Last August the Doel 4 nuclear reactor in Belgium was damaged and suffered a major oil leak. Investigators have determined not only that the leak was due to sabotage, but also that it was a terrorist attack. Belgian citizens were relieved, however, when they learned that the incident had nothing to do with Islam.
In other news, due to the deteriorating security situation in Egypt, both Canada and Britain have closed their embassies in Cairo.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, Takuan Seiyo, 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.
Eurozone Ministers Approve Bailout Extension for Greece
(BRUSSELS) — Eurozone ministers on Monday approved a request from Greece for a two-month extension to its bailout programme that was set to end December 31, amid an ongoing budget row between Athens and its EU-IMF creditors.
“The Eurogroup would be favourably disposed to a request by Greece for a technical extension of 2 months of the current EFSF programme,” the Eurogroup of ministers said in a statement, referring to the European Union’s rescue fund.
The decision comes a day after violent protests in Athens and a high-stakes budget vote in Greek parliament revived memories of the debt crisis that nearly sank the euro.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italians Spent Less in 2013 Than in 2000, Says Censis Poll
New ‘zero consumption’ lifestyle now prevails
(ANSA) — Rome, December 5 — Italian families have confronted the financial crisis with a new “zero consumption” lifestyle, Censis said Friday in a new report. The Italian socio-economic research firm found that for the second year in a row, overall household consumption in 2013 was below levels in the early 2000s.
Censis’ 48th report on the Italian social situation said that 62% of respondents reduce meals outside home; 58% save by cutting spending on movies and leisure; 44% reduce transport in cars and motorcycles to avoid spending too much in gasoline; and another 44% have modified eating habits to reduce spending. Thinking about the future, 29% of Italians surveyed said that they feel anxious due to the lack of a safety net; 29% are worried by a fragile margin of financial safety; 24% say they do not have clear idea of the future because everything is very uncertain; and only slightly more than 17% say they feel safe enough and have “their backs covered”.
Italians also showed little faith in the ability to improve their own condition compared to other countries. Just 51% of respondents believed good education was important for achieving success in life.
An even smaller percentage — 43% — thought hard work was key. A total of 29% indicated that having the right contacts was important, compared to 19% in a similar survey conducted in the United Kingdom.
Twenty percent of Italians thought it was critical to come from a wealthy family to succeed compared to just 5% in France.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italians Fearful About Economy, Future, Says Report
(ANSAmed) — Rome, December 5 — The ongoing economic crisis in Italy has spread a sense of “vulnerability” among Italians so profound that 60% of respondents believe poverty is like a “virus” that can “infect anyone”, researchers at Censis said in a new report on Friday. An attitude of “cynical waiting” has settled on the country, so that Italians neither invest nor consume, added the Italian socio-economic firm in its 48th report on the country’s social situation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Over 40% of Pensioners Get Under 1,000 Euros Monthly, Update
Pension spending comprises almost 17% of GDP — Istat
(ANSA) — Rome, December 5 — Some 41.3% of Italian pensioners receive less than 1,000 euros per month in retirement benefits, national statistics agency Istat said Friday. Another 39.4% received income between 1,000 and 2,000 euros monthly and a small fraction received more than 3,000 euros for monthly expenses, the agency said. Spending on pensions rose by 0.7% in 2013, and accounted for almost 17% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2013, Istat reported. Spending on pensions totaled 272 billion euros in 2013, the agency said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Meet Putin’s New, And Poor, Neighbors in the Debt Market
Just how much has President Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine incursion eroded investor confidence in Russia?
Consider the names that the country is now surrounded by in the market where bondholders buy protection against default: Lebanon, El Salvador and war-torn Iraq. With investors charging 389 basis points a year to insure against a halt in Russian debt payments, those three countries — all of which either have junk ratings or none at all — are quoted at the closest levels to Putin’s government in the credit-default swaps market, according to CMA.
The cost of Russian credit-default swaps rose for the 11th straight day to a five-year high today, the longest run of increases since at least 2008, CMA data show. The country is heading toward recession as U.S. and European Union sanctions over Putin’s actions in Ukraine crimp access to foreign funding, while crude oil, the nation’s chief export earner, plunges into a bear market.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Putin’s New Deal Spells End to 15 Years of Wage Gains
Vladimir Putin’s confrontation with the U.S. and Europe augurs a new deal for his 144 million subjects.
Instead of the rising living standards he’s delivered the past 15 years in exchange for the public’s acquiescence, the Russian president now holds out declining wages and more austere lifestyles as the price of swollen national pride.
The first signs of discontent are appearing. Doctors protested Nov. 30 over job cuts and Putin ordered a freeze in inflation-linked pay raises for some government employees. Keeping dissatisfaction at bay will be costly too: Putin may exhaust more than half of the nation’s $420 billion of reserves — down from almost $600 billion in 2008 — within two years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The recent decision by the Bank of Japan to increase the scope of its quantitative easing is a signal that another round of currency wars may be under way. The BOJ’s effort to weaken the yen is a beggar-thy-neighbor approach that is inducing policy reactions throughout Asia and around the world.
Central banks in China, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Thailand, fearful of losing competitiveness relative to Japan, are easing their own monetary policies — or will soon ease more. The European Central Bank and the central banks of Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, and a few Central European countries are likely to embrace quantitative easing or use other unconventional policies to prevent their currencies from appreciating.
All of this will lead to a strengthening of the US dollar, as growth in the United States is picking up and the Federal Reserve has signaled that it will begin raising interest rates next year. But, if global growth remains weak and the dollar becomes too strong, even the Fed may decide to raise interest rates later and more slowly to avoid excessive dollar appreciation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A 21st Century Pearl Harbor? A Personal Reflection
by Richard L. Rubenstein
On Sunday December 7, 1941, I was a sophomore at college, just one month short of my eighteenth birthday. I was a member of the youth group of Temple Emanu-el, one of New York City’s more prominent Reform Jewish congregations. Although my family was scraping along as best we could, the families of most my friends were quite affluent and we were looking forward to beginning our mid-winter social season with a black-tie dance on Saturday evening December 6. For the occasion, I wore a borrowed suit that more or less fit. Nevertheless, it was the first time I was dressed in black-tie and I was very excited.
Few Europeans, other than the Nazi conquerors, were looking forward to a mid-winter social season that year. By the fall of 1941, Germany had occupied Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France. Yugoslavia, and Greece, and had invaded but not subdued the Soviet Union.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
In 2011, for example, New York officers fired at 41 suspects and killed nine of them — an astonishingly low number in light of New York’s population and the size of its police force. Virtually all of these shootings were justified.
Blacks were 22% of those fatalities; whites were 44% of them. Yet blacks were 67% of all suspects who fired at the police; no white suspect fired at the police.
