Two female politicians in Iraq have been executed by the Islamic State. Both women were MPs for the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). They were shot by a firing squad in a square in downtown Mosul.
In other news, Moody’s downgraded Japan’s credit rating due to its sluggish economy and increasing national debt.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Fjordman, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, 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.
Italian Government Borrowing Needs Drop in First 11 Months
Economy ministry says November figures improved over 2013
(ANSA) — Rome, December 1 — Italy’s public accounts improved slightly in the first 11 months of this year compared with the previous year with slightly less borrowing, the economy ministry said in a statement Monday.
In November, borrowing requirements were about 4.9 billion euros — well below the 7.2 billion euros required in the same month in 2013, the ministry said in a statement.
Meanwhile, in the first 11 months of this year, borrowing needs reached 81.9 billion euros, about 13.5 billion euros less than during the same time last year, the ministry said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Unemployment Rate Rises to Record, Above Forecasts
Italy’s unemployment rate unexpectedly rose above 13 percent in October, setting a record as businesses refrain from hiring amid the country’s longest recession since World War II.
The unemployment rate rose to 13.2 percent from a revised 12.9 percent the previous month, the Rome-based national statistics office Istat said in a preliminary report today. That’s the highest since the quarterly series began in 1977. The median estimate of seven economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for an unemployment rate of 12.6 percent in October.
The youth unemployment rate for those aged 15 to 24 rose to 43.3 percent last month from 42.7 percent in September, today’s report showed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Moody’s Downgrades Japan Credit Rating
Analysts cite increased uncertainty over country’s growth drive
(ANSA) — Rome, December 1 — Credit rating agency Moody’s lowered Japan’s credit rating from A1 to AA3 on Monday, citing uncertainty regarding the efficiency of Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s growth measures, causing increased risk for Japanese government debt in the medium term.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Miners ‘Covering Their Eyes’ On China’s Commodity Cliff
After spending $1 trillion since 2002 on projects to feed China’s commodity boom, the world’s mining companies have a lot riding on their biggest customer.
As China moves to a consumer-led from an investment-led economy, there may be a substantial absolute drop in commodities demand, not just slower growth, he said.
“This is happening now,” Tao said. “It’s just people are covering their eyes and refusing to believe that what is happening now is not just a cyclical story, but also a structural story.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Moody’s Downgrades Japan Credit Rating, Citing Debt
Moody’s downgraded Japan’s credit rating Monday, citing “rising uncertainty” over the country’s debt situation and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s faltering efforts to kick-start the world’s No. 3 economy.
The ratings agency said it cut Japan’s rating by one notch to A1 from Aa3, after the economy sank into recession during the third quarter.
Japan has one of the heaviest debt burdens among rich nations, at more than twice the size of the economy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New GOP Congress Has Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in Its Sights
Housing industry experts expect congressional Republicans to focus on oversight of housing market regulators next year, instead of legislation.
Given the struggle to reach a consensus on what to do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, industry officials are betting that House and Senate committee leaders will spend most of their time monitoring Mel Watt, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).
Republicans are worried that Watt could push Fannie and Freddie back into their past practices, which led to a nearly $190 billion taxpayer bailout and government conservatorship in 2008.
Watt has told members of the Banking panels in both chambers that he agrees that Congress must act to wind down the mortgage giants and reduce the government’s role in the mortgage finance market.
But in the absence of legislation, Watt has forged ahead with changes, such as those aimed at easing Fannie and Freddie’s access to credit.
“Conservatorship cannot and should not be a permanent state,” he said at a recent hearing. “The role of Congress is to define what that future state is.”
Watt said he won’t weigh in on what path lawmakers should take but he reiterated that a lack of action “will have greater and greater cost to us.”
[…]
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Total US Debt Rises Over $18 Trillion; Up 70% Under Barack Obama
Last week, total US debt was a meager $17,963,753,617,957.26. Two days later, as updated today, on Black Friday, total outstanding US public debt just hit a new historic level which probably would be better associated with a red color: as of the last work day of November, total US public debt just surpassed $18 trillion for the first time.
It also means that total US debt to nominal GDP as of Sept 30, which was $17.555 trillion, is now 103%.
It also means that total US debt has increased by 70% under Obama, from $10.625 trillion on January 21, 2009 to $18.005 trillion most recently.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnian Refugee Beaten to Death With Hammers by Three Black Kids
32 year-old Bosnian refugee Zemir Begic was beaten to death with hammers in South St. Louis late Saturday night.
Three teens, 15, 16 and 17, were arrested.
The teens beat Zemir Begic to death with hammers in St. Louis City.
Zemir was a husband, father and brother.
Seldin Dzananovic was also attacked by the teens earlier in the night on Saturday.
Five black youths attacked him with hammers.
On Monday I spoke with Seldin.
He was at the makeshift memorial for Zemir Begic in South St. Louis.
He described the attack. The teens said it was just for fun.
[…]
[Admin note: Guns? Who needs guns when hammers will do?]
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Death in Benghazi — Part 4: Is the House Intelligence Committee Benghazi Report a “Whitewash”?
by Jerry Gordon
The Benghazi terrorist attack on September 11-12, 2012 in which four Americans lost their lives under mysterious circumstances has gone through more twists and turns of opaque testimony and disclosures than even those in the Watergate Hearings in 1973. The Watergate Hearings were extensively televised with stunning revelations of wrong doing and breach of trust at the highest levels of our government that caused the unseemly resignation of President Nixon and later pardon by his successor, President Gerald Ford. In the Benghazi case, the testimony and conclusions reached in the Final Report on Benghazi by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) had the opposite result. In the opinion of private investigations and CIA security contractors, it whitewashes the covert activities and security lapses of the Intelligence Community thus, effectively exonerating the Administration. It also dismissed allegations that the Committee failed to address “key facts and unanswered questions.” The conclusions of the House Intelligence Committee Report await the definitive investigations, public hearings and ultimate reports of the House Select Committee on Benghazi authorized in May 2014. The creation of the House Select Committee on Benghazi was stimulated in part by the investigations and interim report of the Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi and lobbying by Special Operations veterans groups. That was bolstered by the revelations from interviews in a Fox News Special Report with the three surviving members of the Security Team at the CIA Annex — Kris (“Tanto”) Paronto, Mark (“Oz”) Geist, and John (“Tig”) Tiegen. They were drawn from the book, 13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened In Benghazi by Mitchell Zuckoff with the Annex Security Team. Paronto alleges that if they had not been ordered by the CIA Chief of Base in Benghazi to stand down at least three times in the opening stages of the attack that: “I strongly believe if we’d left immediately, they’d still be alive today.” The HPSCI Report finding was that no such stand down order was given by the Benghazi CIA Chief of Base before the Annex security team left on their own to undertake a possible rescue. That is just one piece of contradictory testimony in this disputed House Intelligence Committee Report.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
An aide to a Republican congressman has announced her resignation after provoking outrage with comments telling Barack Obama’s daughters to show “a little class”.
Elizabeth Lauten, the communications director for Tennessee representative Steve Fincher, wrote a diatribe against Sasha and Malia Obama on her Facebook page on Thursday.
She criticised the teenagers after their appearance with the President at a traditional “turkey pardoning” ceremony ahead of Thanksgiving at the White House.
“Dear Sasha and Malia: I get you’re both in those awful teen years, but you’re a part of the First Family, try showing a little class. At least respect the part you play,” she wrote in a Facebook post that has since been deleted.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EPA Sneaks ‘Costliest Regulation Ever’ Over Holidays
While millions of Americans were getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving, the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled stricter standards for ozone, or smog, levels — a rule that has been criticized as possibly the costliest the agency has ever promulgated.
