Fighters for the Islamic State have finally achieved control over Sirte, Moammar Qaddafi’s hometown in Libya. After taking the airport, ISIS fought a protracted series of battles with the Fajr Libya militia before capturing the power plant and other strategic sites, thereby gaining complete control over the town.
In other news, a French woman is suing the government for failing to prevent her 16-year-old son, a convert to Islam, from making hijra to Syria to wage jihad for the Islamic State.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to CC, Diego, Fjordman, JD, JLH, RRN, 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.
Grexit Would be “Start of the End for the Eurozone,” Says Tsipras
Greek PM Alexis Tsipras has warned in an interview of the costs to EU taxpayers if his country left the eurozone. Athens has meanwhile finally submitted a promised reform plan to its creditors.
In the interview in the Tuesday edition of Italy’s Corriere della Sera, Tsipras said that if Greece were forced out of the eurozone after failing to make a deal on managing its debt, Spain or Italy could soon follow, precipitating the collapse of the currency bloc.
“It would be the start of the end for the eurozone,” Tsipras said.
“If Europe’s political leadership cannot handle a problem like Greece, which represents 2 percent of its economy, how will the markets react to countries that are facing much bigger problems, like Spain or Italy that has a 2 billion euro public debt?” he said.
“If Greece goes bankrupt, the markets will immediately look for the next victim. If negotiations fail, the cost for European taxpayers will be enormous,” he warned.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Guess How Many Nations in the World Do Not Have a Central Bank?
Central banking has truly taken over the entire planet. At this point, the only major nation on the globe that does not have a central bank is North Korea. Yes, there are some small island countries such as the Federated States of Micronesia that do not have a central bank, but even if you count them, more than 99.9% of the population of the world still lives in a country that has a central bank. So how has this happened? How have we gotten the entire planet to agree that central banking is the best system? Did the people of the world willingly choose this? Of course not. To my knowledge, there has never been a single vote where the people of a nation have willingly chosen to establish a central bank. Instead, what has happened is that central banks have been imposed on all of us. All over the world, people have been told that monetary issues are “ too important” to be subject to politics, and that the only solution is to have a group of unelected, unaccountable bankers control those things for us.
So precisely what does a central bank do?
You would be surprised at how few people can actually answer that question accurately…
In the United States, we are told that we have a free market system. But in a true free market system, market forces would determine what interest rates are. We wouldn’ t need anyone to “ set interest rates” for us.
And why have we given a private banking cartel (the Federal Reserve) the authority to create and manage our money supply? The U.S. Constitution specifically delegates that authority to Congress.
It is not as if we actually need the Federal Reserve. In fact, the greatest period of economic growth in U.S. history happened during the decades before the Federal Reserve was created.
Unfortunately, a little over 100 years ago our leaders decided that it would be best to turn over our financial future to a newly created private banking cartel that was designed by very powerful Wall Street interests. Since that time, the value of our currency has diminished by more than 96 percent and our national debt has gotten more than 5000 times larger.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Three Million French Children Living in Poverty
More and more children in France are living below the poverty line, according to a worrying new report from Unicef, which described it as an “wake up call” for French authorities.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Caitlyn Jenner Faces Second Lawsuit Over Malibu Car Crash
Caitlyn Jenner is facing a second lawsuit against her in connection with a car crash in Malibu in which one woman died. Talent agent Jessica Marie Steindorff was one of four people injured in the crash on the Pacific Coast Highway outside Los Angeles in February.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Emails Show How Industry Lobbyists Basically Wrote the Trans-Pacific Partnership
Back in 2013, we wrote about a FOIA lawsuit that was filed by William New at IP Watch. After trying to find out more information on the TPP by filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, and being told that they were classified as “national security information” (no, seriously), New teamed up with Yale’s Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic to sue. As part of that lawsuit, the USTR has now released a bunch of internal emails concerning TPP negotiations, and IP Watch has a full writeup showing how industry lobbyists influenced the TPP agreement, to the point that one is even openly celebrating that the USTR version copied his own text word for word.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Who in this administration EVER obeys the American laws?
When three universities, a Christian Leader, Disney World, a former Democrat president and the current president and his administration all make negative headlines online in the same day issue, any true American patriot has got to feel betrayed by his fellow countrymen.
It is common knowledge that the far left Socialist i.e. Communist mentality has overcome all common sense in our universities and most colleges. Their teachings lean from leftist-ism to outright treasonous betrayal of our sworn government and its laws.
Radicals of all sorts have always been around, or so it seems. Leftists preach anything from communist worship to Islamic terrorism and death warnings to outright anti-Christian or anti-Judaism, and somehow delusionally convince themselves and gullible young students that a mantra that has never been successful in any country in the world is a raging truth.
This is done by camouflaging teachings with lies and sleight-of-hand magic; and also by making changes to their preachings such as changing the ludicrous and farcical expressions, such as, “Global Warming”, which is a tricky designation to indicate that the world is getting warmer; an occurrence that happens many times every year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
LightSail Spacecraft Successfully Deploys Solar Sail
Hoist the solar sail! A small spacecraft designed to test technology that derives thrust from sunlight is finally fully operational. LightSail, operated by the non-profit Planetary Society in Pasadena, California, has been dogged with problems since its launch last month, but this weekend mission managers made contact with the craft and unfurled its 32-square-metre sail.
