A Syrian refugee in Germany has died after consuming a poisonous mushroom. It is thought that he confused the fungus with an edible species of similar appearance that grows wild in his native region.
In other migration news, with winter on the way, Finland is doing its part to help the migrants by sending special large cold-weather tents to Hungary. Meanwhile, the Greek coast guard rescued 144 more migrants in the Aegean.
In other news, a recent study concluded that Afrophobic hate crimes are on the rise in Sweden.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Nick, RRN, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
‘False’ That Italy Recovery Due to External Factors — Renzi
Structural reforms have helped boost economy says PM
(ANSA) — Rome, September 21 — It is “a lie” that Italy’s economic recovery is due to external factors like cheap oil, the historically low euro and QE, Premier Matteo Renzi said Monday.
He said structural reforms had helped push the recovery and noted that Italy topped EU countries for exports in July.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Camusso Rebuts Padoan on Pensions and Life Expectancy
‘Different for an investment banker than a steelworker’
(ANSA) — Milan, September 21 — CGIL trade union chief Susanna Camusso on Monday rebutted remarks made on pension reform by Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan.
Padoan told La Repubblica newspaper in an interview Saturday that “pensions must be linked to length of time on the job and life expectancy”.
However reforming pensions based on revised life expectancy figures doesn’t account for differences between white- and blue-collar jobs, Camusso said.
“If life expectancy is the sole criteria…then let’s calculate it based on lines of work, and we will find there are profound differences between an investment banker and a steelworker,” she said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain’s Economic Recovery Masks Lingering Jobs Crisis
Data shows Spain’s economy recovering, but tell that to Javier Pichel: this summer he packed and left for the only place he could find a decent job — Germany.
Millions of Spaniards are scraping by on benefits, family handouts or working cash-in-hand as they wait for the apparent economic rebound to create the hundreds of thousands of jobs the government is promising.
Experts say that these jobs are being created — but that the problem is many of them only last a few days.
Since leaving school, 22-year-old Pichel from the northwestern Galicia region has racked up training certificates in finance and business, but has received no decent job offers in Spain…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
3D Computer Chips Could be 1,000 Times Faster Than Existing Ones
A new method of designing and building computer chips could lead to blisteringly quick processing at least 1,000 times faster than the best existing chips are capable of, researchers say.
The new method, which relies on materials called carbon nanotubes, allows scientists to build the chip in three dimensions.
The 3D design enables scientists to interweave memory, which stores data, and the number-crunching processors in the same tiny space, said Max Shulaker, one of the designers of the chip, and a doctoral candidate in electrical engineering at Stanford University in California.
According to Moore’s law, a rough rule first articulated by semiconductor researcher Gordon E. Moore in 1965, the number of transistors on a given silicon chip would roughly double every two years. True to his predictions, transistors have gotten ever tinier, with the teensiest portions measuring just 5 nanometers, and the smallest functional ones having features just 7 nanometers in size. (For comparison, an average strand of human hair is about 100,000 nanometers wide.)
The decrease in size, however, means that the quantum effects of particles at that scale could disrupt their functioning. Therefore, it’s likely that Moore’s law will be coming to an end within the next 10 years, experts say. Beyond that, shrinking transistors to the bitter end may not do much to make computers faster.
The main roadblock to faster computers is not flagging processor speed, but a memory problem, Shulaker said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Atheist Dawkins Calls Out Muslim Clock-Boy ‘Hoax’
Richard Dawkins, ever the skeptic, isn’t buying the official “clock” tale told by Muslim high school student Ahmed Mohamed.
The famous atheist went on Twitter on Sunday and shared a video by electronics expert Thomas Talbot, who demonstrated the fraudulent nature of the ninth-grade MacArthur High School student’s claims. The young man was temporarily detained by law enforcement personnel Sept. 14 and then suspended when school officials thought he created a homemade bomb.
Mohamed insists he invented a clock, but evidence indicates he may have taken parts from an existing clock and placed them inside a suitcase.
“All he did was remove the plastic case from the alarm clock. This is not an invention. This is not something that someone built or even assembled,” Talbot said in his video, WND reported Sunday.
“If this is true, what was his motive?” asked Dawkins on Twitter. “Whether or not he wanted the police to arrest him, they shouldn’t have done so. If the reassembled components did something more than the original clock, that’s creative. If not, it looks like hoax.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
AWS Outage Knocks Amazon, Netflix, Tinder and IMDb in Mega Data Collapse
Amazon’s Web Services (AWS) have suffered a monster outage affecting the company’s cloudy systems, bringing some sites down with it in the process.
The service disruption hit AWS customers including Netflix, Tinder and IMDb, as well as Amazon’s Instant Video and Books websites.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Former Peanut Exec Gets 28 Years in Prison for Salmonella Outbreak
A former peanut company executive was sentenced Monday to 28 years in prison for his role in a deadly salmonella outbreak, the stiffest punishment ever handed out to a producer in a foodborne illness case.
The outbreak in 2008 and 2009 was blamed for nine deaths and sickened hundreds more, and triggered one of the largest food recalls in U.S. history.
Before he was sentenced, former Peanut Corporation of America owner Stewart Parnell listened as nine victims testified about the terror and grief caused by tainted peanut butter traced to the company’s plant in southwest Georgia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Half of Americans Believe Federal Government to be “An Immediate Threat” To Freedom
A new Gallup poll reveals that half of all Americans view the federal government as “an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens.”
The figure represents a significant rise on findings from 2003, when the question was first asked. Back then, just 12 years ago, less than a third of Americans viewed the government as a significant threat to their rights.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Republican Scott Walker to Drop Out of 2016 US Presidential Election Race
Republican Governor Scott Walker is dropping out of the 2016 US presidential race, according to media reports. He is the second Republican to quit after former Texas Governor Rick Perry pulled out earlier this month.
Despite once being considered a favorite for the 2016 nomination, Walker saw dwindling support in recent polls, due in part to the success of billionaire businessman Donald Trump.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sources Say Apple Car on the Way in 2019
Apple will take mobility to the next level in 2019 when in launches its long-rumored electric car.
Sources familiar with the plan tell The Wall Street Journal that the tech giant has committed to the product and will soon triple the staff of its Project Titan, which has been investigating it for several years.
The company already has a foothold in the automotive business, with several automakers now offering its Apple CarPlay, which integrates iPhone functionality with a vehicle’s infotainment system, but has been secretly developing an electric car, according to insiders.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Summer of Bloodshed as US Murder Rates Rise
Dre, who turns 15 this month, has been unable to walk or talk since he was shot in the head, his plight a sad example of the toll taken by worsening US gun violence.
Deandra Yates, Dre’s mother, felt her world collapse in February 2014 when an unidentified youth — aged 17 or 18, she says — fired 22 shots into a birthday party her son was attending.
“They told me he would die or he’d be a vegetable but that’s not true,” she told AFP, reaching into her handbag for a photo of her son at a rehab center…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Techie Finds 1.5 MEELLION US Medical Records Exposed on AWS
The private health records and private contact information of as many as 1.5 million Americans have been posted to Amazon’s cloud services.
It has been claimed that the names, addresses, and phone numbers, along with biological health information including existing illnesses and current medications, were posted in the clear to Amazon servers by insurers using Systema Software.
It is unknown how the information was uploaded, while the number of affected patients remained unconfirmed at time of publication.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Curious Case of Ahmed’s Clock Part II
A few electronic gurus and experts have been taking a closer look at Ahmed’s “invention.” Some of their conclusions regarding Mohamed’s clock are very revealing, and shed a lot of light on what Ahmed Mohamed allegedly “invented.”
Via Thomas Talbot:
This video shows that the supposed clock invention by a 14 year old is in fact not an invention. The ‘clock’ is a commercial bedside alarm clock removed from its casing. There is nothing to indicate that the clock was even assembled by the child. I suspect this was brought into school to create an alarmed reaction.
Another individual (aka “Anthony” ), who claims to have an engineering degree, did his own research in an attempt to reverse-engineer Ahmed’s digital clock “invention.” Like Talbot, Anthony claims Ahmed’s clock is nothing more than the internal electronic components of a digital clock removed from its casing and stuffed into a pencil case…
If Thomas Talbot and “Anthony” are correct—and they do provide a convincing and dispassionate assessment—then what exactly did Ahmed Mohamed even invent? And why would he take an alarm clock and just put it in a pencil case? There is nothing at all impressive about that—besides not electrocuting himself while doing it. Removing the innards of a digital clock and stuffing it in an alleged pencil case does not require any considerable talent or skills.
And let’s not ignore the obvious: Why would you put a clock in a pencil case? Is that a particularly novel or useful “invention” ? Furthermore, why did he decide to bring it to school?
There is another rather curious aspect concerning the Muslim “whiz kid” from Texas. Ahmed Mohmed is the son of Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, a Sudanese immigrant who is no stranger to making the headlines over the years.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
He’s here. The Pope. And his covert Jesuit message is: let’s get rid of separate nations, eliminate private profit for the middle class, and return to those glorious days of the Middle Ages; my Church flourishes under those conditions; we know how to deal with wall-to-wall misery; oh, and here’s the collection plate.
He’s part of the international gang that throws around the word “capitalism” as if it’s a mortal sin.
Making distinctions isn’t the Pope’s forte.
He ignores the differences between mega-corporations who align with governments (and his Church) to create a Globalist Order…and the untold numbers of small businesses owned by people who want to work for a living and earn a profit.
For the Pope, it’s all “capitalism.” Everything should be free— which, translated, means: almost everyone should be poor.
Migration of populations? No problem. It’s a good thing. After all, it helps, in the long run, to erase borders and nations and turn back the clock to more troubled times.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Veteran FBI Employee Accused of Trying to Beat Polygraph, Suspended Without Pay
A mid-career veteran of the FBI has been suspended without pay and faces revocation of his/her security clearance (which would inevitably lead to termination) because the Bureau’s polygraph operators allege he/she tried to beat the polygraph. The case is currently the subject of an unpublicized Congressional inquiry. Retired FBI scientist, supervisory special agent, and polygraph critic Dr. Drew Richardson has publicly shared a memorandum he wrote in support of the accused in this case, which has heretofore been shrouded in secrecy. It should be borne in mind that polygraphy is vulnerable to simple countermeasures (PDF, see Ch. 4) that polygraph operators cannot detect. This case is yet another example of how the pseudoscience of polygraphy endangers virtually everyone with a high-level security clearance.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Cop Threatens Students With Jail for Handing Out Pocket Constitutions
Video has emerged of two students at the College of DuPage, a university in Illinois, being threatened with arrest by a cop for handing out pocket Constitutions the day after Constitution Day.
The two students were also handing out fliers that stated “America is a free speech zone,” when they were approached by a police officer who subsequently threatened to take them to jail.
The footage shows student Joseph Enders asking the officer, “[w]hat are the rules for doing this kind of stuff on campus?”
“You go to the Student Life office, and they give you a permit to do so,” the officer replies.
“You can’t have everybody out here doing this,” the officer states, adding “Otherwise you’d have stuff lined up all along here, everybody having a different view and a different point, so you can’t do that.”
Wow, university students voicing and displaying their opinions in America… THE HORROR.
The second student, Kara Hamilton, then comments “So, like, free speech?”
“It’s not free speech, ma’am,” the officer asserts, claiming that “Nobody’s stopping you from free speech, but you can’t solicit out here, and basically you are—you’re soliciting your opinions. Okay? And you need to go get a permit.”
The exchange continues with Enders asking “Is speech a commodity?”
“Well, you’re handing out pamphlets and stuff like that, so that’s exactly what it would mean,” the officer responds.
The officer finally states “You can’t do it out here, otherwise I’m going to have to lock you up. I don’t want it to come to that; like I said, I want you to go in to Student Life.”
A bystander even attempts to stand up for the Constitution soliciting criminals, telling the officer “I asked for it, though.” But the cop has none of it, and the students are forced to retreat inside.
The cop had one more parting shot to take at the First Amendment, however, telling Enders that he could not take his American flag into the school building, without explaining why.
Exercising free speech is a First Amendment right protected by the Constitution. Unfortunately, increasing numbers of security and police officers seem to think it is a criminal offense on school and university campuses.
[Comment: New World Order police officer ready for duty.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Welcome to Pluto! Dramatic Flyover Video Takes You There
A new video takes armchair explorers on a flyover tour of Pluto’s stunning and varied landscapes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Afrophobic Hate Crimes Grow in Sweden
Swedes with an African background suffer more violent attacks than other minorites in the country, according to a report by daily Svenska Dagbladet which shows that reports of afrophobic hate crimes have increased by 41 percent between 2008 and 2014.
“Afrophobic crimes increase dramatically. It is also the case in other European countries,” says Tobias Hübinette, lecturer at Karlstad University.
Hübinette conducted a study on the situation of Swedes with African origins in 2014, at the request of Erik Ullenhag, who was Sweden’s integration minister at the time.
“These hate crimes usually take place in public spaces, they normally include threats or physical violence and the perpetrators are rarely acquainted with the victims,” Hübinette says.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Alitalia Board Will Seek Right Candidate for CEO — Hogan
‘We are great organisation’ says Alitalia VP, Etihad CEO
(see previous).
(ANSA) — Fiumicino, Sepptember 21 — Etihad CEO and Alitalia Vice President James Hogan said Monday the board would “seek the right candidate” to replace Silvano Cassano as CEO at the Italian carrier. “We are a great organisation…we are fully committed, the plans are going ahead,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU Commission Unveils Details of Eur 500m Aid Package for Farmers
The European Commission on Tuesday unveiled the details of its EUR 500M support programme for European farmers affected by the Russian ban on food imports from the West.
The support package, which was announced last week, “is a significant statement of support by the Commission for European agriculture,” the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Phil Hogan said in a statement.
The scheme provides for a “fair, targeted and effective” allocation of EUR 420M in aid to farmers in all EU member states to address problems in the dairy and pigmeat sectors, while allowing those countries maximum flexibility in targeting the aid, according to the statement.
One of the key aims of the Commission’s package is to stabilise the markets in an effective manner, Hogan told an informal Council of Agriculture Ministers.
A key element of the package will be the introduction of a new and improved private storage scheme for skimmed milk powder and cheese and a new private storage scheme for pigmeat.
The measure aims “to provide real market stability by withdrawing a sufficient volume of product from the market and for a sufficient period of time to allow the market to recover,” Hogan said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany’s REWE Pulls Out PENNY Discounter From Bulgaria
Germany’s supermarket group REWE said on Wednesday it will withdraw completely from discount business in Bulgaria with all PENNY stores ceasing to operate by the end of next month.
REWE Group will focus on full-range store business with PENNY’s sister company BILLA Bulgaria taking over the logistics centre in Stolnik near Sofia and — where possible — some of the current 49 PENNY outlets in the country, REWE said in a statement.
“Where possible, PENNY employees will be offered a continued employment at BILLA Bulgaria,” the statement read. “The employees who cannot be offered employment opportunities will receive severance pay in excess of that required by law.”
Currently, REWE operates 92 BILLA supermarkets in Bulgaria.
In the future, the REWE Group will focus its international discount activities with PENNY on business in the other five countries where it currently operates: Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy and Romania.
PENNY opened its first discount store in Bulgaria in 2009.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Cheese Exports Hit New Record
(AGI) Rome, Sept 18 — Exports of Italian cheese and dairy products rose by 8 percent in the first half of 2015, due to their international reputation for top quality. So says an analysis by farmers’ association Coldiretti published at Cheese 2015, organised by Slow Food and the Piedmont town of Bra.
About three-quarters of exported products are for the EU market, where there was an increase of 10 percent, and even 2 percent in traditional competitor France. Outside Europe the main buyers are in the United States, with an 18 percent increase, but Italian produce is also going down well in China, with a 39 percent rise. Encouraging results have been bolstered by a rise in the number of cheeses with ‘protected designation of origin’ (PDO). Italy now has 48, overtaking France’s 45 to become world leader in quality dairy production. If France’s Charles De Gaulle wondered how it was possible to govern a country with more cheeses than days in the year, the situation would certainly not have looked easier in Italy, which has 487 cheeses in addition to the PDOs. They account for about half the milk produced by Italian farms — 45.5 percent, or approximately 50 million quintals. Italy’s advantage over France is even more striking in terms of quantity: double the PDO output (almost to 500 million kilos); more cheese moving from Italy to France, and less the other way. Yet Italians lie only seventh in the world for per capita cheese consumption: 20.7 kilograms per person per year, beaten by France, Iceland, Finland, Germany, Estonia and Switzerland. And there is concern about the quality of non-PDO cheeses sold in Italy, with almost half the mozzarella being made with foreign cow’s milk or curds, coming from uncontrolled, even unknown producers abroad.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Women ‘To Retire at 62-63 With 10% Cut’
Govt working on change to pension law
(ANSA) — Rome, September 21 — The government is working on a change to pension laws that would let women retire three years early, at 62-63, while taking a 10% pension cut, government sources said Monday. The change would take effect next year, they said. The government has promised to overhaul an unpopular 2011 pension law, framed by then labour minister Elsa Fornero, that raised the pension age to 66 for both men and women.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Prosecutor Asks for Eight Months for Writer in No-TAV Case
Erri De Luca allegedly called for ‘sabotage’ of high-speed train
(ANSA) — Turin, September 21 — The Turin prosecutor’s office on Monday asked a judge to sentence writer Erri De Luca to eight months in jail for instigation to commit a crime.
In printed interviews, De Luca allegedly encouraged the ‘sabotage’ of the construction yard for the TAV high-speed rail link between Turin and Lyon. Judges in the case said “when De Luca speaks, his words have a determining weight, above all on the ‘No-TAV’ movement”.
De Luca said he feels the sentence is a statement about lack of free speech.
“I’m a witness of the willingness to censor speech. This sentence will be a message on freedom of expression,” De Luca said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Milan Conference on Halal Food ‘That Does Not Divide’
Opportunity for inclusion and business
(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPETMBER 21 — Halal food racked up some 1.3 trillion dollars in turnover in 2013, accounting for about 18% of the global market and affecting about a fifth of the world’s population.
A conference entitled ‘Halal Food — A Border that Does Not Divide’ will be held on October 23, from 9:30 AM to 6 PM, at the conference center of the Milan Fondazione Cariplo. The day is being organized by Link 2007, an umbrella group for nine of the most important Italian NGOs, and the Italian Development Cooperation and aims to identify and highlight the unifying elements of halal food — not only from a dietary and social standpoint, but also in economic terms, thereby fostering dialogue and cooperation. The promoters note that the conference will serve as an opportunity for Italian companies along the entire food chain: from technology development to logistics, to Italian specialities prepared in a halal manner and butcher shops.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Tronchetti Provera Acquitted of Defamation
De Benedetti sued Pirelli chief over 2013 remarks
(ANSA) — Milan, September 21 — A Milan court on Monday acquitted Pirelli President and CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera of defaming industrialist and publisher Carlo De Benedetti on the grounds that there was no case to answer.
De Benedetti had sued Tronchetti Provera for defamation over 2013 remarks alleging among other things, that he had been “much discussed over certain balances at Olivetti” — where he was CEO from 1978-1996 — and that he had been involved in the 1982 collapse of the Banco Ambrosiano bank.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Another Senator Leaves Berlusconi for Verdini
Chides Berlusconi for change of mind abt Senate reform
(ANSA) — Rome, September 21 — Another Senator on Monday split from Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party to join former FI heavyweight Denis Verdini’s new Ala caucus. Francesco Amoruso accused Berlusconi of inconsistency in first backing a Senate reform as part of a deal with Premier Matteo Renzi, and then describing the reform as authoritarian, “tantamount to ushering in a dictatorship”, after pulling out of the deal. Ala, which now numbers 11, has been touted to save Renzi’s reform plans in their current form after a PD minority said it will seek to change them to elect the new regional Senators by universal suffrage.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Police Comb Naples Centre After Bystanders Hinder Arrests
Mayor denounces passers-by for sabotaging justice
(ANSA) — Naples, September 21 — Neapolitan city police launched a major stop-and-search operation in the historic centre of the port city Monday after bystanders prevented a police patrol arresting a group of young thugs, police said.
The patrol was allegedly roughed up by passers-by Sunday night in the town of Giugliano outside Naples after they chided a group of youngsters and then sought to hold them for questioning when they hurled insults at the officers.
The police were surrounded by a ‘baby gang’ of teenage hoods and a group of passers-by described by Giugliano Mayor Antonio Poziello as “pseudo-respectable, people who are quick to criticise and then to behave differently”.
A policewoman in the patrol was injured during the incident and required medical treatment.
Meanwhile in Giugliano and in the centre of Naples the entire municipal police force led by their commanding officer, Maria Rosaria Petrillo, combed the narrow streets stopping suspicious youngsters in a show of force.
“What is most sickening is that presumably respectable people helped these thugs to escape,” said Poziello. photo: Poziello
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Left-Wing Syriza Party Wins Greek Election, Will Form Coalition Government
ATHENS, Greece — A jubilant Alexis Tsipras vowed to continue fighting for his country’s pride and to quickly form a coalition government after his left-wing Syriza party comfortably won Greece’s third national vote this year on Sunday.
The result was a resounding success for Tsipras’ high-risk gamble when he resigned as prime minister last month and triggered an early election, barely seven months into his four-year term, in order to face down an internal Syriza rebellion over his policy U-turn to accept painful austerity measures in return for Greece’s third international bailout.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Drunk-in-Charge Pilot Jailed for 10 Months
The Latvian pilot arrested drunk as he was preparing to fly an Air Baltic flight from Oslo’s Gardermoen airport to Greece with 109 passengers on board has been jailed for 10 months.
The captain, who has not been named under Norwegian privacy laws, was found guilty of all four charges.
“As captain, the accused has grossly neglected his duties, and could, if the flight had taken place, put a large number of people at risk. This is particularly the case, as the co-pilot must be considered as also being severely affected,” Judge Karen Wendel Sandaa wrote in her verdict.
Four of the plane’s staff, the captain, co-pilot and two cabin crew, were arrested in a state of intoxication on the morning of the flight.
According to a blood test, the captain had a blood alcohol level of 0.54, well beyond the legal level.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Police Injure Woman in Rare Shooting
Norwegian police said officers shot and injured a woman on Friday who was about to stab a child in Oslo.
Norwegian police, who are not usually armed, have been temporarily carrying more firearms due to increased jihadist threats against authorities.
However, they drew their weapons only 42 times in 2014 and fired them only twice.
Only two people have been killed in police shootings in Norway over the last 12 years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Should Rome be a More Aggressive Salesman?
WASHINGTON — Italy’s success in signing up Kuwait to the Eurofighter program has sparked a debate over what the country is doing right, and doing wrong, when it comes to defense exports.
On Sept. 11, the Italian government announced that the Kuwaiti government had agreed to acquire 28 Eurofighters, following a sales campaign led by Italy and its Eurofighter-building partner firm, Finmeccanica Alenia Aermacchi.
The €7 billion to €8 billion (US $7.9 billion to $9 billion) deal, which must still be ratified by the Kuwait parliament, was announced as the prime ministers of Italy and Kuwait met in Rome, and capped a marketing push that reflected growing synergies among Italy’s politicians, armed forces and industry, officials said.
“This agreement rests on the quality of the product, but it was also the result of work by former Alenia CEO Giuseppe Giordo, current CEO Filippo Bagnato, Finmeccanica CEO Mauro Moretti and Gen. Pasquale Preziosa, the head of the Italian Air Force, since the Air Force will be involved in training,” said Guido Crosetto, the head of Italian aerospace and defense industry group AIAD.
“Minister of Defense Roberta Pinotti and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi also played a role,” he said.
Pinotti traveled to Kuwait three times to work on the deal, said an Italian defense source.
“We also have aircraft based in Kuwait in the operation against ISIS, which presented an opportunity to deepen ties,” the source said.
However, on Sept. 16, Moretti urged the government to do more to assist sales.
“In this country there is no big tradition for this, even though we are growing,” he told Italian daily Corriere della Sera in an interview.
AIAD has been pushing the government to take a bigger role in marketing, to the point of taking the lead from industry. In July, the Italian parliament handed more power to Italy’s procurement office to negotiate exports, but plans are still being made, and the powers do not go far enough, said Crosetto.
“We want government-to-government deals, like the US and France,” he said. “Countries ask us to do deals this way.”
An Italian source knowledgeable of defense deals played down the government role in the Eurofighter agreement.
“This deal was clinched by Finmeccanica-Alenia Aermacchi,” he said. “The recent agreement simply framed an existing industrial deal,” he added.
The source said the Italian government would need to handle the financial element of deals as well as the small print before it caught up with France and the US, which boasts its Foreign Military Sales program.
“Even the Russians do this, but we don’t,” he said. “Since Italy is smaller it should turn to government-to-government deals on a case-by-case basis, but the one thing you cannot do is be inconsistent over the course of a negotiation, showing up for government meetings then disappearing,” he said.
Egypt was a case in point, the source said.
“We were the first to recognize the al-Sisi government and Prime Minister Renzi was the first to visit. But defense products were not offered, while France has sold Egypt Rafales and a FREMM frigate, which have been paid for by other Arab countries,” he said.
“We don’t know what they want or how the financing would work. Do we have surplus kit to offer? Can we offe training? We sent catalogues but have no working groups involved.”
A second official who follows sales and declined to be named said the French were happy to use all channels to promote sales.
“They are much more aggressive and have decided that they would rather see an American firm win a competition than a European rival because they want to have Europe to themselves,” he said.
The official said he subscribed to rumors that France lobbied Donald Tusk, the Polish president of the European Council, to persuade Poland to buy 70 Airbus multipurpose Caracal EC725 helicopters in a deal worth about €2.5 billion in April, over offerings from Italy’s AgustaWestland and Sikorsky.
“The Italians and Sikorsky had manufacturing facilities in Poland, Airbus does not, yet it won the competition,” he said.
At the time of the deal, Tomasz Siemoniak, chief of the Polish Ministry of Defence, denied the rumors of lobbying, claiming the Airbus helicopter had won on merit.
Italy and France have a mixed history when it comes to defense cooperation. The two nations set out to jointly build FREMM-class frigates, which they have deployed, but went separate ways on selling the vessels overseas, making them competitors on a program they launched together.
A joint effort to build torpedoes has also broken down over disagreements regarding control.
That has not stopped French and Italian firms DCNS and Fincantieri from reportedly planning the joint development of future surface vessels.
Email: tkington@defensenews.com
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
DAVID Cameron allegedly took drugs and enjoyed wild evenings with an Oxford dining club known for their excessive sex parties, it was claimed last night.
The sensational claims were made in an unauthorised biography Call Me Dave by ex-Tory peer Lord Ashcroft — long seen as a thorn in the side of the PM — according to the Daily Mail.
The billionaire has been at war with Cameron for years and wrote the book after Cameron allegedly failed to give him a “significant” job.
The book also alleges Cameron put a “private part of his anatomy” in the mouth of a dead pig’s head in an Initiation ceremony for the debauched Piers Gaveston Society.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Depressed Man Killed Himself as a Direct Result of DWP’s ‘Fit to Work’ Ruling, Coroner Finds
A coroner has concluded for the first time that a man with severe mental illness killed himself as a direct result of being found “fit to work” by the Government’s outsourced disability assessors.
Michael O’Sullivan, a 60-year-old father from north London, hanged himself after his disability benefits were removed despite the opinion of three doctors that he was suffering from recurrent depression and certified as unable to work by his GP.
Figures released last month by the Department for Work and Pensions showed that nearly 90 people died every month between 2011 and 2014 after they had been declared fit for employment after undergoing a work capability assessment (WCA).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Fox News in Ofcom Breach for Birmingham ‘Muslim Only’ Claim
Broadcasting regulator Ofcom has found Fox News in breach of the broadcasting code after one of its contributors called Birmingham a “no-go zone” for non-Muslims.
The comment was made during an episode of Justice with Judge Jeanine by guest Steve Emerson in January.
An Ofcom spokesperson said it was a “serious breach for a current affairs programme”.
Fox said it regretted the comments and apologised to the people of Birmingham.
Fox News is an American channel but is licensed by Ofcom for broadcast in the UK.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Muslim Model Nadia Menaz Found Hanged in Oldham After Arranged Marriage Fears
Nadia Menaz, 24, was found dead at her home in Oldham, Greater Manchester, five months after taking out a court order to stop her family from forcing her to marry, an inquest heard.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Police investigating the death of a 45-year-old woman and her husband in a ‘gas explosion’ have announced they believe she was murdered and they are now treating the incident as suspicious.
The pair, named locally as Simon, 50, and Shelley Saxton-Cooper were found dead in the bedroom of the house they had lived in for 25 years on Valley View Road in Riddings, Derbyshire.
Derbyshire Constabulary announced this afternoon that they are treating the death of Mrs Saxton-Cooper as murder because they believe she was wounded before the blast.
A spokesman added they are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK’s New Labour Leader Touts ‘People’s Railway’ Plan
Britain’s new opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn vowed Sunday to press ahead with plans to renationalise the rail network to create a “People’s Railway”, if his party got into power.
In his first major policy announcement since becoming leader, the left-wing politician said England’s rail franchises would be brought under public ownership as the contracts for each one expire, media reports said.
“We know there is overwhelming support from the British people for a People’s Railway, better and more efficient services, proper integration and fairer fares,” Corbyn said in comments to the left-leaning Independent on Sunday newspaper later repeated on his official Twitter account…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Israel to Ban Muslim Men Under 40 From Flashpoint Jerusalem Holy Site During Yom Kippur Fast
JERUSALEM — Israel says it will reinstate a rule banning Muslim men under age 40 from a mosque at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site as a measure to ensure calm during an upcoming Jewish holiday.
The hilltop compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary has been a flashpoint for violence in recent days.
Police said security will be beefed up and Muslim men under age 40 will be banned from the compound’s Al-Aqsa mosque for the 25-hour Yom Kippur fast starting at sundown Tuesday. It coincides with the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, also known as the Festival of Sacrifice.
The ban has been put in place intermittently after protests where mostly younger Palestinians throwing rocks clashed with police at the compound and elsewhere.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Israel to Bring in 20,000 Chinese Construction Workers
Israel plans to bring in 20,000 Chinese construction workers to help build new apartments as part of efforts to lower housing costs, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.
Netanyahu announced the plan at the start of a cabinet meeting, his office said. The finance ministry later said the cabinet had approved it.
Israeli attorney general Yehuda Weinstein has opposed the move because the two countries lack a formal agreement related to such cooperation…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Israel’s Enemies in Washington and Moscow
Angry over President Obama’s abandonment of Israel in the Iranian nuclear deal, several commentators are now proposing that Israel work with Russia in the Middle East for their mutual interests and concerns. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is too knowledgeable about the roots of international terrorism to fall into such a trap.
Caroline Glick, Director of the Israel Security Project at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and adjunct senior fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Center for Security Policy, writes in The Jerusalem Post that while Israel can’t depend on the United States with Barack Obama as its president, Israel can work with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. She writes that “…we need to recognize that Russia is not the Soviet Union. Yes, Russia has superpower aspirations, which include projecting its power in the Middle East. But unlike the Soviet Union, Russia’s actions are not informed by an overarching world view that is inherently anti-Semitic.”
Let’s look at the record…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Long-Lost Tomb of Jewish ‘Maccabee’ Rebels Possibly Found
An “unusual” new archaeological find could be the long-lost Tomb of the Maccabees, a burial site of leaders of a band of Jewish rebels from the second century B.C.
Israeli archeologists discovered the strange, pillared structure at the Horbat Ha-Gardi site near the ancient city of Modi’in. First excavated 150 years ago, this site was thought to be the mausoleum of a priest named Mattathias the Hasmonean and his five sons, who led a rebellion against Greek rule of Judea. Later study suggested it was instead an early Christian site, from several hundred years later.
The new excavations haven’t fully solved the mystery, but archaeologists say they can’t rule out that the Maccabees were buried there.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Flush with $150 billion in assets arising from the lifting of sanctions and the equivalent of a green light from the West to develop an atomic bomb, the Islamic Republic of Iran will soon stockpile fissile material which it can supply to terrorist groups for incorporation into so-called “dirty bombs” (combinations of radioactive materials and conventional explosives). With the eventual capacity to arm short range ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads, Iran may act on a much shorter timetable by supplying in a clandestine way all of the radioactive elements desired by terrorist compatriots for use in dirty bombs. Those radioactive elements would then be dispersed via the detonation of dirty bombs in Israel, Europe, and the United States, creating zones of contamination in urban areas.
With the trail back to Tehran provable only after the gathering of intelligence following detonation of a dirty bomb, the Western powers will be slow to discover who is responsible and will be reluctant to strike Tehran. Efforts will be undertaken to obtain evidence identifying the terrorists involved, the groups with which they are affiliated, and the trail of money and arms that leads back to the sponsor of the terror, Iran. That will take time while in the interim the terrorist attacks may continue.
Barack Obama and John Kerry joined by a majority of Democrats in the House and Senate are responsible for laying the foundation for this horrific scenario. They have abandoned our staunchest ally in the Middle East, Israel, and have hastened the arrival of a new age of Middle Eastern conflict, the age of nuclear terror. As dirty bombs are exploded in different Western locales, entire parts of cities will become uninhabitable for dozens, if not hundreds, of years.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
IS Defectors ‘Disillusioned With Killing Muslims’
A growing number of “disillusioned” Islamic State fighters are defecting from the jihadist group and could be used by governments to deter potential recruits, a report published Monday said.
At least 58 people have left the group and publicly spoken about their defection since January 2014, according to the report by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ISCR) at King’s College London.
The study said that 17 fighters were reported to have defected in June, July and August alone, adding that they represent only a “small fraction” of former fighters, with many too scared to come forward…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
IS Executes 10 People Accused of Being Gay in Syria: Monitor
The Islamic State jihadist group executed nine men and a boy it accused of being gay in central and northern Syria on Monday, a monitoring group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the jihadists shot dead seven men in Rastan, a town in Homs province of central Syria, “after accusing them of being homosexual”.
IS also executed two men and the boy in the town of Hreitan, in the northern province of Aleppo, for the same reason, said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
He said the executions were carried out in public, but that IS fighters destroyed any cameras that had been used to film the killings…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Obama Administration Seeking Vatican Help on American Prisoners in Iran
The Obama administration reportedly is seeking help from Pope Francis in negotiating the release of three American prisoners held in Iran.
Politico reported Monday that Washington and the Vatican have had discussions in recent months about the prisoners. Pope Francis will visit Washington and other American cities this week, though it’s unclear whether the Iranian matter will come up.
The purported discussions follow Pope Francis playing an integral role in the normalizing of relations between the United States and Cuba.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
An SAS hero managed to single-handedly kill six Islamic State terrorists in Syria after being ambushed in a fierce fire fight.
The unnamed solider was operating in Syria while trying to smuggle a secret agent out of Syria, which is being ruled in large parts by ISIS monsters.
They were trying to get the agent across the border from Syria to Iraq.
However the British troops feared the worst when they were ambushed by 30 militants.
But during an intense fire fight, one of the SAS troops managed to kill six ISIS fighters himself using an automatic shotgun.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: World’s Human Rights Sewer
by Douglas Murray
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva is an organization that may be easy to critique, but it is very hard to satirize. Ordinarily, if you told anyone that there was a place in Switzerland where Sudan, Iran and others of the world’s worst dictatorships and human rights abusers have their views on human rights treated with respect and deference, you would assume the script was written by Monty Python. Idi Amin would make an appearance at some point to share his views on how to improve equal conditions for women in the workplace. Pol Pot would crop up in order to castigate those countries where living standards had not been sufficiently raised in accordance with global averages.
Everything that happens in Geneva is beyond satire. But last week provides a demonstration, outrageous even by the standards of the UN. For this week, it came out — thanks to the excellent organization UN Watch — that Saudi Arabia has been appointed as the head of a key UNHRC panel. This panel selects the top officials who shape international standards in human rights; it is intended to report on human rights violations around the world. The five-member group of ambassadors, which Saudi Arabia will now head, is known as the Consultative Group and has the power to select applicants to fill more than 77 positions worldwide that deal with human rights issues. It appears that the appointment of Saudi Arabia’s envoy to the UNHRC, Faisal Trad, was made before the summer, but that diplomats in Geneva have kept silent on the matter since then.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Naming to Head UN Rights Panel ‘Grotesque’: Watchdog
A free speech watchdog on Monday condemned as “grotesque” Saudi Arabia’s appointment to head a panel advising the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Riyadh’s ambassador to the Rights Council, Faisal bin Hassan Trad, “was quietly appointed” in June to head the five-member panel advising the council, meeting in Geneva, said Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
“The appointment only came to light today. It has enraged human rights defenders and international human rights organisations worldwide,” the watchdog said in a statement…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Young Saudi Protestor to be Beheaded and Crucified
Under 18 at time of arrest for protesting dynasty
ROME — A 21-year-old found guilty of protesting against the Saudi kingdom when has was still under age 18 will be beheaded and then his body will be nailed to a cross and left to rot in public. Reports were from Saudi activists and the British anti-death-penalty NGO Reprieve. The young man, Ali Mohammed Al-Nimr, was arrested at age 17 in 2012 during a protest in the eastern Saudi province of Qatif and charged with several crimes including membership in a terrorist organization. About 2.7 million Shia live in the kingdom’s eastern provinces, where most of its oil fields are located. The man’s family claims that the youth is paying the price for being the nephew of the Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqr Al-Nimr, well known for his opposition to the Sunni leaders of Saudi Arabia. The cleric was also imprisoned and beheaded at the beginning of the ‘Arab Spring’. Ali was taking part in a protest in support of his uncle when he was caught by the police and charged with being part of a terrorist organization, possession of arms and throwing Molotov cocktails at security forces. He was also found guilty of using his cell phone to organize the protest. The charges were upheld during his trial and are based on a confession that Reprieve claims was made only after being subjected to torture. The British NGO added that the youth had been denied access to a lawyer during his trial and that his raising of the issue of torture was ignored by judges.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian, 22, Arrested Trying to Join Ukrainian Rebels
Young man released by Ukrainian frontier guards
(ANSA) — Moscow, September 21 — A 22-year-old Italian has been arrested twice by Ukrainian frontier guards in the Donetsk region on suspicion of trying to join pro-Russian separatists fighting Ukrainian forces in Donbass, Ukrainian media reported Monday.
Diplomatic sources however told ANSA that the young Italian was held for questioning twice, on September 16 and 19, but was not formally arrested and was released, now being able to move freely.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Next UN Chief Should be Eastern European, Russia’s Envoy Says
World | September 11, 2015, Friday // 17:00
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin. File photo EPA/BGNES
For the first time the next United Nations Secretary General should be a representative of the group of eastern European countries in the world organization, Russia’s envoy to the UN Vitaly Churkin has said.
There are already “several decent potential candidates from eastern Europe”, Churkin said in an interview with TASS.
“In my opinion, they are very respectable people who can lead the organization,” Churkin told the Russian news agency.
“There is a woman among them, Irina Bokova. As it appears, other female candidates will also emerge, which is why I think that eventually everyone will be happy.”
UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and European Commission Vice-President Kristalina Georgieva, both Bulgarian nationals, are among the possible nominees for succeeding Ban Ki-moon, according to a recent article published by The New York Times.
Ban Ki-moon first took office as UN Secretary-General on January 1, 2007. He will step down at the end of next year when his second term of office expires. The Secretary-General is appointed by the General Assembly, on the recommendation of the Security Council. The election campaign will be officially launched in a year’s time.
So far, no UN Secretary General has come from the group of Eastern European countries. None of them has been a woman either.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Razov: Regret Over Sanctions, We Can Overcome
In Udine for opening of Honorary Consulate
(ANSA) — UDINE — “Regret” over sanctions against Russia was expressed today in Udine by the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Italy, Sergey Razov, who arrived in the capital town of Friuli on the occasion of the opening ceremony of the Honorary Consulate of Russia at the Chamber of Commerce. “It’s not us who have applied these sanctions — he said -, so we are expecting for decisions to be made by those who have established them”.
“Anyone can understand — said Razov — both in Russia and in Italy, that these sanctions are a heavy burden. Especially those who do business are suffering from them — he added -, just as shown by the figures, testifying losses of many billions of euros in trade between our two countries. But above all — Razov said -, these sanctions impact negatively on our relationship and of course, if the sanctions disappeared, the flow of goods and activities would increase and the whole import-export system would take advantage of it”.
No time to waste, the ambassador said, “because markets do not tolerate any vacuum, and thus some other partners take the place of those who leave, and to regain lost ground can become a long and demanding challenge”.
While thanking the Chamber of Commerce of Udine and the “energetic” economic system of the region, Ambassador Razov pointed out that “this new Consulate in Friuli can be a very useful tool for strengthening our relationship”, and then added that “ although the Italian partners are facing big problems in this period, in order to improve the situation we can take into account the possibility of locating production activities from Friuli Venezia Giulia and Italy in the Russian Federation, by creating joint ventures”.
Despite a ban on exports to Russia “for single products or a whole category of goods”, the ambassador underlined “we can consider the possibility that production activities of Italian brands may be located in the Russian Federation”. Razov finally said, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. During my visit in the province of Udine, I heard that many companies in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region are already working in Russia or with Russia with remarkable positive results. So I’m hoping this is the way to go”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
That’s What You Call an Upgrade! Russian Billionaire Unveils His £260m Superyacht…
[…].which is 300ft high, has eight floors and an underwater observation room — replacing his measly £190m boat
When money is no object, it pays to keep up with the times.
And that’s exactly what one Russian billionaire has done as he has upgraded his £190million superyacht for a new model — at a cost of £260million.
Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko’s ‘Sailing Yacht A,’ which Mr Melnichenko is thought to have named ‘A’ to ensure it is listed first in shipping registers, is taking its first sea trials in Kiel, northern Germany.
The behemoth is the world’s largest sailing superyacht as the Russian industrialist takes his quest to ruling the seas one step further.
The luxury yacht, that was built at a shipbuilding yard near Hamburg, Germany, has masts that are 300ft high and is the largest sailing boat in the world
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Vladimir Putin: Spoiler or Statesman?
By David P. Goldman
The great task of diplomacy in the 21st century is a sad and dreary one, namely managing the decline of Muslim civilization. There is a parallel to the great diplomatic problem of the late 19th and early 20th century, the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, which the diplomats bungled horribly.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Defense Department Under Fire for Handling of Child Abuse Claims in Afghanistan
The Defense Department is facing mounting criticism for its handling of child abuse allegations involving Afghan commanders, including revived claims that U.S. soldiers were instructed to look the other way when Afghan troops and officers were sexually abusing boys.
As first reported by Fox News, the Army is under scrutiny for moving to kick out Green Beret Sgt. 1st Class Charles Martland, after he got in trouble for shoving an Afghan police commander accused of raping a boy.
This was followed by The New York Times reporting Monday that American soldiers were told to ignore such sexual abuse, even in cases where Afghan allies were abusing boys on military bases.
The White House said Monday that the U.S. is “deeply concerned” about the safety of Afghan boys, when asked about the claims, but referred questions on DOD policy to the Pentagon.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India’s Draft Encryption Policy Puts User Privacy in Danger
An “Expert” group set up by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) appears to have thrown all sense of individual rights and privacy out the window, and sought to make encryption (and personal and business security) weaker via a draft (and daft) policy on encryption. You may send your comments to akrishnan@deity.gov.in. The last date for sending comments is 16th October.
An abridged (simplified) version of the policy is below, but if there was one sentences that symbolises how dangerous this policy is, it is this:
All citizens (C), including personnel of Government / Business (G/B) performing non-official / personal functions, are required to store the plaintexts of the corresponding encrypted information for 90 days from the date of transaction and provide the verifiable Plain Text to Law and Enforcement Agencies as and when required as per the provision of the laws of the country.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Man Accidentally Buried Alive by Road Pavers in India
A man was buried alive under a newly paved road, after he apparently fell into a hole in central India.
Police in Madhya Pradesh state said Latori Barman, 45, was returning home from a village fair Friday evening when he stopped at a liquor store and then accidentally slipped into the hole, the Times of India reported.
Workers unaware of the accident then filled the hole with molten tar and used a heavy roller to flatten the surface. Later, locals spotted Barman’s arm sticking out of the road and he was pulled out and pronounced dead on Monday, police said.
“His body has been sent for post mortem and further investigation is in process,” sub-inspector N.P. Chaudhary told Reuters TV.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Witch’ Killings Haunt India’s Remote Villages
As he recovers in a children’s shelter in eastern India, 17-year-old Ganita Munda is haunted by the sound of his family’s screams as a witch-hunting gang killed them in their home.
The teenager remembers breaking free of the attackers and fleeing his rural village home in Orissa state to a nearby forest where he hid alone in the dark for hours.
“I shouldn’t be here. I still don’t know how I managed (to survive),” Ganita told AFP of the July attack that left his parents and four of his brothers and sisters dead, including one as young as three.
The knife-wielding villagers targeted the family because Ganita’s mother had been branded a witch, blamed for a recent outbreak of illness among local children…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Apple’s App Store Infected With XcodeGhost Malware in China
Apple has said it is taking steps to remove malicious code added to a number of apps commonly used on iPhones and iPads in China. It is thought to be the first large-scale attack on Apple’s App Store.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cement and Pig Consumption Reveal China’s Huge Changes
When China’s President Xi Jinping visits the US this week, it will be a meeting of the world’s two biggest economies. Yet, compared with America, China’s economic expansion has happened at breakneck speed.
It has sparked mass urbanisation and led to tens of millions of rural workers heading to the cities to find work. This is the story of China’s astounding transformation — in pictures, interactive graphics and video.
China used more cement in three years than the US did in a century.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russian and Japanese Foreign Ministers Talk, Make No Visible Progress
Russia says it’s ready for more talks with Japan on a long-delayed peace treaty, but it firmly stands its ground on the two nations’ territorial dispute.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after Monday’s talks with visiting Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida that Moscow’s approach to the territorial dispute has remained unchanged. The ministers did agree, however, to hold bilateral consultations on a peace treaty in early October.
The dispute over the islands called the southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan has kept them from signing a peace treaty ending their World War II hostilities.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New Zealand Zoo Officials Refuse to Put Down Killer Tiger Oz
Officials at New Zealand’s Hamilton Zoo have said they won’t euthanize a Sumatran tiger that mauled a veteran zookeeper. The tiger’s attack was “in line with his natural instincts,” zoo officials said in a statement.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China in Driving Seat as Ethiopian Capital Gets New Tramway
Sub-Saharan Africa’s first modern tramway opened in the Ethiopian capital on Sunday, marking the completion of a massive Chinese-funded infrastructure project hailed as a major step in the country’s economic development.
Even before the ribbon was cut, several hundred residents were queueing for a ride on the Chinese-driven trams, which have the capacity to carry 60,000 passengers a day across the capital of Africa’s second most populous nation.
The two line, 34-kilometre (21 mile) system was built by the China Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC) . The project cost $475 million, 85 percent of which has been covered by China’s Exim bank…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Deadly Car Bomb Targets Somalia’s Presidential Palace
At least five people were killed when a car bomb exploded close to the presidential palace in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Monday, police said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility from the Islamist militant group al Shabaab, which is trying to overthrow President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s Western-backed government.
The group stepped up attacks this month, retaking a town in the central region and attacking African Union troops.
“So far, we know five soldiers died and over a dozen were wounded,” Ali Hussein, a police officer, told Reuters, adding that the attack might have been aimed at a United Nations convoy that left the palace just before the blast…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Jihadist Couriers? Suspects Nabbed at Johannesburg Airport With $6m Were ISIS-Bound, Say Cops
Five men nabbed last month about to board a flight at South Africa’s busiest airport with $6 million stuffed in bags may have made hundreds of such trips — with inside help — as part of a cash pipeline to fund the Islamic State, police sources said Monday.
The suspected couriers were caught at Johannesburg’s main airport, OR Tambo, on Aug. 28, but news the money was headed for the terror network only emerged late Sunday. A senior police officer told Fox News Monday the suspects are believed to have been headed for the ISIS caliphate in Syria and Iraq by way of Dubai, and that one may have made the same trek hundreds of times.
“It is very likely that the money was going to ISIS,” the police officer said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Maiduguri, NE Nigeria: Bomb Blasts: Residents Claim 85 Dead
“I can assure you that no fewer than 85 people died,” said resident Sabo Ahmed in an account supported by another local. “The figure given by the police is just the number of people taken to hospital.”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa: 44 Farm Murders So Far This Year — Afriforum
Ernst Roets says his organisation has recorded a total of 157 attacks in 2015
AfriForum accuses ministers and SAPS of complicity after the occurrence of more farm murders
The civil rights organisation AfriForum once again made an appeal to the Minister of Police, Nkosinathi Nhleko, to prioritise farm murders.
This follows after an elderly couple and a friend of them were attacked this weekend on their game farm close to Thabazimbi. Bruno Res (73) was shot in the arm and his wife Petru (60) was shot in the head. The couple was taken by surprise by five men when Petru and her friend arrived at the farm on Friday evening. After the attack, all three the victims were locked inside a walk-in safe vault. Petru died on the scene as a result of her injuries.
Since the beginning of 2015, 157 farm attacks occurred while 44 murders were committed during these attacks.
Ernst Roets, Deputy CEO of AfriForum, described farm murders as a national crisis and referred to the failure of the Department of Police to prioritise this crime, as a form of complicity. Roets said that there are essentially four reasons why the prioritisation of farm murders must be considered as critical. “In the first place, the calculations of independent research institutions indicate that the possibility for a farmer to be murdered, is more than double that of a police official. Secondly, these murders are often committed with exceptional levels of brutality. Thirdly, farmers have a vital role to play in society, especially with regards to job creation and food security. In the fourth place, we know that farmers live in isolated places, far from their neighbours and far from the nearest police station.”
“Despite this, the Minister, the Department of Police and the South African Police Service (SAPS) generally refuse to fight these crimes with the necessary urgency,” added Roets.
| — Hat tip: RRN | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Resources Stretched as 20,000 Refugees Arrive
More than 20,000 refugees entered Austria aboard crowded buses and trains over the weekend, with the Red Cross warning of shortages as temporary accommodation is becoming overcrowded.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Balkans Backup: Refugees Stranded in Southeastern Europe as EU Doors Close
SKOPJE — As doors slam shut in Western Europe and razor-wire fences go up in the east, the massive wave of Middle Eastern refugees is backing up in the Balkans, where overwhelmed nations lack the will or resources to offer a long-term solution.
The ultimate destination for many of the refugees from Syria, Iraq, Libya and other war-torn nations is Germany, both for its rich benefits and its initial pledge to take in more than any other European Union nation. But when Germany announced that it was rescinding its offer and Hungary made itself a de facto firewall to Western Europe, tens of thousands of refugees already in transit were stranded in camps in Balkan nations including Croatia, Greece, Macedonia and Serbia.
“The Balkans should not become a parking lot or no man’s land of blocked refugees,” said Johannes Hahn, a European Union commissioner from Austria.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Czechs Question the Legality of Migrant Quotas
Opposition by Visegrad countries persists
(ANSA-AP) — ZAGREB — The Czech Republic is questioning the legality of proposed compulsory quotas for distributing refugees in European Union. Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec says it might be illegal under EU law to keep the refugees involuntarily in one particular country and it’s not clear if national parliaments are entitled to block the quotas. The EU is squabbling over proposals for EU nations to share 120,000 refugees.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Debt, Threats and Extortion: Human Traffickers Creep Into Finland
Many of the asylum seekers entering Finland are doing so with the help of — or at the mercy of — extortionists demanding high fees for their services. Yle’s A-studio discussion programme spoke with Border Guard officials who said that as many as half of the people fleeing to Finland to escape conflict in their homelands are incurring heavy debts to criminal organisations to make the journey.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Eastern EU Intent on ‘Common Stance’ With Partners on Migrants: Prague
Four eastern EU states opposed to fixed migrant quotas across the bloc said Monday they were “absolutely dedicated” to reaching an agreement with western partners on solving Europe’s worst migrant crisis since World War II.
“All of us who met here today are absolutely dedicated to reaching a common stance tomorrow,” Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek said following talks with his Hungarian, Polish and Slovak counterparts in Prague, a day before key EU talks on the crisis.
“We’re aware that Europe needs joint collective action to accelerate the solution to the still very urgent situation.”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
EU Sources: Countries Rejecting Quotas Will be Fined
6,500 euros per refugee, Paris and Berlin don’t agree
(ANSA) — BRUSSELS — As for the EU member states facing difficulties in relocating the refugees, the ambassadors of the EU28 (Coreper) are taking into account two options in view of the home affairs council scheduled for tomorrow. According to EU sources, Coreper is thinking of paying 6,500 euro fine per refugee, but up to a maximum of 30% of the total quota of refugees to be relocated.
The second option being discussed is to allow the countries to postpone the resettlement by six months. France and Germany are opposed to the first option.
The penalties, amounting to 0.002% of GDP for the countries that do not relocate the refugees, up to a maximum of one year, which had been proposed by the European Commission within the Juncker package dating back to September 9, have been set aside.
A tentative agreement was reached on the total number of 120,000 resettlements to be carried out. However, it was decided to avoid words like “mandatory” or “voluntary”, in order to bypass all the difficulties that had led to a deadlock in recent days. One of the three annexes to the legal decision provides the number of refugees to be relocated by each country, but without mentioning any percentage.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Finland to Send Winter Tents to Shelter Refugees in Hungary
Finland will send nearly 200 large winter-use tents to help provide temporary housing for asylum seekers in Hungary.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Finns Party: Migrants Coming From Sweden Should be Refused Entry
The Finns Party parliamentary group says that an uncontrolled flow of immigrants is in nobody’s interest, and that migrants arriving in Finland from Sweden should be turned back.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Police Evacuate 400 From Calais Migrant Camps
French police on Monday fired tear gas as they broke down several makeshift camps around the port city of Calais, leaving nearly 400 people, mostly Syrian refugees, without shelter.
A local government source told AFP that aside from the sprawling “New Jungle” where some 3,000 people have set up camp — most seeking desperately to get to England — “any illegal settlement cannot remain and will result in evacuation.”
With nowhere to go, about 50 of those evacuated staged a sit-in at the port, accompanied by members of the “No Border” movement, refusing to go to the “New Jungle.”
The slum-like migrant camp sprung up after the closure of notorious Red Cross camp Sangatte in 2002, which had become overcrowded and prone to violent riots…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Weekend Refugee Arrivals Fall Below 10,000
The migrant influx into southern Germany slowed to about 7,000 irregular entries at the weekend, after two weekends that each saw 20,000 arrive, police said Monday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Minister Urges Europe to Pick Up Refugees From Crisis Regions
German interior minister Thomas de Maiziere has called on Europe to help refugees avoid people smugglers. EU member states are deeply divided over the refugee crisis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Berlin: Helping Refugees Become Mobile
With so many refugees now arriving in Germany many locals are looking for ways to help them. Here in Berlin a group of bicycle mechanics is helping new arrivals get in the saddle. But it’s not just about fixing bikes, they’re also building bridges.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Teenage Refugee Dies After Consuming Poisonous Mushroom
A 16-year-old Syrian has died in Germany after being severely poisoned by mushrooms. Doctors believe refugees could be confusing it with an edible fungus available in their country.
The Syrian teenager was brought to a hospital in Germany’s western city of Münster last week after he had apparently consumed the dangerous “death cap” mushroom (amanita phalloides), doctors said. He suffered from a liver collapse and died after all efforts to find a liver donor failed, the Münster university clinic said in a statement.
“The severe poisoning meant a transplant was the only chance,” Hartmut Schmidt, director of transplants at the clinic told reporters. Four others, including the mother of the boy, were admitted to the hospital.
More than 50 cases of similar poisoning have shown up in hospitals in Hanover and Münster in recent weeks. Health officials in Bavaria, which has been experiencing a large influx of migrants in the last few weeks, have warned refugees, especially Syrians, against consuming the death cap mushroom.
Medical experts believe the migrants could be confusing the death cap for a more edible fungus back home.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Coast Guard Rescues 144 Refugees Off Lesvos
Coast guard officers on Monday rescued 144 refugees and migrants in two separate occasions after their boats capsized in the sea area north of Lesvos, in the eastern Aegean Sea, authorities said.
There were no reports of people missing, authorities noted, adding that all those rescued were taken to the island’s port of Molyvos.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How Sweden Tries to Assimilate Its Influx of Refugees
At Stockholm Central Station, hundreds of refugees have been arriving on trains from across Europe every day.
Among them recently was Ali, a young Iraqi in his 20s who says he spent 29 days travelling over sea and land to escape his conflict-ridden homeland in the hope of a better life in northern Europe.
He reels off the countries he has travelled through to get this far: “From Iraq to Turkey, Turkey to Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Denmark and finally Sweden”.
On the journey he says he was imprisoned, moved on, or ignored.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary PM Orban: Europe Borders Threatened by Migrants
Hungary’s PM has said Europe’s borders are threatened by migration, at the start of a week of intense diplomatic activity on the crisis.
“They are over-running us,” said Mr Orban, shortly before Hungary’s parliament agreed to hand more powers to the army.
“They’re not just banging on the door, they’re breaking the doors down on top of us. Our borders are under threat. Hungary is under threat and so is the whole of Europe.”
The new law allows Hungary’s army to use rubber bullets, tear gas and net guns to control migrants at its border.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary Warns Migrants in Lebanese Media Ads
“Strongest action is taken” against people who enter illegaly
(ANSA-AP) — ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — The Hungarian government is warning migrants not to enter the country illegally saying it is a crime punishable by imprisonment. In a full-page advertisement in Lebanon’s leading An-Nahar daily Monday, the government says “the strongest possible action is taken” against people who attempt to enter Hungary illegally. Hungary, which closed its border with Serbia on Sept. 15, erected another steel barrier at the Beremend border crossing from Croatia to try to slow the flow of migrants. But they kept coming. People fleeing violence and poverty in the Middle East, Asia and Africa are rushing from one European border to the next as they desperately try to find a way north. Thousands more continue to brave the Mediterranean in rickety boats as they try to reach more welcoming countries like Germany and Sweden.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary: Croatia Participates in Human Trafficking
New attacks against Zagreb from Hungarian government spokesman
(ANSA) — BELGRADE — New attack from Hungary against the Croatian government, accused of facilitating illegal trafficking of migrants. According to the Hungarian government spokesperson, Croatia “de facto participates in human trafficking” transporting on its territory towards the Hungarian border thousand of refugees without any control or identification.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqis on Facebook Warn Compatriots Against Coming to Finland
Some asylum-seekers having come to Finland from Iraq are publishing messages on social media calling their move to Finland a “mistake”. Some of them are publically considering returning to Iraq.
Members of a popular Iraqi Facebook page have been posting messages relating to their experiences as migrants in Finland. In one cellphone video posted on the page three Iraqi men advise their compatriots in Arabic:
“If you are thinking about coming here, seriously, don’t! We are already considering coming back to Iraq. We regret coming here. We were wrong! We paid huge amounts for nothing,” Ali, Kadar and Ali are heard saying in the video. “Coming here was a mistake.”
The trio also bemoans a lack of clothing, high prices and small meal sizes in reception centres in addition to bad employment opportunities.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants: 350 Christian Families Back Home in Syria
In Quseir, close to Homs, to rebuild their lives
(by Elisa Pinna) (ANSAmed) — ROME — While Syrian refugees are travelling towards Europe, 350 families of Christian refugees have decided to head back home in the town of Al Quseir, some 45 kilometers from Homs, from which they fled starting in 2013, the Melkite bishop of Homs, Mons. Jean Abdo Arbach, said. Arbach, together with international organization Aid to the Church in Need, is coordinating a project to rebuild the local Christian community, as well as the parish church of Saint Elias, which was partly destroyed by violent fighting in the town.
Al Quseir, which had some 65,000 residents before the war and now houses about half, is located in a strategic position along the road connecting Damascus to the coast and is not far from the Lebanese bases of Hezbollah, an ally of President Assad.
With a Christian and Alawite majority (the Shiite sect of the Syrian president), al Quseir was conquered in a first phase of the war by Sunni Muslims. The majority of the population fled, including 700 Christian families who had been living for generations around the church of Saint Elias.
It was reconquered by loyalist forces in May 2013 after harsh fighting and has been controlled by Assad’s army since then. So about half of the Christians who fled have returned, instead of fleeing towards the Balkans. A picture shows a small crowd of men, women (dressed in regular clothes and without a veil) and children looking at their church, with the bell and front rose window destroyed and the semi-collapsed roof.
“This church will prove that there is a Christian community again here, you can imagine what this means to us”, explained the bishop of Homs, Mons. Arbach.
However, if some are coming back, most are fleeing. “Aleppo is dying”, the apostolic vicar of the city, Mons. Georges Khazeh, told ANSAmed. The city is a Christian stronghold: out of the 150,000 who used live there, only 50,000 are left. Aleppo’s population, half in loyalist areas and the other half in areas controlled by al Qaida rebels (al Nusra) and other Islamist groups, is torn by bombs and mortar shells between the warring sides. There is a lack of electricity and drinking water, the bishop said.
“The churches have some wells from which we get water and we try to take it to the people with our vans. We are against the exodus but we certainly understand those leaving”.
“I wonder why — he stressed — the international community, instead of letting itself be overwhelmed by refugees, does not deal with the causes of what is happening — the war in Syria”.
“It would just be necessary to stop the inflow of weapons to immediately improve the situation but nobody seems to be willing to do it”, concluded Mons. Khazeh.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Organisers Stretched Thin by Crammed Finnish Language Courses
A surge in immigration means more migrants than usual are obliged to start learning the Finnish language. Future measures to vouchsafe the availability of language tutoring and teaching may include an increase in web-based self-studying.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Politico: Wait, the Serbs Are Now the Good Guys?
Modified: Sep 19, 2015 at 10:31 am
BELGRADE — Hungary’s decision to seal its southern border has turned the spotlight of the migrant crisis onto Serbia, where images of columns of refugees fleeing conflict evoke all-too-recent memories, Andrew MacDowall writes for POLITICO.
Only a decade-and-a-half ago, Serbia was an international pariah, shunned for its role in the Yugoslav wars, and perceived as the instigator of ethnic conflict and persecution. Now government and civil society have won praise for the compassion with which the current crisis has been handled. The government has wasted no time in drawing a contrast between EU member Hungary tear-gassing migrants — on Serbian soil — and its own approach.
“The consensus is that Serbia has dealt with it very well so far in the circumstances, and that migrants are treated with great respect and dignity,” a diplomat from an EU member state told POLITICO.
The difference in tone between Vucic, once an ultranationalist, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, once a pro-Western liberal, has not gone unnoticed.
“The feeling amongst foreign ambassadors is that Serbia is displaying European values that some would say some EU member states are not displaying. This does Serbia’s EU aspirations no harm,” said the EU diplomat.
An EU representative in Serbia said that the country was being showered with praise by Brussels for its approach, and added that he hoped that Serbia’s stance was a sign that the country was becoming a “normal, fully-fledged” European country after many difficult years of transition.
Coordination between government, NGOs and individuals — often at cross-purposes on a day-to-day basis — has been impressive. The relatively high level of sympathy for the migrants is partly due to the recent memory of the Yugoslav wars, which displaced millions. Serbia is home to many Serbs who fled Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo between 1991 and 1999, as well as many of various nationalities from around the former Yugoslavia who have come to Serbia seeking a better life.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabian King Salman Offers to Build 200 Mosques in Germany for Migrants
Andre Scheuer, pictured, from the CSU party, was outraged by the offer from a country which he says should do more the accept migrants, and is creating more refugees in a war with Yemen.
[Comment: All to be led by Wahhabi imams. What could possibly go wrong?]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Slovenia Puts Up Migrant Fence
On border with Croatia
(ANSA) — Belgrade, September 21 — Slovenian police on Monday started erecting a ‘defensive’ fence at Slovenia’s border crossing with Croatia at Bregana. The aim is to stop migrants illegally and indiscriminately entering the country across fields and through woods, and instead wait in a border encampment, Croatian and Serbian media reported.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
SodaStream Offers 1,000 Jobs to Syrian Refugees at New Israeli Facility
SodaStream, the home beverage company that has been targeted by critics of Israel, has offered jobs to 1,000 Syrian refugees.
The manufacturer of sparkling water and soda makers said it would hire the refugees to work at its new plant in the southern Israeli town of Rahat, according to I24News.tv.
SodaStream and the city of Rahat can absorb 1,000 individuals or 200 families, and “provide them with an opportunity to build a new life in Israel, pending Israeli authorities’ approval,” according to a press release from the company.
Authorities are unlikely to grant approval. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far rejected all previous proposals for the country to take in refugees from Syria’s civil war.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
States Must Refuse to Take Any More Refugees
Donald Trump says we must take Syrian refugees because the situation over there is a gigantic humanitarian problem.
Yes, it is. Photos of the civil war in Syria are heartbreaking without question.
The American people need to understand the geopolitical games being played by the US that’s helped feed that years long killing spree. This isn’t the first time, either. The Praetorian Guard — The US Role in the New World Order is a book written by John Stockwell, the highest CIA officer ever to go public. It will sicken you to know how many innocent people you and I have paid for to be slaughtered in foreign countries for ‘regime change’. Always butting our nose into other countries attempting to take out a particular head of state.
Bashar al-Assad is the president of Syria. An incident in March 2011 sparked what is referred to as the ‘Arab Spring’ and efforts to throw Assad out of office began the blood shed. A full time line can be read here.
By August 2011, the criminal impostor in the White House masquerading as our president said it’s time for Assad to go. What if the president of the People’s Republic of Communist China decided it was time for a U.S. president to go and started throwing money at voters who want that U.S. president out of office. How would that sit with you?
In September 2014, the Outlaw Congress approved raping we the people unconstitutionally once again to send nearly half a billion BORROWED dollars to meddle in yet another internal conflict causing even more death and destruction. More money to rebels in Syria so their war will continue.
I hope you will read the articles below because they tell the real story of not only the US running guns from Benghazi to Syrian rebels but US involvement in growing ISIS. This is the reason I believe (as so many do) Comrade Hillary Clinton has fought so hard to hide her emails is because she is responsible for the slaughter of our U.S. Ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi. I firmly believe she not only knew about the illegal gun running she authorized it. I also believe Johnny Wino Boehner knew and did all he could to cover it up until the pressure became so great he finally authorized a special committee headed up by Trey Gowdy to investigate. The families are still waiting for justice.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Students Taught to Reconcile Faith With ‘Gay’ Behavior
(CAMPUSREFORM) — The University of California Santa Barbara has published a “Homosexuality and Religion” guide, detailing how to reconcile one’s faith with homosexual behavior.
The guide, which is part of the Sociology Department’s “Sex Info Online” website, is full of life advice such as “[i]t is 100% possible to be devout and sexually active.”
The guide claims there are three primary stances on homosexuality in regards to religion: rejectionism; love the sinner, hate the sin; and full acceptance.
Rejectionism, the guide claims, is held by Judeo-Christian denominations that embrace a “Biblical interpretation of sexuality” and “entirely objects to the idea that homosexuals deserve equal rights.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Queer Film — the Wetter, The Better?
The Cinema Queer International Film Festival, now in its fifth year, prides itself on finding unusual venues to screen films. Radio Sweden finds out what the organizers have got up their sleeves this year, and also the one ingredient that as a director of certain queer films, you might not be able to resist featuring in your movies.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Born Again Babylon: U.N. Plan to Bring in Luciferian Global State
From September 25 — 27th 2015 the United Nations will present its new fifteen-year plan entitled “Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.” Pope Francis will attend to proclaim The Gospel of “Sustainable Development,” and world leaders and the heads of powerful Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) will organize a planetary transformation so monumental that Nimrod would be proud. This UN plan masquerades as global movement that will end poverty everywhere on Earth through “sustainable development,” “social justice,” and “equal rights to economic resources.”
How do the elite globalists plan to do this? They are going to do it with socialist/Marxist wealth redistribution where through the force of “sustainable development” laws they are going to continue transferring the wealth of the hard working middle class in America and other nations to the “poor.” Pope Francis is a huge promoter of the wealth transfer from middle class Americans…who often have to work more than one job to maintain the same level of economic well-being that one job could have produced 20 years ago. The American middle class is the target of Pope Francis and the elite who are systematically lowering their standard of living and transferring their wealth. To uninformed religious leaders this superficially appears to be the Christian thing to do. But is that what is really happening?
Let’s really look at who owns the wealth on planet Earth right now. An organization named Oxfam, which is devoted to educating people about this disparity in wealth recently released information that by 2016 the elite and the very wealthy will own 99 percent of the global wealth. The combined wealth of the richest one percent will overtake that of the other 99 percent of people next year unless the current trend of rising inequality is checked, Oxfam warned today ahead of the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland which is an annual gathering of the elite. At the Forum it was disclosed that one out of every nine people are starving and more than a billion people live on less than $1.25 a day.
So if it is the 1% who own 99% of the world’s wealth and the middle class and poor own only 1% of the world’s wealth, than why is it that the hard working American middle class are the target of Pope Francis and the U.N. programs for wealth redistribution? The elite pay little or no taxes and between 2009-2014 they on average literally doubled their wealth! During that same time period the middle class suffered an approximate loss of around 45% of their wealth. All the “sustainable development,” “global warming” rules, taxes, laws, and restrictions, many of which are really coming from the United Nations, are designed to further lower the standard of living of the middle class so that soon there will just be one giant lower class and a super-upper class.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Fact and Fiction of Martian Dust Storms
For years, science fiction writers from Edgar Rice Burroughs to C. S. Lewis have imagined what it would be like for humans to walk on Mars. As mankind comes closer to taking its first steps on the Red Planet, authors’ depictions of the experience have become more realistic.
Andy Weir’s “The Martian” begins with a massive dust storm that strands fictional astronaut Mark Watney on Mars. In the scene, powerful wind rips an antenna out of a piece of equipment and destroys parts of the astronauts’ camp.
Mars is infamous for intense dust storms, which sometimes kick up enough dust to be seen by telescopes on Earth.
“Once every three Mars years (about 5 1/2 Earth years), on average, normal storms grow into planet-encircling dust storms, and we usually call those ‘global dust storms’ to distinguish them,” Smith said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |