Two Muslim employees say they were fired from their jobs at a Paris airport because of their long beards. The two workers, both men, say that their beards are just “hipster fashion”. In possibly unrelated news, some employees and union officials believe that Air France has a problem with religious fundamentalism at Charles de Gaulle Airport. The imposition of halal food in the staff cafeteria was one of the issues cited.
In other news, a Washington think tank reports that Hamas and the Islamic State in the Sinai have been cooperating for the last two years against their common enemy, Egypt.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Nick, NV, 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.
ECB Says Italy Hit Hardest by Crisis on Jobs Front
Central bank says impact ‘significantly more persistent’
(ANSA) — Rome, December 17 — The European Central Bank said in its monthly bulletin on Thursday that Italy was the eurozone country to have most suffered the impact of the crisis on the employment front. “In Italy, the crisis has had a significantly more persistent adverse impact on total employment, which has remained largely unchanged, in contrast to both aggregate euro area developments and those in many of the smaller euro area economies,” the ECB said, referring to the period from the second quarter of 2013 to the first quarter of 2015.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: INPS Registers 95 Bn Euros in Social Security Credits
Cash ceiling on pensions payments must stay, president says
(ANSA) — Rome, December 15 — State welfare agency INPS had accumulated a total of nearly 95 billion euros in social-security contribution credits by the end of September, INPS President Tito Boeri said in a parliamentary hearing Tuesday. This compared to credits of 87 billion euros at the end of 2014, Boeri added.
Over half of the total credits registered at the end of September were accumulated during the economic crisis.
The INPS president also called on the government to leave the ceiling on cash transactions at the current 1,000 euros for pension payments.
Government plans to raise the ceiling to 3,000 euros for all cash transactions are under discussion in the 2016 budget bill, which must be approved by parliament by the end of the year.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Problems at 4 Crisis-Hit Banks ‘Acute But Contained’
Criticism of government rescue of banks grows
(ANSA) — Rome, December 15 — The problems involving retail investors of four Italian banks that had to be rescued by the government are acute but contained, the chairman of the banks Roberto Nicastro said on Tuesday.
Premier Matteo Renzi’s government stepped in to save Banca Marche, Banca Etruria, CariChieti and CariFe at the end of November, using financing from Italy’s healthier banks.
Nicastro said authorities were dealing with “about a thousand very delicate cases” which were being paid close attention.
“It is an acute phenomenon that is luckily much more contained,” he said, pointing to previous concerns of a more widespread issue.
Criticism continued on Tuesday of the government’s intervention, which saw many bondholders bereft of their life-savings, one of whom committed suicide.
Left-leaning MP Pier Luigi Bersani from Renzi’s Democratic Party called for more legislation to defend citizens from “market excesses”.
Renato Brunetta, the Lower House whip for Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, said Tuesday that the opposition centre-right parties will present a motion of no-confidence in Renzi’s government on Wednesday.
Matteo Salvini, leader of the Northern League, said his party was also preparing to present a motion of no-confidence in Renzi.
Meanwhile a former member of the executive board of Banca Etruria, Rossano Soldini, told La Repubblica daily that he remembered attending board meetings where everything was already decided.
“I thought I would be able to contribute with my experience as a businessman, but I was just a pencil pusher. Me and the large part of the executive board,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Milan Bourse Soars After Fed Rate Rise
Other European markets also register big gains
(ANSA) — Milan, December 17 — The Milan stock exchange soared by 2% in early trading on Thursday as European markets made big gains after the Federal Reserve raised its interest rates. The increase of the Fed’s target band for rates from 0.25% to 0.5% ended six years of close-to-zero rates and is seen as a sign that the United States economy have overcome the crisis. The Paris bourse gained 2.2%, Frankfurt was up 2.1% and London gained 1.5%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
LatAm Faces Recession This Year, Weak Growth Next: UN
Latin America’s economies will contract a worse-than-expected 0.4 percent this year and grow just 0.2 percent next year, as the global economic scenario remains “complex,” a UN panel forecast Thursday.
The region is on track to post its worst economic performance in six years in 2015, and 2016 is only looking marginally better, said the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
“It is necessary to resume growth and reverse the contractionary investment cycle in a context of slow global recovery and a decline in trade,” said executive director Alicia Barcena…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Peso Slumps 30% as Macri Propels Argentina Into New Currency Era
Argentina’s peso tumbled as much as 30 percent as newly inaugurated President Mauricio Macri fulfilled his campaign promise of letting the currency float freely.
Macri’s push for a devaluation was a key part of the economic overhaul he says is needed to lure investment that can jump-start an economy suffering from lackluster growth, inflation estimated at 25 percent and a shortage of dollars. The decline brought the official rate closer in line with where the peso had been trading in unregulated markets.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
And Just Like That, “Free Trade” Pact Trounces US Law
Claims that trade pacts like the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will not trump public health and environmental policies were revealed to be fiction on Tuesday after Congress, bending to the will of the World Trade Organization, killedthe popular country-of-origin label (COOL) law.
The provision, tucked inside the omnibus budget agreement, repeals a law that required labels for certain packaged meats, which food safety and consumer groups have said is essential for consumer choice and animal welfare, as well as environmental and public health.
Congress successful revoked the mandate just over one week after the WTO ruled that the U.S. could be forced to pay $1 billion annually to its NAFTA partners, which argued that the law “accorded unfavorable treatment to Canadian and Mexican livestock.”
Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch division, said that consumers relied on the standard to “make informed choices about their food,” and that Congress’ elimination of the rule “makes clear that trade agreements can—and do—threaten even the most favored U.S. consumer protections.”
The move flies in the face of statements made by President Barack Obama, who—arguing in favor of the 12-nation TPP,pledged that “no trade agreement is going to force us to change our laws.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
California Gun Instructor Visited by Police After Shopping for Ammo
Police interrogate Sikh woman training to be a cop after she asked about ammo
A female gun instructor in California says she was shocked to be visited by police after asking about rifle rounds at a nearby store.
Fremont resident Sim Sangha says cops unexpectedly knocked on her door last Friday, two days after she had asked about purchasing eight boxes of ammo for her AR-15 at Dick’s Sporting Goods.
Police told Sangha an employee at the store called to report her as “suspicious,” even though she never bought the ammo.
Sangha, a certified firearms instructor who is in the process of joining the Los Angeles Police Department, thinks she was “singled out” due to her skin color and the heightened sense of apprehension surrounding Muslims.
“I don’t know if it’s [because of] my skin color or the way I look. I’m Sikh, I’m Indian, I was born and raised in America. I’m a citizen here,” Sangha told NBC Bay Area. “I’m not a Muslim, but even if I were, that’s no reason to call police to my home, instantly.”
Police defended their visit to Sangha’s house, arguing they needed to follow up on tips following the San Bernardino terror attacks earlier this month.
“I feel like I was racially profiled,” she said. “I’ve had friends buy bulk ammo and they’ve never had police show up at their door.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Media Continue Attacks on Muslim Brotherhood Critics
Influence of CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood upon this and future administrations must be confronted head on, whether members of the mainstream media choose to look the other way, or peddle CAIR’s lies.
The mainstream media never tire of attacking those who warn that the Muslim Brotherhood has established deep ties to the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton. That might just be because the media have forged their own intimate ties to the Muslim Brotherhood group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Preeminent figures who dare to contradict the narrative of the liberal media, arguing that the greater concern is terrorism or shariah law, not Islamophobia, are regularly cast as conspiracy theorists, and worse, outright racists…
The mainstream media never tire of attacking those who warn that the Muslim Brotherhood has established deep ties to the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton. That might just be because the media have forged their own intimate ties to the Muslim Brotherhood group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Preeminent figures who dare to contradict the narrative of the liberal media, arguing that the greater concern is terrorism or shariah law, not Islamophobia, are regularly cast as conspiracy theorists, and worse, outright racists.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Now is the Time to Colonize Mars, Elon Musk Says
Humanity shouldn’t dally in its quest to colonize Mars, SpaceX’s billionaire founder and CEO Elon Musk says.
