The Dutch Central Bank is criticizing France for running a deficit that violates EU rules. Meanwhile, Pierre Moscovici, a French European Commissioner, says that a Greek exit from the Eurozone would be a “catastrophe”. However, a majority of Germans are in favor of a Greek withdrawal from the euro.
In other news, four men were arrested in Bosnia for building a bomb and attempting to transport it to Sweden. However, members of the Swedish public were comforted when they learned that the incident had nothing to do with Islam.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Papa Whiskey, 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.
Dutch Central Bank Chief Criticises EU Over French Deficit
Dutch central bank president Klaas Knot has criticised the way France is getting round EU budget rules, the Volkskrant reports. Knot has described it as ‘scandalous’ that other EU countries are allowing France to get away with bending the rules, the Volkskrant said on Thursday evening. Two weeks ago the French government won an extra two years to get its budget deficit under the eurozone limit of 3%. Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte and finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem both supported the decision.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French EU Commissioner Moscovici: ‘A Grexit Would be a Catastrophe’
In an interview, EU currency commissioner Pierre Moscovici, 57, discusses efforts in Brussels to ensure that Greece remains in the euro zone and why he believes a Greek exit would be a disaster for Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Finance Minister Can’t Rule Out Accidental Grexit
An accidental Greek exit from the eurozone can’t be ruled out, German finance minister Schaeuble said Thursday. “As the responsibility, the possibility to decide what happens only lies with Greece, and because we don’t exactly know what those in charge in Greece are doing, we can’t rule it out”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Should Not Blame Germany for Its Problems, Says Dijsselbloem
Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who heads the group of finance ministers from countries that use the euro, said on Friday that Greeks were wrong to blame Germany for their problems.
Dijsselbloem spoke as Athens and Berlin traded barbs over reparations for the Nazi occupation of Greece during World War II and allegations, denied by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, that he had insulted his Greek counterpart.
“The point is that in Greece, too much of the fault for the problems of Greece is laid outside Greece … Germany is the favourite victim of that at the moment,” said Dijsselbloem, who is also the Dutch finance minister.
The new Greek government’s increasingly tetchy relationship with Germany underlines Athens’ frustration over its difficulty persuading EU partners to relax the conditions of its 240 billion euro ($250 billion) bailout, which it says has caused mass unemployment and poverty.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Majority of Germans in Favour of ‘Grexit’
Most Germans now believe that Greece shouldn’t stay in the Eurozone, a survey published on Friday shows.
In a survey conducted by the Politbarometer of the Mannheim Research Group, 52% of respondents said that Greece shouldn’t stay in the Eurozone, 40% said Greece should, and 8% weren’t sure.
This result comes just a few weeks after a previous survey showed that only 40% of Germans wanted Greece to leave the Eurozone — a worrying trend for the Greek government of Alexis Tsipras and Yanis Varoufakis.
Top-selling tabloid newspaper Bild has run a campaign against further financial aid to Greece, which included a huge ‘NEIN’ to bailout extensions on the front page in February. This has been widely credited with helping sour the public mood.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK Support for China-Backed Asia Bank Prompts US Concern
The US has expressed concern over Britain’s effort to become a founding member of a Chinese-backed bank that could rival the likes of the World Bank.
The UK is the first big Western economy to apply for membership of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
The AIIB will fund Asian energy, transport and infrastructure projects.
However, the US has raised questions over the bank’s commitment to international standards on governance.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Amazon Drone Delivery Plan Given Hope as NASA Progresses With Air Traffic Control System
When the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in February rolled out its proposed list of regulations for the commercial use of drones, many companies, Amazon among them, were left feeling disappointed.
The reason? The flying machines have to stay in view of the operator at all times, the FAA said. Of course, that’s no good for the Web giant, which is working on an ambitious project that would enable it to deliver small packages by drone to customers living close to its fulfillment centers. Industries hoping to use the machines to conduct inspections of equipment in remote areas are also affected by the proposed rules, which the FAA says are essential to ensure the safety of those on the ground.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ATF Raises New Concerns About AR-15 Ammo
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on Thursday raised new concerns about surplus military ammo used in popular AR-15 rifles and pistols just days after pulling back on a proposal to ban the ammo because it could threaten police safety.
In a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, ATF Director B. Todd Jones said all types of the 5.56 military-style ammo used by shooters pose a threat to police as more people buy the AR-15-style pistols.
“Any 5.56 round” is “a challenge for officer safety,” he said.
[And any initiative by the notorious BATFE is a challenge for citizen safety — particularly the infamous “Fast and Furious” operation, in which Arizona gun stores were directed to sell weapons to obvious strraw buyers. The agency then allowed the guns to be “walked” across the border into Mexico, with the political objective of “salting” Mexican crime scenes with American-bought guns, thus ginning up international pressure for more gun control in America. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Big Pharma Giant Guilty of Selling Tainted Children’s Tylenol — Knowingly
How far does the fraud and contamination of our country’s products go? The list is seemingly endless. Recently adding on to the list, mega-company Johnson and Johnson was recently found out to be knowingly selling adulterated bottles of Tylenol that contain metal particles.
The makers of this children’s Tylenol seemed to think it was OK to pollute our nation’s children — even if it meant a federal criminal charge.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
CDC Blatantly Lied About Vaccine Safety in Congressional Hearings
(NaturalNews) It is hardly a secret that deception is the lifeblood that runs D.C. But the massive onslaught of pro-vaccine propaganda coming from our nation’s leaders today has spiraled completely out of control, with top health officials and politicians now blatantly lying under oath about the “safety and effectiveness” of vaccines.
During a recent congressional hearing, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Director Dr. Anne Schuchat, M.D., told Congress that there is absolutely no scientific evidence that vaccines cause autism, mental disorders, allergies or autoimmune disease.
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Big Pharma hack who recently proposed eliminating all criminal penalties for drug companies that injure or kill people with their deadly products, asked Dr. Schuchat a series of softball questions about vaccines, upon which she denied that vaccines are in any way dangerous.
The hearing was apparently held to put “vaccine conspiracy theorists in their place,” to quote the drug industry-sponsored news company MSNBC. But what it actually did was prove, yet again, that those entrusted with protecting public health are actively lying to the American public in order to push the vaccine agenda.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Democrats Panic as ObamaCare Fines Begin Hammering Americans
(NaturalNews) The unconstitutional tax penalty known as “Obamacare” is hitting many compliant American taxpayers hard as they file their 2014 tax returns. Steep fines for not carrying private health insurance, and proving it on IRS tax forms, are coming as a surprise to many taxpayers who were unaware of just how much they would be forced to pay for not enrolling.
The fine of $95 or 1 percent of household income, whichever is higher, that taxpayers without health coverage are being forced to pay will jump sharply to $325 or 2 percent of household income next year. But because the official enrollment period for 2015 has already passed, uninsured taxpayers won’t have another opportunity to enroll this year before hitting next year’s penalties.
To apparently decrease the risk of being lynch-mobbed for their treason against the American people, several lawmakers who helped usher Obamacare through the system against the will of the people have proposed establishing a special enrollment period that offers people more time to sign up for health insurance without having to pay the penalties.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
In his own words, Dr. Wakefield tells the full story that you won’t hear from the mainstream media about his involvement with MMR, and the study that so powerfully rocked the status quo as to provoke a malicious and completely unwarranted witch hunt against his work and reputation.
“In 1995, parents came to me as a gastroenterologist saying, ‘my child was developing perfectly normally in speech, language, milestones — all that.’ And then they had had, in many cases, the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and had lost their skills and regressed into autism,” explains Dr. Wakefield.
“Not only had they developed autism, but in the few weeks ensuing the vaccine they had suffered neurological complications — high fevers, they had become drowsy, slept for a long time, high-pitched screaming episodes, seizures, and ataxia, incoordination — hard neurological signs of an evolving encephalopathy or brain injury.”
The full interview is available through the Vaccine World Summit:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EMP Attack Could Cause Catastrophic Meltdown of America’s Nuclear Plants
(NaturalNews) The federal agencies regulating nuclear power are scrambling to find a solution to a potentially devastating threat: meltdown of nuclear reactors at such plants stemming from an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack on the U.S. power grid.As reported by the Washington…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FCC Rules Designed to Stifle Internet Political Speech
On Thursday the Federal Communications Commission made public a document detailing its so-called net neutrality rules that were approved two weeks ago on a 3-2 vote.
A PDF version of the document can be downloaded here.
The rules impose heavy regulations on what is currently a free and open internet and will ultimately result in federal government micromanagement.
The rules will also accelerate and finalize a long term government objective of censoring political enemies and limiting their use of the internet. Serious political opposition to the establishment has flourished on the internet and the federal government has stumbled in previous efforts to regulate speech its considers politically threatening.
Control of the internet is the primary motivation behind the FCC rule-making agenda, not net neutrality and the fallacious call to regulate corporations and enforce the principle that all data is equal.
This was made clear by opponents to the FCC report and order on remand…
“Net neutrality is a classic Trojan horse,” I argued. “It will be used not only to censor speech and marginalize opposition to the political class, but will also deliver the internet to large and forever consolidating media corporations.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FCC to Seize Entire Internet, Cable Spectrum Under 400-Page “Rules”
The FCC is combining several separate sections of telecommunications law developed for radio, cable TV and broadband access for a regulatory takeover of the Internet and is enforcing it with the same rules and methods as the Justice Department, according to its 400-page report released Thursday.
The agency is going to regulate the Internet like broadcast radio and television through a patchwork of telecommunications laws which were developed not only separately of each other but also in different decades.
“We ground the open Internet rules we adopt today in multiple sources of legal authority — Section 706, Title II and Title III of the Communications Act [of 1934],” page 120 of the 400-page FCC report states.
But what are these statues? Here’s a quick breakdown:
Section 706, Broadband Internet Regulation and Access, of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 Title II, Common Carrier Regulations of the Communications Act of 1934 Title III, Broadcast Station Requirements of the Communications Act of 1934
We already knew the FCC was reclassifying Internet Service Providers as “common carriers” under Title II regulations developed in 1934, but the agency is also invoking the regulatory frameworks created for broadcast radio and television stations under Title III and for “Internet broadband services” under Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
The FCC is claiming jurisdiction over the Internet by cherry picking existing regulations and combining them into new authority.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
GMO Apples Approved Despite Fierce Opposition
(NaturalNews) Proof that USDA serves biotech interests while betraying the people. The world has gone completely mad. While the average American mindlessly obsesses over whether or not a stupid image-gone-viral of a dress depicts white and gold colors or black and blue, the federal agency tasked with protecting the integrity of our food supply has indiscriminately green-lighted a new genetically modified organism (GMOs) for human consumption that threatens to unleash a Pandora’s box of destruction on both the apple industry and public health.
Okanagan Specialty Fruits’ Arctic apple, which will initially come in Granny Smith and Golden Delicious varieties, and later Fuji and Gala, has received approval from the Department of Agriculture (USDA) despite a lack of safety data showing that it won’t harm humans or pollute non-GMO and organic apple stocks. The “frankenfruit” has reportedly been genetically engineered to not brown after bruising or being sliced, extending its shelf life and making it more palatable when presented after being cut.
Arctic apples were developed using a relatively new genetic engineering process known as RNA interference (RNAi), or gene silencing, that is based on the directly manipulation of RNA molecules. According to the Center for Food Safety (CFS), Arctic apples have been artificially programmed not to express a gene normally responsible for browning, known as the polyphenol oxidase (PPO) enzyme.
Like with nearly every other previous GMO approval, there are a number of important factors that weren’t even considered by the USDA. One of these is Okanagan’s failure to evaluate how the PPO gene functions in an apple other than just browning it. By switching this gene “off,” a chain effect may occur that results in the apple becoming poisonous, for instance, either to animals, pollinators or humans — or perhaps all of these.
“This decision is scientifically irresponsible and misguided,” stated Dr. Doug Gurian-Sherman, a senior scientist at CFS. “The agency has failed to analyze whether suppressing fruit browning with these novel RNAs impacts the rest of the gene family in the tree, or whether there are off-target impacts on other genes.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hillary’s Damage Control Isn’t Working
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s efforts to douse the growing furor over her possibly illegal private email system are not going well.
The Obama White House, which claims the president knew nothing about Clinton’s surreptitious email system, unceremoniously threw the former cabinet member under the bus this week.
“Frankly, the secretary’s handling of her own personal email and the maintenance of [her] personal email inbox is something that I’m not going to comment on and not particularly interested in,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest.
President Obama, who reportedly detests the Clintons, may himself have played a role in revealing Hillary’s email misbehavior. That Obama didn’t know about the secret email system is simply too fantastic to believe. The president may have been holding the email saga back as a trump card, waiting for the best time to crush his former rival for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Of course, there is a certain poetry to one ruthless, venal Saul Alinsky disciple undermining another.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
McCain: Dempsey ‘Most Disappointing’ Joint Chiefs Chair I’ve Seen
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., blasted Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey on Wednesday for doing what he called “great damage” to the Middle East and world.
“General Dempsey is the most disappointing chairman of the Joint Chiefs that I have seen, and I have seen many of them,” McCain told Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.”
[And you, Senator, are the most disappointing presidential candidate I have seen. Because of your half-stepping in 2008, we have one of the very worst, most destructive presidents ever. Pray retire forthwith, and spare us more of your bloviation. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Middle East Studies Profs Distort, Dissemble About Paris Attacks
by Cinnamon Stillwell and Rima Greene
Only in academe can a panel discussion on Islamic terrorism turn into an exercise in obfuscation and denial. Titled “Shooting Rampage in Paris: Free Speech, Anti-Semitism, Freedom of Religion, Islamophobia,” the recent University of California, Berkeley panel—which promised to “start a dialog” on the Charlie Hebdo and kosher supermarket attacks in Paris—featured six professors from a variety of UC Berkeley departments. This mixture produced an array of contrasting views, yet neither of the two Middle East studies specialists involved—anthropology professor Saba Mahmood and Hatem Bazian, a Near Eastern studies lecturer and founder of the Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project—addressed the topic in a forthright manner, but deflected controversial issues and issued apologias for terrorism.
The large audience of students, faculty and community members filled Booth Auditorium in UC Berkeley’s law school, Boalt Hall, where Saba Mahmood began the discussion. She claimed to be a “longstanding defender of the right to free speech,” yet condemned “the wide call in European and American media to recirculate and celebrate the [Charlie Hebdo] cartoons” and Slate editor-in-chief Jacob Weisberg’s promise “to escalate blasphemous satire,” which she likened to an “escalation on the attack against France’s most beleaguered minority.” Focusing on the “question of why so many Muslims who do not condone the Paris murders are deeply offended by the cartoons,” she labored to explain that, “They felt what I would call a moral injury on the desecration of the prophet [Mohammad].” She insisted that “the caricaturists . . . find some better way, instead of making Mohammad the icon of terrorism itself,” ignoring that satirists depict Mohammad precisely because they are told not to, both by Islamic prohibitions and Western self-censorship.
[“France’s most beleaguered minority” — Boo hoo! More snivel-rights assertions of Muslim victimhood. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Smoking Cannabis for Three Years in Your Teens Can Ruin Long-Term Memory
Participants in the Northwestern University study, who smoked the drug daily for around three years, had an abnormally shaped hippocampus region of the brain which is vital to memory.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Statin Scam Worsens Cardiovascular Disease Epidemic
(NaturalNews) Two studies recently published in the Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology have drawn new attention to the fact that, far from being the miracle cure that was promised 20 years ago, statins actually carry serious side effects — and rather than reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, they actually increase it!
The studies came in the same month that U.S. government’s top nutrition advisory panel decided to drop its warning about dietary cholesterol.
Statins function by inhibiting an enzyme necessary for the production of cholesterol in the body, and there is no doubt that they do indeed lower blood levels of cholesterol. Due to their striking short-term effects, statins were immediately and widely embraced by the medical establishment, and their use has ballooned ever since, with the threshold for their use continually dropping. In July 2014, the United Kingdom’s National Health Service issued new guidelines for statin prescription that would lead to nearly 40 percent of the country’s adults being on the drugs.
There’s just one problem: Lowering cholesterol isn’t necessarily a good thing…
It’s because statins deplete coenzyme Q10, which the mitochondria in your body need in order to produce ATP, which your body uses for energy. A lack of ATP leads to cellular fatigue and degeneration. Because the heart is such a high-energy muscle (as it must pump at all times), the effects are felt there more strongly than in other muscles.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Community Activism Presidency That’s Ruining America
The very first day after an activism coup d’etat captured America in what all thought was just another presidential election, the day-to-day life of its citizens began taking a nosedive downhill, never to return.
It wasn’t another president who was elected on Nov. 4, 2008, it was the official election of Community Activism.
Nowhere is proof of presidency by Community Activism more visible than it is in Ferguson, Missouri.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Orwellian Re-Branding of ‘Mass Surveillance’ As Merely ‘Bulk Collection’
The Committee actually acknowledged for the first time (which Snowden documents log ago proved) that GCHQ maintains what it calls “Bulk Personal Datasets” that contain “millions of records,” and even said about pro-privacy witnesses who testified before it: “we recognise their concerns as to the intrusive nature of bulk collection.” That is the very definition of “mass surveillance,” yet the Committee simply re-labelled it “bulk collection,” purported to distinguish it from “mass surveillance,” and thus insist that it was all perfectly legal.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Toxic Ingredients in McDonald’s French Fries
(NaturalNews) Nineteen different ingredients go into McDonald’s French fries, including genetically modified (GMO) foods, additives, and preservatives. Antifoaming agents, hydrogenated soybean oil, natural beef flavoring, Dimethylpolysiloxane and Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate are all ingredients in McDonald’s French fries. Some of the added ingredients in the French fries are intended to add texture or color, but many of these additives are not used in other countries, so the necessity of adding them to the American fries is questionable.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Watchdog: ‘Potential Instruments of Terrorism’ Could be Slipping Into US on Rail Shipments
WASHINGTON — Weapons of mass destruction and “potential instruments of terrorism” could be at risk of entering the country through cargo rail shipments, according to a new watchdog report.
The scathing inspector general investigation claims Customs and Border Protection agents working at ports of entry aren’t properly screening rail cargo coming in from Mexico and Canada. In turn, CBP cannot say for sure whether they made the right move in releasing various “high-risk” shipments into the U.S.
CBP policy requires port inspectors to use “large-scale non-intrusive inspection equipment” to scan shipments that its automated system flags as high risk. This process is supposed to let inspectors screen cargo for everything from drugs to weapons to other contraband.
The policy also requires that ports use radiation detection equipment when inspecting high-risk rail shipments.
The audit, however, revealed CBP agents, who operate within the Department of Homeland Security, failed to consistently do both on rail shipments entering the United States from Mexico and Canada.
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Arab Leaders Call on Britain and France to Clamp Down on Their Radicals
The global fight against terrorism requires countries like Britain and France to do more to clamp down on home-grown extremists, Arab leaders agreed Friday.
It follows a meeting of the Council of Arab Interior Ministers (CMAI) in Algiers, the capital of Algeria, during which all pledged to destroy groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Al-Qaeda.
But Secretary General Mohamed Ben Ali Koman said this could only be done if countries like Britain took a tougher line against their own radicals. “The UK and France should stop offering shelter to extremists,” said Koman. “Too many are being treated too leniently in Europe. There needs to be a clampdown on radical ideology.”
The Saudi diplomat added: “Too many Western countries have given refuge to extremists under the pretext of freedom of thought.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Assange Agrees to London Questioning
Julian Assange’s lawyer has told The Local he is happy that Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny has asked to travel to London to question the Wikileaks founder about rape and sexual assault allegations in Sweden, despite previously insisting talks should be held in Stockholm.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austrian Police Charge Eight PEGIDA Marchers
Austrian police have charged eight participants in the country’s first Pegida protest, after some were caught yelling “Heil Hitler!”
Sympathisers of the German “anti-Islamisation” group were caught on camera yelling the Hitler slogan and other actions that contravene Austria’s anti-Nazi laws.
Police spokesman Roman Hahslinger said that some suspects were also seen performing the Hitler salute, or other gestures associated with the Nazis during last month’s demonstration in Vienna.
He added that the suspects, captured in photos and on videos, have yet to be identified.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium Withdraws ‘Controversial’ Waterloo Coin Under French Pressure, But Has a Plan B
France has successfully launched a protest against a special coin that Belgium had manufactured for the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo: the 2 euro coin will be withdrawn. France said it would be wrong to launch the coin and took its reservations to the European institutions. Belgium gave in, but has a plan B. The French move sparked anger, as France is already selling historic Waterloo coins at the foot of the Lion’s Mound anyway, critics say.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: PEGIDA Wants to Demonstrate in Ghent
Pegida Flanders, an organisation aligned with Germany’s anti-Islamisation group Pegida, has unveiled plans to demonstrate against the Islamisation of Flanders in Ghent on 13 April.
A spokesman for Pegida Flanders explained that the organisation had applied for permission to demonstrate in the East Flemish capital to press for a “viable society”.
A similar protest in Antwerp at the beginning of the month was banned by the mayor, Bart De Wever. Protesters who defied the ban and turned up face having to pay a municipal fine (photo). Pegida Flanders demonstrated with 100 people in Sint-Niklaas last February and plans are underway for a similar protest in Heist-op-den-Berg in Antwerp Province.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Hospital Worker Charged in ‘Mysterious Deaths’
A 30-year-old hospital employee is suspected of killing three patients and attempting to kill one more, according to newly-obtained information.
When a woman was arrested earlier this month in relation to what police called “mysterious deaths” at the public hospital in Nykøbing Falster, details were sparse.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
It will probably come as no surprise to dog lovers, but scientists in Vienna have shown that dogs can read the emotions on human faces. A series of experiments saw dogs clearly distinguishing between people who were frowning and smiling. So maybe we’ve been underestimating the family pet’s emotional intelligence?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Door Still Open to Iceland, Says EU
(BRUSSELS) — The European Union said Friday the door was still open to Iceland and denied that Reykjavik’s decision to drop its membership bid was a setback for the bloc.
Iceland announced on Thursday that it was suspending its application to join the 28-nation EU, saying its interest were better served outside the bloc.
“The doors of the EU of course remain open to Iceland,” European Commission spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic told reporters.
Margaritis Schinas, the spokesman for European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, rejected suggestions that Iceland’s decision was a new blow for the union.
Britain could hold a referendum on its membership of the EU in 2017 while Greece’s place in the euro and the bloc itself is in question because of its debt crisis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Eight Terrorist Suspects Arrested Across Spain
Police arrested eight people as part of an anti-terrorism operation in different areas of Spain early on Friday morning.
Those arrested were allegedly planning terrorist acts similar to ones carried out in other countries and were recruiting people to fight in Syria and Iraq, the interior ministry said in a statement.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Europol to Set Up Anti-Extremist Internet Unit
‘To fight radicalization, prevent lone wolves’
(ANSA) — Brussels, March 12 — Europol will set up a special unit to hunt down extremists on the Internet, Spanish Interior Minister Fernandez Diaz said at a meeting of European interior ministers Thursday.
“The mission will be to clean up the Internet of any radical content and to rid it of terrorists,” the minister said.
The new unit will be “a global point of reference” and will help prevent “radicalization and the rise of lone wolves,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
European Jews ‘Bankrupted’ by Security Costs: US Envoy
Stockholm (AFP) — Many Jewish bodies in Europe are being bankrupted by the growing need for security measures, the US State Department’s special envoy on anti-Semitism said on Friday.
Jewish communities in Europe are on edge after being targeted by Islamist gunmen in recent attacks in France and Denmark.
But even before that, many said they were victims of a growing tide of anti-Semitic crime, with the number of Jews leaving France for Israel nearly doubling between 2013 and 2014.
“Every Jewish community in western Europe certainly needs security support. Many of them are being bankrupted by the money they have to spend to protect their institutions,” Ira Forman told journalists in Stockholm.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Ukip leader (pictured with candidate Winston McKenzie at its conference last year) prompted controversy by suggesting he wanted to reverse anti-racism legislation dating back to the 1960s.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Female Viking Lesley Simpson Makes Shetland History
The first female Guizer Jarl — or chief Viking — in the 130-year history of Shetland’s world famous fire festivals is preparing to don her armour.
Lesley Simpson will lead a mixed-sex procession of Viking warriors in the South Mainland Up Helly Aa festival.
The event is one of several Viking-themed torchlit processions held on Shetland every year.
Only men are allowed to take part in the main Up Helly Aa festival in the capital, Lerwick.
Women have been playing a more prominent role in many of the similar fire festivals that have spread to smaller communities around the islands.
But Ms Simpson, from Bigton, will be the first woman to ever play the honoured role of the Guizer Jarl, around whom the whole festival revolves.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Francis Predicts His Papacy to be 4-5 Years, Misses Pizza
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has marked the second anniversary of his surprise election by predicting that he won’t be pope for long.
In an interview aired Friday with the Mexican broadcaster Televisa, he said: “I have the sensation that my pontificate will be brief: Four or five years. I don’t know. Or two or three. Well, two have already passed.”
Francis has previously said he thought he’d be pope for two to three years.
He said the thing he missed most was being able to go out to get pizza undetected.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Court Orders Islamic Veil Ban Softened
The Constitutional Court has ordered the state of North Rhine-Westphalia to review a ban on Islamic veils in its schools. The judges decided that veils do not pose a concrete threat to a school’s learning environment.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Nazis Bombed Own Cities for Target Practice
Documents going on sale in London show how the Nazis tested V2 rockets, including firing them at their own cities.
The owner of the documents, a private collector, claims that they have never been seen before and that they are the first evidence to show that the Nazis killed their own citizens as a means of testing their weaponry.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Berlin’s Jewish Community on Edge
Jewish citizens in Berlin are carefully assessing their safety following the deadly anti-Semitic attacks in Paris and Copenhagen earlier this year. Berlin is home to a vibrant and flourishing Jewish community — the largest in Germany. So how secure do Jews feel on the streets of the German capital? Leah McDonnell has been finding out.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Constitutional Court Strikes Down Absolute Headscarf Ban
Germany’s highest court has ruled that a complete ban on teachers wearing headscarves is not compatible with religious freedom. The decision overturns one of its own earlier rulings.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How the Nazis Bombed Thousands of Germans for V-2 Rockets Target Practice
The top-secret SS documents are said to offer proof Adolf Hitler used his own towns and cities to test the scale of the devastation caused by the ballistic missiles.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iceland definitively dropped its EU membership bid on Thursday (12 March), nearly six years after having made the demand.
“The government of Iceland has no intentions to resume accession talks”, country’s foreign affair minister, Gunnar Sveinsson, wrote in a letter to enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn and Latvia’s foreign affairs minister Edgars Rinkevics.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS: Spain Arrests 8 Alleged Jihadists
Indictment: planning attacks and recruiting
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 13 — Eight members of an alleged jihadist cell were arrested on Friday morning in Spain’s Catalan provinces including Barcelona, Girona, Ciudad Real and Avila in anti-terrorist operation conducted by Spanish National Police, Spain’s Interior Ministry reported.
According to reports, those arrested were planning attacks in Spain and were recruiting fighters for ISIS to be sent to Iraq and Syria through contacts provided by the terrorist organization.
The suspects were arrested a few hours following the verification of two suspected jihadists detained in Ceuta on Tuesday who, according to the indictment, were preparing to begin attacks in Spain. Both were charged with membership in a terrorist organization and illegal weapons possession.
Investigations are on-going and the operation, coordinated by Spanish High Court Judge Javier Gomez Bermudez, is still open.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Free Ourselves of Euro ‘Nazism’, M5S
‘Germany, EU want to colonise southern Europe’ — Di Battista
(ANSA) — Rome, March 13 — A member of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) said Friday “we have to get free of the central Nazism of Germany and the EU institutions because they want to colonise southern Europe via their economic policies”. Alessandro Di Battista, deputy chair of the House foreign and EU affairs committee, said “I use the term Nazism not for the German people but referring to the institutions that are killing peoples”. He said the euro was “a dead weight Italy must be free of…the reality is we are slaves of the mark. “We aren’t in the euro but substantially in the mark”, Di Battista said.
Beppe Grillo’s M5S is an anti-euro party which won about a quarter of the vote in the 2013 general election.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Seeks to Block Regional “Anti-Mosque Law”
The Italian government has moved to block new building regulations for Lombardy which would make it virtually impossible to build any new mosques in the northern region, officials said Friday.
The regulations, which have become known as the “anti-mosque” law, were approved by the right-wing dominated regional council at the end of January.
Amid an outcry over what critics see as a blatantly discriminatory move, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s centre-left government has decided to refer the new rules to the Constitutional Court for review…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Seeks to Stop ‘Anti-Mosque Law’
The Italian government has moved to block new building regulations for Lombardy which would make it virtually impossible to build any new mosques in the northern region, officials said on Friday.
The regulations, which have become known as the “anti-mosque” law, were approved by the right-wing dominated regional council at the end of January.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jeremy Clarkson is Too White, Male and British for the BBC, Writes Richard Littlejohn
Has Desperate Dan finally got his man? BBC television chief Danny Cohen appears determined to go down in history as The Man Who Sacked Jeremy Clarkson, writes RICHARD LITTLEJOHN.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Oil Fund Makes All Norwegians Millionaires
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the biggest in the world, has nearly doubled in three years, the central bank said Friday, which would make all 5.2 million Norwegians millionaires — at least on paper.
The fund comprised of stock, bonds and property from around the world returned 7.6 percent in 2014, ending the year at 6.431 billion kroner (745.1 billion euros, $788 billion). At the end of 2011, the fund was worth 3.312
billion kroner.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Police Drop Swedish Mosque Blaze Probe
Swedish police have dropped an investigation into a fire at a mosque in central Sweden on Christmas Day, ruling out criminal activity.
Anti-racism rallies attracted thousands of people in the days following the fire which took place around the same time as two similar incidents at Swedish mosques in Eslöv and Uppsala.
Forensic teams said on Friday that the fire started in a pile of clothes in a room next to the prayer room, used as a coat room. Visitors to the mosque, including children, are believed to have been in the room at the time.
“We don’t know why the fire started, but it could have by accident or by children playing with fire,” Wallén said.
Rumours emerging last week that the blaze was started by an overheated deep fryer have been completely dismissed and were never part of the investigation, according to Swedish police and fire services.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Researcher Raises the Alarm — Too Many White Protagonists in Swedish Childrens Books
Literature researcher Åsa Warnqvist yesterday warned state-sponsored Swedens Radio that only 5% of Swedish picture books that were published in 2014 had a black protagonist. She has come to this conclusion after having spent days sorting childrens book characters by skin color, at the taxpayers expense.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Paternity Suit Filed Against Salvador Dalí
Spain’s former King Juan Carlos might have just got out of a paternity suit, but another Spanish icon is now facing a paternity challenge, 26 years after he died.
A woman has filed a paternity suit against the heirs of Spanish surrealist painter, Salvador Dalí, requesting her DNA be tested to see if she is a match with the iconic Spaniard, who died in 1989.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Paleolithic Cave Art Found in Cantabria
A variety of geometric shapes, stains, discs and other marks in ochre and reddish colors, and possibly dating from the Paleolithic era, have been found inside a cave in the northern Spanish region of Cantabria.
The find was made inside a natural hollow known as Aurea Nota, located in the Desfiladero de La Hermida mountain gorge, around 50 meters over the Deva river, in the municipality of Peñarrubia.
Authorities immediately closed off access to the cave, the regional government said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Eight Arrests in Latest Operation Against Jihadist Cells
Spain’s National Police arrested eight people in the early hours of Friday in a raid against a jihadist cell that was using the internet to encourage terrorist attacks and recruit combatants for Syria and Iraq.
The arrests took place simultaneously in the provinces of Barcelona, Girona, Ciudad Real and Ávila, according to the Interior Ministry. The detainees all have Spanish citizenship, although five hail originally from Morocco.
Home searches yielded a wealth of jihadist propaganda material, as well as two shotguns.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ten Swedish Airports Get New Bomb Technology
A new method of checking for explosives is being introduced at check-in queues at Swedish airports this month as the Nordic nation implements updated EU regulations on security.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Two Kosher Supermarket Killings Suspects Face French Magistrates
Two associates of kosher supermarket killer Amedy Coulibaly appeared before a magistrate on Friday after four days in custody, while a third suspect was freed. The shop where he murdered four Jews is to reopen on Sunday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Armed Police Hunt ‘Gunman’ In Full Camouflage Clothing Seen Walking Through Norwich City Centre
The man, wearing khaki fatigues and apparently carrying a rifle, caused alarm after he was spotted in Norwich. Police are still hunting the man, but there have been no sightings since this morning.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Ed ‘Two Kitchens’ Miliband Under Fire in Bizarre Row
Labour leader criticised by Tories after a humble kitchen he posed in with wife in soft-focus interview actually the smaller of two kitchens in his house
It was an attempt to portray Ed Miliband as a “man of the people” by filming him alongside his wife in a small, austere kitchen of their north London home.
But the move backfired after it emerged the room was in fact the smaller of two kitchens in his £2 million mansion, which he uses only for preparing “tea and quick snacks”.
The apparent gaffe saw Mr Miliband dubbed “Two Kitchens” — a reference to John ‘Two Jags’ Prescott, the former Labour deputy leader — and mocked by Conservative opponents.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Face of Leeds Bus Stop Rapist Who Grabbed 18-Year-Old on Street Revealed
The victim was waiting by the roadside in Leeds, West Yorkshire, when she was grabbed and hauled to a nearby garden and repeatedly struck with what is believed to be a large stone.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Islam Can be a Violent Faith, Says Queen’s Chaplain Rev Gavin Ashenden
Reverend Gavin Ashenden, one of around 35 chaplains to serve the Queen, said the Bible invites people to guide each other from evil, while the Koran incites people to violence.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Man’s Horrific Scars After Wife Poured Jug of Scalding Water Over Him
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Ken Gregory, 65, suffered first and second degree burns to 14% of his body after his now ex-wife Teresa Gilbertson poured scalding water over him at his bungalow in Peterborough.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Racist? No Nigel Farage is Simply Stating the Obvious, Writes Richard Littlejohn
Nigel Farage finds himself embroiled in yet another bogus race row simply for having the audacity to challenge the cosy consensus of our arrogant political elite, writes RICHARD LITTLEJOHN.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: TV Weatherman Fred Talbot Jailed for Five Years for Sex Attacks on Boys
Talbot, 65, once a regular on the floating weather map in Liverpool’s Albert Dock, was described at his trial as a ‘chancer’ who used his ‘extrovert personality’ to gain the trust of his victims.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
4 Arrested in Bosnia for Scandinavia Terror Attack Plans
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Bosnian police say they have arrested four men suspected of building an explosive device intended for a terrorist attack in an unspecified Scandinavian country.
Three suspects were arrested at the border while trying to leave Bosnia with the explosive device in the trunk of their car, while a fourth was simultaneously arrested in Sarajevo, police said on Friday.
The arrests were the result of a coordinated operation also involving officials from Netherlands and Sweden.
The four suspects, including one Swedish and three Bosnian nationals, are suspected of having built the bomb in Bosnia after receiving “a request” from Scandinavia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jihadist-Targeted Egypt Courts Foreign Investors
Egypt is hosting from Friday a three-day conference aimed at wooing foreign investors, while also shoring up global support for President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in his fight against jihadists targeting the country.
US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived at dawn in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for the conference which aims to attract billions of dollars into Egypt’s economy battered by four years of political turmoil.
Sisi’s government is struggling to stamp out an insurgency in the northern Sinai Peninsula and small-scale bomb attacks in Cairo that have targeted not only police but also foreign companies.
“If Egypt is stable — a country of 90 million people — this will represent the strongest bedrock of stability in this region,” Sisi, who was elected after ousting Islamist Mohamed Morsi in 2013, told Fox News on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Religion Nothing to Do With Terror Says Renzi
No clash of civilisations
(ANSA) — Sharm el-Sheikh, March 13 — Religion has nothing to do with terrorism, Italian Premier Matteo Renzi said at an economic forum hosted by Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh Friday.
“We have to unite our forces to face the challenge” of terrorism,” he said.
“There is no clash of civilisations and the fight of the civilised world (is) against a few extremists that have nothing to do with religion.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UN Role in Libya Key — Mogherini, Jordan’s Abdullah
EU foreign chief, king confer at Sharm el-Sheikh
(ANSA) — Sharm el-Sheikh, March 13 — The importance of UN-brokered political negotiations in Libya was the focus of talks Friday between EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini and King Abdullah of Jordan.
The two spoke on the sidelines of an economic conference in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Israel’s Next 22 Months
The next 22 months until President Barack Obama leaves office promise to be the most challenging period in the history of US-Israel relations.
Now unfettered by electoral concerns, over the past week Obama exposed his ill-intentions toward Israel in two different ways.
First, the Justice Department leaked its intention to indict Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez on corruption charges. Menendez is the ranking Democratic member, and the former chairman, of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is also the most outspoken Democratic critic of Obama’s policy of appeasing the Iranian regime.
As former US federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy wrote this week at PJMedia, “It is perfectly reasonable to believe that Menendez may be guilty of corruption offenses and that his political opposition on Iran is factoring into the administration’s decision to charge him. Put it another way, if Menendez were running interference for Obama on the Iran deal, rather than trying to scupper it, I believe he would not be charged.”
The Menendez prosecution tells us that Obama wishes to leave office after having vastly diminished support for Israel among Democrats. And he will not hesitate to use strong-arm tactics against his fellow Democrats to achieve his goal…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Elections: Center Leading, Likud Behind
Haaretz poll: Arab List in 3rd place, Peres with Herzog
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV — A few days before Israel’s March 17 elections, center-left Isaac Herzog’s Zionist Union gained two seats to reach 24, while Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party lost two, dropping to 21, a poll by Israel newspaper Haaretz reported on Thursday.
Of important note is that United Arab List is in third place with 13 seats. The newspaper explained that the poll is not based on voting intentions, but on choices declared.
If the poll is confermed, “the possibility that [Isaac] Herzog will form the next government has greatly increased”, Haaretz said. This trend was also shown by in other data from the survey. According to this, Herzog, son of Israel’s sixth president, grandson of an influential rabbi, and from a family nicknamed ‘the Kennedys of Israel’, is closing the gap that separates him from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the people’s perception as best prime minister. Ten days ago the gap between the two was 26% in favor of Netanyahu, now it is 14%. For the survey, 48% called Bibi still the best person for premier, while 34% is in support of Herzog. Of important note is that in third place United Arab List led by leader Ayman Odeh, making his debut on the national level.
If the survey is confirmed by the vote, the United Arab List is one seat ahead of important centrist parties and also Israeli parliament’s right parties such as Yair Lapid’s There is a Future, right-wing and also Naftali Bennett’s right-wing religious, political party The Jewish Home.
Finally, the survey indicates the possible failure of electoral threshold by Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s Foreign Minister and leader of the right.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
CIA Chief Says ISIS Has ‘Snowballed’
CIA Director John Brennan said Friday that the Islamic State had “snowballed” beyond Iraq and Syria, expanding its presence in more than 90 countries.
The CIA director said that the terror group has ballooned in size to about 20,000 members, and points to the recent pledge of allegiance to ISIS by Nigeria-based Boko Haram.
“This will be a long-term struggle,” he said. “If there is one thing we have learned over the years, it is that success against terrorism requires patience and determination.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Facebook Posts From U.S. Land Pinellas Contractor in Arab Jail
TAMPA — Frustrated with his employer in the United Arab Emirates, Ryan Pate, a civilian helicopter mechanic from Belleair Bluffs, criticized the company and made a rash, derogatory comment toward Arabs on Facebook while back home in January.
Last month, when he returned to the UAE to work out his employment issues, Pate received a call from the Abu Dhabi police directing him to come in.
“I didn’t know why and they wouldn’t tell me,” said Pate, 30, a 2005 graduate of Largo High School.
After arriving at the police station, Pate said he was accused of violating an Emerati cybercrimes law for slandering his employer, which brought the charges against him. Pate said he was arrested and taken to jail. Now free on bail, he is scheduled to stand trial March 17 and could face up to five years in prison and a $50,000 fine.
Back home in Tampa, his fiancee, Jillian Cardoza, created a GoFundMe.com account to help pay his legal fees, raising more than $15,000 of her $60,000 goal in just a few days.
After learning about Pate’s arrest, U.S. Rep. David Jolly, who represents the district where Pate grew up, sent letters to Secretary of State John Kerry and Ali Mohammed Abdullah Al Bloushi, the Emerati attorney general, calling for Pate’s release on the charge of cyber slander against the UAE and his employers.
Jolly, who read the messages and describes them as “very offensive,” said he respects the sovereignty of the UAE but added that Pate posted them from the United States while he was under the free speech protections afforded by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
[Under Shari’a law, this guy committed ghiba, which means “to mention anything concerning a person that he would dislike” (see “Reliance of the Traveler, a translation of a classic manual of Shari’a). He committed it in America, where it is not illegal, but got busted when he set foot in a Muslim country where it is. Critics of Islam take note: stay out of Islamic ratholes. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Tensions between Stockholm and Riyadh have grown so acute that Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador to Sweden on Wednesday. The Swedish foreign ministry had published Wallstrom’s planned remarks in Cairo, which made no specific reference to Saudi Arabia but did urge reform on issues of women’s rights. Nevertheless, the Saudi foreign ministry deemed the statement “offensive” and “blatant interference in its internal affairs,” according to the BBC.
Saudi Arabia bought some $39 million in Swedish military equipment last year alone. The kingdom recently became the world’s biggest arms importer; it’s Sweden’s third-largest non-Western customer for weapons.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqi Forces Pause in Battle to Drive Islamic State From Tikrit
(Reuters) — Frustrated by guerrilla tactics from Islamic State militants, Iraqi forces paused for reinforcements on Friday in a major offensive to take back the city of Tikrit.
The operation appeared to have stalled for the time being, two days after Iraqi security forces and their mainly Shi’ite militia allies pushed into Tikrit, the home city of executed ex-president Saddam Hussein.
A source in the military command said Iraqi forces would not move forward until reinforcements reached Tikrit, of which Islamic State still holds around half.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The arrival of King Salman on the throne of Saudi Arabia has changed the kingdom’s politics. With intelligence chief Bandar bin Sultan retired, the axis with the United States has been boosted. The goal is to rebuild the Brotherhood as an influential force in the Arab world. The US wants to annihilate the Islamic State and splinter the Middle East to protect Israel.
Beirut (AsiaNews) — The arrival of King Salman at the helm of Saudi Arabia has led to a palace revolution, this according to a Paris-based French-Lebanese scholar on condition his name be withheld. The two events that signal this shift are the departure of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, 65, head of the al Faisal clan, and a former of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence services and the decision to seek a rapprochement with the Muslim Brotherhood.
The researcher explains that the White House strongly backs this decision, noting that the US State Department recently received a visit from a delegation of leaders from the Muslim Brotherhood, and for the United States, “the Brotherhood is neither a terrorist group nor followers of violence”. Recently, President Barack Obama met the Emir of Qatar, who is very close to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Clearly, such a shift in Saudi and US diplomacy indicates a desire to co-opt the Muslim Brotherhood in the fight against the Islamic State (IS, or Daesh in Arabic) and al Qaeda in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen.
Although this would bring dividends to the United States, it raises concerns for pro-democracy Arab, first of all the danger that it might destabilise Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al Sisi, who is openly at war with the “Ikhwan”. For Washington, this would be a huge mistake, like in Iraq, even though President Sisi is certainly not blameless.
The failure of a strategy
Looking at King Abdullah’s reign, the French-Lebanese expert notes that for years Bandar bin Sultan was a strong backer of extremist Wahhabi organisations to counter Iran and Russia, especially in Iraq and Syria, including al Qaeda and, above all, the Islamic State group with its Caliphate plan.
The scholar points out two surprising elements in the strategy of Saudi Arabia’s chief spy’s strategy: his distrust, if not open hatred, for the US democratic administration, and for the United States in general.
Bas du formulaire
Such an attitude may seem surprising, given the fact that Bandar bin Sultan — during his long stint as Saudi ambassador in Washington — forged strong links with US political elites, and the US star system glitterati, not to mention ties with the Bush clan and the magnates of the US defence industry.
Perhaps one day we will revisit the deep-seated, “intimate” reasons for Bandar’s anti-Americanism, that of his wife and circle (the Al-Faisal clan). Nor now, it seems implausible that he and what he stood for were touched by the 2001 attacks against the United States or, more recently, by the beheadings of American citizens.
“Democratic revolutions”
Regarding the policy followed by Bandar bin Sultan in recent months, another element must be noted, namely his fear that US President Obama might raise the issue of “democratic revolutions” led by the Muslim Brotherhood in the Arabian Peninsula and the kingdom itself . . . a situation that could have led to the conquest of Yemen by pro-Iranian Shia Houthis, and thus cornered the members of Al-Islah, the powerful Yemeni branch of the Muslim Brotherhood!
In short, since 25 January, the new king of Saudi Arabia, Salman, and his Sudairi clan — which draws its origins from the favourite wife of the founder of the dynasty, Ibn Saud — have made a clear break with the past, in collaboration with the US president when he came to Riyadh for the enthronement ceremony, accompanied by dozens of senior officials, intelligence officials and experts.
The “new” joint US-Saudi strategy entails restoring the Muslim Brotherhood as an influential force throughout the Arab world, with the support of the Brotherhood’s two historic protectors: Qatar and Turkey.
On the short and the long run
What are the reasons for this new turn of events? On the short run, if possible, President Obama wants to destroy IS, which has become America’s number one enemy. To do this, he can already count on the Kurds of Syria and Iraq (which he keeps on arming) and Iraqi Shias (supported by Iran and Hezbollah).
In Iraq, Obama and his allies are preparing carefully the retaking of Mosul, the largest Sunni city on the Nineveh Plain. The participation of the Muslim Brotherhood and Iraqi Sunni tribes in this assault seems indispensable.
In Yemen, faced with Shia Houthis, al Qaeda, which is entrenched in the south and east, claims to embody “the Sunni resistance”. For the Americans, it is time to resurrect Al-Islah (the Muslim Brotherhood and the tribes) to provide an alternative for the 55 per cent of Yemenis who are Sunni.
In Egypt, President Obama hopes to reconcile President Sisi and the Muslim Brotherhood in order to stop Wahhabi jihadists, who are multiplying attacks and bombings, especially in the Sinai and in the big cities.
Even in Libya, a rapprochement between the Brotherhood and the alliance led by General Haftar (CIA) might slow the growth of the Islamic State group and Ansar al Sharia, which are threatening the Sahel and the Maghreb.
Here too, for President Obama, only the Muslim Brotherhood can be the Sunni challenger against the Islamic State group at a time when millions of Sunnis are sensitive to the appeal of radical Wahhabism. The Brotherhood is in fact present in all Arab countries, and is well organised and supposedly “moderate”, willing to cooperate with Washington.
On the long run, some observers believe the United States wants to redraw the map of the Middle East, by encouraging the emergence of weak federal states (à la Bosnia), linking different ethnic and religious components with the aim of ensuring the security of Israel.
If they turn out to be “credible” allies, the Muslim Brotherhood will be called to represent, at least in part, Sunni Arabs in the various countries involved.
Where do the tactics and strategies of the United States lead? Will the Islamic State be defeated? Will the Brotherhood become an effective and accommodating ally of the West? We shall soon find out.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Medieval Log Buildings Unearthed in Kyiv
KYIV, UKRAINE—Medieval Kyiv was larger than had been thought. Last month, a construction project in one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city uncovered a street and remains of log buildings in wet ground near the Dnipro River. “Podil is very well studied, which is why everyone was very surprised when we first saw the fragments of the twelfth-century wooden fence and house,” archaeologist Ivan Zotsenko told the Kyiv Post. Continued excavation of the area, thought to have been a densely populated street, has unearthed several wooden fences, coins, beads, pots, and an amphora. “The main value of the archaeological finding is that the medieval Kyiv borders have become more clear,” Zotsenko said. The construction project has been halted and plans for a museum on the site are being considered.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Putin ‘Disappearance’ Due to Birth of Son, Tabloid Says
Ex-gymnast Kabaieva ‘in same Swiss clinic as Barbara Berlusconi’
(ANSA) — Moscow, March 13 — Russian President Vladimir Putin “disappeared” from the political scene in recent days to attend to the birth of his son by 32-year-old ex-Olympic gymnast Alina Kabaieva, said Swiss tabloid Blick on Friday, citing Ukrainian weekly magazine Novoe Vremya.
Putin, whose divorce from his wife of 30 years, Liudmila, was finalised last year, is said to have fathered two other children with Kabaieva, a rumor that both Putin and the former State Duma deputy from Putin’s United Russia party deny.
The tabloid said that Sant’Anna, the Swiss clinic in Canton Ticino where Kabaieva gave birth, is well-known among the Russian upper crust, and that Putin’s friend Silvio Berlusconi may have recommended the clinic, given that it’s the one where Berlusconi’s daughter Barbara gave birth in 2009.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Dr Mirza Tariq Ali (pictured) worked in hospitals in London and Cambridge before fleeing to join the Taliban. His terror group was linked to the massacre of children in Peshawar.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Guns, Books and Smiles: Photos From Inside Usama’s Pre-9/11 Tora Bora Hideout
Newly surfaced photos of Usama bin Laden, taken in his Tora Bora hideout in the years before he launched the deadliest terror attack in U.S. history, and more than a decade before Navy SEALs killed him in his squalid Pakistan compound, show the Al Qaeda mastermind surrounded by guns, books and terrorist toadies.
The pictures were taken in 1996 by Palestinian journalist Abdel Barri Atwan, and introduced at a trial in Manhattan federal court of former Bin Laden deputy Khaled al-Fawwaz. Al-Fawwaz was convicted of conspiracy in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa and sentenced to life in prison.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India: Rajasthan: “Escorted” By Police, Radical Hindus Attack Christians Pentecostals
The militants raided the home of a private citizen, accusing those present of forced conversions. Pentecostal pastor and the owner of the house arrested, later released. Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC): “Ironic that the police, which by law has the duty to protect citizens, accompanied the fundamentalists”.
Mumbai (AsiaNews) — Under police escort, radical Hindus of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal barged into the house of a Pentecostal Christian yesterday in Rajasthan, accusing those present of practicing forced conversions and confiscating all Bibles.
Under pressure from the extremists the police arrested the Rev. Lal Singh — who was leading the prayer service — and the home owner Indram Chauhan. After several hours of interrogation, the two were released without charges against them. AsiaNews learned of this latest episode from the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC).
The incident occurred at Haldad, in the district of Barwani. Sajan George, GCIC president, told AsiaNews: “We are concerned about the continuing abuses and repeated false allegations of conversions made against the Pentecostal pastors in Rajashtan. It is indeed ironic that the police, which by law has the duty to protect citizens, accompanied the fundamentalists”.
Moreover, adds the Christian leader, “the prayer service was taking place in the privacy of the home of a private citizen. The pastor was not doing anything illegal, freedom of religion is a constitutional guarantee. Yet the forces of Hindu right continue their reign of terror, violating the law and attacking the vulnerable Christian minority”.
Rajasthan is one of the Indian states where the religious freedom of Christians is most threatened by Hindu radicals. Since 2008 the final ratification of an anti-conversion law has been pending, which if approved would ban conversions that take place “through force, fraud or coercion” and condemns those who practice them to five years in prison and 50 thousand rupees (about 750 euro) fine.
However, these measures (in force in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Himanachal Pradesh) are used as a political tool against minorities, in particular to curb conversions from Hinduism to Christianity.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India’s Millionaires Have Been Leaving the Country in Droves
India may have been minting millionaires at an unprecedented rate over the past decade, but it has also seen many of its seven-figured-citizens escape to other countries.
The latest Knight Frank’s annual Wealth Report—which looks at the spending habits of the rich, the superrich and the “I have my own Boeing but forgot where I parked it,” rich—estimates that more than 43,000 Indian millionaires left the country to settle elsewhere in the past 10 years. That is second only to China, which saw a private-plane drain of more than 76,000 people, according to estimates from property company Knight Frank and immigration consultancy Fragomen.
China lost the most rich migrants as 76,200 of its millionaires left to settle in places like Hong Kong, Singapore, the U.S. and Australia. After the two billion-person emerging markets, the biggest losers in terms of millionaire migrants were France, Italy, Russia, Switzerland and Indonesia. You wouldn’t think the rich and famous would be so anxious to leave Europe but apparently high taxes on the high earners encouraged many to leave.
In terms of the countries that attracted the most millionaire migrants, the United Kingdom was the leader by a huge margin.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Reintroduces the Death Penalty “For All Crimes”
Seven year moratorium over-turned. Recently, the government had resumed executions for crimes related to terrorism. Interior Ministry gives provincial governments indications to “proceed” with executions. Human rights activists: shameful race to the scaffold that does not solve the problems of security and public order.
Islamabad (AsiaNews / Agencies) — The Pakistani government has over-turned the moratorium on the death penalty in all cases in which the death sentence was imposed, resuming executions for crimes related to terrorism.
Islamabad’s decision to resume executions came in the aftermath of the Taliban attack on the military school in Peshawar, a brutal episode that caused the death of nearly 150 students and teachers.
The Interior Ministry has given indication provincial governments indications to “proceed with the hanging” of inmates whose trials have reached conclusion, rejecting all requests for appeal or clemency.
Today there are at least 8 thousand prisoners awaiting judgment on death row in the South Asian nation after a moratorium lasted at least seven years. Of these about one thousand have seen their request for clemency rejected by the President, the last step before the execution of their sentence.
Since last December, when executions resumed, Pakistan has hanged 24 people, three of which had not been convicted of terrorism.
Activists and human rights organizations speak of a “shameful race to the gallows” initiated by Islamabad, which “will not solve the problems of security and public order” that plague long Pakistan.
Among the thousands of people held on death row there are several women and, among these, even the Christian mother Asia Bibi, sentenced to death for blasphemy, whose story has raised outrage and international mobilization.
Last year, the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon appealed to the Pakistani government to reintroduce the moratorium on the death penalty, which is also provided for the crimes of adultery, apostasy and blasphemy according to the dictates of sharia, Islamic law . Activist groups point the finger at the Pakistani judicial system, full of sham trials, police torture to extract confessions and an absence of the right of defense.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Lahore: 20 Year Old Christian Tortured and Killed by Police
Zubair Masih was violently beaten while held overnight in police custody. He was arrested along with some relatives, after a Muslim accused his mother of theft. Mobilization of activists and civil society opens investigation against police. Little hope the Christian family will obtain justice.
Lahore (AsiaNews) — Pakistani police tortured a young Christian to death after his mother had been previously accused of stealing gold from her employer, a Muslim.
According to investigators the woman was charged with having stolen gold items from the house of Abdul Jabar, where she worked as a maid for less than $ 20 a month.
The 20 year old Zubair Masih was taken away by a group of agents who were investigating the theft report against his mother, Ayesha Bibi. However, the young man, unlike other relatives, was detained and died in the hours following his arrest while still in the custody of law enforcement officers.
The incident occurred in Lahore, Punjab, and according to preliminary reports provided by CLAAS (Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement), the young man was “violently tortured throughout the night” by the police. The next morning his lifeless body, was “dumped in front of his parents’ house”.
The charge of theft lodged against Ayesha (pictured) by Jabbar, has been strongly denied by the woman. One evening the Muslim employer together with a retinue of policemen raided her home, accusing her of stealing gold worth just over $ 350.
The police beat and detained the woman, then dragged her to her brother Arshad Masih, with whom her two sons lived. According to the Muslim employer, Ayesha handed them over the stolen goods, while she continued to proclaim her innocence.
Jabbar began to beat Ayesha, under the indifferent eyes of the police; then the agents took the whole family, to the nearby police station to continue their interrogation. During the long hours of questioning the agents repeatedly used violence and torture against the Christian family, fracturing the woman’s arm. Later the police released all the family, except Zubair.
The family feared for the fate of the young man, because often the police use violence during interrogations, especially against Christians. And the fears proved well founded when, on the morning of March 6, they found the body of 20 year old in front of their door. Doctors confirmed that the death occurred as a result of torture.
For two days the family protested outside the police station. Later under pressure from activists and civil society, on March 8, investigators opened an investigation against an officer and three agents. Despite promises of justice, most likely the story will end with a paltry monetary compensation to the family while the policemen will remain unpunished.
With a population of more than 180 million people (97 per cent Muslim), Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world, the second largest Muslim nation after Indonesia.
About 80 per cent of Muslims are Sunni, whilst Shias are 20 per cent. Hindus are 1.85 per cent, followed by Christians (1.6 per cent) and Sikhs (0.04 per cent).
Scores of violent incidents have occurred in recent years, against entire communities (Gojra in 2009, and Joseph Colony, Lahore, in March 2013), places of worship (Peshawar, September last year) and individuals ( Sawan Masih, Asia Bibi, Rimsha Masih and Robert Fanish Masih, who died in prison), often perpetrated under the pretext of the country’s blasphemy laws.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Urged Not to Free Mumbai Attack Suspect Lakhvi
Indian officials have called on the Pakistani government not to release the man suspected of masterminding the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008.
They were responding to a High Court ruling in Islamabad, which overturned the detention of Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
He is one of seven men facing trial over the attacks, which left 165 people dead.
It is unclear if he will be freed as the Pakistani government has challenged such court rulings in the past.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
South Asian Cousin Marriages, Providing Perfect Subjects for UK Genome Project
Due to the high instances of cousin-marriages in Bangladeshis (10% of the population has related parents) and Pakistanis (30%-40% of the population has related parents), these populations have a higher likelihood of receiving two copies of a rare gene instead of one, making the effects more pronounced — and making them the perfect subjects for a study of this kind.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Debate Potential Collapse of Communist Party
A debate over the potential collapse of the Chinese Communist Party, sparked by a US academic, has hit a nerve in China as the country’s top legislators meet in Beijing.
President Xi Jinping is indeed “facing a big crisis as he tries to consolidate power and continue his anti-corruption campaign,” Beijing-based independent commentator Zhang Lifan told dpa.
“If he fails, the regime will not be able to handle the consequences.”
Zhang Ming, a political scientist at People’s University in Beijing, disagreed, saying the leadership clarified their aims during the congress and will be able to implement their goals.
Both men were responding to a controversial essay published Saturday by US scholar David Shambaugh, professor of international affairs at George Washington University.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Interviews Exposing “Widespread” Corruption in China’s Military Disappears
Three senior officers talk about bribes running in the tens of millions of yuan to buy promotions, favouritism, nepotism and silence. This is a sign that a struggle is underway between Jiang Zemin’s cronies and Xi Jinping’s people.
Hong Kong (AsiaNews) — An interview on Phoenix Television with three retired generals on awful levels of graft in the People’s Liberation Army was removed from the broadcaster’s website a few hours after it was posted.
On Monday, the Hong Kong-based, mainland-tied TV channel interviewed the former senior officers to support President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign.
However, in doing so it exposed a world where money, connections and personal bonds can buy promotions for friends and relatives and cover wrongdoing under a mantle of silence and confidentiality.
All three senior officers end their interviews with a plea for reforms to empower the military anti-graft agency, improve defence spending transparency, and curb rampant graft among troops.
“Everybody in society knows that in the PLA … you need to pay to join the party. Promotions to become leaders at platoon, company, regiment and division levels all have their own price tags,” said retired PLA Major General Yang Chunchang
For the former department deputy head of China’s Academy of Military Sciences, the situation “has affected the security of the army. It’s too horrible, as bribes are in the scale of several tens of million [yuan]”.
President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign against “tigers and flies,” i.e. from top to the bottom of the hierarchy, has already touched the Politburo and at least 30 generals, including disgraced Central Military Commission vice-chairman, General Xu Caihou.
Speaking about him Yang said the top brass’ way to use and choose people is “number one, money; number two, connections; number three, their personal bond”. Xu was not alone.
“After trouble loomed around Xu and others, their aides said they have too much power,” Yang said. “For a military area commander position . . . [despite] one bribing him 10 million, when the next bribes him 20 million, he will trash the first guy who give him 10 million.”
In the interview, Yang said that military was so corrupt that if anybody tried to report it, he would be blocked by his superiors.
Retired Major General Jiang Chunliang, a former researcher at the Academy of Military Sciences, agrees. Cronyism and corruption, he said, took the front seat in deciding important appointments.
Favouritism, Jiang explained, goes to certain “people’s sons, son-in-laws, secretaries, those who are closer to the senior officers, or those willing to bribe officers-in-charge. Incompetent candidates are thus picked for important leading roles”.
For his part, a despondent Retired Major General Luo Yuan asked, “Which soldier will be willing to sacrifice for a corrupt officer, or to fight a battle for a corrupt officer? That corrupt officer has his own private coffer; how will he risk his own life for the country?”
The removal of the interviews from the Phoenix Television website suggests a few things, namely that top brass in China’s military are not too happy about the fight against corruption, and that Jiang Zemin’s grip over them remains as strong now under Xi Jinping as it did under his predecessor Hu Jintao.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Japan: Mitsubishi to Beam Solar Power From Outer Space
The Japanese engineering giant Mitsubishi has succeeded in transmitting energy wirelessly. The breakthrough marks one small step for solar energy in space and possibly one giant leap for clean energy.
Imagine a power plant floating in outer space. Below a bustling city, electric cars darting this way and that. All powered by a steady beam of extraterrestrial electricity.
What sounds like science fiction could soon be a reality after scientists in Japan have pulled off an engineering feat of cosmic proportions, with the potential to make even the most modern solar parks look like relics from the Stone Age.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) announced on Friday that it had wirelessly powered LED lights by transmitting a 10-kilowatt microwave through the air to a receiver 500 meters away.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Students Losing Interest in China as Dream Jobs Prove Elusive
American students are getting cold feet about studying Chinese in China, with many study abroad programs in the country seeing a substantial drop in enrolment over the last few years.
American students’ apparent loss of interest contrasts with Chinese students’ clamor for a U.S. education. The number of Chinese studying in the United States jumped 16.5 percent in 2013-14 to more than 274,000.
For U.S. students, China’s notorious pollution is a concern. Job opportunities are another. As multinationals in China hire mostly local Chinese, a growing percentage of whom have studied abroad, they have less need for foreigners who speak Chinese.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cameroon: Nigerian Army Recaptures 36 Towns From Boko Haram
The Nigerian government says 36 towns have been recaptured from the Boko Haram terrorist group since the start of the Nigerian, Nigerien, Chadian and Cameroonian offensive against the terrorist group, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Four towns have been retaken since Friday, March 6, 2015, including three in Borno State and Buni Yadi in the neighbouring Yobe State, The Street Journal reported citing the National Security spokesman Mike Omeri. “It is hoped that the unfolding regional cooperation will hasten the total defeat and extermination of Boko Haram in Nigeria and the sub-region,” Mike Omeri is quoted to have said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
IS Accepts Allegiance of Nigeria Jihadists Boko Haram
The Islamic State group has accepted a pledge of allegiance to the group made by the Nigerian jihadist organisation Boko Haram, according to an audiotape Thursday purportedly from its spokesman.
“We announce to you to the good news of the expansion of the caliphate to West Africa because the caliph… has accepted the allegiance of our brothers of the Sunni group for preaching and the jihad,” IS spokesman Mohammed al-Adnani said in the message, using the name in Arabic of the Nigerian group.
Itself a radical Sunni Muslim movement, IS has seized large swathes of Iraq and Syria and declared an Islamic “caliphate” there, and has also drawn expressions of allegiance from jihadists in Egypt and Libya.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In an audio message entitled ‘kill and be killed’, a spokesperson for ISIS’ leader not only accepted Boko Haram’s pledge of allegiance but threatened even more violence against Christians and Jews.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kidnapped in Mozambique: In the Clutches of Rhino Poachers
We traveled to Mozambique to report a story about the region’s destructive and illegal trade in rhinoceros horns. But when photographer Toby Selander and I were taken captive by poachers, we found ourselves staring death in the face.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Girls and Boys Lashed Until They Learn the Koran in Chad Refugee Camps
A teenager with a leather whip walks among his 30 young pupils who have fled brutal sectarian violence in neighbouring Central African Republic only to be subjected to a new form of punishment.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria Reclaims 36 Towns From Boko Haram
As part of four-nation military offensive
(ANSA) — Rome, March 12 — The Nigerian government said Thursday it has reclaimed 36 cities and towns from Boko Haram since the beginning in February of a four-nation military offensive against the Islamic fundamentalist insurgency.
These include the city of Damasak, where Boko Haram reportedly suffered heavy losses, and Buni Yadi, a key town in Yobe state.
Three others were in neighboring Borno state, which has suffered repeated attacks by the militant group that launched military operations in 2009 in a bid to carve out an Islamic fundamentalist state in northeastern Nigeria.
National security spokesman Mike Omeri thanked neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger for cooperating in the campaign against the Islamist rebels.
National elections are scheduled to take place in Nigeria on March 28.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
South Africans Perform First ‘Successful’ Penis Transplant
The world’s first successful penis transplant has been reported by a surgical team in South Africa.
The 21-year-old recipient, whose identify is being protected, lost his penis in a botched circumcision.
Doctors in Cape Town said the operation was a success and the patient was happy and healthy.
The team said there was extensive discussion about whether the operation, which is not life-saving in the same way as a heart transplant, was ethical.
There have been attempts before, including one in China. Accounts suggested the operation went fine, but the penis was later rejected.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
15 Illegal Aliens Protected by Obama’s Amnesty Arrested in Federal Sweep
Federal agents in a sweep targeting the most dangerous criminal immigrants arrested 15 people who have been allowed to remain in the U.S. under President Barack Obama’s executive action intended to protect children who came to the U.S. years ago with their parents, The Associated Press has learned.
Fourteen of the 15 had been convicted of a crime, the Homeland Security Department confirmed late Thursday. In at least one case, the Obama administration renewed the protective status for a young immigrant after that person’s conviction in a drug case, a U.S. official briefed on the arrests said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark Rejects UN’s ‘Refugee Relocation’ Call
Denmark has no intention of helping out other European countries by taking in more refugees, Justice Minister Mette Frederiksen has made clear.
Following the UN’s call for “more solidarity” between European nations and a “more equitable distribution of refugees”, Justice Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Thursday that Denmark would set its own rules for accepting refugees.
“We want to carry out Danish asylum policies. In this area, we don’t wish to choose the European way,” Frederiksen said from Brussels, according to news agency Ritzau.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Explores New Migration ‘Zone’ In North Africa
The EU’s migration commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos, is to visit Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco amid an Italian-led plan to set up migrant reception centres.
Speaking to reporters in Brussels on Thursday (12 March) after a meeting of the bloc’s 28 interior ministers, Avramopoulos said “I intend to visit Tunisia and Egypt, of course Morocco is included in my agenda, in order to create a zone in the area” to fight smuggling and irregular migration.
His tour coincides with an Italian-led drive for the EU to create refugee reception centres in northern Africa and, possibly, in Sudan and Niger.
“It’s about a humanitarian mission which would allow Europe to do screening and to dismantle a huge human trafficking market,” said Italian interior minister Angelino Alfano.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Seeks Ways to Stem Tide of Migrants
European Union interior ministers thrashed out ways Thursday to tackle the growing tide of migrants fleeing conflict in the Middle East and North Africa by seeking illegal residence in Europe.
Setting up asylum processing facilities in third countries was one of the methods discussed to deal with would-be migrants, but with unrest creating chaos in most of those nations, the European Union faces a huge challenge surmounting the problem.
“The pressure from migration just keeps growing,” Latvian interior minister Rihards Kozlovskis said after talks in Brussels.
“The European Union has to do more not only in the Mediterranean but also in the land borders in the Western Balkans.”
But he added that the 28-nation bloc was “determined to take necessary measures.”
The number of migrants entering the EU illegally in 2014 nearly tripled to 276,000 people compared to 2013, according to the EU borders agency Frontex. Out of the total, 220,000 arrived via the Mediterranean.
The UN says at least 3,500 people died last year while crossing the Mediterranean, making it the deadliest migrant route in the world.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Refugees Transferred as Unrest Returns to Rome Suburb
Episode ‘defeat for entire city’, social policies chief says
(ANSA) — Rome, March 12 — Rome authorities transferred refugees living at a reception centre in a low-income suburb Wednesday following a fresh episode of seemingly anti-immigrant unrest in the area.
Roughly 40 refugees were moved away from the centre in Tor Sapienza, a working class neighbourhood in eastern Rome that was the scene of clashes between immigrants and residents last November, after three rubbish bins were set alight and tyres burned. They were the only remaining residents at the centre in Via Morandi after city authorities were forced to relocate 36 underage refugees for safety reasons in response to the November violence.
“This is a defeat for the entire city,” said social policies councillor Francesca Danese on Wednesday evening.
“Now these people are forced to pack their bags again, victims of the umpteenth provocation, of manipulations which I believe come from the (political) right. They don’t deserve it and the neighbourhood doesn’t deserve it,” she continued.
Residents, however, expressed their “exasperation over conditions in the neighbourhood, where they have long complained of poor services, ill-lit streets, and a rising crime rate, including several attacks on women.
“Here the anger has never subsided, the calm is only apparent and the tension can be cut with a knife,” local spokesperson Sandra Zammataro said. “In spite of promises the city council has still not found important solutions to important problems, we are talking about illegal occupations, the refugee centre and the Roma camp,” she continued.
In November Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso warned against dismissing the anti-immigrant violence “merely as racism”.
“This would be a major error of evaluation: I believe those protests are a request for help and for attention,” he said.
“The unrest in Tor Sapienza has forced us to ask questions that remain unanswered,” Grasso continued.
“The problems facing these neighbourhoods are the same as those facing the country: unemployment, insecurity, school abandonment, absence of services,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
New Credit Suisse CEO ‘Offers Hope for Africans’
The head of an African expats group says the appointment of Tidjane Thiam as the new CEO of Credit Suisse should improve the often negative image of Africans in Switzerland.
The second biggest bank in the country this week announced that Thiam, a French citizen originally from the Ivory Coast, will replace American Bradley Dougan as chief executive in June.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Guards at Air Force Base Ordered to Stop Saying ‘Have a Blessed Day’
The American Family Association is pointing to yet another case of Christians in the military being punished for expressing their faith.
In this latest incident, a person complained about guards at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia who told people “have a blessed day.”
The offended individual notified atheist Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and within minutes a base official ordered the guards to cease saying that greeting.
[Comment by Bdubbs: I live in this town, and the decision to stop saying this was overturned the very same day that it went into effect after an outcry from the community. Several local businesses added “Have a blessed day” to their sign marquis, and many, many people have said it to me everywhere that I have been in the last 2 days. I wonder if Weinstein is still feeling as braggadocios as he was before. Moron.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Momentum is building to establish a new geological epoch that recognizes humanity’s impact on the planet. But there is fierce debate behind the scenes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece ought to be kicked out of the eurozone. The value of the euro will probably go up once it’s no longer impacted by the spoiled children voting for “free” (meaning stolen from others) stuff in Greece.
This wasn’t a case of a bunch of crafty Greeks getting the better of a bunch of dim witted kraut bankers.
The ECB/German banks knew before loaning the Greeks they could never payback the loans but did it anyway. They allowed the loans to Greece and the rest of the PIIGS because it allowed the Germans to sell goods and services to states that otherwise wouldn’t have been able to [purchase them]. In short it was profitable for Germany.
It was a good scam until it stopped working.
It was no different than our banks and mortgage companies giving NINJA l home loans(No income, No Job, Assets). Lots of people got rich off it the scam.
What scares the EU and German bankers is Greece defaulting and starting a chain reaction – where Italy and Spain follow. That would blow up the German banks and probably take the EU with them, since Germany is the heart of the EU. They might be able to weather the loss of Greece. But Italy and Spain? No.
One might argue that kicking out Greece could “send signals” to Italy and Spain that might cause them to change their spending habits, thus preventing their exit.
However that may assume that they are much more rational actors than they actually are. Greece is clearly not what I would call a rational actor in the conventional sense.
The story about the lashings in the Chadian camps is instructive because it is a microcosm of Islam as a whole. The entire framework is based on a framework of negative reinforcement that creates an endless cycle of misery, oppression, pain, and death.
Anyone who wishes to live under such circumstances the world created by that framework is verifiably insane.
Re: “South Asian Cousin Marriages”: the BBC reported this study a couple of days or so ago, but oddly managed not to mention incest.
I’m puzzled why this item wasn’t listed under “UK”?
The news feed is mostly automated. The software picked up “South Asian” in the title and routed it to South Asia.
Sometimes I see the classification errors and correct them before posting, and sometimes I don’t.
“We need to discuss the utility of the Anthropocene. If one is to formalize it, who would that help, and to whom it might be a nuisance?”
Yes, exactly. The real question is, will this actually be useful to honest legitimate scientists or is it primarily useful for cargo cult scientists and those looking to promote public policies for their own gain?
Humans have a problem called Human Narcissim that tends to interfere with their ability to determine which things were caused by them and which things were not. This anthropocine idea may simply represent a cultural phenomenon that will make this tendency worse, increasing the prevalence of cargo cult science.