According to the latest reports from sources in his administration, President Barack Obama is planning to take executive action that will grant amnesty to up to five million illegal aliens and allow them to become citizens. Mr. Obama is planning to use his pen and his phone — executive orders — to accomplish this historic task.
In other news, the al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State have reportedly signed a formal truce in Syria, and now plan to act in alliance against the Assad regime and Kurdish forces in northern Syria.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Andy Bostom, C. Cantoni, Erick Stakelbeck, Fjordman, Green Infidel, Insubria, 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.
ECB Putting Eurozone Economy at Risk, German Expert Group Says
The European Central Bank’s (ECB) plans to pump more cheap credit into banks risk undermining the long-term health of the eurozone, according to Germany’s leading economic expert group. The ECB’s “extensive quantitative easing measures” posed “risks for long-term economic growth in the euro area, not least by dampening the member states’ willingness to implement reforms and consolidate their public finances”, the German Council of Economic Experts (GCEE) said in its annual report, published on Wednesday (12 November).
The report is the latest German warning shot to be aimed in the direction of Mario Draghi’s ECB, which has started to pump more money into the economy in a bid to stimulate greater financial activity.
Most governments in and outside the eurozone, together with the International Monetary Fund, want the ECB to provide increased monetary stimulus.
The ECB plans to increase its balance sheet by €1 trillion over the next two years, taking its liabilities to around €4 billion, similar to levels seen in 2011 and 2012 at the height of the eurozone crisis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Euro States Wanted to ‘Crush’ Greece
Former US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in book interview transcripts, obtained by the FT, suggested that euro-states in 2010 wanted to punish Greece for lying about its budget deficit. “Europeans came into that meeting basically saying: ‘We’re going to teach the Greeks a lesson… we’re going to crush them.’“
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Alcohol Sales Nearly Halved Since 2008
Consumption of alcoholic beverages, particularly in bars, clubs and restaurants, has almost halved since the start of the crisis, from 2.26 million litres in 2008 to below 1.2 million litres in 2013, a new study from Infobank Hellastat shows. Taxes on alcohol consumption has grown by 125 percent since 2009.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Amazon and Hachette Resolve Bitter Publishing Dispute
Amazon and Hachette announced Thursday morning that they have resolved their differences and signed a new multiyear contract, bringing to an official end one of the most bitter publishing conflicts in recent years.
Neither side gave details of the deal, but both pronounced themselves happy with the terms. Hachette gets the ability to set the prices on its e-books, which was a major battleground in the dispute.
“This is great news for writers,” said Michael Pietsch, Hachette’s chief executive. “The new agreement will benefit Hachette authors for years to come. It gives Hachette enormous marketing capability with one of our most important bookselling partners.”
An Amazon executive, David Naggar, said Amazon was “pleased with this new agreement as it includes specific financial incentives for Hachette to deliver lower prices, which we believe will be a great win for readers and authors alike.”
The agreement broadly follows a deal Amazon recently worked out with Simon & Schuster.
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Chinese Hackers Behind US Weather Service Cyberattacks, Report Claims
The US agency that operates the National Weather Service said on Wednesday that four of its websites had been hacked as a report blamed Chinese hackers.
“In recent weeks, four NOAA websites were compromised by an internet-sourced attack,” said Scott Smullen, a spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
NOAA staff detected the attacks and responded immediately, performing maintenance on the sites, which were restored to full service, Smullen said.
He did not identify the websites that were compromised or elaborate on the attacks but said they did not prevent the agency from delivering forecasts to the public.
The Washington Post reported that Chinese hackers were behind the NOAA attack, citing unidentified officials. The report quoted US Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia, a Republican, as saying that the NOAA told him “it was a hack and it was China.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Google Leases NASA’s Moffett Field, Historic Hangar for $1.2 Billion
A Google subsidiary will lease a NASA facility in California’s Bay Area for $1.16 billion over the next 60 years, agency officials announced Monday (Nov. 10).
Planetary Ventures, LLC will lease Moffett Federal Airfield (MFA), which is currently managed by NASA’s Ames Research Center, and restore the facility’s historic Hangar One, a huge building that has been a Silicon Valley landmark since the 1930s.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Internal Review Finds Widespread Failures by Secret Service in White House Breach
An intruder was able to climb a fence and enter the White House in September because of a succession of “performance, organizational, technical” and other failures by the Secret Service, according to a damning review of the incident by the Department of Homeland Security.
The review found that the Secret Service’s alarm systems and radios failed to function properly, and that because of construction on the fence around the White House, Secret Service officers did not see the intruder as he climbed over it, delaying their response.
The review has not been made public, but members of Congress were briefed on it Thursday. An executive summary was obtained by The New York Times.
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Microsoft Patches Two-Decade Crack in Windows Software
Microsoft issued an emergency patch for a dangerous flaw that has existed in Windows operating software for nearly two decades.
The vulnerability, disclosed by IBM security researchers, has been in every Windows operating system since 1995 and could allow a hacker to take control of computers after luring Internet Explorer browser users to booby-trapped Internet pages.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
November 11, 1914, the Ottoman Sheikh ul-Islam (supreme Muslim religious authority) issued fatwas (religious edicts) declaring a jihad against non-Muslim state enemies of the last Muslim “Caliphate.” Subsequent fatwas (see here; here) disseminated during the World War I era would target Christian minorities, under Sharia-based Ottoman Muslim rule, for genocidal jihadism against these hapless non-Muslim victims.
Notwithstanding the recent horrific spate of atrocities committed against the Christian communities of northern Iraq by the Islamic State (IS/IL) jihadists, the Ottoman jihad ravages were equally barbaric, depraved, and far more extensive. Occurring, primarily between 1915-16 (although continuing through at least 1918), some one million Armenian, and 250,000 Assyro-Chaldean and Syrian Orthodox Christians were brutally slaughtered, or starved to death during forced deportations through desert wastelands. The identical gruesome means used by IS/IL to humiliate and massacre its hapless Christian victims, were employed on a scale that was an order of magnitude greater by the Ottoman Muslim Turks, often abetted by local Muslim collaborators (the latter being another phenomenon which also happened during the IS/IL jihad campaign against Iraq’s Christians).
At best, willfully oblivious to this grim centennial remembrance—worse still, perhaps even callously disregarding it—Muslim spokespersons are trumpeting their forthcoming midday Islamic service, to be held Friday, November 14, 2014, in the National Cathedral, one of the most iconic Christian houses of worship in the U.S.
