According to Iranian state media, a major explosion occurred last night at the Parchin Iranian nuclear trigger test site south of Tehran. At least two people were killed, and the blast could be seen and felt up to ten miles away. There’s no word whether the incident was sabotage, or an accident. However, it’s certain that the explosion had nothing to do with Islam.
In other news, a nurse in Spain has contracted Ebola. She was on the team that treated a Spanish priest who returned to Spain from Africa after falling ill with the disease, and later died.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, Steen, 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.
Bundesbank Chief Worried About Risky Security Purchases
Berlin says ‘no reason’ to use ESM emergency mechanism
(ANSA) — Berlin, October 6 — A decision by the European Central Bank to begin buying asset-backed securities (ABS) later this year could put taxpayers at risk, said the head of the Bundesbank.
“The credit risks taken by private banks would be transferred to the central bank and therefore, to taxpayers without them getting anything in return,” Jens Weidmann said in an interview published on the weekend in the German magazine Focus.
Weidmann, who is also a member of the ECB’s governing council, complained that the central bank is talking down the value of the euro, which he said could have repercussions beyond what is expected.
The value of the euro has been falling as the ECB moves to buy securities amid weakness in the eurozone economy.
A spokesman for German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble declined to comment Monday on the ABS purchase plan.
“We do not comment on the decision of the ECB,” said Martin Jaeger.
“We will wait and see”.
Meanwhile, Berlin insisted that it was not in favour of using resources from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to promote growth in the eurozone.
“The German government sees no reason to use the ESM,” said spokesman Steffen Seibert.
“The European Stability Mechanism is to be used for emergencies and as a last resort, for financial stability,” he added.
German newsmagazine der Spiegel, in an article on Italian Premier Matteo Renzi, described Italy as a “country in agony”.
Reforms proposed by Renzi are “whitewash” and soon the economy, now in its third recession, will collapse.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Hewlett-Packard Announces Breakup Plan
Hewlett-Packard confirmed on Monday that it planned to break into two companies.
The company, considered a foundational institution of Silicon Valley, said in a news release that it intended to divide itself into a company aimed at business technology, including computer servers and data storage equipment, software and services, and a company that sells personal computers and printers.
Both companies will be publicly traded. The business-oriented company will be called Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, while the PC company will be called HP Inc. and will retain the company’s current logo. The transaction is expected to be completed by October 2015, the end of HP’s fiscal year, the company said.
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Obama, Advisers Weigh Extra Ebola Screening for Travelers at US Airports
President Obama is expected to meet with top health and security officials on Monday to consider whether to launch additional screening at U.S. airports for some travelers arriving from Ebola-stricken African nations.
Two top U.S. health officials confirmed to Fox News on Monday that they were looking at those options as they try to contain the Ebola virus.
“What will be discussed at the White House is the issue of entry screening,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Teen ISIS Supporter Arrested at O’Hare Airport
A suburban teen from the Chicago area was arrested at O’Hare International Airport over the weekend and accused of attempting to provide aid to ISIS, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois announced Monday.
Mohammed Hamzah Khan, 19, is charged with one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
According to a criminal complaint, a round-trip ticket was purchased for Khan from Chicago to Istanbul, Turkey.
Once he crossed security at the airport Saturday, federal agents stopped him and executed a search warrant at his home, where documents expressing support for ISIS and jihadists were recovered, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
The teen was taken into custody without incident.
The charge he faces carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
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Belgium: Jihad Mega-Trial Begins
by Soeren Kern
Belgium’s largest-ever terrorism trial has begun under tight security in the port city of Antwerp, where 46 members of the Islamist group Sharia4Belgium are being accused of recruiting dozens of young Muslims to fight for the jihadist group, Islamic State.
Sharia4Belgium, a radical Salafist group, was founded in 2010 with the purpose of implementing Islamic Sharia law in Belgium. The group generated controversy in September 2011, when it announced the opening of a Sharia Law court in Antwerp, the second-largest city in Belgium.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Military Retreats Before… Tweets!
by Timon Dias
By ordering Dutch soldiers to be “invisible” in The Netherlands, what message is the government sending to it enemies, let alone its own citizens?
Jihadists now know that a few tweets from a single Dutch jihadist can fundamentally alter Dutch defense policy. It will order the personnel tasked with keeping The Netherlands safe to hide.
A country that has to hide its soldiers on its own soil and protect its Jewish schools with Military Police cannot possibly maintain that it has no real problems with elements of its Muslim minority.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ebola Outbreak: Virus Could Reach UK and France by the End of the Month, Scientists Claim
Following an analysis of disease spread patterns and airline traffic data, experts have predicted there is a 75 per cent chance the virus could be imported to France by October 24, while there is a 50 per cent chance it could have also hit Britain.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ebola Outbreak: Nurse Infected in Spain
The Spanish health minister has confirmed that a nurse who treated a victim of Ebola in Madrid has tested positive for the disease.
The nurse is said to be the first person in the current outbreak known to have contracted Ebola outside Africa.
Health Minister Ana Mato said the woman was part of the team that treated Spanish priest Manuel Garcia Viejo, who died of the virus on 25 September.
Some 3,400 people have died in the outbreak — mostly in West Africa.
The Spanish nurse is in a stable condition, Reuters quoted health officials as saying. She started to feel ill last week when she was on holiday.
The nurse was admitted to hospital in Alcorcon, near Madrid, on Monday morning with a high fever, Ms Mato said.
Doctors isolated the emergency treatment room.
The infection was confirmed by two tests, the minister said…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Exosuit Gets Wet in Quest for Buried Shipwreck Treasure
A team of underwater archaeologists who are searching for the buried treasures of an ancient shipwreck in Greece finally got their high-tech “Exosuit” wet.
Divers are revisiting the famed Antikythera wreck this fall, and they’re equipped with a one-of-a-kind diving outfit known as the Exosuit. The team posted a video to YouTube over the weekend that shows a man in the semi-robotic diving suit being lowered for a test dip in Vatika Bay, near the Greek island of Antikythera.
Sponge divers first discovered the 2,000-year-old Antikythera wreck at the bottom of the Aegean Sea in 1900. They salvaged fragments of statues, jewelry and the Antikythera mechanism, an astronomical calculator often considered the world’s oldest computer.
But hard-to-access ancient objects and treasures are thought to remain at the site, more than than 200 feet (60 meters) below the surface.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Four Afghan Officers Flee Alpine Warfare School
Soldiers believed to have fled to France
(ANSA) Aosta, October 6 — Four Afghan army officers attending a mountain warfare course in the French-speaking Italian region of Val d’Aosta have vanished and are believed to have fled to France, military sources said Monday.
The four were discovered missing when a roll call was held last week for 20 Afghans attending the Italian army’s gruelling Alpine training centre at Thuile, the local weekly newspaper Gazzetta Matin reported.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: Eiffel Tower Gets Glass Floor in €30m Facelift
A much-anticipated facelift of the Eiffel Tower will be unveiled Monday with a new glass floor to dizzy the millions of tourists who flock to Paris’s best-known landmark every year.
Its owners hope the formerly dowdy and draughty first floor will become as big an attraction as the viewing platform on top of the 325-metre (1,070-foot) tower — the most visited paying monument in the world.
Visitors will be able to look down through a solid glass floor to the 57 square metres below, with transparent and eco-friendly pavilions built around the tower’s enormous central void.
To heighten the frisson of walking on air still further, the glass safety barriers around the edge have been inclined outwards.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi’s Like Thatcher Camusso Repeats
‘No social dialogue halfway through EU presidency’
(ANSA) — Rome, October 6 — The leader of Italy’s biggest trade union CGIL, Susanna Camusso, on Monday repeated that Premier Matteo Renzi was like Margaret Thatcher. She said his avoidance of “social dialogue” had “only been seen once before, with Mrs Thatcher”. Last month Camusso accused Renzi of being Thatcherite in his planned labour-market reform that would lift totemic job protection. “We’re halfway through the EU duty presidency led by Italy and there’s still been no indication of social dialogue on the part of the premier,” Camusso said. Renzi, after long saying he would push through reforms over the heads of the unions, at the weekend convened them and employers to a meeting on tax and labour reforms Tuesday.