“Yet again we’re seeing the Obama administration release an incredibly expensive regulation on the eve of a major national holiday,” said Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski. “The administration is clearly hoping to release this at a time when the vast majority of Americans are focused elsewhere, and that alone should tell us something about it.”
The EPA’s proposed standard lowers the acceptable amount of ozone in the air from 75 parts per billion to a range of 65-70 parts per billion. The agency says this new standard is based on more than 1,000 scientific studies published since 2008, and will prevent from 320,000 to 960,000 asthma attacks per year, along with “preventing more than 750 to 4,300 premature deaths; 1,400 to 4,300 asthma-related emergency room visits; and 65,000 to 180,000 missed workdays.”
“Bringing ozone pollution standards in line with the latest science will clean up our air, improve access to crucial air quality information, and protect those most at-risk. It empowers the American people with updated air quality information to protect our loved ones — because whether we work or play outdoors — we deserve to know the air we breathe is safe,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said in a statement.
The EPA said it would take comments from stakeholders on setting an even lower smog standard of 60 parts per billion — a level that industry groups have said would cost the economy $3.4 trillion by 2040.
A standard set at 60 parts per billion would also mean that large swaths of the U.S. would be labelled as out of compliance, possibly heralding more EPA intervention into state environmental plans.
A wide range of industry groups and Republicans have said the new ozone rule could be the most “expensive ever imposed” on American industry.
“This new ozone regulation threatens to be the most expensive ever imposed on industry in America and could jeopardize recent progress in manufacturing by placing massive new costs on manufacturers and closing off counties and states to new business by blocking projects at the permitting stage,” Jay Timmons, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, said in a statement.
“What’s worse is that this is just the latest in a long line of environmental regulations that have come off of EPA’s regulatory conveyor belt in recent months. Many of these rules are being imposed with little concern or attention to their costs for families and businesses,” Murkowski said. “With regard to ozone, in particular, the projected health benefits are heavily speculative at best, notwithstanding their high costs to achieve.”
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Farrakhan on Ferguson: ‘We’ll Tear This G**damn Country Up!’ (Video)
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan went on a fiery tirade about Ferguson on Saturday — threatening that if the demands of protesters aren’t met, “we’ll tear this g**damn country apart!”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
James Watson Selling Nobel Prize ‘Because No-One Wants to Admit I Exist’
James Watson, the world-famous biologist who was shunned by the scientific community after linking intelligence to race, said he is selling his Nobel Prize because he is short of money after being made a pariah.
Mr Watson said he is auctioning the Nobel Prize medal he won in 1962 for discovering the structure of DNA, because “no-one really wants to admit I exist”.
Mr Watson, who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for uncovering the double helix structure of DNA, sparked an outcry in 2007 when he suggested that people of African descent were inherently less intelligent than white people.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
President Barack Obama met with controversial black pastor Rev. Al Sharpton on Monday at the White House, amid word that he will demand $263 million from Congress to put 50,000 body-worn cameras in U.S. police departments and train local cops to better use surplus military equipment.
The moves came in response to the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
Sharpton called the get-together ‘a historic meeting that the president and vice president sat with all of us and law enforcement to commit to not just another commitment, another study … but that he would put his full weight behind it.’
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
On the Re-Issue of ‘The New Antisemitism’: An Interview With Dr. Phyllis Chesler
by Jerry Gordon
Antisemitism is like a bad penny. It keeps turning up in different forms, whether in ancient Christian or Islamic doctrines, medieval blood libel or notorious forgeries like the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” by the Czarist secret police. Virulent antisemitism was the foundation of Hitler’s final solution, the murder of six million European Jewish men, women and children during the Holocaust of World War II. Antisemitism was transformed following the establishment of the State of Israel as a bastion for refugees from both the Shoah and expulsion of more than 850,000 Jews from Arab and Muslim lands. Mass immigration of Muslims to Europe and the West fostered an Orwellian version: “Anti-Israelism is Antisemitism.” It effectively turned the Jewish nation into the world Jew, an object of scorn as the dhimmi usurper in the Muslim Middle East. Following the Six Day War victory in 1967, re-unification of Jerusalem and conquest of the disputed territories of the West Bank and Gaza, an international campaign arose accusing Israel of being an “illegitimate colonialist apartheid regime and occupier” of Muslim lands.
One of the first to recognize the transformation of classic Antisemitism was Dr. Phyllis Chesler, a liberal feminist whose writings have transformed the women’s movement in American academia. Because of her own personal experience confronting Islamic Antisemitism in Kabul the early 1960’s, she recognized the confluence of these developments. that prompted her to write a prescient work in 2003, The New Antisemitism: The Current Crisis and What We Must Do About It (TNA). The re-issue of an expanded version, The New Antisemitism by the Gefen Publishing House in Israel is a testament to her prescience. While her thesis had been rejected in 2003 by the American Jewish leadership as no cause for alarm, the march of events have proven her correct.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
A scientist who was part of the team that discovered DNA has been forced to sell his Nobel Prize after he was shunned by the scientific community for comments that linked race and intelligence.
James Watson sparked an outcry in 2007 when he suggested in an interview with the Sunday Times that people of African descent were inherently less intelligent than white people.
The American scientist said he had become an ‘unperson’ since making the controversial remarks and is now selling his prize in a bid to ‘re-enter public life’.
The medal, the first to be auctioned by a living recipient, is expected to fetch as much as £2.5million when it goes under the hammer at Christie’s in New York next week.
Dr Watson shared the 1962 Nobel Prize, awarded for uncovering the double helix structure of DNA, with British scientists Maurice Wilkins and Francis Crick.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Student Mugged, Says He Deserved it Because of His ‘Privilege’
A Georgetown University (GU) student who says he was mugged at gunpoint says he “can hardly blame” his assailants.
Senior Oliver Friedfeld and his roommate were held at gunpoint and mugged recently. However, the GU student isn’t upset. In fact he says he “can hardly blame (his muggers).”
“Who am I to stand from my perch of privilege, surrounded by million-dollar homes and paying for a $60,000 education, to condemn these young men as ‘thugs?’“ asks Friedfeld. “It’s precisely this kind of ‘otherization’ that fuels the problem.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Nazi Romance With Islam Has Some Lessons for the United States
by David Mikics
Both Hitler and Himmler had a soft spot for Islam. Hitler several times fantasized that, if the Saracens had not been stopped at the Battle of Tours, Islam would have spread through the European continent—and that would have been a good thing, since “Jewish Christianity” wouldn’t have gone on to poison Europe. Christianity doted on weakness and suffering, while Islam extolled strength, Hitler believed. Himmler in a January 1944 speech called Islam “a practical and attractive religion for soldiers,” with its promise of paradise and beautiful women for brave martyrs after their death. “This is the kind of language a soldier understands,” Himmler gushed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
White Teen Killed by Black Cop in Alabama Mirrors Ferguson
A two-year-old case involving the shooting death of an unarmed 18-year-old white man by a black police officer is gaining attention on social media in the wake of this week’s protests and rioting in Ferguson, Missouri.
Gilbert Collar, a white, unarmed 18-year-old under the influence of drugs was shot and killed Oct. 6, 2012, by Officer Trevis Austin, who is black, in Mobile, Alabama. Despite public pressure for an indictment, a Mobile County grand jury refused to bring charges against Officer Austin, concluding that the officer acted in self-defense.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A set of rules for white people at a vigil for Michael Brown in Canada has sparked controversy with critics accusing organizers of promoting segregation.
‘Non black allies’ were told to ‘refrain from taking up space in all ways possible’ and ‘never be at the centre of anything’ at the event in Toronto on November 25.
