For the third straight night, French police have clashed with rioters in the “Jungle”, a makeshift migrant camp outside Calais. 250 police have been deployed against the migrants, most of them riot police. Meanwhile, Sweden has found it increasingly difficult to cope with the flood of “refugees”, and has temporarily reintroduced border controls to limit the flow.
In other news, Monday’s murder of two Americans at a police training center in Jordan is being celebrated by jihad supporters on social media.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, FD, Fjordman, Insubria, LP, 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.
Fitch Downgrades Kiev Foreign-Currency Rating to Default
Fitch Ratings said Wednesday it had downgraded Kiev’s long-term issuer default rating (IDR) in foreign currency from ‘C’ to ‘D’ (Default).
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The decision was made after the Ukrainian capital missed payment on $250 million Eurobonds and pending the activation of the cross-default clause on $300 million Eurobonds.
Earlier in the day, Standard & Poor’s ratings agency downgraded Kiev’s long-term foreign currency rating from ‘CC’ to ‘D’ as well.
The city found itself on a pre-default ratings status or ‘restricted default’ (RD) on September 18, failing to meet the criteria of the banks’ subordinated debt restructuring.
In early October, Kiev imposed a moratorium on foreign-debt payments.
On November 5, Ukraine’s Finance Ministry agreed on the terms of restructuring of Kiev’s Eurobonds of $550 million, which assumed their exchange for sovereign bonds with a grace period of four years.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Eight Largest Publishing Groups ‘Lost 1.9bn in 5 Yrs’
Advertising down, circulation up
(ANSA) — Milan, November 10 — Turnover is down at Italy’s eight leading publishing and media groups, a study by Mediobanca investment bank showed Tuesday. Overall turnover fell 1.9 billion euros to 4 billion euros in the past five years, with losses of 1.8 billion euros. Advertising income fell from 35% to 31% while circulation rose from 36% to 44%.
Among the top three groups, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. outstripped RCS MediaGroup in terms of earnings, posting income of 1.4 billion against RCS’ 1.1 billion.
RCS — which owns Il Corriere della Sera paper — holds the largest nationwide daily newspaper market share, or 17.3%. Gruppo Editoriale L’Espresso SpA — owner of La Repubblica newspaper and L’Espresso news magazine among others — has the largest local newspaper market share at 20.3% and is also the only media and publishing groups posting accumulated net profit uninterruptedly from 2010 to 2015, according to Mediobanca.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: 12-Mth BOT Yield Below Zero for First Time
Down to -0.03% from 0.023% in October
(ANSA) — Rome, November 11 — For the first time ever yields fell below zero at a 12-month BOT Treasury bond auction Wednesday.
The average yield fell to -0.03%, from 0.023% at the last such auction a month previously.
The yields of shorter-term BOTs and other government paper have slipped below zero recently.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Private-Sector Loans Dropped 0.5% in September Says Bank of Italy
Loans to families rise 0.4% year on year
(ANSA) — Rome, November 10 — Private-sector loans in September fell by 0.5% over the same month in 2014, the Bank of Italy said Tuesday. Loans to families rose by 0.4% year on year, while those to non-financial businesses dropped by 0.9%, the central bank said.
The Bank of Italy said recently that private-sector loans would return to growth in the first half of 2016.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK Unemployment Falls While Working Poor Set to Soar
Unemployment in the UK has fallen faster than the Bank of England predicted, dipping to 5.3 percent — the lowest level since the financial crisis hit Europe in 2008. But despite the drop in jobless numbers, wage increases have slowed to 2.5 percent.
The UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the total of what people earned — including bonuses only rose by 3 percent between July and September this year. In September alone, wages only grew by 2 percent — which in financial figures is a sharp slowdown from the 3.2 percent in August.
The number of people working in Britain rose by 177,000 taking the total employment rate in the UK to 73.7 percent — the highest since records began.
ONS figures also reveal the number of EU migrants working in Britain increased by 324,000 to just over 2 million in the last year — also the highest since records began.
Overall, the number of people working in Britain over the last year has risen to 31.2 million, that is 419,000 more than a year ago. The European Union’s unemployment rate is 5.3 percent.
Meanwhile, the UK’s in or out of work numbers are fueling the debate over whether Britain will be better in or out of the European Union.
Figures from Oxford University’s Migration Observatory reveal that that number of foreign born people working in the UK increased from 2.9 million to 6.6 million in 2014. The share of those employed in Britain grew from 3.5 percent in 1993 to 10.5 percent in 2014.
David Cameron recently stated: “I am not saying for one moment that Britain couldn’t survive outside the European Union,” adding that the UK was “the fifth largest economy in the world, the fastest growing economy in the G7 last year and the biggest destination for foreign investment in the EU.”
However, in the same speech, Mr Cameron couldn’t resist a swipe at the number of EU migrants living in Britain claiming benefits like tax credits.
“At any one time, around 40 percent of all recent European Economic Area migrants are supported by the UK benefits system with each family claiming on average around US$10,000 (£6,000) a year in work benefits alone and over 10,000 recently-arrived families claiming over US$15,000 (£10,000) a year.
“We need to restore a sense of fairness, and reduce this pull factor subsidised by the taxpayer.”
But a reform to Britain’s welfare system to stop migrants accessing it will also penalize British citizens accessing the same benefits, including tax credits. People working in Britain, whether they are born here or not and receive tax credits, do so because they are poorly paid. The credits are a government subsidy to top up low wages.
However, Tax credits have become a thorn in the Tory party’s side. Chancellor George Osborne wanted to scrap them to help save US$18 million (£12bn) — and parliament agreed. But the House of Lords voted to stop the government from going ahead with the cull, citing fears it would push the poorest people living in Britain further into poverty.
And now former Prime Minister Gordon Brown is wading into the debate. The ex-Labour PM has called the cuts “frightening”. Brown introduced working tax credits as chancellor in 2003 and says to cut them now, would hurt the working poor and “undermine everything Britain stands for.”
Mr Brown also predicts that the number of children in poverty will “reach its highest peak” in 2020, if Osborne’s tax credit reforms go through.
Unemployment figures may be falling — but with slow wage increases and anti-EU migrant benefit cuts looming, the gap between Britain’s working poor — and those in work — is set to get even bigger.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Unicredit Set to Axe 18,200 Jobs, 6,900 in Italy
Bank presents new three-year plan
(ANSA) — Milan, November 11 — Italian bank UniCredit is poised to cut 18,200 jobs by 2018 including through the sale of its Ukraine subsidiary and a joint venture involving its Pioneer unit, the group said Wednesday. Some 6,900 of the job cuts will be made in Italy. The three-year plan approved by the board of directors also includes cost-containment measures worth 1.6 billion euros and the sale or restructuring of low-profitability businesses in Austria and Italy by the end of 2016. In a statement, UniCredit said the plan sets a profit target of 5.3 billion euros. The bank, Italy’s largest by assets, plans to close 800 branches in Italy, Austria and Germany by the end of 2018, according to the new plan. At that point, it will have 111,000 full-time staff, the plan said.
Also part of the plan is a joint venture of UniCredit’s Pioneer asset management operations with the Santander banking group.
“We have approved a plan that is rigorous and serious and at the same time ambitious,” CEO Federico Ghizzoni said. “In particular it is realistic because it is based on actions that depend on our management choices and is completely self-financed,” he added. On Wednesday Unicredit posted a profit of over 1.5 billion euros for the first nine months of the year, down 16.1% over the same period in 2014. The 400-million-euro devaluation of its Ukraine subsidiary and the conversion to euros of loans in Swiss Francs in Croatia negatively impacted its performance.
The third-quarter results also include an expected continued fall in non-performing loans, to some 50.6 billion euros.
Shares in the lender extended earlier gains after the release of the business plan to trade up more than 3%. UniCredit is the latest major European bank to launch an overhaul to boost profits and increase capital.
UniCredit Group is an Italian global banking and financial services company with a network spanning 50 markets in 17 countries.
Its strategic position in Western and Eastern Europe gives the group one of the region’s highest market shares. The company is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
GOP Candidates Clash on Immigration, Defense at 4th Debate
The Republican presidential candidates fighting to break out of the middle tier stepped up their game at Tuesday night’s prime-time debate, scrapping with their rivals over everything from Donald Trump’s deportation plan to the role of the U.S. military.
The Fox Business Network/Wall Street Journal debate — the fourth on the calendar — in turn served to expose deep differences within the still-crowded field.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former HP CEO Carly Fiorina and others staked out a no-apologies stance in support of a stronger U.S. military. And they sparred with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who repeatedly argued against military spending and intervention and questioned how Rubio could call himself a conservative while supporting bigger budgets.
“I want a strong national defense, but I don’t want us to be bankrupt,” Paul said, while Rubio called him a “committed isolationist.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Luxottica to Open 500 Outlets in Macy’s Stores
Italian eyewear giant ups cooperation with US chain
(ANSA) — Milan, November 11 — Italian eyewear giant Luxottica on Wednesday signed a three-year deal to open up to 500 outlets of its LensCrafters brand in Macy’s department stores in the US.
The agreement builds on a successful relationship between the two companies that has resulted in the opening of approximately 670 of Luxottica’s Sunglass Hut locations within Macy’s stores to date. Together, Macy’s and Sunglass Hut have more than tripled the size of the sunglass business at Macy’s in the past six years. LensCrafters, a leader in quality eye care, will now be the exclusive optical retailer of Macy’s and the first optical retail brand to expand nationally in a major department store. Macy’s will be the exclusive department store host of LensCrafters shops. LensCrafters will open its first new Macy’s location in April of 2016, with the goal of opening approximately 100 locations by the end of next year.
“Macy’s and Luxottica have a successful history together.
Our relationship is built around a shared mission of providing customers with the highest quality products, a passion for style and a broad brand portfolio able to meet diverse consumer choices,” said Adil Khan, CEO of Markets, Luxottica Group. “The optical retail industry has incredible growth potential in North America and we see this agreement as a long-term investment in our customers’ eyes. Macy’s has a highly-engaged, influential customer — we will serve them to the highest standard with an optical experience that is uniquely LensCrafters,” said Khan.
“We look forward to welcoming LensCrafters into Macy’s stores nationwide and to deepening our successful relationship with Luxottica,” said Jeff Gennette, president of Macy’s, Inc. “In particular, LensCrafters reinforces Macy’s commitment to the health and wellness of our customers. Eye health is critical to everyone’s personal well-being, and easy in-store access to LensCrafters optometrists, personalized service and fashionable product assortment dovetail well with Macy’s strengths. As with Sunglass Hut, LensCrafters will enhance the productivity of our stores and strengthen Macy’s as a shopping destination.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Most Distant Solar System Object Yet Could Hint at Hidden Planet
The inky black of the outer solar system just got a little brighter. A speck of light spotted in October 2015 is a rocky world more than 3 times more distant than Pluto — the farthest body in our solar system ever seen.
“We don’t know anything about its orbit,” says Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institute of Washington, whose team discovered the new addition. “We just know it’s the most distant object known.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pandemonium! Motion of Pluto’s Moons Perplexes Scientists
The orbits of Pluto’s four smallest moons are even more chaotic than scientists had expected, according to new results from the New Horizons mission, which made a close flyby of Pluto in July.
“The way I would describe this system is not just chaos, but pandemonium,” Mark Showalter, a co-investigator on the New Horizons mission, said today (Nov. 9) during a news conference at the meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. “We honestly have not seen anything like this before, and we still don’t know what to make of it.”
