“Refugees” who landed at the RAF base at Dhekelia on the island of Cyprus have been acting out to protest their treatment. The migrants have burned tents and threatened to harm themselves because they have not been transferred off the island. Meanwhile, the Czech parliament has decided to send soldiers to Slovenia to help patrol the border.
In other migration news, of the 204,000 “refugees” who have arrived in Macedonia since June, only 70 have applied for asylum in Skopje.
In other news, a Pakistani woman was burned to death by her former lover after she refused to marry him.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Apollon Zamp, C. Cantoni, Diana West, Fjordman, Insubria, Nick, Srdja Trifkovic, 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.
Italy: Audit Court Criticises 2016 Budget Bill
Local councils to bear brunt of adjustment says Squitieri
(ANSA) — Rome, November 3 — The State Audit Court on Tuesday criticised the government’s 2016 budget bill currently before parliament, highlighting the temporary nature of some of the provisions and the decision to postpone safeguards.
The so-called Stability Law “suffers for the temporary character of certain coverage and the persistence of safeguard clauses that are postponed to the future”, court president Raffaele Squitieri said in a hearing before the Senate. Consequently it will be necessary to “make large budget cuts or increase revenue considerably” starting from 2017, he added. The proposed abolition of the local services tax TASI “crystallizes” the fiscal competence of local councils, to the advantage of those that raised the tax rate has high as possible and penalising those where the TASI tax was lower, Squitieri said. Consequently, “indivisible services will weigh on non residents” who are unable “to exert political control on administrators through their vote,” he added. Between 2016 and 2018 the participation of local administrations in public finance planning “is particularly significant”, Squitieri told the Senate.
The brunt of the budget adjustment will be borne by local administrations “with negative repercussions on the quality of services”, he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spanish Jobless Count Up Again, To 4.18 Million
Spain’s jobless total rose for a third straight month in October to 4.18 million, the employment ministry said on Tuesday.
The month-on-month rise in registered jobless numbers was 82,327.
The ministry noted, however, that “unemployment always rises in October” as seasonal summer work drops off.
Joblessness began to rise again in August, after six straight falls, owing to a drop off in opportunities in tourism, fishing and agriculture…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Donald Trump No Longer the Republican Favourite for President
Ben Carson has shot into the lead of the Republican presidential race, ousting Donald Trump, the eccentric and egocentric billionaire from the top spot.
The retired neurosurgeon now has a 29 per cent approval rating, the highest level of voter support registered for any Republican candidate in the 2016 election race, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
Mr Trump, the larger-than-life real estate mogul and television celebrity dominated the early part of the campaign.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
If Elected Trump Promises to Dump F-35 Fighter Jet Project
GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump promised to cancel the F-35 fighter jet program if he gets elected, Trump told Hugh Hewitt during his radio show.
This was the first time Trump has given any specific details about his defense policy.
“When they say that this cannot perform as well as the planes we already have, what are [we] doing, and why are we spending so much more money?” — Trump said during the show.
“So when I hear that… I say we have to do something,” Trump continued.
Trump was referring to a test report that was leaked last June describing the F-35’s poor performance, especially when it came to combat maneuvering capabilities.
Furthermore, last month the Pentagon revealed that the F-35 ejection seat could snap the necks of lighter-weight pilots. That’s why until the potentially fatal problem is resolved, the US military announced it would restrict pilots weighing less than 136 pounds from operating the plane.
In addition to technical problems, F-35 fighters are in low demand among US allies. Canada, for example, planned to purchase 65 Lockheed Martin-made F-35s to be the country’s next-generation tactical fighter at a cost of $45 billion.
However, the election of Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party during the past Canadian election might change that. During his election campaign, Trudeau promised to scrap the F-35 deal, stating it was too expensive.
Perhaps then Trump might be right. Why spend more money on something new that can’t perform better than the existing product?
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
A team of archaeologists has uncovered a nearly 450-year-old Spanish fort built in North Carolina’s Appalachian Mountains. The site was found near Morganton, N.C., nearly 300 miles from the Atlantic Coast.
Built at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in 1567, nearly 40 years before the Jamestown settlement, it is one of the earliest ones built in the region by Europeans. Known as Fort San Juan, the site was built by Spanish Captain Juan Pardo and his men. It was occupied for less than 18 months before being destroyed by Native Americans, University of Michigan archaeologist Robin Beck said in a statement.
Archaeologists since 2004 have been excavating the site, which also belonged to an Indian settlement known as Joara; however, it was only last month when they inadvertently discovered the remains from Fort San Juan.
“We have known for more than a decade where the Spanish soldiers were living,” archaeologist Christopher Rodning, of Tulane University, said. “This summer we were trying to learn more about the Mississippian mound at Berry, one that was built by the people of Joara, and instead we discovered part of the fort. For all of us, it was an incredible moment.”
Using x-ray images and large-scale excavations, archaeologists were able to identify the fort’s defensive moat. Other discoveries include a 15-foot V-shaped feature, Spanish artifacts like iron nails, tacks, pottery and an iron clothing hook.
Chester B. DePratter, an archaeologist at the University of South Carolina, observed when the discovery was made.
“I am certain that they have found the long lost Fort San Juan,” he said. “The coming years, as the moat and blockhouse inside are excavated, will be quite exciting.”
He said the fort is significant since it shows how deep the Spanish advanced inland by 1566, long before “the English built a fort as far inland as Fort San Juan, much less as far west as the French Broad River near Knoxville,” which took place in the 17th century, the New York Times reports…
| — Hat tip: Apollon Zamp | [Return to headlines] |
Obama to Leave Behind $20 Trillion National Debt
When Barack Obama was elected a president of the United States in 2009, the country’s national debt estimated $10,6 trillion. Back then Obama’s administration officials condemned former President George W. Bush for running up $4 trillion over his time in office. Now the debt has increased to 18,15 trillion and will probably hit 20 trillion by 2017.
According to the new two-year budget deal the limit of US national debt will be suspended, which will allow the Treasury to borrow an additional $1,5 trillion by the end of Obama’s presidency, The Washington Times wrote Sunday.
Thus, when Obama leaves the White House, the country will be left with some 20 trillion in debt. Obama’s legacy will be that he let the national debt nearly double.
“When President Obama signs into law the new two-year budget deal Monday, his action will bring into sharper focus a part of his legacy that he doesn’t like to talk about: He is the $20 trillion man,” the newspaper noted.
The spending increases in their two-year budget agreement will be funded by cuts elsewhere, former House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and administration officials say. But some budget analysts are challenging that claim, the Times reported. Many of them were appalled by the agreement the White House and Congress have reached and by the forthcoming debt increase.
“We will be giving President Obama a free pass to borrow as much money as he can borrow in the last year of his office. No limit, no dollar limit. Here you go, President Obama. Spend what you want.” said Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican who made efforts to filibuster the budget deal before the Senate approved it last Friday.
President of the US National Taxpayers Union Pete Sepp believes that Congress and the president have destroyed a successful mechanism of budget limitations with their budget deal.