But he is apparently still set on scrapping the landmark Article 18 of the 1970 Workers’ Statute, guaranteeing unfairly sacked workers get their jobs back, possibly by executive decree to overcome resistance by the left wing of his Democratic Party.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Jihadism ‘Has Become a German Phenomenon’
German jihadists are participating in the ‘Islamic State’s’ war of terror. Security experts fear they could also pose a threat to Germany. Islamic studies scholar Guido Steinberg says political action is needed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Neuroscience: Brains of Norway
Nobel prizewinners May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser have spent a career together near the Arctic Circle exploring how our brains know where we are.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norwegian Couple Win Nobel Medicine Prize
A Norwegian husband and wife team received this year’s Nobel prize in medicine, it was announced on Monday in Stockholm.
May-Britt and Edvard Moser shared the prize with American-British John O’Keefe at the award ceremony of the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden’s capital. The Moser couple are both professors of psychology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU — Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet), where they both lead their respective institutes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
One Third of Brussels Residents Non-Belgian, Eurostat Says
(AGI) Brussels, Oct 6 — Luxembourg and Brussels are the European capitals with the highest percentage of resident foreigners, Eurostat revealed on Monday. Luxembourg hosts several EU bodies and organisations and its foreign residents account for 63 percent of its 550,000 population total. While accounting for a far smaller percentage, foreign residents in Brussels total 1.2 million. The Belgian capital’s 33.8 percent total comprises 20.3 percent non-Belgian Europeans and 13.5 percent non-Europeans. Eurostat’s rankings also list London, with 21.6 percent, Madrid, 15.5 percent, Paris, 14.8 percent, Berlin, 14.1 percent, and Rome, 8.5 percent.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: The New Donald Duck Government
So far the only public statement the new government has made has been its intention to recognise the fictitious State of Palestine. But not the very real (and beleaguered) State of Kurdistan.
Here are a few reflections on this new government, and what drives it:…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Thor Heyerdahl 100th Birthday: Google Doodle Celebrates Explorer Who Headed the Kon-Tiki Expedition
Google has used its latest animated home page doodle to celebrate the life of Norwegian ethnographer explorer Thor Heyerdahl, best known for leading the Kon-Tiki expedition of 1947, who was born on this day in 1914.
In the expedition, Heyerdahl and his crew of five sailed a balsa wood raft 5,000 miles westwards from Peru towards French Polynesia in an attempt to prove his hypothesis that the islands were colonised from the Americas, rather than from the Asian mainland, as had previously been thought.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Winners of Nobel Prize in Medicine Announced
John O’Keefe of Britain and May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser of Norway were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine on Monday for their work identifying the cells that make up the positioning system in the brain.
The prize, the world’s most prestigious scientific award, was announced by Goran K. Hansson, secretary of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.
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ISIS: Tunisian Jihad Asks AQIM to Merge With Islamic State
Abou Iyad calls on emir Droukdle to forge alliance with al-Baghd
(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 6 — The fugitive leader of Tunisian jihadist group Ansar al Sharia, Abou Iyadh, has called on the chief of al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), emir Abdelmalek Droukdel, to forge an alliance with the Islamic State of Abou Bakr Al-Baghdadi. In particular, Iyadh asked Droukdle, in an appeal posted to websites close to the North African jihadists, to join forces to “submit” to the orders of ISIS.
Iyadh, who has been at large since the fall of 2012 following an attack on the US embassy in Tunis, is believed to be in Libya where he is allegedly training militants to carry out attacks in Tunisia and Algeria with the objective of creating a caliphate in the region similar to the one pursued by ISIS.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Analysis: Why Are Western Women Joining Islamic State?