“Now is the first time in the history of Earth that the window is open, where it’s possible for us to extend life to another planet,” Musk told a huge crowd here Tuesday (Dec. 15) at the annual winter meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).
“That window may be open for a long time — and hopefully it is — but it also may be open for a short time,” he added. “I think the wise move is to make life multiplanetary while we can.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Huddles With Bloomberg as He Prepares Order on Guns
President Obama went behind closed doors, and off official White House schedule, to meet with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg — the nanny of city governance who’s helped finance a massive campaign to challenge with National Rifle Association — and discuss gun control.
“The two discussed ways to keep guns out of the hands of those who should not have access to them and what more could be done at the state and local level to help address gun violence in America,” the White House said in a statement released after the meeting.
Obama’s close adviser, Valerie Jarrett, also attended the White House meeting, Breitbart reported.
Bloomberg, who as mayor pushed for bans on Styrofoam, tobacco and trans-fats, has used his post-political office time to drive a $50 million gun-control initiative, billed as a direct opposition to the NRA’s clout on Capitol Hill. So far, his campaign — in part, run through his Everytown for Gun Safety group — hasn’t brought much success.
But the meeting with Obama, who’s pledged in the wake of several high-profile terrorist and criminal incidents that involved guns to restrict Americans’ access to firearms, could bolster Bloomberg’s nationwide effort.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Putin Praises ‘Absolute Leader’ Trump as Colorful, Talented Guy
President Vladimir Putin hailed Donald Trump as the “absolute leader” in the U.S. presidential contest, praising the candidate’s talk about building a deeper relationship with Russia.
The Republican candidate is “a very colorful character and talented,” Putin said after concluding his three-hour annual press conference in Moscow.
“He’s the absolute leader in the presidential race,” Putin said Thursday, in remarks first reported by the Interfax news service. “He’s said that he wants to move to a new level of ties, closer and deeper ties with Russia. How couldn’t we welcome that? Of course we welcome it.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Putin Calls Trump an ‘Outstanding, Talented’ Man: Agencies
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday described US Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump as a talented and outstanding man.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Team Led by Middle Eastern Woman Caught Surveilling U.S. Facility on Mexican Border
A Middle Eastern woman was caught surveilling a U.S. port of entry on the Mexican border holding a sketchbook with Arabic writing and drawings of the facility and its security system, federal law enforcement sources tell Judicial Watch.
The woman has been identified as 23-year-old Leila Abdelrazaq, according to a Customs and Border Patrol (CPB) report obtained by JW this week. Abdelrazaq appeared to have two accomplices, a 31-year-old man named Gabriel Schivone and a 28-year-old woman named Leslie Mcafee. CBP agents noticed the trio “observing the facilities” at the Port of Mariposa in Nogales, Arizona on December 2. Schivone was first noticed inside the entrance of the pedestrian area while the two women stood outside by the entry door, the CPB document states.
When federal officers asked Abdelrazaq why she was drawing sketches of the facilities she “stated because she’s never been to the border,” according to the CBP report. Abdelrazaq resisted showing officers the sketchbook, citing personal reasons, but subsequently handed it over. “During the inspection of the Abdelrazaq sketching book, CBPOs noticed the book contained writings in English and Arabic language,” federal officers write in the document. “There were drawings of what appeared to be vehicle primary inspection area and an additional drawing of pedestrian turn stile gate depicting video surveillance cameras above the gate.” The report proceeds to reveal that the drawings were “partial and incomplete.”
This distressing information comes on the heels of two separate—and equally alarming—incidents in the same vicinity. A few weeks ago JW reported that five young Middle Eastern men were apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol in Amado, an Arizona town situated about 30 miles from the Mexican border. Two of the men were carrying stainless steel cylinders in backpacks, alarming Border Patrol officials enough to call the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for backup. DHS officially denies this ever occurred, but law enforcement and other sources have confirmed to JW that the two men carrying the cylinders were believed to be taken into custody by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Of interesting note is that only three of the men’s names were entered in the Border Patrol’s E3 reporting system, which is used by the agency to track apprehensions, detention hearings and removals of illegal immigrants. E3 also collects and transmits biographic and biometric data including fingerprints for identification and verification of individuals encountered at the border. The other two men were listed as “unknown subjects,” which is unheard of, according to a JW federal law enforcement source. “In all my years I’ve never seen that before,” a veteran federal law enforcement agent told JW…
| — Hat tip: NV | [Return to headlines] |
The Geysers on Saturn’s Moon Enceladus Are Mysteriously Losing Steam
The famous geysers on Saturn’s icy, ocean-harboring moon Enceladus aren’t what they used to be.
The geysers, which blast material from Enceladus’ subsurface ocean into space from the moon’s south polar region, were first spotted by NASA’s Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft back in 2005. Now, a new study of Cassini data shows that the geysers’ output has dropped by 30 to 50 percent since then.
It’s possible that the fissures through which the geysers spray are narrowing as more and more material accumulates on their walls, Ingersoll told Space.com.
“But why they would all act together is totally beyond me,” he said.
It’s also possible that the water pressure in the reservoirs feeding Enceladus’ jets varies considerably over relatively long time spans, Ingersoll added, though he said it’s hard to imagine how such a scenario would work in practice.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Progressive Panopticon of Political Correctness
The left is simply the war of an ideological collective against the individual. It is the war of the political against the personal. It is the war of power against freedom. It is the war of the progressive Panopticon against the mind of man.
round the time that the United States Constitution had been hammered out, across the way in the UK, social theorist Jeremy Bentham was coming up with the Panopticon.
Bentham had denounced the ideas of the Declaration of Independence as “subversive of every actual or imaginable kind of Government”. He demanded that force be used to “teach this rebellious people” that “there is no peace with them, but the peace of the King”.
After the “Peace of the King” failed in the United States, Bentham turned to his obsession with the Panopticon. The Panopticon would be a prison in which all the prisoners could be watched all the time to achieve, in Bentham’s words, “a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example.”
Bentham’s Panopticon never worked, but the internet has made the Panopticon and its ability to obtain “power over mind” a reality. In a “quantity hitherto without example”.
Social media has made private discourse public. In the Wilson days of WWI, when hysteria was at its peak, people could be arrested for private conversations. But that was the exception, not the rule. It was only in the worst Communist societies that informants were so rife that private discourse was almost completely stifled. But the internet shreds the line between public and private.
The new informer doesn’t file a report at the local KGB office. He participates in a social media collective which among its hobbies plucks some obscure “problematic” remark out of the social stream and turns its speaker into a target for a mob. A lynch hashtag is born and someone loses their job. All of this is done with the self-pitying catastrophic crybullying so typical of social justice warriors who scream that they’re the victims even while they’re gleefully destroying someone else’s life.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Walt Disney World, Seaworld, Universal Begin Using Metal Detectors at Theme Parks
In a sign of how jittery the nation has become about terrorism and gun violence, Orlando’s major theme parks on Thursday added metal detectors as a security precaution.
Walt Disney World placed walk-through metal detectors in front of all four theme parks. Universal Orlando began using wand-style metal detectors in an area leading into its parks and nightlife district. SeaWorld also began using wand-style detectors.
The safety measures extend outside Orlando. Disneyland and Universal Studios in Hollywood are also using the devices.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Canada’s Dark Secret: Forgotten Case of Duplessis Orphans
Between the 1940s and 1960s, when the Roman Catholic Church dominated life in Canada’s Quebec, the provincial government committed horrible crimes against orphaned children. Sputnik spoke with people closely familiar with the subject, including a former orphan who was confined to a psychiatric institution during his childhood.