Rizwan Jaka, speaking on behalf of the ADAMS mosque in Sterling, Va., a co-sponsor of Friday’s service, crowed:…
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
Bagnasco Says Italy Must Keep ‘Industrial Jewels’
Episcopal conference chief calls on Italy to invest in itself
(ANSA) — Assisi, November 13 — Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) chief Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco said Thursday that authorities must work to keep the country’s industrial “jewels”.
“When I think of industrial areas like those in Terni, Genoa and Taranto, I think…selling to restructure is not what’s needed, fresh capital is,” Bagnasco told a press conference at the end of an assembly of bishops.
“Manna doesn’t only come from outside Italy,” he said.
“It is also here, and it needs to be put into circulation,” he continued, adding he hoped “many Italians might intervene in this respect”. ThyssenKrupp’s Acciai Speciali Terni (AST) stainless steel plant in the Umbrian town of Terni has been at the centre of a high-profile labour dispute in recent months following its announcement that it planned to divest 100 million euros and cut up to 550 jobs. The government of Premier Matteo Renzi is currently mediating with the AST parent company to reduce the layoffs and invest in the Terni plant instead of shutting one of its furnaces down as previously planned. ILVA steelworks in the southern port city of Taranto is also struggling amid serious longstanding health and environmental concerns.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh Murder Mayor ‘Hides’ In Sweden
A 70-year-old former mayor of Bangladesh who has been sentenced to death for mass killings and torture in the 1970s, is believed to be hiding in Sweden, according to Bangladesh’s chief police commissioner.
Zahid Hossein, who is also a former leader of the Bangladesh National Party, was found guilty of charges including rape, torture and arson by a war crimes tribunal in Dhaka on Thursday.
According to the court, he also forced Hindus to convert to Islam and was directly involved in the killing of around fifty people.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Catholic-Muslim Dialogue: “It is Never Acceptable to Use Religion to Justify” Violence
The Catholic-Muslim Forum releases a final statement following its meeting in Rome on ‘Working together to serve others’. Young people should be educated to build “respect for others”. Inter-religious dialogue is important “to overcome prejudice, distortions, suspicions, and inappropriate generalisations.” Pope Francis encouraged participants in their efforts.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) — “It is never acceptable to use religion to justify” acts “of terrorism, oppression, violence against innocent persons, persecution, desecration of sacred places, and the destruction of cultural heritage,” said the final statement released by the delegates to third seminar organised by Catholic-Muslim Forum.
Dedicated to ‘Working Together to Serve Others,’ the three-day event ended today in Rome. In addition to condemning terrorism and violence, the final statement emphasised the importance for young people to be educated in a way to bolster respect for others.
The document also highlighted the importance of dialogue “to overcome prejudice, distortions, suspicions, and inappropriate generalisations” as well as the need “to multiply opportunities for encounter and cooperation on joint projects for the common good.”
The statement went on to focus the “vital importance of enhanced service and mutual cooperation,” underlying in particular, the fact that “The education of young people, be it in the family, school, university, church or mosque, is of the utmost importance for the promotion of a well-rounded identity which builds respect for others. To this end, school curricula and textbooks should portray an objective and respectful image of the other.”
Pope Francis, who yesterday met with seminar participants, expressed encouragement for the “fruitful” meeting, inviting the latter to pursue the path of dialogue.
Card Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, led the Catholic delegation.
Prof Seyyed Hossein Nasr of George Washington University chaired the Muslim delegation in lieu of Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad of Jordan, co-ordinator of the Muslim side, who could not attend for health reasons.
The latter included religious leaders and scholars from Malaysia, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Canada, Argentina and Italy.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Adults the Best Non-Native Speakers of English in the World
Adults in Denmark are the best non-native speakers of English in the world according to a report released by Education First (EF).
The English Proficiency Index (EF EPI) is based on the findings of a global survey of 750,000 adults across 63 nations and territories. In it, Danish adults take the top spot followed by the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and Norway — confirmation that the Nordic countries pretty much dominate.
Worldwide, English proficiency among adults is rising, although this increase is far from uniform in all countries and all populations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ECHR Rejects 3,564 Appeals Over Prison Overcrowding
Court says inmates haven’t exhausted domestic remedies
(ANSA) — Strasbourg, November 13 — The European Court of Human Rights said Thursday that it had rejected all of the complaints presented by inmates in recent years — 3,564 cases in total — for violation of their human rights due to prison overcrowding in Italy. The ECHR said new procedures introduced in Italy meant that the inmates had not exhausted all of the possible domestic remedies.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU Tax Havens Drain Money From Developing Nations
Tax havens in countries such as Luxembourg are zapping billions of euros from the coffers of developing countries and forcing weak governments to rely on dwindling international development aid, experts say.
Charles Abugre, the Africa regional director for the United Nations Millennium Campaign, says multinational corporations and the legal structures behind tax havens in EU member states prevent nations from developing and perpetuate a cycle of poverty.
“The very concept of a jurisdiction selling secrecy as its competitive advantage is killing democracy,” he told this website in Brussels on Wednesday (12 November).
“Not only does it undermine wealthy countries, it totally destroys democracy because the essence of democracy and democratic accountability is transparency.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Five Italians Still Held Hostage
(AGI) Rome, Nov. 13 — Following the release of Marco Vallisa, an Italian technician kidnapped in Libya on July 5, there are still five Italians being held as hostages all over the world.
Giovanni Lo Porto, a 38-year-old aid worker from Palermo was kidnapped in Pakistan on January 19 2012 together with a colleague from the German NGO Welt Hunger Hilfe, Bernd Muehlenbeck, released on October 10 in Afghanistan in a mosque in the suburbs of Kabul, after two and a half years as a prisoner. There has been now news at all sine July 29, 2013, of Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, kidnapped in the Raqqa area by Islamist extremists after living in Syria for almost thirty years refounding the Mar Musa community and promoting interreligious dialogue. There has been a great deal of conflicting news following his kidnapping with rumours about his alleged execution and more recent sources instead reporting that he is still alive and in the hands of the Sunni extremist of Islamic State. Like Vallisa, Gianluca Salviato, a 48-year-old technician from Padova, was kidnapped in Libya at the building site of the ‘Enrico Ravanelli’ plant in Tobruk, on March 22 this year. Salviato is diabetic and in constant need of insulin. There is no news of Vanessa Marzullo and Greta Ramelli, the two 20-year-old aid workers who disappeared on August 6 in Aleppo, Syria, after travelling there to work on the ‘Horryaty’ project they had co-founded together with Roberto Andervil.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
French Jihadist Sentenced to Seven Years for Fighting in Syria
Flavien Moreau, the first jihadist to be tried in France for fighting in Syria, was sentenced to seven years in prison on Thursday by a Paris court. Moreau received the maximum sentence requested by the prosecution at the outset of his trial on October 17. The 28-year-old wasn’t in the courtroom as the sentence was read.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Four Sentenced Over Al-Qaeda Bomb Plot
A court sentenced four men on Thursday to spend as many as nine years for plotting to detonate home-made bombs in a crowd on the orders of jihadist militant network al-Qaeda.
The “Düsseldorf cell”, named after the city in North Rhine-Westphalia where three of the men lived, had planned the attack but not yet decided on a target, the court found.
The ring leader, Moroccan national Abdeladim el-Kebir, 33, was sentenced to nine years in jail for planning the attack and being a member of a terrorist group.
Prosecutors said Kebir had received orders from a senior al-Qaeda operative while at a weapons training camp on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hanover Court Overrules Hooligan Demonstration Ban
A police ban on an anti-Islamist protest has been overruled by a court in the northern German city of Hanover. Organized by self-proclaimed Hooligans, the last protest resulted in riots and a lock-down in Cologne.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greek archaeologists have come one step closer to solving the mystery of who is buried in a vast ancient tomb dating to Alexander the Great’s era.
Skeletal remains have been found in and around a stone-lined cistern in the opulent 4th Century B.C. burial site in Amphipolis, north-east Greece.
The site is believed to be the largest ancient tomb to have been discovered in Greece, and has spurred speculation as to whether Alexander the Great or a member of his family was buried there.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ten Cited Over Salvini Roma Camp Assault
Visit by xenophobic League leader ‘a dangerous provocation’
(ANSA) — Bologna, November 13 — Italy’s DIGOS anti-terrorism police on Thursday cited ten members of a student collective called Hobo in connection with an attack on the leader of the separatist, anti-immigrant and xenophobic Northern League party during a controversial visit to a Roma camp on Saturday.
The suspects were cited for blocking Matteo Salvini’s car as it tried to drive through the camp, and three of them were cited for damages to the car itself after its windows were smashed. DIGOS police also identified and cited three student anarchists in relation to the beating of Resto del Carlino newspaper reporter Enrico Barbetti, who was covering the visit.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Two Advisors in 2012 Fonsai Merger Probed
Milan offices of E&Y, Gualtieri and Boston Consulting searched
(ANSA) — Turin, November 13 — Two financial consultants working for the professional services firms Ernst & Young and Gualtieri & Associati were placed under formal investigation on Thursday in connection with the 2012 merger of the Fonsai investment fund, insurers Unipol and Milano Assicurazioni and the holding company Premafin.
Paolo Gualtieri, owner of the firm Gualtieri & Associati, and Enrico Marchi, a partner in Ernst & Young, are being probed for market manipulation and false accounting as part of a broader investigation into the way the merger was carried out.
To this end on Thursday finance police searched the Milan offices of Ernst & Young, Gualtieri & Associati and Boston Consulting Group for documents pertaining to the 2012 deal. Prosecutors and finance police also questioned other financial advisors involved in the 2012 merger as informed witnesses in the case.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Defence Minister Flies Home on State Plane, Says M5S
(AGI) Rome, Nov 13 — Italian anti-esablishment Five Star Movement representative Alessandro Di Battista posted a picture on his Facebook page, showing him and his party-mate Luca Frusone holding the complaint filed against the defence minister at Rome’s Prosecutor’s office. “We have just now filed a complaint at the Court of Auditors and at Rome’s Prosecutor’s office against Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti (front runner in the race to replace Giorgio Napolitano as President of the Italian Republic). We think she used a state aircraft to fly her home”, the post read.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands Pledges €100m for UN Climate Fund
The Netherlands on Thursday announced it will put €100 million in the UN Green Climate Fund, a week before a fund-raiser in Berlin. The fund was set up to help developing countries reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change. Germany and France each pledged $1 billion.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Anti-Racism Activists Boycott Holocaust Ceremony as ‘Jews Were Invited’
Anti-racism activists in Norway have refused to participate in a Holocaust commemoration after members of the Jewish community were put on the guest list, a Norwegian blog has claimed.
According to Norway, Israel and the Jews, Norwegian activist organisation New SOS Racisme — which claims to reduce racism in society — asked for the “Zionist Jews of Bergen” to be banned from attending the Kristallnacht, or the night of broken glass, an event aimed at remembering the escalation of the persecution of Jews in Germany, between the nights of 9th and 10th November 1938.
They “refused to participate in the Kristallnacht commemoration since a representative from the Mosaic Congregation (a conservative Jewish Congregation) was invited. Yes, they balked at a Jew participating,” the blog added.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Embraces Chinese Cash in Race for Arctic Oil Riches
Norway, western Europe’s largest crude oil producer, says it welcomes China as a partner in efforts to develop Arctic energy resources.
The Nordic country is doing business with China’s Cnooc Ltd. (883) as it tries to find oil off Iceland’s shores. The Chinese company is also looking into exploring Norway’s eastern Barents Sea, an area where licenses will be awarded in 2016.
The welcoming tone comes amid a freeze in relations between China and Norway after the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. China reacted with anger when the Oslo-based Nobel Committee gave the award to political dissident Liu Xiaobo.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Paris Tiger’: Big Cat Loose Near French Capital — Report
Police and fire officials are searching for a tiger on the loose in a town outside Paris, local authorities say.
A woman alerted officials after spotting the big cat in a supermarket car park in Montevrain, east of the French capital, local media reported.
The Montevrain council said on its Facebook page that an area of woodland had been roped off.
Residents have been advised to stay indoors, and children are being kept in schools.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Renzi Defeated Anti-EU Climate, Says Gentiloni
Euroscepticism ‘must be overcome,’ new foreign minister says
(ANSA) — Berlin, November 13 — Italian Premier Matteo Renzi has made a major contribution to the EU by leading his centre-left Democratic Party (PD) to victory in May’s European elections in Italy in the face of an anti-European climate, Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Thursday.
The end of the third Silvio Berlusconi government in 2011 meant the departure of “political forces that could not take Italy out of the crisis and who viewed Europe as a problem,” the new foreign minister told the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in an interview.
“This attitude is very common and must be overcome. The most important contribution given by premier Renzi so far is of having won at the European elections against the anti-European climate”.
Speaking separately during a visit to Berlin, Gentiloni said that “there are countries like Germany that have made great reforms more than 10 years ago and today are in a relatively better situation.
But he also stressed the effects of the economic crisis are now “common” and not just limited to countries like Italy that were embroiled in the eurozone debt crisis.
