Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/15/2015

Hungary declared a state of emergency, sealed its border with Serbia, and began detaining migrants who attempted to enter the country illegally. The Hungarian government also announced that it would extend its fence to include part of the border with Romania, to help deter migration from that direction.

In other news, the Saudi government has barred the Binladin Group from receiving new state contracts in the wake of last week’s crane collapse at the Grand Mosque in Mecca. The company’s board of directors and top executives have also been ordered not to leave the country until the official investigation of the accident is complete.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Financial Crisis
» Italy: Unemployment Among Under 35s Rises to 23.9% — ISTAT
» Italy: New Hires in Agriculture Rise 11% in South — Coldiretti
» Italy: Treasury Meeting on Esodati ‘Unsatisfactory’, Unions Say
» Italy: Productivity Returns to Modest Growth in 2nd Quarter — ISTAT
» Italy: Non-Performing Loans Reach New Record of 197 Bn
 
USA
» 2 Houston ISD Students Dead, 2 Others and Bus Driver Injured as School Bus Plummets From 610 Loop
» Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos’ Space Company to Build, Launch Rockets in Florida
» Bolshevik Bernie and the Communist Spy
» California Snowpack Lowest in Past 500 Years
» Cassini Finds Global Ocean in Saturn’s Moon Enceladus
» Homeschoolers Sue State Over ‘Home Intrusion’
» Public School Students Are the New Inmates in the American Police State
» The Establishment Want to Get Rid of Donald Trump
» The Scheming Marxist Architect of ObamaCare, Robert Creamer, Helped Sell the Iran Deal
» Top 18 Houseplants for Purifying the Air You Breathe, According to NASA
 
Canada
» Canadian Court Rules Women Can Wear Face Veils While Swearing Oath of Citizenship
 
Europe and the EU
» Amsterdam Has a Museum for Microbes
» Blonde Danish Teenager, 15, Murdered Her Mother With a Kitchen Knife After Watching ISIS Videos of the Beheading of British Hostages Online
» Caught on Tape: Topless Femen Protesters Storm Muslim Debate “Whether Wives Should be Beaten”
» Corals Glow in Spectacular Colours Thanks to ‘Fluo-Dive’ Lights
» Corbyn Tells Unions That UK Government is Declaring War on Organized Labor
» Court of Justice Deals Blow to ‘Welfare Tourism’ In EU
» Danish Teenage Girl Stabbed Mother to Death After Watching ISIL Videos With Islamist Boyfriend
» Double Whammy: 2 Meteors Hit Ancient Earth at the Same Time
» Earth’s Composition Might be Unusual for a Planet With Life
» Germany: Munich Should Enjoy Well Deserved Oktoberfest
» Germany: Study Suggests Children’s Medieval Burial Was Revered
» Italy: US Tennis Final Flight Critics ‘Populist’ Says Renzi
» Italy: ENI and Total Sign Licencing Deal to Use EST Technology
» Italy: Saipem Awarded USD 250mn in Onshore Drilling Contracts
» Italy: No IMU or Irap Next Year Renzi Tells Farmers
» Norway: Pakistani-Born Environmentalist Could Become Oslo Mayor
» Norway: Pakistan-Born Shoaib Sultan May Become Oslo Mayor
» Pope Says No Religion Immune From Fundamentalism
» UK: Frederick Forsyth Drops Dark Hints About Sgt Blackman’s Court Martial
» UK: Judge in ‘Corner Shop’ Race Row With Asian Crime Victim Finally Quits His £150,000 Post
» UK: Jeremy Corbyn Joins Battle of Britain Service But Refuses to Sing National Anthem
» Workers in Poland Clear Trees From Site of Alleged Secret Tunnel Hiding Nazi Train
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Israel to Hold Emergency Meeting on Stone-Throwing
» Jerusalem: Third Day of Clashes on Temple Mount
» Violence Enters Third Day at Jerusalem Holy Site
 
Middle East
» Gazprom: Construction of Turkish Stream Pipeline Postponed
» Iran to Weave World’s Largest Carpet for Algiers Mosque
» Islamic State’s Top Military Commander Was Trained by American Special Forces Units
» Kuwait: 7 Death Sentences for June Attack on Mosque
» Obama Has Documents on Iran’s Support of Al Qaeda, But He Won’t Release Them
» Obscurity of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad — An Enigma
» Putin Sends Tanks to Syria: “Largest Deployment of Outside Russian Forces Since USSR Collapse”
» Putin Says Fighting Islamic State in Syria is Top Priority
» Saudi Suspends Binladin Group Over Mecca Crane Crash: Royal Court
» Syria Conflict: Russia ‘To Continue Assad Military Aid’
» UK Jihadi ‘Mrs Terror’ Tweets Pride as ISIS Husband is Killed in Syria Drone Strike
 
Russia
» Giant Frozen Virus Still Infectious After 30,000 Years
» Kremlin Denies Putin Called Elton John
» Russia Reports ‘Very Powerful’ Hack of Kremlin
» Russian Authorities Find Google Guilty in Antitrust Probe
 
South Asia
» Why Southeast Asia’s Haze Problem Persists
 
Far East
» China Reportedly Compiling ‘Facebook’ of U.S. Government Employees
» North Korea Threatens U.S. With Nuke Attack
» North Korea Says it Has Restarted Nuclear Fuel Production Plants in Warning to US
» Staking Its Claim: Beijing Building Third Airstrip 3,000 Metres Long in Contested South China Sea, Expert Claims
 
Australia — Pacific
» Mapping How Tor’s Anonymity Network Spread Around the World
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Report Says Kenyan Police Kill, Torture Suspected Islamic Extremists
» Russia Says it Opposes Sanctions Sought by the US on Rival Generals in South Sudan Conflict
» Zimbabwe President Mugabe Repeats 25-Minute Speech in Parliament by Mistake
» Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe Reads Wrong Speech
 
Latin America
» Pope Meeting Fidel Castro ‘Very Likely’
 
Immigration
» 13,000 Migrants in Italy in August — Frontex
» Austria to Impose Checks at Italian Border, Elsewhere
» Belgrade: We Will Not Accept Refugees From Hungary
» Coming to Grips With Mass Immigration Invading — What to Do?
» Eastern Europe: Citizens Rally Against Muslim Migrant Invasion
» Facebook Map With Alternative Routes for Migrants
» Frontex, Over 500,000 Migrants in First 8 Months 2015
» Germany: Bundesliga to Wear Shirts Welcoming Refugees
» Germany & Austria Close Borders — Schengen Agreement Under Pressure — Will War Emerge?
» Germany: Countries That Refuse Refugees Could Lose Funds
» Hungary: New ‘Anti-Migrant’ Barrier at Border With Romania
» Hungary to Build Anti-Immigrant Fence on Romanian Border
» Hungary Declares Emergency, Detains Refugees and Seals Border as Crisis Intensifies
» Islamic State Jihadis ‘May be Posing as Syrian Refugees’
» Islamic Extremists ‘Trying to Recruit Syrian Refugees in Germany’
» Italy: Foreign Kids Should be Capped in Schools
» Italy: Migrant Dinghies Available on-Line for Less Than 1,000 Euros
» Leftists Clash With Right-Wing Anti-Refugee Protesters in Leipzig
» Merkel Demands Refugee Hotposts in Italy, Greece
» Migrants: Avramopoulos ‘Very Disappointed’ By EU Summit
» Migrants: Yarmuk Pianist Also Flees, Now in Turkey
» Migrant Crisis: Hungary’s Closed Border Leaves Many Stranded
» Migrant Crisis Undermines Long Time EU Border Agreement
» Poland Vetoes European Commission Refugee Plan
» Refugee Crises at Dangerous Tipping Point as Hungary Deploys Army, Germany Loses Patience
» Satirical French Journal Charlie Hebdo Under Fire for Migrant Cartoon
» Surge of Refugees to Europe Raises Concern Over Whether Militants Are Among Them
» Sweden to Borrow Money to Cover Cost of Immigration
» Sweden: Lapland Border Checks Amid EU Quota Row
» Sweden Deploys an Army… of Bureaucrats to Sign Up Migrants to State Welfare
» Trump: U.S. ‘Dumping Ground’ of World
» Why Merkel Changed Her Mind
 
Culture Wars
» Don’t Have Sex With Robots, Say Ethicists
» Why the Pope is Wrong on So Many Levels
 
General
» Hunt for Gravitational Waves to Resume After Massive Upgrade
» Magma Oceans on Jupiter’s Moon Io May Solve Volcano Mystery
» When Creepy Ancient Fossils Become Awesome Robots
 

Italy: Unemployment Among Under 35s Rises to 23.9% — ISTAT

6.1% of over 50s out of work

(ANSA) — Rome, September 15 — Unemployment among people aged 15-34 stood at 23.9% in the second quarter of 2015, national statistics agency Istat said Tuesday.

The rate showed an increase of 0.5% over the same period last year, Istat added.

Unemployment among under 35s was nearly four times higher than among the over 50s, figures showed. Some 6.1% of people aged 50-64 were out of work in the second quarter of the year, up 0.2% over the the same period in 2014.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: New Hires in Agriculture Rise 11% in South — Coldiretti

Female employment in sector grows by 31%

(ANSA) — Rome, September 15 — New hires in agriculture in southern Italy rose by 11% in the second quarter of 2015, farmers’ association Coldiretti said Tuesday.

The number of women hired in southern regions in the same period rose by 31%, Coldiretti added.

The figures put the agriculture sector in the unemployment-marred Mezzogiorno in first place for growth in employment in 2015, the association said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Treasury Meeting on Esodati ‘Unsatisfactory’, Unions Say

Government working to resolve problem remaining for 50,000

(ANSA) — Rome, September 15 — Labour unions on Tuesday described as “totally unsatisfactory” a meeting with Treasury officials to find a solution to the situation of unemployed workers who are in advanced adult age but without access to pension rights for a number of years. “The mobilisation continues,” said Italy’s three biggest labour union confederations CGIL, CISL and UIL after the meeting with Treasury undersecretary Pier Paolo Baretta.

Baretta reportedly proposed another meeting in a fortnight.

Meanwhile the economy and labour ministries said in a joint statement Tuesday that the government was working to relieve the ‘discomfort’ faced by the so-called ‘esodati’ (exiled ones) created by the controversial 2011 Fornero pensions reform, introduced by the technocrat government of Mario Monti as part of austerity measures introduced to shore up Italy’s struggling economy.

Lawmakers have since intervened on six separate occasions to safeguard the esodati, but approximately 50,000 people have allegedly slipped through the net.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Productivity Returns to Modest Growth in 2nd Quarter — ISTAT

Temporary redundancy falls ‘significantly’, agency adds

(ANSA) — Rome, September 15 — Productivity returned to growth in the second quarter of 2015, national statistics agency Istat said Tuesday.

The period April-June showed “signs of improvement in the labour market,” Istat said in a statement.

These included an increase “both in labour input and employment and in the first part of the year productivity also returned to modest growth”, the agency said.

Specifically, hourly productivity rose by 0.1%, Istat said.

The agency also said the number of hours covered by temporary redundancy fell “significantly” in the second quarter of the year.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Non-Performing Loans Reach New Record of 197 Bn

ABI puts rise down to long-running economic crisis

(ANSA) — Milan, September 15 — Non-performing loans reached a new record level of over 197 billion euros in July, up from 195.8 billion euros in June, the association of Italian banks ABI said Tuesday.

The rise in non-performing loans could be seen as a consequence of the persistence of the economic crisis and its effects, ABI said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

2 Houston ISD Students Dead, 2 Others and Bus Driver Injured as School Bus Plummets From 610 Loop

Two students died and two others were hurt along with their bus driver Tuesday morning when a school bus plunged from Loop 610 in southeast Houston.

The wreck occurred about 7 a.m. on the eastbound frontage road of the South Loop near Telephone Road, according to the Houston Police Department. It appears to be the first death of a student in a public school bus accident in Texas since 2008, according to state data.

Witnesses say two girls and two boys were on the bus, along with the driver. One girl died while the injured students and bus driver were rushed to area hospitals, said Holly Huffman, a spokeswoman for the Houston Independent School District. The district confirmed a second female student died after being taken to a hospital.

Two students had been transported to Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital in the Texas Medical Center. A third had been taken to Texas Children’s Hospital. The driver was taken to Ben Taub Hospital…

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos’ Space Company to Build, Launch Rockets in Florida

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is shipping his space business to Florida.

At a news conference Tuesday, Bezos announced that his Blue Origin space company will build rockets and launch them into orbit from Cape Canaveral.

He plans to send up satellites first, then people — including space tourists and even himself. He predicts the first launch will occur by the end of the decade; he declined to be more specific, saying more details would be forthcoming next year.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Bolshevik Bernie and the Communist Spy

In a 1,500-word article about the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, The Washington Post waited until the 25th paragraph to note that the self-declared socialist faces an “obstacle” to winning the presidency. The paper said that “…Sanders has not faced the kind of media scrutiny, let alone attacks from opponents, that leading candidates eventually experience.” The authors, Philip Rucker and James Wagner, added, “Sure to follow his summer surge is an autumn of investigations that could reveal new details about his personal background and record.”

What these investigations would find is that Sanders was a collaborator, if not a member, of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the same group that backed Obama’s run for the presidency. DSA describes itself as the largest socialist organization in the United States and the principal U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International.

There is a video showing Obama campaigning for him when Sanders ran for the Senate. Interestingly, Sanders, who won his Senate seat in 2006, called Obama “one of the great leaders of the United States Senate,” even though Obama had only been in the body for about two years.

One of the more interesting members of the DSA is Kurt Stand, a communist spy for the Soviet Union (and then Russia) and East Germany who was sentenced to prison in 1998 and released in 2012. He served over 17 years. He was convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage, attempted espionage, and illegally obtaining national defense documents.

Where is he now? Thanks to the DSA, we know that Stand has returned to the organization, which is campaigning hard for Sanders for president. Indeed, DSA has posted photos of Stand and his comrades promoting “socialist values” and the Sanders campaign at the Greenbelt (Maryland) Labor Day Festival.

Stand has himself posted an article about how the group called Progressive Maryland is working hard to mobilize left-wing forces throughout the state.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

California Snowpack Lowest in Past 500 Years

Tree rings help to put the state’s historic drought in context.

The spring snowpack on mountains crucial to California’s water supply reached its lowest level this year in half a millennium, according to a study published on 14 September in Nature Climate Change.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Cassini Finds Global Ocean in Saturn’s Moon Enceladus

A global ocean lies beneath the icy crust of Saturn’s geologically active moon Enceladus, according to new research using data from NASA’s Cassini mission.

Researchers found the magnitude of the moon’s very slight wobble, as it orbits Saturn, can only be accounted for if its outer ice shell is not frozen solid to its interior, meaning a global ocean must be present.

The finding implies the fine spray of water vapor, icy particles and simple organic molecules Cassini has observed coming from fractures near the moon’s south pole is being fed by this vast liquid water reservoir. The research is presented in a paper published online this week in the journal Icarus.

Previous analysis of Cassini data suggested the presence of a lens-shaped body of water, or sea, underlying the moon’s south polar region. However, gravity data collected during the spacecraft’s several close passes over the south polar region lent support to the possibility the sea might be global. The new results — derived using an independent line of evidence based on Cassini’s images — confirm this to be the case.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Homeschoolers Sue State Over ‘Home Intrusion’

(WASHINGTON TIMES) — Nothing really changed after a New Jersey state social worker banged on Christopher and Nicole Zimmer’s front door, and yet everything was different.

Over the next two hours, the social worker quizzed their 15-year-old son, Chris, including questions on whether his parents fought or did drugs. She wanted to see his homeschool curriculum. She wanted to inspect their firearms. She told the Zimmers to sign papers agreeing to turn over their son’s medical records.

And then she left, and the Zimmers never saw her again. But they can’t let it go. They can’t erase the memory of what it felt like when they thought the state might take away their son.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Public School Students Are the New Inmates in the American Police State

More than 3 million students are suspended or expelled from schools every year, often for minor misbehavior, such as “disruptive behavior” or “insubordination.” Black students are three times more likely than white students to face suspension and expulsion.

For instance, a Virginia sixth grader, the son of two school teachers and a member of the school’s gifted program, was suspended for a year after school officials found a leaf (likely a maple leaf) in his backpack that they suspected was marijuana. Despite the fact that the leaf in question was not marijuana (a fact that officials knew almost immediately), the 11-year-old was still kicked out of school, charged with marijuana possession in juvenile court, enrolled in an alternative school away from his friends, subjected to twice-daily searches for drugs, and forced to be evaluated for substance abuse problems.

As the Washington Post warns: “It doesn’t matter if your son or daughter brings a real pot leaf to school, or if he brings something that looks like a pot leaf—okra, tomato, maple, buckeye, etc. If your kid calls it marijuana as a joke, or if another kid thinks it might be marijuana, that’s grounds for expulsion.”

Many state laws require that schools notify law enforcement whenever a student is found with an “imitation controlled substance,” basically anything that look likes a drug but isn’t actually illegal. As a result, students have been suspended for bringing to school household spices such as oregano, breath mints, birth control pills and powdered sugar.

It’s not just look-alike drugs that can get a student in trouble under school zero tolerance policies. Look-alike weapons (toy guns—even Lego-sized ones, hand-drawn pictures of guns, pencils twirled in a “threatening” manner, imaginary bows and arrows, even fingers positioned like guns) can also land a student in detention.

Acts of kindness, concern or basic manners can also result in suspensions. One 13-year-old was given detention for exposing the school to “liability” by sharing his lunch with a hungry friend. A third grader was suspended for shaving her head in sympathy for a friend who had lost her hair to chemotherapy. And then there was the high school senior who wassuspended for saying “bless you” after a fellow classmate sneezed.

Unfortunately, while these may appear to be isolated incidents, they are indicative of a nationwide phenomenon in which children are treated like suspects and criminals, especially within the public schools.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Establishment Want to Get Rid of Donald Trump

If it’s impossible for Republicans to win a national election without conservative votes, it makes sense for the RNC to give the GOP a conservative Republican candidate. But politics isn’t about making sense. It’s about power… in this case, corrupted power run amok.

If a person who is more committed to the people than to the party is elected to the Presidency, that person can change the power structure of the Republican Party. The existing power structure of the Republican Party would rather see a Democrat elected than lose their power base. It’s as simple as that.

The problem for the powers that be is that people now know the system is totally corrupt and are demanding change. The problem for the people demanding change is they don’t understand the system and so don’t know what specific demands for change to make. The people see their freedoms lost — it used to be one-by-one, but is now a system-by-system loss: the system of justice which now decides which laws it will enforce, the system of legislative, judicial and executive balance set forth by the Constitution, our guaranteed rights to freedom of religion, the right to own guns, the right for business owners to refuse service to anyone they choose, and on and on.

So what is the GOP’s plan to surreptitiously nominate Jeb Bush?

To understand the process, you must understand the structure of the system. You must especially understand what is termed “proportional allocation of delegates,” especially in early-voting states…

It is quite clear that the RNC has taken the nominating process from the hands of the people and placed it in the hands of… the Republican National Committee. It’s a bit like re-districting was handled when Congressman Allen West ran for re-election in Florida. The State of Florida carved out a district in which it was impossible for any conservative to win. Why? Col. West is a conservative and the Republicans wanted to get rid of him.

That’s how these rats are micro-managing and manipulating the nominating process so we cannot get conservative candidates elected.

[Comment: Highly recommeded reading.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Scheming Marxist Architect of ObamaCare, Robert Creamer, Helped Sell the Iran Deal

Looks like the Marxist architect of Obamacare also had a major say in putting forth the Iran Deal. Robert Creamer was convicted in 2005 for tax violations and bank fraud. He served time and was under house arrest. While in prison, he crafted the core underpinnings of Obamacare. Creamer is a political consultant who is very close to Barack Obama and is married to Jan Schakowsky, the Marxist Congresswoman from Illinois.

While on the inside, he wrote, Listen to Your Mother: Stand Up Straight! How Progressives Can Win. Obamacare was only the first major step in a radical Marxist battle plan. Next came Amnesty for illegal aliens, which is ongoing. Yeah, that’ s right… Creamer was behind that too.

Once Creamer got out of the Big House, he worked for Obama’s presidential campaign, training organizers. Since then, he’ s quietly worked behind the scenes. His latest abhorrent push is for the Iran deal. Creamer and Obama both lay the blame of the rise of the Iranian regime on the U.S. They believe that by overthrowing the Iranian government in 1953 and backing the Shah, we empowered the Iranian Mullahs and the rise of radical Islam there.

With the help and guidance of the radical Ploughshares Fund, Creamer advocated for the Iranian deal. Ploughshares Fund is a pro-Iranian group that donates millions to Progressive causes. They are against nuclear weapons and claim the Iranian farce will stop a nuclear arms race. Instead, it guarantees the opposite and war.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Top 18 Houseplants for Purifying the Air You Breathe, According to NASA

Houseplants do wonders for a house: they breathe new life to a room, add a bright pop of color, and purify the air. Not all plants are equally effective, however, when it comes to filtering harmful air-borne toxins and pollutants.

NASA conducted a Clean Air Study to identify the best air-filtering indoor plants, all of which commonly found at local flower shops, to help guide us in our purchasing decisions. Even better, Love The Garden created an info-graphic that lists 18 NASA-recommended plants for improving air quality as well as the common toxins that each plant can treat.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Canadian Court Rules Women Can Wear Face Veils While Swearing Oath of Citizenship

OTTAWA, Ontario — Canada’s government has lost an attempt to ban the practice of wearing face veils while swearing the oath of citizenship.

Zunera Ishaq is a 29-year-old woman with devout Muslim beliefs. She came to Canada from Pakistan in 2008 and refused to take part in a citizenship ceremony because she would have to remove her niqab.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper government’s rule banning face coverings at such ceremonies was earlier found unlawful by the Federal Court.

Appeal Justice Mary Gleason said Tuesday the court saw no reason to interfere with earlier ruling. The three justices quickly ruled so Ishaq could obtain her citizenship before the Oct. 19 federal election.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Amsterdam Has a Museum for Microbes

Micropia is devoted to the world of the unseen

They’re everywhere — microscopic organisms that even make up a majority of the human body. Now, The Atlantic’s Ed Yong reports on an Amsterdam museum that celebrates the humble microbe: Micropia, a place he calls “a shrine to the super-small.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Blonde Danish Teenager, 15, Murdered Her Mother With a Kitchen Knife After Watching ISIS Videos of the Beheading of British Hostages Online

A blonde Danish teenager who murdered her mother after watching ISIS’ sickening filmed beheadings of British hostages has been jailed along with her older jihadi lover.

Lisa Borch was aged only 15 when in October last year she spent hours on YouTube watching footage of the savage decapitations of David Haines and Alan Henning.

Afterwards she and her radical Muslim boyfriend Bakhtiar Mohammed Abdulla, 29, took a long-bladed kitchen knife and stabbed her mother Tina Römer Holtegaard at least 20 times at the home they shared in rural Kvissel.

A court which sentenced Borch to nine years in jail heard how she became obsessed with militant Islam after falling in love with a unnamed Muslim .

But he jilted her when he moved back to Sweden to be with his wife and children.

Nevertheless she found a new soulmate in Iraq-born Abdulla, whom she befriended after meeting at a refugee centre near her home.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Caught on Tape: Topless Femen Protesters Storm Muslim Debate “Whether Wives Should be Beaten”

If Europe was concerned about Christian-Muslim cross religious and cultural differences before, and in light of the recent influx of Syrian refugees into the continent, events over the weekend confirmed such concerns are poignantly valid.

This Saturday, during a conference at the Muslim Salon in Pontoise near Paris on the role of Muslim women, two Muslim fundamentalist imams were debating the question of “whether wives should be beaten or not”, Telegraph reports that two Femen protester activists, aged 25 and 31, “ripped off their Arab-style cloaks and jumped on to the stage on Saturday evening. One had the slogan “No one subjugates me” inked across her torso. The other bore the words “I am my own prophet.”

Chaos immediately erupted. The imams promptly left the stage but not before taking a long, hard look at the half-nued protesters, who grabbed microphones and shouted feminist slogans in French and Arabic before being roughly bundled off the stage by about 15 men and handed over to police. Video footage of the incident shows a man apparently kicking one of the women.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Corals Glow in Spectacular Colours Thanks to ‘Fluo-Dive’ Lights

LIGHTS, camera, fluorescence! The combination of all three allowed German underwater photographer Oliver Meckes to produce these vibrantly colourful shots of corals, anemones and other Red Sea creatures in the dead of night.

When viewed with the naked eye, the organisms barely appear to have any colours at all. But when they were bathed in bright blue light from the lamps that Meckes took with him to the sea floor, they gave off the colours seen here through a natural process called fluorescence.

Shorter wavelengths of the light spectrum, such as blue light, penetrate further into the ocean depths than longer wavelengths, such as red light. These creatures, which are found at depths below 15 metres, naturally absorb the small amounts of energy from the blue sunlight that reaches that far down. They then emit the remaining energy at a different wavelength, but too faint to be visible.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Corbyn Tells Unions That UK Government is Declaring War on Organized Labor

Newly-elected Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn slammed Prime Minister Cameron’s budget cuts as a “political choice.” He also compared Conservative government plans limiting trade union power to tactics used by General Franco.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Court of Justice Deals Blow to ‘Welfare Tourism’ In EU

Host states can lawfully refuse social assistance to job seekers

(ANSA) — Brussels, September 15 — Host EU states can lawfully deny EU immigrants social assistance when their right of residence arises solely out of the search for employment, the European Court of Justice said in a judgement handed down on Tuesday.

The ruling concerned a case involving German labour authorities and four Swedish nationals of Bosnian origin who had been denied certain non-contributory social security benefits by way of basic provision on grounds they were in Germany only to seek work. The court recalled that in order to obtain basic social assistance EU citizens can claim equal treatment with nationals of a host member State only if their residence complies with the conditions of the 2004 Free Movement of Citizens Directive defining the right of free movement of EU and EFTA citizens. The judgement applies to all EU states.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Danish Teenage Girl Stabbed Mother to Death After Watching ISIL Videos With Islamist Boyfriend

A Danish teenager stabbed her own mother to death after becoming radicalised by watching Islamic State videos of beheadings with an Islamist boyfriend twice her age.

Lisa Borch, then 15, attacked Tina Römer Holtegaard while she slept in her bed in her home in Kvissel, a tiny village near the northern tip of Jutland last October.

She stabbed her victim 20 times after spending hours on YouTube watching footage of the decapitations of the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant (Isil)’s victims David Haines and Alan Henning.

The court heard how Ms Borch and Iraqi Bakhtiar Mohammed Abdulla, 39, the radical Muslim boyfriend sentenced for carrying out the murder with her, relaxed in the evenings by watching bloody Isil executions on YouTube.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Double Whammy: 2 Meteors Hit Ancient Earth at the Same Time

It’s not altogether uncommon to hear about double rainbows, but what about a double meteor strike? It’s a rare event, but researchers in Sweden recently found evidence that two meteors smacked into Earth at the same time, about 458 million years ago.

Researchers from the University of Gothenburg uncovered two craters in the county of Jämtland in central Sweden. The meteors that formed the craters landed just a few miles from each other at the same moment, according to Erik Sturkell, a professor of geophysics at the University of Gothenburg and one of the scientists who is studying the newfound craters.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Earth’s Composition Might be Unusual for a Planet With Life

Is Earth the odd planet out? Many of our galaxy’s habitable planets probably have a chemical composition that is quite different from Earth’s.

Vardan Adibekyan of the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences, Portugal, and colleagues looked at stars with a similar mass and radius to the sun that are known to have planets in their habitable zones, where water stays liquid. They found that these stars tended to have less iron and other metals than stars that host only inhospitable worlds.

Planets are built from the same basic material as their stars. “Most of the properties of planets of different types strongly depend on their host stars’ chemistry,” says Adibekyan. This suggests that planets in the habitable zone are typically lower in certain metals than Earth is.

In fact, metal-rich stars like our sun tend to have large rocky planets wrapped in huge gaseous envelopes.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: Munich Should Enjoy Well Deserved Oktoberfest

After a call to boycott Oktoberfest, The Local Germany Editor Tom Barfield argues that ordinary people who displayed such glorious support for refugees shouldn’t be slammed for the Bavarian state government’s reluctance to help.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: Study Suggests Children’s Medieval Burial Was Revered

FRANKFURT, GERMANY—In 1992, archaeologists recovered the remains of two children in a single coffin under Frankfurt Cathedral. A new report on the discovery reveals that the children were approximately four years old at the time of death, which occurred between A.D. 700 and 730. One of the children had been dressed in a tunic and shawl in the style of Merovingian nobility, with gold, silver, bronze, and precious stone jewelry, while the other had been cremated in a bearskin, according to Scandinavian customs of the time. This child had a necklace resembling a Scandinavian amulet. The grave had been placed near a small church, and was still being honored some 100 years later, when a palace chapel was constructed and aligned with it. “We don’t know exactly why they were honored, that’s the real question, Egon Wamers, director of the Frankfurt Archaeological Museum, told The Local, Germany.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: US Tennis Final Flight Critics ‘Populist’ Says Renzi

‘Wd have asked for bill from Pertini in 1982’

(ANSA) — Rome, September 14 — Italian Premier Matteo Renzi said Monday those who criticised him for taking a State flight to New York to see Flavia Pennetta beat Roberta Vinci in the first all-Italian US Open Final were “populist”.

He said his critics were the kind of people who would have asked for the bill from then president Sandro Pertini when he flew back from the 1982 World Cup with the winning Italy team.

Renzi’s critics accused him of seeking to boost his popularity by flying to the final at Flushing Meadows.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: ENI and Total Sign Licencing Deal to Use EST Technology

(AGI) Rome, Sept 14 — Italian energy company Eni and French multinational energy producer Total signed a licencing agreement for the use of EST (Eni Slurry Technology) technology on Monday, concomitantly with the launch of a joint cooperation project aimed at testing and adjusting the technology to Total’s production needs. Wholly developed in Italy by Eni’s research centre, EST is the most innovative and advanced refining process for heavy feedstock conversion and upgrading and has been used in the Sannazzaro Refinery since 2013. Giacomo Rispoli, Eni Executive Vice President of Research, Development & Projects, commented on the agreement: “After two years of successful testing of the EST plant in Sannazzaro, a new and industry-consolidated technology will now be availabe on the market. The EST technology was developed 40 years after the last generation of processes and is the fruit of 15 years of research work.” Nathalie Brunelle, Senior Vice President Strategy Development and Research of Total Refining and Chemical, said: “One of the major challenges of the refining industry is to keep pace with oil market trends while applying a sustainable economic model, especially when changes are dictated by new fuel legislation or specifications. This cooperation project with Eni is a way for Total to enhance its level of technological knowledge and expertise while having access to a new and consolidated heavy feedstock conversion technology.”

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Saipem Awarded USD 250mn in Onshore Drilling Contracts

(AGI) Milan, Sept. 10 — Saipem has been awarded new onshore drilling contracts in the Middle East and South America, together worth around 250 million dollars. These include two with Kuwait Oil Company, as part of its ambitious plans to develop the country’s oil resources. These contracts have a duration of five years plus an option to extend for a further 12 months, embodying the supply of two deep-drilling rigs for operations in Kuwait. This follows the recent award from Kuwait National Petroleum for two packages within the Al-Zour New Refinery Project, and represent Saipem’s first foray into the Kuwaiti onshore drilling market, enabling the company to consolidate its presence in the Middle Eastern market. Saipem also won contracts for onshore drilling in oil and gas development in Peru and Colombia, underpinning their strong presence in South America.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: No IMU or Irap Next Year Renzi Tells Farmers

‘We found the cover yesterday’ tells Coldiretti

(ANSA) — Rome, September 15 — Farmers will not have to pay the IMU property tax or the IRAP business tax next year, Premier Matteo Renzi told an assembly of farmers’ association Coldiretti Tuesday. “We found the (financial) cover yesterday, it will be in the 2016 budget,” he said. Renzi has already vowed to eliminate the municipal service tax TASI and IMU for all in next year’s budget. The European Commission has criticised the move, saying Italy should rather be cutting labour taxes.

Italy’s agriculture sector is set to benefit from one billion euros in tax cuts, Agriculture Minister Maurizio Martina said Tuesday after Premier Matteo Renzi announced farmers will not have to pay the IMU property tax or the IRAP business tax next year.

“One billion euros in tax cuts are coming with the elimination of IMU and IRAP for agriculture,” Martina said at Expo. “It’s an unprecedented commitment to support the income of Italian farmers and help investment and employment”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Norway: Pakistani-Born Environmentalist Could Become Oslo Mayor

A Muslim environmentalist originally from Pakistan could become Oslo’s next mayor after his party became kingmaker in the Norwegian capital following local elections.

After winning five seats on Oslo city council in Monday’s election, the green party MDG holds the balance of power and says it will insist its candidate, Shoaib Sultan, be given the position of mayor in upcoming negotiations with the other parties.

“He would be a wonderful mayor for all of Oslo, he would be the most representative mayor the people of Oslo have ever known,” MDG party leader Rasmus Hansson, told NRK radio on Tuesday.

“The position of mayor is definitely part of the package to be negotiated,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Norway: Pakistan-Born Shoaib Sultan May Become Oslo Mayor

Shoaib Sultan, who is an environmentalist by profession and was originally born in Pakistan, is possibly going to become the mayor of Norwegian capital Oslo after his party earned five seats in Monday’s local body elections and would be playing key role in formation of ruling council.

Sultan’s green party MDG holds the balance of power and says it will insist its candidate, Shoaib Sultan, be given the position of mayor in upcoming negotiations with the other parties.

“He would be a wonderful mayor for all of Oslo, he would be the most representative mayor the people of Oslo have ever known,” MDG party leader Rasmus Hansson, told media persons on Tuesday.

Shoaib Sultan is a 41 years old energetic Muslim who remained secretary of the Islamic Council, an umbrella organisation representing Muslims in Norway. He also worker for an anti-racism centre for some time.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pope Says No Religion Immune From Fundamentalism

Fundamentalism ‘distance God from people’

(ANSA) — Vatican City, September 14 — Pope Francis warned Monday that no religion could consider itself safe from fundamentalist elements. “No religion is immune from its own fundamentalism, every confession has a group of fundamentalists, whose job is to destroy in the name of an idea, not reality,” Francis told Buenos Aires FM Mileniium 106.7, an Argentine protestant radio station. “Fundamentalists distance God from the company of His people, they transform him into an ideology. In the name of this ideology, they kill, destroy and defame”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Frederick Forsyth Drops Dark Hints About Sgt Blackman’s Court Martial

Author Frederick Forsyth, 77, raises the possibility that the Taliban fighter shot by Sergeant Alexander Blackman may well have been dead at the moment that the Marine fired at him.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Judge in ‘Corner Shop’ Race Row With Asian Crime Victim Finally Quits His £150,000 Post

A judge who allegedly made racist comments in court about an Asian victim of crime has been forced to resign in shame from his £150,000 a year post.

Judge Terence Hollingworth had asked lawyers to fetch Deepa Patel — the victim in a serious harassment case — so he could finish sentencing her ex-boyfriend.

But Rachel Parker, prosecuting, told the judge she was unsure whether Miss Patel would be able to attend court at such short notice due to work commitments.

However the district judge allegedly replied: ‘It won’t be a problem. She won’t be working anywhere important where she can’t get the time off. She’ll only be working in a shop or an off-licence.’

When Miss Parker asked the judge to clarify his comments, he added: ‘With a name like Patel, and her ethnic background, she won’t be working anywhere important where she can’t get the time off. So that’s what we’ll do.’

At this point Miss Parker withdrew from the case at Preston Magistrates’ Court and told the judge: ‘I am professionally embarrassed. I cannot prosecute this case.’

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Jeremy Corbyn Joins Battle of Britain Service But Refuses to Sing National Anthem

The new Labour leader, who has questioned the role of the Armed Forces and has campaigned to scrap the UK’s nuclear arsenal, also met David Cameron for the first time since his victory.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Workers in Poland Clear Trees From Site of Alleged Secret Tunnel Hiding Nazi Train

Forest workers are clearing trees and shrubs from a site in southwestern Poland under which two explorers claim there is a secret tunnel and a Nazi train, possibly containing armaments and precious minerals.

The two explorers claim they have located a hidden World War II tunnel with a Nazi armored train in it and local authorities in the city of Walbrzych take the information seriously.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Israel to Hold Emergency Meeting on Stone-Throwing

Netanyahu wants harsher sentences, jail for perpetrators

– TEL AVIV- Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu has called an ‘emergency meeting’ for Tuesday evening on the throwing of stones and incendiary bombs in Jerusalem and near it by Palestinians.

The meeting will be held after the Jewish New Year’s celebrations finish. Top-level ministers will take part including Defense Minister Moshè Yaalon. The decision was made immediately after the death on Monday morning of an Israeli due to injuries sustained in a car accident on Sunday evening that police believe was caused by stone-throwing. The accident in which a 50-year-old Palestinian died occurred in the Palestinian suburb Sur Baher in East Jerusalem. The man, returning from a family New Year’s Eve dinner, lost control of his care when the vehicle was hit by stones thrown by unknown individuals, say the police. Two others riding in the car were injured. Netanyahu’s office immediately announced that an “emergency meeting” would be held on “the war of throwing stones and incendiary bombs in Jerusalem and the vicinity”. His office noted that the prime minister “intends to counter the phenomenon using all possible means, including harsher punishments and prison sentences.” In addition to Yaalon, taking part will be Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Transport Minister Yisrael Katz, along with officials from the prosecutor’s office. At the beginning of September, Netanyahu ordered the army to revise the rules of engagement against Palestinians that throw stones or incendiary bombs at cars on Highway 443, which links Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and which runs through Palestinian territory in some sections. Israeli media report that there have been 96 of these types of accidents on the road in 2015 so far, compared with 119 in 2014.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Jerusalem: Third Day of Clashes on Temple Mount

Between Palestinians and Israeli police

Third day of clashes on Temple Mount in Jerusalem TEL AVIV — Clashes were registered on Temple Mount in Jerusalem between Palestinians and Israeli police for the third consecutive day — the second day of the Jewish New Year — police reports.

Young Palestinians inside the al-Aqsa mosque gathered stones and firecrackers and erected barricades to prevent its closure, according to police.

After stones were thrown against police, officers reportedly started dismantling the barricades closing the doors of the mosque with demonstrators inside.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Violence Enters Third Day at Jerusalem Holy Site

Israeli security forces have clashed with Palestinian protesters at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque. The international community has warned against a further escalation in hostilities.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Gazprom: Construction of Turkish Stream Pipeline Postponed

Deferred due to political crisis,it will start after elections

(ANSA) — ISTANBUL — The construction of the Turkish Stream pipeline, which would carry Russian gas to Europe through Turkey, has been postponed “due to the political crisis in Turkey”. The decision was announced by Deputy Director of Gazprom, Alexander Medvedev. The work should have begun in June, but Russia and Turkey have not yet signed the relevant intergovernmental agreement. The opening of Turkish Stream, which was expected in late 2016, has, therefore, been postponed “until a later date”, unspecified. Energy Minister in Moscow said he’s expecting the signing of the deal after early elections on November 1st in Turkey. According to the plan, the pipeline would carry 63 million cubic metres of gas per year from Russia to Turkey and Europe via the Black Sea.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Iran to Weave World’s Largest Carpet for Algiers Mosque

10,000 meters wide; current largest in Abu Dhabi also from Iran

(ANSAmed) — TEHRAN, SEPTEMBER 14 — Iran is set to produce the largest carpet in the world at over 10,000 square meters for the Grand Mosque under construction in Algiers, reports the IRNA news agency. Experts from the northeastern city of Neyshabour will be weaving the carpet, as local Iranian authorities suggested to the Algerian Islamic affairs ministry. The initiative has been authorized by the foreign ministry. Construction on the Grand Mosque began in 2012. It will be the third largest in the world after those in Mecca and Medina, with a 265-meter-high minaret, and will include a multimedia library, research center, Quranic school and 35,000-capacity prayer space. The current largest carpet in the world was also made in Iran and covers a 5,700-square-meter space in the Abu Dhabi mosque.

There are four pieces to it and it was woven by the Iran Carpet Company in 21 months. It took 1,200 weavers, 20 technicians and 30 designers to complete it, along with 30 tons of wool and 15 of cotton.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Islamic State’s Top Military Commander Was Trained by American Special Forces Units

by Robert Spencer

This article maintains that Abu Omar al Shishani was “radicalized” in a Saudi-funded mosque that challenged the moderate Islam that had hitherto prevailed in that region. Yet despite this supposedly prevailing moderation, its men gained a “reputation as crazy Islamic warriors.”

If this scenario is true, U.S. officials should think very carefully about the implications of the fact that there are hundreds of Saudi-funded mosques in the U.S. But they won’t.

And whether or not it is true that Abu Omar al Shishani was a “moderate” when he was trained by American special forces units, this story should make U.S. officials think carefully about the wisdom of such training, given that there is such a very fine line between “moderation” and “extremism.” But they won’t.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Kuwait: 7 Death Sentences for June Attack on Mosque

In which 27 Shiites were killed. Attack claimed by ISIS

Thousands of Kuwaitis attend the funeral for some of the victims killed in the suicide bombing on the Imam Sadiq Mosque in al-Sawaber in Kuwait City (archive photo)

ROME — Seven people were sentenced to death for the suicide attack in June against a Shiite mosque in which 27 people were killed and 200 others wounded, Kuna reports, cited by al Arabiya. Another eight defendants on trial for the attack were sentenced to jail terms ranging from two to 15 years. The attack was claimed by ISIS.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Has Documents on Iran’s Support of Al Qaeda, But He Won’t Release Them

You may not realize that, when U.S. Navy SEALs showed up at Osama bin Laden’s hideout for the purpose of putting a bullet in his brain, they also carried off a sizeable number of documents pertaining to Al Qaeda’s operations around the world, including information about which nations provide substantial support in the form of both financing and access to territory, training facilities and so on.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obscurity of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad — An Enigma

By Tehneer Qureshi, Physician

An “Object from Heaven”, “Star of the Paradise”,” The Black Stone” — such terms are used for Al Hajar Al Aswad.

It’s one of the most righteous and virtuous blessings by Allah with an overflowing source of bounty and munificence.

According to Islamic tradition, the stone was set intact into the Kaaba’s wall by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in the year 605 A.D., five years before his first revelation.

The Kaaba is a pre-Islamic shrine that was a sacred sanctuary and a site of pilgrimage of Semitic Nabateans who visited the shrine once a year to perform their pilgrimage.

It is commonly known as the Black Stone which is emplaced in the south eastern corner of Kaaba. Al-Hajar Al-Aswad is mounted with a wide, oval, silver frame so that the face exposed to view is about 20 x 16 cm.

Some Muslims are more willing to believe that the Stone itself has some supernatural powers. They believe that this stone fell from the sky during the time of Adam and Eve, and that it has the power to cleanse worshippers of their sins by absorbing them into itself.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Putin Sends Tanks to Syria: “Largest Deployment of Outside Russian Forces Since USSR Collapse”

Now that Syria is back in the news with the refugee crisis, Russia appears poised to raise another round of alarm bells about the prospect of wider war.

The pending deal with Iran could be broken at any time by all sides, including a preemptive nuclear strike by its enemies. The tensions over Syria — triangulated between Assad’ s forces, ISIS terrorists and Western-backed “rebels” — are equally likely to boil over, as the attempts to oust Assad have been stymied.

The attempts to condemn Assad in international public opinion have largely failed, as the accusations of a chemical weapons attack did not stick or even carry credible evidence. Likewise, Russia has stuck up for the Syrian regime, and vowed to oppose a Western agenda to overrun it without proper justification.

However, the announcement of tank shipments from Russia takes it to a whole new level. Via Fox News:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Putin Says Fighting Islamic State in Syria is Top Priority

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the fight against Islamic State should be the global community’s top priority in Syria, rather than changing the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

A broad coalition is needed to combat the threat posed by the terrorist group, which wants to spread its activities across Europe and Russia, Putin said on Tuesday at a security summit of ex-Soviet countries in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. It’s impossible to curb Islamic State without the Syrian army and Russia is backing President Assad’s government in fighting terrorism, including by providing military aid, he said.

“It’s necessary to think about the political transition in that country” and Assad is willing to “involve healthy opposition forces in the administration of the state,” Putin said. “But the focus today is definitely on the need to combine forces in the fight against terrorism.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Saudi Suspends Binladin Group Over Mecca Crane Crash: Royal Court

DUBAI (Reuters) — Saudi Arabia suspended major construction company Binladin group from new contracts following the Mecca crane crash that killed 107 people and ordered the finance ministry to review its existing projects, the royal court said on Monday.

King Salman also ordered that all members of the board and senior executives be prevented from traveling abroad after an investigation into last week’s incident showed the crane had been erected in a way that deviated from manufacturers instructions, causing it to crash in high wind.

Explaining the action, an official statement referred without elaborating to the responsibility and “shortcomings” of the company following an investigation into the crane crash that also injured 238 other people.

The king ordered that the Binladin group be prevented from entering into new bids or new projects, said the statement, carried by state news agency SPA. The suspension would remain in force until the investigation is complete and until all legal cases are settled.

BAI (Reuters) — Saudi Arabia suspended major construction company Binladin group from new contracts following the Mecca crane crash that killed 107 people and ordered the finance ministry to review its existing projects, the royal court said on Monday.

King Salman also ordered that all members of the board and senior executives be prevented from traveling abroad after an investigation into last week’s incident showed the crane had been erected in a way that deviated from manufacturers instructions, causing it to crash in high wind.

Explaining the action, an official statement referred without elaborating to the responsibility and “shortcomings” of the company following an investigation into the crane crash that also injured 238 other people.

The king ordered that the Binladin group be prevented from entering into new bids or new projects, said the statement, carried by state news agency SPA. The suspension would remain in force until the investigation is complete and until all legal cases are settled.

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

Syria Conflict: Russia ‘To Continue Assad Military Aid’

Russian President Vladimir Putin has pledged continued military support for Syria’s Bashar al-Assad despite growing concerns over Moscow’s role in the war.

Mr Putin urged other countries to join Russia in sending “military-technical assistance”.

He said the flow of refugees to Europe would have been “even bigger” without Russian support for Syria’s government.

The US and its Western allies oppose President Assad, and say that backing him risks prolonging the conflict.

But Moscow has been a key ally of Mr Assad during the bloody civil war, which began in 2011.

It says military equipment is being sent to Syria to help the government combat the so-called Islamic State.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK Jihadi ‘Mrs Terror’ Tweets Pride as ISIS Husband is Killed in Syria Drone Strike

EXCLUSIVE: Mother-of-two Sally Jones, 45, took to Twitter overnight to say she ‘will never love anyone’ other than computer hacker and foreign jihadi recruiter Junaid Hussain, 21.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Giant Frozen Virus Still Infectious After 30,000 Years

It’s 30,000 years old and still ticking: A giant virus recently discovered deep in the Siberian permafrost reveals that huge ancient viruses are much more diverse than scientists had ever known.

They’re also potentially infectious if thawed from their Siberian deep freeze, though they pose no danger to humans, said Chantal Abergel, a scientist at the National Center for Scientific Research at Aix-Marseille University in France and co-author of a new study announcing the discovery of the new virus. As the globe warms and the region thaws, mining and drilling will likely penetrate previously inaccessible areas, Abergel said.

“Safety precautions should be taken when moving that amount of frozen earth,” she told Live Science. (Though viruses can’t be said to be “alive,” the Siberian virus is functional and capable of infecting its host.)

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Kremlin Denies Putin Called Elton John

But Russian leader ready to discuss gay rights with singer

(ANSA) — Moscow, September 15 — The Kremlin on Tuesday denied Elton John’s claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin had called him following the British pop singer’s criticism of Moscow’s stance on gay rights. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, however, says Putin would be willing to discuss the rights of sexual minorities if Elton John requested a meeting.

Earlier on Tuesday Elton John thanked Putin on his Instagram account for “reaching out” with a phone call and said he looked forward to “meeting with you face-to-face to discuss LGBT equality in Russia”. The singer recently said Putin’s position on gay rights was “ridiculous” and asked to have a chat with him over a cup of tea.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Russia Reports ‘Very Powerful’ Hack of Kremlin

Russia’ s government said somebody launched a “very powerful” cyberattack on the nation’ s government, including a hit on the Kremlin’ s defense systems that slowed operations for a time.

Reuters said the attack targeted the election commission in Russia.

“Defense systems worked though it was not easy,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, the Hill reported. “The attack was rather strong.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Russian Authorities Find Google Guilty in Antitrust Probe

Russia’s antitrust authority said Monday it had found US Internet giant Google guilty of unfairly keeping rival services off mobile devices in a probe demanded by local search engine provider Yandex.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service deemed Google in breach of a law on “protecting competition” after an investigation launched in February following a complaint by Russia’s largest search engine, agency official Vladimir Kudryavtsev told Russian news wires.

Google could face a fine of up to 15 percent of the income it has made from the sector in Russsia over the past year…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Why Southeast Asia’s Haze Problem Persists

Smog-belching forest fires in Indonesia have raised air pollution levels across Southeast Asia, leaving tens of thousands of people ill and prompting disruption to air travel. But what is fueling the fires? DW examines.

As thick haze from forest and bush fires worsen air quality across northern Indonesia, neighboring Singapore and parts of Malaysia, Indonesia has declared a state of emergency in Sumatra’s Riau province. Authorities said on September 14 that pollution levels had become “dangerously” high in the provincial capital where over 25,000 people are believed to have been affected.

Health posts have been set up to treat those suffering respiratory problems and the government has deployed an additional 1,600 military personnel to fight the fires. The deteriorating air quality has also led to the closing of schools in several Malaysian states, the cancelation of some flights due to poor visibility, and “very unhealthy” air pollution levels in Singapore as the city-state prepares to host this weekend’s annual Formula One night race.

The authorities in the affected countries have also advised people to wear face masks outdoors and limit unnecessary outdoor activity.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China Reportedly Compiling ‘Facebook’ of U.S. Government Employees

A private industry IT security firm tells Fox News that personal data stolen over the span of several high-profile U.S. cyber breaches is being indexed by China’s intelligence service into a massive Facebook-like network.

According to CrowdStrike founder Dmitri Alperovitch, Chinese hackers are using information gained from the breaches of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, as well as intrusions into the Anthem and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield health insurance networks, to build a complete profile of federal employees in what the company calls a “Facebook of Everything.”

“That can now be used to embarrass you publicly and force you to work for the Chinese government,” Alperovitch told Fox News. “It’s, in effect, a private version of Facebook with much more detail about your life than even Facebook has that the Chinese now have access to.” Current and former intelligence officials echoed the assessment.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

North Korea Threatens U.S. With Nuke Attack

North Korean authorities sent out a barely-veiled threat against America, threatening to launch a nuclear attack “if the U.S. and other hostile forces” fail to put a halt to “hostile” foreign policy, various media reported Tuesday.

The regime said it’ s been working studiously to improve the “quality and quantity” of its nuclear weapons, and wouldn’ t hesitate to launch them against the United States “any time,” Reuters reported.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

North Korea Says it Has Restarted Nuclear Fuel Production Plants in Warning to US

North Korea announced Tuesday it has upgraded and restarted all of its atomic bomb fuel production plants in a warning to the U.S. weeks after a standoff with South Korea.

The declaration by North Korea’s state media agency claimed that the country’s main nuclear facility at Yongbyon, in the country’s northwest, was “in full operation.” An official quoted by the state news agency KNCA said North Korea’s nuclear weapons are being improved in “quantity and quality.” The complex had been shut down in 2007, but officials vowed to restart it after conducting North Korea’s third nuclear test in 2013.

The threats could deepen a standoff between North Korea and the U.S. and its allies over fears the country’s nuclear tests could bring it closer to its stated goal of an arsenal of nuclear-tipped long-range missiles that can hit the U.S. mainland.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Staking Its Claim: Beijing Building Third Airstrip 3,000 Metres Long in Contested South China Sea, Expert Claims

China appears to be building a third airstrip in contested territory in the South China Sea, a US expert said on Monday, citing satellite photographs taken last week.

The photographs reportedly taken for Washington’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank on September 8 show construction on Mischief Reef, one of several artificial islands China has created in the Spratly archipelago.

The images show a rectangular area with a retaining wall, 3,000 meters long, matching similar work by China on two other reefs, Subi and Fiery Cross, said Greg Poling, director of CSIS’s Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI).

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Mapping How Tor’s Anonymity Network Spread Around the World

Online privacy projects come and go. But as the anonymity software Tor approaches its tenth year online, it’s grown into a powerful, deeply-rooted privacy network overlaid across the internet. And a new real-time map of that network illustrates just how widespread and global that network has become.

On Friday, freelance Sydney-based coder Luke Millanta launched Onionview, a web-based project that counts and tracks the geographic location of Tor nodes, the volunteer computers that bounce encrypted traffic around the web to offer Tor users anonymity. His goal, in part, was to show the network’s scale and how much it’s grown. “People think that Tor is 10 people running computers in their basements,” Millanta says. “When people see the map, they say ‘Holy s***. That’s what 6,000 nodes around the world looks like.’“

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Report Says Kenyan Police Kill, Torture Suspected Islamic Extremists

NAIROBI, Kenya — A new report by a Kenyan rights organization accuses the country’s security forces of carrying our extra-judicial killings, torture and forced disappearances of suspected extremists.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights report said it has discovered at least 25 extra-judicial killings and 81 forced disappearances blamed on Kenyan police.

The report cites water boarding, electric shocks, genital mutilation, exposure to extreme cold or heat, hanging on trees, mock executions and exposure to stinging by ants in the wild as some of the torture methods used by the police.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Russia Says it Opposes Sanctions Sought by the US on Rival Generals in South Sudan Conflict

Russia says it opposes new United Nations sanctions sought by the U.S. against a South Sudan army chief and a former army general who is now a rebel commander for continuing to fuel conflict in the world’s newest nation.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Zimbabwe President Mugabe Repeats 25-Minute Speech in Parliament by Mistake

Opening a new session of parliament, Zimbabwe’s President repeated the whole text of a 25-minute speech he had already used last month. Opposition lawmakers have called on the 91-year-old to retire.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe Reads Wrong Speech

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has read out the wrong speech at the opening of parliament.

He gave the same one during his state-of-the-nation address on 25 August, when he was heckled by opposition MPs.

His spokesman told the state-run Herald paper the error was because of a mix-up in the president’s secretarial office.

Before the 91-year-old president spoke, the parliamentary speaker also warned against disrupting proceedings.

After Mr Mugabe began speaking, it was not long before it dawned on those present that they had heard it all before, our reporter says.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pope Meeting Fidel Castro ‘Very Likely’

‘Have to see how to do it’ says Lombardi

(ANSA) — Vatican City, September 15 — A meeting between Pope Francis and Fidel Castro in Cuba is “very likely” during the pontiff’s day in Havana later this month, Vatican Spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said Tuesday. “For now it’s not on the agenda but it’s possible, We’ll have to see when and how to do it”, he said.

Father Lombardi said President Raoul Castro had voiced the hope during Raoul’s visit to the Vatican earlier this year that Francis would meet his elder brother — a wish Lombardi described as “quite normal”. The pope will visit Cuba from September 19 to 22 and then the United States from September 22 to 27.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

13,000 Migrants in Italy in August — Frontex

Half August 2014, majority Eritreans

(ANSA) — Brussels, September 15 — Some 13,000 migrants 13mila arrived in Italy in August, about half the number that came in the same month last year, EU border agency Frontex said Tuesday.

It said the majority were Eritreans, as well as from sub-Saharan countries travelling through Libya. More migrants have taken the eastern route through Greece lately because of the dangers of crossing the Mediterranean from Africa to Italy.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Austria to Impose Checks at Italian Border, Elsewhere

In response to the refugee crisis

(ANSA) — Berlin, September 15 — Austria is to reintroduce checks at its borders with Italy, Hungary, Slovenia and Slovakia in response to the refugee crisis, according to a letter that the Austrian interior ministry has sent to the European Commission, the APA agency reported on Tuesday.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Belgrade: We Will Not Accept Refugees From Hungary

Those that didn’t pass border can go back to reception centers

(ANSA-AP) — BELGRADE — Serbia’s minister for migration, Aleksandar Vulin, said his country wouldn’t accept the return of any asylum seekers once they reached Hungary. “They are no longer our problem,” Vulin said. Large-scale deportations appear unlikely even in Hungary, where within minutes of the nationally televised closure of that border crossing with the boxcar, hundreds already had walked a few kilometers (miles) to a previously little-used road checkpoint, one of seven vehicular crossings with Serbia that will remain open.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Coming to Grips With Mass Immigration Invading — What to Do?

As you read in Part 1 of this commentary, one of the business editors at the Star Tribune, Lee Schafer, wrote a glowing commentary on the wonderful positives that immigrants bring into the Minneapolis-St. Paul Minnesota region. Most editors write politically correct, soothing commentaries about the benefits of immigration across this country. None of them deal with the realities: massive welfare, linguistic chaos, cultural clashes, food stamps, crime, rapes, honor killings, female genital mutilation, job losses for our own citizens, cultural ghettos, school disruption and religious conflicts.

Minnesota citizen Dell Erickson wrote a brilliant rebuttal that the Star Tribune will never publish. I interviewed Erickson for his take on how to solve the immigration crisis facing America.