Solar sails offer a potentially cheap way of exploring the solar system, but few have been tested in orbit. They work by reflecting photons from the sun, providing a small thrust in the opposite direction. The force from each reflected photon is tiny, but a large enough sail can build up significant momentum.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NASA Aiming for Multiple Missions to Jupiter Moon Europa
NASA’s highly anticipated mission to Europa in the next decade may be just the beginning of an ambitious campaign to study the ocean-harboring Jupiter moon.
In the early to mid-2020s, NASA plans to launch a mission that will conduct dozens of flybys of Europa, which many astrobiologists regard as the solar system’s best bet to host life beyond Earth. Space agency officials hope this effort paves the way for future missions to Europa — including one that lands on the icy moon to search for signs of life.
At 1,900 miles (3,100 kilometers) wide, Europa is only slightly smaller than Earth’s moon. But the Jovian satellite is very different from the one that lights up Earth’s night sky; Europa is covered by a shell of ice, beneath which sloshes an ocean of liquid water.
Scientists think this ocean is in contact with Europa’s rocky mantle, making possible a variety of complex chemical reactions. Indeed, the Europan sea may be capable of supporting life as we know it, which explains why astrobiologists have long dreamed of launching a probe to the icy world.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Teenager Commits Suicide After Spending 3 Years in Jail Without Being Charged With Any Crime
Kalief Browder was sent to Rikers Island when he was 16 years old, accused of stealing a backpack. Though he never stood trial or was found guilty of any crime, he spent three years at the New York City jail complex, nearly two of them in solitary confinement. In October 2014, after he was written about in The New Yorker, his case became a symbol of what many saw as a broken criminal justice system. Mayor Bill de Blasio cited the article this spring when he announced an effort to clear the backlogs in state courts and reduce the inmate population at Rikers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Rising of the Beast: TPP is the Planned Communist Utopian Dream
In sum and substance, the TPP appears to be one of the most important end-game mechanisms necessary to usher in a state of global governance.
To achieve the Communist utopian dream of a one world authoritative body, national sovereignty must first be destroyed. Looking at the TPP with a wide-angle lens, it is now much easier to not merely see, but contextualize the building blocks that have been previously erected that brought America to this point of acquiescence to a global authority. It puts previous initiatives such as NAFTA, GATT, the WTO, etc. in proper perspective and identifies them for what they are.
Using that same wide-angle lens, we begin to gain some clarity about domestic matters of importance and controversy. For example, we wonder why America’s southern border remains wide open and illegal aliens flood into the United States without molestation by federal law enforcement. Some ascribe it to incompetence while others merely politicize the matter, making it all about increasing the number of “democratic voters.” When viewed in the context of the TPP or a global government, it makes much more sense as the culture of America must be demographically altered, not preserved.
The TPP is indeed a Trojan Horse, and its implementation is the culmination of decades and even centuries of planning in secret, by the power elite who, regardless of their political affiliation, are pushing the Communist utopian dream against the will of the American people.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Thrills and Spills as World’s Best Robots Take Each Other on
Inside Building 9, a concrete hangar in eastern Los Angeles, the pressure is mounting.
There is a hum of activity as engineers ready their hyperadvanced robots for the final run in the world’s most important robotics competition: the DARPA Robotics Challenge, which ran over Friday and Saturday last week at this former horse-racing track in Pomona, California.
A whiff of dung hangs over the course as robots scramble over debris, drive emergency vehicles, climb stairs and cut through plasterboard walls — tasks designed to simulate those needed in a real-life disaster. There are 23 competitors, four at a time on each task, which they attempt twice over the two days.
A human would whiz through the course in minutes or seconds, but only the most advanced machines can tackle it, and then only with human controllers. But the data they generate is forming the bedrock of robotic autonomy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade package is beginning to unravel, with more prominent voices slamming President Obama and the republican leadership over the secretive deal that threatens to cost American jobs and hand big corporations new powers that would violate national sovereignty.
Critics of the TPP assert the trade deal will give huge corporations the power to change U.S. laws.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
16 Arrested in Belgium in Terror-Related Probes Involving Chechen Extremists
BRUSSELS — Belgian authorities say 16 people have been arrested as a result of twin terrorism-related investigations.
The federal prosecutor’s office says the arrests took place Monday.
Those arrested were described as members of two separate Chechen extremist groups that had links between them.
The prosecutor’s office said some of those arrested had participated in combat in Syria, where thousands of Europeans have gone to fight alongside the Islamic State group and other extremist organizations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium Riles France With Special Waterloo Coin
Belgium on Monday shrugged aside opposition from its neighbour France and began minting 2.5-euro coins marking the 200th anniversary of Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.
The move is seen as provocative given France had forced it to scrap a €2 ($2.25) coin of the same purpose.
Paris objected to the new Belgian coin, commemorating the French emperor’s defeat by British and Prussian forces, earlier this year, saying it would create tensions at a time when Europe’s unity is under threat.
Belgium was forced to get rid of around 180,000 €2 coins that had already been minted after Paris sent a letter saying they could cause an “unfavourable reaction in France”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Biggest Online-Grooming Case in Sweden’s History
Last Thursday 29-year-old paeodophile Amin Muktar Ali Burhan (pictured to the right) was sentenced to 7 years in jail for sexually abusing 65 girls on the internet, where he coerced them into performing sexually degrading acts in front of a webcam.