“We are seeing widespread awareness in European countries about the fact that there is not this or that individual problem, but an overall European problem,” he added on the fringes of a bilateral meeting with German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeler.
Gentiloni hailed the release of an Italian hostage in Libya.
“My day began very early with the good news about the person who was kidnapped in Libya,” he said.
On immigration Gentiloni said that “in the handover from Mare Nostrum to Triton the name changes but not the address — and our commitment in fact is multiplied”.
“With a shared division of efforts and of repercussions”.
“The humanitarian approach is the same,” in the EU Triton mission as in the Italian Navy’s Mare Nostrum deployment to save immigrants trying to reach Italy by sea, Gentiloni said.
“The obligation of rescue remains and it must do”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Riding a Comet: What’s Next for Rosetta’s Philae After Historic Landing?
The next few days will be action-packed for Europe’s Philae lander, if the probe did indeed manage to survive its historic comet landing intact.
Philae, part of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta mission, touched down on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko early Wednesday (Nov. 12), becoming the first spacecraft ever to make a soft landing on one of these icy remnants of the solar system’s long-ago formation.
Philae’s two harpoon anchors did not fire as planned during the touchdown, however, and the 220-lb. (100 kilograms) probe may have bounced off 67P before settling back down on the comet’s surface.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rosetta: Concerns for Comet Lander After Uneven Landing
After a historic but awkward comet landing, the robot probe Philae is now stable and sending pictures — but there are concerns about its battery life.
After two bounces, the first one about 1km back out into space, the lander settled in the shadow of a cliff, 1km from its target site.
It may be problematic to get enough sunlight to charge its batteries.
After showing an image that indicates Philae’s location — on the far side of a large crater that was considered but rejected as a landing site — the head of the lander team Dr Stefan Ulamec said: “We could be somewhere in the rim of this crater, which could explain this bizarre… orientation that you have seen.”
Figuring out the orientation and location is a difficult task, he said.
“I can’t really give you much more than you interpret yourself from looking at these beautiful images.”
But the team is continuing to receive “great data” from several different instruments on board Philae.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
This five-image montage of OSIRIS narrow-angle images is being used to try to identify the final touchdown point of Rosetta’s lander Philae. The images were taken around the time of landing on 12 November when Rosetta was about 18 km from the centre of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (about 16 km from the surface).
The signal confirming the first touchdown arrived on Earth at 16:03 GMT (17:03 CET). It is thought that Philae bounced twice before settling on the surface of the comet.
The lander has not yet been identified and images are still to be downloaded from the Rosetta spacecraft for further analysis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedes No Longer ‘World’s Best’ At English
Swedish people are the third best in the world at speaking English as a second language, a major fall from grace after two years in top spot, a major report released this week concluded.
The Education First (EF) English Proficiency Index (EPI) ranked Sweden in third position with a proficiency score of 67.8.
Scandinavian cousins Denmark topped the list with 69.3 followed by the Netherlands on 68.9.
The news is a blow for the Swedes, who topped the charts in 2012 and 2013.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Berlin Wall Has Been Replaced by ‘Fortress Europe’
Fortress Europe is made of real walls, just like the 7.5 mile-fence in the city of Melilla that separates Spain from Morocco. Thousands of African immigrants living illegally in Morocco try to enter Spain’s enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta each year, hoping to reach Europe. Spain’s Interior Ministry said 2,000 migrants have made it across Melilla’s border fences in roughly 60 attempts this year.
The irony is that the fence started as a simple 2.5 metres tall structure that was then reinforced year on year by Spanish authorities, as Europe steadily closed in on itself.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
We Can’t Cope With Treating Returning Jihadis, Says the Hague’s Mayor
On Wednesday, the Dutch counter terrorism unit NCTV said around 100 Dutch nationals are thought to be active in the Middle East, including 30 women.
Around 30 have returned to the Netherlands and the passports of 52 people have been cancelled to stop them leaving the country. The unit’s chief Dick Schoof said the organisation has come across 33 cases of would-be jihadis involving children. In 25 cases, parents were suspected of planning to take their children abroad and in eight cases the would-be jihadi was a minor, he said. Schoof said he is disturbed by the fact so many people are still travelling to Syria and Iraq. ‘That means people are still joining a terrorist organisation, being exposed to violence, possibly trained and therefore forming a danger to the Netherlands if they come back,’ he told broadcaster Nos on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia Police Arrest 11 Suspected of Involvement in Syria, Iraq Wars
Bosnian police have arrested 11 people suspected of fighting for Islamist militants in Syria or Iraq or otherwise supporting such groups. Five suspects arrested in a similar operation two months ago remain in custody.
It is unclear exactly how many Bosnians have left the country to fight alongside “Islamic State” (IS) Syria or Iraq but some estimates put that number at around 150, with 50 having since returned and a further 20 having been killed.
While most Bosnian Muslims are either secular or practice a moderate form of Islam, there has been an increase in the number of radical Islamists since the country’s civil war.
Between 1992 and 1995 many came from abroad to fight alongside the Bosnian Muslims against the Serbs and Croats. While most are thought to have left after the war, some stayed on in the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Building a Euro-Mediterranean Energy Bridge: EuroMed Energy Cooperation in Focus at Rome Conference
Energy ministers of Euro-Mediterranean countries as well as representatives of financial institutions, associations of regulators, transmission system operators and industry, will gather at the Italian Foreign Ministry in Rome on 18 and 19 November for a conference on “Building a Euro-Mediterranean energy bridge”, organised by the Italian Presidency of the Council of the EU and the European Commission.
The Conference aims at strengthening cooperation among Euro-Mediterranean partners in order to deal with emerging energy challenges and concerns for energy security.
The Conference will open with a speech by Italian Economic Development Minister Federica Guidi to be followed by a round table chaired by Vice-minister Claudio De Vincenti. (EU Neighbourhood Info)
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Attack in Egyptian Sinai Kills Five Police and Soldiers
(AGI) Cairo, Nov 13 — Two Egyptian police officers and three soldiers were killed in an attack in the Sinai peninsular on Thursday, sources from Cairo reported.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Navy Ship Attacked, Cairo Metro Bomb Blast
8 sailors missing, 32 suspected assailants arrested
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO — Egyptian authorities accused jihadists of the Islamic State (ISIS) for an attack Wednesday night on a navy motorboat along the coast between Porto Said and Damietta. Eight sailors are missing.
There were “foreigners who could be members of the Islamic State” involved in the attack, reported newspaper El Masri el Youm citing a high ranking military source.
Meanwhile, a bomb exploded in the Cairo metro Thursday morning in the eastern Zaytoun district. A spokesman for the Cairo metro, Ahmed Abdel Hadi, said the bomb was placed in the luggage carrier and completely destroyed the roof of the second wagon as the train was arriving in the station. The wounded were evacuated and the convoy towed. During the attack on the navy boat, assailants tried to kidnap Egyptian soldiers on board, the military source told the Egyptian daily. Eight sailors are still missing at sea and five were wounded, the source added. Thirty-two suspected assailants were arrested. The four boats used for the attack were destroyed.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Official Calls Attacks in Libya ‘Vile, Criminal’
Car bomb at Egyptian embassy ‘undermines historic relations’
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, NOVEMBER 13 — The spokesman for the Egyptian foreign ministry on Thursday called terrorist attacks across Libya “vile and criminal acts against the aspirations of the Libyan people”. The car bomb explosion at the Egyptian embassy in Tripoli on Thursday “violates international rights and undermines historic relations between the two peoples,” Badr Abdel Atti told the Egyptian news agency MENA.
The foreign ministry official also condemned attacks on Wednesday in the eastern coastal cities of Tobruq and Al Bayda, saying “they target the aspirations of the Libyan people for freedom, stability and security”.
These attacks “put into doubt the importance of appeals for national political dialogue with terrorist groups that refuse to lay down their arms and renounce violence,” the ministry official added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
AP Sources: IS, Al-Qaida Reach Accord in Syria
ISTANBUL (AP) — Militant leaders from the Islamic State group and al-Qaida gathered at a farm house in northern Syria last week and agreed on a plan to stop fighting each other and work together against their opponents, a high-level Syrian opposition official and a rebel commander have told The Associated Press.
Such an accord could present new difficulties for Washington’s strategy against the IS group. While warplanes from a U.S.-led coalition strike militants from the air, the Obama administration has counted on arming “moderate” rebel factions to push them back on the ground. Those rebels, already considered relatively weak and disorganized, would face far stronger opposition if the two heavy-hitting militant groups now are working together.
IS — the group that has seized nearly a third of Syria and Iraq with a campaign of brutality and beheadings this year — and al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria, known as the Nusra Front, have fought each other bitterly for more than a year to dominate the rebellion against Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The Associated Press reported late last month on signs that the two groups appear to have curtailed their feud with informal local truces. Their new agreement, according to the sources in rebel groups opposed to both IS and Nusra Front, would involve a promise to stop fighting and team up in attacks in some areas of northern Syria.
Cooperation, however, would fall short of unifying the rival groups, and experts believe any pact between the two sides could easily unravel…
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by Umberto Bacchi
The Islamic State (Isis) has released an audio message purportedly from its self-styled Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, calling for jihadists to carry out attacks against Muslim Shi’ite and Westerners.
The release comes days after Iraqi officials claimed the Sunni extremist leader was wounded by a US airstrike and his right hand man, Auf Abdulrahman Elefery, killed.
It is not clear if the message was recorded prior or after the bombing. In it, Al-Baghdadi refers to a White House decision to deploy 1,500 more troops to Iraq, which was announced on Friday, last week. News of his injury was reported on Saturday.
In the recording, al-Baghdadi attempts to close the jihadi ranks, saying that his fighters “will never leave fighting, even if only one soldier remains”.
He singles out Europe, America, Australia and Canada as enemies of the caliphate, claiming the West has launched a “slanderous” media campaign against the Islamic State “to reduce its supporters and followers.”
“Do not believe at their lying media and their claims of killing tens of mujahedeen each day,” he says, according to an English translation circulated on social media…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Haftar Soldier Beheaded. Car Bombs Explode in Tripoli
Italian hostage Vallisa released after 4 months captivity in Libya
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO/ROME — A young man captured while fighting under former general Khalifa Haftar in eastern Libya has been decapitated, reports The Times website. For the first time the local Islamic State (ISIS) affiliate, Ansar Al-Sharia, has posted a video online of a prisoner’s beheading in full ‘ISIS style’.
The soldier, named Ahmed Muftah El-Nazihi, seems terrified as he reads message forced on him by a subfaction of the jihadist group Ansar Al-Sharia. “I advise those who were with me…to leave these activities and go back to their houses or they will face the same destiny: beheading,” he says in the video. Hooded men around the volunteer soldier then proceed to execute him and hold up his severed head.
The blasts of two car bombs rocked Tripoli Thursday morning. One was located in front of the Egyptian embassy. The other was near the diplomatic representative of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). No injuries were reported. The Egyptian embassy also endured on October 23 an assault by armed men that escalated into a gunfight with guards.
Several car bombs exploded in Eastern Libya yesterday, particularly in Tobruk and Badya, where five soldiers have been killed and 21 civilians have been confirmed injured, according to the Herald Tribune.
The spokesman for the Egyptian foreign ministry on Thursday called terrorist attacks across Libya “vile and criminal acts against the aspirations of the Libyan people”. The car bomb explosion at the Egyptian embassy in Tripoli on Thursday “violates international rights and undermines historic relations between the two peoples,” Badr Abdel Atti told the Egyptian news agency MENA. The foreign ministry official also condemned attacks on Wednesday in the eastern coastal cities of Tobruq and Al Bayda, saying “they target the aspirations of the Libyan people for freedom, stability and security”. These attacks “put into doubt the importance of appeals for national political dialogue with terrorist groups that refuse to lay down their arms and renounce violence,” the ministry official added
In the meantime. an Italian hostage kidnapped in Libya last July has been released, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Thursday. Marco Vallisa, a 54-year-old technician comes from a town near the northern Italian city of Piacenza.
Vallisa was in Libya working on a construction site for the Modenese company Piacentini Construzioni when he was kidnapped July 5 in the coastal city of Zuara along with two other colleagues, Petar Matic, a Bosnian, and Emilio Garfuri, from Macedonia. Matic and Garfuri were released two days after their capture.
The disappearance of the three men was immediately believed to be a kidnapping, partly because the auto they were travelling in was found with the keys in the ignition. The kidnappers may have acted for ransom. The hypothesis of a politically motivated kidnapping was rendered less realistic as the incident took place away from Cyrenaica, where jihadist rebels, at war with Tripoli, are concentrated.
“I express my deep satisfaction for the release of Marco Vallisa,” said Gentiloni.
“I want to warmly thank all those who have worked for the happy ending of this affair. This outcome is fruit of teamwork between the foreign ministry’s Crisis Unit, our intelligence services and the Italian embassy in Tripoli. I want to express my deepest appreciation for the dedication and professionalism and for the effective and patient action. A special thanks goes to the Vallisa family for their confidence in the work of our institutions”. The Italian foreign minister also said on Thursday that Italy “complies with and has always complied with international regulations” on the issue of its nationals taken hostage abroad.
Gentiloni was responding to a question on alleged ransom paid for the release in Libya of Marco Vallisa.
There are still five Italians kidnapped abroad: Vanessa Marullo and Greta Ramelli, members of a cooperative who were seized in Syria July 31; the Venetian technician Gianluca Salviato, kidnapped in Libya on March 22; the Jesuit priest from Rome Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, taken at the end of July 2013 in Syria; and Giovanni Lo Porto, a member of a cooperation and a native of Palermo, who disappeared January 19, 2012, between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The currency known as the dinar, which once consisted purely of gold and silver coins, is today used by a variety of countries, but the coins are created from different materials to the originals.
However, the jihadi group is understood to be planning to return to the original gold and silver coins, which were first introduced during the Caliphate of Uthman in 634 CE.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rift Re-Emerges Between Qatar and Other Gulf States
Doubts cast on Doha GCC summit in December, mediation underway
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, NOVEMBER 13 — A crisis between Qatar and three other Gulf states has resurfaced in full force less than a month prior to a scheduled annual meeting of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain appear unwilling to go to Doha for the summit. The rift between the four nations first emerged in March, when Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Manama, in an unprecedented move due both to its political weight and the international attention it drew to the GCC’s internal problems, pulled their ambassadors out of the Qatari capital. The reason for the worst crisis ever between GCC members — created in 1981 and which includes also Oman and Kuwait — was Qatar’s alleged interference in the internal affairs of the other three. The editorial line taken by Qatar’s satellite broadcaster Al-Jazeera was deemed overly critical of the nearby emirates and Doha’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood — an outlawed organization in the other three GCC members — was seen as too staunch. Kuwait offered to mediate immediately after the diplomatic crisis, but meetings, talks and statements especially from Qatar did not achieve their desired effect. “It is rather clear now that the dispute has worsened and that there are countries that do not want to go to Doha,” said former information minister Mohammad Nasser Al-Senussi, one of the mediators. Though Qatar has said that the differences have been resolved, the fact that the other nations’ ambassadors have not yet returned to Doha and the emirate continues to allow Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yousef Al-Qardawi to stay on as guest in the county clearly shows its reluctance to focus on the major sources of friction between them. Kuwaiti undersecretary for foreign affairs Khalid Al-Jarallah has said that he has heard “of a single location for the holding of the summit, and that is Doha”. Kuwaiti daily Al-Anbaa has said, however, that preparations are underway for an informal meeting between representatives of all Gulf nations in the coming days. The daily Asharq Al-Awsat reports that a “special summit” will be held next week in Riyadh to foster rapprochement between the GCC members.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Stakelbeck on the Women of ISIS: Western Girls Lured to Islamic State
My latest report examines the disturbing phenomenon of Western women and girls leaving their homes to travel to the Middle East and join ISIS.
Last month, three teenage girls from suburban Denver were detained while trying to make their way to Syria. Hundreds of other young women from Western countries have made it to the Islamic State — marrying ISIS fighters and even fighting alongside them.
ISIS promises them husbands and a wonderful new life in the Caliphate — a place where, ironically enough, women have no rights or freedoms.
Click the link above to watch.
| — Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck | [Return to headlines] |
World Cup 2022: Qatar Will be Cleared of Corruption Charges
A source reveals this to the BBC. The Middle Eastern country won the prestigious tournament in 2010 by beating Australia, the US, Korea and Japan. But the leaders of the International Federation were apparently “convinced” with bribes totaling about 4 million euro. No breakthrough in the situation of migrants, the new slaves forced to build stadiums in the desert.
Doha (AsiaNews) — Qatar will be acquitted of charges of bribing officials of FIFA for the assignment of the World Cup in 2022. This was announced by the BBC sports section. The judgment of the commission of inquiry should be made public in the morning. The rich Middle Eastern country had come under fire of the Federation’s independent commission of inquiry for allegedly having paid about € 4 million in bribes to get the trophy.
According to the source, Hans Joachim Eckert, head of the commission, “will not recommend” a new vote despite the protests of the 2010 losers, namely Australia, United States, Korea and Japan. The decision to give the Middle Eastern country the World Cup was greeted with surprise, because the temperatures and infrastructure on the ground was (and currently still is) completely out of the norm of the competition. However attorney Michael Garcia, appointed by the Board to investigate the matter, found no wrongdoing.
Concern for migrant workers who live in the desert in Qatar to build stadiums needed for the tournament remains very high. More and more Filipinos, Indonesians, Indians and Nepalese choose the country as a destination to find work, but their living conditions are inhumane. Upon arrival they are greeted by work “sergeants” that sequester their documents, make them live in barracks and pay them a pittance. If they complain, they are repatriated or suffer violence and beatings.
In Qatar there are about 70 thousand migrants from Nepal (according to the latest data available for 2010). Each year, another 10 thousand choose Doha as their destination, and approximately 200 die in workplace accidents on an annual basis. According to human rights activists, many “disappear into thin air.” In late August 2014, two Nepalese activists investigating the living conditions of their fellow countrymen disappeared after reporting they were being followed by the police. The two sought data on workers engaged in building arenas for the 2022 World Cup.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
As Ruble Slides, Russians Go Shopping to Beat Coming Price Hikes
Many Start Holiday Shopping Early for Big-Ticket, Imported Items
MOSCOW—The ruble is down more than 30% against the dollar and the Russian economy is headed for stagnation at best, according to official forecasts. What are many Russians doing? Going shopping.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: West Java: Islamic Extremists Stop Catholics Celebrating Mass
Members of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and Formasi blocked the celebrations of 9 November. The Pastor of St. Odilia avoids the devastation of the place of worship by removing the sacred objects in time. The Protestant community previously targeted. First challenge in terms of religious freedom for the reformist president Jokowi.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — After attacking the Protestant community, extremist groups of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and the Formasi (Forum of Indonesian Islamic community) have attacked Catholics, blocking the celebration of Mass over the weekend and preventing the faithful from gathering.
The warning was launched in a series of text messages that started circulating in recent days and were confirmed later by Fr. Saptono, priest of the parish of St. Odilia in Cinunuk, in the regency of Bandung (West Java province). The complex of St. Charles Borromeo was targeted in the November 9 raid when it was surrounded by dozens of extremists — shouting insulting slogans and mafia-style messages — who blocked the celebration of Sunday Mass.
The FPI and the Formasi members threatened to burn the property if, in the future, Masses or other Christian services are celebrated. To avoid the worst damage, the priest — while engaged in a discussion with some representatives of the extremist groups — asked the faithful to remove the sacred objects and symbols of faith.
A move that has convinced the extremists to curb their destructive folly, on the back of a promise by the priest that there would be no more celebrations in the structure. Addressing the faithful, Fr. Saptono spoke of a t “shocking” even for a private community and abuse of their right to prayer and to the free practice of worship “after 16 years of peaceful existence”.
The presence of Catholics in the area dates back to 1995. “After the four Protestant churches blocked since 11 October — adds the priest — it is now the turn of the Catholic community.” Limitations on the practice of worship concern not only the communities of Cinunuk, but also locations scattered in West Java, one of the areas most at risk from intolerance or sectarian violence. These attacks have not only affected Christians but also other minorities, including Ahmadis and Shias.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, where Catholics are 3 per cent of the population, is becoming as one of the main centres of Islamic activism in the Asia-Pacific region. As AsiaNews recently reported, fundamentalist movements and local Muslim leaders have found inspiration in the exploits of Sunni fighters in Syria and Iraq and plan to support the struggle for the establishment of the Islamic Caliphate, even in Asia. The new government of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and neo Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnomo, better known as Ahok, number two Widodo when he headed the capital, will have their hands full in trying to stem this extremist drift that was endorsed for years by the previous government.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia to Draw Up Rules to Regulate the Importation of Christian Materials
Airports and customs will use new operating procedures to monitor imports. This comes after a Christian clergyman had his materials seized in late October. Customs officials say they took them away because they were bulky and heavy. Christian pastor says it was because they contained the word ‘Allah’.
Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews/Agencies) — The Malaysian government is drawing up a set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the relevant authorities to prevent the unnecessary seizure of Christian religious material.
Sources in the Home Ministry said that SOPs were being prepared for use by various authorities, such as Customs and police.
“We hope the SOPs will be a reality soon,” said Tan Sri Joseph Kurup, lawmaker and minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, after handing over 130 religious books and 290 compact discs to the Protestant Church of Sabah (PCS) yesterday.
On 25 October, customs officials at Kuala Lumpur International Airport seized them from Rev Maklin Masiau, a pastor with the Protestant Church in Sabah, because they contained the word “Allah” as the God of the Bible.
The Lutheran minister was coming back from a trip to Medan, Indonesia. He had travelled abroad to get religious material for Protestant communities in Sabah to use for the upcoming Christmas celebrations and events.
According to Customs officials, checks were made not because of the ban on the use of the word “Allah” in the material but because they had noticed one piece of bulky luggage and wanted to inspect it further. Afterwards, they seized the material.
The Christian clergyman disagrees. In his view, his rights were violated and he was prepared for a protracted process of getting them back.
On his Facebook page, he appealed to his friends and well-wishers to remain calm, pray for a solution and avoid making comments that might touch religious sensitivities.
Still, “Their main reason for the seizure was the books and the CDs contained the word Allah,” he wrote.
In recent years, Malaysia’s Christian minority has been the victim of targeted attacks, including church burning, the desecration of Christian graves and the seizure of 300 Bibles in January.
The use of the word Allah to describe the Christian God is behind such violence. Indeed, what started out as a long-standing legal battle between the government in Kuala Lumpur and the Catholic weekly The Herald — whose petition was rejected on 23 June — has now become a national controversy.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Successfully Tests Nuclear-Capable Missile, Army Says
Pakistan’s military says it has successfully test-fired an intermediate-range missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
The military says the Shaheen-II missile, also known as Hatf-VI, with a range of (900 miles, was launched on Thursday from an undisclosed location. Its impact point was somewhere in the Arabian Sea, which is part of the Indian Ocean.
Lt. Gen. Zubair Mahmood Hayat, who attended the launch, said Pakistan has no aggressive designs against anyone.
Pakistan has previously test-fired the same type of missile.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China: Xinjiang: 22 Islamic Preachers Sentenced for Inciting Hatred
The penalties range from five to 16 years in prison. Accusations include charges of separatism, ethnic hatred and disturbing the peace. The verdict was read in public in Kashgar. Increasingly the provincial epicenter of inter-ethnic clashes.
Beijing (AsiaNews) — Authorities in the western province of Xinjiang have sentenced 22 Islamic preachers in recent days to sentences ranging from five to 16 years in prison. Charges against them include separatism, ethnic hatred and disturbing the peace.
The verdict was read in public at the People’s Court of Kashgar. The area is known for its violent attacks in recent months, which according to Beijing that are orchestrated by Muslim separatists.
According to the judiciary report the preachers include “rogue imams,” or those already removed from their mosques and religious still in office. Ainiwaer Tuerxun, mayor of Kashgar, said the province is “plagued by religious extremism” which has “fomented terrorism in the region.”
According to the politician, reading the sentence in public “is a powerful deterrent that will help stop those who break the law through religion.”
Meng Caixia, a teacher, told the South China Morning Post that the problem of religious extremism “is serious, and is having a profound impact in the area. Some preachers are involved in this activity, and it is very difficult for them to be open-minded and accept what they are told”.
The province is one of the most turbulent in all of China. Its Uyghur Muslim minority, who number about nine million, have long sought independence from China.
The central government, for its part, has brought in hundreds of thousands of settlers to make Han Chinese the dominant ethnic group.
At the same time, it has severely curtailed Muslim religious worship as well as the teaching of the local language and culture.
Since 2009 Chinese police and the military have held the region under a special regime, which Beijing imposed following clashes that left nearly 200 people dead. As a result of various episodes of violence, hundreds of long prison sentences were imposed and dozens of death penalties were carried out.
Chinese authorities blame Muslim extremists for the wave of violence. Uyghur exiles claim instead that Beijing is “exaggerating” the threat of Islamic terrorism to justify repression against indigenous Uyghurs.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Mauritania Urged to End Crackdown on Slavery Activists
Nouakchott (AFP) — Amnesty International urged Mauritania on Thursday to end “harassment, intimidation and repression” of anti-slavery activists, following a number of high-profile arrests.
At least nine campaigners including Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid, President of the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA), are being held in the southern city of Rosso after they were detained this week.
“Anti-slavery activists are subject to never ending harassment and intimidation in Mauritania,” Gaetan Mootoo, a west Africa researcher for Amnesty said in a statement.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“Why Do They Treat us Immigrants Like Animals in Europe?”
Sitting inside the immigrant holding center (CIE) in Barranco Seco on Gran Canaria, the African migrants held for five hours on the beach where they landed last week out of fear they might have been infected with Ebola now recount their experiences.
“It looked like they were scared of us,” says one of the 21 undocumented immigrants. “Why do they treat us like animals in Europe?”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: More Violence Around Rome Migrant Centre, Refugees Moved
Refusal at bar sparks trouble
(ANSA) — Rome, November 13 — Rome city authorities on Thursday started transferring refugees from a migrant centre on the outskirts of Rome that has been at the centre of repeated violence since Monday.
Earlier in the day residents of the Tor Sapienza area threw bottles and stones at the centre, which mostly hosts minors.
The refugees responded by throwing objects from the windows, reports said. The latest violence was reportedly triggered by a bar’s refusal to allow a group of migrants to enter.
“Don’t come in here, this place is not for you,” they were allegedly told. The Catholic S. Egidio Community, which works closely with migrants, responded by calling for an end to “the culture of violence” and urged Rome to maintain its open character “against every form of racism”.
However Senator Maurizio Gasparri of the opposition Forza Italia party blamed the government’s now defunct migrant sea search and rescue programme Mare Nostrum for “dumping hundreds and hundreds of immigrants on our coasts and in our cities, clogging reception centres and making the situation unmanageable”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Plans to Protect Up to 5 Million From Deportation, Aides Say
President Obama will ignore angry protests from Republicans and announce as soon as next week a broad overhaul of the nation’s immigration enforcement system that will protect up to five million undocumented immigrants from the threat of deportation and provide many of them with work permits, according to administration officials who have direct knowledge of the plan.
Asserting his authority as president to enforce the nation’s laws with discretion, Mr. Obama intends to order changes that will significantly refocus the activities of the government’s 12,000 immigration agents. One key piece of the order, officials said, will allow many parents of children who are American citizens or legal residents to obtain legal work documents and no longer worry about being discovered, separated from their families and sent away.
That part of Mr. Obama’s plan alone could affect as many as 3.3 million people who have been living in the United States illegally for at least five years, according to an analysis by the Migration Policy Institute, an immigration research organization in Washington. But the White House is also considering a stricter policy that would limit the benefits to people who have lived in the country for at least 10 years, or about 2.5 million people.
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President Will Ignore Democratic Process and Amnesty 5 Million
By Jessica Vaughan
The executive actions reportedly planned by President Obama, as outlined by Fox News, are shocking in their scope and disregard for the well-being of Americans, not to mention their contempt for the democratic process and the wishes of the public. It is not an overhaul of immigration policy, or a set of reforms, but a dismemberment of immigration law.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Private Ships to Rescue Mediterranean Migrants
EU operation Triton is placing the onus of saving Mediterranean migrants on private ship owners, but the ships might avoid responding, Vincent Cochetel of the UN refugee agency told the BBC’s Newsday programme. The Frontex-led operation replaced Italy’s much larger Mare Nostrum mission when it ended 1 November.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Detectives investigating an organised crime group suspected of bringing women into Greater Manchester from Eastern Europe believe the traffickers are selling them for £3,000.
But the price increases to £15,000 if they will agree to have a child with their bogus husband.
The shocking price of women emerged as officers arrested eight men and three women during raids in Rochdale, Oldham and Cheetham Hill as part of Operation Retriever.
They were arrested over a trafficking ring which saw a pregnant woman almost tricked into an abortion following a sham marriage.
The 20-year-old from Slovakia was sold for up to £15,000 by a gang in Greater Manchester who organised a marriage to a 38-year-old man facing deportation, police said.
Officers were alerted when the woman told an interpreter she had been ‘sold against her will’ and was ‘appalled’ by the idea of an abortion.
The group of men and three women, aged between 24 and 57, were arrested after police and officers from the Home Office went to properties in Greater Manchester yesterday.
The offences for which they have been arrested include trafficking people for exploitation, conspiracy to facilitate breach of immigration law, conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration into a member state. Two people were arrested over being overstayers in the UK…
| — Hat tip: Green Infidel | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Govt Condemns Diocese Letter on Gender Ed
Church told teachers to ‘report’ on schools with gender programs
(ANSA) — Milan, November 13 — An openly gay undersecretary in the cabinet of Premier Matteo Renzi on Thursday called “inopportune” a letter from the Milan Catholic diocese asking religion teachers to report back on any schools with gay- or gender-related programs.
“One could euphemistically call the letter inopportune, and it was probably the fruit of an excess of zeal and a lack of forethought,” said Reform Ministry Undersecretary Ivan Scalfarotto, a long-time promoter of LGBT rights. The letter written by the prelate in charge of education, Father Gian Battista Rota, was made public when some teachers turned it over to La Repubblica newspaper. The Milan diocese later confirmed the letter, while withdrawing it from its own site.
“Religion teachers play an important role in a public school system that is and must remain secular,” Scalfarotto said. “Turning them…into some kind of secret agent or snitch damages their dignity and harms a Church that so many — believers and non-believers — would like to see be welcoming and inclusive,” the undersecretary concluded.
Also on Thursday, Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) chief Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco appeared to distance himself from the incident.
“It seems extremely improbable and strange that a census of this kind could be carried out in schools,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The correct names for the coinage that IS want to reintroduce are the gold dinar and the silver dirham. Indonesia began minting their own a few years ago. Wouldn’t it be interesting if the islamic world offered a hard-money based new financial system when (not if) the current fiat/debt system crashes. One wonders at possible quid pro quos…
………says one of the 21 undocumented immigrants. “Why do they treat us like animals in Europe?”
Simple, because they are not wanted. The EU immigration policy was foisted upon EU citizens. They were never invited to vote for it so there is no mandate. The last thing Europe needs is a growing contingent of economically inactive immigrants whose crime record is disturbing.
Hasn’t anyone considered deporting those who are here already?
Is it really any wonder why Churches are becoming even more empty when those who are supposed to be shepherds of the Lord have become so intellectually lazy that they can no longer distinguish between good and evil?
I never thought I would live to see it, but America is now under a dictatorship that those in DC care to do nothing about.
What Obama calls “amnesty” is, in fact, dereliction of duty, capitulation.
The response needs to be:
“Uphold the law. Perform the duties you are paid for.”
Regan got the ball rolling back in the 1980’s with his “one time only” for the one million and millions of relatives. It is now a huge industry celebrated throughout the Southwest as “La Reconquesta”. 1990’s props were thrown out. This too shall pass – no doubt