A French Muslim leader named Dalil Boubaker has called for the country’s empty Catholic churches to be turned into mosques. France is building new mosques at a record rate, but Mr. Boubaker says they are insufficient to meet the needs of French Muslims.
In other news, Italian authorities have evacuated migrants who were stopped at the French border near the town of Ventimiglia. The refugees, some of whom had staged a hunger strike, were transported to Ventimiglia station by the Red Cross.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Phyllis Chesler, 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.
China Dumps Record $120 Billion in US Treasurys in Two Month Via Belgium
Those who have been following the saga of “Belgium’s” US Treasury holdings learned last month that the “mysterious buyer” behind Belgium’s Euroclear was, as some speculated, China all along. Nowhere was this more evident than when showing an overlay of China and Belgium’s combined TSY holdings versus China’s forex reserves.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia: Strong Signs of Recovery From Real Economy
Construction up for the 1st time in two years, export growth
(ANSA) — ZAGREB — Croatia came out of recession at the end of June, recording a 0,5% growth in GDP for second consecutive quarter, and now even the productivity figures of several sectors, exports and construction, start to show positive signs.
The building sector, which before the recession had experienced an economic boom, has grown by 1,2% on an annual basis, for the first time in two years. According to analysts, the Croatian economy will definitely be out of recession only when the building sector will see a real recovery, beyond these slightly positive signs.
Exports, however, have continued to grow in the last two years, after Croatia has joined the EU. In the first three months of 2015, exports increased almost 10%, compared with the same period last year. Even imports are growing, though at a slower pace.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Democrats’ Orwellian Kabuki Theater
As the world literally burns, Mr. Obama golfs; wholly disaffected, partying with and living like the millionaire and billionaire “fat cat” bankers he publicly demonizes
In George Orwell’s fictional dystopian classic “1984” political leaders (symbolized by “Big Brother”) habitually lie, speak out of both sides of their mouths and intend the polar opposite of what they do say. For example, in Orwell’s totalitarian depiction, the Ministry of Peace actually promotes perpetual war. Its political purpose clandestinely advocates hardship in order to distract the citizenry from learning the nefarious truth about its ruling elite. Sound familiar?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EU Court Throws Out German QE Challenge
The EU’s top court on Tuesday threw out German objections to the European Central Bank’s 2012 controversial programme of buying up government bonds, saying it was compatible with EU law.
“This programme for the purchase of government bonds on secondary markets does not exceed the powers of the ECB,” the European Court of Justice said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Those who believe that phantom recoveries and phantom metrics can be substituted for reality are in for a shock in the next downturn.
Stripped of artifice, there are only two kinds of media stories: those that support the status quo narrative, and those that are skeptical of that narrative.
What is the status quo narrative? Simply this: not only is this the best possible arrangement of labor, assets and money, it is the only possible arrangement of labor, assets and money.
It is impossible to challenge a system that is the only possible arrangement; the only option is to accept it. In effect, the mainstream media is a vast Psychological Operation (PSYOPS) aimed at persuading the American public that the status quo Imperial system of predatory, debt-based crony-capitalism that benefits the few at the expense of the many is not just beneficial to all its debt-serfs and welfare recipients, but it is the only possible system—there is no alternative (TINA).
One of the greatest and most important PSYOPS of the Imperial State (U.S. Government) and its faithful lapdog the mainstream media is the unemployment rate. As I will show tomorrow, the real unemployment rate is between 20% and 40%, depending on whether you think someone earning $1,500 a year selling stuff on eBay and Etsy should be counted as “employed.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Starvation is the Price Greeks Will Pay for Remaining in the EU
Syriza, the new Greek government that intended to rescue Greece from austerity, has come a cropper. The government relied on the good will of its EU “partners,” only to find that its “partners” had no good will. The Greek government did not understand that the only concern was the bottom line, or profits, of those who held the Greek debt.
The Greek people are as out to lunch as their government. The majority of Greeks want to remain in the EU even though it means that their pensions, their wages, their social services, and their employment opportunities will be reduced. Apparently for Greeks, being a part of Europe is worth being driven into the ground.
The alleged “Greek crisis” makes no sense whatsoever. It is obvious that Greece cannot with its devastated economy repay the debts that Goldman Sachs hid and then capitalized on the inside information, helping to cause the crisis. If the solvency of the holders of the Greek debt, apparently the NY hedge funds and German and Dutch banks, depends on being repaid, the European Central Bank could just follow the example of the Federal Reserve and print the money to secure the Greek debt. The ECB is already printing 60 billion euros a month to save the European financial system, so why not include Greece?
A conservative might say that such a course of action would cause inflation, but it hasn’t. The Fed has been creating money hands over fists for seven years, and according to the government there is no inflation. We even have negative interest rates attesting to the absence of inflation. Why will creating money for Greece create inflation but not for Goldman Sachs, Citibank, and JPMorganChase?
Obviously, the Western world doesn’t want to help Greece. The West wants to loot Greece. The deal is that Greece gets new loans with which to repay existing loans in exchange for selling municipal water companies to private investors (water rates will go up on the Greek people), for selling the state lottery to private investors (Greek government revenues drop, thus making debt repayment more difficult), and for other such “privatizations” such as selling the protected Greek islands to real estate developers.
This is a good deal for everyone but Greece.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Writing’s on the Wall: Texas Pulls $1 Billion in Gold From NY Fed, Makes it “Non-Confiscatable”
“The law will repatriate $1 billion of gold bullion from the Federal Reserve in New York to Texas,” a statement from the governor read.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
America’s Limited Carrying Capacity — Running Out of Water
Let’s define “carrying capacity.”
“The maximum, equilibrium number of organisms of a particular species that can be supported indefinitely in a given environment. The maximum population of a particular organism that a given environment can support without detrimental effects.”
Once we exceed that “maximum number”, everything begins to crumble, collapse and deteriorate faster than Mother Nature can cope. She starts kicking back rather brutally.
Notice why 100,000 legal immigrants rush into our country every 30 days, which equals to 1.2 million annually. First, we invite them because of Teddy Kennedy’s 1965 Immigration Reform Act. It must be rescinded NOW! That’s how we added 100 million of them in the past 45 years. That’s how we will add another 100 million of them in the next 35 years. Second, they’re starving and dying at a rate of 18 million annually around the globe. They flee their countries because of lack of water, energy, resources and food. In other words, they exceeded their carrying capacity. Look at them flooding into Canada, Europe and Australia like a modern day human plague. Third, they keep reproducing 80 million more of themselves annually, so the line grows without pause. Thus, no amount of immigration will save them. But, in the coming years, you can bet your bottom dollar that our civilization faces a nasty and unpleasant future.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Be Paranoid: 10 Terrifying Extreme Hacks
These extreme hacks rise above the unending morass of everyday, humdrum hacks because of what they target or because they employ previously unknown, unused, or advanced methods. They push the limit of what we security pros previously thought possible, opening our eyes to new threats and systemic vulnerabilities, all while earning the begrudging respect of those who fight malicious hackers.
This is a look at the handful of hacks that have truly raised eyebrows in the security community in the past few years. Here’s to hoping that the good guys find the most dangerous exploits before the bad guys can use them against us.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Betrayal Papers: Part V — Who is Barack Hussein Obama?
The Betrayal Papers have thus far investigated and explained the Obama administration and their alliance with the international terrorist organization, the Muslim Brotherhood. The articles analyzed several aspects of White House policy, foreign and domestic, and compared them to the objectives of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Parts V and VI will explore the personal ties that bind Obama, as well as the progressive American left, to the Muslim Brotherhood.
This is a portrait of a conspiracy that has reached unprecedented heights of global control.
“A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”
Has there ever been a president whose personal history is so murky, so questionable, and so baffling? All one must do is recall the allegations, still open for debate and research, that checker Obama’s background. Laid out below are some of these allegations, not to be proved or disproved, but to remind the reader that Obama’s personal history is replete with question marks…
George Soros, aka György Schwartz, is the Hungarian-born billionaire investor and financier behind a tangled constellation of progressive front organizations. Among these front organizations are: The Open Society Foundation/Institute, ACORN, Think Progress, the Center for American Progress, Code Pink, Occupy Wall Street, National Council of La Raza, the Tides Foundation, MoveOn.org, the New America Foundation, and the International Crisis Group. As one writer wrote succinctly in 2011, “Essentially, the entire leftist wing of the Democrat party, including the President can be tied to George Soros in some way.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Colt Defense, 179-Year-Old Gunmaker, Files for Bankruptcy
Colt Defense LLC, the 179-year-old gunmaker that supplies M4 carbines and M16 rifles for the U.S. and foreign militaries, filed for bankruptcy amid delayed government sales and declining demand.
