Germany’s vice-chancellor announced that his country could absorb 500,000 refugees per year over the next few years. At the current rate of influx, that total would be reached in about six months. There’s no word where the rest of the migrants will be relocated to.
In other migration news, a French mayor says that his town is able to host some refugees, but only if they’re Christians. His remarks drew widespread condemnation in France.
In other news, today Queen Elisabeth II became the longest-reigning monarch in British history, surpassing the record set 114 years ago by Queen Victoria.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, Seneca III, 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.
German Trade Surplus Widens as Weak Euro Bolsters Exports
Import rose 2.2%, export +2,4%
(ANSA-AP) — BERLIN — German exports soared in July, outpacing an import rise to widen the country’s trade surplus as a weaker euro helped bolster trade outside the Eurozone.
The Federal Statistical Office said Tuesday exports rose 2.4 percent to 103.4 billion euros ($115.25 billion), adjusted for calendar and seasonal variations. Imports rose 2.2 percent to 80.6 billion euros for a 22.8 billion euro surplus.
The unadjusted surplus hit 25 billion euros, a new record.
German exports inside the European Union rose 6 percent over July 2014, but only 5.5 percent to the countries using the euro currency. Exports outside the EU surged 6.4 percent.
ING economist Carsten Brzeski says a weak euro has helped boost exports, especially to the U.S., which has become Germany’s single most important trading partner in the first half.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Democrats Have Votes to Filibuster: Will Republicans Protest and Litigate to Stop Iran Nuclear Pact?
Where there were five undeclared Democrat Senators on the cusp of reconvening Congress, today there is only one, Ms. Cantwell from Washington State. Three Democrat Senators: Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Gary Price of Michigan declared for the President’s position. Two of the three Democrat Senators who declared for the President position, Blumenthal and Wyden are up for re-election in 2016, while Price is not. The lone Democrat who joined with the Republican majority to oppose the Iran Pact is West Virginia Senator, Joe Manchin. In a statement released by his office, Manchin said, “I believe that to be a super power, you must possess super diplomatic skills, and I believe that we can use these skills to negotiate a better deal.” That leaves possibly 58 Senators, 54 Republicans and four Democrats opposing the Iran nuclear pact. That is two shy of the required 60 votes for cloture under the current Senate Rule 22 to cut off a filibuster. A vote on the majority resolutions rejecting the Iran pact could be scheduled as early as Thursday. That is, if the promised filibuster led by Senator Minority Democrat Leader Reid doesn’t stop the vote first…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Intel Review Backs Up Finding That Clinton Emails Had ‘Top Secret’ Information
A new review by two intelligence agencies has backed up an earlier conclusion that at least two emails on Hillary Clinton’s personal server contained “top secret” information.
The review by the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency went back to the original source documents, and follows the finding last month by the intelligence community inspector general that emails on the former secretary of state’s system contained information at the highest classification level. This included intelligence on special programs about North Korea’s nuclear weapons.
Fox News is told the CIA and NGA did the review because their intelligence was at issue. Only the intelligence agency that gets the information in the first place has the authority to determine its classification.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fishing for the First Americans
Archaeology is moving underwater and along riverbanks to find clues left by the people who colonized the New World.
On 17 September, a catamaran will set off into the Pacific Ocean on a week-long cruise back to the Pleistocene. Laden with sonar instruments, the research vessel Shearwater will probe the ocean bottom to find places that were beaches and dry land more than 13,000 years ago, when the sea level was around 100 metres lower. The researchers are hunting for evidence that ancient people lived along this now-sunken coastline as they colonized the New World.
Meanwhile, other archaeologists are digging in the intertidal zone on a remote island off the shore of British Columbia in Canada, where the sea level has barely changed since the ice-age glaciers began to retreat. Since late last year, that team has found footprints and a tool that date back 13,200 years, making them some of the oldest human marks on the continent. Whoever left them had to have reached the island by boat.
Welcome to the newest wave of American archaeology: the idea that the first residents of the Americas came by sea, hugging the Pacific coast as they went south.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ansaldo to Get Alstom’s Turbines Under GE Deal
Largest acquisition in GE history
(ANSA) — Brussels, September 8 — Italian engineering group Ansaldo will get Altsom’s high-tech, heavy-duty turbines including some research staff under a deal in which General Electric will acquire the French giant’s energy sector, the EU anti-trust authority said Tuesday. The $13.5-billion deal is the largest acquisition in GE’s history.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Austrian President Criticized for Iran Visit
Austria’s President Heinz Fischer has said he expects growing trade with Iran, after meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran — but has faced criticism for his visit.
He told a news conference that bilateral trade with Iran is expected to grow to €300 million by the end of this year, and that his country wants to boost trade with Iran as its nuclear deal with the West opened a “new chapter” in ties with other countries.
Fischer is the first European head of state to visit Iran since 2004. Austria is a neutral country that has always maintained good relations with the Islamic republic.
According to the Austrian Economic Chambers, Vienna is hoping for a five-fold increase in trade with Iran in the medium term to reach more than one billion euros.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Catalan Independence Parties Set to Win Regional Election: Poll
Pro-independence parties that want Catalonia to break away from Spain are on course to win the most seats in regional parliament elections at the end of the month, a poll published Monday showed.
The two pro-independence lists running in the September 27 polls have 46.1 percent support, which would give them 70-74 seats in Catalonia’s 135-seat assembly, well above the 68 seats needed for an absolute majority, the poll published in centre-right daily El Mundo showed.
Catalan president Artur Mas, who is seeking re-election, has said the wealthy northeastern region could begin seceding from Spain if pro-independence parties win a majority of seats in assembly in the election even if they fail to capture a majority of votes.