The Catholic Church and the provincial government of Quebec, then led by Maurice Duplessis, a strict Catholic himself, made a deal, which falsely certified 300,000 orphaned children as mentally-ill, confining them to psychiatric institutions.
The deal was beneficial for the Church and psych wards, as they received funds from the government for “taking care” of orphans. These children later became known as the Duplessis orphans.
Thousands of children died in these institutions. Those victims who survived in mental-health hospitals told horrifying stories of how unspeakable things were done to them when they were young.
Years later, survivors began to speak out about all the harsh treatment and sexual abuse that they endured for years.
“I remember when I was sent to that clinic with a maximum level of security and closure from the outside world, we were put to tests, which they called ‘pharmaceutical research.’ They tested the methods of ice showers and gave us different medications,” Lucien Landry, a former Duplessis orphan, told Sputnik.
Some children tried to run away from these institutions, but staff took away their clothes, leaving them wearing only nightgowns. Their heads were shaved. Children had no shoes, wearing only socks and tights, Landry shared his painful childhood memories.
Although Landry never suffered from a mental illness, when he was sent to a psychiatric ward his personal file said “unable to function in public, needs a permanent and involuntary placement in the clinic.”
In 1962, Landry managed to escape from that clinic. Soon he found a job and began a normal life. Eventually, Landry was able to find his mother at the age of 48. He didn’t even know where he was born, until a Quebec social agency, which helps former Duplessis orphans, told Landry he was born in Quebec City.
“I know many Duplessis orphans and trust me they’re definitely not mentally challenged. One of Quebec’s renowned novelists Bruno Rua is a Duplessis orphan,” said Alain Arsenault, a Montreal-based lawyer currently working on the case of orphans.
The lives of these people are permanently damaged by the Church and the Quebec government, which tookaway their childhood and filled it with pain, abuse and other dark memories.
Imagine adults who suddenly realize at 40 or 50 that they couldn’t receive any education simply because someone wrote on their personal file that they had a non-existent mental disability. And for what? Well, because the Catholic Church of Quebec wanted to receive an extra dollar and a half for each child per day, Arsenault told Sputnik.
The Catholic Church Won’t Apologize
The role of the Catholic Church was central in the whole ordeal — it was making money off of its institutions, bringing in healthy children and diagnosing them a slew of non-existent mental illnesses, so the institutions could receive more money from the government, Arsenault said.
“The Catholic Church of Quebec is the main perpetrator in this case, while the government and doctors assisted to it. The Church has never apologized for anything,” Arsenault told Sputnik.
What’s even more outrageous, the Church says they helped orphans by “taking care” of them, by providing them with food and shelter. The Church refuses to speak with journalists, hoping that people would eventually forget what happened as time goes by. Survivors would eventually die out one by one and nobody would be taken accountable for horrible crimes against the orphaned children of Quebec, Arsenault said with disappointment.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Ottawa Public Health Suspends 900 Catholic School Students Over Immunization Records
Suspensions will be for up to 20 days or until health agency receives proof of immunization
About 900 elementary students with the Ottawa Catholic School Board will not be allowed back to school tomorrow unless Ottawa Public Health receives proof that the children are up to date on their immunizations, the agency announced Tuesday.
The 20-day suspensions can be issued by Ottawa Public Health under the authority of the Immunization of School Pupils Act.
This year, the agency began reviewing tens of thousands of out-of-date student immunization records. It sent out about 35,000 letters to parents asking them to update those records earlier in the school year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ESA Confirms: James Webb Telescope Launched on Ariane 5 From Kourou in Oct 2018
The next great space observatory took a step closer this week when ESA signed the contract with Arianespace that will see the James Webb Space Telescope launched on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou in October 2018.
Ariane is part of the European contribution to the cooperative mission with NASA and the Canadian Space Agency, along with two of the four state-of-the-art science instruments for infrared observations of the Universe.
The telescope’s wide range of targets includes detecting the first galaxies in the Universe and following their evolution over cosmic time, witnessing the birth of new stars and their planetary systems, and studying planets in our Solar System and around other stars.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ESA’s Euclid Dark Universe Mission is Ready to Take Shape
Euclid, ESA’s dark Universe mission, has passed its preliminary design review, providing confidence that the spacecraft and its payload can be built. It’s time to start ‘cutting metal’. “This is really a big step for the mission,” says Giuseppe Racca, Euclid’s project manager. “All the elements have been put together and evaluated. We now know that the mission is feasible and we can do the science.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Muslim Paris Airport Staff Fired ‘For Their Beards’
Two Muslim men have claimed they were fired from their security guard postings at a Paris airport because of the length of their beards, even though one insists it was nothing but “hipster fashion”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Far-Right Leader Le Pen Under Fire for Tweeting Photos of is Group Executions
Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s far-right National Front, faced sharp criticism on Wednesday after tweeting graphic images of executions by the Islamic State group in response to a TV journalist who likened her party to the jihadist organisation.
“This is Daesh [the Islamic State (IS) group],” Le Pen fired back in a series of tweets picturing atrocities carried out by the jihadists.
In one photo a bloodied body lay with a decapitated head on its chest, while another depicted a man on fire in a cage. A third showed a victim being run over by a tank…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: New Police Unit to Face ‘Paris-Like’ Terror Attacks
Germany’s newest anti-terrorist police unit had its day in the spotlight on Wednesday, just weeks after the Paris attacks that prompted its formation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Glimpse of Possible New Particle Intrigues Physicists
The biggest particle accelerator in the world might have found a hint of an entirely new fundamental particle — or it might be seeing ghosts.
The scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider, operated by CERN, outlined new data this week covering a year of observations from two different detectors inside the atom smasher — ATLAS and CMS. The LHC smashes protons together at near light speed, with energies of 13 trillion electron volts (also expressed as 13 TeV) — higher than any particle accelerator has ever achieved.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Is There a Religious Fundamentalist Problem at Air France?
Is Air France becoming a hotbed of religious fundamentalism, as the head of one of the company’s unions suggested in recent comments? Some employees and union representatives have reported a rise in sectarian attitudes at the airline.
Air France employee Sophie* clearly remembers the 2011 halal “scandal” at the French capital’s Charles de Gaulle airport.
“The General Workers Union (CGT) wanted to introduce halal meat in the staff cafeteria. There were petitions, then security was increased… It went very badly,” said Sophie, who has worked at France’s largest airport for 10 years…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ten Million in Budget to Promote Rome for 2024 Olympics
House budget committee OKs amendment
(ANSA) — Rome, December 15 — The Lower House budget committee on Tuesday approved an amendment to the budget bill allocating 10 million euros to the National Olympic Committee (CONI) to promote Rome as a candidate to host the 2024 Olympics.
The funds would be disbursed in 2016 and 2017.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ciarrapico Sentenced to Five Years for Bankruptcy
Financier found guilty of misappropriation
(ANSA) — Rome, December 14 — Former centre-right Senator and financier Giuseppe Ciarrapico was sentenced to five years in prison Monday for fraudulent bankruptcy and misappropriation.
The court found Ciarrapico guilty of using company funds “with intent to deceive” and to “obtain an unjust profit” in the collapse of Editoriale Ciociaria Oggi publishing house. The verdict came after finance police seized assets worth 2.5 million euros on grounds that they were about to be paid out to the Ciarrapico group of companies. Ciarrapico — a former Fascist sympathizer and businessman with close ties to late seven-times premier Giulio Andreotti — is not unfamiliar with the Italian courts, having been prosecuted and convicted on numerous occasions for a range of crimes including fraudulent bankruptcy and illicit party funding.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Budget Bill Amendment Aims to Guarantee TAV Funding
Aims to ensure continuity of funds already assigned
(ANSA) — Rome, December 10 — The Italian government has presented an amendment to its 2016 budget bill which guarantees funding for work on the high-speed TAV railway line connecting Turin and Lyon.
