A schoolboy in the central Italian town of Terni violently attacked a 12-year-old girl at school for wearing a crucifix on a chain around her neck. The Mohammed Coefficient of the incident is as yet undetermined. However, news reports state that the young attacker was “of African origin”.
In other news, the legendary blues guitarist B.B. King has died.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Papa Whiskey, Steen, 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.
Eurozone Bank to Keep on Printing Money
The European Central Bank (ECB) will “implement in full” its €1.1 trillion stimulus programme, bank chief Mario Draghi has said.
Delivering a lecture on Thursday (14 May) at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, Draghi told the audience that a prolonged period of recession, low economic growth, and political uncertainty in the eurozone had left businesses and households “very hesitant to take on economic risk” and that “quite some time is needed before we can declare success.”
“Our monetary policy stimulus will stay in place as long as needed for its objective to be fully achieved on a truly sustained basis,” he noted.
“While we have already seen a substantial effect of our measures on asset prices and economic confidence, what ultimately matters is that we see an equivalent effect on investment, consumption, and inflation,” he added.
The Frankfurt-based bank on Thursday (5 March) announced it would purchase €60 billion of bonds per month as part of an unprecedented quantitative easing programme (QE) set to run until September 2016.
The decision to pump a total of €1.14 trillion into the eurozone economy, together with a sharp fall in the price of oil, has fuelled a distinct rise in economic confidence across the eurozone.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How GDP Metrics Distort Our View of the Economy
GDP purports to measure economic activity while largely divorcing itself from the quality, profitability, depth, breadth, improvement, advancement, and rationalization of goods and services provided.
For example, even if a ship — built at great expense — cruised without passengers, fished without success, or ferried without cargo; it nevertheless contributed to GDP. Profitable for investors or stranded in the sand; it added to GDP. Plying the seas or rusting into an orange honeycomb shell; the nation’s GDP grew.1
Stated alternatively, GDP fails to accurately assess the value of goods and services provided or estimate a society’s standard of living. It is a ruler with irregular hash marks and a clock with erratic ticks.
As proof, observe this absurdity: in 1990, Soviet GDP equaled half of US GDP, according to the 1991 CIA Factbook. No one visiting the Soviet Union in 1990 would believe their economy came close to 50 percent of the quality and quantity of the goods and services produced in America. GDP-defined production may have been strong, but laying roads to nowhere, smelting unusable steel, and baking barely edible breads stretches the definition of “production.” And this describes the goods which were actually produced. There is no accounting for the opportunity cost of forfeited essential goods and services.
How can this be? Why does GDP poorly reflect economic size and vitality? The blame largely resides with three fallacious concepts embedded within GDP “measurements”:
(1) intermediate goods (e.g., steel) must be eliminated to avoid “double counting”; (2) government expenditures consist of viable economic activities; and (3) imports should be netted against exports.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘I Wish We Had Drachma, Never Entered Monetary Union’ — Greek Finance Minister
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, who has been sidelined from Greece debt negotiations, says he wished the country still had the drachma, and that Greece would never sign any bailout plan on unfavorable terms.
Continuing the war of words with eurozone policymakers Varoufakis said, at a conference in Athens Thursday, he would reject any agreement in which “the numbers do not add up.”
He also said that deep down each member of the eurozone now agreed Greece should never have joined, adding that it “was very badly constructed.”
“But once you are in, you don’t get out without a catastrophe,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The fact that these deficient economic estimates continue in April instead of the forecasted and pleaded rebound has raised more serious concerns even among those most loyal to the mainline tendencies. It is getting more difficult to deny that there is a major economic problem brewing, one which may already be rather severe despite the fact that the heaviest pressures associated with recession itself are still absent. The changing perception about the economy, with that 5% GDP talk now dead and buried, is itself one of those factors as there are enormous downstream implications from such a potential reset.
It probably has always been that way to some degree, and there is no doubt that there is at least a small basis in monetary theory about recession being not much more than pessimism. But the QE-world seems to have run massive interference in the ability of business, in my opinion, to operate with some sense. Take the case of inventory, as there has been a massive buildup in the past year without the salving and saving grace of actual sales growth up and down the supply chain. That has left wholesalers and retailers full of “stuff” and not much sign that it will eventually and easily move in the near term.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Puerto Rico Governor Pushes Sales Tax Increase to Help Generate Revenue
Puerto Rico’s governor says he has agreed to a compromise deal on a tax hike for the deeply indebted U.S. territory after his initial plan for a value-added tax was shot down by the legislature.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Someone is Lying: Job Optimism Plummets to Levels Unseen Since Financial Crisis
The percentage of respondents to University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Survey that “think they (or their spouse) will lose their job over the next 5 years” soared to its highest since March 2009.
Either the BLS’ workers are lying, or the government’s data on jobs is ‘misleading’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Industrial Output Falls for Fifth Straight Month
U.S. industrial production fell for a fifth straight month in April, weighed down by declines in mining and utilities output, pointing to a lack of momentum in the economy at the start of the second quarter.
Industrial output slipped 0.3 percent after a revised 0.3 percent drop in March, the Federal Reserve said on Friday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ancestry.com Colludes With Police to Share Your Genetic Information in Violation of Privacy Rights
Police chose a lab linked to a private collection of genetic genealogical data called the Sorenson Database, which is owned by Ancestry.com. It claims it is “the foremost collection of genetic genealogy data in the world.” That may be true; Sorenson Database has obtained more than 100,000 DNA samples and documented multi-generational family histories from “volunteers in more than 100 countries around the world.”
“Sorenson promised volunteers their genetic data would only be used for ‘genealogical services, including the determination of family migration patterns and geographic origins’ and would not be shared outside Sorenson,” said EFF.
So much for the promise of privacy Despite the promise, Sorenson’s massive collection of data — including data in other public DNA databases — can be searched by anyone and is available online, with “DNA results obtained from a commercial lab.” Therefore, even without a search warrant or court order, police investigators were able to run crime scene DNA against Sorenson’s private data.
When they did, 41 potential familial matches turned up, one of which matched 34 out of 35 alleles; this indicates a very close match that generally means there is a close familial relationship.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Baltimore Corrections Officers Charged With Looting Convenience Store During Unrest
Two Baltimore correctional officers were charged Wednesday with looting a downtown convenience store during unrest last month over the death of Freddie Gray, officials said.
Tamika Cobb and Kendra Richard were caught on video taking merchandise from the 7-Eleven on the corner of W. Baltimore and Howard streets on April 25, the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
BB King, The King of Blues, Dies at 89
The “King of the Blues”, guitarist and singer BB King, has died aged 89. King, known for his hits My Lucille, Sweet Little Angel and Rock Me Baby, died in his sleep in Las Vegas. Born in Mississippi, King began performing in the 1940s, going on to influence a generation of musicians and work with Eric Clapton and U2.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bin Laden Aide Al-Fawwaz Sentenced to Life for 1998 Embassy Bombings
A Saudi man thought to be one of Osama bin Laden’s closest advisors has been sentenced to life in prison by a US court. Among other crimes, he helped set up a Nairobi al Qaeda cell ahead of a US embassy bombing there.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Corporate Gods: “Obama, Remember Why We Hired You; Ram the TPP Through”
“Current TPP negotiation member states are the United States, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Chile, Singapore, Peru, Vietnam, New Zealand and Brunei. The TPP is the largest economic treaty in history, including countries that represent more than 40 per cent of the world´s GDP.” (Wikileaks)
“Since 1945, no American President has escaped vetting by elite Globalists. Partisan politics plays no role in this process. The one overriding issue of every Presidency has been: make sure Globalist legislation and treaties pass through to completion. Do not obstruct them. A little crooked President named Nixon got it in his head to erect anti-Globalist tariffs. He found himself on the floor looking up, with Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller’s man, staring down at him, assuring him his days in the White House were over.” (The Underground, Jon Rappoport)
Obama is under the gun. Not since he pressured Congress, on behalf of the pharmaceutical companies, to pass Obamacare, has he worked so hard and sweated so much.
The latest Globalist treaty, the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership), is on the table.
Elite mega-corporations all over the world, the Council on Foreign Relations (Rockefeller), the Bilderberg Group, the Trilateral Commission (Rockefeller) want the TPP to be ratified by the 12 member nations. They really want it. They insist on it.
Obama has run into Congressional roadblocks. They appear to be temporary, but make no mistake about it, he was put into office to bring this treaty to fruition. Failure is not an option.
Whatever Obama has to promise, to whomever he has to promise it, he’s making deals. Side deals, back room deals, upside down deals.
His masters don’t care that he’s a lame duck President at this point. Lame duck, waddling duck, it makes no difference. He’s got to come through.
And he knows it.
He also knows, because the TPP is another Globalist treaty, that more jobs will flee the US, more cheap imported goods will flood the US market from countries where slave wages prevail, where environmental laws aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. He knows those cheap goods will sink more American businesses.
He knows no private citizen anywhere in the world who doesn’t run a big corporation has read the contents of the TPP—and won’t read them before its passage.
Obama has had his marching orders for 10 years. He realized going in who his bosses were.
The Globalists don’t play games when it comes to a treaty like this. The TPP is their baby.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dean: ‘Jesus Was Probably to the Left of the Democratic Party’
Former Vermont Governor and DNC Chairman Howard Dean argued that “Jesus was probably to the left of the Democratic Party” on Thursday’s “Morning Joe” on MSNBC.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
El Monte City Official Taking Heat Over Facebook Post About Islam
Art Barrios, a former El Monte city councilman, shared a news article on Facebook with the headline “China makes major moves to ban Islam.” If he had stopped then, he might have been OK.
But then he added a comment: “Sounds good maybe the rest of the world should do the same.”
Facebook has not been kind to public officials in Los Angeles County recently. Or maybe it’s public officials who have not been kind on Facebook.
Last week a Silver Lake neighborhood council member resigned after posting rants on Facebook that were considered anti-Mexican and racist.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
GAO and IG Reports: Significant Problems With TSA’s Airport Security
In testimony presented Wednesday to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Inspector General (IG) in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) presented reports highly critical of the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) approach towards airport security—an administration with a $7 billion budget and 61,000 TSA personnel, including 46,000 screeners.
The TSA refused to send the acting administrator—Melvin Carraway—to testify in response to these criticisms.
The GAO was particularly concerned with the TSA’s inability to determine the “root causes of screening errors” at airports:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Jurors Sentence Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to Death in Boston Marathon Bombing Trial
A federal jury Friday sentenced Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death.
Tsarnaev showed no emotion as the jury decided his fate. He had has hands clasped in front of him as he stood facing the jury.
The 21-year-old faced the death penalty for his role in the April 15, 2013 attack in which two pressure-cooker bombs were detonated near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
Death though may not come quickly. Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh spent four years on death row before he was executed. McVeigh was given the death penalty in 1997. He was executed in 2001.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Moonfish: The First Warm-Blooded Fish
The moonfish, which are about the size of a manhole cover, is now considered the first-known warm-blooded fish, scientists report in the journal Science. Through some physiological tricks, the fish is able to keep its entire body — heart, brain, swimming muscles and viscera — warmer than the surrounding water.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NASA Pluto Probe Begins Search for New Moons, Rings
A NASA spacecraft speeding toward Pluto is casting a wary eye on the dwarf planet system, looking for anything that could trip it up in the home stretch of its historic mission.
NASA’s New Horizons probe, which is set to perform the first-ever flyby of Pluto on July 14, has begun hunting for possible rings and undiscovered moons, in an effort to identify potential hazards near the dwarf planet. The campaign began Monday (May 11) and involves roughly weekly observations with the spacecraft’s long-range camera through July 1, mission team members said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
North Carolina Woman Being Evicted From Her Own Land for Living in Tent
Ingred Larson received an eviction notice from the county today. Why? For living in a tent on her own property. Yes. Really. She is being evicted for living in a tent on her own land.
10 years ago the city sewer line flooded her home with 10,000 gallons of raw sewage. There was a settlement, however the city/county wants her to hook back up to the county sewer system, but Larson does not want to, and would rather hook up to the septic tank system on her property. The county doesn’t want that, and is forcing her to hook-up to the city sewer.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama to Reform Physical Laws: ‘Equality Before Equations’
WASHINGTON, DC — President Obama announced in a Rose Garden press conference today that in light of the recent Amtrak accident he is calling on the Congress for bipartisan action on Physical Law Reform, and if they don’t act, he will.
Obama continued “So if the Congress refuses to act, I will issue an executive order repealing these so-called ‘laws of physics’, We cannot continue living in the past having to follow ‘Laws’ handed down from Sir Issac Newton over 300 hundred years ago, this is not who we are”.
“It’s time to put equality before equations, people instead of physics and fairness over formulas,” the president said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pentagon Report Highlights National Security Risks From Chinese Students and Researchers
The latest Pentagon report to Congress on the “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China” specifically highlights the national security risks to the United States (and other Western nations) from Chinese students and researchers studying and working abroad.
There are 275,000 undergraduate and graduate students from China in the United States, constituting 31 percent of the total international student body and an increase of 75 percent over just the past three years. Chinese students — nearly 100,000 of them — also make up about one third of the international students in Canada. About 90,000 Chinese students are in the U.K., while another 93,000 are in Australia, and 24,000 in New Zealand — all part of the approximately half a million Chinese nationals studying abroad, whose ranks are rising rapidly.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rand Paul Visits Secret Room to Read Obamatrade, Calls for Public Release of Deal Text
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)—an opponent of the secretive Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) that would fast-track the Pacific Rim trade deal Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)—went inside the secret room inside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday morning to read the TPP text and told Breitbart News exclusively afterwards that he believes President Barack Obama should make it public now.
The deal’s text is kept in a room behind double doors that each have signs: “No Public Or Media Beyond This Point.”
“It’s done like you’re going in to read a classified briefing though it’s not actually ‘classified.’ It’s called ‘confidential,’“ Paul said in an interview with Breitbart News outside the room after reading it. Paul and his legal staff spent about 45 minutes in the room reading the deal’s text.
“I think the staff signed an agreement [which didn’t include a non-disclosure]—they signed in, it’s a normal procedure,” he explained. “But I wasn’t required to sign in.”
When asked for some of the details that are inside the TPP agreement, Paul said he’s not allowed to tell us that. But he did say the secret trade deal that his Kentucky colleague, Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), wants to rush through the Senate is about 800 pages long. He added he plans to seek additional information from the U.S. Trade Representative’s office—including a briefing from them—and suspects that the text he read isn’t even the final version of the deal.
“I think I am not supposed to reveal the details of it, but I can tell you it was about 800 pages long,” Paul said.
[Comment: It’s secret for a reason. If public knew the full details there would be a pitchfork day. The globalist mentality is that this technique worked for obamacare, so let’s do it for obamatrade. ]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Researchers Discover World’s First Warm-Blooded Fish
Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have discovered the world’s first warm-blooded fish — the opah. Researchers discovered that the fish circulates heated blood through its body much like mammals and birds by constantly flapping its fins to move around.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rogue Antimatter Found in Thunderclouds
When Joseph Dwyer’s aeroplane took a wrong turn into a thundercloud, the mistake paid off: the atmospheric physicist flew not only through a frightening storm but also into an unexpected — and mysterious — haze of antimatter.
Although powerful storms have been known to produce positrons — the antimatter versions of electrons — the antimatter observed by Dwyer and his team cannot be explained by any known processes, they say. “This was so strange that we sat on this observation for several years,” says Dwyer, who is at the University of New Hampshire in Durham.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) Politics in America often makes for strange bedfellows, and that is once again proving to be the case regarding the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership, a “trade” deal that is a cornerstone of President Obama’s second term.
Enter the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade pact involving a dozen or so countries including the U.S., Mexico and Japan, in which liberal Democrats once aligned lock-step with Obama on most other issues now oppose him vehemently.
In their stead have stepped Republicans, believe it or not, who are now (mostly) in lock-step supporting Obama (some for the very first time) in his pursuit of fast-track trade authority so he can ram through TPP without senators or congressmen ever getting an opportunity to change or amend it in any way.
And they are being asked to support it essentially blindly, because the Obama Administration has refused to make details of the deal — which has been under negotiation now for about a decade — public.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Anti-Charlie Hebdo Fifth Column
By Rich Lowry
If there is any group of people on the planet that should feel solidarity with the slain editors of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, it is writers. Appropriately enough, the writers group PEN America is giving its annual Freedom of Expression Courage Award to the French publication now synonymous with martyrdom to free speech. Yet the award has become controversial, attacked by a group of writers who presume to lecture murder victims on not provoking their murderers. These dissenters are an unabashed fifth column undermining PEN America’s devotion to free expression so as to carve out a safe space for Islam from the barbed speech inherent to a free society. They oppose the killing of the Charlie Hebdo journalists — thanks, guys — but otherwise agree with the jihadis that the publication was out of bounds.
[…]
The root of the objection to honoring Charlie Hebdo is that the magazine’s staff was massacred by the wrong kind of terrorists for attacking the wrong religion. If the publication’s equal-opportunity offenders had been assaulted by right-wing extremists for their savage mockery of anti-immigrant politicians, or opponents of gay marriage or Catholicism, surely the dissenting writers would be all for recognizing Charlie Hebdo.
As short-story writer Deborah Eisenberg argued in a long letter to the executive director of PEN, satirizing Catholicism is fine because it “has represented centuries of authoritarian repressiveness and the abuse of power.” Islam in modern Europe, in contrast, “has represented a few decades of powerlessness and disenfranchisement.” This is a version of Garry Trudeau’s argument that Charlie Hebdo was “punching downward” against the defenseless, when satire should punch up against the powerful.
This is a bizarre notion of power. The weapon of choice of Charlie Hebdo’s cartoonists was the pen; the weapon of choice of their assailants was the firearm. Charlie Hebdo was indeed punching up against violent forces that had succeeded in cowing the less courageous. Radical Islam compels fear and forces self-censorship in a way no other religion has done in the West in a very long time.
[As witness the pusillanimity of the newspapers that shy away from printing the cartoons over which Muslims have repeatedly shown themselves willing to kill — even when their depredations are headline news. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Fox News’s reportage and analysis of the Garland jihadist attack willfully ignored these U.S. data, while repeatedly questioning the motives and judgment of free speech conference organizer Pamela Geller. In essence, Fox News submitted to Sharia mores, if not the fully implemented theocratic “law”—a form of self-imposed dhimmitude.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
VA Refuses to Help Injured Vet ‘10-Feet’ From Hospital Entrance
A U.S. military veteran was denied help by a Veterans Administration hospital in Seattle despite being only 10-feet from their emergency room entrance.
According to the Seattle Times, the incident began when 64-year-old Army veteran Donald Siefkin stepped down and heard a snap in his foot on Feb. 27 while taking his wife across Washington state to Seattle’s international airport.
As his foot began painfully swelling to the “size of a football,” Siefkin, being 230-miles from home, rushed to the nearest veterans hospital after dropping off his wife.
At 3:30 a.m Siefkin pulled into the emergency room entrance of Seattle’s veterans hospital and, unable to walk, called the front desk for assistance.
Instead of immediately sending help, Siefkin says the employee began asking why he was attempting to visit a hospital so far from home. After a brief argument, the employee refused to provide help and demanded Siefkin call 911 before abruptly hanging up the phone.
In audio of the 911 call, which was made at around 3:40 a.m., Siefkin can be heard attempting to elicit help from emergency services.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video: School Orders Student to Remove “Offensive” US Flag From Truck
A school in South Carolina has come under fire for ordering a student to remove a US flag from his truck because it could “possibly” be offensive to some people.
As reported by WBTV, 18-year-old senior Peyton Robinson was ordered to remove two flags by an administrator at York Comprehensive High School Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters, Robinson noted that the official told him “‘We’re having some issues. Some people were complaining about the flags in your truck,’“ and that the offending items should be removed before the student returned to school the next day.
Worse still, Robinson says that a school official had even unscrewed bolts holding the flags to the truck, and laid them in the back “when I wasn’t even there.”…
This is not an isolated incident.
It appears that many school districts are adopting similar restrictions on displays of patriotism.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
David Cameron Says No to Second Scottish Referendum — as it Happened
David Cameron has said he will “consider” giving more powers to Scotland amid calls from leading Tories for Scottish MPs to be banned from voting on English laws.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: PM’s Husband Kinnock Wins Parliamentary Seat
Danish PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt’s husband, Stephen Kinnock, was elected to the UK parliament for the Welsh constituency of Aberavon on Thursday night.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Early European May Have Had Neanderthal Great-Great-Grandparent
Genome of 40,000-year-old jaw from Romania suggests humans interbred with Neanderthals in Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
European Officials Sing “We Are the World” At NATO Meeting
ANTALYA, Turkey (AP) — In a distinctly different note for a military alliance meeting, European officials ended a NATO meeting with a spirited rendition of “We Are The World.”
The foreign ministers of Greece and Turkey — Mevlut Cavusoglu and Nikos Kotzias — were seen singing and swaying arm-in-arm to the tune of the 1985 charity song. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, EU Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini and others also joined in the sing-along.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Extremists Pose Challenge to Danish Democracy
Far-right European politicians, Golden Dawn from Greece and Geert Wilders from the Netherlands, are attending a festival (Folkemodet) on the Danish island of Bornholm on 11-14 June.
The open-air political festival features prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt as a main speaker as well as most of the government, opposition party leaders, business representatives, trade unions, media and cultural celebrities.
Folkemodet is a Danish counterpart to the famous Swedish Almedalveckan, which each year draws up to thousands of visitors to the Swedish island of Gotland.
It has a very informal style and offers a rare chance for politicians to meet ordinary citizens in an unstaged setting.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Charlie Hebdo Writer May Lose Job Amid Infighting
A columnist for French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, which was targeted in a deadly jihadist attack four months ago, has been warned she may be given the boot for “serious misconduct” amid heightened tensions in the newsroom.
In a letter obtained by broadcaster France Info and dated May 13th, journalist Zineb El Rhazoui was told by Charlie Hebdo’s human resources to immediately leave her post ahead of a meeting scheduled for later this month and where her potential dismissal will be discussed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France’s Piketty to Join London School of Economics
French economist Thomas Piketty, best-selling author on inequality, will teach at the London School of Economics as a professor at its new international inequalities division, the university said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Mayor Seeks to Ban Islam in France
Southeastern town mayor sends tweets with the message: ‘We must ban the Muslim faith in France.”
The mayor of a small town in the southeast of France is sending out tweets with the message: “We must ban the Muslim faith in France.”
Robert Chardon is mayor of Venelles, a town near Aix-en-Provence with a population of 8,000. He represents the Union for a Popular Movement party, one of the largest conservative parties in France, and that of former president Nicolas Sarkozy. He is also vice president of the Organization of Municipalities around Aix-en-Provence.
Since Thursday, he has been sending out various tweets with the anti-Muslim message.
“We also need a Marshall Plan to send Muslims to countries where the religion is practiced,” he said in his tweets.
According to him, Islam belongs to the Maghreb and France should welcome more of its “brothers” among the Oriental Christians.
He also said France’s 1905 secularism law — which guarantees freedom of religion — should be removed and “ the Republic should promotes the practice of the Christian faith.”
Chardon decided to begin his campaign while on sick leave from his political activities; during this time he is being treated for mouth cancer.
He told the French daily Le Monde that it was during his treatments that the idea came upon him — “it’s the only solution for most of France’s problems,” he said.
He sent two tweets to the account of Sarkozy, and says that he expects a reply.
Under the terms of French law, Chardon could be liable for criminal prosecution for making these remarks.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Abdallah Zekri, president of the National Observatory against Islamophobia, denounced Chardon’s comments describing them as “unacceptable” and as a breach of France’ secularism “that grants citizens the freedom of belief.”
“ It is not up to a racist mayor, who knows nothing about religions to decide such a thing,”Zekri added.
He urged French authorities and Sarkozy to declare their “clear” position regarding the mayor’s remarks.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
French Jihadist Jailed for Eight Years
A Frenchman has been sentenced to eight years behind bars for his involvement in Al-Qaeda networks in northern Africa.
Gilles Le Guen, a 60-year-old who goes by the name Abdel Jelil, was detained by French forces near Timbuktu in in April, 2013.
On Friday, he became the first French national to be convicted of breaking terror laws unveiled in 2012 which allow French officials to hunt suspected French terrorists on foreign soil.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Convert to Islam Convicted for Involvement With Al-Qaida in Northern Mali
A Paris court has convicted a 60-year-old Frenchman and sentenced him to eight years in prison for belonging to al-Qaida’s North African affiliate and taking part in armed actions in northern Mali.
Gilles Le Guen, a former Breton merchant marine officer who converted to Islam 30 years ago, was convicted on Friday of criminal association in relation with a terrorist organization, his lawyer Alexandre Vermynck said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Robot Cleaner Can Empty Bins and Sweep Floors
ROOMBAS were just the start. An office cleaning robot is being put through its paces by Dussmann, one of Germany’s largest cleaning companies, at its Berlin HQ. The goal is getting it to work alongside human cleaners in large offices, emptying bins and vacuuming floors. The robot was developed by roboticist Richard Borman and colleagues at the Fraunhofer Institute in Stuttgart.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iceland: TV Channel Airs 24-Hour Lambing Marathon
Iceland has joined the trend for “slow television” by broadcasting 24 hours of live lambing.
The lamb-athon seems to have been inspired by famous slow TV broadcasts in Norway, several of which RUV references on its website. Aside from sheep-shearing and knitting marathons, Norway’s public television network NRK once broadcast 12 hours of wood burning, and in 2011 it showed 130 hours of a cruise ship sailing up the Norwegian coast.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Two Tuscan Salvini Campaign Dates Cancelled
Northern League decries ‘atmosphere’ in Pisa, Torre
(ANSA) — Florence, May 14 — Two Tuscan dates on the election campaign tour of Northern League (LN) leader Matteo Salvini have been cancelled “for the time being”, party sources said Thursday.
The controversial leader of the anti-immigration and anti-euro party will not be holding a meeting in Pisa scheduled for May 16 or a dinner with supporters in Torre del Lago on the same day.
However, four other appointments in the region — where Salvini is rallying support for economist Claudio Borghi, the LN’s candidate for regional governor in elections at the end of the month — on the same day have been confirmed.
In a statement Borghi decried the atmosphere in Tuscany that “prevents respectable and non-violent people from approaching and listening to their political leaders as happens in all normal democracies throughout the world”. In both Pisa and Torre del Lago Northern League opponents had announced demonstrations against Salvini.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Girl, 12, Beaten by Classmate, For Wearing Crucifix
Boy told police he struck girl for wearing cross on chain
(ANSA) Terni, May 15 — A schoolboy of African origin attacked a 12-year-old-girl at a school in central Italy because she was wearing a crucifix on a neck chain, police said Friday.
The boy punched the girl violently in the back at the entrance to a middle school in the town of Terni on Thursday and the girl’s mother caught the boy, who subsequently told Carabinieri paramilitary police he attacked the girl because she was wearing a crucifix, police sources said.
The boy, who first attended the school some three weeks ago, had bullied the girl over the past four days, insulting her and picking on her in other ways all because she was wearing the crucifix, the sources said.
Nevertheless police stopped short of charging the boy with any offense since he is a minor, the sources said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Just 35% of Italian Wineries Selling On-Line
Producers most active on Web from Tuscany, Lombardy, Sicily
(ANSA) Rome, May 15 — Italian wineries are a mainstay of national exports but as many as 65% of producers of the peninsula’s grapes do not yet sell their wine online, a study found Friday.
Among the 35% who have adopted e-commerce, 52% sell their wine through their own websites while 22% use specialised websites such as Svinando, Wineverse, Tannico, Vinix, Winetowine and Winezon, according to the survey of 450 wineries across the country carried out by Grs Research and Strategy for Wine2wine, a branding company of the Verona trade fairs.
A further 27% use both their own sites and specialised sites.
The most active producers on the web are in TUscany, Lombardy, Abruzzo and Sicily and in 42% of cases on-line sales represent just 2-3% of annual turnover while in 21% of firms on-line sales make up more than 10% of the turnover.
Lack of focus and know-how, a conflict between e-commerce and traditional sales channels and a preference for direct contact with customers were the main reasons for failure to sell wine on-line though many wineries said they are preparing to launch sales on the web.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Nationalists Coming to Denmark’s Folkemødet
Dutch politician Geert Wilders’s participation in next month’s People’s Meeting (Folkemødet) has already caused plenty of controversy, but on Friday it was announced that he will be far from the only European politician with extreme views who will take part in the political festival on Bornholm.
The nationalist Danes’ Party (Danskernes Parti) said on Friday that it would be participating in this year’s People’s Meeting (Folkemødet) and will be bringing along several of their far-right colleagues from across Europe.
The Greek nationalist party Golden Dawn has already accepted an invitation and will send MEP Georgios Epitideios to represent them if Folkemødet organizers approve a debate on nationalism. An answer is expected on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sarkozy Party to Expel Mayor for Ban Islam in France Call
The French mainstream right UMP party is to expel the mayor of a small southern town who has called for Islam to be banned in France. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy condemned the call on Friday.
“The Muslim religion must be banned in France,” Venelles mayor Robert Chardon tweeted on Thursday as his contribution to a dialogue Sarkozy had opened with the public under the hashtag #NSDirect. Anyone practising the religion should be “immediately escorted to the border”, he added.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland Could Hold a Second Referendum Without David Cameron’s Approval, Suggests Senior SNP Source
Scottish Government could stage second vote if there was a sufficient political mandate, insider suggests, but claims were dismissed by Nicola Sturgeon.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Catalan Separatist Flags Banned in Elections
The Central Electoral Board has issued a resolution saying that all ‘esteladas’, flags symbolizing Catalan independence, be removed from public buildings and local voting locations to preserve the neutrality of campaigns.
Nearly 400 flags were found across 323 municipalities, most of which were flying in streets or roundabouts, Spanish newspaper El Pais reported on Thursday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: ‘Gang Conflict’ Linked to Latest Gothenburg Attack
A man in his twenties has died after a shooting in Partille, near Gothenburg, the latest in a string of high-profile killings in the area this year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Man’s Roar Sees Off Charging Bear
Ralph Persson, a hunter in Jämtland, northern Sweden, scared off a charging bear by roaring at the animal as it attacked him, it has emerged.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nigel Farage has boasted that support for him from within Ukip is “astonishing” and has “never been greater” as he rejected calls on him to resign for the second time in a week.
He pointed the finger of blame at one anonymous figure in Ukip for whipping up a row over his leadership that has plunged the party into civil war this week after he withdrew his resignation and was re-appointed as leader.
Mr Farage accused the individual of cowardice who was “agitating” for change and challenged him to unite behind him as leader or quit the party. He claimed the row was being driven by a Conservative agenda to “destabilise” Ukip in the run up to the referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Three Algerians Escape From Alitalia Jet in Rome
Three Algerians forced open the emergency exit of an Alitalia passenger plane while it was heading for take-off at Rome’s Fiumicino airport, slid down the safety slides that were activated and escaped from the airport late on Wednesday night, an Alitalia spokesman said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
It’s not just those domestic extremists and crazy “conspiracy theory” kooks who took serious issue with UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s recent overtly fascist language when it comes to freedom of expression in Great Britain. For example, in a post published today, the UK Independent describes the quote below as “the creepiest thing David Cameron has ever said.”
“For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens: as long as you obey the law, we will eave you alone.”
This statement, and others like it, are a huge deal. This isn’t how the leader of a major civilized Western so-called “democracy” speaks to the citizenry. It is how a master talks to his slaves. How a ruler addresses his subjects.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Bassingbourn Libyan Soldiers Jailed for Cambridge Man’s Rape
Two Libyan cadets have been jailed for 12 years each for raping a man in Cambridge.
Moktar Ali Saad Mahmoud, 33, and Ibrahim Abugtila, 23, were stationed at Bassingbourn Barracks in Cambridgeshire when they attacked the man in October.
They both denied rape and aiding and abetting rape but were found guilty after a trial at Cambridge Crown Court.
The victim, aged in his 20s, described the pair as “horrendous” and “not human”.
The attacks lasted for up to 38 minutes, during which the defendants took it in turns to rape the man in city centre park Christ’s Pieces.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: BBC Compares Anjem Choudary to Mandela, Gandhi and Churchill
The BBC has been attacked after comparing Islamist hate preacher Anjem Choudary to Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and Winston Churchill…
Even Choudary himself is not impressed, tweeting:
The comparison with Mandela & Ghandi are false, they are kufaar heading to hellfire whilst I am a Muslim Alhamdulilah
[Comment: BBC…par for the course.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Libyan Soldiers Convicted for Raping Man in Cambridge After Tracking Him Like ‘Hunting Dogs’
Two Libyan soldiers have been convicted of raping a man they tracked down like “hunting dogs” while stationed in the UK.
Moktar Ali Saad Mahmoud, 33, and Ibrahim Abugtila, 23, were found guilty of raping and aiding and abetting rape today at Cambridge Crown Court.
Police said the victim, in his 20s, was deliberately targeted in Cambridge because he had been drinking and was alone after a night out.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Primary School Children Given Labour Party Literature by Teachers
Education chiefs have been urged to launch a formal investigation after primary school teachers allegedly told pupils their parents should vote Labour in the General Election.
A county councillor accused teachers of “potential indoctrination” after her god daughter was handed Labour Party campaign literature for a homework project, while eight-year-olds were taught an “anti Nick Clegg” song.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
It has come under fire for testing sex toys in ‘bondage for beginners’ and showing a live breast cancer exam on a topless female model.
But This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield has blasted viewers who get outraged at the show’s more raunchy features, saying that some segments have saved lives.
He said those who complained about the Fifty Shades of Grey inspired feature which showed a scantily-clad couple playing kinky games on the ITV show should ‘b***** off’.
[Comment: Scrap the TV licence.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Paedophiles, Killers and Drug Dealers Who Want to be Teachers
More than 16,000 people with criminal convictions applied to work in schools over past three years
More than 16,000 people with criminal convictions have applied to work in British classrooms in the past three years, despite racking up more than 44,000 offences between them.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Sophie Washington Describes Moment a Stranger Snatched Her Daughter
Sophie Washington was walking in Hyde town centre, in Greater Manchester, when a stranger grabbed her two-year-old daughter, Millie, and tried to walk off with her.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A school has banned pupils from wearing skirts because a male teacher said he was made to feel embarrassed by the uniform.
Bridlington School in Hull, East Yorkshire, has ordered that all students now wear the same style of trousers to stop pupils ‘pushing the boundaries’ with tight-fitting clothing.
The new rules were introduced after a male teacher complained to the headmistress after being put in an awkward position when he told a pupil her skirt was too short.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UN Criticises France Over ‘Racist’ Treatment of Roma
A UN rights watchdog group rapped France on Friday over its treatment of the Roma and its failure to tackle growing hate and xenophobic speech.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
You Have a Racism Problem, France Told
A UN rights watchdog group on Friday rapped France over its treatment of the Roma and its failure to tackle growing hate and xenophobic speech.
The report by an independent group of experts said while France had adopted a national action plan to fight racism and anti-Semitism on April 15th, there was lots left to be done.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia Indicts 12 for Fighting in Syria, Iraq
SARAJEVO: Bosnia has indicted 12 people for forming a terrorist group and traveling to Syria and Iraq to fight for ISIS, the state prosecutor’s office said on Friday.
The indictment follows raids and arrests across the Balkan country over the past eight months, during which weapons, bombs, ammunition and specialist military equipment had been seized, the office said in a statement.
“The accused are charged with… accepting radical ideology of the so-called Islamic State organized on the territory of Syria and Iraq, collecting means and leaving Bosnia to join terrorist organizations,” it said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia: Houellebecq Play Pulled Due to Terrorism Fears
A play by best-selling French author Michel Houellebecq — whose book imagining France under Islamic rule stirred controversy — has been pulled from a Croatian arts festival due to security fears.
Houellebecq’s drama “Elementary Particles” (“Les Particules elementaires” was to have been staged at this year’s Dubrovnik Summer Festival. But in a statement organisers said the play had been cancelled “after the interior ministry assessed that its playing would present a security risk”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Festival in Croatia Cancels Houellebecq Play Over Security
Police determined risks on plot from ‘The Elementary Particles’
(ANSA-AP) — ZAGREB — A summer festival in Croatia has removed a play by controversial French writer Michel Houellebecq from its program because of security concerns.
The Dubrovnik Festival said Thursday that the play — based on Houellebecq’s 1998 novel “The Elementary Particles” — was canceled after Croatia’s police determined that “staging the play would present a security risk.” The statement says the festival has acted in accordance with the Croatian laws.
Houellebecq has stirred controversy with his views of Islam. His latest book imagines France in a not-too-distant future after an Islamic government takes power.
The Dubrovnik Festival is held in July and August, at the peak of Croatia’s summer tourist season when the walled, medieval city is packed with thousands of visitors from all over the world.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS: Bosnia: 12 People Charged With Terror Offences
Allegations of armed raid with jihadist formations
(ANSA) — SARAJEVO — Prosecutors in Sarajevo have charged 12 people with terror offences. Breaking the news, the Fena agency added that there are also allegations of armed actions along with jihadist formations belonging to the so-called Islamic state. Hundreds of Bosnian citizens have joined armed Islamist groups in Syria and Iraq.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Macedonia: Growing Tensions in Kumanovo, Police Siege
Town cut off since last night
(ANSA) — SKOPJE — Tensions are growing again in Kumanovo, the town in northern Macedonia that last weekend was hit by a terrible terror attack, when armed men killed 22 people and injured another 37 people. At night the city is cut off and heavily guarded by police. There are growing fears of new terror attacks, but it seems that the restrictive measures are to be connected to a police raid to track down one of the attackers arrested in recent days, who managed to escape from custody in the village of Brest.
These tensions in Kumanovo are growing while the ongoing political crisis that has paralyzed Macedonia for months is worsening: the most serious crisis since independence, in 1991. While daily demonstrations are going on, against the government accused of unlawful wiretapping, yesterday the leaders of the four main political parties, pushed by international representatives, met yesterday in Skopje to start a new dialogue, aiming to break the deadlock and put Macedonia again on the path towards EU integration. A huge popular demonstration against the government is scheduled for Sunday in Skopje.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Utopian Balkan Tax Haven Seeks Recognition
Vit Jedlicka has claimed a remote parcel of land between Croatia and Serbia and named it Liberland. No countries have recognized the “state,” but that hasn’t stopped the founding father pushing ahead with his vision.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Algerian Muslim Leader: Turn All Churches Into Mosques
By Raymond Ibrahim
According to Abdel Fattah Zarawi, the Muslim leader of the Salafi party, also known as the Free Front of Algeria, any and all Christian churches remaining in the north African nation must be closed and reopened as mosques.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Four Suspected Terrorists Detained in Bizerte
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, MAY 15 — Tunisian security forces have arrested four alleged Islamic terrorists near Bizerte, in Menzel Bourguiba and Ras Jebel. According to local press reports, 15 suspects were apprehended through checkpoints and police road blocks as officers were looking for jihadist cells in the area.
Among them were a number of young suspects, according to information provided by local intelligence services.
Meanwhile, the Tunisian defense ministry has confirmed that four suspected jihadists, all Algerian nationals, were killed Thursday by Tunisian soldiers as part of a sweeping military operation against terrorist cells on the mountains of Semmama, in the region of Kasserine, not far from the Algerian border.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pope to Canonize Two Palestinian Nuns
PNA President Abbas to be present Sunday
(ANSA)- Vatican City, May 15 — More than 2,000 people from Palestine, Jordan, and Israel are expected to arrive in Vatican City to participate in a canonization ceremony Sunday to be held in St. Peter’s Square when Pope Francis will grant sainthood to Palestine nuns Blessed Mariam of Jesus Crucified Baouardy and Blessed Marie-Alphonsine Ghattas.
In a Friday press briefing on the canonization, the Director of the Amman-based Catholic Center for Studies and Media, Fr. Rifat Bader, called the nuns “a model of perfection for Christians, as well as for Muslims and Jews alike”.
Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, will be present at the ceremony.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Barbarians at the Gates: Syria Says ISIS Approaching Ancient City of Palmyra
A Syrian official on Thursday called on the international community to protect the 2,000-year-old ruins of the ancient city of Palmyra, now threatened by advancing Islamic State (ISIS) militants.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Israel’s Peace Fantasists in Action
The Saudis are in play, casting about for partners.
In a clear vote of no-confidence in US President Barack Obama’s leadership, Saudi King Salman led several Arab leaders in blowing off Obama’s Camp David summit this week. The summit was meant to compensate the Sunni Arabs for Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.
Salman’s decision is further proof that US-Saudi relations have jumped the tracks. For 70 years the Saudis subcontracted their national security to the US military. Deals were closed with a wink and a nod. That’s all over now.
Obama has destroyed Washington’s credibility. Salman views its gentleman’s agreements as worthless. All he wants now is military hardware. And for that, he can send a stand-in…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Has Many Reasons to Serve at the Forefront of Anti-ISIL War
During his visit to Tehran earlier this week, Iraqi President Fuad Masum noted that Iran was the first country to actively assist Baghdad in its war against ISIL. Commenting on the Iraqi president’s remarks, Iranian geopolitics experts explained to Sputnik Tehran’s many reasons for serving as a key player in the war against ISIL extremism.
In the course of his visit to the Iranian capital, President Masum pointed out in an interview for Iranian television that “Iran was the first government to offer Iraq real support in the fight against ISIL,” adding that Tehran continues to play “an important and leading role in the fight against terrorism in Iraq.” The president emphasized that “strategic cooperation in this area between our two countries will continue.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Seizes Government Compound in Iraq’s Ramadi
Islamic State militants on Friday captured the main government compound in Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s western Anbar province, after fierce clashes with security forces.
Ramadi’s Mayor Dalaf al-Kubaisi says the militants raised the black flag of ISIS over the area after troops were forced to withdraw from the compound, which houses most of the city’s government offices.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS on Offensive in Iraqi City of Ramadi, Governor Says
By Yousuf Basil and Jason Hanna
ISIS has launched a wide-scale attack on Iraqi security forces in Ramadi in an apparent attempt to take the rest of the key central Iraqi city, a provincial governor said Friday.
The ISIS offensive, which started Thursday night and continued into Friday, included suicide attacks with explosive-rigged cars near security posts in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, Anbar Gov. Suhaib Al-Rawi said.
Iraqi security forces were clashing with ISIS fighters inside the city on Friday.
Ramadi is just 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of Baghdad and in the middle of Iraq’s Sunni heartland. ISIS is the Sunni extremist group that took over parts of Syria and Iraq — including most of Anbar province — for what it calls its Islamic caliphate.
ISIS has fought Iraqi security forces for control of Ramadi for months, since ISIS took parts of the city last year. Each side has since alternated gains and losses in territory.
The fighting has taken a toll on the Ramadi area’s civilian population. About 114,000 people have fled the area — many heading to Baghdad — in the last month alone, the United Nations refugee agency has said, citing the Iraqi government.
[As well they might, given the prospect of living under the head-chopping rule of ISIS. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Advance Near Palmyra Archeological Site Alarms UNESCO
Heavy fighting with Syrian government forces reported
(ANSA) Beirut, May 15 — The United Nations Scientific and Educational Organisation UNESCO expressed concern Friday as ISIS forces approached the ancient archaeological site at Palmyra in Syria.
UNESCO official Irina Bokova told reporters after a meeting with Lebanese Premier Tammam Salam that she was alarmed at the ISIS advance to the city of Tadmor near to Palmyra along the road that links Dayr az Xor and Homs.
Heavy clashes took place Thursday in the area between government and ISIS forces, military sources said.
Palmyra contains the monumental ruins of a great city that was one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world. From the 1st to the 2nd century, the art and architecture of Palmyra, standing at the crossroads of several civilizations, married Graeco-Roman techniques with local traditions and Persian influences.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State Gains Control of Most of Key Iraqi City
Islamic State fighters took control of key sites in heart of Ramadi, capital of Iraq’s largest province, Iraqi officials said Friday, in what appeared to mark a significant blow to a U.S.-backed military campaign to retake territory from the militants.
The Islamic State offensive — which began with ambush-style attacks after sundown Thursday — also pointed to wider concerns about the ability of Iraqi ground forces to overcome the well-armed extremists on other fronts around the country.
It also could restore a major foothold for the Islamic State less than 70 miles west of Baghdad in the crucial Anbar Province, which has been the scene of bloodshed and seesaw battles since the U.S.-led invasion more than 12 years ago.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State Crisis: Militants Seize Ramadi Stronghold
Islamic State militants have seized the main government building in Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s largest province.
As many as six suicide car bombs and mortars were used in the assault on the compound that houses the main police HQ and governor’s office.
At least 50 police officers are reported to have been taken prisoner at the site.
IS and Iraqi troops have been battling for months to take control of the strategically important Anbar province.
This latest attack comes a day after Islamic State put out an audio message it claimed was from its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who Iraq had said was seriously wounded in a coalition air strike in March.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State Releases Audio Message Purportedly From Leader
The Islamic State group on Thursday released an audio message purportedly from its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who has not been seen or heard from in months.
The 35-minute audio message posted on militant websites features a voice that sounds like al-Baghdadi’s exhorting all Muslims to take up arms and fight on behalf of the group’s self-styled caliphate. The speaker references the Saudi-led air campaign against Shiite rebels in Yemen, which began on March 26, and harshly criticizes the Saudi royal family.
“Islam was never a religion of peace. Islam is the religion of fighting,” he said. “No one should believe that the war that we are waging is the war of the Islamic State. It is the war of all Muslims, but the Islamic State is spearheading it. It is the war of Muslims against infidels.”
“O Muslims go to war everywhere. It is the duty of every Muslim,” the speaker said.
It was not immediately possible to verify whether the voice was al-Baghdadi’s.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Supremacism: The True Source of Muslim ‘Grievances’
by Raymond Ibrahim
In the ongoing debate (or debacle) concerning free speech/expression and Muslim grievance—most recently on exhibition at Garland, where two “jihadis” opened fire on a “Prophet Muhammad” art contest organized by Pamela Geller—one thing has become clear: the things non-Muslims can do to provoke Islamic violence is limitless and far exceeds cartoons.
[…]
As such, the West needs finally to come to terms with the root source of these ubiquitous, easily sparked “Muslim grievances.”
Enter Muslim supremacism.
Islamic doctrine—which teaches that Muslims are superior to non-Muslims, who are further compared to dogs and cattle—imbues Muslims with this sense of supremacism over the rest of mankind. And a good portion of Islamic history—when Muslims were for centuries on the warpath, subjugating large swathes of the Old Word—further enforces it.
This sense of Islamic supremacism was dramatically humbled after European powers defeated and colonized much of the Muslim world. Bred on the notion that “might makes right,” Muslims, for a time, even began emulating the unapologetic and triumphant West. Turkey, for example, went from being the epitome of Islamic supremacy and jihad against Christian Europe for five centuries to emulating Europe in all ways, becoming perhaps the most Westernized/secularized “Muslim” nation by the mid-1900s.
Today, however, as Western peoples willingly capitulate to Islamic mores—in the name of tolerance, multiculturalism, political correctness, or just plain cowardice—Muslims are becoming more emboldened, making more demands and threats, as they realize they need not militarily defeat the West in order to resuscitate their supremacist birthright.
[It is not Western peoples who are capitulating to Islamic mores — it is Western elites. They must be overthrown. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Not How They Roll: Pentagon Asks Media to Scrap Old Footage of ISIS Columns
ISIS may be on the move, but not the way you see on television, claims the Pentagon.
Footage of the menacing, black-clad terrorist army rolling across the desert in long convoys predates U.S.-led air strikes that have forced the jihadists to travel more discreetly, say senior State Department and Pentagon officials. They have asked television networks to stop using stock footage that makes the terror army seem more mobile — and more formidable — than they say it actually is.
“One Toyota speeding down the road by itself at night with its headlights off,” would be a more accurate image, said Pentagon spokesman Col. Steven Warren.
Emily Horne, spokeswoman for retired Gen. John Allen, the State Department’s special envoy leading the international coalition against ISIS, said the footage being used by news networks paints a picture that benefits the terror group, also known as ISIL and Islamic State.
“We are urging broadcasters to avoid using the familiar B-roll that we’ve all seen before, file footage of ISIL convoys operating in broad daylight, moving in large formations with guns out, looking to wreak havoc,” Horne told Politico. “It’s inaccurate — that’s no longer how ISIL moves. A lot of that footage is from last summer before we began tactical strikes.”
[…]
Rick Brennan, a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation who spent five years as a senior adviser to the U.S. military in Iraq, said the Pentagon has a point, if all it is talking about is ISIS travel methods.
“Before the summer offensive of 2014, ISIS was moving in large columns which were extremely easy targets to hit,” Brennan told FoxNews.com. “But as a result of the successful airstrikes, they have broken down and are moving as an insurgency under the cover of darkness.”
Brennan said the terrorist army has now embedded itself in cities and among civilian populations, allowing ISIS to hold onto power with little risk from airstrikes.
“We have complicated their ability to move,” Brennan said. “On the level of being able to move rapidly and reinforce rapidly, they are no longer able to do that. But their ability to hold terrain has not diminished.”
[The only way we need to see them is in large piles, dead. Make it so! — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Notorious Sahara Militant Rejects Other Group Member’s Earlier Pledge to Islamic State Group
The notorious extremist Moktar Belmoktar has rejected a pledge of allegiance to the Islamic State group made by a member of his organization, suggesting splits in his operation.
Belmoktar, who is known for daring attacks and for kidnapping foreigners, allegedly said the earlier pledge violates the rules and principles of his organization that is still loyal to al-Qaida.
The statement was translated by the U.S. monitoring outfit, the SITE Intelligence Group on Friday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s ‘Snap Back’ Sanctions Fantasy
President Barack Obama’s dubious assertions regarding a nuclear deal with Iran took another hit Wednesday. Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told Bloomberg News the president’s promise regarding “snapback sanctions” if Iran cheats is essentially a pipe dream.”There can be no automaticity, none whatsoever,” the Ambassador stated without elaborating.
Thus the president’s assertion in April, “If Iran violates the deal, sanctions can be snapped back into place,” is revealed to be as reliable as his promises regarding ObamaCare. That was the same month Obama insisted restoring the international sanctions would not require a U.N. Security Council consensus, due to an informal compromise reached during negotiations in Lausanne, Switzerland. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, who had engaged in those negotiations, echoed that assertion, insisting “no one country could block the snapback.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Vows to ‘Stand by’ Gulf Allies Amid Concern Over Iran Threat
President Barack Obama vowed on Thursday to back Gulf allies against any “external attack,” seeking to reassure them of Washington’s iron-clad commitment to their security amid Arab anxiety over U.S.-led efforts to reach a nuclear deal with Iran.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Palmyra: Is Threat to ‘Venice of the Sands’
Palmyra is in danger. As Islamic State fighters clash with Syrian government forces around the historic site, it is worth considering what the loss of this wonder, dubbed the “Venice of the Sands”, would mean for the world’s cultural heritage.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland Yard Sees Terror Threat as Hundreds of Britons Return From Syria
By Don Melvin
As if it were not bad enough that hundreds of radicalized Britons have traveled to Syria to join ISIS, the even worse news for the UK is that hundreds of them have come back.
Such was the information released Thursday by Scotland Yard, London’s Metropolitan Police Service. A senior police official said the trend raises the specter of more ISIS-like crimes being committed on home soil.
“There is no doubt of the horrific nature of the offenses being committed overseas,” Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said. “The influence of those who wish to bring similar violence to the streets of the UK has been an increasing threat here.”
According to Scotland Yard, about 700 extremists are believed to be among the many Britons who have traveled to Syria, a significant proportion of whom went there to join the terrorist group ISIS, which has become known for beheading captives in Iraq and Syria in its effort to found a Middle East caliphate.
[And how many do we have here, all set obey their caliph’s exhortation? — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Transcript: Al-Baghdadi’s Latest Message
By Michael S. Smith II
On 14 May 2015, DA’ISH propagandists and supporters were atwitter about a forthcoming address from Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who is also known to his followers as “Caliph Ibrahim.”
Shortly after 6:00 PM (GMT), DA’ISH propagandists began distributing via Twitter a link to a JustPaste.it post that contained a link to this nearly 35-minute-long audio message, titled “March Forth Whether Light or Heavy.” Initially, this JustPaste.it post contained a link to an mp3 file posted to Archive.org, which has become a clearinghouse for jihadist propaganda. Within hours, links to English- (Word document), Russian- (Word document), Turkish- (Word document), French- (PDF file), and German-language (Word document) transcripts of the message — all of which are available via Archive.org — were added to the original JustPaste.it post. At Approximately 9:00 PM (GMT), this JustPaste.it post had been viewed nearly 11,000 times.
[…]
The following is the text of the English-language transcript of the message that was promoted by DA’ISH propagandists on 14 May 2015:
March Forth Whether Light or Heavy
An Address from the Khalifah of the Muslims,
Ibrahim Ibn ‘Awwad al-Husayni al-Qurashi
(Hafidhahullah)
Indeed, all praise is due to Allah. We praise Him, seek His aid, and ask for His forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allah from the evils of our souls and the wickedness of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, then none can misguide him; and whomsoever Allah leaves astray, then none can guide him. I testify that there is no god but Allah alone, who has no partner, and I testify that Muhammad is His slave and messenger. As for what follows:
Allah (the Mighty and Majestic) said, (Fighting has been enjoined upon you while it is hateful to you) [Al-Baqarah: 216].
[…]
O Muslims! O you who are pleased with Allah as your Lord, and with Islam as your religion, and with Muhammad (peace be upon him) as your prophet and messenger… O you who testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the Messenger of Allah… Speech will not benefit you without action, for there is no faith without action.
So whoever says, “Allah is my Lord,” it is incumbent upon him — if he is truthful — to obey Allah (the Mighty and Majestic) who enjoined fighting, meaning that He made it obligatory upon those who believe in Him, and commanded the performance of jihad for His cause, and promised reward for those who obey His command, and threatened those who disobey Him.
[…]
O Muslims, Islam was never for a day the religion of peace. Islam is the religion of war.
[The money quote. And this cleric backs it up with verse after verse from the ignoble Qur’an. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. ‘Expedites’ Weapons Shipments to Iraq in Wake of ISIS Advances
(CNN) The U.S. is “expediting” weapon shipments to Iraq in light of the ISIS advances in Ramadi, Vice President Joe Biden told Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in a telephone call on Friday.
The announcement from the White House comes on the heels of a flurry of new airstrikes against ISIS, also known as ISIL, as Iraqi forces desperately try to hold the key city, the capital of the key Anbar province.
Earlier Friday, the terror group raised its trademark black flag over the provincial government building and captured the city’s police headquarters and the Ramadi Great Mosque. The Pentagon says it is part of a propaganda tactic where the terror group raises a flag and posts it to social media before the Iraqi army moves in and tries to take it back.
The city, located in the middle of Iraq’s Sunni Muslim heartland, is located just 70 miles west of Baghdad.
The White House said in a statement that the weapons include AT-4 shoulder-held rockets to counter vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, as well as ammunition and other supplies.
[Let us hope that all those goodies don’t end up in the hands of the enemy, should Iraqi forces perform as well as they did a year ago when ISIS made its first big move. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
France Offers Russia ‘Deal to Ditch Mistrals’
Paris has allegedly offered Moscow the sweet sum of €785 million to scrap a contentious contract to supply two warships that was suspended due to the Ukraine crisis, a Russian newspaper reported Friday.
Russian defence sources told the daily Kommersant that the documents are now “being studied” by the Russian government, defence ministry and other relevant parties who participated in the 2011 deal.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Makes John McCain a Presidential Advisor
Most of the group’s supposed members are former European politicians who have been vocal supporters of Ukraine’s pro-Western course. It’s not clear what Poroshenko actually okayed with any of them before publishing the decree, since each of them is listed as a council member “by agreement” — including Saakashvili, whom Poroshenko appointed head of the council by a separate decree in February. Two of the other men listed are current members of the European Parliament.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was to take up an official part-time government post in Kiev on Wednesday — apparently without clearing it with McCain, who says he never signed off on the gig.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Russia: Chechen Official Wants a Minor as a Second Wife, The Kremlin Turns a Blind Eye
Polygamy and marriages with minors are prohibited by Russian law, but Kadyrov’s Chechnya continues to live according to its own rules, also in violation of international law. International groups: “The state is doing nothing to protect the girl.”
Moscow (AsiaNews) — For weeks now Russian media has been full of articles on the story of a senior middle-aged official of the Chechen police, who wants to take a girl who is a minor as his second wife. Russia has banned both polygamy and marriage with minors but, despite the outcry over the case, the Kremlin has hardly intervened in the affair. The Russian government sees the ‘governor’ Ramzan Kadyrov as a close ally in the turbulent Muslim majority Caucus region.
The news was first reported by the opposition paper Novaya Gazeta and later by independent TV Dozhd, with a succession of claims and denials. According to Novaya, the police officer threatened to kill the girl’s family and to prevent the bride from fleeing, has placed checkpoints at the entrances to the village where she lives.
The story
The protagonist is Nazhdu Guchigov, head of the Nozhay-Yurt police department, very close to Kadyrov, already married and a family man. The man, 57, plans to marry Kheda Goylabieva, who is just 17 years old. Although Russian law does not permit either polygamy or marriage before age 18, Guchigov seems to want to marry the girl with Muslim rites, according to which she would thus become his second wife. Since such a marriage is not recognized by Russian law — points out the activist Tanya Lokshina of Human Rights Watch — the young woman will have no legal rights or property. Islam and the Adat (traditional law) allow polygamy, but both prohibit forced marriages.
In late April, Guchigov denied even knowing Goylabieva. A claim that was echoed by Alvi Karimov, spokesman for the Chechen leader, who had told the Kommersant FM radio that he knew nothing of the case reported by Novaya Gazeta.
Kadyrov’s support
On May 5, however, Kadyrov intervened in person, who since the discovery of the ‘Chechen trail’ behind the murder of the opponent politician Boris Nemtsov, is accused by many of having set up a parallel state with its own Army militia, in which everything is allowed, even outside of Chechnya. Kadyrov said on television that his envoy to the girl’s village reported that the young woman and her family are happy about the marriage and awaiting the happy event.
“In recent years, as part of its ‘campaign for the virtues of women’ — explains Lokshina — Kadyrov has ignored Russian law and openly endorsed polygamy, encouraging local officials to practice it. Despite promises to eradicate the practice of marriages with minors in Chechnya, it now appears he is willing to make an exception for his trusted chief of police. “
A Russian television believed linked to the intelligence services, Lifenews, sent its first and only interview with Kheda, where the teenager with her head covered by a scarf, sitting next to her mother, whispered she knew Guchigov a year ago, that she finds him interesting and that it is not a problem that he already has a wife. “We can only imagine what kind of pressure Kheda and her family have suffered — continues the HRW activist — Kadyrov’s intolerance of dissent is well known, so the young woman and her family have no alternative, but to agree. “
So far the mediator for the child’s rights Pavel Astakhov has intervened on the matter, according to whom in the case of “ Chechen bride “ has been distorted and the parents have not been subjected to coercion and violence. Astakhov has also promised that the situation of children will be discussed with Kadyrov during a June visit to Chechnya.
“So far, the State seems to do nothing to protect the girl who will be deprived of her basic rights guaranteed by national and international law and whose life and growth opportunities will be irrevocably altered.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Holy Cow! Push to Outlaw Beef in India Seen as Cultural Oppression
As Hindu politicians campaign to ban beef throughout India, critics blast the move as food fundamentalism, unfair on the diverse nation’s Muslim, Christian and Dalit populations, reports Amrit Dhillon
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India’s Modi Urges China to ‘Reconsider’ Approach to Resolve Disputes
India and China have agreed to work on long-standing border conflicts and trade imbalance disputes to bolster bilateral ties. Indian PM Modi, who is visiting China, said that Beijing needed to “reconsider” its approach.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mappers Rush to Pinpoint Landslide Risk in Nepal
As Nepal digs out from the devastating magnitude-7.8 earthquake of 25 April, researchers are braced for the next geological hazard. In June, monsoon rains will begin to drench the hillsides destabilized by the quake, raising the risk of disastrous landslides. Geologists are racing to identify areas that could collapse and bury villages or block important roads. They say that the hazard is likely to linger for years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: ‘Stop Building Churches, Convert to Islam’ or ‘We Will Make a Horrible Example of You’
By Raymond Ibrahim
Due to their involvement in helping build churches for impoverished Christian communities in Pakistan, Javed David, head of Hope for the Light Ministries in Lahore, and his associates, have been receiving death threats since February of this year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
String of Bomb Attacks in Thailand’s Restive South Injure 18 People
Eighteen people have been injured in Thailand’s southern province of Yala in a string of bomb attacks by suspected Muslim insurgents upset at recent measures to rein in separatist violence, the army said on Friday.
More than 6,500 people, most of them civilians, have died in separatist violence in southern Thailand since 2004, when resistance to Buddhist rule flared up.
Thailand is predominantly Buddhist but parts of the south, particularly the three provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, are majority Muslim, and resistance to central government rule has existed there for decades.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Teen and Her 25-Year-Old Lover Beaten to Death in India Honour Killing
Parvati Kumari, 16, and Jairam Manjhi, a father-of-three who was married to someone else, were attacked with sticks and stones by a group in Ametha on Wednesday, police confirmed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Thailand: Return of Malay Separatist Violence: Bomb Attacks Leave18 Injured
Military sources speak of 14 explosions overnight, followed by three more in the early hours of the morning. The attacks are the guerrillas “retaliation” for policies recently introduced by the Thai junta, including DNA testing. The war in the south has so far caused 6,500 victims, most of them civilians.
Bangkok (AsiaNews / Agencies) — At least 18 people were injured in a series of bomb attacks overnight and in the early hours of the morning in Yala province, southern Thailand. According to military sources the attacks are the work of hand of Muslim separatist guerrillas, active for some time in the region and leading a bloody war with the government in Bangkok.
Regional security spokesman Colonel Pramote Prom-in, reports that “fourteen bombs exploded last night, followed by three more in the early hours of this morning.” The bombs hit Muang Yala, the provincial capital, wounding 18 people. Five of them are still in hospitals in the city.
Thai army sources explain that the attacks are a message from insurgents to the central authorities, in “retaliation” for the recent security measures taken by the military junta. The Junta has been in power for about a year following a bloodless coup that led to the ouster of former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
The central government has recently introduced new strategies to counter the separatist guerrillas, including DNA tests to identify and strike fighters. According to the executive, these measures have led to a 50% decrease in attacks by Muslim Malay rebels. However, lawyers and human rights activists say the forced DNA swab testing is a source of further tension and alienation.
The Muslim majority in the southern region of Thailand, the nation overwhelmingly Buddhist, never subjected to the dominion of Bangkok: it speaks a Malaysian dialect and follows customs and traditions linked to the Muslim culture.
The war in the south, concentrated in the provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, has so far caused at least 6,500 victims, most of them civilians.
Of the 300 thousand Thai Buddhists living in the region, at least 70 thousand have fled since January 2004, when a rebel raid targeted an army munitions depot, killing four soldiers. The commando also removed more than 300 weapons, with which in the years after it has led a bitter struggle against the military.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Government Inc. Has Invested $81 Billion in U.S. In Last 10 Years
One of China’s great resources is its seemingly endless supply of American dollars to put in the world economy. Much of that money has been returned to the United States in the form of investments.
Over the past 10 years, China has invested or contracted to invest more than $81 billion into U.S. companies, according to data compiled by the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation.
Most of the investment has come in the finance, real estate, energy and technology sectors. Energy has been a key component of Chinese investments owing to the increasing requirements of its middle class, so $15 billion of China’s U.S. investments have come in that sector. The big winner is the world of finance, with $21.5 billion being put in that sector.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
No Zombies Allowed: Beijing Set to Regulate Wearing Horror Make-Up on Trains
Attention zombies, ghosts, monsters and aliens: You are not welcome on Beijing’s subway.
Fearing the possibility of panic and stampedes in Beijing’s overcrowded subway stations, the capital has issued guidelines on the wearing of “bizarre dress” and “horror makeup” inside the train network.
The new rules did not explicitly impose a ban, and did not specify any punishment for violations. There was no explanation for the timing of the announcement.
“Some costumes will cause panic, thus posing a threat to security (within the station). So we discourage people from wearing them even though they are not banned,” Liang Jianwei, deputy head of Beijing’s transport police, was quoted by local newspaper Beijing Morning Post as saying.
Beijing had temporarily banned costumes on trains last year ahead of Halloween, which is increasing in popularity among China’s young.
Other Chinese cities have had problems with Halloween costumes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cartel Chronicles: Mexican Government Helpless as Kidnappings Ravage Border City
Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican border cities of Reynosa and Matamoros to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the Gulf Cartel if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by “JA Espinoza” from Matamoros.
MATAMOROS, Tamaulipas — In the Mexican border city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, the government claims their security “strategy” against organized crime remains active. Despite assurances, the list of kidnapping victims continues to grow.
The number of unreported kidnappings has been a limiting factor in getting a clear picture of the situation since the number of individuals who have gone missing is much higher than the statistics currently kept by the government.
In recent months the various factions of organized crime in the area have been severely damaged by their internal fighting pushing them to incorporate kidnapping as just another tool of the trade in an effort to make money.
The use of kidnapping has resulted in innocent civilians and local businessmen having to pay ransom money and protection money in order to be able to continue living their life in the area.
Under the current cartel conditions in the area, anyone can become a target of an “express” kidnapping where gunmen hold the person for a few hours in order to get a small ransom. The modus operandi continues because the region lacks a rule of law since the government lacks any authority which has created a wave of social instability.
[Which is pretty much the situation throughout that benighted country. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Homicides in Brazil Reach Historic High
Homicides are on the rise in Brazil. According to the latest available data, from 2012, there were 42,416 deaths that year due to gunshot wounds — the worst statistic since 1980, when the Health Ministry began the data series for a so-called “Map of Violence.” Meanwhile, Brazil’s parliament has begun debating a proposal to loosen restrictions on the sale of firearms.
The report from the Map of Violence, which was presented on Thursday, offers more alarming information: there is an upward trend in gun-related deaths among black Brazilians.
The number of white individuals who died in incidents involving firearms fell by 23 percent between 2003 and 2012, while the number of blacks who died in the same way increased by 14.1 percent. Martin Sampaio, coordinator of the Human Rights Commission at Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil São Paulo (OABSP), says the report “refutes the myth of racial democracy in Brazil.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
More Than 42,000 People Were Shot Dead in One Year in Brazil, UN Says
More than 42,000 people were shot dead in Brazil in one year, according to latest figures, which show the highest level of gun killings in 35 years.
The study by the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) found more than 115 people were shot dead every day in 2012, with the highest level of fatalities among young people at 59 per cent.
The results pushed the rate of gun deaths to almost 22 per 100,000 inhabitants — the second highest figure recorded by the Map of Violence report.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US and Cuba to Hold Talks on Opening Embassies
The US State Department has said that US and Cuban negotiators will meet next Thursday to discuss re-establishing embassies in each other’s capitals.
The talks will focus on the practical measures needed to reopen embassies in Havana and Washington.
Although relations have improved in recent months a US trade embargo remains in place.
Last month President Barack Obama said Cuba would be removed from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Minister Under Fire for Refugee Tent Shelter Plan
The Austrian government is facing criticism following its announcement that it will house new refugees in tent shelters.
The interior ministry announced the measures on Thursday in response to a surge of asylum seekers — over 600 asylum applications have been made this week alone, mainly from people displaced by the wars in Afghanistan and Syria.
Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner (ÖVP) said at an emergency summit held in the ministry on Friday that the tent shelters are necessary due to an “explosive increase” in the number of refugees and are a “last resort to protect against homelessness”.
The government says two tent shelters will be set up in Upper Austria, and one in Salzburg.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Frigate Helps Save 2,220 Refugees
The German frigate ‘Hesse’ helped save 2,220 refugees off the coast of Libya on Thursday, in a mission carried out in cooperation with the Italian coast guard and navy.
At around noon the Hesse took 107 people on board at a point 80km off the coast of Libya, north of the capital Tripoli. The refugees were trying to cross the treacherous stretch of water in a inflatable boat.
Two hours later the frigate picked up a further 102 refugees from an inflatable boat 120 kilometres north of the Libyan capital.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary Says Will Fight Against EU Migrant Quotas Plan
(BUDAPEST) — Hungary opposes the European Union plan for binding quotas across member states to admit migrants, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff said Thursday.
“There can be no question of Hungary letting in migrants on the basis of the EU’s quota,” Janos Lazar told a press conference in Budapest.
The EU on Wednesday launched a controversial migration plan that proposes binding quotas on member states to admit refugees as requested by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
“Hungary will do everything to prevent this plan in Brussels,” Lazar said.
Member state Hungary has faced a huge influx of migrants recently, mainly from Kosovo, but also from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Most move on to Germany or Austria.
Lazar said the number of people seeking asylum in Hungary has jumped from 2,700 in 2012 to around 43,000 in the first quarter of 2015 alone, and could reach 100,000 by the end of the year.
Last Friday Orban called the EU quota proposal “mad and unfair” in a radio interview.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Myanmar Leadership Signals Reluctance to Attend Thai Refugee Summit
Thai authorities have called an international meeting to address the growing plight of sea migrants from the Bay of Bengal. But Myanmar blames Thailand for causing the emergency situation in Southeast Asia.
Myanmar’s presidential office said on Friday that the country may not attend a meeting hosted by Thailand on May 29 aimed at discussing the sea migrants in the Bay of Bengal. It accused Thai authorities of being complicit in creating the current overflow of Rohingya refugees in the first place by turning a blind eye on the issue of human trafficking.
Hundreds of refugees have landed in the region — chiefly in Indonesia and Malaysia — in recent days, while activists estimate that up to 8,000 could presently be at sea. Several boats have been turned away; UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday urged Southeast Asian countries to accept the refugees.
Thailand announced a crackdown on human trafficking after mass graves were discovered on May 1, with the bodies thought to be Rohingya from Myanmar or Bangladesh. The discovery also brought increased international attention to the issue.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NDAA Cuts Military Personnel Slots, Could Add Illegal Aliens to Service Force
Breitbart reported, “The House Armed Services Committee has already passed the NDAA which contained the secretive amnesty for illegal aliens. The nature of the amnesty is that those so-called ‘DREAMer’ illegal aliens who have received President Barack Obama’s first executive amnesty—the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which currently just shy of a million illegal aliens have received—would now be able to get legislative and permanent amnesty if they enlisted in the United States Armed Forces.”
[Comment: Perhaps these personnel will be more amenable to following orders to “shoot Americans”.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Somali sex attacker who should have been deported after serving his sentence for a brutal gang rape was instead set free to become a drug dealer.
In 2007 Abdulmajid Al-Amodi, 26, was jailed for eight years after he was convicted of a gang rape of a 17-year-old student.
At the time, the court heard he was filmed, laughing making jokes about ‘roasting pork’ in a 50 second clip.
He was told by a judge he had behaved like an animal and his student immigration status in Britain should be revoked and that he would be deported.
Instead he was released after four years in prison and moved back to Hull — where he originally raped the teenager — where he became a crack cocaine dealer while claiming £140 benefits every two weeks.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Some 400 Migrants on German Vessel Arrive in Pozzallo Port
Berlin says two Navy ships to continue rescue missions
(ANSA) — Pozzallo, May 15 — Some 400 migrants rescued by a German naval ship arrived in a Sicilian port Friday morning.
The news came as the German government said that it would continue to keep two of its Navy vessels helping with rescue work in the Mediterranean.
The two ships were initially expected to work for one month after their arrival May 5 but a defense ministry spokesman in Berlin said the mission will be “prolonged”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
24/7 Public Schooling Breeds Goosesteppers and Cultural Orphans
Public boarding schools: Established to influence and fundamentally change the belief system of the students, to break family connections and social relationships, and eliminate traditions.
There are times when assimilation is beneficial, as when immigrants come to a new country and are encouraged to learn the language, accept and support the culture, becoming a citizen. This assimilation does not require forfeiting individual faith, values and ethics. Of course, this refers specifically to American culture as it is the only culture1 tolerant of multiple worldviews as long as they are not forced upon other citizens. (Listen up LGBT zealots, sharia sponsors, eco-politicians and other closed social thinkers.) Government-sponsored boarding schools or 12-14 hour “community center” schools do not promote tolerance; they underwrite peer pressure, coercion and authoritarian rule to create conformity. And conformity breeds unchallenged acceptance of rules and, government’s favorite term, regulations.
Duncan is a perfect example of a non-teacher education advocate who only understands detached ideals of what education should entail and objectify. In fact, were one to examine his official biography at ed.gov it is evident that his training and experience is in sociology—”the science of society, social institutions, and social relationships; specifically: the systematic study of the development, structure, interaction, and collective behavior of organized groups of human beings” according to Merriam-Webster (bold emphasis mine).
Sociology is not education, unless the latter word is defined as indoctrination, and Duncan evidently ascribes to that meaning. He is proud of his work educating wards of the state, which is precisely what public boarding schools would create—wards dependent on the state for their meals, housing and education, which means instilling conformity of thought or suffering consequences. And the consequences are defending oneself against institutional bullying, both mental and physical.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Right-Wing Politicians Against Gay Traffic Lights
The right-wing Freedom party (FPÖ) has announced it is lodging a criminal complaint against Vienna council member Maria Vassilakou, after new pedestrian crossing lights which depict straight, gay and lesbian couples have been introduced around the city.
Party officials say the lights contravene traffic regulations and, at a cost of €63,000, are wasting taxpayers’ money.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Black Professor Regrets Comments Critical of White Students
An incoming Boston University professor who called “white college males” a “problem population” and was publicly criticized by the university’s president said on Tuesday she regrets making the remarks.
Black sociology professor Saida Grundy, who completed her doctorate at the University of Michigan last year, had declared on her now-private Twitter account that “white masculinity is THE problem for America’s colleges.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
College Students Told to Report ‘Hurtful Statements’ To Campus Authorities
If someone says anything mean-spirited at the University of Colorado Boulder — campus administrators want to know about it. Not only that — they want to know the offender’s name, age, email address and more.
University of Colorado-Boulder has launched a new campaign encouraging students to report any “bias” they come across to campus authorities, who collect details including offenders’ names, birthdays, genders — even social security numbers — along with a description of the “incident.”
The “Bias Incident Reporting” effort aims to “address the impact of demeaning and hurtful statements as well as acts of intolerance directed towards protected classes,” CU Boulder’s website states.
Examples of bias, according to a corresponding poster campaign highlighting the reporting system, include calling people names or making fun of their culture.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Community Forum Set in Response to ‘#White Lives Matter’ Flyers
A community forum on racial issues is planned Sunday after flyers with the slogan — “#White Lives Matter” — were tossed onto local lawns and driveways last week.
The flyers’ slogan, an apparent response to the widely used social-media hashtag, #Black Lives Matter, prompted local officials and community activists to denounce the message.
“I am deeply concerned and disappointed that statements like this have found their way to Westport homes,” First Selectman Jim Marpe said in a statement last Friday. “This kind of racial ugliness has no place anywhere, and certainly not in Westport.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Luxembourg PM First EU Leader to Marry Same-Sex Partner
Luxembourg’s prime minister has become the first serving EU leader — and second leader in the world — to marry a same-sex partner.
Xavier Bettel married Gauthier Destenay on Friday in a private ceremony at the capital’s town hall.
The couple are among the first to benefit after the country changed its laws to allow gay marriages last year.
The union comes after Iceland’s then-PM Johanna Sigurdardottir married her same-sex partner in 2010.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Luxembourg Prime Minister Becomes First EU Leader in Same-Sex Marriage
The leader of Luxembourg has wed his partner, making him the first European Union leader to enter into a same-sex marriage. It comes just months after the country’s parliament legalized gay marriage.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Student Who Banned White Men From Diversity Event Insists: “I Can’t be Racist Because I’m Not White”
A student who banned white people and men from a students’ union equality event has insisted that she can’t be racist because she is an “ethnic minority woman”.
Publicity for event claimed that it aimed to be all about “challenge the white-centric culture of occupations”, “diversifying our curriculum” and building a “cross-campus campaign that puts liberation at the heart of the movement”.
But when Bahar Mustafa, Goldsmith University’s Students Union Welfare and Diversity officer, took to Facebook to invite people to the event, she insisted that it was for “BME Women and non-binary people” only, adding “if you’ve been invited and you’re a man and/or white PLEASE DON’T COME”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Firms Face Penalties if Boards Not ‘More Female’
Justice and Migration Minister Morgan Johansson has told Swedish companies that they could face penalties if they don’t comply with proposed government legislation designed to ensure boards of directors have a 40 percent female representation.
The warning comes off the back of a government plan to introduce a quota law to ensure companies have a greater representation of women on their boards.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Next Grand Idiocy: ‘Microaggression’
In their continuing search for ridiculous problems and crises that have no solution, liberals and academic pinheads have hit upon “microaggression.”
What in the world is that?
It’s “unintended discrimination,” behavior that, “without conscious choice of the user, has the same effect as conscious, intended discrimination,” according to Wikipedia.
Wow! How do you control unintended behavior that you’re not even conscious of?
The University of Washington and the United Auto Workers are busy inventing ways to control it for you. If they can work it out, the university’s student employees—teaching assistants, aides, assorted gofers—will have a contract that protects them from having their feelings hurt by “microaggression.” Why these people, who have never once laid eyes on the inside of an automotive factory, are being represented by the United Auto Workers is one of those mysteries of unionism…
Canada has pioneered this parody of justice in its Human Rights industry. In Canada, any member of a Protected Class can drag any regular person up in front of a “human rights” tribunal and have him fricasseed for this or that offense—with the offense being defined by the offended. In these mock trials, the plaintiff’s feelings count as evidence. In Canada you can have your livelihood totally destroyed without your having broken any law. There’s no double jeopardy in the human rights funhouse, so they can try you over and over again for the same offense. Meanwhile, the government pays all the plaintiff’s legal expenses.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Atheist Militants Who Silence Christians Are as Bad as Tudor Tyrants Says Judge
Sir Michael Tugendhat warned human rights laws did not guarantee the right of believers to speak up for their faith, comparing today to the position of Catholics found themselves in under Elizabeth I.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Female City Exec Says Criticism of Her £1.3m Salary is Sexism
Katherine Garrett-Cox, the head of the Scottish Alliance Trust investment firm and the winner of the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman 2015 award, said she’s been overwhelmed by press attention.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
University Report: A Room Full of White People is a Microaggression
Apparently, just being in certain rooms is a microaggression. According to a new report released by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, just “walking into or sitting in” a classroom full of white people is a microaggression in itself. “Students of color reported feeling uncomfortable and unwelcomed just walking into or sitting in the classroom, especially if they were the only person of color, or one of a few,” stated the report, which designated the experience a microaggression. “People do not necessarily say I do not belong, but I feel as if I do not when I am in a classroom and I am the one non-White person,” said one student, identified as a Latina female, who is quoted in the report.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
40 Volcanoes Are Erupting Right Now, And 34 of Them Are Along the Ring of Fire
You may not have noticed, but our planet is becoming increasingly unstable. According toVolcano Discovery, 40 volcanoes around the globe are erupting right now, and only 6 of them are not along the Ring of Fire. If that sounds like a very high number to you, that is because it is a very high number. As I have written about previously, there were a total of 3,542 volcanic eruptions during the entire 20th century. When you divide that number by 100, that gives you an average of about 35 volcanic eruptions per year. So the number of volcanoes that are erupting right now is well above the 20th century’s averagefor an entire calendar year. And of course we are witnessing a tremendous amount of earthquake activity as well. Nepal was just hit by the worst earthquake that it had seen in 80 years, and scientists are telling us that the Himalayas actually dropped by an astounding 3 feet as a result of that one earthquake. How much more does our planet have to shake before people start paying attention?
Of course the things that we have been seeing lately are part of a much larger long-term trend. Seismic activity appears to have been getting stronger over the past few decades, and now things really seem to be accelerating. The following is how one news sourcerecently summarized what we have been witnessing…
If it seems like earthquakes and erupting volcanoes are happening more frequently, that’s because they are. Looking at global magnitude six (M6) or greater from 1980 to 1989 there was an average of 108.5 earthquakes per year, from 2000 to 2009 the planet averaged 160.9 earthquakes per year: that is a 38.9% increase of M6+ earthquakes in recent years. Unrest also seems to be growing among the world’s super-volcanoes. Iceland (which is home to some of the most dangerous volcanoes on the planet), Santorini in Greece, Uturuncu in Bolivia, the Yellowstone and Long Valley calderas in the U.S., Laguna del Maule in Chile, Italy’s Campi Flegrei — almost all of the world’s active super-volcanic systems are now exhibiting some signs of inflation, an early indication that pressure is building in these volcanic systems.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greatest Threat to Free Speech Comes Not From Terrorism, But From Those Claiming to Fight it
We learned recently from Paris that the Western world is deeply and passionately committed to free expression and ready to march and fight against attempts to suppress it. That’s a really good thing, since there are all sorts of severe suppression efforts underway in the West — perpetrated not by The Terrorists but by the Western politicians claiming to fight them.
One of the most alarming examples comes, not at all surprisingly, from the U.K. government, which is currently agitating for new counterterrorism powers, “including plans for extremism disruption orders designed to restrict those trying to radicalize young people.” Here are the powers which the British Freedom Fighters and Democracy Protectors are seeking:
They would include a ban on broadcasting and a requirement to submit to the police in advance any proposed publication on the web and social media or in print. The bill will also contain plans for banning orders for extremist organisations which seek to undermine democracy or use hate speech in public places, but it will fall short of banning on the grounds of provoking hatred…
If all that sounds menacing, tyrannical and even fascist to you — and really, how could it not? “extremism disruption orders” — you should really watch this video of Tory Home Secretary Theresa May trying to justify the bill in an interview on BBC this morning. When pressed on what “extremism” means — specifically, when something crosses the line from legitimate disagreement into criminal “extremism” — she evades the question completely, repeatedly invoking creepy slogans about the need to stop those who seek to “undermine Our British Values” and, instead, ensure “we are together as one society, One Nation” (I personally believe this was all more lyrical in its original German).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
>> Continuing the war of words with eurozone policymakers Varoufakis said, at a conference in Athens Thursday, he would reject any agreement in which “the numbers do not add up.” <<
Earth to Mr. V: the numbers will never "add up."
>> Gilles Le Guen, a former Breton merchant marine officer who converted to Islam 30 years ago, was convicted on Friday of criminal association in relation with a terrorist organization, <<
It's just stupefying. Some guy converts to Islam, the Religion of Peace and … shazam! … sooner or later it's "armed action in Mali" time. This fool is 60 no less.
If someone becomes a Presbyterian in Cleveland does it follow as the night the day that he'll engage in anti-pagan combat in El Salvador?
>>Iceland has joined the trend for “slow television” by broadcasting 24 hours of live lambing. <<
Swedish TV could broadcast 1,000 hrs of parliamentary debate on how immigration can be increased.
Insomnia would be a thing of the past.
The whole concept of “racial microaggressions” is pure lunacy concocted by weak-minded liberals.
I say this as a white person who has been the sole white Westerner at foreign military installations on several occasions. For sure I was aware I was surrounded by people from a completely different culture and ethnicity, but I never came close to internalizing this ridiculous concept of “microaggression.” Unbelievable.
To a certain extent, the cultural confidence of Westerners (and it certainly isn’t characteristic of ALL Westerners) is probably a major factor in the dominance of Western culture. Of course, most of that cultural confidence (in those who have it) is mostly a result of the obvious moral and ethical superiority of Western Civilization. That is why those individuals with the genuine capacity for real leadership, the ability to confidently show a moral example that inspires others to follow, will tend to adhere to the values and principles of Western Civilization (even if it is not their native culture).
In other words, “micro-aggression” is just another way of saying that the undeniable superiority of another’s values, principles, morality, and abilities makes the inferior uncomfortably aware of their relative shortcomings.