“The progress on reducing spending and the deficit has just become much more problematic.” — He noted.
It’s hard to believe now that on July 3, 2008 — the day before Independence Day —Obama claimed that adding $4 trillion to the debt was unaccountable and “unpatriotic”. Now how about adding 10 trillion in just eight years, Mr President?
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
A journalism professor’s who claims she was stopped in a suburban street for ‘walking while black’ has been undermined by a dashcam video, a police chief says.
Dorothy Bland, the Dean of The University of North Texas’ School of Journalism, says she was ‘racially profiled’ when cops stopped her while exercising in her ‘golf-course community’ of Corinth, Texas, on October 24.
Four days later, the former editor slammed the two officers in a one-off newspaper column, saying she complied with them because she had ‘no interest in my life’s story playing out like Trayvon Martin’s death.’
Twenty-four hours after her article was published, police released footage of the incident which shows Bland walking in the middle of the road waving her arms up and down.
The officers are then heard asking Bland to move to the other side of the road, because they feared for her safety.
Corinth’s Police Chief Debra Walthall believes the clip proves the officers were polite and simply concerned that she could be hit by a car.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Immigrant PEGIDA Leader Causes Outrage by Comparing German Justice Minister to Goebbels
The founder of the Pegida anti-immigrant movement has provoked outrage in Germany after he compared the country’s justice minister to Joseph Goebbels.
Mr Bachmann told a crowd of some 8,000 Pegida supporters Heiko Maas, the justice minister, was “the worst intellectual arsonist” since Goebbels and Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler, a propagandist for the East German communist regime.
Mr Maas has accused Pegida of racial incitement and said its followers should be held responsible for attacks on refugee shelters.
And Mr Maas’ Social Democrat party colleagues rounded on Mr Bachmann.
“A crazed fascist compared a thoroughly decent man like Heiko Maas to the chief ideologue of the Third Reich? That’s perfidious and loathsome Pied Piperism, you can’t sink any lower,” Yasmin Fahimi, the party general secretary said.
Pegida has been making a comeback on a wave of opposition to Angela Merkel’s refugee policy, and drew some 20,000 people to the streets of Dresden to mark the anniversary of its first march two weeks ago.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Britain Warns Germany Against Europe Split Over Currency Union
UK Chancellor George Osborne has warned his German counterpart Wolfgang Schäuble that the European Union is in danger of splitting into two, with those in the Eurozone exerting authority over those countries who are not part of the Eurozone.
The news comes as German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted there was no longer a “one speed Europe”.
Osborne has made it clear he believes there is a genuine possibility that the 19 countries currently in the Eurozone will exert undue influence over those member states — such as the UK, Denmark and Hungary, among others — which are not part of the euro single currency. In outlining his demands for “legal guarantees” as part of renegotiating Britain’s membership of the European Union.
He believes that new voting rules introduced as part of the Lisbon Treaty could lead to the Eurozone bloc voting for single market laws that favor the Eurozone nations and penalize non-euro countries. In particular, he does not want Germany to exert undue influence that would enable Frankfurt to usurp London’s dominance of the financial sector in Europe.
He was due to tell Schäuble:
“What we seek are principles embedded in EU law and binding on EU institutions that safeguard the operation of the union for all 28 member states. The principles must support the integrity of the European single market.”
The new principles “must ensure that as the Eurozone chooses to integrate it does so in a way that does not damage the interests of non-euro members,” according to an advance copy of his speech released to the media in London.
In a clear sign of animosity at having been asked to join in the Greek bailout — which the UK vetoed — he was due to say:
“There will be cases where non-euro members want to participate in developments like the banking union. But that participation must be voluntary, and never compulsory. We must never let taxpayers in countries that are not in the euro bear the cost for supporting countries in the Eurozone.€Ž”
Never Closer Union
Osborne said the UK was totally against a central principle of the EU — an ‘ever closer union’ hinting that Europe could split with those in the Eurozone having ‘ever closer union’ and those outside, not.
“In the UK, where this is widely interpreted as a commitment to ever closer political integration, that concept is now supported by a tiny proportion of voters,” Osborne said.
“I believe it is this that is the cause of some of the strains between Britain and our European partners. Ever closer union is not right for us any longer.”
Osborne received support from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who — speaking in Berlin ahead of Osborne — said:
“I agree that Britain should stay in the European Union, but of course the decision is not up to us, it will be up to the British. Where there are justified concerns — whether competitiveness or a better functioning of the EU — British concerns are our concerns.”
Admitting Osborne’s belief that Europe would be split, she added:
“The Europe of today is no longer a one-speed Europe.”
Dr Ulrich Hoppe is Director General of the German-British Chamber of Industry & Commerce told the BBC Monday: “I think Germany has a huge interest in Britain staying within the European Union and I think the concerns the British side have are well-understood in Germany and I think there is some flexibility.
“The German side is willing to help and convince other Europeans to go a long way to meet [Osborne’s] demands. Although Osborne has not so-far revealed his wish list of demands — believing a poker player never gives away his hand — Hoppe believes his visit to the German finance minister may start the ball rolling on specific negotiations.”
“The British Government was forced [at the European leaders’ summit in October] to come up with a clearer plan of what they want to renegotiate, and I think George Osborne’s attempt to talk to the German finance minister [will mean] they can find out what kind of ‘wiggle-room’ there is and then they can formulate their demands so that most of them can be met,” Hoppe said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
France Honours Danish Terror Victims
The two civilian victims of February’s terror attack in Copenhagen were given posthumous awards from France on Monday.
France’s ambassador to Copenhagen, who in February attended a free speech event targeted by an Islamist gunman, on Monday honoured two Danish men who were killed in the twin attacks.
“We have a debt towards those who left us,” Francois Zimeray said at a ceremony attended by Denmark’s justice minister, Søren Pind.
Filmmaker Finn Nørgaard was posthumously bestowed with one of France’s top cultural honours — the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres whose former recipients have included T.S.Eliot, Audrey Hepburn and Cate Blanchett.
Jewish security guard Dan Uzan was awarded a medal of courage by the French embassy in Copenhagen.
Nørgaard was on February 14th shot dead by gunman Omar El-Hussein outside a free speech and blasphemy event hosting controversial Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who caused an outcry with his 2007 sketch of the Prophet Mohammed as a dog.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Investigates Anti-Islam Group Founder for Goebbels Remark
BERLIN: German prosecutors have opened an investigation into the founder of the anti-Islam PEGIDA movement for slander after he compared the justice minister to Hitler’s head of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels.
At a rally in Dresden on Monday, which German media said drew about 8,000 people, Lutz Bachmann said Social Democrat (SPD) minister Heiko Maas was the “worst spiritual fire raiser” since Goebbels and Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler.
Von Schnitzler was a television commentator in Communist East Germany who strongly criticised Western governments and media.
The comment is the latest in a series of provocative remarks made at the regular rallies of Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA). Only two weeks ago, a speaker said that concentration camps were “unfortunately out of action”.