By Dr Katherine Brown
Recent news stories, such as those of the missing school girl Yusra Hussien, university student Aqsa Mahmood and twins Salma and Zahra Halane, have triggered concerns about the radicalisation of Muslim women in the UK.
It’s estimated that some 50-60 women from the UK have travelled to Syria via Turkey to join the militant extremist movement Islamic State (IS). On arrival they join others from a range of countries, including the US, Austria, France, the Netherlands, Canada, Norway and Sweden. Just why are women from these Western countries joining up?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cyprus: Turkey Warned to Stop Harassment Near Drill Zone
Saipem 10000 Eni-Kogas vessels working in area
(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA — Cyprus’ Government has warned that there will be serious implications for the process of peace talks, if the Turkish provocations in Cyprus Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) continue and if there is any harassment of the companies operating in it, as CNA reported.
On September 25, drill ship Saipem 10000 of the Eni-Kogas consortium began testing for hydrocarbon reserves in the EEZ.
The Italian-Korean joint venture holds concessions on offshore blocks 2,3 and 9 and is contractually bound to drill a minimum of four wells over the next 12 to 18 months.
“Harassment in any manner of the Company which operates within the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Republic, it is in no way compatible with the orderly conduct of the talks,” said Sunday Government Spokesman Nikos Christodoulides. The spokesman said that on Friday evening, Turkey issued a directive to seafarers (NAVTEX), which binds some areas within the EEZ of the Republic of Cyprus and that the Cyprus Republic directly adopted a directive which proved the illegality of Turkey’s Directive.
The issue, he noted, was particularly important since was violating the sovereign rights of the Republic of Cyprus and the rights of the company ENI-KOGAS, active within the EEZ of Cyprus, following an agreement with the Republic.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Explosion at Iran’s Nuclear Trigger Parchin Test Site: Sabotage or Test Failure?
Sunday night, October 5, 2014, a fiery explosion occurred at the Parchin Iranian nuclear trigger test site south of Tehran. The official Iranian news sources report two killed by the ‘deadly blast”. According to both Iranian opposition news sources and a BBC report, the “glare from the blast could be seen 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the test site with windows blown out”. The IAEA inspectors last checked out Parchin in 2005. Iran announced activity there this past summer. Was this either a failed test of explosive nuclear triggers or sabotage? Either way, this could be a setback for Iran’s nuclear program. Perhaps the Parchin explosion may be an indication how close Iran has gotten to perfecting nuclear triggers.
This development comes before the November 24th deadline for the P5+1 negotiations with the Islamic Regime in Tehran to arrive at a final agreement. Many suspect the agreement proposals on the table would not involve dismantling key components of Iran’s nuclear program. Instead as suggested in recent reports, the deal on the program would simply ‘unplug’ key centrifuge enrichment units subject to IAEA confirmation.
The Jerusalem Post noted in its coverage of the unconfirmed Parchin blast a statement by Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz issued just prior to Iranian President Rouhani’s address at the UN General Assembly in late September that “internal neutron sources such as uranium were used in nuclear implosion tests at Parchin”. His statement was allegedly based on “highly reliable information without elaborating”. Perhaps there is more to be revealed given Steinitz’s prescient remarks.
We queried the ‘good’ ISIS, the Washington, DC-based, Institute for Science and International Security, headed by former nuclear inspector David Albright, for their comments. They expect to have a preliminary assessment within a day or two. The Washington ISIS has kept a watching brief on activities at Parchin. Today’s State Department daily press briefing doubtless will have some tough questions about the Parchin report, as well as the pending P5+1 deal enabling lifting of international sanctions against the Islamic regime’s nuclear program.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Fierce Battle Between Kurds and IS for Kobane
(AGI) Beirut, Oct 6 — Islamic State militants and Kurdish militia are locked in battle over the key Syrian town of Kobane, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Earlier the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union party (PYD) announced that more than 2,000 inhabitants of the border town had been evacuated to Turkey following advances made by IS. Islamic State flags have been seen flying over several buildings on the eastern edge of Kobane.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq Slave Markets Sell Women for $10 to Attract ISIS Recruits
By Fiona Keating
Islamic militants in Iraq have created slave markets, trading and selling women and children of Christian and Yazidi groups, according to UN investigators.