He was convicted of aggravated sexual assault, gross exploitation of a child for sexual posing, child pornography offenses and aggravated libel and was sentenced to seven years in prison and approximately five million kronor in damages.
Amin who lives in the immigrant ghetto Husby in Stockholm together with his family worked as a computer consultant at Emineo AB. He has been convicted of exploiting children for sexual posing previously but was not deported.
This was the biggest “grooming” case in Sweden’s history with regards to the number of victims, 68 girls aged 11-20.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bilderberg Orders Cops to Harass Journalists: Voice Your Opposition
Infowars cameraman Josh Owens describes the heavy-handed police state tactics of the Austrian police when dealing with the alternative media.
Every year the Bilderberg confab tweaks its efforts to lock out the media, deny transparency and keep its agenda secret. Regardless of the country where these globalists stage their annual meetings, governments invariably follow orders and dispatch police to deny access and intimidate journalists.
Meanwhile, when the establishment media bothers to file reports on the Bilderberg meeting, it invariably portrays the meeting as an informal gab fest of little consequence and the alternative media and demonstrators as conspiracy theorists. On June 9 a member of the Austrian Home Guard NCO contacted Infowars. He pointed us to a web page (in German) detailing how the National Police Directorate in Tirol Innsbruck created an “Integrated management and operations staff” to deal with security issues at the Bilderberg meeting at Telfs-Buchen and the G7 summit in Elmau on June 7 and 8. Advanced preparations for security began in late May.
Since ISIS and other terrorist groups supposedly dedicated to attacking the West have not targeted what should be considered a prime target, the security in Austria has but one goal — to prevent the alternative media from covering the meeting and also keeping demonstrators miles away from the exclusive resort.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bilderberg Police Defend Tyrannical Checkpoints
Reporter confronts Austrian police at security checkpoint.
Infowars reporter Rob Dew confronts the Austrian police over their blatant hypocrisy on filming and security while at a checkpoint miles away from the hotel where Bilderberg is set to take place.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Boris Johnson Says EU-Sceptic Ministers Should be Able to Campaign for UK to Leave
The London Mayor reopened the row over whether David Cameron would sack ministers who did not back him in the referendum, after the PM was forced to claim he had been ‘misinterpreted’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Danes’ Trust in Politicians Hits All-Time Low
Opinion polls in the run-up to Denmark’s June 18th election continue to flip-flop between the red and blue blocs, but a new voter survey points to one clear loser: politicians themselves.
In a survey conducted for political site Altinget, just 28 percent of Danish voters said that they trust the nation’s politicians. That marks the lowest recorded level of trust ever.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch May Ban ‘Hate Imams’ From Other EU Countries
The Dutch government is to look into the possibility of banning controversial imams from coming to the Netherlands even if they live in another European country. Currently only imams from outside the EU who are suspected of spreading hatred can be refused entry. However, the ruling Liberal VVD wants the blacklist to include spiritual leaders from other EU countries as well.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French ‘Anti-Islamophobia’ Group on Trial for Plotting Attacks
Paris: Members of a French group that said it was formed to combat Islamophobia went on trial in Paris on Monday accused of plotting terrorist attacks.
Led by 37-year-old “emir” Mohamed Achamlane, the 15 members of Forsane Alizza, who called themselves the “knights of pride”, have denied involvement in a terrorist organisation.
Achamlane told the court he had no “terrorist inspiration” and only wanted to defend Muslims against mounting Islamophobia in France.
The group was formed in 2010, gaining attention for organising protests against the government’s decision to ban veils in public.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germanwings Co-Pilot Saw ‘Dozens’ of Doctors
The co-pilot believed to have deliberately crashed Germanwings flight 4U9525 had seen “dozens” of doctors in the two years before, state prosecutors said on Monday.
Düsseldorf prosecutors, who are leading the crash investigation in Germany, confirmed reports from the French authorities about co-pilot Andreas Lubitz’s medical treatment.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In Sweden: Trouble in Paradise
[…]
When I was a child, Sweden was a dull yet very safe place to live. Yes, there was a heavy blanket of socialism and collectivist values covering everything, but there was a core of pragmatism beneath the redness. The intention and goal was always to benefit the citizens, even though they went about things in a backwards manner.
Today, it’s as if the inmates are running the asylum. The politicians are participating in a chicken race of “goodness” where everybody tries to one-up each other in caring for the citizens of OTHER countries while Swedish retirees, school children, handicapped and other vulnerable categories of people are thorougly ignored. Violence is exploding. Jihadist Trojan horses are flowing through the porous border along with the tens of thousands ID-less refugees.
But what makes me the most pessimistic about Sweden’s future is how the social fabric itself has been undermined.
You know what’s coming, but please read the whole thing anyway. The decision by the Leftist ruling elites in countries like Sweden and Britain — to replace their native populations with Muslims from the Middle East — is one of the great malevolent, suicidal mysteries of our time. And of course the same thing is happening here in the United States, with the “immigrants” coming largely from Mexico, but also from all over the Third World. But there’s more…
| — Hat tip: CC | [Return to headlines] |
Mum Sues France for Letting Teen Son Join Jihad
An aggrieved French mum is demanding the country’s government pay her €110,000 in damages for failing to stop her son leaving to fight jihad in the Middle East.