The new results show that as the four moons orbit Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, some of them are spinning incredibly fast, one is spinning backward against its orbit and some are tilted on their sides. This is in stark contrast to nearly every other moon in Earth’s solar system, most of which are locked into a more rigid and unmoving orbit around their parent bodies, making Pluto’s moons the wild children of the solar system.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Shariahville, USA: Cities ‘Surrender’ To Islam
A city on the outskirts of Detroit known since 1920 as a thriving Polish community has been fully transformed by globalism and the federal government’s Islamic immigration program.
The bulk of the change has occurred over the past 20 years, but it started in the 1970s with the globalization of the auto industry and mass immigration.
Hamtramck, known affectionately as “Poletown” by Detroiters and Michiganians for its bustling district of Polish restaurants, markets and beautiful Catholic churches, last week become the nation’s first city to elect a Muslim-majority city council — sending three Muslims to join one incumbent who was not up for re-election.
In butcher shops that once offered juicy Polish sausages in refrigerated display cases, female customers wearing hijabs now purchase halal meats blessed by an imam.
The sound of church bells has given way to the chant of a Muslim holy man giving the call to prayer in Arabic.
Many of the storefronts have been converted to mosques, and the call to prayer is blasted over loudspeakers five times a day. Poletown has been transformed. Some critics in neighboring communities call it Shariahville.
Within hours of the historic election last week, a Muslim political organizer was caught on video giving a chilling warning: “Now we show the Polish and everybody else,” he said.
And it’s spreading. The city of Sterling Heights, about 14 miles to the north of Hamtramck, is on the front lines of a contentious battle between the Muslim community with its progressive backers, and those who would rather not see their city transformed in the image of Hamtramck…
| — Hat tip: FD | [Return to headlines] |
Summerville Man Dies, N. Charleston Man Arrested After Shootout With 13-Year-Old
A 13-year-old Ladson boy fended off two would-be burglars by using his mother’s gun to protect himself while home alone Tuesday.
He killed one of them in an exchange of gunfire, and the second suspect was later arrested, according to the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office.
Lamar Anthwan Brown, 31, of Summerville, died at Trident Medical Center of gunshot wounds, according to Charleston County Chief Deputy Coroner Bobbi Jo O’Neal. He was dropped off at the hospital by the second suspect, Ira Bennett, after fleeing the Elderwood Drive home where the shooting took place, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Bennett, 28, of Kent Avenue in North Charleston has been charged with first-degree burglary and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.
The boy was not injured in the shootout, and his mother said she is just thankful he is all right.
“I’m speechless right now,” she told The Post and Courier after the incident. “Who knows how this would have turned out.”
The newspaper is not identifying any family members because the boy is a minor.
The attempted burglary unfolded just before 1:30 p.m. at the Woodside neighborhood residence, where the boy said he became suspicious after seeing a vehicle pull up behind the house, according to an arrest affidavit.
The boy saw a man try to break into the back of the home, “at which time he feared for his safety” and grabbed his mother’s pistol, the document states. He began firing at the man, and the Sheriff’s Office reported that the man returned fire.
The two suspects then fled, and as they drove away, the boy continued shooting at them, according to the affidavit.
Brown had been shot three times, and Bennett drove him to the hospital. The gray Chevy Sonic they were in had bullet holes in it, the affidavit states.
Bennett allegedly told officials that someone shot at his vehicle while driving on the interstate…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Ted Cruz is Right: The Muslim Brotherhood is a Terrorist Organization
by Andrew C. McCarthy
‘The Muslim Brotherhood youth in Egypt reject any form of violence.” So said Rachid Ghannouchi, who — you’ll no doubt be stunned to hear — heads up the Muslim Brotherhood’s Tunisian branch, Ennahda. Naturally, Ghannouchi gave his Egyptian confederates a clean bill of health while speaking as an invited guest of the U.S. Institute for Peace in Washington. He is a master of the Brotherhood game, consulted by the State Department and a bipartisan Beltway clerisy ever on the hunt for that elusive “moderate Islamist.” He is an Islamic supremacist who knows he can worm his way into Washington’s heart by whispering sweet nothings about “democracy,” “pluralism,” and their seamless compatibility with sharia — Islam’s authoritarian, discriminatory, and brutally punitive legal code and societal framework.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘The Biggest Sham’: Sheriffs Fume at Mass Release of 6,000 Federal Inmates
Local sheriffs across America are voicing concern for the safety of the citizens they’ve sworn to protect after the biggest one-time release of federal inmates in U.S. history — though advocates of criminal justice reform maintain the release is being handled responsibly.
The 6,112 inmates were released from federal prison at the beginning of November in response to a decision by the U.S. Sentencing Commission to reduce sentences for most drug trafficking offenses and apply them retroactively. It coincides with a broader and bipartisan push for rethinking federal sentencing.
But the mass release raises immediate practical questions about how the ex-inmates can adjust.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian University Fees Among Highest in Europe
German students pay ‘a third of what Italians pay’
(ANSA) — Rome, November 10 — Italian university fees are among the highest in Europe, the student network Link- University Coordination said Tuesday.
The problem is compounded by new rules governing the ISEE calculation, an indicator of the economic situation of families that also forms the basis for the calculation of university fees. These have led to a rise in university fees for many students, Link said. “The effects of the ISEE only aggravate an already critical situation,” continued the network, citing the Eurydice report ‘National Student Fee and Support System in European Higher Education 2015/2016’ that puts Italy in third place for the level of university taxation in Europe. This translates into average fees of 1,220 euros per student, Link said.
Students in Germany pay a third of the amount, it added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Venice Mayor Says Banana Tree Dweller Comments a ‘Mistake’
Luigi Brugnaro backtracking after accusations of racism
(ANSA) — Venice, November 10 — Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro admitted Tuesday that purportedly racist comments he made on television had been a “mistake” but said he found media coverage of the incident “diminishing”.
On Saturday, Brugnaro told Televenezia local private broadcaster the city needs “a grand educational plan for our kids…because we’re different from people living in banana trees”.
“What I mean is we have 1,000 years of civilisation behind us,” he went on. The comments sparked accusation of racism, to which he replied in two tweets.
“No negative thoughts directed at anyone in particular, just urging parents to be more involved in their children’s education. We’re not savages!” he tweeted. “I repeat and confirm we must educate our children because we don’t live on trees like primitive people,” he tweeted later.
Brugnaro backtracked on Tuesday.
“Obviously I made a mistake, but I find dwelling and providing coverage on the issue diminishing,” Brugnaro said. Brugnaro, who hails from Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right Forza Italia (FI) party, won a run-off vote last summer with backing from the anti-immigrant, anti-euro Northern League party. As soon as he took office in June, he called for the government to impose a naval blockade against migrants “who are departing from all over Africa as we speak”.
In August, he had a run-in with Sir Elton John — who owns a home in Venice and has two children with his partner David Furnish — after the British musician accused him of being “boorishly bigoted” in banning books about homosexuality from the city’s schools.
“Beautiful Venice is indeed sinking, but not as fast as the boorishly bigoted Brugnaro,” the British star said.
“Fora i schei (cough up the money)” Brugnaro tweeted back in Venetian dialect, meaning “I challenge you to give real resources to save Venice”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: One in Three Students Say Education No Help for Future
One in three ‘wouldn’t hire themselves’
(ANSA) — Rome, November 10 — One in three Italian students believes their studies won’t be useful to them in the future, a study by Deloitte and Nextplora showed Tuesday.
As well, one in three students interviewed said they would not hire themselves if they were a business owner, while one in four replied that they did not know what line of work they want to go into.
Hard work was rated as the most important factor to guarantee success in life, followed by luck, talent, knowledge and, in fifth place, education.
About 41% of students pointed to the lack of business involvement in schools as a negative factor.
Companies share this view, believing that students’ first contact with business comes too late.
The quality of education was viewed positively by 50% of parents and 40% of teachers who also took part in the study.
However, many respondents felt it had worsened over time.
About 83% of Italian teachers were satisfied with their job. The study also showed Italy’s teachers make more of an effort than their European peers to participate in further training.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ex-Catechist Gets Prison for Molesting Teens
Binding sentence of three years four months
(ANSA) -Bergamo, November 9 — Italy’s supreme Cassation Court on Monday upheld two guilty verdicts against a former catechist, sentencing him to three years four months in prison for sex acts with minors.
Carilio Ghilardi, 56, a native of the town of Sorisole in Bergamo province, was found guilty of sexually abusing three 15-year-old boys in October 2010-September 2011.
The victims said he molested them in cars while giving them rides home, and on a day trip to Naples.
The court also awarded the family of one of the victims, which was a civil plaintiff in the case, damages of 50,000 euros. The sentence is binding.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Bertone Denies Using Hospital Funds for Penthouse Renovation
Claims contained in Vatileaks 2 book
(ANSA) — Genoa, November 11 — Former Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone on Wednesday denied allegations he renovated his penthouse apartment with money from a foundation linked to Bambin Gesu children’s hospital in Rome.
The allegations are documented in the book Avarice by L’Esprsso journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi, which was published in Italy last Thursday.
“I used my savings,” Bertone wrote in Genoa-based Catholic weekly Il Cittadino.
“I have the paperwork to prove I paid roughly 300,000 euros to the Vatican governorate from my own account.” “I later discovered that the Bambin Gesu’ Foundation had made a contribution for the same purpose,” he continued. “I rule out having ever given indication or authorised the foundation to make any payment,” the cardinal said.
Last week Cardinal Bertone told Corriere della Sera newspaper he didn’t live in luxury. “The apartment measures 296 square metres and I don’t live there on my own. I live with a community of nuns who help me,” the prelate said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Some 500,000 Euros Seized From Ex-Montecassino Abbot
Seizure amount equivalent to allegedly misappropriated funds
(ANSA) — Rome, November 11 — Italian finance police on Wednesday took action to seize assets worth 500,000 euros from the former abbot of Montecassino, Pietro Vittorelli, and his brother Massimo, ANSA sources said. The sum corresponds to the amount of money Vittorelli allegedly misappropriated from the accounts of Montecassino Abbey during his time in charge.
The former abbot, 53, allegedly laundered the misappropriated funds by passing them through various bank accounts managed by his brother, a financial broker.
Vittorelli became abbot in 2007, but in 2012 suffered a serious heart attack, and in 2013 resigned as abbot citing health reasons.
He entered the abbey in 1989 after obtaining a medical degree, and in 2003 served as a member of the Frosinone health department’s bioethical committee.
Last September Vittorelli participated in a convention of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia party in Fiuggi.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Two Journalists Probed in VatiLeaks 2
Vatican opens investigation into leaked APSA document
(ANSA) — Rome, November 11 — Journalists Emiliano Fittipaldi and Gianluigi Nuzzi are being investigated in connection with a Vatican probe into alleged classified document leaks in a scandal dubbed Vatileaks 2, ANSA learned Wednesday.
They authored the books Avarice and Merchants in the Temple, documenting alleged waste and mismanagement in the Vatican and lavish spending by clergymen.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said earlier in the day that Holy See have opened an investigation into leaked documents concerning the Vatican’s finance and real estate management agency, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See (APSA).
“In recent days articles have appeared (in the media) referring in a partial and inaccurate way to contents of a confidential document, positing that APSA was used in the past for illicit financial activities,” the Vatican said in a press release.
