During an anti-immigration demonstration by AfD in Berlin, counter-demonstrators clashed violently with police. One policeman was lightly wounded. At least ten supporters of the migrants were arrested.
Meanwhile, the Swedish migration authorities are sorely lacking in heated tents for new immigrants. It is thought that no more than 8% of the 50,000 migrants will be accommodated in tents before the end of the year.
In other migration news, France is doing its part in the migration crisis by officially welcoming 200 new “refugees” during the month of November.
In other news, according to a manifesto found in the pocket of the knife-wielding attacker at UC Merced, Faisal Mohammad praised Allah and planned to behead people. However, law enforcement authorities insist that neither terrorism nor Islam were motives for the attack. The stabbings appear to be a random attack by a man who is thought to have been mentally ill.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, Diana West, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, Mike Vanderboegh, Upananda Brahmachari, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
94,513,000 Americans Not in the Labor Force
The number of Americans not participating in the work force exceeded 94 million for the third time in a row last month, according to new government data released Friday.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 94,513,000 people (ages 16 and over) were neither employed nor had made specific efforts to find work in the prior four weeks during the month of October.
The number of Americans outside the labor force in October — due to retirement, schooling, discouragement or otherwise — declined slightly compared to September’s figures when a record 94,610,000 Americans were not participating.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Puerto Rico Filing Says Government Likely to Cut Services or Default on Debt Before Year’s End
Puerto Rico’s government says it will likely have to cut back on public services or default on debts before the end of the year because it is running out of cash.
The Government Development Bank said in a financial filing late Friday night that the U.S. territory had a $370 million overdraft as of Sept. 30 and burned through a $400 million emergency loan from a group of public corporations to keep government operating. It also cut revenue estimates for the current fiscal year by $355 million because of weaker than expected collections.
Officials are considering reducing employee work schedules by two days a week but warn the government may have to default on debt payments to maintain essential services.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“Jihad” Is “Misunderstood” Spiritual Struggle, Muslim Scholar Tells Oprah
By Robert Spencer
If jihad is simply a spiritual struggle, then why is there an entire chapter of the Qur’an entitled “Booty” or “The Spoils of War” (al-Anfal). What spoils ensue from a spiritual struggle? If jihad is simply a spiritual struggle, how is a Muslim supposed to make Jews and Christians “pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued” (Qur’an 9:29) spiritually? If jihad is simply a spiritual struggle, why are there thousands upon thousands of Muslims worldwide who have joined violent jihad groups? Why are there any violent jihad groups at all? Why is this misunderstanding of jihad so widespread?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Autonomous Cars Aren’t Nearly as Clever as You Think, Says Toyota Exec
The head of Toyota’s billion-dollar U.S. artificial intelligence research center delivered a reality check on Friday for anyone over-enamored by autonomous car technology: the cars aren’t as clever as you think.
“I want to help the press and the public understand that when they see a car that does not have a human being behind the wheel and it seems to be driving, that the car is not as intelligent as a human being behind the wheel, even though it seems it might be,” said Gill Pratt, executive technical adviser at Toyota.
Pratt explained what researchers already know but perhaps others don’t: Autonomous cars look great in controlled environments but soon fail when faced with tasks that human drivers find simple.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Back on the Grid! Governments Ban ‘Camping on Your Own Land’ Displacing Residents
Editor’s Comment: Unfortunately, zoning laws across the country have made it more and more difficult to go off grid, despite a growing movement of people who are both economically challenged and also more in tune with the environment. The freedom and security, in times of emergency, afforded by off grid retreats, tiny homes and RVs alike are being regulated and are no longer a viable option in many areas.
This article underscores the moves to push us all back onto the grid.
‘Camping’ on Your Own Land is Now Illegal — Gov’t Waging War on Off-Grid Living
by Jay Syrmopoulos
Across the U.S., local zoning officials are making it increasingly difficult for people to go off the grid, in some instances threatening people with jail time for collecting rainwater or not hooking into local utilities.
As zoning laws have increasingly targeted the off-grid lifestyle, many have moved to the Southwestern U.S. as an escape from overzealous zoning officials.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Black Lives Matter’ Targets Black Motorist for Posting Positive Police Encounter Online
A black motorist who received widespread attention for recounting his positive interaction with police last month has infuriated members of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Steven Hildreth Jr., a National Guardsman and Tuscon native, thanked two police officers in a viral Facebook post after being pulled over with a legally concealed firearm in late October.
“I’m a black man wearing a hoodie and strapped. According to certain social movements, I shouldn’t be alive right now because the police are allegedly out to kill minorities…” Hildreth said. “I’d like to thank those two officers and TPD in general for another professional contact.”
“We talk so much about the bad apples who shouldn’t be wearing a badge. I’d like to spread the word about an example of men who earned their badges and exemplify what that badge stands for.”
Following the post, Hilldreth says he was immediately met with a small but vitriolic backlash from Black Lives Matter protesters who accused him of “not being black.”
“The biggest backlash has been from the Black Lives Matter movement. This breaks down into two categories,” he said.
“The first category consists of people who are glad the stop went well, but that insist that I must have gotten lucky, or that I seem to be dismissing instances of criminal activity under color of authority.”
“The second group is far more vitriolic. These are the people that are shouting that all or most law enforcement officers are corrupt, that they target minorities who are doing nothing wrong.”
Hilldreth also revealed that some protesters even told him to kill himself while using racial and derogatory terms.
“They accuse me of not being black because I have dared to question their hive mentality,” Hilldreth added. “In a fashion imitating slave masters of days past, they use derogatory terms in an attempt to beat me into submission to the collective.”
“In the past few days, I have been called a ‘nigger’ more times by black people than I have by white people in the past twenty years COMBINED… Worst of all, this second group are the ones telling me to kill myself, saying they hope a cop kills me, and calling for the death of law enforcement.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Campus Stabber’s Manifesto Included ‘Praise for Allah, ‘ Plan for Beheading
A handwritten manifesto carried by a California college student whose stabbing spree Wednesday left four wounded bore names of his targets, a vow “to cut someone’s head off” and as many as five reminders to “praise Allah,” law enforcement authorities told FoxNews.com, while insisting that neither terrorism nor religion appear to be motives in the attack.
In the two-page document found in Faisal Mohammad’s pocket by the county coroner, the 18-year-old freshman wrote a numeric list outlining his plans of who he wanted to kill, and how, including beheading and shooting his victims, Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke told FoxNews.com
“No. 27 was to “make sure people are tied down,’ No. 28 was “sit down and praise Allah,’“ Warnke said. “I remember seeing four or five times, scribbled on the side of the two-page manifesto, where he wrote something like “praise Allah.’“
“I remember seeing four or five times, scribbled on the side of the two-page manifesto, where he wrote something like “praise Allah.’“
– Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke
The manifesto has not been released, but Warnke expects it to be within the next few days…
| — Hat tip: Mike Vanderboegh | [Return to headlines] |
College Student Claims Campus Police Used Excessive Force
A student suing the College of DuPage says campus police officers used excessive force against her. Cell phone video shows the struggle inside a classroom last December.
Jaclyn Pazera says she had been outdoors smoking when an officer told her it wasn’t allowed on campus. Pazera took it as a verbal warning and returned to class.
Two officers followed her and said they were arresting her for trespassing.
“I had two fully grown men on my back pushing me into the ground and he said in the video, ‘If you can talk, you can breathe.’ He picked me up and slammed me into the ground harder,” Pazera said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-CIA Head Amb. Woolsey “Warns Russia Plane Tragedy in Sinai Could Happen in US”
Disclosures by French air safety investigators in Egypt, following review of flight data recordings from the catastrophe that downed Metrojet Flight 9268 killing 224 passengers and crew, make it probable that a bomb may have been secreted on board. Given US and UK electronic intercepts, it may ultimately confirm assertions made by ISIS operatives that their affiliates in the Sinai perpetrated the terrorist bombing. In the wake of this evident Islamic terrorist plot by ISIS, rebuking Russia’s intervention in the Syrian conflict, there is global concern about security screenings of airport personnel on the tarmac handling baggage, catering and cleaning of aircraft. Those procedures, which heretofore have been reported as lax, may have to be tightened by TSA, especially here in the US. Yesterday, ex-CIA director, Ambassador R. James Woolsey, Chairman of the Leadership Council of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, in a Fox News interview about the probable ISIS involvement in the Metrojet flight bombing in Egypt citing the Lisa Benson NSTFA investigation drew attention to a similar possible risk here in the US and the lax screenings of airport tarmac personnel. The major take away from the Fox News interview with Woolsey, is the issue of airport maintenance contractors hiring foreign workers, not subject to adequate TSA security screenings, might be the subject of Congressional hearings. Woolsey will have more to say about this on Sunday’s Lisa Benson National Security Radio Show that airs at 3PM EST on KKNT960ThePatriot…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Gov. Moonbeam Sent State Workers to His Family Ranch to Look for Oil
California Gov. Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown believes that everyone needs to start using wind, solar and other “renewable” energy sources as soon as possible because, you know, the earth, man. California doesn’t need to be burning all kinds of oil and making bank for rich capitalists who own gigantic ranches with oil underneath them, ‘amiright’?
Unless, of course, that ranch owner happens to be Gov. Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown! In that case, well, better find that oil! And that’s exactly what Gov. Moonbeam was hoping to do when he dispatched state employees, on the taxpayers’ dime, to his ranch recently. Props to the Associated Press, often a target of our criticism, for reporting this story:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How Law Enforcement Can Use Google Timeline to Track Your Every Move
THE RECENT EXPANSION of Google’s Timeline feature can provide investigators unprecedented access to users’ location history data, allowing them in many cases to track a person’s every move over the course of years, according to a report recently circulated to law enforcement.
“The personal privacy implications are pretty clear but so are the law enforcement applications,” according to the document, titled “Google Timelines: Location Investigations Involving Android Devices,” which outlines the kind of information investigators can now subpoena.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Keystone Xl Pipeline: Why is it So Disputed?
US President Barack Obama has announced he is rejecting an application to build the Keystone XL pipeline. Why is the issue so hotly disputed.
The Keystone XL pipeline is a proposed 1,179-mile (1,897km) pipe that would run from the oil sands in Alberta, Canada, to Steele City, Nebraska, where it could join an existing pipe. It could carry 830,000 barrels of oil each day.
The proposed XL pipeline has the same origin and destination as an operational pipe, also called Keystone — granted presidential permit in 2008 by President George W Bush — but takes a more direct route. The XL pipeline would allow for an increased supply of oil from Canada.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pentagon to Release Guantanamo Detainee Relocation Plan, As Obama Pressed Ahead With Closure
The Pentagon is expected to release a plan next week on President Obama’s years-long effort to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center that suggests a Colorado prison dubbed “the Alcatraz of the Rockies” as one suitable site to relocate expected life-long detainees, Obama administration officials say.
Obama made a campaign promise in his 2008 White House bid to close the facility, arguing the move would be in the United States’ best financial, national security and foreign policy interests and in the name of justice — considering some of the detainees have been held for nearly nine years without trial or sentencing.
However, critics of the promise, including many Republicans, fear transferring detainees to the U.S. mainland as part of an overall closure plan poses too much of a homeland security risk.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Praise Allah’: Campus Stabber’s Plan for Beheading
(Fox News) A handwritten manifesto carried by a California college student whose stabbing spree Wednesday left four wounded bore names of his targets, a vow ‘to cut someone’ s head off’ and as many as five reminders to ‘praise Allah,’ law enforcement authorities told FoxNews.com, while insisting that neither terrorism nor religion appear to be motives in the attack.
In the two-page document found in Faisal Mohammad’ s pocket by the county coroner, the 18-year-old freshman wrote a numeric list outlining his plans of who he wanted to kill, and how, including beheading and shooting his victims, Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke told FoxNews.com
‘ No. 27 was to ‘make sure people are tied down,’ No. 28 was ‘sit down and praise Allah,’ ‘Warnke said. ‘I remember seeing four or five times, scribbled on the side of the two-page manifesto, where he wrote something like ‘praise Allah.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
RT Founder, Putin Associate Found Dead in DC Hotel
A prominent Russian millionaire with high-level ties to the Kremlin has been found dead inside a Washington hotel, a Russian official and a senior U.S. official told ABC News.
Mikhail Lesin, the former head of media affairs for the Russian government who’s been accused of curtailing the country’s press freedoms, had been staying at Hotel Dupont when he was found Thursday, according to officials.
It’s unclear why the long-time adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin was in Washington, but the Metropolitan Police Department is now investigating his death. On Thursday, U.S. authorities notified the Russian embassy in Washington that one of its citizens had died, and Russian officials are now working with American authorities to determine the circumstances of the death, the embassy told ABC News in a statement.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Secret Military Operations to Divert Lax Planes for a Week
Mysterious maneuvers over the Pacific are forcing a change in Los Angeles International Airport landings late at night, meaning noise for thousands of people in the flight path.
Instead of landing from the east over Inglewood, planes begin flying from the west and over the ocean to keep noise levels down, but due to secret military operations, the airspace over the Pacific is closed to incoming flights for the next week.
“We clearly understand that neighbors and communities east of the airport will experience noise and we apologize for that,” said Nancy Castles, LAX public relations director.
The military is not saying what exactly is causing the change, and LAX claims it’s also in the dark. Castles said all they know is planes can’t be flying at low altitudes to our west.
Six years ago, ABC7 cameras captured a military operation in downtown LA. Helicopters were seen swooping between high-rises, close enough that residents were able to see armed soldiers in camouflage outside their window.
Authorities claimed it was part of a training exercise designed to ensure the military’s ability to operate in urban environments and to prepare forces for upcoming overseas deployment.
What’s going on this week is a mystery…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Ten Little Aircraft Carriers: Fleet of US Flattops Stretched and Shrinking
Navy has already spread itself thin in its attempt to implement missions across the world; its fleet currently has just ten aircraft carriers, according to Dave Majumdar, Defense Editor of the National Interest magazine.
The US Navy faces a spate of problems due to its attempt to fulfill “worldwide commitments”. It currently has just 10 flattops (aircraft carriers), Dave Majumdar, Defense Editor of the National Interest magazine, said in his article titled “America’s Great Aircraft Carrier Crisis: Lots of Demand, Not Enough Ships.”
He explained that with USS Enterprise (CVN-65) being retired in December 2012, the US Navy plans to return to eleven aircraft carriers only after USS Gerald R. Ford is commissioned in 2016.
The problem, however, is that this vessel will not be ready for deployment until 2021, Majumdar explained.
“But the law requires the Navy to operate a minimum of eleven carriers. The service is operating under a temporary exemption that allows it to operate only ten vessels,” he pointed out.
He also reminded that in a bid to resolve the problem, Congressman Mike Conaway had earlier proposed legislation allowing the Navy to maintain a fleet of no less than twelve carriers.
Separately, Majumdar quoted Rear Admiral Tom Moore, the Navy’s program executive officer for aircraft carriers, as saying “we’ve run the carriers harder than we’ve typically done and harder than they were designed.”
“Half the fleet is in maintenance while the remaining five vessels are being pushed to the breaking point,” Moore admitted.
The Navy pins hopes on the implementation of its new Optimized Fleet Response Plan, which Majumdar said is unlikely to rectify the situation given that USS Gerald R. Ford will only be operational in 2021.
Until that, “the Navy is going to have a tough time”, Majumdar concluded by quoting Sean Stackley, the [fleet] service’s assistant secretary for research, development and acquisition, as saying.
The United States is one of less than 10 countries that have aircraft carriers in service. India and Italy both have two, while China, Spain, France, Russia, Brazil and Thailand each have one. Although carriers allow fleets to project air power worldwide, they cost billions of dollars to construct and wargames have shown that they are susceptible to rocket attacks.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The Man Who Made ‘The World’s First Personal Computer’
When the definitive history of the personal computer is written, familiar and historic names such as Olivetti, Apple, IBM, will all be given recognition for their innovations of the 1960s and 1970s.
But will future generations remember visionary John Blankenbaker, and his ground-breaking invention, the Kenbak-1 Digital Computer?
It was an machine which first went on sale in 1971 and is considered to have been the world’s first “commercially available personal computer”, coming on to the market some five years before Apple 1.
In fact it was a panel of experts, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, meeting at the Boston Computer Museum in 1987, which gave the Kenbak-1 its pre-eminent status.
Back in 1970 Mr Blankenbaker, then a computer engineer and consultant, put together his machine at his home in Brentwood, California.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Ben Carson Blasts the Media Over Obama’s Hidden Past
Presidential candidate Ben Carson just leveled some heavy accusations against the press on CNN today surrounding the media’s treatment of President Obama prior to his election in 2012.
Carson brought up multiple questions including Obama’s relationship with Bill Ayers and admitted communist Frank Marshall Davis.
Learn more about Obama’s hidden past:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Voting Machine Memory Stick Drama in Georgia Sparks Scandal, Probe
Whistleblower fears votes lost
The US state of Georgia is delving into a claim that a misplaced electronic ballot box may have swung a key vote.
On November 3, in the county of DeKalb just east of Atlanta, LaVista Hills held a vote on whether to become a city. In a closely run race, the motion was defeated by 136 votes — less than one per cent of the electorate.
Leonard Piazza, who works in the county’s office of voter registration and elections, claims a mislaid memory stick is proof the count was bungled — or worse, rigged.
On Thursday, he told Channel 2 Action News he found a memory card of the type used by the state’s voting machines loose in the office, and fears votes stored on the device were not counted.
Citizens in the state use Diebold computers to vote in elections and referendums, their votes being electronically stored and counted.
Piazza claims that when he told his superior about the misplaced memory stick, and the possibility of uncounted votes, she refused to investigate it, and placed him on administrative leave.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
What it’s Like to Talk to a Jewish Anti-Zionist Troll
by Phyllis Chesler
I was tricked into an interview about ant-Semitism by a pro-BDS troll. I was thoroughly blindsided.
He told me that he was “a teacher of Jewish Studies” and was writing a book on anti-Semitism. He “thanked” me for my book. In the course of our correspondence, he wished me “Shabbat Shalom,” and “Chag Sameach,” and said he wanted to meet with me after I lectured, or talk to me on the phone.
He did not describe himself as a blogger for a left-wing Jewish publication or as someone who admires President Obama, supported his deal with Iran, and believes that the only real anti-Semites are those who support Israel under Netanyahu. He purposely hid his politics in the hope of catching me in a “Got’cha” moment. He set out to deceive me while I set out to help him.
He persistently pursued me. I was about to decline this offer entirely but then I thought: He must be a younger person (he is), someone starting out who deserves kindness from an Elder. Perhaps he really wants to quote me accurately.
He decided to “tempt” me by writing that he had just had a “great interview with the ADL’s Deputy Director” and “would be speaking with officials at Hillel and Federation in the coming weeks and would very much like to have an author’s voice added into the mix as well. Since I will be analyzing The New Anti-Semitism in my book, I’d love that voice to be yours.”
Authors love to hear stuff like this but Cognitive Warriors had best be on their guard.
He sent four questions. I answered two questions via email. But he implored me to talk to him on the phone, even if briefly. I agreed. I had no idea of the trouble I was courting…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
White House Prepares for EMP That Would Wipe Out Power Render Cellphones and Internet Useless
Every prepper knows about the possibility — even eventuality — of an EMP attack, and most have taken some basic precautions.
Washington and the powers that be know about the threat of an EMP, too, of course, which could come from a powerful solar flare or more dramatically from a foreign enemy.
Nearly everyone admits that such an event would take out the grid, and leave the mass population without power, food, water and other essential services, triggering riots, chaos and mass death within days and weeks.
A number of people in Congress, Homeland Security, the Pentagon and now the White House are strategizing for the big one, and war gaming out how to protect their critical infrastructure, and perhaps salvage mainstream society as well.
The Daily Mail reports:
The U.S. government are preparing for a catastrophic solar flare which could wipe out power across the world for months…
The massive electromagnetic pulse (EMP) from solar flares could wipe out power grids, bringing an end to modern civilization as we know it as cellphones, credit cards and the internet were rendered useless.
In the U.S, alone researchers estimate the cost on the fragile economy would be up to $2.6 trillion, according to a 2008 National Academy of Sciences study.
The report warned that power outages after an extreme solar storm could last months or even longer if it wiped out the transformers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Astaldi: New Section of Warsaw Underground, 209 Mln Contract
For extension to line 2.Group strengthens its position in Poland
(ANSA) — ROME — Astaldi Group has been awarded the contract for the extension to the Warsaw underground Line 2 (Poland) worth 209 million euros. The contract comes after the central line of the same underground was built by Astaldi Group in March 2015.
The group itself reported the news, underlining that this contract is “further evidence of the company’s experience in transport infrastructure” and “strengthens the group’s presence in Poland”. The new contract includes the executive design and construction of the east section of the underground, which is approximately 3 km long. Moreover, it includes the connection with the central section of the line, as well as civil and railway facilities and all the works related to the infrastructure. The whole project is expected to be completed within 36 months, and the work will start in early 2016. The main contractor is Metro Warsaw, public company which runs the underground railway in the Polish capital city on behalf of the Municipality of Warsaw. The work will be financed with European and local funds. In Poland, Astaldi Group is at the moment in charge of building the International Airport ‘John Paul II’ of Krakow-Balice, about 60 km of highway, 2 railway lines, and a Waste-to-Energy plant in Bydgoszcz-Torun.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Blatter Effigy to be Burnt in British Bonfire Party
A giant effigy of suspended FIFA president Sepp Blatter will be torched this weekend as part of a British town’s Bonfire Night celebrations, organisers revealed Wednesday.
The 36-foot (11-metre) tall effigy of the outgoing Swiss head of world football’s governing body will go up in flames on Saturday in Edenbridge, south of London.
Scandal-plagued FIFA has been mired in allegations of bribery and corruption this year.
The effigy is of a sharp-suited Blatter carrying wads of cash, the World Cup and a football. It will be stuffed with oil-soaked newspapers, packed with fireworks and set ablaze.
“Blatter was the obvious choice,” said Edenbridge Bonfire Society co-ordinator Charles Laver.
“We did put some thought into who else it could be but… we went for him.
“We started building it two weeks ago, and we are pleased with the result.”
It was erected in a field on Wednesday with the help of a tractor.
Guy Fawkes Night, or Bonfire Night, is an annual event marking the foiling of a plot by Catholic conspirators to blow up Protestant king James I and the Houses of Parliament with 36 barrels of gunpowder on November 5, 1605.
It is celebrated with bonfires and fireworks displays either on November 5 or the nearest weekend, with effigies of plotter Fawkes burned.
Edenbridge has been poking fun at famous figures for 20 years, torching effigies of them alongside the traditional Guy Fawkes.
Other well-known figures whose effigy has been torched in recent years include former prime minister Tony Blair’s wife Cherie and Blair’s successor Gordon Brown.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Edward Snowden Just Slammed UK Mass Surveillance
In June 2013, whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the shocking extent of government mass surveillance networks across the world. His disclosure of top secret documents ultimately led U.K. home secretary, Theresa May, to propose the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill. On Wednesday morning, a series of tweets from Snowden warned the communications data covered by the legislation is “the activity log of your life.”
Last month, Anti-Media covered the U.K. government’s proposed new spying laws. The blanket mass surveillance will enable storage of web users’ activity, including social media, for at least 12 months under the new Draft Investigatory Powers Bill. Spies will have increased access over private data, including the ability to remotely hack and download information stored on our phones and computers. The new draft legally obliges internet service providers in the U.K. to assist in bypassing security measures that would otherwise prevent security services from accessing your phone.
The U.K. government is granting itself the power to look into everyone’s personal life whenever they like by using powers ripe for abuse. This private data can be used to target journalists, persecute activists, profile and discriminate against minorities, and crack down on free speech.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Spied on EU Allies: New Report
Germany’s intelligence agency eavesdropped on many of the country’s closest European allies, including France, Sweden, Italy, Spain and Britain, according to new reports.
Among the targets are several embassies in Germany, and international organisations such as the Red Cross, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday.
The German intelligence agency BND has already been accused of eavesdropping on officials at the French foreign ministry and presidency, as well as the European Commission, on behalf of its US counterpart, the NSA.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Senate Approves ‘Colosseum’ Decree Limiting Strikes
Cultural heritage sites now classified as ‘essential services’
(ANSA) — Rome, November 5 — The Italian Senate on Thursday approved an emergency decree to ensure the smooth running of key heritage sites such as the Colosseum and Pompeii, and to limit strikes which have led to unexpected closures in recent months.
The so-called “Colosseum decree” was approved by 138 to 67 in the upper house. The decree aims to prevent similar embarrassments like the situation caused on September 18, when visitors to Rome’s famous Colosseum found the arena closed due to a union meeting.
It classifies cultural heritage sites as “essential services”, requiring a more complex procedure for unions wishing to strike.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Dead Boy’s Parents Indicted for Only Using Homeopathy
Judge rejects prosecution request for case to be dismissed
(ANSA) — Lecce, November 4 — A judge on Tuesday indicted the parents of a four-year-old boy who died in 2011 after they allegedly only treated his flu with homeopathy.
Marcello Monsellato and Giovanna Pantaleo have been sent to trial for manslaughter conspiracy in the death of their son on October 20, 2011.
The boy had the flu and was treated by his father, a homeopathic doctor, before being taken to hospital.
Doctors testified that the child was dead on arrival at hospital in the town of Tricase, that he had bruises on his legs and had lost a lot of weight.
The parents said their son was alive when he reached the hospital, and initially three doctors were investigated in his death.
Those charges were dismissed.
Forensic reports failed to prove conclusively that the parents’ conduct caused the child to die, so the prosecution asked for the case to be dismissed.
The judge, however, disagreed.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Genny the Scumbag’ Turns Himself in
Napoli hardcore fan suspected of drug trafficking
(ANSA) — Naples, November 5 — Fugitive Napoli ultra soccer fan Gennaro De Tommaso has turned himself in, police said Thursday.
The infamous De Tommaso, known as “Genny a’ carogna” (Genny the Scumbag), eluded capture on Wednesday in a police operation related to a drug probe involving 60 suspects.
De Tommaso is accused of involvement in international drug trafficking.
Two of his relatives were taken into custody in yesterday’s sweep.
Last April, De Tommaso was sentenced to two years and two months in jail for leading Napoli hardcore ultra soccer fans who disrupted the final on May 3, 2014, after Neapolitan fan Ciro Esposito was shot in clashes before the game.
Esposito subsequently died of his injuries.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Biopic on Pope Francis Set for Release
Movie premiering at Vatican on December 1
(ANSA) — Rome, November 5 — The first biopic on Pope Francis is about to be released in as many as 700 cinemas amid a new ‘Vatileaks’ scandal.
The film Chiamatemi Francesco — Call Me Francis — was directed by Daniele Luchetti whose previous work includes Il Portaborse(1991) — The Underling — and La Nostra Vita (2010) — Our Life. The film tells the story of Jorge Bergoglio until March 13, 2013, the day he was elected pontiff.
A preview, which the pope is scheduled to attend, will be held at the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall on December 1 prior to its wide release two days later.
Produced by Pietro Valsecchi’s TaoDue and distributed by Medusa, it “will not be a holy picture”, said Luchetti.
Argentine actor Rodrigo De la Serna has the role of the young Bergoglio while Chile’s Sergio Hernandez plays the future pope in his later years.
Filmed in Spanish, the production cost 12 million euros and was filmed over 15 weeks in Argentina (Buenos Aires and Cafayate), Germany (Augsburg) and Italy (Rome and Turin) with 3,000 extras, in-depth historic and religious research. It is expected to be distributed worldwide.
Luchetti said the movie is a tale about “the pope of the people”, “not necessarily a religious film but on a person for whom religion is a reason for life, hope, strength and who has communicated this to others”.
The movie gives an insight into the path that took Jose Bergoglio, son of a family of Italian immigrants living in Buenos Aires, to lead the Catholic Church.
During his youth, Jorge was a boy like many others, a Peronist, with a girlfriend, friends and chemistry professor, Esther Ballestrino with whom he would remain close all his life.
Everything changed when his calling led him to join, when he was just over 20, the rigorous religious order of the Jesuits.
During Jorge Rafael Videla’s dictatorship, Bergoglio was named provincial superior of the Society of Jesus in Argentina, although he was still very young.
This responsibility during very dark times dramatically put the faith and courage of the future pope to test.
In spite of the risks, Jorge directly worked to defend those persecuted by the regime but paid a very high price for it, watching some of his most beloved companions die or “disappear”.
This experience would have a profound effect on the future pontiff.
When he became archbishop of Buenos Aires, he continued to help residents of the poor suburbs, defending them against abuses of power and promoting their individual and collective growth.
The film ends with the unforgettable night in which, in a packed St Peter’s Square, Jorge Bergoglio, wearing white and an iron cross, greeted the world under the name Francis and the straightforward simplicity and deep humanity that have represented his powerful strength from the beginning.
The idea to tell the life story of this pope came to producer Pietro Valsecchi of TaoDue (which made years ago the successful series on Pope John Paul II) a few months after his election, when the historic impact of such a figure became clear.
Mediaset CEO and Vice President Pier Silvio Berlusconi and the company’s management immediately supported the project of a film that will be sold worldwide.
The film has an international cast but an Italian director and is dedicated to the first pontiff from the American continent, a figure that unites extremely different areas of the world, languages, cultures, generations and social classes.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Animal Rights Activists Protest Against Lion-Killer Vet
Luciano Ponzetto says hunting compatible with being a vet
(ANSA) — Turin, November 5 — The Animal Rights Front protested overnight at the clinic of veterinarian and big game hunter Luciano Ponzetto, sources said Thursday.
The vet came under social media fire on Wednesday after someone recognized a photo of him posing with a lion he killed on a safari in Tanzania, and circulated it on Facebook.
The animal rights activists posted three signs at Ponzetto’s place of business in the town of Caluso in Turin province. They said: “Paid to save lives, he gets off on killing”, “Savior or executioner? Shame on you” and “A veterinarian? Shame. Coward. We’ll be seeing each other soon”.
Ponzetto yesterday threatened lawsuits against Facebook commentators and media who picked up the story.
“Being a veterinarian is not incompatible with hunting, either morally or professionally,” he said in a communique.
The Veterinarians Guild agreed.
“(Hunting) is a hobby regulated by law, which does not allow us to take measures against him,” the professional body said in a statement.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi Says Messina Strait Bridge ‘Will Happen’
But premier says project not a priority
(see related story on Messina) (ANSA) — Rome, November 6 — Premier Matteo Renzi has said that controversial plans to connect Sicily to mainland Italy via a bridge across the Strait of Messina will come to fruition one day. However, the premier also said that the project is not a priority for his government. “Of course it will be built, the problem is when,” Renzi said in an interview for an upcoming book by veteran TV journalist Bruno Vespa. “Now before we talk about the bridge, let’s sort out the water in Messina, the purifiers and clean-ups.
“We are investing two billion euros in Sicily over the next five years for roads and railways. And then we’ll build the bridge”. The seemingly moribund project, a former hobby horse of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, returned to the fore in October when the junior government partner, the New Centre Right, passed a motion calling for a reassessment of the feasibility of the bridge for rail traffic only.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: M5S Adds 1.1% to 27.5% in Weekly Poll
PD down 0.2% to 33.8%, League at 14.1%
(ANSA) — Rome, November 6 — The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) jumped 1.1% to 27.5% in the latest Ixé poll for RAI 3 out Friday.
Premier Matteo Renzi’s ruling Democratic Party (PD) shed 0.2% to 33.8% and the rightwing anti-immigrant Northern League (LN) fell 0.7% to 14.1%.
Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party added 0.2% to 9.8%.
If elections were held today, 64.2% of voters would turn out.
Confidence in the premier was stable at 32%, while confidence in the government added two points to 29%.
President Sergio Mattarella remains Italians’ best-loved politician with 63% and Pope Francis remained their favorite spiritual leader at 89% approval.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Fede Indicted for Extortion, Coercion
Allegedly tried to blackmail Mediaset exec
(ANSA) — Milan, November 6 — Ex-TV news anchor Emilio Fede was indicted Friday on extortion charges.
The 84-year-old allegedly blackmailed Mediaset executives with fake compromising photos when he was fired after 20 years at the head of TG4 news service.
Prosecutors say Fede in 2012 mandated his former personal trainer Gaetano Ferri and two women named as Maria Madeo and Michela Faioni to assemble fake photomontages featuring Mediaset executive Mauro Crippa.
He then allegedly used the photos to obtain a better severance package.
Fede was also indicted for coercion for allegedly sending Ferri threatening text messages after the latter “dissociated himself from an alleged plot to extort two million euros from (Silvio) Berlusconi in exchange for not publishing compromising photos of Crippa”.
Berlusconi owns Mediaset.
The first hearing in the trial will be held February 2.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Msgr Galantino Invites Vatileaks Authors to Reveal Earnings
‘I would be ashamed to nit-pick without looking at myself’
(ANSA) — Rome, November 5 — Monsignor Nunzio Galantino, secretary general of the Italian bishops’ conference CEI, on Thursday challenged the authors of two books that are at the centre of the latest Vatican leaked-documents scandal to come clean about how much they will be earning from the publications.
“I would like to say to the ineffable Fittipaldi and to the ineffable — on two occasions — Nuzzi: is it possible to know the figures of your great editorial operations?” Monsignor Galantino said in an interview with Italian bishops’ news agency Sir. L’Espresso journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi is the author of Avarice and Gianluigi Nuzzi is author of the Way of the Cross, which respectively examine the Vatican’s financial empire and Pope Francis’s efforts to bring about reform and are due out in Italy on Thursday. Nuzzi was at the centre of the first scandal involving leaked confidential documents from the Holy See.
“If I was in their position I would be ashamed to nit-pick at others ideologically without looking at myself,” Monsignor Galantino said.
“Thankfully some serious newspapers are showing all the contradictions of this kind of operation. At base, there is the fact that some people are unsettled by a Catholic Church that speaks more clearly with respect to the past, calling things by name,” the prelate concluded.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Wilders Calls for Binding Referendums on Populist Issues
PVV leader Geert Wilders wants the Netherlands to introduce more and binding referendums in which citizens can have their say in policy. According to him, this is necessary because “time and again” the “political elite does exactly the opposite of what people want”.
Wilders wrote this in an opinion piece in the Volksrkant on Thursday.
With these statements, Wilders is pointing to the sometimes fierce disagreements about the Netherlands sheltering asylum seekers. “The asylum crisis is a symptom of a far deeper malady”, he wrote. “Namely a political elite that has lost touch with the people. Nowhere is it more evident than in the asylum debate. Most Dutch realize that mass immigration is not an enrichment but leads to loss of prosperity, security and identity.”
Wilders wants the Netherlands to follow Switzerland’s example. The country often holds referendums and maintains a form of direct democracy. “Dutch should get the chance more often to directly decide about their own fates in referendums.” he wrote. “The Swiss are a proud and patriotic people who will never sell out the wills to Brussels. We can learn a lot from them.”…
| [Return to headlines] |
New Books Detail a Divided Vatican Plagued by Corruption
Two new books by Italian journalists depict a Vatican plagued by mismanagement, greed, cronyism and corruption and where Pope Francis still faces stiff resistance from the old guard to his reform agenda.
The books, “Merchants in the Temple,” by Gianluigi Nuzzi and “Avarice,” by Emiliano Fittipaldi, which are being released in Italy on Wednesday, have already been condemned by the Vatican.
On Monday, the Vatican said the books “generate confusing, partial, and tendentious interpretations” in a statement that announced the arrest of two members of a commission the pope had set up to study financial reforms…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Poland: Sculpture of Adolf Hitler’s Head Found in Gdansk
Made by famous Austrian artist Josef Thorak
(ANSA) — GDANSK — The sculpture made by famous Austrian artist Josef Thorak was found in the ground during restoration works in the garden of the National Museum in Gdansk. Museum workers will try to explore the history of the sculpture.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Not ‘Disconsolate’ Over Vatileaks 2
Balda, Chaoqui the only two suspects in case
(ANSA) — Vatican City, November 4 — Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi on Wednesday denied media reports that Pope Francis was “disconsolate” after the arrest of two people at the weekend, including a senior prelate, over the leaking of confidential Holy See documents. He also said that, at the moment, no one else was under investigation in the probe apart from Spanish Monsignor Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda and Italian PR expert Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, both of whom served on the pope’s financial reform commission.
The two were detained and interrogated at the weekend following a months-long investigation into the misappropriation and disclosure of classified information to the writers of two upcoming books on the Vatican. Balda remains in a Vatican cell and Chaouqui, who denied the charges, was released after agreeing to cooperate with investigators.
On Wednesday, she wrote on her Facebook page that she has “full faith” in investigators working the case dubbed Vatileaks 2, asking them to “establish the truth” and saying she is at their “complete and total disposal”. On her Facebook page Tuesday evening, Chaouqui warned journalists covering the story. “I’m not in the mood to tolerate slander. From anyone. I’ve already sustained enough,” she wrote. Chaouqui also wrote that she was never denied access to the Vatican and that she used “normal procedures” to enter it for meetings or to visit commercial areas for which she was authorised. 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 spending 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. 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. Also on Wednesday, Monsignor Angelo Becciu, substitute for general affairs at the Vatican, said Vatileaks 2 would not stop Pope Francis in his drive to overhaul Vatican finances. “This incident, albeit unpleasant, will certainly not block him,” Monsignor Becciu told ANSA.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Portugal Left-Wing Parties Agree Alliance to Topple Minority Govt: Communists
Portugal’s Communist Party on Friday said it has agreed a deal with the main opposition Socialists that puts the leftists in a position to bring down the new centre-right minority government.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Rich Germans Splurge on Sun-Thirsty Olive Trees
Some people like to splurge on jewellery or cars, but a growing number of wealthy Germans prefer to pay tens of thousands of euros to move olive trees from their sunny habitats to cold northern climes.
With their gnarled, thick trunks, most of the centuries-old olive trees imported from Spain are past their fruit-producing prime.
Rather, the sculpture-like trees are sought for their aesthetic value and the Mediterranean touch that they can add to German gardens, better known for their geraniums, berry shrubs and gnomes.
Some are even prepared to pay as much as 20,000 euros ($22,000) for a very old olive tree…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: NUS Motion to Condemn ISIS Fails Amidst Claims of Islamophobia
The National Union of Students has rejected a call to condemn militant group Isis on the grounds that the motion was “islamophobic”, in a move which has promoted campaigners to accuse the body of being in the “stranglehold” of divisive “identity politics”.
The political split in the student body over the conflict in the Middle East erupted after a motion was put forward last month to the NUS National Executive Council, asking students to express “solidarity” with the Kurds in Iraq and Syria who are engaged in a bloody struggle against ISIS militants.
The motion, proposed by Daniel Cooper and Clifford Fleming with international students officer Shreya Paudel, called on British students “to condemn the IS and support Kurdish forces fighting against it, while expressing no confidence or trust in the US military intervention.”
However the call, which also called for unity among Muslims and has already been passed by the Scottish NUS, was rejected by a members led by black students’ officer Malia Bouattia, according the student website The Tab.
Ms Bouattia is reported to have spoken against the motion. She is reported to have said: “We recognise that condemnation of Isis appears to have become a justification for war and blatant islamophobia. This rhetoric exacerbates the issue at hand and in essence is a further attack on those we aim to defend.”…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Why Are Student-Union Officials Censoring Criticism of Islamic State?
Just when you thought the self-important, ban-happy uber-bureaucrats who run student unions couldn’t get any worse, they go and No Platform a guy who fought with the Kurds against Isis. Yes, not content with expunging lads’ mags from campus, crying for the censorship of everyone from Germaine Greer to Dapper Laughs, and wailing about Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines’ like outraged nuns at a school disco, now they have silenced someone who spent five months facing down the head-choppers of the Islamic State.
Macer Gifford, a former student at University College London (UCL), was due to give a talk at UCL this week on his experiences with the YPG, the fighting units of Syrian Kurdistan who have valiantly stymied the spread of Isis. But the Kurdish Society who invited him was told by Asad Khan, the activities and events officers of UCL’s students’ union, that the talk couldn’t go ahead, because “in every conflict there are two sides, and at UCLU we want to avoid taking sides in conflicts’.
It’s true there are two sides in the YPG v Isis conflict. One side has both men and women fighting hard to protect their homeland and people from falling to brutal Islamist rule; the other pushes gay people off buildings, stones adulterers, sets fire to its prisoners of war, and mows down anyone who stands in the way of the growth of its creepy Caliphate. If you can’t “take sides’ in a conflict like that, then your moral compass is in serious need of repair…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovo: Rakic: Southern Mitrovica is Ethnically Cleansed
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA — Mayor of Northern Kosovska Mitrovica Goran Rakic stated Friday that Mayor of Southern Kosovska Mitrovica Agim Bahtiri is trying to cover up his own failure by proposing to abolish the municipality with Serb majority.
Bahtiri allegedly proposed the abolition of majority Serb municipality of Northern Mitrovica in order to “prevent ethnic cleansing of Albanians.”
Rakic commented that Northern Mitrovica is the only truly multi-ethnic municipality and area in Kosovo, while Southern Mitrovica has been ethnically cleansed.
He stressed there is no Serb living in Southern Mitrovica, except for a priest who returned to the Church of Saint Sava burnt by Albanians in 2004, adding that the demolished gravestones in the Serb cemetery bear witness to the ethnic cleansing in this municipality.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Novi Pazar: Islamic Symbols Sprayed on Churchyard Gate
NOVI PAZAR — The churchyard gate of St. Nicholas church in Novi Pazar, southern Serbia, was sprayed with the symbol of crescent moon and star by unknown perpetrators, most likely on Monday to Tuesday night.
The symbol sprayed in red caused alarm among the clergy and believers in Novi Pazar, the Diocese of Raska and Prizren said on its official website.
Having in mind that so far there has been no writing of Islamic symbols on our Christian sanctities and that we have good relations with the Islamic community in this part of Serbia, we sincerely believe that this was just an isolated case and expect the Islamic community to strongly condemn this provocation, the release states.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Ancient Snail Shells Yield Record of Climate Change
Snail shells collected from an archaeological site in northeast Morocco have been analyzed to determine the climate conditions in the region between 10,800 and 6,700 years ago by Yurena Yanes of the University of Cincinnati, Rainer Hutterer of the Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum, and Jorg Linstadter from the University of Cologne. “Because the isotopes of snail shells are only influenced by temperature and water conditions and not by humans, we have natural archives at the time of prehistoric occupation,” Yanes said in a press release. The researchers found that the climate grew warmer and could have supported the switch from hunting and gathering to agriculture. “Even though previous research has not observed major climate change at that temporal transition at the study site, with the oxygen isotope analysis of these shells, we have evidence for a significant natural climate change,” she explained.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Bribe and Prejudice!’: How Paying $30 Can Bypass Egyptian Airport Security
In a kick to Egypt’s poor airport reputation, known for delays and negative passenger feedback, the recent Russian plane crash in Sinai has spotlighted yet another concern — shockingly poor security measures.
Security in Sharm el-Sheikh airport, where the plane took off from last week, came under scrutiny amid growing concerns the plane was downed by a bomb smuggled aboard.
According to one holidaymaker, bypassing a security queue — unfathomable in other major airports — has a price tag of an average of $30 in Sharm el-Sheikh airport that would have screened the luggage.
According to Sky News, British holidaymaker Dale Parkyn — who visited the Egyptian resort city with his wife earlier this year — said he was approached by an official in “military uniform” who offered to help him jump the queue for a mere 20 pound bill.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Army Takes Control of Sending Russians Back Home
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said that Egyptian military has taken control of operations in the country’s airports to put Russian passengers on flights to take them home from Egypt.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Egyptian military has taken control of operations in the country’s airports to put Russian passengers on flights to take them home from Egypt, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said Saturday following Moscow’s suspension of flights to and from Egypt.
“Our Egyptian friends have already taken steps [to provide additional security measures], the military took control of the passenger processing to the flights. They are deployed in Sharm el-Sheikh and other airports and minimize uncontrolled activities that took place in several airports, according to the tourists’ comments,” Dvorkovich said.
On October 31, the Russian A321 airliner crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula killing all 224 people on board in what has become the largest civil aviation disaster in Russian history.
On Friday, Russia suspended its flights to and from Egypt until the inquiry into the A321 crash in Sinai is over.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Explosion Reportedly Heard on Black Box of Russian Passenger Plane
The black box recorder of the Russian passenger plane that crashed on its way back from Egypt’s Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh last week killing all 224 people on board reportedly reveals a loud explosion heard on the jet before it went down.
Sky News, citing a report from French television channel France 2, reported Saturday that the black boxes from the doomed airliner “distinctly show the sound of an explosion during the flight.”
The report of an explosion heard on the black box recorder comes after British and American officials revealed that it was possible a bomb on board had brought the plane down. Russian officials responded Friday agreeing to suspend all Russian flights to Egypt.
The suspension, covering all of Egypt, is even more sweeping than the one previously imposed by Britain, which had halted flights to Sharm el-Sheikh only.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Moroccan King Visits Contested Western Sahara to Mark 40th Anniversary Since Annexation
Moroccan King Mohammed VI is making his first official visit to the Western Sahara since 2006 to mark the 40th anniversary of the country’s annexation of the mineral rich territory.
In addition to commemorating the 1975 annexation Morocco calls the “Green March,” the visit is part of a campaign to promote Morocco’s decentralization plan and boost investment.
The visit, which began Friday, has sparked anger among Sahrawis in the territory, and in refugee camps outside Tindouf, Algeria, run by the Polisario Front pro-independence movement.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisians Rally in Support of Palestinian ‘Uprising’
Hundreds of Tunisians, including political figures, gathered in the capital Saturday for a demonstration called by the Islamist party Ennahda in support of the Palestinian “uprising” against Israel.
The demonstrators assembled under close police surveillance in the city’s main thoroughfare, Bourguiba Avenue, waving Tunisian and Palestinian flags as well as that of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
Ennahda MP Sahbi Atig said: “This is essentially a symbolic action to show our support for the Palestinian cause and uprising.”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Archeology: Remains of Acra Fortress Discovered in Jerusalem
Used by the Greeks to control access to the Temple
– TEL AVIV — Israeli researchers believe they have discovered the remains of the fortress of Acra, built by Antiochus IV (215-164, before Christ), a forification the Greeks employed to control the Temple of Jerusalem more than 2,000 years ago.
Slingshot stones, arrowheads and crossbows were also found on sight and are proof of the attempts made by the Hasmonean dynasty to conquer the fortress and liberate it from Greek control as subsequently happened. According to archaeologists, through the discovery, which finally locates the fortress, one of the most intractable misteries of Jerusalem, may have been uncovered.
Several attempts to solve the riddle, carried out in the past 100 years, all proved unsuccessful because of the scarcity of Greek architectural remains in Jerusalem, but the new excavation represents a great leap forward.
“This sensational discovery — said the directors of the excavation project Doron Ben-Ami,Yana Tchekhanovets and Salome Cohen — allows us to reconstruct the map of the settlments in the city at the beginning of the Maccabean revolt in 167 BC.
The fortress controlled all access routes to the Temple above Temple Mount and cut off the ones through the southern flank of the city”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian NGO to Deliver Food Baskets to Syrian Families
Food to 1,000 families, 6,000 hungry people
(ANSA) — Milan, November 5 — Italian NGO Amici dei Bambini (Friends of Children) said on Thursday it will provide food baskets to more than 1,000 families in war-torn Syria every month for the next six months. The baskets with products including flour, bread, rice, tea and sugar should help a total of 6,000 people in Syria who can’t feed their families and who have lost their homes.
Founded in 1983, the NGO’s mission as stated on their website is to “guarantee every child’s right to be someone’s son or daughter by trying to give every abandoned child a family”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Rand Paul: “Look Where ISIS Gets Its Weapons From”
Presidential candidate Rand Paul has urged voters to look to where ISIS is getting it’s weapons from to understand the monumental problem the US is facilitating in Syria and beyond.
Speaking with Ed Berliner of Newsmax, paul stated “Most of these people do not have the sophistication to make arms so they get the arms from other folks.”
“Right now ISIS has a billion dollars’ worth of U.S. Humvees, they have a billion dollars in cash they stole from us and they pay their soldiers with but they have anti-tank weapons and missiles they fire from the shoulder that were basically given to people in the Syrian civil war and taken by ISIS.”
“So really if we don’t want weapons to get into the hands of folks, we should be very careful about who we give the weapons to,” the Senator stated.
Paul then elaborated by noting that during the Libyan civil war, 15,000 shoulder-to-air missiles made by the United States went missing.
“That’s why there is a concern that airliners might be taken down by shoulder-to-air missiles.” Paul noted.
“That might be a good reason for why we should’ve thought long and hard before we agreed with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to get involved in a war in Libya,” the Libertarian leaning candidate said.
[Comment: All weapons funneling organized by the State Dept. and CIA. They actually work for the banksters not the USA. ]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UAE Told UK: Crack Down on Muslim Brotherhood or Lose Arms Deals
The United Arab Emirates threatened to block billion-pound arms deals with the UK, stop inward investment and cut intelligence cooperation if David Cameron did not act against the Muslim Brotherhood, the Guardian has learned.
Internal UAE government documents seen by the Guardian show that the crown prince of Abu Dhabi was briefed to complain to the prime minister about the Muslim Brotherhood in June 2012, when one of its leading members, Mohamed Morsi, became Egyptian president.
In the briefing notes it was suggested that the crown prince demand Cameron rein in BBC coverage.
In return, Cameron was to be offered lucrative arms and oil deals for British business which would have generated billions of pounds for the jet divisions of BAE Systems and allowed BP to bid to drill for hydrocarbons in the Gulf.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘We Did What We Learned: Attacking Christians’
Throughout the month of August, the Obama administration and the so-called mainstream media kept insisting that Islam does not promote the persecution of Christians — all the while ignoring the direct testimonies of those who have undergone it.
According to Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda,
All the statements [by U.S. government and media] have not condemned strongly what damage it [persecution of Christians] is doing. What they are saying is just ‘This is not the true Islam. This is violating the picture of Islam.’ The issue for them is the image of Islam, but none of these statements speak about the victims, about what has been done to the victims, they are not even mentioned. And that is one of the questions our people have. [Author’s emphasis].
Warda added that persecuted Christians are ‘being denied visas, while others who have participated [in the violence] or at least were silent, can go.’
Father Douglas al-Bazi, an Iraqi Catholic parish priest from Erbil, who still carries the torture scars he received nine years earlier at the hands of jihadis, denounced the Western refusal to accept reality about Islam:
I’m proud to be an Iraqi, I love my country. But my [Muslim] country is not proud that I’m part of it. What is happening to my people [Christians] is nothing other than genocide. I beg you: do not call it a conflict. It’s genocide… When Islam lives amidst you, the situation might appear acceptable. But when one lives amidst Muslims [as a minority], everything becomes impossible… Wake up! The cancer is at your door. They will destroy you. We, the Christians of the Middle East are the only group that has seen the face of evil: Islam.
Meanwhile, Western ‘mainstream media’ and academia continued to exonerate Islam in deceptive op-eds, such as the Huffington Post’s ‘ISIS Violates The Consensus Of Mainstream Islam By Persecuting Christians,’ by Qasim Rashid, a recipient of Saudi largesse, by way of Harvard University’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Remains of Russia’s Alexander III Will be Exhumed
Russian researchers are examining the blood-stained clothing worn by Tsar Alexander II when he was assassinated in 1881, and making plans to exhume the remains of Tsar Alexander III, located in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Alexander III, who died in 1894, was the father of the last Romanov Tsar Nicholas II, who was killed, along with his wife and five children, during the Russian Revolution in 1918. The bodies of Nicholas II, his wife, and three of the children are thought to have been discovered in Yekaterinburg in 1991, and were reburied in Peter and Paul Cathedral in 1998. In 2007, the remains identified as Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria were found in another grave, and are now stored in a state archive. According to the Associated Foreign Press, the Russian Orthodox Church is insisting on further DNA testing to confirm the identity of the remains of the slain family, canonized as martyrs, before they can be buried together.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Anxiety Stalks Myanmar Muslims as Poll Looms
As the faithful filed towards a Yangon mosque for Friday prayers, conversations readily turned to Myanmar’s election, with hopes for greater freedom tainted by fear among Muslims at the sharp end of bilious hardline Buddhist rhetoric.
Sunday’s election, billed as the freest the former junta ruled nation has seen in decades, has been accompanied by a crescendo in anti-Muslim sentiment led by a hardcore of Buddhist monks.
That has heightened anxiety among the residents of Mingalar Taung Nyunt, a wedge of shacks and scruffy low-rise wooden houses that are home to a large Muslim community of roti sellers and merchants in central Yangon…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Gujarat High Court Says Polygamy Should be Abolished Across India
According to the court the Indian civil law should be standardized throughout the territory. Islamic law allows up to four marriages but the Indian Constitution punishes polygamy. Judge: “The Koran allows men to marry only in certain conditions, for the sake of children, for example, and not to satisfy their sexual desires.” Unilateral divorce discriminates against women; it is the duty of the doctors of Islamic law ensure that men do not abuse Koranic law.
Ahmedabad (AsiaNews / Agencies) — The High Court of Gujarat yesterday issued an order seeking the abolition of polygamy among India’s Muslim community, as often it is motivated by “selfish reasons” and is an “excruciatingly patriarchal” act. The court also stated that “it is time to standardize the Civil Code because these rules [Islamic] violate the Constitution of India”.
Judge JB Pardiwala issued the order following an appeal brought before his court by a Muslim man, Jafar Abbas Merchant, who was sued by his first wife for having contracted a new marriage without her consent. The offending provision is section 464 of the Indian Civil Code, which punishes cases of remarriage. Instead Islamic law instead allows Muslims to contract new marriages.
Jafar had argued in his appeal that Islamic law allows up to four weddings. But the judge gave the following reasons for his decision: “The Koran is misunderstood by Muslims who want to have another wife. When the Koran allows polygamy, it is only when it is done for the right reasons, for example to protect children and mothers from the exploitation. While today people use it for selfish reasons. The sacred text of Islam forbids polygamy if it has the purpose of personal interest or sexual desire. “
Pardiwala added: “ On the basis of modern, progressive thinking, India must shun the practice and establish uniform civil code,” stated the judgment “. “It is up to the doctors of Islamic law and Muslim men — he continued- to ensure that they do not abuse the Koran to justify this heinously patriarchal act for their personal interest.”
The High Court order also stressed that “Polygamy and the unilateral talaq [divorce in Islam] without the wife’s consent offends Article 14 (equality before law for all) and Article 15 (the state’s nondiscrimination on grounds of caste, religion, sex, etc). If the state tolerates this law, it becomes an accomplice in the discrimination of the female, which is illegal under its own laws”. It concludes that “if the state tolerates this law, it becomes complicit in the discrimination against women, which is illegal under the law.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indian Army Successfully Tests Brahmos Missile on Ground Targets
BrahMos missile was launched from a mobile launcher in the Pokhran polygon in Indian state of Rajasthan, according to BrahMos Aerospace Limited.
NEW DELHI (Sputnik) — The Indian Army has successfully tested a BrahMos missile on ground targets, BrahMos Aerospace Limited said Saturday.
Southeast Asia Market Eyes BrahMos Cruise Missiles Jointly Made by Russia, India
The missile was launched from a mobile launcher in the Pokhran polygon in Indian state of Rajasthan at 10:00 a.m. (04:30 GMT), and successfully hit the target.
The missile is produced by an India-Russia joint company BrahMos Aerospace, named after the rivers Brahmaputra and Moskva.
BrahMos is a short-range supersonic missile, which has been in use by the Indian Navy since 2005. The missile has a range of 180 miles and can carry a conventional warhead of up to 660 pounds.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: Delhi Court Says No to Beef Ban
Swami Satyananda Chakradhari called on the court to ban beef and punish anyone who slaughters, imports, exports or sells cattle in the national capital region with a 10-year jail term. The court described the plea as “misconceived”, whilst a government lawyer called it a publicity stunt. In Delhi, legislation already exists to protect cows and the state already has shelters for 23,000 heads of cattle.
New Delhi (AsiaNews/Agencies) — The Delhi High Court today dismissed a request by a Hindu cleric seeking a ban on cow slaughter and beef sale in India’s National Capital region (NCR).
The petition, filed by Swami Satyananda Chakradhari, a self-style monk, wanted the court to direct the state government to enact a law similar to the 1932 Ranbir Penal Code, applicable in Jammu and Kashmir, which states that slaughter of cows and “like animals” was punishable with up to ten years of imprisonment as well as a financial penalty.
The plea also called for the court to direct state and Union governments to enact a law banning the “import/export and sale of beef and its products across Delhi and NCR”.
Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath dismissed the plea saying the petition is “misconceived”, noting that the Delhi government has informed the court that it already has an act, the Delhi Agriculture Cattle Preservation Act, 1994, to prevent such acts.
For Additional Standing counsel Sanjoy Ghose, appearing for the state government, the petition was a publicity stunt. Under the existing Act, he told the court, “No person shall transport or offer for transport or cause to be transported agricultural cattle from any place within Delhi to any place outside Delhi, for the purpose of its slaughter, knowing that it is likely to be slaughtered.”
He went on to say that the Delhi government had five facilities with a capacity for 23,000 animals, with only around 10,000 heads of cattle currently sheltered.
The High Court ruling comes at a time when the debate in India over beef is gaining more and more public traction.
In Hinduism, the cow is considered sacred. Slaughtering the animal is banned in a number of Indian states, including Maharashtra. In the latter, violators could get up to five years in prison for eating beef.
Against such a background, Hindu radicals often carry out violent attacks minority Christians and Muslims who trade in cattle and eat its byproducts.
In some cases, the violence can get out hand. For example, a Muslim man was recently lynched by a mob in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh on the mere “suspicion” of having eaten beef he had raised.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Land Jihadi Killed Hindu Girls Student Brutally in West Bengal
Victim of Land Jihad in West Bengal. Mousumi, a meritorious Hindu girl of high school murdered by Muslim land grabber Momin Mondal. The entire family injured heavily. Father struggling life in Calcutta Medical College. State advices Hindus to be tolerant enough!
Satyo Chakro | HENB | Barasat | Nov 6, 2015:: In another ‘very small’ incident of ‘tolerance’ by ‘peace loving’ Muslims, four ‘Kaffir’ members of a Hindu family were Islamically treated (beaten severely) by Muslim neighbors in Pungliya Village of Bhurkunda Gram Panchayet under Ashoknagar Police Station in N 24 Dist in WB, while a 14 year girl named Mousumi Saha has succumbed to serious injuries.
The incident took place on Friday on in broad daylight at about 11 am when, Sunil Shah, the father of deceased Mousumi was measuring his purchased land with the help of a certified surveyor to confirm the actual measurement of the forceful land grabbing by his Muslim neighbor named Momin Modal and his brothers.
Seeing the entry of Sunil with his appointed surveyor upon the grabbed land, a violent Momin and his brothers rushed to Sunil and started beating with bamboo and wooden log. Seeing the severe attack on Sunil, the accompanying surveyor fled away but Sunil’s family members reached the place to save him.
Then the full team of Momin started abusing Sunil’s wife Sumitra and her two daughters Mousumi and Mita. Sensing a little resistance, Momin brutally attacked Mousumi with a heavy bamboo pile causing internal haemorrhage. Attackers knocked down the whole family within few minutes.
Attracted by the screaming of the victims and a collision, when the villagers rushed to the place, the Muslim attackers fled away and the victims were taken to local Ashok Nagar State Gen Hospital immediately.
While Mousumi was declared brought dead, Sunil, Sumitra and Mita were transferred to Barasat Hospital after seeing the critical conditions of the patients.
Sunil Saha, father of Mousumi is fighting his life in Kolkata Medical College as was transferred from Barasat Dist Hospital as the situation of the patient was highly critical…
| — Hat tip: Upananda Brahmachari | [Return to headlines] |
China, Taiwan Leaders in Historic Handshake Meeting in Singapore
Chinese President Xi Jinping has told his Taiwanese counterpart that the two sides are ‘one family’ at a landmark summit in Singapore. The two exchanged a historic handshake and the talks lasted around one hour.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Early Proto-Porcelain From China Likely Made From Local Materials
Early Chinese proto-porcelain was likely made from materials gathered locally, according to a study published November 4, 2015 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Yu Li from the Fudan University, Shanghai, China, and colleagues.
Researchers excavated the Piaoshan kiln site in June 2012 and found evidence that the sites contents may be the earliest known Chinese proto-porcelain, a type of early Chinese porcelain. Based on the decorated patterns on the impressed stoneware and proto-porcelain sherds, the site is estimated to date to the late Xia (2070-1600 BC), the first dynasty of China. The authors of this study conducted proton-induced X-ray emission analyses of 118 proto-porcelain and 35 impressed stoneware sherds (pottery fragments) from Piaoshan and five subsequent kiln sites in the vicinity.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Filipino Bishops Against the Use of Ivory in Devotional Objects
As part of the fight against poaching, the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines calls on bishops and clergy to ban ivory from all devotional objects. This, he says, reflects papal guidelines laid down in Laudato si’. Since 2012, the Filipino Church has promoted the fight against the ivory trade.
Manila (AsiaNews/CBCP) — The Catholic Church is taking a proactive approach against poaching by discouraging the clergy from using ivory for religious devotional objects.
Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, said that the Catholic Church “must do its part” and vowed to raise awareness about the illegal ivory trade, insisting that animals must be treated with respect.
For this reason, the CBCP president in a pastoral letter urged his fellow bishops to reject the use of materials extracted or derived from protected and endangered species, especially new ones.
“I appeal to my brother bishops of the Philippines to prohibit the clerics from blessing any new statue, image or object of devotion made or crafted from such material as ivory or similar body parts of endangered or protected, nor shall such new statues or images be used as objects of veneration in any of our churches,” Villegas said.
“I propose to my brother bishops to enforce the directive that no donation of any new statue or religious object made from ivory or materials extracted, taken or derived from protected and endangered species shall be accepted and blessed,” he added.
Villegas said that the ivory trade and poaching, trafficking, and decimation of other endangered species is precisely that.
In the Philippines alone, endemic species “are hardly cared for,” he noted. On a global scale, the problem is “nothing less than alarming.”
In his view, “Every instance of beauty is a reflection of the infinite beauty of the Creator.” Therefore, “We cannot, without offending the Creator, deface his creation”.
On the other hand, the prelate noted that old religious images and statues containing ivory could still be kept and used because of their “historical value”.
The Church’s campaign against the ivory trade and support for the worldwide ban goes back to 2012, anticipating Pope Francis’ Laudato si’, the “green” encyclical he released in June.
The pope’s heartfelt appeal to the care of the environment and its creatures was recently translated into Tagalog, the main language of the only predominantly Catholic country in Asia.
The text was presented at the Manila International Book Fair in September, and corresponds to the call by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to study, reflect and implement the pope’s message on ecology and the environment.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Thai Police Arrest Two Chinese Activists, Fears for Extradition
Human rights groups have launched a petition for the release of two members of the Chinese democracy movement. They are activist Dong Guangping, already previously arrested, and the political cartoonist Jiang yefei. Recently, some members of Falung Gong were brought to Myanmar and handed over to Chinese police.
Bangkok (AsiaNews) — Human rights activists are calling for the liberation of two members of the China democratic movement, arrested and detained by Thai immigration authorities after asking the United Nations to be recognized as political refugees.
Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports that Dong Guangping fled China with his family in September after serving a three-year jail term for subversion from 2001-2004, and being “disappeared” and held for eight months in secret detention in 2014.
Political cartoonist Jiang Yefei had been in Thailand since fleeing China in 2008, where he was detained and tortured after he criticized the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s handling of the devastating Sichuan earthquake, and was granted refugee status last April by the U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
Chinese officials told his brother in October that Beijing would be seeking his extradition on suspicion of “incitement to subvert state power” after he published a number of satirical cartoons targeting President Xi Jinping.
According to Jiang’s wife, Chu Ling, the cartoonist and activist Dong have both pleaded guilty to the immigration-related charges against them during interrogation under duress. “He is not capable of reading the Thai language — adds Chu — and we had agreed by phone that he would never plead guilty, whatever the cost.”
In the recent past members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which is banned as an “evil cult” in China, had previously allowed the Thai police to note that they accepted the charges against them, before sending them to China-influenced areas of northern Myanmar close to the Chinese border, where they were eventually repatriated. “Today — she concludes — there is an arrest warrant in China hanging over Jiang yefei’s head”.
Frontline Defenders, an activist group based in Dublin has launched a petition for the release of the two men, adding that the Chinese passport Jiang is no longer valid and it is not known if Dong Guangping is in possession of a valid passport. The campaign is aimed at Bangkok authorities appealing for the “immediate and unconditional release of Dong and Jiang yefei”. The Chinese activist Lin Dajun, based in Thailand, said that refugees fleeing persecution of the Chinese government find only a “precarious” situation when they arrive in the country.
Moreover, the government in Bangkok has never signed the UN convention on refugees and does not recognize the concept of political asylum. The only option for Chinese refugees whose status is recognized by the UNHCR is to move to one of the 50 countries in the world that guarantees asylum.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
‘The Future is Going to be Chinese’
Matt Wappett said people are often surprised when a 6-foot-2 Caucasian male shows up to talk to them about Confucius.
But, as shocking as that is to some, the co-director of the University of Idaho’s Confucius Institute said he has developed a strong connection with China from a lifetime of experience. On Friday afternoon, Wappett spoke to members of every Rotary Club in Kootenai County during a luncheon at the Hagadone Event Center in Coeur d’Alene.
“I look at the world my children are growing up in and realize that the world they’re growing into is going to have a uniquely Asian feel,” Wappett said. “The future is going to be Chinese.”
“The only way to avoid conflict with China in the future is to enhance our understanding of their culture and increase communication between the two countries,” Wappett said. “It’s essential to the mission and vision of the institute.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Congo Approves Foreign Adoption of 69 Kids After 2 Years
Italian families among those adopting children
(ANSA) — Kinshasa, November 2 — The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DCR) approved Monday the adoption by foreign families, including Italians, of 69 children after a two year wait.
A further 1,000 children remain in the Congolese orphanages awaiting adoption.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Cuba Policy: Supporting US Business or Enriching Cuban Gov’t?
Martina Feria lives in a capital city in a country less than 100 miles from the United States. On a warm November day in 2015, she used the Internet for the first time.
“It is very difficult to connect because it seems like the whole world is trying to get on the Internet,” she said, surrounded by hundreds of others crowded into a public Wi-Fi hotspot in Havana, Cuba. “Sometimes you connect but it is slow.”
Multiple estimates claim about 5 percent of Cuba’s population has access to the Internet. In Havana, Cubans mostly log on from public Wi-Fi hotspots administered by the state-run telecommunications provider, ETECSA.
It is into this market, with a Soviet-style economic doctrine and bureaucratically run economy, that American businesses want to expand.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Attacks on Refugees in Germany Double in Three Months
The number of registered attacks against refugee accommodations and asylum seekers in Germany has doubled in the last three months. Severe crimes such as arson, bombings and assault have tripled.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Berlin Protesters, Police Clash Near Anti-Migrant March
Police clashed Saturday with activists who took to the streets of Berlin to shout down anti-migrant marchers of the populist-nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD).
At least 10 supporters of the migrants were arrested, an AFP journalist at the scene said.
Police said an officer was lightly wounded in the brawl.
Police said some 3,500 people turned out for the anti-migrant protest, which gathered under the banner “Asylum Has Its Limits — Red Card for Merkel”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Dittmann: 24,500 Serbian Citizens Request Asylum in Germany
Modified: Nov 7, 2015 at 10:17 am
BELGRADE — Around 24,500 citizens of Serbia requested asylum in Germany by October 2015, and only three of them were granted asylum, German Ambassador in Serbia Axel Dittmann stated on Friday.
Dittmann and Serbian Minister of Interior Affairs Nebojsa Stefanovic visited the Roma settlement in Zemun.
Dittmann informed the Roma that Germany has curbed its regulations for asylum seekers and that seeking asylum in Germany is not a solution to their problems. Dittmann said that the German Embassy is collaborating with Serbian institutions and NGOs to improve the conditions for the life of Roma.
Minister Stefanovic announced a campaign to improve the living conditions for the Roma and said that more Roma will be employed in the police.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
European Commission to Support Slovenia With $11mln Aid to Tackle Migration
European Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos said that 10.17 million euros ($11 million) in emergency aid will help the Slovenian authorities to better manage the high influx of migrants and better address the needs of new arrivals to the benefit of all countries on the Western Balkans migration route.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The European Commission allocated 10.17 million euros ($11 million) in emergency aid to Slovenia to help the country tackle the migrant influx, European Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos said Friday.
The money will be used to increase the quantity of policing at the Croatian-Slovenian border, cover the accommodation costs of deploying additional police officers from other EU countries, and provide 7,500 accommodation spaces for migrants in Slovenia.
“This emergency funding will help the Slovenian authorities to better manage the high influx of migrants and better address the needs of new arrivals to the benefit of all countries on the Western Balkans migration route,” Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said in a statement published on the European Commission website.
Europe is currently undergoing a major migrant crisis, with hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing conflict-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
Over 710, 000 migrants have already arrived in the European Union since the beginning of the year, according to the EU border agency Frontex. This number is expected to reach almost 3 million people by the end of 2017, according to the European Commission’s forecast, published on Thursday.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
France to Take in Just 200 Refugees in November
France will officially welcome 200 refugees in total this month, a figure that pales in comparison to the 180,000 who arrived in Germany in October.
Nineteen Eritreans are set to arrive in a town in western France on Friday, marking the first group of refugees that France officially welcomes as part of the EU’s redistribution plan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Asylum Activists Arrested for Anti-AfD Protest
Police clashed Saturday with activists who took to the streets of Berlin to shout down anti-migrant marchers of the populist nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD).
At least 10 supporters of the migrants were arrested, when the police clashed with activists who took to the streets of Berlin to shout down anti-migrant marchers of the populist-nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) on Saturday.
Police said an officer was lightly wounded in the brawl. Police said some 3,500 people turned out for the anti-migrant protest, which gathered under the banner “Asylum Has Its Limits — Red Card for Merkel”. Organisers had expected a turnout of up to 5,000.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Teachers Union Warns Girls to Stay Away From Refugee Men
A teachers group in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt has garnered criticism after saying girls should be encouraged to stay away from male — often Muslim — refugees. Politicians have accused the group of fear-mongering.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Flip-Flops Over Crackdown on Syrian Refugees Amid Growing Pressure
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere has reportedly announced plans to give Syrian refugees a special status which would forbid them from bringing their relatives to Germany for two years.
Syrian refugees arriving in Germany may get a special restricted status that would not allow them to bring relatives to Germany for two years, the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung quoted German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere as saying on Friday. Later in the day, he went back on his words.
“There is no change in the approval practice for Syrian refugees,” de Maiziere said.
He added, however, that the new status for Syrian refugees had been planned at the beginning of this week.
On Thursday, Chancellor Angela Merkel and her governing coalition’s partners agreed that those refugees who have “subsidiary protection” should not be able to bring relatives to Germany for two years. There was no specific mention of Syrians in this statement, though.
“Subsidiary protection” is something that falls short of full asylum status, but is granted to people who face serious risks in their homeland.
People with full asylum status get a three-year residence permit, while those with “subsidiary protection” get a one-year permit that should be repeatedly extended.
De Maiziere also said that the Thursday move clearly indicates that “there is need for discussion in the coalition, and so things will now stay as they are until there is a new decision.”
His comments came as the German government faces ever-increasing pressure to contain the influx of refugees into the country.
The Frontex agency said in turn that about 710,000 migrants have entered the EU in the past nine months.
According to the European Commission, the current migration crisis in the world is the biggest since the Second World War.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Illegal Accused of Fatal Hit-and-Run — Deported Six Times
A man accused in a fatal hit-and-run on Tuesday is an illegal alien who has been deported at least six times since 2001.
Santa Ana, California police say Ramon Jaime Horta was driving on a suspended license when he allegedly struck and killed 24-year-old Marcello Bisarello, the Orange County Register reports.
Bisarello was sitting on a street curb around 1:00 p.m. in the afternoon when he was struck by a driver of a “swerving” van police say was intoxicated.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ring That Used Voodoo Rites to Enslave Prostitutes Busted
Four Nigerians arrested in province of Milan
(ANSA) — Milan, November 5 — Police on Thursday arrested four Nigerians on charges of exploiting prostitution in the province of Milan. The suspects operated in Italy and Nigeria, where they allegedly enslaved their victims using modified voodoo rites before bringing them to Italy by boat on the migrant route from Libya to the Sicilian island of Lampedusa. They now face possible charges of human trafficking and reduction into slavery. Investigators identified at least nine victims, who were made to prostitute themselves on a local road in Carpiano until they had paid off a debt bond of up to 70,000 euros. Four of the victims are now living in special communities for victims of human trafficking.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mass Immigration is on the Verge of Destroying Europe, Blasts Leo McKinstry
Dressing up their vandalism as compassion and their cowardice as moral superiority, these leaders have created an immigration crisis so profound that the very existence of our European culture and heritage is under mortal threat.
The tragic paradox of the obsession with free movement and the abolition of national identities is that Europe in any meaningful sense will probably cease to exist this century.
As the social revolution accelerates traditional values of democracy, freedom and solidarity will be replaced by conflict, sectarianism, oppression and intolerance.
Increasingly Islamified, barbaric and poverty-stricken, Europe will become indistinguishable from large swathes of North Africa and the Middle East.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migration Tests Sweden’s ‘Humanitarian Superpower’ Image
Overwhelmed by a massive influx of migrants, Sweden is approaching its fiscal and emotional limit and this “humanitarian superpower” is now being forced to hit the brakes.
The Scandinavian kingdom, in which one in every five residents is of foreign origin, is expected to receive up to 360,000 new immigrants in 2015 and 2016. That’s roughly the equivalent of Germany dealing with 3 million new migrants or 2.2 million arriving in France.
“The situation is no longer tenable. Sweden can no longer take refugees in the way it has before,” Prime Minister Stefan Lofven warned this week…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Refugees Welcome? Migrants Gang Rape Women in Sweden & UK
A group of North African migrants living in a tent city in Stockholm have been found guilty of brutally gang-raping a 23-year-old woman in yet another example of how Europe’s open border madness is exacerbating the sexual abuse of women.
The attack, which took place two months ago on the island of Södermalm, began when the migrants approached the young woman, who was crying, and attempted to console her.
The men took the woman to a viewpoint overlooking the city and all appeared to be calm before one of them, “gripped her neck, ripped her clothes off and raped her,” reports The Local.
Other boys then arrived and proceeded to take turns raping the woman before she managed to escape and board a night bus at 3am.
Two of the boys, who were all aged 15 to 18, were sentenced to six months in juvenile detention while another received nine months. They will all be back out on the streets by next summer.
The victim said she was “sick” that the rapists had been given such short sentences.
“All of the teenagers are from north Africa and had been living in a tent camp in Stockholm,” states the report, suggesting that they could have arrived recently as part of the wave of migrants flooding into Europe.
Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, an 18-year-old girl claims she was gang raped by recently arrived Syrian migrants in an ordeal that lasted five hours.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Faces Huge Shortfall in Refugee Tents
Sweden won’t have enough tents to house record numbers of asylum seekers, with only 4,000 spaces available for an expected 50,000 refugees.
The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency has warned that the first tents for 375 asylum seekers are delayed, and it is unlikely that more than 4 000 refugees will be housed in tents by the end of the year. The demands for 50 000 beds will not be met.
The Swedish Migration board (Migrationsverket) needs tents to house 50 000 refugees this year already. But that is impossible, Anneli Bergholm Söder from the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) told TT: “We want to warn Migrationsverket, they need to lower their expectations.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
TPP Overrides Immigration Protections for U.S. Professionals, Skilled Workers, Says Critic
The new Trans-Pacific Partnership trade-deal allows U.S. and foreign companies to hire foreign professionals and technicians to take skilled jobs in the United States, while still only paying them wages typical for their home countries, such as Vietnam and Malaysia, immigration expert Rosemary Jenks told Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Daily radio show.
“We have this massive [TPP] contract that we are apparently about to sign — if they have their way in Washington — that says we are going to open our entire service industry to companies and [their] employees from all of these partner countries,” said Jenks, the director of government relations at NumbersUSA.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Zoë Saldana is excited to see Latin culture growing in America — and she has a message for anyone who might not share in her enthusiasm.
“You can’t kill us. You can’t send us back,” she tells Latina for its December/January cover story. “We are millions and millions here because it is our time to migrate. We are the youngest culture. We are doing what your people did. So shut up and just deal with it.”
“The only true American here is the Native American,” she says. “Everyone else is a transplant. We’re going through the exact same thing the Italians went through, the Irish, the Jews, and the Asians. In different ways, but it’s been very similar.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gay Rights Vote Undermines EU-Ukraine Visa Deal
Ukrainian MPs have voted down a gay rights law in a decision likely to kill chances of EU visa-free travel by the end of the year.
Just 117 out of the 450 members of the Verkhovna Rada, on Thursday (5 November), voted Yes to amending the country’s labour code to ban workplace discrimination on grounds of sexual preference.
The Rada is to hold a second vote on an as-yet unspecified date.
But opposition will be hard to overcome.
Some members of prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s pro-EU party also attacked the bill.
“As a country with a thousand-year old Christian history, we simply cannot allow this … today, a special status for sexual minorities is simply unacceptable,” Yatsenyuk MP Pavlo Unguryan said, according to the AFP news agency.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sofia Rises: Baby Name Takes Over the World
Sofia has taken over the world — and not just one Sofia. Lots of them.
A new analysis of baby name statistics from naming expert Laura Wattenberg finds that Sofia (along with its variants) is the top baby name in nine countries — nations as far-flung as Mexico, Italy and Russia. Meanwhile, the name is the number two or three choice for parents in a whopping 20 countries, including the United States, where “Sophia” is currently the third-most-popular name for girls.
In fact, Sophia/Sofia and other local spellings are among the top 25 baby names in two-thirds of the countries (mostly in Europe and the Americas) that report baby name statistics, Wattenberg found.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The migrants in Cyprus have an answer to the unheated tents – with excellent gratitude they burn them.
I wonder if, as the happy hosts of the invasion hand out food, money, other comforts, might not take a few moments to explain to the young Muslim men that rape is not acceptable in the West and if they need relief from their sexual needs, they [prurient description redacted]?
I hope this is not too graphic. But really, this rape culture, which seems to be endemic in Sweden (but only among a certain population), should not be encouraged. If I were king of the world, I would make rape a very serious crime and prosecute and punish accordingly.
Seriously? Surely you know one of the main ways Islam subjugates is via rape; rape of infidels, men or women, is righteous. As one young man in Sweden said years ago (I don’t think I could find it in the archives now. It’s been too long) infidel women’s behavior brings on rape and is thus deserved.
There is a sick emphasis/examination of sexual behaviors even in present-day fatwahs, some of which deal with how to dispose of the goat a man uses for his own pleasure. The ruling I read said he could not butcher the animal for his own use after that, but he could sell it in a neighboring village. Such are the “religious” concerns of Allah’s submitters.
Perhaps any polygamous culture ends up focused on the minutiae of sexual behaviors since many men will be unable to marry and settle down due to the drastic decrease in the pool of available women. Thus the high rate of situational homosexuality similar to the kind seen in prison populations.
From the very beginning of his bloody conquests, Mohammed exterminated the men and distributed the women among his followers. Modern Muslims are merely following the original play book. You won’t find any moral precepts in the Koran, no Ten Commandments, no Beatitudes, etc.
What’s the point in explaining acceptable Western behavior to men who hold the West in comtempt?Western customs are the values of weaklings who will be destroyed by the stronger Islamic rule of submission. And the West, as evidenced by Sweden’s suicidal behaviors, is eagerly cooperating in its own demise (though the rest of the socialists aren’t far behind). See Al Capp’s prescience:
The Short Life and Happy Times of the Shmoo
Those western volunteers to ISIS are shmoos. So are many slappy-happy Americans who follow Obama’s call to welcome in ever more aliens.
Rape is a very serious crime? Honor killing is a very serious crime etc etc etcetra. We are drunk like boy George and his “religion” o’ piece. We may not survive what we have force fed into motion – without major savagery on our parts. Meanwhile for some ungodly reason best known to the Devil himself we are setting up millions of alien never-do-well low grade good for nothing Muslim wretches in style to feast on our children’s best interests.
Hitler’s ghost is muddying the political waters.
‘”Protests against refugees are now used by Nazis as a central theme to mobilize,” Jelpke told the German newspaper.
The number of neo-Nazi protestors includes demonstrations by groups such as the NPD and the Third Way, but does not include anti-immigration demonstrations organized by PEGIDA.’
The accusation of Nazi Racism is the chief arrow in the Left’s quiver to silence opposition. Yet the same Marxists ignore the real anti-semitism of Islam. Jews did not strap on suicide bombs, blow Europeans to pieces, stab, steal, rape and proclaim for us the choice of genocide or conversion. (They also ignore the 60 -70 million lives brutally ended by Communism.)
Until the trope of Nazi Racism is exposed as a red herring, it will continue to be a ball and chain around the legs of those who do not wish their communities to be destroyed.
The Nazis would have wanted young Muslim men in 1944-5 to help them sustain collapsing front lines. Al-Husseini would have sent them. [he did] Now you are saying they are ignoring that historical affiliation?…and that they are no longer grateful?
Ahhhh, the logic of the left…
What I was trying to say was that branding as ‘racist Nazi’s, German people who only want to preserve their own culture, and who are marching in the streets protesting the Muslim invasion, is ridiculous. They have every right to their culture not being wiped out. Unlike the Nazis who hated the Jews despite the fact that the Jews never threatened the Nazis, the Germans today reject the Muslims because they ARE a very serious threat.
The Nazis were all about the purity of Aryan blood. What attracted Hitler to the Mulim leaders was the absolute power the leader had over the masses and the ruthlessness with which Islam had been established – something he was hoping to emulate.
I can hardly imagine him allowing hordes of Muslims to rampage through Germany itself, though no doubt he would have loved them to rape and kill their way through Poland, Czechoslovakia and France etc.
The Bosnian muslims in the Handzschar SS division and the Albanian muslims who moved into Kosovo ALL did their part to help Her Hitler.
The Croations with their Prinze Orgen SS division was a STRONG supporter of Hilter’s “FINAL SOLUTION” issue for the Jews, the Romas, the Slavs and Orthodox Christians of the Balkans. Check out JASENOVAC concentration camp in Croatia … it was the LARGEST death camp in all of Europe.
I didn’t think it was prurient — -it was the most polite way I could say it, but oh, well. What do I know about internet politeness? Not much. But I’m learning.
Well, our standards are based on the fact that homeschoolers assign this blog as required reading for their children. So we are stricter than most.
Sometimes unpleasant and graphic descriptions can’t be avoided, but I think this one may be safely elided. 🙂
Mariadee, we who who have been fighting this cause, this resistance to our ethnic cleansing – in my case for over two decades – long ago learned to couch our words in a quiet but definitive context.
The Thought Police ever seek a way to destroy us. The Sheeples are afraid because they have been conditioned to fear, to be ashamed of what they are and what and where they came from.
Where we are and what we are about is not only difficult but so demanding of whatever moral, physical and intellectual courage we can muster that it quietly transcends the comfortable norm that has dominated the public discourse for so long.
If this old man presume to do so may I welcome you to the brotherhood and sisterhood of the Counter- Jihad. You are amongst friends and we find you welcome but what can and must be said has to be thought through because those who would destroy miss no opportunity to do so.
So, welcome, young lady, (from my perspective anyone under 65 is young 🙁 )
But I do hope that together we might just make it through the night. S III.
Okay, I didn’t know you had school children here, although most are more knowledgeable than their teachers think. I will be more careful in the future.
Oh, no worries: the kids *are* knowledgeable. However, handing ammunition to those who would “take [us] down a peg or two” is counter-productive, so the language here–as far as I’ve been able to tell since the Charlie massacre in January 2015–is G to PG. Not PG13, just PG. The random d*mn (WITH asterisk) is OK if in context, but that’s about it. 🙂
Also: the owners of the blog are practicing, *observant* Christians. 🙂
Actually, we go up to PG-13. And, given the nature of the topics we cover, harsh descriptions are often unavoidable.
What I struggle against in these comments is the gratuitous use of harsh, graphic, obscene, derogatory, insulting, and violent language. That is, the use of such language when the same points can be made in a differently phrased way. The most frequent problem is name-calling and other forms of ad-hominem argument — insulting the intelligence of one’s interlocutor, or denigrating his morality, or assigning evil motives to him without specific evidence. This poisons the discourse and impedes the free flow of ideas.
Lucid, candid, respectful, and unimpeded argument is an absolute necessity if we are ever to be able to extricate ourselves from the dire mess we’re in.
A round up of German news re the ‘migrants’, ranging from healthcare to taxes
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6838/germany-migration-health-crisis
Somebody tell Zoe Saldana that “hispanics” have been in this country since Ponce de Leon, about 450 years already.
They are not America’s “youngest” culture, they are America’s “oldest” culture.
It’s just that they haven’t done anything of note other than enslave, rape and kill native Americans, root around for gold, and pick vegetables.
BIGOTTED , Miss Zoe needs a PROPER HISPANIC FIRST NAME.
Zoe is a Greek name meaning LIFE. Best pal is named ZOE and she is a Greek gal.
Before shooting her mouth off, Ms. Saldana really should have studied the ethnic cleansings and genocides perpetrated on ‘native’ peoples by Hispanic conquerors and invaders such as Cortes and Pizzaro to name just two.
I won’t hold my breath, because as the MSM has indoctrinated us, only non-Latino Caucasians are capable of being evil.
NOBODY expects the HISPANIC INQUISTION!! : {
Sofia, meaning wisdom! GREEK word of course. I can just hear our priest singing out…”SO…FI…A ” as he sings the liturgy.
Beautiful word and beautiful meaning.
I have 6 friends at church named Sofia. And know of several little girls with the same name. Zoe Phos ( or Fos) is a favorite Greek name of mine and my daughter: LIFE and LIGHT is the meaning.