The refugee crisis in Europe has boosted the popularity of PEGIDA’s rallies in the eastern city of Dresden and raised fears about right-wing radicalism. Many voters are worried about how Germany will cope with an influx of about 1 million migrants this year, many fleeing wars in the Middle East and Africa.
Social Democrats, who share power with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, expressed outrage at Bachmann’s comment. SPD General Secretary Yasmin Fahimi said it was perfidious and disgusting.
A spokeswoman for Dresden prosecutors said they had started an investigation into slander…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: PEGIDA’s Leader Compares Minister Maas to Goebbels
Investigation opened into him
(ANSA) — BERLIN — Once more, thousands of people took to the streets yesterday- they were about 8,000 — like every Monday, the anti-Islam members of Pegida sparked row: by comparing, this time, the Justice Minister Heiko Maas to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. The comparison — as expected — provoked heated debates, and was made by Luz Bachmann: the same provocateur who posted online a photo in which he looks like Hitler.
Maas said he did not want to sue Bachmann, but the local prosecutor has opened an investigation into him. Meanwhile, hundreds of citizens protested yesterday in the streets of Dresden against Pegida, by calling themselves “Gepida”, German acronym which stands for “enervated inhabitants protesting against the intolerant attitude of some Dresden outsiders”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Former Milan Prefect Tronca Takes Over for Marino in Rome
Mayor ousted in drive led by his own PD
(ANSA) — Rome, November 2 — Former Milan prefect Francesco Paolo Tronca will get down to work in earnest on Monday after being sworn in as Rome Commissioner on Sunday to replace ex-mayor Ignazio Marino.
Marino was ousted last week in a drive led by his own and Premier Matteo Renzi’s centre-left Democratic Party (PD) after he withdrew the resignation he tendered last month following an expenses scandal.
Tronca will run the city until local elections are held next year to vote in a new council and mayor.
His priorities will include preparing the city for the upcoming Jubilee of Mercy, addressing severe problems with the public transport system and reversing the poor state of cleanliness and maintenance of many parts of the capital.
Tronca met Pope Francis on Sunday and he said the Argentine pontiff’s words “give me the strength to go forward”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘PD Members Free to Join Landini, Camusso’ Says Renzi
This left ‘cannot be a party of government’ says premier
(ANSA) — Rome, November 3 — Renzi said Tuesday dissenting members of his Democratic Party (PD) were free to leave if they wished but warned that a new left-wing formation could not be a partner in government.
“Those who go to join (Maurizio) Landini, leader of the influential metalworkers’ union Fiom, (Susanna) Camusso (leader of Italy’s largest trade union confederation Cgil), (Nichi) Vendola (leader of the small Left Ecology Freedom party), (Stefano) Fassina (ex economy minister and former PD member who left the party in disagreement with Renzi) are free to do so. I don’t follow the logic of the old Italian Communist party: never enemies on the left. With this left it is certainly impossible to govern,” Renzi said in an interview with veteran TV journalist Bruno Vespa.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Marino Says ‘Renzi Has Taken Rome’
Ex mayor accused premier of distancing those who aren’t in line
(ANSA) — Rome, November 3 — Former Rome mayor Ignazio Marino on Tuesday accused Premier Matteo Renzi of taking the capital from his hands. He also said that anyone who does not fall in line with Renzi is ‘distanced’ from their position.
“Renzi wanted Rome under his direct control and he took it,” said Marino, who was ousted last week when Rome councillors quit em masse in a drive led by his and Renzi’s centre-left Democratic Party (PD).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Rome Won’t be ‘Military Zone’ In Jubilee — Alfano
Holy year security plan features hiring of 2,500 police
(ANSA) — Rome, November 3 — Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said Tuesday that Rome will not be turned into a “military zone” in order to maintain security during the upcoming Jubilee of Mercy. “The use of the police will be reinforced, taking into account all of the possible variables,” Alfano said after the meeting of a security committee. “But Rome won’t look like a military city”. He added that the Jubilee security plan features the hiring of 2,500 more police officers.
He also explained that the plan will involve other Italian cities, not just Rome.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Naples Police Bust Invalidity Fraud Ring
30 suspects allegedly defrauded state of 2.4 mn euros
(ANSA) — Naples, November 3 — Some 30 people were placed under house arrest or issued with orders requiring them to sign daily with police on Tuesday in connection with a invalidity fraud probe in the southern city of Naples.
The suspects are accused of receiving invalidity benefit while also working in city shops. One of the suspects was found to be selling counterfeit cigarettes. Police seized property and assets worth 2.4 million euros as a preventive measure.
This is the amount investigators believe the suspects received in unlawful benefit.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel on TTIP Deal: ‘We Do Not Have to Run After US and Beg’
The proposed EU-US Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership (TTIP) trade deal contains legislation that is fundamentally right, because it is based on high EU standards, and Europe should play a proactive role in the talks, the German chancellor claimed on Tuesday.
BERLIN (Sputnik) — It is not simply a trade pact, but an agreement based on high EU norms, Merkel added.
“I am deeply convinced that this agreement is correct, but…we do not have to run after the United States and beg, we should be more active in these negotiations, and we are doing this,” Angela Merkel said, as broadcast by Germany’s NTV channel.
The controversial TTIP has come in for tough criticism for the unusual secrecy of its negotiations and the inability by any but the negotiators to see the text of the document.
The agreement seeks, according to TTIP-approved statements, the establishment of a transatlantic free-trade economic zone which would deregulate a consumer market containing an estimated 820 million people.
Critics of the deal point out that it threatens the principles of democracy, national sovereignty, the environment, as well as consumer and labor standards.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Michelin Axing 578 Jobs in Italy, Closing Fossano Plant
Tyre-maker reorganising activities
(ANSA) — Turin, November 3 — Michelin said Tuesday that it was axing 578 jobs in Italy by 2020 and will close its plant in Fossano, where 400 people work, by the end of 2016 as part of the tyre-makers strategic plan. “In a context of overcapacity, Michelin needs to streamline its production facilities to maintain competitive production costs,” the company said. “The Fossano site, which employs 400 people, will therefore close in late 2016. Its production will be purchased from external suppliers or be taken over by the Group’s other facilities in Europe”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Plea for French Girl Lila, ‘Taken by Jihadist Dad’
A Frenchwoman has issued a plea for help to bring home her three-year-old daughter, whom she says was “abducted” by her jihadist husband who has left for Syria.
Magali Laurent, 35, hasn’t seen her three-and-a-half-year-old daughter Lila for over two weeks.
The mother appeared on French TV in tears on Monday night to say she was “1,000 percent sure” her ex-husband was on the way to Syria with her daughter.
The 35-year-old woman and her Franco-Tunisian ex-husband were married for three years, and divorced in 2014 after the man was fired from his hotel job for serious misconduct.
The man then began to grow a beard, wear a djellaba, and attend mosque every day, his ex-wife said.