Mas’ “Together for the Yes” list, made up of his conservative nationalist CDC party and the leftist separatist ERC party, has 39.4 percent support which would give it 62-65 seats, the poll showed…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Astronaut Controls Robot From Space
It was one big step for man when European experts pulled off a major advance that might one day help build new worlds in space.
As part of his ten-day mission to the International Space Station, Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen performed a breath-taking experiment in which he guided a robot on Earth by feel, placing a peg into a very tight hole on Monday under the careful control of the European Space Agency.
While orbiting some 400 kilometres (250 miles) above Earth, Mogensen took control of the Interact Centaur rover which has a pair of arms for delicate, high-precision work.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Artist in Blackface Burns Confederate Flag
Danish artist and provocateur Uwe Max Jensen, perhaps best known for painting a portrait of Kim Kardishan with his penis, did a ‘happening’ in Aarhus that involved donning blackface and burning the Confederate flag.
Uwe Max Jensen, a Danish artist who enjoys both provocation and nude performances, combined both over the weekend during Aarhus Festival in Denmark’s second-largest city.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Footage Reveals Further Details of Ikea Double Murder
Surveillance camera footage shows the moments before a man stabbed to death a woman and her adult son at Ikea in Västerås, central Sweden.
CCTV footage, seen by Swedish Radio News and the major tabloids, shows how the man grabbed a knife at the Ikea kitchen supplies department. He removed the knife’s protective slip before stabbing a woman, 55, and her son, 27.
The footage does not show the actual murder, which took place on August 10th, but witnesses have said they heard several horrifying screams.
The suspect, 36, has confessed to the murders, saying that the two victims got too close to him and that it was a coincidence that he attacked them in particular.
The man was an asylum seeker and told the police that he went to Ikea soon after finding out that he would be sent back to Italy. He was disappointed, he said, and lost control inside the department store.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fresh Italo-French Row Over Mt Blanc Border
Chamonix mayor sparks protests
(ANSA) — Courmayeur, September 7 — A fresh border dispute erupted on Mt Blanc Monday between Italy and France. The mayor of Chamonix started the row by blocking access to the Gigante (Giant) glacier from the Torino refuge, saying it was French territory. This sparked protests in Courmayeur with demonstrators saying “it’s Italy up there, they have no competence”. There have been several disputes about the exact border line on Europe’s highest mountain over the last few years.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Genetics Confirm: Migrants Brought Farming to the Mediterranean
Scientists have sequenced the genomes of early farmers from Spain, confirming that they descended from the same group of migrants who brought farming to Northern Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greenland Has the Highest Number of Rapes in the World
Small town women especially at risk
No country in the world has more rapes reported to the police per capita than Greenland.
Last year, 132 rapes were reported in the country — which has just over 56,000 residents — placing it at the top of the 133 countries that report their rape figures to the UN Drugs and Crime Agency.
“It is not uncommon for Greenlandic girls to be raped,” PhD student Sidsel Karsberg told Metroxpress. “Girls in the smaller towns and villages are particularly susceptible.”
Karsberg said the problem is compounded by Greenland’s lack of focus on the problem and limited help for the victims.
Karsberg said her study of 269 young people in northern Greenland revealed that 14 percent of the girls and 3.5 percent of the boys had reported being raped.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi Reiterates Tax-Cutting Pledges
IMU, TASI, then IRES and IRPEF
(ANSA) — Rome, September 7 — Premier Matteo Renzi on Monday reiterated his plans to cut four taxes starting next year and ending in 2018.
Speaking on TV talk show Porta a Porta, Renzi reaffirmed that the municipal service tax TASI and the IMU property tax will be abolished next year .
Renzi, who has already slashed the regional tax on business IRAP, said his tax-cutting programme would continue in 2017 when the IRES business tax will be cut to 24%, “below Spain”.
Then, in 2018, “we can intervene on IRPEF (personal income tax),” he said.
Renzi has said that taxation in Italy is “over the top”.
He says taxes had to be cut to restore “social equity”.
The premier said this was not electioneering.
It was not a question of “gaining consensus”, he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: League Leader Slams Renzi for Comparing Right Wing to Beasts
Salvini says Renzi should govern instead of insulting Italians
(ANSA) — Rome, September 8 — The leader of Italy’s anti-immigrant Northern League party on Tuesday launched a fresh attack on Premier Matteo Renzi, slamming him for comments comparing right-wing supporters to beasts over their approach to migration.
On Sunday, Renzi, leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), told an audience at a political rally that in the immigration crisis, “it’s not the PD against the right, it’s humans against beasts”.
League leader Matteo Salvini told Italian Radio 24 that Renzi was a “rat” for making the allegedly insulting comments about Italians.
“You can attack Salvini, that’s ok, but if you call those who want rules on immigration beasts, then you are a rat. If you are the premier then govern, don’t insult Italians,” he said.
“Some dogs are more intelligent than some men, even some men in the government,” Salvini added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Makes Marriage Annulments Quicker and Cheaper
Francis introduces ‘fast track’ when case is clear
(ANSA) — Vatican City, September 8 — The Vatican on Tuesday announced significant changes to 300-year-old procedures on marriage annulments, including setting up a fast track where cases are clear, putting bishops in charge of cases and cutting the number of necessary trials from two to one.
The new rules will come into force on December 8 to coincide with the start of the Extraordinary Jubilee dedicated to mercy. In a motu proprio document signed on August 15, Pope Francis set out shorter procedures leading to a declaration of marriage invalidity when this is “supported by particularly evident arguments” such as lack of faith, brevity of cohabitation, abortion to stop procreation and long-lasting extramarital affairs. The local bishop will be the judge. A single sentence will be enough for a marriage to be declared invalid under the reform of canon law. Previously two sentences were needed.
The reform comes a year after Francis decided to set up a special commission to examine the annulment process over concerns that it took too long and was seen as unfair to practising Catholics.
Under the old rules first-instance trials should have lasted a year and second-instance trials no more than six months.
However, “in reality cases lasted no less than two years and sometimes five or even ten years,” Monsignor Alejandro W.
Bunge, prelate auditor of the Roman Rota, the highest appellate tribunal of the Catholic Church that previously had the last word on annulments, explained.
“However, in order for proceedings to be faster judges need to sleep a little less,” he added. Under the new system annulment trials will be free of charge except for the “fair compensation of the court workers”, the Vatican said.
Canon law on marriage annulments had been “identical for three centuries” since Benedict XIV’s reforms, Monsignor Pio Vito Pinto, deacon of the Roman Rota and president of the special commission, said Tuesday.
The pope followed the work of the commission personally and asked to be brought up to date regularly, the prelate said. Francis then took the decision to introduce the reform “with great serenity”, also because the commission had approved its final report “unanimously”, he added. Monsignor Pinto also told journalists the reform had been deliberately linked to three Marian feast days: the feast of the Assumption on August 15, the feast of the Nativity of Mary on September 8 and the feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Queen Elizabeth II Becomes Longest-Reigning UK Monarch
Queen Elizabeth II becomes Britain’s longest-reigning monarch later when she passes the record set by her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria.
The Queen will have reigned for 63 years and seven months — calculated at 23,226 days, 16 hours and approximately 30 minutes at about 17:30 BST.
Prime Minister David Cameron will lead tributes in the House of Commons and there will be a River Thames salute.
The Queen, who is 89, will spend the day on official duties in Scotland.
The exact moment the Queen reaches the milestone is not known because her father, George VI, passed away in the early hours of 6 February 1952.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spanish Court Rules Archdiocese Liable in Altar Boy Sexual Abuse Case
A Spanish court ruled Tuesday that the archdiocese of the southern city of Granada can be held civilly liable for the alleged sexual abuse of a teenage altar boy by several priests, in a case drawing intervention from Pope Francis.
Judge Antonio Moreno justified his decision on the grounds that accused Catholic priests “responded directly to the archdiocese of Granada” and because the events allegedly took place at parish headquarters.
The judge said any financial compensation which the archdiocese must pay would be established at a later date…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
‘Super-Henge’ Revealed: A New English Mystery is Uncovered
The remains of a massive stone monument, 15 times the size of Stonehenge and located just 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) away from the famous site, were recently discovered by British archaeologists.
The stone monoliths were found buried beneath the bank of the Durrington Walls “super-henge,” one of the largest-known henges in the United Kingdom, and could have been part of a huge Neolithic monument, the researchers said.
The finding, announced on Saturday (Sept. 7) at the British Science Festival in Yorkshire, could mean that everything researchers think they know about Stonehenge may need to be “rewritten,” according to Paul Garwood, a senior lecturer in archaeology at the University of Birmingham, in the United Kingdom, and the principal pre-historian for the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project — the group that discovered the stones using noninvasive, remote-sensing technologies.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Poseidon Returns to Gothenburg Harbor
The Swedish coast guard’s ship Poseidon returned to Gothenburg Tuesday morning after participating in the EU border control and rescue mission Triton on the Mediterranean sea.
The rescue mission took place between June 1st and August 31st.
In all, the ship rescued 5,295 people during the three months it was patrolling the waters between Libya and Italy. It also ferried to Italy the bodies of 53 people who perished on a wooden boat.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Volunteers Welcome Refugees in Malmö
It was a hectic night at the Swedish Migration Agency’s reception housing in Malmö, with 230 refugees arriving between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, reports news agency TT.
Only a small proportion of the tens of thousands of refugees who are coming to Germany from the East are trying to reach Sweden via Denmark.
One volunteer, Nicolas Silva, spent nine hours throughout the night and morning at the Malmö central station meeting and helping the new arrivals. Silva estimated that over 70 refugees had slept at the station. Some wept with joy at having reached Sweden, while others felt worried, according to Swedish Radio’s Malmö station.
Silva told the local station that he was not tired. “This has made me feel wide awake, because these people need our help, we know how to do this and know the rules. I see this as a positive thing, we’re doing a good deed for the new arrivals.”
Some of the refugees who arrived in Malmö on Monday and on Tuesday morning chose to continue to Stockholm or Gothenburg by train.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss to Buy Israeli Drones After Parliament Green Light
Switzerland’s parliament on Monday voted in favour of a controversial plan to buy six Israeli surveillance drones worth 250 million Swiss francs ($256 million, 230 million euros).
The upper house of the Swiss parliament approved the purchase of six unarmed Hermes 900 drones with 30 votes in favour and 12 opposed, confirming the lower chamber’s previous authorisation of the deal.
Campaigners had rallied against the deal with Israeli company Elbit Systems, urging Switzerland not to invest in Israel’s military complex due to its “systematic human rights abuses” against Palestinians.
Speaking on behalf of the minority that opposed the deal, Socialist Party representative Geraldine Savary charged Israel had used the Hermes 900 during the 2014 Gaza war, in which 2,251 Palestinians and 73 Israelis were killed…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK to Send Patients to France for Surgery
Hospital patients in the south east of England could soon be travelling over the Channel to undergo surgery in northern France as part of a new deal with French authorities. Language will not be an issue says the French hospital in Calais.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Birmingham ‘Police Kidnap Hoax’: Three Arrested
Three men, including a police officer, have been arrested following a hoax terror plot to kidnap an officer.
The West Midlands officer and two other men are being questioned on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
Police said they were given “false and malicious information” suggesting an officer was to “be kidnapped as part of a terrorist plot”.
West Midlands police were put on high alert because of the hoax.
The three Birmingham men are being questioned by anti-terrorism and anti-corruption teams.
The 28-year-old officer at Birmingham West & Central Local Policing Unit has also been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in a public office and misuse of police systems.
The other men, aged 25 and 31, are also being questioned on suspicion of conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office.
The force issued an alert to officers and staff after receiving the anonymous tip-off on 8 December last year.
It urged them to take extra precautions, including not wearing uniform during journeys to and from work.
“At a time when the national threat level was severe, the threat was considered credible and police acted swiftly to protect officers and police staff,” a police spokesman said.
| — Hat tip: Seneca III | [Return to headlines] |
Woman Wakes From Coma and Says Her Fall Off Cruise Ship Was Not a Suicide Attempt
The survivor of what investigators say was a suicide leap off a cruise ship in Norway awoke from a long coma to say she may have been pushed.
Laura Stuardo, a 53-year-old banker from Italy, miraculously survived the July 19 fall of 115 feet. She told police she fell after an argument with her boyfriend in their cabin on the Costa Fortuna luxury cruise ship, The Washington Post reported Friday, citing the Italian newspaper La Stampa.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Jews Asked Rivlin to Block Nirenstein
‘Close to Berlusconi’ says Haaretz
(ANSA) — Rome, September 8 — Italian Jewish leaders reportedly asked Israeli President Reuven Rivlin during his recent trip to Rome to block the appointment of former Italian MP Fiamma Nirenstein as Israel’s next ambassador to Rome, starting next year.
According to Haaretz, Nirenstein is viewed as having been too close to conservative former premier Silvio Berlusconi.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Palestinians Urge UN to Pressure Israel to Allow Palestinian Refugees to Go to Gaza, West Bank
The Palestinians are urging the United Nations to pressure Israel to allow Palestinian refugees caught in the Syrian conflict to travel to the West Bank and Gaza.
Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour said Israel’s “intransigence can neither be accepted nor justified” and should not be allowed “to prevent us from bringing our refugees to safety in their own homeland.”
He said in identical letters Tuesday to the Security Council, General Assembly and secretary-general that at least 480,000 Palestinian refugees remain in Syria, with more than half displaced from their refugee camps and 95 percent in need of humanitarian assistance.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Jail Sentence for Teen Who Planned to Join ISIS
An 18-year-old youth from Upper Austria has received a 15 month prison sentence after he travelled to Turkey to fight with Islamic State militants (Isis).
The court in Linz ruled that he must serve ten months of his sentence in prison, and the remaining five at home. During those five months he will be obliged to take part in projects about the dangers of Islamic extremism and will be asked to talk about his crime to schoolchildren.
The man, originally from Chechnya, came to Austria when he was eight years old. He lives with his mother, sister and stepfather in the Linz-Land district. His father was killed in the war in Chechnya.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Undeterred After Kerry Phone Call, Continues Flights to Syria
Moscow is continuing to send military cargo flights to Syria despite Secretary of State John Kerry calling his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov over the weekend to voice “concerns” about the “imminent” buildup of Russian military forces there.
Multiple U.S. officials who have reviewed the latest intelligence in Syria told Fox News that the U.S. military is tracking multiple flights of Russia’s largest military cargo plane, the Antonov An-124 Ruslan — better known by its NATO codename, “Condor.”
This includes one flight Tuesday morning into Latakia, a Syrian port city along the Mediterranean Sea controlled by the Assad regime and home to Russian military forces.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Spain Supports Dialogue With Assad
Foreign minister Margallo, in order to end war in Syria
– MADRID — Spanish foreign minister José Manuel Garcia Margallo came out in favour of dialogue with Syrian president Bashar al Assad as a means to end the war in the Arab state and counter the flight of tens of thousands of refugees.
Margallo, who was visiting Teheran, said that “it’s time to hold talks with the regime of Bashar al Assad”, the Spanish press reported.
The current political vacuum — noted the Spanish minister, quoted by El Pais — is helping the terrorist strategy of Isis jihadists.
“Whether we like it or not, that is the government sitting at the United Nations” he added “peace is always made by negotiating with the enemy”.
The Spanish minister said he was aware that Assad is not considered an interlocutor by part of the international community, but he stressed that starting talks with Damascus is necessary to avoid “greater bloodshed”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey’s Pro-Kurdish Hdp Party Offices Attacked in Ankara
A crowd has attacked the headquarters of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish HDP party, amid rising violence between Turkish forces and the militant Kurdish PKK group.
Pictures from the scene appeared to show the HDP building in the capital, Ankara, on fire.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has appealed for calm.
Earlier, Turkish ground forces crossed into Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish militants for the first time since a ceasefire with the PKK two years ago.
Turkish warplanes also launched a wave of air strikes on bases of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) in northern Iraq.
Nationalists staged rallies across Turkey on Tuesday, hours after 14 police officers were killed in a suspected PKK bomb attack on a minibus in the east of the country.
The bombing came a day after another militant attack on the Turkish military killed 16 soldiers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Forces Cross Into Iraq for Short-Term PKK Operation
‘Hor pursuit’ of rebels who killed 16 soldiers Sunday
(ANSA) — Rome, September 8 — Turkish ground forces crossed into northern Iraq for a “short-term” operation in pursuit of Kurdish rebels, a Turkish government official said Tuesday.
The troops crossed the border as part of a “hot pursuit” of PKK rebels who were involved in a roadside bomb attack that killed 16 soldiers on Sunday, the government official said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
At least 700 people from the UK have travelled to support or fight for jihadist organisations in Syria and Iraq, British police say. About half have since returned to Britain. Most of those who went to the conflict zone are thought to have joined the militant group that calls itself Islamic State.
This BBC News database details the stories of over 100 people who have died, been convicted of offences relating to the conflict or are still in the region. The information on these pages has been compiled from open sources and BBC research. Some details have been withheld for legal reasons or are unavailable.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Fumes at Bulgaria for Barring Syria-Bound Flights
Reason for refusal was “incorrect information” about flights
(ANSA-AP) — MOSCOW (AP) — A senior Russian diplomat says Bulgaria’s refusal to let Russian cargo planes bound for Syria to fly over its territory raises questions about its independence.
Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday the country is refusing to allow Russian military transport aircraft to fly through its airspace en route to Syria from Sept. 1-24. It said without elaboration the reason for the refusal was “incorrect information” about the purpose of the flights and the cargo.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov alleged that Bulgaria made the move under pressure from Washington. He said Bulgaria’s decision “raises a question about its sovereign right to make decisions about planes crossing its airspace”, according to the Interfax news agency.
Signs of an ongoing Russian military buildup in Syria have drawn U.S. concerns.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Snowden Slams Russia in Norway Awards
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden criticised Russia’s treatment of gay people and the internet as he accepted a Norwegian free speech prize.
In an acceptance speech broadcast over a video link to a ceremony for the Norwegian Academy of Literature and Freedom of Expression’s Bjornson prize on Saturday, he said that the Russian government’s actions were misguided.
“This drive that we see in the Russian government to control more and more the Internet, to control more and more what people are seeing, even parts of personal lives, deciding what is the appropriate or inappropriate way for people to express their love for one another … (is) fundamentally wrong.”
Snowden participated in the ceremony via video link from Moscow as the Norwegian government could not guarantee that he would not be extradited to the USA if he arrived in Norway.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Crisis: Is Conflict Fuelling Far-Right Threat?
The centre of Kiev became a scene of blood and broken bodies last week — as though the conflict in Ukraine’s east suddenly had been transported to the capital.
The deaths of three members of the national guard in an explosion reignited a debate over what some see as the potentially damaging influence of the country’s far-right parties and volunteer militias fighting in the country’s east.
More than 140 others were wounded in the blast, apparently caused by a grenade, during a demonstration against plans to give more autonomy to the country’s Russian-supported separatist regions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UN Climate Change Body Suffers Mammoth European Carbon Fraud
The United Nations body that oversees greenhouse gas reductions is reeling from another cap-and-trade scandal that may have put 600 million tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere — roughly speaking, the annual CO2 output of Canada or Britain — while the emissions were ostensibly suppressed, according to an independent study.
In the process, the fraudsters, largely in Russia and Ukraine, were likely able to transfer credits for more than 400 million tons of their apparently bogus greenhouse savings by April 2015 into Europe’s commercial carbon trading system — the largest in the world — thereby undermining that continent’s ambitious carbon reduction achievements.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘I Need to Go Home’: Says Italian Marine Detained in India
(AGI) New Delhi, Sept 6 — While recovering from dengue fever, Italian Marine rifleman, Salvatore Girone, renewed his wish to return to Italy. “It is important for me to go home,” he told AGI, the Italian news media, during a telephone conversation on Sunday. “I’m still convalescing and when you fall ill, you feel a greater need to go home and be with your family,” he said.
Girone, who is detained in India after a shooting incident in which two Indian fishermen died, was discharged at the end of August, after spending a few days in a New Delhi hospital.
Massimiliano Latorre, the other marine involved in the incident that has turned into a judicial Odyssey to be solved by an international arbitration tribunal, is in Italy to receive medical treatment and has been authorised to stay home until the end of January.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Tourist Falls to Death at Trolltunga Photo Shoot
An Australian student has fallen to her death while having her photo taken at Trolltunga, the spectacular rock promontory which is one of Norway’s leading tourist attractions.
The young woman, who has been identified as 24-year-old Kristi Kafcaloudis from Yandina, Australia, was posing with a group of students from the University of Bergen (UiB) when she slipped and fell several hundred meters to her death.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mexican Remittances Surpass Mexican Oil Exports
Frontera NorteSur reports that the amount of remittance money sent to Mexico by Mexicans residing in the United States has surpassed Mexican oil revenues. This gives the Mexican government even more incentive to meddle in the U.S. to keep the gates open, so Mexicans can continue to migrate at will to the United States.
Therefore, we can expect any attempt, or even proposal, by Trump or anybody else, to control the border, reduce Mexican immigration (legal or illegal) or eliminate the anchor baby loophole to be met by ferocious opposition by the Mexican elite and ruling class. That’s a given. Of course, their rhetoric is couched in the terms of human rights, spiced liberally with accusations of “racism, etc”, but the bottom line is the Mexican elite has powerful incentives to keep the country’s northern border open.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: EU Quotas ‘Only Way to Solve Refugee Crisis’
Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann has said that European Union asylum quotas are the only way to solve the ongoing refugee crisis, adding that Austria will consider withholding funds from the EU if other member states continue to oppose quotas.
Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania have rejected the idea of quotas — saying they would be futile if the EU’s outer borders cannot be defended.
As refugees continue to arrive in Vienna after crossing the Hungarian border, city authorities have said that a total of 27,000 tonnes of donations, including food, clothes and children’s toys, were taken to Westbahnhof train station over the weekend.
540 volunteers coordinated by the Catholic aid charity Caritas helped sort and distribute them. 16,000 refugees poured into the station, and a further 4,000 arrived at Vienna’s other major train station Hauptbahnhof where a team of self-organised volunteers have set up beds for refugees to rest and are distributing food, clothes and first aid.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Berlin Will Host 500,000 Refugees Per Year in Next Years
Deputy Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel announced today
(ANSA) — BERLIN — German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel announced that Germany can host 500,000 migrants a year for several years. “I think we can certainly do it with half a million people, for a few years,” he said. “I have no doubt, maybe even more”, he added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark Calls for “Crisis Talks” With Sweden
Danish prime minister Lars Lökke Rasmussen has called for “extraordinary negotiations” with Sweden as large groups of refugees tried to march from Denmark to Sweden Monday.
Denmark and Sweden are consulting on how to handle the refugees who are trying to get to Sweden from Germany via Denmark. Swedish minister for migration, Morgan Johansson, told news agency TT: “Sweden does not shut its door to anyone seeking asylum.”
According to Johansson, everyone arriving in Sweden will have their case tried in a “legal manner”. At the same time, Johansson told TT, more countries must take responsibility for solving the crisis.
On Sunday, around 50 refugees arrived by boat to Rödby in southern Denmark, with the aim of continuing to Sweden. On Monday, they began marching towards Sweden but they turned around later in the afternoon, Swedish Television News reports. At the same time, others continued marching towards Sweden.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
First Refugees Make it to Copenhagen
Over 1,000 have arrived to Denmark since Sunday
Just before midnight last night, the first train with refugees arrived at Copenhagen Central Station from Rødby in south Zealand.
The police were at hand to register about 30 people who were subsequently driven by bus to the Sandholm asylum centre. Two other people were arrested for being illegal as they didn’t wish to seek asylum.
The police estimate that over 1,000 refugees and migrants have now arrived in Denmark since Sunday evening and about 300 of those have disappeared. The authorities believe they are trying to make their way to Sweden.
“We’ve received reports that the public have transported a number of the refugees on to Sweden, despite the fact that it is actually illegal,” said Kim Kliver, a police inspector with the South Zealand and Lolland-Falster Police, according to TV2 News.
It seems that many of the refugees have made it across the Øresund Bridge. The authorities in Malmö revealed that about 230 refugees have arrived in the city since Monday.
Many have already departed again in a bid to reach Gothenburg and Stockholm.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Mayor: ‘I Only Want Christian Refugees’
The mayor of a French town has caused a storm by stating he is ready to accept refugees but on the condition they are Christians, claiming that would be enough of a guarantee they were not “disguised terrorists”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Govt Blasts Mayors’ ‘Christian Refugees Only’ Comments
The French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve condemned on Tuesday mayors in the country who have said they are only prepared to allow Christian refugees to settle in their towns.
With Europe struggling to cope with a massive influx of people fleeing violence and poverty, many from war-torn Syria, France is among a number of countries that has pledged to settle thousands of refugees within its borders.
But on Monday, Yves Nicolin, mayor of Roanne in central France, said his town would only accept refugees if they were Christians…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Frustrated Migrants Break Through Police Lines in Hungary
On the Hungarian-Serbian border (CNN) Dramatic scenes unfolded on the Hungarian-Serbian border Tuesday, as hundreds of frustrated migrants and refugees broke through police lines and ran from a holding area.
Some parents carried children on their shoulders, struggling to make their way across the rough ground near Roszke in Hungary.
As they ran across open corn and sunflower fields, police followed. But officers have not so far stopped any of the refugees.
Earlier in the day, scuffles broke out as migrants forced to wait in the holding area expressed their frustration. Many cannot understand why, having reached the European Union, they are not receiving a warmer welcome.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Germany Can Manage 500k Refugees a Year’
Germany will be able to take in 500,000 refugees a year for a few years, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s deputy Sigmar Gabriel said amid an unprecedented influx.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Prioritizes Refugee Funds as Hungary Speeds Up Fence
Europe’s diverging approaches to the refugee crisis came into focus on Tuesday, with Germany vowing to prioritize funding to aid migrants and Hungary promising to speed up work on a barrier to keep them out.
Istvan Simicsko, named Hungary’s defense minister on Monday, said the country must devote more resources to quickly fortifying a razor-wire border fence with a sturdier structure. That contrasted with comments from German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who said other spending requests will be subordinated to provide 6 billion euros ($6.7 billion) in added funds to care for the country’s largest influx of refugees since World War II.
“This is a test for Germany and Europe,” Schaeuble told lawmakers in Berlin as he laid out the government’s 2016 budget plan. “It presents all of us, the state as well as society, with the biggest challenge we’ve seen for a long time.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of Refugees ‘Disappear’ In Denmark
Danish police cannot account for hundreds of refugees who arrived in Denmark during the course of Monday.
An estimated 800-850 refugees and migrants arrived in Denmark during the course of Monday, including the first group to arrive by train in Copenhagen.
A train carrying refugees from the harbour town of Rødby arrived in the Danish capital shortly before midnight on Monday. According to TV2, Copenhagen Police registered 30 individuals, including 28 who are seeking asylum in Denmark.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hungarian Bishop Says Pope is Wrong About Refugees
BUDAPEST — Pope Francis’s message Sunday couldn’t have been clearer: With hundreds of thousands of refugees flowing into Europe, Catholics across the continent had a moral duty to help by opening their churches, monasteries and homes as sanctuaries.
On Monday, the church’s spiritual leader for southern Hungary — scene of some of the heaviest migrant flows anywhere in Europe — had a message just as clear: His Holiness is wrong.
“They’re not refugees. This is an invasion,” said Bishop Laszlo Kiss-Rigo, whose dominion stretches across the southern reaches of this predominantly Catholic nation. “They come here with cries of ‘Allahu Akbar.’ They want to take over.”
The bishop’s stark language reflects a broader spiritual struggle in Europe over how to respond to a burgeoning flow of predominantly Muslim men, women and children onto a largely Christian continent.
The pope’s call for compassion and charity is competing with a view most prominently articulated by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has cast the flow of migrants as a direct challenge to Europe’s Christian character.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
I’m Not Offering My Home to a Syrian Refugee. That Doesn’t Make Me Evil
By Julia Hartley-Brewer
I will not be offering my home to a Syrian refugee family.
You probably think that makes me a terrible person. Indeed the man I was sitting next to on a TV news programme yesterday definitely thought so.
After an on-air discussion about how Britain should deal with the Syrian refugee crisis, as soon as the cameras were switched off, he turned to me and said: “I think you are a f———ing awful person.”
He had, up until that moment, been quite nice. And, as soon as the cameras went back on, he was so again. So what had I done to prompt his extraordinary outburst?
I had made the mistake, on national television, of failing to signal my virtue by opening up my home to a Syrian refugee family and applauding others who have made that generous offer.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Löfven and Merkel: Taking in Refugees is a Question of Values, Not Numbers
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven (Social Democrat) met his German counterpart, the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, in Berlin, this afternoon to discuss how refugees who come to the EU can be distributed more fairly among the member states.
Both Löfven and Merkel have stated clearly that more countries within the union must accept take a larger responsibility for accepting refugees, and both want to institute a model that would require other countries to do so.
After the press conference with Merkel, Löfven will be flying back to Stockholm, to receive the Austrian Chancellor, Werner Faymann, to discuss the refugee crisis as well.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Crisis: Germany ‘Can Take 500,000 Asylum-Seekers a Year’
Germany can cope with at least 500,000 asylum-seekers a year for several years, Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has said.
Germany expects more than 800,000 asylum-seekers in 2015 alone — four times the 2014 figure.
Mr Gabriel reiterated that other EU states should share the burden.
The UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, says a record 7,000 Syrian refugees arrived in Macedonia alone on Monday and 30,000 migrants were on Greek islands.
The migrant influx has unsettled European governments and prompted diverse responses. Hungary’s conservative leadership is building a border fence to try to keep them out, but German politicians have expressed pride in crowds who turned out to welcome new arrivals.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Crisis: The Syrians Exploited by People-Smugglers in Turkey
With no let-up in the number of refugees desperate to leave their countries, criminal gangs are making tens of thousands of dollars every time a crowded boat tries to make it to Europe.
The BBC’s Fergal Keane reports from the Turkish coast, where secret filming reveals the extent of the illegal people-smuggling trade.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Crisis: Pakistanis, Others Dumping IDs to Become ‘Syrian’
Hajdukovo, Serbia: A Pakistani identity card in the bushes, a Bangladeshi one in a cornfield. A torn Iraqi driver’s licence bearing the photo of a man with a Saddam-style moustache, another one with a scarfed woman displaying a shy smile.
Documents scattered only metres from Serbia’s border with Hungary provide evidence that many of the migrants flooding Europe to escape war or poverty are scrapping their true nationalities and likely assuming new ones, just as they enter the European Union.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway ‘Refugees Welcome’ Group Hits 80k
More than 80,000 Norwegians have joined the Facebook group, “Refugees welcome to Norway”, which people use to share ideas on how to help refugees come to the country.
“It’s as if we discovered that goodwill and community spirit can be conveyed into practical action,” Jan Vardøen, a writer, musician and director, who helps feed refugees with left-over food from restaurants, told the Oslo Osloby news site.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Salvini Says Pope Should Appeal to Help Destitute Italians
Northern League leader notes Church financed by taxpayers
(ANSA) — Milan, September 7 — Anti-immigrant Northern League leader Matteo Salvini poured scorn on an appeal by Pope Francis for people to welcome migrants, saying he hoped the pontiff felt the same way about helping destitute Italians.
“I don’t want to polemicise with the Holy Father,” snorted the raucous politician, speaking to Radio Padania.
“But who knows if his appeal to welcome immigrants in the parishes is valid also to shake the consciences of right-thinking goody goodies over the thousands of Italians in difficulty who sleep in their cars,” said Salvini.
“And then of course the Church gets its cash largely in Italy from the 8 per 1000,” Salvini said, referring to the system whereby Italians can devolve part of their income tax payments to the Catholic Church.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Warns of Jihadist Infiltration Threat With ‘Avalanche’ Of Refugees
Spain’s interior minister on Monday called for tighter controls to prevent members of the armed jihadist group Isis from infiltrating the “avalanche” of refugees arriving in Europe from Syria.
“The vast majority are refugees fleeing war, terror, but we can’t forget the Daesh is over there and these barbarians have shown that they are capable of carrying out their threats,” Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz told daily ABC using the Arabic acronym for the group.
“How can we doubt that, among this avalanche people who are not refugees could infiltrate themselves,” he added in the interview published in the conservative newspaper.
“Besides it is obvious that these people are fleeing above all Syria and Daesh is established there,” he added.
“Spain will not refuse the right of asylum to anyone,” Diaz told ABC before adding that “controls must be strengthened to welcome these people”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Democrats Excluded From Refugee Crisis Talks
Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven has invited all parliamentary party leaders except the Sweden Democrats’ Jimmie Åkesson to talks about the refugee crisis.
The talks will be held this Wednesday and, speaking to Swedish Television News, Löfven’s press spokesperson, Anne Ekberg, confirmed that Åkesson has not been invited.
The aim of the meeting is to the discuss the current crisis, rather than to debate Sweden’s overall migration and integration policies. The party leaders will consider what the crisis means for Sweden and what initiatives the country should push for in the EU, news agency TT reports.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Crisis: As Gulf States Close Their Doors to Refugees, UN Special Envoy Pleads for Peace
Arab nations have failed to adopt a refugee policy fearing demographic imbalances and infiltration by Assad loyalists. Expert warns that the demands of Western diplomats are going unheard. For UN envoy Staffan de Mistura, without peace refugee flow will continue.
Beirut (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Images of Syrian refugees crowding border posts and railway stations, or cramming buses and trains, not to mention the picture of three-year-old Alan Kurdi lying dead on a Turkish beach, have sparked a worldwide outcry. However, despite cultural, religious and linguistic proximity, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have by and large kept their doors closed to Syrian refugees.
At a time when the crisis is getting worse, the West is trying to figure out how to respond to the emergency caused by the war, a war in which some European countries and the United States are active belligerents. By contrast, Arab countries have shut their borders to avert “an invasion”.
At the individual level, Arabs have shown great generosity towards Syrian refugees. Individual charitable collections have totalled hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some workers at some national companies, like Qatar Petroleum, have made a monthly donation deducted from their pay.
However, for Michael Stephens, from the London-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), “providing food and shelter for people living in camps was a solution for yesterday’s problem. The most pressing issue is now finding hundreds of thousands of people somewhere to live”.
In a piece published on the BBC News website, Stephens said that the Gulf States lack an “explicit policy” vis-Ã -vis refugees; only migrant workers with work permits have been able to enter these countries.
Although Saudi Arabia says it has let in 500,000 since 2011 when an uprising against President Bashar al Assad broke out, not much has been done for refugees. “The policy has not yet changed, with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE in particular extremely concerned about the potential for Assad loyalists to strike back.”
What is more, “the influx of thousands of Syrians at once” is seen as a threat to “a highly delicate demographic balance that the Gulf states rely on to keep functioning.”
Places like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Emirates operate on the basis of “a high turnover of low and high skilled labour, which allows the native Gulf Arab populations to maintain their dominant status without being overrun by Arabs from other countries, or South Asian labourers.”
Hence, “the idea of thousands of foreigners coming in, without employment or any definite return date, is deeply uncomfortable for Gulf states.”
At the same time, Gulf elites blame the mess on the West for not doing “something sooner to deal with Mr Assad and his regime.” In view of this, “Pleas from Western diplomats are likely to fall on deaf ears.”
For his part, the UN special envoy for Syria warned Monday that many thousands more refugees would flee to Europe if the international community fails to reach a peace accord.
“Why are people leaving? Because they have lost hope after five years of endless conflict and they see only one winner, Daesh,” said UN envoy Syria Staffan de Mistura, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
De Mistura said up to one million more people could be at risk in western Syria, potentially adding to the flood of refugees already seeking safety in the European Union.
Some 11 million Syrians have been displaced from their homes by the conflict, which began in March 2011, with four million becoming refugees. The conflict itself has now claimed nearly 250,000 lives.
“It is time to find a solution,” De Mistura said; “otherwise there will not be any Syrians left.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The 5 Awkward Questions They Won’t Answer About the Drowned Boy, Syria and Our ‘Moral Duty’
by James Delingpole
What’s the truth behind the story of the drowned boy Aylan Kurdi?
There’s just so much that doesn’t add up. Starting with the fact that the boy’s name is actually Alan Shenu. His father Abdullah claims he and his family were fleeing the fighting in his ‘home town’ Kobani.
Yet according to the Guardian they have been living in Turkey for three years — long before the fighting in Kobani started or indeed ISIS really existed — and before that in Damascus.
In Turkey, their rent appears to have been paid for by a sister in Canada and they had over $4,400 in cash so they were in no immediate danger. Abdullah’s accounts of his motives, of his intentions and what actually happened are wildly inconsistent. In some versions he was heading for Sweden.
In others he was off to Canada (which had already once denied his asylum application), where his sister said he intended to have his teeth fixed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Greek Island Turns Into War Zone as Syrian and Afghan Migrants Clash
The Greek island of Lesbos has been turned into a war zone by rioting migrants, leaving the island’s 85,000 residents in despair. Around 25,000 migrants are currently camped out on the island with hundreds more arriving daily, leading to frequent violent clashes and rioting despite their claim to be fleeing violence.
Located just 6 miles from the Turkish shore, the migrants come over in inflatable boats which they cut up on arrival to prevent being turned back, expecting to be able to quickly travel on by ferry to mainland Europe, German station RTL has reported.
Instead, they are being held on the Island while the police issue emigration documents, a delay which can take days. The wait is causing tension between groups as Afghans accuse Syrians of getting preferential treatment by the authorities, leading to vicious violent clashes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Early Abortions More Common in Sweden
New statistics from the Swedish Board of Health and Welfare show that women are having earlier abortions, with half carried out before the seventh week of pregnancy.
Last year, 50 percent of abortions in Sweden were carried out before the seventh week of pregnancy, compared to 41 percent in 2012, which was the last time statistcs were collected. In 1983, only three percent of abortions were performed before the seventh week.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EP Urges Italy OK for Civil Unions
Italy among 9 countries without relevant laws
(ANSA) — Strasbourg, September 8 — The European Parliament on Tuesday urged nine member States including Italy to “consider the possibility of offering” gay couples juridical institutions like “cohabitation, registered de facto unions and marriage”. The request was contained in a survey of the state of application of basic rights approved by the EP. A bill on civil unions has been before the Italian parliament for a couple of years. It does not meet all the demands of the LGBT community. Mayors across Italy have been registering gay marriages contracted abroad in protest against the lack of a law.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Bringing the immigrants into Europe is part of the agenda for de-stabilising cultural cohesion . The Jihadis are welcomed too by the Left so as to add to the speed of de-stabilisation . The public will need to be bombed , hi-jacked , murdered , raped and intimidated on a large scale before the tide will turn proper . In the meantime our borders are open to hundreds of thousands if not millions of opportunists . And the Leftwing man and woman on the street swallow it hook ,line and sinker into oblivion. The killing fields are open . Welcome to the jungle .
Post-Modern PC Europeans and Islam entirely agree on one point. They both absolutely detest the followers of Christ, whose core teaching was to treat others as you wish to be treated.
Post-modern victimology gives self-appointed ‘victims’ the right to hate and despise everyone not belonging to their identity group.
Islam gives their followers the right to kill all infidels if they refuse to convert to Islam.
What is the difference between the two? NOTHING!
An astute observation!