At least 2,500 women and children have been imprisoned, sexually abused and sold for around $10 each by Isis slavers.
The slave markets in the al-Quds area of Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria have been used as a way of attracting new recruits to Islamic State, the UN said according to a Times report.
Women who were captured at the end of August managed to contact the UN, having kept hold of their mobile phones. They reported being subject to sexual assaults.
The UN study is based on claims made in 450 interviews with Iraqi witnesses to alleged war crimes.
UN high commissioner for human rRights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein told the Daily Mail: “The array of violations and abuses perpetrated by ISIL and associated armed groups is staggering, and many of their acts may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity.”
One 13-year-old Yazidi girl gave a harrowing account of what happened to her after she was abducted by Isis from her village on 3 August.
“She stated that ISIL [Islamic State] took hundreds of women who had not been able to flee to Jabal Sinjar,” stated the report. “The girl stated that she was raped several times by several ISIL fighters, before she was sold to a market.”
Other accounts detail how women were separated from their children and made to watch beheading videos.
Sold into slavery and gang raped
One Yazidi woman was given to 10 Islamic State men. “We were sold for $10 or $12. Who could accept that behaviour? Can God accept that?” the woman told Euronews. “It’s a shame to rape a woman, but when she is raped by 10 men… what is this? They are animals, they are not humans. Because of them I am afraid all the time.”
She managed to flee her captors with the help of sympathetic local residents and sought safety in Mosul.
A 17-year-old woman said she was being held captive with 40 other Yazidi women by Islamic State fighters.
“I beg you not to publish my name because I’m so ashamed of what they are doing to me. There’s a part of me that just wants to die. But there is another part of me that still hopes that I will be saved and that I will be able to embrace my parents once again,” she told Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper.
The newspaper was able to interview her by calling her on her mobile phone, after being given the number by her parents, who are in a refugee camp in Iraqi Kurdistan.
“We’ve asked our jailers to shoot us dead, to kill us, but we are too valuable for them. They keep telling us that we are unbelievers because we are non-Muslims and that we are their property, like war booty. They say we are like goats bought at a market.”
The UN High Commission for Human Rights reported that trade in malak yumin — war booty — is at very high levels.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Raises Flag Over Kobane as Iraq Bombs Fallujah
Fighting as report Turkey swopped 160 jihadists for 46 diplomats
(ANSA) Beirut, October 6 — One civilian was killed and eight were wounded Monday in bombing by Iraqi Government forces of Isis-held Fallujah, 60 km from Baghdad, security sources said.
The Islamic State jihadists continued to conquer territory in the province of Anbar and in Syria reportedly raised their sinister black flag over eastern areas of the besieged town of Kobane Meanwhile the Times of London revealed that Turkey released as many as 180 Jihadists in exchange for Isis freeing 46 Turkish diplomats who had been abducted and held for months.
The British Government said that the Times report was “credible”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS: The Kurdish Female Suicide Bombers Who Chose Martyrdom
Suicide as a war weapon makes comeback in Peshmerga’s war
(ANSAmed) — ROME — Well-trained and fearless, female Kurdish fighters are on the front line of the war on ISIS as the peshmerga are seeking to stop the Islamic State from advancing on Iraqi Kurdistan. Women fighters have made the extreme choice of becoming suicide bombers, first as members of the anti-Turkish PKK, and today as they fight with the peshmerga — in the comeback of a population and gender.
Yesterday, one of these women fighters blew herself up against a posting of the “Islamic Caliphate” near Kobani, the last of many who chose to fight rather than become a child bride or risk rape.
These women now target al Baghdadi’s jihadists who are vying to conquer Kurdistan and its oil reserves.
Another recent suicide, though not a suicide bombing, dates back to the beginning of October, when a young fighter, Ceylan Ozalp, 19, took her life to avoid being captured by ISIS militants who surrounded her, according to local media reports.