She added that he had radical ties, showing his support for the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks in Paris earlier this year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pope ‘Saddened’ As Vatileaks 2 Scandal Deepens
PR expert Chaouqui says innocent, cooperating with investigation
(ANSA) — Vatican City, November 3 — A new scandal over leaked confidential Vatican documents deepened on Tuesday as extracts of two books pointed to waste and mismanagement holding up Pope Francis’s economic reforms.
ANSA sources said Francis is already “very saddened” by the renewed scandal, which led to the arrest at the weekend of two advisers who served on his financial reform commission.
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.
Vallejo Balda remains in custody. Chaouqui, who was released after agreeing to collaborate with investors, said on Tuesday that she was innocent.
“I did not betray the pope,” Chaouqui wrote on Facebook, denying that she was the source of the leaks. “I never gave papers to anyone,” she said, adding that she was confident the investigations would establish her innocence.
Advance previews of two books on the Vatican due out later this week and based on confidential documents emerged in the media on Tuesday, drawing 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 the dicastery 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, according to extracts released to the media on Tuesday.
The Vatican has said it may take legal action against the books. It has condemned them as the “fruit of a serious betrayal of the trust given by the pope and, as regards the authors, of an operation to gain advantage from the gravely illegal act of obtaining confidential documentation”.
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] |
Police in Spain say they have arrested three Moroccans who were ready to commit a Charlie Hebdo-style terror attack.
The trio, accused of forming part of a group linked to Islamic State, were held during dawn raids in Madrid yesterday.
The ongoing operation was coordinated by a court in the Spanish capital and state prosecutors from Spain’s Central Criminal Court.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
The Black Death Has Been Hiding Among us for Thousands of Years
Fossil DNA reveals that the plague is much older than previously suspected. The discovery could shed new light on the evolution of a deadly disease.
One of history’s deadliest killers has been on the rampage for longer than anyone previously suspected. This is the conclusion of a new study, which found a strain of plague bacteria in skeletons as old as 5,000 years in Europe and Asia. “Plague is a much older phenomenon than we thought, and was widespread in Europe and Asia even before the establishment of cities,” says Professor Eske Willerslev of the Centre for GeoGenetics at the Natural History Museum, Denmark, who spearheaded the research.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
This is the astonishing moment a hero police officer risked his life to save a woman as she tried to jump from a bridge into freezing cold water.
Pc Fab Ahmed spotted the woman sitting on a ledge on a bridge in Kingston, south-west London, before kneeling down and speaking to her through a small gap.
He tried to build up a rapport with her — and although she decided to jump, he managed to take hold of her. However, the force of the woman falling pulled him over and down towards the river.
But his colleagues Pc Matt Midgley and Pc Annabel Rayner managed to haul both him and the woman to safety — with the aid of a firefighter who had just finished dealing with a nearby incident.
PC Ahmed said: ‘I was running through in my head what I was going to do next. I knew I had a major fight on my hands to stay alive and do my best to help the lady when we both hit the water.’
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Three Asian men who carried out an ‘honour attack’ on the boyfriend of one of their sisters have all avoided prison terms.
Kasim Ali, 25, and his cousins Adeel Ali, 20, and Razi Khalid, 18, targeted Aquib Baig because their family did not approve of him seeing their sister, a court was told.
They rammed his car before chasing him into a corner store in Blackburn, Lancashire, where they kicked and beat him in front of horrified shoppers.
Despite a judge condemning the violence, the trio were this week spared jail for their attack on Mr Baig, which took place on April 13.
Sentencing them at Preston Crown Court Sessions House, Recorder Julian Shaw told them: ‘There is no place for any religious or honour based violence.
‘It’s abhorrent, it’s against your religion, it’s unlawful. I have had to see the violence perpetrated.
‘Mercifully, perhaps more by luck than judgement, the victim didn’t sustain more serious injuries.
‘He was attacked by all three of you together at the same time despite attempts by member of the public to break it up and despite the perception that he offered no violence towards you at all.’
Prosecutor Sarah Gruffydd told the court how Mr Baig was in a relationship with Kasim Ali’s sister, causing upset among the extended family.
Miss Gruffydd said: ‘It was a relationship which was disapproved of by Ali and the rest of his family. This is an honour-based violence case.’
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Israel May Toughen Law on NGOs With Foreign Funding
The Israeli authorities are planning to toughen working conditions of the non-profit organizations in the country if more than half of their budget comes from abroad, media reported.
If the law is adopted, employees of NGOs will be required to report foreign financing in all types of documentation, including letters and reports. They will also have to wear special badges, and any organizations that breach the new rules will have to pay a fine of 30,000 shekels (about $7,700).
In an exclusive interview with Radio Sputnik, social expert and head of the association “Peace Now” Ilan Rozenkier said that the initiative is a political maneuver on the part of the Israeli government.
“The goal is not to increase transparency (as it is being explained officially), but to try to weaken and undermine the legitimacy of these associations”, Rozenkier said.
The expert also blamed the Israeli government for the proposed initiative of wearing badges and called it “unacceptable”.
“The bill contains a provision about the compulsory wearing of special badges by NGO representatives every time they attend the Knesset. This is a new version of the Jewish star [the yellow star of shame worn by Jews during the Holocaust], which NGO members are being forced to wear in order to make the receiving of foreign funding shameful,” Rozenkier stated.
At the same time, Raphi Walden, head of the Israeli NGO “Physicians for Human Rights” argued that the new law is of discriminatory nature and is aimed at creating a negative image of non-profit organizations.
“Many human rights organizations in Israel are actively protesting and criticizing the government for its actions that violate human rights, in particular, with regard to the colonization of the Palestinian territories. For this reason, the government is trying to present us as traitors,” Walden told Radio Sputnik.
According to Walden, the new law would violate basic principles of democracy and is hypocritical as it mainly affects human rights advocates, and does not infringe on the interests of the right-wing and ultra-right organizations which secretly receive hundreds of millions of dollars from various sponsors in Israel and abroad.
According to reports, the law will most likely affect leftist and far-left NGOs with funding from the embassies of the EU countries.
“This is hypocrisy, because many Israeli politicians such as the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, Defense Minister and others received financial support themselves. They have received substantial funds from abroad and no one accused them of it. The same is true for the Israeli ultra-right [organizations], which annually receive funds for the colonization of Palestine,” Walden said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
by Srdja Trifkovic
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took a gamble after his Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its parliamentary majority last June 7: he would call another election, rather than let Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu look for a coalition partner in good faith. Contrary to most preditions, last Sunday the AKP regained its majority with 49% of the vote and 317 of the 550 seats in parliament. Next February it will start its 14th year of continuous rule.
That rule is increasingly marked by creeping Islamization, cronyism and corruption (especially in the burgeoning building industry), clampdown on dissent, attacks on independent media, and government attempts to control the judiciary. Above all it is now marked by Erdogan’s authoritarian behavior at home—his nickname is “the Sultan”—and his reckless neo-Ottoman foreign policy, which is creating endless problems for Turkey and for the region. Its proclaimed policy of “zero problems with all neighbors” of a decade ago has morphed into the grim reality of very serious problems with most key players in the region: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Israel, Egypt…
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
Families Backing President Assad Filmed Locked Up in ‘Human Shield’ Cages by Army of Islam
Horrific images have been revealed of Syrian men and women locked in cages for supporting President Bashar al-Assad. The prisoners are being kept as human shields in a bid to stop airstrikes from the Government and some have been locked up for THREE years, it is claimed.