The amendment, presented in a parliamentary commission on Thursday, aims to ensure the continuity and effective provision of financing that has already been assigned for carrying out work on the TAV railway link. It does not mention any additional funding to be provided by the state.
France and Italy are hoping the TAV project will save money and help the environment in the long run by cutting down on automobile traffic. Critics have highlighted its high cost and damage to the environment.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Kickbacks Alleged on 33 Rome Tenders, Seven Arrested
Contracts worth 16 mn, 650,000 euros in bribes allegedly paid
(ANSA) — Rome, December 16 — Seven Rome public officials employees were arrested Wednesday, accused of involvement in kickbacks on 33 city tenders for road and infrastructure maintenance, the Rome prosecutor’s office and police said.
The contracts in question were worth a total of 16 million euros and police said an alleged 650,000 euros in bribes were paid out to turn a blind eye to execution of the contracted work.
Those arrested work for different Rome city municipalities, the Infrastructure Development and Urban Maintenance (SIMU) Department, and San Giovanni Addolorata Hospital.
The investigation is the continuation of a larger kickbacks probe that in October brought the arrests of Luigi Martella, Alessio Ferrari, and Ercole Lalli.
Police said contractors allegedly paid bribes so that city workers who were charged with overseeing the correct execution of the work would ignore irregularities, such as road resurfacing that used a layer of asphalt thinner than what was contracted for.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Reports of Suspected Terrorist Financing ‘Tripled’ This Year
300 reports this year against 96 in 2014
(ANSA) — Rome, December 17 — Reports of suspected terrorist financing tripled in 2015, the Bank of Italy said Thursday. There were 300 such reports this year against 96 in 2014, the central bank’s Financial Information Unit Director Claudio Clemente told Copasir, which is the parliamentary intelligence oversight commission.
The reports of suspicious financial transactions that could conceal financing for foreign fighters came mostly from banks, Clemente said.
The transactions having to do with foreign fighters do not usually involve large sums, and often masquerade as charitable contributions.
Financial transactions directly linked to the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) extremist insurgency generally involve larger amounts of money tied up in oil and art smuggling as well as donations and taxes levied by ISIS on the territories it controls.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Rome Prosecutors Probe Online Jewish ‘Blacklist’
Charges could be threats, defamation aggravated by racial hatred
(ANSA) — Rome, December 17 — Rome Prosecutors on Thursday opened an investigation into a list of prominent Jewish individuals published on the pro-Palestine Radio Islam website.
The long list of names, mentioning prominent people in the media, acting and business worlds, includes journalists such as Enrico Mentana and crusading anti-Mafia reporter Roberto Saviano as well as executives such as Fiat Chrysler Chairman John Elkann. One of the subtitles of the website list reads “the Jewish monopoly in the mass media in Italy” and the page also includes links to documents alleging Jewish influence in the country.
Police are now making checks and the web page may be blacked out, ANSA sources familiar with the investigation said.
Charges could include threats and defamation aggravated by racial hatred, the sources said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
A pastor being prosecuted for calling Muslims ‘heathen’ and ‘Satanic’ in a sermon today told the court that the charge against him is ‘ridiculous’.
Pastor James McConnell, 78, from Newtownabbey, County Antrim, made the controversial comments from the pulpit while his teachings were being streamed online.
The priest was later charged for improper use of electronic equipment and using it to broadcast a grossly offensive message, and he stood trial at Belfast Magistrates Court today.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Norwegians Campaign to Give Finland a Mountain
A Facebook campaign has been launched for Norway to give their flat Finnish neighbour a mountain that would become its new highest peak as a gift for the centenary of its independence.
The campaign, “Halti as an anniversary gift” has won the support of the head of the Norwegian Mapping Authority, and been warmly received in Finland where one commentator claimed the gesture “would be remembered for a thousand years”.
“The aim of the site is to see how many Norwegians are interested in giving Finland the peak of the Halti mountain, which is 20 metres within our borders, as an anniversary gift in 2017,” the campaigners wrote at the launch of campaign site on Facebook on December 8th.
At 1,365m, Halti does not even make the the list of Norway’s highest 200 peaks. But even one of its lowly lower spurs, Hálditšohkka, is the highest point in Finland, at 1,324m.
Simply dragging the border between Norway and Finland 20m to one side would bring Finland a new highest peak, while losing Norway just 0.05 km2.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Opera Star Montserrat Caballe Given Suspended Jail for Tax Evasion
Spain’s world-famous opera star Montserrat Caballe was handed a six-month suspended jail sentence and fined more than 250,000 euros ($275,000) on Tuesday for cheating the taxman.
The 82-year-old soprano, who made a global splash when she sang “Barcelona” with Queen singer Freddie Mercury at the 1992 Olympic Games, had already struck a deal with prosecutors over the case, which was ratified by a judge in Barcelona Tuesday.
Caballe was allowed to appear at the hearing via video-link from her home for health reasons after suffering a stroke in 2012…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Paris Attacker Salah Abdeslam Escaped Belgium Over ‘No Police Op After 9pm Law’
Belgian media have claimed Salah Abdeslam was tracked to a house in Molenbeek on the Sunday night after the attacks, but he had gone by the time police were able to carry out a raid.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Jason Monks, 46, was knocked unconscious with a single punch by drinker Ian Jackson following a disturbance at the Jolly Nailor in Atherton, near Wigan, shortly before midnight last month.
Shocking CCTV footage has emerged capturing the moment a pub landlord was knocked unconscious with a single punch by a drinker who was later let off with just a caution.
In the surveillance video, Jason Monks, 46, is seen calmly escorting a woman from his pub — the Jolly Nailor in Atherton, near Wigan — following a disturbance shortly before midnight last month.
But as he steps outside the premises, the father-of-three is struck once in the back of the head by Ian Jackson, causing him to plummet headfirst onto the pavement, where he lies unconscious.
While the burly-looking Mr Jackson rushes away from the scene with the woman, another female inside the pub rushes to Mr Monks’s aid, before calling for others to come out and tend to him.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovo: Survey: ISIS and Serbia, Biggest Threats
Unemployment and corruption,the most serious ‘domestic’ problems
(ANSA) — PRISTINA — According to Kosovo’s citizens, unemployment and corruption are the two biggest problems facing the country today, whereas Islamic state and Serbia are the biggest issues on an international level. These data have emerged from a survey recently conducted by the Center for Security Studies. According to mass media in Pristina, 70% of respondents said they believed the Islamic state is as big a threat to Kosovo. About 300 Islamic extremists from Kosovo have fled to Syria and Iraq, to fight alongside the Islamic State (Isis). Several dozens of them were killed. The survey unveiled that 66% of respondents consider Serbia’s attitude towards Kosovo quite ‘dangerous’.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Experts Say Hamas and ISIS Cooperating to Fight Their New Common Enemy: Egypt
Hamas and Islamic State in Sinai have been cooperating in the smuggling of weapons, demonstrating that while Hamas is a nationalist Islamist movement, it also has common roots from which to build a functioning relationship with jihadists.
“Over the past two years, IS Sinai helped Hamas move weapons from Iran and Libya through the peninsula, taking a generous cut from each shipment,” according to a Washington Institute for Near East Policy report on Tuesday by Ehud Yaari, a Lafer International Fellow at the think tank.
Both Hamas and Islamic State trace their origins back to the Egypt Muslim Brotherhood, founded by Sheikh Hassan al-Banna.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of Tunisians Joining Islamic State
Five years after Tunisians took to the streets to demand a better future, over 40 percent of young people are unemployed. Islamic State recruiters are capitalizing on their discontent. DW met one man whose brother left to fight for the terror group.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
During the night two Palestinians aboard a car rammed some soldiers engaged in a raid. On December 14, a Palestinian citizen had targeted a group of civilians at a bus stop. A study prepared by PCPR shows that 67% of Palestinians are in favor of the attacks.