Moreover, blacks made up 73% of all shooting perpetrators in the city in 2011, according to the victims of, and witnesses to, those shootings, though they are only 23% of the population. Whites committed less than three percent of all shootings, though they are close to 35% of the city’s population.
This pattern holds nationally. The black percentage of suspects killed by the police, historically around 29%, is lower than one would expect based on the best available data on those who represent a mortal threat to the police, according to Gary Kleck, a criminologist at Florida State University.
In 2013, for example, blacks made up 42% of all cop killers whose race was known, even though they are only 13% of the nation’s population.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
by Diana West
“Hands up, don’t shoot.” No doubt Stalin would approve.
When Fox News’ Sean Hannity asked Thomas Sowell for his reaction to the mantra “Hands up, don’t shoot” now being repeated from the protest theater of the streets to the floor of the US Congress by members of the Black Caucus in order to negate the evidence weighed and assessed by the Ferguson grand jury, Sowell replied:
Oh, for political reasons. I thought of Joseph Goebbels’ doctrine, people will believe any lie if it’s repeated often enough and loud enough.
This exactly describes the mechanism of The Big Lie.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Justice Department Tightens Rules on Racial Profiling
Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday announced new limits on racial profiling, extending the prohibition of the practice by federal law enforcement to cover religion, sexual orientation and gender.
However, the new rules do not apply to local police departments, now under the microscope in the wake of black suspects being killed by white officers in Ferguson, Mo., and New York City.
The long-awaited update on racial profiling comes as the administration is attempting to overhaul police practices in predominantly minority communities and as President Obama tries to assuage growing criticism of his approach to racial issues.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ridley Scott, Christian Bale Defend Casting White Actors in ‘Exodus’
The biblical film, “Exodus: Gods and Kings,” has come under fire for casting white actors in the film’s main roles as Egyptians.
Some have even called for a boycott of the film through a variety of Internet campaigns.
But director Ridley Scott has a message for those trying to boycott the film: “I say get a life.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Posts on Alert Over Potential Backlash From CIA Report, Lawmaker Warns of ‘Violence’
U.S. diplomatic and military posts overseas are being put on alert over the potential backlash from a looming Senate report examining the alleged use of torture by the CIA, with one top lawmaker warning its release could cause “violence and deaths.”
A State Department and an intelligence official confirmed to Fox News early Monday that an advisory has been sent urging U.S. personnel overseas to reassess security measures.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Violence Erupts at Berkeley Protest for Second Straight Night
A protest against police-involved killings spun out of control for the second straight night in Berkeley, Calif., Sunday, as demonstrators threw rocks and explosives at officers, turned on each other, and shut down a highway.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Islamist Protests With Right-Wing Ties Expand in Germany
A recent anti-Islamist demonstration in Dresden that made a point of avoiding right-wing symbols drew thousands. Now, the PEGIDA movement is spreading to other cities — and drawing neo-Nazis into the fold.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Archaeologists Exhume Thousands of Nazi Victims
Soldiers’ remains will be given proper burial in Poland
(Newser) — Over the course of six weeks, archaeologists have exhumed the remains of an estimated 3,000 men from eight mass graves in southeastern Poland—bones belonging to nearly-impossible-to-identify soldiers who were victims of the Nazis. The Soviet and Italian troops were interned in a German stalag near the city of Przemysl, where they were shot, starved, worked to the point of collapse, or left to die of disease. The remains include those of Italian soldiers who were treated as traitors after Benito Mussolini was deposed in 1943. AFP describes bones sorted by type, with ribs in one area, skulls in another. “It’s the only way to count the exact number of victims,” says the archaeologist in charge of the dig near the former site of Stalag 327 of Przemysl-Pikulice, which reportedly closed in 1944.
When the dig is finished, the remains will be moved to a military cemetery set to officially open next year; it’s actually already the final resting place for 1,500 victims found by Poland’s Red Cross in 1963. A rep for the Polish government body tasked with preserving such wartime sites notes, “We don’t know why they didn’t check all the mass graves then…
| — Hat tip: Takuan Seiyo | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: ‘Reduce the Number of Francophone Doctors’
Author: Michaël Torfs
Sat 06/12/2014 — 12:31 Michaël Torfs The Federal Health Minister Maggie De Block (Flemish liberal) is asking the French-speaking Community in Belgium to put a limit on the number of students that is allowed to study medicine. There are at present too many students graduating as a GP in Francophone Belgium, she argues.
Ms De Block has started consultations with the different language communities in Belgium. She also met the Flemish Education Minister Hilde Crevits (Christian democrat) and Crevits’ Francophone counterpart Jean-Claude Marcourt (socialist) on the subject.
Flanders introduced an exam for those willing to become a doctor. Only those that pass the exam can start the courses, but there is no such hurdle in Wallonia. There are too many Francophone doctors as a result, because only a limited number of GP’s are allowed to take up the profession. Mr Marcourt is said to be “thinking about the proposals” voiced by Maggie De Block.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: Enquiry Into Doel 4 Sabotage Centres on Terrorism
Sun 07/12/2014 — 16:10 Michaël Torfs André Vandoren, the director of the anti-terrorism unit OCAD, thinks that investigators are concentrating on the theory of a terrorist act after the nuclear reactor Doel 4 was sabotaged early August.
The nuclear reactor’s turbine sustained serious damage in August after an oil leak. In 37 minutes’ time some 65,000 litres of lubricating oil (were) leaked from a reservoir, almost certainly the result of sabotage. The nuclear plant had to be put offline for repairs, for which the cost is estimated at 30 million euros.
The federal judicial authorities are investigating the case. Mr Vandoren estimates that it was a criminal act that had been prepared for a long time. According to him, investigators are focusing on an act of terrorism…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium Offering Unique Form of Tax Evasion
Mon 08/12/2014 — 11:17 Michaël Torfs Belgium is promoting a unique type of tax evasion to get foreign companies and investors to invest their money here. This allows big international players to avoid paying taxes on most of their profits, De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad report. The fiscal expert Michel Maus estimates that the system that Belgium is offering “could go even further than Lux Leaks”.
The system is called “excess profit ruling” and is perfectly legal. It means that a Belgian branch of a multinational only has to pay taxes on the profit it would make as a single company, without the benefits of its international network. The profits generated by the fact that it is a multinational that has already built a solid reputation abroad, the so-called “excess profit” is being ignored by the Belgian taxman. Companies do have to negotiate this with a ruling commission first.
While the system may be legal, experts have voiced criticism also taking into account the recent news about Lux Leaks. The profits generated by multinationals in Belgium, are not being taxed automatically elsewhere either (like in the home country where the business is based). This is because Belgium is not informing foreign administrations about the rulings.
In fact, the Federal Economy Department has been promoting the Belgian system for years. The fiscal expert Michel Maus says that the rulings “may go further than Lux Leaks. (…) We don’t know how many rulings have been made, and how many of these presents have been given (by the taxman.” The Lux Leaks revealed the generous tax deals Luxembourg offered to wealthy people, allowing them to evade taxes in their home country.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
by Douglas Murray
Willing to be endlessly open and hospitable, Britain finds itself at a loss when that hospitality is neither respected nor returned.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bulgaria’s Answer to US Tanks is ‘No’ — Chief of Defence
If the US ask us for permission to deploy tanks or other armoured vehicles, at this point our answer is “No”, Vice Admiral Rumen Nikolov, Chief of Defense Staff of Bulgaria, told the BGNES wire service.
“There is no reason for stirring of panic about the deployment of US or any other foreign tanks and armoured vehicles on Bulgarian territory,” Nikolov said.
“It is not true that in Bulgaria will be deployed some of 150 US tanks,” he continued. “This hasn’t been discussed in NATO. This is just the statement of some US general and it cannot be considered an official statement.”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Burger King Plans to Enter Greek Market
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, DECEMBER 8 — Burger King, America’s second-biggest fast food chain, with a presence in over 100 countries worldwide, has announced its intention to enter the Greek market through the joint venture Burger King Southern and Eastern Europe SA, set up to promote activities in Italy, Poland, Greece and Romania, as reported by daily Kathimerini online. Burger King SEE will have sub-franchise rights for all of those markets, where with the exception of Greece, Burger King is already present. The new venture will aim at “aggressive development” in Italy, Poland and Romania, and at its introduction in the Greek market, Burger King Worldwide announced. In March it also announced its return to Cyprus. The venture intends to create up to 10,000 jobs in the first five to seven years of its operation in South and Eastern Europe. Jose Cil, head of the Europe, Middle East and Africa department of Burger King Worldwide, expressed his enthusiasm with the expansion of the chain to Greece, a country where the latest trends in fast food see a shift toward quality burgers. Goody’s, the local market leader, recently introduced a new store brand, the Goody’s Burger House.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Czech Foreign Policy Plan Views Russia as Future Friend — Press
Prague — The Czech Foreign Ministry has worked out a foreign policy plan that sets the overcoming of the current problems and the achievement of partnership relations between Prague and Russia as one of Prague´s goals, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes today.
The plan, now being completed by Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek (Social Democrats, CSSD) and his deputy Petr Drulak, is to replace the previous plan from 2011. Judging by its incomplete version, it brings no revolutionary changes to Czech diplomacy, the paper writes.
To take effect, the plan will need the government´s approval, it adds.
Zaoralek and Drulak say the document reflects the changes that have occurred on the international scene since 2011…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Islamic Group’s Sharia Rally Met With Protests
The Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir’s pro-Sharia rally in Copenahgen’s Nørrebro district on Sunday was greeted by protestors who feel that Islamic law has no place in Denmark.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Estonia Launches “e-Residency” Card for Foreigners
Access to a vast range of online services, except vote
(ANSA) — TRIESTE — A pioneer in electronic government, Estonia has introduced “e-residency”, giving foreigners access to a vast range of online services.
Estonians can use a national identity card embedded with a microchip to gain access to some 4,000 services, including banking, business registration and even fishing licenses. They review medical records and order prescriptions on smartphones; about a third of voters now cast their ballots online.
Beginning in December, EU and non-EU citizens alike can request an “e-residency card” coming to Estonia at least once to prove their identity at a national institution. They can then access services through the portal e-estonia.com.
Unlike the identity card, it has no photograph and cannot serve as proof of identity in the real world. But it can be used to log in to Estonian e-services and to generate a digital signature.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France Agrees to $60 Million Fund for Nazi-Era Deportees
The French Foreign Ministry and US State Department jointly announced a deal on Friday to provide millions in compensation to Americans and others deported to death camps by French state railway company SNCF during the Nazi occupation.
The $60 million (€49 million) compensation fund will be financed by France and managed by the United States.
France’s parliament must approve the agreement before any payments can be made.
In exchange for the $60 million sum, the US government pledges to “recognise and affirmatively protect the immunity of France … with regard to Holocaust deportation claims in the United States”, a statement from the State Department said.
The French government has already paid more than $6 billion in reparations, but only to French citizens and certain other deportees. The new deal will provide compensation for American citizens, Israelis and others…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
French Politician to Merkel: ‘Shut Your Trap’
A French politician has launched a verbal assault on Angela Merkel after the German leader called for more budget tightening in France and Italy. German finance minister Schäuble attempted to strike a conciliatory tone.
French politician Jean-Luc Melenchon had harsh words for German Chancellor Angela Merkel after the German leader said France and Italy had not done enough to trim their budgets, and called for both countries to enact additional deficit-cutting measures.
“The [EU] Commission has made clear that what has been put on the table so far is insufficient. I would agree with this,” Merkel told German newspaper Die Welt am Sonntag.
“Shut your trap, Ms. Merkel! France is Free.” Melenchon tweeted in German, adding in French that Merkel should concern herself instead with the poor in her country and ruined infrastructure in Germany…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany is a Political and Business Crossroads Between Eastern and Western Europe
Pain of sanctions tests German businesses
Huge machines hum smoothly at the Vakoma company’s modern factory in eastern Germany, overseen by blue-suited workers. But politics are making the ride bumpy for the family-owned firm, which does a lot of business in Russia.
Germany is a political and business crossroads between eastern and western Europe, and some of its high-value exporters are suffering from the Western sanctions imposed on Russia. It’s one of several reasons why German economic growth faded this year from among the highest in Europe to almost nothing.
Businesses may be holding on for now, avoiding layoffs in the hopes that things will get better. But with Chancellor Angela Merkel suggesting no end is in sight for the sanctions, the pressure on some companies is growing.
In the case of Vakoma, its industrial drives, vacuum pumps and compressors to order are often custom-made, a process that takes several years of planning. Around 90 percent of its goods are exported, and some 60 percent of those exports go to the former Soviet Union…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Lufthansa Woos Aviphiles, And Their Pet Falcons Too
Lufthansa has offered a glimpse into its latest offering for wealthy, bird-loving clientele — an in-flight resting platform for falcons. It will allow passengers to fly right next to their precious, feathery companions.
The airline pointed out that falconry is an extremely popular activity in some countries, predominantly in the Gulf. Lufthansa’s “Falcon Master” platform would enable a small, but no doubt affluent group of clients to take their birds on board and not lose sight of them during flights.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Still Dependent on Russian Energy
New figures released on Monday showed that Germany continues to be heavily dependent on Russia for its fossil fuel supplies as tensions remain high over Ukraine.
The Fedral Institute of Raw Materials (BGR) in Hannover reported that just two percent of Germany’s oil and 12 percent of natural gas were produced within the country in 2013.
Those two fuels together account for 55 percent of German energy consumption, with Russia providing one third of the country’s imports.
Germany is only self-sufficient in renewable energy, brown coal and nuclear energy, which together make up less than a third of the country’s power consumption.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Syriza Leads 3.1% Over ND, Shows Opinion Poll
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, DECEMBER 8 — Greece’s main opposition party Syriza (radical left) leads 3.1% over New Democracy (ND, center-right) according to an opinion poll conducted by Interview for the Sunday edition of Eleftheros Typos newspaper.
As Ana-Mpa reported, the poll said that Syriza has the lead with 28.6%, followed by New Democracy with 25.5%. In the third place comes socialist Pasok with 5.5% followed by the Communist Party (KKE) with 4.6%, to Potami (center-left) with 4.1%, the pro-nazi party Golden Dawn with 3.9%, Independent Greeks with 2.2% and Democratic Left with 1.4%. At a question who is best for prime minister, 39% said they prefer current Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and 29% said they prefer Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
In Midst of Mafia Scandal, Pope Prays for Protection of Rome
In the midst of a mafia scandal that has shaken the city, Pope Francis on Monday prayed to the Virgin Mary to protect Rome from the “threat of the malign.”
In what appeared to be typically topical reference to last week’s revelations that an organised criminal gang with links to neo-fascist terrorism has been stealing millions from the Italian capital, Francis conspicuously included the city in his high-profile public prayer to mark the Immaculate Conception, one of the most important feast days on the Catholic calendar.
Having made the short trip from the Vatican into the historic centre of Rome, the Argentinian pontiff observed tradition by laying a wreath at the foot of a towering column which supports a statue of the Madonna close to one of the city’s most celebrated landmarks, the Spanish Steps.
“Know that evil has no power over you, you fill us with hope and strength in the daily struggle we have to wage every day against the threat of the malign,” the 77-year-old leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics said in a prayer pronounced before thousands of believers and well-wishers packed into the surrounding narrow streets.
“Animated by this hope, today, we invoke your maternal protection for us, for our families, for this city and for the entire world,” Francis said.
In keeping with a relatively recent tradition (dating back to 1958), the pope leaves the wreath, which is then placed on the statue by city firemen.
The feast of the Immaculate Conception celebrates the tenet of Catholic doctrine which holds that the mother of Jesus Christ was conceived and born without sin — contrary to the popular misconception that it refers to the belief that Mary was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus.
It is a national holiday in many predominately Catholic countries. As such, for many it represents the start of Christmas festivities, both religious and secular.
Rome police last week named 100 people including a former mayor as being under investigation as part of a major probe into organised crime in the city.
Twenty nine suspects have been detained, including alleged ringleader Massimo Carminati, a one-eyed convicted mobster who was a figure in the neo-fascist terror movements that blighted Italian society in the 1970s and 1980s.
The pope, who is of Italian heritage, takes a keen interest in events in Italy. He has regularly spoken out on the plight of migrants trying to reach the country by boat from Africa. And last month he described anti-refugee violence in Rome as symptomatic of a “social emergency” in the recession-bound country.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Snow Hotels and Igloos — Alternative Accommodation in Finland
With the coming winter season now upon us, Discovering Finland looks at the myriad alternative accommodations that will be available in Finland for 2014 — 2015.
Of all the many available choices of accommodation on offer this winter in Finland, perhaps the most exotic are those where visitors can spend a night in a room fashioned from snow and ice.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Speak German at Home’ Row as Conservatives Target Migrants
Immigrants should speak German not only in public but also in the home, Bavaria’s governing conservatives say — provoking a torrent of criticism.
The Christian Social Union (CSU), an ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, says it is a matter for debate, and is not yet official policy.
Some express alarm about politics reaching into the home.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Support for Nationalists Swells in Sweden
The number of Swedes intending to vote for the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats has shot up according to a new poll by YouGov released on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Jönköping Court Hit by Bomb Threat
The Göta Court of Appeal in central Jönköping was the subject of a bomb threat today, reported Swedish Radio’s local station Monday morning.
The police have not said very much to the press, however after a recent bombing at a Malmö justice center, they are taking the threat seriously, according to Swedish Radio’s reporter at the scene.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey ‘Welcomes Pipelines Passing Through Its Soil’
Turkey is eager to host oil pipelines that will connect much-needed energy resources with global markets, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz has said, while signaling a conditional willingness to transport much-disputed Eastern Mediterranean resources.
“Turkey is warm to all natural gas pipelines that will pass through its soil,” Yildiz said at the International Mediterranean Energy Conference hosted by the Istanbul of Chamber of Commerce on Dec. 8.
The remarks came as he was talking about a potential project to transport natural gas resources from off Cyprus to Europe…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Vending Machine of the Future is Here, And it Knows Who You Are
The world’s first vending machine with facial recognition technology has been unveiled, and it could refuse to vend a certain product based on a shopper’s age, medical record or dietary requirements
The vending machine brought an element of anonymity to snacking: you could scoff chocolate all day and no shopkeeper would know just how many bars — or cigarettes, or ice creams, or lottery tickets — you’d already gone through that day.
But that’s all about to change, because the vending machine of the future is here, and it knows who you are.
The Luce X2 Touch TV vending machine, which was debuted to industry professionals in Hertfordshire in October, is claimed to be the first in the world to use facial recognition technology.
The machines are able to identify and greet a user, remember a person’s preferences and even refuse to vend a certain product based on a shopper’s age, medical record, dietary requirements or purchase history.
For example, a school can link the Luce X2 with its database and tell the machine to refuse to sell certain products, such as cigarettes, to underage students.
A gym could program the machine with its membership database not to sell fattening snacks to a person who is on a diet, while a hospital could prevent a user with health conditions such as diabetes buying a sugary product…
| [Return to headlines] |
Viking Women Colonized New Lands, Too
Vikings may have been family men who traveled with their wives to new lands, according to a new study of ancient Viking DNA.
Maternal DNA from ancient Norsemen closely matches that of modern-day people in the North Atlantic isles, particularly from the Orkney and Shetland Islands.
The findings suggest that both Viking men and women sailed on the ships to colonize new lands. The new study also challenges the popular conception of Vikings as glorified hoodlums with impressive seafaring skills.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Wilders’ Defiant Statement Before His Interrogation by Dutch Police on New Prosecution Charges
The words Orwellian, Kafkaesque appear inadequate to describe the trammeling of the Hon. Geert Wilders’ free speech by Dutch prosecutors at the Hague in The Netherlands. We write this with the imagery of the fictional victim of Kafka’s posthumously published novel, The Trial. Joseph K was arrested by police inspectors for unknown reasons and every word of his scrutinized before his climactic death.
What Wilders is going through is not fiction, but a living nightmare. All because he spoke his mind during a local elections Freedom Party (PVV) campaign rally last spring about “fewer Moroccans”. That was a reference to his platform of controlling mass immigration of Muslims who have exhibited substantial criminal behavior incited by Islamic doctrine and preaching by Imams in Dutch Mosques. We thought his exoneration in the May 2011 Amsterdam District Court trial on alleged hate speech law violations would end his nightmare of prosecution for what we in the US take for granted as protected speech under the First Amendment of our Constitution. Unfortunately, the Netherlands and most EU members have not seen fit to adopt a system of such free speech guarantees. The Public Prosecutors Office at The Hague announced investigations on new charges following the “fewer Moroccans” remarks by Wilders. Today, Wilders was interrogated by Dutch police. Below is his statement at the same time he filed documents supporting his “fewer Moroccans “remarks with the Police. Fortunately, the Dutch groundlings, the ordinary Dutch people, have sided with Wilders. That is reflected in polls indicating they view the obsessive politically correct multicultural policies of the ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte to be a threat to preservation of Dutch cultural values. Wilders’ views are reflected in Dutch public opinion polls that have vaulted him to the top.
We wait for a Hague parliamentary no confidence vote that might precipitate the fall of the current PM Rutte’s ruling coalition. If that possibility occurred and Wilders was asked by the Dutch King to form a government, what parties might join that coalition? Would the parties on the left and the newly formed immigrant party in the Netherlands forge their own coalition to preserve and extend the mass immigration and multi-cultural problems that imperil the future of Dutch civil society?
We note the fall of the Swedish Social Democrats government in less than 69 days over a budget matter concerning public welfare support for the admission of tens of thousands of Syrian refugees. That saw the center right coalition join forces with the anti- mass immigration Swedish Democratic party.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Croatian Army Signs Contract on Purchase of New Howitzers
Croatia’s land forces will soon be equipped with 12 up-to-date PzH 2000 self-propelled howitzers with a range of 40 km and the ability to provide indirect firing support and use precision-guided ammunition, which means the army will posses one of the most modern conventional artillery systems in the world.
The contract to procure the howitzers, valued at 12 million euros (without VAT), was signed on Friday by Assistant Defence Minister Viktor Koprivnjak and Helmut Richter of the Federal Office for Defence Technology and Procurement (BWB), who represented the German government.
Koprivnjak advised that the first six howitzers would be delivered to the ministry in 2015 while the remaining six would be delivered in 2016.
The entire project related to the supply of the self-propelled howitzers is valued at 41 million euros (including VAT) and it includes all other costs of adjusting the artillery for use in Croatia, such as those related to training, servicing, equipping, software upgrading, painting and application of Croatian symbols.
Defence Minister Ante Kotromanovic expressed his satisfaction at the deal, underscoring that the German defence ministry is a strategic partner that has several joint projects with the Croatian armed forces, including the purchase of two minesweepers and military trucks…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovo: ‘KLA’ Graffiti Appear in Zociste Monastery Yard
ORAHOVAC — Unidentified perpetrators have daubed graffiti reading “KLA” (Kosovo Liberation Army) and “Kosovo” within the courtyard of the Sveti Vracci (Holy Healers) Monastery in Zocciste, western Kosovo-Metohija, and the Diocese of Raska and Prizren of the Serbian Orthodox Church qualified this as a new provocation.
The case has been reported to the Kosovo police, reads the website of the Diocese of Raska and Prizren, adding that the perpetrators have entered the courtyard through a crack in the wall near the gate.
Daubing graffiti is yet another provocation, probably with the aim to stir up unrest among the monks, reads the statement.
The diocese noted that this is not the first time that graffiti are being daubed on the walls of this medieval Serbian monastery, but every time it is a new warning to the monks that they must be on alert.
In addition, shouting insults at the monks and Serbs in this area, including swearing and shouts such as “Go to Serbia”, have been constant over the last ten years since the beginning of the repair works on the monastery.
The Zociste monks were kidnapped by the KLA in 1998 and later freed on the intervention of the International Red Cross.
The monastery was blown up and burned in 1999 and again damaged in the attacks by ethnic Albanians in 2004.
The current monastic community returned to the monastery after the reconstruction, which began in 2005, the Diocese noted.
The monastery in Zociste has been under the protection of the Kosovo police since 2010, but obviously the police presence did not prevent the perpetrators from entering the monastery, just as it does not avert those who regularly provoke and offend the monks as they pass by the monastery, the diocese said on its website.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Response to Anti-Russian Policy of Montenegro
MOSCOW — Sergei Glazyev, advisor to the Russian President, has proposed to significantly reduce the number of charter flights into the country, and to redirect tourists from Montenegro to the Crimea, in response to anti-Russian policy of the Montenegrin authorities, Blic writes.
According to Russian media, the number of Russian citizens vacationing in Montenegro may be drastically reduced next summer. The reason being an openly hostile policy of the Montenegrin Government towards Russia.
As Glazyev sees it, Montenegro’s anti-Russian policy is inevitably motivating Russia to redirect its citizens to Crimea, to the Black Sea resorts with very comparable infrastructure. A significant decrease in frequency of charter flights from Russia to Montenegro is expected to result in more Russians choosing Crimea over the Montenegrin seaside.
According to the the newspaper report, the Russians have been quietly ousted from Montenegro over the last few years. Big companies were confiscated, as well as Russian enterprises and businesses, such as the Podgorica Aluminum Plant (Kombinat Aluminijuma Podgorica — KAP) and several hotels.
This past April, the Government of Montenegro supported the EU and US sanctions against Russia and did not support Russia’s UN resolution condemning the glorification of Nazism.
The very last straw was the appearance of advertising posters with explicit anti-Russian content in Podgorica, the media reported, citing the ironic fact that: while the Montenegrin Government pursues an openly anti-Russian foreign policy, the country lives off tourism income stemming from Russia, which accounts for almost a third of the budget revenue.
Last year, Montenegro was visited by approximately 300,000 Russian tourists who, according to the most modest of estimates, pumped at least a half billion euros into the Montenegrin budget, Blic reported.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UFM Labelled Projects This Year Are 29,100 Under Study
The UfM-labelled projects approved in 2014 are 29 and 100 are under study. The new five projects concern youth employability and entrepreneurship, an innovative international internship programme for high-profile young graduates, an urban development project in Sfax and a water integrity project for the Mediterranean region.
One project is “Mediterranean Entrepreneurship Network”, which seeks to support the creation of “Réseau Entreprendre” business associations in Morocco and Tunisia to provide mentoring to new-business starters with entrepreneurial potential.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Canada and United Kingdom Shut Embassies in Cairo
The Canadian Embassy in Cairo has closed over security concerns, a day after Britain’s also suspended its services over safety worries. Both embassies are in Cairo’s Garden City neighborhood.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Analysis: What’s Behind UK’s ‘Return’ To Middle East
Britain is to open a new £15 million naval base in Bahrain, the country’s Foreign Office announced Friday, which will be the first permanent UK military presence in the Middle East in more than 40 years.
Under a deal signed with the Bahraini government, improvements will be made to the Gulf state’s Mina Salman Port, which is already used on an ad-hoc basis by four UK mine-hunter ships, creating a permanent forward operating base.
The base will “enable Britain to send more and larger ships to reinforce stability in the Gulf” said UK Defence Secretary Michael Fallon. “We will now be based again in the Gulf for the long term,” he said.
The move represents a potentially significant shift in British defence strategy…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Baghdad Reveals Most Corrupt Provinces in Iraq
Najaf province is the most corrupt, followed by Basra and Kirkuk
The Commission of Integrity in Baghdad has revealed that the level of bribery in Iraq is unchanged. Financial and administrative corruption in governmental establishments in Iraq for September and October of 2014 ranged between 2.56% — 2.71%.
On Saturday the Iraqi Commission of Integrity published monthly research into corruption throughout Iraq, excluding the Kurdistan Region, and the Nineveh, Anbar and Salahaddin provinces.
The research shows that 13 governmental offices in Najaf province are the most corrupt in the country.
The statement declared a property registration office in Basra province as the second most corrupt place, while another directorate of property registration in Kirkuk province followed as third.
During the former government of Nouri al-Maliki, corruption in governmental offices increased massively, through salaries and payments to people as bribery, and other cases where national wealth was illegally distributed.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar Abadi recently revealed that as many as 50,000 government employees in the Iraqi air force and 70,000 in the Interior Ministry were paid a salary without carrying out any work.
Abadi has reduced the salaries of the Iraqi Prime Minister, President, Parliament Speaker and ministers and MPs by half.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Britain’s Cameron to Travel to Turkey to Discuss ISIL Foreign Fighter Problem
British Prime Minister David Cameron will travel to Turkey on Dec. 9 to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss how to stop Britons crossing into Syria and Iraq to join Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters via the Turkish border, his spokesman said.
The visit comes after Britain said last month it was facing its greatest ever national security threat, in part because of the risk that Britons who return from fighting with ISIL could launch attacks on home soil.
“The focus, particularly given current events in Syria and Iraq and in that region, will be CT [counter terrorism] and ISIL,” Cameron’s official spokesman told reporters on Dec. 8…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Brotherhood Leader’s Arrest in Jordan is Seen as Warning From Monarchy
The reason for the government’s sudden shift, analysts say, was that he crossed a political line by lashing out at the Emirates, an important ally of Jordan’s and one of several countries in the region, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, that are on a campaign to wipe out the Brotherhood.
At least for the moment, analysts do not expect Jordan to join the Egyptians and the Saudis in cracking down hard on the Brotherhood, which has long operated legally in Jordan, where it has its own political party.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Travel Agents Cancel Turkish Tours Over Clearance Issue
Cairo govt require security checks for people aged 18-40
(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, DECEMBER 8 — Some of Egypt’s travel agencies have cancelled trips to Turkey following a decision that any traveler to Turkey, among a few other countries, must obtain in-advance security clearance from the interior ministry.
“Some tour operators have cancelled flights while others have scaled down their programs since the government’s decision,” Ehab Abdel-Aal, the treasurer of the state-run Egyptian Travel Agents Association, told the Anadolu Agency (AA)on Sunday. He said travel movement to the targeted countries would be negatively affected, noting that many Egyptians do not want to implicate themselves in protracted paperwork or problems with security agencies. Egyptians between the ages of 18 and 40 are reportedly required to get in-advance clearance from the Interior Ministry’s Homeland Security Department before travelling to Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Qatar, Libya and Yemen. Mohssen Abdel-Gelil, a travel agency owner, insisted that the decision aims to regulate travel to these countries, not prevent it. “We all need to show commitment to decisions like this one,” he told AA. Abdel-Gelil noted, however, that travel agencies run a major risk by making travel plans and later discover that some of the clients, who mostly belong to the targeted age group, might fail to get the security clearance on time. “This means that travel agencies and airlines stand to lose,” he asserted, lamenting that the security clearance decision was taken during the tourist season with no grace period. Relations between Egypt and Turkey deteriorated severely after the army’s ouster of elected president Mohamed Morsi in July of last year, with both countries downgrading their respective diplomatic representation. Turkish officials describe Morsi’s ouster, which followed mass protests against his one-year presidency, as a “military coup.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU to Press Turkey on ISIL and Russian Sanctions
High Representative for Foreign Affairs Mogherini in Ankara
(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, DECEMBER 8 — A high level delegation from the European Union is arriving in Turkey on Monday to press Turkish officials to do more to help identify foreign fighters who travel to Syria to join the terrorist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) via Turkey, as well as not to undermine the EU sanctions against Russia, as daily Today’s Zaman online reports. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has announced that she and two other senior EU officials, Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn and Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides, will be in Turkey on Monday. Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Mogherini said her visit will accelerate relations between Turkey and the EU as well as signify a fresh start to the “strategically important” bilateral relations between Turkey and the EU. “Our top priority will be Turkey’s EU accession process,” Mogherini said. “We aim to work with Turkish government officials to give the process a concrete step and move forward.” Johannes Hahn and Christos Stylianides as well as Mogherini herself will visit Ankara on Monday. They will hold a quartet meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and Turkey’s EU Minister Volkan Bozkir. Hahn and Stylianides will also head to Turkey’s southeastern province of Gaziantep, where more than 33,000 Syrian refugees have taken shelter in four different camps. Mogherini also underscored that Turkey and EU relations are “critical” in terms of the region’s security and stability. “We are both concerned about the Mediterranean and Middle East region. Because of Turkey’s G20 term presidency, they and the EU need to act together during the peace process in Syria and the Middle East,” Mogherini said.
“The EU realizes that Turkey has a critical role in the region and will work accordingly to provide peace and stability there.” Mogherini also highlighted Turkey’s chances of entering the EU, saying that according to public opinion, support for Turkey’s membership is over 50%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iran’s President Rouhani Warns Against Corruption
President Hassan Rouhani has spoken out against corruption in Iran and warned that it is “endangering” the country’s Islamic Revolution.
In a televised speech at an anti-corruption event in Tehran, he said money once “given under the table now is being given on the table”.
Mr Rouhani also called for the “elimination” of monopolies.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon Needs More Help to Tackle Jihadist Threat: PM
Lebanon needs more international help to fight jihadist forces that have launched a series of attacks against the army and kidnapped security forces, the country’s prime minister told AFP.
Tammam Salam, speaking ahead of a visit to France this week, welcomed French arms deliveries due “in the coming weeks”, but said his country’s military needed more.
Salam said Lebanon was not in danger of falling to jihadists from the Islamic State group or Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, Al-Nusra Front.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Religious Police Crack Down on Bloggers
Blogger Raif Badawi was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashings by a Saudi court. His crime: using free access to the Internet to “insult Islam.”
When it comes to such stiff sentences, Badawi is definitely not the only activist to receive such treatment, according Alyami, who condemned the official Saudi position as “extremist” and said the rule of law was absent in the country.
“The Koran is the constitution and Sharia is the law,” he said, adding that anyone who criticizes religion, the royal family or the country’s clerics is, according to the Wahhabi clerics and the Saudi regime, in breech of Islam. “Of course, this is ridiculous because this man did not say anything against Islam.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: British Family Fights for Justice in Antalya
A devastated British father is trying to get justice for his son, who he believes was robbed and killed during a night out in Antalya
The younger Smyth’s body was discovered on Sept. 12, 2010 in the Sorgun forest outside Side, near the popular Turkish holiday resort of Antalya.
Chris Smyth believes his son was robbed and murdered after ingesting a spiked drink at a night club in Side. The family believes the alleged murder was covered up and it has offered a reward of 15,000 Turkish Liras to anyone who provides concrete information or evidence to help solve the alleged murder.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish PM Davutoglu Warns Army Against ‘Talking Through Media’
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has warned the Turkish military not to “talk through the media” if they have concerns.
Speaking to the press at Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport before his departure to Greece, Davutoglu said the General Staff was connected to the Prime Ministry and did not need the media to express its concerns.
“Our General Staff is connected to the Prime Ministry. A military source does not need to talk to the media to express a concern about any topic. As democratization settles in Turkey, there is something that everyone has to learn: News that relies on unknown sources should end,” Davutoglu said, referring to a Nov. 5 report in daily Milliyet that the chief of staff general staff and other high-ranking generals were disturbed about the recent decision to let young men exempt themselves from compulsory military service by paying 18,000 Turkish Liras…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Gazprom: 378 Mln USD From Kiev for Supplies in December
Ukraine’s new Energy minister announced purchase on bln mc gas
(ANSA) — MOSCOW — Russian gas giant Gazprom confirmed that they have received $ 378 million from Ukraine as an advance payment for December supplies. Yesterday, Ukraine’s new Energy minister Volodimir Demcishin announced the purchase of one billion cubic metres of Russian gas in December.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
MH17 Crash: Kiev Ignored EU Request to Close E Ukraine Airspace — Report
European air traffic control regulator urged Kiev to close the south-east of the country for civilian aircraft days before the MH17 flight was downed near Donetsk, but the plea was ignored by the Ukrainian authorities, a new report claims.
Eurocontrol experts spoke privately to their Ukrainian colleagues about the danger of the situation in the east of the country, unnamed sources in the organization told the Sunday Times newspaper.
They were reportedly concerned that by that time anti-Kiev militias had already downed about 20 Ukrainian military planes; that the communication frequencies were jammed in the Donetsk Region; and that the Russian and Ukrainian air-traffic controllers couldn’t exchange information.
However, Eurocontrol lacks power to affect national governments’ decisions, and Kiev continued to allow civil planes to use airspace over war-torn Donetsk and Lugansk regions, the report said.
Ukraine only agreed to raise the minimum height, at which civilian aircraft were required to fly over the region from 8 to 9.7 kilometers.
On July 17, Malaysia Airlines MH17 flight crashed in south-eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.
The victims came from 10 nations, with the majority of the passengers having been citizens of the Netherlands.
The investigations by the Dutch Safety Board and an international investigation team are still underway, with Kiev and the militias trading blame for the tragedy.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China Death Penalties for Xinjiang Market Attackers
Six people have been sentenced to death for an attack on a market in China’s western Xinjiang province that killed 39 people in May.
Attackers drove two cars into shoppers and threw bombs in the Urumqi attack.
At the same hearing, two people were given the death penalty for an attack at a railway station in April.
The violence prompted Beijing to launch a year-long crackdown on it says is separatist terrorism in Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uighur minority.
Some 200 people have died in clashes, dozens have been sentenced to death and many more jailed since the crackdown was announced.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Arming Stealthy Subs With Long-Range Nuclear Missiles
China is preparing to arm its stealthiest submarines with nuclear missiles that could reach the U.S., cloaking its arsenal with the invisibility needed to retaliate in the event of an enemy strike.
Fifty years after China carried out its first nuclear test, patrols by the almost impossible-to-detect JIN class submarines armed with nuclear JL-2 ballistic missiles will give President Xi Jinping greater agility to respond to an attack.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hong Kong: Starved, Beaten, Ritually Humiliated: Maid Tells of ‘Torture’
A former Indonesian maid on Monday told a court for the first time how she was starved, beaten and ritually humiliated by her Hong Kong employers in a case that has sparked international outrage.
Erwiana Sulistyaningsih described in vivid detail how for months on end she lived on nothing but bread and rice, slept only four hours a day and was regularly punched and beaten by her former employer Law Wan-tung.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tibetan Political Prisoner Dies From Torture Inflicted by Chinese Police
Tenzin Choedak, 33, had served nearly six years of a 15-year prison sentence. He was in bad physical conditions because of abuse suffered during interrogation and never treated. Before his arrest, he cooperated with the Red Cross.
Dharamsala (AsiaNews/TCHRD) — A Tibetan political prisoner died yesterday afternoon in Lhasa’s Mentsekhang Hospital. Tenzin Choedak, 33, had served nearly six years of a 15-year sentence he received in 2009.
According to the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), which reported the death today, his death is the consequence of torture in prison.
Also going by the name of Tenchoe, Tenzin worked before his arrest for a European NGO associated with the Red Cross.
In early November, his health condition deteriorated, forcing Chushur prison authorities to hospitalise him three times in three different hospitals.
Two days before his death, when doctors realised that there was nothing more they could do, police released him to his family.
Son of Khedup and Passang, Tenzin Choedak was born in October 1981 in village of Gyabum Gang, north of Lhasa (Tibet Autonomous Region).
In 1990, he fled to India, in Dharamsala, where he studied at the Upper Tibetan Children’s Village School.
After his studies, he returned to Lhasa in 2005. After that, he began working for an NGO affiliated with the Red Cross, dealing with environmental protection projects in Lhasa and Shigatse.
The Lhasa City Public Security Bureau (PSB) took him into custody in April 2008 on the charge that he acted as one of the ringleaders for the March 2008 anti-Chinese protest in Lhasa City.
Sources told TCHRD that during police detention and interrogation, Tenchoe was severely beaten and tortured.
A court in Lhasa later sentenced him to 15 years as well as a fine of 10,000 yuan (US$ 1,600).
According to another source, his condition worsened while in prison, as the injuries he sustained in police detention got worse and he had to make frequent trips to hospitals accompanied by prison guards.
“Tenchoe was brought to one of the hospitals with his hands and legs heavily shackled. He was almost unrecognizable,” the source said.
In recent days, “His physical condition had deteriorated and he had brain injury in addition to vomiting blood,” sources told the TCHRD.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
U.N. Report: Opium Cultivation Thrives in Asia’s ‘Golden Triangle’
Opium production in southeast Asia’s “Golden Triangle” has tripled since 2006, fueling an illicit drugs trade worth $16.3 billion, a new United Nations report says.
Poppy cultivation in Myanmar and Laos stood at 63,800 hectares in 2014, compared with 61,200 hectares in 2013 — increasing for an eighth year, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said in its Southeast Asia Opium Survey 2014.
The region produced approximately 762 tons of opium, which was most likely made into 76 tons of heroin, it said.
Myanmar accounts for the vast majority of the region’s poppy cultivation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In World First, Researchers Convert Sunlight to Electricity With Over 40 Percent Efficiency
Australia’s solar researchers have converted over 40 percent of the sunlight hitting a solar system into electricity, the highest efficiency ever reported. A key part of the prototype’s design is the use of a custom optical bandpass filter to capture sunlight that is normally wasted by commercial solar cells on towers and convert it to electricity at a higher efficiency than the solar cells themselves ever could.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Khoisan Genome Reveals Populous Past
The genomes of five Khoisan study participants living in different tribes in Namibia were compared with the genomes of 1,462 people from 48 ethnic groups from around the world. The analysis suggests that the Khoisan population may have comprised the majority of living humans during most of the past 150,000 years, while remaining physically isolated and genetically distinct from Europeans, Asians, and all other Africans. “Khoisan hunter-gatherers in Southern Africa always have perceived themselves as the oldest people,” Stephan Schuster, formerly of Penn State University and currently at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, told Phys.org.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mexico Targets Drugs and Poverty in Troubled South
Southern Mexico is wounded. In the states of Guerrero, Chiapas and Oaxaca, the country has been left behind. The foreign trade that carried Mexico into the 21st century passed by here without leaving a trace. While states near the US border and in the Bajío region (center-north) have experienced GDP growth of 40 percent in the last two decades, the south’s economy remains firmly mired at Third World levels.
To this misery must often be added the presence of the drug lords in local government. The result is a dangerous mix of poverty and drug trafficking, especially in Guerrero, where 43 trainee teachers were abducted in the town of Iguala in late September, leading to a national crisis that President Enrique Peña Nieta is still struggling to deal with.
To do so, the president’s new agenda combines broad crime-fighting measures and economic development programs in the poorest parts of Mexico.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mexico Says Evidence Proves Missing Students Were Incinerated
(Reuters) — Mexico said on Sunday that mounting evidence and initial DNA tests confirmed that 43 trainee teachers abducted by corrupt police 10 weeks ago were incinerated at a garbage dump by drug gang members, although forensic experts sounded a note of caution.
Attorney General Jesus Murillo confirmed that one of the students had been identified by experts in Austria from a bone fragment in a bag of ash and bits of burned tire found in a river where drug gang members said they tossed the students’ remains.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Extremists Using Immigrant Gangs to Intimidate
Islamic extremist groups are using immigrant gangs to implement Sharia law in certain housing areas in Denmark, where particularly young people are being forced to behave in a certain way and women are being pressured to wear certain clothing.
According to the integration adviser Mohammad Rafiq, the head of the International Institute of Human Rights, there are at least seven areas in Denmark where immigrant gangs are intimidating people to conform to Sharia law.
“We see in several areas that the fundamentalists are being supported by the gangs,” Rafiq told Ekstra Bladet tabloid.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: CSU Retracts Foot From Mouth Over Immigrants
The Christian Social Union (CSU) has backpedalled on a document calling for immigrants to be obliged to speak German at home after stirring anger and mockery worldwide over the weekend.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Migrants Stranded on Islet in Evros River, Rescue Underway
A major rescue operation is underway in northeastern Greece after irregular migrants became trapped on an islet in the Evros River, where there has been flooding recently.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Suspends Days-Long Search for 23 Missing Migrants Believed Lost at Sea
Spain’s Marine Rescue service says it has suspended the search for more than 20 migrants believed missing since an inflatable boat they had been traveling in from Africa to Europe ran out of fuel and was buffeted by stormy weather.
The service rescued 28 African migrants from the 33-foot-long (10-meter-long) boat after finding it drifting Friday in the Mediterranean Sea off southern Spain.
Migrants seeking a better life often try to reach Spain by crossing the Mediterranean Sea from Morocco in small boats.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Half of Transgender Sex Workers Subjected to Police Violence: Report
A report drafted by a civil rights organization has drawn a picture of the plight of transgender individuals in Turkey, finding that half of all transgender women sex workers in the country have been subjected to physical violence from police. It also states that the murder of transgender individuals in Turkey amounts to 40 percent of the total number of such killings in all of Europe.
The report, titled “Violence against Transgender Woman Sex Workers in Turkey” and produced by the “Kirmizi Semsiye” (Red Umbrella) Sexual Health and Human Rights Association, is set to be presented to the United Nations. For the report, a total of 233 transgender sex workers were interviewed.
“Out of the 233 transgender women sex workers, 171 have been subjected to violence. Some 49.7 percent said the police had used violence against them and 31.2 percent said they had been sexually assaulted by the police, including rape,” said Kemal Ördek, the head of Kirmizi Semsiye…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
IIyass Boughalob was an employee at the plant at the time, and also a ISIS Muslim today.
On the 40% conversion to useful electricity from man made solar collectors. Sounds good, until one works out the cost for that 40% which is many times above coal fired power station or nuclear fired power stations per unit of electricity!
So who was responsible then ?