A Swiss national who had been held hostage by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines for two years managed to escape from his captors, and was rescued. He took advantage of a Philippine military operation against the terrorists to wrest a machete from his guard, and killed him. Then he fled while being shot at by the mujahideen.
An American hostage in Yemen was not so fortunate, however. He was killed by Al Qaeda just before an attempted rescue by special forces.
In other news, Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) lost in the runoff election today, and will be replaced in the Senate by Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, LS, 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.
Italy: Prostitution Flourished With Economic Crisis Says Codacons
Italy sex trade up 25.8% in 2007-2014
(ANSA) — Rome, December 3 — Prostitution is the one business that has flourished in Italy in spite of — or perhaps because of — the economic crisis, Codacons consumer group said in a survey Wednesday.
In 2007-2014,turnover in the sex trade has risen 25.8%, the number of people working as prostitutes grew by 28.5% and clients increased by 20%, according to the study to be presented officially on Thursday before the Committee for the Civil Rights of Prostitutes.
Economic hardship and lack of job security has driven many to sell their bodies for money, Codacons said.
As well, the survey showed a decline in the number of streetwalkers, which currently make up 60% of total sex workers in Italy. The remaining 40% work at home or other enclosed settings, Codacons said.
Of all the prostitutes working in Italy, 10% is underage and 55% are foreigners, according to the survey.
However increased business has not translated into better or safer working conditions, the Committee Committee for the Civil Rights of Prostitutes pointed out.
Policies are still mostly repressive, while society still stigmatizes sex work. Criminalization and social ostracism means sex workers have no rights while generating wealth on the black market, the activists said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Feds: Navy Engineer Tried to Steal Schematics for New Carrier Class
A Navy engineer was arrested and charged Friday with attempting to steal plans for the Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier, now under construction at Newport News Shipbuilding.
Mostafa Ahmed Awwad, 35, a York County, Va., resident who worked at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia, was indicted on two counts of attempted exportation of defense articles and technical data, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Dana J. Boente. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 20 years in prison on each count.
Awwad intended to send the schematics to Egypt, authorities said.
Court documents describe a saga that included an FBI undercover agent posing as an Egyptian intelligence officer, a clandestine meeting in Sandy Bottom Nature Park in Hampton, a prearranged “dead drop” along a secluded hiking trail and Awwad’s alleged intention to wear a pinhole camera to photograph classified material.
During one meeting with the undercover agent, he “discussed where to strike the vessel with a missile in order to sink it,” an affidavit states.
Awwad worked in the nuclear engineering and planning department at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, having begun working at the yard early this year, the affidavit says. His security clearance gave him access to information on Naval nuclear propulsion systems.
| — Hat tip: LS | [Return to headlines] |
Mary Landrieu Swept Away by Red Tide as GOP Picks Up 9th Seat
New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) — Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu lost her Senate runoff race Saturday night, felled by the red tide that’s swept the South and ties to an unpopular President that she couldn’t shake.
CNN called the race for her Republican opponent Rep. Bill Cassidy a little over a half hour after the polls closed. Republicans picked up nine Senate seats this election cycle and will have control of 54 seats in the chamber next year.
Once seen as Democrats’ strongest incumbent, Landrieu ended up such a long-shot in her runoff with Cassidy that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee cut its investment in the state, a move that Landrieu decried as leaving “a soldier on the field.”
In her concession speech, Landrieu touted her own “record of courage, honesty and integrity and delivering for the state when it mattered the most.”
The senator also said she didn’t regret her vote for Obamacare, which the GOP used to attack her and every other vulnerable Democratic senator this cycle.
“This is something to be proud of, and I’m glad we fought for it,” she said, touting some of the benefits of the law…
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Michigan Attacker Michael Williams Charged After Amtrak Stabbings
Michael Darnell Williams, 44, from Saginaw, Michigan boarded an Amtrak in Chicago, Friday evening. Passengers said the man was acting strange, including talking to himself and behaving as if he were agitated. The premonitions of worry from many aboard the train came to fruition when Williams lashed out on a man. One witness told local media outlet WNDU she thought Williams was punching the passenger, until she saw the glint of the knife as he stabbed the victim. Chaos followed as Williams then turned to aim at two women who tried to escape. Police were called during Williams’ initial entrance, due to his behavior.
Niles Police Chief Jim Millin spoke at a press conference and advised police responded to a call from the Amtrak Chicago regarding the strange behavior of a passenger. When police showed up to the scene, the knife attack was already active.
Police boarded the Amtrak and tased the man, forcing him to drop his weapon, then arrested him. Once the scene cleared, four victims were rushed to the hospital due to stab wounds, the train conductor, a woman and two men. One of the men is listed in critical condition, due to multiple chest stab wounds. The conditions of the other three victims have not been released, but Millin said he believes they are not critically listed…
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Third Night of US Protests Against Police Killings
Thousands of demonstrators marched in major cities across the United States in a fresh wave of protest against the killing of unarmed black men by white police officers.
The latest rallies in a fortnight of growing discontent took place as a New York prosecutor said he would impanel a grand jury to consider charges in one of the cases that has again brought to the fore the distrust felt by many African Americans towards the police.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Seven Found Guilty in People Smuggler Trial
Seven asylum seekers have been found guilty of smuggling people from Asia into Europe, after a lengthy and controversial trial in Wiener Neustadt.
The men — from Pakistan, Afghanistan and India — received suspended prison sentences of between seven and 28 months, the majority of which have already been served in custody. An eighth man was acquitted.