A French mother took the government to court on Tuesday for failing to stop her teenage son leaving the country to join jihadists in Syria.
The boy, identified only as “B”, was only 16 when he left with three others from the town of Nice in southern France on December 27, 2013, giving no warning to his family.
A recent convert to Islam, the boy took a plane to Turkey before continuing by land to Syria. His mother, who spoke to him recently by phone, says he is still there.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obese? Not us! Why the Netherlands is Becoming the Skinniest EU Country
Every EU country will be more obese by 2030 — except one. DW’s Conor Dillon went to the Netherlands to find out how the Dutch keep eating french fries, mayo and frikandels without getting fat.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
People in Ancient Ireland Preferred Britain’s ‘Magical’ Gold to Their Own
The people of ancient Ireland snubbed their local gold in favor of more exotic, mystical gold found across the sea, new research shows.
Scientists had long assumed that the gold that people in Ireland used during the early Bronze Age, about 4,000 years ago, came from nearby mineral-rich mountains. But now, extremely sensitive chemical analyses have revealed that the gold had been extracted from an area farther away, across the Irish Sea, in what’s now southwestern Britain.
This is the oldest gold known to archaeology, said Christopher Standish, lead author of the new study and a research fellow at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom. Dating the gold artifacts, such as embossed gold armlets and gold oval plaques, can be tricky because the artifacts are often found isolated from one another, he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Attempted Murder in Malmö Sparks 27 Arrests
Police in Malmö in southern Sweden have arrested more than two dozen suspects after gunfire rang out in the suburb of Rosengård.
Officers remained in the area on Tuesday morning after originally being called out at 11.15pm on Monday night.
Witnesses reported hearing numerous loud bangs in the area, with the first police patrol hearing further shots as it approached the scene.
Police told the TT news agency that they believed several people shot at an apartment block, smashing two windows. But nobody was hurt in the attack.
“I first heard four shots and then I heard four more right afterwards,” one resident told regional newspaper Sydsvenskan.
“It’s a pure miracle that no one was hurt in the extensive gunfire that took place,” Hans Nilsson, duty officer at Skåne police told TT.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Mass Arrests After Malmö Shoot-Out
Twenty-seven men were arrested in Malmö last night, suspected of attempted murder and gun crimes. Police were present in the Rosengård area, when two groups opened fire on each other in between the apartment buildings.
The police said that they partly witnessed the shoot-out which happened around 11 pm.
“We managed to cordon off the area very quickly and could arrest these people who were at the scene at the time,” said Hans Nilsson, officer in command with the police Region South.
“It’s a pure miracle that no one was hurt,” he added.
With 40 years experience from police work, he said that he has never seen arrests on such a grand scale.
“This is pretty unique. Often we enter the picture a little later,” he told Swedish Radio’s local channel in Malmö.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Norwegian Arrested in Gothenburg — Suspected of Wanting to Join is
A Norwegian citizen was arrested at Gothenburg’s Landvetter Airport on Monday, suspected of wanting to the join the Islamic State (IS) in Syria, the Norwegian daily Dagbladet reports.
The 18-year-old was arrested by Swedish police, in co-operation with the intelligence services in Sweden and Norway.
According to Dagbladet, he was about to embark on a plane to Copenhagen when he was arrested. He has no previous criminal record, according to the paper, but the Norwegian intelligence service PST told Swedish Radio that he has been known to them for some time.
The Nowegian tabloid VG reports that the man has ties to a radical islamist environment in the south-eastern parts of Norway, Østlandet, but that he lives in Oslo.
He has been extradited to Norway and his case will be heard in court on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Heading in a More Multicultural Direction
On Sweden’s National Day Lindesberg municipality decided to host a more inclusive celebration namely; poetry reading in Arabic.
18:00 National Day celebrations in Oscars Park. In co-operation with Guldsmedshyttans Hemvärnsmusikkår and Kapell Malén. Scholarships, music, and poetry reading in Arabic and Swedish. — Lindesberg municipality website
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Police Arrest Teen ISIS Suspect in Norway
An 18-year-old Norwegian has been arrested at Landvetter Airport just outside Gothenburg. He is suspected of planning to join the extremist group Isis (also known as IS) in Syria.
Growing numbers of young people are leaving Scandinavia to join extremists groups in Syria and Iraq. The number of Swedes estimated to have died fighting for Isis is believed to be “up to 40” according to Sweden’s Security Service Säpo.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Bilderberg Group: Founded by a Nazi and Continuing the Agenda of the Nazis
When you want to discover what an organization is really all about, it is important to dig down to the roots. And when you uncover the roots of the Bilderberg Group, you find some very unsettling things. It turns out that the Bilderberg Group has had Nazi connections from the very beginning, and it continues to advance the agenda of the Nazis to this very day. This year, the Bilderberg Group is meeting from June 11th to June 14th at the Interalpen Hotel which is near the city of Telfs, Austria. This organization has so much power that even several days before the event police are keeping everyone (including reporters) 10 kilometers away from the hotel. If this is just a group of private citizens getting together to chat about world issues, why all the security? What is so special about this group of people that rates such extraordinary measures? And why are they so bound and determined to keep all of the rest of us away from them?
During World War II, the Nazi effort to unite all of Europe (and ultimately the rest of the world) through war failed miserably. When the war ended, those that believed in that dream decided that another approach would be necessary. Instead of war, a united Europe dominated by Germany would be achieved through international treaties and diplomacy. In 1957, the European Economic Community was established, and it began with just six countries: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany. Since that time, it has expanded to 28 nations and has become known as “the European Union”.
The idea for the common currency that the European Union uses today, the euro,was conceived and developed by the Bilderberg Group. This organization has always been at the forefront of European unity, but most people have no idea where it came from. Well, the truth is that the Bilderberg Group first met in 1954, and one of the key founders of the group was Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. Not only was he a founder, Prince Bernhard actually served as the organization’s chairman until 1976. So why is this important? Most people do not realize this, but Prince Bernhard actually belonged to the Nazi Party at one time. The following is an excerpt from an article that appeared in the Telegraph…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Dinosaur Blood Cells Extracted From 75-Million-Year-Old Fossil
Jurassic Park saw dinosaurs brought back to life based on DNA preserved in the gut of a blood-sucking mosquito entombed in amber. Now we have found what appears to be real dinosaur blood inside a bog-standard fossil bone.
“We stumbled on these things completely by chance,” says Susannah Maidment of Imperial College London, whose team was trying to study bone fossilisation by cutting out tiny fragments of fossils.
Instead, they found blood-like cells and collagen from 75-million-year-old dinosaur fossils — 10 million years before T. rex appeared.
Although the cells are unlikely to contain DNA, those extracted from better preserved fossils using the same technique may do so, she says.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Doctor Kidnapped in Libya is Freed After 5 Months’ Detention; Italy Thanks Tripoli
ROME — Italian officials say an Italian doctor kidnapped in Libya in January has been freed.
An official at the Foreign Ministry, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tuesday that Ignazio Scaravilli had been freed and was in good condition in Tripoli, awaiting his return to Italy. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to provide details, said Libyan authorities in Tripoli had helped with the release.
Scaravilli had been kidnapped Jan. 6.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella issued a statement thanking all the authorities who made Scaravilli’s release possible, in another indication that the case had attracted high-level attention in Tripoli.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Summons U.S. Ambassador Over DC Muslim Brotherhood Meetings
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Egypt summoned the U.S. ambassador in Cairo to show displeasure at Muslim Brotherhood figures coming to Washington for a private conference, sources familiar with the matter said on Monday.
One source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said U.S. officials did not intend to meet the group although they had met some Brotherhood figures that came to Washington in January.
The tensions reflect a clash between U.S. diplomats’ desire to deal with the whole political spectrum in Egypt and a fear of alienating Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi who, as army chief, toppled a Muslim Brotherhood-led government in 2013.
The sources declined to say precisely when U.S. Ambassador Stephen Beecroft was call in by the Egyptian government, though one said it was in recent days. Egypt sought the meeting to make clear its unhappiness at U.S. dealings with the Brotherhood.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Captures 88 Eritrean Christians in Libya, US Official Confirms
The ISIS terror group kidnapped 88 Eritrean Christians from a people-smugglers’ caravan in Libya last week, a U.S. defense official confirmed Monday.
The defense official confirmed initial reports of the mass kidnapping to Fox News after seeing a recent intelligence report. The independent Libya Herald newspaper reported that the convoy was ambushed by militants south of Tripoli before dawn this past Wednesday morning.
Meron Estafanos, the co-founder of the Stockholm-based International Commission on Eritrean Refugees, told the paper that the group of migrants included “about 12 Eritrean Muslims and some Egyptians. They put them in another truck and they put 12 Eritrean women Christians in a smaller pick-up”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
IS Claims Capture of Libya’s Sirte
Dubai (AFP) — The Islamic State group claimed to have seized full control Tuesday of the Libyan city of Sirte from the Fajr Libya militia, including a power plant, according to a US monitor.
SITE Intelligence Group said the jihadist group had published photographs of “IS fighters engaged in clashes, sitting atop heavy guns, exploring the power plant and town, as well as bodies of dead Fajr Libya fighters”.
The claim comes nearly two weeks after IS overran the airport in Sirte — the home town of slain dictator Moamer Kadhafi — in the group’s first such military gain in Libya.
SITE quoted a report in which an IS division that calls itself “Tripoli Province” said “soldiers of the caliphate” seized control of the last locations of Fajr Libya gunmen in Sirte.
The report said Sirte would now “be the coastal city linking the east and west of Libya under full control of the Islamic State (group) fighters.”
It said the capture of Sirte came after clashes that erupted at dawn saw the Fajr Libya fighters lose all entrances to the city and the power plant, as well as the Al-Jallit military camp and Al-Qardhabiyah base.
| — Hat tip: Diego | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Proves Its Persistence With Attacks in Libya and Iraq
Islamic State militants staged attacks near Baghdad and the Libyan city of Surt on Tuesday, underscoring the group’s persistent strength on both fronts despite a monthslong American-led air campaign against it in Syria and Iraq.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Now the Truth Emerges: How the US Fuelled the Rise of ISIS in Syria and Iraq
by Seumas Milne
The war on terror, that campaign without end launched 14 years ago by George Bush, is tying itself up in ever more grotesque contortions. On Monday the trial in London of a Swedish man, Bherlin Gildo, accused of terrorism in Syria, collapsed after it became clear British intelligence had been arming the same rebel groups the defendant was charged with supporting.
The prosecution abandoned the case, apparently to avoid embarrassing the intelligence services. The defence argued that going ahead withthe trial would have been an “affront to justice” when there was plenty of evidence the British state was itself providing “extensive support” to the armed Syrian opposition.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rumsfeld: ‘Unrealistic’ For Bush to Pursue Democracy in Iraq
Donald Rumsfeld, one of the leading architects of the Iraq war, said in a recent interview that then-President George W. Bush was “unrealistic” to pursue democracy in the country.
Rumsfeld, who served as Bush’s defense secretary from 2001 to 2006, made the comments in an interview with the Times of London.
“I’m not one who thinks that our particular template of democracy is appropriate for other countries at every moment of their histories,” Rumsfeld said.
“The idea that we could fashion a democracy in Iraq seemed to me unrealistic. I was concerned about it when I first heard those words.”
The comments are a departure from Rumsfeld’s robust public defense of the war during the Bush administration, and mark a rare break between him and the former president on foreign policy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Minister Slaps ‘Medieval’ Saudi Punishment Again
Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström on Tuesday accused Saudi Arabia of handing a “medieval” punishment to a blogger in a move likely to further strain tensions between the two countries.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia’s Richest Man in $7 Billion Divorce Fight
Think fracking pioneer Harold Hamm’s divorce was pricey? Think again. The ex-wife of Russia’s richest man Vladimir Potanin wants half his $15 billion fortune.
The couple divorced last year. Potanin offered Natalia Potanina, his wife of 30 years, a settlement including a monthly allowance of $250,000 and properties in Moscow, London, and New York.
But she says that is only a fraction of what is rightfully hers. Natalia claims Potanin’s real wealth is held in offshore companies, and she’s launched an international legal battle to get hold of it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia Airlines to Become New Company, Says New Boss
Malaysian Airlines will become an “entirely new company” its new boss has said.
“We will leave the old Malaysian airlines behind,” Christoph Mueller told the BBC.
He insisted that the transition would be “an orderly process”.
Mr Mueller, who took the helm in May, said earlier this month that the airline was “technically bankrupt”, and announced a restructuring plan involving 6,000 job cuts.
He said the airline expected no further bad news “particularly for our new employees”.
Instead, Mr Mueller said improving its technology, renegotiating contracts with its suppliers and generally becoming more efficient would help the airline to cut costs further.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Man Sues Chinese Actress Over Her Intense Stare in TV Show
Rules making it easier to file lawsuits in China have led to a new concern over frivolous claims, such as one in which a man says actress Zhao Wei stared at him too intensely through his TV set.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
South Korean MERS Outbreak Spotlights Lack of Research
How Middle East respiratory syndrome jumps from animals to humans remains a puzzle.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Automated Cameras Record Serengeti Life
Hundreds of thousands of images of animals going about their daily lives have been caught on automatic cameras in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. The pictures have allowed scientists to observe the natural behaviour and interactions of the creatures, free from any disturbance by humans. Eating, sleeping, grooming, playing, fighting — any activity in the field of view was recorded.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa: Man Shot Dead While Being Loaded Into Ambulance
Port Elizabeth — A man was shot and killed in the early hours of Monday morning as he was being loaded into a state ambulance to take him to hospital to treat his gunshot wound.
Provincial health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo confirmed the incident, saying two state paramedics had also come under fire when the 24-year-old man, who has not yet been identified, was shot and killed.
Kupelo said the ambulance was responding to a call for a man who had been shot in Kwazakhele at 04:00 on Monday morning.
On arrival at the scene, they immediately stabilised the man and loaded him onto a stretcher.
“The paramedics were busy putting the man into the ambulance when the alleged gunman returned and opened fire on all three of them,” he said.
Kupelo said the two paramedics managed to escape unhurt, but the man they were assisting was killed.
He said this was the third incident in less than a month where state paramedics had been affected by crime in the Port Elizabeth area…
| — Hat tip: RRN | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark Grants Asylum to Nine of Ten Refugees
A record-high percentage of refugees have been granted the right to stay in Denmark in the first months of 2015.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Positive on EU Migrant Plan, Stresses ‘All’ Countries Must Join in
The Dutch government says it supports a European Commission proposal to relocate 40,000 immigrants from Mediterranean states but that all EU countries must take part. The cabinet said in a statement that it ‘welcomes’ the Commision’s efforts to better manage the stream of migrants in crisis situations. However, a ‘good balance’ needs to be found between solidarity between the member states at times of need on the one hand and keeping agreements which have been made on the other, the government statement said. ‘The cabinet supports the European Commission’s call on all member states to take part in the relocation programme,’ the statement said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Trouble as Riot Police Evict Paris Migrants
Parisians formed a human chain in a failed attempt to stop riot police from evacuating a migrant campsite in northern Paris on Monday, when over 100 migrants were moved on.
The migrants are understood to have come from the temporary campsite that was in place for about a year near the La Chapelle metro station, a campsite that was cleared out last week of its 400 or so residents.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Lola the Cat Survives Migrant Crossing to Italy
ROME (Reuters) — A cat which accompanied her owner across the desert from Sudan to Libya and then on a migrant boat to Italy has been taken into quarantine on the island of Lampedusa after authorities promised to reunite the pair, La Repubblica daily reported on Tuesday.
The paper said the black and white cat, named Lola was rescued with her owner by a British patrol boat after evading border controls and migrant traffickers during the months-long journey hidden in a traveling bag.
TV footage on La Repubblica’s website showed aid workers calming the distraught owner, identified only as Sama, after she had disembarked and Lola was held back for health reasons.
The mayor of Lampedusa Giusy Nicolini and the island’s doctor Pietro Bartolo intervened to save the cat, which would otherwise probably have been thrown into the sea to drown, La Repubblica said…
| — Hat tip: JLH | [Return to headlines] |
‘Suitcase Boy’ Reunited With His Mum in Spain
The eight-year-old boy was finally reunited with his mother, a month after he was discovered hidden inside a suitcase in an attempt to be smuggled into Spain to join his family.
It was an emotional meeting after Adou from the Ivory Coast was discovered last month by authorities curled up inside a suitcase at the border crossing in Ceuta, in an attempt to join his parents in Spain.
His father Ali Ouattara had tried to arrange through an intermediary for his son to reunite with the rest of the family, who are in Spain legally, but later admitted that he had no idea it would mean Adou ending up inside of a suitcase.
The story of the “suitcase boy” has stirred controversy and highlighted the plight of some migrants willing to go to extreme lengths in order to make it to Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UN Notes ‘Dramatic Increase’ In Migrants Arriving in Mediterranean
The United Nations (UN) has reported that 103,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Europe so far this year. The organization’s refugee agency (UNHCR) has described the figure as a “dramatic increase.”
Since the beginning of 2015, some 54,000 migrants have safely reached the shores of Italy. Another 48,000 have arrived in Greece. By comparison, 34,000 migrants arrived in Greece throughout the entirety of 2014. A further 920 migrants also landed in Spain and 91 in Malta, the UNHCR said.
Included in the latest figures are almost 6,000 people, most of them sub-Saharan Africans, who were rescued by EU coastguards off Libya last weekend.
UNHCR “is stepping up its presence in Greece and in southern Italy in response to the dramatic increase in numbers of refugees and migrants who we have been seeing arriving,” UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told journalists in Geneva on Tuesday.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Tuesday predicted that the huge influx would continue into the summer, as seasonally calm weather in the Mediterranean would encourage human smugglers to make the crossing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gay Reparative Therapy “Saved My Life”
In the above video, David Pickup describes how he developed homosexual feelings after being sexually abused as a child and later as a youth. He was able to “save his life” by getting therapy which has been banned in California, Oregon and New Jersey. It has just been banned in Ontario, and faces bans in some other jurisdictions.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Rainbow Flag Compared to Swastika by Councillor
A councillor in Västerås, central Sweden, is facing an angry backlash after comparing the flying of a rainbow flag with putting up a Nazi swastika.
Morgan Emgardsson, who is a councillor for the centre-right Christian Democrat party in the city of Västerås, rejected a motion by the City Council to fly a rainbow flag to mark the city’s gay pride festival, saying that if the flag was approved then the Nazi flag should also be allowed.
Emgardsson then attempted to clarify his position, saying: “I just wanted to say that if we allow the disclosure of an organization’s flag, then we must allow others. The municipality should just have the Swedish flag and its own flag.”
Flying the rainbow flag, which has been a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) pride and LGBT social movements since the 1970s, was nevertheless overwhelmingly approved by the City Council.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thanks to Fox: The Devil Will Now Have His Very Own TV Show
What the the expanding Lib-Left/ Entertainment Industry Conquering Army want made acceptable by the pop culture, they first legitimize
It’s not the “glorification” of the devil the American Family Association and One Million Moms should be objecting to on Fox’s upcoming ‘Lucifer’ TV show, but its “legitimization” of the age old Prince of Darkness.
What the the expanding Lib-Left/ Entertainment Industry Conquering Army want made acceptable by the pop culture, they first legitimize.
Already successful in having legitimized mass abortion and on their way to the legitimization of Same Sex ‘Marriage’, they call their societal turnaround, “The New Norm”.
To the marxists’ garbled way of thinking, everything old truly is new again.
If Christian parents raised their kids to believe that the devil is evil incarnate, the Lib-Left/Entertainment Industry will now present him as a cool dude, a sort of 21st century Super Man who’s relocated from Hell to the City of Angels, where he’s merely looking for a break.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
3 More Great Supplements for Gut Health
I’ve talked a lot about the importance of maintaining a healthy gut flora because it truly is key for optimal health. Many studies suggest all sorts of illnesses actually “start” in the gut, from weight gain right down to depression. All kinds of bacteria live in your gut—good and bad—but the “friendly” kind actually helps keep the “unfriendly” population in check. Many modern diets tend to be high in things that aren’t exactly great for gut health. Sugar, for example, is one of the worst offenders, causing harmful bacteria to proliferate in the intestines. We all know that people today consume far much sugar than necessary (actually, refined sugar consumption—no matter the amount—is unnecessary). And when bad bacteria grows too large in number…well, there’s cause for concern.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bilderberg & Trade Treaties: The Shadow Government That Rules the World
Julian Assange and Wikileaks exposed part of the secret behind Obama’s Trans Pacific Partnership, which leading Republicans signed. Senator Jeff Sessions, a Republican from Alabama, was one of the few senators who publicly challenged the secret Obama treaty that, according to the 17 documents released by Wikileaks, will cover over 80% of the U.S. economy and create what Sessions called “global governance,” establishing a global government without the knowledge or consent of the America people.
Although the alternative media and news outlets like the Drudge Report exposed the great dangers of the TPP, the corporate media not only glossed over the important news about the trade treaties, but the major media outlets, including the pseudo-conservative television networks and “Manchurian Candidate” conservative talk show hosts pretending to be investigative news journalists wasted America’s time with endless hours on Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and the child molestation scandal surrounding their son, Josh Duggar, and what it was like as parents when they learned about his actions, or Bruce Jenner’s sex change operation.
The vast majority of the media outlets in the United States are controlled by just six corporations who are controlled by the power elite who also control secret organizations like the Bilderberg Group, whose sinister plans are never exposed by the major media outlets.
The Bilderberg Group is behind the trade treaties and its leaders are planning global government, which is the only real news story worth covering. The Bilderberg Group’s 2015 meeting is coming up soon at a remote mountain resort in Austria. During last year’s Bilderberg meeting in Copenhagen Denmark over 120 elite globalists planned the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the TPP trade treaties. The Bilderberg Group, which was financed in part by Nazi money in 1954, gathered the most powerful men in the world in Oosterbeek, Netherlands. Their meetings include such powerful people as David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, Bill Clinton, Gordon Brown, Angela Merkel, Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, George Soros, Donald Rumsfeld, Rupert Murdoch, Barack Obama, heads of state, international bankers, top military leaders, and the heads of the largest corporations in the world. Essentially, the Bilderberg Group already practically rules the world and is bringing it under their planned world government.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dirty Dancer: Sepp Blatter’s Corrupt Fiefdom Comes Crashing Down
With his top officials arrested for corruption, FIFA President Sepp Blatter finally recognized that it was time to go. Now, the global football body will have to reinvent itself. But is that even possible anymore? By SPIEGEL Staff
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Bilderberg Group is governed by a Steering Committee, chaired by Henri de Castries, Chairman & CEO of AXA. Also on the Steering Committee are: James A. Johnson, a director of Goldman Sachs; Klaus Kleinfeld, a director of Morgan Stanley; Peter Thiel, a director of Facebook; Kenneth M. Jacobs, Chairman & CEO of Lazard; and Robert Zoellick, Chairman of Goldman Sachs’ Board of International Advisors.
The conference agenda is set to include the situation in Ukraine and Syria, and the TTIP trade agreement: senior lobbyists for TTIP from the business and financial sector will be attending.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
George Osborne, his former Labour rival Ed Balls and BBC Trust chairman Rona Cameron are to attend the secretive Bilderberg Group conference, it emerged today.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
MERS Outbreak: Don’t Drink Potentially Fatal Camel Urine, WHO Warns
The World Health Organisation has warned against drinking camel urine as it attempts to limit the latest outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers).
Seven people in South Korea have died as a result of Mers in the latest outbreak, the largest since the syndrome was first detected in the Saudi Arabia in 2012.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The End of Objective Journalism and the Rise of the Corporate-Media State
The Information Age has brought about fundamental changes to the Journalist Model and to the world of media; with the most profound being the complete transfer of dominant media power from the written journalistic forms (newspapers, periodicals and books) to the elevation of television as the uncontested monopoly over what is today called mainstream media. It is through the medium of television that the most profound changes in the Journalist Model have occurred.
The total dominance of television as a media monopoly cannot be overstated. To this point, Chris Hedges in his book, The Empire of Illusion writes: “Television, a medium built around the skillful manipulation of images, ones that can overpower reality, is our primary form of mass communication… Television speaks in a language of familiar, comforting cliche’s and exciting images. Its format, from reality shows to sit-coms, is predictable. It provides a mass, virtual experience that colors the way many people speak and interact with one another. It creates a false sense of intimacy with our elite — celebrity actors, news people, politicians, business tycoons, and sports stars. And everything and everyone that television transmits is validated and enhanced by the medium. If a person is not seen on television, on some level he or she is not important. Television confers authority and power. It is the final arbitrator for what matters in life.”…
“For over 14 years, Daniel Estulin investigated and researched the Bilderberg Group’s far-reaching influence … in his book, ‘The True Story of the Bilderberg Group’ he reveals the Group is ‘a shadow world government…. Bilderbergers want to supplant individual nation-state sovereignty with an all-powerful global government, corporate controlled, and check-mated by militarized enforcement…. The global media giants control everything we see, hear and read — through television, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, films, and large portions of the Internet. Their top officials and some journalists attend Bilderberg meetings — on condition they report nothing.“
“The media serve the interests of state and corporate power, which are closely interlinked, framing their reporting and analysis in a manner supportive of established privilege and limiting debate and discussion accordingly.“
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ultraviolet Close-up Reveals Comet Surprise
Latest findings from Rosetta mission could help determine origins of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“In other news, a French woman is suing the government for failing to prevent her 16-year-old son, a convert to Islam, from making hijra to Syria to wage jihad for the Islamic State.”
Ah, but she (the unfit mother) CANNOT be imprisoned for not preventing her son to convert to the “Religion of Peace”. Why did she be so naive and believe George walker Bush?