On September 12, Avesta, 24, died in combat on the mountains of Kurdistan. She led a unit of male and female fighters taking part in a joint PKK-peshmerga operation to re-conquer a village close to Makhmour.
She was reportedly hit by a bullet to the neck fired by an ISIS militant and did not make it to the hospital.
Fatam Yokumer was a Turkish woman of Kurdish origin hailing from Palestine. On May 21 last year she blew herself up at the Crocodile cafè in Ankara in a deadly attack.
Sabine Cansiz, one of the founders of the PKK of Abdullah Ocalan, was murdered in January 2013 in Paris as alleged payback in what is believed to have been an internal dispute.
In March 2012, 15 Kurdish female “terrorists” were killed in clashes with security forces in the province of Bitlis, in eastern Turkey.
Another female suicide bomber carried out an attack in October 2011 in downtown Bingon (eastern turkey), near the headquarters of the AKP party of then-premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
These are just some of the cases in which the courage, thirst for revenge or desperation of Kurdish women drew the attention of the international media.
Nobody knows how many women are fighting in the fragmented and devastated Kurdish lands amid Iraq, Syria and Turkey. More information is available on PKK militants: 20% are reportedly women. And over the last 15 years, over half of anti-Turkish attacks were carried out by Kurdish female militants who chose “martyrdom”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State Withstands Bombing Campaign, Plots Baghdad Invasion
The Islamic State holds just about the same number of towns in Iraq today as it did two months ago, when the U.S. began a bombing campaign to whittle down the terrorist army and support Iraqi ground troops trying to retake territory.
More troubling, analysts say, is that the Islamic State, also known by the acronyms ISIS and ISIL, is ramping up what appear to be operations designed to one day invade Baghdad.
Its objective is to take the international airport and begin conquering the capital, section by section. The Islamic State is continuing its urban attacks with car bombs, some of which have been detonated by foreign suicide bombers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norwegians Advised to Avoid Turkish Border
The Norwegian government on Sunday warned travellers to avoid the war-torn border areas of Turkey close to Syria and Iraq.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Swapped 180 is Militants for 49 Hostages
Details of the exchange made with the Islamic State (IS) to release 49 Turkish hostages are becoming clearer after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signaled at an exchange by saying, “So what if there was an exchange?”
In return for the consulate personnel, 180 militants were handed over to IS, including some senior officials of the organization: 180 IS personnel were first assembled at Van and then delivered to IS in batches.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Police Storm Brothel Then ‘Drink, Beat Clients’
Caught by a camera, risk banishment from force, arrest
(ANSA) — Rome, October 6 — A police squad stormed into a brothel in the centre of Moscow but ended up drinking, abusing prostitutes and beating up clients, Gazeta.ru reported Friday. In an effort to hide evidence of their behaviour, the policemen, led by major Sergei Iurkin, turned off all internal cameras, except for one that they missed which provided highly embarrassing footage of their foray into the brothel, the publication reported.
The squad has been lambasted by the daily official government paper Rossiyskaya Gazeta which suggested a ban from the police or arrest as an appropriate form of punishment.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
A quiet night, even after the ultimatum. Hundreds of young people still present in Admiralty and Mong Kok. Overnight the first direct contact between protesters and the government. Britain “has abandoned Hong Kong” The United States does not want to be “involved”.
Hong Kong (AsiaNews) — Hundreds of young people and members of Occupy Central remain camped in some of the most important arteries of Hong Kong after the government’s ultimatum to clear the sit in from streets after days of protest.
The ultimatum expired last night, but since then nothing has happened because the protesters freed paths to allow employees and workers to get to their jobs. Hundreds of young people however are still in Admiralty and a few hundred in Mong Kok.
The sit-ins were launched at the end of September, after Beijing decided not to grant full democracy to the people of the territory: the election of the Chief Executive by universal suffrage in 2017 will take place, but there will only be three candidates chosen by a committee approved by Beijing.
The peaceful demonstrations were marred by police violence in Admiralty when they charged students with tear gas, batons and pepper spray — and in Mong Kok by pro-Beijing groups of people linked to the Chinese mafia.
The violence brought greater numbers of residents to the streets in the past few evenings to show solidarity and support for democracy.
Currently a number of leading democrats are advising students and Occupy Central to end their protests to avoid an escalation of violence. In recent days, due to the police attacks and those of the Chinese mafia, the pro-Democrats had demanded the resignation of the governor Leung Chun-ying, who has China’s full backing, but he has refused. However there are some glimmers of dialogue having opened with the secretary of the government, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet. Already last night groups of students met with members of the government to draw up an agenda for a series of meetings. Any dialogue will be dogged by Beijing’s intransigence.
Meanwhile, in China, all the news coming from Hong Kong has been blocked and websites taken down, although many Chinese have been able to overcome the censors filters. Instead of news reports, State media continues to publish editorials in which they condemn the demonstrations as the work of thugs who reject the law and undermine social and the territory’s economic harmony.
The pro-democracy protests have received the enthusiastic support of Chinese dissidents and activists — some of whom have been arrested for this — as well as leading personalities from Hong Kong who are living abroad. Many of them have organized demonstrations in dozens of cities around the world. Governments and the international community, while asking China not to use violence, have abstained from showing any strong support. These include Britain — accused by Democratic Anson Chan, former Secretary General of Hong Kong, of having “abandoned” Hong Kong — and the United States, who have decided “not to interfere” to protect its relations with Beijing.
In recent days, all the consulates in Hong Kong had received a letter from the Chinese Foreign Ministry demanding that foreigners do not show support for the protests, or be seen close to the demonstrators.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Boko Haram Behead Seven in Northeast Nigeria
In Borno state
(ANSA)- Maiduguri, October 6 — Islamist militant group Boko Haram on Monday beheaded seven people at Ngambi in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno, witnesses said.
The Islamists have carried out a string of attacks in Borno.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Ebola Kills 121 in 24 Hrs in Sierra Leone
One of worst daily tolls
(ANSA) — New York, October 6 — Ebola killed 121 people on Saturday alone in Sierra Leone, one of the worst daily tolls since the west African outbreak began.
Sierra Leone’s toll now stands at 678.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Inside South Africa’s Whites-Only Town of Orania
In the sparsely populated Karoo desert in the heart of South Africa’s Northern Cape, the spirit of apartheid lives on.
I spent a few days in Orania, a town established in 1991 where no black people live.
I was part of a BBC crew, including Zimbabwean journalist Stanley Kwenda, who were accredited to visit.
And during that time, Stanley and I were the only black people in the town of 1,000 — an unusual experience in modern South Africa.
It is an Afrikaner-only town, where only Afrikaans is spoken, because of fears about “diluting culture”.
“We do not fit in easily in the new South Africa. It (Orania) was an answer to not dominating others and not being dominated by others,” says Carel Boshoff Jr, the community leader.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norwegian Woman Infected With Ebola
Being flown to Norway tonight
The first Norwegian has been infected by Ebola: A Norwegian woman who works for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Sierra Leone.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hitmen Admit Killing 17 Mexican Students: Prosecutor
Two gang hitmen have admitted to killing 17 of 43 students missing in southern Mexico since last week, a top prosecutor said.
Inaky Blanco, chief prosecutor of Guerrero state, also said 28 bodies were recovered from a mass grave outside the town of Iguala but that it would take at least two weeks to determine if they are part of the group of missing students.
The students disappeared after Iguala municipal police officers shot at buses that the students had seized to return to their homes on September 26.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cuban Migrants Drank Own Blood, Urine, Adrift at Sea for 23 Days
A group of Cuban migrants drank their own urine and blood after the engine of their homemade boat failed, leaving them adrift in the Caribbean for three weeks without food or water, according to survivors who reached the United States this week.
“I’m happy I made it, alive, but it was something no-one should have to go through,” said Alain Izquierdo, a Havana butcher, and one of 15 survivors of the 32 passengers.
Six passengers are missing after they tried to swim to shore, while 11 others died of dehydration.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Refugees Hide Behind Razor Wire to Escape Angry Backlash in Bautzen
A10ft steel fence topped with razor wire and metal spikes surrounds the “Spreehotel” — once a hotel, now a refugee hostel on the outskirts of the east German town of Bautzen.
It looks like a relic of the Cold War, but the Spreehotel’s defences were erected only three months ago at a cost of £15,000 to protect 150 asylum seekers from Syria, Afghanistan and 15 other countries who live within.
“The fence may look sinister, but its not some kind of Berlin Wall that’s meant to lock people in,” manager Peter Kilian Rausch, explained. “I had to put it up to protect of my residents. They are frightened.”
Since he converted his conference hotel into a refugee centre four months ago, Mr Rausch has twice been threatened with murder. His establishment was surrounded nightly by gangs of black-clad neo-Nazis, until the police stepped in.
Mr Rausch is banned from three shops in Bautzen for encouraging “refugee spongers” to live near the town. He has also been spat at and insulted by local people when giving his residents a lift into town, and attacked online.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Two Afghan Stowaways Saved in Bulgarian Truck
Teenagers risked asphyxiation on journey from Patras
(ANSA) — Venice, October 6 — Two 16-year-old Afghan illegal immigrants narrowly escaped suffocating to death Monday when a passer-by heard their pleas for release from a Bulgarian lorry parked at a Venetian service station.
A lady filling her car with petrol gave the alarm after she heard the two banging on the side of the truck as their oxygen ran out while the Bulgarian drivers were enjoying a meal in the café.
Police and ambulance services rushed the two to hospital at Mestre while authorities interrogated the drivers, who said they were unaware of the stowaways who may have climbed aboard the container at the Greek port of Patras.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Supreme Court Clears Way for Gay Marriage in 5 States
The Supreme Court on Monday denied review in all five pending same-sex marriage cases, clearing the way for such marriages to proceed in Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin.
The move was a major surprise and suggests that the justices are not going to intercede in the wave of decisions in favor of same-sex marriage at least until a federal appeals court upholds a state ban.
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Faces of unmitigated courage, from _Marie-Claire_. Ask yourselves, “Do I have that kind of courage”?: http://www.marieclaire.com/world-reports/inspirational-women/these-are-the-women-battling-isis?src=spr_TWITTER&spr_id=1449_94893372
Acknowledged slave traders, “war booty” gang rapists, beheaders, floggers, destroyers of cultural and religious monuments are poised to win again: https://twitter.com/hashtag/kobane | HuffPost UK @HuffPostUK 4m4 minutes ago. Syrian border town of #Kobane ‘about to fall’ to #ISIS warns #Erdogan – http://huff.to/1vKqV0Y
More faces of raw courage. And they are aging women! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2781680/The-grannies-Kalashnikovs-facing-bloodbath-Nato-s-doorstep-Gun-toting-women-symbol-Turkish-town-s-Dad-s-Army-style-resistance-against-IS-onslaught.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&utm_content=buffer77447&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Religion of “love” and “peace”?: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/09/02/the-islamic-state-are-committing-ethnic-cleansing-on-a-historic-scale_n_5748922.html?utm_hp_ref=uk
Breaking news. 2 to 5 minutes ago. Have the courage to protest, write, resist, say NO! Conflict Reporter @Conflict_Report
#BreakingFootage #IS forces storming the outskirts of #Kobane, taking the radio tower. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkADvrQXL4U …
ISIL attempting to break through into the downtown center of Kobane: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29518539?ocid=socialflow_twitter
It’s about olives, quite symbolically. This just: Jabhat al-Nusra has imprisoned c. 20 Franciscans in Syria. Father Hanna Jalluf (OFM) simply dared to withhold part of the olive harvest, instead of surrendering it all, it would seem. My apologies that the material is in German, no time to translate, perhaps someone else can do the translation here: http://religion.orf.at/stories/2672563/