The images are from Douma, a suburb in Damascus controlled by militants in the Army of Islam. It’s an area repeatedly targeted by Russian and Syrian bombings. At least 100 cages are said to be in place in the town and are being driven around on the back on trucks.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: For Kurdish Bishop, Ban on 18-Year-Olds Choosing Their Religion is Anti-Christian
Mgr Rabban al Qas criticises Iraq’s Parliament for rejecting an amendment to a controversial law. If a parent converts to Islam, his or her children are automatically Muslim and unable to change religion upon reaching legal age. For the prelate, this constitutes “genocide” in a country that knows neither freedom nor respect. Now he fears it might be extended to Kurdistan.
Baghdad (AsiaNews) — Mgr Rabban al-Qas, bishop of Amadiyah and Zaku (Dohuk, Iraqi Kurdistan), said that a decision late last month by the Iraqi parliament to reject an amendment to a controversial religious law goes against Christians and other Iraqi minorities.
Speaking to AsiaNews, the prelate noted that the failure to amend the law could have serious “repercussions in Kurdistan,” where it is not yet applicable. As it snuffs out their desire for freedom, the law “will drive Christians away,” accelerating a process that is already underway.
“We are facing a genocide in a country that knows only death and liberticidal laws,” Mgr al-Qasr said. Here there is “neither freedom nor respect”.
The law at the heart of the controversy involves the religion of minors. Under existing legislation, children are considered automatically Muslim if one of the parents converts to Islam. An amendment proposed by Christian legislators, backed by parliamentarians from a number of parties and other religious groups, would cancel that provision but mustered only 51 votes in favour and 137 against.
The amendment would allow minors to retain the religion of birth until the legal age of 18. This would have allowed young people to choose their religion instead of being automatically classified as Muslim even against their will.
For young men and women, changing religion is a trying experience, especially in a country whose dominant religion punishes apostasy with the death penalty and where an extreme version of Islam is fast spreading.
In his talk with AsiaNews, the bishop of Amadiyah and Zaku did not mince words. His diocese is in Dohuk Governorate on the border with Turkey and Syria, and is currently sheltering hundreds of thousands of Christian refugees from Mosul and the Nineveh Plain.
Speaking about the rejection, he said that “It is not just a political project. There are also traces of an Islam that wants to eliminate minorities: a faith that prevents you from coming back or change if you are Muslim. If you change your religion, it will be forever. Such a mentality has nothing that is human. “
“Not only have they taken homes and property from Christians,” he lamented, “but now they also want to take their willpower, hope, freedom of religion and freedom to choose for the future.”
The law contains a double standard that patently violates the individual right to religious freedom and the equality of religions because it establishes the primacy of Islam at the expense of the principles of citizenship, social justice, and religious freedom.
“Once it was possible to change religion at the age of 18,” Mgr al-Qas said. “Now that is outlawed. This is a serious decision by the government in Baghdad behind which one finds fanatical groups and extremist groups that did their utmost to ensure that parliament would reject the amendment.” Sadly, fighting for change “was not enough,” the prelate added.
For now, the law “has not yet come into force” in Kurdistan, Mgr Rabban explained. The Autonomous Region still upholds civic liberties and “allows people to choose”. For the Iraqi government however, “this is a big mistake, and one cannot exclude that in the future it may also touch us” in Kurdistan.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS-Besieged Christians Vow to Stay on ‘Not to Die at Sea’
Jihadists advance SE of Homs, heads of households remain
(by Lorenzo Trombetta) (ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, NOVEMBER 3 — The Islamic State (ISIS) is advancing in central Syria but numerous Christian heads of households have decided to remain under ISIS control to avoid losing their homes, faced as they are with little alternative but to “die at sea on the way to Europe”. ANSAmed has spoken to several family members in Lebanon of those who stayed in three towns with a large Christian presence in the area between Palmyra and Homs, along a moving border that separates ISIS areas from those controlled by the Syrian regime.
Those who fled to Lebanon from the towns of Qaryatayn, Mhin and Sadad — along a road connecting the ancient desert oasis to the Damascus-Homs highway — spoke on condition of anonymity. Qaryatayn has been under ISIS control since August, Mhin for the two days and Sadad is currently under attack from the jihadist group, which has taken over positions on the surrounding hills. Sources from Sadad say that many inhabitants — especially Christians — have fled towards nearby areas in government hands, such as Fayruze and Zaydal. Over one hundred families and heads of households have instead decided to stay in Sadad, Qaryatayn and Mhin. “They are afraid of losing what it has taken them years to build. Their homes, land, belonging…,” say relatives and friends. After taking Qaryatayn, ISIS deported about 200 of the town’s Christians towards Raqqa and Palmyra. After keeping them prisoner for weeks, they were offered an agreement based on submission to ISIS authority in exchange for “protection”. The jihadist organization uses its own interpretation of ‘dhimma’, a protection pact that the Muslim authority establishes with a non-Muslim community, such as Christians or Jews. The alternative offered to the local Christians was complete expropriation or — sometimes — death. Death is described as “certain” by those who say that they do not want to “leave the land to die at sea on the way to Europe”, or to “find themselves under bombing in other areas of Syria”. Several international reports confirm that most airstrikes in Syria hit areas that are under the control of non-ISIS opposition groups. “They deceive themselves that they will be able to protect their interests,” Syrian Christian sources in Lebanon told ANSAmed, criticizing those who chose to stay. “For now they can work and stay in their homes, but who will ensure that they have a future?”.
This is uncertain for everyone, though, note those that opted to stay.
“If we die, at least it will be in our homes.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Rebel Group Defends Decision to Use Prisoners as Human Shields
A Syrian rebel group has defended its decision to use prisoners as human shields against regime and Russian air strikes.
Video footage posted over the weekend showed dozens of people being transported in cages around the besieged Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta.
“Your women are our women,” a teenage boy standing near one of the cages is filmed as saying. “If you want to kill my mother, you will kill them too.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Targets Erdogan Opponents in Post-Election Crackdown
Turkey cracked down on rivals of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday and launched air strikes against Kurdish rebels, clearly signalling a return to hardline tactics after an election that cemented his grip on power.
The West has voiced deep concerns about Sunday’s vote that delivered Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) a landslide victory, fearing the country will slide into increasingly authoritarian rule.
Hopes of a possible return to Kurdish peace talks after the vote were dashed after the military said its warplanes bombed bases of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in southeastern Turkey and their northern Iraq stronghold on Monday.
“Shelters, caves and arms depots identified as being used by terrorists from the separatist terrorist organisation were destroyed with air bombardments,” it said in a statement…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
by Diana West
Some names of note in the news.
DEATHS: Ahmad Chalabi, “the man who pushed America to war,” as the title of Aram Roston’s intriguing biography calls him, has died of a heart attack, age 71.
I read Roston’s book several years ago. It makes a strong case that Chalabi was all along conning toute Washington on behalf of masters or confederates or co-religionists in Iran.
Will any obituaries mention, as Andrew Bostom reminded me this morning, that it was Chalabi who accompanied Pied Piper of Nation-Building, Bernard “Bring Them Freedom or They Destroy Us” Lewis, to address the U.S. Defense Policy Board just eight days after 9/11? Policy board chief Richard Perle told the Wall Street Journal they were there to argue for a military takeover of Iraq “to avert still-worse terrorism in the future.” Oh, and maybe destroy Iran’s main enemy in the region while they’re at it.
Not bad access for a possible agent of Iranian influence. Which says what about the gullibility quotient of our “experts,” elected officials, and “intelligence” services? In May 2004, a few months after the Journal article appeared, Chalabi’s offices in Iraq were raided and he was accused of passing intelligence to Iran and presiding over a pro-Iranian network. Naturally, nothing came of the charges … but things just weren’t the same after that.
The feverish pitch of Iraq war fever in Washington is remote to us now, part of an another eon, although it is little more than a decade ago. I have a memory of being at a think tank in downtown Washington for a lecture of some kind as Chalabi was to arrive for a separate and exclusive meeting. I didn’t know his name or anything about him (which marks me, thankfully, as an “outsider”), but I was immediately aware of the excitement and energy that his looming presence created. Who is he? I asked. The next president of Iraq, I was told.
I found an interview Roston gave to Mother Jones (somehow I doubt NR or WS were too keen on the book) in which he discusses Chalabi’s long-standing relationship with Iran. Roston says he found no evidence Chalabi was “controlled” by Iran, although he did find evidence he received funding. “Some former intelligence officers who know him well believe he was in part an ‘agent of influence’ for Iran rather than a controlled agent.”…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Space Agency Signs Contracts for 31 Commercial Launches in 2015
The Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) signed contracts for 31 commercial space launches in 2015, the agency’s head Igor Komarov said Tuesday.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — A number of these lauches will be carried out from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East, he added.
“We have signed a record number of contracts on commercial services. Contracts on 31 launches have been signed, and the Soyuz launches, a significant part, we plan to carry out in 2018-2019 from Vostochny,” Komarov told Rossiya-24.
The total cost of construction of the Vostochny space center in Russia’s Far East is estimated at 180 billion rubles ($2.9 billion), the head of Roscosmos said.
“According to experts, the construction of launch facilities at the future Vostochny space center is estimated at 120 billion rubles. However, it is obvious that a cosmodrome is not only launch pads, therefore, in our estimates the total cost could be as much as 180 billion rubles.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Stranded Syrians in Moscow Airport
For more than 50 days, the transit zone of Moscow airport has been home to a family of six who have fled the Syrian civil war. They want to settle in Russia, but the government says their visas are fake.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A young woman has been stoned to death in a Taliban-controlled area of Afghanistan after eloping with a man.
A 30-second video shows the woman, known only as Rokhsahana and believed to be aged between 19 and 21, lying in a hole in the ground as a group of around 15 men hurl stones at her.
Her voice can be heard growing increasingly high-pitched as the rocks strike her body with sickening thuds.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Prominent Historian Fears Growing Ideological Intolerance in India
Indian historian Romila Thapar talks to DW about the ongoing protests by intellectuals in India over various forms of intolerance in the country and what this means for Indian society if the trend is not arrested.
A number of writers, artists, scientists, historians and filmmakers in the South Asian nation have openly slammed the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in recent days, accusing it of contributing to the “highly vitiated” atmosphere prevailing in the country.
Intellectuals cite repeated instances of banning books as well as threats and assassinations in the recent past as a sign of growing attempts by right-wing fringe elements to curtail freedoms and impose their ideologies on others.
About 53 historians, including Romila Thapar, recently released a joint statement saying that the current trend is particularly worrying. “What the regime seems to want is a kind of legislated history, a manufactured image of the past, glorifying certain aspects of it and denigrating others,” they said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Why Don’t People See the Yeti Any More?
Until recently it was common for people in Bhutan to share stories of their encounters with the Himalayan yeti. But with the arrival of modernity, villagers no longer need to climb high into the mountains, where they once saw traces of the yeti — or thought they did. So a legend is slowly fading away.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Woman is Burned Alive in Pakistan After Turning Down Her Former Boyfriend’s Marriage Proposal
A young woman has died after a jilted suitor set her on fire for refusing his marriage proposal.
Sonia Bibi, 20, was admitted to hospital in Pakistan last month, after her former lover doused her with petrol and set her alight after she turned down his offer of marriage.
Medical staff had originally said she would recover, but a doctor in Multan’s Nishtar hospital said Miss Bibi had died on Tuesday morning after her injuries became infected.
Between 45 and 50 per cent of her body had been burned in the attack, doctor Naheed Chaudhry, the head of the hospital’s burns department said.
The incident took place in a remote village of Multan district in central Punjab province. Police have arrested the 24-year-old suspect.
Miss Bibi had told police that she had fallen out of love with Ahmed, and preliminary investigations suggested he had set her on fire ‘after she refused to marry him’.
Hundreds of women are murdered in Pakistan each year in cases of domestic violence or on the grounds of defending family ‘honour’.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Japan’s Lofty ‘Hydrogen Society’ Vision Hampered by Cost
Japan has lofty ambitions to become a “hydrogen society” where homes and fuel-cell cars are powered by the emissions-free energy source, but observers say price and convenience are keeping the plan from taking off.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has dubbed hydrogen the “energy of the future”, and hopes it will help Tokyo meet the modest emissions targets it has set ahead of a UN climate change conference this month.
Tokyo wants to see cars, buses, and buildings powered by the clean energy in the coming years, and has even laid out plans for a “hydrogen highway” peppered with fuelling stations, all in time for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
No Sorry From United States for South China Sea Trip
The US will send its military “wherever” international law allows, an admiral says. Last week, the United States sailed a warship close to artificial islands that China is building in the contested the South China Sea.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Why is Hi-Tech Japan Using Cassette Tapes and Faxes?
Japan has a reputation for being fascinated by robots and hi-tech gadgets — a nation at the forefront of manufacturing innovation.
But the technological reality in many offices is strikingly different.
This is a country that uses people to do the work of traffic lights and where big-name companies running 10-year-old software is the norm.
There are even tape cassettes for sale in the ubiquitous convenience stores for office use, along with fax machines — remember them? Even tech visionaries like Sony still use a fax.
“Japanese companies generally lag foreign companies by roughly five-to-10 years in adoption of modern IT practices, particularly those specific to the software industry,” says Patrick McKenzie, boss of Starfighter, a software company with operations in Tokyo and Chicago.
“The pace of development is glacial.”
Yoji Otokozawa, president of Tokyo-based IT consultants Interarrows, says Japan Inc. is poor in digital literacy because small businesses, not multinationals, rule the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
90,000 Residents and 200,000 Refugees
How can that work? The residents of Lesbos show how: with calm, business savvy and the sometimes alarming pragmatism of local authorities. Udo Bauer reports from Mytilene.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria to Cut Asylum Terms, Complicate Refugee Family Reunion Procedures
Austria will shorten the currently indefinite term of asylum to a maximum of three years and will tighten the process for refugee family reunions amid a large-scale migrant crisis, the country’s government said on Tuesday.
VIENNA (Sputnik) — Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said in a joint statement with Vice Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner, quoted by the local ORF broadcaster:
“It is important to show people that asylum is a temporary measure.”
Under proposed legislation, a three-year asylum term may be prolonged after an investigation can prove the likelihood of persecution or violence in their home country.
Currently, refugee status gives a right to bring family to Austria after a year of residence. The new law will extend this period to three years.
The reforms will help to distinguish between refugees and economic migrants, Mitterlehner added. The law is expected to come into force November 15.
The European Union, and particularly Austria, are struggling to manage a massive refugee crisis, as hundreds of thousands of people flee conflict-torn regions, seeking asylum in the bloc. Over 710,000 migrants have arrived in Europe since the beginning of 2015, according to the EU border agency Frontex.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Brussels: 62% of Foreign Extraction
After Dubai in the UAE Brussels is the world city with the highest number of inhabitants with foreign roots. Because of its role within the global economy the International Organisation for Migration has also put the Belgian capital among the world’s top ‘global cities’.
Figures contained in the World Migration Report 2015 published by the International Organisation for Migration show that 62% of the people of Brussels are foreign born or of foreign descent, i. e. second and third generation immigrants. Dubai tops the list with 83%. Brussels is followed by Toronto, Canada (46%), Auckland, New Zealand (39%) and Sydney, Australia (39%).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The situation at the British Royal Air Force base in Cyprus where more than one hundred refugees and migrants are staying is deteriorating.
A video filmed at the UK army base in Dhekelia shows a number of worrying incidents, including a man allegedly trying to hang himself, before he is stopped by British military police.
It also shows a man covered in blood after reportedly cutting himself, and a protest by the migrants staged by the edge of the base where at least one man has attempted to climb over the barbed wire fence.
The video, obtained by The Guardian, sees the man on the fence screaming at British personnel; ‘Let us leave! We are people, not animals.’
In addition to the protest and chaos shown on the video, a number of the military tents where the 114 refugees and migrants have been staying, were set on fire on Saturday, according to The Guardian.
The migrants and refugees appear frustrated by the living conditions at the base, where they have been provided with food, shelter and aid approved by UN standards.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Czech Soldiers Sent to Guard Slovenia Borders
The Czech government decided Monday to send 50 soldiers, including engineers and health officers, to Slovenia to help guard the borders. They will be deployed mid-November. Twenty police officers will also be sent next week, as part of an EU reinforcement of Slovenian capacities to manage the migrant influx.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dijsselbloem: Migrant Crisis Brings ‘Risk of Derailing’ Budgets
Dutch finance minister and Eurogroup chief Dijsselbloem said on Monday the cost of the migrant crisis should be taken into consideration when looking at budget deficits. “In some countries there’s a risk of derailing the budget, getting off track, and those individual cases the [European Commission] should… take into consideration”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Has Little Option But to Deal With Strengthened Erdogan: Analysts
The EU, desperate for help to solve the migrant crisis, has little option but to deal with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his own terms after a stunning election victory Sunday, analysts say.
They said Erdogan can now set the agenda for a European Union which dislikes doing business with a man who wants to join the bloc but also flouts its rules on human rights and press freedoms.
“The EU will be forced to swallow its pride and pander to the hubristic ego of President Erdogan,” Natalie Martin, an expert on Turkish politics at Nottingham Trent University in Britain, told AFP.
Turkey is a longstanding candidate country for European Union membership but talks have stalled, largely on concerns over its human rights record which critics say went from bad to worse during the election campaign.
Yet in recent months Brussels has been wooing its Muslim-majority neighbour in the hope it will help resolve the Syrian war and stem the flow of hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants fleeing the conflict.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ferries Tied Up for Second Day as Islands Appeal for Help With Refugees
The Panhellenic Seamen’s Federation (PNO), which was on the second day of a 24-hour strike on Tuesday leaving ferry boats tied up at port, is due to discuss whether to resume bringing refugees from the islands to the mainland
The union’s executive committee was due to meet midday on Tuesday to discuss the request as authorities on the islands warn that an interruption in ferry services could make management of the refugee inflows impossible.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Finland: Interior Minister: Asylum Seekers Should Get Sponsors to Help Integration
Finland’s Minister of the Interior Petteri Orpo says he thinks every one of the asylum seekers in the country should receive their own sponsor, a person who would help them adjust to daily life here.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Village of 102 Residents Ordered to Take in 750 Asylum Seekers
The influx will raise the population by 700 percent overnight.
A charity in Sumte, Lower Saxony has converted a former office space into a shelter:
The director is Jens Meier:”If I thought we couldn’t handle the challenge, I wouldn’t be here. I think we’re working very well together here in Sumte and that we’ll handle this challenge and succeed.”
The village has no shops, no school and no police station.
Initially Sumte was told to accept 1,000 asylum seekers a number that would overwhelm to local sanitation system.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A German official has said that Angela Merkel’s open door migrant policy will lead to ‘civil war’ after thousands marched through one city’s streets holding crucifixes during an anti-Islam protest.
Hansjoerg Mueller, of the Alternative for Germany party, said the country was ‘sliding towards anarchy’ and risks becoming a ‘banana republic without any government’.
He made the claims after about 8,000 people joined the anti-Islam Pegida movement for a rally in Dresden over Angela Merkel’s decision to allow up to one million migrants into the country this year.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Greece to Relocate First Group of 30 Refugees to Luxembourg
Greece will send on Wednesday a first group of 30 refugees to Luxembourg as part of a European Union relocation plan aimed at easing the burden on EU border countries amid the 28-nation bloc’s biggest migration crisis since World War II.
The EU wants to relocate a total of 160,000 refugees from the EU border countries of Greece and Italy over two years. So far no refugee has been relocated from Greece and fewer than 100 have been transferred from Italy to other EU countries.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Leftie Lords Demand All Migrants Treated as Refugees, Which Would ‘Bankrupt Britain’
Left-wing peers issued a stunning rebuke to the Government today for its use of the word ‘migrant’, insisting all new arrivals should automatically be given refugee status.
In another astonishing outburst which saw the House of Lords sticking its oar in to Government affairs just days after defeating its tax credits proposals, they effectively demanded David Cameron decriminalise illegal immigration. It could mean throwing open Britain’s borders to tens of thousands of migrants and refugees.
The peers also insisted the Government should sign Britain up to EU relocation quotas and help establish “legal” routes into Europe’s free movement zone which would allow unlimited numbers of migrants to enter the continent.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Libyan Faction Threatens EU With Migrant Boats
One of the two rival authorities in Libya has threatened to send migrants to Europe unless the EU recognises its legitimacy.
Jamal Zubia, a spokesman for the General National Congress (GNC), told The Telegraph, a British daily, in an interview published on Monday (2 November): “I have advised my government many times already that we should hire boats and send them [migrants] to Europe.”
“We are protecting the gates of Europe, yet Europe does not recognise us and does not want to recognise us. So why should we stop the migrants here?”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Macedonia: 204,000 Arrivals Since June
Just 70 people seeking asylum in Skopje
(ANSA) — BELGRADE — Almost 204,000 migrants and refugees have entered Macedonia through the Balkan land route since June 19, most of them Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis. As the Macedonian Interior Ministry has reported, in the last 24 hours just over 3,700 arrivals from Greece were recorded. So far, it was specified, just 70 people have submitted an asylum request to Macedonian authorities.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Media: New Balkan Route Shows Up, Via Northern Italy
This route seems the easiest to reach Austria and Germany
(ANSA) — SARAJEVO — The refugees coming from the Middle East, but even from other African and Asian countries, are probably discovering a new Balkan route on their way to Western European countries: Greece — Albania — Montenegro — Bosnia — Croatia — northern Italy and Austria, by-passing Serbia and Macedonia and Slovenia, entering Austria via Italy, crossing a border which is considered as ‘softer’ compared to the Slovenian-Austrian border, which is now far too crowded.
This is what four Turkish citizens of Kurdish origin told the Croatian police, the regional media reported. These refugees were arrested this morning in Plitvice, after a 21-day travel by bus, cab and walking along the ‘new route’. According to a travel plan at their disposal, that saw even a Syrian man arrested in the same area last Sunday, these refugees were going to Rijeka, in order to reach Italy and then Germany, via Austria.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel Pushes for Transit Zones, Warns of Military Clashes
German chancellor Angela Merkel defended the deal on transit zones reached with her rebellious sister party on Sunday and said her coalition partners needed to be convinced of it.
Merkel also warned against military presence in the Balkans, in case borders close on the migration route.
Speaking to supporters of her conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) in the western city of Darmstadt on Monday evening, Merkel said the Social Democrats (SPD) need to support the transit zones.
Merkel’s open-door policy towards refugees has created tensions within her ruling coalition that threaten the stability of the government.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants to Receive Guidelines for EU Values
Refugees and migrants arriving in Austria will soon be given a folder as they cross the border, containing information about European fundamental rights and freedoms, and urged to comply with them.
This is part of a package of EU-wide measures which are being put together at a conference in Sarajevo, at which Austria’s Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner is a keynote speaker.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Most Refugees in Denmark Want to Stay
The vast majority of refugees who have arrived in Denmark in the wake of the conflict in the Middle East want to stay permanently, according to a new survey conducted by TV2 News.
The survey showed that 82 percent of refugees want to remain in Denmark even after the perils in the region subside.
“I think they’ve lost hope regarding the duration of the conflict,” Andreas Kamm, the secretary general of refugee aid organisation Dansk Flygtningehjælp, told TV2 News.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Refugees Vanish From German Centers
Over the past few months, hundreds of refugees have gone missing from shelters, often before they were registered. Their disappearances are leaving the authorities clueless as to their whereabouts.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Refugee Crisis: Merkel Warns of War in Balkans
Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that closing borders within Europe could lead to military conflict in the Balkans as she once again sought to defend her refugee policies on Monday.
Speaking at a conference in Darmstadt in southern Germany, Merkel said that if Germany closed its border to Austria it could result in military conflict, reports Spiegel.
Merkel said that the fence built by Hungary on its border with Serbia “will build up fault lines” between the states in the Balkan region, many of whom were involved in a bloody war in the 1990s.
“I don’t want to it to happen that military conflict is once again necessary there,” Merkel said, adding that while she didn’t want to be a harbinger of doom, escalations into violence happen more quickly than one thinks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Refugee Crisis Could Spark War if Austria Closes Border With Germany, Merkel Warns
GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned of fresh conflicts in Eastern Europe if countries fail to properly manage the refugee crisis. Ms Merkel said Balkan states could be plunged back into war — the first time since the 1990s — if Germany closed it border with Austria.
She told members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union party that erecting a fence to stem the unrelenting flow of migrants would “lead to a backlash”. Referencing the bloody conflicts in the former state of Yugoslavia, she said: “I do not want military conflicts to become necessary there again.”
The German leader, giving a speech in Darmstadt, southern Germany, said barbed wire fences along the borders of Hungary and Serbia “will build up fault lines” and threatens to provoke new tensions.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Rights Groups Express Concern as Aegean Death Toll Rises
As the death toll from a migrant boat accident north of Lesvos in the eastern Aegean climbed to 43, including 19 children and one baby, human rights watchdogs on Monday criticized Europe’s failure to prevent the humanitarian disaster.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Croatia Launch Migrant Trains
Asylum seekers no longer have to wait long hours outside
(ANSA) — SID, Serbia (AP) — Serbia and Croatia have launched a direct train transfer of migrants from one country to another so asylum seekers no longer have to wait long hours outside in the cold.
Officials say that the first train carrying about 1,000 migrants left Tuesday morning from the Serbian town of Sid toward Slavonski Brod, Croatia, where authorities have set up a winter camp.
The direct train link was agreed last month after thousands of people, most of whom were families with small children, were forced to spent entire nights at a muddy border passage waiting to cross from Serbia to Croatia.
Croatian police say more than 300,000 people have passed through the country since mid-September. Most migrants want to reach wealthy nations of Western Europe, such as Germany or Sweden.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Survey: Poles Believe Poland Cannot Afford Refugees
73 percent of Poles consider that their country cannot afford to take in refugees, at the same time 53 percent believe that as an EU member Poland should take an active part in solving the migration crisis, a recent poll by the TNS Polska has indicated.
However, the poll shows that Poles are apprehensive of the presence of the refugees: the majority of the respondents, 73 percent, think that taking in refugees spells the growth of unemployment, while 68 percent consider that refugees will contribute to the growth of the crime rate.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Fast-Track Asylum Processing Raises Questions
The Migration Agency plans to introduce new rules in 2016 that involve assigning asylum seekers to different application tracks depending on the complexity of their cases.
Since January, the waiting time for asylum seekers to get a decision from the Swedish Migration Agency has increased by an average of 100 days. Now, the Agency has come up with a plan to simplify the process.
Magnus Bengtsson, who is in charge of the plan, has gotten the go-ahead to proceed and told Swedish Radio News that it involves introducing five different tracks that asylum seekers can be assigned to when they register their applications in Sweden.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
B B,
How is your wet makula degeneration these days?
Don’t strain your eyes. The following might get usefull.
http://store.aisquared.com/collections/zoomtext-software-for-pc/products/zoomtext-express?_ga=1.245359237.1260772478.1446640306
Thank you for asking. For the moment, it is in “remission”. I haven’t had an injection for more than a year. The condition of my left eye is stable, and the area of distortion is gone. There is a slightly scarred region, but it doesn’t interfere with vision in most circumstances.