Two alleged accomplices of the Copenhagen assassin have been arrested in Denmark. In the wake of the attacks, Lars Vilks says he is not afraid; however, he has gone into hiding. Meanwhile, Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt assures everyone that the West is not at war with Islam.
In other news, the Egyptian air force struck ISIS targets in Libya for the second time, despite the fact that the United States had refused to supply them with targeting intelligence for the sites in Derna. An Italian bishop who remained behind in Libya after other Italians were evacuated complained of a lack of dialogue with Islam.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, Papa Whiskey, Phyllis Chesler, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
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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.
25% of Physical Gold Buyers Are Crazy, Metals Executive Says
A lot of people who buy bits of physical gold aren’t looking to make a bracelet or ring. They buy gold because they believe disaster is imminent.
These investors are convinced gold will spike to $10,000 an ounce (it’s currently around $1,225) when the U.S. government implodes, said Peter Hug, an executive at metals retailer Kitco.
Hug calls these people “crazies” and says they form a substantial amount of the U.S. physical gold market — at least 25%.
It’s no secret that gold has long been viewed as a form of insurance against disaster. The thinking is that even if the financial or political system collapses, gold will still hold value.
The yellow metal is also widely seen as a hedge against inflation and the collapse of the dollar.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Euro Party Guns for First Seats in West German State
Germany’s populist anti-euro AfD party hoped to capture its first seats in a western state legislature in an election Sunday in the country’s second city of Hamburg.
The AfD, which stands for Alternative for Germany, hopes to capitalise on renewed fears of turmoil in the eurozone triggered by a new left-wing Greek government demanding an end to austerity and easier terms for its towering debt.
AfD leader Bernd Lucke, a former economics professor at Hamburg University, has steered his party to around five percent support, the hurdle to representation in the state parliament.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Eurozone Talks on Greek Debt End Without Deal
Talks between Greece and its eurozone partners on how to manage Greek debt have broken down after Athens rejected a eurozone demand to extend its bailout. No date for further talks has been set.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Eurozone, Greece Debt Talks Collapse Without Deal
Crunch talks between Greece and its eurozone partners broke up abruptly on Monday after Athens rejected demands that it continue its current massive debt bailout unchanged as “absurd”.
“The meeting is over,” a European source told AFP, moments after a government source in Athens said Greece had rejected a demand by eurozone ministers that the debt-wracked country stick to its bailout programme.
Greece faced a wall of opposition at the crucial talks with eurozone finance ministers dead set against scrapping the country’s massive bailout programme as a bitter stand-off deepened.
The hard-left government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is trying to win a radical overhaul to the terms of its 240-billion-euro ($270 billion) bailout which it says has damaged the Greek economy after years of imposed austerity.
The source said Athens had been told to respect the existing conditions of the bailout, a red line that the Tsipras government refuses to cross.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
For New Year, China’s Central Bank Has to Come Up With 610 Billion in Cash
Beijing (AsiaNews) — As if juggling interest rates, the yuan’s internationalisation and credit risks is not hard enough, these days the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has a more complicated puzzle to solve: finding 610 billion yuan (US$ 100 billion) in liquidity to fund the binge of travelling, shopping, drinking and gifting associated with Lunar New Year festivities.
As the stroke of midnight rings in the Year of the Goat next week (19 February), workers will be on their way home for the holiday, which runs until 5 March. Between the two dates, about 2.8 billion trips will be made, including 295 million by trains, according to government estimates.
Traditionally, Chinese spend the holiday with family, eating choice food, exchanging gifts, watching fireworks, and handing out ‘red envelopes’. At work, bosses will have handed out freshly printed cash, in varying amounts, stuffed in red envelopes to their employees. Parents will do the same with their kids, as will grandparents will their grandsons and granddaughters.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Finance Minister ‘Very Sceptical’ of Greece Deal
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Monday he is “very sceptical” that Greece can reach a new debt deal with its eurozone partners and described Athens’ behaviour as “irresponsible.”
“From what I’ve heard from the technical discussions, I’m very sceptical” that eurozone finance ministers will reach an agreement at a meeting in Brussels later on Monday, Schaeuble told German public radio.
Greece is demanding changes to a massive bailout of the debt-wracked country by international creditors.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Given Friday Deadline on Bailout Extension
Dijsselbloem says extending pact means room for future talks
(ANSA) — Brussels, February 16 — Greece must decide by Friday whether to seek an extension of its current bailout program if it wants to continue working with the Eurogroup of finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, chairman of the eurozone ministers, said Monday.
“The best way forward would be for the Greek authorities to seek an extension of the programme,” Dijsselbloem said after crisis meetings on the Greek situation. If Greece agrees to extend the program, then meetings could resume Friday on future “arrangements”, said Dijsselbloem.
“An extension is the only way forward,” added Pierre Moscovici, European Union commissioner for economic and financial affairs.
That came after leaders of Greece’s newly elected government said that an offer from ministers on its debt issues was “absurd” and “unacceptable”.
Premier Alexis Tsipras has proposed a new bailout program that would involve a bridge loan and help in refinancing and repaying massive amounts of debt without the arduous conditions imposed under the expiring plan.
Technical talks were held Friday and Saturday as well as a phone conversation between European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Tsipras aimed finding a new arrangement to replace the current pact that ends February 28.
As finance ministers gathered, Germany’s Wolfgang Schaeuble did not sound interested in shifting that country’s firm stance on demanding Greece live up to the current deal signed by Greece’s former government for a 240-billion-euro bailout.
“The decision is up to Greece,” on next steps, said Schaeuble, who in an interview early on Monday with German radio said that the new Greek government was acting “pretty irresponsibly”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Digs in Heels Ahead of Eurozone Talks
The new Greek government is maintaining its stance on privatisations and the need for extra time to negotiate a ‘bridge programme’, ahead of crunch talks with eurozone finance ministers on Monday (16 February).
The Eurogroup of finance ministers will gather at 15.00 Brussels time and the meeting is expected to last long into the night, as views differ on how to keep Greece in the eurozone and maintain the reforms pressure.
Germany, Finland, the Netherlands and Slovakia, say Athens needs to stick to the current programme which runs out on 28 February and get an extension, but only in return for delivering on the reforms that were promised by the previous Greek government.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Japan Economy Moves Out of Recession
2.2% growth against 3.7% forecasts
(ANSA) — Rome, February 16 — Japan’s economy moved out of recession in the fourth quarter of 2014, growing by an annualised 2.2% in the three months to December in a preliminary reading, compared to forecasts for a 3.7% increase.
The economy contracted in the two previous quarters.
Japan has been recovering from a sales tax hike, which dampened spending.
The economy grew 0.6% in the period from the previous quarter, but that also fell below forecasts of 0.9% growth.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Krona Continues to Weaken
After the Swedish Central Bank decided last week to introduce negative main (repo) interest rates, the Swedish krona weakened considerably.
One US dollar is now worth over nine Swedish kronor and one euro is worth over ten kronor. This is expected to be a blow to Swedish vacationers travelling abroad this summer.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine’s Credit Rating Downgraded to CC by Fitch
Despite IMF aid plan. Iatseniuk, inflation rate 26%
(ANSA) — MOSCOW — Global ratings agency Fitch, US based, downgraded the sovereign credit rating of Ukraine from CCC to CC, a short step from default, despite the financial aid plan aimed at supporting Kiev, which the IMF announced Thursday. The news was reported in Kiev on the eve of the beginning of the cease-fire in eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian government expects that inflation could reach 26% in 2015, according to Ukrainian prime minister Arseni Iatseniuk, quoted by local media.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Deputies: Hundreds of Teens Storm Ocoee Theater
There was a chaotic scene at an Ocoee movie theater, after deputies said hundreds of teens stormed the building, trying to get in for free.
The incident happened Saturday night at the AMC Theater at the West Oaks Mall.
Investigators said up to 900 middle and high school students tried storming the theater.
[…]
“(It’s) a big concern to us that are juveniles are doing this at such an early age,” said Orange County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Paul Hopkins.
Investigators said as the crowd was being taken from the area, several fights broke out in the parking lot.
Gunfire could be heard at one point and someone was robbed.
“Everybody just started scattering, ducking underneath the seats,” said movie-goer Kenny Johnson. “It was a scary moment.”
“These are middle to high school kids who have guns, who are shooting guns, are robbing people, driving stolen cars and they have drugs in their cars,” Hopkins said.
[And if Obama had 900 sons … — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Former DIA Chief Flynn Calls for Global War on Islamic Extremists
The respected general tells Congress it’s time to launch—and fund—a war that will last generations. Authorize the use of military force against ISIS? Yeah. And then some.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Geert Wilders to Keynote Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest in Texas
Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders will deliver the keynote address at the Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest being held on May 3rd, in Garland, Texas. The Art Exhibit is being put on by Pamela Geller’s American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI). It will be put on at the same facility in Garland as the Honor the Prophet Conference that was held by a pro-Islamic group in January.
| [Return to headlines] |
Last week President Obama sent Congress legislation to authorize him to use force against ISIS “and associated persons and forces” anywhere in the world for the next three years. This is a blank check for the president to start as many new wars as he wishes, and it appears Congress will go along with this dangerous and costly scheme.
Already the military budget for next year is equal to all but the very peak spending levels during the Vietnam war and the Reagan military build-up, according to the Project on Defense Alternatives. Does anyone want to guess how much will be added to military spending as a result of this new war authorization?…
If this new request is not bad enough, the president has announced that he would be sending 600 troops into Ukraine next month, supposedly to help train that country’s military. Just as the Europeans seem to have been able to negotiate a ceasefire between the opposing sides in that civil war, President Obama plans to pour gasoline on the fire by sending in the US military. The ceasefire agreement signed last week includes a demand that all foreign military forces leave Ukraine. I think that is a good idea and will go a long way to reduce the tensions. But why does Obama think that restriction does not apply to us?
[Comment: So, funnel weapons to ISIS via Libya, Turkey — now ask Congress for war powers. How about first drying up the weapons supply?]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mother Asks Cop to Help Son Stay Out of Trouble, Cop Chains Him to a Pole, Beats, Electrocutes Him
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
A mother in Richmond County, concerned that her son was falling into bad company, asked a local Sheriff’s deputy to help set the 12-year-old boy on a straight path by talking to him. Instead, the cop opted to handcuff the child to a pole and beat him senseless.
Deputy Alton Walter has been fired and arrested following the incident, during which he is also alleged to have electrocuted the child with a taser.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Hoax: Is it Really ‘Open Season’ on Islam in America?
Amid heightened tensions gripping the nation after three Muslim students were slain in Chapel Hill, N.C., a Texas student has admitted she lied when she told police a white man targeted her because of her Muslim beliefs.
The unidentified University of Texas-Arlington student told police a white male driving a white Ford pickup with a Texas flag on the antenna followed her for six miles Wednesday morning before getting out of the vehicle and pointing a gun at her, the Dallas Morning News reported.
She offered specific details about the assailant’s attire, even noting that he had a black bracelet and a wooden, beaded bracelet on one wrist.
The man, she said, fled the scene after threatening her.
After the woman filed the complaint, police increased patrols on campus.
The student even posted the allegations on her Facebook page, saying the man may have targeted her because she is Muslim and referencing the Chapel Hill slayings, according to the Morning News.
But it was all a hoax.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
No Drone Delivery Under New US Aviation Authority Rules
The government proposed long-awaited rules on Sunday to usher in an era of commercial drones zipping through US skies, but packages from these unmanned aircraft will not be landing on doorsteps any time soon.
But the proposal includes safety restrictions such as keeping drones within sight of operators at all times and no nighttime flights. That could mean no package or pizza deliveries by drone. Drones would also have to stay at least 5 miles away from an airport.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Shoots Down Amazon’s Drone Delivery Plans
New regulations from the Federal Aviation Authority will make it impossible for companies to use drones as delivery vehicles.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
After Copenhagen: Evaluating Threat of Terrorism in Sweden
Prime Minister Stefan Löfven told Swedish Radio News Sunday evening that Sweden will re-examine its level of preparedness after the terrorist attacks in Copenhagen.
Löfven said that even though Sweden’s level of preparation for terrorist attacks is good, more can be done.
“What more can we do, and strengthen security at synagogues and schools and obviously mosques, how does security need to be improved. It is always in progress and when this sort of thing happens it naturally leads us to think more about it,” Löfven said.
The proposal to make it illegal to travel abroad and fight for terrorist organizations is one of the initiatives aimed at making Sweden more prepared against terrorist threats.
But Löfven also said that it is important to improve the dialogue within civil society.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
After Anti-Terror Raids, Man in Britain Charged With Attempting to Obtain Chemical Weapon
British police say a man from northwest England has been charged with trying to obtain a chemical weapon.
Greater Manchester Police says Mohammed Ammer Ali, from Liverpool, was arrested after officers raid properties in the city last week as part of a counter-terrorism operation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Baby Slump Puts Italy at Risk of ‘Dying’
Divine or not, Pope Francis has good sources. A day after he called married couples “selfish” for not having children, it emerged that Italians gave birth to fewer babies last year than at any time since the formation of the state in 1861.
In 2014, there were just 509,000 live births, while deaths were 17 per cent higher at 597,000 — leading the health minister Beatrice Lorenzin to warn that “we are very close to the threshold of non-renewal… we are a dying country”.
Press reports of the announcement from Istat, the national statistics office, blamed the new low on the poor state of the Italian economy, which has been shrinking for three years now.
In fact, Italy’s fertility rate — an estimate of how many children an average woman is likely to have — is much lower than replacement level. Just over 2 children per woman will maintain a population in the long term, but the current rate in Italy is only 1.39 children per woman.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cartoonist Goes Into Hiding After Copenhagen Attacks
Copenhagen, Denmark (CNN) [Breaking news update, posted at 1:40 p.m.]
(CNN) — Lars Vilks, the Swedish cartoonist who escaped the deadly attack in Copenhagen on Saturday, confirms to CNN he has gone into hiding. He doesn’t want to say when he first went into hiding and says he is not afraid.
[Previous story, posted at 12:39 p.m.]
Two deadly attacks. A fatal police shootout. And yet another European country grappling with apparent terrorism at home.
The serenity of Denmark’s capital was shattered over the weekend when a gunman opened fire at a free speech forum before shooting several people outside a synagogue and then firing at police.
The suspect has been named as Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein, Reuters and Danish news outlet TV2 reported. Police have not formally identified the gunman.
Meanwhile, new charges have been filed against two men who were accused Sunday of helping to hide the gunman, the men’s attorney said Monday.
Lawyer Michael Eriksen said the men, ages 19 and 22, were charged Monday with two counts of accessory to murder and five counts of accessory to attempted murder.
[It’s those @#!!&!! jihadist varmints that should be going into hiding, not Lars. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Charlie Hebdo Books Top the Charts in France
It’s the best selling comic book in France on Amazon. Hell, it’s the tenth best selling book.
But the tribute volume to Charlie Hebdo, La BD Est Charlie (Comics Are Charlie), a joint publication by a number of French publishers, is rocketing in sales and is the best selling comic of the year, ahead of its release this week.
The volume collects 200 drawings by cartoonists in response to the tragic events. All profits will go to the families, and designers, publishers, broadcasters, printers, paper manufacturers and distributors are all working on the book without profit. If you were looking to support the magazine, this would be a very good way.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Copenhagen: Exodus to Israel ‘Not a Solution’, German Jews
‘Perpatrators attacking European democracy as a whole’
(ANSAmed) — BERLIN, FEBRUARY 16 — Fleeing to Israel is not a solution to the threat of terrorism, the head of the Munich Jewish community, Charlotte Knobloch, said Monday. Terrorist attacks “threaten European democracy as a whole”, she said. “Those in Europe who attack Jews attack all European society and its liberal values.” The head of the Central Council of German Jews, Josef Schuster, called for heightened security.
“Terror has reached the heart of Europe,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Czech Republic: Brno Has Anti-Islam Rally for Valentine’s Day
Anti-Islam demonstration of 600 in Czech second city occurs without problems
Brno, Feb 14 (CTK) — Some 600 people took part in an anti-Islam demonstration according to the Czech News Agency’s estimate today and they were freely mingling with the participants in a separate rally of some 200 supporters of tolerance and religious freedom, causing no problems.
The two sides were quarrelling about whether Islam, or intolerance is a greater threat.
The first event was called by the initiative We do not want Islam in the Czech Republic. Its representative Martin Konvicka said Islam is a “stupidity,” a “terrible patchwork” and a “stupid teaching.”
Konvicka said there is no room for Islam in the Czech Republic. “People will defend themselves,” he said.
Former lawmaker Jana Volfová and other speakers spoke similarly.
The organizers chose today, Saint Valentine’s Day, on purpose because they claim that it is inadmissible in Islam to celebrate the holiday of love.
However, instead of bringing love symbols, the participants branded posters against Islam and with Czech and Moravian flags. The main emblem of the event was a crossed-out mosque with a minaret.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Jews Have Always Been Proud — But Now They’re Starting to Worry
Danish Jew Dan Uzan, 37, was guarding a celebration at a community building near Copenhagen’s main synagogue when he was shot dead on Saturday night in an attack that shocked the city and the world.
TLV1 radio show “So Much to Say” interviewed David Lexner, a close childhood friend of Uzan.
“Danish Jews have traditionally felt proud to be Danish and they’re very integrated, but the recent decline of personal safety — (Saturday’s) incident was by no means the first — is starting to get to people,” says Lexner
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Muslim Youths Screaming “Allahu Akbar” Say They’re “Brothers” To Jihad Murderer
They removed flowers from the site where he was killed, saying that it was not Islamic tradition to lay flowers for the dead. But it is noteworthy that there were flowers at the site where Omar El-Hussein was killed at all. That shows support for his murders as much as does the removal of the flowers by these pious youth. Note also how they were claiming victim status, saying they were disenfranchised and discriminated against. The implied threat here is that the Danish will face more jihad murders unless they come across with more jizya.
“Youth removing flowers from murder site,” Nyhederne (translated), February 16, 2015 (thanks to Benedict):
Hooded young people have removed the lights and flowers from the terror-suspect’s murder site on Svanevej in Copenhagen.
Young people have removed the flowers while explaining that they were “brothers” to the 22-year-old killer Omar El-Hussein. The young people said that it was not Muslim tradition to lay flowers for the dead.
[…]
Police were also here in force, on the sidelines as the flowers were removed, but police did not intervene.
Then the young men shouted in unison, “God is Great” in Arabic, before they disappeared around the corner.
The young people put a white slip up in the flowers’ place that says:
“May Allah be merciful with you. Rest in peace.”
[Hope the cops got some pictures of those varmints. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Copenhagen Shooting Victims Remembered
The nation mourns the filmmaker and Jewish community activist who were the victims of the weekend’s attacks in Copenhagen.
Gunshots rang out on the normally peaceful streets of Copenhagen this weekend killing two Danes — a documentary filmmaker and a well-loved member of the Jewish community.
The lives of Finn Nørgaard, 55, and Dan Uzan, 37, were cut short in a rampage that police said could be traced to a lone 22-year-old gunman, identified by the media as Denmark-born Omar El-Hussein.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Two Charged for Aiding Copenhagen Gunman
Two men are charged with having helped presumed gunman Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein obtain the weapons used in this weekend’s fatal attacks.
Two men have been charged with aiding the suspected gunman in the twin attacks in Denmark at the weekend, police confirmed on Monday.
A lawyer for one of the men had said earlier they were charged with helping the attacker get rid of his weapon and giving him somewhere to hide.
Police confirmed they had been charged with aiding and abetting the gunman but did not confirm the specific allegations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Two Men Charged With Helping Copenhagen Shooter
Although 22-year-old Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein acted alone during his weekend killing spree, which left two people dead and five wounded, police have now charged two men with being complicit in the attacks.
According to a statement released by Copenhagen Police, the two men, who were arrested yesterday and charged this morning, helped El-Hussein get his hands on the weapon he used during the attacks on Krudttønden and at the synagogue on Krystalgade over the weekend and provided asylum for him after the attacks.
Police say that they still would like to hear from other witnesses.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Omar El-Hussein: Copenhagen Criminal to Prison Radical
Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein has been widely named as the gunman who killed two people and wounded five at a cultural centre and synagogue in the Danish capital.
El-Hussein was not an immigrant. He was of Palestinian descent but his parents settled in Denmark before he was born. Like the gunmen in Paris, he turned against the country of his birth.
Classmates who spoke to the Ekstra Bladet newspaper (in Danish) remembered a loner with a hot temper who loved to discuss Islam and the Israel-Palestine conflict. He was not afraid to voice a hatred of Jews, said one.
But things took a much more serious turn in November 2013 when El-Hussein stabbed a 19-year-old man on a subway train. He evaded capture but was arrested by chance two months later in connection with a burglary, the Politiken newspaper reported (in Danish).
He escaped an attempted murder charge, convicted instead of grievous bodily harm and sentenced to two years in prison.
It was there, it seems, that El-Hussein lurched towards the radicalised youth that police suspect murdered two people on Saturday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Thousands Rally in Copenhagen to Commemorate Shooting Victims
Tens of thousands of Danes have attended a memorial rally in Copenhagen for the two victims killed in twin shootings on the weekend. The gathering took place near the scene of the first attack.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Institutions’ Flags Fly at Half Mast for Denmark
The EU institutions’ flags are flying at half mast out of solidarity for the victims of the attacks on a synagogue and free-speech event in Copenhagen over the weekend. Danish EU commissioner Margrethe Vestager will attend a memorial event on Monday in the Danish capital on the commission’s behalf.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
European Languages Linked to Migration From the East
Large ancient-DNA study uncovers population that moved westwards 4,500 years ago.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Exclusive: I Won’t Let Copenhagen Attacks Scare Me, Cartoonist Vilks Says
Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who believes he was the main target of Saturday’s terror attack on a free speech event in Copenhagen, on Sunday told FRANCE 24 that terrorists “must realise their project is meaningless”.
“I’m not going to let this attack scare me. I’m going to continue just like I always have,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France Urges Jews to Ignore Netanyahu’s Call
French PM Manuel Valls told France’s Jews to ignore Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, who had called for them to return “home” to Israel. Valls was speaking after hundreds of Jewish tombs were vandalised in the latest shocking anti-Semitic act in France.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Monday urged France’s Jews to stay in the country after a fresh call by the Israeli premier for European Jews to emigrate to Israel.
“My message to French Jews is the following: France is wounded with you and France does not want you to leave,” Valls said.
French President François Hollande also urged Jews to not to emigrate.
“Jews have their place in Europe and in particular in France”, Hollande said.
Their comments came after two people were killed in shootings in Copenhagen at the weekend that targeted a cultural centre and a synagogue, in a strike that may have been inspired by last month’s Paris attacks.
Those attacks left 17 people dead, including four men who were taken hostage by an Islamist gunman at a kosher supermarket.
France’s interior minister also said Sunday that several hundred tombs had been defaced at a Jewish cemetery in the east of the country in what he called a “despicable act”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Ten Hours Walking in Paris as a Jew
An online video of a kippa-clad Jewish reporter walking through the streets of Paris and receiving insults has been viewed over 100,000 times within the space of 24 hours.
In “Ten hours of walking in Paris as a Jew”, Zvika Klein, a reporter for Israeli news website NRG, dons a kippah, or yarmulke, in front of the Eiffel Tower before wandering around the French capital secretly filmed by a colleague and protected by a nearby “bodyguard”.
While he sparked little reaction in the city centre, he claimed to receive “hateful stares, belligerent remarks, and hostile body language” in suburban areas with a high Muslim population that were “at times like walking in downtown Ramallah”.
In one filmed sequence, a group of suburban youths can be heard saying: “Arsehole. He’s gonna get fxxxxx from the front and back. You’re going to get screwed around here brother.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Anti-Euro Party AfD Enters State Parliament in Hamburg
Anti-euro party Alternative fuer Deutschland on Sunday for the first time entered a state parliament in the western part of Germany, continuing its push into the political mainstream.
With 6.1 percent of the votes in elections for the state parliament of Hamburg, the two-year-old party secured an important symbolic victory, as well as representation in the second largest city of the country.
Hans-Olaf Henkel, member of the European Parliament for Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD), told German tv that the victory showed the AfD could win all over Germany.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Anti-Islamization Movement Faces Uncertain Future
by Soeren Kern
“Wherever it goes now, in many respects PEGIDA has already served part of its purpose, in starting a debate on immigration, citizenship, and integration that has been silent for decades… Perhaps it could even kick-start a new era of openness and discussion in Britain too.” — Oliver Lane, British commentator.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of Tombs Defaced in Jewish Cemetery in France
France’s interior minister said Sunday several hundred tombs had been defaced at a Jewish cemetery in the east of the country, in what he called “a despicable act”.
“The country will not tolerate this new injury which goes against the values that all French people share,” said Bernard Cazeneuve without giving further details of the incident in the town of Sarre-Union.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islam and West Are Not at War, Says Danish PM
(AGI) Copenhagen, Feb 15 — Denmark’s prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, said on Sunday that the motives leading a gunman to open fire in two separate attacks in Copenhagen, killing two people and injuring five, are still unknown. The suspected terrorist, whose identity has not yet been revealed, was shot and killed on Sunday morning by Danish police. The authorities had released security camera images to help locate the perpetrator, who was described as male, aged between 25 and 30, and with an “Arabic appearance”. “We don’t know the motive for the attacks but we know that there are forces that want to harm Denmark, that want to crush our freedom of expression, our belief in liberty”, Thorning-Schmidt said during a press conference. “We are not facing a fight between Islam and the West, it is not a fight between Muslims and non-Muslims. It is a battle between ideas based on freedom of the individual and a dark ideology”, she affirmed.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Six Cited Over Unopened Calabria Cardiac Centre
Specialist structure causes ‘40 mln loss to the public purse’
(ANSA) — Reggio Calabria, February 12 — Six public officials have been reported to the state audit court for alleged loss to the public purse of approximately 40 million euros in relation to the creation of a specialist heart centre that has never opened, finance police said Thursday.
The specialist centre for cardiac disorders in the Bianchi-Melacrino-Morelli hospital in the southern city of Reggio Calabria was completed in December 2011 at a cost of over 18 million euros. To this must be added over seven million euros per year of lost savings to the regional health authorities, finance police said. Lack of resources to hire specialist medical personnel to staff the centre is allegedly one of the reasons for its failure to open.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Florentine School’s Site Hacked by Islamic Group
Link to video ‘The truth will prevail’
(ANSA) — Florence, February 16 — Carabinieri police on Monday were investigating how the website of a high school in the Florentine suburb of Scandicci was hacked by a group calling itself the Moroccan Islamic Union Mail.
The incident is being probed to “understand where the violation comes from”, investigators said.
The website of the school, the Istituto Comprensivo Scandicci Uno, was hacked on Sunday afternoon.
The hackers took over the web page, posting a video on the “supremacy of the Muslim religion” under the hashtag #the truth will prevail.
The video, which was also posted to YouTube, “does not include defaming news nor hails terrorism”, investigators said. The web page displayed a message saying the hackers did “not want muscle flexing” but just vied “to get our message across”.
Education Undersecretary Gabriele Toccafondi on Monday said authorities were trying “to understand the nature of the incident”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Fear Should Not Prompt Jews to Emigrate, Community Leader
President of Italian Jewish communities, leaving ‘free choice’
(ANSA) — Rome, February 16 — Jews should not be “forced by fear” to emigrate, the president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, Renzo Gattegna, said Monday in the wake of a new call by Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu on European Jews to move to Israel following two deadly attacks in Copenhagen.
“Staying or leaving should be a free choice” for Jews, a right “as for all other citizens”, Gattegna told State television Rainews24.
Italian Jews have lived in the country “for 2,200 years” and intend to remain a part of Italy, he also said.
A Danish jihadi on Sunday murdered two people in separate attacks in Copenhagen.
The victims are film director Finn Norgaard, who was attending a free-speech debate, and Dan Uzan, 37, a long-time member of the local Jewish community who was shot dead while on security duty outside the synagogue as some 80 people inside were celebrating a girl’s bat mitzvah, a coming-of-age religious ceremony.
Danish investigators believe the suspected gunman — identified as Omar El-Hussein, 22, who was shot dead by police — could have been inspired by attacks in Paris last month on the Charlie Hebdo magazine, a Jewish kosher supermarket and a policewoman that claimed 17 lives. On Sunday, Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu called on European Jews to move to Israel.
“Israel is your home”, he said in a statement.
“We are preparing and calling for the absorption of mass immigration from Europe”, the premier added, repeating a call he made following the Paris attacks in January, when four Jews were among the victims.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Friuli School Principal Bans Islamic Veil
‘To avoid racism as well as provocation’
(ANSA) — Udine, February 16 — The principal of a high school in the north-eastern Italian town of Cervignano del Friuli has banned the Islamic veil for students “to avoid racism and provocation”, local newspaper Messaggero Veneto reported on Monday.
Aldo Durì, principal of the “Malignani” institute near Udine, issued on February 11 a document forbidding female Muslim students from wearing the veil in school, although the news only emerged on Monday.
In the document, Durì wrote that “since jihadists from ISIS have unleashed, with the brutality of their attacks, a ‘total war’ against the West, Shiites, all kinds of ‘infidels’, including moderate Sunnis, pursuing the crazy idea to restore an Islamic caliphate, anti-Muslim and anti-Arab sentiments have spread among our students”.
The principal noted that the school includes a numerous Arab community.
Recalling a recent attack by an Italian student against an Egyptian classmate, Durì stressed that “religious wars don’t exist and must not exist in schools”.
Durì noted that Italian schools are secular and “indifferent to the religion of students and their families” and that the “ostentation and exhibition, especially if imposed, of exterior signs of a religious confession can be taken as provocation and spark reactions of ostracism, disparagement or rejection”.
Durì also told ANSA that schools should not be a place to demonstrate ideologies, as well as political and religious ideas.
“The Islamic veil is only an example”, he said.
While stressing that he wants to persuade students to stop wearing the veil in class through dialogue “without dramatization”, the principal also called for legislation “banning all religious symbols from schools”, including those of Italy’s Catholic majority, as most classrooms in public schools have a crucifix on the wall.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘Je Suis Danois’ — Paris Stands With Copenhagen
Protesters in Paris turned up at the Danish embassy on Sunday to show support for Danes after the Copenhagen shootings. They carried placards that read “Nous Sommes Danois” (We are Danish), a take on the “Je Suis Charlie” slogan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Juan Carlos Appeals Against Belgian Woman’s Paternity Suit
The former King of Spain Juan Carlos, the father of the reigning Spanish monarch King Felipe, has decided to appeal against a paternity suit started by Belgium’s Ingrid Jeanne Sartiau. The lady is convinced Juan Carlos is her natural father and took the case to court. The Spanish court is expected to come out with a verdict by mid-March.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Fellow Inmates Want Breivik Out of Solitary
Inmates at Norway’s Skien prison are backing the campaign of far-Right terrorist Anders Behring Breivik to be released from solitary confinement, although only because they feel his treatment draws resources away from them.
“What people are talking about the most is the economics of it. It affects all of the other inmates,” he told Norway’s state broadcaster NRK. “He sits there; he has an entire cellblock to himself, with five empty cells around him. Everywhere else, there are cut-backs. He should be serve with the others. He is an ordinary prisoner.”
In February 2014, Breivik threatened to go on hunger strike if prison authorities did not grant him a long string of demands, including his request for his Playstation 2 to be upgraded to a newer model.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ski Jump: Watch Anders Fannemel Set the New World Record
Watch the moment Norway’s Anders Fannemel jumped 251.5 metres in Vikersund, breaking the ski jump world record for the second time in 24 hours.
Norwegian ski jumper Anders Fannemel has set a new world record in his sport after soaring 251.5 metres in the first round of the ski jump World Cup.
It was the second day in a row that a world record was set on the Vikersund hill, after Peter Prevc of Slovenia jumped 250 meters on Saturday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: CCOO Union Spent Millions on Trips, Food and Bonuses During Crisis Years
One of the trade sections of Comisiones Obreras (CCOO), Spain’s largest labor union, spent more than €14 million on meetings and travel, and €3.7 million on bonuses between 2008 and 2012, Spain’s worst crisis years, according to internal union accounts to which EL PAÍS has had access.
Members of Comfia, the union’s former banking branch — which has since been merged with the hospitality and commerce sections — presented their organization with restaurant bills worth tens of thousands of euros a year, very often for meals at expensive establishments frequented by economic elites.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Marbella’s ‘Amigo’ Salman
The Saudi royal family’s connection with Marbella dates back more than 40 years, when Prince Fahd, who would rule Saudi Arabia between 1982 and 2005, decided to vacation there, later building a number of luxury properties. Now the Mediterranean resort is celebrating the ascent to the throne of Salman bin Abdulaziz, known locally as amigo Salman, and no stranger to Marbella.
The Saudi royal family’s long-standing ties to Marbella have given rise to any number of stories: that the local branch of El Corte Ingle’s department store is at its disposal 24/7; that when it comes to town it brings with it hundreds of retainers, who all require the services of Marbella’s professionals and self-employed… There are no exact figures on the impact on the economy of Marbella, admits Chela Figueira, head of the town’s communication department, “but it’s evident they generate wealth.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Start-Up Muslim Party Eyes Local Ballots to Make Its Name in France
The Union of French Muslim Democrats (UDMF) has said it hopes to field candidates in eight cities in French elections next month, a modest objective for a young party with big ambitions.
The UDMF this week filed applications to run two candidates in the Parisian suburb of Bobigny as part of local elections in March, French media reported on Thursday. The relatively new political party said it planned to do the same in seven other ballot races, including in Marseille, Lyon and Nice.
Najib Azergui, who founded the UDMF in 2012, told the daily Le Parisian that his group wanted to give a voice to the country’s sizeable Muslim community, which struggles to find itself represented in the country’s mainstream parties.
Azergui, who teaches computer technology, denies that his party wants to implement Islamic sharia law in France. He said Islam was completely compatible with democratic values, pointing to France’s well-established Christian Democratic Party as an example of a political group with principles rooted in religion.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Stone Age Skeleton Judged Norway’s Oldest
The Stone Age skeleton found in Norway last summer could be as much as 8000 years old, archeologists now believe, making it by far the oldest ever discovered in the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Many Afraid at Jewish School in Stockholm
Many of the parents of children attending the Hillel Jewish school in Stockholm are afraid for their children’s safety after the attack on a synagogue in Copenhagen this weekend.
“We are all worried, we are scared to death,” one mother, who did not want to be identified, told news agency TT.
The children and parents approached the school cautiously on Monday morning. Classes are going on as scheduled, but it is far from a normal day.
Police stand guard outside the school but the police at the school would not say for how long the school will receive the extra protection.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Artist Vilks Says Shooting Was ‘Unreal’
Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who is believed to have been a target of the Copenhagen shootings, has described a feeling of incredulity after the attacks which left two dead and several wounded in Denmark over the weekend.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Jews ‘In Fear’ After Denmark Attacks
Jewish communities in Sweden were on their guard on Sunday following a deadly attack on a Copenhagen synagogue which followed an attack on an event featuring Swedish artist Lars Vilks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Cartoonist in Hiding After Shootings
A Swedish cartoonist believed to have been targeted in one of the Copenhagen shootings at the weekend has been sent into hiding, police said on Monday evening.
Lars Vilks — who has faced several death threats since his cartoon portraying the Prophet Mohammed as a dog was published in a Swedish newspaper in 2007 — already lives under constant police protection.
But police spokeswoman Ewa-Gun Westford said that Vilks’ home in Höganaes, southern Sweden, “is not a safe place. And he needs to be in a safe place”.
The move comes after the 68-year-old emerged unharmed when a gunman fired off dozens of rounds at a cultural centre hosting a forum on Islam and free speech on Saturday.
Vilks, whose security detail was at the event, escaped into the kitchen as the shots rang out.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Telling Tales in Proto-Indo-European
By Eric A. Powell
By the 19th century, linguists knew that all modern Indo-European languages descended from a single tongue. Called Proto-Indo-European, or PIE, it was spoken by a people who lived from roughly 4500 to 2500 B.C., and left no written texts. The question became, what did PIE sound like?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tension Athens-Berlin, Towards New Eurogroup Meeeting
‘Greek govt irresponsible’, Schaeuble. Friday possible new date
(ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 16 — A eurozone finance ministers’ meeting that began Monday afternoon in Brussels to seek a solution to the issue of Greek debt may fail to do so. Greek PM Alexis Tsipras has asked for more time, while German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble called Athens “irresponsible”. “I could also say that Germany is irresponsible. Who is irresponsible and who is responsible is subjective”, Ekathimerini quotes Greek government spokesman Gavriil Sakellaridis as saying. “But I do not want to drop to the level of insults.” “Nothing tangible happened during the weekend and so we are still waiting for Greece to explain to us in detail what it wants from us,” said Irish finance minister Michael Noonan, adding that another meeting may be held on Friday. “We do not have much hope that an agreement can be reached today” on Greece. EU sources concur. All the parties involved say that they seek an agreement, but divisions on what such an accord would entail remain.
“We do not want more loans,” Tsipras reiterated in an interview with the weekly Stern, since “time is needed, and not money, to bring in reforms.” Schaeuble responded on Deutschlandfunk Radio on Monday morning by saying that “I am sorry for the Greeks. They have elected a government that is behaving in a rather irresponsible way at the moment.” “Greece,” he added, “must understand that it cannot live beyond its means and continue to make proposals on how others have to pay even more.” Tsipras’s idea is “a win-win solution” for everyone involved, he told the German weekly, adding that German chancellor Angela Merkel is a “very kind woman” and “not at all severe as one would expect from how she is depicted in the media”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Three Quarters of Somali Children in Norway Poor
Three quarters of children of Somali origin in Norway now live in poverty, according to new figures from Statistics Norway, and numbers are on the rise.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Tipsy’ Danish Jihadist Fooled Police on Way to Kill Copenhagen Synagogue Security Guard
23 year old Danish born Muslim jihadist Omar Abdel Hamid El- Hussain, who was gunned down by Danish Police early Sunday morning, feigned being drunk, when he encountered police near his target, Copenhagen’s Great synagogue. That enabled him to murder Copenhagen Great Synagogue security guard, Dan Uzan. As posted earlier, 37-year old Uzan, Economcs graduate of the University of Copenhagen was the son of an Israeli father and Danish mother. He was hailed by those attending a Bat Mitzvah celebration at the synagogue as a hero for preventing further slaughter. Uzan, a volunteer at the Copenhagen synagogue was an Economist with the Danish Treasury. The Jewish Press reported what occurred in the run up to Hussein’s murderous attack that took the life of Uzan:…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Two Charged With Helping Danish Gunman
Omar El-Hussein, 22, killed two in Copenhagen
(ANSA) — Rome, February 16 — Danish police have charged two men with helping the homegrown lone wolf jihadi who shot dead two people in separate attacks in Copenhagen.
The suspected gunman, named by Danish media as Omar El-Hussein, 22, was shot dead by police after he attacked a free speech debate and a synagogue.
A film director and a Jewish man were killed and five police wounded.
The two men are charged with providing and disposing of the weapon, as well as with helping the gunman to hide.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Man Charged Over ‘Chemical Weapon’
A man from Liverpool has been charged with attempting to obtain a chemical weapon, police have said.
Mohammed Ammer Ali, 31, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in central London on Tuesday.
He was arrested on Wednesday, when officers from North West Counter Terrorism Unit and Merseyside Police searched five Merseyside addresses.
Officers have uncovered no plan or threat of an imminent attack either at home or abroad, police said.
The suspect is accused of attempting to have a chemical weapon in his possession between January 10 and February 12, contrary to the Criminal Attempts Act 1981 and the Chemical Weapons Act 1996.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Psychosis Five Times More Likely for Cannabis Users: Study
LONDON (AFP) — A British study released Monday suggested that the risk of psychosis was five times higher for regular users of cannabis, adding to a growing body of evidence linking drug use and mental health disorders.
The six-year study published in the medical journal The Lancet reported on 780 people living in south London, 410 of whom were being treated for conditions including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt’s Al-Sisi Takes Revenge for Slaughter of Coptic Christians by ISIS in Libya
Many were appalled by the video depicting the slaughter of Coptic Christians by masked ISIS supporters in war torn Libya. Unlike some in the West Wing and the State Department who wring their hands, condemn and deplore such savagery, after destabilizing Libya, President al-Sisi has shown he has the mettle to take revenge for the murders of Egyptian Coptic Christians. He launched immediate air attacks against the bases in Eastern Libya of the ISIS affiliated Jihadists. This despite the savage on-going war that Egypt is fighting against the ISIS affiliate in the Sinai, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis. While the National Security Council and State Department invite in Muslim Brotherhood leaders to discuss messaging to combat the rise of ISIS in the Middle East and North Africa, Al-Sisi is trying ousted President Morsi and hundreds of other MB leaders in Egypt for endeavoring to create an Islamic State. Like the UAE and Saudi Arabia, Egypt has designated the MB and affiliate in the US, the Council of American Islamic Relations, as terrorist organizations. Meanwhile, the White House issued a statement not identifying the religion of the murdered Coptic Christians. Even the UN did that. The savage murder of the 21 Coptic Christina hostages in Libya underscores the failure of the Administration’s policy of leading from behind. Confounding adoption of a strategy is the Administration’s refusal to identify the threat of Salafist Jihadist Islamic doctrine, virtually one and the same with that promoted by the MB and its supporters in the Muslim Ummah and here in the West.
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Bombs IS in Libya After Beheadings Video
Egypt says it has bombed Islamic State targets in Libya, hours after the group published video showing the apparent beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians.
State TV said the dawn strikes had targeted camps, training sites and weapons storage areas.
Libyan officials said Egypt had hit targets in the militant-held city of Derna in co-ordination with Libya.
A video emerged on Sunday showing militants forcing a group of men to the ground and decapitating them.
IS militants claim to have carried out several attacks in Libya, which is in effect without a government.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt’s military said Monday that it had launched airstrikes against ISIS-affiliated militants in Libya after a video purporting to show the mass beheading of Coptic Christian hostages surfaced Sunday.
A spokesman for the Armed Forces General Command announced the strikes on state radio Monday, marking the first time Cairo has publicly acknowledged taking military action in neighboring Libya, where extremist groups seen as a threat to both countries have taken root in recent years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Village Engulfed by Grief, Anger After 21 Christian Copts Beheaded in Libya
EL-AOUR, Egypt — This village of small mud alleys and brick homes is shattered by grief. Women draped in black are hoarse from screaming. Men sob in silence, at times shaking their heads as if to expel the horror from their minds.
Just last year, 13 young men from el-Aour, a Christian-majority farming community in Egypt’s Nile River Valley, traveled to neighboring Libya, among the tens of thousands of impoverished Egyptians seeking work there.
But they became victims of Libya’s chaos. They were among 21 Christians dragged off by militants in December and January. After nearly 50 days knowing nothing of their fate, their families on late Sunday saw their monstrous, videotaped last moments: The 21, wearing orange jumpsuits, were marched onto a Libyan beach, forced to kneel with a masked, knife-wielding militant standing behind each, and then beheaded.
The deaths touched everyone in the village’s population of around 3,400.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
For Pope, Copts Killed in Libya “Simply for the Fact That They Were Christians”
“The blood of our Christian brothers and sisters is a testimony which cries out to be heard. It makes no difference whether they be Catholics, Orthodox, Copts or Protestants. They are Christians! Their blood is one and the same. Their blood confesses Christ.”
Vatican City (AsiaNews) — The Copts killed in Libya “were killed simply for the fact that they were Christians”. Their testimony “cries out to be heard;” theirs is “the ecumenism of blood” that calls for movement forward on the path of unity, said Pope Francis as he expressed “feelings of profound sorrow” for the news that Egyptian Copts were killed by ISIS terrorists in Libya.
The Holy Father spoke about the killings during his meeting with John P. Chalmers, moderator of the Church of Scotland, and several representatives of the Church.
“I would now like to turn to my native tongue to express feelings of profound sorrow,” the pontiff said during his address. “Today, I read about the execution of those twenty-one or twenty-two Coptic Christians. Their only words were: ‘Jesus, help me!’“
“They were killed simply for the fact that they were Christians. You, my brother, in your words referred to what is happening in the land of Jesus. The blood of our Christian brothers and sisters is a testimony which cries out to be heard. It makes no difference whether they be Catholics, Orthodox, Copts or Protestants. They are Christians! Their blood is one and the same.”
“Their blood confesses Christ. As we recall these brothers and sisters who died only because they confessed Christ, I ask that we encourage each another to go forward with this ecumenism which is giving us strength, the ecumenism of blood. The martyrs belong to all Christians.”
After noting the good state of relations between the two Churches, Francis went to talk about the need for common witness. “In our globalized and often confused world,” the pope said, “a common Christian witness is a necessary requisite for the effectiveness of our efforts to evangelize.”
In fact, “We are pilgrims and we journey alongside one another. We need to learn to have ‘sincere trust in our fellow pilgrims, putting aside all suspicion or mistrust, and turn our gaze to what we are all seeking: the radiant peace of God’s face’ (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 244).”
Finally, “Faith and Christian witness are presently confronted by such great challenges that only by working together will we be able effectively to serve the human family and enable the light of Christ to reach every dark corner of our hearts and of our world. May the journey of reconciliation and peace between our communities continue to draw us closer, so that, prompted by the Holy Spirit, we may bring life to all, and bring it in abundance.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Beheading of Coptic Christians on Libyan Beach Brings Islamists to the Doorstep of Europe
The beheading of 21 Coptic Christians on a beach in Libya has brought Isis to the doorstep of Europe.
The mass murder, which provoked a volley of Egyptian air strikes on the group’s Libyan stronghold of Derna, realised long-held fears of militants reaching the Mediterranean coast.
Isis started in Iraq and now controls swathes of adjoining Syria, including along the Turkish border, as part of its so-called Islamic State.
Its ideology has spread much further, with pledges of allegiance from terrorist groups in Egypt, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Yemen and now Libya.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Bishop Stays in Libya, Bemoans Poor Islam Dialogue
Martinelli: ‘how can I leave Christians with no one?’
(ANSA) — Vatican City, February 16 — Italian Bishop Giovanni Martinelli said Monday that he was staying in Libya after Italy evacuated its citizens from the country overnight due to the threat posed by Islamist extremists. Martinelli, the apostolic vicar of Tripoli, also complained of a lack of dialogue with Islam after ISIS jihadists called the Italian government “crusaders” following Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni’s assertion that Rome was ready to take part in a UN-mandated military intervention in Libya. “I have to stay. How can I leave the Christians with no one?” Martinelli told Vatican radio.
“Oil, Libya’s oil wells, and those in the Persian Gulf and so on, are behind the jihadists”. When asked about the ISIS description of Premier Matteo Renzi’s government as “crusaders”, Martinelli commented: “I only say that a certain type of dialogue with the country, and with Islam in particular, has been lacking”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Citizens Return After ISIS Threat From Libya
Extremist warn they are ‘south of Rome’ as behead Copts
(ANSA) — Rome, February 16 — A group of around 60 Italians returned from Libya overnight after being evacuated because of security concerns about the advance of the Islamist jihadists in the North African nation. The group, including the ambassador to Tripoli, embassy staff and other Italians working in Libya, is set to land on an Air Force jet at the Pratica di Mare military base near Rome on Monday after being taken to the Sicilian port of Augusta by boat. On Monday Egypt launched air strikes against jihadists in Libya purporting to be linked to the Islamic State (ISIS) group after the released a video showing the beheading there of a number of Coptic Christian hostages. In the video, one of the jihadists warned Italy that ISIS was now “south of Rome” and not longer isolated to its bases in Syria and Iraq.
Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni has said Italy would be ready to take part in a United Nations-mandated military intervention in Libya, the coast of which is just some 800 kilometers from the southern tip of Italy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi Rules Out Libya Military Intervention for Now
Italy waiting for United Nations, says premier
(ANSA) — Rome, February 16 — Premier Matteo Renzi on Monday ruled out the prospect of Italy taking part in a military intervention in Libya for the time being, amid concerns about the advances made by Islamist extremists in the North African country. “It’s not the time for a military intervention,” Renzi told Mediaset television. The premier stressed, however, that he was happy that most other political parties had not spoken out when Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni mooted the possibility of Italy being involved in a UN-mandated intervention in Libya.
“We’ve been saying at every level that Libya is out of control for three years and we’ll keep doing so,” Renzi added.
“The international community has all the necessary instruments to intervene if it wants to. Our proposal is to wait for the UN Security Council. “The strength of the UN is decidedly superior to that of the radical militias”.
The leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) also appealed for calm.
“Wisdom, prudence and a sense of the situation is needed with regards to Libya,” Renzi said.
“The question is problematic and we’re following it with great concern and attention.
“But you cannot go from total indifference to hysteria”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Waiting for UN on Libya, Says Renzi
International community stronger than militias, says premier
(ANSA) — Rome, February 16 — Premier Matteo Renzi said Monday that Italy was waiting for the decision of the United Nations Security Council before making any moves in chaos-hit Libya. “We’ve been saying at every level that Libya is out of control for three years and we’ll keep doing so,” Renzi told Mediaset television. “The international community has all the necessary instruments to intervene if it wants to. Our proposal is to wait for the UN Security Council. The strength of the UN is decidedly superior to that of the radical militias”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy ‘Can’t Rule Out’ Threat of Jihadists From Libya
Italy’s Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti said on Sunday that the threat of jihadists making their way to Italy from Libya “can’t be ruled out” as the country pulled out staff from its embassy there and suspended operations over mounting insecurity.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan Condemns Daesh ‘Cowardly’ Execution of 21 Egyptians in Libya
AMMAN —— Jordan on Monday condemned the cowardly execution of 21 Egyptian Copts by Daesh terror group in Libya.
Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications and the Government Spokesperson Mohammad Momani said in a statement that Jordan strongly condemns the cowardly and brutal execution of 21 Egyptians, expressing condolences to the egyptian government and the families of the victims.
Momani called on the international community and regional countries, particularly Arabs and Muslims, to fight against the terror group.
On Sunday night, Daesh released a video showed the beheading of 21 Egyptians in Libya.
In response to the beheading of the Egyptians, Egypt’s air force bombed Daesh targets inside Libya on Monday, marking an escalation in Cairo’s battle against militants.
It was the first time Egypt confirmed launching air strikes against the group in neighbouring Libya, showing President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi is ready to expand his fight against Islamist militancy beyond Egypt’s borders.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: A UN Mandated Mission Necessary, Ad Says; ‘Malta’s Air, Sea Defences Should be Strengthened’
In a statement on the situation in Libya, the chairperson and deputy chairperson of Alternattiva Demokratika Arnold Cassola and Carmel Cacopardo, said that in view of the horrific situation in Libya and the danger on our doorstep, we cannot keep on watching passively at this unfolding drama.
The situation, AD said, is not only about two rival governments — one based in Tobruk (the internationally recognised government) and another one in Tripoli — but also about fighting forces linked to ISIS.
“In view of the fall of the cities of Derna and Sirte to ISIS-linked forces, we support the request of the Maltese and Italian governments for a UN mandated international intervention to re-establish law and order in Libya and to minimise danger in the country.
“It would be advisable that Malta’s air and sea defences are strengthened as well,” the two said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Military: 40-50 Terrorists Killed in Derna
Chief of Libyan air-force, Egyptian raids also on Bengasi, Sirte
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, FEBRUARY 16 — According to the chief of the Libyan air-force, Saqer al-Joroushi, “40-50” Isis terrorists were killed so far in raids over Derna, reported Libyan media.
Quoting other sources, Libyan media added that the head-quarters of the “Jebel” company, a site Isis has used as its “base”, was one of the targets in Derna. There have reportedly been four raids on the town. Egyptian air-attacks hit Isis camps in Bengasi and Sirte as well, al-Joroushi said according to the Libyan press. The general said he was instructed by the chief of military staff Abdel Razzak el Nazouri and by the head of “Operation dignity” Khalifa Haftar, to “cooperate” with the Egyptian army to target Isis posts.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Egypt Conducting 3rd Round of Airstrikes
ISIS and Ansar Al-Sharia in Derna hit in 2nd, spokesman
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, FEBRUARY 16 — After airstrikes at 4 AM Italian time and at 11 AM, Egypt is conducting another round of strikes on Libya, report sources in the country.
Positions held by local Islamic State (ISIS) affiliates and Ansar Al-Sharia were hit in the mid-morning strikes, said a spokesman for the Libyan air force.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Algeria and Tunisia Tighten Anti-ISIS Security
Concerns of possible contagion
(by Diego Minuti) (ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 16 — The situation in Libya is giving rise to concerns in neighboring nations of the impact that an Islamic State (ISIS) presence in the region may have. Having to deal with ISIS’s predominantly media-centered offensive are especially Tunisia and Algeria, both along Libya’s western border and which have long been struggling against homegrown Islamist groups. While the concerns are more or less the same, the situations are very different. Since the brutal 1990s civil war in Algeria, Islamist groups have been operating especially in the southern part of the country in remote, sparsely inhabited areas as well as forests and highlands and have faced an army with few qualms about how they are to be dealt with. In Tunisia, jihadist groups (initially affiliated with Salafis and later with the more extremist ‘takfiris’) are less organized but seeking greater influence and leadership. Many have reportedly headed to Libya in recent days to put their weapons at the disposal of the local ISIS affiliates. The interior ministry’s secretary of state for national security has said that about 500 ISIS combatants have returned to the country. Algeria has long been laboriously tightening its borders — which in the current situation means preventing foreign terrorists from coming into the country as well as Algerian fighters from leaving to join other extremists and possibly create an uncontrollable pocket of fundamentalism in danger of spreading.
The Libyan-Algerian border is sealed and terrorist groups (that for the moment consider as their leader Sheikh Droukdel, who has links to Al-Qaeda) are still a problem, but one that can be managed and kept under control without the fear of external contagion. The problem is not underestimated, and the border with Libyan is — along with that of Algiers — the area under the tightest control and heaviest militarization. The growth of ISIS’s presence in Libya continues nonetheless to concern the governments in Tunis and Algiers.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Militias in Tripoli Against Egyptian Raid, ‘Sisi Terrorist’
Military, 40-50 terrorists killed in Derna
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO — Fajr Libya, the coalition of Islamist leading militias in power in Tripoli, launched an appeal to demonstrate against “ raids carried out this morning by terrorist Abdel Fattah al Sisi and his air-force” in Libya. Fajr Libya advised Egyptians to abandon Libya to avoid reprisals. A message appeared on Fajr’s Facebook’s page: “Fajr Libya asks the Egyptian brothers working in Libya to leave the country within 48 hours to preserve their integrity in the face of reprisals susceptible of heightening tensions between our two brotherly nations”.
The General national congress (Gnc), Tripoli’s parliament, unrecognised by the international community, condemned Egyptian raids in Libya through a spokesman. “We firmly condemn the Egyptian attack against Derna and consider it an illegitimate aggression against our territory” said a Gnc spokesman during a press-conference broadcast by Al Jazeera. “The Egyptian forces did not consult us nor directly nor indirectly” he said.
According to the chief of the Libyan air-force, Saqer al-Joroushi, “40-50” Isis terrorists were killed so far in raids over Derna, reported Libyan media. Quoting other sources, Libyan media added that the head-quarters of the “Jebel” company, a site Isis has used as its “base”, was one of the targets in Derna. There have reportedly been four raids on the town. Egyptian air-attacks hit Isis camps in Bengasi and Sirte as well, al-Joroushi said according to the Libyan press. The general said he was instructed by the chief of military staff Abdel Razzak el Nazouri and by the head of “Operation dignity” Khalifa Haftar, to “cooperate” with the Egyptian army to target Isis posts.
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Pope Expresses Grief for Copts Murdered by ISIS
Murdered just for being Christian, says Francis
(ANSA) — Vatican City, February 16 — Pope Francis on Monday expressed his dismay at the murder of a number of Coptic Christians by Islamist extremists purporting to belong to ISIS in Libya. “I express my feelings today at the execution of the Coptic Christians,” the pope said. “They were murdered just because they were Christians… in the land of Jesus the blood of our Christian brothers is a testimony that shouts, whether they by Catholics, Orthodox, Copts or Lutherans doesn’t matter.
The blood is the same”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Renzi Talks to Sisi on Libyan Situation
Italian premier expresses condolences over slain Copts
(ANSA) — Rome, February 16 — Italian Premier Matteo Renzi had a long telephone conversation on Monday with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to discuss the war on terrorism and the situation in Libya, a government statement said. The leaders talked about the political and diplomatic steps to be taken at the United Nations Security Council to restore peace and security to the North African country. Renzi expressed his condolences and solidarity to Sisi after a number of Egyptian Coptic Christians were murdered by ISIS in Libya.
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Tunisia: Visitors Decrease (-21%) In January
With respect to 2014, three quarters of tourists north-African
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, FEBRUARY 16 — Tourism is slowing down in Tunisia: in January there were only 269,065 visitors, a 21% decrease with the respect to the same period of 2014, indicated data from the Ministry of Tourism, according to which, the slump compared with numbers relating to 2010, and therefore pre-revolutionary Tunisia, was of 19.2%. The latest estimates by the ministry for the first month of the year show that the majority of visitors have been north-African.
Maghrebis amount to three quarters of the total of tourists travelling to Tunisia. The highest number is represented by Libyans with 122,500 visitors, followed by Algerians with 72,798 and Moroccans with 3,306.
European tourists have decreased 39% with respect to January 2010 but taking into account last year’s numbers, the 60,275 visitors welcomed in January are more or less comparable to last year’s.
Going back to data from 2010, the decrease is higher for French (-50.1%), Italian (-37.4%), English (-24.4%) and German (-11.2%) visitors.
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UK Envoy: If Libya Fails it Could be Somalia on the Mediterranean
International efforts to resolve the crisis in Libya after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi must forge agreement between the warring parties to forestall the emergence of a failed state that could become a “Somalia-on-the-Mediterranean,” the UK government’s special envoy has urged.
Jonathan Powell, a veteran of the Northern Ireland peace process, warned in an interview that violent chaos in Libya will spread to its neighbours and to Europe and Britain if left unchecked.
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Bahrain Sends Jet Fighters to Enhance Jordan’s Anti-Daesh Campaign
AMMAN — A group of jet fighters from the Royal Bahraini Air Force arrived in Jordan on Sunday to support anti-terrorism efforts, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.
Earlier on Sunday, Bahrain had announced that it would send troops to Jordan to help in efforts to combat terrorism and extremism.
Manama’s decision came in line of mutual defence cooperation deals and “solid brotherly ties” between the two kingdoms, Petra reported.
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Iran Denies Report Supreme Leader Wrote Letter to Obama
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran has denied a report that its supreme leader wrote a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama, the Islamic Republic’s official news agency reported, as the country negotiates with world powers over its contested nuclear program.
The IRNA news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham as saying the report Saturday by the Wall Street Journal was “an unprofessional media game.”
“The U.S. president has a record of sending letters and in some cases Iran responded to his letters,” Afkham said Sunday. Neither she nor the IRNA report elaborated on her comments, though Afkham said Iran had no immediate plans to write Obama again.
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ISIS Has Momentum to Keep Expanding, General Garner Warns
There is an increasing probability ISIS will begin a new offensive in Iraq to try and expand their reach within the country, warns a former top U.S. official in Iraq.
Fox News National Security Analyst KT McFarland spoke to Army Gen. Jay Garner about the coalition’s strategy against the terror group.
“They are kind of in a stalemate in Syria … although it looks like they are making some movement in Iraq now, and I think you can see them beginning to nibble on the edges of other Arab Sunni countries, they are beginning to expand,” said Garner (Ret.), former Assistant Vice Chief of Staff of the Army.
This comes amid new concerns the Islamic State is taking control of territory only 5 miles from an Iraqi air base staffed by U.S. Marines.
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ISIS Empire: Smuggling, Shakedowns, Donations Feed Swelling Terror Budget
As the Islamic State seeks to export its brand of barbaric terror to would-be affiliates, the U.S. faces a growing challenge to find the sources of ISIS funding and blunt its flow to allied militants.
“We know that oil revenue is no longer the lead source of their income in dollars,” Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said recently.
But he added: “They get a lot of donations. They also have a significant black market program.” How much money ISIS truly makes from donations is a matter of debate. But experts agree that ISIS receives significant revenue from black-market smuggling and other operations.
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Italian Among ISIS Propaganda Experts, Says Anonymous
(AGI) Rome, Feb 11 — There is an Italian among the propaganda experts working for Islamic State, AGI press agency was told by a member of the hacker group Anonymous. The Italian is abroad and could be part of the “support team” or even one of the group’s computer experts, said the hacker who works with the group which is hunting down distributors of jihadist propaganda. “We are checking it out; we still don’t know his specific role, the only sure thing is that he is an Italian national,” the source said on Wednesday. Anonymous is working to destroy ISIS propaganda on the Internet and have shut down more than 500 social media accounts of the jihadist group in the last 24 hours, he said. “We have had a goal since the beginning: dismember the ISIS and Al-Qaeda networks on the Internet, their networks as well as their propaganda. We target their social media accounts and their websites.” Anonymous has identified a “technical leader” of ISIS, a Tunisian whose personal data and photos they have posted online. “He is not a propaganda promoter but the administrator of at least two sites linked to ISIS. We want to first of all find their website administrators; we are working hard and sometimes it’s not difficult to close down a site although we don’t only want to put their websites off-line but also find who operates them,” he said. The jihadists use systems like TOR and VPN [Editor’s note: the former is used to navigate anonymously and access the “depth” of the Web, and the latter is a private communication network]. “At times they make mistakes and we wait for them to commit an error in order to catch them,” the hacker explained.
“Their IP [Editor’s note: Internet Protocol address, which identifies the computer and its location] is not always concealed; we use extremely advanced techniques and have an international team made up of specialists that especially deal with smartphones.” He said they believed the group’s website administrators “are mainly in the Middle East and in North Africa but they have translators in every country”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Calls for Campaign Against ‘Violence Against Women’ While Honor Killings Remain Rampant
by Phyllis Chesler
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has announced an “extensive campaign against violence against women across the country, in the aftermath of the brutal murder of a university student in an attempted rape on a public minibus.”
Three men, now in custody, have been accused of stabbing twenty-year-old Ozgecan Aslan to death and then burning her body.
However, violence against women in Turkey is not confined to stranger rape, stranger harassment, or stranger murder. On the contrary, intimate partner and family violence in terms of honor killings are rampant.
According to the Turkish Cultural Foundation, honor killing is similar to “domestic violence,” “knows no geographical boundaries…is not the preserve of any particular race,” but “emanates from cultural and not religious roots.” The report, based on a lecture delivered by Zulfi Livanelli, a member of the Turkish Parliament, notes that “domestic violence” is escalating in Europe—with no acknowledgement that honor killings in Europe— which may, wrongfully, be counted as incidents of domestic violence— are mainlycommitted by Muslims (from Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc.), and not by Jews, Hindus, or Christians.
An honor killing is not at all like “domestic violence;” it is a family conspiracy against a female member, usually a teenage daughter, for a range of alleged crimes: refusing to veil, veiling improperly, standing too close to a non-relative male, talking to a boy or a man on a cellphone, refusing an arranged marriage, choosing infidel friends or husbands, etc.
| — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler | [Return to headlines] |
The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. Here’s what that means for its strategy—and for how to stop it.
Graeme Wood
The Islamic State supporters I spoke with still refer to Osama bin Laden as “Sheikh Osama,” a title of honor. But jihadism has evolved since al-Qaeda’s heyday, from about 1998 to 2003, and many jihadists disdain the group’s priorities and current leadership.
Bin Laden viewed his terrorism as a prologue to a caliphate he did not expect to see in his lifetime. His organization was flexible, operating as a geographically diffuse network of autonomous cells. The Islamic State, by contrast, requires territory to remain legitimate, and a top-down structure to rule it. (Its bureaucracy is divided into civil and military arms, and its territory into provinces.)
The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic. Yes, it has attracted psychopaths and adventure seekers, drawn largely from the disaffected populations of the Middle East and Europe. But the religion preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam.
Virtually every major decision and law promulgated by the Islamic State adheres to what it calls, in its press and pronouncements, and on its billboards, license plates, stationery, and coins, “the Prophetic methodology,” which means following the prophecy and example of Muhammad, in punctilious detail. Muslims can reject the Islamic State; nearly all do. But pretending that it isn’t actually a religious, millenarian group, with theology that must be understood to be combatted, has already led the United States to underestimate it and back foolish schemes to counter it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen: Law Against Child-Brides Also Hostage to Houthis
Constitutional provision on age-limit for marriage (18) at risk
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, FEBRUARY 16 — In the wake of the political and military chaos Yemen has plunged into in the last few weeks, there is a hostage scarcely talked about on the covers of the international media: the stolen adolescence of thousands of girls forced into arranged-marriages from the age of 10.
The dissolution of parliament on February 6 following the ascent to power of Houthi rebels puts on hold the hard-fought battle to set a legal minimum age for marriages. The limit was established at 18 years, in line with international standards, by a provision of article 124 of the new Constitution, born out of the national dialogue initiated in 2013 after the fall of president Ali Abdullah Al Salah. The provision put an end to a legislative void that allowed tribal law to dispose of the lives of young girls. Fathers driven by ignorance, tradition and poverty were granted the right to rule over the future of their daughters . Marrying off a daughter means receiving a dowery in exchange and these sums of money represent much needed relief for poverty-stricken families.
Newspaper Gulf News reports that after their take-over Houthis have not contested the new constitutional status. So far, at least.
The decision to introduce an age-limit was rapidly taken according to an account made by one of the members of the constitutional commission. Olfat Al Doubai told the Emirati newspaper that the provision was contested only by a handful of intransigent Islamists.
In the last three years, following the case of the “fugitive” bride who managed to escape from her forced marriage, the reality of “child-brides”, increasingly denounced by the international community, has become one of the most hotly contested topics in Yemeni society. Data provided by Human Rigth Watch, one of the most active human rights organizations on this topic, indicates that 14% of young Yemeni women become brides between the ages of 10 and 15 while 52% of them wears a wedding ring before the age of 18.
The consequences go beyond psychological shock and lead to permanent disablement. In some instances, girls died on their first wedding night or suffered irreparable injuries to their reproductive organs. In other case, several girls died a few months after their weddings on child-birth.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Cyber Bank Robbers Steal $1bn, Says Kaspersky Report
Up to 100 banks and financial institutions worldwide have been attacked in an “unprecedented cyber robbery”, claims a new report.
Computer security firm Kaspersky Lab estimates $1bn (£648m) has been stolen in the attacks, which it says started in 2013 and are still ongoing.
A cybercriminal gang with members from Russia, Ukraine and China is responsible, it said.
Kaspersky said it worked with Interpol and Europol on the investigation.
It said the attacks had taken place in 30 countries including financial firms in Russia, US, Germany, China, Ukraine and Canada.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fighting in Key Ukrainian Railway Hub Threatens to Scupper Cease-Fire
Fighting between government troops and Russian-backed separatist rebels in a crucial railway hub threatens to scupper the cease-fire in eastern Ukraine, a day before both parties are due to start withdrawing heavy weaponry under a recently brokered deal.
Ukrainian officials say that the separatists in the country’s east Sunday violated the cease-fire 111 times Sunday, resulting in the deaths of 5 soldiers and injuries to 25 more. On the other side, the rebels claimed 27 violations of the cease-fire by Kiev’s forces.
The most intense fighting remains centered around the key transport hub of Debaltseve, which connects the rebel-held cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hacking Ring Has Stolen Up to $1 Billion From US, European Banks, Report Says
A Russian-speaking cybercrime ring has stolen millions of dollars from banks in the U.S., Russia, and Eastern Europe, a cybersecurity firm has claimed in a report due to be published Monday.
The Russian security company Kaspersky Lab says the hackers have been active since at least the end of 2013 and hit at least 100 banks in over 30 countries. It is unclear exactly which banks were affected.
After gaining access to banks’ computers through phishing schemes and other methods, they lurk for months to learn the banks’ systems, taking screen shots and even video of employees using their computers, the company says.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Vows to Respond to ‘Illogical’ EU Sanctions
Moscow said on Monday it would respond to the latest EU sanctions over the Ukraine conflict which target several prominent figures including a popular singer, condemning them as “inconsistent and illogical”.
“Such decisions… will be followed by an appropriate response,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
“We note how inconsistent and illogical it is that every time that a hope appears of a solution to the crisis inside Ukraine, the European Union rushes to bring in new anti-Russian restrictions.”
The latest EU measures target five Russians including deputy defence ministers Anatoly Antonov and Arkady Bakhin, as well as Iosif Kobzon, an MP who is also a popular crooner often compared to Frank Sinatra.
The foreign ministry complained that the sanctions “go against common sense” and “look particularly ridiculous” after the European-mediated ceasefire agreement reached last week.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Religious Groups Take to the Streets to Protest Against Political Violence in Bangladesh
The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council organised a peaceful demonstration in Dhaka. “Our leaders should use politics for the welfare of the people, not to cause harm,” says a nun in Dinajpur.
Dhaka (AsiaNews) — “We strongly protest against any kind of political violence. We want to live in a peaceful Bangladesh. Our leaders should use politics for the welfare of the people, not to cause harm,” said Sister Benedicta Gomes Swapna, from the Catechist Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of Angels (CIC), a diocesan congregation in Dinajpur, who spoke to AsiaNews.
The nun, along with more than 500 people from all faiths, took part in a peaceful demonstration, last Friday, organised by the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, a human rights group that represents the country’s minorities. About 90 per cent of Bangladesh’s population is Muslim. Hindus are around 9 per cent and the rest are Christians and Buddhists.
“We do not want to see anarchy, atrocities, violence and killings,” said Nirmal Rozario, a member of the association. “We call on our political leaders to reach a peaceful solution. We want to live in a country in which the faithful of all religions can live side by side, in harmony and brotherhood.”
According to the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, a number of Islamists are involved in attacks against minority communities, especially Hindus, in order to drive them out of the country.
Since the start of the year, at least six Hindus have been killed, and three have been raped. Seven temples, 54 homes and 84 Hindu idols have also been attacked and vandalised, the Council said.
During the same period, about 90 people died in acts of political violence.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
2 Jurassic Mini-Mammals Discovered in China
The fossils, more than 160 million years old, preserve a tree-climber and a tunnel-digger that lived alongside the dinosaurs
Dinosaurs may have dominated the planet during the Jurassic Period, but they shared the landscape with little rodentlike creatures. Two new species of these pocket-size early mammals have been discovered in China — one was a horny-clawed tree-dweller, and the other was a tunnel-digger with shovel-like paws.
Researchers say these new specimens show that early mammals, though small, were surprisingly diverse.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chasing Ghosts: Where is China’s Next Wave of Empty ‘New Towns’?
As ghost towns — vast but largely vacant new housing projects — spring up all over China due to years of poor urban planning, overbuilding, slowing economic and population growth, the South China Morning Post’s multimedia “ghost town map” offers one perspective on where the new ghost towns may be in the next five years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Buy Dutch Nationalised Insurance Company Reaal
Dutch insurance company Reaal is being sold to China’s Anbang for €150m. Reaal is part of the SNS Reaal financial services group which was nationalised at the beginning of 2013 to stave off bankruptcy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Japan: New World Record Set for Building Snowmen
A new world record has been set in Japan for the most snowmen built in one hour.
More than 600 people helped to smash the old record by making 1,585 snowmen in the city of Iiyama, north-west of Tokyo, the Kyodo news agency reports. To count towards the record attempt, snowmen had to measure more than 90 cm and have facial features and ornamental arms, the agency says. No tools were used, aside from the traditional glove-covered hands. “It was tough because the snow crumbled, but I had fun,” says eight-year-old Ichika Oguchi, who took part along with her family.
Guinness World Records confirmed that Iiyama had beaten the previous record of 1,279 snowmen, set by more than 350 participants in the United States in 2011. Earlier this month, hundreds of people in the Canadian city of Ottawa bettered that number by building 1,299 snowmen in 60 minutes, but it wasn’t officially confirmed, and the title now belongs to Iiyama.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Peace be With You: 175 Years of Islam in Hong Kong
In an increasingly Islamophobic world, Hong Kong — with its 250,000 Muslim residents — is a rare example of peaceful cultural co-existence. Stuart Heaver charts the Islamic community’s history in the city
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Study: Junk Food More Deadly Than War, Famine, Genocide
You may already know that junk food is bad for your health, but you may not realize how bad it can be. A new study from the School of Medical Sciences at Australia’s University of New South Wales points to profound brain changes that junk food causes, making a junk food habit “more deadly than war, famine, and genocide”.
Say what? Yep, the food war is real, and though the UNSW study was conducted on rats, the brain changes observed matter to us humans. As mammals we share similar brain functioning in the orbitofrontal cortex, the part of our gray matter responsible for sensing and evaluating the pleasurable aspects of food.
Makers of junk food know it is highly addictive, but the UNSW study proves unequivocally that junk food alters behavior by causing near-permanent changes in the brain’s reward circuiting, an alteration that can trigger obesity.
[…]
While mammals developed a natural trigger over our evolutionary history which prevents us from over-eating, a phenomenon termed “sensory-specific satiety,” the consumption of junk food overrides this natural ‘kill’ switch that allows us to regulate the calories we consume.
Junk food consumption also causes mitochondrial dysfunction and tissue inflammation, which leads to a host of other diseases. Perhaps most troubling, though, is that these fake foods also mess with our internal motivation and reward system — which causes us to seek more nutrition-less junk. It’s like programming a time bomb and just waiting for it to blow.
Here Is What Happened In The Study
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Back to School in Liberia With Strict Anti-Ebola Hygiene
Schools reopened in Liberia on Monday for the first time in six months after being closed as a precaution against Ebola. Before classes children had to wash their hands and have their temperatures taken.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Resumes Aid to Zimbabwe With $270 Million Package
(HARARE) — The European Union on Monday unveiled a $270 million aid package to support Zimbabwe’s agriculture and health sectors, marking the resumption of direct funding after more than 10 years.
“We have made an important step in our cooperation with Zimbabwe,” EU ambassador Philippe Van Damme said at the signing ceremony for the aid programme.
Relations between Zimbabwe and the EU turned frosty following the 2002 elections, which foreign observers said were rigged to hand President Robert Mugabe victory.
The EU then slapped sanctions on Mugabe and members of his inner circle.
In recent years, the European bloc has lifted sanctions and travel bans on senior government individuals.
But Mugabe, who has ruled as prime minister then head of state since 1980, remains under targeted EU sanctions, with his wife Grace, entailing a travel ban and asset freeze.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Notorious ETA Killer Found in Venezuela
One of the most notorious Basque terrorists has been tracked down to his tropical hideout in Venezuela after more than six years on the run.
Iñaki de Juana Chaos, 59, was photographed by Spain´s El Mundo newspaper running an off-license in the Caribbean resort of Chichireviche. He is understood to be living there with his wife, Irati Aranzabal Zuloaga and their young child.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Editor’s Note: Back in July of 2014, at the height of President Obama’s officially authorized immigration invasion of the southern border, we and others warned that hundreds of thousands of undocumented individuals entering the United States would bring with them any number of communicable diseases. The idea was summarily rejected by the left as hate speech and conspiracy. And though the mainstream media failed to report it, our fears were initially confirmed when the President ordered civilian security forces to take over immigrant internment camps. It was widely reported at the time by alternative media that disease was, in fact, spreading wildly within these centers. Still the majority of the public supportive of open illegal immigration refused to believe it. But now, as their children start contracting the deadly measles virus — which by the way “popped out of nowhere” — maybe they’ll start rethinking how this virus got here.
The following analysis from Karl Denninger of Market Ticker shows that it is not only possible, but quite likely that the measles virus, and perhaps others, were brought into the United States by non other than undocumented illegal aliens.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Armed Migrant Smugglers Threatened Italian Coast Guard
Four smugglers brandishing Kalashnikovs threatened an Italian Coast Guard motorboat involved in one of several operations that rescued more than 2,000 migrants leaving Libyan shores on Sunday.
Italian Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi said the gunmen used a small boat to speed to the scene some 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the coast of Libya, where security is rapidly deteriorating.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Australia Asylum — How Detention is Harming Children’s Mental Health
A new report by Australia’s Human Rights Commission calls on Canberra to release all detained children of asylum seekers. Pediatrician Karen Zwi tells DW about how detention is causing them mental and physical illness.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
By Standards of Immigration Hawks, All 2016 GOP Contenders Support ‘Amnesty’
Anyone who has ever used the term “Shamnesty” — or, more likely, “SHAMNESTY!!!!” — is going to hate the likely 2016 GOP presidential field. All of it.
The immigration reform debate centers around many issues, but probably none is more explosive than what should be done about the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants currently residing in the United States. The loudest critics of comprehensive immigration reform in the Republican Party demand that there be no “amnesty,” which they define as any pathway to normalizing the immigration statuses of America’s illegal population, no matter whether those illegals would be forced to pay a financial penalty or even prevented from gaining citizenship.
Yet, despite the issue garnering so much ink, the reality is every major candidate supports an immigration policy that includes an “amnesty,” at least as defined by the GOP’s most ardent and vocal immigration hawks.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Canada Extends Millionaire Migration Deadline as Scheme Appears to Flop With Rich Chinese
Canada’s new millionaire migration scheme appears to have flopped amid doubts about its suitability for rich mainland Chinese, forcing authorities to quietly issue a lengthy extension to an application window which was supposed to have ended last week.
Canada’s defunct Immigrant Investor Programme (IIP), which the IIVC scheme replaces, was the world’s most popular wealth migration scheme, thanks mainly to rich Chinese applicants.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
On the road with a teenage Syrian refugee, traveling the underground railroad from Sicily to Sweden’s doorstep.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Emergency in Lampedusa, 800 Refugees in Hours
Rescue operation in Canal of Sicily, more migrants expected
(ANSAmed) — LAMPEDUSA (AGRIGENTO), FEB 16 — Hundreds of refugees from Libya, among which many women and children, are arriving in Lampedusa where the situation is critical.
Dozens of vessels have been rescued in the Canal of Sicily by freighters and coast guard cutters going back and forth between the canal and the island’s port in the last few hours. At the moment, the first reception centre, located in contrada Imbriacola, hosts over 800 migrants, two times its capacity, but other “arrivals” are expected in the next few hours. The last disembarkment occured this morning: 269 migrants docked aboard two coast guard cutters. Other 361 refugees in three coast guard cutters arrived during the night: first 120, then 116 followed by other 125 people. The refugees, all coming from countries of sub-Saharan Africa, are mostly Eritrean.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Two Arrests Following Attacks on Migrants in Central Athens
Two migrants were attacked in central Athens over the weekend by suspected Golden Dawn members, Efimerida ton Syntakton daily has reported.
Two of the suspects were arrested following the attacks on Saturday. The victims were a 21-year-old Bangladeshi man and a 26-year-old man from Pakistan. They were attacked in the Omonia area of downtown Athens. The Bangladeshi man said that he was attacked by three men who claimed they were Golden Dawn members.
The two men are due to be examined by doctors on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Coast Guard Rescues Over 2,000 Immigrants at Weekend
Libyan smugglers threaten agents with Kalashnikov rifles
(ANSA) — Rome, February 16 — Italian Coast Guard officials rescued over 2,000 illegal immigrants in a major sea operation at the weekend, while four Kalashnikov-wielding men from Libya threatened some of the rescue agents as they brought migrants on board the Coast Guard vessels. The armed men told the unarmed rescue agents to leave them their boat after they took the immigrants off, and they left with the empty boat after the rescue took place.
Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi called for international organizations in Libya to get involved, and said the events of the weekend were “an alarming fact, showing a jump in the smugglers’ expertise”.
On Monday, 800 immigrants disembarked in Lampedusa, most of whom were Eritrean and arrived by way of Libya.
Between Sunday and Monday, a total of 480 immigrants arrived at Pozzallo, near Ragusa, and 285 arrived at the port of Agusta, near Siracusa.
One Gambian man stopped by Ragusa police said he agreed to pilot one of the dinghies carrying hundreds of immigrants because he was offered free passage by the Libyans who organized the crossing.
An immigrant center in Imbriacola on the island of Lampedusa is already hosting more than 800 immigrants, double its capacity, but more immigrants are expected to arrive Monday.
Immigration continues to soar in southern Italian ports, and in the first 30 days of January, 3,538 immigrants disembarked on Italian soil, compared to 2,171 in the same period of 2014.
After Italy’s search and rescue operation Mare Nostrum ended in October of last year, EU border patrol agency Frontex initiated the Triton operation in November, which patrols only the waters close to Europe’s coast.
Frontex boats and planes have saved a third of the immigrants arriving in Italy since November, a total of 18,180 people, said Natasha Bertaud, a European Commission spokeswoman.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Gentiloni Asks EU for More Help With Migrants
‘Increased solidarity, sharing of responsibility’
(ANSA) — Rome, February 16 — Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni on Monday asked the EU for more funds and air and sea resources to control immigration in the Mediterranean. “It’s necessary more than ever that the EU respond in an adequate way, increasing solidarity and sharing of responsibility at a European level,” he wrote to EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans and the other six commissioners set to meet March 4 to discuss immigration.
Italy has been struggling to cope with migrant flows from militia-plagued Libya.
EU border agency Frontex’s Triton operation is smaller and worse equipped than the now-defunct Italian Mare Nostrum op that saved most migrants until it ended in November.
Italian Premier Matteo Renzi has ruled out reviving the prohibitively expensive Mare Nostrum and stressed the need to stop the chaos in Libya where the influence of Islamic State (ISIS) is spreading.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Rescues Over 2,000 Migrants
The Italian coastguard rescued more than 2,000 migrants off the island of Lampedusa over the weekend. In a new twist, after migrants had disembarked from one dinghy onto the coastguard vessel, four men with Kalashnikov rifles sped out from the Libyan coast and retook the empty vessel, reports the BBC.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Rescues More Than 2,000 Migrants Off Libyan Coast
The Italian coastguard launched a massive operation on Sunday to rescue more than 2,000 migrants in difficulty between the Italian island of Lampedusa and the Libyan coast, local media said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy and Malta Rescue More Than 2,000 Migrants Off Libyan Coast
Italian and Maltese rescue vessels have saved more than 2,000 migrants off the Libyan coast. Italy has been calling for more international help to rescue asylum seekers making the perilous Mediterranean journey.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Trafficker Jailed for 30 Years for Raping Migrants
A Somali trafficker who raped and attacked migrants he had led through the desert to Libya to make the perilous crossing to Italy has been sentenced to 30 years in prison by an Italian court, media reported.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Martian Mystery Cloud Defies Explanation
A mysterious plume that appeared on Mars in 2012 is testing scientists’ understanding of the Martian atmosphere.
Amateur astronomers spotted the bizarre feature rising off the edge of the red planet in March and April of 2012. It looked like a puff of dust coming off the surface, but it measured some 200 to 250 kilometres high. That is much higher than would be expected from the lower-altitude dust storms that rage across the planet.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mystery Cloud-Like Blobs Over Mars Baffle Astronomers
For space watchers, Mars is like a second home. Astronomers have been studying the Red Planet for centuries — the first map of the Martian surface was sketched 500 years ago. Since then, it has become the most surveyed planet in the solar system, besides Earth. We have sent over 50 robot explorers to patrol its surface and watch it from orbit, seven of which are operational on and around the Red Planet right this minute. It’s not for nothing that space aficionados quip that Mars is the only planet known to be inhabited solely by robots.
So it was that much more surprising when, on 12 March 2012, amateur astronomers around the world noticed a strange blob rising out of the planet’s southern hemisphere, soaring to 250 kilometres above the surface.
They watched for 11 days as it grew to around 1000 kilometres across, even stretching a “finger” out into space.
Nearly three years later, the sighting still defies explanation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The blood of those Egyptian Copts are on the hands of Obama, the US State Dept., other .gov Dhimmis, and the savages that did the killing. Obama and his .gov have destabilized most of the Middle East and this horrific crime is one product of that meddling.
It doesn’t matter what sort of appeasement is uttered by Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, because Muslims take their marching orders from the Koran.
But you can’t expect a insulated, self-absorbed secular elite to understand this. These fools live in a post-modern world where there is no right or wrong and no consequences for screwing up. Worse they think you can win Muzzies over with platitudes, glad handing and puerile nonsense like they do with their electorate.
It doesn’t work on Muzzies anymore than it does on alligators or Polar bears, all these beasts see is raw meat letting them know they are ready to be consumed.
>> Swedish Jews ‘In Fear’ After Denmark Attacks <<
Barbara Lerner Spectre's views on whether this is a justifiable fear will be interesting to hear.