During the night two Palestinians attacked in a car some soldiers engaged in a mopping-up operation. On December 14, a Palestinian citizen had targeted a group of civilians at a bus stop. A study prepared by PCPR shows that 67% of Palestinians are in favor of the attacks.
Jerusalem (AsiaNews / Agencies) — In the night two Palestinian citizens have launched their car at full speed against a group of Israeli soldiers, engaged in a mopping-up operation within a refugee camp near Ramallah, in the West Bank. In response, the military opened fire, killing the two assailants. Meanwhile, a survey released at this time shows that the majority of Palestinians are in favor of the attacks to the white (the “intifada of the knives) against objectives — military or civilian — Israeli.
In an official statement, the leaders of the army with the Star of David reported that “in the night, during an operation aimed to arrest wanted Palestinians from some time and seizure of weapons in Qalandiyah, were foiled two attacks cars “. A military spokesman and the Palestinian Ministry of Health confirm that the attackers were killed.
Earlier, on 14 December, a Palestinian born in East Jerusalem launched at full speed his car into a group of people at a bus stop at the gates of Jerusalem.
The assailant, the 21 year old Abed Almoshin Hassoneh, was killed by gunshots while he was still in his car, inside which was also found an ax. In the attack they were injured at least 14 Israeli citizens.
Meanwhile, according to a survey the majority of Palestinian citizens is conducive to attacks against Israelis, perpetrated with strokes of knife or aboard vehicles used as battering rams. The research, conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Research (PCPR) shows that 67% are in favor and only 31% are opposed.
Over the past two and a half months 119 Palestinians have been killed by soldiers or Israeli civilians, most of which “neutralized” as a result of attempted attacks against Israelis. Only 10% of respondents believe that this crisis will be resolved gradually; for 37% it will turn into an armed intifada with progressive escalation of violence.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Putin signaled that Russia is ready to shoot down any Turkish military aircraft that strays into Syrian airspace
It’s been nearly a month since Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24 in what not only represented the most serious escalation to date in Syria’s five year conflict but also marked the first time a NATO member has engaged a Russian or Soviet aircraft in at least six decades.
The “incident” — which came several weeks after Ankara downed what certainly appeared to be a Russian drone — infuriated The Kremlin, setting off a war of words that culminated in a lengthy presentation by the Russian MoD which purported to prove that illicit Islamic State oil flows through Turkey. Both Putin and a number of other Russian officials have implicated Erdogan and his family in the trafficking of illegal crude and there’s speculation that Ankara’s brazen move to fire on the Russian warplane stemmed from Erdogan’s desire to “punish” Russia for disrupting what Deputy Minister of Defence Anatoly Antonov sarcastically called “a brilliant family business.”
As for the Russian foreign ministry, Sergei Lavrov canceled a planned trip to Turkey and Maria Zakharova went so far as to reference Turkey’s infamous political blogger Fuat Avni (a pseudonym) on the way to suggesting that Ankara had been planning to shoot down a Russian fighter jet for at least a month.
In an effort to ensure that the downing of a Russian warplane in Syria was a “one and done” event, Moscow deployed the Moskva off the coast of Latakia and sent in the S-400 air defense systems (which were rumored to have already been in place).
Those moves rattled the US and its partners who fear that a nervous Putin might “inadvertently” shoot down an American, French, or British warplane. Indeed Putin ratcheted up the rhetoric last week. While not detailing ‘who’ he was focused on, the President told a session of the Defense Ministry’s collegium that “I order to act extremely tough. Any targets that threaten Russian forces or our infrastructure on the ground should be immediately destroyed.”
Well, in case that wasn’t clear enough, Putin took it a step further on Thursday.
During his annual news conference in Moscow, the Russian President literally dared Erdogan to send Turkish F-16s into Syrian airspace.
As Bloomberg reports, “President Vladimir Putin signaled that Russia is ready to shoot down any Turkish military aircraft that strays into Syrian airspace.”
“Turkey constantly violated Syrian airspace in the past. Let them fly there now,” he said, pointing out that Russia’s most advanced air-defense system, the S-400, is covering all of Syria.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
European Jihadists: From Emptiness of Meaning to Blind Violence
Some 10 per cent of 30,000 Jihadi fighters are young European converts to radical Islam. The lack of meaning in life, the need to belong and a desire to do something greater are the main motivations. However, some militants are also motivated by money, power, and bloodthirsty violence. Better religious education in schools, mosques and social media is part of the solution.
Beirut (AsiaNews) — A study by King’s College London indicate that young Europeans leave France, Britain, or Germany to join the Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq for a number of reasons, ranging from a quest for meaning in an otherwise empty life to a desire to belong in order to break their isolation and seek guidelines and goals in life.
The study’s findings were presented at a conference held last weekend (12-13 December) in Beirut, Lebanon’s French-language newspaper L’Orient-Le Jour reported on Tuesday. The Maison du Futur and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (Foundation) organised the event, which brought together local and international experts to vet the issue of why Europeans in their 20s and 30s join terrorist death squads.
Too often, Islam is blamed, especially in its Salafi version. The more so since about 10 per cent of the caliphate’s 30,000 fighters are converts to this religion. However, for experts, the question is what drives these young men and women to convert? What motivates their radical choice to give up on Europe’s way of life?
Discrimination, marginalisation, and poverty among young people are often the root causes; however, for Kristina Eichhorst, an expert in terrorism and ethnic conflicts, these criteria are not a sufficient explanation because whilst it is true that sometimes converts are petty criminals, quite often they are successful people in life, with diplomas and degrees.
Likewise, the psychological profile of the subjects in the study found little evidence of psychosis, mental illness, depression, or suicidal tendency.
Speaking via Skype, educator and psychotherapist Ivan Tyrell said that the findings in the King’s College study show that, in addition to basic human physical and emotional needs, militants express a desire to belong to a larger group or to a community that gives meaning to their life, that allows them to feel connected to a higher cause, and enables them to get attention from the outside world.
When these needs are not met, anxiety, depression and conflict follow. “The Islamic State,” he explained, “has been able to offer these people what they want. It has been able to draw their attention.”
In his presentation based on “confessions” by young ISIS deserters or prisoners in Iraq or in Syria, Jean-Pierre Katrib, director of strategic relations in Quantum Communications, came up with a nine-profile typology.
Broadly speaking, young radical jihadists are motivated by a quest for money and power, for identity or a sense of belonging, by revenge (after witnessing the suffering of their families), or the need for redemption. Some feel they must protect their people or families; some adhere to a certain ideological outlook, whilst others are just thirsting for blood.
In the aftermath of the Paris terror attacks, the French government launched air strikes in Syria and boosted security in French cities and along its borders. From the above, it is clear that such measures cannot address the root causes of jihadi militancy among young people.
According to the experts at the conference, it is important to boost religious education — especially in schools, mosques and social media — and offer a meaningful alternative proposal to those who promote radicalism and violence.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Mission Creep? UK Troops May Deploy With Muslim Ground Army Against ISIS — Reports
British troops may deploy alongside a new multi-nation Muslim coalition, combining troops from 34 Sunni nations and spearheaded by Saudi Arabia, to fight Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), according to reports.
The UK has suggested it supports the formation of such a force in principle and perhaps in practice.
“We welcome countries in the international community doing more to work together to look at fighting terrorism,” a spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron told news organization IBT on Tuesday.
“I think we are still waiting to understand a bit more of the details of it and how it’s going to work,” the spokesman added.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Concedes to Putin After NATO’s Support of ISIS Exposed
W.H. stops demanding Assad’s removal after news reports reveal West backing ISIS
The Obama administration is no longer publicly asking for “regime change” in Syria after multiple news reports revealed how NATO and its allies have spent years supporting Islamic jihadists to try and topple Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he accepted Russia’s request that the U.S. let the Syrian people decide Assad’s political fate.
“The United States and our partners are not seeking so-called regime change,” Kerry told reporters on Tuesday after meeting President Vladimir Putin.
This is a huge concession from the Obama administration considering the president spent the past several years stating “Assad must go.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Detains 11 is Suspects Over US Consulate Plot: Report
Turkey on Thursday detained 11 more suspected members of the Islamic State (IS) group on suspicion of planning an attack on the US consulate in Istanbul, the Dogan news agency reported.
Those arrested are all Syrians with fake passports and include a man described as the ringleader and named as 18-year-old Abdulaziz Amin Mojbil, the agency said. The arrests took place in early morning raids in Istanbul’s Esenyurt district.
Turkey earlier this week already arrested an alleged IS member suspected of planning a suicide attack on the US consulate in Istanbul…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Disillusioned Siberians Want Cat to be Mayor
A town in Siberia has given further proof that 2016 is the year of the political outsider, after declaring they want to be ruled by a cat.
Dissatisfied with corrupt politicians, residents in Barnual are pushing for Barsik, an 18-month Scottish Fold, to become their new mayor.
The cat has won more than 5,000 votes against six human rivals, in an unofficial poll run by popular regional social media page, Altai Online, on Russian social network Vk.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Space: Where Russia and America Still Get Along
But while America and Russia are at loggerheads over Syria and Ukraine — the tensest moment in their relationship since the end of the Cold War — cooperation in space remains steadfast.
They have jointly operated, along with several other space agencies, the ISS since the turn of the century. And since the retirement of the American space shuttle in 2011, the Russian Soyuz spacecraft is the only way for astronauts to get to and from the station.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
44 Years of Independence for Bangladesh Amid Destroyed “Dreams of Religious Tolerance”
Today marks the anniversary of victory over Pakistan. The conflict began in March 1971 and in nine months resulted in an estimated 3 thousand victims. Nearly 200 thousand women and girls were abused; 1,100 Christians joined in the fighting. Christian activist: “We fought for a non-sectarian country. But the Christian minority is often the victim of violence at the hands of Islamic radicals. They are destroying our dreams”.
Dhaka (AsiaNews) — Today Bangladesh is celebrating the 44th anniversary of its independence, enshrined in the victory over Pakistani occupation forces in 1971. Thousands of people have paid tribute to the heroes of the war and recalled their sacrifice in the name of creation of an independent and non-sectarian state.
Ando D’Costa, secretary general of the Christian Freedom Fighters and Family Welfare Somity, told AsiaNews: “In 1971 we fought for a nonsectarian country. But unfortunately we have to admit that today, the Christian minority is often the victim of Islamic radicals. The fundamentalists do not tolerate us and other religious minorities. We were one of the architects of victory in 1971 and dreamed of a country in peace and harmony. However some people are destroying our dreams”.
The celebrations of the Victory Day began at 6:30 this morning. President Md Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina laid a wreath at the memorial erected in honor of the martyrs of the nation in Dhaka. Then, 31 cannon shots were fired and a national parade was held. A military honor guard played odes for the fallen.
Across the country special prayer services were held in mosques, churches, Buddhist temples, pagodas and churches. The faithful prayed for peace, progress and prosperity of Bangladesh.
The war of liberation from Pakistan started in March 1971 and in nine months resulted in about 3 thousand victims, with an estimated 200 thousand women and girls abused. The Christian community was at the forefront in the fighting, with more than 1100 “freedom fighters” engaged in defending their country. Several worshipers, priests and missionaries were killed in the clashes.
But today “our dreams of tolerance are being destroyed,” said D’Costa. “We want the government to recognize all the freedom fighters and give them the proper respect.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Boeing Lands $10 Billion Order From China Southern Airlines
Boeing Co. landed a $10 billion order from China Southern Airlines Co., Asia’s largest carrier by passenger volume, after agreeing to buy back some older-vintage jets, engines and other materials.
China Southern and Xiamen Airlines, a subsidiary, are purchasing 110 current-model 737 jetliners and upgraded Max variants, the companies said in statements Thursday. The 80 planes for Guangzhou-based China Southern are new orders, while the 30 Max models headed for Xiamen were previously logged as unidentified orders.
The deal is part of a typical late-year flurry as Boeing races to burnish its annual sales total and catch up to Airbus Group SE, which has netted more than 1,000 orders for 2015. The planemakers’ rivalry is especially heated in China, which is poised to become the biggest air travel market.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Summons U.S. Envoy Over $1.83 Billion Arms Sale to Taiwan
China protested the sale of $1.83 billion in arms to Taiwan, summoning a U.S. diplomat to the foreign ministry to lodge a formal complaint and saying the country would impose sanctions on companies involved.
The transaction would increase to more than $20 billion the total bought from the U.S. by Taiwan during the tenure of Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou, his office said. The U.S. supplies armaments “of a defensive nature” to the island under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act in an attempt to balance China’s increasing military might.
China, which has considered the island to be a breakaway province since 1949 when then-Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek fled during a civil war, said it would impose sanctions against the companies involved in the sale, Zheng said. The arms sale violates international law and the basic norms of international relations, he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China: For Xi Jinping, Government Should Exercise Greater Cyber Controls to Fight Terrorism
The Chinese president wants an international treaty to give governments control over their national cyberspace. Under Xi, censorship has increased in China, placing it just two positions above the last (Iran and Cuba) in terms of Internet freedom. Beijing’s cyber-police has blocked some 5,000 sites. For the latter, AsiaNews “does not exist”.
Wuzhen (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Chinese President Xi Jinping told a Chinese-sponsored World Internet Conference in Zhejiang province that every government should be able to exercise unconstrained “cyber sovereignty” to fight, among other things, global terrorism.
The Chinese president said that effective internet security safeguards and joint efforts are needed to crack down on internet crimes like terrorism, but also drug trafficking, money laundering and gambling. In his view, China wants should exercise “cyber sovereignty” and control the Internet on its territory.
“There should be no Internet hegemony,” Xi said. “No interference in another country’s internal affairs. No engagement in tolerating or supporting internet activities that damage another country’s national security”. The world must strike a balance between “order” and freedom of expression.
However, for various non-governmental organisations, what Xi really wants is to restrict the free flow of information.
China already has a special police force charged with Internet monitoring and a powerful firewall to filter non-Chinese websites.
Some 5,000 foreign and Chinese websites have been blocked, including AsiaNews, because they “do not exist”.
With Xi Jinping coming to power, monitoring intensified. Freedom House put China 58th out of 60 countries in its ‘Freedom on the Net 2013’ report, ahead only of Iran and Cuba.
For Beijing, cyber censorship is needed to curb the violence and pornography. However, cyber controls are also used to ban content that criticises the Chinese Communist Party or might affect “social stability.” Scores of bloggers and writers have been jailed for posting “dangerous” content.
China boasts more than 668 million internet users, 594 million of whom go online via their mobile phones, this according to the China Internet Network Information Centre. Overall, Chinese netizens spend more than two-and-a-half hours each day playing with their phones.
So far, Google, Facebook and Twitter have refused to submit to Beijing’s censorship and are thus banned in mainland China. Many activists are afraid however that the last moral scruples might be traded in for access to the world’s largest market.
For example, in Wuzhen, at the conference site, foreign guests were given smartphones, the use of Wi-Fi, and special access to websites that are usually blocked on the Chinese mainland.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
West Africa Leaders Seek to Ban Full-Face Veil to Prevent Attacks
West African leaders said Thursday they were seeking to “forbid” women wearing full-face veils in an effort to battle the growing number of female suicide bombers.
