Masked gunmen carrying Kalashnikovs opened fire on police when the police chief entered a culturally enriched housing estate in the French city of Marseille. Elite police units were dispatched to the scene to deal with the disgruntled activists. The incident (which had nothing to do with Islam) came just before a scheduled visit by Prime Minister Manuel Valls.
In other news, according to The Daily Mail, the Islamic State is facing a shortage of volunteers for suicide bombings.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, K, Nick, Papa Whiskey, Srdja Trifkovic, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Bank of Italy: Fall in Loans to Business, Households
Levels dropped in December 2014 compared with year earlier
(ANSA) — Rome, February 9 — Loans to businesses and households in Italy fell in December compared with the same time one year earlier, the Bank of Italy said Monday.
Private-sector loans fell by 1.6% compared with December 2013 but levels were basically unchanged from November, it added.
Loans to households fell by 0.5% year over year and loans to non-financial businesses dropped by 2.3% compared with December 2013, the central bank reported. Businesses have struggled to stay afloat amid an economic crisis and recession that date back to 2008.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Behind the Global Game of Thrones
Greek PM Alexis Tsipras yesterday laid out Syriza’s stance, and from what I saw he didn’t pull even one punch. Despite all the suggestions from the financial press throughout the past week that Tsipras and Varoufakis reneged on campaign promises to seek debt write-downs, they didn’t, and never have — other than perhaps in semantics.
Which I don’t find the slightest bit surprising. I would have been very surprised if they had. The misinterpretation, and the faulty expectations, are easily explained through the fact that — most of — these guys are not politicians, which they very deliberately expressed in the way they dressed for their meetings with ‘Europe’s finest’.
They don’t see the ‘space’ career politicians see to negotiate away the mandate their voters have given them. For them it’s simple: we were elected on our program — which in this case happens to be to end the misery forced upon Greece by the European and Troika schemes — and we’re not going to move away from that just because ‘the other side’ starts threatening us, or (a crucial difference in politics) because our voters may not vote for us again in a next election.
In their view, trying to scare Greece into even more submission, which is the overlying message emanating from Brussels and beyond, is entirely null and void because Greece can’t — and shouldn’t — sink any lower than it has. Very and refreshingly simple. No surprise there, but, at least on my part, just support and admiration. Syriza is fighting the fight many others don’t have the intellect, the chutzpah and/or the courage for.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Italy and Portugal Next if We Are Forced Out of Eurozone
Italy and Portugal could be next to go if Greece is forced to leave the eurozone, Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said on Sunday (9 February) drawing a swift rebuke from Italy.
The newly elected left-wing government of Alexis Tsipras faces a critical week as it seeks to re-write its financial rescue programme with its EU creditors, and is due to present its economic programme to finance ministers in Brussels this Wednesday.
However, in an interview with Italian state television network RAI, his finance minister poured petrol onto an already incendiary debate by stating that other countries were effectively bankrupt.
“The euro is fragile, it’s like building a castle of cards, if you take out the Greek card the others will collapse,” said Varoufakis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
OECD Warns Italian Economy 30% Smaller Than Others, Update 2
Gap between Italy, other developed nations widening
(ANSA) — Paris, February 9 — Italy’s economy is 30% smaller than other major developed countries and the gap is widening because it has failed to shake off recession, the OECD said Monday in a scathing report.
It estimates GDP per person in Italy is falling compared with the average of the top 17 nations that it measures.
“The lack of recovery from recession is causing the per capita income of Italy to fall against other major OECD economies,” the Paris-based organization said.
The gap has widened from 2007, when Italy’s economy was 22.7% less than comparable countries, said the OECD.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
One-Quarter of Italians Earn Less Than 10,000 Euros
Istat says just 2.4% reported income over 70,000 euros
(ANSA) — Rome, February 9 — One-quarter of Italians earned less than 10,000 euros in 2012, and just over half earned less than 30,000 euros annually, national statistics agency Istat reported Monday.
Only 2.4% reported income of more than 70,000 euros, the agency said, and 17.6% earned between 30,000 euros and 70,000 euros annually.
According to Istat, the average worker took home just over half — about 53% — of total income in 2012, with rest taken up by taxes and social contributions.
Premier Matteo Renzi last year introduced a tax bonus of 80 euros per month for lower-income Italians.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Padoan: Italian Debt is Solid and Not ‘On the Table’
Economy minister says Italy’s borrowing levels are manageable
(ANSA) — Istanbul, February 9 — Italy has high debt levels but these are manageable and not “on the table” in any negotiations, Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said Monday. With the economic recovery that many believe is beginning in Italy, debt will be even more manageable, Padoan said in response to comparisons between the economies of Italy and Greece, which has troubling levels of debt.
Greece is attempting to renegotiate its debt repayments, and the uncertainty is leading some financial markets to compare the two European countries.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serial killer Charles Manson’s supposed budding romance with a woman 53 years his junior has been allegedly exposed as a money-making scheme.
According to journalist Daniel Simone, 27-year old Burton, known as Star, was hoping that she would gain possession of Manson’s corpse through marriage so she and a couple of friends could put it on display in a glass case in LA.
They apparently thought the Lenin’s Tomb-esque attraction would draw a huge number of visitors and make a lot of money.
But Manson, 80, apparently got wind of the plan and now no longer wants to marry Burton.
“He’s finally realized that he’s been played for a fool,” Simone told The NY Post.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Donald Trump Returns to Iowa ‘Strongly Inclined’ To Run for President
For real estate developer and reality television host Donald Trump, flirting with a presidential run has become a familiar preoccupation, and the 2016 election is no exception.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How Wall Street, In Broad Daylight, Took Over the US Government
By now it is common knowledge that the primary way by which Goldman has taken over the world of central banking is by seeding places such as the New York Fed (or the ECB or the BOE) with its “former” employees, in the process converting them to benign colonies of the vampire squid (as explained first in 2010) while making sure the “independent” financial media which is supposed to expose and reveal such travesties is anything but (see “On The New York Fed’s Editorial Influence Over The WSJ”). For a quick refresher read “How Goldman Controls The New York Fed: 47.5 Hours Of “The Secret Goldman Sachs Tapes” Explain.”
Of course, what Goldman has done is hardly groundbreaking: as the following chart from Bloomberg shows, Wall Street’s “revolving door” tradition has been working in overdrive to make sure that all American regulators are staffed with former (and future) Wall Street employees.
This epic pile up of conflicts of interest assures that the great bezzle — the robbery of the middle class by the 0.1% — can continue without any interruption, a great case in point being today’s latest HSBC Swiss bank account scandal.
But while Wall Street can play dumb and try to ascribe what is clearly a premeditated attempt of literal “regulatory capture” to chance, where things get scary is that Wall Street is now actively enforcing behavior that facilitates even further Wall Street incursion into government positions.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Jindal: “The Medieval Christian Threat is Under Control, Mr. President”
By Robert Spencer
Jindal has an important point. Even if Obama is correct (he isn’t) that the Crusades were some equivalent of the depredations of the Islamic State today, this does not excuse him or his Administration from their responsibility to face the current threat honestly and deal with it realistically. 900-year-old Christian atrocities, real and imagined, do not excuse his refusal to recognize the reality of the jihad threat.
“Jindal Mocks Obama on Crusades: We’ve Got ‘Medieval Christian Threat’ Under Control,” by Josh Feldman, Mediaite, February 6, 2015 (thanks to Anne Crockett):…
| — Hat tip: K | [Return to headlines] |
Neil Armstrong Had a Secret Stash of Moon Stuff
“Lost” Apollo 11 artifacts are now found
On the surface, the white cloth bag full of clunky objects didn’t seem like anything special. It was found hidden in a closet, where it had sat for decades. But the bag, known simply as “The Purse,” is not an ordinary collection of knickknacks—it holds a priceless moon artifacts Neil Armstrong made off with after the Apollo 11 mission.
The collection may look mundane to the untrained eye—it’s a pile of straps, wrenches and other equipment. But one item in particular caught the attention of historians: a 16mm movie camera that was used to film the ship’s lunar descent and landing. It’s the very camera that filmed the astronauts as they took that famous first moonwalk and planted a flag on the lunar surface.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
State Senator Says All White People Are Racist and ‘Polluted’ His Blood
By Deena Winter
LINCOLN, Neb. — Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers said all white people are racist and that his blood was “polluted” by white people last week while filibustering a bill and lambasting a state education board member who has rejected calls for his resignation after his blog called the president a “half-breed.”
Chambers, a 77-year-old African American senator who is the state’s longest serving lawmaker, made the comments about race while filibustering a bill that would increase the fee for marriage licenses.
[…]
While trying to whittle away eight hours filibustering, Chambers talked Thursday about how his ancestors were enslaved and sexually abused by some of the nation’s “righteous,” Christian founding fathers.
What they were declaring in the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence was that they could do anything they wanted with black girls and women, he said.
“Oh yes, I have a great store of bitterness in me,” he said. “Why do you think I’m not black? Because some white person or persons jumped a fence and polluted the blood that is in my veins to this day.”
[This calls to mind Malcolm X’s comment about his white maternal grandfather: “I hate every drop of that white rapist’s blood that is in me.” Sick, sick, sick. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
University of CA: Divest Now, From America
by Diana West
One of the pieces of evidence I offer to bolster my arguments from American Betrayal that “we” — the US-led West — lost the Cold War (World War II, also, but that argument requires more space than I wish to use here, or total immersion in the book) is the fact that our college campuses, private and taxpayer-funded, are outposts of Marx.
How can a nation claim victory in an epic “battle of ideas” — classicial liberalism vs. Marxist ideology — when its institutions of “higher learning,” its incubators of leaders, continue to churn out a hardened “nomenklatura” whose allegiance is to the pillars of Marxism-Leninism: collectivism, moral relativism, globalism?
Now this: “UC Student Government Passes Resolution to Divest — From America.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bank Leak Shows Hundreds of Swedes Hid Fortunes in Swiss Accounts
A leak from one of the world’s largest banks, the Swiss HSCB, shows how it helped rich people around the world avoid taxes in their home nations. Swedish Radio News reported that hundreds of Swedes were named in the leaked material.
Many bank clients hid behind anonymous number accounts and shell corporations in so-called tax paradises. The material covers the period 1988 to 2007. British newspaper The Guardian reported that the bank has admitted to irregularities during the period.
The story was reported in several large European daily newspapers as part of a investigation organized by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
British Muslims Flood Streets to Protest Charlie Hebdo and Prophet Pictures — Video
Thousands of Muslims protesting the portrayal of the prophet Mohammed in cartoons took to the streets of Britain, swarming around a statue of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and carrying signs like, “Insult My Mum And I Will Punch You.”
The Daily Mail reported the rallies were segregated; organizers refused to allow men and women to mix.
And despite the sheer number who flocked the streets, police said no arrests were made.
Members of the Muslim Action Forum and other groups said they were protesting the “offensive” caricatures published by Charlie Hebdo and by other news outlets in the West, the Daily Mail said. Even children carted placards and signs, saying such things as “Charlie And The Abuse Factory,” and “Learn Some Manners,” the Daily Mail said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark Ignored Hidden Swiss Fortunes for Years
The international banking giant HSBC helped hundreds of wealthy Danes dodge taxes and the Danish tax authority did nothing about it, new ‘Swiss Leaks’ revelations show.
A data cache of leaked secret bank account files, obtained through international collaboration between news outlets including Danish newspaper Politiken and the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), reveal that HSBC’s Swiss private bank helped customers — including more than 300 Danes — conceal more than 666 billion kroner ($120 million) in secret bank accounts between 2006-2007.
Since September 2014, the ICIJ has analyzed the data leaked in 2007 by Hervé Falciani, a former IT worker at HSBC in Geneva, who fled to France.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Few Turn Out for Sweden’s First PEGIDA Rally
Sweden’s offshoot of the PEGIDA movement has held its first demonstration, albeit with little success. Counterdemonstrators outnumbered and outshouted the main event in the southern city of Malmo.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: ‘Basement Imams’ Spreading Radical Islamism, Muslim Prison Chaplain Warns
In the wake of last month’s Charlie Hebdo attacks, the French government is trying to tackle Islamist radicalisation in prisons. More than half of France’s 70,000 prisoners are Muslim, served by 182 chaplains, leading to a promise to recruit 60 more. But one chaplain, Mohammed Boina M’Koubou, is not sure that will be enough.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France Prepares to Tackle Jihadi Recruitment in Prisons
The Charlie Hebdo killings have drawn attention to the fact that many radical Islamists are recruited in prison. The French government has pledged to tackle the problem … but the task could be complicated, the experts say.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Marseille Police Fired on by ‘Hooded Gunmen’
Marseille’s police chief came under automatic gunfire on Monday morning on the day the prime minister is due to visit the southern French city to praise “excellent” progress in fighting crime.
Pierre-Marie Bourniquel came under Kalashnikov fire upon entering the housing estate of Castellane, in the north of the Mediterranean port, after locals reported gunshots.
Mr Bourniquel was travelling with a police commando and seeking to reach a high point overlooking the estate where Zinedine Zidane, the international French footballer was brought up, when his vehicle came under attack.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: PEGIDA Offshoot Fails to Draw Dresden Crowds
Pegida offshoot Direct Democracy for Europe (DDfE) failed to take off on Sunday when only 500 people showed up to a Dresden demonstration instead of the 5,000 it had planned for. Meanwhile, the original movement prepares for its first meeting in two weeks.
DDfE was envisioned as a “less extreme” Pegida, said founder Kathrin Oertel, who left the Patriots Against the Islamisation of the West (Pegida) two weeks ago following the Hitler photo scandal involving the group’s former leader.
“We’re starting all over again,” Oertel told the crowd who had gathered in front of Dresden’s Frauenkirche.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German-Americans: The Silent Minority
America’s largest ethnic group has assimilated so well that people barely notice it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Riot Police “Uncertain” After Saturday’s Protest
Government’s initiative to disarm agents causes confusion
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, FEBRUARY 2 — The decision of the new Greek Alternate Minister of Public Order and Citizen Protection Yannis Panousis to remove firearms from riot police was initially treated with skepticism, however after Saturday’s demonstrations in Athens were carried out without any violence, riot police officers have commented that they felt “confused and uncertain”. As daily To Vima online reports, on Saturday the Greek pro-nazi party Golden Dawn had organized a rally in memory of the three helicopter pilots who perished new the Imia Islets in 1996 during the escalation of tension with Turkey and in response a number of antifascist groups arranged counter-demonstrations and marches. The riot police were deployed without firearms and were instructed to keep a distance from the demonstrators. This development also seems to have confused the protesters themselves, who took the opportunity to spray graffiti on the parked police vehicles and take photos.
The riot police officers complained about the graffiti, as they felt that their “home” was being vandalized and they were not allowed to respond. Panousis said also that he plans to remove up to 2,000 policemen from guarding VIPs and return them to normal duty. Speaking to Vima FM on Monday, Panousis said that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras wants the number of policemen acting as bodyguards to be reduced by 1,500 to 2,000. Panousis indicated that he also expects the police to make scarcer use of tear gas during protests. “To use chemicals means that things have reached extremes, where others are using various weapons, from chunks of marble to anything else,” he said. “In this case, we can examine the option but chemicals are not there for chasing pensioners or teachers.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Wants $236 Billion in German World War II Reparations
Athens: Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras says the country has a “moral obligation” to claim reparations from Germany for the damages wrought by the Nazis during World War II.
Greece had “a moral obligation to our people, to history, to all European peoples who fought and gave their blood against Nazism,” he said in a key address to parliament.
Berlin has already sounded a firm “no” to requests for reparations nearly 70 years after the end of the war, but Mr Tsipras and his radical left party have vowed to tackle the issue. The issue risks aggravating already strained ties between Athens and Berlin, as Mr Tsipras bids to reverse austerity measures imposed by its international creditors.
“Our historical obligation is to claim the occupation loan and reparations,” the new prime minister said, referring to Germany’s four-year occupation of Greece and a war-time loan which the Third Reich forced the Greek central bank to give it, and which ruined the country financially.
Mr Tsipras’s anti-austerity Syriza party claims Germany owes it about around €162 billion ($236 billion), about or around half the country’s public debt, which stands at over €315 billion. The loan to the Third Reich was for 476 million Reichsmarks, which was valued at $US8.25 billion in a 2012 German Bundestag lower house of Parliament report.
Mr Tsipras said on Sunday that his government would not seek an extension of a stringent bailout program and would carry out its campaign pledges to roll back austerity, but gradually.
In laying out his government’s program in a speech before Parliament, Mr Tsipras sought to tread a line between satisfying coalition lawmakers and supporters that his government will honour the anti-austerity promises that brought it to power last month while reassuring creditors that his radical leftist administration is prepared to move towards a compromise that keeps the economy afloat without further burdening European taxpayers.
Greece’s creditors — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — want the new government to seek an extension beyond February 28 of the European portion of the country’s bailout of €240 billion. However, the government has said that despite dwindling cash reserves, it is not interested in the latest portion of the bailout, a loan of €7 billion, because of what it sees as onerous conditions. Instead, it has said it wants a program between now and the end of May to bridge the gap and permission to raise short-term funding by issuing treasury bills.
“We only have one commitment: to serve the interests of our people, the good of society,” Mr Tsipras said, noting that it was an “irreversible decision” of his government to fulfil its campaign promises “in their entirety”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Gunfire in Marseille as French PM Due to Visit
Armed police were carrying out an operation in a neighbourhood of Marseille on Monday after reports of Kalashnikov rifles being fired at a police chief. The incident comes as Prime Minister Manuel Valls is due to visit the southern city
A police operation was under way Monday in an estate in the French city of Marseille where residents said “Kalashnikov shots” were fired “in the air”, sources close to the case said, adding there were no victims.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hooded Gunmen Fire on French Police in Marseilles
Elite French police units are being sent to a northern suburb of Marseilles after hooded gunmen fired Kalashnikov rifles at police, a police source tells Reuters. France is on high-alert for terrorism after the Charlie Hebdo killings and their aftermath, but Marseilles officials blame this incident on drug traffickers. “This battle against drug trafficking is a long-term battle,” Deputy Mayor Caroline Pozmentier said on Monday. A school has been evacuated and a section of the town, La Castellane, has been cordoned off. Prime Minister Manuel Valls is visiting Marseilles on Monday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Energy Tycoon Gets Four-Year Prison Term
10.8 million euros confiscated over fraud against State
(ANSA) — Milan, February 5 — Sicilian energy entrepreneur Vito Nicastri on Thursday was convicted of filing false tax returns and fraud against the State by a Milan court and sentenced to four years in prison.
Dubbed by Italian media as the “king of alternative energy” over his vast holdings in wind farms and photovoltaic cell companies, Nicastri is suspected by Sicilian investigators to have ties with fugitive Sicilian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro.
He was first placed under investigation by magistrates in Trapani in 2010 over his suspected connections with Messina Denaro.
The Milan court also ordered that 10.8 million euros in assets be confiscated, including 5.6 million directly linked to Nicastri.
The Trapani native was standing trial in Milan over an alleged fraud against the State worth 19 million euros carried out in 2008 through the acquisition of stakes in Windco by Luxembourg-based firm Lunix and the creation of a slush fund, according to the prosecution.
Nicastri, Linux’s owner and CEO, did not present annual income tax reforms on his company “which was only formally headquartered in Luxembourg but whose administration was actually stably based in Italy”, in Milan, State attorneys said.
The Milan court sentenced three other defendants to jail terms of up to three years and acquitted four others in the case.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ex Priest Removed From Supply Role Over Abuse Conviction
Teacher failed to declare criminal record in job application
(ANSA) — Ancona, February 3 — A supply teacher was removed from his post after it emerged that he was an ex-priest with a first-instance conviction for sexual violence and stalking, local media reported Tuesday. The director of Galilei upper secondary school in the Marches coastal city of Ancona began investigating Armando Bicchiarelli, 47, after students reported his ‘eccentric’ behaviour in class. The supply teacher in history and philosophy, a former priest in Isola del Piano (Pesaro Urbino), allegedly “didn’t teach, he would leaf through the text book in class, it seemed he didn’t know what to do” said school director Annarita Durantini. Internet research revealed that Bicchiarelli was convicted by a first instance court to two years and 10 months and stripped of his priestly status for abusing a young male parishioner over the course of 11 years and stalking him after he got a girlfriend. He was arrested in February 2012 and spent a period under home detention before being released pending appeal. However, his self-declaration form concerning his criminal record and pending criminal proceedings presented with his job application made no mention of the case.
“When we became aware of his position we told him he would no longer be a teacher here,” Durantini said. “He put up no opposition and made no appeal against the provision,” she added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Government Plans to Give Milk to 1 Million Children in 2016
Minister says decline in milk production needs reversing
(ANSA) Rome, February 2 — The government plans to provide milk to one million children in 2016 with a special ‘milk in the schools’ programme, Agriculture Minister Maurizio Martina said Monday.
“We have to invert the tendency for consumption of milk and cheese to decline in our country,” Martina said.
“We have already arranged to start the ‘Milk in schools’ project in 2016,” the minister said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Kyenge: Racism is Also Within the Democratic Party
Calderoli escaped probe over ‘orangutan’ remark
(ANSA) — Rome, February 9 — Ex-integration minister Cecile Kyenge, a European MP with the center-left Democratic Party (PD) party, said on Monday that no party is immune to racism.
“There are different souls within the PD, there are racists in all parties, including mine”, she told Radio 24 after the Senate’s committee on parliamentary immunity rejected an authorization request to prosecute Northern League Senator Roberto Calderoli for saying in 2013 that Kyenge “looks like an orangutan”. Kyenge, a doctor born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, became Italy’s first black minister in 2013 in Enrico Letta’s cabinet.
“Calderoli did not voice a political criticism, he just said that I look like an orangutan — this has nothing to do with politics, it’s just racism”, said Kyenge.
Kyenge also described the leader of the anti-immigrant Northern League party, Matteo Salvini, as a “calculating racist, for electoral ends”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Teramo Bishop Inaugurates Islamic Cultural Centre
‘Hope green wall doesn’t become black’ like ISIS flag
(ANSA) — Teramo, February 9 — Monsignor Michele Seccia, bishop of Teramo and Atri in the region of Abruzzo, inaugurated a new Islamic cultural centre on Monday.
Seccia indirectly referenced the black flag of ISIS in dedicating the centre, when he expressed his wish regarding “the hope the green wall doesn’t become black, and you know what I mean” (referring to the ISIS flag).
“If God is God, we can’t fight in his name,” Seccia said.
The centre’s 200-square-metre space is being rented from the city and took two years to restore at a cost of 10,000 euros contributed by the local Islamic community, whose members come from Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo.
Kabri Bedri, president of the local Islamic committee, said, “Our children have been born here, we care for this country. We will be careful that no one complains of our presence”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Nazi War Debt Strains Greece-Germany Ties
As Berlin and Athens lock horns over debt relief, Greece’s claim that Germany has never compensated it for all the damage wrought by the Nazis during World War II is again straining ties.
Greece’s new Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, whose radical left party swept to power last month promising to reverse spending cuts imposed under the indebted country’s rescue package, has vowed to tackle the long-simmering dispute.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Police Operation in French City After Kalashnikov Shots ‘In Air’
A police operation was under way Monday in an estate in the French city of Marseille where residents said “Kalashnikov shots” were fired “in the air”, sources close to the case said, adding there were no victims. According to an AFP photographer on site, special forces entered the La Castellane estate, which is known for being a drug trafficking hotspot.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Poll: ‘Islam Does Not Belong in Austria’
A new survey on how Islam is viewed in Austria suggests that anti-Muslim sentiment has risen sharply in the wake of the Paris shootings, with 69 percent of those polled saying they did not believe that Islam belongs in Austria.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Says Church Must Purge ‘Scourge’ of Sex Abuse
Francis says families must know their children are safe
(ANSA) — Vatican City, February 5 — Pope Francis said on Thursday that the Catholic Church must rid itself of the “scourge” of child sexual abuse.
Families must know that their children are safe within the Church, the pope said in a letter sent ahead of the first meeting of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
Any “desire to avoid scandal” must be made a lower priority to child protection, he said in his letter to senior Church officials.
“Families need to know that the Church is making every effort to protect their children,” the pope wrote.
“They should also know that they have every right to turn to the Church with full confidence, for it is a safe and secure home. “Consequently, priority must not be given to any other kind of concern, whatever its nature, such as the desire to avoid scandal, since there is absolutely no place in ministry for those who abuse minors,” his letter said.
Francis announced the commission in late 2013 and last March began to set it up.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Shots Fired at French Police in Housing Project Outside Marseille
Hooded gunmen reportedly fired on French police in the northern suburbs of the Mediterranean port city of Marseille Monday ahead of a visit by the country’s Prime Minister.
There were no immediate reports on possible casualties. Reuters reported that elite troops were being sent to the scene. The French newspaper Le Figaro reported that the shooting involved two small gangs using Kalashnikov AK-47s.
The shooting took place in a town called La Castellane known for drug trafficking. Marseille and the surrounding area is home to a large population of immigrants, many from France’s former colonies in North Africa. The city’s northern suburbs are home to particularly notorious housing projects, which are plagued by high unemployment, high crime, and heavy drug use.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden to Host First PEGIDA Anti-Islamist March
The Germany-founded anti-islamist movement Pegida is set to holds its first rally in Sweden on Monday, reports Svenska Dagbladet. The demonstration, along with a counter-demonstration, is to take place in Malmo. Similar marches have been held in Austria, Denmark, Norway, and the Czech Republic.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Gothenburg Shootings May be Gang-Related
Two people were taken to the hospital after they were shot while they were in a car in Majorna in Gothenburg on Saturday night and are in serious condition, reports Swedish Radio’s local station.
Police suspect that the shooting could be gang-related.
“These two guys have an affililation to a gang in town. Keeping in mind the history we have in Gothenburg, this is one line of inquiry we’re working with,” Christer Fuxborg, the police’s press spokesperson, told news agency TT, adding that the police have not ruled out that there could have been some other reason for the shooting.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Sahlin: Municipalities Naive About Violent Extremism
Many municipalities in Sweden are not well enough prepared to prevent violent Islamism among youth, reports Swedish Radio’s Kaliber program.
Kaliber surveyed 132 people in charge of municipal social service offices throughout the country, and 70 percent of them said that today, they don’t believe they have the tools to prevent violent Islamism among youth.
Mona Sahlin, the national coordinator against violent extremism, says that municipalities need to know more about radicalization, and was concerned about a certain amount of naivite.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Thousands Gather to Oppose PEGIDA
Supporters of “anti-Islamisation” group Pegida gathered to demonstrate in Malmö Monday evening, but were vastly outnumbered by counter-demonstrators.
News agency TT reported that a handful of Pegida supporters made their way through throngs of booing counter-demonstrators at around 6.30 p.m. — the start-time of the rally, which was due to end at 9 p.m.
Later, TT reported that 50 supporters were present at the demonstration on the Stortorget square in Malmö’s city centre, where they listened to speeches by organisers Henrik Rönnquist and Dan Park — a gallerist and street artist who have previously been convicted of incitement to racial hatred.
“What’s most important is all those people who have been in touch with us in the past few days and who support us but were too afraid to come,” Rönnqvist told TT before his speech.
According to newspaper Sydsvenskan, police estimated that 3,000 counter-demonstrators surrounded the fenced-off area on Stortorget.
“We’re here so that they won’t be unopposed,” Maja Skans of the No Pegida Sweden group told TT.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Church Threatened Over Pro-Muslim Service
Representatives of the Swedish Church say they have received threats after a church in Malmö announced plans to hold a service in support of Muslims during a demonstration by the anti-Islam group Pegida.
Last week the city’s St Petri Church announced that it would be holding a service in solidarity with the Muslim community and those from other religions during the Pegida demonstration, which will take place on the Stortorget square on Monday evening.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Anti-Racists Swamp First PEGIDA Anti-Islam Rally
Sweden’s first rally by the German-inspired “anti-Islamisation” movement PEGIDA in the city of Malmoe was dwarfed Monday by a counter-demonstration about a hundred times larger, according to police estimates.
Television images showed a small group of PEGIDA demonstrators hemmed into a cordoned-off area of the southern city’s central square, surrounded by anti-racism protesters.
“There are at least 3,000 thousand, most of them counter-demonstrators” Malmoe police spokesman Lars Foerstell told AFP, adding that there were about 30 PEGIDA protestors.
“The support is much greater than that,” PEGIDA’s Swedish leader Henrik Roennquist told public broadcaster SVT putting the number at 150.
Malmoe is Sweden’s third city and home to a growing population of Muslims as the country receives the highest proportion of refugees in Europe per head of population.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: HSBC Bank ‘Helped Clients Dodge Millions in Taxes’
A Swiss subsidiary of British banking giant HSBC has given its clients advice how to avoid paying a tax on savings, according to a new investigation.
An international consortium of journalists on Sunday (8 February) published a collection of articles based on secret files under the title Swiss Leaks.
The data was smuggled from HSBC bank by a former employee, Herve Falciani, and subsequently obtained by the French newspaper Le Monde.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Terror Suspects Arrested Every Day in UK as Police Call for Extra Funding to Cope With ISIL Threat
Police are now arresting a suspected terrorist every day with ministers poised to boost funding amid fears of attacks from Isil “misfits and criminals”.
Metropolitan assistant commissioner Mark Rowley revealed fanatics were being detained on a daily basis following a sharp rise in arrests because of the growing threat from Islamist jihadists.
Mr Rowley, the country’s most senior counter-terrorism officer, said he had been lobbying Government for additional funding to tackle the threat and there were “indications” that would happen.
He said the greatest danger to the UK were “misfits, criminals and vulnerable” who were being targeted by Isil to carry out atrocities on home soil.
Police are also taking down 1,000 web pages of extremist material every week.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK Conservatives Seek 2016 EU Referendum Date
Conservatives in Britain want to move a referendum on leaving the EU to 2016 instead of at the end of 2017 as originally planned, reports the Financial Times. UK PM David Cameron has promised a referendum should he win a second term following the May elections this year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK Police Investigated People Who Purchased ‘Charlie Hebdo’
While the world unified in the name of defending free speech against violent extremism in the wake of the terrorist attack in Paris last month, British police were investigating people who purchased copies of Charlie Hebdo magazine.
That shocking revelation is contained in a letter to the Guardian from a woman who bought a copy of the magazine from her local newsagents in Corsham, Wiltshire, and was subsequently told that police had visited the store to obtain the names and addresses of four customers who had purchased the satirical weekly publication.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Charlie Hebdo Buyers Attract Police Interest
Your offer of commemorative badges in support of journalistic freedom highlighting “Je suis Charlie”, prompts me to suggest a degree of caution following my experience. Tongue in cheek, I asked my helpful newsagents to obtain a copy of the edition of Charlie Hebdo issued after the dreadful massacre in Paris, if indeed a copy was ever available in north Wiltshire. To my surprise, a copy arrived last Wednesday week and although the standard of content in no way matches that of the Guardian I will cherish it. However, two days later a member of Her Majesty’s police service visited said newsagent, requesting the names of the four customers who had purchased Charlie Hebdo. So beware, your badges may attract police interest in your customers.
Anne Keat
Corsham, Wiltshire
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Child Sexual Abuse Ring in Halifax: 25 Men Charged — Police Reaction
Twenty five men have been charged with child sex offences against two girls in Calderdale following a major police operation.
In what police say is the largest child sexual exploitation (CSE) investigation in the country — bigger than high profile cases in Rochdale and Rotherham — the men face a combined total of 59 charges, including rape, sexual activity with a child under 16 and trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation.
The men, who are mainly from Halifax, are accused of committing the offences between 2006 and 2011.
The men the police have charged
Hedar Ali, 35, of Nantwich, Cheshire. He is charged with rape (x2) and trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation (x2).
Fasil Mahmood, 35, of Halifax. He is charged with sexual activity with a child under 16 and supply of a class B Drug.
Zameer Asif, 24, of Halifax. He is charged with sexual activity with a child.
Mohammed Ramzan, 34, of Bradford. He is charged with conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child under 16, rape and trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
Khalid Zaman, 37, of Bradford. He is charged with conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child under 16, rape (x2) and supply of a class B drug.
Ataf Ali, 32, of Bradford. He is charged with conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child under 16 and voyeurism.
Mohammed Fiaz Askar, 32, of Bradford. He is charged with conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child under 16.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Muslims Threaten Female Army Cadets With Beheading
By Robert Spencer
At the rate Britain is going, soon David Cameron will be ringing up these two gentlemen, apologizing for inconveniencing them, and presenting these two girls for beheading.
“Girl cadets threatened with BEHEADING by two men as they left an Army Reserve Centre,” by Hannah Parry, Mailonline, February 6, 2015 (thanks to John):…
| — Hat tip: K | [Return to headlines] |
A doctor groped a vulnerable divorcee in her home days after she had attempted suicide — but kept his job after citing ‘cultural differences’.
Dr Emmanuel Kanu stroked her breast, repeatedly tried to kiss her and told her, ‘You want it’ when she tried to escape his clutches during the visit — which he hid from colleagues.
When she later texted him to tell him to stop ringing her he withheld his number on the next call.
But Kanu, a married Nigerian father of one, has been allowed to keep his job by a fitness to practise panel even though the General Medical Council called for him to be struck off.
He told the panel he had not molested the patient and claimed ‘cultural differences’ led to the visit on September 3, 2011, saying: ‘There is a clear divide between the doctor and the patient here, which is very different in Nigeria.’
But the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service only suspended the 36-year-old for six months, despite finding he was guilty of sexually motivated serious misconduct.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Urban Swedes Flock to Beekeeping Trend
Keeping a hive of bees on your roof-top has become a booming trend in Swedish cities, boosted by a thirst for honey, a desire for cross-pollination and environmental awareness.
“You can really talk in terms of a ‘boom’ when it comes to the interest in beekeeping in the big cities. We receive a large number of enquiries and our courses are all virtually fully booked,” said Mats-Ola Persson at BeeUrban in Gothenburg.
The hives are no longer the reserve of rural green-wavers and are increasingly becoming a feature of suburban gardens and even roof tops and balconies in the inner-cities.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Video Commentary: UK Police Investigated People Who Purchased ‘Charlie Hebdo’
While the world unified in the name of defending free speech against violent extremism in the wake of the terrorist attack in Paris last month, British police were investigating people who purchased copies of Charlie Hebdo magazine.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘What Are You Waiting for?’: Slick New ISIS Campaign Puts New Face on Homegrown Terror
Buoyed by the Islamist terror attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, ISIS has continued a slick campaign with the twisted theme, “What are you waiting for?” and featuring fresh-faced jihadists urging radicals in French-speaking countries to stay put and kill innocents.
In one video released online last week, titled, “Blow Up France 2,” a masked jihadist bearing an assault weapon exhorts Muslims to continue terror attacks in that country.
“Don’t give up and particularly don’t lower your weapons, don’t surrender — kill. Today, it’s our darwa — kill them. You now have more than 4 million targets,” the jihadist said in French.
Just hours after the video release, Moussa Coulibaly, 30, allegedly stabbed three French soldiers on patrol near a Jewish community center in Nice. The police officers, who were on anti-terror patrol, were not seriously hurt. Coulibaly, 31, who shares the surname of Amedy Coulibaly, the gunman who killed four people at a Jewish supermarket in Paris on Jan. 9 in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attack, was nabbed near the scene.
[Coming soon to a neighborhood near you. Walk heavy and watch your six. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Putin in Cairo as Counterweight to US
Russian president’s first visit to Egypt since 2005
(by Rodolfo Calò) (ANSAmed) — CAIRO — Bilateral relations, trade agreements and Russia’s role as a ‘counterweight’ to the US in the region are the focus of President Vladimir Putin’s two-day visit to the Egyptian capital, analyst John Jenkins told ANSAmed.
The visit to the nation with the highest number of inhabitants in the Arab world began on Monday evening. Held for the stated purpose of relaunching bilateral relations, Putin’s visit is his first in a decade. The Russian leader is a firm supporter of Egyptian president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, who has been criticized by the US for the heavy-handed manner in which he is keeping the Muslim Brotherhood — ousted in the summer of 2013 to prevent a slide further into Islamist tendencies — under control. “The US will remain the global and dominant regional power for the foreseeable future,” ANSAmed was told by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)- Middle East executive director. “But Russia is a useful counterweight in the eyes of some.” IISS is a British think tank that since 1958 has been known as an authoritative source on global security issues, and is considered one of the top ten in the world. Unlike in the 1960s, in the times of an “ideological competition between the US and Russia” in the Middle East, Moscow no longer can count on a “platform’ of “socialist, nationalist and Baathist regimes”, Jenkins said, noted that the competition between the two powers “is less at the ideological level and more at one of mere power”. The analyst said that “Russia’s support for the Assad regime in Syria, though seen as morally repellant, has in some circles sparked a reluctant sense of admiration, since Putin is seen as standing by the side of his allies no matter what”, as seen in the country’s support for Ukrainian separatists.
“Putin’s message is basically this: you can count on me without the moralizing baggage that the US and the UK carry with them,” Jenkins said, noting however that this ‘enticement’ is deceptive.
“Russia’s interests in this region are not the same as those of most Arab nations”, such as in the case of the oil market and the ambiguous relations between Moscow and Iran, he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
OIC Secretary General Welcomes Belgium’s Parliament’s Resolution Recognising the State of Palestine
The Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Iyad Ameen Madani, welcomed the decision by the Belgian parliament to recognize the State of Palestine. He described it as an important move that would contribute to peace and stability in the region, even as it constitutes a support for the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people including the establishment of sovereignty of their independent state on the 1967 borders with Al-Quds Ash-Shareef as its capital.
The Secretary General expressed his hope that the Belgian government would take the initiative to recognize the State of Palestine in accordance with the United Nations General Assembly resolution of 29 February 2012.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq to Launch Major Ground Offensive Against is Group
A top US official announced Sunday that Iraqi troops will launch a ground offensive within weeks to take back swathes of the country seized by Islamic State group, while a suicide attack killed at least 12 in Baghdad on Monday.
“There will be a major counter offensive on the ground in Iraq,” John Allen, the chief envoy for the international coalition against the Islamic State (IS) group, said in an interview with Jordan’s official Petra news agency.
“In the weeks ahead, when the Iraqi forces begin the ground campaign to take back Iraq, the coalition will provide major firepower associated with that,” he added, stressing that the Iraqis would lead the offensive.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS is Running Out of Suicide Bombers, Daily Mail
Would-be ‘martyrs’ fleeing or joining rival groups
(ANSAmed) — LONDON — The Islamic State (ISIS) is reportedly experiencing a shortage of those willing to carry out suicide missions for the group, reports Mail Online. The publication cited the anti-ISIS activists group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, which is in close contact with some inhabitants of the Syrian city Raqqa. The city has long been used by ISIS as its headquarters. Defections from the ‘martyrs brigade’ (fighters willing to blow themselves up for the ‘cause’) are said to be rising, with some fleeing and others joining rival groups. The number of defections reportedly rose sharply after ISIS’s defeat in the Kurdish city of Kobane (officially known as Ayn Al-Arab) in northern Syria, where the jihadists used a large number of suicide bombers to no avail. To curb defections, ISIS has set up checkpoints and imposed strict security checks on its members, say the activists.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Bolsters Ties to Jordan as ISIS Looms
Jerusalem (CNN)The crucial security relationship between Jordan and Israel is gaining new meaning after the brutal execution of a Jordanian pilot at the hands of ISIS.
In the aftermath of the killing, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moved quickly to publicly bolster Israel’s alliance with Jordan. In a phone call on Thursday, just a day after King Abdullah II returned to Jordan following a shortened trip to Washington, Netanyahu extended his condolences to Abdullah and expressed his anger over ISIS’s “barbaric cruelty,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.
The Jordanian pilot, Lt. Moath al-Kasasbeh, was burned alive by ISIS militants in a video shared online around the world.
The tragedy is a prime opportunity for Netanyahu to shore up a relationship that has undergone some strain in recent months over restricted Palestinian access to the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan: Downtown Merchants Plan One-Hour Closure in Solidarity With Pilot’s Family
AMMAN — Downtown Amman stores will close for one hour on Monday in solidarity with the family of pilot Muath Kasasbeh, who was murdered by the so-called Islamic State (IS), a trader said Sunday.
Yahia Awamreh, the head of the Downtown Amman Traders Committee, said a great number of merchants have agreed to join the initiative because they wanted to show sympathy and support for the Kasasbeh family.
“Stores will be shut between 11:30am and 12:30pm,” he told The Jordan Times over the phone.
Awamreh noted that the shop owners also seek to show support for the country, His Majesty King Abdullah and the armed forces.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Regime Rejects Jordan’s Anti-ISIS Ground Troops Offer
‘Amman sends terrorists, it doesn’t fight them’, says FM
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT — Foreign Minister Walid Al-Muallim was quoted Monday by state-run news agency SANA as saying Syria did not need foreign ground troops to fight the Islamic State (ISIS), since “Damascus’s government army bravely carries out this mission”. Referring to Jordan’s offer to step up its anti-ISIS efforts in Iraq and Syria, Muallim said that “Jordan contributes to the sending (to Syria) of terrorists through its borders after training them in its territory under US supervision”. “Jordan,” he added, “combats ISIS for its own reasons but does not fight against (Syrian Al-Qaeda affiliate) Jabhat Al-Nusra along its borders.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The Satirist Who Mocks Iran’s Ayatollahs
What Iranian would dare mock his country’s religious leaders online?
He runs a Facebook and Twitter account in Persian using a fictional character to parody the religious politics of Iran’s imams and mullahs. BBC Trending spoke to the man behind Ayatollah Tanasoli — which can be translated as “Ayatollah Genitals” or “Ayatollah Penis.”
Tanasoli has 20,000 likes on Facebook and 7,000 followers on Twitter — not enormous numbers but significant for Iran, where many people are afraid of openly aligning themselves with scathing satire and criticism.
His persona is that of a ridiculous and hypocritical hard-liner who seems to completely lack self-awareness.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Foreign Mercenaries Speaking Different Languages Spotted in Eastern Ukraine
Pro-independence fighters say there might be some foreign mercenaries among the pro-Ukrainian combatants who have been encircled near the city of Debaltseve between Donetsk and Luhansk.
“We have intercepted the talks in four different languages,” Donetsk Peoples Republic (DPR) deputy of defense Edward Basurin told the journalists on Monday. “Those are English, Polish, French and some Flemish.”
“At the same time, we do not have in [our] possession any personal belongings which could serve as proof,” he added. “As soon as we get any we will show them to you.”
Edward Basurin has previously said that the Ukrainian forces try to destroy any proof that there are international mercenaries fighting for the Ukrainian troops. However the DPR fighters have already got some indirect confirmation of the involvement of foreign fighters. On January 23, a representative of the pro-independence commanders said that they have discovered communication equipment and phonecards which are not being used in Ukraine.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kiev Forces Cause Explosion at Chemical Factory in Donetsk — Officials
A powerful explosion has occurred at a chemical factory in the city of Donetsk in southeastern Ukraine as a result of artillery shelling by Kiev forces, Ukrainian officials have informed on their social network accounts.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Report From Moscow: Doomed Ukraine Plan
By Srdja Trifkovic
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande came to Moscow last Friday night to discuss the outline of what was heralded as their peace plan for Ukraine. They spent five hours talking to President Vladimir Putin, but left for the security conference in Munich early Saturday without making a breakthrough. Their effort will yield another meeting in Minsk in the next few days, with Poroshenko joining the troika, but it appears to be doomed for three main reasons.
First of all, the United States government will not allow the Europeans to make any deals of their own. In March 1992 the U.S. torpedoed the European Union’s peace plan for Bosnia-Herzegovina, brokered by Portugal’s foreign minister José Cutileiro, which provided for a loose federation of three self-governing ethnic units. U.S. Ambassador in Belgrade Warren Zimmermann flew post haste to Sarajevo to tell Alija Izetbegovic that America would support the Muslim side if he reneged on the deal and reverted to the demand for a centralized, unitary state in which the Muslims would dominate by virtue of their plurality. The old Islamist was only too happy to oblige and promptly withdrew his signature.
The result was a brutal, three-sided ethno-religious war. It ended, three and a half years later, with the Dayton agreement which provided for a loose union of two entities of equal size, the Serb Republic (Republika Srpska) and the Muslim-Croat Federation. That agreement was not different in substance from the Cutileiro framework, but it was brokered by the United States, not the EU. Its chief architect was the late Richard Holbrooke — every bit as nasty a piece of work as Victoria Nuland — who triumphantly announced that America is in charge because of Europe’s inability to solve its problems without Washington: “We are re-engaged in the world, and Bosnia was the test.” The price, to paraphrase Madeleine Albright, was well worth paying: one hundred thousand Serb, Croat and Muslim lives, utterly destroyed Bosnian economy and infrastructure, lasting inter-communal bad blood and hatred, rampant jihadism . . . the usual fruits of pax Americana…
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
Myanmar’s Junta Slams UN Over Interference in Internal Affairs
The Burmese government targets the Special Representative Yanghee Lee, who highlighted discrimination against the Rohingya and criticized the law governing marriages and conversions. Foreign Ministry “invites” UN to carry out its work in a “professional and prudent” manner. In recent weeks, the woman was already the subject of abuse by a Buddhist Monk.
Yangon (AsiaNews / Agencies) — Myanmar’s government has accused a UN senior official of “interference” in the internal affairs of the country. The complaint, made by the Burmese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was provoked by statements made by Yanghee Lee (UN special representative for Myanmar) during her visit to the Asian nation last month.
In her speech she stressed the serious discrimination against the Rohingya Muslim minority, a victim of persecution and abuse in the former Burma. The top UN official also expressed strong criticism of the new law, wanted by nationalist Buddhist monks, which restricts mixed marriages and freedom of conversion.
Immediately following her visit, a prominent Buddhist monk- already famous in the past for his attacks on religious freedom and incitement to violence — verbally attacked her. The words of the Buddhist leader provoked a firm reaction from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al-Hussein, who has asked the government in Naypyidaw to condemn the monk’s outburst.
However, in its statement, the foreign ministry said that some of the concerns Lee had raised did not reflect “the overall positive aspect of an issue”. “Selectivity is often exercised. On some occasions, interfering on issues which fall within state sovereignty and domestic jurisdiction is evident”, it added. The document concludes with an invitation to the UN representative to carry out her work “in a professional and prudent”manner, without any reference to the insults directed against her by the religious leader.
Since June 2012, the western state of Rakhine has witnessed violent clashes between Burmese Buddhists and Rohingya causing at least 200 deaths and 250 thousand displaced people. According to United Nations estimates, there are still 800 thousand members of the Muslim minority in Myanmar, who the government considers illegal immigrants and who are therefore subject to abuse and persecution.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Actress Accepts Proposal by Drone
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star Zhang Ziyi has accepted a marriage proposal delivered by drone.
The Chinese actress was celebrating her birthday on Saturday when the white unmanned aircraft flew towards her.
Her boyfriend Wang Feng, a Chinese rock singer and composer, retrieved an engagement ring inside the drone and then got down on one knee and popped the question.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New Slaves: Vietnam’s “Modern Sex Slaves” Sold in China as Prostitutes or Brides
In 2014, thousands of young women crossed the border to be exploited in brothels or subject to forced marriages. Consumerism and materialism are among the causes of this growing trade. The victims are mostly from remote and isolated areas, but middle class girls fall victim as well because of the Internet and social media. Catholics are among those who have come to the defence of the victims.
Ho Chi Minh City (AsiaNews) — In Vietnam, one of the modern forms of slavery involves the trafficking of young women, forced into prostitution in brothels along the border with China or sold for money as brides to men across the border. In recent years, trafficking in the Asian country has particularly involved young women and girls, some just out of puberty, increasingly treated as “new sex slaves”.
On 8 February, the Church will mark the first day of prayer and reflection against human trafficking. Recent studies in Ho Chi Minh City have found that “Vietnam is one of the nations in the Asia-Pacific region with the largest number of sex trafficking victims”.
Most victims of trafficking come from Vietnam’s more remote regions. Often from poor families with little education, they end up in the hands of “pimps, traffickers and Chinese businessmen” who use every means to “lure and exploit girls”.
However, young women from urban areas, from both both middle and lower middle class, end up in traffickers’ net as well because of the Internet and modern technologies of communication.
For activist groups and associations trying to rescue the young victims, “one of the key reasons” for the growing problem is society’s widespread consumerism and materialism, which eventually undermine the basic moral structure of the Vietnamese family.
Traffickers lure girls with the prospect of a job, with which they can help meet the needs of their family, but once across the border in China, they end up in brothels or as brides to Chinese men who bought them.
Before they leave, the young women are made to sign fictitious employment contracts in foreign languages (Chinese, etc.) that they cannot understand.
Hundreds of such so-called workers are hired and sold by unscrupulous traders who exploit the inability or the complicity of borders administrators and government officials charged with fighting trafficking.
Young Vietnamese men and Vietnamese women of Chinese origin are also involved in the trade. They lure their victims by winning their confidence, and getting them to move to a “new place” for a job that, in most cases, is linked to the world of prostitution.
In 2014, thousands of young women crossed the border between China and Vietnam, to be reduced in slavery and exploited in the sex trade. Last November alone, police in the provinces of Quang Ty and Vn Nam rescued a hundred young Vietnamese women, who had been reduced to conditions of semi-slavery in China.
However, there are still many difficulties, some cultural, in the fight against prostitution and the sex trade. For instance, smuggling and trafficking are treated the same way. The net results is that victims are not recognised and the culprits are not prosecuted.
Something similar happened in 2013 when, according to sources in Hanoi, at least 982 young women were “sold” in China, 871 of whom victims of “human trafficking”.
Last year on 14 December, the authorities in Lai Chu, with the cooperation of border guards in Ma Lu Thang, broke up a trafficking ring involving women. About 512 people were tried with 420 sentenced to at least three years in prison.
Trafficking involves mostly young Vietnamese women, but some of the victims come from Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia.
For young Vietnamese men involved in trafficking, especially those living in villages along the border, trafficking in women is an easy way of making money.
One case involves two young men, Văn Pan Tao Lu, an ethnic Lu, and Lò Thᔋ Chom. The two were paid US$ 4,000 per woman.
In another case, Bùi Ä. Giang, a young Hanoi native, tricked and induced into prostitution more than 50 young women from the villages and towns on the Chinese border, mostly from ethnic minorities.
Upon hearing the news, Bùi Ä. Tuấn, the trafficker’s 52-year-old father, said he “did not know” about his son’s activities and “the pain he caused to the victims,” adding that “our family is in shock.”
Catholic groups, both clerical and lay, are in the forefront of the fight against the trafficking of young women and against all modern forms of slavery.
“I provided help and counselling to a young victim,” a social worker in Ho Chi Minh City told AsiaNews. “She was found in a Chinese brothel near the Chinese border and was brought back home.”
“After three years, she ended up in China again because of an unscrupulous trafficker, where she was humiliated and sexually abused. Her bosses and torturers, men and women, forced her to take drugs and prostitute herself with Chinese customers.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Why Chinese Moms Want American Babies
For many pregnant women, a pre-birth checklist might look like this: assemble the crib, buy extra bibs, pack essentials for the hospital. But for a growing number of expectant Chinese mothers, the list also includes buying a plane ticket to the U.S.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Boko Haram Abducts 30 People in Cameroon
Attacks three cities near border with Nigeria
(ANSA) — Yaounde, February 9 — Nigerian Islamic militants Boko Haram on Monday attacked three towns in Cameroon close to the border with Nigeria, abducting over 30 people, according to residents.
Over the past few days militants from the organization have been increasing attacks in Cameroon and Niger, where the town of Diffa was recently attacked for the third time.
Cameroon just hosted a three-day meeting that wrapped up on Saturday with officials from the African Union and neighbouring countries, to organize a coordinated response against Boko Haram.
Officials pledged to create a task force of some 8,750 troops from Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria, which could be deployed as early as next month.
Boko Haram killed a reported 10,000 people in 2014.
The Islamic extremists almost a year ago kidnapped over 200 Nigerian school girls, who are still missing.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Ethiopia: Foreign Ministry Criticized in Case of Jailed Swedish Doctor
The Swedish doctor Fikru Maru has been held in an Ethiopian jail for 21 months with neither a conviction nor an individual trial, according to Swedish Radio News.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Fiddling With Temperature Data is the Biggest Science Scandal Ever
When future generations look back on the global-warming scare of the past 30 years, nothing will shock them more than the extent to which the official temperature records — on which the entire panic ultimately rested — were systematically “adjusted” to show the Earth as having warmed much more than the actual data justified.
Two weeks ago, under the headline “How we are being tricked by flawed data on global warming”, I wrote about Paul Homewood, who, on his Notalotofpeopleknowthat blog, had checked the published temperature graphs for three weather stations in Paraguay against the temperatures that had originally been recorded. In each instance, the actual trend of 60 years of data had been dramatically reversed, so that a cooling trend was changed to one that showed a marked warming.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Homeland Security Sets Up Obama Amnesty Complaint Hotlines for Illegals
The Homeland Security Department has set up hotlines for illegal immigrants who believe their rights under President Obama’s amnesty policy have been violated.
In a memo announcing the customer complaint line, U.S. Customs and Border Protection asked illegal immigrants to “please tell us about your experience” if they believe they were treated “contrary to the new DHS enforcement priorities.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Majority of Danes Want Tougher Border Controls
A majority of residents supports the implementation of permanent border controls and the Danish People’s Party has vowed to give the people want they want — even if it means violating the Schengen Agreement.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Twenty-Five Migrants Die Off Lampedusa, Update
More than 100 people rescued, several in serious condition
(ANSA) — Rome, February 9 — The death toll rose to 25 migrants felled by hypothermia off the stepping-stone island of Lampedusa between Libya and Sicily, rescue services said Monday.
The initial death toll following Sunday’s night’s rescue was seven. More than 100 people were rescued, and several others were found in very serious condition. Powerful winter storms with high winds and waves made rescue operations difficult, officials said. The UNHCR said in December that at least 3,419 migrants have lost their lives in the Mediterranean in 2014.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Britain Considers Law Equating Online “Hate Speech” To Sex Crimes
Speech the British government considers hateful should be outlawed and subjected to ASBOs, or Anti-Social Behavior Orders on Conviction, according to members of the British Parliament.
MPs have called on the “Crown Prosecution Service to examine whether prevention orders similar to those which can be used to restrict sex offenders’ online access could be applied to hate crimes,” the Daily Mail reports.
If convicted of committing a hate speech crime by the government, “determined” perpetrators could be blocked from social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
The All Party Parliamentary Inquiry Into anti-Semitism has added its weight to the call to sensor speech on the internet…
Britain appears to be moving closer to neighboring France, which has the most punitive hate speech laws in Europe.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Public University Spends $16k on Campaign to Warn Students to Watch What They Say
‘Inclusive Language Campaign’ debuts at University of Michigan
Dozens of posters plastered across the University of Michigan caution students not to say things that might hurt others’ feelings, part of a new “Inclusive Language Campaign” at the state’s flagship public university that cost $16,000 to implement.
Words declared unacceptable through the campaign include “crazy,” “insane,” “retarded,” “gay,” “tranny,” “gypped,” “illegal alien,” “fag,” “ghetto” and “raghead.” Phrases such as “I want to die” and “that test raped me” are also verboten.
University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald told The College Fix in an email the campaign aims to “address campus climate by helping individuals understand that their words can impact someone and to encourage individuals to commit to creating a positive campus community.”
Students have been asked to sign a pledge to “use inclusive language” and to help their peers “understand the importance of using inclusive language,” according to campaign materials.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
We are not listening to our Turkey Erdo who indists from time to time that mosques are really strategically placed barracks and that there is no moderate Islam. This and the next generations will be dealing with apocalypse and holocausts galore – I imagine.
A shortage of suicide bombers? How should this be interpreted?
To The Countess,
An excellent question? Let me see. I am racking my brain?
Should Europe increase its welfare to jihadis?
Should Europe import more jihadis then it will produce more suicide bombers?
Hey Europe wake up : How can you let this happen…. a shortage of suicide bombers? Consult your think tanks, statisticians, apt experts. and quickly diagnose the problem. Could it be another plot by the Jews?
I am worried about those 72 virgins idly waiting and their legs getting tired.
How could this be Malmo…. please save the world. One of the pillars of the religion of pieces is left unpracticed. Isn’t that a deadly sin?
I am bitter you would say?
You bet.
Muslims have self-infected with low self esteem and are being rejected by the sky virgins. Its all about sex and stuff for Islam.
Anyone care to nominate “volunteer” suicide bombers?
How in God’s name is the U. of Michigan fostering INclusive language when it EXcludes so many normal words from daily speech? Admittedly, a few of these have been taboo for a long time, but really…
We can’t use “insane” or “crazy”? Or “illegal alien” or “tranny”? (I live in the SF Bay Area, and so far as I know, the TrannyShack is/was a stage for cross-dressing of absolutely any kind.) How are “gay” students supposed to describe themselves–“I’m…homosexual”? God; that word–“homosexual”–went out of use, at least in northern California, decades ago. Men now refer to themselves as “gay” and women as “lesbians” if they’re same-sex oriented.
“I want to die” is a key phrase for knowing when a friend may be considering suicide. There are enough problems in preventing suicide without prohibiting–or trying to prohibit–describing one’s true feelings.
And, for those who read the entire linked article, U. of Michigan students have experienced tuition increases the past two years. It seems to me that statements like “I feel like my wallet has been raped” are perfectly in order. The sense of violation, lack of control, one-sided power, etc., which sexual assault conveys can apply (although perhaps not to the same degree) to fiscal and even emotional situations.
What’s next, “depressed”?
What’s next is a very thick book of speech regulations by the Word Police. More jobs for more bureaucrats. We’re all nutz for being bothered by it.