There were accused of operating a criminal organization in which people from their home countries were smuggled into Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Samaras: Loaning of Marbles’ Statue ‘A Provocation’
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, DECEMBER 5 — In response to the British Museum’s initiative to send one of the Parthenon Marbles statues to Russia on a loan, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said on Friday that the decision “was a provocation to the Greek people,” as Kathimerini online reports. “The British dogma according to which the Parthenon Marbles are immovable is no longer applicable,” Samaras said, noting that the argument had been contested in the past by the construction of Athens’ Acropolis Museum in response to British authorities’ claim that the Greeks’ have no acceptable venue for hosting the Marbles.
The premier concluded his statement by saying that, “the Parthenon and its sculptures were looted” and that the sculptures’ value was “inestimable.” The sculpture of the Greek river god Ilissos, a reclining male figure, is to be displayed in Russia’s State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg from Saturday until January 18 to celebrate the museum’s 250th anniversary.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece ‘Counting on TAP, Southern Energy Corridor’
Greece perceives both the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and the Sothern Energy Corridor, the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos said during the visit of Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
Venizelos declared while at a Greek-Turkish business forum in Athens that the Southern Energy Corridor was “opening a new page in the relations between the two countries”.
Greece “permanently backs Turkey’s European perspective… given that the conditions valid for each candidate are fulfilled,” Investor.bg quotes Venizelos as saying.
Traveling with a business delegation, Davutoglu has been on a two-visit to Athens since Friday. He has also met his Greek counterpart Antonis Samaras to discuss issues of energy and ways to boost bilateral trade.
The two countries however remain and odds over Turkey’s demand to take part in exploration and exploitation of gas deposits off the coast of Cyprus. Ankara recently sent a vessel to the island nation’s exclusive economic zone, claiming it also had rights to exploit it, a move that sparked the anger of both Nicosia and Athens.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Greenland Forms Coalition After Close Vote
Greenland’s social democratic party leader, Kim Kielsen, will become the territory’s prime minister after forming a coalition with two smaller parties following a closely fought election, the parties announced on Thursday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Maserati Sales Soar as Luxury Carmaker Turns 100
Sales more than doubled in 2013
(ANSA) — Bologna, December 1 — The sales numbers were cause for celebration at luxury carmaker Maserati, which turned 100 on Monday.
The Fiat Chrysler Automobiles-owned firm said it had more than doubled its sales in 2013 — selling 15,400 cars last year against 6,000 in 2012 — and has set a target of 35,000 cars to be sold this year.
“Who would have guessed we would have celebrated the centenary with numbers such as these?” said CEO Harald Wester, adding that he has set a target of selling 75,000 cars in 2018.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Mob Loves Fake Medicine Business More Than Drugs’
‘Counterfeit meds market worth at least 50bn a year’
(ANSA) — Rome, December 2 — The mob makes more money on counterfeit medicine than with illegal drugs, Carabinieri Commander Cosimo Piccinno told the National Olympic Committee (CONI) Tuesday.
“A one euro investment in narcotics yields a return of 16, one euro invested in pharmaceuticals yields 2,500. The business is worth at least 50 billion (euros) a year,” he said at an anti-doping conference.
There is a new kind of criminal on the block, which Piccinno called “the cyber-pusher”.
These belong to “the Mafia, the ‘Ndrangheta, and the Chinese, Japanese and Russian mobs,” he said.
He estimated 40,000 online pharmacies exist.
“Purchases are anonymous, easy, sometimes with 60-70% discounts. There’s no oversight a high risk of counterfeiting,” Piccinno said.
“Of 600 family doctors interviewed, 240 didn’t know it’s illegal to buy prescribed medicine online,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Student Collective Throw Paint at Cooperative
The Dillinger Project leaves flyers against Jobs Act
(ANSA) — Milan, December 3 — Some 30 students from a university collective calling itself the Dillinger Project threw red paint at the Milan offices of a cooperative located near offices of the ruling Democratic Party (PD) of Premier Matteo Renzi.
The collective, which also includes temp workers, left flyers saying “No confidence in the Jobs Act” and “Strangled by your contracts”. DIGOS counterterrorism police are investigating, sources said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Govt Bans Civil Service Jobs for Pensioners
No more retirees to be paid consultants, researchers, or execs
(ANSA) — Rome, December 5 — Civil Service Minister Marianna Madia on Friday signed a memorandum banning pensioners from getting civil service jobs.
The measure applies to paid consultant, research, and executive positions. It is designed to prevent the civil service from “giving certain kinds of jobs to retirees, de facto bypassing the institution of retirement” and “creating obstacles” for the younger generations, the minister said. Such appointments can only be conferred as long as they are not compensated and then only for up to a year, the ministry said.
The new rules are effective as of June 25 this year, when the government passed a law banning the practice.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Marino Mulls Bodyguard Amid Mafia Probe
Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino on Friday said he was considering adopting a security escort, just days after police announced a widespread operation into a mafia organization at city hall.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Life as an Elite Vatican Swiss Guard
Despite being better known today for their colourful uniforms than their reputation as fearless warriors, the Swiss Guards have been a powerful symbol of the Vatican for centuries. The Local speaks to David Geisser, one of the latest recruits, about a career protecting popes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NATO ‘Mulls Monitoring Mechanism for Bulgaria’
An unprecedented mechanism to oversee the way Bulgaria is spending funds on its army’s modernization, NATO sources claim, quoted by a daily newspaper.
The alliance is now considering to make sure that Sofia will reach interoperability of the armed forces with those of other NATO members, Sega quotes the sources as saying.
Bulgaria’s Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov has reportedly confirmed the information, adding the mechanism could be implemented either on a six months’ or a yearly basis.
He has also hinted the cabinet might introduce changes in the projected increase in defense expenditures, which are currently at 1.3% of gross domestic output and should be boosted by 0.2 percent next year, in line with commitments to NATO made by President Rosen Plevneliev.
Bulgaria could thus start increasing the military spending in 2016 to reach the goal of 2% in 2014, and not in 2020 as initially planned.
NATO has long insisted Bulgaria should modernize its army and boost capabilities, a process which includes acquiring new fighter jets.
At the same time the government has put off the purchase for 2017 at the earliest, refusing to give the thumbs up on a BGN 800 M loan to be used for the new aircraft.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
‘Neo-Fascist’ Sweden Democrats Want Apology
The Sweden Democrats have demanded an apology from Prime Minister Stefan Löfven after he branded the party “neo-fascists” in a newspaper article.
In an editorial penned for leading Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter Löfven wrote “I will never act in a way that would give power over the country’s development to a neo-fascist single issue political party that neither respects human diversity or Sweden’s democratic institutions.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
No Man’s Land: Middle Eastern Terrorism in Italy
A book sheds light on obscure post-war decade
(by Elisa Pinna) (ANSAmed) — ROME, DECEMBER 5 — There is an obscure page in the history of Italy’s post-war phase that has never been really documented. It is the decade between the 1970s and 1980s during which a war was waged in Italy between terrorists and Middle Eastern secret services with attacks and targeted killings. For the first time, a writer and journalist, Salvatore Lordi, sheds light on those years in the book ‘Terra di Nessuno’, or no man’s land, published by ‘Historica’, coming out now.
While Italian authorities were focusing on the fight against domestic terror carried out by the Red Brigades, Italian streets, and Rome in particular, were at the center of a war between Palestinians from splinter groups of Abu Nidal and Israeli Mossad agents, anti-Turkish Armenian separatists, rival Lebanese miltias, Libyan, Syrian and Iraqi killers. All of them used Italy as a no man’s land on which they could continue to wage the battles inflaming many countries of the Mediterranean.
In the rigorous reconstruction by Lodi, an incredible scenario of attacks and murders is described, in which no guilty part was often found, or those allegedly responsible were soon released by authorities.
“Parallel economic and commercial interests encouraged to ignore crimes that were at times atrocious but did not touch us directly”, explained judge Ferdinando Imposimato in the introduction.
What comes out of Lordi’s book is that domestic terrorism ended up being connected to international terror, as shown by the cooperation pact for joint training and to import arms and explosives from Lebanon forged in Italy by the Red Brigades of Mario Moretti and PLO representatives in Paris in 1978, or the generous funding provided by Gaddafi to all European subversive groups. The chapter on Libya is particularly disquieting. Gaddafi’s killers meticulously eliminated the Libyan dissidents who had fled to Italy. The list of their names and addresses had been requested to Italian secret services by the Libyan leader in exchange for the release of a group of Sicilian fishermen who were abducted in Libyan waters in 1979.
Along with the Ustica disaster — a Libyan MiG-23 was found on the Sila mountains on July 22, 1980, 22 days after the DC9 Itavia airliner was downed — and the shade of the Colonel can also be perceived in the Bologna attack. Lordi does not blame anyone. He simply works on facts, recreating the historic context. In the spring of 1980, Italy started to negotiate a treaty granting the neutrality of Malta and the possibility for Eni to drill for oil in the sea around it. Gaddafi became furious when he saw he was losing control over an island that Libya considered strategic. He sent a diplomatic delegation to Rome and called on Italy to “think twice”. The Italian government decided to proceed and the signing of the treaty was scheduled on August 1, 1980 at Valletta. While Foreign Undersecretary Giuseppe Zamberletti was signing the agreement, at 10:25 am, a bomb exploded at the Bologna train station, killing 85 people and wounding 200 others.
Premier Francesco Cossiga immediately spoke about fascist terror as a possible culprit but, in a parliamentary query, Giovanni Spadolini wondered whether a Middle Eastern motive could be behind the attack.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Seven Finalists Picked for Swiss Anthem Contest
Organizers of a competition to compose a new national anthem for Switzerland have announced seven finalists from more than 200 entries.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spanish Labour Costs ‘2/3 Less Than Norway’s’
A survey by Spain’s Instutute of Economic Studies (IEE) has revealed that the average cost per hour for labour in the manufacturing sector in Spain in 2013 was €22.68 ($27.90), much lower than in some European countries but well above costs in the Philippines (€1.83) and China (€4.44).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spanish Drugs Cops Bust ‘Colombia-Style’ Lab
12 people were arrested on Friday in the quiet Spanish town of Nijar as police seized 229 kilograms of cocaine as well as chemical equipment and firearms.
It is the kind of chemical lab most usually associated with Colombian drugs traffickers and more at home deep in the Amazon rainforest than a quiet Spanish town in Almería.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Supo: Roughly 50 Have Left Finland for Syria
Roughly 50 people have left Finland for Syria, Antti Pelttari, the director of the Finnish Security Intelligence Agency (Supo), revealed in an interview with YLE on Saturday.
Six to eight people who have left Finland to take part in hostilities in Syria have died, Antti Pelttari, the director of the Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo), revealed in a televised interview with YLE on Saturday.
He also revealed that an increasing number of those who leave Finland join the ranks of militant groups in Syria.
Overall, roughly two dozen of the estimated 50 people who have travelled to Syria have already returned to Finland, according to Pelttari. Some of them, he added, have converted to Islam solely for the purpose of taking part in the hostilities…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Swedes Unhappy With Finland’s Nuclear Plans
A group of anti-nuclear activists has told The Local they will continue to fight against plans by Finland to build a nuclear power plant close to the Swedish coastline, after the Finnish government approved the project.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Congress of Vienna Revisited
Professor Dominique Moisi wonders why the bicentennial of the Congress of Vienna is being all but ignored.
To answer that question, we should consider not just the 1815 Treaty of Vienna, but also the 1648 Peace of Westphalia and the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, each of which in its own way brought to an end a bloody chapter in European history.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Treason!’: France to Sell Airbus Airport to China
The French government sparked anger on Friday by announcing it was selling half of the Toulouse-Blagnac airport in southwest France, the home of aircraft maker Airbus, to a Chinese-led consortium for a cool €308 million.
The planned 49.99 percent stake sale of the airport, which is France’s fourth largest, comes as the French government is in the midst of selling off up to €10 billion in assets in a bid to fill the country’s near-empty coffers, under pressure from Brussels.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A Lord Mayor walked out of an Islamic charity lunch after discovering that he would have to be segregated from his female consort.
Labour councillor John Thomas, 70, arrived at the function last Sunday with consort Margaret Corley, 72.
But Councillor Thomas, the Lord Mayor of Leicester, was said to be upset at being told he would have to dine in an upstairs function room with male guests, while his consort would be seated downstairs with the other women.
The lunch was held to mark the end of Charity Week — an annual fundraising event supported by around 20 university Islamic societies in the UK, and others in Canada and Qatar. It took place at a wedding and conference venue near Leicester railway station.
Guests at the event, who paid £6 a ticket, were told that the week of fundraising to help orphaned and disadvantaged children raised £730,000. But Councillor Thomas seemed to be in no mood for celebrating and left early. It is understood Mrs Corley left with him.
A source at the event said the Mayor had ‘insulted’ other guests by walking out, adding: ‘Students from universities, colleges and schools raised over £732,000 in just one week.
‘They contributed their time and efforts to raise money. The Lord Mayor should have respected this work.’
Councillor Thomas, who lives with his disabled wife Irene, 59, in Hamilton, Leicester, declined to comment on the matter…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
BiH: Destroyer of Cross in Sarajevo Found, “I’m Proud and I’ll Do it Again”
The cross at Zlatiste, set in memory of 6,500 Serbs killed in Sarajevo, was knocked down on Friday morning. Mirza Hatic from Sarajevo assumed responsibility for knocking down the monumental cross at Zlatiste, eastern Sarajevo area.
“I said that I would knock it down” stated Hatic to Dnevni Avaz daily. He cited that the Republika Srpska police department guarded the cross sometimes and not others.
“We waited for them to leave and my friend and I came, and knocked it down. It was a little past midnight. I am proud of what I have done and I will do it again, wherever they set it” cited Hatic, claiming that the monumental cross was set as a provocation.
Hatic (27), who is already known to police, claimed that he was at the head of young men who tried to knock down the monumental cross at Zlatiste, above Sarajevo in September. On that occasion, he stated that he will “die, but that cross will not be there”.
A police officer on duty at the Pale police department received a call from a member of the Support Unit for Eastern New Sarajevo, who patrol the cement monumental cross at Zlatiste, municipality of Stari Grad, that an unidentified person knocked down the monument, reported RTRS (Radio Television of Republika Srpska). Danka Tesic, spokesperson for the Sarajevo Centre for Public Safety, said in a statement to Dnevni Avaz, that police has been sent to the scene.
“This doesn’t qualify as a criminal act. The situation, as you know, is particular, since the cross was erected without a permit, therefore there is no injured party here. What is important is that the cross didn’t fall onto the road and did not endanger traffic. The police will, as usual, carry out an investigation and we will wait for the Prosecutors’ position on this, stated Tesic.
At Zlatise, above Sarajevo, the monumental cross was erected in September, as a temporary placeholder for a token honouring the memory of Sarajevo’s Serb victims, which several people attempted to knock down on more than one occasion.
Representatives from the municipality of Eastern Stari Grad, the territory on which the cross was erected, as well as representatives from Serbian veterans’ associations, claimed that this was a shameful pre-election act by the Association of Inmates, given that the cross was made out of one steel bar and a horizontal wooden bar, hence a permit for its construction had not been issued by the Serbian Orthodox Church.
Municipality Chief Bojo Gasanovic said earlier that the Municipality Assembly of Eastern Stari Grad gave members of the Association of Inmates of Republika Srpska a deadline for removing the cross so that they could apply for a permit for its eventual setting.
The Association of Inmates of Republika Srpska assessed this decision by the Municipality as a kind of cowardice and protection of other, primarily private interests, which should not, and cannot be above piety and memory of Serbian victims.
The Association of Inmates of Republika Srpska announced that they are not surprised by such decisions, made by structures that opposed the idea and initiative to erect a monumental structure in memory of innocent Serb victims in Sarajevo, from the very beginning.
The erection of the Zlatiste monumental cross evoked turbulent reactions both in Sarajevo, as well as Eastern Sarajevo. Certain associations in Sarajevo assessed the erection of the cross as a sort of provocation, citing that this location was used by Serbs during the shelling of Sarajevo.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt ‘Strategic From Suez to Libya’, Italian Defense Chief
Mantelli in Cairo for anti-terrorism cooperation
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, DECEMBER 2 — Egypt is strategic for regional stability and the security of the Mediterranean from the Suez Canal to Libya, the chief of Italy’s defense staff told ANSA on Tuesday. “Italy wants to do whatever it can so that the country can once again act as a moderator in the Middle East, as it did in the past,” Admiral Luigi Binelli Mantelli said after meeting with his Egyptian counterpart, Major General Mahmoud Hegazy.
“We discussed a more concrete cooperation plan,” he said, “ranging from specific anti-terrorism training to training and capacity building for naval and airspace control, with drones, for example, including in the field of undocumented migration,” Binelli said. Both countries share concerns about the transnational jihadist group the Islamic State (ISIS), which makes information exchange necessary, he said, especially as concerns Libya, which “could become a breeding ground for terrorism”. “I don’t want to see two or three Libyas created between Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan,” he noted. “Actions are needed to help Libyan institutions regain stability and maintain the territorial and institutional unity of the country.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Steelmaker Lucchini to be Sold to Algeria’s Cevital
Ministry authorizes deal, 1,860 jobs saved
(ANSAmed) — ROME, DECEMBER 2 — The economic development ministry on Tuesday authorized the sale of the Piombino complex of Italy’s second largest steelmaker, Lucchini, to the Algerian conglomerate Cevital. The transaction will entail investment of about 400 million euros and when fully operational will employ all personnel.
Cevital will immediately rehire 1,860 workers. After the sales procedure by the Lucchini and Lucchini Servizi companies, the ministry authorized external commissioner Piero Nardi to agree to the bid submitted by Cevital for the acquisition of branches of Lucchini Piombino, Lucchini Servizi and Vertek Piombino, as well as of a 69.27% stake in GSI Lucchini. A ministry statement noted that Cevital is part of an industrial group that operates in sectors ranging from industry to food and agriculture, car manufacturing, glass products and retail. The acquisition of Lucchini is part of the group’s process of international growth, which aims to develop investment in activities with a potential market in Algeria. It provides for the relaunch of steel production through the building of two electric ovens and other investments in engineering activities, accompanied by development of new industrial initiatives in the food and agriculture and logistics sectors with an expected investment of about 400 million euros. Once fully operational, it expects to rehire all Lucchini and Lucchini Servizi personnel.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
American Hostage ‘Murdered’ During Failed Rescue Attempt in Yemen
The American freelance photographer kidnapped by Al Qaeda militants in Yemen in 2013 was ‘murdered’ Friday during a U.S. special operations rescue mission inside the country after it was learned that his life was in imminent danger, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said in a statement.
Luke Somers was still alive, but badly injured when the team reached him, a Yemeni national security official told Fox News. The official said Somers was shot by militants. None of the special forces members were injured.
Hagel said in the statement that the rescue bid was conducted in partnership with the Yemen’s government and its security forces.Ten militants were killed between the rescue attempt and the drone strike prior to the mission, the Yemeni official confirmed.
South African hostage Pierre Korkie was the other hostage killed in the operation, the Gift of the Givers, a South African aid group confirmed.
President Obama, who ordered the mission, released a statement early Saturday morning condemning the “barbaric murder” of Somers…
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Dane Gets Three Years for ‘Insulting’ Bahrain’s King
Just days after her sister was sentenced to prison in absentia, Zainab al-Khawaja has now also been convicted of charges in Bahrain. Their father also sits in a Bahraini jail.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark to Gulf States: ‘Honour Your Promises’
Denmark urged wealthy Gulf states Friday to honour their promises on funding humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees as a crucial UN food aid programme was cut after running out of money.
Denmark, already a big donor, said it could help the UN programme, which was supporting 1.7 million Syrian refugees, but it blasted Gulf states for not paying up.
“At the large conference in Kuwait in January this year, Denmark pledged 200 million kroner (26.9 million euros, $33 million) to the UN, and all of that has been paid,” Danish Minister for Trade and Development Mogens Jensen told AFP.
“Countries in the region such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have not yet fulfilled their promises,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Urges Broader Action Against Islamist Militants
The Grand Imam of al-Azhar, one of the most prestigious centres of Sunni Islam learning, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb (R) sits next Coptic Pope Tawadros (L) during the opening session of a two-day international conference on fighting extremism, on Dec. 3. AFP Photo
A prominent Muslim cleric said on Dec. 3 the U.S.-led coalition carrying out air strikes on Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) should widen its scope to include all other militant groups that were “tarnishing Islam.”
ISIL, has seized wide areas of Iraq and Syria and declared a caliphate to try to revive theocratic rule that prevailed in the region more than 1,000 years ago. Its militants have beheaded some prisoners and been accused of massacring and enslaving non-Sunni Muslims…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State Executes Three Arab Tribal Leaders
US-led coalition targets IS positions in towns near Mosul
Islamic State (IS) militants have executed three Arab tribal leaders from areas around Mosul, northern Iraq. The leaders were suspected of spying for coalition forces.
A senior Kurdish official from Mosul has told BasNews that the militants kidnapped the three Arab tribal leaders from towns and villages close to Mosul. They were executed after being accused of passing information to Kurds and international coalition forces about the whereabouts of IS militant positions in and around Mosul.
Ismat Rajab, head of the Mosul office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), told BasNews that as a result of Friday’s airstrikes by coalition jets, 40 IS militants were killed near Mosul.
The Jihadi group raided villages around Mosul and kidnapped the three tribal leaders, after Friday’s heavy losses. Rajab claims the men were executed on suspicion of colluding with Kurdish and coalition ground and air forces.
The Kurdish official said that the tribal leaders were from the Sunni Al-Jobour tribe in northern Iraq…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Says Christians ‘Being Driven From Mideast’
Pope Francis said Christians are being “driven from the Middle East,” in a message to Iraqi Christians forced to flee by Islamic State group jihadists.
“It would seem that there they (the extremists) do not want there to be any Christians, but you bear witness to Christ,” he said in a video address to be broadcast Saturday during a visit by French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin to the Iraqi city of Arbil.
“I think of the wounds, of the pain of women with their children, the elderly and the displaced, the wounds of those who are victims of every type of violence,” Francis said according to a transcript…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Qatar Ambassador to US Says, “We Don’t Support Hamas”.
Qatar’s Ambassador to Washington H.E. Mohammed Jaham Al-Kuwari is a veteran diplomat with 32 years of service to the small gas rich wealthy Arab state on a peninsula jutting into the Persian Gulf off Saudi Arabia. American educated at the University of Portland, Oregon with graduate work at the University of Madrid in Spain, he speaks several languages including Farsi used during a diplomatic post in Tehran. He has held a number of diplomatic posts, Foreign Ministry and Cabinet positions. As Qatar’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, he presented his credentials to President Obama in the Oval Office in March 2014. Ambassador Al-Kuwari spoke Friday, December 5th at the monthly meeting of the Tiger Bay Club in Pensacola, Florida.
Qatar with its capital of Doha has fewer subjects than the metropolitan Pensacola area, approximately 300,000. There are also upwards of 1.7 million foreign workers residing in Qatar with some evidence of human rights violations. Human Rights Watch in its 2014 World Report noted:
Migrants continue to experience serious rights violations, including forced labor and arbitrary restrictions on the right to leave Qatar, which expose them to exploitation and abuse by employers. Tiny Qatar across from Shiite Iran is endeavoring to explain the presence of the leaders from terror groups Hamas and Taliban ensconced in luxury in Doha. There are also allegations by the US Treasury that some Qatar individuals and charities may have funded these groups, as well as, the self declared Islamic State, formerly ISIS. A bit ironic, as Ambassador Al-Kuwari said ISIS is a threat to them that needs to be addressed through immediate military action…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Sectarian Violence Erupts in Lebanon After Reported Killing of Policeman
Sectarian violence erupted in eastern Lebanon early Saturday after the al Qaeda-linked al-Nusra front said it had killed a captured Lebanese policeman to avenge the arrest of Islamic militants’ wives and children.
Residents in Lebanon’s mainly Shiite Bekaa Valley region bordering Syria seemed to be taking out their anger over the policeman’s murder by the al Qaeda-linked Sunni extremist group based in Syria on local Sunnis.
The body of an unidentified Sunni man who had been shot dead was found on a road in a suspected revenge killing…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: EU Steps Up Humanitarian Assistance With 180 Mln
2.5 million children in the region will receive education
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, DECEMBER 04 — The European Commission adopted a package worth 180 million euros to deal with the effects of the Syrian crisis in the country itself, as well as in Lebanon and Jordan, who are currently hosting around 1.1 million and 630,000 refugees respectively. This package deals with the longer-term development needs of refugees and internally displaced persons. It addresses in particular the education of children and young adults, in line with the UNICEF-sponsored “No Lost Generation” Initiative, as well as measures to improve the resilience of the refugees as well as the communities hosting them through economic development activities.
“Today, the EU cannot simply watch the suffering of Syrian people without acting,” said Federica Mogherini, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs. “We are determined to play our role to the full and bring a lasting political solution to this regional crisis”. “With these funds, 2.5 million children in the region will be given a chance to receive education and to prepare themselves for the time when peace is restored and their skills will be needed to rebuild Syria” added Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations. Out of the total amount of 180 million euros, 41 million euros will provide assistance to the population still inside Syria, 66 million euros will help Syrian refugees and host communities in Jordan, and 73 million euros to those in Lebanon.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Opposition Leader Warns of Mass Starvation
The leader of the moderate Syrian opposition was in Copenhagen on Friday to meet with Denmark’s foreign minister, Martin Lidegaard.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Constitutional Court as the New ‘Coup’ HQ
Turkey’s political lunacy is not likely to end anytime soon. Its latest episode is the condemnation of the Constitutional Court as the headquarters of yet another “coup attempt” against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Here is the longer version of the story. Since the military regime of the early 80’s, Turkey has the highest “national election threshold” in the world. Unless a party receives 10 percent of the votes all across the county, it cannot put even a single deputy in the Parliament. The system is obviously designed to eliminate smaller parties and empower larger ones, for the sake of “stability.” But all democrats have criticized this unusually high threshold for being unfair against “representation.”
That is why almost every political figure gives lip service to “lowering the electoral threshold.” But when they achieve power, they never pass the legal amendment to lower the threshold, because it simply serves them well. The elimination of the smaller fish only makes the bigger fish, especially the biggest one, highly advantageous. That is why no one expects the AKP to lower, let alone abolish, the threshold — unless it becomes a must for the “peace process” with militant Kurdish nationalists…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Compulsory Ottoman Language Classes in High Schools Stirs Debate
A proposal to have Ottoman language courses included as part of compulsory curriculum for high school students has sparked a fresh debate about the Turkish government’s alleged bid to encourage a reinterpretation of history.
The National Education Council has agreed to send a proposal to introduce compulsory Ottoman language courses in high school education to a vote in its general assembly meeting. The approval of the proposal raised a debate over the necessity of Ottoman language courses in high schools, with some council members claiming the courses should be elective rather than compulsory.
The proposals will be voted for in the general assembly meeting and those accepted will be sent to the Education Ministry as official recommendations.
The Democratic Teachers Union made the proposal during the 19th annual meeting of the council, taking place in Antalya. The union members said many documents from the Ottoman era, including some inscriptions on gravestones, cannot be read today. Turkey switched from using the Perso-Arabic script to the Latin-based alphabet in 1928…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Gazprom: 390 Million Euro Loan From Unicredit
Russian giant: ‘Historic agreement’
(ANSA) — MOSCOW — Russian gas giant Gazprom has signed an agreement with UniCredit on a 390 million euro funding, according to a press release issued by the gas company.
This agreement, which comes during a period of strained relations between Moscow and the Western countries due to the Ukrainian crisis, is according to Gazprom “an historic deal” in the context of “Gazprom’s expanding cooperation with financial institutions in Italy and in the whole of Europe”. Italy’s company based in Piazza Gae Aulenti is operating in Russia’s market through Zao Unicredit Bank.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Hollande Meets Putin to Discuss Ukraine Crisis
French President Francois Hollande met Russia’s Vladimir Putin Saturday, making a surprise stopover in a Moscow airport in an attempt to defuse mounting tensions over Ukraine.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Packed Schedule for Putin in India
India and Russia are looking to sign 15-20 pacts during President Vladimir Putin’s upcoming 20-hour-long visit to New Delhi. The Russian president will arrive in the Indian capital on December 10 mainly to attend the 15th Annual India-Russia Summit.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the Indian External Affairs Ministry said that Putin and Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi would demonstrate their vision for bilateral co-operation in different areas, such as defence and nuclear energy, during the Summit. According to the statement, the two leaders will also sign 15-20 pacts on the sidelines of the event. Although the two leaders have met at international gatherings, no structured bilateral talks have been held so far. As a result, both of them have decided to draw up a long-term vision of key Indo-Russian strategic ties at the Summit.
Ajay Bisaria, Joint Secretary (Eurasia) of the External Affairs Ministry, has said that Putin’s upcoming visit will certainly impart new dynamism to ‘special and privileged’ ties between New Delhi and Moscow. He made it clear that the two ‘friendly’ nations would not only explore new avenues to significantly enhance bilateral trade from the current USD 10 billion, but would also take stock of the current state of bilateral ties. According to him, Putin and Modi will hold detailed talks both in ‘restricted’ and ‘delegation level’ formats. The visiting president will hold a separate meeting with his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee to discuss important bilateral, regional and international issues.
Bisaria further said that the Modi administration was eager to strengthen energy and defence ties with Russia. During their meeting, the Indian premier will inform Putin that New Delhi wants to construct a gas pipeline for importing gas from Russia. He will also request the Russian leader to help the South Asian country implement the ambitious Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) programme successfully. Further co-operation in the nuclear energy area is also likely to figure prominently during the Modi-Putin talks.
The Indian official stressed: “President Putin’s visit is a landmark event and is expected to provide fresh impetus to the existing bilateral relations. The dominant theme of this Summit will be the spelling out by the two leaders a joint vision of our relationship for the next decade. The vision document will provide a road map to enhance partnership between two countries to a ‘qualitatively new level’ in key areas of nuclear energy, hydrocarbons, trade and defence.”
Meanwhile, the Indian government has made slight changes in Putin’s itinerary. It has cancelled the Russian president’s scheduled address to a joint session of the Indian Parliament. A senior External Affairs Ministry official has confirmed the news saying that Putin’s ‘tight schedule and pressing engagements’ are reasons behind the cancellation of the December 11 address.
Putin had addressed a joint session of the Indian Parliament for the first time in October 2000 during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-government. The honour was last given to US President Barack Obama by the erstwhile Manmohan Singh government in 2010. Significantly, Putin’s visit comes a month ahead of Obama’s Republic Day visit to India in January 2015.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Jakarta Sinks Three Vietnamese Fishing Boats Caught in Its Territorial Waters
President Jokowi orders the Navy to “shoot and sink” illegal fishing boats, after taking crews into custody. His goal is to defend the local fishing industry and stop the loss of billions of dollars in revenue. Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia protest.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — The Indonesian navy sunk today three Vietnamese fishing boats, recently caught off Natuna, near the Anambas Islands, Riau Province, north of Sumatra.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo gave the order to sink the boats after removing the crews as part of a campaign to protect Indonesia’s maritime resources, plundered by foreign trawlers and other boats.
Former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono usually left foreign fishing boats ply domestic waters, unchecked for illegal fishing.
Jokowi instead reiterated Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti’s statement last month that Indonesia would start sinking illegal fishing boats caught in Indonesian waters.
The president wants to protect the country’s domestic fishing industry, whose vessels use more traditional and less invasive fishing methods. In doing so, he also wants to restore the glory of Indonesia’s naval past by injecting greater nationalism and patriotism.
“The message is clear: do not trespass our waters without the necessary permits,” said Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Tedjo Edhi Purdijatno.
“The order was issued by the president and we will take the action,” said Navy spokesman First Admiral Manahan Simorangkir.
By ordering to “shoot and sink”, Jokowi wants to defend Indonesia’s economy and fishing industry. He has made it clear that before boats are sunk everyone on board has to be rescued first.
Although Jokowi has complained that illegal fishing by foreign trawlers in Indonesian waters represents billions of dollars in lost revenue, his hard-line stance has meet with opposition both at home and abroad.
Recently, Muslim extremists have attacked Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti, who had announced the measure, accusing her of incompetence and dereliction of duty at the Fisheries Department.
Neighbouring countries have also protested against Jakarta’s action. They include Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines, whose boats have fished illegally and without checks inside Indonesian territorial waters.
Malaysia is especially adamant in its protest. Kuala Lumpur accuses President Jokowi of reviving Indonesian nationalism against neighbours, as it did in the 1960s under its first president Sukarno.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Says Top Al-Qaeda Militant Killed in Raid
Pakistan’s military said Saturday that soldiers killed al Qaeda’s chief of global operations, a man indicted in the US over a plot to bomb New York’s subways, during a raid in the lawless tribal region of South Waziristan.
Shukrijumah, 39, held a position that once belonged to Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The FBI lists the Saudi as a “most wanted” terrorist and had offered up to a $5 million reward for his capture.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kidnapped Swiss Man Rescued in Philippines
A Swiss man kidnapped by Islamic militants in the southern Philippines nearly three years ago escaped under fire on Saturday as soldiers attacked his abductors in a remote jungle, the military said.
Lorenzo Vinciguerra was cut with a machete then shot at while running from the Abu Sayyaf gunmen on the lawless island of Jolo, but reached the Filipino troops with only minor injuries, military chiefs said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Philippines: Swiss Jungle Hostage Kills Captor and Escapes
A Swiss hostage has made a dramatic escape from Abu Sayyaf extremists when he hacked a rebel commander then got shot as he dashed to freedom amid a military artillery assault, ending almost three years of jungle captivity in the southern Philippines, officials said.
Rebels of the Abu Sayyaf group, said to be linked to al-Qaeda, kidnapped the 49-year-old man in February 2012.
He made a grab for his guard’s machete during a clash between troops and rebels on Saturday, Colonel Allan Arrojado, commander of the army’s Joint Task Group on the island of Sulu, told reporters by mobile phone text message.
The Swiss man was wounded on his left cheek as he wrestled for the machete, finally getting hold of it and slashing the guard on the neck, Arrojado said.
“He dashed while other bandits were shooting at him,” Arrojado said.
Philippine army scout rangers later found him and brought him to safety. The military said five militants were killed and seven wounded in the firefight.
While lying later in a military combat hospital bed, his head wrapped in a bandage, the Swiss basked in his hard-won freedom and thanked the military. He said he was happy because he could finally spend Christmas with his family, but worried about his Dutch companion.
The Swiss had been held with a Dutch national and shouted at him to run but the Dutch man had been “very sick and very weak” and unable to escape, Arrojado said, adding there was no word on his whereabouts…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Captive Escapes Philippines Rebels
A Swiss wildlife photographer escaped from Islamist rebels in the Philippines on Saturday, killing one of them with a machete as he made a break for freedom during a clash between the insurgents and government troops, a Philippine officer said.
Rebels of the Abu Sayyaf group had kidnapped Lorenzo Vinciguerra, 49, in the southern Philippines more than two years ago.
Vinciguerra made a grab for his guard’s machete during a clash between troops and the rebels, Colonel Allan Arrojado, commander of the army’s Joint Task Group on the island of Sulu, told reporters.
The Swiss man was wounded on his left cheek as he wrestled for the machete, finally getting hold of it and slashing the guard on the neck, Arrojado said.
“He dashed while other bandits were shooting at him,” Arrojado said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ICC Drops Charges Against Kenyan President Kenyatta
International Criminal Court prosecutors on Friday withdrew crimes against humanity charges against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta but said fresh charges could be brought if new evidence is found of his involvement in post-election violence.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said Friday he was “vindicated” after the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor dropped a case against him alleging crimes against humanity.
“I am very keen to run to my wife right now and tell her what is happening,” Kenyatta said in a message posted on Twitter, using the hashtag “vindicated”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Mexico City Police Chief Resigns After Violent Protests
Mexico City’s police chief, Jesus Rodriguez Almeida, has resigned after strong criticism of his handling of protests in the city. A largely peaceful march on 20 November over the disappearances of 43 students in Guerrero state ended with riot police dispersing the crowd.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Court Outlaws ‘Gay Tests’ For Asylum Seekers
The European Union’s top court has ruled that tests to prove claims of homosexuality by asylum seekers were unlawful.
Authorities must refuse all offers by applicants to “demonstrate their homosexuality” either through sexual acts or videos, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said.
Broader checks to prove asylum seekers sexuality were allowed, but must meet the European Charter on Human Rights, the Luxembourg-based court added.
It was ruling on a case brought by the Netherlands, where three people from unspecified countries were refused asylum on the basis that claims of homosexuality could not be proven…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Europe Needs Long-Term Migration Plan: UN
Europe needs to come up with a long-term plan on migration in order to avoid more tragedies in the Mediterranean Sea, the UN special rapporteur on migrants’ rights has said, after 17 migrants died on a boat en route to Italy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Expect Asylum Numbers to Increase
Germany expects 230,000 asylum seekers in 2015, which would mean another jump in new arrivals for a country already struggling to handle its load of refugees, a top official said Saturday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Search Continues for 22 Missing Migrants
Spain’s coastguard said Friday it had plucked 29 migrants from an inflatable boat in the Mediterranean Sea but were still looking for several passengers believed missing after the vessel ran into stormy weather.
Thousands of migrants fleeing war and hardship try to cross the 15-kilometre (nine-mile) Strait of Gibraltar from Morocco to Spain on makeshift boats and inflatable dinghies each year.
Thousands also try to reach Spain by scaling border fences that surround Ceuta and Melilla, two Spanish territories inside Morocco which are the European Union’s only land borders with Africa.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
No mention of the South African hostage Mr. Korkie who was ALSO killed in the Yemen rescue that went wrong?
You stand corrected Baron.
‘A Swiss national who had been held hostage by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines managed to escape from his captors – He took advantage of a Philippine military operation against the terrorists to wrest a machete from his guard, and killed him.’
He must now be careful not to be prosecuted by the European Court for a crime against humanity.