“Again, the article ignores Obama’s actions,” said Erickson. “This administration has given sanctuary cities rights to ignore ICE requests by terminating the Secure Communities program. Obama replaced it with the Priority Enforcement Program. Hopefully a President Trump or any citizen-promoting president will correct this travesty.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Eastern Europe: Citizens Rally Against Muslim Migrant Invasion

Eastern Europeans seem to be a little more realistic about diversity and liberal ideology. Perhaps communism and proximity to Islam, as in the Balkans, have played a part in that attitude. Plus, Eastern Europe is poor, and can’t afford thousands of illegal immigrants passing through.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Facebook Map With Alternative Routes for Migrants

Group ‘Avoid Hungary-Migration news’ suggest to go to Croatia

(ANSA) — BELGRADE — After Hungary’s decision to close the border with Serbia a group on Facebook, calling itself ‘Avoid Hungary — Migration News’, has developed a map with alternative routes that, printed on leaflets, are distributed to migrants already at the border between Greece and Macedonia.

On the map are shown some alternative routes to avoid Hungary and one of them indicates the territory of Croatia, more precisely the region of Slavonia, on the border with Serbia.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Frontex, Over 500,000 Migrants in First 8 Months 2015

Over 500,000 migrants have been registered at the European Union’s borders in the first eight months of this year, 156,000 in the month of August alone, according to Frontex, the European agency for the management and operational coordination of external borders of the EU. Overall, 280,000 were registered in 2014.

Since the beginning of the year 106,000 migrants have been rescued in the central Mediterranean, 6% less from the same period last year. Most rescue operations took place closer to the Libyan coast than EU maritime borders, Frontex said.

Some 13,000 migrants arrived in Italy in August, about half of those who reached the country in August last year. Most of them were Eritreans and migrants from other sub-Saharan countries who were travelling from Libya, Frontex said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: Bundesliga to Wear Shirts Welcoming Refugees

All 36 teams in Germany’s top two leagues will wear “We’re helping! #refugeeswelcome” logos on their shirts in this weekend’s fixtures to encourage fans to help amidst Europe’s immigration crisis.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany & Austria Close Borders — Schengen Agreement Under Pressure — Will War Emerge?

The Schengen Agreement was to be the cornerstone of the entire euro proposition.

We just warned that this freedom of movement would begin to come under pressure with this turning point:”As the economy turns down very hard after 2015.75, we are more likely than not going to see the freedom of movement in Europe fragment and that will be the crack that signals the eventual risk of breaking up the EU idea of empire-building.”

Germany has closed its borders with Austria and in turn Austria has now closed its border with Hungary. We are starting to witness the turn. Obama praised Merkel for accepting so many refugees, but after Merkel boasted that there was no limit to the number of refugees Germany would accept, it set in motion a huge migrant crisis. All public buildings and stadiums are full. Germany cannot handle any more refugees and these people have to be fed. Besides that, the winter will be harsh and many could die from exposure. This is going to be a real crisis.

[Comment: In a stable Syria, there was never a mass population exodus. Western support of ISIS (aka “moderates”) has created this situation.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: Countries That Refuse Refugees Could Lose Funds

Minister, discussions needed how to extert pressure

(ANSA-AP) — BUDAPEST — Germany’s interior minister is backing the idea of cutting European Union funding to countries that refuse to share the burden of hosting refugees.

Several EU countries, particularly in the former Eastern bloc, have rejected calls from Germany and the EU’s executive Commission for mandatory quotas to spread refugees out among the 28-nation bloc.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Tuesday there needs to be discussion of how to exert pressure. He told ZDF television that the countries rejecting quotas often receive significant amounts of EU funding.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Hungary: New ‘Anti-Migrant’ Barrier at Border With Romania

Media, it was announced by Minister of Foreign Affairs

(ANSA) — ROME — The Hungarian government is planning to extend the “anti-migrant” barrier also on the border with Romania, in addition to the existing one to the Serbian border, and intends to start the preparatory works, Minister Peter Szijjarto announced at a press conference, as quoted by various media.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Hungary to Build Anti-Immigrant Fence on Romanian Border

Hungary has announced that it will build a fence on part of its border with Romania. The move comes as Budapest sealed its Serbian border in response to the refugee crisis sweeping across Europe.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Hungary Declares Emergency, Detains Refugees and Seals Border as Crisis Intensifies

Hungarian authorities say they’ve declared a state of emergency, detained 60 refugees attempting to illegally enter the country and sealed Hungary’s southern border with Serbia.

Hungary’s foreign minister says his country is also planning to build a razor-wire fence along part of its border with Romania to stop the flow of migrants through the country.

The state of emergency gives special powers to police and other authorities while paving the way for the country’s army to be deployed to assist police with border patrol and refugee-related duties.

The measures come as a set of new laws took effect to stop the huge flow of migrants through the country.Despite the laws, hundreds of refugees spent Monday night in tents or out in the open on the Serbian side of the border.

Figures showed that a record 7,437 people entered Hungary from Serbia on Monday, beating the previous day’s highest of 5,809.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Islamic State Jihadis ‘May be Posing as Syrian Refugees’

Lebanese government minister claims as many as 2 per cent — one in 50 — of refugees could be “radicals” entering Europe hoping to carry out terror attacks

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant could be sending jihadis out of Syria posing as refugees, a Lebanese government minister has warned.

Education minister Elias Bou Saab suggested that as many as 2 per cent — one in 50 — of the refugees could be “radicals”, which he said would be “more than enough” to cause problems.

Mr Saab spoke to journalists travelling with David Cameron on a visit to Lebanon and Jordan, during which the Prime Minister highlighted Britain’s contribution of more than £1 billion to support refugee camps for displaced Syrians to stay in the region.

The minister conceded that he had no firm information on terrorist infiltration of refugees, but said his “gut feeling” told him it was happening.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Islamic Extremists ‘Trying to Recruit Syrian Refugees in Germany’

Islamic extremists in Germany are trying to recruit Syrian refugees to their cause, the country’s domestic security service has said.

The warning came as one of Germany’s best known Islamist preachers published a list of suggestions for his followers on how best to approach refugees.

Pierre Vogel, a former boxer and convert to Islam who has been described as “Germany’s most influential Salafist preacher”, a puritan branch of Sunni Islam, called on his followers to seek out new recruits at government refugee shelters.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Foreign Kids Should be Capped in Schools

Comments on primary school with two classes of foreigners

(ANSA) — Rome, September 14 — The number of foreign children in Italian schools should be capped, anti-immigrant Northern League leader Matteo Salvini said Monday. Commenting on a primary school in Brescia with two classes solely made up of foreigners, he said “it’s not a good school without a cap on kids of other nationalities”, to spur integration. “They (foreign kids) have to be with Italians, otherwise there’s no integration,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Migrant Dinghies Available on-Line for Less Than 1,000 Euros

Manufacturers know what they are for, Oggi report says

(ANSA) — Rome, September 15 — The flimsy dinghies used by people smugglers to transport migrants and refugees to Italy and Greece can be purchased on-line for just a few hundred euros according to an investigation published by Italian weekly Oggi Tuesday.

To buy a dinghy “it is sufficient to log onto a Chinese e-commerce platform such as Alibaba.com,” the report said.

“A 10-m boat can cost less than 1,000 euros and is delivered in 10 days”. A salesman told the reporter the dinghies could be sent to Tunisia and that the minimum order was for five.

“The model measuring 10m costs 1,260 dollars and if you opt for a thinner PVC you can save money,” he is quoted as saying.

The people smugglers now prefer such vessels because they can be easily concealed pending use and are easy and cheap to procure, the magazine said. “The material is of very poor quality, the structure extremely weak and the gluing approximate,” said Italian dinghy manufacturer Umberto Capelli.

“This is why they sink so often,” he added.

“The manufacturers know what they are for, because for all other purposes they are useless,” Capelli said.

On Tuesday the International Organisation for Migration said 2,812 migrants and refugees were known to have drowned since the start of this year while attempting the sea crossing from north Africa or Turkey in search of safety or a better life in Europe. Passengers typically pay hundreds of dollars per head for the passage.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Leftists Clash With Right-Wing Anti-Refugee Protesters in Leipzig

Amid the refugee crisis, violence at the most recent LEGIDA rally in Leipzig has sparked media interest in Germany. DW spoke to Marcel Nowicki, co-founder of the counter movement “NO LEGIDA.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Merkel Demands Refugee Hotposts in Italy, Greece

‘We must get moving’ says Italy FM

(ANSA) — Rome, September 15 — German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday that “it is urgent that Greece, and Italy too, set up the hotspots immediately”. She said that “otherwise there can’t be a fair distribution of migrants”.

Merkel also called for an extraordinary EU summit on refugees next week after Eastern European hawks blocked a deal between EU interior ministers to redistribute 120,000 migrants across the Union

Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Tuesday he was disappointed by the outcome of Monday’s EU meeting on migrants. “Unfortunately the decisions were frozen,” he said. “I can’t hide a certain concern: the rate at which this issue is evolving tends not to coincide with the rate of European decisions, which is a problem,” Gentiloni went on. “We have to get moving” or there may be repercussions on the Schengen border-free accords and the “re-emergence of frontiers and barriers” that are incompatible with the “European project”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Migrants: Avramopoulos ‘Very Disappointed’ By EU Summit

‘Some countries have national perspective’. Let’s move forward

EU Commissioner for Immigration Dimitris Avramopoulos attends a European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on migration flows in the Mediterranean, in Brussels

BRUSSELS — EU Commissioner for Immigration Dimitris Avramopoulos told the European Parliament on Tuesday that he left an EU home affairs council last night feeling “very disappointed”. “I was expecting much more support from everyone”, he said. “There are countries that have more of a national perspective than a European one, but we will move forward”.

“We did not reach the agreement we would have wanted, but we tried. We worked very hard”, added Avramopoulos. The EU executive member said that the migrant and refugee crisis is a “crash test” for Europe’s values. “If we were to fail, all of Europe will fail. We cannot afford it”, he said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Migrants: Yarmuk Pianist Also Flees, Now in Turkey

He comforted residents of besieged camp with music

BEIRUT — In the end he also fled Yarmuk: Ayham Ahmad, the Palestinian pianist who remained in the besieged refugee camp of Damascus to comfort those who were trapped with him through his music is travelling to Europe through Turkey and Greece, according to his Facebook profile.

The young activist, who is married and has two children, wrote about it in his “Diary of a sea traveler”, updating his friends about his own difficulties and those of many other migrants.

Over the past few months, his story had been reported when Islamic State jihadists, in part present in Yarmuk, had set his piano on fire. He had fled with his family to a nearby district of the capital. He subsequently decided to leave Syria through migrant smugglers.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Migrant Crisis: Hungary’s Closed Border Leaves Many Stranded

Hundreds of migrants are stranded at the Serbia-Hungary border after the Hungarian government closed the frontier with a new razor-wire fence.

The move aims to stop migrants who are trying to enter the EU.

After new Hungarian laws came into effect overnight, police sealed a railway crossing point that had been used by tens of thousands of migrants.

Some have been searching for a way through the fence, while others threw down food and water in protest.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has suggested his country is planning to build a fence to keep migrants out along part of its border with Romania — a fellow EU member — to prevent the bypassing of the current frontier.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Migrant Crisis Undermines Long Time EU Border Agreement

Germany’s decision to reimpose border controls, has created a domino effect with other E.U countries doing the same as the crisis worsens. The 1995 Schengen agreement had guaranteed passport and visa-free travel as well as no border checks within the EU, but with hundreds of thousands of mostly Syrian migrants at the gates, one of the main pillars of Europe’s political and economic union is crumbling.

Playing into Germany’s decision is the security threat posed by the migrants. Lebanese Education Minister Elias Bousaab recently told British Prime Minister David Cameron during the latter’s visit to refugee camps in the Levant that ‘2 out of a 100 migrants’ may be Islamic State infiltrators. Lebanon, a small country with a population of a little over 5 million, has taken in close to a million Syrians. Lebanon has been a prominent IS target, giving Mr. Boussab additional credibility.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Poland Vetoes European Commission Refugee Plan

Poland was among several central and eastern European countries to veto a European Commission emergency plan in Brussels on Monday to relocate 120,000 refugees.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Refugee Crises at Dangerous Tipping Point as Hungary Deploys Army, Germany Loses Patience

“I’m not happy. I had to leave Syria — I love Syria, but so much killing there.”

That’s from 17-year old Mohammed Al-Hamdan who made it across the Hungarian border with Serbia at a railroad crossing near the village of Roszke before it was closed on Tuesday. As NBC reports, “just before Hungarian police closed the railroad crossing, a Syrian family ran down the tracks trying to make it through, the patriarch screaming to his wife and small children, ‘Yallah, yallah!’ — Arabic for ‘Let’s go!’“ Before closing the “popular” passage, Hungary had reportedly begun hauling migrants on to trains and shipping them straight to the Austrian border. “The situation is that after crossing the border these people have arrived at the collection point in Roszke, where there is no official procedure, people are just being collected. Earlier these people were being taken to the registration points … this is not happening now, but rather, buses are taking people from the collection point to the Roszke train station according to our information,” a UNHCR spokesman told Reuters.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Satirical French Journal Charlie Hebdo Under Fire for Migrant Cartoon

Charlie Hebdo has drawn criticism for its cartoons. One shows a dead migrant child in the sand in front of an advertising billboard and another has the slogan ‘Muslim children sink.’

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Surge of Refugees to Europe Raises Concern Over Whether Militants Are Among Them

When Islamic State extremists lost control of a key crossroads town in northern Syria in June, some militants shed their jihadi garb and blended in with the flood of Syrians fleeing across the Turkish border. Since then, the exodus of Syrians and Iraqis toward Europe has surged — and Europeans opposed to taking in more refugees say that more than ever, they fear “disguised terrorists” in their midst.

Governments along the route have different assessments of the threat. Two senior Iraqi officials and a Syrian activist say a small group of hardened Islamic State extremists is believed to have left the war zones of Iraq and Syria to blend in with the masses of asylum seekers in recent weeks.

Intelligence officials in France and Germany expressed skepticism, saying they have no specific evidence.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden to Borrow Money to Cover Cost of Immigration

The Swedish Minister for Finance, Magdalena Andersson, now considers borrowing large amounts of money from the European Investment Bank to increase immigration to Sweden.

Although the government over the summer has raised a wide range of taxes, apparently there’s still not enough money to support all the migrants from the third-world flowing into Sweden.

Therefore, Andersson is considering to borrow money from EIB.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Lapland Border Checks Amid EU Quota Row

Sweden has called for member states to let the EU “exercise its political leadership”, while Finland has announced it’s increasing checks at the Lapland border between the two nations.

Finland announced it would increase checks at its Lapland border with Sweden after growing numbers of asylum seekers crossed into its territory from Sweden’s far north in recent weeks.

The country’s interior minister Petteri Orpo described the refugee situation in the region as “out of control”.

However he said that Finland was not currently planning to re-instigate full border checks.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden Deploys an Army… of Bureaucrats to Sign Up Migrants to State Welfare

by Oliver Lane

STOCKHOLM, Sweden — The Swedish migration bureau has deployed a welcoming committee on the platforms of the capital’s central railway station to help sign up migrants to benefits as soon as they arrive.

Officers from the controversial Migrationsverket government body, from Stockholm City Council, the police, and humanitarian charities all line the most remote platform of the vast underground station that serves Stockholm. Usually open to long distance trains, the platform is now cut off from the public and is used to receive migrants who have taken the train from Malmo, the southern city that is the main point of ingress to the country from mainland Europe.

Despite having travelled by foot, bus, and train through Europe many of the so-called refugees arriving in Stockholm have never been registered, and Migrationsverket officers are standing by with clipboards to make the process as painless as possible.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Trump: U.S. ‘Dumping Ground’ of World

Donald Trump rocked a Texas crowd of presidential supporters, telling the thousands who gathered that the United States has become a “dumping ground” for the rest of the world’ s undesirables.

While decrying “anchor babies” and gang members who enter the country illegally, Trump spoke of America’ s “suffering,” the Associated Press reported.

“You people are suffering,” he said. “I’ m in New York, but they’ re in New York, too. They’ re all over the place. It’ s disgusting what’ s happening to our country.”

Trump’ s resonating theme in his weeks of campaigning has been immigration and the need for America to slow the tide of illegals entering the country. And it’ s a theme he furthered in Texas, to much applause.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Why Merkel Changed Her Mind

BERLIN — Angela Merkel’s abrupt decision to reinstate controls on Germany’s border with Austria followed a hectic weekend during which the chancellor faced intense pressure from state and local officials expected to house and feed the growing wave of asylum seekers heading to the country.

Their message to the German leader: genug, enough.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Don’t Have Sex With Robots, Say Ethicists

Robot ethicists have launched the Campaign Against Sex Robots, seeking a ban on the development of robotic sexytimes.

The reality of pleasure bots is fast approaching. Mechanical toys for sexual pleasure already exist, of course, and hardware developers are working to incorporate A.I. into their designs. A company called True Companion claims to be producing “the world’s first sex robot,” Roxxxy, this year. Despite questions of technical readiness and ethics, Roxxxy, priced at $7000, has thousands of pre-orders.

Robot ethicists Kathleen Richardson of De Montfort University and Erik Billing from University of Skövde are the co-creators of the Campaign Against Sex Robots, which seeks to bring awareness to the issue and proposes a robot sex ban. They compare it to similar campaigns that seek to limit development of “killer” robots. Richardson and Billing believe that sex robots will degrade human relationships and reinforce a view of women as sexual objects.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Why the Pope is Wrong on So Many Levels

Francis is a Marxist.

This is an odd thing, when you stop to think about it a little. Pope Francis is a spiritual leader, a man who has spent his life studying the Bible, not chemistry, or atmospheric science. For him to pontificate about “climate change” is as inappropriate — as silly — as a politician pontificating about eschatology.

This is not just a “pope problem,” either.

Many of the people urging radical steps to deal with purported “climate change” are, like the pope, not scientific experts in the relevant field. Many are layman. Often, laymen with political power — like President Obama.

It is telling that the language had to be altered to suit the inconvenient truths. It was not all that long ago these “experts” were sounding the alarm bells about an impending ice age and “global cooling.”

A planetary deep freeze.

A heat wave during the ‘90s made this idea seem preposterous.

Enter “global warming.”

But then the same problem arose — only in reverse. The weather began to moderate. Cold winters returned with a vengeance to much of North America, for instance. It became hard to sell global warming when much of the country was experiencing a deep freeze, as during the winters of 2013 and 2014.

A new — more flexible — catchphrase was urgently needed.

Enter “climate change.”

Since the climate constantly changes, no more worries about explaining away hot summers — or cold winters. Anything could be attributed to “climate change.”

This is telling.

We are dealing with a political thing, not a scientific thing.

As Orwell observed, “political language is designed to make lies sound truthful… and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Hunt for Gravitational Waves to Resume After Massive Upgrade

LIGO experiment now has better chance of detecting ripples in space-time.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Magma Oceans on Jupiter’s Moon Io May Solve Volcano Mystery

Something strange is happening on Io: The Jupiter moon’s vigorous volcanoes are mysteriously offset from where scientists expected, and its underground magma oceans may be the cause.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

When Creepy Ancient Fossils Become Awesome Robots

The 14 legged spiny worm known as Hallucigenia sparsa, an animal that lived around 530 million years ago. It lived on the bottom of the ocean on legs more like tentacles than crab legs. The spines were initially thought to be its main form of locomotion until a 1992 fossil find set the record straight. The area now believed to be the head (which was once thought to be a tail) had a series of tiny tentacles that may have aided it in … something.

The Halluc IIx is a concept bot for a concept car to test out differing modes of locomotion for futuristic vehicles. Intended as an all-terrain vehicle, it could be utilized in bots for search and rescue efforts, or possibly used as some kind of space probe. Or it can just be our way of honoring one the weirdest creatures on the tree of life.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]