The Facebook page also advised white demonstrators to ‘refrain from speaking to the media’ and ‘stand behind black folks or between us and the police’.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria Launches Hotline for Extremism
Austria’s government has announced a new ‘counselling centre for extremism’ and a deradicalization hotline intended to help young Muslims living in Austria from falling under the influence of jihadist recruiters and extremists.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Profile of a Jihadist: Terror Suspect Revealed
According to a report in the Austrian daily Kronen Zeitung, the ring-leader of the 13 alleged jihadists who was arrested in a series of raids in the early hours of Friday morning was a major player in a global terror network. The Local looks at the profile of the alleged Bosnian-Serb mastermind.
The 105 square meter apartment in Vienna’s modern Donau City residential neighbourhood was invaded without warning around 4 a.m. on Friday morning by Austria’s elite heavily-armed police special forces team WEGA.
Their target, a 33-year-old Bosniak imam (preacher) known by the nom-de-Guerre of Abu Tejma, is officially unemployed, but has been very busy over the past few years. According to security sources, Mirsad O. is allegedly at the heart of a network of Islamic extremists who have been promoting jihadism, actively recruiting cannon-fodder for the wars in Iraq and Syria.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Beer Holds Center Stage in Austria’s Life
The latest report of the Austrian Brewer’s Union shows that beer continues as one of the most important beverages in Austrian’s lives, sitting just behind coffee.
94 percent of Austria adults believe that beer plays the pivotal role in Austria’s culture, although only 82 percent of Austrians regularly buy beer. (Perhaps the other 18 percent drink beer bought by their friends.)
More than eight percent of Austrians are Muslim, meaning they won’t drink alcohol — however, there are plenty of options for them too, with alcohol-free beer widely available.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Britain’s Most Popular Boys’ Name… Mohammed
Mohammed has become the top boys’ name chosen by parents in Britain after a huge surge in popularity for Arabic names generally, according to new research.
The UK’s top baby names of 2014 showed Mohammed has risen 27 places from last year to claim the number one spot for the boys, data carried out by website BabyCentre showed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bullet-Proof Armour and Hydrogen Sieve Add to Graphene’s Promise
One-atom-thick material blocks ‘bullet’ strikes but allows protons to pass through.
The world’s thinnest, strongest material — graphene — was first isolated a decade ago, but the single-atom-thick sheet of carbon is still turning up surprises.
Thought to be an impermeable barrier, research reported in Nature1 this week shows that graphene in fact allows protons to pass through it, opening up the possibility of its use as an ultrathin membrane in fuel cells. Meanwhile, a separate report in Science2 today reveals that graphene outperforms both steel and a composite Kevlar armour in its ability to withstand ‘bullets’.
Protons’ ability to travel through graphene suggests that the material could be used as a membrane to sieve hydrogen from air, and to help extract energy from that hydrogen in a fuel cell, says co-author Andre Geim, a materials scientist at the University of Manchester, UK, who won a Nobel prize in 2010 for his pioneering experiments on graphene.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Sarkozy Calls for UMP Unity After Narrow Leadership Win
France’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy made an impassioned call for an end to the infighting at the heart of his UMP party, a day after he was elected as party chairman and head of France’s main centre-right opposition group.
Sarkozy took just over two thirds of Saturday’s vote by the UMP’s party members. Despite being a clear victory, it still fell short of the landslide he needed to be confident of being selected as the party’s presidential candidate in the 2016 primaries.
He sidestepped the issue in Sunday evening’s interview with TF1, insisting that his first job was to unite the fractured UMP and provide France with a solid opposition to counter the ruling socialists while diluting support for the far-right National Front (FN).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Sarko’s Return a Boost for Hollande and Le Pen
Sarkozy officially returned to the ring this weekend when he was elected president of the French opposition UMP party. But his comeback has been greeted as warmly by his most bitter opponents as by his own fans.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Curtains: Eric Zemmour’s Raw Attack on France’s Elites is the Talk of Paris
By Christopher Caldwell
Although the French novelist Patrick Modiano won the Nobel in October, he has lately been bumped off the charts by Eric Zemmour, a talk-show pundit who is persona non grata among the country’s intellectual establishment. Zemmour’s Le suicide français (Paris: Albin Michel, 534 pages, 22.90 euros) is made for the moment. It argues that, since the French student uprising of May 1968, women’s libbers, Muslim migrants, crooked bankers, and overzealous judges have brought France to ruin. To judge from the reaction to Zemmour’s book—which sold a quarter-million copies in the fortnight after publication despite furious condemnations in all of the daily papers—large parts of the French public think he is right.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Bundestag Passes Debt-Free Budget for 2015
Germany signed off Friday on its 2015 draft budget, which foresees a balanced bottom line for the country’s public finances for the first time since 1969.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
High Heels Have a Strange Effect on Men, And Here’s Proof
Listen up, ladies.
Flats may be all the rage these days, but a provocative new study from France suggests that high heels do a better job of helping women get what they want from men.
“Women’s shoe heel size exerts a powerful effect on men’s behavior,” Dr. Nicolas Guéguen, a psychologist at the Université de Bretagne-Sud in Rennes, and the scientist behind the study, said in a written statement.
The finding might not come as a huge surprise to women, but Guéguen said his is the first scientific study to test the effect.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ikea Head’s Family Listed as Switzerland’s Richest
The founder of Ikea, Ingvar Kamprad, may have left Switzerland for his Swedish homeland but his family is still judged to be the wealthiest in the country, according to an annual list issued by Swiss business magazine Bilanz.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In Images: Fatal Floods Hit South of France
As southern France recovers from the worst flooding it’s seen in years, The Local takes a look at some of the most shocking images of the damage done by the forces of nature.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Is Sweden Heading for a New Election?
Sweden’s parliament is voting on a new budget on Wednesday. But in a land of complicated coalition politics there’s a risk it won’t get passed and even talk of fresh elections. The Local got the lowdown on a crucial week from political scientist Nicholas Aylott.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Prosecutors Appeal Berlusconi Acquittal in Ruby Case
Ex-premier acquitted of prostituting a minor, abuse of office
(ANSA) — Milan, December 1 — Milan prosecutors at the weekend filed a motion with Italy’s supreme Cassation Court for it to overturn the acquittal of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi.
The media mogul in June 2013 was found guilty of abuse of office and prostituting a minor for paying for sex with a Moroccan dancer who was underage at the time, and for using his position as premier to spring her from jail after she was picked up for theft.
Berlusconi was sentenced to seven years in prison. That verdict was overturned in July after an appeals court found that while “sexual acts were paid for”, prosecutors failed to prove the then-premier knew the dancer — known as Ruby — was just 17 years old at the time. As well, the court found prosecutors failed to prove the then-premier threatened or intimidated police officials into releasing Ruby from jail.
However, Milan prosecutors disagreed. The media mogul “gave very precise instructions” to officials at the Milan police headquarters to have Ruby released in May 2010, prosecutors said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi’s Proposal to Buy ILVA Could be ‘Useful’, Says Camusso
Premier floats idea of nationalising scandal-plagued steelmaker
(ANSA) — Rome, December 1 — It could be “useful” for saving jobs and boosting the economy if Premier Matteo Renzi follows through on his suggestion the government could buy troubled steelmaker ILVA, labour leader Susanna Camusso said Monday.
She spoke one day after Renzi said that his government is considering whether to buy the scandal-plague steelmaker, which has threatened to shed jobs and even close over the massive costs of an environmental cleanup at its plant in the southern port city of Taranto.
In an interview on Sunday with La Repubblica, Renzi said that if the government did take on ILVA, it would hold Europe’s largest steel producer for only “two or three years, defend employment, protect the environment, and then relaunch it on the market”.
Camusso, who heads the CGIL trade union federation, Italy’s largest, said her organization has “always advocated that, in strategic sectors of the economy, if there are not private entrepreneurs willing to intervene,” then the government should step in.
Renzi said in the interview that he did not see the government becoming a permanent player in the steel sector, but only act on a temporary basis at ILVA, which has employed 16,000 people.
ILVA was placed under special administration by the Italian government in 2013 and in October, the European Commission gave Italy two months to deal with the longstanding health and environment problems at the ILVA steel plant.
If it fails, it risks seeing the case referred to the European Court of Justice, the EC warned.
The European Union has been pressing Italy to ensure the ILVA plant complies with laws on industrial emissions and health standards, and said in October it had some “serious shortcomings” Other problems around management of waste, protection of soil, and groundwater are outstanding, the EU said.
The plant still emits too much industrial dust “with potentially serious consequences for the health of the local population and the environment”.
Brussels had already sent Italy two previous letters urging action on ILVA.
The ILVA plant has been at the center of controversy for years over serious health concerns, culminating in a Save ILVA plan by the former Monti government at the end of 2012 that set out measures to help the plant survive and preserve jobs during environmental clean-up.
In July, prosecutors in Taranto said they were investigating concerns that carpenters working at the plant have suffered incidents of thyroid cancer.
On the same day a Taranto court found 23 former ILVA managers guilty in connection with a wave of asbestos and other carcinogen-linked deaths in the port city.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi Says Grillo’s Blog No Longer M5S ‘Compass’
‘No alliance with M5S but let’s see if we can talk’
(ANSA) — Rome, December 1 — Premier Matteo Renzi told the executive body of his Democratic Party (PD) Monday that followers of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) may begin shifting course away from founder Beppe Grillo, who has said he is tired and needs support. M5S partisans may no longer use Grillo’s blog, his main form of communication, as their “compass”, the premier added, going on to downplay Grillo’s “tiredness”.
The M5S has slammed against “the wall of the PD’s 40.8% electoral victory”, the premier said. “We are not asking the M5S, or a part thereof, for a political alliance…but we must see if we can make them talk to to us on some of the issues” he went on. Grillo’s movement is in crisis and this could “drive their voters towards the more radical right, but it also opens up an interesting and significant institutional issue, which I would like us not to throw away,” Renzi said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: MP Robbed of 10,000 Euros’ Worth at Gym
Jewelry, cash, and an iPod taken out of locker
(ANSA) — Rome, December 1 — An MP from the UDC centrist party was robbed of cash, jewelry and an iPod worth a total of 10,000 euros from her gym locker while she was working out, sources said Monday.
The theft took place November 22 at the Montecitorio Club in Rome.
Police are investigating the incident, including a review of security camera footage.
Club membership is open to Lower House members, staff, and their families.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Public Employees Strike Over Six-Year Salary Freeze
National contract expired in 2009
(ANSA) — Rome, December 1 — A civil service strike on Monday called by CISL labor federation resulted in hundreds of workers off the job, protesting a salary ‘freeze’ on their national contracts.
“These workers have not had a pay raise in six years, which means two to four thousand euros in lost income,” said CISL leader Annamaria Furlan.
Hundreds of CISL members gathered in front of the Lower House in Rome, holding freezer bags containing flyers that read: “Frozen for the past five years. The national contract for public employees expired December 31, 2009”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Le Pen Accuses Rivals Over French Jihadists
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen on Sunday accused her centre-right and socialist rivals of “messing up” by failing to prevent youths from joining jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq.
“We lament that youths go to jihad, wondering what went wrong. Everything, everything, (Nicolas) Sarkozy and (President Francois) Hollande, you have messed everything up.”
Speaking after she won 100 percent of a party vote to remain the unchallenged chief of France’s far-right National Front, Le Pen added: “These parties (Sarkozy’s UMP and Hollande’s Socialists) carry the full responsibility for our situation.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Terrorists Want to Stage a European 9/11 for Christmas
by Daniel Greenfield
Muslims have plans to give Europe a Christmas present. It’s the same present they give infidels for Chanukah or Thanksgiving or Election Day. Lots of bodies and burning wreckage.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Neolithic Handax Discovered in Denmark
A Neolithic ax still attached to its wooden handle has been discovered on the Danish island of Lolland. Archaeologists working ahead of the construction of a tunnel unearthed the artifact, which seems to have been ritually deposited on the seabed about 5,500 years ago. “Finding a hafted [handle-bearing] ax as well preserved as this one is quite amazing,” Museum of Lolland-Falster archaeologist Soren Anker Sorensen told the BBC. Earlier this year, archaeologists on the project discovered footprints dating to the same period. To read about that discovery, see “Tunnel Reveals Stone Age Footprints.”
[see article for links to further information]
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No Arrests After Bomb Blast in Sweden’s Malmö
Police have yet to make any arrests after a justice centre in Malmö was bombed late on Sunday night. The explosion resulted in substantial damage in what was the second attack on the building this year.
The bomb exploded just before midnight and damaged the main entrance and front of the building. Such was the force of the blast that several nearby properties had its windows blown apart.
Malmö has been hit by a string of bombings this year including several car bomb attacks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Thugs Wreck Rare Church Stained-Glass Window
One of Stavanger Cathedral’s famous stained-glass windows was seriously damaged at the weekend after vandals threw huge stones through the artwork, it was reported on Monday.
The damaged glasswork was made by Norwegian writer, painter and glass designer Victor Sparre in 1957.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Snowden Awarded Alternative Nobel Prize
American whistleblower Edward Snowden has been awarded The Right Livelihood Award, also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize in Stockholm. His acceptance came after a top politician in Sweden’s Green Party has said he should be granted asylum in the country, sparking a global debate.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Girls ‘Forced’ Abroad to Join ISIS
Sweden’s Security Service has expressed concerns about a rapid rise in the number of Swedes heading to Iraq and Syria to fight for Isis, as Sweden’s official coordinator against violent extremism suggests some girls are being forced to make the journey.
Anders Thornberg, who is head of Sweden’s Security Service Säpo, told Swedish television network SVT that the country was one of a number of European nations experiencing the same phenomenon.
“It’s an explosive development. When I talk to my colleagues on the other security services in Europe and around the world we see the same trend,” he told the Agenda programme on Sunday night.
He suggested that up to 300 Swedes had travelled to countries including Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and Syria to fight for Isis, a figure he also quoted in a radio interview last month.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Media Relieved Over Immigration Vote
The surprising lack of popular support for the Ecopop initiative to tightly limit immigration to Switzerland has many Swiss media commentators heaving a sigh of relief while warning that a rocky road lies ahead in mending relations with the European Union (EU).
In the latest vote, more than 74 percent of voters rejected the Ecopop proposal to limit annual net immigration to 0.2 percent of the population to slow population growth, limit urban sprawl and protect Switzerland’s environment.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorists Reportedly Plot Passenger Jet Attacks Over Europe
A new report claims terrorists are plotting to blow up five jets bound for European cities before Christmas, in what one analyst said is a sign Al Qaeda is competing with the Islamic State for influence.
Britain’s Sunday Express newspaper reported that, according to unnamed security experts, Al Qaeda terrorists are plotting a Christmas “spectacular.” The threat reportedly is taken seriously enough that it led officials to consider banning hand luggage.
“We’ve been told that five planes are being targeted in a high profile hit before Christmas. They’ve been waiting for the big one,” one unnamed airport security source told the newspaper.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Anti-Terror Police Arrest Five Men in Dover and East London
Five men have been arrested in Dover and east London on suspicion of planning acts of terrorism, Scotland Yard has said.
Two were held as they tried to leave the UK at Dover port on Sunday, where 14 people were also arrested on suspicion of immigration offences.
Two men were arrested in east London at about 03:45 GMT on Friday, and another was held in Dover at about 08:30.
Police said the operation was “not in response to any immediate threat”.
The terrorism arrests were made “on suspicion of commission, preparation or instigation” of terrorist acts.
BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said the offences were thought to relate to Syria — not to plans for an attack in the UK.
‘Outbound at Dover’
“Four addresses in east London and one in south London are being searched today as part of the investigation,” Scotland Yard said.
It said the men were arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command (SO15), with Sunday’s arrests assisted by the Met’s Specialist Firearms Command and Kent Police.
It said a vehicle “going outbound at Dover port” was stopped at about 23:30 on Sunday under the Terrorism Act 2000.
Two men, aged 33 and 43, were arrested for suspected terrorism offences…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Video Shows Fatal Attack on Woman Defending Girls From Harassment in Germany
About 200 people also came together in Berlin on Sunday to commemorate and pray for the young woman who died Friday.
BERLIN—A newly published surveillance video on Monday showed the fatal attack on a young woman after she defended two teenage girls from male harassment — a death that has been mourned with candlelight vigils across Germany.
Daily paper Bild published the video on its website, calling on witnesses, including the teenage girls, to come forward with more information about the attack on the night of Nov. 15 in front of a fast-food restaurant in Offenbach in central Germany.
Tugce Albayrak died Friday, her 23rd birthday, after her family gave doctors permission to switch off her life support.
She had been in a coma after reportedly being struck in the head.
Pictures of the pretty woman with long black hair and dark eyes have been all over television, social media and newspapers in Germany in the two weeks since the attack.
After candlelight vigils attracted hundreds of mourners in Offenbach over the weekend, about 200 people also came together in Berlin on Sunday to commemorate and pray for the young woman.
The incident involving the girls is not on the video, but witnesses reported that Albayrak stepped in to help after becoming aware of the distressed girls…
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What’s Next for the Rosetta Mission and Comet Exploration
Somewhere dark and icy on a comet 320 million miles away, the history-making, comet-bouncing Philae spacecraft is sleeping. Its batteries are depleted and there isn’t enough sunlight to recharge. But while the lander finished its primary job, collecting invaluable data on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the Rosetta mission is far from over. For many scientists, the excitement is just beginning.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Leader in Syria Killed in Benghazi, Military Sources
Member of Ansar Al-Sharia, car bomb in Ajdabiya
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, DECEMBER 1 — Libyan military intelligence services on Monday killed a leader of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria and member of Ansar Al-Sharia, Sohaib Al-Hamroush.
The man was killed in a home in Benghazi, eastern Libya, where he had been hiding, say Libyan military sources. On Saturday the military announced the killing of another Ansar Al-Sharia leader, Hani Al-Hawari, in Benghazi, while on Monday it said it had arrested 20 Ansar Al-Sharia jihadists in the Beloun area of the same city after four days of fierce battles with heavy artillery. The army said that it had surrounded the militants in a bid to force them to surrender. An explosives-laded car blew up in the morning in front of the security headquarters of Ajdabiya, eastern Libya, injuring three people, report Libyan military sources. A further 24 soldiers have been injured — including 12 now in critical condition — in clashes against Ansar Al-Sharia jihadists in Benghazi, say medical sources.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS: Tweet Denies Egyptian Suicide Bomber’s Death
(see ‘ISIS suicide bomber in Kobane….’ )
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, DECEMBER 1 — The young Egyptian would-be suicide bomber Islam Yakan denied on Monday news appearing on jihadist sites according to which he had died.
Yakan wrote on his Twitter account that the world would soon hear news that would confirm what he had written in a lengthy “statement” posted on November 21. In another tweet he addressed atheists, Copts and those supporting tyrants in saying he would be carrying out a decapitation with his own hands.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Benghazi Operation Frees Canadian Hostage
Former oil company employee slightly injured in raid
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, DECEMBER 1 — A Canadian hostage who had been working for a Benghazi oil company when abducted was freed Monday in a Libyan army raid on an Ansar Al-Sharia base in the city’s Beloun area.
A source from the Libyan secret services reported the news, adding that the man and four of the soldiers had sustained minor injuries in the raid. The four-day operation also resulted in the killing of a Syrian leader of the Islamic State (ISIS) and the arrest of 20 jihadists.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisian Policeman Beheaded by Militants in Kef
A Tunisian policeman has been beheaded by Islamist militants in an attack near the Algerian border, officials say.
The attack came as Tunisia prepares for a presidential election run-off this month in the latest stage of its transition to democracy.
Analysts say one of the new president’s challenges will be to tackle Islamist extremism, which has grown since the ousting in 2011 of long-time authoritarian leader, Zine El-Abedine Ben Ali.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli PM to Call Early Vote if Internal Fighting Continues
Ministers lash out; keep ‘racist’ right in line, Livni
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, DECEMBER 1 — Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has warned that he is prepared to call early elections if an ‘assault’ led by ministers from centrist coalition partners continues. “I demand these ministers stop their undermining, stop the attacks,” Netanyahu, from the right-wing Likud party, said. “I demand that they close ranks behind the proper policy for leading the nation, for its security, economy and lowering the cost of living, in every aspect. If they agree to do so, we can continue to work together. If they refuse, we will draw conclusions, and go to the voters.” He stressed that a government cannot function if its ministers work against its policies and attack the government. On Monday morning, one of the prime minister’s advisors said that Netanyahu would be deciding over the coming days whether to hold early elections. Tension has been extremely high within the government majority in recent weeks, and the prime minister was scheduled to meet with Finance Minister Yair Lapid, from the centrist bloc, on Monday to discuss on the situation.
Lapid.
The other centrist leader, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, has put pressure on the prime minister to keep the right-wing members of his government, who she called “racist”, under control. “We must stop the extremists in Parliament and the government. The Israeli government,” she said, “has reached a crossroads.” Opposition leader Isaac Herzog, from the Labor party, said that the Netanyahu government was “blocked” and urged the prime minister to call early elections.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
West Bank: Israeli Stabbed, Assailant Shot
Military radio,woman from West Bank village in serious condition
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, DECEMBER 1 — An Israeli reported minor injuries after he was stabbed by a Palestinian woman who was shot by soldiers, military radio reported Monday. The woman is in serious condition. The incident occurred in Gush Etzion, the area of a Jewish settlement near Bethlehem.
The assailant was identified as Amal Taqatqam 20, from the West Bank village of Beit Fajar, near Bethlehem. According to radio Jerusalem, the woman is a supporter of al-Fatah. She had already tried to attack an Israeli soldier in the past, the radio reported. Local soldiers said the army is searching a building in Beit Fajar.
Meanwhile in Nablus on Monday a young Palestinian man was stopped at an Israeli military checkpoint. According to military radio, he was carrying a knife, and was allegedly about to use it in an attack.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Bahrain: Four Islamists, Three Women in New Parliament
High number of independents, crushing Sunni majority
(by Alessandra Antonelli) (ANSAmed) — DUBAI — Over 30 independent lawmakers, four Islamists and three women are in the new Parliament of Bahrain after the fourth election since the institution of the right to vote in 2002, the first following the “Arab Spring” that shook the oil emirate in March 2011.
The elections were marked by the mass boycott of oppositions led by the powerful Shiite movement Al Wafeq, which had conquered 18 seats in the Assembly in the previous vote.
The decision was taken in sign of protest because “proposals of change and dialogue of the government discussed in the previous months ignore the legitimate requests of the population”.
Among those elected are two Salafites and two members of a group connected to the Muslim brothers, a political organization which is banned in Bahrain as in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates where it has been recently listed as a terror organization.
The Salafites, originally promoters of a pure Islam, want today a faithful implementation of Sharia, or Islamic law, based on a restrictive interpretation of the Koran and the “Sunnah”, the practices, customs and traditions of the Prophet Mohammed that are considered as a perfect example.
Three women were also elected, an apparently modest result which is however proof of the growing role of women in politics in the emirate: Fatima Al Qatari and Sabah Al Dossari were elected in the second round of voting while Bodoor Bin Rajab reached the majority in the first round. In 2010 only one woman was elected while no female candidate won a seat in 2006 and 2002.
Voting operations ended Saturday with the election of 34 of the 40 lawmakers in Bahrain’s National assembly, in the second round of voting after the first held on November 23. The first six MPs were elected in the first round.
Data after the elections indicated that the new Parliament, which has a four-year mandate, presents a strong Sunni majority and 13 Shiite members, including the three women MPs.
Bahrain, which has a strong Shiite majority, is governed by a Sunni royal family.
Accusations of discrimination towards the Shiite population were one of the motives of the popular uprising in 2011, which was crushed with violence, with at least 40 reported deaths.
The government, as after each election, has resigned. The new cabinet will need to be presented within two weeks.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Gulf to Launch Joint Military Command, Bahraini Minister
‘Necessary to defend ourselves’; hundreds of thousands of troops
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT — Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) monarchies will set up a joint military command to deal with the threat posed by Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists, Bahraini foreign minister Sheikh Khalid al Khalifa told the Financial Times in an interview. The new defense structure will coordinate with the naval central command that already exists in Bahrain and will be based in Saudi Arabia, where the joint air force command already operates from. According to an expert questioned by FT, Theodore Karasik, advisor to the Dubai-based Risk Insurance Management, the six Arab states of the Gulf (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain) will thus be able to count on a joint force of several hundred thousand soldiers, with Saudi Arabia contributing at least 100,000 men. The Bahraini minister said that the initiative is necessary to deal with the danger posed by ISIS, which has supporters even in Gulf nations. Sheikh Khalid pointed to the fragmentation in Iraq and Syria, calling Afghanistan a “school for terrorists” and Iraq their “university”, noting that the threat was a very serious one and that many from the Gulf region had joined ISIS.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Indian is Recruit ‘Goes Home After Having to Clean Toilets’
An Indian student who travelled to Iraq to join the Islamic State group has returned home disillusioned after jihadists made him clean toilets and do other menial jobs, according to media reports.
Areeb Majeed, 23, left for Iraq with three friends in late May amid fears by authorities that IS militants were attempting to recruit from India’s large pool of young Muslim men.
The engineering student flew home Friday to Mumbai where he was arrested and charged by India’s elite National Investigation Agency (NIA) with terror-related offences.
Majeed told NIA officers he was sidelined by the jihadists for whom he fetched water and performed other lowly tasks such as cleaning toilets, instead of taking part in the deadly offensive like he wanted, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Is Erdogan’s Turkey an Emerging State Sponsor of Terrorism?
by Jerry Gordon and Mike Bates
On November 22, 2014, Vice President Biden met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul. The agenda was ‘consultation’ with this alleged “valued ally” of the Administration. To ease the conversation, Biden announced at a joint press conference $135 million in aid for Syrian refugees in Turkey. It all had to do with Erdogan’s opposition to the US led coalition fight against the Islamic State, formerly ISIS in both Syria and Iraq. According to a report in Defense News, the meeting did not go well:…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS ‘Firing Squad’ Executes Two Female Iraqi Parliament Members in Mosul
Reports out of Mosul claim that the Islamic State(ISIS) militants have executed two Iraqi female politicians in Mosul.
The two female candidates, who were former members of the Iraqi parliament were taken into custody by ISIS three months back. The Sharia court that tried the two women and found them guilty of unlawful activities against ISIS. The two were arrested by ISIS for their work with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
The Iraqi women were members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and since ISIS considers the Kurds as infidels, any alliance with them could end with a death penalty.
The local report claims that following their trial, the two women had confessed to their crimes. The Sharia court however refused to accept their apology and ordered them to be executed by a firing squad instead.
The two women, who have represented the city in the Iraqi Parliament were shot in the public square of Faisalya in central Mosul…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Chief Calls Gulf Participation in Coalition ‘Farce’
Arab pilots ‘effeminate’, ‘Jews and Crusaders don’t need them’
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, NOVEMBER 13 — An audio message released on Thursday allegedly by Islamic State (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi called the Gulf pilots’ participation in anti-ISIS airstrikes a “farce” for the media. He went on to say that the “Jews and the Crusaders” did not need “the effeminate pilots” of Gulf nations.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS: Canadian-Israeli Ex-Soldier in Training, Not a Hostage
Jihadist blog had claimed her capture in Kobane
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, DECEMBER 1 — Gillian Ghila Rosenberg, 31, has not been taken hostage, Maariv quoted Kurdish sources in contact with foreigners who have joined the fight as saying on Monday. The Israeli-Canadian volunteer anti-Islamic State (ISIS) fighter joined Kurdish forces in northern Iraq a few weeks ago.
The ISIS-linked Samoach Al-Islam (Hebrew transliteration of ISIS, ED.) reported on Sunday that Rosenberg had been abducted in the Kobane area along the border between Syria and Turkey. The Kurdish sources say instead that Rosenberg is most likely training in the Qandil mountains area between Turkey, Iraq and Iran. “This seems to be ISIS false propaganda,” the sources told Maariv. “We can say with utmost certainty that no Israeli volunteer fighter or even any foreign one has reached the area of fighting in Kobane.” They say that Rosenberg passed through Erbil and is thought to currently be in training — which normally lasts months — in the rugged terrain of the Qandil mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, where there is no contact with the outside world. Kurds, the sources said, know that foreign hostages are worth a lot to ISIS and that thus the volunteers are used for support operations but not sent into battle zones. Rosenberg reportedly worked for a period as a trainer for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and has a Canadian-issued pilot’s license.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State Militants Kill 16 Iraqi Soldiers on Syria Border
Islamic State fighters killed 16 Iraqi soldiers in an attack on a western border crossing with Syria on Monday, the head of the local provincial council Faleh al-Issawi said.
He said four other Iraqi soldiers were wounded in the attack on the al-Waleed border crossing and were taken across the border for treatment in Syria.
The border crossing and the town of Rutba are both in Iraq’s western province of Anbar, a Sunni Muslim region where Islamic State had a strong presence even before it swept through Mosul and much of northern Iraq toward Baghdad in June.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan: Media, 500 Join ISIS, 2,000 With Al Nusra
For ideological, as well as economic reasons
(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, DECEMBER 1 — More than 500 Jordanians have joined the Islamic State (ISIS) either out of ideological inspiration ore for financial reasons, salafi leaders told al Ghad daily newspaper on Monday.
Experts said that the US lead alliance and the smear campaign against salafi groups, coupled with sectarian fight in Iraq and Syria, has helped attract large number of salafis out of ideological belief. The financial power of ISIS, described by the US state department as the richest militant group in the world, has helped lure large number of Jordanians and other foreigners, they said, noting that the group leader, Abu Baker al Baghdadi has recently ordered payment of up to USD 60,000 for local commanders in perks as part of holy eid, according to the newspaper.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Sentences 32 for Terrorism Including 5 Women
Plans for attacks in Qatar and Kuwait; up to 30 years in jail
(by Alessandra Antonelli) (ANSAmed) — DUBAI, OCTOBER 23 — Over thirty people have been sentenced on terrorism charges by a special Saudi court this week, including five women.
The court, set up in 2011 specifically to deal with cases related to terrorist activities, on Wednesday found 14 people guilty of belonging to a terror cell targeting US forces in Qatar, reports Saudi news agency SPA. The cell, which had at least 40 members, had also tried to join a group fighting in Syria that coordinated the movement of men towards Iraq where they were to have taken part in fighting, and of having received military training at Al-Qaeda camps. On Tuesday the court handed down sentences to 13 others of between 18 months an 23 years in jail to 11 Saudis, a Qatari and an Afghan on the same charges. This group, led by a Qatari national, was planning attacks against US targets in Kuwait. Five women — four Saudis and one Yemeni — were instead sentenced to a total of 33 years in prison for joining Al-Qaeda and aiding the terrorist group’s activities, including through financial transfers. The women, sentenced for their “deviant ideas”, had also encouraged their sons to join the fighting in Syria and Iraq. Saudi Arabia has cracked down more heavily on alleged terrorists since a number of attacks were carried out in the country against international and Saudi objectives between 2003 and 2006. In addition to the crackdown, the oil-rich monarchy has initiated prevention and rehabilitation policies, with consultancy and recovery centers for those found guilty of terrorism and those deemed close to “fundamentalist” and “extremist” fringe groups.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Woman ‘Arrested’ At Border for Defying Drive Ban
A Saudi woman who tried to drive into the kingdom in defiance of a ban was arrested Monday after being blocked at the UAE border for a day, activists said.
Conservative Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world which does not allow women to drive.
Activists said she was arrested at the border with the United Arab Emirates on Monday afternoon, but the interior ministry could not immediately comment on her case.
Another woman, UAE-based Saudi journalist Maysaa Alamoudi, who went to support her, was also arrested, an activist told AFP.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Minister Claims Terror Groups Used Chlorine as Chemical Weapon
Syria’s vice foreign minister denied Monday that his government ever used chemical weapons or chlorine during the country’s brutal civil war and warned that terror groups are using such weapons.
Faysal Mekdad was speaking at a meeting of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons as the group comes close to fully eliminating Damascus’ deadly stockpile of nerve agents and poison gas — helping international efforts to prevent terrorists using such weapons.
Mekdad said that terror groups “have used chlorine gas in several of the regions of Syria and Iraq.”
It’s not the first time such claims have been made.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Poll: 60% Thinks Presidential Palace a Waste of Money
(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, DECEMBER 1 — A survey by the MetroPOLL Strategic and Social Research Center conducted in November has revealed that the majority of people in Turkey think that the recently constructed presidential palace is a waste of money.
According to the survey, reported by Today’s Zaman, 60.9% of respondents defined the construction of the new presidential palace, also known as “Ak Saray,” as a “waste of people’s money,” while 32% said it “shows the power and magnificence of Turkey” and 7% said they have no opinion on the issue.
Asked whether they approve the transfer of the post of the president from Cankaya to the new palace, 57.1% said no while 35.2% approval. Of those respondents who had voted for the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in the 2011 general elections, 31.9% said the palace is a waste of people’s money, while the same figures for the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) were 89.6% and 80.8%, respectively.
The lavish Ak Saray has been at the center of heated debates. Built at a cost of 1.37 billion Turkish Liras (495 million euros) and constructed on 300,000 square meters inside the Ataturk Forestry Farm (AOC) in Ankara, the palace has been the target of harsh criticism for its lavishness and size considering its function as the presidential residence, which is a symbolic seat in Turkey. The survey shows that the percentage of citizens who think that the government is managing the economy poorly rose to 54.4%, increasing 10% since April.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
by Uzay Bulut
For decades Turkey’s official policy was: There are no Kurds — so there is no problem.
“They wanted to send us a message through a beheading, a throat-cutting. This was an organized attack against our party. The (Turkish) state wanted to behead our party administrator in our party building. Behind this attack was the state itself.” — Selahattin Demirtas, co-Chairman of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen Raid on Al-Qaeda Aimed to Free US Journalist
Hostage not there, eight others liberated
(ANSAmed) — NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 27 — Six Yemeni, one Saudi and one Ethiopian held hostage by Al-Qaeda in a cave located in a remote area of eastern Yemen have been freed by a joint US Special Forces commandos and Yemeni troops in a pre-dawn raid.
One of the main aims of the operation was to free a US journalist no longer there. The New York Times broke the news, noting that on the Obama administration’s request a previous article on the incident had not mentioned the US journalist but that later the Yemeni military had published an account by one of the freed hostages mentioning five others — including a US journalist, a Briton and a South African — who had been moved two days prior to the raid.
About twenty members of the elite Navy Seal Team 6 took part in the raid alongside a small number of US-trained Yemeni anti-terrorism forces. The soldiers were taken by helicopter to a location in the Hadhramaut province not far from the Saudi border between Monday night and Tuesday morning. Before dawn the men conducted the raid, catching the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) jailers by surprise.
Seven were killed during a shootout that ensued in the cave.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Rouble Falls as Oil Price Hits Five-Year Low
Oil prices fell to a five-year low on Monday, sending the rouble tumbling, while fears over slowing manufacturing activity in Europe and China undermined global confidence.
The Russian currency slid as much as 6% against the dollar to a new record low.
The rouble was on track for its biggest one-day fall since Russia’s 1998 currency crisis.
Brent crude sunk as low as $67.53 a barrel, the cheapest it has been since October 2009.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Looming Water Shortage
Beyond pollution, water scarcity may be the most threatening environmental issue China faces today.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Protestors: Police Clash in Hong Kong, 40 Arrested
Chief Executive says demonstrations ‘intolerable’
(ANSA) — Hong Kong, December 1 — Forty people were arrested on Monday after police clashed with protesters while attempting to clear roads where demonstrators were blocking access.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying called the city’s ongoing pro-democracy demonstrations “intolerable” and said police will now “enforce the law without hesitation”.
Leung also reaffirmed the August 31 decision for a nominating committee to select two to three candidates for 2017 city executive elections, which set off the Occupy Central protest movement in favor of free leadership elections.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria’s ‘Boko Haram Attacks Maiduguri and Damaturu’
Suspected Boko Haram militants have struck in two state capitals in north-east Nigeria, with suicide attacks by female bombers in Maiduguri and a raid on a police base in Damaturu.
At least five people were killed in the twin blasts at a crowded market in Maiduguri, police said.
In Damaturu, explosions and gunfire were heard as militants rampaged through the city, residents said.
Boko Haram has vowed to create an Islamic state in areas it controls.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
WHO Announces Progress on Ebola, Less Deaths Than Thought
According to the World Health Organization, Liberia and Guinea have met a target for preventing Ebola’s spread. The WHO’s assistant director-general says Sierra Leone has fallen short but could get on track shortly.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mexican President Dissolves Municipal Police Forces in Bid to Stop Drug Gangs
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has set out his next major objective in the fight against impunity in his country. Faced with an indignant nation after the disappearance of 43 teaching students in Iguala, the leader is trying to take back the initiative with a wide-reaching package of reforms, including some major constitutional changes, aimed at bringing an end to the ineffectiveness of the Mexican police and the courts.
“Because of the tragedy in Iguala, Mexico is being put to the test once more,” Peña Nieto said in a televised address from the National Palace on Thursday. “Mexico cannot continue like this, and I assume the responsibility of the fight to liberate the country from criminality, to end impunity, and to see all of those who are guilty of the tragedy in Iguala punished.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Conservatives in the U.S. Senate got a powerful weapon on Wednesday in the battle over whether they can pull the rug out from under President Barack Obama’s plan to mainstream millions of illegal immigrants into American life.
Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the Republican’ top budget hawk, has unveiled a Nov. 21 memo from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) explaining that Congress can legally strip funding from America’s immigration enforcement agency — including funds the agency raises on its own through fees it charges Americans and foreigners.
That news will put fuel in the tank of right-wingers who want to paint Obama into a corner when the GOP controls both houses of Congress in January.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Second-Biggest Migrant Destination
As politicians and civil society organizations gathered in Berlin to discuss integration policy, new figures show that more people than ever are immigrating to Germany.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘PD Must Fight the Right on Immigration’ Says Renzi
‘Don’t underestimate the new right’ says premier
(ANSA) — Rome, December 1 — Premier Matteo Renzi told the Democratic Party (PD) executive body Monday not to underestimate right-wing opponents.
“The new right…plays the immigration card in an unscrupulous way, perhaps because we can and should do more for outlying neighborhoods,” he said.
“The PD must not underestimate the new right and it must look them in the eye on issues that have always been slippery ground for the left, such as immigration, on which we hold the opposite view”. Renzi went on to quip about the rising star on the right, separatist and anti-immigrant Northern League chief Matteo Salvini.
“Salvini managed to make (French National Front leader Marine) Le Pen ecstatic,” said Renzi. “I imagine it couldn’t have been easy”.
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Migrants Turn Away From Struggling Spain: OECD
Crisis-hit Spain is continuing to see a fall in the number of permanent migrants entering the country despite a slight overall rise across the OECD, a new report published on Monday shows.
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Migrants Scale Spain’s Border Fence at Melilla
Ten African migrants managed to scale the border fence between Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Melilla in broad daylight Friday, a day after 500 tried to storm the barrier.
There have been more than 60 attempts on the seven-metre (23-foot) high fence around the tiny Spanish outpost this year, mostly at night, according to officials.
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More Italians Emigrate as Immigration Falls, OECD Reports
Italy’s migratory balance still positive unlike Spain, Portugal
(ANSA) — Rome, December 1 — The number of Italians emigrating has steadily increased in recent years, reaching as many as 100,000 in 2012 and likely to have increased even more in 2013, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said Monday.
Nevertheless, Italy’s migratory balance remained positive in 2012 compared to Spain and Portugal where outflows of citizens were not balanced by inflows and thus, their populations dropped, the OECD said in its latest report on international migration.
That showed the number of permanent immigrants to Italy fell dramatically between 2007 and 2012; from 572,000 in 2007 to as few as 258,000 in 2012, the OECD said.
That has had an impact on the total migration figures for the organization’s area. “The lower number of immigrants to Italy is the main reason for the overall reduction in immigration to OECD countries,” said the report.
Immigrants have increased their presence in the Italian labour force in recent years — albeit in certain well-defined areas, the report said.
Immigrants made up 10% of the population by 2012 compared with just 2.5% in 2001. As many as 58% of immigrants were employed in 2012, many in the domestic service sector.
But immigrants are at risk of higher unemployment as they often have no local contacts and can find it hard to adapt to structural changes in the labour market.
Many immigrants become trapped in low-paid jobs with little prospect of making careers, the OECD added.
Only Greece is more polarised than Italy in the OECD area between jobs dominated by immigrants and natives, the report said.
Young immigrants also are at risk of unemployment in Italy since they are usually poorly educated and badly prepared to use the labour market successfully.
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OECD: Asylum-Seekers and Migrants Increasing in Germany
Migration to Germany has increased for the fourth consecutive year, according to the latest OECD figures. The country also receives the largest number of applications from new asylum-seekers.
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The Price of Hope: Traffickers Profit as Asylum Seekers Head for Europe
More than 150,000 refugees have landed this year on the Italian coastline, most of them hoping to continue north. As the EU struggles to find an answer, human traffickers are raking in billions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Home Schooling Parents Need Legal Back-Up to Protect Against Social Workers
The latest case of alleged government intrusion into the home comes out of Savannah, Georgia, where homeschooling parents were reported to a state agency by a social worker for the “educational neglect” of their 12-year-old daughter — who they have successfully and legally taught at their home for some time.
Without cause or warning, one social worker in northeastern Georgia contacted the Chatham County Department of Family and Children Services, alerting the agency that she suspected a family of neglecting the educational needs of their preteen daughter.
Not understanding the basis of the allegations or extent of her rights as a registered homeschool parent, the mother finally agreed to meet with the intrusive social worker outside of her home in order to get a better idea of exactly what she was being accused of regarding her daughter’s education.
After a brief discussion, the homeschool mom communicated to the social worker that she would give in and allow her inside of her home so that she could observe her daughter, but the mother would not agree to let the worker conduct a private interview with her 12-year-old.
Once the Homeschool Legal Defense Association was informed about the nature and conditions of the social worker’s visit, attorneys found the situation to be highly disturbing and unusual. As a member of HSLDA, the mother was quickly told that the intrusive investigation was extremely odd and problematic for two reasons: 1) the social worker, whose duties do not transcend into the realm of education, demanded to enter the homeschool family’s home and 2) the social worker aggressively pressed the family to allow her to observe the mother homeschool her daughter.
The rationale the social worker gave the homeschool mother for such an intrusive investigation was that she merely desired to ensure that her daughter was “getting the best education.” No concerns or allegations of misconduct or lack of learning were given to warrant any government invasion into her home.
As a matter of fact …
Once HSLDA Senior Counsel Dewitt Black gave the Savannah mom legal consultation as to how she should deal with the social worker moving forward, he proceeded to issue the government agent a letter clearly stating the homeschool parents’ constitutional rights to educate their own. He began by notifying the overreaching state employee that both parents were implementing a home study program for their daughter that was in direct compliance with Georgia state law.
Backing up his assertion, Black continued to lay out the facts pointing to legal documentation proving that the mother had already filed a mandatory declaration of intent for homeschooling, which she had submitted to the Georgia Department of Education at the commencement of this year’s fall semester. Also included in Black’s letter was a statement verifying that both parents were in full compliance with various other sections of the law by instructing their child above and beyond the minimum 4.5 hours per day, 180 days per year for the fall and spring semesters.
Black further notified the social worker that choosing to continue her invasive investigation would be a violation of the homeschool parents’ constitutional rights.
“The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution protect[s] the family from any unreasonable searches or seizures, such as entry into their home would involve,” Black stated to the social worker in his letter.
On second thought …
In just a matter of days after Black had send his letter to the social worker on behalf of the homeschool parents, the mother received a phone call from the state employee, who took an extreme change of course.
The social worker made it clear to the Savannah homeschool mom that a visitation to her home to investigate whether her daughter was receiving satisfactory home education was no longer necessary. Furthermore, the social worker also changed her tone — and apparently her perspective on homeschooling, as well.
“I think you’re doing a good job,” the social worker expressed to the homeschool mom in her phone conversation.
Before the conclusion of the phone call, the social worker let the home educator know that she was officially drawing the investigation to a close.
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By Jeff Lipkes
Do you like internal combustion engines?
Thank a few white men. (Jean Lenoir, Nikolaus Otto, Karl Benz, Rudolf Diesel, Gottlieb Daimler, Emil Jellinek, Henry Ford among others.)
Are you a fan of flush toilets and indoor plumbing?
Thank white males Alexander Cumming, Thomas Twyford, and Isaiah Rogers
Toilet paper?
Thank Joseph Gayetty, W.M.
How about washing machines and dryers?
Thank white males Alva Fisher and J. Ross Moore.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ground-Based Detection of Super-Earth Transit
Astronomers have measured the passing of a super-Earth in front of a bright, nearby Sun-like star using a ground-based telescope for the first time. The transit of the exoplanet 55 Cancri e is the shallowest detected from the ground yet. Since detecting a transit is the first step in analysing a planet’s atmosphere, this success bodes well for characterising the many small planets that upcoming space missions are expected to discover in the next few years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Democrats today announced how the party intends to vote in tomorrow’s budget vote in parliament, and the decision was to vote on the alliance’s budget and thus topple the socialdemocratic+green+commi government Löfven’s budget.
GoV Weather News
Ho, Ho, Ho, its snowing over at Vlad’s.