The Bangladeshi blogger Ananta Bijoy Das was confronted and hacked to death on the street by masked Muslim activists carrying machetes. It is thought that Mr. Das had aroused his assailants’ anger by his writings opposing religious fundamentalism and in favor of secularism.
In other news from South Asia, another powerful earthquake — this one having a magnitude of 7.3 on the Richter scale — struck Nepal, killings dozens of people and causing additional damage.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Phyllis Chesler, The Kafir, 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.
Greece Tapped Its Emergency IMF Reserves to Pay IMF Debt — Sources
Greece emptied an emergency IMF holding account to repay 750 million euros ($839 million) due to the international lender, a Greek central bank official said, avoiding default but underscoring the dire state of the country’s finances.
With Athens close to running out of cash and a deal with its international creditors still elusive, there had been doubts about whether the leftist-led government would pay the IMF or opt to save cash to pay salaries and pensions later this month.
Member countries of the International Monetary Fund are required to keep a holding account which may be used for emergencies but the money can only be used with the lender’s approval, the central bank official said.
A government official told Reuters that Athens used about 650 million euros from the holding account and 100 million euros from its cash reserves to make the payment on Monday.
[Comment: The “vig” keeps growing.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
With the enactment of the privately owned central bank, the Bank of England provided the model for the financial enslavement of governments, and their citizens. Well before the conflict for establishing a National Bank in America or the eventual surrender to the money changers with the betrayal in instituting the Federal Reserve, the history of the Bank of England needs to be studied. Relying on British historians may seem to invoke a cultural bias; however, the range and wealth of information on this topic comes from an earlier age. Further research will expand this understanding and many of the sources cited can fulfill this objective.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Amtrak Train Crashes in Philadelphia, Wreckage ‘Pretty Bad’
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An Amtrak train headed to New York City derailed and crashed in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, and several people appeared to be injured.
Train 188, a Northeast Regional, had left Washington, D.C., earlier Tuesday. The front of the train was going into a turn when it shook.
An Associated Press employee, Paul Cheung, was on the train and said it appeared it went off the tracks. He said he was fortunate to be at the back of the train and the front of it “looks pretty bad.” He said he saw “some people mangled up.”
Police swarming around the crash site, in Port Richmond, a working-class area, told people to get back, away from the train. They pleaded with curious onlookers: “Do NOT go to scene of derailment. Please allow 1st responders room to work.”
Roads all around the crash site were blocked off. Waves of firefighters continuing toward the train cars, taking people out.
Several injured people, including one man complaining of neck pain, were rolled away on stretchers. Others wobbled while walking away. An elderly woman was given oxygen…
| [Return to headlines] |
DEA Takes $16,000 From Train Passenger Because it Can
There were no drugs and nothing to enforce, but that didn’t stop the Drug Enforcement Agency from taking $16,000 from a passenger on a train headed to California.
After scraping together enough money to produce a music video in Hollywood, 22-year-old Joseph Rivers set out last month on a train trip from Michigan to Los Angeles, hoping it was the start of something big.
Rivers changed trains at the Amtrak station in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on April 15, with bags containing his clothes, other possessions and an envelope filled with the $16,000 in cash he had raised with the help of his family, the Albuquerque Journal reports. Agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration got on after him and began looking for people who might be trafficking drugs.
Rivers said the agents questioned passengers at random, asking for their destination and reason for travel. When one of the agents got to Rivers, who was the only black person in his car, according to witnesses, the agent took the interrogation further, asking to search his bags. Rivers complied. The agent found the cash — still in a bank envelope — and decided to seize it on suspicion that it may be tied to narcotics. River pleaded with the agents, explaining his situation and even putting his mother on the phone to verify the story. No luck.
Leaving aside the unsavory hint of racial profiling, there’s the fact that the DEA helped itself to cash simply because it was cash. It had no reason to suspect Rivers of anything, but the money was apparently too much to pass up. Even having his story corroborated was useless. And, sure, the DEA agents had no reason to believe anyone Rivers put them in touch with was a trustworthy source of information. (After all, he’s some sort of drug dealer, right?) But to grant the DEA the benefit of the doubt for its refusal to believe Rivers’ mother’s statements is to cut the agents an absurd amount of slack for everything preceding that.
Because what did the DEA actually have here? A young guy and $16,000 in cash. According to the DEA’s own statements, it doesn’t need anything more than that to effect an asset seizure. And, according to the DEA’s own statements, it has no reason to bother with anything more than a cursory look that “confirms” what it wants it to confirm…
As if on cue — and as if the DEA’s Sean Waite is completely unaware of the level of scrutiny and negative public opinion centered on asset forfeiture programs — he delivers the most tone-deaf of talking points:
“We don’t have to prove that the person is guilty,” Waite said. “It’s that the money is presumed to be guilty.”
Boom. There’s your problem. Or rather, Rivers’ problem. And the problem of far too many Americans who made the mistake of leaving home with cash on their person. The government doesn’t need to prove shit. It can just take and take and take and force those wronged by its “presumptions” to jump through multiple expensive and mostly futile hoops if they hope to recover their “guilty” belongings.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Doctors Cover Up Vaccine Damage After Killing Infant With 8 Simultaneous Vaccinations
(NaturalNews) It must have been shame that drove doctors at a California hospital to hide the body of an infant who had suddenly died after receiving eight simultaneous vaccinations. The parents were never allowed to see the body of their son before he was cremated.
Even after a year and four months had gone by, the official autopsy had not been revealed. Their son, Matthew, had been given DTaP, IPV, Hib, PCV, Hep B and Hep A in three shots, one in the right arm and two in the left leg, just a day before his sudden death.
According to mother Crystal Downing, Mathew became grumpy and cried a lot the day after receiving the eight inoculations. She thought this was normal behavior following vaccination.
She wrote, “I thought I would give it another day to see if he was still grumpy but we didn’t get to the next day. Matthew was gone by then. He was found lifeless. He went to bed that Tuesday night and my husband found him Wednesday morning.”
The parents then tried to revive Mathew. They called 9-1-1 and rushed him to Colorado River Medical Center in Needles, CA, where he was swiftly pronounced dead. As most cases of vaccine-associated infant death go, the cause of death was ruled sudden infant death syndrome. No investigations were conducted on the cause of death. Parents are often told to just accept a baby’s death as a random even, even after their infant was injected with multiple toxic substances.
When the parents returned home, they waited for updates on the autopsy. For days, they waited with no reply. They made numerous phone calls. After weeks went by, they finally received word that their son was going to be cremated. They were told that they could not see Mathew because of the condition his body was in. They were not allowed to say their goodbyes.
All they ever got was their son’s ashes.
Now, after a year and four months of waiting, the family still awaits their son’s autopsy. They now know that their son had been given a vaccine not approved for his age and an extra dose of a hepatitis B vaccine.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
But despite the marginalization of whistle blowers and news outlets like Infowars.com, The Common Sense show, and scores of others, the government is obviously preparing plans for dissident roundups in the future. The facts on this are clear and the President even signed a Doomsday Executive Order in 2012 giving himself the authority to seize everything from water and food resources to power plants and skilled laborers should he ever have to declare a national emergency.
Perhaps a federal takeover through a martial law declaration is not imminent over coming months, but how else can we explain the absolutely massive exercises now being positioned across the continental United States?
And what are we to tell our children when they see the war machine in full swing on the streets of America?
Here’ s a small selection of what people around the country have been able to record and broadcast as the government gets ready for this summer…
And if they’re not preparing to deal with civil unrest and large, unruly and potentially violent crowds of people, then what do they need all of these microwave weapons for?
Spotted on I-80 near Reno, Nevada:
[Comment: Banksters are going to crash the dollar and use force to quell civilian uprising.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Wall Street Journal and NBC News claim a new poll shows Americans are more open than ever to global free trade agreements like the one President Barack Obama’s Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) would set up in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Asian trade deal. But a close look at the polling data suggests otherwise.
In addition, polling data and talking point documents that GOP pollster Frank Luntz’s polling firm has distributed to Republican members on Capitol Hill—documents that have not been previously public, but have since been obtained by Breitbart News and are shared here for the first time—show a concerted and organized effort by Republican leaders in Congress to mislead not just their members Congress-wide but also the American people on trade policy…
A deeper dive into this particular poll, however, shows that the results obtained depend on the wording of the questions asked. Neither Hughes’ article nor Amenabear’s article printed the actual question that was asked of respondents to get the still unimpressive 37 percent. So to find it, anyone interested in knowing the full context of this data would need to go behind a paywall at the Wall Street Journal to get the full polling data.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Fast Track? How About a Pro-America Track?
Congress, led by Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is preparing to betray American workers, and the grass roots should rise up and say, “No, you don’t.” The secretive underhanded deal is called “fast track,” and that’s an appropriate title because, indeed, it puts Americans on a fast track to lower wages and fewer available jobs.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., one of the few Members of Congress who has actually read and studied fast track plus its companion trade bill called Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), has compiled a list of objections to it that are downright frightening. They should be read by all who care about their own future and the future of our once-prosperous nation. Here are some of the ways fast track and TPP will betray us.
The text of TPP emphasizes that it is a “living agreement.” Translated out of bureaucratese code language, that means the text of TPP can be changed in major and minor ways by executive action after Congress OKs the document. The TPP could, for example, add additional countries such as Communist China, which for years has been cheating America coming and going.
TPP will facilitate the expanded movement of foreign workers into the United States. TPP opens the door to more waves of illegal immigrants and allows Obama to make future changes without any congressional oversight or expiration date.
Kevin L. Kearns of the U.S. Business and Industry Council calls this “another power grab” that will let Obama and his employees rule by executive action. By not calling TPP a treaty (even though it involves 12 countries on three continents), the globalists induce the Senate to abandon the 67-vote threshold for treaty ratification and even the 60-vote threshold for important legislation.
Fast track consolidates power in the executive branch and eliminates Congress’ constitutional power to amend or even debate trade legislation. Fast track allows only a specified up-or-down vote on this momentous international agreement without any public oversight or ability to amend it or filibuster it.
Fast track will increase our trade deficits, which reduce economic growth. Economists have estimated that the last trade deal, which we made with South Korea and which is the template for TPP, wiped out 50,000 American jobs.
[Comment: Read it all. Part of the economic takedown of America. it is no accident that recently some legislator tried to overturn the death penalty for treason.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hersh: Obama Lied. Obama: No, I Didn’t. NBC: Yep, You Did. And Again Just Now.
Obama and his regime are on the defensive as Hersh reveals the many, many lies (some of which led to the deaths of innocent people) that Obama told about his assassination of bin Laden. Hersh’s report details those lies, and concludes: ““High-level lying … remains the modus operandi of US policy, along with secret prisons, drone attacks, Special Forces night raids, bypassing the chain of command, and cutting out those who might say no.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NASA Funds ‘Squid Rover, ‘ 14 Other Far-Out Space Tech Ideas
NASA has funded 15 ambitious tech concepts in the hopes that one or more of them may have a huge impact on space science or exploration down the road.
The new ideas funded by the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program include a squid-like amphibious rover that could explore icy, ocean-harboring moons such as the Jupiter satellite Europa; a proposal to mine water from asteroids using concentrated sunlight; and “WindBots” that would cruise through the skies of Jupiter and Saturn, drawing energy from the gas giants’ magnetic fields and powerful winds.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Working Against Democrats to Push ‘Fast-Track’ Trade Bill
Currently the United States Trade Rep is negotiating two agreements, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which would involve 11 nations around the Pacific Rim, and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. The TPP has been lauded by Obama as “the most progressive trade agreement in history.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Oregon Governor Signs Bill Requiring Background Check on Nearly All Gun Buyers
Oregon Governor Kate Brown on Monday signed into law a bill that will require background checks on nearly all gun buyers in the state.
The Oregon Firearms Safety Act expands background check requirements, already in place at stores and gun shows in the state, to include person-to-person and online gun sales.
“The bill provides a common-sense approach to accomplishing that goal without interfering with the lawful right of citizens to bear arms,” said Brown, a Democrat who took office in February after her predecessor resigned in an influence-peddling scandal.
The bill provides several exemptions, including gun loans for usage at shooting ranges or for hunting, or transfers between family members.
[Comment: Boiling the frog.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pablo Picasso: Les Femmes D’Alger (Version ‘O’) Sells for $179m — Sets New World Record
How much would someone pay for a brightly hued painting of a woman revealing her breasts set against a jumble of Cubist angles and shapes? If it was the work of Pablo Picasso, a quiet $179,365,000.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
by Phyllis Chesler
The long arm of American justice has reached right into Pakistan, where a heinous overseas revenge-for-honor killing was perpetrated—one that was orchestrated by cell phone from the front seat of a taxi in Brooklyn, New York.
Muslims driving taxis in American and European cities have been known to park them illegally when it is time for prayer, and to help lead families to daughters on the run. At least one “horror”/honor killing was carried out in a taxi when Yasir Said murdered his two academically promising and vivacious daughters, Sarah and Amina, in cold blood…
| — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler | [Return to headlines] |
Police Wouldn’t Do it, so Kidnap Victim’s Family Kicked Down Door and Killed Abductor
The police simply weren’t moving fast enough for a man looking for his abducted cousin. In spite of the fact that officers had been called, they were not taking the kidnapping seriously enough for the family of the victim. That’s when they decided to find her themselves.
That’s why the victim’s cousin kicked in the back door of an abandoned house where his kidnapped relative had been taken and shot and killed her kidnapper, according to law enforcement representatives in Louisiana.
Detectives on the case, now after the fact, say that the shooting has been ruled a justifiable homicide by the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Department.
While that’s great news for the victim and the hero who rescued her, it has left many in the community wondering why it took a citizen to do the job that police claim to be there to do.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Police Abduct 10 Children From a Family in Kentucky Because of Their ‘Off the Grid’ Lifestyle
If the government does not like the way that you are raising your kids, they will come in and grab them at any time without giving any warning whatsoever. Of course this is completely and totally unlawful, but it has been happening all over America. The most recent example of this that has made national headlines is particularly egregious. Joe and Nicole Naugler of Breckinridge County, Kentucky just had their 10 children brutally ripped away from them just because the government does not approve of how they are living their lives and how they are educating their young ones. Let’ s be very clear about this — Joe and Nicole had done nothing to violate the law whatsoever. All of their kids were happy, healthy and very intelligent. But because the control freaks running things in Kentucky got wind of their “ off the grid lifestyle” , they have now had all of their children unlawfully abducted from them.
A lot of my readers also lead “ off the grid” lifestyles similar to what the Nauglers had been enjoying. The Nauglers own 26 acres in a remote area of Breckinridge County, and their family has been described as “ extremely happy” . But despite never giving them a single warning or a single indication that anything was ever wrong, Kentucky police raided their home on May 6th. The following is how the raid was described on a website dedicated to this case…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Bin Laden Raid Was a Work of Fiction, And Barack Obama Should Immediately Resign
Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has uncovered one of the biggest lies in modern American history. It turns out that much of what the American public was told about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden was a blatant lie. According to Hersh, Osama bin Laden had been captured by Pakistan all the way back in 2006, and he was being held by the ISI as a prisoner at the Abbottabad compound that the Seals ultimately raided in 2011. In addition, Hersh says that the ISI and Pakistan’ s military knew about the Seal raid in advance. Arrangements were made so that the Black Hawk helicopters could travel through Pakistani airspace safely, and the ISI guards at Osama bin Laden’ s compound were pulled away before the Seals got there. And by that time, Osama bin Laden was reportedly in such bad health that he was essentially a cripple. There was no “ firefight” at all — only a turkey shoot. Afterwards, Osama bin Laden’ s body never made it to the USS Carl Vinson for a “ burial at sea” . That was all just part of the cover story according to Hersh. Of course the White House and Obama’ s lackeys at CNN are strongly denying all of this, and they will continue to deny the truth for as long as they possibly can. But there are individuals in the U.S. military and in the U.S. intelligence community that can come forward and tell us what really happened. Let us hope that at least some of those individuals still care enough about this country to do that.
According to Hersh, one of the biggest lies that Obama told was that Pakistani leadership had no idea that the Seals were coming in. Actually, the truth is that the head of the army, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and the director general of the ISI, General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, were both heavily involved in the planning of the operation. The following is an excerpt from Hersh’ s article for the London Review of Books…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Government Admits Americans Have Been Overdosed on Fluoride
The US government has finally admitted they’ve overdosed Americans on fluoride and, for first time since 1962, are lowering its recommended level of fluoride in drinking water.1,2,3
It’s quite clear that when you add fluoride to drinking water, you cannot control the dose that people are getting, and fluoride is in fact not only a non-essential mineral but a toxic drug. This alone is one of the reasons why fluoride shouldn’t be added to drinking water at any level.
Fluoride Has No Benefit for Teeth When Swallowed
You are beyond naïve if you believe that fluoride somehow selectively goes to your teeth when you swallow it. Rather, it accumulates throughout your body’s bones and tissues. What little benefit fluoride may have is achieved through topical application. Both the CDC and the World Health Organization (WHO) have noted that there is no discernible difference in tooth decay between developed countries that fluoridate their water and those that do not.7
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video Shows Deputy Smash Autistic Man’s Skull Into the Ground, Killing Him for Joking Around
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
A Knox County deputy is now being investigated after he fatally assaulted 33-year old David Dehmann on April 21. Dehmann was autistic and had Tourette’s Syndrome, and this was well-known by the local law enforcement.
Mount Vernon police picked up Dehmann on the 21st for being intoxicated but was released within a couple hours after being cleared by a hospital for release. At 7:43pm that same day, he was arrested near a public school for disorderly conduct — harm to self, at which point he was taken to Knox County Jail by MVPD Cpl. Travis Tharp when things took a turn for the worse.
During the booking process, Dehmann would not make it 15 feet into the station before his life would be ended.
The sickening surveillance camera footage of his killing was released last week which showed this deadly act of police rage.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Worker Fired for Disabling GPS App That Tracked Her 24 Hours a Day [Updated]
“This intrusion would be highly offensive to a reasonable person,” lawsuit says.
A Central California woman claims she was fired after uninstalling an app that her employer required her to run constantly on her company issued iPhone—an app that tracked her every move 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Plaintiff Myrna Arias, a former Bakersfield sales executive for money transfer service Intermex, claims in a state court lawsuit that her boss, John Stubits, fired her shortly after she uninstalled the job-management Xora app that she and her colleagues were required to use…
The suit, which claims invasion of privacy, retaliation, unfair business practices, and other allegations, seeks damages in excess of $500,000 and asserts she was monitored on the weekends when she was not working.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A British ‘neo-Nazi’ who is accused of plotting an Anders Breivik style terror attack claims it was because he was bullied as a child for having ginger hair.
Mark Colborne, 37, had started stockpiling equipment and the ingredients for making cyanide in his bedroom at the home he shared with his mother in Southampton, a court heard today.
The Old Bailey was told he planned to spray the deadly poison at ethnic minorities to publicise his racist beliefs around the world and compared himself to Norwegian terrorist, Anders Breivik.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Demographic Devastation: Italy’s Birth Rate Drops to 150 Year Low
Italian women would “like to have more [children], but the conditions just aren’t good enough,” laments one new mother.
[Comment: all part of the population replacement agenda.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EU Demands Italy Act on Bank Weaknesses This Year
Commission wants measures to reduce impaired loans
(ANSA) — Brussels, May 12 — The European Commission wants the Italian government to take action to fix the weaknesses of several banks, including exposure to bad loans, according to a draft of economic recommendations that ANSA has seen. The draft calls on Italy to “introduce by the end of 2015 binding measures to address the remaining weaknesses in the governance of banks, in particular (the role of) foundations, and take measures to accelerate the reduction of impaired loans,” the draft said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Fitto Calls for New Leadership After FI Debacle in Trento
Dissident MEP unhappy after Berlusconi’s party came in under 4%
(ANSA) — Foggia, May 11 — A leading dissident from within Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (FI) said Monday disappointing local-election results in the northern cities of Trento and Bolzano prove the time has come for new leadership.
“We’re under 4%…and I believe this is emblematic,” said Raffaele Fitto, an MEP and a former confidant of Berlusconi.
“I believe refounding the center right has become necessary”.
The center right under Berlusconi’s leadership “is rather outdated”, Fitto added. Also on Monday, FI’s political adviser Giovanni Toti called for a commissioner to be named “as soon as possible” after “disappointing” results in Trentino Alto Adige.
“I believe (the results) stem from inadequate campaign platforms, infighting, and…the total incapacity of our local political leadership,” Toti said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Grillo Challenged by Renzi, Lorenzin on Mammograms
M5S says ‘misinformation’ about biannual screening tool
(ANSA) — Rome, May 11 — Controversy continued to swirl Monday around 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Beppe Grillo’s allegations that some cancer specialists push mammograms for profit.
Italian Premier Matteo Renzi joined the debate by urging women to continue to request the breast-cancer screening tool as ordered by doctor while Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin said women should ignore Grillo’s “misinformation”.
The debate began Saturday when Grillo suggested there was little difference in mortality rates between women who have mammograms every two years compared with those who do not.
He also suggested those who have biannual mammograms were “poorly informed” and said that cancer specialist Umberto Veronesi, a former health minister, promoted the screenings to make money.
“Veronesi advertises mammograms on TV — probably he has subsidies for his institution,” said Grillo.
Grillo later in the day backtracked, saying “I do not think that mammography is not useful or necessary. In fact I think it’s very useful”.
But no one should think that the test “will prevent cancer”, said Grillo.
In his comments on Mother’s Day, celebrated Sunday in Italy, Renzi said: “Vote for who you want, but do not listen to those supposed politicians that play at being doctors. “You don’t joke around with tumors, do not skip the mammogram,” said Renzi.
While guidelines differ, most experts recommend mammograms if not annually, then every two years after either age 40 or 50.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Exor Increases Offer in Renewed Bid for PartnerRe
Agnelli holding company offers $6.8 billion for insurer
(ANSA) — Milan, May 12 — Exor SpA, the holding company of Italy’s Agnelli family, on Tuesday said it would boost its offer to $6.8 billion to take over PartnerRe.
That raises its share price offer to $137.5 per share in the re-insurer.
“Our offer is superior,” Exor Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Elkann told news agency Bloomberg in an interview.
“Going higher would be irresponsible for our shareholders,” said Elkann.
He added that the new offer would be Exor’s final bid.
Exor, which is perhaps best known for its controlling interest in Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, now owns a 9.32% stake in PartnerRe after buying shares worth $572 million.
“We hope that the board of directors of PartnerRe will accept (our offer) and do the right thing,” said Elkann. Exor has its eye on PartnerRe because it is interested in expanding its investment base beyond the auto sector, according to Bloomberg.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Salvini, Northern League Rally Outside Finance Ministry
Demand government repay pensions withheld under cap
(See related) (ANSA) — Rome, May 12 — As his Northern League political party held a sit-in at the finance ministry Tuesday, leader Matteo Salvini demanded the government dip into its “boatloads” of cash to repay billions of euros in pension money withheld under a previous cap.
Salvini and his supporters, riding high in public opinion polls and following a strong showing in weekend local elections, alleged the centre-left government is sitting on billions of euros they could pay to pensioners.
“Here we stay until we get some answers,” said Salvini.
“Return the loot” and “Hands off pensions” read League banners as Salvini said the government could afford to repay what some estimates say is about five billion euros in money withheld under a 2011 pension cap struck down last month by the Constitutional court.
The original reforms affected only pensions greater than three times the average paid by INPS.
He said pensioners had been “robbed” by the original regulations and urged the government to dip into its “boatload” of cash.
Premier Matteo Renzi’s government has said it must avoid spending that would push the budget outside strict European Union fiscal rules.
Salvini said Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan had taken a “disgraceful” attitude, and accused the government of preferring to repay pensioners in supermarket points rather than the cash they were owned.
Padoan has said the government will have a plan this week for refunding some of the pension money.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Norway’s New Six-Year-Old Chess Prodigy
A six-year-old Norwegian girl has defeated a chess grandmaster, who claims she is better than top ranked Magnus Carlsen was at her age.
Lykke-Merlot Helliesen, named after the grape by her wine-loving father, won a simultaneous exhibition match against Simen Agdestein in which he played nine girls.
“She played splendidly! She is much better than that Carlsen was when he was six years old,” Agdestein said after the game, according to the chess website sjakkbloggen.no.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Phony “Conservatives” And Britain’s Cultural Collapse
The usually astute Heritage Foundation commentator Nile Gardiner calls the win by the Conservative Party in Britain a defeat for socialism. Yet, Conservative Party head David Cameron ran on a platform boasting that “we have protected the National Health Service, with 9,500 more doctors and 6,900 more nurses, and ensured generous rises in the State Pension.”
Based on this precedent, we can anticipate that Republican Party politicians here in America will one day run on a platform of making Obamacare more affordable, rather than seeking to abolish it. This, then, will be defined as the “conservative” position.
The coverage of the recent British elections has demonstrated that the term “conservative” has lost much of its meaning. It’s time to take a hard look at what the term has come to mean in Britain and how it is being distorted and transformed here.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Ginger ‘Fanatic Plotted Prince Charles Murder to Make Harry King’
London (AFP) — A right-wing fanatic who felt marginalised because of his ginger hair plotted the assassination of Prince Charles in the hope that his red-haired son Harry would become king, a British court heard Tuesday.
Mark Colborne, 37, from Southampton in southern England, who is on trial accused of preparing terrorist acts for several months in the run-up to his arrest in June 2014.
In a notebook seized by police, Colborne said he wanted to kill “dark haired” people, prosecutor Annabel Darlow told the Old Bailey court in London.
“I want them to see my transition from poor red-haired victimised minority that is constantly walked over to a fully transformed military terrorist,” he wrote.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Pet Cat is Beheaded on Bristol Street and the Head Has Not Been Found
Tom Whitfield, 29, who owns Tabitha with his mum Joanna Abraham, 52, described the brutal act as a ‘trophy’ killing. The cat’s headless body was found outside the family home in Bishopston, Bristol.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Stone Circle Found on Dartmoor Could be ‘As Old as Stonehenge’
The first radio-carbon testing ever carried out on a stone circle on Dartmoor’s open moorland show that the stones at the ring near Sittaford Tor fell over some 4,000 years ago, meaning they could have been built considerably before this.
Mike Nendick, from Dartmoor National Park authority, said the dating showed that the ring, 34 metres in diameter, could be “of a similar age to Stonehenge”, which was built between 2,000 and 3,000 BC.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Stepfather David Lamb Jailed for Terrorised Kids and Acting as Freddy Krueger
David Lamb (pictured) climbed into the loft to scratch the ceilings of children in his care pretending he was fictional killer Freddy Krueger. The Mansfield man has been jailed for five years.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mentally Ill Moroccan Woman ‘Beaten to Death With Sticks’ During Islamic Exorcism
The mother of eight is understood to have died after being repeatedly beaten with a stick by an exorcist known as a fqih in the village of Douar Beni Salah in the northern Tetouan region.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gaza: Hamas Arrested Salafi Militants After Blasts
(ANSAmed) — GAZA, MAY 12 — Hamas security services arrested several Salafi militants suspected of involvement in recent explosions in Gaza.
One of the blasts — which did not cause casualties — occured in a university campus, another one on a coastal road. For weeks, Hamas has been pressuring radical Salafi groups which have sometimes voiced support for the Islamic State.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Death Hug: ISIS Fighters Reportedly Posing as Gays to Lure Homosexuals to Their Death
The latest evidence of ISIS’ boundless cruelty is the terror group’s new tactic of tricking gays into coming out by posing as homosexuals, only to lure their innocent prey to death by public execution, say human rights advocates.
The radical Islamist group’s hatred of gays has been widely known, as grim images and video have circulated on the web showing men being thrown to their deaths from buildings solely for their sexual orientation. But now, say horrified activists in Syria, ISIS fighters have taken their intolerance to a new low. Recent photos on social media show the doomed, blindfolded men being hugged just before they are killed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq Says IS Demolishes Ruins to Cover Up Looting Operations
The videos of Islamic State militants destroying ancient artifacts in Iraq’s museums and blowing up 3,000-year-old temples are chilling enough, but one of Iraq’s top antiquities officials is now saying the destruction is a cover for an even more sinister activity — the systematic looting of Iraq’s cultural heritage.
While there is no firm evidence of the amount of money being made by the Islamic State group from looting antiquities, satellite photos and anecdotal evidence confirm widespread plundering of archaeological sites in areas under IS control.
Experts speculate that the large pieces are destroyed with sledgehammers and drills for the benefit of the cameras, while the more portable items like figurines, masks and ancient clay cuneiform tablets are smuggled to dealers in Turkey.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
I had to laugh when I heard that the new King of Saudi Arabia, Salmon, told the White House he wasn’t going to attend Thursday’s photo-op get together of Arab leaders. Some lesser Saudi officials will attend. The message is clear enough, so long as Obama continues to make nice with Iran, the center of the problems in the Middle East, the Saudis and the others are going to be wary of any proposal that comes out of the White House.
As far as the Middle East is concerned, Obama seems to have no idea of the history or the dynamics that affect all the actions there. His Secretary of State, Kerry, is no better. He met with Arab officials last Friday and they told him they want a defense treaty in the event they were attacked by “external forces”, something that the Congress will not approve so long as Obama is in the White House.
One would think that any President at this point would have concluded that the Palestinians have no intention of signing onto a peace treaty with the Israelis.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US, Saudi Arabia Play Down Rift
The White House and Saudi Arabia scrambled to quell talk of a diplomatic rift Monday, after King Salman pulled out of a summit with President Barack Obama at the eleventh hour.
Senior US and Saudi officials appeared in public to insist the Gulf royal’s decision was not a snub nor part of a deeper crisis in never-easy ties that date back decades.
Obama had invited six Gulf leaders to the presidential retreat, amid suspicions that Washington is no longer committed to their security and is not doing enough to stop Iran’s destabilizing actions across the region.
Only two leaders, from Qatar and Kuwait, are now slated to attend.
The US president has warned the deeply conservative monarchies that they must reform, and has launched nuclear talks with their arch-foe Iran.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NATO Kicks Out Russian Spies But Revives Kremlin Hotline Amid Ukraine Tensions
The western military alliance is reviving cold war-style hotlines to the Kremlin and the Russian general staff in Moscow to reduce the chances of escalating military confrontation and miscalculation as the Ukraine conflict fuels east-west tension.
While seeking to boost military contacts with the Russians, Nato has also moved to rid its Brussels headquarters of what are believed to be dozens of Russian spies.
In an interview with the Guardian, Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, said that as a result of increased Russian air activity the alliance was intercepting more Russian planes over the Black, Baltic and Norwegian seas and that the revival of direct contacts was needed to reduce risk and avoid misunderstandings.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Putin Defends Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact in Press Conference With Merkel
Russian President Vladimir Putin defended 1939’s Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany as Moscow’s response to being isolated and having its peace efforts snubbed by Western nations.
At the close of his Sunday meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Moscow — a day after Russian held grand-scale celebrations of the allied victory in World War II — Putin offered a lengthy defense of the controversial agreement that led to the carving up of Eastern Europe.
“The Soviet Union made massive efforts to lay the groundwork for a collective resistance to Nazism in Germany, made repeated attempts to create an anti-fascist bloc in Europe. All of these attempts failed,” Putin told journalists at a joint news conference with Merkel, according to a transcript released by the Kremlin.
“And when the Soviet Union realized that it was being left one-on-one with Hitler’s Germany, it took steps to avoid a direct confrontation, and the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed,” Putin said.
Merkel offered a diplomatically phrased objection, telling the joint news conference that the “Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact is difficult to understand without considering the additional secret protocol. With that in mind, I think it was wrong, it was done illegally,” she said, according to the Kremlin’s Russian-language transcript.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
To Defeat Rebels, Ukraine Military Might Allow Foreigners to Join Armed Forces
Ukraine’s parliament gave Tuesday its first approval to a bill that would let foreigners serve in the nation’s military. The Rada voted to pass the first reading of the bill, which would enable non-Ukrainians to serve as privates and junior officers in the armed forces, the Associated Press reported. It will now go to a second reading.
The bill was motivated by the ongoing conflict between pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian government. Foreigners have joined both sides of the fight, even though Ukraine’s current laws forbid it, Sputnik reported. The new legislation would change this. It would also take the pressure off Ukraine’s military recruitment efforts and mean fewer payments to soldiers’ families, the bill’s authors said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Third “Anti-Islam” Blogger Murdered in Bangladesh This Year
Wielding machetes, four men hacked to death Ananta Bijoy Das, an activist with the Bangladesh Chhatra Union, a pro-democracy political movement, who wrote on the Mukto-Mona (Free Thought) blog. He had repeatedly criticised the country’s drift towards fundamentalism of the past two years.
Dhaka (AsiaNews) — This morning, four machete wielding masked men hacked to death blogger and activist Ananta Bijoy Das in Shubid Bazar, Sylhet, 237 kilometres from the capital Dhaka.
According to an eyewitness, the victim died on the spot. Police are on the trail of the killers, who may belong to radical Islamic groups.
Das, 31, is the third blogger murdered this year by Muslim extremists, after Avijit Roy and Washiqur Rahman. He was the son of Rabindra Kumar Das and worked for the Jauwa branch of the Pubali Bank Limited.
Author of several books, he was an activist with the Bangladesh Chhatra Union, a pro-democracy political movement.
He also wrote for the scientific magazine Jukti and on the Mukto-Mona (Free Though”) blog where he repeatedly criticised the country’s drift towards fundamentalism of the past two years.
For some time, Muslim extremists have been targeting free thinkers and pro-democracy activists, justifying their killing by saying that their victims were “atheists”.
In 2013, Ahmed Rajib Haider was the first blogger to be killed for holding ideas “contrary to Islam”.
Taslima Nasreen is another famous writer and intellectual persecuted for her ideas. After she published Lajja (Shame) in 1993, she had to flee the country because of death threats by Islamic fundamentalists. Her book is banned in Bangladesh because it is considered blasphemous for Islam, the state religion.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh Blogger Ananta Bijoy Das Hacked to Death
A secular blogger in Bangladesh has been hacked to death in north-eastern Bangladesh in the third such deadly attack since the start of the year, police say.
Ananta Bijoy Das was attacked by a masked gang wielding machetes in the city of Sylhet, reports say.
Mr Das wrote blogs for Mukto-Mona, a website once moderated by Avijit Roy, himself hacked to death in February.
Mr Roy, a Bangladeshi-born US writer, had criticised religious intolerance.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh: Another Free Thinker Murdered
Blogger and an organiser of local Gonojagoron Mancha, Ananta Bijoy Das, was killed in Sylhet this morning in continuation of attack on free thinkers of the society.
The murder comes in persistence of the recent killings of free thinkers Avijit Roy and Oyashiqur Rahman earlier this year — which have been blamed on fanatics.
Ananta Bijoy was killed at Subid Bazar area in Sylhet city around 9:00am this morning, Sylhet Metropolitan Police Commissioner Kamrul Hasan told The Daily Star.
Four assailants intercepted him, chased him down and stabbed him indiscriminately all over, a Gonojagoron Mancha activist sought anonymity to tell our Moulvibazar correspondent.
“Ananta died on the spot,” he said. “Ananta was an organiser of local progressive publication outlet Jukti (logic) and a relentless writer on science.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh Blogger Ananta Bijoy Das Hacked to Death: Police
Ananta Bijoy Das, a blogger who advocated secularism, was attacked by four assailants in northeastern Sylhet district.
A blogger was hacked to death by assailants using machetes in Bangladesh on Tuesday, the third attack in less than three months on a critic of religious extremism in the Muslim-majority nation.
Ananta Bijoy Das, a blogger who advocated secularism, was attacked by four assailants in northeastern Sylhet district on Tuesday morning, senior police official Mohammad Rahamatullah told Reuters. It was not immediately clear why he was targeted, but local media reported that he was close to Avijit Roy, a Bangladeshi-American blogger and writer who was killed in February, allegedly by Islamist extremists. Roy was known for his writings against religious fundamentalism.
Rahamatullah said Das was a 33-year-old banker. Das’s friend Shahiduzzamn Paplu told reporters that Das wrote blogs and books dealing with science, and that he also had written an introduction for a book by Avijit Roy.
[NOTE: The dead Bangladeshi blogger drew no Mo cartoons, he only wanted secular law in Bangladesh instead of sharia. — The Kafir]
| — Hat tip: The Kafir | [Return to headlines] |
Dozens Killed After Magnitude-7.3 Earthquake Strikes Nepal
At least 37 people were killed Tuesday after a major earthquake struck Nepal, triggering landslides and toppling buildings less than three weeks after the Himalayan nation was ravaged by its worst quake in decades.
Tuesday’s magnitude-7.3 earthquake was centered near the Chinese border between Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, and Mt. Everest. It was followed closely by at least five aftershocks measuring from magnitude-5.6 to magnitude-6.3.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds Feared Dead as Another Strong Earthquake Strikes Devastated Nepal
Hundreds are feared dead in a remote region of Nepal after the country was hit by a second strong earthquake, just weeks after the disaster that killed more than 8,000 people and destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes.
The new quake has left 42 dead with more than 1,100 injured, according to officials. It had a magnitude of 7.3 and struck around 42 miles (68km) west ofthe town of Namche Bazaar, close to Mount Everest.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In Nepal, After New Earthquake, People Seek Open Spaces to Avoid Falling Debris
On April 25 — just two weeks and three days ago — Nepal was devastated by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. More than 8,000 people were killed and nearly 18,000 were injured.
A frightening series of aftershocks has kept residents of Nepal on edge. But none had nearly the power of Tuesday’s magnitude-7.3 quake, which was centered near Mount Everest.
It was felt with force 52 miles (83 kilometers) to the east, in the country’s capital, Kathmandu, which suffered so much in the April earthquake.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Mothers and Widows Remember the Attacks on Youhanabad Churches
On Mother’s Day, Christ Church, one of the two places of worship attacked, organised a prayer ceremony. Naz Bano, whose son died to stop one of the terrorists, and Fozia, now alone to raise a two-year-old girl, tell their story.
Lahore (AsiaNews) — Naz Bano remembers well the moment she woke up her son early, for his shift as a volunteer for the security detail protecting the local church, the day when two suicide bombers blew themselves up in the Christian colony where they live. “‘I have to stand at the gates during the Mass,’ he told me the night before,” Bano remembers.
Quietly crying, she sits on one of the pews of Christ Church in Youhanabad, home to Lahore’s 100,000 Christians. She was one of the parents who took part in a moving rally, two days ago, organised by the Church for Mother’s Day.
Her son Aakash, 20, died on 15 March trying to prevent terrorists from entering St John’s Catholic Church. Seventeen people, including seven Muslims were killed, and more than 70 were injured in the explosion.
The posters of the “Christian martyrs” are now posted on the wall in front of Christ Church, in a dusty street of the city’s largest Christian ghetto.
Aakash is remembered for his brave deed. ‘This fearless young man defied the terrorists’ reads the caption on the poster.
A martyr’s mother
“I saw women kiss his coffin on the day he was buried,” said Naz Bano. “I never signed the registration form for him join the security detail, but he did it anyway. Perhaps it was God’s will. He prepared Aakash to save many lives. My three other children offered me their best wishes for this day, but he was not here.”
On the Mother’s Day rally, Rev Arshad Ashknaz began the sober ceremony with prayers dedicated to dead “children, sisters and relatives”. A Karachi NGO, the Deserving Students Educational Assistance Programme (DSEAP), handed out cheques worth 50,000 rupees (US$ 500), as a tribute to the mothers present. Some 25 people who lost relatives in the Youhanabad tragedy, including five widows, received the gift.
A widow remembers
Cuddling her two-year-old daughter, Fozia plans to save the money to pay for her child’s studies. Every time she visits Christ Church, memories of her husband James Sardar, 24, flood back. He, too, died near the entrance gate.
“He died the same day we got married,” she said. “He worked at a leather factory and was earning about 1,200 rupees (US$ 12) a month. The owners did not even give me his last wages.”
Fozia still lives with her husband’s family. Now she sews women’s clothing and earns just what she needs to buy milk for her daughter. “She recognises the face of her father on the posters,” she said.
“I still go to Mass to the same church and I pray for the terrorists to convert. Life in this country is a disaster.”
Tragedy changed Youhanabad
Youhanabad churches have had to boost security after the March attacks. Some 20 young people patrol a 100-metre radius around Christ Church. Eight armed police officers are guarding the Anglican Church, which, along with the Catholic Church, is a category A security site.
Following clashes that broke out after the attack, the Lahore Bus Rapid Transit no longer stops at the Youhanabad station. As a result of this, residents are forced to pay a higher fee or walk (even in the summer heat) to reach the nearest station.
About 70 Christians are still in jail in Kot Lakhpat prison, 23 charged with murder for the lynching of two Muslim terrorist suspects a few minutes after the explosion.
“We have gone back ten years, Rev Arshad. “At least ten Christians are still being sought and many families have left, afraid of the police, not the terrorists.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
A secular blogger was hacked to death by a group of masked men carrying machetes in Bangladesh on Tuesday, in the third killing of this nature since January.
Ananta Bijoy Das was attacked by four men in the north-eastern city of Sylhet as he left his home for work, a police official told Reuters. Mr Das was believed to be a writer for the Mukto Mona website, which advocates science, rationalism and humanism and was moderated by American-Bangladeshi blogger Avijit Roy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Launches ‘Mystery Object’ Into Space
In what could ring alarm bells for the Indian security establishment, a report of the United States Department of Defence (DoD), has warned about China “destructive” space programme of stalling or destroying satellites of other countries and how its nuclear-powered submarines now make forays into the Indian Ocean. Released on May 8, the DoD’s annual report to the US Congress on ‘Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2015’ talks about a mystery ‘object’ that Beijing had launched in space on a ballistic trajectory with a peak altitude above 30,000 km.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Boko Haram Targets Catholics: 100,000 Homeless From Islamist Insurgency, Christian Charity Says
More than 100,000 Nigerian Catholics have been left homeless by Boko Haram’s six-year insurgency in northeast Nigeria and another 5,000 have been killed, a Christian charity said Tuesday. As a result, there are now 7,000 widows and 10,000 orphans in the Maiduguri diocese, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) told Premier.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Asylum Applications Soar by 38% This Year
Due partly to a surge in Somali asylum seekers, this year is on track to be the second-busiest ever for applications. The Finnish Immigration Service warns that waiting times will become longer unless it hires more staff.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Asylum Seekers Up 50% 2013-2014
13,000 unaccompanied minors arrived from Libya in 2014
(ANSA) — Brussels, May 12 — The EU granted asylum to 185,000 migrants in 2014, 50% more than in 2013, Eurostat said Tuesday.
Around two thirds of the claims were granted by four countries: Germany (47,600, +82% on 2013); Sweden (33,000, +25%); France (20,600, +27%) and Italy (20,600, +42%).
The European Commission is to formalise its new plan Wednesday to revamp migrant controls and processes for asylum seekers. The document states that a first screening will take place to identify immediately humanitarian versus economic refugees at centres where migrants are held upon entering EU borders. Frontex, Europol and the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) and healthcare facilities will be involved in the selection process. Frontex will be in charge of creating a system for the rapid repatriation of migrants who flee to Europe for economic motives.
UNICEF on Tuesday called for the rights of migrant children to be the focus of new European immigration policy.
Deaths of migrants crossing the Mediterranean number 50 times higher so far this year compared to the same period last year, UNICEF said. The ranks of children attempting the perilous voyage are bound to grow as the warm season and calmer seas tempt traffickers and their victims. UNICEF said risks for children are particularly high not only on the sea, but also after they arrive on European coasts, where they may fail to receive medical or other attention to urgent needs — particularly children travelling unaccompanied by an adult.
Out of 170,000 immigrants that arrived on European shores coming from the Libyan coast last year, 13,000 were unaccompanied minors.
New reports suggest that smugglers and traffickers of children are exploiting an already desperate situation, making money on children seeking asylum and pushing their parents to pay ransom to be reunited with their children.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Heading to Italy With Migrants, Libyan Official
Minister in Tobruk govt says Malta also affected
(ANSA) — Cairo, May 12 — Terrorists belonging to Islamic State (ISIS) will be coming to Italy “in the coming weeks” hidden among migrants on boats, Omar al Gawari, information minister in Libya’s Tobruk government, told ANSA Tuesday. Reports in recent months have also warned that ISIS terrorists are moving into Italy as well as threatening to attack the Vatican.
“In the coming weeks, Italy will experience the arrival not only of poor African immigrants but also of boats carrying Daesh (Isis),” said the minister.
He said that Malta will also be affected.
Both countries have received tens of thousands of migrants mostly arriving by sea on rickety vessels.
Libya has become a major jumping off point for these vessels, many operated by human traffickers given free rein because of chaos in Libya.
The European Union is seeking a United Nations mandate to use military action to stop or destroy human smugglers’ boats in Libyan waters — something the North African country criticized this week.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘Migrant Crisis is a Security Crisis’ Says EU Foreign Policy Chief
Europe’s foreign policy chief has urged the United Nations Security Council to pass a resolution being drafted by British diplomats authorising a raft of EU measures, including military action, to defeat Libyan-based people smuggling gangs.
Federica Mogherini pleaded with the world body to support European efforts to combat the human trafficking cartels as she spelt out the harrowing humanitarian impact of the Mediterranean migrant crisis.
Ms Mogherini also said that the EU would adopt a new accord on migration in Brussels on Wednesday. “No refugees or migrants intercepted at sea will be sent back against their will,” she said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants to be Spread Across EU, Report Quotes Commission as Saying
The executive body of the EU will propose that member countries share responsibility for housing the thousands of refugees arriving in Europe from across the Mediterranean.
European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker will on Wednesday propose a “mandatory migrant quota system” under which the 28 EU member states will share responsibility for migrants during times of emergency, The Times of London has reported.
“To ensure fair and balanced participation of all member states in this common effort, the EU needs a permanent system for sharing the responsibility for large numbers of refugees and asylum seekers among member states,” the proposal reportedly reads.
The number of refugees sent to each country would be decided according to a “redistribution key” based on GDP, population size, unemployment rate and past numbers of asylum seekers admitted.
Currently, asylum seekers are the responsibility of the country in which they first arrive, meaning countries close to migrant crossing routes, such as Italy, Malta and Greece, have complained of shouldering the bulk of Europe’s refugee crisis.
In addition, Juncker will propose that the EU resettle an extra 20,000 asylum seekers, identified by the UN, a year by 2020, The Times reported.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Backs Migrant ‘Sharing’ EU Proposals
Plans to force wealthy European nations such as the UK to take in more refugees have been backed by Sweden, which currently takes in more asylum seekers per capita than any other EU nation.
Proposals to ensure a more balanced spread of refugees across the EU are expected to be put forward by the European Commission in Brussels on Wednesday, alongside plans to increase legal means for migrants to travel to Europe.
The move, first reported in Britain’s The Times newspaper on Monday, aims to create legislation that would force all 28 member states to share responsibility for “mass influxes” of non-EU migrants during times of emergency.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Islamic Invasion of Europe
This long article by Guillaume Faye, posted at Riposte Laïque seems appropriate at this time. I have had to condense some of the twenty-three sections. There’s little that’s new here, but the invasion of refugees into Europe, their dispersion throughout the continent, and the cultural consequences for the nations affected, constitute the latest chapter in the on-going fight for ethnic European survival:
We are being submerged. The invasive flood of illegals in no longer just a tide, but a tidal wave. Never before has illegal immigration attained such rhythm and magnitude. Yet what seems to worry the authorities and the media are not the explosive consequences for Europe, its people, its economy, its security, its identity, of this phenomenon never-before-seen in history, recalling Jean Raspail’s prophecy in Le Camp des Saints (1973); no, what preoccupies them is not stopping the gigantic migration but bemoaning the fate of those drowned and rushing to the aid of those shipwrecked. Perfectly honorable, but ridiculously insufficient, without any serious protective measures taken, and at the risk that this tragedy will lead to an explosion.
The figures are terrifying and surpass anything one could have imagined.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Up to 6,000 Burmese, Bangladeshi Migrants Stranded at Sea, Activists Say
Hundreds of migrants abandoned at sea by smugglers in Southeast Asia have reached land and relative safety in the past two days. But an estimated 6,000 Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims from Burma remain trapped in crowded, wooden boats, migrant officials and activists said. With food and clean water running low, some could be in grave danger.
One vessel that reached Indonesian waters early Monday, was stopped by the Navy and given food, water and directions to Malaysia.
Worried that boats will start washing to shore with dead bodies, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the United States and several other foreign governments and international organizations have held emergency meetings, but participants say there are no immediate plans to search for vessels in the busy Malacca Strait.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘We Tell the Men to Expect Bodies in the Sea’
French naval officers patrolling the Mediterranean are trained to shoot holes in emptied boats to stop traffickers using them again, and to handle the corpses of refugees who fail to make it to Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Vienna Gets Gay-Themed Traffic Lights
Hundreds of gay-couple traffic lights have been introduced in Vienna in time for the annual Eurovision Song Contest, which this year is being hosted by the Austrian capital.
The traffic lights in central Vienna show male or female gay couples with hearts — in red for stop and green for go — replacing the usual single, gender-neutral figure.
One hundred and twenty pedestrian crossings will be equipped with the new traffic lights which are intended to show how open-minded Vienna is, Greens MP Maria Vassilakou said.
The new traffic lights will cost a total of €63,000 and are being introduced for a ‘test phase’ which lasts until the end of June.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Campus Nags Want to Change How Male Students Think
Imagine if radical left-wing students were only allowed to play for their college football teams if they first agreed to attend a class designed to expunge their edgy thinking. We would consider that outrageous, a return of McCarthyism, an intolerable assault on the right of students to think whatever they want. We’d call it thoughtpolicing.
So why is there so little uproar about Oxford University’s decision to make its rugby clubs undergo anti-sexism classes before being allowed to compete in major college tournaments?
Replace radical left-wing students with rugby-playing students, and Red thinking with laddish banter, and the nightmarish scenario described above is actually happening on a British campus: students are being forced into thought-washing before being allowed to represent their colleges in sports.
None of the rugby clubs at Oxford has been implicated in any crimes. But the university administration has nonetheless decided to make all of them sit through one-hour “anti-misogyny classes” in an attempt to “combat sexism on campus.” Any rugby-playing student who refuses to be lectured about the rottenness of sexist thinking will be forbidden from playing in this year’s Cuppers Final, an annual clash of Oxford’s various college rugby teams. That is, they’re being strong-armed to submit themselves to a moral clear-out of their minds.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mom, the Millennial in Your Basement is a Member of the Socialist Army
Canada Free Press columnist Kevin Stoos turns out to be chillingly prescient for what he wrote back in 2009:
“If you feel the ground shaking under your feet; if the America you once knew seems to be changing daily; if you feel that you have less and less control over your life and the country is being governed from the top down, then you should take heed.
“Someone is “remoulding the world nearer his heart’s desire,” and he has the biggest hammer in the world. If you want to understand Obama’s agenda, you need to peer into the Fabian Window.
The Fabian Window is a beautiful, if sinister, thing. Although it currently hangs in London, it should be hanging in the White House, for the message in the window is an eerie reflection of what is happening in the United States before our very eyes.
Built to commemorate the founding of the Fabian Socialist Society, the Fabian Window contains images that are clear, unapologetic and, as a friend of mine once said—brazen. It is one thing, as Lenin said, to howl like wolves in order to live among wolves; however it is quite another to advertise the fact that you are a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Yet, the socialists who constructed the window had no qualms about advertising the fact that they had a hidden (or not so hidden) agenda when it comes to reshaping the world.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘The Time is Coming That Whoever Kills You Will Think That He is Offering a Service to God’
How do you deal with psychotic religious warriors that believe that they are offering a service to God by killing Christians? Ever since 9/11, we were endlessly told about what a great threat “ al-Qaeda” was, but I don’ t remember a single time when al-Qaeda ever marched a group of Christians out and beheaded them on camera. ISIS appears to be an entirely different animal than al-Qaeda ever was, and it is about time that we started taking them seriously. But the Obama administration is actually allowing Americans that went overseas to fight for ISIS to come back into the country and resume their normal lives. To me, that is absolutely insane. These are people that believe that they score major points with their god when they kill us. And they especially seem to relish the opportunity to kill Christians. Sadly, this is all part of a rising trend of Christian persecution all over the planet. Christian churches are being burned to the ground in places such as Egypt, India and West Africa, and earlier this month we witnessed a horrific incident during which more than a hundred Christians were mercilessly gunned down in Kenya. It is becoming increasingly dangerous to be a Christian, and it is only going to get worse in the years ahead.
You have to keep in mind that these ISIS fighters are actually convinced that they are the good guys. They don’ t believe that what they are doing is evil. When they kill Christians, they are just doing what they believe their god wants them to do…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ananta Bijoy Das apprantly applied to Sweden for political asylum, but jhis request was turned down.
Lets guess why
1. Swedish authorities believe that Islam is a RoP.
2. Swedish authorities believe Ananta Bijoy Das would be in greater danger from the RoP in Sweden.
Swedes don’t like someone who comes to Sweden and opposes Islam. IN the west immigration is not about saving lives of those who are oppressed, but importing active muslims who work day and night, on jizya welfare, to surrender the western very democratic countries to them.
Western kindness is perverted: kindness to the oppressor muslims not to the beheaded and maimed in London, Madrid, . . . etc not to the Jews who are chased and tortured anywhere they are.
It’s the Nazi way murad. Remember, the Nazi’s were never defeated in WW2, only the German military machine surrendered, not the Nazis. They have been very active in promoting Islam for over 70 years and there could be no more graphic example of that than the current ‘migration’ scheme that is permitting Islam to conquer Europe via immigration.
That does not resonate with me, Nemesis. I have no doubt that the thinking of some Germans did not change following military defeat. However, it seems illogical that they would fawn over foreigners, even if they admire certain things about them. National Socialists are not people I associate with destroying their own people.
Similarly, I admire certain things about the PRC but it would never occur to me that millions of Chinese should be imported to the U.S.
Far more likely that what is happening is the result of our failure to defeat communism. Leftist idiocy rules the West with certain pockets of sanity still holding out. Diana West has the story.
Biblical phrophesy being fulfilled. The tribulation has begun…