The Islamic State has blown up two ancient sites in the Syrian city of Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The two monuments were considered relics of shirk, or polytheism.
In other news, a Muslim-owned grocery in the French city of Bordeaux has caused a controversy by establishing male-only and female-only shopping days.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Upananda Brahmachari, Vlad Tepes, 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: Beijing: Industrial Production Falls for a Fourth Consecutive Month
The data is still unofficial, but the sector is still below 50 PMI points and therefore technically in contraction. Experts speak of “stabilization” of the national economy, but imports and exports do not seem capable of returning to pace of recent years. The government stimulus ends up in equities and has not reached the real economy.
Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) — Industrial activity in China has contracted for the fourth consecutive month. However, according to unofficial numbers and forecasts, this decline has brought with it some signs of stabilization for the sector, vital for the country’s economy.
The PMI index — scale that determines the purchasing power relative to industrial production — stood at 49.6: up from 49.2 the previous month but still below 50 points, the threshold that separates contraction from expansion.
On the same scale, new orders are at a comforting 50.3: exports however, collapsed in May, but at a slower pace. But the sector lost jobs at the fastest pace of the last six years, which certainly worries the central government. To stem the losses, large industries have accepted lower prices for products.
Despite a steady stream of public funds, the so-called “stimulus” provided by the Central People’s Bank of China economic growth has been unable to exceed the threshold of 7 percentage points. The decline in domestic demand — caused in part by the reduction of purchasing power — gave the final blow to the industrial production which was already tried by the international economic crisis.
According to some analysts, the most serious problem is the economic mechanism itself. A considerable part of the funds allocated by the government, in fact, was absorbed by the market and did not reach the so-called “real economy”. In this way it weakened the power of incentives provided by the capital at zero interest, and this has thrown the country into a seemingly never ending spiral.
To try to curb what now seems like an unstoppable trend, the government has tasked the State Council the task to launch a ten-year recovery plan. This plan to “bet everything” on new technology, is being termed “the key to the economic revival of China”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
ECB Pumps More Cash Into Greek Banks
The European Central Bank has again increased emergency liquidity funding for Greece’s ailing banks as they face massive capital outflows amid uncertainty over the future of the country in the euro area.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ECB’s Angeloni Says Banks’ Exposure to Italian BTP Doubled
Urges acceptance of single resolution mechanism
(ANSA) — Rome, June 23 — The exposure of Italian banks to government bonds has doubled, from about 200 billion euro pre-crisis to the current 400 billion euros, a member of the supervisory board of the European Central Bank (ECB) said Tuesday.
Ignazio Angeloni told an Italian Senate hearing that the level of risk and interconnection between sovereign bonds and banking is also “true at European level…and it must be addressed at the international level, by the Basel Committee”.
That committee deals with financial stability issues.
Angeloni said that it was important Italy and other eurozone countries adopt “without delay” a European Commission directive on a single resolution mechanism on banking issues related to failures and access to a resolution fund.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Public Sector Pensioners Are Almost Half a Million
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JUNE 22 — The number of public sector pensioners in Greece reached 468,422 in 2014 and cost almost 6 billion euros, while 55.176 were added in the past five years, according to figures given by the General Accounting Office. The figures, as GreekReporter website writes, were presented to the Greek parliament by Deputy Finance Minister Dimitris Mardas after the request of New Democracy lawmaker Evangelos Basiakos who asked to be informed on the number of public sector pensioners and the pension expenditures from 2010 until today.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: “Warning Shots” From Syriza to Government
First reactions over the latest proposal made to Eurogroup
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JUNE 23 — The Greek government’s latest proposal, which was presented and discussed at Monday’s meetings in Brussels, have caused reactions within Syriza and the government, as daily To Vima online reports. The first warning came from the Minister of National Defense and Independent Greeks leader Panos Kammenos, who declared that he would not accept the abolition of the discounted VAT rate on the islands.
Vice President of Parliament and Syriza MP Alexis Mitropoulos later told Star Channel that he does not believe that these “extreme and antisocial” measures can be brought to Parliament for approval. Syriza MP Yannis Michelogiannakis also commented on Channel 9 that an agreement based on the government’s new proposals would be catastrophic for Greece and argued that such an agreement will only exacerbate the social destitution that his party was promised to end. Michelogiannakis called the Prime Minister to reject such a deal, particularly if it is not accompanied by a debt restructure and investment plant to support growth in the Greek economy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Film Shows Way Out of Debt Bind
“Debtocracy” a 75-minute documentary made for $15K has inflamed popular resistance in Greece by casting the debt crisis in a new light. Seen on the Internet by over a million Greeks, the film convincingly argues that the debt is a neo-liberal (“Economic Hitman”) scam and there are strong precedents for repudiating it…
Rafael Correa, the President of Equador didn’t think the majority of his government’s income should be used to service the national debt. He ordered an “audit committee” to investigate how this debt was incurred and discovered that 70% of it was due to the corruption of prior regimes.
He renounced that debt. Equador’s bonds fell to 20 cents on the dollar. His government secretly bought it back and saved seven billion dollars in interest. Interestingly, many civil servants at the Ministry of Finance refused to cooperate with the audit committee.
This emphasizes that there is always a class which is in cahoots with the bankers and profits at the expense of the people.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Industrial Orders Record Highest Rise Since 2010
Revenues down in April
(ANSA) — Rome, June 23 — Italian industrial orders rose by 5.4% in April with respect to March, the biggest month-on-month increase since December 2010, Istat said on Tuesday. Orders were up 7.9% with respect to April 2014, the biggest year-on-year rise since May 2011, the national statistics agency said. The agency added, however, that industrial revenues were down 0.6% in April with respect to March and 0.2% compared to the same month in 2014.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Peter Schiff: How to Protect Yourself When the Economic Bubble Bursts
Financial analyst and author Peter Schiff explains the economic decline of America and what you can do to protect yourself and your family.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Tough Task of Becoming a Mom in Crisis-Hit Spain
Elvira gave birth to Sara in 1982 when she was 23 and studying for official examinations to become a conservatory music teacher. And now Sara, at age 32, has just given birth to Serea despite having no job security as a kindergarten teacher.
Sara Marcet, a native of the Galician city of Vigo, is a textbook example of the National Statistics Institute (INE)’s profile of the average Spanish mother: a woman who bears children for the first time at the age of 31.8 years, a tenth of a point higher than the previous year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
After all these years, the most famous investor in the world still believes that derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction. And you know what? He is exactly right. The next great global financial collapse that so many are warning about is nearly upon us, and when it arrives derivatives are going to play a starring role. When many people hear the word “ derivatives” , they tend to tune out because it is a word that sounds very complicated. And without a doubt, derivatives can be enormously complex. But what I try to do is to take complex subjects and break them down into simple terms. At their core, derivatives represent nothing more than a legalized form of gambling. A derivative is essentially a bet that something either will or will not happen in the future. Ultimately, someone will win money and someone will lose money. There are hundreds of trillions of dollars worth of these bets floating around out there, and one of these days this gigantic time bomb is going to go off and absolutely cripple the entire global financial system.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Over the last three months there have been dozens of suspicious sightings of military and UN equipment being moved throughout the country coupled with numerous realistic military training exercises with a sharp domestic focus.
This is all happening in the lead up to Jade Helm 2015 which has sparked a plethora of theories and strong opinions on what is actually happening.
Now, footage taken in Northern Louisiana is causing even more of a stir after it showed United Nations vehicles traveling down the freeway with their logos intentionally covered with brown paper.
The video footage shows one UN truck with the brown paper partially peeled off, most likely due to the wind. The other UN vehicle still has its cover on as it travels down the highway.
Although some have theorized that the vehicles may have simply been purchased from the UN and were covering the logo because they were no longer representing the United Nations, that theory doesn’t seem to add up, especially when you consider the multiple other strange UN sightings in the last three months as well as the unprecedented number of military movements leading into Jade Helm 2015.
[Comment: Perhaps US land and resources are going to be seized by banksters using the UN in lieu of US debt when the dollar collapses.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How Did Valerie Jarrett Pass a Background Check?
FBI Files Document Communism in Valerie Jarrett’s Family
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files obtained by Judicial Watch reveal that the dad, maternal grandpa and father-in-law of President Obama’s trusted senior advisor, Valerie Jarrett, were hardcore Communists under investigation by the U.S. government.
Jarrett’s dad, pathologist and geneticist Dr. James Bowman, had extensive ties to Communist associations and individuals, his lengthy FBI file shows. In 1950 Bowman was in communication with a paid Soviet agent named Alfred Stern, who fled to Prague after getting charged with espionage. Bowman was also a member of a Communist-sympathizing group called the Association of Internes and Medical Students. After his discharge from the Army Medical Corps in 1955, Bowman moved to Iran to work, the FBI records show.
According to Bowman’s government file the Association of Internes and Medical Students is an organization that “has long been a faithful follower of the Communist Party line” and engages in un-American activities. Bowman was born in Washington D.C. and had deep ties to Chicago, where he often collaborated with fellow Communists. JW also obtained documents on Bowman from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) showing that the FBI was brought into investigate him for his membership in a group that “follows the communist party line.” The Jarrett family Communist ties also include a business partnership between Jarrett’s maternal grandpa, Robert Rochon Taylor, and Stern, the Soviet agent associated with her dad.
Jarrett’s father-in-law, Vernon Jarrett, was also another big-time Chicago Communist, according to separate FBI files obtained by JW as part of a probe into the Jarrett family’s Communist ties. For a period of time Vernon Jarrett appeared on the FBI’s Security Index and was considered a potential Communist saboteur who was to be arrested in the event of a conflict with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). His FBI file reveals that he was assigned to write propaganda for a Communist Party front group in Chicago that would “disseminate the Communist Party line among…the middle class.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How Some Companies Are Scamming Job Applicants
What we’ve found is that companies, unwilling to pay for an external consult, are increasingly using actual work project(s) (that they don’t know how to deliver) packaged as ‘scenario’ or ‘Case Study’ in job interviews phishing for ‘free’ advise and insight from qualified industry veteran applicants. The hiring manager typically would ask for very specific info and/or ‘work samples’. The applicants are usually only too eager to share thinking it’d mean certain advantage of landing the job.
After spelling out how he/she delivered the exact same project described in the ‘scenario’ or ‘case study’, the applicant, in most cases, would not get the job. Why? Companies using this kind of tactic usually cannot afford or are unwilling to offer competitive compensation for top talents. The only reason these high-skilled (and most likely out of pay-range) applicants have even made it to the interview process (picked by the hiring manager) is so that the hiring manager could glean some useful knowledge from an industry veteran.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Intriguing Geology of Ceres Revealed in New Pictures
NASA mission shows dwarf planet’s surface in rich detail.
Ceres, the largest asteroid in the Solar System, is finally getting its close-up. NASA’s Dawn spacecraft arrived in March, and is now taking photographs from as close as 4,400 kilometres above the asteroid’s surface. Craters and mountains are coming into view, but the bright spots that dapple Ceres’s surface remain its most mysterious feature.
A central, 9-kilometre-wide bright spot in a 90-kilometre-wide crater is accompanied by a cluster of smaller reflective spots off to the right. The spots could be made of ice, salt or another type of bright material, yet to be fully understood. Data from a neutron detector on the spacecraft, which could help to answer the question, take some time to accumulate. Ceres — technically a dwarf planet — is thought to consist of at least one-quarter water; craters with ice-rich peaks are common on other bodies in the Solar System, such as Jupiter’s moons Ganymede and Callisto.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Joel Rosenberg: ‘Something is Coming. I Don’t Know What. But We Must be Ready’
Do you also have the feeling that something really BIG is coming? Recently, there has been quite a bit of chatter on the Internet about what the second half of 2015 will bring. During the last six months of this calendar year, we are going to witness a remarkable confluence of circumstances and events, and this is something that I covered in a previous article entitled “ 7 Key Events That Are Going To Happen By The End Of September” . But in addition to all of the things that we can point to outwardly, a lot of very prominent individuals are also really feeling an inner “ urgency” regarding what is about to happen to this country. For example, Bible prophecy expert Joel C. Rosenberg just posted an ominous message on his own personal blog in which he stated that “ something is coming” and that “ we must be ready” …
I feel a tremendous sense of urgency about this column.
The United States is hurtling towards severe trouble, and the events of the past few months — and what may be coming over the next few months — grieves me a great deal.
Something is coming. I don’t know what. But we all must be ready in every possible way.
When I first read that, I thought that sounded remarkably similar to how I have been feeling.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Machete-Wielding Man Slashes Woman in Bryant Park: NYPD
Police say a man lashed out with a machete in a midtown Manhattan park and wounded a woman in an apparently unprovoked attack.
The NYPD says the woman suffered an arm injury in the Bryant Park attack at about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Amateur video taken at the scene shows several officers restraining a man on steps at a corner of the park. Another man can be holding what appears to be a machete, while several bystanders aid a injured woman with a tourniquet fashioned from a belt.
The woman was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center and is expected to survive, authorities said. She was conscious and alert when she was taken to the hospital.
Police say a suspect, who is thought to be homeless, has been taken into custody…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Marines Looking to Deploy on Foreign Ships Because the U.S. Doesn’t Have Enough
Faced with a shortage of U.S. Navy ships, the Marine Corps is exploring a plan to deploy its forces aboard foreign vessels to ensure they can respond quickly to global crises around Europe and western Africa.
The initiative is a stopgap way to deploy Marines aboard ships overseas until more American vessels are available, said Brig. Gen. Norman Cooling, deputy commander, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Miles Morales to Replace Peter Parker as First Black Spider-Man in Marvel Comics
After four years of playing a version of Spider-Man in the Marvel Universe, mixed-race Miles Morales is to officially replace Peter Parker in the Spider-Man comics.
The teenage son of an African-American father and Puerto Rican mother will become the first black character and second Latino to portray Spider-Man in the official Marvel Comics universe.
Spider-Man will continue to be portrayed as Peter Parker in the upcoming Marvel film due to be released in 2017, but the new comic book casting will raise hopes that Miles Morales may get his big screen debut soon.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft doesn’t pass Pluto until July 14 — but the mission team is making new discoveries as the piano-sized probe bears down on the Pluto system.
In a long series of images obtained by New Horizons’ telescopic Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) May 29-June 19, Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, appear to more than double in size. From this rapidly improving imagery, scientists on the New Horizons team have found that the “close approach hemisphere” on Pluto that New Horizons will fly over has the greatest variety of terrain types seen on the planet so far. They have also discovered that Charon has a “dark pole” — a mysterious dark region that forms a kind of anti-polar cap.
“This system is just amazing,” said Alan Stern, New Horizons Principal Investigator, from the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. “The science team is just ecstatic with what we see on Pluto’s close approach hemisphere: Every terrain type we see on the planet—including both the brightest and darkest surface areas —are represented there, it’s a wonderland!
“And about Charon—wow—I don’t think anyone expected Charon to reveal a mystery like dark terrains at its pole,” he continued. “Who ordered that?”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New JAMA Study Confirms Nurse Whistleblower: Routine Hospital Vaccine Damage Happening to Infants
Journal of the American Medical Association study confirms whistleblower’s testimony that hospitals are covering up infant vaccine injury.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
No More Prosecutions of Ransom Payers, Obama Set to Say
Radical switch in US policy
(ANSA) — Rome, June 23 — US President Barack Obama is set to announce a big change in policy regarding hostage taking by extremist groups, saying that families who try to ransom loved ones will no longer be prosecuted, the New York Times said Tuesday.
The NYT said Obama on Wednesday will announce that the government will no longer threaten criminal prosecution of the families of American hostages who are held abroad by groups like the Islamic State if they attempt to pay ransom for the release of their loved ones. The change is one of many that are intended to fix what the administration has acknowledged is “a broken policy on United States captives”, a senior administration official was quoted as saying.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Senate Votes Today on “Fast Track, “ Following Last Week’s Passage by House
WASHINGTON, D.C. —The Senate is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a procedural vote that could determine whether President Obama is given the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) — or “fast track” — he’s demanding as a key part of his trade agenda, authority that would give him and his successor the power over the next six years to move at least three massive, highly secretive trade deals through Congress with virtually no congressional input, debate or oversight.
The vote comes less than a week after GOP leaders, on Thursday, rammed the “fast track” measure through the House by a narrow margin of 218-208. Roll Call 374.
This is the last chance to stop fast track “before it’s too later,” warns Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) in a statement posted by Breitbart News. “If cloture is invoked, the bill will pass the Senate and go to the President’s desk.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UN Wants “Urgent Measures” To Control Guns After Charleston Killings
Not to be outdone by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in calling for civilian disarmament, the United Nations is taking advantage of the Charleston shootings to join the chorus of confiscators.
In a statement issued on June 19 by the United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent (yes, that actually exists), committee chairwoman Mireille Fanon Mendes-France demanded that “urgent measures must be taken to prevent gun violence.” Making a point of distinguishing this crime for its effect on “the security of Afro-Americans,” the UN group sent their “heartfelt condolences to the people of the United States of America.”
If the United Nations has its way, there will much more to mourn about in the United States of America. As part of the global effort to grant monopoly control of weapons of all sizes to UN-approved “state actors,” the Arms Trade Treaty mandates the forcible disarmament of all others.
The scheme was endorsed in the “name of the people of the United States” by Secretary of State John Kerry on September 25, 2013.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cold War Resurgent: US Nukes Could Soon Return to Europe
Washington is once again talking about stationing nuclear warheads in Europe. Russia, too, is turning up the rhetoric. Europeans are concerned about becoming caught in the middle of a new Cold War.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Uproar as Muslim Store Brings in ‘Men Only’ Days
Muslim store owners have been forced to scrap the “gender ban” at their grocery store in Bordeaux, after it caused outraged across France.
If you’re a woman and it’s a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Friday, you’re not welcome at the De L’Orient à L’Occidental grocery store in Bordeaux.
Similarly, if you’re a man and it’s a weekend, you’re going to have to go somewhere else if you want to do your shopping there.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Food Site Under Fire Over Ramadan Recipes
France’s leading food website, Marmiton, has been bombarded with anti-Muslim vitriol after publishing recipes for Ramadan.
Some fans were apoplectic over the site’s decision to wish a “Happy Ramadan to all” who decided to cook its lamb couscous or chicken tajine suggestions.
“Happy Ramadan to ‘ALL’????????????????” wrote Facebook user Anne Piraux-Flabat, using a total of 16 question marks.
“I am not Muslim and I don’t count on becoming one,” she added, following up with six exclamation marks…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Smashes Record for Tallest Lego Tower
A lego tower erected in Milan stands an impressive 35.05 meters high, breaking the previous record of 34.76 meters held by a tower built in Bucharest.
The tower, which was built at the city’s Fabbrica del Vapore, was completed after a laborious five-day construction process involving more than half a million coloured bricks and 18,000 volunteer workers, including many families.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Not Enough Kids to Guarantee Renewal, Guarantor Tells MPs
Annual report on birth rate, underage population
(ANSA) — Rome, June 22 — Italy has reached a record low birth rate and not enough children are being born to ensure generational renewal, the national guarantor for childhood and adolescence told parliament on Monday.
A total of 509,000 babies were born in 2014, the lowest number since the Unity of Italy in 1861, according to the guarantor’s annual report compiled in close cooperation with Istat national statistics agency.
Women in Italy last year had an average of 1.4 children, unchanged since 2013 and under the EU 2012 average of 1.5 children.
As of January 1, 2014, residents under 18 totaled just over 10 million, with 154 retirees to every 100 youngsters, according to the report.
The economic crisis has weighed negatively on couples’ decisions to start a family, with the birth rate plummeting as unemployment jumped to 13.2% last year, according to the report.
The foreign-born population makes up 8.1% of the total, of which just over 22% — or 4.9 million — is underage, making up 11% of all minors living in Italy. Non-EU minors totaled 23.9% last year, against 24.1% in 2013, the report said.
Of the Italian regions, northwestern Liguria has the least minors at 13.9% of the resident population while at the opposite end of the spectrum, southern Campania placed well above the national average of 16.7%, with 19.2% of its inhabitants underage.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Improta Says Resignation ‘Nothing to Do With Renzi’
Rome mayor in more trouble after key councillor steps down
(ANSA) — Rome, June 22 — Rome transportation city council member Guido Improta said Monday his decision to resign has nothing to do with his close relationship with Premier Matteo Renzi.
“There was no call from Renzi” urging him to step down, Improta said.
“Out of loyalty towards (Rome Mayor Ignazio) Marino and respect towards the premier…I wish to clarify that there is no cause-effect nexus” between the resignation and his relationship with the premier, Improta said.
This was a personal not a political decision, he added.
“I know I am leaving fewer problems behind than those I found,” said Improta, who took office two years ago along with the Democratic Party (PD) mayor.
“The timing and the manner (of the resignation) will be decided by…the mayor and the PD and I will abide by (their) decisions,” he said. Improta’s move is seen as another sign of impending doom for beleaguered Marino, whose council has lost several members in a sweeping corruption probe into a Rome-based mafia made up of politicians, businessmen and gangsters. Marino has said repeatedly he intends to stay in office until the end of his mandate in 2018 and beyond, but Renzi last week said the mayor should stay on “only if he shows he can govern” a complex city like Rome.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Privacy Chief Warns Govt About Profiling in Jobs Act
Boldrini calls for clarification of remote worker measure
(ANSA) — Rome, June 23 — Italy’s privacy chief on Tuesday warned the government about the risks of profiling inherent in remote-monitoring measures attached to its landmark Jobs Act labour-market reform — just as the House Speaker, the country’s third-highest official, called for a much-needed clarification of those alleged ‘snooping’ moves.
The government’s controversial Jobs Act must not allow “unjustified and invasive forms of control” of workers, said the head of Italy’s privacy watchdog, Antonello Soro. “The closer monitoring of systems and resources must not translate into undue profiling of the workforce,” Soro said in his annual report to parliament. “It is increasingly necessary to reconcile companies’ demands for efficiency with the protection of rights,” he stressed.
In today’s wired world, however, he added, some sort of surveillance was inevitable.
“The entire globe is connected up so we’re all vulnerable,” he said.
Controversy was triggered last week by changes to labour laws for remote employees — those who work outside of a conventional office — connected with the government’s Jobs Act .
Under this, there is no requirement for union agreement or ministerial approvals, if controls over those workers increase through their use of their employers’ computers and telephones from remote work sites.
Lower House Speaker Laura Boldrini said she hoped parliamentary debate of the measure would bring “clarity to the doubts that have emerged in recent days”.
Pending a clear view of the alleged spying moves, there was better news for workers on the Jobs Act front Tuesday.
The labour ministry, in fact, confirmed that new work-life balance measures in the Jobs Act, including an extension of the ages of children for which employees can request parental leave, will become structural once the decree on social welfare is definitively approved.
An enabling decree to the Jobs Act, proposed by Labour Minister Giuliano Poletti and approved earlier this month, would extend the ages of children for which employees can request parental leave.
The measure would extend the time employees can choose to take optional six-month parental leave, increasing it for children aged up to six years (from the current three years) for those willing to take the leave at 30% of their salaries, and from eight to 12 years of age for parents wanting to take unpaid leave.
The measure would go into effect on an experimental basis later this year.
If financial coverage for this measure is lacking in 2016, the system will revert back to the previous norm.
As well, the draft decree contains a further measure giving parents the option of transforming parental leave into part-time employment at 50% of pay.
The decree would also extend unemployment benefits to companies with five or more employees, but would reduce the amount of time laid-off workers can collect the benefits, to 24 months (30 months for the construction sector) from the current 48 months. However that figure can rise to 36 months if employees who are not laid off agree to so-called solidarity contracts, in which they take pay cuts so their laid-off colleagues can keep collecting unemployment.
Also on Tuesday, it emerged that Italy saw 577 violations of privacy that were criminally relevant last year, and almost 630 countermeasures were taken.
In all, sanctions of some five million euros were meted out.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Govt Opposes No-Confidence Motion Against Castiglione
NCD undersecretary named in offshoot of Rome Mafia probe
(ANSA) — Rome, June 23 — The government on Tuesday said it opposes a motion of no-confidence against New Center Right (NCD) agriculture undersecretary Giuseppe Castiglione, who has been named in the so-called Rome Mafia probe into a crime ring that allegedly muscled in on lucrative city contracts.
The Democratic Party (PD) caucus has called a meeting to decide on its line on this matter, parliamentary sources said.
The NCD is a junior member of the ruling coalition led by center-left Premier Matteo Renzi’s PD.
Two opposition parties — the anti-immigrant, anti-euro Northern League and the small leftwing Left Ecology Freedom (SEL) — on Monday filed two motions of no-confidence against Castiglione.
The undersecretary was among six people under investigation by Catania prosecutors for alleged bid-rigging related to the Cara di Mineo migrant reception centre in Sicily.
The probe is an offshoot of the so-called Rome Mafia investigation, the last chapter of which saw 44 people arrested earlier this month for alleged involvement in the plundering of public money destined for migrant reception centres.
Also on Tuesday, Justice Minister Andrea Orlando told an investors’ meeting in New York that the government intervened “in a clear, decisive way” to put an end to rampant corruption in Rome and elsewhere since news of the Rome organized crime ring involving businessmen, gangsters and politicians first broke in December 2014.
“We set up an authority tasked with fighting such phenomena, along with stricter norms,” he said.
“This is a signal that has been received and that investors will receive once they see the results in coming months”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Alfano Says No to ‘Anti-Police’ Torture Law
ECtHR condemned Italy’s failure to have torture legislation
(ANSA) — Rome, June 23 — Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said Tuesday that he would not allow the approval of a torture law that specifically targets the police. “We have battled to stop the conception of a torture felony against the police,” Alfano said. “One thing is having the crime of torture, another is that the measure specifically hits the police”. The issue has been on the agenda since April, when the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) condemned Italy for police brutality in a July 2001 raid on anti-globalization protestors at the Genoa G8.
The court condemned Italy not only for what happened to the demonstrators during the infamous raid on the Diaz school, but also because it said the country lacks appropriate legislation to punish the crime of torture even though it ratified a UN convention on torture in 1988.
Premier Matteo Renzi’s government has pledged to fill this vacuum.
But Alfano said Tuesday that a new torture law must not a stick to hit Italy’s police forces with, arguing they were clean and that the Daiz raid was a “closed chapter”. “We do not intend to disarm the police, not in terms of their instruments, nor in term so their spirit,” Alfano told a meeting of police unions.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Molise PD Executive Councillor Arrested on Fraud Charges
Massimiliano Scarabeo and brother Gabriele under house arrest
(ANSA) — Campobasso, June 23 — Democratic Party (PD) Molise executive regional councillor Massimiliano Scarabeo was placed under house arrest on Tuesday in connection with a fraud probe involving the authorities in the southern Italian region. Scarabeo, regional council member responsible for industry, was apprehended together with his younger brother Gabriele on charges of fraud and tax fraud against Molise Region. Finance police also acquired documents concerning the activities of the brothers’ Scarabeo Group that manufactures and sells electrical parts. They also searched private property and public offices including the Molise regional headquarters in Campobasso as part of the operation.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Breivik Applies to Oslo University Again
Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik has applied yet again to study politics at the University of Oslo, and this time he probably has good enough grades to gain admission.
According to Norway’s Dagbladet newspaper, Breivik applied again to study politics earlier this year, and expects to hear back from the university on July 20th.
Since starting his 21-year sentence in 2012, the 36-year-old killer has continually sought to study politics, applying to study at the University of Oslo for the first time in 2013.
The first time he applied, he was rejected due to his lack of a high school diploma. He then completed his diploma, but in 2014 still had insufficiently high grades to win admission to the university.
Now, after he retook a series of exams last year, his lawyer Øystein Storrvik expects him to be permitted to study.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Outrage Over Muslim Gender Ban in French Grocery Store
A Muslim-owned grocery store in the southeastern French city of Bordeaux has prompted outrage after putting up a sign imposing male and female-only days for customers.
The shop displayed a sign in the window asking “sisters” to come on Saturdays and Sundays, and “brothers” to visit on weekdays.
The shop owner, Muslim convert Jean-Baptiste Michalon, insisted he had acted in good faith and was not telling customers when they could or couldn’t visit his shop.
“We did this in response to requests from ‘sisters’ who preferred to come when my wife is working,” he told AFP. “We do also sell clothes here.”
“It was a sign meant entirely for clients who understand that mixing of sexes is not permitted in our (Muslim) religion,” Michalon, a recent convert to Islam, said. “It was not meant to be compulsory. I had no idea that it was against the law.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spy Agency’s Secret Plans to Foster Online “Conformity” And “Obedience” Exposed
Internal memo from secretive British spy unit exposes how GCHQ and NSA used human psychological research to create sophisticated online propaganda tools.
“Among other things,” The Intercept reports, “the document lays out the tactics the agency uses to manipulate public opinion, its scientific and psychological research into how human thinking and behavior can be influenced, and the broad range of targets that are traditionally the province of law enforcement rather than intelligence agencies.”
With never-before-seen documents accompanied by new reporting on Monday, The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald and Andrew Fishman are offering a more in-depth look than ever into how a secretive unit of the UK’s GCHQ surveillance agency used a host of psychological methods and online subterfuge in order to manipulate the behavior of individuals and groups through the internet and other digital forms of communication.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Malmö Police Worry About Wave of Violence
Swedish police have expressed concern over increasing violence after another shooting and an explosion rocked Malmö in southern Sweden over the weekend.
One person was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries after a Midsummer Day shooting in the Söderkulla square in Malmö. A 24-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after he reportedly handed himself over to the police on Monday afternoon.
No new details have emerged about two hand grenades being thrown at an apartment block in the southern Swedish city on the same day, June 20th.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Terror Suspect Claims He Thwarted French Church Attack
An Algerian man accused of murdering a woman and planning an attack on a church on the southern edge of Paris claimed in court on Friday he had actually foiled the terror plot, his lawyers said.
“He admitted he was in Villejuif on April 19, 2015, with another individual. However, he denies responsibility for the death of Aurelie Chtelain and also affirms he thwarted an attack on that day,” his lawyers told AFP, without specifying who the other individual they referred to was.
Sid Ahmed Ghlam, 24, was taken into custody on April 19 after he accidentally shot himself in the leg, a fluke occurrence that led to police uncovering an alleged plot against a church in the Villejuif suburb.
In April, Ghlam, an electrical engineering student and an Algerian national, was arrested in Paris after calling an ambulance when he accidentally shot himself in the leg.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: A Journey to the Center of London’s New Underground
As London grows, so does the city underneath it. The population of the British capital has just reached 8.6 million, surpassing the previous record total set in 1939, and is now headed toward 10 million — 250 new residents arrive every day. Today, a new artery is being added to London’s underground train system: Crossrail, the longest tunnel of all those excavated in the city throughout its history.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Former Labour leader Ed Miliband has been accused of failing to act after being presented with ‘stomach churning’ child sex abuse allegations against the peer Lord Janner.
Campaigning MP Simon Danczuk wrote to Mr Miliband in October last year — detailing a string of allegations against the Labour peer, it emerged tonight.
However, Mr Miliband failed to suspend Lord Janner from the party for another six months, prosecutors controversially ruled there was enough evidence to charge him with multiple counts of child abuse but could not put him on trial because he was too ill.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why Podemos or Syriza Scenarios Won’t Happen in Italy
Italian politicians from very different backgrounds have been trying to capitalize on last week’s victory of Spain’s anti-austerity party Podemos in regional elections: from centrist Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and the populist Northern League leader Matteo Salvini, to the banker-turned-cabinet minister Corrado Passera and leftist LGBT activist and governor of the Puglia region Nichi Vendola.
That’s quite a list. Stll, even as some international observers ask if Italy is the next country to be swept up by the anti-austerity wave, there is clearly no “Italian Podemos” on the horizon. And what’s left is just more bickering.
“The two Matteos (Renzi and Salvini) are pathetic,” an outraged Vendola tweeted last week.
An identical dynamic occurred four months ago following the Greek elections: Suddenly, every other Italian politician was buddies with Alexis Tsipras. But the one Italian party truly inspired by Syriza, called The Other Europe, collected only 1.1 million votes at the European elections, barely surpassing the minimum quorum of 4%. By now, it’s all but shattered…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
WikiLeaks Releases Documents it Says Shows NSA Eavesdropped on the Last 3 French Presidents
WikiLeaks has published documents it says shows the U.S. National Security Agency eavesdropped on the last three French presidents.
There was no immediate confirmation of the accuracy of the documents released by French daily newspaper Liberation and investigative website Mediapart late Tuesday.
WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said he was confident the documents were authentic, noting that WikiLeaks previous mass disclosures have proven to be accurate.
Allies have long spied on each other as well as sharing intelligence.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Leftist Majority Ahead in Albania’s Local Elections
Critiques in Osce relation
(ANSA-AP) — TIRANA — Preliminary results in Albania’s municipal elections show the country’s leftist majority is ahead in most municipalities, including the capital Tirana and other main cities. About one-third of the ballots from Sunday’s election have been counted so far. Albanians were voting to elect 61 mayors and 1,600 municipal counselors in a new trimmed-down municipal structure.
With a turnout of about 48 percent, the vote was considered a key step toward convincing the European Union to launch membership negotiations with Albania, which was granted candidate status last year.
Osce international monitors in the afternoon presented a relation with many critiques, though freedom of electors choice and a quiet electoral campaign. Only minor scuffles or alleged manipulation attempts were reported during the voting, which in the past has been marred by problems.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Benghazi Attack Suspect Al-Harzi ‘Killed in US Airstrike’
The Pentagon has claimed that “Islamic State” operative Ali Awni al-Harzi, a suspect in the 2012 Benghazi US consulate attack, was killed in an airstrike. Meanwhile two notorious Australian fighters are reported dead.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
President Essebsi Invites Putin to Tunis
Marzouk gives letter to Lavrov, talks on crisis and terror
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JUNE 23 — The minister for Tunisian political affairs, Mohsen Marzouk, met in Moscow with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and handed him a letter from President Beji Caid Essebsi to Putin with an invite for the Russian head of State to visit Tunis.
Marzouk and Lavrov talked, among other things, about conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa, local media report, adding that they also agreed to intensify efforts to end tensions in this region and effectively fight terrorism.
The two leaders, according to the same sources, said domestic dialogue is the only way to solve the grave crises affecting Libya, Syria and Yemen without interference or external pressures.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Pledges Crackdown Over Druze ‘Lynching’ of Syrian
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to find Druze villagers who dragged a Syrian from an ambulance in the Golan Heights and beat him to death. The Druze minority in Syria has been targeted by jihadist rebels.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Former ISIS Bride Recruiter Warns European Girls of Caliphate Horrors
A Syrian woman believed responsible for helping to deliver hundreds of young European girls to ISIS has defected, and is now warning young women of the hell that awaits them in the black-clad Islamist army’s so-called caliphate.
“You are young,” the defector, who used the alias Um Asma in an interview with German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, told young women considering running away to join ISIS. “The caliphate is not what you think it is. Women are whipped, sold and stoned. Corpses are on display publicly for weeks.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Destroys Two ‘Polytheistic’ Shrines in Palmyra
Roman ruins still standing but possibly mined
ROME — The Islamic State (ISIS) has destroyed two ancient shrines near the UNESCO World Heritage site Palmyra in eastern Syria. One of the two was the tomb of Sheikh Mohammad Ben Ali, descendent of the Muslim prophet Mohammad’s cousin. The group claims that it was “removing the landmarks of polytheism”, Newsweek and other media cite the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) as saying. ISIS’s media office Wilayat Homs has published two photos of the tomb, a construction in stone and mud worn down by erosion on a hill about four kilometers from the Roman era archaeological site: one prior to the explosion and one after it. Posted alongside were photos of fighters bringing explosives to the site. SOHR confirmed to the media that the tomb had been destroyed along with the shrine of Abu Behaeddin, a historic figure of Palmyra. ISIS considers these Islamic shrines to be un-Islamic and a form of idolatry, and had thus prohibited visits to them, Newsweek cited Syrian director of antiquities Maamoun Abdulkarim as saying. The Roman ruins of the first and second centuries AD in Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site are still standing.
Reports in recent days suggest that explosives have been planted in them, however.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lifting the Veil: How Working Women Are Remaking Saudi Arabia
A growing number of women in Saudi Arabia are joining the workforce and chipping away at discriminations enshrined in its laws. But they face conservative opposition and — even now — a ban on driving.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New Low: ISIS Reportedly Gives Away Sex Slaves as ‘Prizes’ In Koran Contest
ISIS has already committed countless unspeakable acts on Yazidi and Christian girls and women in Iraq, but the terrorist army may have reached a new low with a twisted new contest in which female slaves captured in war are given away as “prizes” to fighters who show they have mastered the Koran.
The shocking practice of giving away human beings as prizes, called “sibya,” was organized by the Da’wa and Mosques Department in Al-Baraka province in Syria in honor of the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan and was announced June 19 on ISIS Twitter accounts, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute and the Clarion Project, two independent research institutes that track social media accounts linked to terrorist groups.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: Raif Badawi’s Wife: ‘I Am Fighting for My Husband’
Ensaf Haidar has made the battle for the release of her husband from prison her life’s work. The wife of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi is passionate about the challenge, even in the face of opposition from her own family.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Vile jihadis fighting for the Islamic State in Iraq have brutally murdered five prisoners by locking them in a metal cage and lowering them into a swimming pool.
Filmed in the ISIS stronghold of Mosul, the sickening seven minute long video uses expensive underwater cameras to film the terrified men as they sink below the surface with no hope of escape.
Shortly afterwards the cage is lifted back out of the water, with the dying men — who are understood to have been accused of spying — seen foaming at the mouth as they lie motionless on the floor of the cage, piled on top of one another.
Elsewhere in the video, ISIS militants are filmed brutally killing prisoners by locking them in a car and shooting them with a grenade launcher, while another group of jihadis chain a set of prisoners together with explosive necklaces which are then detonated.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria’s Economy Cut in Half by Conflict
Syria’s economic output has shrunk by as much as 60% since the conflict began in 2011, according to estimates in a new report released by British think-tank Chatham House.
Syria’s mining and construction workers have been hit hardest — with exports dropping from $12bn to around $2bn.
The Syrian pound has also lost 80% of value since the conflict began.
But economist and report author David Butter warned that with few reliable statistics, data remained foggy.
He said the greatest cost of four years of deadly conflict was the quarter of a million people who have lost their lives.
There has been an estimated 23% population decrease, with four million registered refugees in neighbouring countries.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Coalition Airstrikes Kill 162 Civilians in 9 Months
US-led bombing; 51 victims under age 18, says SOHR
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, JUNE 23 — At least 162 civilians including 51 under age 18 have been killed in nine months of US-led coalition airstrikes in Syria against the Islamic State (ISIS), reported the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) on Tuesday. Among those killed was an entire family — husband, wife and their five children — in the village of Dali Hasan, in the Aleppo province. On April 30, 64 civilians were killed in coalition bombing of Bir Mahli, in the same province. The airstrikes have killed 2,628 mostly foreign ISIS fighters and 105 members of Jabhat Al-Nusra, the local Al-Qaeda affiliate.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Sculptor Faces Jail for ‘Insulting’ Erdogan
A prominent Turkish sculptor risks over four years in prison on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after being locked in a dispute with the Turkish strongman over one of his works.
In March, a court found Erdogan guilty of insulting Mehmet Aksoy for calling the artist’s “Monument of Humanity” — created to promote reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia — a “monstrosity”.
The Ankara court ordered Erdogan to pay Aksoy 10,000 Turkish Liras ($ 3,750) in damages for insulting the renowned sculptor.
But now, prosecutors are seeking 56 months in prison for Aksoy on the grounds that he insulted the president in a comment on the controversy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How Italy is Quietly Trying to Break Russia’s Isolation
Italian PM Matteo Renzi has obtained Washington’s blessing to pursue its own dialogue with the Kremlin. Could Rome be the bridge to resolving the Ukraine crisis?
The warm welcome that Russian President Vladimir Putin received on his recent visit to Italy did not come out of the blue. It is a direct result of a shift in Italy’s foreign policy that began to take shape two months ago when Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi met with President Barack Obama at the White House.
It was April 17th, and the two world leaders were in the Oval Office discussing Italy’s position on the Western sanctions on Russia linked to the crisis in Ukraine.
The Italian Shift
Renzi spoke with the requisite diplomatic nuance but made his position clear: Italy would not break with the Western line on sanctions against Russia, but at the same time intended to pursue a deeper relationship with Moscow. In other words, Italy subtly but clearly asserted an independent foreign policy regarding its relations with Putin.
The Obama administration understood and accepted, it seemed, that Rome would follow its own path without suffering any consequences from Washington for its new policy. During the same visit, Obama also agreed to recognize Italy’s leadership in dealing with the Libyan civil war, as long as Rome takes the lead in providing concrete steps to resolve the crisis.
Matteo Renzi and Barack Obama meet in Rome in 2014 — Photo: White House
The foundations for Italy’s thaw with Russia were first laid out during Renzi’s March 5 talks with Putin in Moscow, more than a month before the White House meeting.
The “Moscow Agreement”
Indeed that Moscow trip by Renzi — the first official visit by a Western leader to Russia since the annexation of Crimea — signaled that Italy’s foreign policy was going to stray from its European allies (French President Francois Hollande held a brief talk with Putin at the Moscow airport in December 2013).
Much to the Russian President’s delight, Renzi’s visit signified not only a rupture of Putin’s isolation but also an opportunity to push for closer relations between the two countries. The length of the meeting — three hours in the Kremlin — highlights the importance of the event and how strongly the two leaders sought to build their personal relationship.
Speaking at the close of the summit, Renzi said: “In both directions, sanctions and counter-sanctions are a problem.” By referring to the sanctions as a problem rather than as a solution to Russia’s aggression as presented by his U.S. ally, Renzi marked an abrupt shift in Italian diplomacy.
Economic Priorities
Italy is Russia’s second largest trading partner in the EU after Germany and is strongly dependent on Russian gas, which provides 40% of the country’s energy. Due to the effect of sanctions, bilateral trade between the two nations sunk 17% in 2014, particularly hurting exports of food, agriculture, fashion, and technology.
The Italian prime minister’s ambition to carve out an influential role for Italy in European diplomacy converges with the need to stimulate a still lethargic economy, prompting his overtures to renew ties with Putin. Renzi’s great hope is that Italy can be the catalyst for a wider rapprochement between Moscow and the West.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pentagon Chief Seeks NATO Spending Boost to Counter Russia
US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter will visit his European counterparts this week to take stock of cooperation with NATO in the wake of Russian aggression in Crimea and Ukraine.
The visit comes as officials say Washington’s relationship with the Western military bloc is at its strongest in decades.
“This month the US and NATO have achieved their highest operational tempo of training and exercises since Cold War,” a US defense official said Friday.
The US official said Carter’s visit is a chance to “acknowledge” how NATO member nations have responded to Russia’s actions in the region, and also to discuss “what we need to continue doing.”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine’s President Poroshenko Admits Overthrow of Yanukovych Was a Coup
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko requests the supreme court of Ukraine to declare that his predecessor, Viktor Yanukovych, was overthrown by an illegal operation; in other words, that the post-Yanukovych government, including Poroshenko’s own Presidency, came into power from a coup, not from something democratic, not from any authentic constitutional process at all.
In a remarkable document, which is not posted at the English version of the website of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, but which is widely reported outside the United States, including Russia, Poroshenko, in Ukrainian (not in English), has petitioned the Constitutional Court of Ukraine (as it is being widely quoted in English):
“I ask the court to acknowledge that the law ‘on the removal of the presidential title from Viktor Yanukovych’ as unconstitutional.”
[Commenter y3maxx : “The s*** hits the fan when Americans finally figure out Obama was a “Coup” too.”]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Military Moving Tanks, Other Equipment to Allied Nations Near Russian Border
Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced Tuesday that the U.S. will deploy heavy weaponry — including about 250 tanks, armored vehicles and other equipment — across six European nations including those along the Russian border.
The move is meant to help reassure NATO allies facing an array of threats from Russia and terrorist groups. It is only the latest message being telegraphed to an increasingly assertive Vladimir Putin, in the wake of his country’s intervention in eastern Ukraine.
The equipment is set to be stationed in the Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — as well as Bulgaria, Poland and Romania.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ban Muslim Personal Law Board for Its Anti-Hindu Stance and Anti-Constitutional Stand
All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) must be banned for its anti-Yoga, anti-Constitutional and Subversive stands.
HENB | Haridwar | June 23, 2015:: Form the published report in Indian Express it is evident that the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) slammed the Indian government’s move to push for yoga, saying it’s a violation of the secular Constitution, which does not allow the promotion of religious activities by the government.
Attacking on the NDA government, the AIMPLB has accused it of violating the Constitution of secular India and implementing the RSS agenda by introducing practices such as Yoga and ‘Surya Namaskar’.
The morons in AIMPLB perhaps forget that the International Yoga day on 21 June is now under UN agenda and more than 190 countries in UN made the International Yoga Day a huge success including making a Guinness Records as well. So, promotion of Yoga or Surya Namaskar as a part of Yoga are highly maintainable as per UN charter of promulgated for the member states under UN. Even these AIMPLB zealots do not care for the participation of 47 Islamic nations in International Yoga Day…
| — Hat tip: Upananda Brahmachari | [Return to headlines] |
In Afghanistan: A Rush to Recruit Before NATO Withdraws
The Taliban’s annual spring offensive is underway and focused right now around the besieged city of Kunduz. Some German units are on their way to join the fight in support of Afghan forces.
“The order was given last night,” says Colonel Wolfgang Köhler, a leader with the NATO Northern Command Mission in Afghanistan.
Köhler and other officers here at Camp Shaheen, where the Afghan National Army operates, are trying to make sense of the offensive. The Taliban’s focus on Kunduz is an unpredictable choice, implying perhaps a change of strategy since northern Afghanistan has always been among the districts least affected by Mullah Omar’s guerrillas….
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesian Constitutional Court Denies Recognition of Mixed Marriages
The judges rejected the appeal filed by a group of law students. The amendment was aimed at recognition of marriages between spouses of different faiths. Only the religious rite common to both spouses gives civil value to act. The battle of the Catholic Church for the recognition of civil rights.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — The Indonesian Constitutional Court (MK) has rejected the request to amend the marriages law, which so far has prevented the recognition of mixed marriages between spouses of different religions. A controversial law, which last July a group of law students tried to change through a personal — and popular — initiative that he had found the support of the leaders of the local Catholic Church.
In recent days, the supreme court judgment was handed down, according to which the law number 1 of 1974 remains in force according to which the full foundation of a marital union is based on “religion” and religious rite. And that, consequently, does not allow marriages between people of different faiths and forces, in case one of the couple is Muslim, the other spouse to embrace Islam.
The Indonesian Bishops Conference (KWI) had “married” in this battle to the defense of civil rights, particularly in the field of intermarriage between believers of different religions, which must always be recognized, guaranteed and protected. A position that is a break with the laws of the state of the world’s most populous Muslim country, under which a civil union always follows the celebration of a religious service by which it is founded; because only the mantle of religion makes the actual union between two people, who “must” profess the same faith.
The law governing marriage is the UU No 1/1974, and Chapter 2 Verse 1, which states that “only when marriage is performed on the basis of religion and done before religious figure, then their marital status is considered as legal by the State”. In recent months, thanks to the work of academics and scholars from four universities of Law in Jakarta, within the Constitutional Court has opened a debate on the possibility — and necessity — of a regulatory review.
The proposal was submitted to the Court in July 2014 and had three aspects: the inability to recognize a civil union, without the prior approval of a religion (those recognized by the State); the veto unions, if both spouses are from different faiths; the paragraph which calls on both partners to profess the same religion.
Last September, the then Minister for Religious Affairs Lukman Hakim confirmed the validity of the law in place and excluded the need for a constitutional amendment. He added that before any legislative intervention, religious leaders had to be consulted, in particular the experts of Islamic law. The former president of the Constitutional Court has closed the door to any possible amendments, stressing that “if an interfaith couple insists on legalizing their status, they may go abroad.”
To mixed couples not only have no alternative other than the celebration of a function overseas, or the conversion of one of the spouses. Moreover, marriage in Indonesia it is not generally a question of the heart and personal choice, because it often involves families and becomes the subject of controversy in terms of faith. Fr. Purbo Tamtomo a law specialist Archdiocese of Jakarta, is a long time campaigner against this and believes that the civil rights of all citizens should be “defended and protected”. An opinion delivered in November 2014 before the Constitutional Court, in a hearing on the legal battle over recognition of mixed marriages.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Heat Wave Death Toll Rises
The death toll from a heat wave in southern Pakistan has risen to more than 450 over the past three days, and hospitals are overflowing. Power outages have exacerbated the problem, shutting down water supplies.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Heatwave: Emergency Measures as Toll Nears 700
Pakistan’s PM Nawaz Sharif has called for emergency measures as the death toll from a heatwave in southern Sindh province reached nearly 700.
The army is now being deployed to help set up heat stroke centres, with temperatures reaching 45C (113F).
Officials have been criticised for not doing enough to tackle the crisis.
There is anger among local residents at the authorities because power cuts have restricted the use of air-conditioning units and fans, correspondents say.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China: Muslim Leader Says Beer Festival “Open Provocation to the Islamic Faith”
By Robert Spencer
The Chinese government has reportedly implemented some extremely harsh measures to try to stop jihad terror activity. A beer festival in a Muslim area, however, is not one of them unless attendance was mandatory. Nonetheless, Dilxat Raxit calls the festival an “open provocation to the Islamic faith,” with the clear implication that non-Muslims should not and must not do things that Muslims consider to be a “provocation.” Thus drawing cartoons of Muhammad is out — many non-Muslims would agree to that. And now beer festivals are out — at least for those non-Muslims anxious to avoid “provocation.” What is next? And where will non-Muslims draw the line? Or will the non-Muslim world ultimately adopt Sharia to avoid “provocation”?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Academic Defends Beer Festival in Muslim Region
A Chinese Communist party academic defended a government-organised beer festival in a mainly Muslim county ahead of Ramadan by saying that locals enjoy alcohol, state media reported Tuesday.
Islam prohibits alcohol but authorities in Niya county in China’s troubled Xinjiang region held a beer drinking contest last Monday, three days before the start of Islam’s holiest month, with cash prizes of up to $160 for winners, the Global Times said.
The county is in southern Xinjiang, the heartland of the Uighur ethnic minority, who are mostly Muslim.
Uighur rights groups say restrictions on Islam have added to ethnic tensions in the far western Muslim-majority region, where clashes have killed hundreds in recent years.
China says it faces a terrorist threat in Xinjiang, with officials blaming “religious extremism” for growing violence.
Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for exiled group the World Uyghur Congress, slammed the festival as an “open provocation” to faithful Muslims in a statement.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Controversial Dog Meat Festival
Despite protests and international criticism, an annual dog meat festival has been held in the southern Chinese town of Yulin. Around 10,000 dogs, many of them reportedly stolen pets, were slaughtered for the event.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Japan Remembers Battle of Okinawa Amid Tensions
Japan’s prime minister, the US ambassador, and thousands of visitors have marked the 70th anniversary of the bloody World War II battle. Okinawa still houses a huge US military base, stirring anger among the islanders.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
S. Korea ‘Comfort Women’ Seek $20 Mn Lawsuit in US
South Korea’s ageing victims of Japan’s wartime sex slavery said Tuesday they would file a $20 million lawsuit next month at a US court to seek financial compensation from Tokyo.
The suit from 10 “comfort” women led by Kim Bok-Dong, 89, will be lodged at a California district court on July 1 against Japan, their attorney Kim Hyung-Jin told reporters.
The case, which is now being pursued in the US as previous suits in Japan have failed, also targets Mitsubishi and other companies allegedly involved in war crimes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tensions Flare in Okinawa on 70th Anniversary of Battle
(Japan) (AFP) — Japan’s premier Shinzo Abe was heckled Tuesday at a ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Okinawa, the bloodiest episode in the Pacific War, as anger flared over the US military’s continuing presence.
In a highly charged ceremony on Okinawa, Abe was shouted at by locals angry at the size of the United States’ presence on the subtropical islands.
Cries of “Go home!” could be heard as he took the podium. It is relatively unusual for a Japanese prime minister to be jeered by the public.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Australia Prepares New Citizenship Laws
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Australia says it will reveal new laws stripping citizenship from dual nationals engaged in terrorism.
The government said it wanted to ensure that militants with dual nationality who were fighting overseas could not return to Australia.
The laws would also strip citizenship from dual nationals who engaged in terrorism inside Australia.
The government said changes to the Australian Citizenship Act would be introduced to parliament on Wednesday…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Near Total Victory for Ethiopia’s Ruling Party
Ethiopia’s ruling EPRDF party has scored another landslide victory in national and regional elections, according to the final results. But critics and the opposition say there is no real multiparty system in the country.
It was expected, but now it’s official: The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia has confirmed the overwhelming victory of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in the May 24 parliamentary elections.
In fact, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn’s party and its allies have won all 547 parliamentary seats except perhaps one. The winner of that last seat still remains to be confirmed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rwandan Spy Chief Karake Held in London
Rwanda’s intelligence chief Karenzi Karake has been arrested in Britain on a warrant issued by Spain for alleged war crimes. The government in Kigali has reacted by describing the detention as an “outrage” and “lunacy.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ban Ki-Moon: More Legal Channels Towards Europe
STRASBOURG — UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he counted on Europe as a leader of global solidarity, addressing the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe to call for the opening of ‘‘more legal channels’’ for immigration towards Europe. ‘‘European countries are richer and have the ability to share their prosperity with others’’, said the secretary general.
For this reason, he said he continues to call on ‘‘European leaders to look at the fundamental causes’’ of migration flows, while at the same time and most importantly at saving human lives and providing humanitarian assistance. He also stressed that more legal channels towards Europe are necessary for migrants because this will reduce the number of people who risk their lives.
‘‘I call on this organization to help those who look at Europe for protection from tyranny, from the lack of the rule of law and deprivation’’, stressed Ban Ki-moon, urging MPs to protect the rights of people fleeing conflicts, persecution, poverty and the lack of decent jobs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Defying EU, Hungary Suspends Rules on Asylum Seekers
Hungary on Tuesday suspended European Union asylum rules requiring it to take back refugees who have travelled through Hungary to other countries, and Brussels immediately called on it to clarify its action.
“Hungary’s asylum system is overburdened, the most overburdened among EU member states affected by illegal immigration,” a Hungarian government spokesman said. The asylum rules, known as the Dublin Regulation, were first drafted in the early 1990s. They require people seeking refuge to do so in the European country where they first set foot.
So far this year, more than 60,000 immigrants have crossed into Hungary illegally, the government said.
The European Commission called on Hungary to explain immediately why it had stopped taking back asylum seekers from other states in defiance of EU rules.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Double Landing in Lampedusa With 361 Migrants
(ANSAmed) — LAMPEDUSA (AGRIGENTO), JUNE 23 — A total of 361 migrants landed overnight in Lampedusa in two separate episodes.
First, 171 refugees arrived, followed by 190 others — all rescued in the Strait of Sicily.
Meanwhile, operations are ongoing to transfer to Porto Empedocle from the island 200 migrants on board a ferry. The migrant holding center in Lampedusa is at the moment housing 371 migrants.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Seeks ‘Immediate Clarification’ From Hungary on Asylum Issue
The European Union asked Hungary on Tuesday to urgently clarify its suspension of a key asylum rule, which requires a migrant’s claim to be processed in the EU country in which they first arrive.
A European Commission spokeswoman said several member states had contacted Brussels to say Hungary had halted transfers of asylum seekers under the EU’s Dublin regulations which govern the issue.
“Hungary has informed Member States at technical level that the suspension is due to technical reasons and for an uncertain period of time,” the spokeswoman said in a statement to AFP…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Alfano Says Applications for Asylum Up 49% in 2015
European Commission ‘will defend our proposals’ on migrants
(ANSA) — Rome, June 23 — Applications for asylum by refugees have already totalled 22,000 this year, an increase of 49% over the same period last year, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said Tuesday.
Speaking to the Senate’s constitutional affairs committee, Alfano said that 48% of requests were denied, humanitarian permits were granted to 25%, subsidiary protection covered 18% of applicants and only 6% were granted refugee status.
As well, 59,606 immigrants arrived in Italy since the beginning of the year, a similar number to the same period of 2014, said Alfano.
Officials have found that 92% of arrivals set sail from Libya, and the majority — 25% — are Eritrean, another 10% Nigerian, Somalis comprised 9% and Syrian 7%.
At the same time, a spokesperson for the European Commission said it was standing by its quota plans on how to settle some 40,000 refugees across Europe.
Margaritis Schinas said that the EC “will defend our proposal and we want to see results soon”.
She warned against believing reports from draft documents, some of which have suggested countries will decide on migrant quotas among themselves.
The issue is likely to be high on the agenda when EU leaders meet later this week at a summit.
Meanwhile, Alfano told the Senate committee that some 78,000 migrants have been temporarily settled in Italy, including about 48,000 in temporary shelters, about 20,000 in asylum reception centre and another 10,000 in government centres.
He said the government was committed “to ensuring a more equitable distribution across regions, to minimized the impact and favour the path to integration”.
Distribution of migrants across Italy has become a highly charged issue, with centre-right politicians in northern regions ordering local officials to prevent migrants from settling.
The government is also “remodeling” its migrant settlement system to boost health screening and identification resources for key ports where most migrants arrive, said Alfano.
Existing centers for asylum seekers “will change in function to become regional hubs for managing large numbers,” with more help for asylum seeks making their initial applications for help.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mediterranean Migrant Crisis: Irish Naval Chief Says Scale of Tragedy ‘Unprecedented’
An Irish naval commander who has helped to rescue hundreds of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea has said the scale of the human tragedy is “unprecedented”.
Lieutenant Commander Eric Timon is in charge of Irish Naval Service vessel, LÉ Eithne, which rescued more than 500 people off the Libyan coast on Monday.
The LÉ Eithne was deployed to assist in the humanitarian rescue operation on 16 May and to date, has helped to save more than 2,000 migrants from the sea.
Mr Timon said it has been “relentless”.
“The numbers of people fleeing Africa for whatever reason… casting themselves adrift on unseaworthy vessels in the hope of rescue or the hope of reaching European shores, it’s quite extraordinary,” he told BBC Radio Ulster.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants Tipped to Drive Swiss Population Boost
Foreign immigrants are expected to account for more than 80% of Switzerland’s population increase in the next 30 years, according to projections from the Federal Statistical Office.
The number of people living in Switzerland is forecast to rise from 8.25 million at present to 10.2 million by 2045. “This increase will largely be due to migration and to a lesser extent due to a surplus of births over deaths,” a report published on Monday states.
The Statistical Office ran three models to predict how the population would change during the course of the next generation. The highest population projection for 2045 is 11 million and the lowest is 9.4 million, but the most likely base scenario is 10.2 million — representing an annual increase of 0.7%.
“Over 80% of this increase will be due to an immigration surplus (the difference between incoming migration and outgoing),” said the report.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Stowaway Narrowly Escapes Crushing Death
The Civil Guard rescued a young man hiding on a ferry bound for mainland Spain just moments before he would have been crushed to death in the vehicle ramp.
Officers in Spain’s north African enclave of Melilla said they avoided what would have become “a fatal accident at the port” on Sunday.
Last month an eight-year-old boy was discovered hidden in a suitcase at a border crossing at Spain’s north African enclave of Ceuta, in an attempt to reunite with his parents in Spain.
Spain’s two territories in northern Africa, Ceuta and Melilla, are often where many migrants seek to cross into the country and are Europe’s only land border with Africa.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sudan Hub for Migrants and Human Smugglers
Thousands of East Africans trying to get to Europe pass through Sudan on their way to the Mediterranean coast. Many would-be migrants stop in the capital Khartoum to earn money for their journey. Sudan has become a major hub for human trafficking.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Up to 100’ Britons Jailed in Calais for People Smuggling
Up to a hundred Britons have been jailed in France over the last year for trying to smuggle people into the UK, claim prosecutors.
Deputy Prosecutor for Calais’ principle court, Julie Colaert told the BBC that she has seen between five and ten smugglers prosecuted from the UK every month. She says the figure is increasing and that people most often hide migrants in their own cars and then drive from Calais to the UK.
She said: “In the last two years we have seen more and more English smugglers. Trafficking gangs are employing them to take people across in their own cars.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Catholic Church Has a Major Problem Right Now. … And the Pope is Only a Part of It
Anti-capitalism, pro-AGW, and anti-gun
By now, you’ve probably seen the Tweets, read the quotes, or listened to the proclamations coming from the Vatican. The Pope has decided to embrace the global warming faith, attack capitalism, decry the successes of western nations, and rail against guns, gun manufacturers, and those who support the industry. In short (abortion and gay marriage aside) he’s taken a turn to the hard-left. In the span of a decade, we’ve gone from a Pope teaming with Reagan to defeat the Soviet Union to a Pope who embraces the classist financial rhetoric of our old enemies…
[…] But first, let me say that the Pope’s comments are only the beginning of the issue. The real problem lies deeper within the Catholic hierarchy.
In case you’re unfamiliar with what he’s been saying, here’s a sampling from the 24-hour climate change “encyclical” he posted on Twitter. If you’ve already read it, feel free to skip down:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Here’s a little background on this whole soap opera. In August 2010, the America Medical Association’s Journal of Ethics published an article called, Proposed DSM-5 Revisions to Sexual and Gender Identity Disorder Criteria. The DSM-5 is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It is the go-to book used by those in the mental health field to diagnose various mental illnesses.
In years past, homosexuality was listed as a mental illness until the LGBT lobby demanded it be declassified as such, thus forcing mainstream America to accept and even celebrate what was formerly considered by medical professionals to be a perverted lifestyle. Then, the trannies stepped up.
The article states “With regard to gender identity disorder (GID), a parallel to homosexuality has been used to argue for the elimination of this disorder from the DSM. Homosexuality was removed over the course of revisions to the DSM in the 1970s and ‘80s due to pressure from both inside and outside the APA (American Psychiatric Association.)”
“Similar arguments are being made for removing GID, namely that continued labeling of expressions of gender as pathological is discriminatory and perpetuates stigma, causing harm to transgender individuals.” This supposedly may trigger nonclinical levels of distress or impairment, although there is “a lack of data to support the attribution of an ‘inherent distress’ to gender incongruence,” a survey of organizations concerned with the welfare of transgender people found that a majority, 55.8%, believed the diagnosis should be removed to minimize stigma.
In other words, even though there’s a lack of evidence that people who ‘feel’ they are actually a member of the opposite sex suffer much if any ‘inherent distress’ because of their ‘feelings’, the LGTB lobby pressured the APA to change the wording from “Gender Identity Disorder” to “Gender Dysphoria” so they can avoid being labeled abnormal, and to ensure insurance companies would be forced to pay for clinical care, ranging from hormone treatments to sex reassignment surgery.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
More hypocrisy on display from the RoP:
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/pakistani-muslims-told-they-can-eat-during-ramadan-during-heatwave-n380771
Meanwhile, here in Algeria the police rousted a café that dared serve lunch during this month. On base I have already received multiple sermons about how “amazing” a month of self-abuse is for my spiritual and physical health.