal was slaughtered and bled to death.
Nevertheless the test, which is about to hit the European market, is a step forward for Muslim consumers.
The system elaborated by Biotem laboratories is based on the principle of immunochromatography, the specific union of certain antigens and their antibodies — a type of test often used in medicine.
Abderrahmane Chaoui, said the kit should be used “occasionally, to allay consumers’ fears over a brand they buy more often, or when they are travelling and they find dishes which are not fully described by labels”.
Inspired by recent scandals stretching from France to Europe, like Herta sausages certified as halal which later proved to be made with pork, the kit is likely to prove successful given that the market for halal foods is growing and has been estimated by Ecofin to be worth 5.5 billion euros in France alone.
The two researchers are now working on their next kit, which they mean to determine whether meat has been slaughtered under Islamic rules. “We will work from tests measuring blood oxygen”, they said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Grillo Expels Four M5S Activists
Security officers ‘occupied’ Circus Maximus stage
(ANSA) — Rome, October 20 — Beppe Grillo on Monday expelled four activists from his anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) after they ‘occupied’ the stage at the movement’s recent Circus Maxiumus rally.
The four — Giorgio Filosto, Orazio Ciccozzi, Pierfrancesco Rosselli and Daniele Lombardi — “took advantage of their role as security officers to occupy the stage,” Grillo wrote on his blog.
The rebel group unfurled a banner saying #occupapalco (#occupy the stage) to protest Grillo’s allegedly high-handed leadership.
They are the latest in a string of dissidents to be kicked out of the M5S.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: House Rejects Judges Liability in Secret Vote
Deputy justice minister says govt ‘sensitive’ on issue
(ANSA) — Rome, October 21 — The Lower House by a vote of 365 against, 126 in favour, and three absentions on Tuesday rejected a proposal that would open judges to lawsuits over their rulings. They voted in a secret ballot.
The so-called Pini amendment, named for Northern League legislator Gianluca Pini, would have made judges liable for negligence or malfeasance in civil proceedings. In early September, the Senate’s committee on European Union policies rejected the proposal.
Before the vote, Deputy Justice Minister Enrico Costa said the government felt the proposal had no merit and that the executive “has shown strong sensitivity on the subject of civil liability of judges”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: M5S Lashes Out at ‘Manipulative’ Premier Renzi
Di Maio pours scorn on 80 euro tax bonus for new mums
(ANSA) — Rome, October 21 — Anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) deputy head Luigi Di Maio lashed out at Premier Matteo Renzi Tuesday, charging that he “manipulates everything he can”.
Responding to the premier’s remarks about expulsions from the party headed by the raucous comic Beppe Grillo, Di Maio, the M5S vice president, poured scorn on the government’s pledge Sunday to give a tax break of 80 euros a month to new mothers.
“Matteo Renzi manipulates everything he can, we know him very well,” Di Maio said, “he is a person who only makes announcements to cover the pigs’ mess that he has done, for instance with the stability law and the health cuts, and forcing the local authorities to increase taxes for Italian citizens”.
Renzi “is the person who announces the bonus to new mothers in a measure that doesn’t exist to cover the fact that Italian women will have to give birth in hospitals that have suffered more spending cuts”.
The people expelled from M5S “were four people who were not even elected to the Five Star Movement who betrayed our trust and to whom we have prohibited the use of the party symbol”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: PD and League Up 0.5% in Poll
Forza Italia 0.5% down
(ANSA) — Rome, October 21 — The ruling Democratic Party (PD) rose 0.5% to 41% in the latest Piepoli Institute poll released Tuesday.
The anti-immigrant Northern League was up 0.5% to 8%.
The centre left was polling at 45% and the centre right at 29%.
Ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia was 0.5% down on 14.5% while the New Centre Right was steady on 3%.
The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement was down 0.5% on 21%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Parish Priest Sketches Images of Skirts to Reinforce Warning
Reminds women to keep knees covered in church
(ANSA) — Cagliari, October 21 — The parish priest in a small town in Sardegna, fed up with visitors showing too much leg, attached a detailed sketch of skirts to his church door clearly indicating the dress code.
Highlighting the knees of a woman in a simple sketch, Father Gianluca Pretta of Santa Giusta a Gesico indicated acceptable skirt lengths — anything at or below the knee cap.
Dotted horizontal lines almost as high as the crotch indicated what was not acceptable, reinforced with a large X across the offending garment.
“Is it clear enough?” said the handwritten message above the sketches.
“The skirt should touch the knees, do not force the priest to drive you out,” it adds.
The reaction of local residents was mixed with Mayor Rodolfo Cancedda suggesting the priest’s attitude “against short skirts is out of fashion”.
Local media said the priest removed the sign on Monday, at the end of the feast of Sant’Amatore.
The handmade sketches and warnings went beyond the typical type of notices posted in many churches in Italy reminding visitors that bare knees and shoulders are not permitted as a sign of respect.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Chinese Central Bank Has 2% of Mediobanca
People’s bank continues buying spree
(ANSA) — Milan, October 21 — The Chinese central bank has bought 2.001% of storied Milan merchant bank Mediobanca, Milanese bourse regulator Consob reported Tuesday. In recent months the People’s Bank of China has been found to have stakes in Italy’s largest listed companies: Generali, Eni, Enel, Prysmian, Telecom and Fiat. Meanwhile, the huge utilities company the State Grid Corporation of China has now acquired 35% of CDP Reti — the parent company of the energy and gas distribution networks Terna and SNAM — while Shanghai Electric has bought a 35% stake in Ansaldo Energia.
The threshold to make public a company’s presence as a shareholder is 2%, and in all the operations that have come to the public eye the Chinese stake is just over that, implying that they have decided not to keep as low of a profile as they normally do.
The People’s Bank of China has taken a 2.014% stake in one of Italy’s largest insurance companies Generali, national financial market regulator Consob said Friday.
It’s the latest in a string of strategic purchases by the Chinese central bank in major Italian firms.
In recent months, the bank has bought up shares in Torino-based automaker Fiat, Telecom Italia, cable-maker Prysmian, and energy majors Eni and Enel.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Norwegian Ebola Victim Free of Virus
A Norwegian woman who contracted the Ebola virus while working for Doctors Without Borders in Sierra Leoneis now free of the virus and was released from an isolation unit on Monday.
“Today I am in good health and am no longer contagious,” Silje Lehne Michalsen told reporters just minutes after Oslo University Hospital announced she had recovered.
“I feel very lucky and actually it doesn’t feel like I have had Ebola,” the 30-year old medical charity worker added with a smile as she hugged one of the medical staff.
She had been kept in an isolation ward since her repatriation from Sierra Leone and given an experimental treatment. The medical team did not disclose details of the treatment.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sicilian Businessman Self-Immolates
Depressed after business woes
(ANSA) — Catania, October 21 — A Sicilian businessman self-immolated because of a severe bout of depression brought on by debts and work problems, police said Tuesday.
The man, 54, drenched himself with petrol before setting himself on fire with a lighter, they said.
The man died in the countryside near his home in Caltagirone, about 70 kilometres southwest of Catania.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Govt Sends Troops to Tripoli
‘Young people, help out’
(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 21 — Libya’s transitional government order its army to Tripoli to liberate the city from armed militia and appealed to the capital’s youth to assist the military.
In a statement published by Middle Eastern News Agency MENA, the government advised against retaliating in the case of arrest of armed rebels and said to hand them over to military forces.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Have the Syrian Kurds Turned Kobani Into ‘Stalingrad’ in the War Against ISIS?
, three USAF C-130’s flew over the Syrian Kurdish YPG- held Western area of embattled Kobani. Air crews dropped 27 bundles of much needed arms, ammunition and medical supplies. Only one bundle went awry and was promptly destroyed by an accompanying coalition air fighter escort.
Others have called the defense of Kobani by YPG forces as “very impressive”. Impressive because of the grit, determination and valorous sacrifices of Kurdish fighters with some mixed units led by women commanders. The YPG fighters’ motivation is to stave off the ISIS rampage from conquering this outlying Syrian bastion of their ancestral Kurdish homeland crossing the borders of neighboring Turkey, Iraq and Iran. Kobani has not been completely overtaken by ISIS in the more than two months siege now in the brutal urban warfare phase. It has become a symbol of armed resistance not unlike the Russian defense and ultimate victory over the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad in early 1943. The Kurdish resistance in Kobani could be the turning point in the War against ISIS if properly supported by the Coalition. This despite the obduracy of Turkish President Recep Erdogan, whose tanks silently stand on the border at Suruc overlooking the Kobani battle ground. Faith Mc Donnell of the Washington, DC-based Institute for Religion and Democracy drew attention on their blog yesterday, about the successful international social media effort led by the National Security Communications Task Force (NSCTF) of the Lisa Benson Show, “Twitter Success and Courageous Warriors”. That was the fourth and most successful twitter rally that the NSCTF has conducted since June, 2014. The first was directed at a #DefendHamas campaign aimed at supporting Israel’s Operation Protective Edge during the 50 day rocket and terror tunnel war with Hamas in Gaza. The last weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal on October 18-19, 2014 drew attention in a report to those YPG women fighters, who constitute one-third of the Kurdish forces defending Kobani, “Kurdish Women Battle Islamic State on Front Lines.” One 19 year old woman fighter, “Dilar” who joined up in an all female Martyr Warsin brigade, named in honor of a fallen teacher, said, “When I walk with my gun, the men who haven’t volunteered keep their eyes down around me. My bravery shames them.” While President Obama is refraining from US boots on the ground in the battle for Kobani, he needs to continually replenish those Kurdish forces in Kobani and Peshmerga in Iraq with the “tools to finish the job”. He should urge CENTCOMM and Coalition commanders Gens. Austin and Allen to schedule more air drops with heavier weapons and ammunition coupled with robust close air support missions to complement communications and intelligence from Kurds on the ground. Consider the casualties that the Kobani YPG fighters inflict on ISIS reported daily by the Syrian Human Observatory as retribution for ISIS beheadings of Americans James Foley and Steven Sotloff and Britons, David Haines and Alan Henning. Perhaps, just perhaps, like Stalingrad, Kobani could demonstrate to the uncooperative Turks, President Obama and the coalition in Inherent Resolve that fighting Kurds have the resolve to “defeat and degrade” ISIS.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State militants fighting in Syria and Iraq have released a sickening video of a young woman being stoned to death by a group of men — including her own father.
The shocking footage is understood to have been filmed in the city of Hama and shows a bearded cleric ranting at the woman in Arabic and accusing her adultery while she pleads for her life.
With her request for leniency rejected, a group of masked men begin hurling rocks at the woman, before the man believed to be her father steps forward to strike her with the large stone that eventually causes her death.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Says Has US Kurd Airdrop Arms
‘Dropped by mistake on ISIS positions’ at Kobane
(ANSA) — Rome, October 21 — In a new video posted online, Islamic State (ISIS) militants claimed they had captured weapons and ammunition dropped by the U.S. military that was intended for Kurdish forces defending an embattled Syrian city near the Turkish border.
The airdrops Sunday were the first of their kind and followed weeks of U.S. and coalition airstrikes in and near Kobane.
In the video, ISIS claims some of the weapons and ammunition was air-dropped by mistake on its positions in Kobani.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Claims it Hit U.S. Embassy in Attack on Baghdad Green Zone
ISIS has reportedly struck the U.S. embassy in Baghdad in what could be the furthers incursion yet into Iraq’s capital.
On Tuesday the Islamist militant group took credit for a mortar attack against the embassy in Baghdad. The group bragged about the attack on social media, claiming that there were likely casualties.
“Four rockets strike Green Zone in #Baghdad; helicopters hovering over the Green Zone; ambulances heading that way after strikes!!” one ISIS militant noted on Twitter.
Others noted that the mortars fell short of the U.S. embassy, leaving no one killed or injured.
Just one day before the alleged attack, retired Lt. Col. Oliver North claimed that sources in Iraq believed ISIS was planning a “major attack” against the embassy in Baghdad.
“They know Baghdad. They’ve lived in Baghdad,” North said of the militants reportedly planning the attack.
They are at the gates of Baghdad. They’re coming for us,” he added.
But North’s predictions were also tinged in political criticism, as he used the prediction as a way to attack President Obama and allege a conspiracy to let ISIS take over Iraq for his own benefit…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Sends a Message: What Gestures Say About Today’s Middle East
A masked man brandishes a severed head in one hand. In the other, he raises an index finger, a commonly understood symbol for the number one.
His name is Abdel Majed Abdel Bary, a failed London rapper turned jihadist, a British militant fighting for the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), also known as the Islamic State. British authorities suspect him of murdering American journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley. In August, Bary posted a gruesome picture — from a different killing — on his Twitter account for the world to see.
The curious thing was not the head Bary held in his left hand — however ghoulish the trophy — but the gesture he made with his right. For followers of ISIS, a single raised index finger has become a sign of their cause, and it is increasingly common in photographs of militants. Some have even gone so far as to call the symbol “the jihadi equivalent of a gang sign.”
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS: Air Strikes and Clashes in Kobane, A Suicide Attack
Ankara green lights Iraqi Kurds but no Turkish kurds yet
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, OCTOBER 21 — US-led coalition air strikes against militant group Islamic State (ISIS) resumed on Tuesday in Kobane, while new clashes between Kurdish YPG militants and jihadists were reported on the Syrian border city, human rights watchdog ONDUS said.
According to local witnesses, an Isis militant reportedly was blown up in a car bombing in Kurdish territory in the eastern part of Kobane.
Iraqi peshmerga (armed Kurd fighters) have not yet crossed the borders between Turkey and Syria as Ankara had them allowed to do on Monday in order to rescue Kobane Kurds, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced, reiterating that the Turkish government, which still does not allow Turkish Kurds to cross the Syrian border, has never wanted the city to fall into the hands of Isis.
Great Britain announced that its drones stationed in the Middle East will be used in anti-ISIS surveillance and reconnaissance operations in Syria. Downing Street clarified should the government opt for military action in Syria, it will first ask the Westminster Parliament for the go ahead.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Slick, Agile and Modern — The IS Media Machine
The hard line jihadist group calling itself Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS or ISIL) stands out from other jihadist groups both for the brutality of its actions and the professionalism of its media operation.
The group clearly invests heavily in a well-organized media effort which combines the expertise of its official in-house propagandists with the tireless labours of an army of online supporters and media groups which disseminate and amplify its message.
That message, which combines ruthless violence with state-building activities, is enhanced by slick high-quality media production standards and intensive targeting of audiences both in the Arabic-speaking world and the West.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: ISIS Says it Has Weapons Intended for Kurds in Kobane
Video shows woman stoned to death by ISIS militants, father
(ANSAMed) — ROME — In a new video posted online, Islamic State (ISIS) militants claimed they had captured weapons and ammunition dropped by the U.S. military that was intended for Kurdish forces defending an embattled Syrian city near the Turkish border.
The airdrops Sunday were the first of their kind and followed weeks of U.S. and coalition airstrikes in and near Kobane. In the video, ISIS claims some of the weapons and ammunition was air-dropped by mistake on its positions in Kobani.
CBS News also reported that an American official confirmed that most of the weapons and ammunition dropped by US Military for Kurdsish forces fighting in and around Syrian border town Kobani reached their destination. Because the drops were made overnight, the Pentagon could not say with 100 certainty that they reached their intended destinations.
“We are still assessing the completion of the mission but every indication that we have is that the vast majority of those bundles were successfully delivered to Kurdish forces,” the official said. Since air strikes were made during the night, the Pentagon was not yet able to give full confirmation that succeeded in their goal.
US-led coalition air strikes against militant group Islamic State (ISIS) resumed on Tuesday in Kobane, while new clashes between Kurdish YPG militants and jihadists were reported on the Syrian border city. According to local witnesses, an Isis militant reportedly was blown up in a car bombing in Kurdish territory in the eastern part of Kobane.
Iraqi peshmerga (armed Kurd fighters) have not yet crossed the borders between Turkey and Syria as Ankara had them allowed to do on Monday in order to rescue Kobane Kurds, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced, reiterating that the Turkish government, which still does not allow Turkish Kurds to cross the Syrian border, has never wanted the city to fall into the hands of Isis.
Great Britain announced that its drones stationed in the Middle East will be used in anti-ISIS surveillance and reconnaissance operations in Syria. Downing Street clarified should the government opt for military action in Syria, it will first ask the Westminster Parliament for the go ahead.
Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq released a video of a woman being stoned to death by a group of men, including her own father, the National Observatory for Human Rights ONDUS said. The human rights watchdog reportedly received a video of the stoning, which allegedly took place on an unspecified date in a area east of Hama, in the central region of the country. In describing images, the ONDUS reported that the woman’s father allegedly refused to grant a pardon that could have saved her, despite the insistence of two militants Isis. Then he tied her with a rope and placed her in a hole dug into the ground. The woman was then stoned by a group of men, with her father participating. ONDUS did not name the woman.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Twitter ‘Source of All Evil, ‘ Says Saudi Grand Mufti
The micro blogging site Twitter popular among both men and women in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia is nothing more than “a source of lies” and evil, the kingdom’s Grand Mufti said.
“If it were used correctly, it could be of real benefit, but unfortunately it’s exploited for trivial matters,” Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh said on his “Fatwa” television show broadcast late Monday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Belarus Leader Stole $10bn From Own People
Belarus leader Lukashenko has since 1994 stolen $10bn from Belarusian people according to an investigation by two French journalists for journalismfund.eu. They said the “kleptocracy” is “similar to Russia’s, albeit at a smaller scale” and uses “a maze of offshore entities to conduct (its) business, despite European sanctions”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Falling Oil Prices Puts Increasing Pressure on Russia
The continued decline in oil prices could impact how Russian President Vladimir Putin handles his country’s domestic and foreign policy, according to a former top Reagan administration official.
Former national security adviser Robert McFarlane told Fox News National Security Analyst KT McFarland falling prices is a cause for concern in Moscow.
“Oil and gas revenues constitute more than 70 percent of the Russian budget and, consequently, it makes it more difficult when oil prices drop,” said McFarlane, who serves as co-founder of the United States Energy Security Council.
Russia is currently the second largest oil exporter worldwide and holds the seventh largest oil reserves.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Man Fights Off Bear With Old Computer
A Siberian man has the march of technology to thank after fighting off a charging bear with a discarded computer, it’s been reported.
The encounter occurred at a rubbish dump in a village near Tomsk in western Siberia, where both man and bear were scavenging, the Moscow Times reports. The villager was searching for metals to sell, and was charged by the animal which was looking for food. Local ranger Sergei Yelnikov says the unnamed man threw the old computer, which was the first thing that came to hand, causing the bear to flee. “The villager hardly suffered at all; he injured his hand when throwing the device at the bear,” Mr Yelnikov says. According to the RT television channel, a 24-hour search found no trace of the animal.
It’s not unusual for hungry bears to cross into human settlements when food is scarce, RT says.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russians More Afraid of U.S.Than Islamic Terrorism, Survey Shows
Nearly a quarter of Russians believe the U.S. poses a bigger terrorist threat to their country than radical Islamists, a survey published Tuesday showed.
Twenty-two percent of respondents to the poll by the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM), titled “Terrorist Threats Against Russia: New Sources,” said the U.S. was the most likely source of a terrorist attack, compared to a mere 4 percent who felt that way a year ago.
Islamic extremists came in only second in the ranking of the biggest threat for Russians, with 13 percent of respondents citing this group as the biggest threat.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia: Islamic Authorities Slam “I Want to Touch a Dog”
Hundreds of people participated in an event which, according to the organizers, wanted to help people overcome their fear of the animals considered “unclean” by Muslims. For those who touched the dogs, volunteers explained how to perform purifying ritual.
Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews / Agencies) — The Islamic Development Department (Jakim) of Malaysia has announced an “in-depth” investigation into the organization “I want to touch a dog”, an event which took place on Sunday in Central Park, One Utama, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.
Jakim director general of Datuk Othman Mustapha said that the event should not have taken place and dennounced the attitude of the organizers as irresponsible and of failing to take on board the sensibilities of Muslims in the country, which consider man’s best friend “impure “. Another Muslim leader, Nooh Gadut, spoke of an attempt to insult the religion. According to local media he warned against “attempts to create a culture that is opposed to Islam”.
The organizer of the event, Alhabshi Syed Azmi, a 30 year-old Muslim, said that his intention is to help people overcome their fear of dogs and promote affection towards animals. The reactions of Malaysians on social media has been generally positive.
According to the newspapers, there were more than 800 people, half of which Muslim, who took part in the ‘touch a dog’ Sunday. Following the organizer’s guidelines those who wanted to pet a dog wore clothes with yellow, while those who wanted to just watch wore orange.
In any case, for those Muslims who touched the dogs at the end of the event volunteers explained how to perform the purifying ritual (sertu), first washing their hands with earth and then six times with clean water.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia Islamic Authorities Probe ‘Dog Patting’ Event
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) — Islamic authorities in Malaysia are conducting a probe into a controversial “dog patting” event aimed at removing the stigma regarding men’s best friend in the multi-ethnic Muslim-majority country.
The event, titled “I want to touch a dog” and held in a park on the outskirts of the capital Kuala Lumpur Sunday, encouraged patting dogs — seen as unclean in Islam — and reportedly drew hundreds of Muslims, raising the ire of religious leaders.
Islamic authorities said they would investigate the event, while a Muslim leader, Nooh Gadut, said the event was an attempt to insult clerics.
“Don’t try to create a culture that is opposite to Islam,” he was quoted by local media as saying.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In August, the 19-year old Maria Bibi was abducted and forced to marry Mohammad Zohaib, a neighbor and classmate. Now the matter is in the hands of a court. Meanwhile, the Church of Pakistan celebrates a day of fasting and prayer for Asia Bibi. Muslim leader: no innocent person should be made a victim “in the name of religion.”
Faisalabad (AsiaNews) — “ I am not married with Mohammad Zohaib, he is telling a lie in court, he tried to convert me forcefully to Islam and got married with me in mosque against my will, and this marriage I do not accept”, Maria Bibi tells AsiaNews, repeating the contents of her statement and filed petition against the man for false marriage on October 14 before additional session Judge Furrukh Hameed. It is yet another episode of abuse and harassment of a young Christian woman in Pakistan while the local Church holds a day of prayer and fasting for Asia Bibi, sentenced to death (even on appeal) for blasphemy.
The 20-year old Mohammad Zohaib, a Muslim native of Nazimbad, a town near Faisalabad (Punjab), is a classmate and neighbor of 19 year old Christian Maria Bibi; the two knew each other well, so on August 5 last no suspicions were raised when the young man asked to study together with her.
Mohammad brought Maria to the Jamiya Rizviya mosque, Jhang Bazar, where he recited the Islamic marriage formula (Nikkah) in the presence of a Muslim religious leader, forcibly converting her to Islam. After a few days, Maria succeeded in escaping, sparking the ire of the young man who has tried several times to kidnap her and threatened the girl’s parents to hand her over. However, they have always staunchly refused and defended their daughter from her tormentor.
On 3 October Mohammad Zohaib filed a complaint against the girl’s parents, the next day they appeared before the judges to testify. At the young woman’s rejection, the young Muslim withdrew the complaint, only to file it again on October 13. At this point, Maria filed a counter-complaint, in which she claims to have been forced to marry Mohammad and that she will not convert to Islam.
The girl’s family is frightened and desperate for justice. “Our daughter is innocent,” say the parents, “but since we belong to a religious minority we are living in terror” . Interviewed by AsiaNews the family’s lawyer Hashmat Barkat, says he hopes for laws “against forced marriages and forced conversions” in Pakistan, to protect women from the minorities. He assured that he will do everything in his power to ensure Maria Bibi justice during the trial.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani Church is holding a day of fasting and prayer for Asia Bibi, sentenced to death for blasphemy, and pending the appeal to the Supreme Court, the last step to prevent the killing of an innocent. The bishop of Islamabad-Rawalpindi Anthony Rufin said that “we pray for Asia Bibi, her family, Zafar Bhatti and other people imprisoned because of the blasphemy laws.” Maulana Muhammad Ali Khan Mehfooz, from the Council for Islamic ideology, recalls that the purpose of the law is to “protect the sanctity of religion and the Prophet Muhammad.” However, he adds, “there should be no innocent victims in the name of religion” and abuses “should be condemned”.
(Jibran Khan collaborated)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Taliban Sack Spokesman After Joins Islamic State
Shahidullah Shahid fired after vowing allegiance to ISIS
(ANSA) — Rome, October 21 — The Pakistan Taliban on Tuesday sacked spokesman Shahidullah Shahid after pledging allegiance to Islamic State (ISIS). The Taliban said he had been replaced but did not name his successor in a statement that reiterated support for Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
It emerged last week that Shahidullah Shahid and five other Pakistan Taliban (TTP) commanders had defected to ISIS which controls parts of Iraq and Syria.
Analysts say ISIS poses a challenge to the Taliban, al-Qaeda and other militants.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Taliban Sack Spokesman Shahidullah Shahid for is Vow
Pakistan Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid has been sacked after pledging allegiance to Islamic State (IS).
The militants said he had been replaced but did not name his successor. A statement reiterated support for Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
It emerged last week that Shahidullah Shahid and five other Pakistan Taliban (TTP) commanders had defected to IS which controls parts of Iraq and Syria.
Analysts say IS poses a challenge to Taliban, al-Qaeda and other militants.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hong Kong: First Round of Talks End in Stalemate
The government delegation, led by Carrie Lam, “hopes” to be able to hold another meeting with student representatives but rejects their demands. Protest leaders are set to remain in the streets to show that the battle is a long one.
Hong Kong (AsiaNews) — Hong Kong Government officials ended the first round of talks with the students blocking important sections of the city to demand full democracy and universal suffrage.
Chief Secretary Carrie Lam said that she hoped to have more meetings with protest leaders. However, the authorities in both Hong Kong and mainland China rejected protesters’ demands.
According to some observers, both the students that the pro-democracy Occupy Central protesters Central know that have no chance of reaching a favourable agreement. However, they have decided to stay in the streets to show that the battle for democracy is a long one.
The government’s negotiation team was led by the city’s most senior civil servant, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam, and the students were represented by five leaders.
This evening’s talks centred on the students’ demands that the mainland’s preventive screening of candidates for the post of chief executive be dropped and that Hong Kong leadership elections be more democratic before next poll in 2017, a stand rejected by Ms Lam.
“As far as their position is concerned I’m afraid we can only agree to disagree,” she said.
For Alex Chow, secretary general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, the government’s stance was “vague”.
“We would say that the government needs to further explain it in front of the public,” he added.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Just Got a New Spokesman and it’s a 17-Year-Old From Australia
A 17-year-old boy from Sydney’s suburbs has become the latest spokesman for ISIS in a highly-produced propaganda video released onto YouTube.
The boy, identified in the video as Abu Khaled, and flanked by other young-looking men, addresses the camera and in several intercut rants threatens to kill “tyrants” from the U.S., U.K., and “especially Australia.”
ABC News reported the spokesman’s real name is Abdullah Elmir, who went missing from Sydney’s west four months ago with his 16-year-old friend. Elmir seems to have quickly climbed the ranks of ISIS while the other boy was “intercepted” by his father.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ebola Cases Rising Sharply in Western Sierra Leone
After emerging months ago in eastern Sierra Leone, Ebola is now hitting the western edges of the country where the capital is located with dozens of people falling sick each day, the government said Tuesday. So many people are dying that removing bodies is reportedly a problem.
Forty-nine confirmed cases of Ebola emerged in just one day, Monday, in two Ebola zones in and around the capital, the National Ebola Response Center, or NERC, said. Lawmaker Claude Kamanda who represents a western area said more than 20 deaths are being reported daily.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Oscar Pistorius Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison for Killing Girlfriend
Oscar Pistorius, the South African track star once seen as an emblem of triumph over adversity, was sentenced on Tuesday to five years in prison for killing his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.
At the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, the South African capital, Judge Thokozile Matilda Masipa announced her ruling after seven months of often-delayed hearings that have been broadcast around the world and captivated people in Mr. Pistorius’s own country and abroad.
In early September, Judge Masipa found Mr. Pistorius, 27, guilty of culpable homicide — equivalent to manslaughter — and several firearms offenses. But she acquitted him on more serious murder charges.
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Death in the Sahara: An Ill-Fated Attempt to Reach Fortress Europe
One year ago, a group of 113 people set off from Niger hoping for a better future in the European Union. A few days later, they were left stranded in the Sahara Desert without vehicles or water. Only 17 survived to tell the tale.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Eritrean Asylum Seekers Find Refuge in Famous Swiss Monastery
EINSIEDELN (SWITZERLAND) (AFP) — After a harrowing flight from autocratic Eritrea, the last place Nuguse Teklestion expected to call home was the pastoral grounds of a Swiss monastery housing a mysterious black Madonna.
The 21-year-old fingers his large crucifix as he walks past grazing cows and immaculately groomed horses towards the towering Einsiedeln Abbey.
“I’m very happy that I’m in this place. It is peaceful and there are no disturbances,” said Teklestion above tolling church bells.
He is one of some 30 Eritrean asylum seekers given refuge this month at Switzerland’s most famous monastery in the country’s north, about 32 kilometres (20 miles) from Zurich.
Founded in 934 and according to legend miraculously consecrated by Christ himself, the Benedictine monastery’s Black Madonna — said to have a magical aura — draws more than a million pilgrims a year to the tiny, idyllic town of Einsiedeln.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Police reinforcement arrived in Calais last night after a mass attempt by up to 400 illegal migrants to storm lorries heading for Britain.
Tear gas was used on a crowd of mainly young men who were taking part in a ‘clearly coordinated attack’.
Despite their efforts, some of the migrants, thought mostly to be from north Africa, may have managed to stow away on vehicles before they crossed the Channel, officials said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: 28,000 Migrants Entered Ceuta, Melilla Since 2004
In spite of 140 milion investment in Morocco border barrier
(ANSAmed) — MADRID — A total of 28,000 migrants illegally entered Morocco over the past decade, with 36 attempts in 2014 alone, in spite of the 140 million euros invested to strengthen the metal barriers at Melilla and Ceuta, newspaper El Pais cited the Interior Ministry as reporting on Tuesday.
Both Spanish enclaves in Morocco are protected by six foot tall borders made of wire mesh double barriers that cost 140 million euros in 15 years. Even with the reinforced barriers, more than 28,000 migrants have entered Ceuta and Melilla between 2004 and 2013. In addition to attacks on the fences, migrants are clandestinely traveling on barges, hidden in false bottoms of vehicles or between propellers of ferries crossing the Strait of Gibraltar.
“The improvement of the metal barriers at the borders have had the sole effect of diverting the flow of illegal immigrants, they use increasingly hazardous routes”, Estrella Galan, secretary general for the Spanish Commission for Refugees (Ceará), said, adding that “armored borders is not the solution”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Rome Mayor Ordered to Void Gay Marriages
Marino transcribed 16 gay marriages at the weekend
(ANSA) — Rome, October 20 — Rome Prefect Giuseppe Pecoraro on Monday politely requested that Mayor Ignazio Marino void the 16 gay marriages he transcribed in City Hall at the weekend.
Five lesbian couples and 11 gay couples who got married abroad saw their nuptials recognized in their home town Saturday as the mayor contravened the current law of the land by transcribing their marriage certificates in City Hall. The prefect did not say when Marino must carry out the order. “Our dream will come true tomorrow,” gay activists Jeff and Domenico, who wed in Belgium, said Friday.
“This dream cannot be wiped out, and we will appeal any attempt to do so. We are ready to do what it takes to see our rights recognized,” the couple said in a statement. Premier Matteo Renzi has vowed to make it easier for gay couples to be recognised by the State. Speaking on a Sunday talk show, Renzi reiterated that he is looking at a “German-style solution” in which the State would recognise gay unions and they would have similar rights to married heterosexuals except they would not be allowed to adopt kids who are not the biological offspring of one of the partners. Renzi said he would table legislation on the issue when the current budget session is over at the end of the year.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Catholic Movement Denounces Marino for ‘Abuse of Office’
Transcription of gay marriages ‘anti-Constitutional’
(ANSA) — Rome, October 21 — Catholic political movement Italia Cristiana on Tuesday registered a formal complaint against Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino for transcribing 16 gay marriages contracted abroad in city hall in contravention of State law, calling for the centre-left politician to be removed from his post.
Marino “not only violated the principles of correctness, loyalty and proper working of the public administration, but he also became responsible for the crime of abuse of office,” wrote lawyer Massimiliano Tedeschi in the complaint. Italia Cristiana claims Rome’s mayor, a member of Premier Matteo Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD), violated constitutional and civil norms safeguarding heterosexual marriage in transgression of the constitution and orders from the interior ministry and Rome prefecture. Interior Minister Angelino Alfano ordered Rome Prefect Giuseppe Pecoraro to annul the transcription after Marino made known his intention to transcribe the marriage certificates of five lesbian couples and 11 gay couples in city hall on Saturday in the absence of a law recognising same-sex unions in Italy. Also on Tuesday consumer association Codacons said it was pursuing legal action to block a formal request for Marino to void the transcriptions, presented by the prefect on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |