The news feed is back in business tonight after a hiatus of several days. I missed some important news during that period — the latest on the Iranian nuke deal, for example, or the conviction of the surviving Boston Marathon bomber.
In the items below, you’ll find a story about a kosher deli in Copenhagen that was vandalized, and graffiti reading “Jewish pigs” (Jødesvin in Danish) were scrawled on the outside. There’s no word yet on the Mohammed Coefficient of the incident, but Jewish residents of Copenhagen may sleep peacefully in their beds knowing that it had nothing to do with Islam.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, Phyllis Chesler, Srdja Trifkovic, Upananda Brahmachari, 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.
ECB Spent €52.5 Billion on Government Bonds in March
The eurozone’s central bankers have bought government bonds worth €52.5bn since the launch of a new quantitative easing programme on 9 March, figures published by the European Central Bank on Tuesday show. The bankers placed most of the new money in German, French, Italian and Spanish government bonds.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Home Prices Are Surging in These Four Countries
Home prices in Ireland surged 16.1 percent last year — more than four times the average 3.9 percent increase for the 23 countries tallied in Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas data.
Elsewhere, prices jumped in the U.K. by 10 percent, South Africa by 9.6 percent and Sweden by 8.6 percent — each of which was more than double the group’s average.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Prosecutor Seeks Trial Against Bankers in Derivatives Case
Unicredit officers allegedly abetted bankruptcy of company
(ANSA) — Rome, April 3 — A prosecutor in the southern Italian city of Bari asked a court Friday to send two senior bank officials to trial on allegations they contributed to the bankruptcy of a company.
Alessandra Profumo, former chief executive officer of Unicredit, and its present CEO Federico Ghizzoni have been accused of conspiring to bankrupt a company called Divania.
Prosecutors say they and others deceived the Bari-based company, leading it into 203 derivatives contracts in 2002 and 2003 that allegedly contributed to major financial losses and eventually bankruptcy.
They and 14 others involved with Unicredit have been named in the probe into the collapse of Divania, which employed 430 employees at one time.
In response, UniCredit said that it has “full confidence” in the judiciary and said that its employees had behaved correctly in its dealing with the company.
It added the Ghizzoni was working outside of Italy in foreign offices at the time of the derivatives contracts and could not have been involved.
Profumo is now head of Tuscan bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Most State Railway Pensions ‘Superior to Contributions’
Pension fund in deficit by 4.2 bn euros in 2013
(ANSA) Rome, April 3 — As many as 96% of old-age pensions being paid to retired state railway employees this year would have to be reduced if calculated on the basis of contributions paid, according to the state social security agency INPS.
The over-payment — in 27% of cases the railway workers’ pensions would have to be cut by 30% — are related to a deficit in their special pension fund that amounted to 4.2 billion euros in 2013, according to an INPS study entitled “operation Open Doors”.
The special fund includes Railway employees hired before April 1, 2000, and was already in the red before it was taken over by INPS and since 1973 the state made up its deficits.
After April 1, 2000, the fund’s fortunes worsened as new employees joined a different pension fund, the FPLD, meaning the Special Fund had fewer contributions.
Because pension rules were more generous in the past, most pensioners taking their pensions from 2000 to 2014 have received payments worth at least 20% more than their contributions warranted, and 8% receive payments worth more than 40% more than their contributions would entitle them to, INPS said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Treasury Asks Regions, Local Agencies for Property to Sell
Search mounted for real estate to dispose of by year-end
(ANSA) Rome, April 2 — The Italian Treasury wrote to regional and local authorities Thursday asking them to scour their territory for property that can be sold off to raise cash, officials said.
The letter signed by Treasury Director-General Vincenzo La Via and the director of the Italian public property agency, the Agenzia dell’ Demanio, Roberto Reggi, urges the authorities in regions, provinces and municipalities to tell them about real estate that can be sold or valued with a view to sale even by the end of this year.
The Agenzia dell’ Demanio’s regional offices will provide support and assistance to authorities in valuing and marketing such properties and expediting the relevant paperwork, said the letter.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The U.S. Budget is in the Perfect Sweet Spot, But That’s About to Change
An accelerating economy is pushing up tax revenue from individuals and corporations. Even better, rock-bottom interest rates are helping keep the cost of federal borrowing in check.
Unfortunately, the U.S. can’t have it both ways forever. While revenue from individual and corporate taxes are expected to keep growing until at least 2018, most Federal Reserve officials want to raise their benchmark interest rate this year (although probably a little later in 2015 than previously thought, according to minutes of the March meeting released Wednesday). That will push up the cost of servicing the national debt in coming years. Eventually, net interest expenses will triple to $704 billion in 2023, exceeding the amount of money the U.S. will spend on defense that year, according to the CBO.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
5 Images About Being Black in America Shared After Walter Scott Shooting
Here are five images that Americans online shared in big numbers, in reaction to the video of a shooting of a black man, Walter Scott, by a white police officer in South Carolina.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Boston Marathon Jihad Murderer’s Mom: “Americans Are Terrorists, My Son is the Best”
After convicting Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on all 30 counts in 2013 Boston marathon bombing case, the 12-member jury in Massachusetts will now decide whether the 21-year-old bomber would be awarded death penalty or he would spend the rest of his life in jail.
The jury will now start hearing evidence to decide Dzhokar’s fate, who reportedly fidgeted and stood with his hands folded and gaze fixed down as the charges were being read.
Reacting to the verdict, Dzhokar’s mother Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, in a note sent to a family friend, reiterated that her son was innocent while America was “the terrorist”, reported the Vocativ.
Vocativ also found the bomber’s mother’s note posted on a Russian social networking site. The note written in Russian translated to, “I will never forget it. May god bless those who helped my son. The terrorists are the Americans and everyone knows it. My son is the best of the best”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Guiding Our Search for Life on Other Earths
The James Webb Space Telescope, set to launch in 2018, will usher a new era in our search for life beyond Earth. With its 6.5-meter mirror, the long-awaited successor to Hubble will be large enough to detect potential biosignatures in the atmosphere of Earthlike planets orbiting nearby stars.
And we may soon find a treasure-trove of such worlds. The forthcoming exoplanet hunter TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), set to launch in 2017, will scout the entire sky for planetary systems close to ours. (The current Kepler mission focuses on more distant stars, between 600 and 3,000 light-years from Earth.)
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Meet the Largest Aircraft on Earth
A U.S. Army mega aircraft — a hybrid of plane, helicopter, hovercraft and airship- is going civilian.
Designed by British design company Hybrid Air Vehicles for the U.S. military, this massive piece of next-gen tech can travel through the air at nearly 100 miles per hour.
At 302 feet, the Airlander 10 is bigger than a Boeing 747 and its new big brother in development will be bigger than a football field. Airlander 10 can carry 10 tons of equipment and the company says these uber-blimbs will be able to circumnavigate the globe twice in one trip without landing.
Designed to meet military standards, Airlander works in extreme weather conditions and doesn’t need a prepared landing zone. In fact, it can land on challenging surfaces like water, sand, snow and ice — making it an excellent option for delivering cargo to remote locations in tough conditions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Professor Takes Medical Leave After Pro-Israel Facebook Post Leads to ‘Vicious Hate Mail’ Campaign
by Phyllis Chesler
Andrew Pessin, Professor of Philosophy at Connecticut College, is the latest casualty in the campus-based culture wars. Dr. Pessin is a well-liked and much published professor, self-described as the “only Jewish professor on campus who openly advocates for Israel.” And now, for remarks made during last summer’s Gaza war, he faces an attack from Palestinian supporters seeking to silence pro-Israel stances on campus.
Pessin tells Breitbart News he believes he was set up by “a Muslim student and an Islamic Studies colleague” who worked in concert. They dug up one of Professor Pessin’sFacebook entries, one he posted during the August 2014 war in Gaza, the war in which Israeli soldiers uncovered and destroyed countless underground terror-tunnels which opened into Israel and were to be used in a mass attack against Israeli civilians. Referring to a leadership that purposely exposed its own civilians to death merely for propaganda purposes, and whose holy warriors attacked mainly Israeli civilians, Pessin compared this leadership to a “rabid pit bull.”
One student, Lamiya Khandaker, whose parents are from Bangladesh and who is also the Chair of Diversity and Equity for the campus’s Student Government Association, wrote to Professor Pessin. He immediately clarified that he was referring to the Hamas leadership and ideology, not to Palestinians; and, upon the advice of the administration, he apologized to Khandaker and deleted the post. Too late, too little.
A firestorm ensued. Students wrote letters and the student newspaper, The College Voice, published them (without reaching out to Pessin). An online petition was launched, calling upon the university to disassociate itself from Pessin’s “racism,” and on April 1stthe university canceled classes so all students could attend a “mandatory series of events” for a campus-wide conversation on racism, equity, and inclusion.
| — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler | [Return to headlines] |
150 years after Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Americans are still fighting over the great issues at the heart of the conflict.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
U.K. Oil & Gas, a tiny exploration company, announced today that it believes an oil basin it’s been exploring onshore in England could have as much as 158 million barrels per square mile. The Horse Hill well, which as the BBC points out is near Gatwick Airport, is being described by the company as a potential “world class” resource.
The news sent U.K. Oil & Gas’s stock soaring. It up about 200 percent on the day, but reached heights of as much 325 percent earlier in the day, on a market cap of just over £50 million ($74 million).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Semitism in Germany: ‘I Don’t See Any Reason for Jews Here to Emigrate’
In an interview, the heads of Germany’s Protestant and Jewish communities discuss Martin Luther’s anti-Semitism, growing fears after the Paris attacks and whether Islam truly belongs to the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austrian Activist Spearheads Class Action Suit Against Facebook
An Austrian law graduate spearheading a class action suit against Facebook for alleged privacy breaches said ahead of the first hearing today (9 April) he hopes the case will eventually lead to an overhaul of a “Wild West” approach to data protection.
Max Schrems and 25,000 other Facebook users are suing the social network for various rights violations, ranging from the “illegal” tracking of their data under EU law to Facebook’s involvement in the PRISM surveillance programme of the US National Security Agency (NSA).
“Basically we are asking Facebook to stop mass surveillance, to (have) a proper privacy policy that people can understand, but also to stop collecting data of people that are not even Facebook users,” 27-year-old Schrems told AFP in an interview.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Jewish Store Vandalized in Copenhagen
A Jewish store in Copenhagen had a window broken and an anti-Semitic slur scrawled on its walls in an act of vandalism that comes less than two months after the shooting dead of a guard outside a synagogue.
A police patrol discovered the damage at the Jewish delicatessen and kosher store at Lyngbyvej in Østerbro at 3.30am on Thursday, according to the Berlingske Tidende (BT) newspaper.
One of the shop’s windows was partly broken and the word “Jødesvin” (Jewish pigs) was scrawled on a wall, BT reports.
After the Copenhagen shootings on February 14th, Danish police have kept a close eye on Jewish institutions and stores, including the delicatessen on Jagtvej.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Government’s Terror Package Could Cast a Wide Spying Net
The government’s legislative proposal to fight terror would give security services broader surveillance powers than were initially indicated, Politiken reports.
When Nicolai Wammen, the defence minister, announced the terror package in February, one of the controversial measures was the proposal to give the military intelligence service, Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste (FE), broad powers to monitor Danes suspected of taking part in conflicts overseas such as in Syria or Iraq — so-called ‘foreign fighters’ — without a court order.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: “Definitive Break-Up” Between Le Pen Father and Daughter
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen accused her father Jean-Marie of “scorched earth strategy and political suicide” after an interview in which he praised pro-Nazi marechal Petain and questioned PM Valls “attachment to France”. The National Front number two Florian Philippot tweeted that the break-up is “total and definitive”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France’s Le Pen Family Feud Deepens With ‘Dead’ Claim
The family feud at the heart of France’s far-right National Front party appears to have deepened, with Jean-Marie Le Pen telling a radio station his daughter Marine “may want me dead”.
He also described calls for him to step down as honorary president of the party as “crazy”.
Marine has condemned her father for his recently repeated claims that Nazi gas chambers were a “detail of history”.
She says she will stop him from standing in polls later this year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of Danes Suing Facebook
When the historic civil suit against Facebook commences today in Vienna, Austria, hundreds of Danes will be paying extra close attention to the proceedings.
Some 358 Danes are among the 25,000 people who are part of the civil suit against the social media giant in a case that involves the allegedly illegal data collection and supply of information to the US National Security Agency (NSA).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Man Kills Lawyer, Judge, Co-Defendant at Milan Courthouse
A man on trial for fraudulent bankruptcy opened fire in Milan’s courthouse Thursday in a “cold, premeditated” spree, killing his lawyer, a co-defendant and a judge before being captured nearly 15 miles away as he fled on a motorbike, officials said.
Premier Matteo Renzi promised a robust investigation into how the gunman, Claudio Giardiello, managed to bring a pistol into the fortress-like tribunal, where metal detectors are used for visitors but not for employees, magistrates and accredited lawyers.
“Our commitment is that this never happens again, and that those responsible pay,” Renzi said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Temp Agency ‘Romanian’ Contract Offer Angers Unions
‘Cynical’ Modena agency promises ‘maximum flexibility’
(ANSA) Modena, April 2 — The CGIL trade union federation has denounced an agency offering short term-staff it says will work a “Romanian temporary contract” without any normal labour rights or conditions.
Firms using its staff in the Modena area can “save 40% and benefit from maximum flexibility, — no INAIL (work accident insurance), no INPS (social security), no sickness, no accidents … no problem,” according to a leaflet produced by the agency.
The offer was “an extraordinary case for crudeness and cynicism,” CGIL said in its denunciation to the local labour exchange.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Money Runs Dry for Oslo Fountains
Money is too short in Oslo, the capital city of one of world’s richest economies, to even keep fountains and water features flowing through this summer’s tourist season, the local water authority has admitted.
“No, we cannot promise that there will be water in the fountains. We use four to five million kroner to keep them running and that is money we do not have.” Lars-Erik Berger, from Oslo’s Water and Sewerage Authority told NRK.
The parks, sculptures and fountains are much beloved by Oslo locals and an important attraction for tourists to the city.
Julie Bjerketvedt, a long-term Oslo resident, told NRK that the city should find a way to keep the fountains running.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Too Down on Nazi Defence: Nobel Chief
Norway put up a much stiffer fight against Nazi Germany than it has been given credit for, the historian who heads the Norwegian Nobel Committee has argued, as the country commemorates the 75th anniversary of the invasion.
Norway took 62 days to be brought under full German control, compared to just one hour for neighbouring Denmark, distinguishing it as the nation in Western Europe which held out the longest in the face of Nazi attack.
Tom Christiansen, from the Institute for Defence Studies (IFS), argued in the same article that Norway had put up a stiffer resistance against the Germans than either Poland, which lasted only four weeks, or France, which lasted six weeks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Number of Norwegians on US Terror List Doubles
The number of Norwegians on the US Terrorist Watchlist has doubled over the last year, despite the Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS) claiming to have no clue as to how the US is getting their intelligence, a report to parliament has revealed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
One Port, Two Worlds: China Seeks Dominance in Athens Harbor
A Chinese executive with shipping company Cosco has helped transform part of Athen’s Port of Piraeus into a success story. The multinational firm now has a controversial plan to acquire the whole facility and put it on track to join the ranks of Hamburg and Rotterdam.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Research: Muslims Fastest Growing Religious Group Worldwide — Also in Finland
A new demographic study by a US think tank shows that Muslims are the fastest-growing religious group in the world — including in Finland. According to the Pew Research Center, Muslims will make up 10 percent of the population in Europe by 2050, and will account for 3.4 percent of the population in Finland. Christians will still be the largest group in Europe and Finland, however.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Surrenders to Saudi Arabia
by Ingrid Carlqvist and Lars Hedegaard
The Swedish Prime Minister added that Sweden has no intention of ever criticizing Islam. As is customary, Expressen refrained from asking the PM if his comments should be taken as an indication that Sweden would stop criticizing such Islamic practices as torturing bloggers, executing infidels and oppressing women.
It is hard to say what concessions Sweden may have given King Salman in exchange for normalizing relations. Sweden may even have agreed to further the cause of Islam back home by, for example, promising to build new mega-mosques and giving greater influence to local imams.
Sweden’s Minister for Culture and Democracy, Alice Bah Kuhnke, has already promised to initiate a “national strategy against Islamophobia” — meaning any criticism of Islam or mass immigration.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Students to Live Inside Steel Containers
Shipping containers are set to be rented out to students in a bid to solve Sweden’s chronic housing shortage. The Local has spoken to the company behind them — and to one council feeling the housing strain.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
By Srdja Trifkovic
On a recent trip to Germany I took a day off to visit Sigmaringen, on the upper Danube some 20 miles north of Lake Constance. This town of ten thousand with a massive castle towering over it — or, more precisely, this castle with a town attached — interested me as the site of a little known, eight-month long melodrama at the end of Second World War.
It was here that Marshal Philippe Pétain, Chef de l’État Français, and several hundred Vichy government officials and prominent German sympathizers and collaborators of different hues, were brought by the Wehrmacht on 8 September 1944, as the Allies advanced across France. The leaders were installed in the castle, other ranks in the town below. They were followed by their wives, hangers-on, and mistresses. By the end of September a veritable French enclave was in place, some two thousand strong, which survived until the long-dreaded arrival of de Gaulle’s First French Army on 24 April 1945.
The initial impression is operetic: pure Leharian pastiche, an unreal world in which France’s prominent collabos are but a parody of their former selves. There is also a more sinister image, however: Sigmaringen as a trap, an open prison in which the principals go on with their performance, but at the same time watch helplessly as the end of the show — and for many the end of their lives — is approaching steadily, relentlessly.
This town and those bizarre eight months are erased from France’s collective memory. They belong to the past which many older Frenchmen would rather forget, while the young neither know that past nor care for it. “Fench Sigmaringen” is relegated to the margins of memory. The Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen family are back home. The castle’s magnificent halls and about a tenth of its 300 rooms are open to guided tours, but there are no Petainist mementos of any kind. A richly appointed color book about the castle disposes of the French episode matter-of-factly in a single sentence…
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Oil Discovery Near Gatwick Airport ‘Significant’
There could be up to 100 billion barrels of oil onshore beneath the South of England, says exploration firm UK Oil & Gas Investments (UKOG).
Last year, the firm drilled a well at Horse Hill, near Gatwick airport, and analysis of that well suggests the local area could hold 158 million barrels of oil per square mile.
But only a fraction of the 100 billion total would be recovered, UKOG admits.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Says Albania Comment on Kosovo Unification ‘Not Acceptable’
The EU foreign service has described Albanian remarks on Kosovo unification as “provocative” and “not acceptable”.
Maja Kocjiancic, the EU spokeswoman, told Balkans news agency dtt-net.com on Wednesday (8 April) that both Albania and Kosovo have “a clear European perspective” but must honor their “commitment to this goal … in full respect of EU principles and standards”.
She spoke after Albanian prime minister Edi Rama prompted anger in Serbia by saying that Albania and Kosovo will one day be reunited.
Rama had told Klan TV, an Albanian broadcaster, on Tuesday that EU integration of Kosovo is proceeding too slowly.
“The unification of Albanians in Albania and Kosovo, Albanians that live in two Albanian countries, is unavoidable and unquestionable. The question is how it will happen,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Terror: Electronic Defense System Along Tunisia-Libya Border
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS — An electronic defense system managed by the Tunisian armed forces is active along the border with Libya. The Tunisian defense ministry yesterday brought a delegation of journalists to observe ongoing work along the border between Tunisia and Libya to boost security measures there to fight in particular smuggling operations and illegal immigration.
The system, through a sophisticated system detecting people in movement, will reportedly enable border police to prevent terror groups from crossing the border. Short military drills were also conducted during the reporters’ visit.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Deal or No Deal? Iran Leaders Blast US Claims on Nuke Deal, Make Heavy Demands
Fiery criticism from Iran’s Supreme Leader, coupled with steep demands from the upper echelon of the regime, are throwing the nuclear “deal” reached last week into doubt — with Iran and the U.S. each claiming the agreement said different things, and neither side backing down.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, tore into the U.S. in remarks published on his official website and on his Twitter account.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Did a Leading Saudi Cleric Permit Men to Eat Their Wives?
Just when you thought you’d heard it all: A report circulating throughout the Arabic-language media claims a leading Saudi cleric has issued a fatwa (religious ruling) permitting husbands to eat their wives (yes, eat them) in the event that they are really, really hungry.
The report appeared among other places in the major pan-Arab, London-based Al Quds Al-Arabi, which cited the alleged edict by the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia Abdul Aziz ibn Abdullah Al-Asheikh permitting a husband to eat his wife if he is afflicted with “severe hunger”.
It claimed Al-Asheikh clarified that the husband could choose to eat her entirely or, if he wasn’t that hungry, to limit himself to a limb or two, or a “portion of flesh.”
According to the report, the ruling’s basis was that it exhibited the degree to which a woman should be devoted to her husband and desire for them to become “of one flesh.”
The alleged ruling provoked a storm of criticism and mockery in equal measure in Saudi Arabia and across the Arab world, particularly on Twitter, which is widely used throughout the gulf kingdom.
However other Saudi Twitter users quickly cast significant doubt on the authenticity of the story, noting that it first originated in Rai Al Youm — a paper considered pro-Iranian and hostile to the Saudi regime, without any corroboration.
Moreover, the alleged ruling does not appear anywhere on the Mufti’s official website,
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Puts Iranian Groups, Bank Back on Sanctions List
The EU put more than 30 Iranian shipping companies and a top bank back on its nuclear sanctions list on Wednesday after a European court had earlier struck them off citing insufficient evidence.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Nuclear: No Guarantee of Final Deal, Khamenei Says
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has cautioned against seeing a preliminary agreement on his country’s nuclear programme as the “guarantee” of a final deal with world powers.
Last week Iran and world powers reached a framework agreement on the issue.
But Iran also wants sanctions lifted “on the first day” of the final deal’s implementation, against US wishes.
Iranian and US officials have been trying to persuade hardliners in both countries to back the deal.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
IS Losing Oil Fields, Income, Says Germany’s BND
The “Islamic State” terror militia has lost control of oil fields it seized last year in Iraq, depriving it of crucial income. That’s according to multiple reports in Germany citing Germany’s BND intelligence agency.
Munich’s Süddeutsche (SZ) newspaper and two German public broadcasters NDR and WDR jointly reported Thursday that the BND had concluded that the IS had hardly any Iraqi oil to sell for cash or to even sustain supplies within its self-declared Caliphate.
They said a special report submitted to the German government attributed the reversal to counter-offensives in northern Iraq — by Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and the retaking of Tikrit city by Iraqi security forces and militias last week.
The SZ said IS had lost “at least three large oil fields,” leaving it with only the small Qayara oil field, which had an output capacity of just 2,000 barrels a day, or 5 percent of what it previously controlled.
The IS, which still controls parts of neighboring Syria, overran western and northern areas of Iraq last June and declared its intention to establish an Islamist caliphate. That prompted US-led airstrikes in both countries.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Is the P5+1 Nuclear Deal With Iran a Case of Buyers Regret? An Interview With Dr. Michael Rubin
by Jerry Gordon and Mike Bates
On a sun-splashed afternoon in the White House Rose Garden, April 2, 2015, President Obama announced a framework of a possible agreement between the P5+1 and the Islamic Republic of Iran. This was the uncertain result of 15 months of arduous and often contentious negotiations in Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland following the acceptance by the parties of a Joint Plan of Action reached on November 24, 2013. Negotiations seeking to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear breakout have endured in various venues and forums for over 12 years. Yet, even this announcement is fraught with the daunting prospects of difficult negotiations and great uncertainty that a deal could finally be concluded. Critics cited major gaps in the framework. Among them were the ability of the International Atomic Energy Agency to identify and inspect nuclear developments sites, Iran’s ability to retain and convert enriched material and sufficient centrifuges to produce nuclear weapons, resistance by Iran to disclosing requested information on previous military developments and retention of all nuclear enrichment infrastructure including the underground cavern at Fordow virtually impervious to air assault by the US or Israel and the questioned ability to “snap back sanctions” if Iran were caught cheating. The so-called parameters of the announced framework await the details in a final agreement to be reached by June 30, 2015. Yet, President Obama put a bold face on the framework as an “historic agreement” saying:
“Today, after many months of tough, principled diplomacy, we have achieved the framework for that deal. And it is a good deal.”
He said he is “convinced” that, if the framework leads to a final agreement, “it will make our country, our allies, and our world safer.”
Two decades earlier, then President Clinton made virtually the same declaration about a similar framework for a deal with North Korea that ultimately failed to prevent the hermit kingdom from producing and testing nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver it. In fact, the Iranians admitted they were following the same negotiating strategy used by the North Koreans…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Revenues Hit After it Loses ‘Large Oil Fields’ In Iraq
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group has lost control of “at least three large oil fields” in Iraq, depriving the militants of a crucial source of income, a German newspaper report said Thursday.
In the face of a large-scale Iraqi counteroffensive, the extremist group now controls just a single oil field in the country, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung said in its Thursday edition, citing the BND federal intelligence services.
Ousted from the strategic northern city of Tikrit by Iraqi security forces and militias just over a week ago — in Baghdad’s biggest victory to date after the militants overran large parts of the country last June — the militants now have only “five percent” of the extraction capabilities they had before, according to the BND report seen by Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Demanding $30 Million to Free Christian Hostages, Assyrian Source Says
Islamic State militants are demanding up to $30 million in ransom to release the hundreds of Christian hostages in Syria, according to an officer within the Assyrian leadership.
In ongoing negotiations between ISIS terrorists and the Assyrian leadership to free the 250-300 Christians abducted by the militant group in February, ISIS is demanding $100,000 per individual, according to the source.
Third-party Syrian Sunni Muslims from the local area are reported to be brokering the talks between the two groups.
“They know we cannot come up with this kind of money, so they are hoping other groups and countries will come up with the money,” the official said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Tweets Reveal How the Group Rules Its Territories
A close look at ISIS-affiliated Twitter accounts is giving us an insight into how the group governs the territories it has conquered — and throwing up some surprises
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS’s Nazi-Style ‘Jihad Bride’ Propaganda an Alluring Trap for Western Girls
by Phyllis Chesler
Foreign girls who are lured via the internet to join ISIS are being misled by a glamorized vision of women posing with AK-47s and in martial arts positions—in essence, a vision of women performing forbidden, male-only holy mission tasks.
ISIS propaganda is capitalizing on the allure of such adventure coupled with a girlish desire for love, marriage, and children. Quilliam Foundation think tank researcher Charlie Winter notes that “this is a false image based on targeted obfuscation and exaggeration.” He quotes Glasgow runaway, Aqsa Mahmood, who writes that “the women you may have seen online are all part of propaganda.”
The reality for ISIS “brides” is dull, domestic, and dangerous. Food and electricity are minimal, there are no schools, but there are constant air strikes and gun fights. Women police and punish other women. They do not engage in battle.
The all-female Al-Khanssaa Brigade holds an anti-feminist ideology in which women’s rights are seen as part of a corrupt and material West and as having led to the emasculation of men.
| — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler | [Return to headlines] |
The Persian Paradox: Iran is Much More Modern Than You Think
People in the West tend to have a monolithic view of Iran. But there’s a lot more to the country than the mullah-led theocracy, and it often gets ignored. And national pride is alive and well.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Two India Teachers Accused of Molesting 49 Students
In Maharashtra
(ANSA) — Rome, April 3 — Two secondary-school teachers in the central Indian state of Maharashtra have been cited for molesting 49 girl students, the Times of India reported Friday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
VHP Forces Muslims to Sell Out Home in Hindu Locality in Bhavnagar, Gujarat
Muslims are not allowed to purchase new flats, lands in Hindu majority area in India to avoid certain Islamic problems. The world should follow it.
Read full report at the above link.
| — Hat tip: Upananda Brahmachari | [Return to headlines] |
China Defends Reclamation in Disputed South China Sea
China has defended its construction of artificial islands in a disputed area of the South China Sea, saying it is needed to safeguard its sovereignty.
Its statement came after US criticism and the online publication of pictures showing the build-up on Mischief Reef.
In recent years, China has been locked in a dispute with several neighbours over claims in the sea.
Other countries have accused China of illegally entrenching its presence through reclamation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Moluccas: Cambodian Fishermen Among Hundreds of Enslaved Migrants
They were locked in cages or hidden in the forests of the islet of Benjina. Reduced to slavery and forced to work for Thai-flagged vessels. The area is a melting pot for the forced labor, especially in the fishing industry. Migrant workers subjected to harassment and abuse.
Phnom Penh (AsiaNews / Agencies) — At least 58 Cambodian citizens are among the more than 300 fishermen, forced to work in conditions of slavery, discovered and rescued recently in a remote island in the Moluccas province, Indonesia.
In recent days, the government of Jakarta has discovered a group of migrant workers trapped on the islet of Benjina, following an investigation conducted by some reporters of the Associated Press (AP) which lasted over a year.
The investigation revealed the presence of fishermen from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia trapped on the island; the migrant workers were forced to work under threats, in conditions of semi-slavery, on board vessels flying the Thai flag, specialized in trawling in Indonesian territorial waters.
On board the fishing vessels the migrants were subject to abuse and harassment, including whippings with ropes made of toxic material; they were abandoned on the island, for refusing to work and a law passed recently by Jakarta to clamp down on illegal activities. Some of the fishermen were locked inside cages belonging to Pusaka Benjina Resources, the only fishing company authorized to operate on the island; others were hiding in the forest to escape their torturers.
According to figures provided by the International Organization for Migrants (ILO) 58 of 319 rescued fishermen were Cambodian. from The Ap investigation also shows that at least a thousand fishermen, at different times, were stranded on the island of Benjina, a true international hub of forced labor and of modern slavery linked to the fisheries sector.
Every year, thousands of Cambodian migrant workers cross the border with Thailand, in search of employment and better living conditions. However, most of them enter the country without proper documents, after paying unscrupulous traffickers who profit on trafficking with the promise (in vain) of a job. According to experts, the lack of documents and permits make them vulnerable and easy victims of forced labor, as happened to the fishermen who were rescued in Indonesia.
In early February the Catholic Church dedicated a day of prayer and awareness on the issue of human trafficking and modern forms of slavery. According to Pope Francis it is “a shameful scourge, unworthy of a civilized society” and addressing leaders and governments the pope asked them to “move decisively” to remove it.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
North Korean Hunger Unrelenting, Says UN
The United Nations has again highlighted widespread hunger in reclusive nuclear-armed North Korea, saying 18 million people are underfed. The UN report follows more short-range missile firings by the North.
Seventy percent of North Korea’s population of 24 million, or around 18 million, did not have sufficient nutrition. Nutritious food was needed especially for “approximately 1.8 million children, pregnant and lactating women,” it added.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rhodes Statue Removed in Cape Town as Crowd Celebrates
South Africa’s University of Cape Town (UCT) has removed a statue of British colonialist Cecil Rhodes that had become the focus of protests.
The monument, taken down in front of cheering protesters, will be stored for “safe keeping”, UCT’s council said.
Students have been campaigning for the removal of the statue of the 19th Century figure, unveiled in 1934.
Other monuments to colonial-era leaders have also been the target of protest in South Africa.
The BBC’s Mohammed Allie told Focus On Africa radio that there was a “festive atmosphere” as students, academics, members of political parties and ordinary Cape Town residents came to witness a “historic moment for South Africa”.
The crowd cheered as the statue was being lifted of its plinth. Once it was removed some students jumped on it and started hitting it with wooden sticks and covering the face with plastic.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Royal Visit to Kenya Cancelled
Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria’s visit to Kenya has been cancelled after the recent massacre in the north of the country.
The Royal Court confirmed to news agency TT that the decision to cancel the trip was taken on Wednesday evening.
“We have done a safety assessment and decided to postpone the planned trip. It is because of the terrible event in Kenya,” said court spokesperson Margareta Thorgren to TT.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
On April 10th and 11th, the Summit of the Americas will take place in Panama. More than 35 heads of state are expected to participate, including the president of the United Sates, Barack Obama and the Cuban leader, Raul Castro.
The theme of the summit is “Equality and Prosperity” which will give room for countless speeches highlighting the importance of equality, the fight against poverty, and other related issues.
However, what really highlights this summit is that it is taking place in the aftermath of the new U.S./Cuba agreement.
Thus, this summit will not only have at its center, the heads of state and their often meaningless speeches but will also include civil society groups. These groups will be there and will bring back the elephant in the room: the question of democracy.
The summit is taking place against the background of an Organization of American States (OAS) that the former Panamanian Ambassador to the OAS, Guillermo Cochez described as an organization that has been destroyed in the past decade. According to Cochez, “the promising democratic principles and respect for human rights established in the OAS Democratic Charter have given room to a bunch of presidents that have done anything to stay in power even at the expense of trashing the same democratic principles that enabled their election”. Cochez rightly blamed Brazil for weakening the OAS by not paying its dues and by protecting regimes such as Venezuela. Cochez concluded, “the state of affairs in Venezuela has required for a long time the invocation of the democratic charter”.
| [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Teacher Suspended for Removing Crucifix From Classroom
Union says Terni education authority ‘discriminatory’
(ANSA) — Terni, April 2 — A teacher in the Umbrian city of Terni was suspended from work without pay for one month after he removed the crucifix from classrooms in the high school where he works.
Union organization Cobas said it supported teacher Franco Coppoli, adding that the regional education authority was wrong to mix education — a State responsibility — with religion.
“In our country, in 2015, it is still forbidden to claim the separation of Church and State and ask for educational spaces without religious symbols,” Cobas said.
The education authority continues a “fundamental crusade, which is discriminatory and morally harmful,” the union said. Much of Italy identifies with the Roman Catholic religion.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Controversy Blooms Over Earliest Flower Fossil
A tiny flower pressed between layers of sandstone for more than 160 million years could be the oldest flower fossil ever found, a new study reports. However, not everyone agrees that the fossil represents an actual flower or that it is as old as the study claims.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Exotic Atom Struggles to Find Its Place in the Periodic Table
Experiment on chemistry of lawrencium reignites a decades-old debate.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The article “The Civil War Isn’t Over” seems to contain the typical NPR-style regressive partisan slander against the Tea Party. Funny how the guy admits the racist history of the Democrats, then seems to suggest that the Tea Party is the modern version of the KKK infiltrating the Republicans. He abandons all logic at this point, accusing the Tea Party of being covertly racist, without citing any evidence, while ignoring black tea party participation.
The Democrats are still racist just as they were during the reconstruction. The only difference now is that the party elites figured out in the 60s that they could exploit racial conflict for political gain so they continue to do their best to promote the idea of racial conflict. They don’t want the Civil War to be over because they’ve always been about trying to exploit the conflict, so it isn’t surprising that one of them would write an article about how this conflict that they exploit is just the continuation of the civil war.
All of this would be over if there weren’t constant attempts by the Democrats (overwhelming majority of news reporters) to push false narratives like “hands up don’t shoot” or frame absolutely everything in racial terms. The Democrats can’t physically enslave black people any more, so they just politically enslave them with constant lies and propaganda.
This is just more of the same “if you’re not a neo-Marxist then you’re a counter revolutionary ‘racist’ because only neo-Marxists believe in equality.” And unless you’re a typical Democrat who still believes in the slave era “one drop rule”, Obama isn’t black; he’s exactly 50% white and 50% black. So it makes no more logical sense to call him “black” than it does to call him “white”.
The vast majority of people who oppose Obama do so because he’s a far left neo-Marxist at best. Unfortunately it seems that we have a bunch of leftists out there who just can bring themselves to believe that any reasonable person could oppose leftist policies, therefore anyone who does must be some sort of racist criminal. Face it people, it’s the left, neo-Marxist, New Left, etc, crap that is being opposed here. Overcome your intellectual superiority-based denial.