“The Vatican judicial authority has opened an investigation into the distribution of that document”.
APSA is cooperating with the relevant authorities and is not being investigated, the press release added.
APSA held assets worth 998 million euros in 2013, including an investment portfolio worth over 475 million euros, according to figures contained in a new book on the Vatican’s financial affairs to be published last week.
Unlike the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR) — commonly known as the Vatican Bank — APSA’s budget “is not part of the public domain”, L’Espresso news magazine journalist Fittipaldi pointed out in his new book Avarice.
Fittipaldi claims APSA acts like a credit institution, and cites budget entries detailing loans to banks to the tune of 162.7 million euros, 24.5 million dollars, 8 million pounds, 4.5 million Swiss francs and 29.2 million yen.
The book also exposes alleged money wastage on consultancies for projects that never materialised at Bambin Gesu’, a Rome pediatric hospital operating under the auspices of the national health system on an extraterritorial area administered by the Holy See.
Concerns were initially raised by auditors at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Avarice claims.
The auditors also reportedly pointed the finger at commercial activities that were allegedly “incoherent” with the original mission of the hospital, which was founded to treat poor children in Rome.
These include control of Clinical & Research Services srl and Xellbiogene srl, a biotechnology firm run together with Milan’s Catholic University specialising in genetic research.
Founded in 2013, it was wound up two years later.
Other concerns were expressed over donations to the hospital and assets building up in accounts at the IOR and APSA.
In related news, a top Vatican court on November 4 placed Finnat Bank Euramerica SpA President Gianpietro Nattino under investigation following a report by the Vatican Financial Information Authority (AIF).
The court requested the collaboration of Italy and Switzerland in the investigation into bank transactions and trades, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said.
Nattino was named in a Reuters news agency report on alleged money laundering, insider trading and market manipulation involving APSA.
The 33-page AIF report said APSA may have been used by people outside the Vatican, with the possible complicity of APSA staff.
AIF investigators found a portfolio of over two million euros allegedly connected to Nattino, the contents of which were moved to Switzerland just before new laws against money laundering were introduced in the Vatican.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Mediaset Falls 8% on Increased Costs
Higher costs could hit profits for 2015, 2016
(ANSA) — Milan, November 11 — Shares in Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset media group fell 8% on the Milan bourse Wednesday after reporting increased operational costs that could hit already slim profit forecasts for this year and next.
The company tumbled from five-year highs after a string of investment banks issued negative reports.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Elderly Woman Dies After Being Beaten by Burglars
84-year-old surprised robbers in action at her home
(ANSA) — Ferrara, November 11 — Cloe Govoni, an 84-year-old woman who was badly beaten by two burglars she surprised in action at her home in the province of Ferrara last week, died overnight, ANSA sources said Wednesday. Two operations to try to reduce a severe brain haemorrhage at the S.Anna di Cona hospital proved futile. Govoni was beaten along with her Romanian daughter-in-law Maria Humeiuc, 53, who was also hospitalised with serious injuries, although she is no longer in a life-threatening condition. The attackers, two Romanians, were arrested after making off with 90 euros in cash and some jewellery following the incident in the village of Renazzo.
The alleged assailants, Constantin Grumeza, 22, and Leonard Veissel, 26, were facing charges of robbery and attempted homicide, but Govoni’s death is set to make their position even more serious. “We didn’t want to do all this,” the suspects said during questioning with a preliminary investigation judge, according to ANSA sources.
“We lost our heads with all that blood. We won’t do it again. We are sorry”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Blasts Money-Craving Clergymen
Francis says can’t talk of poverty, live like Pharaoh
(ANSAmed) — Vatican City, November 6 — Pope Francis on Friday blasted priests, including senior Church figures, who are “attached to money” and material goods. This week the Catholic Church was hit by the so-called VatiLeaks 2 scandal and the related publication of two books documenting allegedly waste and lavish spending by clergymen.
“There are people within the Church who, instead of serving, of thinking of others and laying down foundations, serve themselves from the Church — the climbers, those attached to money,” the pope said in his homily during Mass at the Santa Marta residence where he lives inside the Vatican, according to Vatican Radio. “And how many priests, bishops have we seen like this? It’s sad to say it, isn’t it?”.
The books, which feature references to leaked Holy See papers, include reports on the luxurious apartments that some cardinals live in.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardy said this week that the revelations are not so sensational as the pope’s reforms have rendered them out of date.
“When the Church is lukewarm, closed in on itself, and often business-like, it is not at service, it serves itself from others,” said the pope, who has repeatedly called for a “poor Church” and championed the cause of the world’s weakest.
The Argentine pontiff also prayed that “the Lord saves us from temptations, from these temptations for a double life — I show myself as a minister, as someone who serves, but in reality I serve myself from others”. Furthermore, in an interview with Dutch newspaper Straatnieuws, which Vatican radio picked up Friday, the pope said that it is impossible to talk about the need to tackle poverty while living in luxury if one wants to maintain credibility.
“The Church must speak with truth, and also with testimony,” he said. “If a believer speaks about poverty, and leads the life of a pharaoh — this cannot be done”.
Francis admitted that the Church in not immune to corruption. “There is always the temptation to corruption in public life — both political and religious,” the pope told Straatnieuws. “There is always the danger of corruption”. On Thursday Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the former Vatican secretary of state, rejected allegations contained in one of the books that he paid for renovations to his apartment with money from a foundation linked to a children’s hospital in Rome. The allegations are contained in Avarice by L’Espersso journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi, which came out in Italy on Thursday. “It is shameful, I don’t know how to defend myself, it is almost impossible to defend oneself from slander,” he told Corriere della Sera. Cardinal Bertone insisted that he had paid for the 300,000-euro renovations out of his own pocket even though the apartment belonged to the Vatican governorate. He also denied knowledge of an alleged 200,000-euro payment made by the Bambin Gesù Foundation on his behalf. Last weekend two people, Spanish Monsignor Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda and Italian PR expert Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, were arrested over alleged involvement in the leaks.
Both served on an advisory commission to the pope on financial reform at the Vatican.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Shipping Fears as Rhine Falls to Lowest Level in 40 Years
The Rhine has been hit by its longest period of low water in 40 years, Dutch officials said Wednesday, raising inland shipping costs and fears of collisions on one of Europe’s busiest rivers.
“The Netherlands is currently hit by the lowest water levels in the Rhine since 1976,” said the Rijkswaterstaat, the department tasked with dealing with transport infrastructure.
On Monday “the 1976 low water level record of 120 days was broken and it’s expected that the situation will continue,” it explained in a statement…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Top UK School Defends ISIL by Banning Pro-Kurdish Speaker From Public Talk
Britain’s University College London (UCL) banned a former student from speaking about his experience fighting alongside with Kurdish troops against ISIL in the Middle East, thus censoring the criticism of the notorious terrorist organization in public.
The UCL’s decision was called a controversial act and sparked accusations that one of the top British public universities acts like an ISIL PR-manager, not willing to spread the truth about the terrorist organization to the British public.
Macer Gifford, a former UCL student, joined the ranks of Kurdish fighting units who stopped the spread of ISIL in northern Syria. As Gifford returnd to Britain, Britain’s Kurdish society invited him to talk about his first-hand experience fighting against ISIL at UCL.
However, the university’s students’ union rejected the idea, banning Gifford’s planned talk, arguing that “in every conflict there are two sides, and at UCLU we want to avoid taking sides in conflicts.”
“Basically like everyone else I was watching the rise of Islamic State, utterly horrified… I was even more horrified that the British and the American governments weren’t doing much to help. They didn’t have a coherent and coercive policy then, and they don’t particularly have one now. So I decided to go out and join the YPG, and to fight myself,” Gifford told RT in an exclusive interview.
Well, it looks like the British institution decided not to take sides in the ongoing Syrian conflict and is in fact trying to censor the criticism of ISIL.
Of course, there are two sides of the story: one side is that the people of Kurdistan are fighting to resist the brutal ISIL regime; and the other side is Caliphate-seeking Islamic fundamentalists, who cut off the heads of their prisoners, burn people in cages, trade slaves, stone adulterers, and kill everyone who doesn’t agree with their crazy ideology. It looks like a pretty easy choice to pick a side on this one, eh? But apparently not for UCL officials, who chose to keep their moral “neutrality.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Treatment of Norway Mass Murderer Breivik Worrying: Ombudsman
The solitary confinement of mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik risks turning into “inhumane treatment”, Norway’s parliamentary ombudsman said in a report published Wednesday.
Breivik, a right-wing extremist who killed 77 people in a bombing and shooting rampage in July 2011, is being held in a high-security unit in southeast Norway’s Skien prison with severely limited contact with the outside world.
The 36-year-old, who carried out the attack in opposition to Norway’s multiculturalism, has likened his prison conditions to “torture” and is suing the Norwegian state. Court hearings are due to begin in March.
Breivik has also repeatedly threatened to go on a hunger strike…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican ‘Intends to Close VatiLeaks Case Before Jubilee’
No new suspects in case so far
(ANSA) — Vatican City, November 9 — Vatican investigators probing a document leak in the so-called Vatileaks 2 scandal intend to close the case before the pope’s special Jubilee or Holy Year kicks off on December 8, ANSA had learned Monday. Investigators are interviewing persons of interest in the case and have identified no new suspects. High-ranking Spanish clergyman Monsignor Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda and Public Relations expert Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui were detained and interrogated following a months-long investigation into the misappropriation and disclosure of classified information. Balda remains in a Vatican prison, while Chaouqui was released after she cooperated with investigators. Both the suspects served on the pope’s financial reform commission.
The pope is being kept abreast of the case and all its developments, Vatican sources said.
The publication last week of two books on the Vatican based on the leaked documents drew further attention to the scandal. Extracts of Avarice: Documents Revealing Wealth, Scandals and Secrets of Francis’ Church, by Italian journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi, said that officials in the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy spent hundreds of thousands of euros on business class flights, clothes made to measure, and expensive furniture.
Fittipaldi wrote that a list of the secretariat’s expenses was sent to Pope Francis in January 2015, less than a year after he established a new department to manage the Vatican’s economic activities. The list included “crazy expenses that reached more than half a million euros after just six months of operations”, according to Fittipaldi. The other book, Merchants in the Temple by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, paints a picture of financial mismanagement, greed, secrecy and waste in the Vatican’s bureaucracy. The papacy of Francis’s predecessor, Benedict XVI, was hit by the first so-called Vatileaks scandal over the leaking of embarrassing confidential Church papers. Benedict’s butler was convicted over the leaks but was subsequently released from a Vatican cell thanks to a papal pardon.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican Places Two Journalists Under Investigation Over Leaks Scandal
Vatican judicial authorities have launched an investigation into the possible complicity of two Italian journalists “in the offence of divulging confidential news and documents”, the Vatican said Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Elections in Croatia: Right-Wing Opposition Ahead
But first results highlight risk ungovernability
(by Franko Dota) (ANSA) — ZAGREB — Vote counting after Sunday’s election in Croatia shows the right-wing opposition ahead of the Social Democrats in government. However, the gap appears so far insufficient to form a one-party cabinet with days, perhaps weeks, of uncertainty looming ahead. Based on 40% of the votes counted, the center-right of Tomislav Karamarko is leading with 60 MPs out of a total of 151 making up the Parliament in Zagreb.
The center-left of outgoing premier, Zoran Milanovic, has 54 lawmakers. Both are still hoping to form the future government that will rely on the backing of a third party, Most (the bridge), a centrist movement formed a few months ago by influential members of local communities demanding reforms in all sectors, in particular the economy. The Bridge has become the third main party in the country with 19 lawmakers. Turnout was good — 60.06% out of the 3.8 million who have a right to vote cast their ballots. The picture emerging so far shows the Social Democrats are head-to-head with the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) or a marginal victory for the latter, a disappointing result which is well below expectations: just a few months ago all polls showed the center-right was leading with some 10 percentage points ahead of the center-left. When in 2012 Karamarko took the party’s reins, HDZ had emerged from a devastating electoral loss and a series of corruption scandals for which ex-premier Ivo Sanader is still on trial. The new leader succeeded in cleaning up the image of HDZ, moving it more towards right-wing positions and continuing to hail the nationalist values of the independence war of the 1990s. Until the government’s economic results were negative, this strategy appeared to work. But when, over the last six to seven months, macroeconomic data started to show signs of recovery, Premier Milanovic threw himself into an aggressive and populistic campaign which today has materialized in a substantial tie which nobody had predicted after six long and difficult years of recession. For the center-left, the result is well below what they achieved four years ago when they had 80 MPs in Parliament.
And following behind the two main contenders, the third political force surprisingly emerged. It was hastily created six months ago by mayors, intellectuals and little-known personalities, without a clear political program. Members have refused to respond to questions on ethical or ideological values or to say if the party is close to the right or left. The Most party (bridge) has garnered 19 MPs, who will be crucial for the future majority. Last Friday, however, its leader Boz Petrov signed a formal statement in which he vowed not to forge a coalition with either of the two main parties. A period of political uncertainty and instability is thus looming ahead for the search of a majority able to govern the country.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Claudia Cardinale Calls on Tourists to Return
In Cairo for cinema festival, this is beautiful country I adore
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, NOVEMBER 11 — “We must fight in order for people to return to Egypt, a beautiful country I adore”, Italian actress Claudia Cardinal told a very crowded press conference at a hotel in Cairo, where she is the guest star at the film festival in the Egyptian capital that opens tonight.
“I hope tourists will return soon”, said the Italian actress who will receive tonight the Faten Hamama Prize, a prize awarded each year to a leading member of the seventh art from Egypt or abroad.
“I have a beautiful recollection of Omar Sharif, we were close friends. It was with him that I started off in cinema”, added the star. “It was with him that I started moving the first steps on the big screen”. “I was very young and absolutely did not want to work in cinema. It was my father who pushed me and told me to give it a try”. With ‘Doctor Zhivago’, she recalls, “we saw each other often. In Paris, where I live and he often lived and in Cairo”.
Cardinale has worked in 153 movies, as she noted, including films by the greatest Italian directors. From 8 by Fellini to the Leopard by Visconti (whose restored version will be screened during the Egyptian event). “They were among the most important films of my career”, recalled the “girl who refused to work in the movies”, as the Italian press called the actress who came from Tunis during a Venice film festival a long time ago.
Cardinale also noted this is “an extremely difficult time for Italian cinema”. “You see few films abroad compared to the past. This is why I have worked hard for a comeback of co-productions”. “There are only American films around”, she concluded.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Intel on ‘Two-Hour Timer’ Uncovered in Russian Jet Crash Investigation
Investigators analyzing the deadly crash of a Russian jet in Egypt uncovered intelligence about a “a two-hour timer,” though it is not clear whether the reference came from intercepted communications between known terrorist operatives, or physical evidence, a source familiar with the investigation told Fox News.
A separate source, also not authorized to speak on the record, said that based on the facts so far, one of the working theories is that a bomb was planted at or near the fuel line or where it attaches to the engine, with the fuel burning off the explosive. This theory would explain the apparent lack of residue immediately found, the source says.
Fox News was told both scenarios point to an “airport insider.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Women and Violence in the Med, Upcoming Web Documentary
Crowdfunding campaign for first chapter in Tunisia
An image of the play on the female condition in the Med by Tunisian director Meriam Bousselmi recently on stage at the Carthage Theatre Days
TUNIS — Capturing the stories of women who are victims of gender-based violence and exclusion, women who suffer because of loves stained by honour and shame still permeating Mediterranean culture is the idea behind the interactive web documentary www.women-inbetween.com presented by the collective Maboula group that launched a fund-raising campaign on Lebanese platform Zoomal yesterday. “This type of platform is very expensive and it’s hard to find the necessary means to support the entire project and that’s why we have chosen to promote a fund-raising campaign to gather the resources needed to develop the web prototype and cover travel costs for the production of the first chapter in Tunisia,” said the promoters. The whole projects will touch six Mediterranean countries: Italy, Tunisia, Greece, Turkey, Spain and Morocco, Francesca Oggiano from the collective Maboula group told ANSAmed.
“It took three years to develop this project. The initial idea was to tell the story of love in the Mediterranean with the idea of linking the two flanks with female stories. So we began to investigate the subject focusing on countries closer both geographically and culturally: Tunisia and Italy, Morocco and Spain, Greece and Turkey.
The news helped us identify the most dramatic themes: femminicide, child-brides, arranged-marriages, illegal abortions, single-mothers, domestic violence, female immigration”.
“Behind each theme — said Oggiano — we found many women, reduced to mere initials in the papers and transformed into statistics by annual UN reports.
Women in Between has become a virtual space in which women can take back their history and identity. A long journey across the Mediterranean that tells the story of love, honour and shame, the three concepts at the basis of Mediterranean culture”.
The crowdfunding campaign will continue until November 30.
“Incidentally, November 25 is the International Day against violence on Women. We hope our project will attract the 18 thousand dollar needed to produce the first chapter in Tunisia and then carry on with the journey”, said Oggiano.
Here is the link to the crowdfunding
http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/culture/2015/11/10/women-in-between-women-and-violence-in-the-med-documentary_a04af889-8d21-47f3-b606-203b94d0cbf1.html
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Arafat’s Death: Palestinian Embassy Rome, Killed Like Rabin
(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 11 — In commemorating the 11th anniversary of Yasser Arafat’s death, the Palestinian embassy in Rome stated that the historic leader of the Palestinian people was “poisoned according to the will of the Israeli government”.
“Yasser Arafat — recalled a note — signed the agreements of Oslo and Washington with Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin, giving hope to the Palestinian people, to the whole world on the possibility of reaching a just solution to the Palestinian issue. The two leaders — it also said — were assassinated by the Israelis: Yitzhak Rabin was killed by an Israeli extremist and Yasser Arafat poisoned according to the will of the Israeli government”. Arafat’s ideals however have not died, stressed the embassy, citing the uprising over the past few weeks, “a clear demonstration that our people are determined in moving forward with their fight until full freedom and independence”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU Approves Code on Labels of Settler Products
16 EU governments including Italy urged progress on the note
– BRUSSELS — The European Commission has approved the so-called “interpretative note” to guidelines published in April 2013 on retail labels for Israel settler exports. In April, 16 EU governments including Italy had urged progress on the note. The label is expected to determine the origin from “settlements”. The label of origin is mandatory under general trade rules of the European Union for farm products and cosmetics. It is however allowed to label as ‘made in Israel’ wine bottled within the borders of 1967, even if it is produced with grapes cultivated in the territories, under the principles that provenance of the majority of added value prevails.
Based on the association agreement between Israel and the European Union, products from territories occupied since 1967 in the West Bank and Golan are excluded from duty-free exemptions. The interpretative note approved today will be published already today on the electronic version of the EU official gazette and will immediately become operational.
“This is not about new obligations but necessary clarifications to uniform the implementation in the 28 EU countries”, as stressed in the Commission, recalling that for example Great Britain, Belgium and Denmark had already anticipated the labeling obligation.
The volume of trade between the EU and Israel is worth around 30 billion euros a year (17 billion of European exports towards Israel and 13 billion of imports in the opposite direction). The value of trade with Europe of products from occupied territories represents less than 0.5%: 154 million euros in 2014.
The labeling obligation, Commission sources said, falls on the entire production chain: from producers to importers to retailers and can be based on custom documents for goods. It is up to single countries to choose what to write, clearly stating however that the product comes from a “settlement”.
The mandatory labeling has been repeatedly and harshly criticized by Israel but Brussels has noted that the EU only recognizes the 1967 borders and guidelines published in 2013 and interpreted with the codes adopted today only clarify that “consumers must have an explicit indication” on the provenance of goods.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU Settlement Labeling Plan Evokes “Dark Memories” For Netanyahu
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday compared the European Union’s decision to label goods from Israeli settlements to the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses. Israel also said it was suspending a series of meetings with the EU in protest.
“The labelling of products of the Jewish state by the European union brings back dark memories. Europe should be ashamed of itself,” Netanyahu said as he wrapped up a visit to Washington.
“It took an immoral decision…this will not advance peace, it will certainly not advance truth and justice. It’s wrong,” he said in an English-language video clip posted on his Facebook page…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Palestinian Meetings With London Mayor Off After Boycott Comments
London Mayor Boris Johnson’s visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories hit a hitch Wednesday as he was called off meetings with Palestinians after offending supporters of a boycott of the Jewish state.
The mayor earlier this week dismissed those who support the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign, known by its BDS initials, as “corduroy-jacketed lefty academics”, comments which caused anger on Palestinian social media.
A number of Palestinian groups then refused to meet him while he was also informed his comments had led to additional security risks if he were to visit the West Bank, Johnson’s office said…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
United Nations Slams Israel Over Child Prostitution Epidemic
Israel has no clear strategy for addressing child prostitution within its borders, according to a UN report, which says that sex offenders there are not sufficiently prosecuted and punished.
In the wake of the scathing report from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, a source told Israeli newspaper Haaretz that despite growing awareness of the problem, helping juvenile prostitutes “still falls between the governmental cracks.”
Of all the police investigations opened into sex crimes against minors last year, about 45% have been closed, the paper reported.
In its most recent report, the UN committee said Israel has failed to implement a recommendation made in the previous report: establishing a state agency dedicated to children’s rights.
The report also said the number of investigations into people suspected of sex crimes against minors is low to start with, and only a small percentage of those cases actually go to trial.
Moreover, even when convictions are obtained in child prostitution or pornography cases, the sentences don’t always match the severity of the crimes, the report said. It recommended instituting stiffer sentences for obtaining sexual services from a minor, Haaretz reported.
According to latest data compiled by the Knesset’s research center, of the 2,349 cases opened into sex crimes against minors in 2014, only 11% have yet produced a verdict. Almost 45% of these cases were closed — 30% because the criminal was unknown and 13% due to lack of public interest.
Yifat Shasha-Biton, chair of the Knesset Committee on the Rights of the Child, echoed the UN report’s complaint about lenient sentencing.
“A sentence of up to three years for obtaining sex services from a minor is ridiculous,” she said.
A representative of the Social Affairs Ministry confirmed the UN report’s criticism of Israel’s lack of a system for coordinating among different government agencies involved in this issue.
He said his ministry “works to rehabilitate minors employed in prostitution, but doesn’t coordinate with the Education Ministry on preventing [minors] from sliding into prostitution or on locating minors employed in prostitution.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Briton Jailed in Saudi Arabia Back Home
A British pensioner who was jailed for possessing alcohol in Saudi Arabia has returned to the UK, the Foreign Office has confirmed.
Karl Andree, 74, had been in prison for more than a year after he was arrested by Saudi religious police for possessing homemade wine.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said he was “pleased” Mr Andree had been reunited with his family.
The release showed the “strength” of Anglo-Saudi relations, Mr Hammond said.
Mr Andree, who had been living in the country for 25 years, was transporting homemade wine in his car in August 2014 when he was pulled over and arrested. Alcohol is illegal in Saudi Arabia.
His family said he had been sentenced to 360 lashes, but Saudi and UK officials have said “there was never any question” of Mr Andree being flogged.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: Poets Face 99 Lashes and Prison
by Amir Taheri
Does a seminar on reforming the meter and rhyme schemes of Persian poetry violate “Islamic values” and threaten the foundations of the Islamic Republic of Iran?
That is the view of the Islamic Court in Tehran, which last month sentenced two poets, Fateme Ekhtesari and Mehdi Mussavi, to nine and 11.5 years in prison respectively, plus 99 lashes of the cane for each in public.
One of the two, Mrs. Fateme Ekhtesari, was sentenced to 11.5 years for “undermining the security of the Islamic state” by composing and reciting in public a number of “poems full of ambiguity and capable of being read in deviant and dangerous ways.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Finance Can Promote Stability: IMF Chief
The fast growing, Sharia-compliant Islamic finance industry has the potential to promote financial stability because of its risk-sharing and asset-backed features, International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde said Wednesday.
“Islamic finance has, in principle, the potential to promote financial stability because its risk-sharing feature reduces leverage and its financing is asset-backed and thus fully collateralized,” Lagarde told an Islamic finance conference in Kuwait.
Islamic banks also offer profit-sharing and loss-bearing accounts that can help mitigate losses and contagion in the event of banking sector distress, she said…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Jihadis Cheer Killing of Americans in Jordan, Call for New ‘Lone Wolf’ Attacks
The shooting that killed five people, including two Americans, at a police training center in Jordan Monday was met with some cheers on social media.
Jihadis called the attacker a martyr, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute. They reportedly urged so-called “lone-wolves” to carry out similar attacks against Americans around the world.
The gunman was shot dead after killing three foreign police instructors, including the two Americans, as well as two Jordanian translators.
One Twitter user wrote, “I went to sleep hearing the beautiful news [about the attack], and woke up to find it even more beautiful,” according to MEMRI.
The motive for the attack, which occurred 10 years to the day after a string of deadly hotel bombings in Amman, was still unclear.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Tables Are Turning: Syrian Army Pushes ISIL Out of Key Areas
The tide is turning in favor of the Syrian Army which began to push ISIL and other jihadist groups away from key areas in Syria, including the crucial Kweiris airbase in the Aleppo province, Dr. Mohammad Marandi, an Iranian political expert on American Studies from the University of Tehran, told Radio Sputnik.
The Kweiris airbase was under ISIL siege for two-years until the Syrian Army supported by Russian airstrikes advanced into the area and cleared it of jihadists, leaving a large number of them dead and wounded in the process.
“This operation went so well, as [ISIL] casualties were very high and they were adamant that the Syrian government wouldn’t be able to break the siege at the airbase,” Marandi told Radio Sputnik.
The Iranian expert said the success of the Syrian Army wouldn’t have been possible without the help of Russian airstrikes in the country.
“The Russian Air Force has played a very important role not just in breaking the siege, but also over the last few weeks across Syria,” Marandi said, adding that Russian airstrikes targeted not only ISIL, but also other radical Islamic extremists.
Iran, Lebanon and Hezbollah have also played a role in strengthening the Syrian Army, the political expert explained. Iran, for example, sent a number of military advisers to train the Syrian army on the frontline, Marandi said.
For several years since the start of the Syrian conflict the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fought alone against all sorts of Islamic fundamentalists and terrorists, backed by foreign powers, such as the United States, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, which provided limitless funds and weapons seeking to overthrow the government of al-Assad.
“Right now, all the advanced weapons that these groups, such as al-Qaeda, have are basically American weapons,” Marandi told Radio Sputnik.
The United States and the European Union (EU) tried to portray the Syrian conflict as a sectarian conflict; however, it isn’t the case at all. The real situation on the ground shows that the overwhelming majority of Syrians support President Assad and prefer his regime over any other alternatives that the West offered.
And most importantly, Assad’s own wife is a Sunni, so how could the current president be against Sunnis, the political analyst explained.
Whether or not peace would come to Syria depends entirely on certain groups in the United States and their desire to stop funding terrorist organizations in the region. If the US government puts pressure on its allies — Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar — to stop funding and arming jihadists in Syria the conflict would end, the Iranian expert concluded.
Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with the Syrian Army fighting a number of opposition factions and radical Islamist groups, including Islamic State and the Nusra Front.
Russia has been conducting precision airstrikes against terrorist targets in Syria at the request of President Bashar Assad since September 30.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK Man Who ‘Faced Saudi Lashing’ Over Alcohol Returns Home
A British man imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for breaking anti-alcohol laws has returned to Britain, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday, after a diplomatic storm that threatened to dent UK-Saudi relations.
The family of Karl Andree, 74, said he had been told he faced 350 lashes after a year behind bars for being caught with home-made wine and appealed to the British government in a tabloid-led campaign.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond brought up the case during a visit to Riyadh last month and the Saudi authorities said he would be released…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan Protesters Demand Gov’t Response to Suspected ISIL Beheadings
Protesters in the Afghan capital of Kabul issued a series of demands to the government following the beheadings of members of an ethnic minority group by suspected ISIL militants, local media reported Wednesday.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Thousands rallied in the streets of Kabul over the beheading of seven abducted members of the Hazara minority, attributed to the Islamic State jihadist group.
Violence broke out when police fired warning shots to fend off protesters attempting to scale walls near the presidential palace.
“The protesters said they took to the streets on Wednesday to condemn the beheading of seven hostages, including a girl and two women, who were kidnapped last month,” the TOLOnews broadcaster cited the rally organizers as saying.
Seven victims were abducted over a month ago in the central-east Afghan city of Ghazni and found later in the nearby province of Zabul.
Organizers of the march reportedly met with government officials in the presidential palace after reading out their demands in central Kabul.
The demands included punishing the perpetrators, establishing Hazara security units within the Afghan Army, forming an independent administrative office in Ghazni and the Jaghori district, and increasing police numbers in areas where the Taliban militant group is active.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh: Dinajpur: New Attacks on Christians: Family Flees Burning Home
A group of Muslims attempted to burn an entire Christian family, accused of witchcraft. A victim: “We lost everything, we live in absolute poverty. If we do not withdraw the complaint the consequences will be worse”. In recent weeks many attacks on Christian-owned properties: the real intent is land expropriation.
Panchagarh (AsiaNews) — A group of 6 or 7 Muslims attempted to burn members of a Christian family in their home in the village of Kamarpara, in the district of Panchagarh, in the north of the country accusing them of “witchcraft”.
The incident happened on November 5, in a house in the parish of Ruhea. Ramni Das, one of the victims, said: “It was midnight when we heard the noise of the fire and the smell of smoke. Luckily we managed to escape from the house. We lost everything, there is nothing left in our house, everything was burned. Now — he adds in tears — we are in absolute poverty”.
It is not the first time that such incidents happen in Kamarpara. A year ago, an Islamist group accused Christians of carrying out magic rites and endangering people. This is why some Christian homes were attacked. According Ramni Das, the real reason for attacks against Christians is an attempt to take possession of their lands. In fact, in recent weeks, attacks on Christian families that have forced them to flee their homes have increased in Bangladesh.
After the attack, says Ramni, “we asked for justice, but now we live in the police station, threatened because we made a complaint. Being a Christian leaves us weak and vulnerable”. The complaint is against seven people, but the police have not made any arrests.
Usually, the victims of the attacks are very poor families. “We live in fear — says the man — and we believe that unless we withdraw the charge of arson against the Muslims, we will face even more dire consequences. We want to sit down with the Muslims and find a peaceful solution”.
Fr. Anthony Sen, pastor of Ruhea, declares: “I am shocked by the brutal attack on peaceful people. The Muslims wanted to burn them! This is a serious offense. I would like a peaceful solution and security for my people”.
Abul Hossain, head of the local government, says he wants to “sit down with the two groups soon and I hope that the situation will return to normal.” He added that he does not want to resolve the issue through trial, so that Christians, Muslims and even Hindus can live in peace in the future, without consequences.
About 6 thousand Catholics live in the parish of Ruhea and 300 live in the village of Kamarpara.
Bangladesh has a population of 152 million inhabitants and isMuslim majority (89.8%). The Christian community (0.2% of the population) and Hindu (9.1%) are subject to numerous attacks and to expropriation of land. Experts point out that the reason is not so much religious as economic.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Won’t Pull Out of Afghanistan Mission Says Pinotti
Parliament must OK extending mission beyond December 31
(ANSA) — Rome, November 10 — Italy will not pull out of the NATO-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti told a joint session of parliament’s defence and foreign commissions Tuesday. The mission took over in an advisory role after the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) ceased combat operations and was disbanded in December 2014.
US President Barack Obama said in October he would maintain the current force of 9,800 troops in Afghanistan through most of next year to combat a growing Taliban insurgency, then draw down to 5,500 troops in 2017.
Premier Matteo Renzi indicated that Italy, too, would keep up its commitment to the Taliban-plagued Asian country.
The mission has cost Italy 54 casualties and many wounded over the past decade, and now numbers 750 personnel.
Of these, about 60 are deployed to the Kabul headquarters of the Resolute Support and the rest are deployed in the western city of Herat.
The Italian mission is made up of logistics, a security task force, a helicopter division called Phoenix, and some 100 military advisors from the Army and Carabinieri military police, whose job is to train the Afghan military.
It is currently financed with 59 million euros through December 31.
A government decision to extend the mission beyond that date would have to be approved by parliament.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Religious Nationalism Threatens the “Stability of India and the Whole World”
The bishop of Vasai and president of the Office for Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences spoke at the recent ecumenical conference in Tirana. Divisions among Christians and “mushrooming” Church scandals are “tools in the hands of those who persecute us. We must find a way to be united before the world.” Interreligious dialogue is only possible if one remains firm in one’s convictions whilst opening up to the world. The bishop’s full address is included.
Tirana (AsiaNews) — Mgr Felix Machado, Bishop of Vasai and President of the Office for Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), spoke before the ecumenical meeting that took place in Albania on 2-4 November.
In his address, he stressed that holding firm to one’s beliefs helps interfaith dialogue and openness in the world, but only if one keeps an open mind. Conversely, if one focuses solely on one’s identity without letting in the world, one ends up with fundamentalism. His full address follows.
Practically in every part of the world, Christians have become victims of unprovoked violence. If some are directly targets of this violence, others are indirectly victims of subtle anti-Christian hatred. By and large, following the teaching of Jesus in his Gospels Christianity champions the cause of mutual respect and interreligious dialogue and yet, there are about 100 million persecuted Christians throughout the world (according to the World Evangelical Alliance, the problem has worsened dramatically since the turn of the millennium: about 200 million Christians are now under threat).
It is no time to seek refuge in fear and trembling. To resort to panic is unbecoming of us Christians. I suggest: 1) Following some principles to be observed by every Christian believer in bearing witness to the Christ’s Commission for evangelisation (Mt 28:19-20); There is first ever endorsed document by a majority of Christians throughout the world, namely, Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World, Recommendations for Conduct (WCC, PCID, WEA, 2011). 2) We all Christians should together uphold Religious Freedom for all. Religious Freedom constitutes the very heart of human rights. Its inviolability is such that individuals must be recognised as having the right even to change their religion, if their conscience so demands. 3) Mutual respect for the dignity of every human person. Religious plurality is to be accepted and efforts should be made to promote “all positive and constructive interreligious relations with individuals and communities of other religions which are directed at mutual understanding and enrichment”.
Pope St John Paul warned: “Either we learn to walk together in peace and harmony, or we drift apart and ruin ourselves and others. (we are) to be aware of the common origin and common destiny of humankind, Let us see in it in an anticipation of what God would like the developing history of humanity to be: a fraternal journey in which we accompany one another toward the transcendent goal which he sets for us”.
Dignity of the human person is “a transcendent value, always recognised as such by those who sincerely search for the truth”. Failure to respect this dignity leads to the various and often tragic forms of discrimination, exploitation, social unrest and national and international conflicts with which we are unfortunately so familiar in these times. Without the element of freedom, any definition of religion risks being dangerously restricted and weak. Respect for human dignity finds one of its expressions in religious freedom and “Religious Freedom, if it means the right freely to choose one’s beliefs about the meaning and purpose of life, is a fundamental freedom, arguably the most important human right of all”.
Religious Freedom is not only about our ability to practise religion in the private sphere but it is also about whether we can make our contribution to the common good of all people in society. Without Religious Freedom properly understood, people of all religions suffer because they are deprived of the essential contribution, especially the Christians are making, in the field of education, health-care, feeding the hungry, giving voice to the voiceless in society.
Sadly, religious freedom in many parts of the world is in great peril. Unless believers of each religion, whether in majority or minority population, defend religious freedom robustly, no religion will escape the great plight that all religious believers face around the world. In India, assassinations, burning of sacred places, torching of religious institutions, etc., all these because systematic denials of basic human rights are found in the acts of persecutions, especially of Christians.
The Hindu nationalist ideology that has arisen over the past century in India (Hindutva) begins with a conception that India is a Hindu nation, in which Hinduism is a default way of life for Indians. This model entails a distinction between conversions away from Hinduism, which are seen as a threat to the national integrity of India and key contributor to the alleged decline of Hinduism, and conversions to Hinduism, which are described by the term ‘ghar vapsi’, translated as ‘homecoming’ to where one belongs, or ‘reconversion’ to one’s own original religion. Thus, the issue of Religious Freedom has become extremely complex in India in recent years. Several States in India have passed anti-conversion bills; ironically, these State-level bills are formally known as Freedom of Religion Acts!
The instrumentalization of religion by politicians is at the root of the grave concern for Religious Freedom in India. More precisely, it is a movement for nationalism appealing to religious sentiment. It is a violent reaction which is sparked off by fear to ‘Indian secularism’.
While Christians and their institutions are attacked systematically by the proponent of Hindu nationalist ideologists, there is a subtle, but strongly growing movement among neo-intellectuals who, influenced by the West, are spreading secularist ideas. The tide of secularism in post-modern society has marginalised religion; consequently, freedom of religion is restricted, if not altogether prohibited.
Secularism conceives that the world in which we live may be understood entirely on its own terms; there is no need to refer to any other point beyond, ‘history’, ‘society’ or ‘the state’ in order to understand their meaning and their value. Eternal Truth is relativized, particularly through recourse to historical investigation, falling into error of ‘nihilism’, which ultimately ends up in a sort of ‘totalitarianism’ of the ideological world. It is a complete absolutisation of the act of reason, bringing rise to atheism. All those who follow God and religion are ridiculed and are labelled as ‘blind’ in their belief.
Unfortunately, it cannot simply be denied that with mushrooming of various Christian groups throughout the country, an aggressive propaganda, denigration and vilification of neighbours’ religions, operating often in competition one against the other to gather as many adherents as possible, winning adepts by inducement, attracting members by allurements, etc. or working in complete isolation, has given visibly a sad picture to the world of a still more divided Body of Christ; preaching of the Gospel is placed in jeopardy because this ‘division of the Body of Christ’ plays into the hands of those who look for opportunities to destroy any trace of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This kind of situation also disrupts efforts to promote peace and harmony.
I wish to submit that the spirit of the Catholic Church’s teaching on Religious Freedom should become norm, at least for every Christian of every denomination. In unequivocal terms, the Church distinguishes the double meaning of freedom from coercion: that no one is to be forced to act contrary to his/her convictions; and that no one is to be restrained from acting in accordance with one’s own convictions.
Dignitatis Humae warns followers of all religions, in no uncertain terms: “. . . in spreading religious faith and in introducing religious practices, everyone ought at all times to refrain from any manner of action which might seem to carry a hint of coercion or of a kind of persuasion that would be dishonourable or unworthy, especially when dealing with poor or uneducated people. Such a manner of action would have to be considered an abuse of one’s own right and a violation of the right of others”. The Second Vatican Council does not speak merely of religious individuals. Freedom of Religion is a right of the individual human person as well as that of every religious community. Religious Communities should “not be prevented from publicly teaching and bearing witness to their beliefs by the spoken or written word (DH, 4).
The core of all religions teaches promotion of interreligious harmony; there is in every religion a golden rule, which favours Freedom of Religion. Religion, by its very nature, cannot be but an instrument of peace. Subjectivism, a mistaken notion of freedom, which exalts the isolated individual in an absolute way, is to be questioned. Ethical relativism, fallout of subjectivism, is precisely this, that people think everything is negotiable, everything is open to bargaining, even the first of the fundamental rights: the right to life.
Once the fact of religious plurality is accepted, the path of dialogue becomes obligatory. In this dialogue, openness to other is not separated from the fidelity to Christ. Being open to dialogue means being absolutely consistent with one’s own religious tradition. The Catholic Church has made interreligious dialogue an obligatory path for its followers: “Interreligious dialogue is part of the evangelising mission of the Church . . . Dialogue is fundamental for the Church . . . All Christians are called to dialogue . . . Dialogue finds its place within the Church’s salvific mission”.
However, it must be said that the path of dialogue is never an easy one. It is important that believers have an open mind and a welcoming spirit. This means that two extremes should be avoided: on the one hand a certain ingenuousness which accepts everything without further questioning, and on the other hand a hypercritical attitude which leads to suspicion. Being open minded does not imply being without personal convictions. On the contrary, rootedness in one’s own convictions will allow for greater openness, for it takes away the fear of losing one’s identity. While on the one hand, openness without rootedness almost always ends in relativism, on the other hand, rootedness without openness leads to fundamentalism.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Prince Charles in Australia, Where 50% Don’t Want Him as Their King
Britain’s Prince Charles and wife Camilla received a warm reception from hundreds of Australians who waited in the rain to see them Wednesday, even as a new poll showed 51 percent would not want him as their king.
Crowds endured the wet in Canberra to greet the pair who are spending six days in Australia after a tour of New Zealand, which the country’s Prime Minister John Key described as a move to help the prince “establish a rapport” with Kiwis before he inherits the throne.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Relatives of Venezuelan President Arrested Trying to Smuggle Nearly 1 Ton of Drugs Into U.S.
Two nephews of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife have been arrested on charges of drug smuggling, Fox News Latino has confirmed.
The two men were arrested in Haiti on Tuesday night as part of a sting operation coordinated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Briton Faces Jail for Trying to Smuggle Girl Out of Calais Migrant Camp
A British aid worker faces jail for trying to smuggle a young girl from a French migrant camp into Britain, triggering a flood of support online from well-wishers urging clemency.
Rob Lawrie, 49, told AFP he faced a maximum sentence of five years after he was caught trying to bring four-year-old Afghan refugee Bahar Ahmadi to relatives in Britain from a migrant camp in Calais.
“Who in their right mind would rather a child live in a tent on a chemical dump than allow me to take that one child to her family five miles from where I live?” Lawrie said of Ahmadi, who he nicknamed Bru…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Donald Trump Wants to Deport Every Single Illegal Immigrant — Could He?
US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump wants to deport every illegal immigrant from the United States. The other Republican candidates say it can’t be done — one called it a “silly argument”.
And the majority of US Republican voters disagree with Mr Trump: according to a 2015 survey by the Pew Research Center, 56% believe undocumented immigrants should be allowed to stay if they meet certain criteria.
There are approximately 11.3 million undocumented immigrants in the US. Rounding them up and deporting them would present a huge logistical and financial challenge to America’s military, law enforcement, and border control agencies.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Warned on ‘Fortress Europe’ As Sweden, Slovenia Tighten Borders
Sweden and Slovenia on Wednesday became the latest European nations to tighten borders to ease an unprecedented migration crisis as African leaders warned their EU counterparts against building a “fortress” Europe.
The moves came as more than 50 European and African leaders met at a summit in Malta aimed at agreeing a joint strategy to deal with the biggest flow of refugees and migrants since World War II.
Sweden’s decision to reinstate border controls for 10 days from Thursday and Slovenia’s move to roll out razor wire on its border with Croatia underlined again the divisions within the 28-nation bloc over how to respond to the crisis…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Finland Says Asylum Capacity Approaching Limit
Finland’s ministry of interior on Tuesday said space for housing asylum seekers is running out, reports Finnish public media YLE. Around 28,000 people applied for asylum in Finland this year. Authorities says they may have to revert to tents and containers if the housing limit is breached.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Police and Migrants Clash for Third Straight Night in Calais ‘Jungle’
Clashes erupted between police and migrants of a makeshift camp near the northern French port of Calais overnight Tuesday as police bolstered security in response to a third consecutive night of unrest.
Riot police used teargas and watercannon to end an hour-long standoff with the migrants, who started by throwing objects and insults at officers before lighting a wooden pallet on fire.
“Two-hundred-and-fifty police officers, of which the majority were CRS (riot police), were mobilised Tuesday” to end the disturbances around the migrant camp, dubbed the “jungle” in France, said interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
German Nightclub Refuses Refugees Entry to Protect Women From Harassment
A night club in southern Germany has started to ban refugees from entering in a bid to protect female clients from harassment, The Local news portal reported, citing a statement by the club.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Friday, the owner of the Bucklyn club in the town of Bad Tolz in Bavaria, told his bouncers not to let a group of young male asylum seekers inside, the news outlet reported.
The club workers were then accused of being racist and called “Nazi pigs” by some guests of the club, the media reported, citing the club’s Facebook statement.
“It was never an issue for us what religion, background or skin colour guests have. Everyone comes in as long as he respects a few basic, self-evident rules,” the club said in the statement, cited by the media.
According to the club’s statement, when refugees began to arrive in Bad Tolz in early 2015, the club allowed them in, but male asylum seekers began harassing women in the establishment, leading to the club potentially losing regular clients.
Germany is one of the most popular destinations for migrants in Europe and is expected to register some 800,000 asylum applications by the end of the year, according to official estimates.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Dissent Threatens Merkel’s Refugee Plans
German chancellor Angela Merkel may have thought she dodged a bullet last week when she managed to reach a compromise with hardliner elements in her centre-right coalition on the issue of migration.
But renewed protests and violence on the streets of Berlin this weekend show she’s not out of the woods yet.
Forces outside the German political mainstream are gaining influence.
A protest organised by the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party drew over 5,000 attendees, who marched through the capital’s government district chanting “Merkel has to go”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary Against Taking Even a ‘Single Syrian’ From Germany
Germany shouldn’t send back refugees to the their first point-of-entry in the European Union based on the bloc’s Dublin accord, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said, according to an interview with MTI news service.
“The Dublin system is dead since apart from a few exceptions, countries aren’t abiding by its terms,” Szijjarto said on Wednesday, according to MTI. “Not a single Syrian” should be returned from western Europe to Hungary, he said.
Hungary has built a razor-wire fence along its southern border to keep refugees out and has been the staunchest critic of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door policy to welcome an estimated million migrants this year, mostly refugees from Syria.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Police Detain Dozens Over Illegal Migrant Entries
Suspects include circus owners, Sicilian regional employee
(ANSA) — Rome, November 10 — Police on Tuesday detained 41 people on suspicion of involvement in a transnational organization that helped migrants gain illegal entry to Italy.
A Sicilian regional employee and people linked to national and international circus business were among those being probed.
Investigators say the organisation brought roughly 500 migrants to Italy mainly from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan under false pretences as circus hires with falsified authorisation from the Sicilian regional authorities and police.
The imigrants allegedly paid up to 15,000 euros per person for entry to Italy, of which 2,000-3,000 euros was allegedly pocketed by the circus owners.
Circus owners implicated in the probe include Lino and Sandra Orfei, Alvaro Bizzarri and Darvin Cristiani.
In total the organisation raked in over seven million euros, investigators say.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Marco Rubio: Belief That Hispanic Community is Pro-Illegal Immigration Not True
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a 2016 Republican presidential candidate, said Wednesday the belief that the Hispanic community in the United States supports illegal immigration is “just not true.”
“You know, this belief that the Hispanic community is in favor of illegal immigration is false — it’s just not true,” Mr. Rubio said on NBC’s “Today” program. “Hispanic communities are deeply impacted by illegal immigration, and there are millions of Hispanics in this country who have either come legally or who have relatives that are waiting to come legally.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
More Drown as EU Leaders Meet in Malta
Fourteen migrants have drowned in the latest boat sinking as European Union and African leaders gathered in Malta to discuss measures to stem the flow of people into Europe.
Seven of those who died when a wooden boat sank between Turkey and the Greek island of Lesbos were children.
Coastguards rescued 27 survivors.
The UN says nearly 800,000 migrants have arrived in Europe by sea so far in 2015, while some 3,440 have died or gone missing making the journey.
Some 150,000 people from African countries such as Eritrea, Nigeria and Somalia have made the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean from Africa so far this year, arriving mainly in Italy and Malta.
But this has been dwarfed by the arrival of some 650,000 people — mostly Syrians — via Turkey and Greece.
Wednesday evening saw Swedish Interior Minister Anders Ygeman announce that his country will impose temporary border controls from noon on Thursday local time for 10 days until 21 November to allow it to cope with tens of thousands of new arrivals.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Refugee Influx May Cost Germany 14 Bn Euros in 2016: Experts
Germany may have to spend over 14 billion euros ($15 billion) next year to manage its record refugee influx, an expert panel said Wednesday, calling the cost for the EU’s top economy “manageable”.
The economists urged Berlin to speed up the processing of asylum requests and to quickly integrate refugees in the labour market as Germany braces for up to one million arrivals this year.
“The influx of refugees has shown that Germany is not immune to global problems,” said the German Council of Economic Experts in its annual report to the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Refugees Welcome at a Special Airbnb-Type Site
How do refugees get out of the camps after they have arrived in a host country? One answer offering hope is a project called Refugees Welcome, started by three students in Germany a year ago. Julia Lorke reports on the project that has been described as Airbnb for refugees.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Slovenia Putting Up Fence Along Border With Croatia to Control Migrant Flow
Slovenia began erecting a razor wire fence along parts of its border with Croatia on Wednesday, saying it wanted better control over a tide of migrants flowing through the tiny country en route to other areas of Europe.
The continent is grappling with its biggest influx of migrants — more than one million are expected this year — since World War Two and is deeply split over how best to respond. European Union leaders were to hold a special summit in Malta later on Wednesday to try to iron out their differences.
Around 180,000 people, many fleeing war in Syria and Afghanistan, have streamed into Slovenia since mid-October after trekking northwards along a Balkan corridor from Greece, most of them bound ultimately for Austria and then Germany.
Slovenian army trucks loaded with wire fencing arrived in Veliki Obrez, a village on the southeastern border with Croatia, early on Wednesday. By 1400 GMT, over 1 km (mile) of wire had been strung up, a Reuters photographer there reported.
“The barriers do not have the purpose of preventing arrivals to Slovenia or significantly reducing them… Their purpose is to direct the flow of migrants to controlled entrance points,” Bostjan Sefic, state secretary at the Slovenian Interior Ministry, told a news conference.
He said that a total of 1.5 km (0.9 mile) of fence had so far been erected along two locations on the border but declined to reveal how many more kilometers would be fenced off.
The main point of disagreement in the EU is over mandatory national quotas to share out asylum seeking refugees and migrants among the 28 member states.
Hungary, whose anti-immigrant government shut its border to arriving migrants in October, as well as the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia deeply oppose the quotas.
Slovenia is facing more pressing logistical concerns. Prime Minister Miro Cerar said on Tuesday that the ex-Yugoslav republic, the smallest on the migrant route, lacked the resources to shelter large numbers over the harsh winter if Austria closed its border as well.
Slovenia’s boundary with Croatia will remain open, Cerar said, but the fence will prevent migrants entering the country at uncontrolled points along the frontier.
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden to Temporarily Reinstate Border Controls Over Migrant Influx
The Swedish government on Wednesday said it would temporarily reinstate border checks to deal with an unprecedented influx of migrants, making it the latest country in Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone to tighten its borders over the crisis.
“A record number of refugees are arriving in Sweden. The migration office is under strong pressure… and the police believe there is a threat against public order,” Interior Minister Anders Ygeman said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden to Introduce Border Controls at Noon
Sweden is to introduce temporary border controls in the south of the country from noon on Thursday, the government has announced.
Anders Ygeman, Minister for Home Affairs, told a press conference in Stockholm on Wednesday evening that border controls would take place on the Öresund Bridge and the ferry terminals in Skåne and apply initially for 10 days.
Ygeman said that border controls could be extended in 20-day periods.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Selecting Embryos for IVF Not a Crime Says Top Court
But upholds ban on suppressing embryos’ genetic diseases
(ANSA) — Rome, November 11 — Italy’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday ruled that a ban on selecting embryos for fertility treatments to avoid the transmission of some serious diseases was illegitimate.
Screening and selecting embryos for grave genetically transmitted diseases is not a crime, the court said.
However, the Court upheld a ban on suppressing embryos carrying such diseases.
The Court was ruling on objections raised to Italy’s Law 40 approved in 2004, which bans assisted fertility treatments using eggs or sperm from anonymous donors, IVF treatments for same-sex couples, surrogate motherhood and suppressing embryos. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in 2012 had already rejected the law saying it went against two provisions in its convention for the protection of human rights.
Italy’s Constitutional Court in April 2014 lifted the ban on anonymous donor IVF.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Quote:
In other news, Monday’s murder of two Americans at a police training center in Jordan is being celebrated by jihad supporters on social media. Unquote
And, what is discussed on the social media is perhaps the most important news around.
It’s hard to imagine devotees of the social media spending more than thirty seconds on the standard media — apart from running searches for something passed around on the social media.
(I have a facebook account. There are 26 friends listed nine of whom rarely if ever post anything. A couple more post little. It still takes me a half hour to look through the “news feed.” …”Look through” not really read through all the articles.)
Corriere della Sera
17 arrested
Biggest anti-terror operation in Europe in 20 years
Edit
3 Arrested.
Arrest warrant for all 17, including the leader, aka “refugee” Mullah Krekar based in Oslo for the last several years.
Daily Mail
“‘ISIS plot to kidnap British diplomats’ is busted: Four men arrested in England are among 13 held in ‘the most important police operation in Europe in 20 years’”
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_GERMANY_FAR_RIGHT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-11-12-06-06-33
” For the third straight night, French police have clashed with rioters in the “Jungle”, a makeshift migrant camp outside Calais ”
That is Remembrance Day the beginning signs of catastrophic civil wars in Europe. While Remembrance Day Celebrations were going on by the traitors, reminding us to share “our HUGE wealth with overseas welfare dependent invaders.”
Is that the function of the Remembrance Day, Stupid?
Or is it the Day to remembers how naive Chamberlain, waving the piece of peace paper, appeased Hitler in vain. So appeasing invaders today is in vain. Does not work.
Do we remember that shameful act of giving part of czkoslovakia to Hitler and was not satisfies?
Do we remember that failing to take action and confront evil when it starts to bud is the best way of doinf charity to one’s own citizens, and avoid disasters and corpses of wars?
Do we remind ourselves of that and begin right now to take overdue steps to avoid blood and death?
Decisions based on logical observation of events, and invaders’ intentions, taken in time save lives.
Instead of those traitors making embelished speeches about how nice they are to invaders, doc. Movies of WWI and WWII, should be broadcast to the waiting audience at Remembrance Gatherings to show the horrors of bad decisions and the result of inaction.
Every new election of a smooth, nice traitor, is a nail in the coffin of the western nations and existence. By their inaction towards existing invasion and ignoring the consequences, they are all Naïve infamous Chamberlains.
How the alert, clever, determined Churchill was godsend, appeared on the stage at the right time, and in time, to handle the stubborn Hitler. Churchill did not mince his words: He spoke honestly, directly and truthfully. He saved Britain and Europe. Hitler was iron-willed and full of determination, and Churchill had to meet Hitler’s evil cleverness and to surpass it to succeed.
We have to remember that Chamberlain disappeared in infamy, as nice but naive, and faint – hearted. Churchill lives in glory for knowing what to do and not fawning to anyone.
Churchill knew Hitler’s nature, which was part of general human nature, that’s why he authored a wonderful, accurate book about the Highway Pirate and his followers. You have to distinguish, recognize, discern and tell apart similar twins, if you are unable go to hell, you are not suitable to take responsibility of a nation and its citizens, and lead them to disaster. Invaders have two hands, a similar face to Buddhists, Jews and Christians, BUT they are categorically different from human race. It is the workings of the brain that matters, not outside similarity in shape.
God bless you Orban and other braves, for telling the truth. Only you are enlightened. The rest are worse than Pirates for their own citizens.
According to Churchill Chamberlain was constrained by the public and especially the communist party that numbered over a million Inthe uk! The useful idiots go back a long time!
“Sweden” and “border control” are not words I thought I’d see together in my lifetime.
Pictures from Mamö trainstation yesterday’
https://youtu.be/cQ-zrw8OtRk
Thank you, Da Capo.
That was a moving compilation of pictures and one could get the sense of it from the way the photographer chose to focus on certain things -e.g., that gold watch the immigrant was wearing vs. the old woman sleeping on the bench. Your ethnic homeless look much like ours…
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I machine translated the accompanying text:
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There are over 170 comments. I took the first one that was long enough to have any real content. This young fellow says:
I’m so upset about how nasty our parents’ generation has been, they have released all these adventurers, while grandmother sitting alone in a retirement home with a nedskitat diaper. There are many who say that we, today’s young people do not have respect for the old, which may be true to some extent, but it can not compare with the way our parents completely ignore helping their parents. PK Media says that we should be ashamed that we did not want to help every single adventurer, no, on the contrary, they are the ones who should be ashamed of where they have made toward their parents that built Sweden, and our generation who need to restore this … for them .
Malmo-istan now sees what it means when dhar el islam is invading dar el gharb?
It took them a long time to figure that out.
This will not end well.
Logic-based Decision-making
When I was brought up in Sweden in the 60’s and early 70’s, one of the main characteristics of the Swedish school system was that it taught critical thinking which naturally leads to logic-based decision-making. I’ve lived my life always trying to use those skills. While living in the U.S., I’ve often been appalled how little logic-based decisionmaking is the norm here in the U.S. Over the past twenty some years, I’ve watched the same direction in Swedish politics.
The Swedish “cradle to grave” (rise and fall) society is a ommon topic of discussion in the U.S. For a long time I pointed to one of the benefits of that political model as having eradicated poverty. The concept of having eradicated poverty within a country is a foreign concept to Americans. Americans are taking for granted that a large segment of society will be poor and that having poverty is in some way the price of having a free society. In a similar way, most Americans are accepting a segregated society and widespread crime as normal.
In recent years as the topic of the Swedish system comes up I’m forced to say that Sweden eradicated poverty but in recent years have systematically imported it and that poverty in Sweden now is running rampant, as is the type of crime that typically accompanies poverty.
The fact that Swedish immigration policies are not and have not for a long time been logic-based is clear to most people who read Avpixlat. Yet, Swedes are bombarded with opinions by the media and politicians who call us naïve, narrow thinkers and – their favorite – racist. In reality, it is instead our political opponents and media who are naïve and narrow thinkers as we clearly are not even are allowed to openly discuss critical issues without retributions. In this short piece I want to focus on two specific areas that I feel aren’t being discussed nearly enough but should be. The two areas are work force immigration and the Swedish university system.
One opinion that is brought up over and over again as a reason why Sweden should have a liberal immigration policy is that Sweden needs more workers. The specific example of how 1/3 of all health care workers are foreign born keeps popping up. I personally don’t have nearly enough information to have an opinion whether or not Sweden needs more workers but for the purpose of this discussion let’s assume it does.
How on earth could anyone think that opening up the borders to “asylum” seekers – the official name of the recent immigrants, not mine – who in fact to a great extent are poorly educated, would help Sweden’s need for qualified health care workers?
There is a huge gap in logic in that reasoning. If we want qualified health care workers we should find these workers among recent graduates from medical schools around the world or from other sources where medical professionalsare seeking work. The odds that the people smugglers who currently are deciding who comes to Sweden and who doesn’t will help select people who actually have the medical skills needed are very small. The same argument can be used for any profession here there is a lack of qualified workers. Where I live in theU.S., Intel Corporation has a large presence.
Intel in my community continually needs engineers. Many of the
engineers hired come fresh out of Bangalore universities in India – in short, highly educated work force immigration to meet specific high-end needs. They are hard workers, smart, happy to make U.S. wages and immediately integrate themselves in to the U.S. society. Refugees to America is not the group that ends up “saving” Intel.
Similarly, the refugees to Sweden will not end up saving the Swedish health care system.My second topic is the Swedish higher education system. To keep this discussion simple I’ll continue to focus on health care workers. My question is: Why aren’t there enough skilled Swedish born health care workers? The only answer I’ve been able to come up with is that not enough Swedes have been educated in the health care field. Why is that?
Have the politicians not had access to the information of how many health care workers would be needed in 2015 for decades? If so, why not?
The math is relatively simple and the data should be easy to gather and analyze: We need “a” number of doctors per
100,000 residents for a total of “b” number of doctors for the entire country. We now have “c” number of doctors with
“d” number retiring every year or leaving the field for other reasons and therefore need to educate “e” number of doctors each year to have enough. Our school system’s capacity is “f” number of doctors per year and we therefore need to add “g” number of slots per year in the school system.
Each and every one of those variables should be readily available and once they are, the calculation would just take
a few minutes. Basic math! Why, though, is this not being done, or if it is, why is this not being openly and regularly discussed? Instead of focusing on the higher education system to solve a concrete problem that requires higher education, Sweden has completely dropped the ball on this over a period of time and is now in desperation pretending that migration from the Third World will make up for poor long-term planning and policies in the higher education system.
What we know, and have known for a long time, is that the work force is getting increasingly better educated and that we have moved into a high-tech “knowledge society”. As a direct consequence, individuals with an elementary school or high school education, which a large portion of migrants might have, are left further and further behind.
As a response, many Swedish politicians and journalists are now suggesting that Sweden needs to create more “simple jobs”, as they call it. That entire concept is quite absurd because society is moving in the opposite direction. Predictions now suggest that more than 1/2 of all jobs that currently exist will be automated within 20 years and that the vast majority of new jobs in the future will require higher education, thus far from being these “simple jobs” that Swedish politicians and journalists call for as the solution to the immigration problem.
Thus, the “simple jobs” that might be created in Sweden in order to get more immigrants employed will soon disappear anyway as these jobs will be automated while the new jobs created will require significantly more education than immigrants from the Third World arrive with. Employers are plainly not interested in creating and paying for these “simple jobs” that Swedish politicians and journalists are desperately calling for.
To tool the country up for “simple jobs” is therefore simply not going to happen, especially not paid for by the private sector, which has to compete globally with countries that pay far lower wages than Swedish employers reasonably can ever offer, epecially within powerful labor union contracts.
Unlike the U.S. where there still are many “simple jobs” that uneducated migrants qualify for, as well as weak or nonexistent
labor unions, what is much more likely to happen in Sweden is that many of the recent immigrants will never work but be supported by tax money their entire lives while using the very same health care system they are supposedly meant to “save”. This is a recipe for segregation, widespread poverty and crime that exist in the U.S. and that Sweden once eradicated.
>>The absence of educating Swedish students in critical thinking in schools combined with the lack of logic-based decision-making along with an abundance of emotional-based decision-making in Sweden are responsible for the segregation, poverty and crime that are now getting a strong foothold and will continue to grow in Sweden.<<
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http://avpixlat.info/2015/11/09/logic-based-decision-making/#more-159671
UKTelegraph: Saudi Arabia risks destroying Opec and feeding the Isil monster
‘Saudi Arabia is acting directly against the interests of half the cartel and is running Opec over a cliff,’ says RBC
The news:
The asylum seeker must sleep outdoors
Published November 13, 2015 at 17:22
Because of the acute housing shortage can asylum seekers already this weekend be forced to sleep outdoors, notifies the Swedish Migration Board.
– Families will be exempt, but adults, alone men and “children” could sleep there, says the Migration Board’s Press Officer Fredrik Bengtsson to Aftonbladet.
The Agency ended a few days ago to report daily statistics on the number of asylum seekers on its website. But today was an update showing that asylum immigration continues at the same pace as before.
On Thursday, when the government introduced border controls, 1676 persons applied for asylum in Sweden. About half of them were from Afghanistan.
The background of the sharp increase in the number of Afghan asylum-seekers is that the German government has begun massrepatriating so-called refugees to Afghanistan on the grounds that there is no serious armed conflict in that country.
A large part of the Afghan asylum seekers who come to Sweden claiming to be under 18 and are therefore treated as unaccompanied children.
When will the Swedes become a minority in Sweden?
If we limit the interest to apply for the 16-year-old boys, it will be a reality within a year, if the immigration of young people continues to have the same character as today. There is also a strong imbalance between the sexes, which is below displayed using pretty simple math.
It is mostly boys from Afghanistan (or claiming to come from there) who immigrate as “unaccompanied minors”. Anyone who claims it Afghanistan should soon run out of 16- and 17-year-olds should take into account that there live 33 million people and that 42 percent of Afghans are aged 14 or younger.
Those who come to Sweden claims to be 16-17 years are from a wider age range, say 16-35 years. The number of “sixteen year olds” who come to Sweden will therefore unlikely end as long as there is a possibility of obtaining asylum in Sweden.
Most likely, that if this kind of mass migration may continue unimpeded,the rumor spread even more, while competition among smugglerroutes pushes down the price, to get to Sweden. The result is further accelerated feed!
Of the unaccompanied this year is 91 per cent boys. The total number who arrived within the last seven days is 2,164 children. This means that the average per day reached 309 children. Divided between the sexes gives 281 boys and 28 girls.
Of “unaccompanied children” has been in previous years, 20 per cent said that they are 17 years. 32 percent said that they are 16 years old. The effect per day gives 90 sixteen-year-old “unaccompanied boys ‘and nine’ unaccompanied girls”.
We ask ourselves how many sixteen year old boys the total was in Sweden last year, so the figure is 52,562 boys. The number of girls was was 48,627. Manifested day there will be 144 boys and 133 girls. If we then calculate the total number of sixteen year olds per day, so we get:
Boys: 144 non unaccompanied, 90 unaccompanied
Girls: 133 non unaccompanied, 9 unaccompanied
It means that within a year, 38 per cent of Sweden’s 16-year-old boys is to consist of so-called unaccompanied children, if immigration continues in the same way as now.
Further, as already 30% of children aged 13-17 have an immigrant background, are the figures for 2016:
Boys: 101 Swedish, 133 immigrants (including 90 unaccompanied)
Girls: 93 Swedish, 49 immigrants (including 9 unaccompanied)
In Sweden, it will therefore be 165 boys per 100 girls already in 2016 in this age group!
Concerning the gender imbalance will not even India and China in the figures. In India are born 115 boys per 100 girls, and in China the figure is 119 boys per 100 girls.
If mass immigration continues in the same way, the forecast for the 17-year-olds is 196 boys per hundred girls:
126 immigrants per 100 Swedes
187 migrant boys per 100 Swedish boys
145 unaccompanied boys per 100 Swedish boys
Even if one ignores the fact that Swedes are in a minority in Sweden, you at least have to understand the explosive power of a community with 165 (2016) and 196 (2017) boys per 100 girls.
Todays figures for China are 118 boys to 100 girls
It is well known that gender imbalance contributes to increased violence in society,and thus should be added to existing massive integration problems in Sweden.
Understand Sweden’s inept politicians what is really going on? Vomiting sick (of SD) and overrated Anders Danielsson of the Swedish Migration Board does not!
The real disaster for the Swedish majority population has hardly even begun. It will grow progressively over the next one to three or five years.
Will the Swedes reaction come too late? Is Sweden, the former stable, perhaps almost well-functioning, relatively democratic welfare state, already irretrievably lost?
Will perhaps the Swede’s reaction, when and if it comes, become so extreme that it risks degenerating into pure racist terror? The latter is not inconceivable, given that the Swedes’ willingness to stand up for their country and their culture has been suppressed for decades.
Finally, a statement by Richard Nikolaus Coudenhove-Kalergi, one of uphovmännen behind the EU, You know him?
Quote:
“Future European man will be of mixed race. Today’s races and classes will gradually disappear because of the lack of both lands, time and the termination of prejudices. The future Eurasian-Negroid race, to utseebdet like the Ancient Egyptians, will replace the diversity of People that are now available with a variety of individuals. “
Diversity here we come”
https://youtu.be/ZQlg38BFKmc