The West Hartford, Connecticut-based firearms maker listed assets of as much as $500 million and debt of as much as $500 million in a Chapter 11 filing late Sunday in bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware. Wilmington Trust Company is listed as the biggest unsecured creditor with a $261 million claim.
Colt’s current sponsor Sciens Capital Management LLC has agreed to act as a stalking horse bidder for all of its assets and liabilities related to existing agreements, according to a statement from the gunmaker. Existing secured lenders have agreed, subject to court approval, to provide a $20 million debtor-in-possession credit facility, Colt said. The current management team will remain in place.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cybersecurity Problems at Hacked Agency ‘Decades in the Making’
The federal agency hit by a cyber breach putting potentially millions of government personnel files at risk has a long history of failing to meet basic computer security standards, an investigative official with the agency testified Tuesday.
Investigators familiar with the case have alleged that those responsible for the latest cyberattack have ties to China.
The fear is that China will use the information to gain leverage over Americans with access to secrets by pressuring their overseas relatives, particularly if they happen to be living in China or another authoritarian country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Debunking Magna Carta Leads Back to Serfdom
In my column for the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, I wrote: “A number of legal scholars have made the irrelevant point that the Magna Carta protected rights of the Church, nobles, and free men who were not enserfed, a small percentage of the population in the early 13th century. We hear the same about the US Constitution—it was something the rich did for themselves. I have no sympathy for debunking human achievements that, in the end, gave ordinary people liberty.”
My celebration of this document was reposted today on a number of websites including as far away as Hong Kong. But the New York Times and a dolt of a law professor at the University of Chicago named Tom Ginsburg chose to debunk the Magna Carta on its 800th anniversary. “Stop Revering Magna Carta,” Ginsburg tells us.
Ginsburg alleges that the Magna Carta “wasn’t effective. In fact, it was a failure.” The law professor maintains that Magna Carta’s fame rests on myths, not on reality.
What absolute nonsense. In this age of American Caesars, we need to celebrate the Magna Carta, not debunk it. The Magna Carta is the most important document in Anglo-American history. The Magna Carta launched a long struggle culminating in the Glorious Revolution in the 17th century. The struggle established that law flows from the people to whom it is accountable and not from an unaccountable monarch ruling by Divine Right. The Magna Carta gave Americans the Constitution and Bill of Rights. These are massive human achievements. The rule of law is a shield of the people. Rule by decrees is a weapon in the hand of tyranny.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The tech culture would have you believe that the digital format has produced untold innovations and advancements for personal development, societal advancement and business innovations. Well, the glass is half full for the kool aide drinkers, but for the mere mortals, who seek out a meaningful life as opposed to a regimented existence, the curse of placing the most intimate data on untold hard drives and shuffled among unknown servers, a loss of simple privacy is the least of the problems.
The horror of keeping the door unlocked to the treasure chest of government and business secrets seems not to faze the computer gurus who pushed for decades that going digital was the holy grail of efficiency and productivity. Encryption was the answer to securing central databases of zeros and ones that store the most desirable information of national security.
When the mainstream USA Today warns, The hacking of OPM: Is it our cyber 9/11? — The cover-up of a vulnerability of unlimited sharing of data from security breaches should be a substantial alarm call.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Donald Trump: I’m Worth $9 Billion and I’m Running for President
Donald Trump officially announced his candidacy for the presidency on Tuesday at Trump Tower in New York. The famed businessman also talked openly about his financials which will need to be released for the campaign stating he is worth $8.7 billion.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Green Policies Kill Military Readiness and Vets
Obama administration’s green energy policies are undermining U.S. military readiness and diverting resources from caring for America’s veterans
We reported recently that the Obama administration didn’t have time to develop a strategy to fight against global Islamic terrorism because it was too busy putting homosexuals into the Armed Forces and celebrating gay pride. In fact, there was something else on the agenda that Obama had ordered the military to handle that had assumed more importance than global terrorism—climate change.
On May 20, in his remarks to the United States Coast Guard Academy commencement, Obama actually told the Coast Guard grads that “It is a dereliction of duty” for them to ignore this alleged problem.
The speech got enormous favorable attention from our media. “Obama Recasts Climate Change as a Peril With Far-Reaching Effects,” was The New York Times headline over a story covering the speech. CNN reported, “In Coast Guard commencement address, Obama buoys climate change.”
Obama even went so far as to imply that climate change was behind terrorism. He said, “…climate change did not cause the conflicts we see around the world. Yet what we also know is that severe drought helped to create the instability in Nigeria that was exploited by the terrorist group Boko Haram.”
The bizarre claim that Islamist terrorists kill Christians because of climate change has been echoed by the British Guardian and Mother Jones, both of them far-left outlets.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘I Identify as Black’: Ex-NAACP Leader Makes Bizarre Claim as Race Flap Continues
The Spokane woman who quit as head of her local NAACP chapter days after her parents said she was lying about her race said Tuesday she still considers herself black and that her situation is “at the core of definitions of race.”
The bizarre case of Rachel Dolezal continued to play out as the 37-year-old appeared on NBC’s “Today” show and seemed to turn the traditional definition of race on its head.
“I identify as black,” she told Matt Lauer.
“I hope that that can drive at the core of definitions of race, ethnicity, culture, self-determination, personal agency and, ultimately, empowerment,” she said at another point in the interview.
Dolezal said she has always thought of herself as black, and that as a child, she would draw herself in pictures with a brown crayon with black curly hair.
Dolezal resigned Monday, just days after her parents told local media outlets that she had misrepresented herself as fully or partially black. In reality, they said, their daughter’s ancestry is German, Swedish, and Czech, with some Native American background as well.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Leaked TPP Emails Show Corporations Have Infiltrated U.S. Government at the Highest Levels
(NaturalNews) A trove of confidential emails obtained by a legal watchdog group indicates that corporations have been given special access to negotiations involving the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.
According to the group Intellectual Property Watch (IPW), there are a number of stakeholders interested in the provisions that will eventually be adopted by all countries involved in the TPP negotiations — provisions which, thus far, have been kept from Americans on instructions from President Obama.
IPW said that it obtained “hundreds of pages of confidential emails” emanating from the U.S. Trade Representative’s office, and that they have provided “a rare and fascinating perspective on how policy is developed” in the USTR office.
As IPW reported on its website:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Michigan Police Seize Kids From Family for “Camping”
Last month, a Michigan family decided it would be fun to go camping for the summer, on a 10-acre plot of land they had recently purchased. Christopher and Antonia Hernandez wanted their six children to experience the outdoors, and get a taste for off-grid living. But after living in several large tents for 9 days, their rural experiment came to an abrupt end.
On May 19, the parents left the property to do laundry at a laundromat, as well as to buy food and some fencing for the animals. The younger children were left in the care of their 15-year-old son, who is nearly 16.
“When we arrived back, the Otsego County Sheriff’s Department was at the property claiming to have received a report of squatters on the land,” Antonia said. “We provided documentation of our right to be on the land, which was verified the next day by the land owner.”
A CPS representative also was on the property, and had concerns about the living conditions. CPS made four allegations, according to the official court document:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The act of overt treason on the part of the Republican members of the House of Representatives that is in the process of being forced upon ‘We the People’ is without precedent in the history of our country. Whether it passes or fails, the great sin is the RINOs who are so comfortable in selling out the principles they have been elected to represent.
Obamatrade is nothing short of handing complete dictatorial powers to a man who has given every indication of his commitment to the implosion of the USA — financially and foundationally — a man who has already assumed the position of a de facto dictator.
The problem is not Obama. The only people surprised by Obama’s actions are those who are either terminally stupid or perpetually and willfully ignorant.
The problem is the wussie boy Republicans who, in fact, are not adherents to Republican principles but rather claim the Republican appellation as a matter of convenience. Owned by special interests and/or compromised by personal corruptness, they are nothing more than useful idiots for the Obama Agenda — unable and unwilling to stand in defense of the Constitution they, by oath before God and ‘We the People’, swore to uphold and defend…
We have foolishly created a political class dedicated not to upholding and defending the Constitution but, rather, to doing the bidding of those who fund their elections and lifestyles.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Prisons Without Walls: We’re All Inmates in the American Police State
“Free worlders” is prison slang for those who are not incarcerated behind prison walls. Supposedly, those fortunate souls live in the “free world.” However, appearances can be deceiving.
“As I got closer to retiring from the Federal Bureau of Prisons,” writes former prison employee Marlon Brock, “it began to dawn on me that the security practices we used in the prison system were being implemented outside those walls.” In fact, if Brock is right, then we “free worlders” do live in a prison—albeit, one without visible walls. In federal prisons, cameras are everywhere in order to maintain “security” and keep track of the prisoners. Likewise, the “free world” is populated with video surveillance and tracking devices. From surveillance cameras in stores and street corners to license plate readers (with the ability to log some 1,800 license plates per hour) on police cars, our movements are being tracked virtually everywhere. With this increasing use of iris scanners and facial recognition software—which drones are equipped with—there would seem to be nowhere to hide.
Detection and confiscation of weapons (or whatever the warden deems “dangerous”) in prison is routine. The inmates must be disarmed. Pat downs, checkpoints, and random searches are second nature in ferreting out contraband.
Sound familiar?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Significant Gap’: New Files From Clinton Adviser Show Emails Withheld From Benghazi Panel
Dozens of emails handed over to Congress from a longtime Clinton confidant were not part of the trove of emails originally submitted by the State Department, Fox News has learned — raising questions over why those emails were apparently withheld. One source told Fox News the newly submitted emails from Sidney Blumenthal show a “significant gap” in the record.
The Benghazi attacks killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Announces White House Bid, Joins Crowded GOP Field
New York real estate mogul and reality TV star Donald Trump on Tuesday declared himself a candidate for the Republican nomination for president, launching his against-the-odds campaign after teasing one for years.
“I am officially running for president of the United States,” he said from inside his signature Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan. “We are going to make our country great again.”
In a strong pro-business, pro-military speech, the unabashed Trump vowed to stop the Islamic State, keep Iran from building a nuclear weapon, repeal ObamaCare, build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, repeal President Obama’s executive orders on immigration and spend more on infrastructure.
“Nobody could be tougher on ISIS than Donald Trump,” he said in a roughly 45-minute speech, peppered with occasional, off-the-cuff remarks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Two US Catholic Bishops Quit, Envoy Trial Date Set in Sex Cases
The Vatican has accepted the resignation of two US bishops accused of failing to protect minors from a paedophile priest and set a date for the unprecedented trial of a senior cleric for paedophilia.
The two US bishops’ resignations follow the 2012 jailing of Minnesota priest Curtis Wehmeyer for the sexual abuse of minors he preyed on during camping trips and possession of child pornography.
Wehmeyer’s conviction led to the archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis being charged on June 5 with six counts of failing to protect minors after prosecutors unveiled substantial evidence that senior Church officials failed to act on repeated warnings from parents and others that the priest was a danger to children…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Britain Still Battling Napoleon 200 Years on
Two hundred years after the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon is still under attack in Britain, where the image persists of a military genius consumed by a fanaticism comparable with Hitler or Stalin.
The Emperor of French revolutionaries and regicides continues to strike fear in his neighbours across the Channel, long after his death on the South Atlantic island of St Helena, according to British historian and author Andrew Roberts.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
British Scientists Search France for Viking DNA
British researchers on Monday began collecting the DNA of residents from Normandy in northern France in search of Viking heritage, but the project has raised concerns among some local anti-racism activists.
Around a hundred volunteers from the Cotentin Peninsula area are giving DNA samples to academics at the University of Leicester, who are trying to find descendants of the Vikings who invaded what is now Normandy in the 9th century.
The aim is to learn more about “the intensity of the Scandinavian colonisation” in the 9th and 10th centuries in the Cotentin Peninsula, said Richard Jones, a senior history lecturer at the University of Leicester.
That includes trying to find out whether the colonisers kept to themselves or married amongst the locals, he added.
The French volunteers have been chosen because they have surnames that are of Scandinavian origin or that have been present in France since at least the 11th century. They also qualify if all four of their grandparents lived within a 50-kilometre (30-mile) radius of their current home.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark Election: A Close Race for the Status Quo
The most striking feature about Denmark’s general election, to be held on Thursday, is that Danes are unlikely to feel the difference.
The left- and right-wing blocs, each a collection of five parties struggling for attention, are running head-to-head in one of the closest races in recent memories. And voters will find no large policy differences on which to base a decision.
Foreign policy is rarely mentioned in this election.
Instead, the agenda is a familiar one:
- getting Danes to work, in a land of generous welfare benefits
- keeping immigration at just the right level (and immigrants of just the right kind)
The welfare-benefits debate started rolling when the right-wing bloc’s leader and former Prime Minister, Venstre’s Lars Lokke Rasmussen, held his first campaign press conference.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Estonia and Poland May be Referred to the EU Court on Tax Rulings
Other Member States answered to the inquiry of the EU Commission
(ANSA) — BRUSSELS — The European Commission has issued two injunctions ordering Estonia and Poland to deliver within one month information requested on their tax rulings practice. Both countries have to-date refused to respond in full to previous information requests. Should any of the two fail to deliver the missing information within one month, the Commission may refer that Member State to the EU Court of Justice.
The EU Commission enquiry is aimed at clarifying allegations that tax rulings may constitute state aid and to allow the EU Commission to take an informed view of the practices of all Member States. With the exception of Estonia and Poland, all EU countries have cooperated and provided the required information in full. Tax rulings are comfort letters issued by tax authorities to an individual company on a specific tax matter. They are not as such a problem under EU state aid rules. However, if a tax ruling results in a Member State providing selective advantages to specific companies or groups of companies, this distorts competition in the Single Market in breach of EU state aid rules.
To-date, Estonia and Poland have failed to adequately respond to the request for information, arguing fiscal secrecy and the principle of proportionality. They have only submitted general information but refused to provide a specific and detailed overview of tax rulings issued from 2010 to 2013. However, the EU Commission is legally entitled to request any information it deems necessary for a state aid investigation, and Member States are under a legal obligation to respond. Confidential fiscal information remains adequately protected, as the EU Commission is itself bound by rules of confidentiality.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: National Front Creates New Far-Right EU Group
A new grouping of European far-right parties, called Europe of Nations and Freedom, is to be formed around France’s National Front, the French party leader Marine Le Pen announced in a statement Monday.
The group will be officially introduced at a press conference in Brussels on Tuesday by Le Pen, who succeeded her father Jean-Marie Le Pen as head of the National Front (FN) in 2011.
The new EU parliamentary group will include European deputies from the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV), the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO), Italy’s Northern League and Flemish nationalist group Vlaams Belang.
Members of the European Parliament from other countries will also be joining the new political grouping, the FN statement added, without giving details.
PVV leader Geert Wilders confirmed the group’s formation in a jubilant tweet.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France’s Le Pen Wins Backing to Form Anti-EU Parliament Group
French National Front leader Marine Le Pen recruited Polish and British MEPs on Tuesday, finally allowing her to launch a new eurosceptic party dedicated to challenging every ambition held dear by champions of the EU.
The far-right National Front topped the vote in France in May 2014 European Parliament elections riding a wave of disillusionment with the EU and has been trying to form an official group — and obtain the millions of euros that brings — ever since.
Le Pen could count on the support of some 30 like-minded MEPs after the election, well above the 25 minimum required to form an official parliamentary grouping, but they came from only five of the EU’s 28 member states, short of the seven countries needed to win official recognition and EU financing…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
French School Race Row Over Lennon’s Imagine
A primary school summer fair has been cancelled in France after parents reportedly threatened the teachers who planned to have children singing John Lennon’s Imagine in Arabic.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Muslims Divided Over When to Start Ramadan
Muslims in France are once again in doubt over the exact date that the holy month of Ramadan begins, with two competing schools of thought on how the date should be decided.
The holy month of Ramadan — during which observant Muslims fast by day, eat in the hours of darkness and celebrate the final day with lavish feasting — is the most important event in the Islamic calendar. But when does it begin?
According to the French Union of Islamic Organisations (UOIF), which is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, Ramadan’s start date this year is June 18, having been decided in advance by calculating the lunar cycle.
But the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) will wait to witness the new moon and has yet to pronounce a start date for the fast.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Muslim Leader Dalil Boubaker Calls for Empty Catholic Churches to be Turned Into Mosques
A French Muslim leader has called for the country’s abandoned Catholic Churches to be turned into Mosques, saying that as many as 5,000 may be needed for the country’s Muslim population.
“It’s a delicate issue, but why not?” Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Grand Mosque in Paris and the president of the French Council of Muslim Faith, told Europe 1 radio.
France has that largest Muslim population in Europe, and Boubakeur said that the current 2,500 mosques and 300 extra under construction fell well short of the number required for worshippers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Family Gets Letter… 138 Years Late
A woman in her eighties in northern France has more reason than most to grumble about the country’s postal service after receiving a postcard destined for her great grandfather 138 years ago.
The postcard was sent on January 27th, 1877 from Sains-du-Nord, 10 kilometres from the intended recipient in Trélon.
Despite the short distance, the card took an incredible 138 years to arrive at its destination.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Launchers ‘Open’ Le Bourget Space Salon
New look for Avio, which aims for the future with Vega
(ANSA) — Paris, June 15 — Italian spacecraft launchers were the de fact show openers at the International Space and Aeronautics Salon at Le Bourget near Paris on Monday.
Le Bourget salon is the oldest and largest of its kind, and the Advanced Generation European Carrier Rocket, or Vega — made by Colleferro-based manufacturer Avio — is the most innovative and forward-looking family of small orbital launchers in use by the European Space Agency (ESA).
Avio debuted Monday with a new look and a new logo, its A intersected by an arch suggesting both an orbit’s trajectory and a planet’s profile.
“Beginning today, Avio is identifying with aerospace engineering on a visual level,” said Chairman and CEO Pier Giuliano Lasagni.
Avio (which stands for Advanced Vision Into Orbit) is 81% held by European private equity firm Cinven, 14% by Italy’s defence and aerospace giant Finmeccanica, and 5% by other investors.
Avio’s Vega C launcher has been approved by the ESA and is set to go into orbit in 2018, while its P120 engine at the base of the future Ariane 6 launcher is slated to go into space in 2020.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi’s PD Licks Wounds After Losing Venice
Centre-left also suffers defeats in Arezzo, Matera, Nuoro
(ANSA) — Rome, June 15 — Premier Matteo Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD) was licking its wounds Monday after losing Venice to the centre right for the first time in more than 20 years.
The defeat, coupled with a string of others across Italy, forced Renzi onto the back foot against the rising force on the right, the anti-immigrant and anti-euro Northern League of firebrand Matteo Salvini, as well as the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) of ex-comic Beppe Grillo, which got all its five mayoral candidates elected.
Although Renzi had already played down the impact of the local vote — which by contrast saw the PD win five of seven regions two weeks ago — he was again obliged to say that it would have “no effect” on his government’s reformist agenda.
Analysts said it was undeniable that low turnout reflected voter disenchantment which appeared to have hit the PD more than other parties.
In the regional elections, it was calculated that the ruling party lost around two million voters compared to last time out — and a sharp fall compared to last year’s other local elections where nationwide it scored over 40%. Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (FI) party, on the other hand, despite being recently overtaken by the League as top dog on the right, called the vote “a clear blow” to the PD and a sign that its own efforts to heal internal rifts might be rewarded by a “resurgence” in support.
The League, with Salvini cock-a-hoop, went even further, saying “Renzi we are coming for you” while the M5S said its various wins — including its first in Piedmont, at Venaria — showed that it naturally prospers under a two-round voting system such as that used for local votes.
The local vote, therefore, could be a harbinger of greater things on the national stage under a new election law, envisaging run-offs if no party gets 40% of the vote, that should be in place for the next scheduled general election in 2018.
Several M5S MPs said “we are the natural victors with the Italicum,” as the law has been dubbed.
Analysts said Renzi would have to address fears in the party that the Italicum, far from favouring the PD as has hitherto been widely forecast, might end up penalising it.
In Venice, businessman Luigi Brugnaro, running on a center-right civic list with support from FI, took 53% of the vote to beat former magistrate and Senator Felice Casson, who got 46.7%.
This was a reversal of the first-round results, which saw Casson taking 38% and Brugnaro 28.5%.
Analysts said the run-off outcome was due to a low turnout of 48%, in which PD voters essentially deserted Casson while the Northern League electorate flocked to Brugnaro’s ticket after its own candidate ran alone and lost in the first round.
Also weighing in was center-left voter disenchantment after the arrest in June 2014 of former Venice majormayor Giorgio Orsoni in connection with a corruption scandal involving the funnelling of 25 million euros of taxpayer money into political campaigns and away from MOSE, a 5.5-billion-euro system of retractable dikes set to become operational in 2016 after decades of delays.
A former Venice mayor and widely respected political pundit, Massimo Cacciari, said that the surprise result in the lagoon city was “the perfect suicide” produced by scandal and division.
Brugnaro, 54, is the son of a schoolteacher and a factory worker and in 1997 founded Umana SpA, one of Italy’s first temp agencies. Preliminary results showed the center-right candidate obtaining an absolute majority on the city council, garnering 17 members for his center-right civic list. FI has three council members, the League has two, the New Center Right (NCD) has one and other civic lists have two council members.
Casson’s list seated five councillors, while the PD came away with three and the anti-establishment, anti-euro 5-Star Movement (M5S) garnered three. Elsewhere in Italy, the ruling PD lost Arezzo, hometown of Refoms Minister Maria Elena Boschi, Matera in southern Italy and Nuoro in Sardinia amid low turnout of just 47.11%, and prevailed in Mantua and Lecco in Lombardy. The current round of voting continued in parts of Sicily on Monday, including the city of Enna, where a former PD Senator was defeated, and Gela, where the M%S secured its fifth success. PD Deputy Secretary Lorenzo Guerini admitted that the defeats in Venice and other cities had “burned” the centre-left group. But he also argued that, despite the losses, the PD remained Italy’s most widely supported party. “The run-off featured areas of light and darkness,” Guerini said. “Precise analysis (of the results) shows that the PD is clearly Italy’s top party…the defeat in Venice and in other important cities such as Arezzo, Fermo, Matera and Nuoro burns”.
“The fact that we won back cities of symbolic importance like Mantua and Trani, while other good administrators held their positions, beginning in Lecco, is not enough for us to consider this result to be positive,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Transsexual Decapitated Flatmate ‘After Two Days on Cocaine’
Ecuadorean cut off woman’s head, threw it in courtyard
(ANSA) — Milan, June 15 — An Ecuadorean transsexual who decapitated his flatmate at the weekend told prosecutors on Monday he did so after two alcohol and cocaine-fueled days that culminated in an argument.
“We spent two days drinking and doing cocaine, then we argued while talking about death and I hit her,” said Carlos Julio Torres Velesaca, 20.
Velesaca said he acted while “in the grip of an obsessive delirium” when he cut off Antonietta Gisonna’s head in the Milan apartment they had shared for a few days, then threw it in the courtyard.
Carabinieri police arriving on the scene found the alleged perpetrator in a state of shock, and the victim’s dog who was unharmed.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: 16mn Seized From Buzzi in Rome Mafia Probe
Including building Buzzi coops used to house refugees
(ANSA) — Rome, June 15 — Finance police on Monday confiscated 16 million euros in assets linked to Salvatore Buzzi, the jailed kingpin of several cooperatives who is at the centre of the so-called Mafia Capitale probe into an alleged crime ring that muscled in on lucrative Rome city contracts. The seized assets include all the assets of Rome real estate firm Sarim Immobiliare Srl, of which 48% was held by Buzzi’s June 29 Cooperative and 4% by Social Formula Cooperative, both of which were seized and shut down in December in the Rome Mafia probe.
Sarim assets include a 2,750 square-meter building that Buzzi’s cooperatives used as a reception center for refugees and asylum seekers.
Monday’s seizure brings total assets seized in the probe so far to some 360 million euros, investigators said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi Says Rome Mayor Marino Shouldn’t be ‘Relaxed’
Capital’s council hit by mafia probe
(ANSA) — Rome, June 16 — Premier Matteo Renzi has said Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino, a member of his centre-left Democratic Party (PD), should not be “relaxed” about his position. Marino has so far resisted calls to quit after the council was hit by a probe into alleged attempts by a mafia organisation to muscle in on city contracts. Marino is not personally implicated in the probe. “If I were Marino, I wouldn’t be relaxed,” Renzi told La Stampa. Marino refused to comment when asked about what Renzi had said. “Today we are dealing with culture, about the Rome Opera house, and in the afternoon we’ll make an announcement,” Marino said. When asked to comment on Renzi saying early local elections were a possibility for Rome next year, he replied: “Good morning and have a good day at work”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: San Raffaele Docs ‘In Surgery in Two ORs at Same Time’
Hospital ‘cheated natl health service out of 28 million’
(see related)(ANSA) — Milan, June 16 — Prosecutors said Tuesday some doctors at Milan’s San Raffaele hospital showed up in hospital records as being in surgery in more than one operating room at the same time. Six chief surgeons and three administrators are suspected of defrauding the national health service of 28 million euros by obtaining reimbursements based on falsified paperwork.
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Italy: CGIA Says Almost 50 Bn in Taxes to be Paid as of Tuesday
Businesses, families facing a range of levies
(ANSA) — Venice, June 16 — Some 50 billion euros in Italian taxes came due on Tuesday, a challenging moment for families and businesses, according to research by the CGIA.
In addition to some property taxes, including the IMU, and income taxes, other levies such as the value-added tax and the regional business tax called IRAP are also due, said the CGIA, a Venetian small business association, known for its economic analyses.
In total, 49.74 billion euros were due, it said.
The due date for taxes is no surprise but is always a difficult time for businesses and families, said Giuseppe Bortolussi, secretary of the CGIA.
“Despite knowing that the deadline is in June, it is traditionally the most challenging time of year…50 billion euros is a figure to shake your heartbeat,” he said.
However, promises last month of an extension until July 6 on certain business tax deadlines came as a bit of good news, he added.
Tax bills will now included the IMU property tax on second homes, and other municipal levies that would net about 10.1 billion euros.
Businesses face corporate taxes that should yield about 9.1 billion euros for the government, according to the CGIA figures.
A first instalment of the of the Tasi local services tax, will be worth about 2.3 billion euros for municipalities.
CGIA said its analysis was based in part on last year’s figures and does not include all local taxes.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Wolf Hunt Launched in Forest North of Oslo
Hunters have been sent out to track down and kill one or more wolves which have over the last few weeks killed at least five lambs in Nordmarka, the forest area north of Oslo.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Municipal Politics Completes Shift to the Left as New Councils Voted In
The consequences of the May 24 municipal and regional elections became reality on Saturday, as councils up and down the country were voted in. With the polls granting few parties absolute majorities, pacts between Spain’s two major forces — the Popular Party (PP) and the Socialist Party (PSOE) — and emerging groups such as center-right Ciudadanos and anti-austerity Podemos were the key to where power lay.
In the end, Saturday saw a new political era begin in Spain, with a clear shift to the left up and down the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Swedish Equality Culture is Killing Career Growth’
Sweden is famous for its equality in the workplace. But is the country’s modesty and fairness in fact to blame for increasing numbers of employees taking time off because of stress?
Swedish society is founded on ‘lagom’. Meaning not too much and not too little, it is a word that most other languages do not have. You are not allowed to be too rich or too poor, nor too flamboyant or too boring — you should be like everyone else and not stand out.
We love many aspects of working life here such as generous holiday allowances, maternity and paternity packages as well as a supportive government when it comes to child care, elderly care, health care and so on. In addition we work fewer hours than many of our European counterparts. So why are the Swedes so stressed?
Is ‘lagom’ and the famous Swedish equality to blame? We think it might be.
According to recent figures by Sweden’s Work Environment Authority (Arbetsmiljöverket) the number of people taking time off because of stress has increased over the past five years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turn Empty Catholic Churches Into Mosques, French Muslim Leader Says
France’s top Muslim official has suggested turning empty or abandoned Catholic churches into mosques, saying as many as 5,000 are needed for the country’s Muslim population — the largest in Europe.
“It’s a delicate issue, but why not?” Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Grand Mosque in Paris and the president of the French Council of Muslim Faith, told Europe 1 radio on Monday.
There are currently about 2,500 mosques in France with another 300 under construction, but the number falls short of what is needed, he said. With roughly 5 million Muslims in France, at least 5,000 mosques are needed, Boubakeur said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Bronte Doyne Told to ‘Stop Googling’ Rare Liver Cancer That Killed Her
Bronte Doyne, 19, from Nottingham, was ‘fed up of trusting’ medics who refused to accept she was dying and was told to ‘stop googling’ the rare illness that would eventually kill her.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Ramadan 2015: What Employers Must to Do Help Their Fasting Muslim Staff
There are British laws against religious discrimination in the workplace. But European human rights law is also at play here. Though there are no specific cases involving Ramadan, a Christian British Airways employee brought one particularly high-profile religious discrimination case. BA had told her to take off her crucifix jewellery, which she challenged. She lost in a British court only for a European one to overturn the decision.
The important thing is dialogue. Employers should speak with their Muslim employees about Ramadan to iron out any issues because “there can’t be a one-size-fits-all approach”, Mogra says.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
18 Dead After Tunisian Train Hits Truck Blocking Tracks
A Tunisian passenger train smashed into a semi-trailer truck racing to cross the tracks early Tuesday morning, killing 18 people as two carriages derailed.
At least 86 people were injured when the speeding train hit the truck at 6:30 a.m. outside the town of Fahs, 37 miles southwest of the capital, Tunis, authorities said.
Local media had initially reported the truck driver was among the dead, but Lt. Col. Selmi Yousfi said he escaped when he saw the train barreling toward him at about 80 mph, and later surrendered.
The crossing had a warning sign, but lacked guardrails, lights or barriers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Turkey Launches ‘Free Morsi’ Petition
Pro-Erdogan media likens him to Gandhi, Luther King and Mandela
(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, JUNE 15 — An online petition launched Sunday in Turkey calling for the release of Egypt’s ousted president Mohamed Morsi had collected 2,500 by Monday, reported state-owned news agency Anadolu. The appeal is an attempt to draw attention to the death penalty handed down to Morsi, sentenced alongside 105 others for a mass prison break in 2011. Ahead of Tuesday’s hearing, the petition — published in English, Arabic and Turkish at Freemorsi.org — compares the Muslim Brotherhood leader to “Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Mandela”, who also “fought for freedom, justice and humanity”, and demands that the “president elected by Egyptians” be released. On Monday, Turkish pro-government media gave a great deal of publicity to the campaign. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long supported the Muslim Brotherhood leader and clashed with his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, while criticizing the West’s silence. Following the sentence, Erdogan spoke of a “return to ancient Egypt”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
40 Foreign Suicide Bombers a Month Enter Iraq: PM
Around 40 foreign suicide bombers enter Iraq each month, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Monday, calling for countries in the region to curb the flow of foreign fighters.
Suicide bombers are one of the deadliest weapons of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, which deploys them in explosives-packed vehicles to breach Iraqi defences or cause mass civilian casualties in crowded areas.
“An average of 40 suicide (bombers) enter Iraq per month,” Abadi said in televised remarks.
“The number of foreign fighters in Iraq now exceeds the number of Iraqis” in IS, Abadi said, and there are suicide bombers “from every country” in the region…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Al-Qaeda in Yemen Confirms Leader Killed in Drone Strike
Al-Qaeda in Yemen confirmed the death of its leader Nasir al-Wuhayshi, number two in the global jihadist organisation, in a US drone strike, in a video statement posted online.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula also said it chose its military chief Qassem al-Rimi as its new leader, in the statement posted by Al-Qaeda’s Al-Malahem media arm and dated June 15.
AQAP is behind several plots against the United States, including an attempt to blow up a US commercial airliner on Christmas Day 2009.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Death of Al Qaeda’s No. 2: Who Was Nasir Al-Wahishi?
With the White House confirmation of his death, Nasir al-Wahishi has now become the biggest al Qaeda target to fall to the U.S. since Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011 — not for just who the terror leader was before his death, but what he could’ve become.
Overnight al-Wahishi’s group, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, announced their leader’s death in a video uploaded online, saying the “hero of your heroes and master of your masters” was felled in an American drone strike in recent days. Hours later the White House National Security Council said the U.S. intelligence community “has concluded” the rumors are true and that al-Wahishi is dead — though the NSC didn’t say how al-Wahishi was killed.
Al-Wahishi kept a relatively low profile, despite being the leader of al Qaeda’s most dangerous affiliate. His name is not widely known outside of counter-terrorism professionals and observers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Routed by Kurdish Fighters in Syrian Border Town
U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters took control of a strategic town on the Syria-Turkey border Monday, forcing ISIS militants to flee and cutting off a key supply line to the self-proclaimed caliphate’s capital.
The Washington Post reported that the main Kurdish fighting force, known as the YPG, backed by affiliated Syrian rebels, had captured the town of Tal Abyad, claiming control of the town center by nightfall Monday. The Post also reported that the advancing forces had cut off ISIS’ escape route from the town, surrounding it from the east, south, and west.
The loss of Tal Abyad, some 50 miles north of Raqqa, the capital of ISIS’ self-declared caliphate, is the extremists’ biggest setback since Kurdish fighters took control of the border town of Kobani near Turkey, after fighting ISIS for months.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mosul and Raqqa Will Never be the Same Again, Say Refugees
At camp in southern Lebanon, ‘trust destroyed’
(by Alberto Zanconato) (ANSAmed) — MARJAYUN (SOUTHERN LEBANON), MAY 5 — One day the Islamic State (ISIS) will leave, but Syria and Iraq will never be the same again.
This is clear from the fear and hatred that fills the speech of both Muslim and Christian refugees that have arrived from ISIS “capitals” in the two nations, Raqqa and Mosul, and who are now in southern Lebanon near the border between Syria and Israel, where artillery rounds and rockets can be heard. On the Golan Heights, about 15 kilometers away, the battle continues between the Syrian regime and Islamist rebel groups including the local Al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Al-Nusra. At a lower altitude in Marjayoun, amid the green hills of spring and flowering peach blossoms, live thousands of refugees that have arrived over the past four years of civil war. The refugees are gathered into small groups of tents and shacks, often divided up depending on location of origin. In the Sarada one there are some 160 people from the northern Syrian province of Raqqa, which since 2013 has by under ISIS control. The men tell of the atrocities committed by the jihadists and the life of fear of those remaining. Brahim, a man of about 40 years old who acts as head of the community, said that among those that have not fled are those belonging to a tribe that joined forces with ISIS and collaborated with them. “When I go back I will not be able to trust them any longer,” he said, “and they will have to deal with retaliation from the state and the people.” A few kilometers further north, in a house on the Marjayoun outskirts, a Iraqi Christian family is housed that fled from Qaraqosh, near Mosul. The also speak of collaboratists, and say that when ISIS arrived the entire Sunni population joined them. “Our neighbors were the ones to sack our home,” said Nasser Jebbo, who with his brother and the families of both got to Lebanon through a network of churches.
“Even if ISIS leaves,” said his wife, “how will we ever be able to return? Who will guarantee that in a year or two the same won’t happen. What we want is just to leave. To Canada, maybe, since we have relatives there. Otherwise wherever we can, but far from Iraq for the future of our children, since it’s all over for our generation.” This is what hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Christians have already done since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s fall in 2003. “It is since then,” Nasser said, “that our life has changed. The women have had to begin covering themselves with a headscarf when they left their homes, and Islamic pressure rose.
But we would never have imagined an invasion like the ISIS one.” To the question of whether he would feel safer with Shias, he answered “no. For us, they are all Muslims”. The men from the Sarada camp are Sunni — as is ISIS — but fled Raqqa and now, Brahim says, they feel “safe thanks to Hezbollah”, the Lebanese ‘Party of God’ that controls this region in southern Lebanon. However, they do not like Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad, who Hezbollah and Iran are helping in the conflict. One instead blames the Western media, saying “you made ISIS seem like some irresistible force, but in reality it was the Syrian army that withdrew without a fight in Raqqa, in agreement with” the jihadist group. The conversation then turns to practical problems, like the snakes and scorpions that will soon, in the hot season, be a problem in the shacks. The children attend scholastic courses organized by the Italian NGO Avsi in white tents on the Marjayoun plain. Some 20,000 Syrian children across Lebanon are able to continue their schooling thanks to this program, but 350,000 are left without education and are often sent by their families to work. The director of Avsi’s Lebanese office, Marco Perini, stops to talk to the children and reminds parents that they must attend classes in the hope that the younger generation will be able to get past the fear and hate.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Anti-ISIS Envoy Praises Italy ‘Leadership’
General John Allen, on two-day mission to Rome
(ANSA) — Rome, June 11 — US President Barack Obama’s special envoy for the global anti-ISIS coalition, General John Allen, on Thursday praised Italy’s efforts in the fight against the Islamic fundamentalist insurgency as it tries to carve a so-called caliphate out of parts of Syria and Iraq. The general “expressed his appreciation for Italy’s leadership” in the battle to cut off ISIS’ funding channels and in support of Iraqi efforts to restore order in areas that have been recently liberated from ISIS. Allen held meetings with top political and security officials during his two-day mission ending Thursday, the US embassy said in a note.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
by Phyllis Chesler
One always pays a price for telling the truth—especially about anti-Semitism, Israel, and radical Islam.
Our allies in Muslim countries have been jailed, tortured, and executed. Such truth-tellers who live in the West, often write under pseudonyms, live in hiding or in exile, and with round-the-clock protection. They are demonized as racists, death-threatened, sued into poverty.
I am an intellectual and a writer and I live in the West. I have not been physically beaten, imprisoned, or tortured, nor have my books been burned. However, I have been cast into a peculiar kind of Gulag. After a long and successful career, my work—both past and current—has been “disappeared” by those who once praised it.
| — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler | [Return to headlines] |
UAE Increasingly ‘Chinese-Friendly’
The strategy pays off: Chinese tourism booming
(by Virginia Di Marco) (ANSAmed) — ROME, MAY 26 — Noodle soup for breakfast and a growing number of Chinese employees are just some of the bonuses offered by hotels in the United Arab Emirates to attract tourists from China.
And the strategy is paying off, if you look at the data. In Dubai, for example, Chinese visitors in 2014 increased 25% on the previous year. In total, a boom worth 345,000 people, according to data provided by the agency for the promotion of tourism in the country — the Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing, DTCM — which recently opened three new offices in China.
The numbers are set to double by 2023, according to experts from the Intercontinental Hotels Group, which studied the issue together with Oxford Economics, the research center connected with the prestigious British university.
The forecast also takes into account the fact that today, although Chinese nationals travel a lot — they are among the main national groups in tourism — only 5% of the population hold a passport. In other words, most of the potential of expenditure of Chinese tourists remains in China — meaning international tourism has ample margins for growth.
The Emirates are thus preparing in advance, gearing up their hotels and tourism structures. Analysts agree in picking the UAE as the favorite destination of Chinese tourists who will visit the Middle East and North Africa in the near future. Abu Dhabi could welcome as many as 177,000 Chinese tourists by 2023 — or 300% more than in 2014, with an average stay of 3.2 nights. Not even traditionally popular destinations among Chinese travelers like London, Paris or Sydney are expected to perform as well.
And there is another reason leading the media in the UAE to define Chinese tourism as the ‘golden lottery ticket’: on average, the permanence of the Chinese is longer than that of other foreign visitors. “The Chinese are not tourists for an event, or a quick stopover”, explained the Dubai-based information website arabianbusiness.com. On the contrary, “they want to understand the place where they are and explore its surroundings; they take their time”.
And with per capita GDP growth growing 10% every year in China — out of a population of approximately 1.3 billion — it is easy to understand why hotels in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and other emirates are doing their best to be ‘Chinese-ready’.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece-Russia: Tsipras and Putin to Meet in St. Petersburg
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JUNE 16 — Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and other foreign leaders in the framework of the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, Ana-Mpa reports quoting the president’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Tuesday. “A working meeting has been scheduled with Alexis Tsipras on Friday, June 19, on the sidelines of the Forum,” he stated. The Kremlin’s spokesman, according to ITAR-TASS, said that Putin will also have working meetings with other foreign leaders who will attend the Forum, including Vice Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China Wang Yang, President of Kyrgyzstan Almazbek Atambayev, Prime Minister of Mongolia Chimed Saikhanbileg.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Putin Says More Than 40 New Missiles in 2015
‘Able to beat most sophisticated system’
(ANSA) — Moscow, June 16 — Russia will add more than 40 new ballistic missiles to its nuclear arsenal this year, President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday, stressing that the new ICBMs “will be able to overcome even the most technically sophisticated missile defence system”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Vladimir Putin: Interview to the Italian Newspaper “il Corriere Della Sera”
This is the full transcript of Corriere della Sera’s interview with Vladimir Putin.
It’s almost two o’clock in the morning when we get to the end of the interview. Vladimir Putin responded to our questions for just shy of two hours. “Mr. President—asks the editor of Corriere della Sera, Luciano Fontana—is there one thing that you regret more than anything in your life, which you consider an error that you would never again want to repeat?” The Russian president adjusts himself in his chair, and his eyes suddenly seem to sparkle. He remains silent for a few seconds, and then in his thin voice he says softly: “I will be quite frank with you. I cannot recollect anything of the kind. By the grace of God, I have nothing to regret in my life.”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: Anti-Corruption Journalist Immolated by Cops, Allegedly Under Orders From Minister
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Jagendra Singh reported on corruption in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh on his Facebook account, which allegedly prompted Ram Murti Singh Verma, a ruling party politician, to send police to his house to burn him alive; he died a week later of his injuries.
Amnesty International is calling for an investigation. Police have opened a case against the minister and five others. They have made no arrests.
The attack happened after he published an article and posted allegations of corruption on Facebook against ruling party politician Ram Murti Singh Verma. He used an alias, but his true identity was quickly discovered by his enemies.
Police have registered a complaint of murder and criminal conspiracy against Mr Verma, who denies the charges.
Jagendra Singh’s family has alleged that Mr Verma and a group of policemen assaulted the 42-year-old journalist at his home and then doused him with petrol and set him on fire.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Islamic Clerics Back Blasphemy Laws: Those Who Insult Mohammed Have No Right to Live
Ten ulema and a former judge criticised a bill that would water down the existing blasphemy law. They also support the release of Mumtaz Qadri, who murdered Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, who defended Asia Bibi.
Lahore (AsiaNews) — Islamic religious leaders have attacked the government’s plan to neutralise the much criticised blasphemy laws, and expressed strong support for the release of Mumtaz Qadri, the bodyguard who murdered Punjab Governor Salman Taseer.
An emotionally charged ‘Seminar for protection of Prophet’s dignity’ was held last Saturday at Lahore Press Club. Ten ulemas expressed their reservation against a draft bill that aims to add the word “intention” to the law.
Human rights groups as well as Church leaders have repeatedly stated that 295C is used in extrajudicial killings and the burning of Christian settlements.
If approved by the Law Ministry, the new legislation would be reviewed by a committee before going to parliament. According to seminar speakers, 14 people accused of blasphemy have been hanged so far, whilst 19 more are serving life imprisonment.
The speakers included retired Justice Mian Nazir Akhtar, counsel to Mumtaz Qadri, who is jailed for killing Punjab governor Salman Taseer because he referred to the country’s blasphemy law as “black law” in a television show.
Taseer, a Muslim, had gained popularity among Pakistan’s Christian minority for trying to help Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death for allegedly defiling the name of the Prophet Muhammad.
The judge who sentenced Mumtaz Qadri to death left for Saudi Arabia along with his family after receiving death threats from extremists.
“This single act [Taseer’s murder] made Qadri immortal,” said Mian Nazir Akhtar to the ovation of those present. “Taseer’s authority could not save him. He had lowered himself and violated his oath for a woman who was proven guilty by the court and then punished. He carried a western agenda (for abolishing the blasphemy law) for more than three years and was finally sent to hell.”
“The new bill rejects all sayings by the Holy Prophet. When it comes to the sanctity of the Prophet, the implementation of all manmade laws become different. Those who insult Him have no rights, including no right to live. There is no need for trial or hearings,” added the former judge.
Other speakers also warned government leaders against tampering with the blasphemy law. Quoting Islamic references in favour of the death sentence, they threatened sit-ins, protest rallies and fatwas against supporters of the proposed bill.
“Youths will be sacrificed, ghazi (reference to Qadri) will be saved” and “Allah o Akbar,” chanted the bearded attendants.
Saeeda Deep, of the Institute of Peace and Secular Studies, has campaigned for changes to blasphemy law a few years ago.
“We tried to prove blasphemy by producing four Muslim witnesses, but our voices are being suppressed. Even Saudi Arabia, our religious hub, does not follow such strict version of this law”, she told AsiaNews.
“If the clerics believe in killing in the name of God, they must accept death sentence of governor’s guard for the same cause”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Taliban Talks: Militants Say They’ll Meet Afghan Officials in Norway
Top Taliban officials have traveled to Norway for talks with Afghan government officials on Monday, two militants told NBC News.
“Our representatives led by Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanakzai, Qari Din Mohammad Hanif, Sher Mohammad and others already landed in Norway. They will have an important meetings with Afghan government officials … during two days of peace talks in Norway,” a Taliban official in the group’s office in the Gulf kingdom of Qatar told NBC News speaking on condition of anonymity. A second Taliban official in the United Arab Emirates also said the group had sent a delegation to Oslo.
On Tuesday, an Afghan foreign ministry spokesman told Afghanistan’s Tolo TV that a senior delegation was in Norway to participate in the Oslo Forum, an invitation-only event for peace mediators and others involved with trying to resolve armed conflict. He did not say whether or not they would meet with the Taliban while there.
The Afghan government has been struggling to start negotiations with the militants, who have continued to mount deadly attacks on the army, police and civilians.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Beijing Announces End to South China Sea Land Reclamation
China has announced that it will complete its planned reclamation of some land in its disputed South China Sea within “upcoming days.” The project has heightened tensions with nearby countries over exclusion zone fears.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
North Korea Unveils Super-Strength Viagra Tablet That Boosts Sexual Function
The secretive state of North Korea has unveiled a pill that claims to increase strength, brainpower and ‘sexual function’ while also sending you into a deep sleep.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EU Should Welcome One Million Refugees: UN Rights Chief
The UN rights chief on Monday called for the European Union to take bolder steps to address its swelling migrant crisis, insisting the bloc could easily take in one million refugees.
“It is well within the EU’s means to give refuge, over a number of years, to one million refugees displaced by the conflicts in Syria and elsewhere,” said Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.
“This would represent barely 0.2 percent of the EU’s population,” he told a special debate on migrant rights at the UN Human Rights Council, pointing out that Lebanon has already taken in 26 percent of its population in refugees.
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| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
EU to Hold Migrant Crisis Talks in Luxembourg
Talks to tackle migrant relocation plans were set to continue on Tuesday as EU interior ministers met in Luxembourg. The meeting followed a war of words between France and Italy over migrants waiting near Ventimiglia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France Says Migrants Won’t Pass, Are Italy’s Problem
UN calls on EU to ‘stop demonizing migrants’
(ANSA) — Brussels, June 15 — French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Monday that France will not allow asylum seekers to cross its border with Italy, arguing it was up to Rome to process their requests. “We’ve returned some 6,000 migrants to Italy (since the start of the year),” Cazeneuve said.
“They must not pass. The Schengen rules must be respected”.
He said Italy must “agree to set up centres” to distinguish legitimate refugees from economic migrants.
Italian Premier Matteo Renzi replied that the “muscular stance of certain ministers of friendly countries (on the migrant crisis) goes in the opposite direction” from “Plan A, which is to all face the issue together”. He said Italy “must shoulder the burden and is doing so, it’s saving hundreds of lives and will keep doing so”.
“A solid country such as ours can’t allow France to have ships in the Mediterranean and leave (migrants) in Italy,” Renzi went on.
“No national egoism (should be allowed to) look away,” he told a press conference at the premier’s office. Renzi added his plan B on immigration is Italy doing it all on its own. “The EU is at a crossroads,” he said. “Plan A is it thinks like a community and solves the problem as such…plan B is we do it alone, and Italy faces up to the issue like the great country it is”.
The Commission has proposed relocating 40,000 asylum seekers already in Italy and Greece to other parts of the Union, following a mandatory quota system.
That plan has divided the EU, with many states, including France and Germany, coming out against the obligation to receive the asylum seekers. Renzi, on the other hand, says the proposal does not go far enough. “We believe we have found a good balance,” Bertaud said of the proposal, which will be examined by EU interior ministers on Tuesday before being discussed at the June 25-26 summit of European leaders. “We want the relocation system to be mandatory”. The EC proposal is part of its Agenda on Migration which also features the tripling of funding for migrant rescue operations in the southern Mediterranean and the launch of a naval operation to target human traffickers. Renzi’s talk of a plan B was seen as a challenge to his fellow EU leaders, with the migrant emergency visibly becoming difficult to handle and asylum seekers camped out at train stations in Rome and Milan and in the city of Ventimiglia on the border with France. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein on Monday urged the European Union to take “brave steps” on immigration. The EU has the capacity to “provide asylum…to one million refugees fleeing wars in Syria and elsewhere,” Hussein said.
The commissioner went on to blast the “frequent demonization of migrants in countries that enjoy peace and wellbeing…I ask all of you to take a stand against this very dangerous tendency,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
German Navy Saves 544 Mediterranean Refugees
German sailors rescued 544 refugees from wooden boats off the Libyan coast on Monday, the Bundeswehr (German military) said.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Bundeswehr said the 335 men, 148 women and 61 children were brought aboard the frigate Schleswig-Holstein after they were picked up 85 kilometres from Libya’s capital Tripoli betwen 9 am and 4 pm.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary’s Orban Says Barrier on Border With Serbia Possible
To stem the increased flow of migrants
(ANSA/AP) — BUDAPEST — Hungary’s prime minister says the government will consider “all options,” including a physical barrier on the southern border with Serbia, to stem the increased flow of migrants.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Friday on state radio that “migration is dangerous” and that the government will hear the interior minister’s recommendations on the issue next week.
Hungary has received more than 50,000 asylum requests so far this year, compared to 43,000 in 2014 and 2,157 in 2012. About 70 percent of the refuges now are from Afghanistan, Syria or Iraq.
Orban said the European Union should fund facilities outside its borders where migrants wishing to come to Europe can stay until their cases are evaluated. Orban said “the problem needs to be handled outside” the EU.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia Outraged at Report Australia Paid People Smugglers
Jakarta summons Australian ambassador
(ANSA) — Sydney, June 15 — Relations between Indonesia and Australia plummeted after Jakarta accused Canberra of paying people smugglers to take illegal migrants to the Indonesian coast rather than to Australia, diplomatic sources said Monday.
The Indonesian government summoned the Australian ambassador over the claims, which the conservative Australian government of Tony Abbott has declined to confirm or deny.
The Office of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organisation of Migrants (OIM) have demanded an explanation of the claims.
The allegations have sparked a furore within the Australian opposition, which is already up in arms over the government’s hardline position on immigration.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy-France Migrant Stand-Off Opens EU Rift
Italy and France engaged in a war of words on Monday as a standoff over 250 Africans stuck at their common border exposed divisions over Europe’s migrant crisis.
Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano described images of migrants perched on rocks at the border town of Ventimiglia after being refused entry to France as a “punch in the face for Europe.”
His French counterpart Bernard Cazeneuve hit back by insisting that France was fully within its rights to send illegal immigrants or asylum seekers back to Italy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants Live in Fear of New Clashes With Paris Police
After fleeing persecution and war, and travelling thousands of kilometers to reach Paris, African migrants who have set up a makeshift encampment along the River Seine now live in permanent fear of a violent eviction.
A splendid, early-summer evening is gearing up on the Quai d’Austerlitz in central Paris. On the terrace bar of the Institut français de la mode (IFM) fashion school, a 30-something crowd sips 12-euro cocktails behind designer sunglasses. The sinking sun glimmers off the nearby Pont Charles de Gaulle, which spans the River Seine, connecting the picturesque Gare d’Austerlitz and Gare de Lyon rail stations. The music placidly mounts in tempo and volume.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants Evacuated From French Border
Taken to Caritas shelter in Ventimiglia
– VENTIMIGLIA (IMPERIA) — Migrants who have been gathering at the Ponte San Ludovico border crossing with France, along the Aurelia road, have been evacuated. The operation, carried out by Carabinieri and police officers, started shortly before 8 am Tuesday.
There were moments of tension when a few migrants resisted the move but the situation is now calm. The migrants were taken to Ventimiglia’s station aboard Red Cross buses.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Morales Says Bolivia Favors Universal Citizenship
‘We welcome migrants as human beings’ says Bolivian chief
(ANSA) — Milan, June 12 — Bolivian President Evo Morales said Monday his country is in favor of universal citizenship and the abolition of the words “illegal migrant”.
“In Bolivia…we will try and welcome migrants because they are human beings,” he said.
“And we don’t use the term ‘illegal’ because we must have universal citizenship,” he added in his speech to the seventh Italy-Latin America Conference under way from June 12 until Tuesday.
“We understand the problems that the immigration phenomenon poses,” the Bolivian leader went on.
“But the migratory flows are caused by capitalism, by wars, by military intervention and the fact that wealth is concentrated in the hands of too few people,” he said.
“We need to democratize resources”.
Morales went on to say he “welcomes” European investments in Bolivia, with some conditions.
“We don’t accept proposals that prejudice the development of our people,” he said.
“We must have trust in our government and we take responsibility for repaying all our debts”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Red Cross to Discuss Ventimiglia Refugee Ramadan Aid
Some 30% observant Muslims
(ANSA) — Ventimiglia, June 16 — The Italian and French chapters of the Red Cross will meet Tuesday to discuss Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting that begins June 17-18.
The two humanitarian organizations will talk about ways to help the refugees now camping out at the Italian-French border at Ventimiglia, 30% of whom are observant Muslims from northern Africa.
The yearly religious fast calls for believers to refrain from food, drink and other activities from dawn until sunset.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain’s Migrant Workers Send $10 Billion Home
Migrant workers in Spain sent $9.6 billion (€8.6 billion) back to their families in their home countries last year, according to a new report.
Spain was one of the top countries in Europe for the amount of money that migrant workers sent back home in remittances, according to a report published on Monday by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
End of Objective Journalism and the Rise of the Corporate-Media State. Part 3
When you view this new media format from the globalist propaganda agenda, and consider the second derivative impact; it is readily apparent the new format is doing more than simply challenging the traditional national framing of conflict, and blurring the “hierarchy of the meanings of war.” In challenging the national framing of the conflict, and destroying the sense of ‘absolute justice’ on ‘our side’, the new media format is ultimately challenging the legitimacy of the sovereign nation states themselves.
If the issues of their unique identities, so critical as to require violent conflict to resolve, are becoming lost to the people, the rationale for the continued existence of independent nation states is the next logical issue to be raised. And this is the final goal of the corporate media state — the conquest of and total dominance over not only the people, but the nation states themselves.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘An angry wog talks’ about the situation in New Sweden
http://youtu.be/3KSJY0c8QWw
The video above is for the international audience. It describes the mass immigration and multiculturalism madness of “the New Sweden” or “Absurdistan” as it is sometimes called. It must be stressed that this is NOT a stand-up comedy act, although it may come across as such. Although hard to believe, the video contains nothing but straight facts about today’sSweden.
The vlogger calls himself “En arg blatte talar”, i.e “An angry wog talks”, hinting at the fact that he himself is an immigrant, although – in sharp contrast to most of today’s MENA asylum seekers – a well integrated and assimilated immigrant.
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addendum
https://youtu.be/o_znVnOizU8
http://swedenreport.org/
Thanks for this, easily the best video I have seen to explain the Swedish lunacy.
“A French Muslim leader named Dalil Boubaker has called for the country’s empty Catholic churches to be turned into mosques. France is building new mosques at a record rate, but Mr. Boubaker says they are insufficient to meet the needs of French Muslims.”
Westerners wouldn’t make such a statement because they’d be conscious of how arrogant, presumptious, and unaware it made them appear. Not so the Muslim. He is concerned only with how right his way of viewing the world is.
Fortunately Westerners are waking up to this shocking reality – that different peoples view the world differently. Once we admit this to ourselves things will change. They are already changing.
Hate to say it but converting churches into mosques is a logical consequence of the destructive imigration policies that many European countries are following. No point fighting the consequences but importing millions upon millions of Muslims.
Dark ages are descending on Europe.
….and everywhere else in the si!si! Muslim lolly loving west – no exceptions. The wake up call will be dreadful – I imagine.
I wouldn’t say so. It’s a result of the “church” emptying the Bible of its content — and so the buildings are empty too.
In other words: APOSTASY on a massive scale within the church leads us here. Some say, “what is truth?” And now we know the consequences of the enlightenment, placing man’s fallen reason over Divine Revelation.
Meanwhile in the Maghreb:
http://www.pangeatoday.com/59-of-algerian-women-think-husbands-have-right-to-beat-them/?orderBy=popular
“A study on 15 to 49-year-old Algerian women shows that 59 percent of them say that the husband “has the right to hit or beat” his wife.”
So progressive. So tolerant.
Isn’t it interesting how some think they can fool the whole gullible world by putting a whole lot of untouchable words together on a page, and posing as Good?
“Global Network, Rights and Development (GNRD), International NGO, enhance and support both human rights and development by adopting new strategies and policies for real change”. And it goes on, with “Globalization, and United Nations Standards”.
It all, seems to go in a loop within this little network, of rights to enrichment of the network itself.
Oh, and I forgot the telling “Peace, and Dialogue”.