The president of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, Kadre Desire Ouedraogo, told reporters at the close of a two-day summit in Abuja that leaders must take “measures that would forbid this kind of dress that will not allow security personnel to be sure of their identities.”
As it loses swathes of territory to the Nigerian army, Boko Haram jihadists have in recent months started launching guerilla-style attacks, using young women and girls as suicide bombers by hiding explosives under their clothes.
Boko Haram has used the tactic similarly in Cameroon, Chad and Niger — countries that have already enforced bans on veils earlier this year…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
So Justin Trudeau has been going crazy with the photo ops with new refugees.
Before the election, the Liberals thought that sort of thing was “disgusting” — when Harper did it.
So Justin’s a hypocrite. That’s no surprise.
What was a surprise, though, was Trudeau’s statement that prioritizing minorities and victims as refugees is “absolutely not” — his words — a practice he will continue.
Harper prioritized Coptic Christians from Egypt, Chaldean and Assyrian Christians from Syria and Iraq. Kurds. Yazidis. The people getting exterminated.
But Trudeau says he won’t continue Harper’s policy.
Why? Because they didn’t vote for him.
The Muslims did, though, courtesy of Omar Alghabra…
Trudeau’s Liberals MUST halt plans to bring in thousands of Syrian refugees until they can guarantee the safety of the Canadian people.
SIGN THE PETITION at RefugeePause.ca
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: Asylum Seekers — Several Hundred Youths Sleeping Rough and Unprotected
Belgium has registered a notable hike in the number of asylum seekers in the past few months, of which a large proportion are MENAs (unaccompanied foreign minors).
Faced with growing numbers of refugees, reception centres are overwhelmed, almost 750 unaccompanied under-age refugees have no legal guardian as yet, and several hundred youths have had to sleep rough and totally unprotected in the past few weeks, accused Bernard De Vos, General Delegate for the Rights of Children in an open letter on Wednesday.
“Minors living on the streets are at risk of everything international agreements try to protect them from, starting with exploitation, abduction, violence, and prostitution. Our country seems to have no qualms in exposing dozens of children to these dangers if the reception we offer is not improved dramatically as soon as possible,” warns Mr. De Vos.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Breakdown if EU Doesn’t Deliver on Migrants — Alfano
Minister says Europe must get moving on relocating refugees
(ANSA) — Brussels, December 17 — Interior Minister Angelino Alfano warned Thursday that the European system to tackle the asylum seeker crisis risked breaking down if the EU does not keep its pledge to relocate thousands of refugees in front-line States like Italy and Greece. “It’s necessary to start right away with relocations and repatriations,” Alfano said as he entered a meeting of the European People’s Party (EPP) before the summit of EU leaders. “Otherwise the whole system will break down”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Chorus Welcomes Syrian Refugees to Canada With a Song in Honour of Prophet Muhammad
On December 12, 2015, Today’s Zaman, — a Turkish English-language daily newspaper, published an article (reposted by Global News) — about a video which surfaced on YouTube showing a choir singing a welcome song for Syrian refugees to Canada in the Arabic language.
The video was posted one day after the arrival of the first 163 Syrian refugees who were personally welcomed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne at Pearson Airport in Toronto.
During the election campaign, the Liberal Party pledged to bring 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada by the end of December, 2015, but due to mounting security and logistical concerns, had to extend the deadline for resettlement of the refugees to February, 2016.
The video titled “Welcome to Canada Syrian Refugees” shows the choir singing one of the oldest songs in the Islamic culture called “Tala’ al-Badru ‘Alayna” which is sung to the Muslim Prophet Muhammad upon his arrival in Medina after completing the Battle of Tabuk.
Since it was posted, the video has been viewed over 213,000 times and was flooded with tearful and positive comments from viewers. DrSaraLove said: “I am an Arab, this video made me cry. I haven’t cried like that in really long. Thank you Canada. Beautiful people. I hate our Arab governments even more now. But Thank you.”
However, not all commenters shared the same feeling. Oday682 said: “Unfortunately only a small minority of muslims deserve this warm welcome. I’m from Iraq and I can tell you that no matter how much kindness and warm-heartedness you show, the primitive savage majority of muslims will always hate you, consider you as morally loose doomed infidels and will try to take advantage of you. I come from a muslim family and society and I know how they think.”
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Protesters Riot Against Refugee Centre
Dutch police fired warning shots and arrested 14 demonstrators when a protest by hundreds of people against the opening of a refugee centre turned violent, leaving several injured, officials said Thursday.
Two policemen were among those hurt late Wednesday when demonstrators began throwing stones, bottles and firecrackers to protest against a planned centre for 1,500 migrants in the small Dutch village of Geldermalsen.
District police chief Lute Nieuwerth said “the atmosphere badly deteriorated” when a group of about 70 to 80 people began to attack the officers called to the scene…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
EU Report Says Turkey Deal Does Little to Cut Migrant Flow
The much touted EU-Turkey cooperation deal has done little to slow the number of migrants entering Europe since it was clinched in November, an EU report revealed Thursday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Sees Little Drop in Migrants Since Turkey Deal, Says Document
The European Union has seen little evidence that Turkey has managed to reduce departures of migrants for Greek islands in the two weeks since it signed an agreement to do so, an EU document showed on Thursday.
The report by the Luxembourg government, in its current capacity as president of EU ministerial councils, said about 4,000 people a day arrived from Turkey since the accord on Nov. 29, a “slight reduction” from the 5,000-6,000 seen earlier in that month. But this was not necessarily due to Turkish action.
“This decrease may, however, also be attributed to other factors,” said the report, seen by Reuters and sent to EU leaders on Wednesday ahead of a summit on Thursday in Brussels at which they will discuss efforts to stem the migration crisis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
There is a sense of tension in the pretty, snow-covered Finnish town — an underlying fear which makes parents hold their children a little closer, and angry resentment towards the group of young men who arrived just a month ago.
Kempele, almost 400 miles north of Helsinki, is usually a place where 17,000 unassuming townfolk while away the hours playing ice hockey.
But that peaceful existence has been ripped apart by the rape of a 14-year-old girl as she walked home on a Monday night a fortnight ago.
The alleged culprit is one of the young men living at a migrant centre, which locals did not want in the first place…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Geldermalsen Rioters Were Mainly Local, Say Police
The majority of people involved in Wednesday night’s riots in Geldermalsen came from the Gelderland town itself, police said on Thursday. In addition, all 14 people arrested for their role in the disturbances, during which a mob tried to smash their way into the town hall, were local, police chief Rob Nieuwert said. Police fired warning shots and riot police carried out charges in an effort to restore order after a demonstration against plans to build a refugee centre to house 1,500 people turned ugly.
Between 70 and 80 people were involved in tearing down fences and pelting the building with bricks and fireworks. The council meeting was abandoned.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Over 800 Migrants Try to Storm Channel Tunnel in France: Official
Some 800 to 1,000 migrants tried Thursday to break into the Channel Tunnel near France’s port city Calais in a desperate bid to reach Britain, local officials said.
“We noted the presence of 800 to 1,000 migrants” near the tunnel, a local official told AFP, as a police source described the number seeking to cross the Channel as “unprecedented” for a single day.
“As they approached the tunnel, several migrants tried hard to slow down the flow of traffic so they could climb into the trucks,” the source said.
An AFP journalist at the scene saw some people climb on top of trucks heading towards Britain…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Refugees: Europe Closes Its Borders, And Its Heart
Helping refugees, German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared this week, is “no more or less than a moral imperative”. She received a nine-minute standing ovation. But FRANCE 24’s Douglas Herbert sees the mood souring against migrants.
It’s been just 14 weeks since the photo of a 3-year-old Syrian boy, Aylan Kurdi, lying lifeless on a Turkish beach triggered a global outpouring of compassion for the plight of migrants.
The image, shared around the globe, prompted a surge in donations to refugee charities. Here in France, President François Hollande phoned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. And Canada’s then-prime minister, Stephen Harper, was suddenly put on the defensive over his conservative government’s refugee policy in a federal election campaign that he would ultimately lose to Liberal Justin Trudeau…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Renzi Says No to Solely German Leadership of EU
Premier in Brussels for EU summit
(ANSA) — Brussels, December 17 — The EU cannot remain under solely German leadership, Premier Matteo Renzi said Thursday at a meeting of the Party of European Socialists (PES). The premier is in Brussels for a two-day European summit on immigration and terrorism.
The Union needs to change course, abandon austerity and enact policies that will stoke economic growth and create jobs, Renzi told the meeting of European Socialists ahead of the EU summit today and tomorrow. Sources present at the meeting said Renzi referred to the conduct of German companies willing to do business with Russia while European sanctions are in force.
Also on Thursday, Renzi told reporters that “the (migrant) fingerprints issue is surreal”. The European Commission last week opened an infringement procedure against Italy for failing to collect the fingerprints of migrants and asylum seekers upon entry into Europe.
EU sources said Thursday Italy has been remiss in collecting migrant fingerprints, because it is only taking those of asylum seekers and not of all individuals seeking entry into Europe. “Gathering fingerprints from asylum seekers does not absolve Italy from the obligation of taking them from all undocumented people crossing the external (Schengen Area) borders as well,” the sources said. This omission hinders Europol and other international police forces from identifying suspects and investigating “terrorist or other criminal threats”, the sources said.
Italy has fulfilled “over 90%” of its commitments on migrant identification while migrant relocation to other European countries under an EU accord represents “under 1% of the promises made to Italy and Greece”, Renzi told reporters. “The argument (over this issue) is senseless,” he added.
Also on Thursday, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano warned that the European system to tackle the asylum seeker crisis risked breaking down if the EU does not keep its pledge to relocate thousands of refugees in front-line countries like Italy and Greece, whose outlying islands are the first landfall for people taking to the Mediterranean in a bid to flee war, persecution, and Islamist terrorists in Africa and the Middle East.
“Relocations and repatriations must start right away,” Alfano said as he entered a meeting of the European People’s Party (EPP) before the summit of EU leaders. “Otherwise the whole system will break down”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Riot Over Asylum Housing Hits Dutch Town
Dutch police fired warning shots to disperse a protest over plans to house asylum-seekers in the small town of Geldermalsen. Unrest broke up a town meeting to discuss asylum housing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Santorum: ‘Not All Muslims Are Jihadists’ But ‘All Jihadists Are Muslims’
(CNSNews.com) — In response to a question about Donald Trump’s proposal to halt the immigration of Muslims into America until they can be securely vetted, presidential contender Rick Santorum said it was a “legitimate issue,” and stressed that “not all Muslims are jihadists” but “all jihadists are Muslims.”
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Sessions: Omnibus Explains Why ‘Voters Are in Open Rebellion’
In the dead of night after 2am this morning, Congressional leadership unveiled a more than 2,000 page ‘omnibus’ year-end funding bill.
In the dead of night after 2am this morning, Congressional leadership unveiled a more than 2,000 page ‘omnibus’ year-end funding bill which would, among other things: fully-fund the President’s refugee expansion; fully-fund sanctuary cities; fully-fund the resettlement of illegal aliens youth and their families crossing the border; lock-in tax credits for illegal aliens; and quadruple the highly controversial H-2B foreign worker visa being used to replace Americans as truck drivers, construction workers, theme park employees, and in blue collar jobs across the nation.
Sessions, the Chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee, issued a statement about the bill as it speeds to a vote before it can be read, observing in part that GOP voters: “have come to believe that their party’s elites are not only uninterested in defending their interests but — as with this legislation, and fast-tracking the President’s international trade pact — openly hostile to them.” On the floor today, Sessions further reminded his colleagues that their duty is the American people — not special interests, immigration advocacy groups, or lobbyists for narrow business concerns.
Sessions observed that — as the omnibus paves the way for a huge immigration increase beyond today’s record-breaking highs — that more than 8 in 10 American voters want the level of immigration in American frozen or cut, and yet the GOP-led Congress is about to surge it even higher.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau — even without these increases — immigration will add the population equivalent of 1 new Los Angeles to the country each 3 years.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Muslim Migrants Batter Gay Man to Death, Wrap Snake Around His Neck
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Victim taunted over his sexual orientation during brutal murder
Two Muslim migrants in Sweden have been charged with the hate crime murder of a gay man after they allegedly battered the victim to death before dressing him up in women’s clothing and wrapping a snake around his neck.
The two alleged perpetrators are 16-year-old and 19-year-old “refugees” from Morocco. According to prosecutors, the victim was deliberately targeted because of his sexuality. Morocco is 99.9% Muslim and being gay, lesbian or transgender is illegal with punishments of up to three years in prison.
The incident began when the gay man met the 16-year-old “refugee” in a park in Gothenburg and offered to help him by giving clothes and food…
As we have previously highlighted, Sweden is one of the European countries allowing hundreds of thousands of “refugees” to enter despite Muslim migrants being largely responsible for a sexual abuse epidemic that has earned Sweden the dubious title of ‘rape capital of the west’.
Rapes in Sweden have skyrocketed by a shocking 1,472% since the mid-70’s, with 6,620 sexual assaults being reported to police in 2014 compared to just 421 in 1975.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) When activist filmmaker Ami Horowitz visited the Yale campus to see how many students would sign a demand to eliminate the entire First Amendment, he was shocked to find that they gladly supported the idea!
In this YouTube video, you’ll see Horowitz asking Yale students to sign his petition because “hurtful” speech shouldn’t be “protected” by the Constitution. And they not only sign the petition, they verbally endorse the idea with great enthusiasm!
This activism approach — made most famous by Mark Dice with his relentless series of hilarious videos extolling the absolute idiocy of American voters — reveals that even America’s finest educational institutions have become little more than anti-American indoctrination centers churning out complete idiots as graduates…
In my podcast commentary on all this, I called for Yale to expel these students. Why on Earth would Yale want its graduates to be such anti-American morons that they literally seek to eliminate the First Amendment?
The fact that this sort of insane, anti-liberty “education” is taking place across America’s colleges and universities is much more than a warning sign… it’s proof that America is headed for total collapse as the very principles of its founding are being ripped right out of history and public education.
Believe me when I tell you this ends badly…
[Comment: Products of public school indoctrination — the goal is to intentionally dumb down the education of kids. It is NO accident. See the book “Dumbing Down America” by Charlotte Iserbyt.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Mother Hits Out at Sentence Given to Female Sex Attacker Who Posed as a Man
A young mother who was duped into sex by a woman posing as a man told of her anger at seeing her attacker walk free.
Fiona Manson, 25, used the identity of a ‘good looking, muscular young man’ on the internet called Joey G-Star Crislow to contact and seduce the single mother, Lincoln Crown Court heard.
Manson, who is now known as Kyran Lee and is awaiting gender reassignment surgery, admitted sexual assault last year, but was yesterday spared jail after a judge accepted that Manson was a man trapped in a female body.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Hipster fashion’? Well, at least the 2 gentlemen have a sense of humor, a rare trait among Muslims.
I have long wondered who told western guys that shaving your head and growing a neck beard looked good…….
As for colonizing space, there is a German Science Fiction pulp-novel series called Perry Rhodan, continuously published since, I think, 1961, which completely dwarfs Star Wars and Star Trek put together in size and scope. One feature of this series is a gigantic round space ship called Sol, essentially a mobile mini-Earth.
Some of us may yet need to build something like that to survive, at least those of us who do not want to live in a giant, worldwide favela.
I’m pulling for the cat to become mayor of that town in Siberia, he is most likely the best candidate.