Even as Germany closes its border with Austria in an attempt to slow down the flood of “migration”, native Europeans continue to gather en masse to celebrate and welcome the refugees. More demonstrations in support of migrants took place in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and other Western European countries. Meanwhile, Canada says that it will donate aid money to help Syrian refugees, but it will not take any more in.
In other news, leaders of the Scottish Nationalist Party are planning another referendum on independence, which they hope will take place before the next regional elections in 2016.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, K, 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 Economy: Growth Target in Doubt as Investment and Factory Output Stutters
Chinese investment grew at the slowest pace in 15 years in the first eight months of 2015 as factory output disappointed, raising fears that third quarter growth would drop below 7pc for the first time since the financial crisis.
Fixed-asset investment, which covers expenditure on a wide range of assets from plant and machinery to infrastructure, expanded by 10.9pc in the year to August.
This was weaker than the 11.1pc increase expected by economists and represents the slowest rise since 2000. The slowdown was driven by weaker property investment, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
Industrial output was also weaker than expected, rising by 6.1pc in the year to August compared with expectations for a 6.4pc increase.
Economists said Sunday’s figures provided further evidence that the world’s second largest economy is cooling.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Eurozone Growth Not Strong Enough to Create Jobs: ECB Official
Growth is picking up in the 19-country eurozone, but not enough to create jobs in the region, a member of the European Central Bank’s executive board said in an interview published Friday.
“Growth has returned and the unemployment rate is falling in the euro area… But growth is still not strong enough to create a sufficient number of jobs,” Benoit Coeure said in an interview published in a group of French regional newspapers.
The ECB has rolled out a raft of measures over the past year to help push chronically low inflation in the euro area back up to economically healthier levels and stimulate credit and investment…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Energy Group ENI Launches Fixed Rate Bond
(AGI) Rome, Sept 11 — Italian oil and gas giant Eni launched a fixed rate bond issue with a par value of 750 million euros on Friday. The deal was on the international Eurobond market under its existing Euro Medium Term Notes Programme. The bond has an eight-year maturity, expires in January 2024 and pays a fixed annual coupon rate of 1.75 percent. The re-offer price is 99.192 percent. The proceeds will be used for Eni’s standard requirements. The group said: “The issue has been carried out in execution of the resolution passed by the board of directors of Eni on Jan. 20, 2015 under the Euro Medium Term Notes programme and is aimed at maintaining a balanced financial structure in relation to the ratio of net short term and medium to long term debt and the average life of the Eni debt. The loan is intended for institutional investors, and will be placed subject to market conditions and listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. Eni’s rating relative to long-term debt is A3 with a stable outlook for Moody’s and A- with a stable outlook for Standard & Poor’s.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Still ‘Risky’ To Speak of Recovery Says Squinzi
‘But there’s a new climate’ admits Confindustria chief
(ANSA) — Turin, September 11 — The head of the Confindustria employers’ group, Giorgio Squinzi, on Friday commented on improved July output data by saying “the positive data are there but it’s a bit risky to speak of a recovery”. He added: “Let’s hope the figures are confirmed over the coming months (but) there is, however, a new climate”. Squinzi has been much more leery than Premier Matteo Renzi of seeing the green shoots of recovery coming through thanks to a recent set of good economic numbers.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Yannis Ioannides and Christopher Pissarides, in a new Brookings Paper, talk about the ways lack of structural reform hurts Greek productivity and competitiveness. I have no reason to doubt that there are big things that should change, and that Greece would be much better off if it could somehow break the political barriers to making these changes.
But I would argue that it’s very, very wrong to point to factors limiting Greek productivity and claim that these factors are the “cause” of the Greek crisis. Low productivity exacts a price from any economy; it does not normally, or need not, create financial crisis and a huge deflationary depression.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Bobby Jindal: The Desperate Bomb Thrower
It was quite a scene at the National Press Club Thursday as Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal joined the other Republican presidential candidates in attacking frontrunner Donald Trump.
However, unlike the other presidential aspirants, Jindal directed a series of personal insults against Trump.
According to Jindal, Trump is “a narcissist…he’s an egomaniac.” He said that Trump is “full of foolishness and nonsense.” He also claimed that “Donald Trump is not a serious candidate. The only thing he believes in is himself.”
Wow, this is another perfect example of the pot calling the kettle black, politically speaking. Louisiana voters know full well that Jindal is an extreme narcissist. He practically started campaigning for President on the day he was elected Governor of Louisiana. He put his own selfish political interests over the needs of his constituents. This is why his approval rating in Louisiana registers an abysmal 32%.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Democrats, Republicans Spar on US Responsibility for Middle East Turmoil, Syria Refugee Crisis
Washington Democrats and Republicans disagreed Sunday about how much the U.S. has contributed to the fighting and turmoil in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East and about the extent to which America should help with the resulting refugee crisis in Europe.
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat and Senate Foreign Relations Committee member, suggested the country take in 50,000 refugees, far more than the 10,000 over roughly the next year called for by the Obama administration.
“It doesn’t stand to reason that Germany is going to take 800,000 and the U.S. has only taken 1,500,” he told “Fox News Sunday.” “If we want credibility in the region, we’ve got to be seen as a partner in trying to solve this humanitarian crisis.”
Murphy said the U.S.-led war in Iraq, under the Bush administration, ultimately contributed to the further destabilization of the region, which helped spawn such terror groups as the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, and the four-year civil war in Syria.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fast-Moving, Out-of-Control California Wildfire Destroys More Than 100 Homes
An explosive wildfire in drought-ravaged northern California has destroyed more than 100 homes, officials said Sunday. New mandatory evacuations were ordered for communities near a fast-moving blaze that has heavily damaged several Lake County towns. Earlier Sunday, Gov. Jerry Brown expanded a state of emergency to the state’s Lake and Napa Counties after the wildfire charred more than 60 square miles in 12 hours, prompting thousands to flee their homes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Inside the Secretive World of Bio-Defense Research
The Pentagon’s most secure laboratories may have mislabeled, improperly stored and shipped samples of potentially infectious plague bacteria, which can cause several deadly forms of disease, USA TODAY has learned.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention flagged the practices after inspections last month at an Army lab in Maryland, one of the Pentagon’s most secure labs. That helped prompt an emergency ban on research on all bioterror pathogens at nine laboratories run by the Pentagon, which was already reeling from revelations that another Army lab in Utah had mishandled anthrax samples for 10 years.
Army Secretary John McHugh ordered the research moratorium on Sept. 2, Pentagon officials say, out of an abundance of caution.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Nearly 1/3 of Americans Could Imagine Supporting a Military Overthrow of Federal Government
For many Americans, a coup in which the military seizes control of the federal government is starting to seem like a refreshing alternative to the existing administration, according to a new poll. Conducted by YouGov, a new survey has found that 29 percent of Americans could imagine a scenario where they would support a military takeover in the United States. A total of 41 percent could not imagine supporting such an event. And so while the coup-supporters are still decidedly in the minority, the fact that the option polls so highly is remarkable. This translates to 70 million Americans who are potentially ready to support a coup.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Savage: ‘There’s a Retrovirus in the White House’
Savage told his listeners: “It wasn’t the hippies who ruined America. It was the Communists who ruined the hippies who ruined America. You see, a free spirit is more easily manipulated or penetrated than a rigid spirit. The ‘60s allowed millions of us to become freer spirits. The Communists entered our spirits just as retroviruses infect humans, causing the common cold and AIDs for example. And today we have a retrovirus in the White House named Barack Obama. He has infected the body politic with his hateful, anti-American view and invaded many other cells or people with his destructive ideas.”
A retrovirus uses an enzyme to become part of the cells it invades and facilitates many copies of the host cells, he explained.
“Does this sound like what Obama has done to this country?” he asked. “That’s exactly what he has done. The entire Democratic Party has been invaded and infected by him. Not all of them were like this originally. Not all of them were like this even seven years ago. Some of them had a scintilla of patriotism and a scintilla of sanity. Today the entire Democrat Party has been invaded by the retrovirus of Barack Obama that has infected them with his worldview that is so crazy they don’t even know what they are doing, because they are just like him now.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sex Offender Raped Man Suffering Seizure
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
(Akron Journal) A convicted sex offender pleaded guilty to raping a man who suffered a seizure.
Richard Leese, 46, entered the plea Wednesday to one count of first-degree felony rape. Summit County Common Pleas Judge Todd McKenney scheduled Leese’ s sentencing for Sept. 16.
On March 26, Leese asked a co-worker to help him get tools from his apartment. The 27-year-old man suffered a seizure while at the apartment, according to his statement to police.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Underground Magma Ocean Could Explain Io’s ‘Misplaced’ Volcanoes
Tides flowing in a subsurface ocean of molten rock, or magma, could explain why Jupiter’s moon Io appears to have its volcanoes in the “wrong” place. New NASA research implies that oceans beneath the crusts of tidally stressed moons may be more common and last longer than expected. The phenomenon applies to oceans made from either magma or water, potentially increasing the odds for life elsewhere in the universe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ENAC Says if Alitalia Leaves Fiumicino, It ‘Leaves Italy’
Civil aviation authority says nowhere else for Alitalia to go
(ANSA) — Rome, September 11 — The head of Italy’s civil aviation authority ENAC responded Friday to threats by Alitalia that it would leave Fiumicino airport following problems with service and delays.
ENAC President Vito Riggio said the authority would help the company “in legitimate ways” but added “if (Alitalia) leaves Fiumicino, it means it leaves Italy”.
Riggio made his comments prior to a meeting between members of airport management company ADR and Alitalia over the question of Fiumicino.
“I don’t think they (Alitalia) want to go somewhere else, because there’s nowhere else to put them and they’re set up to work from Fiumicino. They have a terminal that’s all theirs and there are plans to improve it even more. If there are other suggestions we’ll give them to ADR and will watch to make sure they’re done,” Riggio said.
A meeting of ENAC’s board of directors scheduled for Friday didn’t take place due to lack of a quorum.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: OK Alliance With FI But Primaries — Salvini
‘Concrete platform to implement’
(ANSA) — Rome, September 11 — Northern League leader Matteo Salvini said Friday he was ready to form an alliance with Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (FI) party for the next general election as long as the alliance holds primaries to decide who should run as premier.
“In order to get Italy moving again I’m ready to talk to everyone,” said Salvini.
“With (comedian Beppe Grillo’s anti-establishment) M5S movement it’s difficult because one day they say one thing and the next something different.
“I hope to succeed with Forza Italia, but on clear conditions: we have to have a concrete platform to implement.
“And the candidate for premier must be chosen by the Italians via primaries,” he said.
A poll out Friday showed the League on 15.1% compared to 10.4% for FI, 22.5% for M5S and 34% for Premier Matteo Renzi’s ruling Democratic Party.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: EU Could Have Done More for India Marines Says Gentiloni
‘Now on right path’ says FM
(ANSA) — Rome, September 10 — The EU did “something but could have done more on the diplomatic level” for two Italian marines charged with killing two Indian fishermen in 2012, Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Thursday.
“Italy, too, could have done better in these three years but now I believe that we’re on the right path to resolve (the case),” he added.
Last month the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea handed the case of Salvatore Girone and Massimiliano Latorre over to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Auto Output 44.9% Up in July
Continues surge
(ANSA) — Rome, September 11 — Italian auto output continued to surge in July, registering a 44.9% gain over the same month in 2014, Istat said Friday. In the first seven months of the year the gain was 44.2%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Leading World Wine Producer After Record Harvest
Production up 12% this year, UIV-Ismea estimate
(ANSA) — Rome, September 11 — An excellent wine harvest in Italy this year is estimated to produce as much as 27 million hectolitres of wine in all, or 12% more than the 42 million produced last year, winegrowers said Friday.
The forecast, based on figures for harvesting at the end of August and first 10 days of September, was made by the Union of Italian Wines and agriculture agency Ismea, with the collaboration of the agriculture ministry.
If confirmed the output would make Italy once again the world leader in production of wine.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: CasaPound Rally Starts Despite Revoked Permit
Milan prefecture aware of situation
(ANSA) — Milan, September 11 — A rally organized by neo-fascist group CasaPound in the town of Castano Primo, about 45 minutes northwest of Milan, started on Friday despite the fact that the mayor of the town revoked the group’s authorization on Thursday.
“There are people coming from all over Italy, there are important guests, there’s an organisation that’s been working for a long time for this initiative, and at the last minute, the day before, they revoke authorisation. You can’t do that,” said CasaPound President Gianluca Iannone.
The rally is scheduled to continue through Sunday.
On Friday the Milan Prefecture held a meeting of its Provincial Committee for Order and Public Safety regarding the CasaPound rally and said it had “taken note” of the revoked authorisation “relative to the use of a marquee in the municipal territory”.
“The city of Castano Primo will inform judicial authorities immediately of any violations of the measure, together with the most opportune interventions,” the Milan Prefecture said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: M5S Premier Candidate ‘Will be Chosen by Web, ‘ Grillo Says
Comedian lashes out at speculation over Di Maio
(ANSA) — Rome, September 11 — The opposition anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) party “will choose the candidate for premier on the Web as we always have done,” the party’s founder, comedian Beppe Grillo, told reporters Friday.
“We will present a government team with a programme decided by members,” he said while leaving the Rome hotel Forum where he commented on newspaper headlines about possible candidates for prime minister the party might support including the M5S lawmaker Luigi Di Maio.
“Invent yourself something else,” he snorted, “try and find more objective information because otherwise the country suffers … all you do is look for big headlines”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Oil Jobs Exit Norway as Era of Richest Rewards Peters Out
When Luke Rickert first started as an engineer at Aker Solutions ASA in Oslo, a Norwegian oil services provider, his team of 24 had people from 15 different countries.
People from the U.S. to India, Brazil, Portugal and dozens of other countries came to fill a shortage of skilled workers in Norway’s booming petroleum industry. They were lured by $20,000 relocation packages, high salaries and the nation’s fabled home and work balance. They helped Norway turn oil into cash that created the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund. Now, with crude prices low and Norway facing the biggest drop in oil investments since 2000, the nation risks being drained of that expertise.
“They’re going to lose a lot of trained, experienced engineers,” the 39-year-old Seattle native said in a Sept. 7 interview. Rickert was among the 500 job cuts Aker Solutions announced last week. Many of those are foreigners on specialist visas requiring secure jobs for renewal, and who don’t qualify for unemployment benefits. “That means we’re all just going to leave.”
Falling investments and a 52 percent drop in the price of Brent crude in the last year has left Norway trying to dodge a recession.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Piedmont Red Wines Dominate Norway’s Imports
(AGI) Oslo, Sept 11 — Norway imports about 70 million litres of alcohol a year, of which almost 40 percent comes from Italy.
The total turnover is estimated at around 180 million euros.
Piedmont reds are particularly popular, with Barolo, Barbaresco and Barbera taking the lion’s share. Businesses were updated on the developments in the market at a conference in the northern Italian Piedmont town of Alba on “Norway: an extraordinary market for Piedmont’s red wines”. It was organised by the Wines of Piedmont consortium,and discussed the opportunities and difficulties of the Norwegian market and the government monopoly on alcohol sales which represents a barrier to entry.
Italy’s ambassador to Oslo, Giorgio Novello, said relations between the countries, including economic links, had improved with a balance of trade in Italy’s favour and a turnover above pre-crisis levels. He explained the business support offered by the Italian diplomatic network for institutional assistance, information and economic data.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Scottish National Party Outlines Timing for Second Independence Referendum
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon is to set out the timetable for holding a second referendum on independence from the rest of Britain. The schedule is to be determined ahead of regional elections in 2016.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spanish Leader: Separatist Catalan Campaign Causes Financial, Political Uncertainty
Spain’s leader has criticized Catalonia’s pro-independence president two days after campaigning began for regional elections that could decide if the wealthy northeastern region secedes or remains part of the kingdom.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Catalan president Artur Mas was creating uncertainty by effectively turning the Sept. 27 regional parliamentary election into a for-or-against independence ballot.
At a rally in the Catalan city of Lleida on Sunday, Rajoy said Mas “had divided Catalan society, families and workmates.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The former head of M16 has warned that it is just a matter of time before terrorists hit the West and claimed Britain would no longer be able to safeguard another massive event like the Olympics.
Sir John Sawers stepped down last year after five years as chief of the UK Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, a post known as ‘C’ in the service.
He was the first MI6 chief to be chosen from outside the service for 41 years and oversaw the security arrangements for the Olympic Games in 2012.
Sir John said the way terrorists carry out their heinous attacks has changed drastically since the emergence of ISIS.
‘They’re not trying to fly airliners into buildings. They’re doing simpler things,’ he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Trains to Take Visitors to Formerly Secret Papal Villas
From Vatican Station to Castel Gandolfo, Albano Laziale
(ANSA) — Vatican City, September 11 — Tourists to the Vatican will be able to take a train to locations formerly closed to the public, including the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace and papal villas outside of Rome, thanks to an agreement announced Friday between the Vatican Museums and Italy’s state railway carrier F.S. Italiane.
The train service will take visitors from the historic Vatican Station to inside the Papal States and on towards Castel Gandolfo and Albano Laziale outside of Rome, where papal villas are located. “The pontifical villas, for a century inaccessible secret summer papal residences, will be open to the public and arriving by train, the most ‘of the people’ and democratic mode of transport,” said Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museums.
“As an art historian, I think of the visitors’ amazement when they see the splendor of these villas,” Paolucci said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Jeremy Corbyn Sets to Work on Labour Shadow Cabinet
Jeremy Corbyn has started work on putting together his shadow cabinet after his dramatic landslide victory in the Labour leadership contest.
The veteran left winger — who has never held a formal position in the party before now — must also prepare for his first Commons clash with David Cameron.
The new Labour leader has promised to “unite” the party after getting 60% of the votes in the leadership contest.
Mr Corbyn’s victory has sparked an exodus of shadow cabinet members.
But senior figures, including his predecessor Ed Miliband and former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott urged MPs to get behind Mr Corbyn because he had a strong mandate from party members.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Pedophiles Groomed Pregnant Women to Secure Babies
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
(London Independent) A gang of paedophiles who groomed pregnant women to secure their babies for later sexual abuse used one victim as a prop to advertise an online chatroom about child rape, a sentencing hearing has been told.
The group drugged, raped and abused babies, toddlers and pre-school age children in attacks that were carefully organised and streamed online. Some of the men travelled hundreds of miles to join in attacks after one of them managed to get a short time alone with a child after securing the trust of relatives.
The group’ s activities were outlined in court, though prosecutors said they would not go into the grim detail of offences that “ exposed a world that many would not have believed” .
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Croatian Summer, Record Numbers, Italians Are Back
8% increase in arrivals, almost a million tourists are Italian
(ANSA) — ZAGREB — In Croatia the summer season has seen record numbers both in arrivals and overnight stays, along with a massive flow of Italian tourists who, after five years, are finally returning to the Eastern Adriatic coast.
According to Croatia’s Ministry of Tourism, in the first eight months of this year, about 11.5 million tourists spent their holidays in the country, which recorded an increase by 8% compared to last year. About 66 million overnight stays were recorded, with an increase by 6%. 90% of tourists were foreigners, confirming Croatia as one of the most popular summer tourist destinations in Europe. But the country is getting more and more popular also among Korean, Chinese, Russian and American tourists.
The Germans are once again ranked first (1.7 million), followed by Slovenia and Austria, and after years, the Italians come fourth, totaling 913,000 arrivals. Compared to last year, the growth in the number of Italians was the strongest, 7.2%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Algerian President Removes Top Intelligence Chief After Decades in Post, Replaces With Aide
ALGIERS, Algeria — Algeria’s president replaced the North African nation’s long-time intelligence chief on Sunday with the former No. 2 of the powerful agency who has most recently served as presidential aide.
Gen. Mohamed Mediene, who served for 25 years as head of the powerful Department of Intelligence and Security, or DRS, was pushed into retirement. The move appeared to be a final step in the president’s plan to restructure the services dealing with security and intelligence. The much-feared DRS, akin to the secret services, is the most powerful element in Algeria’s intelligence apparatus.
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika “today ended the functions” of Mediene, according to a statement from the president’s office. Mediene had served since 1990 as chief of the much feared DRS, and was replaced by Athmane Tartag.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Security Officials Say Militant Attacks in Northern Sinai Kill 1 Civilian and Wound 4
Egyptian security officials say a mortar shell fired by militants hit a home in the restive northern Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweid, killing an elderly man and wounding his son.
Egypt is battling an insurgency, including an affiliate of the Islamic State group, which has largely targeted troops in the northern Sinai Peninsula since the 2013 military overthrow of the Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. The militants say they are avenging a government crackdown on his supporters. The Sinai Peninsula is mostly off limits to media.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
MSF Trains Tunisian Fishermen in Sea Rescue Techniques
Courses in Zarzis for assistance and corpse recovery
(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 9 — For years, Tunisian fishermen have been coming across vessels in difficulty and have saved the lives of many migrants by bringing them onto their boats. To increase their ability to conduct rescue efforts at sea, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) organized a six-day training course for 116 fishermen in the Tunisian city of Zarzis. The course, MSF said, instructed attendees in rescue steps, how to communicate with the people onboard and call for help from the Sea Rescue Coordination Center. MSF is conducting training courses also for the Tunisian and Libyan Red Crescent as well as the Tunisian civil defence and National Guard on corpse recovery and how to receive those rescued at sea and brought to the coast.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Terror: EU-UN Against Radicalization Sahel-Maghreb
Pilot project worth 5 mln euros to stop expansion extremism
ROME — Countering the radicalization and violent extremism in the region of Sahel-Maghreb are the main objectives of a pilot project launched in Brussels by the European Union and the United Nations.
The initiative — funded by the Union with five million euros — will be organized by the UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI). For a duration of four years, the project will promote “de-radicalization activities” in the region thanks to the involvement of civil society: non-government organizations, victims of terrorism, mass media, cultural associations, women and youth organizations will be key partners in implementing the project’s activities.
“Violent extremism does not stop at borders”, explained the director of southern neighborhood of the European Commission, Michael A. Koehler. “Cooperation between Europe and countries in the region is fundamental to contain this growing threat”.
“We need a holistic approach to respond to the factors that can lead to the radicalization of people and their involvement in terror groups. This is one of four pillars of the European anti-terrorism strategy”.
The director of UNICRI, Cindy J. Smith, said there is no simple solution to stop the thousands of people joining violent extremist groups — though development and laws are the most effective weapons to combat such a phenomenon with civil society as an ally.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel’s 300 Days of Sun No Help as Offshore Gas Eclipses Solar
After struggling to grow citrus trees on a stretch of parched desert, Israel’s Kibbutz Ketura instead devoted the land to harvesting the country’s most abundant resource: sunshine. Yet as the kibbutzniks seek to expand their solar installations, the government is proving almost as formidable an obstacle as the scorched soil ever was.
“Israel has the technology and plenty of sunshine, but the government is completely ignoring the renewables industry,” said Yosef Abramowitz, a solar energy advocate who helped found Arava Power Co., the developer of the Ketura field.
With more than 300 days of sunshine per year and a world-class tech sector, Israel should be a hotbed of solar, but it has lagged behind places such as cloudy Germany and the rainy Netherlands. That’s because in recent years, geologists have discovered huge gas fields just off Israel’s coast, making the country a potential energy exporter and allowing its power plants to burn cheaper and cleaner gas instead of coal — and shifting the government’s focus away from renewables.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Palestinians, Israeli Police Clash at Jerusalem Holy Site
Jerusalem’s religious flashpoint has again been the scene of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police. Witnesses say the al-Aqsa Mosque was entered by police who say they only closed its doors to lock in rioters.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
8-Bn-Euro Finmeccanica Order From Kuwait
For Alenia Aermacchi aerospace unit
(ANSA) — Rome, September 11 — An order worth almost eight billion euros has been made by Kuwait to Italian defence giant Finmeccanica, financial sources said Friday. The order concerns its Alenia Aermacchi aerospace unit, they said. Finmeccanica stock rose 4.3% on the report. Finmeccanica is the leading industrial group in the high-technology sector in Italy and one of the main global players in aerospace, defence and security.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Al Qaeda Leader Calls on Young Muslim Men to Launch More Homegrown Attacks
The leader of Al-Qaeda delivered a sinister message to young Muslim men in the United States and other Western countries, encouraging them to carry out attacks in their home countries.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Al Qaeda Leader Blasts ISIS in New Message, But Offers to Work Together Against US
Two of America’s greatest enemies appear to hate each other — but it doesn’t mean Al Qaeda and ISIS can’t work together against the U.S.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian doctor who replaced Usama bin Laden as the head of Al Qaeda, branded ISIS “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi illegitimate in a newly released audio message, Reuters reported.
In the recording — which surfaced on the Internet Wednesday, just ahead of the fourteenth anniversary of Al Qaeda’s Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. — al-Zawahiri calls the Islamic State illegitimate and insists that al-Baghdadi is not the leader of all Muslims, accusing him of “sedition.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Delhi vs. Riyadh Over Diplomat Accused of Rape
India summoned the Saudi ambassador for help in the investigation after police rescued two Nepali women, aged 30 and 50, in Gurgaon. The latter were held at the home of a Saudi diplomat who fled to the embassy. Protesters demand that his diplomatic immunity be lifted. Riyadh can repatriate its diplomat or allow him to be questioned.
New Delhi (AsiaNews/Agencies) — India’s External Affairs Ministry summoned the Saudi Ambassador and sought his embassy’s cooperation in the case of two Nepali citizens, Ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted.
Saudi Ambassador Saud Mohammed Alsati was told that the accused diplomat should give a statement to the Gurgaon police probing the case.
Claiming innocence, the alleged rapist took refuge with his family at the Saudi embassy in the Indian capital. Meanwhile, protesters gathered outside the diplomat’s house demanding action.
The two women, Juna Damai, 30, and Gita Tamang, 50 (pictured), were rescued on Monday with the help of Maiti India, an NGO fighting the trafficking of children and women, after police raided the diplomat’s home in Gurgaon (Haryana), 30 kilometers from New Delhi.
The victims had been kept in a confined space for the sexual pleasure of the diplomat and his friends. Medical reports confirmed that the two were sexually abused. Both had bruises all over their body, including near their private parts. According to hospital sources, the younger of the two victims had developed infections.
The two women left Nepal after the earthquake on 25 April. They found work as maids at the diplomat’s home. However, they said that they were starved, sexually abused and gang-raped by the diplomat and other men.
Indian media have reported that the allegations have led to a “diplomatic crisis” between India and Saudi Arabia. In view of the situation, the Saudi embassy has two options. If it persists with the assertion of the diplomat’s innocence, it could allow him to be questioned by police and help the investigation without actually losing his immunity. It could also insist on diplomatic immunity under the 1961 Vienna Convention
Some experts believe that Saudi Arabia will not allow any of its officials to be tried by another country. The option for Riyadh is thus to move the diplomat out of India, whilst New Delhi has the option of declaring him persona non grata if he does not cooperate with the investigation.
For the Indian government, this is a delicate issue. Some three million Indians live and work in Saudi Arabia, which has been India’s largest oil supplier since 2001.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Further Details Emerge on the Epic U.S. Foreign Policy Disaster That is Syria
With all the U.S.-trained fighters dead, captured or missing and their leader in the hands of Al Qaeda, top U.S. commanders are scrambling this week to determine how to revive the half-billion dollar program to create a moderate Syrian army to fight the Islamic State.
The outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, who viewed the force as a critical element of the military strategy in both Syria and Iraq, is conferring with top Pentagon officials behind closed doors to figure out what options are left for what is widely considered a policy and military failure, according to senior defense officials.
Sen. Chris Murphy, the Connecticut Democrat who sits on the Appropriations Committee, returned from a trip to the region last week where he was briefed on the effort. His assessment of the program: “a bigger disaster than I could have ever imagined.”
[Comment: Change ONLY comes from the people — not imported jihadi fanatics presented as Syrian moderates by Western propaganda.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim States Urge UN Force to Help Stem Syria Tide
The United Nations should consider a peacekeeping force for war-ravaged Syria to help curb the surge of refugees which is destabilising the region and beyond, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation said Sunday.
An emergency meeting of the 57-member group called on the UN Security Council to urgently consider creating “a multi-dimensional UN peacekeeping operation in Syria as a prelude to restoring security and stability in the country”.
It also called for more to be done to find a rapid political solution to the Syrian conflict.
The OIC, which calls itself the collective voice of the Muslim world, blamed the humanitarian crisis on “the war crimes committed by the regime in Syria”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
PKK Attacks Kill Three Turkish Police, New Curfews Declared
At least three police officers have been killed in attacks by Kurdish militants in southeastern Turkey. Amid the recent escalation of violence in the region, Germany’s foreign minister has urged Turkey not to overreact.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Building Airstrip at Airport in Syria’s Latakia, Says Monitor
A group monitoring the conflict in Syria says Russian forces are expanding a major airport in Latakia province. Russia has reiterated its support for the Syrian regime, but denies it is staging a military build-up.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudis Are Winning the War on Shale
By Leonid Bershidsky
If you believe all the recent stories about how Saudi Arabia is losing the price war it started against U.S. tight oil producers last year, the new Oil Market Report from the International Energy Agency offers a reality check. The Saudis are winning, though they’re paying a heavy price for it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi King and Grand Mosque Imam Visit Those Injured in Mecca Crane Collapse
MECCA, Saudi Arabia — Saudi King Salman and the imam of the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Mecca have visited those injured Friday by the deadly collapse of a giant construction crane.
At least 107 people were killed in the accident and at least 238 injured. Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al Sudais, the imam of the Grand Mosque, visited some of the wounded in the hospital Sunday, bringing copies of the Quran, the Muslim holy book, and bottles of water from the sacred well of Zamzam. He told the injured that, God willing, they would be rewarded for the intention to perform the Hajj pilgrimage if they are physically unable to make the actual pilgrimage, scheduled to begin around Sept. 22.
Saudi King Salman also visited some of the wounded on Saturday evening.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
William McCants is a fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy and director of the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World.
Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim al-Badri was born in 1971 in Samarra, an ancient Iraqi city on the eastern edge of the Sunni Triangle north of Baghdad. The son of a pious man who taught Quranic recitation in a local mosque, Ibrahim himself was withdrawn, taciturn, and, when he spoke, barely audible. Neighbors who knew him as a teenager remember him as shy and retiring. Even when people crashed into him during friendly soccer matches, his favorite sport, he remained stoic. But photos of him from those years capture another quality: a glowering intensity in the dark eyes beneath his thick, furrowed brow.
Early on, Ibrahim’s nickname was “The Believer.” When he wasn’t in school, he spent much of his time at the local mosque, immersed in his religious studies.
During Baghdadi’s time in graduate school, his paternal uncle, Ismail al-Badri, persuaded him to join the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational movement dedicated to establishing states governed by Islamic law. In most countries the Brotherhood, which has both liberal and conservative members, had adopted a cautious approach to political change, confined to working within the system. Many of the Brothers in Baghdad, including the ones Baghdadi fell in with at first, were peaceful Salafis who wanted states to impose Islamic law but didn’t advocate revolt if the states fail to do so. But Baghdadi quickly gravitated toward those few Salafis whose strict creed led them to call for the overthrow of rulers they considered betrayers of the faith. They called themselves jihadist Salafis. Baghdadi’s older brother, Jum’a, was part of this movement. So was Baghdadi’s mentor, Muhammad Hardan, a one-time member of the Brotherhood who had fought in the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
But the bare facts of Baghdadi’s biography show an unusually capable man. He helped found an insurgent group, finished a Ph.D. while managing the religious affairs of the Islamic State, and has been able to prevail amid the State’s cutthroat politics because of his skill at coalition building and his ability to intimidate his rivals.
Throughout his life, Baghdadi has chosen the path of religious extremism, and in ways as small as denouncing dancers at a wedding and as large as mass executions he has always attempted to impose his views on others. He could have been a university professor, persuading young minds with argument. But the believer became the commander of the believers, seeking to impose his savagely bleak religious vision on the entire world. “The march of the mujahidin will continue until they reach Rome,” he proclaimed last year. If Baghdadi’s life is a cautionary tale, it is about the danger of creating the chaos that allows men like him to flourish.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Two Russian Aid Planes Land in Syria: State Media
Two Russian planes carrying humanitarian aid landed in Syria on Saturday, state media said, amid reports that Moscow is beefing up military support to its ally Damascus.
“Two Russian planes arrived today at the Latakia Martyr Bassil al-Assad international airport carrying 80 tonnes of humanitarian aid provided by Russia,” state news reported.
Coastal Latakia province is a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad and home to his ancestral village.
The reported aid delivery comes as Washington expressed concern about an alleged Russian military build-up in Syria…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen’s Exiled Government Pulls Out of Peace Talks With Rebels
Yemen’s government says it won’t participate in UN-brokered peace talks with Houthis unless the rebels withdraw from conquered territory. The talks were to be the second major diplomatic push to end the war.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Applause and Wine as Berlusconi and Putin Visit Crimea
President Vladimir Putin on Friday hosted Italy’s former leader Silvio Berlusconi for talks in Crimea, during the highest-profile visit by a Western politician to the peninsula since its annexation last year.
Putin and Italy’s disgraced former prime minister, who is on a private visit, visited an Italian war cemetery near the Black Sea port of Sevastopol and also dropped by the famed Massandra winery.
They also visited Yalta where they were applauded by locals as they strolled along the embankment.
“We love you!” the crowd shouted to Putin, the Interfax news agency reported…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Police Say Blast Outside Bus Terminal in Central Pakistan Kills 9, Wounds 48
A police official says a blast outside of a bus terminal in central Pakistan has killed at least nine people and wounded 48.
Khalid Rauf says several of the wounded from the explosion Sunday night in the city of Multan are in critical condition. He blamed the blast on a remote-controlled bomb. Another government official, Zahid Saleem, said it appeared to be a suicide attack.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Multan lies in a region dotted with thousands of religious seminaries, with several belonging to local al-Qaida linked militant outfits.
Pakistan has long been fighting militants who want to overthrow the government to install their own harsh brand of Islamic law. Tens of thousands have been killed in more than a decade of fighting.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turin and Ho Chi Minh City Sign Cooperation Agreement
(AGI) Hanoi, Sept 11 — Turin and Ho Chi Minh City have concluded an agreement to strengthen cooperation in a number of areas. Signed during the visit to Italy of the President of the People’s Committee of the Vietnamese city, Le Hoang Quan, the agreement includes regular talks at leadership level and the sharing of information and experience to promote cooperation in various fields such as trade, investment, science and technology, education, culture and tourism. Le Hoang Quan expressed the hope that the agreement marks a turning point in relations between the two cities, in line with the strategic cooperation agreement reached between the leaders of the two countries in 2013. Mayor of Turin Piero Fassino, echoed this, welcomomg the agreement. On the same occasion, the Mayor of Ho Chi Minh City, along with Deputy Mayor of Turin, Enzo Lavolta, chaired a workshop on investment and trade promotion in the Vietnamese city, attracting the participation of more than 40 Italian companies. Trade between Ho Chi Minh City and Italy totalled 529.3 million dollars in 2014 and Italy currently has 17 investment projects in the city worth a total of 57.8 million dollars, ranking 27th out of 71 countries that invest in the financial centre of southern Vietnam.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
How Government Owns People: Australia
There are various ways to calculate how government owns people. The simplest is: through money.
Aside from taxes, this would translate into government jobs and welfare.
People who receive some or all of their income through their rulers tend to be on the side of government. They’re certainly dependent on government.
Look at Australia, a nation with a population of 23.1 million people.
As The Guardian reports (8/13), out of a total of 11.5 Australian million jobs, 1.9 million (16.4%, 1 out of 6) are for government. And this does not include the Defence Department (58,000 jobs).
As reported by Peter Whiteford, in “ FactCheck: Is half to two-thirds of the Australian population receiving a government benefit?” , at theconversation.com, about 50% of all Australian households receive some form of government $$ assistance.
I haven’t found figures for how many Australian companies are government contractors, but you can be sure the number and the money are large. All those employees are receiving government money.
Then there are numerous “state-owned enterprises,” which are companies wholly owned by government. Their employees are ultimately getting their paychecks via government $$.
Seeing the picture?
You can analyze other industrialized nations and find similar conditions.
But of course, no one who favors “the collective good” sees all this as a problem. The problem for them, as always, is not enough “government support.”
Because for them, government is the answer and the ultimate benefactor and the primary force inventing the future. All hail.
Half a century ago, intellectuals who had a clue about what was going on called government The State. They viewed it as a monolithic force bent on expanding its power and subjugating the individual. Now, many of those same people, or their descendants, view government as the escape hatch from injustice.
This delusion is bolstered by the multiplication of victim groups seeking special treatment from their political leaders.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Crowdsourcing Digs Up an Early Human Species
Palaeoanthropologist invites excavators and anatomists to study richest fossil trove in Africa.
“Dear colleagues — I need the help of the whole community,” palaeoanthropologist Lee Berger posted on social media on 6 October 2013.
Berger, based at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, had just learned of a small underground chamber loaded with early human fossils. He was looking for experienced excavators to collect the delicate remains before they deteriorated further. “The catch is this,” Berger went on. “The person must be skinny and preferably small. They must not be claustrophobic, they must be fit, they should have some caving experience.”
Less than two years after he posted this missive, Berger and his team have pieced together more than 1,500 ancient human bones and teeth from the Rising Star cave system — the biggest cache of such material ever found in Africa. The remains belong to at least 15 individuals of a previously undescribed species that the team has dubbed Homo naledi, and they may mark the oldest known deliberate burial in human history, Berger and his colleagues report in eLife1, 2. For Berger, the research marks a milestone in a campaign to transform palaeoanthropology into an open and inclusive field, in which rare fossils are rapidly shared with the scientific world instead of being squirrelled away as an elite few scrutinize them for years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New Human Species With Orange-Size Brain Discovered
A newly discovered extinct human species may be the most primitive unearthed yet, with a brain about the size of an orange. But despite its small brain size, the early human performed ritual burials of its dead, researchers say.
This newfound species from South Africa, named Homo naledi, possessed an unusual mix of features, such as feet adapted for a life on the ground but hands suited for a life in the trees, that may force scientists to rewrite their models about the dawn of humanity.
Although modern humans are the only human lineage alive today, other human species once walked the Earth. These extinct lineages were members of the genus Homo just as modern humans are. The earliest human specimens found yet are about 2.8 million years old.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
S. Africa Denies That it Intends to Ban Dual Citizenship
(AGI) Cape Town, Sep 10 — South Africa’s government said it has no intention of banning dual citizenship. The issue was addressed on Thursday by Interior Minister Malusi Gigaba, who refuted an article by the Sunday Times claiming that the African National Congress (ANC) was planning on doing away with dual citizenship. The newspaper cited top ANC official Obed Bapela, who said the party wished to prevent South Africa’s Jewish citizens from joining the Israel Defense Forces. “I must emphasise that there would never be a time when we take an arbitrary decision on these issues. We will always be guided by the Constitution,” Gigaba told journalists. South Africa’s dual citizenship law was last reviewed in 2009 to address the issue of citizens wishing to fight for another country. The ANC has long sided with Palestinians and the PLO due to Israel’s collaboration with the apartheid regime.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Two suspected terrorists with links to Islamic extremists Boko Haram have appeared in court accused of throwing acid at two British teenage girls holidaying in Zanzibar.
With help from Scotland Yard and Interpol, two members of the Uamsho or ‘Awakening’, group were arrested and charged by local authorities.
North Londoners Kirstie Trup and Katie Gee, both 18 at the time, were left with severe burns after a stranger on a moped threw acid over the two of them in 2013.
In the weeks following, the pair — who were visiting the east African island to help underprivileged children — were praised for their humanitarian aims.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Max Beauvoir, Leader of Voodoo Priests’ Organization, Dies in Haiti
Voodoo chief Max Beauvoir has died in his homeland of Haiti, where the mixture of beliefs from West Africa and Catholicism is recognized as an official religion. He was 79.
A government statement says Beauvoir died Saturday in Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince after an illness. The cause of death was not immediately known.
Born in 1936, Beauvoir was a biochemical engineer who earned degrees abroad and became a Voodoo priest when he returned to Haiti in the 1970s.
He became Voodoo’s supreme chief in 2008 and led Haiti’s main priests’ organization.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Babies, Children Among 34 Refugees Who Drown as Boat Capsizes Off Greek Island
Thirty-four refugees, almost half of them babies and children, drowned when their boat sank off a Greek island on Sunday, almost certainly the largest death toll in those waters since the migrant crisis began, the coastguard said.
Four babies, six boys and five girls died when the wooden vessel carrying them overturned on Sunday morning, about three miles (5 km) east of the small island of Farmakonisi, close to Turkey’s coast, the service added.
Tens of thousands of mainly Syrian refugees have braved rough seas this year to make the short but precarious journey from Turkey to Greece’s eastern islands, mainly in flimsy and overcrowded inflatable dinghies.
Thousands have died, many of them taking the much longer crossing from Libya, in Europe’s worst migrant crisis in decades.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
by Ian Tuttle
With apologies to Golden Gopher fans, Minneapolis, Minn., is probably not most people’s idea of a destination city. Unless, that is, the traveler in question is Somali, in which case Minneapolis is the closest thing this side of the Atlantic to home. Thanks to American refugee-resettlement and family-reunification policies, Minneapolis has the dubious distinction of hosting the largest concentration of Somalis in the United States — some 30,000, according to census records, though Somali leaders say that underestimates the population by tens of thousands. The influx began in the 1980s, as Somalia succumbed to internal violence, and continued through the ‘90s, as it was consumed by civil war. A quarter-century later, Somalia remains among the least stable countries on Earth, and Somalis continue to come to the United States in droves. Before the Obama administration welcomes 10,000 (or more) Syrian refugees, it should consider the Somalis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Canada Announces Money for Syrian Refugees, But Not Taking More in
Canada’s Conservative government has so far declined to resettle more Syrian refugees despite the haunting image of a drowned 3-year-old washed up on a Turkish beach that focused the world’s attention on the largest migrant crisis since World War II.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government announced Saturday that Canada will provide $100 million in additional humanitarian assistance for Syrian refugee camps but made no announcement to resettle more refugees in Canada. A number of countries have announced they’ll take in thousands of more Syrian refugees since the picture of the dead toddler pierced people’s consciousness two weeks ago.
Canada’s government has endured sharp criticism for taking in just 2,500 refugees since Jan. 2014. More than 4 million Syrians have fled their country since the conflict began in 2011. The Harper government announced in January it would accept 10,000 over three years and promised in early August to accept an additional 10,000 over four years.
Former Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien called it a “cold-hearted reaction” to the Syrian crisis that has “shamed Canada in the eyes of Canadians and of the international community.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Critics, Supporters of Migration Hold Rallies in Prague
Prague, Sept 12 (CTK) — Opponents of immigration from Islamic countries and critics of xenophobia held parallel demonstrations in Prague’s central Wenceslas Square today, each attended by hundreds of people.
The meetings were held separate by a bustling motorway and also a police unit.
A total of about 1,000 people took part in both events. No serious incident occurred during the rallies or the demonstrators’ subsequent march through Prague, police spokesman Tomás Hulan told Czech News Agency.
Far more participants, an estimated 800 people, attended the rally of the critics of Islamism. They chanted slogans about the preservation of Czech culture, sovereignty and independence.
One of the speakers said those criticizing the opponents of Islam are “hypocritical blind multicultural fools.”
He said the instinct of self-preservation has been denied by both the UN and the EU, which criticizes the rejection of the compulsory quotas for the acceptance of refugees by Prague.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU to Open Talks on ‘Flexibility’ For Refugee Costs
Luxembourg duty presidency says issue will be debated
(ANSA) — Brussels, September 11 — The Luxembourg duty presidency of the European Union has decided to open talks on whether member States’ spending on migrants and refugees could enable them to benefit from the flexibility clause in the European budget rules, Luxembourg Economy Minister Pierre Gramegna announced at the end of Friday’s Econfin meeting.
Gramegna said that the European Commission will conduct an initial analysis on the impact on public finances of the refugee flows.
On the basis is this, the duty presidency will then open a debate among member States about whether to consider the crisis “an extraordinary situation in relation to the Stability and Growth Pact,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France Faces Emergency Housing Shortage as it Prepares for Refugee Influx
As France prepares to welcome 33,000 refugees from Syria, Iraq and Eritrea over the next two years, the country is confronting a shortage of emergency housing.
The thorny issue of how France will shelter the new arrivals arose after President François Hollande announced earlier this week that the country will welcome 24,000 refugees over the next two years, in addition to the 9,000 people it has already committed to taking in.
In addition to the influx of refugees, France also expects 60,000 asylum requests by the end of 2015. Although the country received the same number of applications last year, its reception centres for asylum seekers (which have a capacity of 25,000 people) are oversaturated…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Records Dramatic Spike in Smuggling Arrests
Germany’s Interior Ministry says there’s been a significant jump in smuggling arrests in 2015. Authorities across Europe are trying to crack down on traffickers accused of exploiting refugees desperate to enter the EU.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany ‘To Reinstate Border Controls’ As Country Struggles With Influx of Refugees — Live
The Czech prime minister says that his country has deployed more police to the Austrian-Czech border in response to Germany’s decision to renew border controls along its border with Austria in a bid to limit an influx of refugees.
Bohuslav Sobotka says the measure was taken “to ensure that laws and rules inside the Schengen zone are not violated.”
Sobotka said that the government will assess the situation on a regular basis and will take further security measures if needed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Re-Imposes Border Controls to Slow Migrant Arrivals
Germany re-imposed border controls on Sunday after Europe’s most powerful nation acknowledged it could scarcely cope with thousands of asylum seekers arriving every day.
Berlin announced that the temporary measure would be taken first on the southern frontier with Austria, where migrant arrivals have soared since Chancellor Angela Merkel effectively opened German borders to refugees a week ago.
“The aim of these measures is to limit the current inflows to Germany and to return to orderly procedures when people enter the country,” said Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, adding that this was also necessary for security reasons.
Berlin took the step — which is allowed under Europe’s Schengen treaty as long as it remains temporary — a day before EU interior ministers hold an emergency meeting to discuss spreading asylum seekers around the 28-nation bloc.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Expects 800,000 Migrants to Arrive This Year.
China economy: New signs of economic slowdown
Snake venom is deadly, with as many as 100,000 people worldwide dying each year from snake bites. The World Health Organization has added ‘snakebite’ to its list of neglected tropical diseases, but what is the real scale of the problem it faces against such a vicious venom?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Border Controls Underline ‘Urgency’ To Agree Refugee Plan: EU
(BRUSSELS) — The EU said Germany’s reinstatement of temporary border controls on Sunday “underlines the urgency” of the need for European Union member states to share the burden of accepting tens of thousands of refugees.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel informed European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker of the decision, under rules governing Europe’s borderless Schengen area, according to a statement from the commission, the executive of the 28-nation EU.
“The German decision of today underlines the urgency to agree on the measures proposed by the European Commission in order to manage the refugee crisis,” it said.
In a speech last week, Juncker called for the relocation of 160,000 asylum seekers from overstretched Greece, Hungary and Italy and for a permanent mechanism of binding quotas to deal with future emergencies.
EU home affairs and justice ministers are due to meet in Brussels on Monday to act on the plan, despite the reluctance of many member states with anti-immigration sentiment.
The commission noted that the 1995 Schengen agreement allows a member state to “exceptionally” reintroduce temporary border controls in the “case of an emergency situation.”
The commission added: “The current situation in Germany, prima facie, appears to be a situation covered by the rules.”
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the aim of the measure is to “stop the current influx” of refugees, “return to an orderly process” and ensure security after Munich recorded an inflow of 63,000 asylum seekers in two weeks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands of angry protesters took to the streets in Eastern Europe to voice their opposition to the influx of migrants into the region.
‘Islam will be the death of Europe’ chanted protesters at a rally in Warsaw, with the pre-dominantly Roman Catholic crowd reaching as many as 5,000 people.
Hundreds of people also demonstrated in Prague and in the Slovak capital Bratislava, some holding banners reading: ‘You’re not welcome here so go home’.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Non-citizens in the U.S.—and especially recent Middle Eastern refugees—are addicted to welfare programs, two newly released studies suggest.
Although open-borders propaganda typically claims that illegal aliens are hardworking and industrious, one of the reports unveiled yesterday showed that among illegal alien households with children, a shocking 87 percent accept benefits from one or more welfare programs, compared to just 52 percent of native households.
The reports come as a rancorous debate rages in American society over what immigration policies best serve the economic, cultural, and national security interests of the United States. Americans on both sides of the partisan divide are becoming increasingly angry that the nation’s borders are porous and that illegal aliens are able to access generous government benefits upon arrival. Presidential candidate Donald Trump has rocketed to the top of the GOP field largely by opposing amnesty and pushing for the enforcement of existing laws, including the removal of millions of illegals.
Although illegal aliens impose a heavy burden on taxpayers, legal permanent residents are even more likely to be enamored of public welfare programs, according to Steven Camarota, the author of one of the reports and director of research at the respected nonpartisan Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).
“Welfare use by illegal immigrant households is certainly a concern, but the bigger issue is welfare use by legal immigrants,” said Camarota.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Biggest Migrant Centre: EU Model or Refugee Ghetto?
Armed guards patrol the perimeter of Italy’s biggest migrant centre, the focus of a fierce debate over whether the country should open large “hotspot” camps to process new arrivals and stem the flow of people across the continent.
The grisly murder of a local couple and subsequent arrest of an Ivory Coast man from the Sicilian centre sparked an outcry in a country tired of being on the frontline of Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II.
The vast complex, a former US military base with streets evoking American suburbia, currently shelters just over 3,000 asylum seekers — down from nearly 4,000 in the past, but still too many, critics demanding its closure say…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Margaret Wente: Sweden’s Ugly Immigration Problem
In Europe, refugees from Syria and Iraq have been cramming the ferry-trains heading from Germany to Denmark. But once in Denmark, many refused to get off. Where they really want to go is Sweden, where refugee policies are more generous. When the Danes said no, they hopped off the trains, and began heading toward the Swedish border by taxi, bus, and foot.
Sweden has the most welcoming asylum policies and most generous welfare programs in the European Union. One typical refugee, Natanael Haile, barely escaped drowning in the Mediterranean in 2013. But the folks back home in Eritrea don’t want to know about the perils of his journey. As he told The New York Times, they want to know about “his secondhand car, the government allowances he receives and his plans to find work as a welder once he finishes a two year language course.” As a registered refugee, he receives a monthly living allowance of more than $700 (U.S.).
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel Ally Warns Refugee Influx Threatens ‘Emergency’
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door refugee policy came in for sharp criticism Friday from her conservative Bavarian allies, who said they would discuss the influx with Hungary’s right-wing premier Viktor Orban.
The head of the CSU party, Horst Seehofer, said opening German borders to unprecedented numbers of migrants “was a mistake that will occupy us for a long time”.
“We are getting ourselves into an emergency situation we soon won’t be able to control,” he told Der Spiegel…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Crisis: Germany to Start Temporary Border Controls
Germany is to introduce temporary controls on its border with Austria to cope with the influx of migrants, the interior minister has said.
Thomas de Maiziere said refugees could “not choose” their host countries and called on other EU states to do more.
Trains between Germany and Austria have been suspended for 12 hours.
Germany’s vice-chancellor has said the country is “at the limit of its capabilities” as more than 13,000 migrants arrived in Munich on Saturday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nothing Has Changed in 25 Years to Ease My Concerns About Islam
Significant numbers of Muslims see a faith-run, faith-defined state as the ultimate goal in this life
By Charles Moore
Viktor Orbán is the prime minister of Hungary. It is through his country that very large numbers of migrants from the Middle East and the Balkans now pass. At the beginning of this month, Mr Orbán said: “I think we have a right to decide that we don’t want to have a large number of Muslim people in our country.”
Mr Orbán was fiercely attacked for the motives behind his remark. I do not know enough about Hungarian politics to say whether such attacks are justified. But, regardless of the precise facts about Mr Orbán, I would guess most people in western — let alone eastern — Europe would quietly agree with his general proposition. One of the biggest anxieties about the current immigration is its high Muslim element. Is it wrong to have such an anxiety, let alone to express it publicly, let alone to want to have a system of immigration based on it?
I don’t find these easy questions to answer. Nearly 25 years ago, I wrote an article for which many people, including some I respected, criticised me. In it, I argued that difference of religion often made immigration more difficult, and that this was particularly so in the case of Islam. The piece was written not long after the first Gulf war. I mentioned our Muslim next-door neighbours (we then lived in London). I wrote that they seemed nice people, but that when, during the war, I could hear them praying through the wall, I felt uneasy.
My critics were correct that this was in bad taste. One should not write about one’s neighbours in that way (even though I was, in personal terms, polite about them). They were innocent of any wrong, so I should not have dragged them in to illustrate a journalistic point…
| — Hat tip: K | [Return to headlines] |
‘Our Boat is Nowhere Near Full,’ German Volunteers Tell Refugees
(CNN) With some 10,000 migrants pouring into Munich, Germany, most every day, there are not enough beds for everyone yet.
So after their exhausting flight from homelands laid waste by bombs and drenched in blood, many arrivals have just pulled up a piece of floor and slept right in the train station.
Police in Munich announced on Sunday that the city had hit its capacity to help after 12,200 migrants arrived Saturday. Germany expects up to 800,000 applications for asylum this year, mainly from Syrian refugees.
Officials from German states have groaned to Chancellor Angela Merkel — who generously decided to open the borders over a week ago and let so many destitute in — that they don’t know how to take care of them all, that the proverbial boat is already full.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Poland Sees Demonstrations for and Against Asylum-Seekers
Demonstrations for and against asylum-seekers took place in Poland on Saturday, with the largest gatherings occurring in Warsaw.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Private Property Expropriated by German State for Refugees
Elderly Swedes also forced out of housing to make room for migrants.
Federal and state governments in Germany are in the process of devising new laws to expropriate private property for refugee housing.
The new regulations are aimed primarily at unused commercial properties, but may also apply to homes and condos, according to ARD Berlin Studios, a German public broadcaster.
In Sweden, the state Migration Board in May evicted elderly residents from the Millmark center in Sörmark outside Torsby, according to Värmlands Folkblad, a Swedish language daily newspaper.
The residents were told there were plans to make the property an asylum accommodation.
The reaction in Sweden to the influx of refugees has resulted in an anti-immigrant party leading in polls.
The Sweden Democrats are supported by 25.5 per cent of voters and are now more popular than the Social Democrats with 23.4 per cent of voter support, according to a YouGov poll sponsored by Metro, a free daily newspaper in Sweden.
Anti-immigration political parties in France, Germany and Austria are also receiving wide support. Austria’s Freedom Party is supported by 29 percent of the population.
Following a European Union plan to force nations to accept the tidal wave of refugees, thousands of people attended anti-migrant protests in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia on Saturday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Record Numbers of Migrants Rush Into Hungary Before Border Sealed
Röszke (Hungary) (AFP) — Exhausted migrants rushed to enter Hungary on Sunday, with record numbers registered ahead of the government’s controversial plan to seal the border and deploy troops to keep out refugees.
Police said 4,330 migrants entered the country on Saturday, outstripping the previous one-day record of 3,601 set two days earlier.
“We were very lucky,” says Shadi Dalati, a 39-year-old from Raqqa, the headquarters of the Islamic State group in Syria, travelling with his wife and two friends.
“We knew the Hungary border was closing so we have not stopped moving since we left Turkey a week ago. We only slept on buses.”
The group set off inside Serbia at 4am for a 22-kilometre (14-mile) hike into Hungary.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Refugees Heading for UK Set Up Camp in New ‘Little Calais’
Migrants frustrated by better security in Calais are trying to cross the Channel from other French ferry ports such as Ouistreham and Dieppe where there are fewer police checks.
Romain Bail, the mayor of Ouistreham, which is more than 200 miles from Calais, said: “Whenever security is tightened in Calais, you sense a wave of migrants coming here in the following weeks.” The town has been dubbed “little Calais”.
Police say they are now arresting about 20 migrants a week in Ouistreham, compared to about five a week before new checks were introduced and fencing erected in Calais this summer.
Romain Bail, the mayor of Ouistreham, which is 80 miles from Cherbourg and more than 200 miles from Calais, said: “Whenever security is tightened in Calais, you sense a wave of migrants coming here in the following weeks.” The town has been dubbed “Little Calais”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Refugees Drown Off Greece as Athens Defends Refugee Policy
At least 34 people trying to reach Europe over the Aegean Sea have drowned as the influx of refugees to the continent continues. Greece has meanwhile dismissed criticism of its handling of the situation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Refugees and Munich Officials Struggle With the Crisis
The ordeal is far from over for migrants who have traveled perilous paths to reach Germany. And for Munich’s officials who have been receiving tens of thousands of refugees this past week, the challenge has just begun.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Prague, Sept 13 (CTK) — The EU has failed to observe its own rules and effectively protect Schengen’s outer border when tackling the migration crisis, which is why operational steps must be taken now to enhance particular states’ security and cope with the refugee stream, Czech PM Bohuslav Sobotka said today.
He reacted to Germany’s temporary renewal of checks on its border with Austria over a wave of refugees.
In reaction to this, the Czech Republic is reinforcing its police on the Czech-Austrian border, Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) said.
“I hope that the German decision will step up the pressure for a joint European approach that would enable to better regulate the current migration stream as early as on the external borders of Europe,” Sobotka said.
He said dignified conditions for asylum seekers should be ensured on the external borders, so that war refugees could be distinguished from economic migrants.
Sobotka, like previously the Czech police, said he expected Germany to re-launch border checks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Social Engineering 101: How to Make a Refugee Crisis
Starting in 2007, the US was already in the process of engineering the overthrow and destruction of all prevailing political orders across the Middle East and North African (MENA) region.
In 2008, from Libya to Syria and beyond, activists were drawn by the US State Department from across MENA to learn the finer points of Washington and Wall Street’s “color revolution” industry. They were being prepared for an unprecedented, coordinated US-engineered MENA-wide campaign of political destabilization that would in 2011 be called the “Arab Spring.”
There was nothing “spontaneous” about the “Arab Spring.” It was organized years in advance by a corporate-government collaboration involving the US State Department, IT giants, a myriad of corporate-financier funded NGOs, and mainstream media players.
Through the US State Department’s National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and US State Department’sMovements.org, agitators were literally flown on several occasions to both New York and Washington D.C. as well as other locations around the globe to receive training, equipment and funding before returning to their home countries and attempting to overthrow their respective governments.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: ‘Refugees Welcome Here’: Thousands Attend Demo in Malmö
Thousands of people have gathered at the Main Square in Malmö to welcome newly arrived refugees and to stand up for a humane refugee policy, Swedish Radio’s local channel in Malmö reports.
Many help organisations, sports clubs and political parties are taking part and up to 14,000 people are expected to attend.
It’s the third large-scale demonstration that’s been organised to express solidarity with the refugees that are arriving here in the past week. A similar demonstration was held in Gothenburg on Wednesday and another one in Stockholm last Sunday.
The demonstrations have drawn inspiration from the ‘Refugees Welcome’ movement that has spread from countries like Germany, France and Austria and which hopes to influence the EU’s member states to vote in favour of compulsory refugee quotas on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Many Immigration Lawyers Don’t Get Paid on Time
Many of Sweden’s lawyers specialising in immigration, refugee and asylum issues have to wait over a year to get paid by the Migration Agency, news agency TT reports.
Apart from not getting paid on time, a number of lawyers have also had to cover expenses for interpreters and wait to get reimbursed.
“This could mean that fewer lawyers accept these kinds of cases, which in turn would be very bad for the people seeking asylum here,” says Bengt Ivarsson, President of the Swedish Bar Association.
A few lawyers claim that they have even been forced to overdraw their line of credit and apply for short-term funding with their banks in order for their businesses to survive.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands Rally Against Forced EU Migrant Quotas as ‘Overwhelmed’ Germany Pleads for Help
THOUSANDS of Europeans have vented their anger at the “endless” migrant crisis as Germany struggles to cope with the record-breaking number of arrivals.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Yle in Stockholm: Many Iraqi Refugees Continue on to Finland
According to Hannele Muilu, Yle’s Stockholm correspondent, many Iraqis believe their applications will be processed more quickly in Finland than in Sweden, where the wait can be up to 2 years.
On Saturday, Yle’s Stockholm correspondent Hannele Muilu met some of the refugees arriving at the Stockholm Central Station from Mälmö, Sweden. The country’s public broadcaster SVT reported that on Friday some 400 refugees had arrived in Mälmö from Denmark. A handful of them made their way to Stockholm.
Many of the refugees that Muilu met were Iraqis who told her that they didn’t want to seek asylum in Sweden, but wanted to continue their journey on to Finland.
“They think that it will be a faster process to apply for asylum in Finland, as in Sweden it can take up to two years owing to the large number of applicants,” said Muilu.
According to Muilu, SVT has been reporting that Iraqis may find it easier to receive refugee status in Finland which views a larger part of Iraq as being unstable than Sweden does.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jail Time for Christians: No Longer a Hypothesis
So this is how the game is played. Leftist operatives in the courts (supreme and state) create unconstitutional laws to further their anti-God agenda. Then, Leftists say those who disobey their lawless laws are not behaving like Christians and good Americans. Many on our side fall for it.
The SCOTUS’ ruling on Obamacare and homosexual marriage means the Constitution will now say whatever Leftists want it to say. Folks do you realize that based on this new precedent, the Left can make anything they want a law; incest, pedophilia, bestiality and so on? Before you call me crazy, Leftists are already clamoring for the normalization of these sins. Have you heard of NAMBLA (North American Man Boy Love Association)?
Suppose our kangaroo supreme court decreed that ending slavery was unconstitutional. All blacks must report to government for their slavery assignments. How many idiots on our side would comply because Christians and good Americans must obey the law?
Meanwhile, it goes without saying that Obama is the most lawless president in US History; refusing to obey laws he dislikes. Sanctuary cities which are run by Democrats defiantly disobey federal immigration law at the cost of endangering and even the deaths of American citizens. It is insane to allow these conniving vipers to claim moral high ground over us; lecture us about obeying the law.
Christians with their heads not buried in the sand knew jail-time was coming for Christians that refuse to bow down and worship homosexual’s false god.
In response to the SCOTUS ruling on homosexual marriage, a mega-church pastor said he hoped it would not infringe upon our religious freedom. I thought, “Well duh!” That is the purpose of the attacks and lawsuits; to criminalize biblical standards.
Wedding chapels, cakes, flowers and everything else needed for homosexuals to marry are readily available to them. Homosexual’s ultimate mission is to force Christians to rubber-stamp their behavior, thus betraying the true God.
This is why I get upset with Christians who still do not get it; labeling any push back as intolerant and unchristian, lecturing fellow Christians about showing these passive humble homosexuals more love. I want to scream, “This ain’t about that!” This is about saying no to being bullied into embracing anti-biblical behavior.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kim Davis Taught US How Bad Liberals Really Are
If there is one overarching observation that I could make from the discussions I’ve seen on the internet about Kim Davis’ recent imprisonment, it is that there are a powerful lot of uninformed, inarticulate, cognitively-challenged folks out there on the information superhighway. It seems like any place you go where there is an article about Kim Davis and her refusal to issue illegal marriage licenses to homosexual couples, you will quickly find yourself surrounded by mouth-breathers raucously asserting that she “deserved to go to jail” for “breaking the law” and “violating their constitutional rights.” Even “conservative” establishmentarian pundits like George Will have gotten in on the act, proving once again that the repetition of common, though uninformed, opinions may often seem to be an adequate substitute for deep analysis, no matter who you are.
However, the only thing that these responses have really done is to show just how terrible liberals really are for the health of America’s national discourse. They are shallow and uninformed, they are in many cases purposefully deceitful, and, frankly, they are often overtly malicious and evil in their beliefs and actions.
First, to the part about their shallowness and ignorance. We are at a point where any time the name “Kim Davis” is mentioned, some gay “marriage” supporter is sure to crawl out from under their rock and start spewing forth pseudo-legalistic mumbo-jumbo that they saw on Salon or heard from Jon Stewart. Gay marriage is now “the law of the land” and Kim Davis “broke the law” by not issuing marriage licenses to gays.
The problem with all of this “analysis” is that it is complete and utter bunkum — every last bit of it.
I believe that it is inaccurate to refer to what Kim Davis did as “civil disobedience.” That term carries with it the implication that a law was being broken (hence, the “disobedience” part of the term). Yet, Kim Davis broke no law. She was “disobedient” to not a single statute on the books anywhere at the federal level or in the state of Kentucky. In fact, I’ve asked dozens of these comments-section counselors what actual law Kim Davis did not obey. To date, not a single one has actually been able to cite a law chapter-and-verse that she broke. This is because Kim Davis broke no law. Just because the Supreme Court issued an opinion (more on this below) that state laws and constitutional provisions specifically forbidding gay “marriage” were unconstitutional does not mean that gay “marriage” suddenly became legal in all of these states. In most states in the union, including Kentucky, the laws on the books still make no provision for giving marriage licenses to two people of the same sex, even if the specific forbidding of such was struck down. As such, it is actually still illegal to do so, Supreme Court or no Supreme Court.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Has ‘Long Way to Go’ on Gay Rights: Elton John
Veteran British rock star Elton John on Saturday said Ukraine still had “a long way to go” in its treatment of the gay, bisexual and transgender community at a conference in Kiev.
“I tell you with great sadness that right here, in this very city earlier this summer, a simple and modest gay pride parade had to be organised at a secret location to try to prevent hooligans from disrupting it and committing violence against the celebrants,” he said.
“The march lasted, in all, 10 minutes, the fighting lasted over an hour… So I tell you soberly, we have a long way to go,” he told delegates at the annual Yalta European Strategy forum…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Can Eating More Than Six Bananas at Once Kill You?
It’s sometimes said that eating a lot of of bananas at once could be dangerous — it has even been suggested that eating more than six in one sitting could kill you. Can this really be true?
Bananas are one of the world’s most popular fruits, stuffed with vitamins and minerals. On the face of it they are good for you, so why do some people think they could be fatal?
One well-known figure who has spread this idea around is Karl Pilkington, the grumpy friend of comedian Ricky Gervais.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |